AVENUE Range sheep producers Janelle and Nick Edwards have never worked harder in their lives than in the past seven months since the Blackford fire ravaged about half of their property.
And although they admit they feel exhausted they are finally feeling on top of the recovery.
Most of the 30 kilometres of fencing they lost has been replaced or repaired and nearly 1300 trees have been planted on their property, The Washpool, after many trees they had planted over recent years were incinerated.
They are hugely grateful to extended family, neighbours, friends and strangers who reached out with food, hay and so many other items and the many volunteers from sporting and community organisations who have rolled up their sleeves to help them.
"It is overwhelming in so many ways from the generosity of people to the amount of work we have achieved," Mrs Edwards said.
"If we hadn't had all that community support we would have been way behind where we are," Mr Edwards said.
At the Mackillop Farm Management Group's annual livestock field day in Lucindale on Thursday they will share some of these experiences.
The couple are grateful all the houses on the property are still standing and although they lost about 20 per cent of their Merino flock they know the livestock toll could have been much worse if more stock were in the southern half of their farm.
If we hadn't had all that community support we would have been way behind where we are.
- Nick Edwards, Avenue Range sheep producer
Since January they have been taking it one day at a time with Janelle assuming the livestock management and Nick coordinating recovery projects such as fencing and clean up.
Two mobs of sheep went on agistment for about three months and they built confinement pens to feed their Merino ewes from the end of mating. This gave their paddocks a chance to recover.
They are still assessing which paddocks will need renovating but say the lucerne/chicory has come back well and the phalaris stands except for a few bare patches.
"The annual pastures like the one here behind the house have been the worst, with it now growing lots of capeweed and thistles," Mr Edwards said.
Despite the harrowing ordeal they have found a few positives out of it, including the chance to fast track some of their farm plans; putting in an all weather track to the woolshed and realigning some of their fences to alter the size of some paddocks.
"We lost some new fences but we also lost some really old fences that were due to be upgraded in the next few years," Mrs Edwards said.
They are grateful to have been able to draw on the experiences of those in the Keilira bushfire a year earlier and say the organised get togethers with other locals have been really important.
"We have felt obliged to go to the social events but it has been good for us to do that because we have got talking to people and realised what we were going through was similar to what they were going through too," Mrs Edwards said.
Another great morale booster has been a couple of family celebrations with their daughter Samantha holding her 21st birthday at the farm just a month after the fire and their son Andrew getting married.
The couple remain adamant that a clear written plan that they had practised was invaluable on that fire day, especially for Mrs Edwards who was sheltering inside the house with 15 dogs when the fire front passed.
Looking ahead to the next bushfire season Mr and Mrs Edwards believe only minor tweaks are needed to their fire plan.
"On those high fire danger days we may also think about waiting a day to move the sheep into the next paddock with more pasture but it may not have made a difference," she said.
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