Darawank November 2012

November 2^nd, What a start to the month! Strong Southerly winds with overnight rain. I went to the Doctors this morning, after completing a course of antibiotics for my swollen left leg and he simply gave me another course of antibiotics to take.

November 3^rd, Terri and Patrick went to a 40^th Birthday Party for one of the Parks residents. It was a theme Party, so they came around to show off their costumes on their way (see photo). We were very impressed with their “1920’s” attire. I went out to check the crab trap and do some fishing. No crabs but I did land a 50cm flathead that I caught at the mouth of the creek, on the northern side of the Park.

November 4^th, We went around to Terri and Patrick’s after lunch and I helped Patrick to hook up his car to their new Caravan and to fit the towing hitch torsion bars, which the salesman provided but didn’t fit. I gave them a demo. on how to put their roll out awning up, knowing that when they get down to Dunleith Tourist Park to-morrow, at The Entrance, that Carole and Rob would be there to help them set up.

November 6^th, I had another Dr’s appointment this morning, so we went into Tuncurry and Val did some grocery shopping and we met up at the Local Pub, where we had the $9.50 Bistro Special for lunch, placed our bets on the Melbourne Cup and stayed to watch the race. My favourite is still running but Val got a good return for a long odds placed horse, so we had a very cheap day out in the final wash.

November 8^th, We drove to Taree today, only 25 minutes away by car. Val had to go to Spotlight and I had to go to BCF to exchange one of our damaged Coleman Chairs, for a replacement under warranty. Taree is our closest Town that has both those shops.

November 9^th, Off to see my Dr. today, having finished my 2^nd lot of antibiotics and as my ankle was still swollen, he sent me for an ultrasound. I drove to the ultrasound place in Forster and got taken straight away, without an appointment. The results were good, no clots or DVT problems, and the written report will be sent to the Dr’s.

November 11^th, Val has spent this weekend sewing up Stevens 8 metre long Table Runner, for a fund raising night Margaret and he are putting on, and we will post it off on Monday.

November 12^th, Finally we had good weather today, so I went out for a fish and came in with 3 flathead, 36, 37 and 54cm.

November 14^th, Went out for a fish and caught 2 flathead, 35 and 38cm. Didn’t feel like ironing out the 35cm one so gave it the blessing and released it back into the river, flathead are too ugly for “kiss and release”.

November 15^th, Joan and Robert arrived at lunchtime today, to spend a couple of days with us and booked into a Cabin. Robert and I went out for a fish but didn’t catch any keepers. We came in early as the wind came up again and Robert was keen to get started on a game of “Tiles”.

November 16^th, A few nights ago, Val cooked herself some fresh flathead fillets for dinner and gave me a bit to taste. I said, “That’s not bad, it didn’t have a fishy taste”, so she suggested that when we next have flathead that I try it instead of the usual steak. As we had visitors, tonight was flathead fillet night for dinner. This time she cooked the flathead fillets in panko crumbs, served with potatoes and salad and I did enjoy the meal. This is a major event in my life as I have never eaten any seafood. Greg rang tonight, mainly to tell me of his own personal major event, as he had for the first time in his life read a 600 page Book called “Ice Station” and thoroughly enjoyed it, then couldn’t believe my personal major event either.

November 17^th, Joan and Robert moved out of their Cabin this morning then came around to our Van for the rest of the day. The weather was shocking so we filled in the day playing Tiles till they left at 5pm. They wanted to get home before dark and they had a 2 hour journey.

November 18^th, We had very heavy overnight rain and it was overcast and showery today. In-between showers I was able to pump the water out of our boat, it was too much for bailing by hand. 

November 20^th, Went to see my Doctor this morning, he was happy with the progress of my leg swelling, so he checked my blood pressure, to make my visit worthwhile. He said “You have the blood pressure of a teenager”, it would be nice to feel like one! I went to the Chemist to pick up the compression stockings that I had ordered and we bought a “Circulation Booster”, as advertised on TV by Dawn Frazer, which both Val and myself can use. Val has had bad legs, Varicose veins etc, for years. We received Jessica and Annaliese’s Christmas gifts selections in today’s mail, so it’s off to the shops tomorrow.

November 21^st, We went to Forster Shopping Centre to start on the girls selections but we only have a Target Country Store there and they didn’t have all the items which were on the girls list. We will have to go to Taree tomorrow and hope they still have the “Sale” items we want, as it is finished today. We tried K-Mart for a few things but found they were much dearer than the BigW sale prices, but there is a BigW in Taree.

November 22^nd, I went around to Terri and Patrick’s place this morning, as we had only spoken to them by phone since they came home from their Holiday, at The Entrance, last Monday. The weather hadn’t been great and Patrick had cut the sole of his foot on broken glass. It had taken 3 doctors visits so far in an effort to remove all the glass, but Patrick suspected that there was still more glass in his foot. To top off their Holiday woes, his car was scratched by a fallen tent post when his next door neighbour’s  annexe blew down, his awning ripped when he was rolling it up and he dented his rear bumper parking the Van when he arrived Home. Sadly, today, Patrick was advised that his Sister in-law from Woy Woy, who they had just visited last week, had passed away. Our thoughts are with them. We went to Taree after lunch to finish off our Christmas Shopping for the girls, only to find we couldn’t get it all. At least it was an outing for us.

November 23^rd, We went to Glendale Shopping Centre (at Newcastle) and picked up the last present we needed to complete our Christmas Shopping. We came home via Salamander Bay and enjoyed a browse around, noting the changes to the Shopping Centre, then stopped off at our Storage Shed to leave some stuff and pick up things we needed. We thought we had put our Christmas Lights in storage but they were not to be found. On our way home we decided that we must have stored them in Greg’s Garage and a quick phone call confirmed our suspicions. Val bought some apricots from The Farmers Markets at Glendale so made a batch of Apricot Jam, very delicious.

November 24^th, Val had a hankering to make something different for Christmas, so decided to make a Scottish black Bun, which she remembered from her childhood in Edinburgh. It is a heavy fruit cake, fully enclosed in a hard pastry case and is normally eaten at New Year. I can’t wait to try it out.

November 25^th, Brian rang today (Val’s brother in Brisbane) to let us know that he had emailed some photos of his Christmas Lights and it is spectacular. Definitely competition quality, but he won’t enter it, and gets bigger and better every year.

November 26^th, Steven rang today with his big news; he and Ed are buying an Apartment at Elizabeth Bay, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and moving in together. We had a look at it online, its 3 bedrooms, newly renovated and very modern. My only news for today was that when I went out fishing, in the tinnie, I caught 2 flathead (Big Deal,eh!).

November 27^th, We had a quiet day but after dinner Val had the urge to try fishing off the riverside walkway and was overjoyed to pull in a 33cm flathead, just on dusk. Unfortunately that is undersize so had to go back into the River. Val went off for her shower while I continued to fish and I caught a 38cm flathead, definitely a keeper.

November 29^th, Unbelievable, this morning on checking the crab pot I had caught my first mud crab in our 6 week old $24 Mud Crab Pot. Then the fun started. Val had told Steven and Ed that she would save up crabs so that Ed could make “mud crab ?” at Christmas, so she wanted to freeze them cleaned but uncooked. I did as we do with ‘blue swimmers” and put the crab in the fridge to put it to sleep. Three hours later, when Val took the crab out of the fridge, it was still moving and menacing her with his nippers. The next step we thought was to tie the nipper arm up, as we had seen on a fishing program on TV. With me panicking and warning Val to be careful, with string slipping off the nipper arms, she eventually had this crab wrapped in string. Next step was to remove the shell and clean out the innards (sounds simple and straightforward). I had done this many times on “Blue swimmers” but I pointed out that some of the string was across the shell and I wouldn’t be able to remove it, so Val grabs the scissors and cut the offending strands, thereby releasing one of the nipper arms. So at my alarm and comment that it was still alive and slightly sedated, she grabbed the scissors like a dagger and plunged them into the underside of the crab, saying now it’s DEAD. Very hesitantly, I proceeded to remove the crab shell. Of course it didn’t come off like the cooked blue swimmer shell comes off, as it broke off a piece at a time. You can imagine the mess this poor crab was in. Val armed herself with the scissors again and cut off the 2 nipper arms after telling me that most of the good meat was in the nippers and this crab was too small to worry about the body and threw the carcass into the bin, nippers in freezer, job done. Val’s next comment to me was, look it up on Google! I am pleased to report that Google has saved the day and we now have complete instructions with pictures showing how to tie mud crabs, kill them mercifully (half an hour in the freezer) and advises that it is better to cook the crabs before you freeze them.

November 30^th, I caught a flathead this morning, put it in the fridge and filleted it late in the afternoon, as I needed it to bait the crab pot. So around 6.30pm (still daylight with daylight saving now on) I went and put the pot down, with the carcass and a tin of Val’s Tuna Slices in Oil with a few holes punched in it.

December 1^st, went out to check on the crab pot, around 8.30am and couldn’t believe; some “LOW LIFE” //%%##^^**@@**!!!’” has stolen my trap. Why do they have to steal a low cost item, readily available at any fishing tackle shop, I’ll never understand and they must also be fishermen, unbelievable. 

Darawank October 2012

October 1^st, When we arrived at Wallamba River Holiday Park, yesterday, the Van on the site behind us was parked too far back for me to properly position our Van on our slab, to set up the annexe walls. They left today so I hooked the Van up to the car and moved the Van into its correct position. To set up the annexe I had to complete the repair of the roller shaft, with the parts that the Mens Shed had made for me. Unfortunately, the spigot diameter was too large so I “Let my fingers do the walking” and found a couple of Engineers in the Local Directory. That is a job for tomorrow.

October 2^nd, Rob and I headed off to Forster to see if we could get my roller spigot turned down to the correct size. I now had a sample of the shaft it had to fit into. We drove to the one that looked like the smallest business and more likely to be able to help me on the spot. When we arrived at the address, it was a private home and we thought we must have the address wrong. There were no signs advertising that a business was being run from there. I could see the garage door up so decided to check and it  was the right place. I gave him the job to look at and went down to the car to let Rob know what was happening. When I went back to see if he could do the job for me and at what cost, he handed me my spigot, turned down to size, and said “no charge”. Just goes to show that there are some generous/helpful people around, when you need them. Back at the Park I fitted the spigot and re-tensioned the roll out awning and set up the Annexe. Rob and I bought Pizza’s from the local shop in the Park for dinner with Val and Carole in the Camp Kitchen, then finished off the night with a game of Tiles.

October 3^rd, I set the boat up today, ready to put in the River tomorrow. Rob had his boat ready to launch, so using my towing hitch, we towed it to the boat ramp, put it in the River and I drove the boat up to the Lagoon while Rob drove his car back to their site. The lagoon is a safe mooring away from the wash of the Ski Boats and has a walkway, to tie the boats to.

October 4^th, Rob helped me to put my boat into the River, so we gathered our gear and went out for our first fish. This was the first time that I have been able to use my new fish finder and although it was showing fish on the screen, we didn’t catch any.

October 5^th, Carole and Val went into Town to  do some shopping, so Rob and myself spent a few hours fixing water leaks on both our Vans. Carole threw a line into the River from the board walk and landed 2 bream.

October 6^th, We went out for a fish in Rob’s boat this morning and after changing spots a couple of times, ended up in the creek that runs up the northern side of the Park. When we decided to move again, the motor wouldn’t start. After a lot of rope pulling, a few times the motor did start then died again. My guess was that it wasn’t getting fuel and was cutting out after burning off what little made it into the carby. Rob thought that he had picked up some dirty fuel. We eventually gave up and paddled into shore and I walked across the Park, collected my boat from the Lagoon and Towed Rob and his boat back to the Lagoon.

October 7^th, Rob came back from shopping with 2 “Witch Hat” style crab traps, so put them out in the river, to try our luck. We joined in with Carole, Rob, Terri and Patrick for a BBQ dinner next to Carole & Rob’s Van. We had a great meal with plenty of food, as always, and after Terri & Patrick went home we finished the night with a game of Tiles.

October 10^th, Rob and myself have been fishing everyday, in my boat, and have had some success with a couple of 37cm flathead and a 27cm whiting, but no crabs. I added a tin of cat food, with holes punched in it, to the crab pot.

October 11^th, Checked the crab trap this morning and found an unusual fish caught in the mesh of the trap. Nobody in the Park could identify it and it was not listed in our “Australian Fish” Book. I managed to set it free once I had dis-entangled it from the trap. Rob had to take his boat motor in for a service, in Forster, as he couldn’t find the cause for his motor problem. After he picked it up the problem was rust flakes from the top tank was fouling up the carby, so with that problem solved his boat is back in business and now ready for their upcoming stay at Dunleith Tourist Park, at the Entrance North. With Carole and Rob, we went to Terri and Patrick’s for Dinner and drinks, and had a great meal and enjoyable evening.

October 12^th, The 3 girls went on a Shopping Spree today, they call it “Retail Therapy”, while I went out for a fish with Rob and we caught 2 good flathead, 37 and 43cms. We all had a good day, in our own ways.

October 13^th, No fish or crabs today. We took Rob’s boat out of the water, loaded it up on his truck then Carole and Rob packed up ready to leave tomorrow.

October 14^th, Carole and Rob finished packing up and moved their Van off site and parked in the street, then with Terri and Patrick, we all met for a Fish & Chip / Hamburger lunch at the Shop in the Park. After an enjoyable lunch, overlooking the River, we saw Carole and Rob off for Home.

October 16^th, I took Patrick out fishing with me and Patrick caught a 46cm Flathead plus 3 other throw backs while I caught nothing.

October 17^th, I decided to clean the skylight in the Van and soon realized that it had to be completely removed from the roof to do it properly. Half way through that job and we were hit with Gale Force winds, but I had to carry on regardless and finish the job. I was glad I did get the job done as it now looks as good as new. The weather improved late in the afternoon, so I went down to the boardwalk to join the other fishermen and woman and landed a 56cm Flathead. What an unbelievable catch!

October 19^th, yesterday and today Patrick and myself caught a 50cm and 3 X 37cm flatheads. Patrick is still out fishing me but I’m sure my day will come. We are doing all our fishing “on the drift”, using cooked prawns. I did catch and try fishing with live “Poddy Mullet” and never got a taker. A large tent was being set up down on the Flat, northern end of the Park, and I found out later that we were getting a visit by a 50 strong Motorcycle Group called “Easyriders Australia”.

October 21^st, We caught our 1^st Muddie today, but it wrecked the crab trap. Val was overjoyed and cooked it up for her dinner tonight, which she thoroughly enjoyed. We read in our fishing book that the Witchhat type of trap were not suitable for Mud Crabs and we now know why.

October 22^nd, The “Gale Force Winds” were back again today, so no fishing. I put the witchhat traps in big bin and went into Tuncurry and bought a Proper “Mud Crab Pot”, best I could get from the local Fishing / Camping Shop, with 4 entries, so how could we miss.

October 25^th, Went out fishing with Patrick and we caught 3 just legal flatheads. While in Tuncurry this afternoon, I made an appointment to see a Doctor about my swollen left leg. I’ve had a bit of fluid in that ankle for the last 2 years but now it doesn’t go down overnight, so I thought that I should find out what the problem is.

October 26^th, I saw Dr. Islam at 10.15am and after examining my leg put me on a course of antibiotics, as a first thing to try. I did injure that leg when we first arrived at Wallamba, dug out a chunk of flesh, about the size of a dollar coin and it’s still healing. Val cooked up a heap of Crumbed Flathead Fillets and we had Terri and Patrick around to our Van for Dinner.

October 27^th, Val had a few bets today on the Cox Plate Day at Caulfield and apart from a few small wins got up the Trifecta which paid $267, WELL DONE.

October 28^th, Went fishing with Patrick and I caught a flathead and a Garfish and Patrick had a nice day out on the river. I knew my day would come. Had a fish off the boardwalk at sunset and caught my first bream.

October 29^th, Saw Dr. Islam at 11.15am and he was happy with my progress and instructed me to complete the full course of antibiotics and come back on Friday. Patrick and I went out for a fish after lunch and we caught 2 flathead, 52cm and 37cm, of course Patrick caught the bigger one. I should point out that Patrick will not keep any of the flathead that he catches and gives them to Val.

October 30^th, Terri and Val went out Shopping, more Retail Therapy, while Patrick and myself had a fish, with Patrick pulling in a 36cm flathead.

October 31^st, Fishing again, Patrick a 42cm flathead and a 28cm Whiting and I caught a 37cm flathead. We are enjoying our fishing trips. Val has been making “place mat sets”, so family and friends, look forward to getting a present.