Split life

Today I return to our farm. Ahead of me is a drive of 5 hours, considerably more if there has been a fatal accident on the Pacific Highway which is all too common.

Poor sleep with January heat has interfered with several of my attempts over the past few weeks to leave for the farm.

I have usually kept up with the 4-day rainfall forecast. After the New Year heatwave I located online a good graphic site for temperature forecasts.

The forecasts have proven to be very reliable. There is no question about which day I would prefer to be out in the country in an unfinished uninsulated house with no power.



I was packed and poised to travel north, but thus forewarned of the Australia Day heatwave I chose the wiser course of staying home in front of the fan (and the computer). Neurones don't work efficiently in heat; demyelinated neurones tend to pack up completely.

So in Sydney I have been experiencing online Guild Wars with 16 year old enthusiasm with my son, and could participate in the Hobb board BAD, and webcrawl NASA, lemniscates and quantum physics with my daughter.

And yet always in the back of my mind is the wondering about what is happening at the farm. What livestock has broken through fences. What pump equipment has been swept away in a flash flood. What fool has lit a fire.

When I am up at our farm I never want to leave. When I am back in Sydney I find it very hard to get up and go. It has a lot to do with having to split the family -- one teenager staying to look after my now blind mother, while the other accompanies me. Enough food has to be shopped for to supply each pair. Enough clothes washed to supply the sweaty pair mowing and planting.