The start to 2020 was pretty tough
It was January 3 when the fires went through our place. When I got back to the farm at midnight after fighting fires, the house and sheds were completely destroyed. The whole infrastructure for the farm was gone. The water pipes for irrigation, pumps, fencing for the sheep and the feed lot — all gone.
My positive was the dogs were still alive
Miraculously my dogs, Socks and Lucy, and Lucy’s 7 pups had all survived the fire. And, though all the other sheds had gone, there was the garlic shed, untouched. The only reason it was still there was because we’d only just harvested the garlic crop two weeks before, so the soil was bare, which created a fire break that stopped the blaze from getting to the shed.
The garlic shed was still standing
There was a helluva lot of work in cleaning up. But there was the garlic shed with the garlic crop inside. So, my thoughts were — I’ve got something to work with, we’ve got something to look forward to.
Sheer generosity of total strangers
Army Reservists and volunteers from the mainland spent days helping us sort, peel and process the garlic crop. And a very kind stranger towed his caravan all the way from Western Australia to KI so I had somewhere to live. And I lived in that caravan, in the garlic shed from January till June.
With this new home, we’re flush!
We’ve just moved into the 2 bedroom house that’s been built and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate being able to have a decent hot shower and a toilet that you can flush. As they say, it’s the little things you take for granted, but I will do my very best to never take them for granted again!