Burrinjuck, August 8, 1931
This week has been so uneventful, I scarcely know what to write. It has been raining of course, and the water level has risen several inches, which means that work has been postponed even further. Sverre and Ron Fagerlund are now trying to get together 180 rabbit skins, for which they will get £1 each. They have put out 35 traps, abut have as yet had no luck. The fox is always earlier cut than they are, and many of the rabbits are eaten when they go to inspect the traps in the morning. The fish aren't going into the nets either in this weather. If they did we could secretly sell a lot, since people are crazy about Sverre's smoked fish, which really is extra good.
On the one day when it did not rain, Sverre fixed up the wash house, which had been torn apart by all the water. It will be very convenient for me on washing day. I have been reading mostly, catching up on all the stuff I haven't had time to read earlier. Also I still had some hand sewing to do on my new dresses, so I have been sewing and ironing and admiring the results in the mirror. The embroidery looks really beautiful. I am so thrilled.
Yesterday, Sverre and I went on a little outing. We crawled up the steep hill behind our house. It was such as beautiful day ad it was wonderful to be out. Sverre took his rifle along, hoping to shoot a kangaroo, but we didn't see any, although we found clear signs that there had been some there recently. I was too lazy to carry my rifle up the steep slope, and I didn’t miss it.
Burrinjuck, August 17, 1931
I have to start working on my garden again. Everything I had planted was washed out except a lilac bush which seems to be getting buds. This week we have been collecting visiting cards from Mrs Fraser’s cows and now we are ready to make our vegetable garden. We were going to start today but of course the rain is pouring down, so it is impossible even to think of working outside. However I have planted geraniums along the side of the house and to the right and the left of the verandah; and below the verandah, some vines which should eventually clothe it in green. The geraniums by the stairs are also climbers and should make a nice frame around the door. Today the mail should bring us a seed catalogue from Fa. Yates, so we can order seeds. We will have to put a wire fence around our vegetable garden to keep out the rabbits, but that's no problem since there is more than enough old wire netting just lying around.
Sverre has become a member of the Oddfellows. It is several months since he was first asked to join, but he never wanted to, despite the fact that he was asked a number of times. However when he had his stomach pains and thought he was going to die he finally decided to join. It's a good thing really since there is no health insurance here. If a man gets sick or injured at work, he will get free treatment and medicine, as well as sick pay, but if it happens away from work he gets nothing. However if you are a member of the lodge you get all these benefits for a very small fee. Sverre has already been to one meeting. He says it is all so ridiculous. When you go in you have to say the password ‘Progress’ and once you are inside you put your hand on your heart, bow, and say ‘Advance’. Just try to imagine this scene in the corrugated iron shack which constituted the meeting hall in Burrinjuck, where the few members there are all know each other. One young man was asked to demonstrate for Sverre what he had to do to be admitted, but he was too embarrassed, so Mr Macey, the secretary went outside, knocked at the door, spoke the password and bowed comically. After this there was a discussion on the topic, "ls the woman equal to the man?" Each member is allowed to speak for ten minutes. You can just imagine what nonsense was spoken, since no one there could be expected to have exercised his brain the least on that subject, but only to repeat what his own daily life shows him. It sounds quite desiccating.
They have a meeting every two weeks, but one is not compelled to attend. Yesterday, on the street, Sverre met Mr Mickleham, who said that his wife would be very interested in seeing our antique silver. Sverre could not understand what he meant, but then he got an explanation. There is a carpenter here. Pat Hawkins. I don't like him, but when I was in Sydney, Sverre invited him to dinner. That's when he saw our silver forks and spoons, of which I have two each in our camp. He asked Sverre about them and was told that they had been my mother's. Out of that he spun a nice little yarn, and has been telling everyone about our antique silver.
Our bank is still closed; we hope it won't be for too much longer. The job situation is still uncertain, but we are not worrying. We are doing just fine, and making a little money from fish and rabbits. We smoke rabbits now, as well as fish, and sell them for nine pence a piece. At the moment Sverre is building a rack for Mr Fraser's meat safe. Sverre is terribly clever at everything. Other men are clumsy and helpless compared to him.
Burrinjuck, August 24, 1931
We haven't got too far with our garden yet because of all the rain. We have made two beds, each about twenty feet long and three foot wide and are working on a third. We have put in pumpkin and marrow needs. Although we have received our seed catalogue, we can’t order since we have no money.
The school teacher, Mr Tierney, decided he wanted to learn French, and had heard that I was quite good at it. Now he visits us frequently, always with his French book under his arm. Somehow he always turns up precisely at dinner time, which is very inconvenient for us in our penniless condition. He boards at Taylors and could easily eat there before coming to us, but he doesn't have the tact to do so. When he comes, he at once opens his book, reads aloud and asks questions, not bothering in the least about whether or not it suits me to listen, or if I have to attend to what I am cooking. I am so sick of him. I used to like him, he's a nice enough chap. Now it's just too much. and how anyone can expect to learn French, who cannot even pronounce ”a" - just a plain A correctly, not to mention "oi" our the nasal sounds. He pronounces “pupitre" pipeeter. It sounds terrible.
Burrinjuck, August 31, 1931
The sun is shining again today, but for three or four days this week it has been raining, and the wind has been blowing so at times we thought, now, now, the house will blow away. I think it would have too, if it weren't for the tall surrounding trees. During the couple of sunny days we worked in the garden. It's tough work, digging in this hard clay, and we have to collect a lot of manure. The beds are ready now, and we are building a wire netting fence around them so the rabbits won't get at them. Sverre is making the posts from trees that have been chopped down, and the netting we just found. You can find all sorts of things - spades, hacks, rakes, galvanised wire, planks, corrugated iron, water pipes etc., just lying around, ever since the time when the dam and the road were built. The tools were apparently just thrown away.
While it was raining I was busy making a belated birthday present for Papa. I suddenly got the idea that he probably could use a pair of socks too, even if the ones I knit are somewhat coarse and thick. So I got to work and have now finished one and started on the second. Sverre has also got a project going. He is making me an egotistical birthday present, i.e. a sewing box with a chess board lid. He is cutting squares out of the thin board and will make inlays of lighter coloured wood. He asked me to read aloud to him while he was working, but I was so busy knitting. I did, however, read one chapter pf "The White Prophet" by Hall Caine , which Ola gave us.
Mrs Andersson has been very sick and is in hospital in Sydney. A couple of days ago, her husband was called in by the hospital (Mrs Fraser had already been there for some time), and her brother, George went too. They thought she was going to die, but now it seems she is improving a little. I would be very unhappy if she were to die. I like her so much. When Sverre goes for the mail we will probably get some more news.
Sverre still has no work. Tomorrow an engineer is supposed to arrive from Sydney, then maybe something will happen. However, Mr Mickleham says, that according to regulations, the water must fall another twenty feet, before the sluices can be closed. That will take approximately another month. The bank is still closed. Disgusting!
Sverre and I went hunting rabbits last Thursday- We climbed one of the mountains overlooking the lake. It was a steep climb between grass trees and eucalypts, and from the top we had a splendid view of the lake and part of the river, as well as the surrounding mountains. .It was not a good day for rabbits. We saw very few and shot only five (with five shots), but it was a wonderful day all the same. We borrowed some money and wrote away for some seeds. They should be arriving today. We ordered beetroots, beans, carrots, cucumbers, sugar peas, pumpkin, marrow, radishes and tomatoes and melons. The only flowers we ordered are pansics. We don't want to plant too much, since in the dry summer, all the water has to be carried.
Mama asked what became of Goigle. Russ Phillips brother, Gordon, took her, but then, one day, along comes a couple of tourists, fine ladies in a flash car. They fell so in love with Goigle, that they couldn't live without her, so Gordon gave them the beast. She really was a charming animal, our little Goigle. Oigle, on the other hand is a very ugly dog, a real mongrel.
NEXT: September 1931