A MESSAGE FROM DAD

Last Sunday was Allegra's blessing. Mum, Maggie and I, Steven, Laura, Chloe and Emily, Heidi, Paul and Lola all drove up on Saturday and stayed overnight with Josh, Debora and family. Everyone fit so well into the house that it didn’t seem crowded at all. Sunday morning Joe, Ali, Reef and Lizzie drove over from Albury to Finley Chapel for the blessing. The day was sunny, calm and cool; it hardly seemed like winter at all. Josh blessed Allegra with the help of Joe, me, Richard Butler and some of the local priesthood while Debora was asked to bear her testimony which she did very sincerely and well. Allegra was very calm and didn't say anything at all. As you can see from the photos she is short, round and squishy. *

After church everyone including just about the whole Finley Branch came back to the “Wolff’s Den” for a spit roast barbecue. There was plenty of food and it was a just a great Finley feed and get together. Finley branch has always been noted for it’s hospitality and friendliness. The last person left as the sunset. Finley branch has 70+ active members and they include lawyers, wheat and sheep farmers, dairy farmers, clerks, retired people, people who fled the big city, one lady is a shire councilor. There is even an itinerant writer, who has a beard, a masters in lit. ,few possessions, rides around on a push bike with handle bars and lives alone; a bit like Henry Thoreau on Walden Pond.

Most of the family left on Sunday afternoon. Steven was feeling sick and left early; next morning the doctor told him he has swine flu.

Mum, Maggie and I stayed on Sunday night because now that I am retired I don’t have such a strict schedule. Yes! I finally applied to the superannuation fund for my life savings and we are going to move to Gordon to live in a caravan and shed (not yet built) while our dream country farmhouse is built.

Note: my life savings will last 12 months if we are careful. For the past 3 months since I stopped work I have been busy painting and fixing the house in Seaford to make it pleasant and comfortable to live in. You might appreciate that next week the roof will be insulated.

I have planted a veggie garden and built a chook house that now is home to six brown hens. I spent a lot of time standing at the chook pen studying chook family psychology – perhaps I will write a book about them in my retirement. All this is a preparation for our move to Gordon. We are looking at planting a berry orchard because the climate and soil seems to be suitable.

I must add a few words in support of the prophets’ exhortations over the years, for us to put away 12 months supply of food and other daily consumables. In the last two years Mum has been actively buying wheat, rice, spelt, all sorts of other dried foods, cans of tomatoes and fruit, beans, dates, nuts, toothpaste, toilet rolls, toothpaste, soaps, cleaning chemicals and I have been grinding flour and making bread etc. Since I was made redundant we have been drawing heavily on these supplies and yet there seems hardly any reduction in our stores. We have consequently been able to live very cheaply and we have no concerns about shortage of food – we could last for many months more on the basic foods in our store.

To prepare for retirement I have been able to get a casual teaching position, for one day a week, with the Box Hill Institute. I am going to night school to study a Cert IV subject “Training and Assessment” which is the minimum qualification required. Next Wednesday is my first teaching day and I have to tell you I am scared – but I have to try it.

Love,
Dad

*More pictures are on their way-check back later