Mowing the tracks from a sardine can

We spent part of yesterday mowing and today working in the workshop. Tim drove the Ute and looked as if he was shoehorned in the truck. There are no seat adjustments and both our feet hit the bulkhead. I went along as copilot.

Getting ready to mow  Tim stuffed into the truck P1270131.JPG

We walked down to Little Squally Cove and surf was crashing.

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Little Squally faces the southwest and collects all the debris from the sea. Today Tim cleared the track leading down to the cove. Only a few visitors seem to walk her but it’s a dramatic cove and there are all those treasures washed ashore.

Today we spent some time working in the shop. I am working on a new invention and Tim was changing a flat. It’s a well equipped shop, usually has what you are looking for but you might have to check every bin.

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Words of wisdom in the shop
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Sky over Deal
Wallaby watching

American lady on Deal Island

That’s me. We use the VHF radio to communicate with local boaters. We provide weather information and sometimes they just want to check in with us. Then when they leave, they bid farewell. Yesterday, a group tried to hail me on the radio by calling, “American Lady on Deal Island, American Lady on Deal Island”. I must have been away from the radio because other boaters told me about it. Then I was referred to last night as the siren in Bass Strait because the majority of people on the radio are male. People come in lashed to their masts! I don’t get it. We’ve both been referred to as the crazy Americans on Deal Island. They’ve got that right.

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Since there isn’t a lot going on, we and all boaters, are big eavesdroppers. Boats hail one another, or us, on Channel 16 and then switch to another frequency to chat. Yesterday, we heard a boat we knew, arrange to offload fuel from a large ship (I guess the wind wasn’t in their favor and they ended up motoring more than planned). We get weather reports by radio when the internet isn’t working. We can hear boats check in with the volunteer Coast Guard service. They report their positions and ETA’s and are actually tracked. One radio man we enjoy listening to is at Tamar Coast Guard. Everyone in Bass Strait knows Brynn, the Welsh radio man. He broadcasts the weather four times a day and takes position reports and passes on messages. He is a legend, I think in his 80’s and a comfort to hear even when the weather news is bad.

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Yesterday we enjoyed a dinner at the BBQ down by the pier with good company. Boats are passing through on their way to a wooden boat festival in Hobart. There were beautiful boats and fun people. We’ ve exchanged contact information with many. The group yesterday included a former caretaker from the 1990’s. He never thought he would make it back here and delighted in the island and the many improvements in the compound and quarters. I wonder if we will ever get the chance to come back here.

Ditch Digging in Paradise

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We both agree that one project we want to compete while we are here is clearing the drains along the lighthouse track. This track is about 2.5 kms long and climbs 305 m. There are several steep sections and when it rains, as it has over the past few days, we get an inch at a time, water comes cascading down the hill and the track. Since the lighthouse was built, more than 150 years ago, there have been various drainage schemes installed. The most basic is a ditch along the side of the road, with various places for water to run off the road into the ditch. That’s where we worked yesterday, clearing sheoke needles from the drain and digging deeper where it overflows. The road is a macadam surface and there are culverts across it, some concrete lined. There are culverts under the road made of steel, cement and most recently PVC. Our mission if successful, will be to clear all those drains, dig deep when needed and do our bit to prevent the road from eroding further.

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I would like to say I was there merely as the official photographer but I wasn’t. We raked and carried and dug. I have the aching back to show for it. We were able to clear two sections of switchbacks and build up the ditch in a couple of areas.

At one point, Tim cleared an area and revealed a huge jack jumper ant colony. I steered clear of that and we avoided getting bitten.

One day we have to go up the track when it’s raining to see the weak spots. But I had a hard enough time going outside today in the rain to get our drinking water from the tank.

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We have had several boats and visitors ashore despite the rain and wind. The kayakers are still here but may get a weather window tomorrow to head southeast to Flinders Island. I can’t even convey what it must be like to kayak across the Bass Strait. Big seas, wind and currents. One man’s kayak was sinking on the way from Hogan Island to here because water was getting in via a through hull for a rudder cable and he wasn’t sure it would make Erith Island. He said he can now tick “Terror” off the emotions experienced during the trip.

Sunscreen vs. the sun

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A domestic aside.

The sun is amazingly strong here. My eyes take time to adjust every time I venture outside. Sunglasses have to be close at hand and are usually dangling around my neck. Skin cancer rates are almost epidemic in Australia. We are both fair, so we use sunscreen recommended by the Dermatologist, Neutrogena with Helioplex, and SPF shirts. The problem is the sunscreen leaves orange stains on clothing and pillowcases. At first I thought it was rust from the water but a little investigation on the internet revealed that yes indeed, sunscreen stains. One site even mentioned carotene as an ingredient. Carotene is the orange in carrots.

Twin tub washer

We use a cute little device called a twin tub washer here. You fill it with a hose, wash in one tub then move the clothes over to spin them. The downside is you see how dirty the water gets after the wash. Super duper cleaners

Most cleaning solvents here are “professional strength”, concentrated and 3X strength. But none could get out the stains. Tim had some really orange ones all over the collars and sleeves of his SPF shirts. One was white, so I scrubbed it, soaked it, bleached it, threw some vinegar in the water for good measure and used the 3X industrial strength cleaners. No luck. It remained orange and so did his tan one, which I was reluctant to bleach. The photo on the left is AFTER the wash.

After wash, before juice  After juice

So I thought about the sun. And I remembered my teens when lemon juice and sun were all the rage to lighten your hair and, in fact, my hair is getting bleached by the sun. I have good old lemon juice in the fridge so….I took some lemon juice and squirted it on the collars and turned the clothes line to face the sun. Within an hour the stains were gone. Why spend all this money on cleaning products when simple things like vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice and good old fashioned elbow grease do the trick?

Ironic that it took the sun to clean the sunscreen.

Lemon juice

Bush bashing

We went on an explore today and saw lots of new sites. What we didn’t see was the elusive pulpit rock.

This is not Pulpit Rock

But it is a beautiful outcropping of the island. We’ve been trying to find a rock off the tip of the island but can’t quite get to the right place. There’s a big hill in the way. We’ll get there yet. Today we walked a track and then made our way down a hill to get to Pegleg Beach, where we haven’t been before. I don’t think we found the best track but we got there. Pulpit rock will have to wait for another day.

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We saw Northeast Rock with one of the lights that replaced Deal Island’s light when they extinguished it in the 1990’s.

I found lots of animals and people in the rocks spilled along the coast. It helps pass the time while I slowly make my way across the rocks, any one of which could be an ankle or hip breaker or a widower maker.

Masked man Tim through the rock

Masked Man Tim through the rock

Old man in the sea

Old man in the sea

Daffy

Daffy Rock

Caught between

Caught between a rock and hard place

Oh noooooo!

This seaweed reminded me of Gumby and Mr. Bill

I spent the afternoon in the garden and then we walked up to the lighthouse to close it up for the day. We got there around sunset and there was a mist floating under us. Very cool. While there we found remnants of the old whim near the grave marker. Quite a day.

Above the mist Lighthouse and grave

Needles and spindles

After two weeks of dry sunny weather, it’s been raining for three days. Not as much as up in Queensland where rivers have flooded and an area larger than Germany is covered in water. Five towns there were wiped out in the past couple of days with loss of lives and major property. We’re just having a little rain and lots of wind. So, I’ve been indoors knitting and spinning and baking.

This morning, i finished a pair of socks. I knit them from yarn I spun from a sheep named Blackie who lives in South Australia. I had just enough yarn to finish them with about a yard of yarn left over. They will be extremely warm and are a nice way to bring the fleece back to the States. At the same time, I’ve been spinning a mixture of Tasmanian Mohair and merino and haven’t decided what to knit with it. One can never have too many socks.

Here’s an update of what I have knit or spun since we arrived.

Easy lace pattern PC140026.JPG Calorimetry 2 Fits my knee and head PC160025.JPG PC210037.JPG PC250079.JPG P1020083.JPG P1080120.JPG P1080125.JPGP1120118.JPG P1120126.JPG

Our work party managed to leave this morning. They tried yesterday but turned around due to crazy seas. There was a window this morning and they jumped through it. Last night we enjoyed self saucing pudding and a terrible movie. This morning I can hear my beer gurgling in the pantry and it’s a fairly soothing sound. Maybe even better than the beer itself.

We’ve had boaters in for tea and we’ve been invited aboard for tea. I used the words, “keen” and “bloody hell” without thinking twice the other day. No accent, just an expanded vocabulary. To clarify a further post, our friend Malcolm told us porkie comes from the cockney phrase, pork pie, which rhymes with lie. At least we haven’t been called seppies: septic tank, which rhymes with Yank who are full of –it. But maybe it’s just because most people think we are Canadian.

My lettuce is listing to the left

We are having a run of windy weather for a change, right when my seedlings are beginning to raise their little heads above the dirt. I spent the afternoon putting protection around them because gale winds are expected until Friday. I had to prop up the corn once again because the plants were leaning to leeward. Somehow the peas’ tendrils held on. I encountered my first whip snake since we have been here in the garden. No lives were lost in videotaping it but it wasn’t as timid as I had expected. Nonetheless, it left and I escaped unharmed.

P1100122.JPG The lighthouse obscured by clouds.

Here are links to my latest film adventures:

The Garden Gale and white lipped snake encounter

The gurgle of beer brewing; and

Birds taking a bath

Ok, so perhaps I need a new hobby.

I’m still spinning and knitting. I’m almost done with my second sock and am spinning tasmanian mohair with organic merino wool. Very nice.

Above the lighthouse

The Deal island Lighthouse doesn’t actually sit on the highest point on the island but it’s close. The lighthouse is officially at 305 meters and is 12.5 meters high. We climbed to the peak just next to it, which is higher but wasn’t a good site for the lighthouse because it’s only dirt and rocks. There’s more granite at the lighthouse site and it’s not as close to the edge of the cliffs.

Looking down at the lighthouse Survey marker at the island's high point, Deal Island
Survey marker at the high point
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It was hot and calm and we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the lighthouse. The wind came back with a vengeance today but we still had visitors. A lovely family of four on a trimaran, Mustang Sally.

Tim keeps trying to lure me to the edge of very high cliffs. Should I worry?

Should I worry?

View from 1000 feet to the rocks and surf below. There’s not enough perspective to really see how high we were.Should I worry? copy
But the views of Barn Hill, Dover and Erith islands were spectacular.
Barn Hill, Dover and Erith Islands, Kent Group

Island and house guests

I only need to look around at the rocks to find all sorts of interesting things. I met a GP from Sydney the other day who was happy to learn she wasn’t the only one seeing things.

How did I miss this duck?
I am not the only one who sees a duck here, am I?

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I wish I was imagining things instead of seeing the spiders I have found around the house. Apparently they are relatively harmless but I wouldn’t do well if I found one on me when I was sleeping.
A visitor told me they would probably only bite if provoked. I asked, “what if I screamed loudly?” He said you could try that. Actually, there would be no thought behind screaming if I found this on me. Chelsea had one inside a bus. I bet there was some screaming there.
Oddly enough, Australians almost uniformly fear ticks. I can handle ticks. It must be something about the devil you know…
     

I run with kangaroos

But they are faster than me. It’s surreal. I take my iPod when I go for a run. The other day I was listening to a live concert in Central Park, while I ran halfway around the world from Central Park. Today I was listening to Elton John singing Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and the magical nature in the song is much like here. We see wallabies all the time. When we walk by them, they are slow to do anything and usually cross the track in front of us and hop away into the tussock grass. Well when I run by, they fly. Their pace picks up considerably. It’s as if they are showing off. I’m not sure if it is because I am running or because I am singing out loud at full volume.

.Joey trying to go home

This kangaroo wouldn’t be a fast runner because it has the youngest joey I have seen.

While I was running downhill into a valley by a creek, I heard the whoosh of huge wings and the flock of Cape Barren Geese which has decamped to Garden Cove, soared by. All the while, I am surrounded by rocky hills and turquoise seas. I hope I never forget this experience.

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I’ve been knitting and spinning like a mad woman. I have designed a pair of socks I am knitting with wool I spun on the drop spindle. I have also been spinning mohair and merino together. I am going to try dyeing with onion skins and lichen. The benefit of lichen is you don’t need a mordant ( a chemical that causes the dye to stick to the fiber) to make a permanent dye. Just like my singing, this has effects on the wildlife. Today I saw a lizard wandering around in the sun room with some mohair fuzz stuck to its back leg, sort of like toilet paper on your shoe.