Crappy birthdays

Last Thursday was PJ's birthday. He is now 45 (!!) and still not living up to his age. I found a most excellent card with a Dungbeetle's birthday ('Thanks for all the crap presents!', 'More crapcake anyone?', 'No thanks I'm full of crap!') which PJ reckoned only someone like me could find. It was a day as normal, I had my final deadline at the end of the week so there wasn't much relaxation during the day, and PJ was busy too. Zlatty dropped by to have PJ look at his laptop, which took up quite a bit of the day. My parcel from Cheeselinks arrived with all the starters and wax for my great Dutch cheese adventure, and in the evening we went out to Petty Sessions which is a rather nice little restaurant in Franklin. We had the whole place to ourselves, but I reckon you can spot a good restaurant when they don't hassle you and even as the sole two people there you can still have a really enjoyable time. The food was lovely, and PJ had a nice red wine too. On the way back we had an extra passenger in the car, a large huntsman sitting near the steering wheel which gave me a fright and PJ had to get rid of it before I could drive home. Since the little b'stard escaped inside the car, I felt itchy all the way home, but we made it there without any further encounters.

That night, PJ had a talk with his mum, and found out that his oldest brother is seriously ill and on life support in hospital. He has a large tumour on his kidney, but as he already has had a heart attack as well a few years back, he hasn't been fit enough to operate upon. So first we were told that he was going to be operated on the next day, but we found out on Saturday he still isn't fit enough so they have postponed it for a week. PJ is thinking about visiting home - more for his mum than anybody because she is (understandably) very upset. Him and his oldest brother are not very close, but I guess if your own brother is at death's door it does give you something to think about. His oldest brother is 49 so it's not very good innings, even though admittedly he does smoke like a chimney and is a singularly unhealthy and unfit man (and funnily enough he didn't see the heart attack as a reason to change a few habits here and there). So, a crappy end to a birthday indeed, in the end, and PJ didn't get a lot of sleep. It's these kind of times that you realise you're a long way from home, and can't just nip back to be there. Firstly there is the time (at least all in all 24 hours before you're with your family) and it's not exactly cheap either. But still, we've decided that if PJ wants to go he'll go, and I'll hold the fort here by myself for a few weeks. That'll be fun trying to get Emsky and Porter in!

Last week Sunday we went over to Ursula's to help her fence off her vegie patch. We thought we'd do it in half a day, but we ended up finishing off at around 5pm. The result was worth it though, and Ursula was very happy as she'd been wanting to do this forever. Ian was busy ploughing up fields, Ursula said that if it involved 'hand' work (eg what we were doing, manually digging holes and what not) Ian just wasn't interested. He did look like he had a great time racing up and down the paddock on his tractor. After we finished we had a look at the sheep - some of them have just had lambs and they were absolutely the cutest things going. We had another offer to get a few sheep, but after fencing the paddock for the cows and finding out that sheep need even more fencing, I really have decided against sheep. Plus they eat the grass too low so it currently seems like too much trouble for us.

One of our chooks, Buffy 2, has now seriously been sitting on 12 eggs. She is the sister of our first mother, and I hope that we're going to have a bit more luck this time around. It seems to me that they are swapping who sits on the eggs, but it's mainly Buffy 2. Our sole little survivor loves sitting under her now at night, so it looks like Buffy 1 is free of all chores - although he does still follow her around during the day. We've decided to let Buffy 2 sit where she is now, which is in a corner in the chook house. We don't have a broody pen, and I also read that since they live in a flock, the whole raising of baby chooks is done as a flock (in the wild) so we are going to see what happens this time around. If it doesn't work out, we can always build a broody pen later.

We are currently working on the spare bedroom - the boards will be finished today, and then we can start plastering hopefully tonight or tomorrow. I was going to help as well, but have been so itching to make some cheeses that I have been a bit sidetracked. Yesterday I made my first Edam - the second one failed. I think I didn't watch it closely enough, the milk went funny, and it didn't set. The chookies loved the failed cheese today though. Still, one Edam is drying in the cupboard, and this afternoon I made my first two Gouda's as well. So far so good, and I've even managed to play the violin in between while the cheese was setting. I do enjoy making cheese - but it will be even nicer in a real kitchen. Our kitchen should come end October so not long now.

Apart from that, we've both been working hard, and getting on with it. My work deadline passed on Friday, but I'm sure that there will be some hiccups the coming week. Of course everybody has decided to go on holidays, so I'll be having to deal with things - not quite my favourite task but never mind. At least WA has a bank holiday on Monday (so I have the day off tomorrow, yay!) which I'm sure the US will be rather annoyed about.

Last week we walked through our orchard, and I was so surprised to see all the blossoms and leaves starting to come through. Somehow I hadn't expected the blossoms to appear for a few years yet. But the flowers are there, so beautiful and delicate. I hope they will still be there when Judy gets here, she'll enjoy them too. I will have to take some photos.

I think that was about for now. I'm waiting for the butter to turn to butter, then the dishes, and then bed....

Until the next time!