Rathdowney BA week 4

Open fires at night with peace and quiet no traffic noise, crisp air, country hospitality, and less travel time to get to the farms. Seems there is no downside relocating to Rathdowney. Also picked up a few new farms that did not know that BlazeAid was here in the valley repairing flood damaged fences.

The donations are rolling in as well, cash to buy food, unsold pies and bread from the bakery, milk from the dairies, and veggies from gardens. There is talk around the camp that eating this much pumpkin, roasted, boiled, soups and cakes might yellow our complexion. Will keep you posted on that one. Hmm, no pumpkin scones yet.

End of week four stats:
Registered Farms: 30
Farms Completed: 10
Fencing Cleared: 27.1km
Fencing Repaired: 12.8km
Volunteer Days: 424 (FTE)

More volunteers are always welcome. The expectation is the camp will be open for weeks to come and there are lots more donated pumpkins to devour.

Early morning before going out to work.

BlazeAid Week 3 Progress

Totals to Date:

Volunteers 37
Cleaned fence 20.5km
Repaired fence 8.5km
Total volunteer days to date 260

So the week will be interrupted by packing for the big move to Rathdowney. There's lots of stuff to shift as well as 8 work trailers and all the caravans and motorhomes requiring a full day's work off the fences to get us there. The plan is to end the day with a quiet drink and a counter meal at the Rathy Pub to celebrate. Everyone will pay their own way.

The locals are very supportive and anxious to help us settle in. It's a small but tight community with nice facilities in the Memorial Grounds.

Memorial Grounds center and Rathdowney town beyond.

Beaudesert BA update

Initially, it was six weeks now it's four. The bottom line we need to shift camp out of Beaudesert Showgrounds by the 16th of April. So Rathdowney is going to be the new camp site. I don't think any of us will be sorry to go. The Show Society has not been welcoming and restricted us to a very noisy corner of the huge grounds in an area with 3rd world amenities.

The best part of being in Beaudesert will have been the closeness to the shopping centre and the hot air balloons going over most mornings.

Beaudesert - Progress

About 20 volunteers are out working the farms and have cleared 9.5km and rebuilt another 3.3k of fences in the first official week of the camp being open.

There is still lots of work to do and a constant stream of new volunteers is what's required. It's not easy or glorious work but work that needs doing. It's work that is very much appreciated.

Most of the farms so far have been dairy including the Robotic Dairy Farm at Tamrookum. Smart cows and smart machines do the milking. The cows come in when they feel the need and queue up to have the robot milk them, any time of the day. 

The Robot Milking Machine - no smoke breaks.