A short while ago I was contacted by the local dole office concerning my work pattern. They were concerned about the little and irregular bouts of employment. I explained that one of the main reasons that I sign on as part-time self employed is due to my health. I have never had time off work during my working life and I do not wish to burden an employer with bouts of non attendance. What with the lack of cartilage between my coccyx and first vertebrae, which in turn crushes the sciatic nerve, and my heart condition, I am now suffering with a hernia. And that’s before we consider the psychological effect that all this is having.
My main source of income comes from tinkering; repairing things, sharpening tools, etc. The fact that the truck needs some welding done before I can again use it exacerbates the situation. I am limited to people bringing work to me. The constant being let down by welders’ empty promises (it must be up to a dozen people by now! Some of whom have gone out of their way to offer help, never to be seen again. One has even stated three times that they can do the work, yet has never turned up!)
The kind lady at the dole office, Carol is her name, insisted that I sign on as ‘sick’. I said that I believed that I would not be entitled to ‘sick benefit’ as the requirements for eligibility are extreme. “Don’t believe everything you read in the media.” She said. So, with her assured support, I contacted a local GP. I was astounded when I actually managed to get an appointment, particularly as I have failed to see a GP regarding my hernia! The GP signed me off indefinitely right there and then.
On occasions I receive frozen food from Dom’s (www.domsfoodmission.com). The only problem with that is the fact that I do not have a freezer. That generally means that I have to cook it all up within 24hrs., which is not usually a problem. However, one day I received an awful lot of chicken. Far too much for both the cats and I. Unfortunately, I think I must’ve cocked up, because, I was very ill for a good 24hrs. within hours of eating. It probably didn’t help that I managed to make the hernia worse when staining, varnishing and polishing the new ceiling in the ‘front room’ of my caravan.
(By the way; could you please let me know whether the links are working. They don’t always appear to on some formats. Not sure why.)
A couple of days later, a bloke stopped by to enquire as to whether I would be interested in some logs. “Sure.” I said, “It would save me having to try to get suitable trunks from the woods.” The next day he returned with a mate in tow and a sizeable trailer with some very wide girthed slabs of Eucalyptus and one section around 4’ long which had to be rolled off of the trailer.
Daniel came over the next day and we set about cutting the hoofing great lump into manageable sizes. We had to roll the trunk in increments in order to cut it as my chainsaw bar is not long enough to cut through in one go.
I have also chopped most of it up into logs and bagged them up. Eucalyptus is very oily and doesn’t burn very well when green. Once seasoned however, it burns very hot. The other thing about Eucalyptus is that it dries incredibly hard, making it ideal for outdoor furniture. With that in mind, I have decided to keep some of the slabs to turn into tables.