Rising from the Ashes - 2020 a Year of Challenges
Who would have thought that we would face so many disasters in 2020.
When that text message arrived on New Years Eve telling us to leave Wonboyn Lake as the Border Fire blazed a destructive trail into NSW, we feared for the safety of so many people and animals, then were horrified to see the loss of property and bush land.
As you can see from the photo above - our Bus/Home was partly destroyed in the fire and the van and annex right next to us, the park shed below, and Dave Boulton's home above us were completely destroyed. We were so thankful for the work done by our local RFS volunteers who saved our humble bome from the fire. We are now members of the RFS and soon will have completed Bush Firefighting training.
As a result of this I decided to gather the stories of Wonboyn Lake residents, some who stayed to help fight the fires and others who returned to help in the clean up afterwards. Later this year this book of interviews recorded by our local library for the state archives will be released.
In the meantime, when we had power, water and phone restored a few months after the fire I started the final work on "Finding Aqua Pura", the children's book about outback families dealing with the drought.
Many of you will identify with this story of a young girl living on a property in the grip of the drought and how she coped with this situation, which at times was a huge test for a family, a school and a community to face. Their sheer guts and determination was inspiring.
I was in the outback visiting schools at this time last year and one of the schools asked me to focus on how farmers were dealing with the drought - a topic quite difficult for me to get my head around as living on the coast with green grass all around was far removed from the dry, dessicated country I met on our travels.
With the support of fellow campers and locals, kids in outback schools and parents and teachers who lived in that environment l was able to gather the information needed to fulfill my task of passing on the facts about the effect of the drought on farmers to secondary school children.
Later I decided to make this the subject of my next book - but building into this story the strong belief by all those living in the outback that this big dry would be followed by the next big wet.
For all of you who follow Little Ant Books from story to story, the Covid 19 virus has meant I haven't been able to get to Booktown in Clunes Victoria for the launch of this important story and catch up with all of you. All my school visits were cancelled as were all the book signings and the trip to Tassie, Victoria and South Australia.
With correct social distancing I am unable to stock my stores around NSW , Victoria and Tassie but know you will all want to have this latest book and so managed to do a launch on ABC Bega radio today with Sophie Campbell - pictured above checking out "Finding Aqua Pura." She also did a second interview in the sunshine outside the studio which will go to air tomorrow - so tune in and enjoy.
I have managed to get some books into local outlets at the Market Place, Bega, the Eden Killer Whale Museum and the Eden Visitors Centre.
If you are unable to get to any of these locations just give me a call on 0466 284 096 or email me at susiesarah@hotmail.com.au and l will get a copy of this new one out to you.
Finding Aqua Pura - Come on all you smarties - what is Aqua Pura? When you work that one out imagine a wanderer bringing hope to dry parched farms spreading love and life to land suffering from the worst drought little kids have seen in their lifetime.
Old Timers Lingo - In the back of the book is a list of Grandpa Speak - the terms used by some of our loved and respected oldies - check it out cobber it's a beauty bottler mate. See if you can find some lingo (which means lauguage) in the story I missed.
Mrs. Hermann's Mini Quiche Recipe - This is a special one passed on to me by my Auntie Gert who loves cooking for her family. With most schools now having great kitchen gardens, and even school chooks it seemed a ripper recipe for kids to try in cookery class.
Divine Intervention - Have you ever had a go at divining? It's pretty easy and the costs are low. Just select a twig with a nice fork at the end- and holding the forked part in your hands see if there is any water nearby. The book has more information about this. A wire rod works just as well - look it up on the interwebby all you computer geeks.
A taste of the story - I though you might enjoy a little preview so here you go.
Prologue
Water is Life – Life is Water
The
bloke walking up the dusty red-dirt road looked like an old-fashioned sundowner
or swaggie.
His swag
containing some bedding was slung over one shoulder, a billy for brewing his
tea attached to it by a strand of baling twine he’d found and re-cycled from a fence
in a paddock way back at the start of his journey where the grass was green and
lush.
The land
along the coast had seen plenty of rain and the sheep and cattle were well fed,
fat and healthy. Over the ranges and further
inland it was a different story.
As he
walked he looked about him, sizing up the state of the country, noting the lack
of stock in barren, dry paddocks. Travelling west towards land of the setting
sun his well-worn boots kicked up dust; his broad-brimmed hat shielded his face
from the fierce heat.
‘Yep,
this place sure could do with some life-giving moisture,’ he drawled as a
curious magpie cocked its head to listen in. ‘Seems the farmers here-abouts are
growing rocks, dirt and saltbush mostly.’
A
startled kangaroo hopped across the track in front of him. It too turned to watch him saunter by. It was hard work for the animals and birds
doing their best to exist in this sorry looking landscape.
‘Time I
did a little value adding here,’ he muttered as he walked past weather-worn gates
on the outskirts of town bearing the large sign, WELCOME TO THE OUTBACK.
‘A
bloke’s gotta help out where he can.’
And what about an illustration - many of you may know that Ingrid Rudolph is our Little Ant Illustrator and she does a marvellous job of bringing my characters to life Here is a little taste of one of her black and white drawings that appear all the way through and Ingrid working on her sketches
