Hana's Adventures: Back in Burnie

Happy Easter!

After arriving back at the Schafer’s home on Monday, the 26^th of March, I spent a very happy week helping with projects around the house and property. On Tuesday Charmaine and I worked on reducing the leaves and other garden rubbish into mulch. Charmaine worked on honing her tractor driving skills while moving the large piles of debris into one huge pile for us to put through the mulcher.

Charmaine driving the tractor

Wednesday morning Charmaine and I continued our mulching project, and in the afternoon Wayne also gave me my own special project to work on: sanding and re-varnishing the picnic table on the veranda. The table is made from hard Australian wood and it was originally varnished over 20 years ago. The project kept me busy for the rest of the week and parts of the next week.

Sanding

After sanding the table I brushed on a sealing coat, three coats of varnish and a final coat of oil based varnish. And now, when the weather is not too cold, we can enjoy lunch out on the picnic table again.

The picnic table all finished

Nirose was still staying with Wayne and Charmaine and he helped Wayne with painting the house and back veranda. I also gave Nirose a hand painting parts of railing while I waited for my coats of varnish to dry.

Nirose painting the railings

Thursday morning, I took a break from sanding to accompany Wayne to visit his neighbor, Brian, and his wood mill. Brian originally made the wooden picnic table I was restoring, and he still makes these beautiful tables. It was very interesting to see all of the large saws and equipment Brian and his assistants use to cut the huge logs. Wayne told me that Brian’s type of wood craft is dying out because younger generations are not interested in such hard, dirty, and often times, unprofitable work.

Wayne and Brian

Friday morning we all went into town to buy groceries. On Saturday Charmaine was in charge of catering dinner for a group meeting at the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden, so we also bought groceries for the dinner. In the afternoon Wayne helped me to develop a way of printing my own postcards with pictures I have taken.

Saturday was a busy day. In the morning Felix, a helper from Germany, arrived. And after lunch Nirose left. He wanted to tour around Tasmania by car and see some of the other sights. In the afternoon, Charmaine and I drove to the Rhododendron Garden to prepare the catered dinner for the Bonsai society of Tasmania which was meeting in the Rhododendron Garden’s event room. We first had to chop up and begin cooking all the meat and vegetables for the meal. Charmaine put me in charge of making the crumble to put on top of the apple crumble for dessert. I then had some time to wander through the beautiful gardens again before returning to help set up tables and arrange place settings.

The North America portion of the Garden with
Autumn colors

Sue, one of the other garden members and catering helpers, showed me how to fold napkins into fans and hats for the table settings. And together we went out to gather flowers and leaves to place in the middle of the tables. Sue and I were also the servers for the dinner. The meal was delicious and consisted of either lamb with mint sauce or pork with apple sauce with sides of carrots, peas, potatoes, baked pumpkin, and a broccoli/cauliflower cheese casserole.

Dinner

For dessert there was my apple crumble with custard or an Australian favorite, Pavlova with kiwi and passion fruit sauce. Pavlova is a light, foamy, sugary cake, like a very moist light marshmallow and the outside shell is a crispy sugar coating topped with whipped cream. It is made from whipped egg whites with sugar and baked in a slow oven. The dinner was a great success and the Bonsai Society lingered, happily chatting, until long after the meal was ended.

Sunday morning dawned with the promise of a sunny day, so Wayne and Charmaine encouraged Felix, who had a rented car, to take the day and go sight-seeing. Felix offered to let me come along, which I was happy to do. We first stopped at Dip Falls. There we saw huge Browntop Stringyback trees reaching heights of 62 meters.

The tree is so tall I was not able to even
get the top in the picture.

And the falls themselves were spectacular. The water flowed down the first wall of stones that looked like stepping stones carved into the cliff face.

Dip Falls

Then after lingering in a pool at the bottom of the first fall, the water then roared over the edge of the second drop to land at the bottom in a peaceful river.

Felix on the stairs to the bottom of the falls

Next we drove to Stanley and I climbed up the “nut” again. The sun was out that Sunday and the tides were at low ebb which made for a great view. After all of the fresh air and exercise, Felix and I ate a lunch of fresh fish and chips.

Low tide at Stanley

On the drive back to Burnie, we stopped by a small conservation area called Peggs Beach. The beach was beautiful and there were tide pools among the rocks at the far end of the beach since the tide was still out. We also drove back along the scenic road through Table Cape.

Peggs Beach

Monday morning Charmaine and I were back working on the mulch pile. So on Tuesday morning, for a change, I went with Wayne and Felix to meet with the Schafer’s farming neighbor, Ray, to find the boundary line between their properties in order to put up a fence. The boundary line runs through an area overgrown with large ferns and sapling trees. Our first task was to use a compass to find the boundary line and then placed four poles to mark the line. Then we began the hard task of clearing away the brush along the line. Ray and Felix worked with Fern hooks, curved blades on the end of a pole, while Wayne used his weed wacker to clear.

Ray and Felix clearing a path with fern hooks

After working in the host sun for most of the day, Charmaine took us to the beach. Toby had a wonderful time chasing after his ball.

Charmaine and Toby at the beach

Wednesday Wayne, Felix, and I picked up a small rowing dingy to keep on the Schafer’s dam for their neighbor.

Unloading the dingy

The dingy is in need of som TLC, but she floats and glides beautifully across the water. After playing around in the dingy for awhile we eventually got back to work painting the house.

Taking Wayne for a ride in the dingy

That evening we were invited over for dinner at Ray and his wife’s beach house at Sisters Beach. We left a bit early so that we could stop and visit some of the sights along the way. My favorite was Boat Harbor Beach. My luck could not have been better. The tides on the beach were at their lowest ebb, exposing the rocks along the side of the beach and all of the little tide pools hidden in the crevices. I had a wonderful time clambering up and down and peering into all the pools looking for sea anemones, snails, and little fish.

Boat Harbor with rock tide pools

When we arrived at Sister’s Beach, Ray took us for a walk along the beach. We walked along as the sun set and lit up the clouds with all different shades of pink and orange.

Sisters Beach

Thursday morning I went to the shops in town with Charmaine to purchase an Easter outfit for Easter Vigil Mass. In the afternoon, Felix and I worked on painting the side of the house. We had a great time talking about our homes and travels, and Felix taught me some useful German words.