The 'Book Cave' Book of the Week.

Return of the Possum Killer.

So...this morning we found the remains of another Ring-tailed Possum in the shed.  It has been quite awhile since the last incident where we just found the innards and skin/fur of the last unfortunate victim.Todays victim was pretty much intact from the shoulders up but there was little else remaining. We know that Quolls go for the head and from research know that Powerful Owls also remove possum heads. Powerful Owls are known for their ear piercing screams, like someone being murdered, but in the last three years of living here we have never heard one... thankfully! We think a fox would have taken the whole thing away so the likely culprit is a Quoll or possibly a feral cat.The fact that it was another Ring-tail is odd because we generally never see them about. Most of the possums we encounter and hear about the house are Brush-tailed possums.It is all a bit of a mystery.

Read it and Weep.

One of our great displays at the 'Book Cave' but which book did I add to it?I hope I don't get into trouble!

Fixing Rhonda...Roxy to the Rescue!

So...I was sat next to the Queen at a very informal garden party. We were sat on the grass and she was cutting up some roast chicken.I was thinking 'Gosh, even the Queen cuts up roast chicken." I crawled over and took a piece to nibble on and am not sure how we got onto the subject of goats but I was telling her that Will used to be a goat farmer.The Queen was now lying on the grass, in her pink dress. She was on her side, her right arm bent at the elbow and resting her head in her hand."Will used to be a goat farmer," I was saying, "he lived in the middle of nowhere and he used to get his water from a river and practically lived off goat meat. He was quite wild." I said."But I've tamed him, " I added jokingly."How so?" asked the Queen."Well, when you live with someone," I said, "you have to make changes and compromises."The Queen smiled. "Indeed, that reminds me of a story," she said. " In 1961 I was at Fotheringhay Castle and...." and she was wittering on about deciding on the best way to announce the arrival of a son and something about Australia but my mind was wandering and I could feel my eyes glazing over because I was thinking 'Crikey, I'm chatting with the Queen like old friends,' and I was also thinking that her pink dress really made her look like she was wearing a huge condom and I was worried that she would see that I was not really listening to her story and, yes, she was beginning to fade away but I didn't want her to...and then I woke up!I didn't have to go to the 'Book Cave' today, which is actually the only day this week that I don't have to, but rather than look forward to doing what I wanted with the day I was faced with the crushing reality of having to fix Rhonda. I don't know why I was that worried about it because really I wasn't going to be doing anything except watch. I was anxious because, even though Will was sure he could fix the car, I was expecting something, as usual, to go wrong and I just wanted to go back to the lovely, relaxed atmosphere of the Queens Garden Party.I had broken Rhonda's drive shaft yesterday but Will suddenly remembered that we still have Roxy in retirement around the back and her drive shaft was fine.So firstly he crawled under Roxy to remove her drive shaft but then came the first hitch as he realised we didn't have the correct tool to remove some of the bolts. We headed down the hill to Rhonda to see if the bolts on her drive shaft were the same and it turned out that they were. Leaving that for us to worry about later, we got scavenged some wire from the Kiwi Fruit orchard and Will wired up the broken end of the drive shaft under the car to stop it from rattling and clanking and we set about trying to drive Rhonda up the hill. The broken drive shaft meant that Rhonda's 'all wheel drive 'was not working but her two wheel drive was fine.The state of the road, especially on the hill, is not good but Rhonda made it up the first slope and then couldn't get up the final hill so we had to reverse down a bit. I got out and Will tried again but again the two wheel drive was not powerful enough on the steep, rutted and dusty road to get her over the top. Again he reversed and said that he was going to have to 'Gun It!' so I covered my ears and hardly dare watch as he 'gunned' her up the hill and this time he just made it.We now had Rhonda back at the house and put her up on the wheel ramps. Will headed into town, in Sky Blue, to get the tool we needed to remove the bolts and the long and the short of it is Rhonda's broken drive shaft has been replaced with Roxy's and it is all working fine. It's a flippin' miracle!I wish I could say I was a great help in all of this but in actual fact I did nothing. I collected two trugs of firewood and lit the fires in Frogknot and Blue Moon while he was playing mechanic.He never ceases to amaze me with the things he can do.I can't wait to tell the Queen all about it over her roast chicken at the next Garden Party.

Wrecking Rhonda.

So... the past few days have been pretty disastrous. Yesterday I discovered that one of my hard drives was no longer working. It had fallen and hit the floor the previous day but I thought nothing of it. It is gutting because on that hard dive is half of my collection of TV series that I have been collecting for the past five years. We don't watch Australian TV because there are so any adverts and the programmes are pretty bad so I have been collecting UK, American and some Australian TV shows to watch at out leisure without adverts. I have taken it to a computer shop today and now wait with bated breath to see if it can be saved.Driving home from the 'Book Cave' tonight I stalled Rhonda on a steep part of the hill trying to avoid a fallen branch across the drive. Starting her up again I gunned her forward up the hill when there was a loud bang! I reversed slowly down again and tried to attempt the climb again but there was a loud rattling sound. It seems I have broken the drive shaft. Poor Rhonda is now parked down the drive. We are hoping that Roxy will come to the rescue. Hopefully we can cannibalize her drive shaft to replace Rhonda's. Will is pretty confident he can do it.Do these things come in threes? Surely our continued lack of rain would pass for the third disaster. (Our area is now under 'Extreme' water rationing and the town is in danger of running out of water.) Luckily we still have about 12,000 litres in our tanks which should keep us going for awhile. We are no longer using water from the dam and are leaving it for the local wildlife.We really don't need anything else to go wrong at the moment.