Hey Y’all,
It’s been a while. Not long ago (though time is a blur), a friend of mine nudged me (virtually) to send out another newsletter. “I miss your musings,” he said. As a person who loves compliments, ego-boosts, and feeling wanted, I was obviously delighted. Still, it took another several weeks to finally get down to brass tacks, and here we are.
So, hey! We’ve emerged from winter down under and are currently dragging our feet through a wet, often cold spring. Some of the storms have been pretty impressive lately, and there have been THREE recent tornado events in our area - a phenomenon that is absolutely not normal for Australia, though little Midwestern Me is vaguely thrilled by it. (Not by the climate change that is causing it, however.) Fortunately, Viv and I have been unharmed through all of this.
In milestone news, we have been living in our little unit in Orange for over one year now! This is the longest I’ve lived in one place since 2016 - just before the big jump to New Zealand, where everything sort of crumbled and rebuilt and crumbled and rebuilt for a while. That might still be happening now, but a little more eloquently. I’ve had a lot of practice. But since living in one place again, I’ve had some reverse-challenges to deal with: how to be stationary, how to run a home, how to maintain a stable job without getting bored (which I’ve only half-managed), and most importantly how to not feel trapped in our little space. We’ve filled it with things we like, things we use, and a few things we don’t use. I thought that after living mostly out of backpacks for the last few years, and borrowing items wherever we went, that I would appreciate having our own things. And I do. We’ve nested; it feels homey and comfortable, at least to our standards, though we are cautiously realising that maybe we’ve jumped the gun a little bit.
It’s hard to say how much longer we’ll stay in this little-big town. The feeling of flux is impending. We even have an appointment to check out this cute old camper van on Saturday - that is if someone else doesn’t buy it up first. We don’t necessarily know what we’d do with it yet besides make a project out of it, but it’s a small sign to us both that we might be gearing up mentally to move on. Only now, with this home full of home goods, we have stuff we have to deal with. Secondhand, scratched-up, perfect for the family cabin up north stuff.
And chooks! Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about them. In fact, a couple minutes ago I had to mix up their porridge, which I should probably hurl over the fence for them now. But you see, we bought them these special protein pellets that are meant to ensure they get enough protein for good strong eggs. However, this came on the menu after the wheat and scratch mix that we’d been feeding them, and they were either too posh for the protein pellets, or simply didn’t recognise it as food. Then one day Viv mixed it with water and some other seeds to make it more like a porridge, and what do you know, they like it now! So, I guess “posh” was the correct answer there.
What will become of the babies if and when we eventually move is still a debate. In some theories we can bring them along, in others they will be adopted by doting mothers-in-law or friends. Or, maybe, we’ll tick away here for a while longer yet. It’s too early to say, but we do adore those beautiful fluffy bums.
In other news, Australia is slowly opening up its borders and restrictions - mostly state by state. Sydney has been released from a 100+ day lockdown, and the state of New South Wales is proposing slowly opening international borders as early as November. While the country had been trying to stamp out COVID altogether, the major outbreaks and spreading of the virus made that idea impossible as of several months ago, particularly with the Delta variant. In some ways this is a good move - we were all going to have to learn to live with the virus eventually. I don’t poo-poo on the efforts of trying to keep people safe, but I also don’t think you can hide from it forever.
This news will eventually mean that I can visit back home in the near-ish future. I feel no pressure to rush into buying plane tickets, rather I want to watch the new system at work and determine how and when it might be a good time. I’m cautiously optimistic for Wisconsin’s summertime next year. As I say annoyingly often these days: time will tell.
I’ll tell you all just one more thing because it occupies a lot of my thoughts lately, and Viv’s too: we are mid-stage in planning our first great thru-hike of a 1000km trail in Western Australia called the Bibbulmun Track.
Our hope is to have boots on the trail by this time next year, but as usual it will all depend on state borders, restrictions, funds, etc. Between now and then I am also aiming to become certified in Outdoor Leadership here in Aus, so that I can bring my passion for all things camp/outdoors to my day-to-day life. Everything is in the works! And it feels damn good to have some big goals to work towards. Also, it shouldn’t go unmentioned that I have such a wonderful and supporting partner who not only encourages what I want to do, but jumps on board. Actually, I think the truth of the matter is she knows I’ll do it either way… if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. (Thanks, V.)
As ever, I appreciate any and all of you for taking time out of your day to read about us down here. It’s a trivial life, but we gotta make the most of it, right? I hope all your plans and goals come to fruition.
Catch ya next time,
Maddy
(Or do you know me as Stitch? Maybe Mad-Dawg Maddy? Lanny? Mads? MADELEINE, WHO MADE THIS MESS DOWN HERE?!)
Maddy,
This is the best Musing I've read yet. Thanks for all your news!
Love, Pops.
Thank you for sharing updates on your life Mads, loved reading this!! Dare I ask if there’s room for one more on your trek? It looks epic - hopefully I can come visit next month for proper in person chats x