I spent the morning selling raffle tickets and the early part of the afternoon mowing the back lawn. This took an hour and I had to veg out for the rest of the afternoon.
In the morning I tried to buy some stuff for the renovation but there was none in town so I had to go to Manilla. It only took an hour but it nearly doubled the cost of the stuff I bought. I guess I'm getting to experience the isolation all country people have always experienced.
In the afternoon a motorhoming friend visited in his caravan and had me certify his rig. He was impressed with the system I have put in place to produce certificates and stickers.
He is involved in the Australian Caravan Club so I gave him some business cards and asked him to tell his friends about Eco-Camping Australia. He said he'd be happy to do that and invited me to address their next National Gathering which will probably be in Tamworth next October.
I went to town to set up the raffle ticket stand for two other Lions but one had to drop out so I stayed to help the other out. When we had finished, I did a check on Xmas Cake sales at the places in town that are selling for us.
I spent the afternoon preparing the address labels for the Xmas cards.
I was out early to set up the raffle ticket stand. I had two other Lions there so I was able to take some time out to prepare for a Community Development Committee meeting at which I had volunteered to represent the Lions Club.
The meeting was a bit strange as the members of the Committee didn't seem to have a coherent view of what they were doing.
We had been asked to comment on the state of the Service Club signs at the entrances to the town. I had been out earlier end photographed them which helped the discussion. As a result of the discussion I offered to seek to have the Lions Club board agree to do the necessary refurbishment. After the meeting, a representative of the Rotary Club told me that we didn't have any right to do that as the signs had been put up many years ago by the Apex Club and they still owned it. Since the Barraba Apex Club no longer exists, I said that I assumed that the remaining service clubs, that is Rotary and Lions, had responsibility for the signs now.
In the evening I had Lions board meeting. The board resolved to offer to to the CDC to do the refurbishment of the signs as long as the signs were considered to be the responsibility of the towns currently active service clubs.
I had to organise the raffle ticket stand again as only Ken and I volunteered to do it.
Jean and I had an appointment at the doctor's to get new prescriptions, so I had to take some time out and leave Ken on his own for a while. The doctor was running late so Ken had to hold the fort for about an hour but he was happy.
in the afternoon I prepared all the overseas Xmas cards and got them posted before the mailbox. clearance time. I got a fair amount of the local cards ready for writing personal messages so they should be in the post on Monday. The power went off before dinner and didn't come back on quickly. We took refuge in the Motley and had the benefit of the airconditioner and the new TV. Despite having no power we returned to the house to go to bed.
When I got up in the morning (about six o'clock) I found that the power hadn't come on again.I thought the fridge would be suffering so I fired up the Motley generator and ran the power back to the house to run the water pump and the fridge. The freezer had drifted up to -!°C so it was good that I had put the power back on.
When I got into town I found that the power line from Tamworth had been taken out by a storm which had felled half a dozen poles. The repair could be completed by this evening but maybe not. I spoke to the guys selling raffle tickets and one had had to close his office and the other had no home phone because his instrument needed mains power to supply the electronics. I guess there is a lot of distress in the town. Many people will be suffering from no back up. We are so lucky to have our other home parked in the back yard.
I decided to build a diverter for the generator exhaust to keep it away from Elsie May's pigeon which live in a cage next to the Motley. I went next door to apologise for the continuous generator noise but Elsie May said it was no problem. She said she was sorry that her motorhome is down at the coast with her son. She had town water in the laundry but no way of heating anything. I made her a cup of coffee, filled her vacuum flask with hot water and dug out my little gas stove from the Motley lockers so she could cook and heat water.
In the afternoon we went to a happy hour at the Samin's. Their son Matthew and the kids were visiting and John and Coral who are now caravanners joined us. I took some Mille Park Passionfruit Cooler which went down well.
I was out early spraying the catheads in the back lawn. We got most of the local Xmas cards ready for posting. I started work on the trifle I had promised for the Book Club Dinner tomorrow evening. I'll finish it tomorrow.
In the afternoon, a thunder storm started up to the south so I got the lawn mower out and mowed half the back lawn before the rain came. Later the gutter started to overflow into the garden because gravel had accumulated in the driveway ramp. I got out in a poncho with a trenching shovel and cleared a path for the water coming down the hill as best I could. I guess the rain will wash more gravel down the hill so I'll have to do it again. Jean wanted to take a photo of me out in the rain but couldn't find a camera.