Burrinjuck, November 11, 1931
Yesterday, I was about to sit down to my letter writing, when a sudden gust of wind tore loose the rope from our jetty. One of the oil drums also came loose and started drifting away. I had to get the boat out in a hurry to retrieve the oil drum, and after that, secure the jetty itself. We had a cage with five big cod in it tied to the jetty, and I did not want to lose those, especially since Mrs Fraser had already bought them for five shillings. They are the first fish we have caught with the spinner this season. The waves were high,.and with a gale blowing it was quite an exhausting job for me to haul the heavy drums and secure the jetty; but I managed, and the fish were saved. However, it all took so long that I never got round to writing. Today my muscles are all sore, even though I don't exactly live a soft life.
Today there is still quite a gale blowing and the waves are still high. They have torn off part of a wall of the wash house, and the loose parts are banging horribly, day and night. The water has sunk just a little. If the skies stay clear, our garden will be out of danger. In about two weeks, the sluices are to be partly opened for irrigation. Then the water will start to fall quickly, and the time will come when we will be thankful for every drop of rain, since once the dry weather starts, then it is really dry, like a desert. Our garden is now improving. I have sowed various seeds in tins, using especially rich black soil, and kept them in the sun. Afterwards I transplanted them to the garden, and now the cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelons, rockmelons, and marrow are doing really well. Bust the best looking of all the plants are the sugar peas.
Have I told you about the Corbys? He is a carpenter and a shearer. His large family, wife and six kids (he is only a couple of years older than Sverre) are at the moment at his parent’s place, somewhere in NSW, since she is expecting another baby (oh horror!), and he is here on his own since work has started again. He has a car, and last Friday he took us with him to a farm where they were shearing sheep. On that day there were unfortunately only shearing the lambs, but Mr Corby said he will take us there again. When he does, he said he will put on some old clothes and do some shearing himself. He said the shearers there don’t know their job, although to me it seemed quite miraculous the way they managed it, so quickly and with such apparent ease. Before the lamb has tie to get scared at what is happening, it is all over. It was only a small farm. There were four shearers working. One man sorted the wool, and another man pressed and packed it in boles. The latter was done unbelievably fast and well. It is quite heavy work too, since there was only a manual pressing machine. I was horrified to see how many of the lambs had only one eye. I had never though it could be so bad. It is the crows - those horrid big black critters - that pick the eye out of the lambs and sheep. I have these birds. Just the sound of them is disgusting, almost like a human voice, except that their complaining cries are so long and shrill.
When the sheep have been shorn, there are several other things done to them. Their toenails are cut if need be. Medicine against flukes is poured down their throat from a can with a long spout. Then they are marked with black on their newly shorn backs. Of course all this results in a terrible baaing.
On Sunday we went on another trip. We rowed over to the bay which we photographed earlier, and from there we followed the creek up into the mountains. It was quite beautiful. Only there are so many snakes this year because it has been so wet. I nearly trod on a six foot Black Snake, and got quite a fright since they are very poisonous. After that Sverre stayed in front and kept watch. He killed one too, about four foot long with a black back and pinkish belly with black stripes. On the way back, Sverre pulled the big fish out of the water. What a pleasure that was. We kept it until Wednesday in the cage, because that was the day Mrs Fraser wanted it. Mrs Fraser is very good to us. She has been giving us credit for months already, and she is always giving us things too - flowers or eggs or some cakes. Yesterday she gave me a kerosene table lamp (completely transparent) and a dozen small baking tins, in which I can make jam tarts for Sverre’s lunch.
Jip bit me on the leg, that unnatural animal, the sweet puppikins. A cat ran across the road and Jip went for it. The cat scratched back and Jip became very angry and looked as if he would bite the cat to death. The cat did not seem to be afraid, but I was afraid for Jip’s eyes. I wanted to grab Jip by the neck, but somehow I got between him and the cat, just as Jip was lunging at it with open mouth. So instead of the cat, my leg ended up between Jip's teeth. It was quite painful and still hurts, although it is already much better.
In a few weeks I will be able to send you a couple of rabbit skins. There is a man here who is tanning them for us. It takes three weeks. I hope they will turn out nice. This man is a fisherman, and he has a wonderful cockatoo, poisonous green, red, pink, and yellow. As soon as anyone holds a coloured teapot up in front of him, he starts to speak and what a lot of words he knows! I don’t normally like birds in cages, but this one is really beautiful to look at, and so funny.
My chess is improving all the time. So far I have beaten Sverre four times and Corby once.
Burrinjuck, November 12. 1931
This is such a poor letter, I don’t feel like sending it. It will be arriving at Christmas, and yet it looks just like an ordinary letter. There are not presents, not even anything Christmassy about it. It makes me feel so impoverishes, especially as I am already aware of how my dear Mammi has been preparing Christmas surprises for us for weeks. The beautiful knitted cloth for Mrs Chaffer which arrived this week is proof of that, and also Mama’s letter telling me that she is sewing things for Elaine and Valerie. We want to send you something from the bush and we thought of sending you a rug of wallaby skin. A Fisherman here is selling them quite cheaply. He shoots the animals, tans the skins and sews the rugs himself. However we want to ask you first if there will be any trouble getting it through the customs.
The Micklehams said they would like me to visit them. They have gone away for ten days, but when they return I think it might be fun. Mrs Mickleham has been living in Burrinjuck for 4 or 5 years. I think it
must have affected her brain. Elsie told me that Mrs M reads a lot of novels, and that when she is with other people, she tells them of various episodes, as if she, or members of her family had experienced them themselves. I had an example of this myself, one day, when I was having afternoon tea at Mrs Anderson's. At that time it was Mrs M’s sister who was driving across the country with an American millionairess. They were attacked by robbers, but the woman did some quick thinking and in pulling off her gloves, she also removed her invaluable rings, thereby saving them from the robbers. At the time I knew nothing of Mrs Mickleham's peculiarity. Mrs Anderson had the attractive quality of never discussing other people and letting you make up your own mind about them. I try, as well as I can, to do likewise, and it is not too difficult. Elsie tells me that Mrs M. even tells these unlikely stories in the presence of her husband. When she does that, he quietly jabs his elbow into her side and says, "Shut up", but she takes no notice. Oh heaven, who knows what crazy things I may be thinking up in a couple of years, if we stay here that long.
I had a letter from Evelyn with the news that Ivy has had another baby. A sister for Valerie. Evelyn may be visiting us in December. On January 7, she will be leaving for India with her friend, Nell Lang. who is matron of a hospital there.
On Saturday we went on a short walk with Mr Anderson a couple of miles up the river. We also had a look at the power station, which is quite small. It has two screw turbines , of which only one is working.
On Sunday we had a terrible thunder storm and for five minutes we had hail, larger than any I have ever seen. Our tin roof produced an ear splitting din, and poor Jip was shivering with fright.
We have been catching a lot of fish, so we don't have much of a butcher's bill. I like the way we are fishing now, just off and on, instead of early in the morning and late at night, for hours at a time.
I am out to do some gardening in a little while. Mrs Fraser is giving me some tomato plants, and I have to prepare the soil for them. Mrs Fraser taught me to loosen the earth around all the plants and since I have been doing that they grow much better. Peas, spinach, beetroots, cucumbers, melons, marrows and pumpkin are all coming along fine. The beans and tomatoes have been eaten up by snails. Every morning I have to go out and kill snails. But there are hardly any weeds.
So now I must wish you a Merry Christmas. I am doing it right at the end because I really don’t feel right about it, it seems so improbable. It you are thinking of us on the 24th, you might imagine us on a trip to Taemas. Keith may be here then. We have invited him and he wanted to come.
Burrinjuck, November 19, 1931
I was so cold, I had to light a big fire before I sat down to write. Even though the temperature outside is 20 degrees, there are heavy clouds and a gale is blowing. I have been sitting still for quite a while, darning a bit and reading the Weltspiegel , and my hands became cold and stiff.
I was so thrilled with all the lovely things Mama sent me. They will be much admired by everyone, as are all the things she sends me. I hope I will soon be able to send something in return, but at the moment I have no more ideas than I have money to do so.
I have not yet had time to read the Russian newspaper. I was so busy yesterday, washing - a very unpleasant task while the wash house floor is still under water. The sluices were opened for one day and the water sank an inch, but then we had another downpour. The sluices were closed, and the water rose again. At times I am just so sick of the bush and all the people here, today more than ever. I long for Europe and a couple of educated people to talk to. Apart from Hindwoods and Chaffers, I have not met a single person in this country who hasn't found it necessary, the moment they met me, to inform me of what a fine school they attended, what fine friends and relatives they have etc. I am so sick of it all. If you meet someone, he is sure to have at least a brother who is a doctor or something with an education, even if he's just an ordinary labourer himself. Even people like Mickleham’s seem to find this sort of thing necessary, not to speak of Frasers. I am so sick of them all, and long for someone who doesn't feel the need to tell me how fine he is. I was so sick of Mr. Tierney that I didn't want to see him anymore and didn't invite him. Yesterday he came and brought me a big basket of cherries. I still don't like him. Nor Ola Nordmann; he is so contaminated by the disease, he had to tell us about all his ancestors right back to the time of Nero. I don't want to see any of them. I just hope I don't end up catching the disease myself.
I just realised that this letter will be reaching you at new year, and it is certainly not very nice of me to open it with such an unfriendly outburst. The pictures I received the other day just made me so homesick. I really don't feel this way all the time. Mostly I am quite happy and contented, only once in a while, a black cloud settles on me, and I hate Burrinjuck, and Australia and all it's inhabitants.
On Monday it rained heavily and Sverre could not go to work. However we got up at six and had a lovely long day. Actually, I like rainy days because then Sverre stays home and builds me something. He made me a beautiful table. I have a red tablecloth on it and a blue vase with lovely flowers, and underneath lie all the newspapers. It looks nice in our camp. We have white curtains, and everything is very pretty.
As soon as we can afford it we will take some new pictures. In Taemas it was impossible to have things looking nice, because of the terrible dust, but here there is no dust. The curtains, by the way, I made from an old dress.
We have written to our lawyer. Samuelson, in Sydney, to ask if he could lend us money on our bank account. He answered that a big insurance company wound lend us 100 pounds at 6 percent, if Sverre bought insurance. I have asked Chaffer‘s advice, but I think we probably will risk it, and get ourselves a Baby car.
Burrinjuck, November 26, 1931
It is really too late to start writing. I have to go for the milk and then cook dinner, but at least I will make a start. The mail will not be collected until tomorrow afternoon, it's true, but Sverre will be home tomorrow, and I know I won't get much writing done then. There is at least one job I won't have to do today, and that is hauling water to the garden. Grey clouds are piling up, and already a couple of drops of rain have started to fall. On work days I always do the watering because then Sverre is tired. After his work, which is strenuous enough, he has to climb four hundred steps and then ride his bike. On his days off, Sverre does the work, and I just help a little. I wish we would get a proper downpour and that the weather would then clear up. I don't like the rain, and besides I am wearing my embroidered voile dress today. I had such an urge to put it on. It is so pretty.
I had to punish our sugar puppy just now. I had buried some fish entrails under some of my plants, and the beast found them and dug them up. I'll have to get him out of that.
Sverre knows that I wrote to you about my miserable birthday. He asked me about it and I did not want to lie, especially as I felt more sorry for me than for him. Anyway, now Christmas is coming up and I have no idea what I can give him. I hope I will be able to think of something.
There is no need to worry about our finances. We have 250 pounds in the bank. Sverre's father owes us about 75, and our debts are now down to about 15 pounds. Sverre will be bringing home about 15 pounds today, which will leave only about 6 pounds to pay, of which 5 are to Evelyn. We should never have to be completely dependent on the bank account. If worst comes to worst, we can still fish, or exterminate rabbits (3 pounds a week = 1 pound per 100 skins) or wash gold. Or Sverre could learn shearing or something else. There are enough jobs which are not in great demand, because they are not particularly pleasant or well paid. However it does look as if the economy is improving slightly. State Monier Pipe Works have been given three tremendous projects in Sydney. I think Sverre is hoping to get work there, but I am pessimistic. The work is supposed to start after New Year. The bank is also supposed to be reopening shortly. It is the Government Savings Bank of N.S.W. They are to merge with the Commonwealth Bank, but have not yet been able to agree on terms. We have decided not to borrow money after all, but to wait a little longer.
Yesterday I got a letter from Evelyn. She will be coming here from the 12th to the 19th of December. I'm looking forward to her visit. We will be putting up a tent for her. Mrs. Fraser gave us an extra bed a while back, so we'll have no trouble accommodating her. I hope she will like it here. I think it is lovely here for a short while. Evelyn says Norman will tan my kangaroo skins. That is very nice of him.
I have not been mentioning our closest neighbours, the Wilsons, because we have nothing to do with them. They were very nice to us when we first came here in night and storm, and no roof over our heads. After that we were naturally friendly too, and invited her to come over in the boat with us whenever we had to go to Burrinjuck, which is daily, since we have to go for milk.
She never went with us. Instead. We had to run messages for her, fetch and carry more and more every day. Once Sverre had to go out of his way for half an hour, and at other times she got us to buy potatoes or other heavy things, and it is quite a strenuous job bringing things up to the road from the water. We stuck it out for quite a while, but then, when she finally did go with us once, she was offended because Sverre did not bring her back soon enough - and that was the last straw. We still say hello when we see each other, but apart from that we don t have anything to do with each other. I don ‘t have anything in common with Wilsa (as we call her) anyway. She lives on gossip and cheap literature, and I don't like either. Apart from running messages, we really have had nothing to do with then, and neither Wilsa nor Wilson have ever impressed me with their intellectual capacity.
I‘m going to have to stop writing. It is not raining after all, and I shall have to carry water. Sverre's dinner will be late today, but he is never angry, discontented or unfriendly, so I don't have to worry. -
On Saturday we were back at Carberry s. The puppies had arrived, but they were all females, so we were not interested. It is probably a good thing. Jip won't have to stand any competition.
NEXT: December 1931