Saki Blogs

Those who have been following this blog will have noticed that the weather widget in the bottom right corner has been stuck in March. This was due to a combination of animal factors. One being a rodent eating through cables and the other being an alpaca that got caught in the cables and tipped over the old weather station, ripping the rest of the cables and breaking several of the sensors.

With time being taken up with other issues, it has taken a while to get around to fixing it. As it turns out it was cheaper and easier to buy a new weather station kit than the individual components. So we needed to work out a better place (to avoid alpaca induced failure) and closer to the computer so we didn't have long cable runs (to avoid transmission problems, and rodent induced failures).

The old system, basically the stand sat in the paddock to the back of the house.

First step was to dismantle the old stand to reuse as many components as possible. If you look closely at the weather vane you can see the attempt to fix it - the yellow insulating tape. Needless to say it wasn't a huge success.

To allow me to fix the mounting pole onto the top of the pergola I decided to use a piece of scrap metal strapping. This stuff has been invaluable, and certainly far more worth than the few dollars I spent on several lengths of it at a local second-hand yard. This was what was left over from several projects, including a pipe layer, a repair of a ripper, building of a gas bottle trolley, a modification to a tow bar accessory for the tractor and a few other things I can't remember. Not bad for $4.

You can see the pilot hole on the left and a finished mounting hole on the right. I ended up bevelling the edge of the hole to allow a countersunk bugle screw to be used to secure it.

After a bit of cutting and welding we have the finished mounting platform, painted with rust-inhibiting paint. The wooden platform for the rain guage I sanded back and painted with some waterproof silicone - mainly because I had some handy.

The rain sensor drops the water through the base of the sensor, so needs to be mounted such that the water is allowed to flow away. Here I've mounted it across the platform so the water has a clear path below the sensor. This is the sensor without its collecting cover in place, showing the see-saw like mechanism used for measuring the amount of water falling.

The unit installed in its new (hopefully less animal prone) location. The cables then run to the transmitter which also includes the temperature and humidity sensor.

Interestingly both the old console and the new console are both reading the data from the sensors via the wireless link, so we have the ability to check the inside and outside tempratures at either end of the house, and of course by checking our blog

I've been meaning to post a few odds and ends for a while now - so here they are.

We were recently "featured" in the local newspaper in a story about the farm, and our plans, as well as what we're currently doing for "day jobs". This was the photo that we took of Adam "grafting" a tree - wish we'd thought to take photos of the actual grafting, but I suspect 400+ trees are all going to look a bit like the last one after, oh I don't know, the 200th.

One of the the things that Tim did like doing when he was here was helping with construction projects. He and Adam are building a moveable fence which is just the right size to go around the dug over plots once we move the larger of the chook tractors. That wire is obviously much easier to cut if you get your mouth set just right.

He's also rather partial to getting his photo taken, despite protestations to the contrary....

And just to prove that it does rain a little bit in these parts.

One of the things that I love so much about media is the remote control. And your own personal control.

The interesting thing about information, and following people's opinions and discussions and updates is that if they are talking about issues that interest you - you can follow. If they are talking about things that don't interest you - you can move on and never ever come back.

If the truth hits too close to home, press the back button on the browser, the hide button on your Facebook page. Same goes for this blog - which is after all, mostly us rambling on about what is and isn't working in our lives.

There's some great extensions you can apply to Firefox to make darn sure that you never ever ever visit the blog or the newspaper or the opinion page that is saying something that you don't want to see or hear.

If you don't understand what an individual's blog post is trying to say, you can ask for clarification, or you can completely refuse to engage with that individual. If you've nothing better to do, you can read all sorts of things into anything, and you can use the content of that post, out of context, to attempt a massive swipe simply because you've never ever managed to work out how to move on in your own life.

The Internet is a wonderful place. You can keep in touch with the people that you want to, and completely ignore those you don't. And the nice thing is that neither party needs to know or even care that much - we've all got much more interesting things to do with our lives after all.

I have to confess I was pleased as punch this morning to hear of the Labor Party spill.

Yes it's great news to FINALLY get a female Prime Minister, but right now, at this point in our history, it's even more important to have a Prime Minister that we can see some future in.

But the historic point of a female Prime Minister cannot be ignored, and Ms Gillard has to be admired for her willingness to step up into this role and take on the responsibility in the face of both the accolades and the slings and arrows. I thank her from the bottom of my heart for her commitment and I look to her policy platform with considerable interest. Obviously I'm worried about the ETS (having said that I'm not convinced about the Labor Model, but I'm prepared to be convinced). I'm worried about Renewable Rebates and the Renewable industry in general. I'm obviously very concerned about environmental issues. I'm also interested in what this government is intending to do about Mental Health Services, and in particular Disability Services - obviously given our personal experience of late.

But aside from everything else, I'm keen to support Ms Gillard and will be following her policy outcomes with some interest.

But it's also beholden on me to support her more actively. To do that I'm giving up ABC local and Melbourne radio. I've spent the whole day today in the car and I think I've heard every bigoted, idiotic, self-involved, garbage opinion that could possibly be uttered in the face of a "woman" Prime Minister. And this is equally from men and from women.

Now I'm prepared to admit it was late in the 1970's before my feminist awareness cut in. But once it had there were a few elements that stay with me. The most important of which is that whole idea of women's right to choose.

That's right sisters. Choice. We actually had the right to choose our own paths in life.

Hard to imagine, and very hard to remember in the face of the appalling claptrap I've been forced to listen to today.

The most obvious is the "how can a childless woman possibly represent all women". WHAT! For goodness sake. How does a childless man represent you? How does a working man with a stay at home wife who does the "kid" thing represent you?

The question really is how on earth is somebody's gynecological status of any relevance to their ability to empathise / take advice / observe....

The most appalling thing today was that most of the "childless" jabs came from other women. There were obviously the few sad, deluded arrogant "how can a woman possibly want another career when the raising of the next generation has to be the most rewarding thing they can ever do" male opinions (and there were plenty of them), but in the main it seemed to be other women who were more than prepared to fire the jabs based on Ms Gillard's marital and/or childfree status.

But back to the point of this little rant. When did the "choice" part of feminism disappear and the sisterhood become all about the belittling of others? When did it become perfectly okay to announce that child-free women are not "real women" as I heard today?

A childfree status can be for a lot reasons. It can be circumstantial. Timing of meeting possible partners, sexual preference, geographical isolation, poverty, or even medical. Imagine the feeling of being treated like a third-class "unreal woman" because you aren't actually able to HAVE children.

But there's also childfree by choice. There it is - that feminist idea that you could choose the life that suited you. Then again "choice" isn't automatically a "selfish" desire to have no responsibility. Many "choose" for significantly more complicated reasons - such as family genetics, mental health issues, competency, financial or often more simply - no desire whatsoever to have children.

Regardless of what reason a woman doesn't have children it doesn't make her any less of a "real woman". You expect that sort of 16th century crap from a sub-section of the population, but frankly, to have other women throw that garbage around at any woman - particularly a woman who has risen to the highest political position in the land, is gobsmacking.

So Talkback Radio and the ABC is something I'm going to give up as my vote of solidarity to Prime Minister Gillard. I wish her all power to her cause in the role she has agreed to undertake. And I don't give a tinker's about her marital status, the colour of her hair, her child-free status, the sort of car she drives, what is or isn't in her fruit bowl, and what colour her kitchen is. It's about policies, and leadership, the state of the country as a whole and what she's going to do to keep the focus on the things that really matter.

One of the things that I was vaguely nervous about when we moved out to the middle of nowhere was never being able to eat out ever again.

Gluten intolerance is an absolute bastard to manage when you're out, I seem to have to spend half my life madly searching a menu for something / anything I can eat (there's no such thing as what you'd like to try anymore - it's all about what you're likely to be able to get away with).

It is, I'm pleased to say, getting slightly easier. We've been to a few places recently that mark their menus to show you which are the gluten-free options - stops you having to undertake a long and tedious quizzing process of the waiting staff who are often very nice about it, but it's still a pain in the neck as they wander backwards and forwards between you and chef - and invariably end up coming back with a very small subset of options. Choice - forget it.

I mean really - there's only so much risotto I want to eat, and if I always wanted to order a salad I'd stay home and pick it out of the garden - cheaper, fresher and organic into the bargain.

So things are getting better - now I can often pick the tiny subset of options on menus that I can then select from. Recently we even found a place in Ballarat that had a small gluten-free section on their menu.

But you're still dealing with that shrunken list of options. Which is stupid, and short-sighted and daft.

There's not a lot we miss out on eating at home - we have pasta, pizza, pies, cakes, bread, pita, naans, bread rolls, beer, porridges, cereals, just about anything and everything I could ever want.

But go out - and even with the better menu labeling, you're often stuck with tedious limitations - risotto, maybe a salad, steak, the occasional curry and sometimes, in a mad rush of excitement - grilled fish and chips! Forget a desire to be a vegetarian - mostly your only options are meat-based whether you like it or not.

And that's about it. The lack of choices is just depressing and shows how blinkered thinking can be.

Gluten free isn't complicated, it should be a breeze - it can sometimes just mean good, simple, natural food - without coatings and trimmings and sauces and fillers and thickeners and all the other carry-on.

Whilst we've had some good experiences and we're still hunting, it would be so nice to have some real choices again. You'd be surprised how much cash we'd part with in order to just go out for lunch on a regular basis.

On the plus side:

There are cafes and lunch places in Bendigo that have options - I must start making a note of them when we're over there and talk about them.

Abunda in Ballarat is a dream, and they have an online supermarket / do deliveries. Well worth a look: http://www.abundaglutenfree.com.au

Another joy: http://www.321learmonth.com.au/ Gluten free pizzas as matter of factly as a non-gluten free pizza!

Adam's been going backwards and forwards to Stawell on various things to do with Tim's CRU a fair bit recently (we're going to try and keep that up every week for quite a while), and it has to be said - we're beyond pleased with what's happening over there.

Tim is settling in well, the house co-ordinator made a comment yesterday along the lines of it seems Tim was almost supposed to be there.

Sure he's still exhibiting a lot of the behaviour problems we were dealing with, but the staff at the house are on top of each issue as it arises really quickly and looking for ways to improve his standards. They also ring regularly to discuss what's happening and what Adam thinks is going on with each problem or event - they are really concerned about his welfare and his personal growth and their approach is caring, but as important, consistently focused towards Tim's improvement.

They have this great system where they keep extensive notes on all residents actions, behaviours, and interactions and there is a shift changeover to ensure that no resident is able to pull any wool over anyone's eyes.

They also assign a staff member to develop a Personal Plan which is being worked on at the moment and we're both laughing about the things that are included in that - being just about 100% of the things that we were saying Tim could and should be doing for himself.

Tim also seems to be settling in with the work / social program very quickly - he's certainly occupied, busy and doing worthwhile work which should make him feel a lot more involved in the community.

Really it is the luck of the Irish - he's landed on his feet well and truly!

We had our first seriously big frost the other day - which needless to say precipitated a mad scramble to finish off the harvest.

Not a bad haul from 2 garden beds:

And your awwww moment - we've finally figured out a way of getting Jedda and Meg to get out from under a doona in the mornings:

Hot Dogs!

There's a battle to get the front spot.

It's amazing to see these two cuddling up - even if it's only as competition.

This week Tim moves into a full time Residential Unit. As well as living there, he'll be continuing a range of day programs and supported employment as well. Adam went there today and he was very impressed firstly with the range of options that they have available, and their approach which is all about personal development.

And boy oh boy oh boy does Tim need personal development.

We knew, when we decided to move him here permanently that we were in for some rough times. Not because Tim has an intellectual disability, but because of his learned behavioural problems that frankly, were staggering.

What we were really pleased about is that in the nearly 6 months that he has been here we've been reassured that most of his behavioural issues are just that - learned and they can be unlearned. The problem is whether or not you can be bothered with the battle - and to be brutally honest, we're over it. It's definitely time to hand him onto people who are paid to deal with this sort of challenge and have seen it all before.

I think it would be fair to say that it was on from the day that Tim arrived. We expected that and were prepared to cut him considerable slack in the early days - after all, originally he was only going to be here until his mother's health improved, and a period of adjustment is only fair.

So we started off with the simplest thing - please and thank you are not optional. It also should not be something that has to be dragged out of you and/or delivered in an extremely sarcastic manner. We fought that battle right through Christmas Day - when our friends had gone out of their way to provide him with Christmas presents and he had to be forced to grudgingly thank them for the bother. It continued on a daily basis with us having to hang onto plates of food until he would force himself to mutter thank you (or more irritatingly create a major performance out of saying thank you), until eventually, after a few months he gave up that fight and stopped behaving like a little savage.

Other little battles along the way - pick up after yourself, clean up the table after you've spread your lunch all over it without having to be told all the time, and so on - but a month or so in - time to take on one of the major issues. The fight to have him shower himself (he's got form after all / he's showered himself just fine in the past, we just turn on the kitchen timer to remind him when to get out and he's away). We fought that battle for months and months - he would nail the 3 step routine in the mornings for a while, even got to the stage where he didn't need the timer, but then start the attention seeking - switching the order of tasks around so he's be in the road of everyone else in the house, predictably degenerating into not doing anything - just sitting in bed "waiting" to be noticed.

And therein lay the biggest battle of all. Tim does NOTHING without an audience. He wants a rousing round of applause if he goes to the toilet, if he washes his hands, if he gets himself a glass of water, makes himself a cup of tea (these things are announced ad nauseum just to make sure that you notice). He solicits congratulations when he sits at a table and spends up to 3 hours dusting his dozen or so DVD's (the chances of him dusting anything else on the table not his, are less than zero mind you). He constantly and consistently demanded attention. If you were on the phone - he'd interrupt or do something to distract you. You could go hours and hours without him uttering a word to anybody - start to work at the computer, get a visitor, do anything that meant you were tied up and he suddenly had to be the centre of attention. And one of my "favourite" things - the shake. Can't open something in a restaurant. Silently shake it in front of Karen. When that ends badly - try it with everything for a while. But then stubbornness is a speciality of Tim's. It can be channelled - we tried that and had some good success (he can tie his shoelaces if you target the stubborn streak for example). It's just a pity that he's deeply programmed to use that will for failure and manipulation as opposed to success.

Not talking takes on an even more interesting twist. What would you do if you got out of the shower and found you had no towel to dry yourself with? Tim tried a number of options - he used mine (that ended very badly), he stood around and waited until we noticed that he'd not emerged from the bathroom for an hour, he tried getting dressed soaking wet. What he refused point-blank to try was stick his head out the door and shout. Same as when he ran out of clean underwear - that time he sat in the bedroom stark-naked for a few hours until we went looking for him. Now Tim definitely has a problem with forming language. No two ways about that - it's part of the disability that is most frustrating for him. But you'll imagine our somewhat stunned amazement when one night he launched into a long, very verbal, quite clear and very succinct rant about the injustices that were committed against him at his last centre and Respite House. I don't know that he realised how quicky he managed to incriminate himself in most of the events along the way. But more instructively - he can get his point across quite well. Helps if you're talking about the only subject that he'll talk about - Tim. But it proved quite conclusively that there is no excuse for not speaking up when something's not right. None.

Then there was the "going-out" behaviour. Now Tim's always been notorious for being slow - but it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the "slowness" is extremely targeted. Announce we were going to do something he wanted to do, and he could be dressed and ready to go out the door in 15 minutes. Announce something we wanted to do (in particular something I wanted to do), and it would take him 15 minutes to walk into the bedroom. Of course he wanted us to fuss, wanted us to dress him, to pay attention to him, to make us pay for whatever it was that we wanted to do.

Having said that, taking him places was increasingly a highly fraught experience. Fine if all the women in the room picked up on the fact that Tim thinks he needs to be cosseted, but then Tim has a very skewed view of women and no coping mechanisms at all if his standard manipulative tactics fail, so heaven help us if if it didn't work his way. We got into the name calling, the idiotic cackling, the lagging behind walking / attention dragging, the beckoning finger and whispering in the ears of people and it all got very old very very quickly. I really don't think we need to be holding workshops with our friends to explain how to "deal with Tim" when your only sin is to treat him like an adult.

Now we know what's going on with all of this behaviour. Life-long negative-feedback loops that have reinforced everything else. Addicted to attention to the point of obsession, pointless / petty and stupid stubbornness, the Ruler of All I Survey complex and a manipulative and quite cunning personality. What I guess neither of us expected however, was the sheer nastiness - the vicious, manipulative nastiness. We got the full barrelled nasty experience - the name calling which started on Boxing Night (directed at all the women in the room not just me), the deaf / mute routine when 10 minutes ago he knew exactly what you'd asked, the glaring and the sulking, the tantrums and the whole catastrophe. And my all time favourites - the don't swear / don't shout instructions delivered directly at me - whilst he'd not bothered with cleaning up after his last toilet visit (I'll leave it to your imagination to work out what smell alerted me to that little joy), or maybe you'd prefer to think about the sight of somebody about to eat their lunch in a restaurant without bothering with the need to use a handkerchief (this time you can consider the visual "clue" that I got for that one), and you will excuse me if I spent some time contemplating hypocrisy and sheer gall into the bargain.

As you can probably imagine this has made for a difficult living situation for a while. It's almost impossible to explain the impact of a malevolent, nasty presence in your house, day after day after day. That glares, snarls or, on a good day, simply disregards you. Somebody who miraculously can follow instructions given by somebody else, but if the same words come out of my mouth - no comprehension. Somebody who has taken away your self-determination, stuffed up your personal life completely but can't even be bothered to try the absolute basics. That certainly won't volunteer to do anything to help, and plays such mindless stupid games when asked to do something as simple as pick up a broom and sweep the house - that you fight the urge to give up and do it yourself on an hourly basis because you know that means that you'll have to "notice him" and you're in the stupid game. Mind you, this malevolent presence also fully expects / demands that you do everything for him - there is this assumption that no matter how nasty he gets, you will provide / wait on / feed / pick up after / toilet / amuse / arrange life for ....

Well let's just say that the day I found myself listening carefully to Nigel Latta talk about parenting and thinking that's a trick we could use, it was time to pull the pin. He's nearly 42 years old for god's sake and we're not his parents. Whilst it would be perfectly okay for him to be childlike, he's not, he's childish and there is a very very very big difference.

Hopefully Tim will now take the opportunity that's in front of him and actually put in some effort - god knows it's taking a lot of time and effort on the part of a lot of people (not just us) - not that he seems to care how much disruption or even how much pain he's causing. It's well and truly time for him to step up to the mark. Everybody's very willing to help him learn and grow and cope with his disability. The rest of the crap? Not acceptable.