Saving Patty!

Our last trip saw poor Patty our Patrol loose both Brakes and a Wheel Bearing on 2 separate days; leaving her completely immobile. So after a few hours last weekend; of pulling the entire wheel and numerous parts off Patty, they came home in Johnnys car to be repaired or replaced.
Now here we are on a return trip to get the big girl mobile and to bring her home.
Carrying just the basics for camping and with the camper in tow, we had a swag of parts and tools to replace both wheel bearins on the front Left and Right. Both boys had been shopping all week to get replacement parts.

We arrived at 6pm and had the Camper set up within minutes. Johnny set up his new rifle and the boys fired off a few rounds while I cooked sausages for dinner.
After a couple JD’s and some talking shit we had a relaxing evening in a mild wind and the moon in its half moon phase.

Sunday
Up at 730am for coffees and ready to fix Patty.
The herd of sheep had congregated around our campsite grazing as they passed. Not bothered by our presence.

At about 930 I had Johnnys awesome Bushnell Binoculars and was watching some small birds making their way in and out of a hollow in a tree. I then thought to look for the spotted lizard who lives in a nearby rock crevasse, who we have fondly named Spot, but couldn’t get a clear view of his cavern. I moved closer to where he hides but found another resident in the neighbouring rock that nade me want to run…. An adult Brown Snake, disturbed by me, raised the front half of its body into the air to rush into a large crevasse in the rock. I called “Brown Snake, Brown Snake” but the boys were too far away. Chris saw me waving and came down with a shovel. The snake had already gone but we waited to see if it was coming out the otherside. Lucky for him he was not sighted again. Johnny got his .22 ready in case of an encore appearance. Normally snakes wouldn’t bother me but this one was 5m from our camp and in our common walkway. It is refreshing to know they try to escape before you even see them. If they weren’t the 2nd most deadliest snake in the world, I would go as far to say it was a beautiful majestic creature.

I had intention to take my GoPro out on the quad but the Quad bike didn’t want to play today. The boys played around with it and managed to start the bike. I was over the moon! Refitted my camera and new FOX goggles to my helmet and went for a 15 minute spin. The goggles were amazingly clear and kept out all the dust and sweat. Highly recommended! FOX AIRSPC

My ride lasted 15 minutes but didn’t get up to the otherside entirely. Just testing out the camera positioning to make sure I don’t film 30 minutes of half the side of my helmet like I did last time!
I reviewed the footage on my phone and it didn’t look too bad. Upgraded the camera SD storage to a 16GB card as you can never have enough storage!!

Cooked the boys Bacon and Egg sandwiches for Brunch. Butchers Bacon is the best, tastes like BBQ’d Ham!

Patty Progress
Left side assembled

Right side underway!

We cracked our first beers at 4pm after discovering the brake caliper on the right would need to be replaced. Hairline cracks, evident heat stress and abnormal wear. The brake pads were fitted all the same so it will be a slow trip home.

After a quick pack up we begun to leave just before 9pm. Our neighbour John was on his property and rode to meet us. We went and met the rest of his family who were very friendly. We told them about random shooters coming onto their property late at night and firing off rounds. They must know people have been coming onto their property when absent as they told us we are now locking the gate and offered us a set of keys. We were really happy with this decision!

During the trip home, we had Kangaroos in abundance hopping in front of the car. We had one pod that wouldn’t let us past! They just stayed in front of the cars! One managed to bounce into Johnnys car after he stopped, no harm done to either party except Johnnys light now looked into the sky!

Arrived home after midnight, very tired!!

Cabin Build Pt2: Walls

Friday 8th January 2016

Another morning up early and ready to go. Alarms were set for 330am but the reality of getting up hit at 4am. Quick coffee and we were off. Chris and John spent part of Thursday getting the required timber for the project and boys had the worst experiences at different Bunnings outlets they probably deserve their own post. So to keep this entry positive we will move along!

We have got our camper packing down pat; specific bags of towels, toiletries and luggage pre packed makes life easy and we never seem to forget anything anymore. We can pay better attention to packing good food and being organised in general.

We left our home at 445am through a foggy cool morning, in our area this means the day will be hot! The sky was already turning a light blue with a brilliant remnant of stars.

We arrived at Amaroo about 830am, had a breakfast stop at McDonald’s Goulburn. The sky was clear, the grass slightly green and sheep not as abundant as previous visits.
Unpacked and Camper set up by 9.

The boys worked on the wall timbers while I went for a walk down to the Gorge. The Summer heat has killed off a lot of the thistle but St Johns Wort still covered the far hills like a yellow carpet.
No wildlife spotted but it was just too hot in the sun.

We spotted a man on a motorbike in our neighboring property rounding up a herd of sheep. He approached us later and introduced himself as Anthony, he was a Kiwi. He told us he was removing the sheep back to their paddocks and giving us new sheep and will be here herding up the rest while the sheep owner fixes the fences.
Damien, our neighbor and owner of the sheep, came along later and told us about how he had been fixing our fences for us. He was much appreciative that we permitted him to use our land in exchange for fence repairs and weed spraying. We were just happy the pasture will be grazed to reduce fire hazard. The neighboring property owner who organised the agistment doesn’t have a drop of water in his dam. I really don’t think he knew it will dry out so quickly in the summer. We have 3 springs a creek and a Dam, now the water tanks. We didn’t know we had springs until we got bogged in one and probably ruined the direction of flow.

Damien told us he had spent 2 days fighting a fire just near our boundary. He told us the neighbor had accidentally forgot to completely extinguish his camp fire resulting in the fire escaping and travelling up the hill. Firies were called and an aircraft had to drop fire retardant on it from the air. This fire which we thought was at the other end of our road, was actually just off our boundary! Very scary but marvelous work to the RFS!

So Day 1 looked like this:

One wall assembled and ready to be put up in day 2. All the timbers cut to size. Veranda beam placed in holes.
A lot of ground work today.

Saturday 9th January 2016

Up early to complete the walls. I headed into Cowra to reload on munchies, drinks and to get a birthday cake. On the way back the brakes on the Patrol failed but managed to safely get myself back in one piece.

Managed to go for a Quad ride with my Go Pro. Was testing it out so the footage wasn’t great. Did managed to find some decent new views.

Cooked a campfire feast for Chris and Josh’s birthday today. Poor Man’s Stew. Will try and remember what I put in it but Poor Man’s Stew is generally created from what you have lying around.
Utilized the vented door on the Oz pig, it is designed to have a contained fire with no sparks escaping.

Ozpig never fails!

Saturdays progress went well. 2 walls up and posts for the deck concreted in.
There will be 5 windows and one large sliding glass door.
We finished the night with stew, and a birthday mudcake for the boys!

Sunday 10th January 2015

A very hot morning and struggling with the heat by 9am. The boys were up at it while Josh and I went for a walk downhill. I normally wear a flannelette shirt to protect from the sun but it was just too hot. Shorts and singlet shirt day. I’m staying in the shade!

At about 11am I ventured out in Patty the Patrol to get another few bags of ice. Sure enough the brakes are failing but the gear ratios are low enough to be able to bring the car to a stop with the park brake. As I got out onto the road, more noises started. Long story short, I managed to make it back to the farm with 2 bags of ice, a loaf of bread and a severely bust front wheel bearing steaming and red hot! The steering was shocking and the realization of how serious the incident was happened as I tried to make a turn left down a hill, no brake and no steering and all I saw was the ground falling away and the car not responding to the controls. The Patrol needed a full turn of the steering wheel before anything would register.
This car won’t be going anywhere until it is fixed! Chris was pissed but I was just glad I was safe.
At least we now had cold drinks! Chris wanted a Mars Bar but I forgot it!

The boys worked tirelessly to get all 4 walls up and make the foundations of the deck. It is truly taking shape. Josh set up the shelves in the Container to organise all the bits and pieces we now had stored there. Next steps will be to erect the roof trusses and sheeting, finish the deck, and build the staircase up.

At about 830pm, we pulled the front bearing off the Patrol to take back home and get replacement parts. It was a nightmare! Molten metal and seized parts. We went with Plan B and removed the entire wheel section.

We traveled home in Johnny car Junior, he towed our camper home for us. We left not much before 10pm and were finally having a shower at 145am. I think I slept most of the way but heard much commentary around the wildlife trekking across the road.

Its weekends like these that give you lifelong stories to tell!

GoPro Footage – Cabin