I got out early to do the laundry and the shopping. We had been invited to stay with Bob MacLean, a friend of Pip and Mell, who has a sand and gravel mining business on a property a few miles from St Arnaud.
Bob's camp is a beautiful quiet spot among some trees at the back of the property. Despite being in a business which has a bad reputation for habitat destruction, Bob is a great conservationist. He spend a lot of time and effort in rehabilitation work and the property has some beautiful features which Bob enjoys and shares with a few friends.
Happy hour was very pleasant and went on very late so we didn't get back to the Motley for tea until gone half past seven.
It was very hot but the Motley performed very well and we were able to sit indoors all day doing stuff. Jean did cross-stitch and I worked on getting some data from Phil organised and transferred into the iBook.
Happy hour was again extended and we didn't get tea until after eight.
At breakfast time we discovered that we had a mouse on board. This required the checking of all stores that were not in sealed containers. Happily the only damage was to some bread which hadn't been put away. I took the opportunity to re-arrange all the stores so that they are all protected and I set a mousetrap just in case the offender had stayed on board. We'll presumably find it if it's still here.
We went to town to shop and we found a new cafe in the Old Post Office, a very nice place with really nice coffee and food.
I went to the Community Resource Centre to see if they had their connections working. They had and I arranged to visit tomorrow to try and get the email and to update the web sites.
The weather was hot again so Jean stayed at home while I went to town to try and access the internet.
Try as I might I didn't have any joy. I began to wonder if something has gone badly wrong in the iBook. I thought that I would have to bite the bullet and re-install the operating system. Doing a little tidying up, I chanced to try the mobile phone connection again using Austarnet instead of Telstra and, surprise, surprise, it connected so I downloaded the emails.
Happily there not too many and I haven't missed out on anything important. I did get some stuff from Ross K and was able to reply overnight.
Just as we were going to bed, the mousetrap went off so we now have one less inhabitant in the Motley. I left the trap set in case they is another mouse.
We went to town to shop, to buy the newspaper and to get more water.
In the afternoon, I cooked a rolled pork roast with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin. Sadly I hadn't put enough fuel in the Cobb Cooker and the meat was a bit rare. We ate the well done outside meat and the veges. I re-fired the Cobb and cooked the pork a bit more so that we will have good cold meat tomorrow.
The fridge has stopped working. I found that the gas failed to switch to full even when the pilot was alight and the thermostat was on max. I put the generator on and ran the fridge on 240V to see if that made any difference. It didn't make even though the electric element gas consuming power. I'll have to take the damned thing to Melbourne to get somebody to mend it.
I did repair the electric steps which had failed to operate correctly since I had put a meter on it recently. The fault was a blown fuse caused by my interference.