Mind you the hounds of the Baskervilles may have been in residence from the sounds of murder and mayhem that were issuenig forth as we got there – I mean who has two rottweillers and a Catahoula as house pets? Suppose they are our kids after all. For thos not familiar with the Catahoula or Louisiana Leopard dog, they are a large multi coloured dog that can, amongst other things , climb very well. Cats balanced on the back of a lounge are one thing, 25 kg of 8 month old puppy is another. We had a great weekend with the kids, doing what we do best – feeding - pea soup, chicken and sweet corn soup and pumpkin soup, mud cake, trifle, pavlova, corned beef, apricot chicken and pickled pork, bacon and eggs and savoury muffins – It was a feed fest and herself was in her element! But first things first on Saturday morning I braved the wilds of the Queanbeyan RTA to renew the truck rego. The RTA is always an eye opener, and Saturday morning was no exception. There were all sorts of interesting things, but in my opinion the classic was the middle aged truck driver from ethnia, who had gone to renew his licence with his daughter to translate. He could not seem to grasp the concept that if he could not read the eye chart he would need to go and see an eye doctor and possibly get eye glasses and that to attempt to drive a heavy vehicle while almost blind was not a brilliant idea. Once legal again round to park the truck at the yard where No 2 son stores part of his fleet, and check out Freddie, a pantech which could have a future as an awesome horse truck. Back home then to feed and talk rubbish!. To get home I had the choice of walking or riding with No 3 in his Skyline. While to be invited to ride in the Skyline is an honour that few are accorded, I did consider the 5 km walk as a preferable option. Not that the Skyline is a bomb, far from it – a work of art and passion it is immaculate, it crouches there pristine and shiny, inside it is fairly utilitarian. Why then has this second hand car cost in excess of $40,000? Before I would get in I extracted promises and commitments that the car would be driven in accordance with sanity and the rules of the road, and I believed the eventual grudging agreement could be relied on... fat chance. A nice quiet drive initially, where we could discuss the obvious finely engineered machinery and the precise ride – the next second there is a smell of burning rubber and the car is doing 90 kmh sideways straddling the centreline approaching the crest of a hill with my screams competing vainly with the screams of the twin turbos and my buttocks clenched so tightly that the seat was in danger of disappearing. I can recommend such a ride in one respect though, the snap of my spine under acceleration straightened out kinks that a team of chiropractors or a gaggle of masseurs would have been hard pressed to touch. Such a ride has its benefits – on arriving home I was so happy to be alive that I was able to hand my wallet to my wife with no pangs at all – what use is money to a corpse? The weekend passed all to quickly and on Monday went with Bert to collect my truck from storage and pack for the trip home. 6 am in the ACT is freezing, and as first light appeared I fiddled with the heater controls and amazingly enough got warm air – that would have been appreciated on Friday! Friday afternoon down through the brown and sere hills to a friend’s place that I had only ever visited once, two years ago – somewhat difficult to find but thank heavens for technology and a wide network, we were able to get directions, phone numbers and assistance within minutes – how did we ever managed before smart phones. We were soon rescued and ready to load the new horses. Three horses to load, on a windswept hillside in the middle of nowhere. A very competent local trainer has come out to lend a hand, complete with her trainee in a baby sling.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 11:59:45 +0000
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