News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 87

At the end of June my husband went to the Volunteer Summit at the Gold Coast for 3 days. The Summit is a series of workshops for both Rural Fire Service and SES personnel.

They went down on the Friday and registered/checked in before having a BBQ dinner in the evening. Not your average BBQ this was beachside at the resort. Saturday was taken up with them doing 4 workshops and then a gala dinner on Saturday night. Sunday they finished off with two more workshops before all going home. About 200 volunteers attended the Summit.

These Summits are held every 2 years. At the dinner on Saturday night they had a raffle and this time round was a 21 inch Android Tablet up for grabs.

Hubby had stepped outside while waiting for dinner and said when he came back into the room, people were pointing at him saying there he is…….. yes hed won!!

Well he won it but it is for the brigade that he is a member of and was representing. We said they probably wont let either of us attend another Summit as I attended the last one and won the prize then.

The photo is of my hubby (Pete) handing over the prize to the First Officer of River Heads Kingfisher Rural Fire Brigade and the members all looking at it working when set up.

It will be a great asset for the brigade for mapping and other programs we use.

Last Friday we said goodbye to one of our beautiful furbabies. Little Miss Nikky who we affectionately knew as Likky. She got her nickname as she was a real little licker.

She loved licking your arm or fingers, and would lick her brother for ages,like a mumma kitty licking her babies.

Miss Nikky was 18 yrs old and she will be missed greatly. She was one of 5 kittens born to Miss Kitty and we still have abrother and sister.

One kitten was given to a new home when they were 8 weeks old, one brother was sadly sent to kitty heaven about 5 years ago because of illness.

So she will be able to see Boots again now. Lion and Betsy, the two remainingkittys are missing her badly. Her mumma Miss Kitty is 19 years old and we still have her also.

Likky or Lik Lik as we also called her, had gone blind and she wouldget lost in unfamiliar surroundings but she knew her way round the house and area immediately round the house.

I knew that the day was coming when wed have to say goodbye but it doesntmake it any easier when that day comes.

We recently had one set of Grandkids up to the holidays, and Likkyenjoyed all the cuddles in bed with Zac.

Im glad they had somequality time together.

It was almost like she hung on till she sawthem again as we dont see them as often as we used too.

So she really enjoyed the attention. The house isnt the same without her the last week. After having to do so much for her and make sure she was safe and knewwhere to go, there is a emptiness around here now.

And watchingTV isnt the same either as she would snuggle in and purr the wholetime we were watching TV. My beautiful little girl is at peace now, playing over the RainbowBridge with her brother Boots and two of our other kittys, Horry and Munchkin.

I miss her so much.

No not the derogatory kind, (here we call idiots drongos!!) but the feathered kind! Yes there is a bird called a drongo. The Australian species is the spangled drongo.

It is the only drongo to be found in Australia, where it can be recognised by its black, iridescent plumage and by its characteristic forked tail.

The Black Drongo predominately lives in Asia.For the past few years from around April through to end of August we have these little black birds come round when its feed time for the lorikeets, galahs, magpies, butcher birds and kookaburras.

These little birds with big red eyes, have black plumage which is iridescent with blue and purple highlights, fly in so fast and snatch the food from the magpies and butcher birds when we throw some mince up in the air and they are off into the trees again.

They will hover above you if theres a few of them until they get a feed. We have about 8 of them this year. Last year we had 4, so when they disappear for the rest of the year they must tell all their mates where there is easy pickings.

Or they bring last years babies back with them. But they are increasing in numbers each year. The spangled drongo is an amazing mimic taking most of its vocabulary from the sounds heard in the vicinity and weaving them into a virtuoso aria.On Wednesday I spent a wonderful afternoon with some very dear friends.

Vicki, who I went to primary school with and her husband David, were in Hervey Bay and they were here at feeding time for the birds that come each day.

David has been an avid photographer for the past 40 years, so out came the camera and he managed to capture some wonderful shots of the various birds feeding.

But this photo of one of the Drongos in full flight is magic.

My attempts at photographing them have been dismal to say the least. I have added a photo of one sitting in a tree so you can see the tail. The photo is used with permission from the photographer.

As part of my Fire Service work, I am the Admin Officer for the Hervey Bay Rural Fire Brigades Group.

The Group supports 8 brigades on the mainland and 3 brigades on Fraser Island by way of training, Incident Management Team at multi brigade incidents as well as organising crews or crew changes, food for crews on the ground and providing equipment.

The Group is funded by money from a fire levy only, which means we have to budget very carefully each year so recently we applied for a Grant.

The grant application was put in last November and recipients were only announced at the end of May this year.

Hervey Bay Group was successful and can now purchase an A3 colour laser printer which will be of huge help to print out maps at incidents and when planning hazard reduction burns and also we can purchase a tablet which means we can now drive round a fire and plot it out which will help in showing crews access tracks and the size of the fire.

As successful applicants we were recently invited to a morning tea with the local federal member and were awarded a Volunteer Award for 2016.

I was asked to represent the Group as our Group Officer was unable to attend.

These awards were given on the same day as the Queens Birthday Honours list was announced and the Group Officer was awarded an Order of Australia for his years of contribution to the community with his RSL work with veterans and their families and his years with both the fire service in Victoria and Queensland over the past 35 years.

Other members of volunteer organisations also attended the morning tea and the photo below shows me with some of the other recipients that attended.

Thursday 26th May saw an amazing little man celebrate his 5th Birthday. That amazing little mans name is Coen. His mum and dad have had a very wonderful 5 yrs with Coen and probably wondered a few years ago if they get to celebrate it with him.

You see 5 weeks after being born, Coen he was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia. He was taken by Careflight (emergency patient transport) from the hospital in the country town where they lived to the Childrens Hospital in Brisbane where he underwent a liver Biopsy & a Bone Marrow Biopsy.

Within a week he had a Kasai procedure, (to enable bile drainage) which his parents were told had failed and he would require a life saving Liver Transplant by the age of 2.

Biliary atresia is a condition in which inflammation develops within the bile ducts around the time of birth. The inflammation can occur in any of the bile ducts both inside and outside the liver.

This leads to bile duct damage, reducing the flow of bile, which causes scarring of the liver. It is a rare life-threatening disease that affects approx 1 in 20000 newborns. The cause is still unknown and research goes on to find out.

Coen requires a regime of medications & medicated formula throughout the day & night to avoid Malnutrition due to his malabsorbtion of essential Fats & Vitamins, also to try to alleviate the severe itch he experiences caused by the bile build-up in his system.

Coen regularly attends Clinics, his bloods are taken to monitor his levels & he has Hospital admissions to receive Albumin Transfusions or Lipids Infusions depending on the results....of Pathology.At the moment Coen is attending hospital every 5 weeks for his tune ups.

One very brave little fellow because he now is at an age that he knows whats going to happen yet can still find the most gorgeous smile.His awesome parents take each day as it comes, as so far Coen isnt on the Transplant List but given the nature of this disease, that day will possibly be not too long now.

So his Birthday today (as I write this), is a huge milestone in this little mans life. Not only will he be celebrating but Mum and Dad will be celebrating too that he has come this far and they get to celebrate with him.

Good on you Awesome Coen!!