Bushfire heebie-jeebies.

For those who aren't familiar with Aussie slang, heebie-jeebies means...um...well, read on, and it will become apparent.
There is a lot in the Australian media these days about bushfires, given that we've had a very early start to summer. It is still officially Spring, but last week's heat was frightening. I picked up a free magazine at the local shop, on how to be ready for the bushfire season. It sat around on the coffee table for a week, then I decided I should read it. Last summer's fires got uncomfortably close to Eltham and it was only a wind change that sent the fires in another direction. Everyone here knows it is just a matter of time before parts of our town could go up in smoke, as trees form most of the landscape around here. (This picture shows our street, from our back yard)

I asked Ken if he'd read the magazine and he said he'd 'looked at it'. Which means he probably picked it up, looked at the pictures and put it down again!

It took me about an hour to read it from front to back. And I got a bad case of the heebie jeebies. Property owners have to decide whether to stay and fight a fire or nick off and leave everything. One of the reasons we had such a large rainwater tank installed, is to give us more of a chance to save our home if a bushfire comes this far. We've got an electric pump, but that's not much good if the power goes off, as it will in times of extreme heat. So the article suggested people who have a tank should also have a back up power source such as a generator. Sorry, but that's a bit out of our reach financially, so we'll just have to douse the house with water as long as the power lasts.

An important aspect of fighting a fire is wearing suitable clothing. It should be made of natural fibres such as cotton, wool or leather. I have denim jeans (tick), an Akubra hat (tick), leather motorcycle boots (tick), but cotton blouses? A thorough check of my wardrobe showed that every single piece of clothing was made from acrylic fibre such as nylon or polyester. Oh, there were a couple of cotton teeshirts, and two pure wool jumpers. But no longsleeve blouses or jackets made of cotton. So I headed for the opshop today and found the perfect blouse! You can see it here.

So does this mean we are now prepared to defend our house against a fire? Not by a long shot. What do we do about our aviary birds? The cat is easy - put her in her carry cage and take her somewhere safe. I've already got a brief case packed with essential documents, and a list of what else to pack in bags if we need to get away. I seriously doubt if we would be able to stay and fight a fire. Ken's lungs wouldn't tolerate the smoke for more than a minute or two, and I couldn't run around the house on my own for 6 hours, hosing it down. Guess we'll just cross our fingers.