Kids Birthdays etc

Yesterday saw another milestone in the Gumbo household -the 2 littlest ruggies reached the age of 8 (bit of a miracle considering all of the %*#( that their older siblings etc have subjected them to - lol.)

Perhaps I should throw in here that they were eventually delivered as emergency Caesarions at 4 -15 & 4-17am, the doctors were very concerned that the littlest was not strong enough to survive a natural birth, esp if she was the second child that would have been delivered this way, and all the tests indicated that this was the most likely scenario.

So rather than being in the labour ward as was the case with the first 3 (and it is rather amazing what expletives that women can think up in that room -would rather leave the best of "Bullockies" far behind in the dust - lol),I sat outside the operating theatre door for a llllong time till there was a cry at 415 am, then the extra llllllloooong wait till the second cry at 417. Add to this that there had been a few sessions over the week or so prior (Iwatched the 9/11 events unfold on the tv in the maternity ward over a few days)

So there I was waiting outside, then one of the natal care gurneys came out and was rushed off to maternity, followed a short time later by the second one. It was a fairly long interval between this, and finally being told that all was ( nearly) well all round - there was some concern that "the littlest feral one" might have suffered oxygen starvation for a few minutes, with the result that she was put into specialised treatment for a fairly long time - a period that was distressing to the ex (she hadnt seen the baby at that stage - only a polaroid snap taken by the staff - and was still coming out of the post op shock as well) ,tho surprisingly,I was not as concerned as some of the staff at the time - it was an automatic reaction on their part given the circumstances, but the little tiime that I spent with her in those early hours of her life did not indicate any negative effects, and this was the general consensus of the midwifery staff - but they were initially looking at it as a possible "worst case" scenario - and the treatments (mainly an oxygen rich enviroment) could not harm.

Ironically, it ends up that the littlest feral one is a normal, healthy "tomboy", and her brother has been classified as autistic - something that the ex has never showed any interest in sitting dwn and talking through what thing can be done to enable him to lead a normal life -just a pile of papers that I was supposed to be able to sit down and understand the medical gobblygook after being at work for nearly 11 hrs.

(ps. Kid pic is the two littlest & the next one up}

Side effects

Given the rather large amount of crap that the ex has been sending my way the last couple of months, I was getting a bit stressed (??) lately, and on Thursday night it rather went into overdrive.
Woke up late on Friday morning, still absolutely pie-eyed, and no chance of being able to work, even if I had taken the risk of driving there,but given the boss's attitude, who cares anyway.(I had drunk my weekly quota in one night)

One positive (hopefully long term) possible benefit was that I ran out of cigarette papers early in the piece, and have now managed 3 days with a total of 4 smokes - rather need to cut my drinking back somewhat, but might focus on stopping the smoking first, its an addictive habit that has been part of my life for 40 + years -did quit fr 10 weeks + a few months ago, but then got a load of crap from the ex to sort out, so fell of the wagon big time

Exes

Been getting rather a lot of crap from the 3 timing slut who was my wife and her new soliciters, over the last few weeks- seems that she might have finally realised that her first soliciter was only an "Ambulance chaser", and only interested in dragging on proceedings- if she or her inept staff had done the necessary paperwork correctly 2 years ago, this whole messy situation might have been resolved by now, but given that I was sent court documents with incorrect names(only abbreviatons), DOB of children,wrong date of marraige, etc (and consider that the ex has all the birth certificates etc) -no way was I going to sign off on a patently false document- about time that she forgot that she is a strawberry blonde and started doing these legal things correctly - any obvious errors, ommissions etc (and they have been countless to date), and it all gets sent straight back, till it is correct.

Re the definition of my "darling ex" in the first line,got it from 2 seperate sources that she was having an affair after killing chooks, and this is still ongoing - both my sources were told by "lover boy".

Above LH pic is reasonably recent one of the "darling" ex and her sister - rather a rapid change from the rather attractive girls that they were15 years prior (and I still need to know which of the ruggies took this pic - I will hide rather than let them do similar to me - rofl) pic with 3 girls is ex, sis in law, & my niece (she was the flower girl at our wedding)

Fred -(at 6 mths +)

Been a bit (lot - lol) slack in posting lately but will try to upload a couple of pics of Fred in recent times - last attempt was a dismal failure = I shut the whole system down-bottom pic is Fred at 6 Mths - top 2 are today with Fred in his new home -Kennel that was started prior to the floods, and is not quite finished yet, hes a rough, tough, working dog tho, so can handle it - rofl

Children, breakups , etc

Had the youngest 0ne (The little feral one) on the phone tonight, saying that she would rather spend every weekend here, than every second weekend.

This rather made me take a few (figurative) backwards steps,. as what I can provide them (physically ) is a lot less than their mother should be able to provide them, especially considering that she would have received in excess of $10,000-00 of Govt Economic Stimulas paymentsin the last 8 mths or so - did she piss it up the wall at the pokies like she did with my income, or splurge it on a doomed to failure enterprise with lover boy (who actually owns little more than maybe his vehicle- lol - dont know if she is aware of that little fact)

A while ago, while sorting out some of the debris that was left here, I found a hair dye kit that she had bought, thinking that I would use it to look "younger" than I am - after seeing the results of her hair dieing efforts a couple of times -no way was I going down that path - I'm me as I am right now, 55+ yo, and if you dont like how I appear, tough titties, and look the other way.

Maybe this is the bottom line coming into play, I havent got much to offer my children,other than love and a sense of stability re "home".

The new addition (update lol)

So now I have had the pup for a bit over 4 months, vaccinated, wormed, microchipped him (whish that kids could be done as easily :-) ) and finally got around to actually paying for him the other day - rather broke the bank(2 beers = $6.00 lol)

He was classed as a "chickmagnet " by a couple of women who see him regularly, but it seems that as he grows older, this label doesn't necessarily apply any more - hes not a cute little puppy but still and all, he is shaping up to be somewhere near what I hoped for , other than I might have to change his name to "Herpes" (will not heel{heal} -lol)

He is starting to take an interest in working with the cattle etc, but given the above condition it is a bit of a problem, but we still have a way to go, and I can see possibilities in his prowess.

But when it comes down to push and shove, he is a faithful companion, and that is the main thing when all is said and done.

Flood side affects

Here we are nearly 2 months after the major floods that basically brought the North coast of NSW to a standstill for a week or so, and the side affects are still with us.

I have nearly finished repairing/replacing my fences (the main lines are done - just have to reset some gates etc and find some fill to put around a line of posts on one boundary. This rather pales into insignificance when you consider some people are still to start refencing whole areas of properties. - they have mainly got the boundary fences cobbled up, but have not even started on internal fencing yet.

It was also a big impact on most of the primary production in the region, the sugar cane harvest was just about to start- they were faced with waterlogged paddocks & mud covered cane with a consequent loss of value to the crop, cattle prices crashed badly for a couple of weeks, and there has been a major decline in the quality of cattle available due to the damage to the fodder, the timber industry has been living very much hand to mouth as the logging crews just could not work the bush to provide the logs to the mills.

Thankfully things are starting to return to normal, tho the actual weather patterns that we have experienced cannot necessarily be called abnormal or due to "Climate change" , - rather a return to the weather that was common here in the mid 1970's

(ps -All of the fence in the photo ended up completely washed out + a mile or so of other fences :-) )

After the floods

So now we are in recovery mode, following the floods last week over the whole North Coast NSW and southern Qld.

The flood on the Clarence River system (which starts in the Border ranges to the north, west to the Great Dividing Range, and south to the Dorrigo Plateau) was the fastest rising flood that I have seen here in 36 years, and was also the first major flood event that involved all the tribuartaries to the Clarence River System at one time. Whilst the peak levels were somewhat lower than the 2001 flood (450mm lower at Grafton), the damage bill is going to be astramonical due to the ferocity and rapid rate of rise in the river levels

Reports are starting to come in of people who have lost up to 150 head of cattle,and countless cases where people have lost their source of income for a substantial time, till they can get feed back in their paddocks, repair fences and other structures, andtry to return to a normal life.

Personally, I am one of the lucky ones who has had relativelly minimal losses. I had all of the fences on the lower parts of the property flattened, with the subsequent dramas of juggling cattle into 30% of the place for a week till the boundary fences could be rebuilt (about 700Meters) - still havnt had a chance to check out what is left of half of my internal fences - some of it may be totally gone- and havnt even got to see what damage has been done along the river banks

Still and all, once I had moved the cattle to high ground, the biggest worry that I had was the possibility of losing my electricity supply, as the fridge & freezer were stocked up for a weekend of the ruggies visit( + no pressure pump to put water into the house - lol )

In amongst all of this, we witnessed again the stupidity of a few teenagers who thought it was right to go and frolic in flood waters. A night in the cooler might have made an impression, as that is where they ended up - should have been a week or more though.

Floods etc

Over the last few days, the north coast of NSW Australia has been hit by heavy rains, winds& storms

As I type, there is an prepare to evacuate order being put over the local radio networks for Grafton and low lying areas of South Grafton ( this follows an evacuation order already in place for the communities of Ulmurra & Brushgrove which are downstream from Grafton).

After 30+ years of dealing with flood situations locally (including quite a few as a volunteer with the State Emergcy Services) , this event doesnt come as a total surprise, as it may be the first time in recorded history (including the Aboriginal memories prior to 1788) tha both of the northern and southern areas of the Clarence Catchment have been hit with high rainfalls (one area posted rainfall of 300mm {approx 12 inches} between 8 pm & 6 amthis morning) and cionsidering that the Bush workers were only just getting back into the bush, the countryside was already wet from the rains over the last few months.

It will be interesting to see what legal claims etc will be put to the local council if this does happen as there have been rather extensive developments in the low lying areas of Grafton over the last 20 or so years :)

(ps this have given me a day + off work)


pps as I type an evacuation order has just been broadcast for Grafton & low llying areas of South Grafton

Additions

Last Sunday (19 April) , I finally managed to be in the right place at the right time.

For some time now, I have been looking around for a pup, but generally by the time that I heard of any that fitted what I was looking for, they were gone.

Sunday arvo, after my shearer friend and family had finally been and shorn the sheep (that in itself being a series of having to cancel for a period of 3 months for lots of reasons from car accidents to rain !!), I slipped up the road to get my mail, and have a couple of beers. Got into a conservation with a bloke and on the way home slipped down to his place and picked up a pup (and no Pita, it ISNT a gr8 dane) He is a Border Collie about 6 weeks old.

Got the little fellow home , and then started to work out what I was going to do with him esp through the week, as I'm away from here from daylight to dark now, and named him Fred.

So now there are two of us going to work each day, and I dont know what my daughter is going to say when she finds out - tho shell probably hug the poor little fellow to death - lol, and life is now a case of watching out for puddles and landmines :)

Bushfires etc update

Recent news has been that the toll of 210 originally posted has since been reduced to 178 _ Still way too many and have yet to see any sorts of counts on livestock, native animals etc but have seen an article where logging contractors & sawmills have lost 10's of millions in machinery,which isnt going to help as the forestry community generally tries to recover some of the timber from trees that have been killed .

Charges have been laid against a person in relation to one of the fires, and the communities around Australia are still donating money and goods to help those who have lost so much.

Fires update

It seems from the news over the last couple of days that the extreme temperatures and winds that were the final trigger of this disaster in our nations south have finally subsided, and even though there are still 4 major fires and a lot of smaller fires still active, they are burning at a level where fire crews can finnally control them - this weather pattern is predicted for at least the next week, and with the resources that are deployed in Vict at the moment, hopefully these fires will be contained in the next 48 hrs or so.

I am not aware of any recent fatalities/ major injuries over the last few days, and the death toll was still 210 last I heard (but there are still people unaccounted for). I have yet to hear a report on deaths to native animals, livestock etc - but would imagine that this figure would run into the 10's of thousands or higher.

Now we will watch and see if the various charities that have had over $100.000.000 so far in cash donations, let alone clothing, food, fodder etc, can do the right thing , or stuff up as was the case following "Cyclone Tracey" in Darwin in 1974, where the people who were supposed to benefit from the nations response got stuff all