I love Fridays - it's the day that I don't have to work (in the conventional sense of the word) for the next two days! PJ got a bottle of champagne and after we fed the cows, we walked up our hill for a little toast to the weekend. Rufus was not impressed and wanted to be in the same field as us, and mooed at us for most of the time that we were sitting there. When we didn't move towards him, he started sharpening his horns on one of the trees. Hmmmm.... Strange boy.
Saturday PJ and I decided to give ourselves a day off and visit Hobart and Margate - it would also help with avoiding the fumes in the house as PJ is varnishing the floors in the livingroom and music room. First off we went to Margate, where we went to the tipshop and picked up a load of jars, a basket and some crystal whiskey decanters, all for the price of $30. Not bad! As we went on our merry way, we spotted an antique shop and carpet place, so we thought, let's have a look there too. We picked up a beautiful rug of goats wool (much more beautiful and half the price of woollen rugs!) and some tools for our woodstove. Since both my hands are covered in burns and blisters, this will come in handy when stoking the fire :) I guess it's still comforting to here and there fall back into our consumerist ways and pick up some nice things while we still can.
We wandered around Salamanca markets, and caught up with Tania who is looking HUGE now - her baby is due soon. I was thinking of my sister, who is now 5 months pregnant already again, and what she's got to look forward to. I don't envy them!
It was a lovely day, and it was nice to be able to breathe some fresh air. We found a little specialty shop so got some nice beers and real pate and cheese for the evening, and then drove back home. It's awkward moving around the house at the moment, the livingroom forms the access to most of the other rooms, so as we can't walk there we had to walk around the house to get to the kitchen or the toilet. The cats were most confused. The result is beautiful though, and I'm looking forward to being able to put the livingroom together so we actually have a place where we can sit down and relax. One more coat to go... so I think the coming weekend we'll be getting our books out of boxes - finally.
Sunday PJ did the second coat of varnish and I pottered around the house, doing washing and cleaning and such dreary things. We were supposed to go over to Ursula's to help her vaccinate and drench her sheep, but the weather was too bad so it wasn't a good time in the end. PJ will now probably go over some time during the week, which means I miss out on the fun :( Still, on Sunday it gave me the chance to plant out some flowers, so the back paddock near where I milk has now got Flanders Poppies thrown around, and where the vegie patch will be there is a whole patch of Marigolds. I also made Halloumi, it's originally a goat's milk cheese but you can make it with cow's milk as well. It's quite salty, but I think it will be nice in salads. It's still a fascinating process, and it's still a surprise to see things work. Next, I'm planning to make some Dutch cheeses (Gouda and Edam), Havarti and another washed rind cheese. Pongy but nice! These take months to mature. On top of that I've made some Labnah as well, this is simply making yoghurt (which I do completely from scratch now, beautiful fluffy airy yoghurt) and straining it for 24 hours. Add herbs and garlic... You get the picture. It's a dairy feast around here. Lunch on Sunday was a very thin omelette stuffed with spinach and homemade ricotta (and the omelette was with our own eggs and cream of course) what a feast, a glass of wine... Yum.
I phoned my sister in the evening, we hadn't caught up for a while and ended up talking for a long, long time. I can't believe she is already 5 months pregnant. I got some photos of her on Monday, and you can start to see now that she's pregnant. It's so weird seeing your own sister like that. No doubt I'm a bit late with this experience, but still. She looks happy and that's all that matters.
Work is busy at the moment - we're still in deadline and finishing off mode, so I feel quite tired in the evening. This stops me from doing too much, after milking, working, rounding up the animals and feeding them, putting them to bed, making dinner, doing dishes... I'm sort of puffed. Frustrating, as it'd be nice to be able to get on with some things around the house. I'm so looking forward to the place being finished, and us being able to do some work outside, and being able to relax in a finished house at the end of a long day. Still, this morning we replanted some of our tomato seedlings (after milking and before I had to start work), so that made me feel better. Tonight we're hoping to put on an Uncle Arthur's beer, and hopefully I can play a few tunes. It's not long now though, I think we're definitely over halfway with the house, and it's starting to feel like it.
Ian dropped by yesterday, he was curious to see Rufus. He came all dressed up, and I think Rufus was suitably impressed although he didn't quite like Ian walking all around him and checking him out. But we already knew he is a bit insecure. Ian reckons he is a quiet bull, and doesn't display any signs of aggression towards humans, and is a fine specimen. All I care about is for Ems to get pregnant :)
Still, today when we fed the cows, I actually managed to walk up to Rufus and hand him some hay, which is more than I've done before. He quietly (well, apart from his rumbling moo that you can hear from the other side of the hill) stood there waiting for me, and just took the hay, which was good. I'm breaking all sorts of barriers here for myself.
We had four more eggs, and I'm keen to try and make our own mayonnaise. You must by now think I'm quite obsessed by food (which I probably am) but I am really enjoying making foods from scratch as I think that the wool is being pulled over our eyes by large corporations as far as deciding what is good for us. Of course, it's up to people themselves as well to do something about it, and most of the human race in the western world is quite happy going along like sheep and just taking it all - no independent thought for most of us I'm afraid! Soylent Green, funny as it was, was not that far off the mark and we don't even see it.
Here are some interesting links:
- Surviving Peak Oil: Obstacles to Relocation
Self explanatory. - Is history so boring we keep on repeating the same mistakes?
Actually no: We were on the whole born stupid and are destined to die that way too. - The truth about plastic
Plastic is a truly scary material. If you can, try and get hold of 'World without us' by Alan Weismann. in one of the chapters, he talks about the plastic soup we have created in our oceans, and how plastic is created, and what toxic bombs we have in those factories. It is really really an eye opener. Btw I'm trying to cut down on our plastic use. It's hard, because it's practically impossible to get anything in the supermarkets today that isn't double, no make that triple, wrapped in plastic. Still, I think we're making progress as nowadays we can go 2-3 weeks without having the bin emptied - I'm trying very hard to recycle everything we have. Also related are the next two links. - It's a wrap
More about cutting down on plastic. - Top tips from plastic-free bloggers
Self explanatory again! There are some handy tips there. - Food from Thought
He does go a bit 'weird' at the end, but on the whole an interesting approach to eating your own meat. Both my mum and sister surprised me by being really quite down to earth about this all when we talked last week, it was really nice to get the feedback that we're doing a good thing.
More anon....
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^^ ^^
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