A new appreciation of our Rural Fire fighters.

After  seeing all that devastation from the  awful fires that  burnt out huge areas of land and destroyed homes, I had a  heightened  appreciation of our Rural Fire service , but little did I realize at that point that  that appreciation and gratitude would be tenfold before the week was out.
It was late Saturday afternoon  , we had  just sat  ourselves down out on our  the verandah with our neighbor up the road( the  secretary of our local fire volunteer group), when he received  a call to let him know that a fire  on a neighboring property had been  started from a lightning strike   after an electrical storm that had passed over only a short time earlier.

We quickly checked and smoke was visible right behind the hill at the back of our house.. The   men immediately headed off , gathering  other neighbours and equipment .

The smoke increased rapidly  and  we( myself and our son who was staying with us recovering from  surgery) realized  that the situation was deteriorating  extremely quickly.

It was about at this point we started seeing and hearing all the aeroplanes and helicopters  starting to  be buzzing around  and  were starting to see fire truck after fire truck  coming past our place.

We received a Text message  on our phones, advising that we were to  seek shelter as the fire arrives( panic set in !!!)

At this point,   we were  advised to pack some important  and special belongings  and be ready to evacuate at short notice as the fire was heading  directly our way. It is truly  a very difficult  thing to do, deciding what  really is important to you and your family. As I had  a little more time, I started to pack stupid uneccessary things... your mind starts to play tricks. Even the residents of our local town 10 klms away were advised the fire was heading towards them and they may be evacuated.
We heard an almighty roar  , raced outside, just in time to see our neighbours house dumped with a load of pink fire retardant.(  I took this photo later)

We  were the most fortunate people to ever have a big fire,  as all the  air support,  fire trucks, equipment and on ground crews were still in the area from the previous devastating fires and they were directed  straight to us.
All those marvelous people fought  hard and with the combination  of all that air support and ground crews and then  a sudden but  miraculous   wind change,  we were safe. Our men  came by to pass on the message that the immediate danger to our homes  had passed and that the fire had jumped the road and was now   heading in another direction.
Those  wonderful men and women worked all night with graders and bulldozers   and  teams on the ground  and got that  beast  under control and had it contained into a smaller area.
At sunset there was a spectacular  view to the east( the fire was to the west, so the light was spectacular)

Late  that night( around 11 pm or midnight, we called up the road with a message from our neighbors wife(who  was not  home  when all this happened), I was stunned to see at night, how the fires were still burning   in many places and the  volunteers were still guarding  and working on them.

Not a good photo, but were not venturing closer.
Early the next morning,  our men were back on the ground helping the  Rural Fire Service crews to mop up, My next door neighbor Sister in Law and  myself, headed up to the   neighbor up the road  and met up with their daughter who had driven from a few hours away after being notified  of the fires, As we approached the house we were surprised to see that the fire was still active, albeit much smaller and controlled.

Two helicopters were buzzing around with  huge water buckets swinging from them, filling repeatedly from the farm dams.

We  got busy and  made up heaps of sandwiches and food /teas /coffees/cold drinks. ready for all the crews as they came in and were looking for something to eat and drink.
Those helicopters bombed that fire ALL day, they were AMAZING !!!
The fire was finally out. No homes were taken, no out buildings,  and stock losses were  nil or minimal.  Lot's of pasture and fences  were  lost, but that is  minor in comparison to what could have been.
I took a few photos around our neighbors house,( the first one is not mine)

For the following week our men were called out daily , to put out spot fires and  smouldering trees that were spotted as the Rural Fire Service helicopters flew over checking the site.
We took the drone up to take a few photos of the  fire affected area.

After seeing the aerial photos we  truly realized how lucky we were, and can see that the fires really only   were about 600 meters from  our boundary. I am so proud of our men and the neighboring men and women who worked along side all these firefighters.
I just can't speak highly enough  of all the wonderful men and women who give up their time and volunteer to do this  special, dangerous and  caring  job.
I think you are all the most  kind  hearted, amazing, generous people.
Thank you all of you , I owe you so much that can never be repaid.

                                           (Photo courtesy of The Rural Fire Service)
YOU ARE ALL HEROES.!!!!

Another Crazy Exhausting Week.

As I concluded  my last post we had been experiencing  extreme weather conditions  and there had been  terrible fires about 40 minutes away.
I had a medical  appointment in Sydney  and so the day after the fires we travelled down and were diverted because of the fires.
We  passed  near them and could see smoke  on the horizon  clearly visible

And then as we progressed along the roads we passed many, many fire trucks on their way to help out.

.

We  found our way to Sydney and to our Motel  and then I booked into the Hospital.

I was there to have an overnight sleep study followed up by a daytime sleep study as I have had some issues lately  with falling asleep whilst   driving. I have  been  treated for  sleep Apnea for several  years now and this was   also a revision of that treatment.
I had been bitten by a  red paper wasp the day before and had a really painful and itchy arm, but was advised not to  take an  antihistamine as it could affect the sleep  study results.

So they wired me up ,

(Not such a pretty picture)
And connected all the cables and  belts,

An even more  not so  pretty picture  :-)  :-)
And monitored me overnight.
Next morning I was  woken at 5.30 am and  allowed some free time to go downstairs ( along with all my electrical monitoring equipment attached)  to get some breakfast.

I had several "sleep  Opportunities" throughout the day and was released later that afternoon.
We had a lovely dinner at the motel to celebrate Valentines day and very early  the next morning headed  north out of Sydney towards Newcastle.

We had forgotten how much we hate the traffic  and it was good to leave early as all the cars were heading the opposite way to us.
We called past our old house on the coast, now earmarked for demolition or removal and had a coffee with our old neighbours. It was great to catch up. They gave me a few bromiliads to   bring up to the farm .

It was sad to see our old  home in such condition. Apparently it has now been vacant for many months awaiting council  approval for the planned unit development application.
We  visited the bee  keeping supplier  and purchased some more frames for our bee hive, then headed to Medowie to purchase 60 kgs of tomatoes that we had pre -ordered.

Our next stop was to a  jar and bottle supplier  at Rutherford  to  restock my supply of sauce bottles, jelly jars and  a new line of jars for me  to try a few new things.

 With the car loaded to the hilt we headed home up  the Golden Highway.
What a total  shock to us as we travelled up through the   area of the recent fires. The absolute blackness and starkness of the landscape where the fires had passed through only days before.

These fires were devastating , taking homes, properties, stock and  sadly we have also heard  a  precious life of a person working  on this fire.
We saw  many trucks of hay brought in to feed the surviving stock and saw many  groups of stock sitting and standing lost in their blackened paddocks.

My heart goes out to all the people  that lost so much in that horrible fire, it has been truly tragic.
After  returning home, we got busy and started to  sort out the tomatoes that I had brought home with us.
I started with  doing

  tall jars of crushed tomatoes, I use this for the base for many meals  here and also  the base for when I do some of  my sauces.

Next I decided to make up a good batch of tomato salsa. My supply of this in the pantry had completely run out .

I used this recipe from the Ball blue Book of preserving.

We  eat a lot of salsa, it makes a quick low fat, low cal dip with veggie sticks and is great to add to other dishes for a quick hit of flavour. I tend to make  a mild salsa so that all the family  and guests can eat it.
With the tomatoes I had left I did another 14 smaller jars of crushed tomatoes and  a double batch of Quetta ( a spicy tomato style  relish/chutney. It is an old recipe from the "Coronation Cook book" compiled many years ago by the CWA.

This should keep  the pantry well stocked for the next 12 months as well as allowing me to sell a little bit at a market stall at a  100 year  railway  celebration  that our town is having in April.
Our neighbour had lost a few ducks and the other night Brian found this fellow slinking around our turkey yard thinking he was going to pick up another tasty feed.

But he was mistaken,  he won't be  hanging around here again.
Sadly this is a necessary  part of our life, Brian doesn't like to  kill needlessly, but our poultry flock are very important to us.
We have had  a really extreme summer, very hot extended periods with little or no rain. Our poor farm is truly suffering.
Hopefully  it will turn around soon and all will be well again.
Take care of you and yours until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane.