FRIDAY 20 MAY     PUNGALINA  

O arrived back with the supplies, so I spent some time checking off the list and putting things away.

The packets of Purple King bean seeds that John wanted were not in the order. But he received snow peas and parsley seeds, also Impatiens – he had ideas of planting some flowers around camp. The lady at Woolworths Country Orders did a great job of filling my list. There was no celery in my green grocery box, but the rest of the ordered items were there.

Also in the order was a 15 litre cask of port that John had ordered be sent up from a wine company down south, thinking it would keep us supplied for months, and if O thought it good value, we could order one for the camp. Just the ticket for nights around the campfire. However, we soon realized that it had not travelled well, and wine was seeping out of several abraded areas of the cask liner. Clearly, they were not designed to stand up to the rough roads of the Gulf Country!

We did a rather frantic search around for empty bottles and suitable containers, and decanted the cask into these. It appeared we had lost about two litres to leakage. Guessed we would not be repeating that experiment.

Mail plane day, too. I sent back the box of library books – had managed to do quite a bit of reading in the evenings.

O and John milled some of the previously felled cypress pine for rafter for the garden shelter. On one of the days, last week, when O was away track clearing, John had unpacked the mill from its box – which had never been opened – and set it up. He was hoping O would let him do the milling, as John had always wanted to use a Morrison Mill. However, it seemed that O was a bit cross at being pre-empted and he said he would do the milling.

At first, the machine would not work. O blamed John’s assembly of it, making remarks about inept teachers and public servants. Both are species he rather dislikes. Eventually he did as John suggested, and phoned the company that makes the mills. He had muttered about it not being worth phoning because no one would be there on a Friday afternoon. He was surprised when he was eventually put through to the boss – after verifying that he was the genuine owner of a mill. It turned out that he hadn’t turned the petrol supply on. Nothing to do with John’s assembly! Away the machine went.

I was very limited by my foot and could not do a great deal.