Woody Died October 24, 2009

Woody telling a joke in Chillingham...

Woody happy at our gathering of friends for a BBQ at Woodstock

As most of you know, Susan moved back to Australia in 2007 to care for her father, Woody. He had a terminal cancer diagnosis and died early in the morning at the Murwillumbah Hospital on October 24. Both Susan and I lived out at his property, "Woodstock", to care for him at home.

As we reflect on our time with Susan's Dad and the fact that our care allowed him to stay home until the very end, we are blessed with a little more peace knowing his wishes were honored and that we made a huge difference in the quality and quantity of his life. We all learned a lot from each other over those many months. It was all a big gift for Susan, Woody and myself. Susan set up a blog for Woody at woodydavid.blogspot.com Please take a visit there.

Where Did October Go?

October came and went like a cloud on a hot day. Speaking of hot days, we had a lot of them and NO rain until the very end of the month- it is so good to be able to flush the toilet when you want to! Our month was filled with packing, moving and trying to readjust our lives away from Woodstock. Major tasks like gathering furniture from friends, markets and the "OP Shop" (like goodwill) were top of the list. Our house is very spacious and we now have furniture in most rooms. Most of my month was spent outside trying to survive the killer magpie attacks, and heal my scalp from the laceration he gave me fc#%x@! while I redid the back patio. Susan wanted to have a BIG 40th birthday party and the back patio which was a disaster when we moved in. I don't think anyone had ever addressed the water runoff issues, sealed the concrete or cleaned the mud off in ages.... so this became my task. I bought self leveling floor filler, concrete, etc and tried to patch as many holes as possible. It took me two weeks to get it a bit improved... it still could use a ton more filler, but I lost interest in getting it to look all even and settled for filling the holes that you could sprain your ankle on. After all of that, I painted it a Terra Cotta color in hopes of distracting any critical vision away from the many irregularities still in the concrete. The next improvement was to put up some bamboo arches over the top of the patio. There are some very established grape plants at the top of the retaining wall and the bamboo will give them a great place to attach to. All in all, I enjoy sitting out back now on the patio. Oh by the way the orange walls in the bedroom, living room and kitchen are now neutralized! We did have to sign an agreement with the landlord, that we would repaint the walls orange when we leave! What is up with that???

We are hooked up to public power, no solar out here, but I must admit it is great to have a full size refrig and a small chest freezer.

Before and After Photos of the Patio....

We're Moving!

Susan and I have signed a rental lease on a new house!!

     Front of our new home

We've enjoyed the opportunity to live on Susan's dad's property (Woodstock) and to be surrounded by such intense beauty and critters. However, we've been dreaming about moving into our own, bigger place, and last week, we found it!

      Side entrance 

       Back of house

Susan has been living at Woodstock for nearly two years as her father's caretaker. As anyone who has been in that role can attest to, it can be an exhausting job. It's time for a change, to say the least, and to claim some personal space and freedom to move forward in life.

Woody's good friend, Gary, will move into our caretaker's cottage in early October to help look after Woody each day. Bless his heart, I know Susan needs the break. We will continue to visit Woody several times a week to help with medical appointments and the multitude of other tasks required.

Anyway, back to our new home... We had put feelers out to find a rental house in the nearby village of Uki. We figured it would be a good way to test the area before committing to buying a property. A day after my return we were called to look at a rental there. To make a long story short, it wasn't what we were looking for, but while in Uki we saw an ad for another house in the nearby village of Kunghur (pronounced "caang-err"). Kunghur is an Aboriginal name which means "meeting place". Well, we fell in love with the house. It's a huge 1950s "Queenslander" style house that sits on 200 acres, plus we have access to the adjoining 200 acres.


Weird alcove for the stove. There is a window on the right side. The orange paint is going bye-bye.

Half of the living room

Kitchen and part of dining room


Yes, we are out in the bush still! I don't know about any resident snakes or lizards yet at the new abode. At least at Woodstock we know where they live. I'm hoping we are the only tenants in or on the new house. :) Oh, and there's a big fenced yard for Buddha, our little dog who is now six months old. He'll be sharing it with resident wallabies.

Behind our new house, literally out the back door, we have access to endless hikes and great bush camping spots. We took a long walk to the top of the hill and were blown away by the 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains, rock formations and valley. It's very ancient and beautiful and the feel and spirit of the location sealed things for us.

Back of house from hill above

I will post some more photos once we move out there. On our hike we saw wallabies and an echidna and were dive bombed by magpies! Susan kept saying "cover your eyes" as the birds fly so close they occasionally touch your head. (Not quite as bad as the birds in the movie "The Birds", but I see where they got their ideas from!) Apparently the magpies are only this aggressive for a few weeks each spring as they nest. Rumor has it you should wear a hat with eyes painted on the top of it to scare them off or feed them to make them your friends. I must admit I was a annoyed at first, but then got so fed up I picked up a stick in self defense. (I didn't take a swing, but it felt good to protect my vision!)

Echidna, rolled up in a hole right behind the house

When our American friends come for a visit, Susan is ready to fix you a damper and billy tea bush breakfast on an open fire. :)

Two weird Australian rental facts I've learnt:
1. Rentals rarely come with refrigerators. It's strange for me to picture all the Australians currently moving into and out of rental properties around the country with fridges in tow
2. Rent is due and paid each week, not each month. Makes no sense to me!

So, for now, we are in the process of buying, borrowing and stealing furnishings from generous friends and local furniture restorers. More soon!

Part of the view from the hill

Up Over (opposite of "Down Under")

I have returned to my old abode in the states for six weeks.  Five of my weeks here are being spent working full time, which is a god send.  After having lived in Australia, unemployed for five months, a few full paychecks are going to be like winning the lotto.   This trip back "home" to Olympia has been scheduled since March.  As a Nurse Practitioner I need to keep my required clinical hours up in order to maintain my active license in Washington, so I figured if I spent the Aussie "winter" in the Olympia summer, I could have the best of both worlds.  My original plan was to stay here for 3 months, but at this point in my move to Australia, it 

 just felt like too long to be gone (with input from Susan!), PLUS, I want to get back to Susan, Woody and Buddha.   So far it seems like the right amount of time.  I have been back here for two weeks+ now and I will be heading back to Oz the end of August.

I have my house rented out so I have moved into my 37foot 5th wheel RV which is parked behind the house. This trailer is OK for me and is working out great.  I have satellite internet and satellite TV access from the renters.  I am true White Trailer Trash for this 6 weeks, and proud of it! 

  The weather here has been unbelievable, a week of temps in the upper 90- low 100's!(32-40.6 C')  The rest of my time here it has been in the 80-90 F'.  Thank god my white trash trailer has AC. Thank you god, thank you god..

I am enjoying seeing the deer out grazing behind my place in the woods every morning.  Of course they do take a toll on my very young fruit trees which have not grown much in two years.

Returning to work has been great, I have really missed direct patient contact. The old folks are who I have the pleasure of seeing.  I think part of the reason I am enjoying the work so much is that I know it is short term.  How did I ever work full time all of these years and keep my sanity? I don't know if I could go back to the same level of intensity now that I have had a break from the rat race, especially the freeway traffic congestion.

Well, I have a few more weeks to reconnect with family and friends here and look forward to any opportunity to drink wine, relax and chat... 

A Weekend in the Village of UKI, and Breakfast with John Hurt

Two weekends ago, Susan and I spent the weekend staying with two friends (Sara and Karin) in the Village of UKI.   The main draw was the reggae band playing at the Uki Hall and an opportunity to let our hair down and go dancing.  The event was called the "Glo Dance".  The music was good, but got much better after a few glasses of wine. The dance was open to all ages, as no alcohol is sold/served - it is fairly common to BYOB to most restaurants and events here.  I would say this dance reminded me of a dance that would take place at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA., but I think there were far more dreadlocks per capita in Uki!  I imagine about 25% of the dancers were on "E" as well.  It made dancing with everyone really fun to say the least.  

The next morning we went out to breakfast at the local Uki Cafe.  Both the food and coffee where excellent.   OK, I exaggerated about having breakfast with John Hurt, but he was eating at the cafe that morning also (along with about 10 other diners) and looked a little rough, like perhaps he was at the dance as well.

Uki is a great little community and Susan and I will look for a house to rent or buy there.  I think the population is around 800 and they have a community dance about once a month to which half of the community shows up for it. They also have "trivia night" every thursday evening -  we still need to give this a try.  The people in the village seem to be very organized with planning a "sustainable community" as well.  Planning on growing enough food to support the population, alternative power, water conservation, etc.  There is even an organic brewery on the docket for consideration!