We had to go home to make ready for a trip to Tamworth tomorrow. We left Glenriddle after morning tea with the few that hadn't left already. We drove home in a heavy thunder storm. On the way the camp chairs launched themselves out of the near side locker which I had forgotten to lock. Luckily Jean, who was following in the Terios, saw them and stopped to pick them up. We unloaded the Motley as soon as we got home and finished at about a quarter past eleven which seemed like some kind of record.
In the afternoon I put the Motley away and then realised that I hadn't dumped the waste water. I uncoupled the trailer again and drove the truck onto the dump point in the front yard. I put the truck away again and took a break.
Someone had been skiting about how many posts she had made to her blog so I did a manual analysis of "The Motley Expeditions" and found 924 diary entries covering 2799 days away from home and 523 days at home in Barraba. The non-diary entries number 61 so the total is 985 but if you count the family tree entries the total is 1730. I know it isn't a competition because I live in the 20th century and she lives in the 21st century. I have no measure of how many readers I have but judging by the emails I get it is a considerable number. I was most heartened recently to meet a guy who told me that he had set out to become a motorhomer because he had been an avid reader of "The Motley Expeditions".
I had to go to Tamworth to have a Holter monitor fitted to check my cardiac arrhythmia. We went early to do a bit of shopping. We had lunch at Macas and went to the hospital. I was dealt with quickly and we headed off to Barraba at half past two. I hadn't done everything I had planned but as I have to go back tomorrow to have the monitor removed, I can catch up then.
After unloading all the shopping, I veged out.
Back to Tamworth to have the monitor removed. I went early and I did the things I had missed out on yesterday.
One of the planned items was to get someone to do a firmware upgrade on the Telstra Turbo modem.The network has been upgraded in speed an it is necessary to upgrade the modem to take advantage. of this. I don't "need" a faster connection as I generally get about 1Mbps and with a 200 MB monthly limit I don't have a problem but a faster connection would be nice and sometimes necessary. The upgrade software isn't available in a MacOSX version and the advice is to get the modem upgraded in a PC running Windows.The problem was that the licenced Telstra shop isn't authorised to do the upgrade (even though they have the capability) and the Fone Zone guy didn't have appropriate hardware in the shop to do the job.
After my visit to the cardiac clinic, I drove back to Barraba and got home before four o'clock. I was a bit bushed so I rested up.
I changed my gas supplier. I had a two year contract with Elgas and this involved my collecting every new bottle from the hardware store down the hill from the house. Sometimes I got the Motley out and used the car trailer but sometimes I had to drag the bottle on a hand trolley up the hill. The Kleenheat supplier delivers and I found is also cheaper than the Elgas supplier so I get two benefits from the changeover.
I bought a lawnmower so that I can keep the "lawn" looking good. I plan to do half hour stints doing a bit every day so it will be a many day cycle but I guess that will be OK except when we get a big rain storm and a rush of growth in the grass and the weeds. We'll see how it goes. At least I will get regular exercise during the spring, summer, and autumn months.
It rained overnight so I had to wait for the grass to dry before I could mow. I got half the back lawn done in half an hour so the whole property will only take a week to do. I took a rest at morning tea time. The new exercise plan will work but I don't know that I will enjoy it.
The throttle control on the new lawn mower broke. I managed to get a replacement from the hardware store so I won't be held up.
I decided to trim the hedge. I had asked Tony to do it but he hasn't showed. I guess I will just add this gardening job to my new exercise plan. I was only just into he job when the hedge trimmer blew itself up. I continued by hand with secateurs but didn't get very far.
In the afternoon I got back to the kitchen renovation. I built the next cabinet. It has four drawers so it took quite a long time to build. I have another 4 drawer cabinet and two large cupboards to build and I have to fit the sink to the bench top. I can't install the new cupboards until I strip the old ones out. I haven't set any deadlines for that so I guess it won't be done until we get back from the next trip at the end of the month. I need a plumber to come sometime during this installation. Happily we can operate the kitchen perfectly well using the laundry sink for the washing up so timing isn't crucial.
It dawned a better day. The wind had dropped and the sky had cleared.
I mowed the last of the back yard and it all looks good, apart from the back paddock.
I was too bushed to do any work on the kitchen.