The Clean-Up

After a busy week in town I came back to Taggerty last night. It was very still all night and some of this morning, with smoke hanging around obscuring the horizon and irritating eyes and throat. It's still pretty black out here, but if you look carefully along the blackened ground, a soft fuzz of green is appearing everywhere. 'Weeds' said one neighbour, 'food for the animals' said Kerrin, 'land recovering' was my comment. The plants are just getting on with the job at hand, growing.

Down at the local cfa shed where we dropped in to see if the chefs needed any more hands, one of the locals who hasn't lost her house but who is always helping in the community was looking pretty drained. I asked her how she was and she replied: 'I'm not really thinking about that, I'm just getting on with the work, that's all we can do'.

I 'got on with the job' for most of the day, then realized I needed a break when I tried wheeling a bucket of water in the wheelbarrow with very wet results for my gardening gloves that were sharing the ride. I stopped and went in for a drink, then found myself sinking into a sense of overwhelm for a bit. After recognizing that and expressing it to Kerrin I felt ok again and was ready to focus on just the immediate task - planting a passionfruit against the solar shed.

Kerrin was busy putting yet more sprinklers on our roof to make sure every inch of house is protected! I finished watering the passionfruit, then took the mattock up to the little dam to clear out blackberries. There were only a few but phew those roots just go on forever!!!

The wind came up then and suddenly the little spire of smoke in the black ridge across the way leapt into life and so did the walkie talkies. The firies were on there way with trucks and hoses, their voices taking on an edge that isn't there when they're just on patrol. Our channel sprang to life and neighbours reported four trucks stationed down the bottom of our road ready to fight.

I got on with watering the orchard and we kept an eye on the smoke. The hare or rabbits had been in the orchard again so my silverbeet and celery are ground level again and the new carrot tops have been stripped back to stalks. One of the grevilleas has been ripped out and even the horseradish was nibbled at :( We've redone the wire on the gates yet again in an attempt to foil those pesky rodents.

By the time I was finishing in the orchard we could hear the firies joking amongst themselves, a nice sound, they only joke when the fires are contained. The wind had swung around to help them and immediately the billow of smoke went back to a thin spiral. Right now the house is just about rocking in the wind but it's still from the south so it's our good fortune, maybe someone else is cursing it.

It seems that the forest around Rubicon is still burning but contained so most of the smoke this morning was coming from there. Sad that so much country is still burning and so many animals, insects, birds etc suffering. The wildlife people have been in the forest behind us for the last couple of days, keeping an eye on some more wounded koalas. The local store is a koala nursery with 30 being rescued out of the eucalypt plantation. They found 5 koalas dead there. I guess it was good there weren't more, but 5 is a lot to lose. I don't know how those left will manage as the eucalypts are to be cut down and chipped sometime soon.

We're heading back to town tomorrow so we can get to the Corner Hotel in Richmond for a fire benefit. There'll be a strong contingent from Taggerty so it should be fun.

I've heard a number of stories now of city people burning themselves badly in strange accidents - probably the best was the volunteer at Whittlesea going for a joy ride on a Harley and then hopping off the exhaust side - ouch! So all you sympathetic city people, just look after yourselves so you can keep helping the bush.

There is so much to be done, a lot of which will have to wait until things like the toxic soil situation (due to computer melt downs) is sorted out. The bush community will be welcoming willing hands for a long time to come. The community spirit which has been so extraordinary over the last two weeks will do us all good if we can keep it going.

The pain of the fires has touched us all, opening hearts and connecting us in unexpected ways.
Let's keep that going,

love Marg