Mebourne Pettys

Visited the National Rhododendron gardens, Ellen turned twenty one and had a part, Vern and I go on the training trek.

The first week of March was a long weekend so there wasn’t any Saturday basketball. After seeing a picture in a calendar I suggested visiting the National Rhododendron gardens on to of the Dandenong Ranges. Strangely I didn’t get much taken up on the idea. The older children had already made other plans so just Austin came with Vern and I. It was a warm day and although the rhododendrons weren’t out it is still a beautiful place. We had a nice picnic and watched the ants take away our crumbs. On the way home it became very dark and then it rained very heavily, it was thrilling driving through the big puddles. This turned out to be a very bad storm in parts of Melbourne with lots of hail damage. Janet was at a wedding at the time and her car was damaged.

In preparation for the youth Trek there was a training Trek for the Ma’s and Pa’s Friday night of the twelfth and Saturday in the Creswick Forest near Ballarat. I talked Vernice into coming with me as part of the support crew. We also took Austin with us and dropped him off at his friend’s place who had moved out that way. It was a good turn out but didn’t go that smoothly since we got lost trying to find the camp site. It was great weather but there was a lot of aimless driving around but we all got there in the end. Vern and I slept in the Kombi.

Ellen turned twenty one this month and didn’t want a big party so she decided to have a few friends and family over to the house and have the party in the garage. Her auntie Nat came over from New Zealand and brought her a big carved key. It was nice and she enjoyed herself. Of course because she didn’t have a big party her old school mates took her out and then her work mates took her out and then her church mates took her out as well.

The next weekend I went up to Ballarat again with Austin, David Hoare and his eight year old son Calvin. Austin had a birthday party up there for his friend Jedha so he was picked up from the chapel while David and I sorted out the Trek gear. We also drove out past Creswick to where the shipping container is stored with the other gear. It was a nice day and those old towns around there are nice with lots of old buildings and trees.

The Kombi has a pretty serious oil leak and problems with the valves so I took it into the mechanic and he said it needed to be reconditioned and asked if we really wanted to end four thousand on fixing an old beat up car like that. In September the little car which we have on lease will be up and we can buy it for six thousand and then get another car so we have decided to just let the Kombi die and hopefully it will make it to September. Dylan of course doesn’t want us to get rid of it because after his mission he wants to fix it up. On Saturday the twenty seventh I was coming home from the shops and it dropped the axel. I got it connected again then spent most of the afternoon fixing it up properly. I also found that the reason that the steering was so bad was because the bolts holding the steering box on were all very loose. It is much better now but I won’t be that sorry to see it go, it really isn’t safe.

The last week of March was the first week of the school holidays. I was supposed to have had that first week off but it was been so busy at work I had to go in on Monday and Tuesday. The last day of the month I had off and we all got packed up for the youth Trek that was to start the next day.