Last weekend I forgot to take camera to Yarrawonga, so no photos to add. But Stan, with Peter McLean's assistance, placed the front glass sliding door of our accommodation on the Saturday, a day which turned out to be 46 degrees plus, and Victoria's worst fire disaster. We were in stifling heat, but luckily many miles from the fires.
Smell of smoke filled the air Sunday morning, and after a few hours visibility was down to less than one kilometre. Stan and Peter put our four metre wide glass sliding door in, and by that time smoke was visible in the hangar, and our eyes started to sting.
I was going to drive back to Pakenham and Stan was intended staying the following week, but with the fires still raging and the road we usually take impassable, Stan decided to come back to Pakenham with me.
We actually thought he would go back to Yarrawonga a few days later, but now, nine days later, the fires have taken their toll and are presently contained, but the road up the Melba Highway is still blocked.
We came home on the Hume Highway via the city of Melbourne, which meant driving through 15 kilometres of blackened countryside around the Kilmore area. Homes and sheds were scattered through the ashes that had been saved from the devastation of the fire, and others that hadn't. Very emotional journey.
Back to Yarrawonga via the Hume on Friday night, 13 February. The temperature was at least 15 to 20 degrees cooler this weekend.
Brian Godfrey, our concretor and Glenn Saunders, our excavator and bobcat driver, had been busy for a few days getting Mark Howard's hangar ready for concrete and ours ready for concreting around the surrounds and driveway. Stan and Brian continued over the weekend and some concrete might be poured early this week. This Sunday I did leave Stan there and came home alone.