h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, are you OK?

Hi Elena,

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply we have been flat tack clearing fire breaks and burning off before the fire restrictions come in to place tomorrow. Seems hard to believe it is that time of year again I have pulled so many kerosene trees up my hands are numb...then there was endless raking to do and over 40 trees that had to be chopped down then sawed for fire wood and stacked for next season and then we had firest lit all over the place which we had to keep an eye on....even with all the rain things are still flamable..... but we have finished now and though my back feels as though it is about ready to break we are looking good for this year no matter how hot it gets or how close the fires come I feel pretty confidant our place will survive okay.

We are expecting rain tomorow if it doesn't rain however I have to go and mow the grass in the orchard and then I have two trailer loads of horse manure to spread around all the trees Yippeee she said with girlish glee ...not

So how is life treating you I have not had a chance to play on hootoo much of late but I have been thinkning of you and Nic.

I have joined a craft group that meets down in the village I think I am the youngest there by about 25 years and I haven't laughed so much in ages the conversation revolved around menopause..cranky husbands..children and grandchildren and it was all I could do not to die laughing the stories they told were outrageous like the husband who got up starkers one morning went and got his rifle and was shooting at the ravens off the balconey because they were disturbing his sleep then when he came back to bed he was like a block of ice but that was okay with his wife because shes going through menopuase and was just then having a hot flush... Do the older women in your culture talk frankly about menopause? One of the other women was peeved because she had spent the last two nights sleeping in the end room to teach hubby a lesson because she was cross with him only to discover he hadn't noticed she was sleeping somewhere else

Well I have just come in and I am black.... sore and I need to go and check I haven't got any bush ticks on me before they get to firm a hold so I am signing off and going for a long soak in a tub.

Talk to you soon if you talk to Nic pass on my apologies and let him know I'll shout him a coffee soon

Hayley

It's good you are OK, things aren't bad up here either, but summer solitude seems to have taken me away from the net-world. There's too much hardcore reality to attend to, I hardly find any time even for lurking, let alone writing. Still, it would be good to resume our three-lateral chats from Canada-Australia-Russia now Nick is back and you've coped with fire precautions.
My warmest (belated)regards to Tom on his birthday, may you see many happy returns ...
I was 50 on Thursday, the flat is still full of flowers, my collegues and friends have been so nice to me - I felt elated.
Off to my day - do keep in touch

Hello-o-o,
saw you were online
what's the light saving thing in your parts? we were added an hour yesterday and now get up an hour later but it gets dark far too early...
what exactly do you do to prevent fires spreading
The trees are still not quite bare, which makes the wood very beautiful - dark with yellow spots here and there; there's fog at dusk and even the ponds in our park seem mysterious and breathing as they reflect the blue and pink cloudy sky at sunset...
I bought my daughter a second-hand T-shirt with pictures of Australian animals - a souvenir of her last year's project.
Best wishes,
Elena

Helllooooo back sorry to have missed you

your description of the forest was beautiful I could see it very clearly....Hmmm I would like to send your family something if this is okay with you would you mind emailing me an address I can send something to.

They put the clocks forward we have had three referendums in this state in the past twenty years and every time the people have said we don't want day light saving then last year two politicans from both parties one who was ousted fronm the leadership and one who was disgraced managed to pass a bill introducing a trial for the next three years of day light saving over summer with another referendum at the end to decide wheather or not to have it...most people were very angry that they got away with it and they are trying to have it squashed as we go into our second year of daylight saving. Here where it gets so hot you have children walking home in the hottest part of the day and tradesman still working at 8.30 at night because its still light its just not something people want and if your a mum try putting your children to bed at 7.30pm when its still broad daylight with out a battle the children are still awake at 10.00pm and yet they still have to be up the next moring so you just end up with cranky children after a couple of weeks its not so bad for us as the children can sleep in but for those who go to school....well all I can say is pray for the teachers patience.... Tom forgot to set his watch forward and has just rung to say he is just now packing up so he wont be home till after 7.30pm and he started work at 6.00 this morining its just to long a day.

To protect the property we need to have a 10 meter wide fire break the entire way round the vboundry and around every building...this means it has to be clear gravel so every year we hook up a home made grader of sorts and drag it around the fire break to clear it of any debris then we cut any branches that are less than 3 meters off the ground and pull any weeds or plants that might have started growing up through the pea gravel......then we turn our attention closer tot e house every tree that is within 40 meteres ov the house has the ground raked bare so that there is no leaf litter to catch fire and every branch is trimmed so it is more than two meters away from teh ground...then we rake a two foot bare patch around the base of the big gums kind of like a mini fire break ...while the gums and the wandoo are fairly safe the Marri just goes up like a tinder box and before you know it you have fire leaping from canopy to canopy...we make sure all the hoses are in good nick check the generator is okay in case the electricity goes and we have to power the water pumps from the tanks through the home generator... we have to check that all teh insulation on the water pipes is still in tact after winter and sometimes have to rebury the pipes a little deeper so that if fire passes over them they wont melt or burst depending on whether they are plastic or metal. Last but not least we keep a stack of burlap bags axes and rakes near the house just in case. Our place is set now and we would stay and defend it which might sound scary but basically we would stay inside the house until the fire past over and then we would go out and put out all teh small fires or if it was really bad we might back burn so that by the time the fire got to us there was nothing left to burn but your sorry you asked

Well I am suppose to be making dinner for us and for a friend whohas hurt her back so i had beter scadoodle....What is winter like in your part of the world and do you have to make special preparations for it?

Sorry it's been a while...Hope all is well with you - is it getting hotter and hotter?
Thanks for the story - poor you! so much work, and real danger ahead
No preparations for winter for a city-dweller - not in Moscow, anyway, or rather, not in the block of flats we live in. It was built in the 1950-s, has thick brick walls and keeps out cold perfectly well. The winter temperatures haven't been very low over the last decades, so we don't even insulate the window frames, in fact in our flat we have to keep the windows open most times, with the central heating too hot for us ( the system is highly centralised, and with the vast majority of buildings made of concrete the heating has to be really heavy - hot - sorry can't put it into words, hope you got the picture: we boil when our friends keep er.. cool, it's a horrible waste of resources and adds to pollution, too.
But you are sorry you asked
I wouldn't like you to waste money on postal service, since I don't believe in it! Send me an e-mail instead - or talk to us through Skype, I'll try to sort it out at last.
Best wishes to you all
Hope to hear from you soon.
It'll soon be a year since we met!

Hi Tom and dad are trying to get skype working on our system so I'll let you know when we get it running....I am suppose to be off to bed so this will be a quick one.....I will email you with a longer letter of all our current goings on..... Election this weekend Tom and I are going to be scrutineers at our local voting poll....Democracy in action it is really amazing when you think about it that everytday people are the ones keeping an eye n things making sure everything is fair and above board.....well better dash got a long week this week but will tel you more by email