Yesterday we had a heap of cows in the yards. We were preg-testing and giving them their booster needles.

On the way back to the paddock with them I stopped at a line of trees, interested in why the bark was falling off one of them. It didn’t seem to be sick in anyway.

I was intrigued by the colour and pattern under the bark. So this funny photo of the tree trunk, looking towards the sky!

Many of these trees are over fifty years old and were planted along fence lines to mark boundaries and to offer shelter for stock. Sugar Gums and Tuarts (the main ones that have been planted) often lose their limbs in big winds and as annoying that can be, if they fall on a fence, they make lovely fire wood in winter!

Summer has taken its toll of a lot of the people and animals this year. I’m sure ours hasn’t been has hot as the top half of Australia, but it’s been a stinker compared to what we are used to. Our hottest day was 48 degrees.

We had about six catastrophic fire dangers issued and the sea breeze, which is usually a certain in Esperance, has been quite non-existent! When I first moved here we would use a doona every night, but not this year. The fan has become a permanent fixture in our room.

Last Saturday there were quite a few thunderstorms around. I sat outside and watched the lightening hit the ground while Anthony was in his ute with the fire cart hooked on, waiting and watching. It was only a matter of time.

The long, hot, dry six months has made the bush tinder dry. The feed in the paddocks is a sun-bleached white, we have dry dams for the third year in a row and we’re feeding hay to the cattle every second day. It’s time consuming and, after a while, disheartening. After two very dry years, we are hoping this year is going a really wet one.

The fire that started in the bush near the coast burnt for a week and the farmers, along with FESA, were put on a roster-system to keep an eye on it. The graders and dozers worked overtime, pushing fire breaks around the edge of the bush to protect the farming land, while the fire-fighters back burnt trying to make it safe.

The fire that was to the north of us is still burning, a week later.

As you can see from this photo, there is still a fair bit of smoke hanging around, which has done nothing except help increase the washing in my laundry because I can’t hang it out! Anthony’s clothes, three washes later, still have a smoky smell to them!

We have a bushfire radio in house, and listening to that over the past week has been like listening to a movie you couldn’t see. The urgency behind the voices, the directions – I could picture these guys doing what they needed to do.

The professionalism of all our volunteer fire-fighters is amazing and they are all to be commended and thanked from the bottoms of our hearts.