Scrappy

Back in the middle of April, I was putting some rubbish in my bin when I heard a scratching and scraping from the bottom of the bin. When I looked closely there was a tiny puppy that cannot have been more than 10 days – 2 weeks old. I could not leave it to die an agonising, slow and lonely death in the rubbish bin so I got it out, gave it some water on the tip of my finger, ran some warm water over its little body and it fell asleep in the palm of my hand. I rubbed it dry and placed it wrapped in a dry towel and put it into a warm cosy box thinking that if it is meant to survive it will but if not, then I have made it comfortable, safe and loved.

The next morning I woke to some very loud and demanding squeaking and so I temporarily named it Squeaky. Another neighbour told me it was a boy so Squeaky became a he. He survived the night so where to next? After some researching I learnt that he needed some puppy milk, fed from a bottle. I didn’t have either so I used an old baby bottle from work and bought some powdered milk. I asked my neighbour to bring some puppy milk from Alice Springs next time she came to Kintore. Id have to make do with what I had and if he didn’t survive then it wasn’t meant to be.

A harsh reality of living so remote.

Squeaky was so hungry – I fed him powdered milk from the baby bottle every 2 hours when I was home but on work days he had to live on the little tray of milk and water I left for him.

After one week he had already filled out.

He stayed in his box, in my bathroom

for the day and was allowed to explore

the house when I was home.

I never had to feed him during the night as he slept through thankfully. Soon Squeaky had proper puppy milk and he enjoyed that even more. As a backup, I could feed him lactose free milk but that too was in short supply so he needed to be on dog food as soon as possible.

                                                       

      25th April 2016                                                                           25th May 2016

Linda discovered that a between food for Squeaky could be some cooked chicken mince, cooked rice, yoghurt (less lactose but good protein) and raw egg stirred through. I made up a batch that I stored in a takeaway container and began weaning Squeaky off his bottles – much like a baby.

Squeaky took to the rice food like a champion.

 He had it for breakfast and dinner with a bottle of milk as soon as I got home from work. On the weekends, he also had lunch in between bottles. As Squeaky became stronger, so did his suckling but sometimes the flow of milk was too much and the indignity of sneezing milk out of your nostrils was too much but he just kept going like the camp dog trooper that he is. 

In May I had to go away for 2 weeks so a Kintore friend stayed at my house to look after Squeaky. I could not believe how much he had grown in the 2 weeks that I was away. It soon became apparent that Squeaky was going to be a big dog.

Many people expressed concern that his name – Squeaky was not appropriate for a camp dog name so some friends who looked after him for me while I was away renamed him Scrappy and that name was perfect.

Soon the chicken and rice mix wasn't satisfying Scrappy so I began to add some dry puppy food into the mix and within a week he was having 100% dry puppy food.

June 2016

Scrappy has been such a good puppy.

He has learnt to sit and stay                                  He sleeps in my room and eats

    (for about 10 seconds)                                           his food in the bathroom. 

One day when I left him in the bathroom for the day (with his bed and water) he was crying; and again when I got home so I decided that it was time for him to spend his days outside. I set up a sheltered bed in a place where other bigger camp dogs couldn’t get him if they got into the yard.

                                  

                                            Scrappy's outside bed

He had a large container of water and the company of my neighbours dogs through the fence.

At first when I had to go to work, I distracted him with toast crusts behind the house so he couldn’t see my exit to work and therefore try to follow me but soon that trick didn’t work and so the training to not go out the gate had to begin.

Like all puppies he has an attention span of a flea and small things amuse small minds. One day he was playing with a coke can box, and he started to explore with his head stuck in the box......it was all fun until he bumped into something and had to be rescued. Five minutes later he was doing it again - just like a toddler.

               

Over the past few months Scrappy has given me so much pleasure and company but now it is time to say goodbye. It is too expensive for me to have him desexed and I have no way of getting him into Alice Springs and bringing him back when its done. I am also struggling with training an energetic and mischievous puppy due to a neck and shoulder injury.
 Another friend in Kintore is going to take Scrappy for me to a shelter for rescued and adopting animals. The shelter is RSPCA monitored and is a "no kill" shelter which means they do not put down animals unless they are gravely ill or very aggressive. Doing lots of research, and with reassurance from Linda, I know that this is the best time to say goodbye to Scrappy because he is still cute enough to be adopted and young enough to be trained well.

Scrappy is in good health and I believe will be placed into good hands.

My heart will be heavy on Friday when I say goodbye but I have to believe it for the best.

I want to thank everyone who has helped me look after Scrappy; especially Tracy, Linda, Dearbhlagh and MJ.
 And a huge thanks to Megs who is going to have the pleasure of Scrappy's company in her car all the way from Kintore to Alice Springs and then will take him to the shelter for me.

My weekends

A good friend recently asked me what I do with my weekends in Kintore so here we go.

I live alone, there are no restaurants, cinemas, coffee shops, bakery shops and I don’t have a car to go gallivanting around the countryside – although at the moment it’s too hot anyway – so how to I spend my hours on the weekend?

My weekly treat begins on Friday afternoon when I have a can of coke, some chips, some lollies and some chocolate. It feels so rewarding and it’s a good way to ration it out when the supply truck only comes fortnightly – I can’t just nick up to the shops to get more and the local store is not open 24/7 like Coles and Woolworths is.

Saturday morning is a lovely sleep in – until it gets too hot to be in bed. My bedroom is on the east end of my house so it gets the morning and midday sun. I also have no block out window coverings so inevitably the brilliant sunshine also wakes me up. I am looking forward to winter weekend sleep ins when I can snuggle back in bed to read a book.

I have breakfast watching Rage on ABC TV. The very first weekend I was here, they featured Boney M; one of my favourite groups as a teen. Over the months they have also featured David Bowie, Jon English, the Eagles and various other music of people who have died recently. Sometimes Rage is completely boring so I flick over to the Loop but their inane chatter drives me insane so at that point I put on my own music and pump it up while I do my chores.

First job of the weekend is to bake my own bread. It usually takes 4 hours so if I put it on in time, I can have a couple of slices of hot, fresh wholegrain, and home baked bread for lunch. One of the best things I packed into the moving box; as the right sort of bread is hard to find out here.

Then I make my own yoghurt. The sachets of yoghurt mix is easier to transport in hot weather so homemade yoghurt is the way to go. I often put yoghurt on stewed fruit and muesli for a lunch or desert. Making the yoghurt is easy but it takes a day to process and set so I have fresh homemade yoghurt on Sunday, for desert.

One of the main jobs that I have to do every week is dust. Kintore is known to be very windy and red dust gets everywhere, especially after I've been away for awhile. My vacuum cleaner died recently so I have to sweep and hand dust everywhere.

I was given a lovely bluey green rug for my house when I moved in and now its a lovely shade of brown just from red dust being on my shoes, feet and from blowing in when I open my house to cool it down at night.

After I have hung out my washing to dry I hit the books. I am currently studying an online course that is completely self-paced – suits me to a tee when the internet goes down or if I have to go to Alice Springs for work or pleasure. I usually study until I have submitted the next task that they send me to do and once I hit the submit button the weekend is mine.

Sometimes I have a binge of some coloring mandalas – completing a mandala in one go, watching a movie or TV show (an entire season), knitting, writing my blog, talking to family or friends on the phone, checking in on Facebook or simply sitting outside yarning with a local.

I DO NOT do work stuff….I do not want to burn out.

I enjoy listening to my music, I enjoy silence, and I enjoy my solitude. Sometimes I have to be careful about what music I listen to as it provokes emotional responses in me that are not helpful to me so far away from people I love but often the music is Aussie Rock featuring John Williamson, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and the Warumpi Band and the Kintore Running Water Band.

I need stillness in my life after the crazy and random happenings at work and so quiet weekends at home work for me.

 

My first week in Kintore

I got to Kintore late on Tuesday 6th October 2015.

 

I was very excited to finally see my new home and community for the next two years. I was also nervous because this was becoming so very real. There was no backing out now. I was in Kintore - 6-8 hours 4WD drive from Alice Springs.

The Kintore Mountain Range.

 

A goanna sculpture that adorns the Kintore Roundabout.

 

When I unlocked the door I took a deep breath and walked in.

My little donga was lovely. It had a distinct smell – not unpleasant but probably best described as an earthy desert smell. It faced north south with a large bedroom on both the east and west end. I chose the east end bedroom and later I became so thankful for that because the west wing bedroom was soon to become unbearable hot in the evenings.

 

The south facing verandah where I was to witness some amazing light and thunderstorms.

 

 

I still had no boxes – they were to arrive tomorrow on the fortnightly truck run.

I was thankful to have separately packed my camping coffee plunger, coffee, sugar, long life milk and a small container of breakfast cereal. At least I would get breakfast in the morning.

One thing this experience was fast teaching me was to think ahead, make do with what you've got and expect the unexpected.

 Way out of my comfort zone in so many ways but I also believed that all my camping experiences helped me prepare for this.

I went to bed, sleeping on my trusty towel and I used the tee shirt I wore as a pillow case. I slept in my clothes but I didn’t really need anything for warmth.

 

Initially I had no internet so phone calls became essential.

Linda rang me every night for a long chat and I rang Linda in the morning when I woke up so she knew I was still alive.

My family kept in constant contact and that truly saved my sanity in the early days. One highlight was receiving a phone call from my nephews aged 5 and 3 years old at the time. They were just about to have their 6 and 4 year old birthday so they called Aunty Kristin who could not be there for that.

The long phone calls to Linda in the evening became a commentary of my daily experiences and that evolved into her posting on Facebook my “Tales from Kintore”.

Finally my boxes arrived and I spent the next few days after work and my weekend unpacking and arranging all of my treasures and essentials.

 

My long awaited boxes - in the background some weird QLD TV channel that I had on in the desperate attempt to get some familiar Victorian news.

 

Fast forward to after Flinders Trip

We said our goodbyes to our My Swag camping buddies at Alpana Station and made our way to Adelaide via a one night stay at Peterborough. In Adelaide, we decided to stay in a cabin at a caravan park close to the airport. I had items packed throughout our camping gear that I had to consolidate into 2 bags before flying to Alice Springs. It was a nice luxury to not have to set up Crusher – especially as it was also very hot. We had pizza for tea and enjoyed a walk along the beach watching the sun set across the ocean.

 

Saturday 3^rd October 2015 - The dreaded day arrived when I had to say goodbye to my beautiful wife. It was so hard because on the one hand I wanted to cherish every last minute with her but I didn’t want to prolong the inevitable.

Also she had a big drive ahead of her, back to Melbourne with an overnight stay somewhere; probably the Grampians. However, it became obvious from the txt’s and pictures that she sent, that she drove all the way to Melbourne in one drive.

At the airport, I really began to question this decision. What sort of relationship does this by choice? Leaves a partner behind for 2 years. But then I remembered our long term goal and that I am paving the way to achieve this. I had taken the first step and I was feeling terrified but also excited.

 

 We said our goodbyes and I watched her walk away until I couldn’t see her anymore. I didn’t know until after that she stayed for longer because she could see me. I boarded the plane in tears but soon the excitement of taking off and my new adventure took over and I was consumed with watching the landscape from the air; excitedly flying over the Flinders Ranges, where had previously spent the last 2 weeks.

It was great to see mum at the airport waiting for me. We shared a taxi to our accommodation – The Ibis Styles Apartments in Alice Springs and decided to dial a pizza and watch the AFL Grand Final.

It was good to just chillax with mum before I left.

 

 

Sunday 4^th October 2015 – Mum and I had a 3 hour breakfast meeting with Jan and Rick, early childhood studies educators from The Batchelor Institute, which specialises in teaching tertiary studies to Indigenous people. Kate, another new team leader, who would be located at Mt Liebig also joined us.

Jan and Rick proved to be a wealth of knowledge and it was great to meet Kate. Later we walked into town with Kate and did some grocery shopping. I spent approximately $300!

 

 Just some of my shopping

 

We shared a taxi back to The Ibis and mum and I had a nana nap before heading over to the in house restaurant for the Sunday Roast.

I treasured these hours with mum as I knew that soon I would say goodbye to another familiar face.

Monday 5^th October 2015

The big day! It took me ages to get to sleep – excitement, anxiety and probably because of the nana nap Id had the day before.

 When I did get to sleep, I slept well.

We had breakfast with Kate, then Kate and I walked over to the office to meet Margaret, our manager and Rennie our coordinator. We met so many people that my head started to spin but eventually our paper work was sorted and 3 hours later we headed back to the Ibis to wait for Rennie to pick us up.

Another coordinator, Helen was going to pick up Kate and take her to Mt Liebig.

The wait for Rennie was the longest wait – I kept needing to go to the toilet – probably anxiety over saying goodbye to mum and leaving civilisation.

Rennie finally arrived and my heart sank. My bag that I had meticulously cleaning in Adelaide was going on the back of the Ute and was going to get dusty all over again. Oh well is said to myself “I was going to live in the outback after all so get over it”. I packed my non-perishable food onto the back of the Ute with my bag, and my cooler bag with my blueys went into the air-conditioned car.

 

 

Saying goodbye to mum was probably as hard as saying goodbye to Linda but I didn’t cry. I wanted to show mum how strong I was.

We called in to Milners Meats and an IGA which is where I would get my meat and groceries from whilst on community. We fuelled up and then Rennie told me that we would be staying in Papunya that night. I quickly txt Linda and mum before we got out of mobile range so they wouldn’t worry that I hadn’t called from Kintore as planned.

We arrived at Papunya between 4 & 5 PM and I was physically and mentally exhausted. Sue at Papunya kindly offered me a bed with a sheet and pillow so I had a tin of baked beans for tea and went to bed. Rennie slept outside on the back of her Ute in her swag.

I had earlier learnt from Jan and Rick that my boxes with my personal possessions would not be arriving in Kintore until the Wednesday so when I did my shopping, I bought a towel to sleep on and use after showering in Papunya and Kintore.

I felt like a displaced person with only my suitcase of clothes and my food to call my own but even then I was so much luckier that I had that as many asylum seekers had NOTHING.

Tuesday 6^th October 2015 –My journey is continuing. We left Papunya at about 8:30 after dropping some supplies of at Sue’s childcare centre. I took photos all the way to Kintore; especially of signs so that I had a reference point when trying to remember where particular photos had been taken.

The landscape and road continuously changed – I wished I could share it all with my beautiful Linda and the rest of my family. Finally we reached the turn off to Kintore and I got my first view of The Kintore Mountain Range – otherwise known as Womens Mountain and Mens Mountain.

My first night in Kintore was interesting but that is for my next chapter.

Kintore – where was Kintore and getting there.

After lots of googling and you tubing, we discovered that Kintore is approximately 530 KM West of Alice Springs, NT and closer to the WA border.

Basically a long way from nowhere.

 

It has a medical clinic, an airstrip, a shop, a police station, a school, preschool, aged care facility and of course childcare.

My accommodation would be furnished with basic items so the question was how to make my new home, my own……personalised……comfortable and above all items to keep me busy in my personal time…….reading material, coloring books, DVD’s and whatever else I could think of.

I knew that I had a relocation allowance so the next question was what to take, given that Kintore was so isolated but with basic facilities.

I didn't know how I was going to shop for supplies at this stage so I wanted to make sure that I had the basics to start with.

I bought 5 large removalist boxes and started to fill them with:
    1. Bedding and towels (and other linen)
    2. Bread maker (can’t buy fresh bread in the outback so why not make my own?) 
    3.Yoghurt maker (difficult to keep yoghurt cold but easy to transport sachets of yoghurt powder culture)
    4. 60 rolls of loo paper (didn’t want to run out)
    5. Numerous Tupperware containers already filled with food that wouldn't go off like rice, pasta, breakfast cereal, coffee, sugar and even meal base mixes.
    6. A variety of kitchen ware items that I might need (sharp knife, chopping board, small frying pan, glad wrap, foil, snap lock bags)

The boxes were packed to the brim, into every nook and cranny with all sorts of essentials, Knick Knacks and treasures and shipped to a trucking company where they would be shipped from Melbourne -  Adelaide – Alice Springs – Kintore.

My mum came to help me pack and was so very helpful with suggestions on items to pack that I hadn’t thought of.

She also took with her a large suitcase of clothes because she was going to meet me in Alice Springs after our Flinders trip and before I headed to Kintore. She would bring the suitcase with her as I didn’t want to cart the clothes all over the Flinders Ranges – we had enough camping gear to worry about.

 

My boxes were on their way a whole month before I was to arrive in Kintore because of the transport company schedule and also because we were leaving for a 2 week camping holiday in the Flinders Ranges immediately prior to me leaving for Kintore.

The weeks leading up to our Flinders Trip were a blur. Preparing for the trip, preparing to move to Kintore as well as a particularly busy time at work prior to the end of term.

The hardest time by far was saying goodbye to people that were dear to me. Many tears were shed. Saying goodbye to my brother and his family was especially hard although his boys who were aged 3 and 5 didn’t really understand.

James aged 3 thought “Aunty Kristin was going to live in Murrindindi” – a 1 hour drive away.

I cried all the way home after seeing my own kids for the last time. They were both so enthusiastic, Kathryn saying how proud she was of me going on this adventure and Mitchell was his usual quiet but proud way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the day came to leave Melbourne. It was a cold, wet and windy September morning.

We got up at 4 Am as we were to meet camping friends for a fuel up and breakfast on the other side of the city, heading North West for our first night of the trip – Pink Lakes Camping ground located in the Murray Sunset National Park.

Never had I experienced such mixed emotions.

I did a last sweep of the house – particularly my kids bedrooms and my scrap booking room. I couldn’t take my scrap booking gear with me and that set me off into a blubbering mess. I cried as I said goodbye to my cat Rose and soon I locked up the house, hopped into Lizzie and said goodbye to Melbourne for at least 3 months until December At Xmas time when I would probably come home to visit.

Within minutes of being on the road, the excitement of the Flinders Trip and my move to Kintore set in.

 

How I came to be in Kintore (Part1)

 

When I met my wife, in 2009, we had many things in common but the main thing was our love of camping and being in nature, country, outback, bush, beach – not the city life. We were both originally country girls after all.

We soon set a 5 year plan that would be a stepping stone to our ultimate goal which is to work and travel / camp our way around our beautiful country, Australia.

We camped as much as possible and built up our gear so that our 4WD (Lizzie) and camper trailer (Crusher) were set up the way we need and want for basic comfort, practicality and for off road, free camping wherever we could. We would be completely self-sufficient and would only need enough money for food, fuel and the occasional camping fees.

 

Our first trip together was to outback NSW, Broken Hill Via Mildura and Lake Mungo

 

 

Then it was to the Victorian High Country - Corryong and Omeo

 

 

Then we upgraded to Lizzie and Crusher and explored Murrindindi and Sheepyard Flat in Victoria's NE.

 

 

 

 

 

Touring around Alice Springs, NT for two weeks with the "My Swag" group in July 2014

 Last year (2015) a tragedy in our family and some professional issues for me made us re assess our 5 year plan. We had already reached 5 years and our projections were tracking steadily so it was now time to take another leap towards our goal.

The universe always tells us things…….what to do and when to do it.

By June 2015, I had had enough of my workplace so I began putting feelers out to other jobs, including Governess Australia (an employment website for people to work with children in remote locations).

We had dreams of me being a Governess on a remote cattle station and Linda being a general handyman; maybe creating and maintaining an amazing vege garden, orchard and flower garden as is one of her many expertise. In our spare time, we would take Lizzie and Crusher camping and explore the region that we were living in. Linda would take photos of the region and sell them to tourist, cattle station, camping, websites and magazines.

Anyway, the stars were not perfectly aligned yet……..

BUT one Friday night, I saw a job advertised in a Facebook Group I was in and it ticked all the boxes. It was a job working for the MacDonnell Regional Council, based in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and my actual job would be as a children’s services team leader in a remote Aboriginal community. Everything about it would be new to me – the job, the location and the state.

I showed Linda, saying “what do you reckon?”; never once believing that I would even get an interview. Linda fully supported me applying for the job so I went ahead. However I didn’t push the “submit” button until the Sunday night. We talked about it all weekend, the “what ifs”, “pros and cons’ and the logistics. The biggest issue would be that Linda couldn’t join me because her daughters needed to finish their schooling and be settled in employment, accommodation and life.

Issues at work and life itself made me forget about the application until I received a phone call inviting me for an interview – I was excited but still not there yet. A week later, I had a phone interview and continued to wait. Work, life, work, life, work, life continued…….still no word.

One day while still at work, I took a phone call from the MacDonnell Regional Council offering me a job – in Kintore. I accepted the position and then texted Linda at work the word “KINTORE”.

Long story short and in my next blog entry my life turned upside down but in all the good ways we wanted.

 

 

Some observations about living in Kintore

November 3, 2015 ·

Weather: In Kintore it is either hot or bloody hot! Yesterday it was 45C, the only respite from the heat comes from air conditioning and when the sun goes down....but even then its only a few degrees cooler.. most nights it gets down to a balmy 30C! The locals say that it only rains at Christmas time.

Last night I noticed flashing lights out from the window, so I went to investigate and realized that in the distance was a magnificent light show of lightning (no thunder to be heard), soon after I heard a few drops on the tin roof! But it's so hot that the small amount of moisture does nothing. The endless heat is very draining and everyone does their tasks at the beginning or end of each day. The locals sit outside in the heat of the day, under a tree, or bring the kids to child care where it is air conditioned. The locals bring their beds outside to sleep under the stars. There are no mozzies or flies at night, I understand why people in the outback like to sleep under the stars.

 Some of the older members of the community now know me and call out to greet me when I walk to work, often asking "is there child care today?" Soon after their younger family members arrive with the kids... (who needs a mobile phone!)

 When I first arrived at Kintore, I found it quite bizarre to hear the yelling that would go on, however I soon noticed that the yelling was occurring between small groups of people located in the shade in different areas, it seems that they avoid walking around in the heat of the sun and so yell to communicate instead.

After all it is stupidly hot!

I offered to dog sit my neighbours 2yld kelpie dingo cross, this week while they are away, however she dug out under my fence and took off to visit all the other dogs of the community. So then my other neighbour, who also has a bitsa puppy, is now dog sitting, as his fence is secure. Sandy and Kinda, the dogs, come to visit aunty Kristin. I think Sandy may have taught Kinda how to dig under the fence....

Sandy

 My neighbour is the new pool guy, possibly the most popular man in town! The pool had been closed for 5 months up until now! He opens the pool for adults only for lap training, and also after school each week day for the kids, and again for female indigenous women, and again for the males. The pool is open to general public on the weekends. I might start some lap training on the weekends soon in the early morning.