I can't believe it's butter

Years ago, when I still lived in England, I remember this ad coming out about some margarine product. Two cows are talking, and one says to the other after tasting it, 'I can't believe it's not butter!' which also is a hell of a long product name but there you have it. I never tasted it, but it again highlights our drive for substituting perfectly good natural products with something made up and synthetic which supposedly is 'better' for you. And of course we all go for it, as it makes us slimmer, happier, healthier, younger, taller, shorter...

I made my own raw butter on Saturday. I've been collecting the cream of Emma's milk for the last week, and decided that I really wanted to do something with it before it went off. I cheated a bit - I still haven't steralised my butter churn and after shaking a jar with only a quarter of all my cream for 10 minutes with nothing happening, I thought 'bugger it' and put the lot in the food processor. Indeed, after some time, the cream really did separate (why do all these things continue to be so surprising to me), so I drained the buttermilk and started washing the butter to clean it and make sure there was no buttermilk left, as this makes butter rancid more quickly. It's really nice to wash butter - it has a lovely texture and it smelt really fresh too. I then added some salt and stored it in the fridge. This morning, we all had some toast or crumpets with real butter, and it's just the most beautiful flavour and golden colour. PJ and Gerard both thought it tasted fantastic. I wasn't sure what to think, as the flavour is quite distinct (but then I'm one of those people who's been eating the lowest of the lowest calory margarine so I wouldn't really know what 'real' butter should taste like). Still, even as I was eating my toast the taste was growing on me, and there is now another thing I can scrap off our weekly shopping list.

I also made some lemon cheese. I used about 6 litres of milk to yield only 2.5 jars of cheese, but still, it's an experiment. The texture surprised me a bit - it came out quite rubbery but when I looked at the pictures in the book it seemed to look the same. Again, I'm surprised by the freshness of all the produce that comes out of Em's milk. The cheese has a lovely fresh flavour, slightly lemony, but nice. I saw two different recipes so I used a mixture. To get the cheese to be less rubbery I added some fresh cream and mixed it all up, and also added a bit of salt for flavour. It will be lovely on some toast or biscuits, although I'd like a second opinion! PJ thought it needed more salt, but I think this may interfere with the lemon flavour. The next time I think it'd be nice to add some fresh herbs as well.

Apart from these experiments which I had to do as the fridge nowadays only contains litres and litres of milk, we had a lovely weekend. Gerard, one of our friends from Perth, had come to stay for the weekend. He arrived on Friday, and PJ went to pick him up. I had some deadlines for work and was flatout, and in the evening we had Tanya and Jamahl, and Monte coming over for dinner as well (Rebecca is in Adelaide at the moment). I started cooking at about 4pm, and we had a lovely Mexican dinner. Poor Gerard nearly nodded off a few times, due to having taken a red eye flight and had even come all the way via Sydney. Everyone seemed to get on very well, and it was another nice evening spent with good friends. Tao and Kai watched a movie for a while but then fell asleep in our bed - Kai left me a special present by wetting the bed on MY side to make sure I wouldn't forget him as I went to bed myself, but hey, what's a little wet spot between friends :P It was a day for it anyway because it smelt like one of our lovely furry friends had left a present in the livingroom as well, which I had tried to air during the day.

Saturday morning I had to milk - and imagine my surprise to find Emma waiting by the gate! Normally we have to go to the far ends of the paddock to collect her. She knows the routine and doesn't mind (especially the food she's getting) but as soon as she sees us, she heads the other way. Not this Saturday morning though... She walked in, and even Porter calmly walked into his pen. How easy is that :) Please note she wasn't this cooperative on Sunday though, although she was still around and I got her in by myself. I was happy with that achievement, although I lost Porter on the way who decided to go for a run around the field. While I was milking, PJ and Gerard spent the next half hour trying to wrestle a 2-week old calf to the ground so they could take him into his pen. This was quite hilarious to observe from the corner of my eyes. Emma got a bit restless, but calmed down as soon as Porter was safely by her side. He seems to love playing with humans.

Saturday night I had a KangaKlaus party from work, they were even kind enough to hold it in the Cygnet Pub (which one of the employees owns) so it really wasn't that bad a drive for us. There was great live music, and surprisingly nice food. Although I don't really know people that well working from home most of the time, they seem a friendly bunch and we had some good laughs. After finding out where we live and what we do, the office administrator asked if the next office party could be held at ours as they are keen to set off some fireworks (?!?) and you need more than 3 acres before you are allowed to do it. That should be interesting - as long as we can keep our cattle happy and away from the noise! Maybe we can invite all our banjo neighbours along (now that should make for an interesting party!).

We dropped off Gerard at the airport today - and then did a naughty and had some fish and chips at the harbour before going home. Tomorrow is already Monday again. It's Annie's milking day, so PJ and I want to plant the chestnuts before I start work - that way they can benefit from all the rain that should be coming this week. A bit ambitious perhaps, but we can try! In the evening Tanya and I are starting our new gym routine; I'm looking forward to getting out of the house.

....And then, there was an orchard

We have had such a busy weekend, but it was great. On Saturday, Jamahl turned up much earlier than we expected - it was pissing it down with rain, and he couldn't work on the roof on his block. First we had a look at the progress of our renovations, and at our beautiful calf and milking pen. Then we got cracking with the orchard. We had 120 trees to plant, and we didn't think we'd finish it all over the weekend. PJ and Jamahl started measuring out where the trees should go, and I was going to move soil in the wheelbarrow. By this time, Tanya had arrived as well, so we first went to have a look at Porter with Tao and Kai.

Once we got going with planting, we had a really good system going. PJ and Jamahl were marking out the rows and digging the holes. I carted soil up and down, and Tanya and I planted the trees (Tanya's shoulder is still stuffed from Jamahl accidentally dislocating it doing a shoulder throw!). Tao and Kai were lovely, and happy to have a ride in the wheelbarrow to the soil heap. There was some hooting and tooting from passers by as we were working, plus an sms from one of Jamahl's friends saying we were all MAD for working in the pouring rain, but still. Once we got to about 5 o'clock we had put all the fruit trees in, 90 of them. This only left the 20 chestnuts, which we planned to put in on Sunday.

In the evening, we had to get ready as we were invited to a party in the Church in Franklin. The Church has been renovated to a private residence, but the front part is still an open area with a small podium as well. Marjorie and Steve had asked if I wanted to play some music with them, apparently there were going to be a number of musicians and it was going to be one big jamming session. This of course sounded pretty good to me, so we first had a quick bite to eat at Marjorie and Steve's, and then we went on to the party. Steve and Marjorie played a song first, but then Marjorie said, come and play some tunes, so I ended up on stage pretty much immediately. We played a load of jazz tunes - and absolutely great it was to be playing again with other musicians. Charles, the owner of the Church, plays the drums, and joined in as well. We had a ball. Marjorie and I seem to really play off each other, and it was great having this interaction. It ended up with us playing most of the evening though, more like an impromptu gig than a jamming session, but it was great fun. It was also interesting to meet a lot of new people. I saw PJ was quite enjoying himself, and after we'd finished I got talking with a few people myself as well. We got an invite to join a bookclub - as I read an awful lot this could well be interesting, although I'm not at all sure what these people talk about. But still, I guess we'll find out! We got back after 12, a bit late as I had to milk again in the morning (yes, no more sleepins for me!!) and as per normal when I play a lot of music, I couldn't get to sleep. PJ was pretty sozzled so he more or less fell unconscious immediately.

In the morning, Tanya came over early with the boys as she wanted to have a go at milking. It's not that easy to do, especially when there is not a lot of milk! I noticed that Emma seems to have a freeloader - one of Ma Rainey's calves seems to try very persistantly to have a drink of some Jersey milk :) Porter is growing, so he's probably drinking a lot more as well. But, for trying, it's easier to work with a full udder. We'll have another go soon, probably when we put Porter away overnight. Still, I got 4 liters out of Em, and Tanya had a good go as well, so we're all happy. It's funny to see how much Tao and Kai love Emma's milk. Like Tanya said, 'What's in that milk??' because they can't get enough of it. Every time I asked if they wanted a drink, they wanted Emma's milk. Of course it is lovely milk, so far everybody who's had a taste loves it. I still think it's the best birthday present ever. Talking of Ma Rainey.... I did grow quite fond of her, and when Ursula phoned to see which cows we were wanting to keep, I decided to keep them all. So she's with us for good. PJ was a bit grumpy about it at first, but is finally warming to her as well.

Anyway Jamahl went back to work on the roof at their block, and Tanya went home after milking to prepare dessert for the evening, and PJ and I tried to put the roof on the calfpen so that Porter will be dry and sheltered when we put him away overnight. We are also going to put a cover on the part where we're sitting when we're milking, so that Emma doesn't have to stand in the rain which makes her fidgety, and I also wouldn't mind staying dry when milking. Firstly we put all the poles together the wrong way, so that didn't help. But we finally got it right, and then we put the roof on. By that time Tanya had come back, and we had promised the boys a walk in Sherwood Forest so we went there. By the time we came out, Marjorie and Steve had dropped by because PJ was going to show them how to use their recording equipment. This took a few hours - so in the meantime Jamahl turned up, and then Rebecca and Monte dropped by unexpectedly as well. It was a full house!

In the evening we had Tanya and Jamahl stay for dinner, one, because it's good fun and two, to say thank you for all the help. Not quite the right evening when Monday is a workday, but still, life needs to be enjoyed as well.

Anyway, that's it for me.... I found some time to write today as the Internet connection is flaky and I can't get on with my job - even though there is a deadline looming on Thursday! Check out the photos....

Delicious milk and lost in New Norfolk... Twice!

Time flies when you're having fun. Annie and I have started milking Emma every day because she has been so full of milk it was painful to watch, and Ursula said we'd be doing her (and now obviously ourselves!) a favour.

So Tuesday, I thought I'd better try this milk and see what I think. Milk has not been my favourite drink, but I thought, it's good for a whole range of things (this is the raw milk I'm talking about) so I will have to like it. I milked Emma in the morning, filtered the milk, and poured myself a glass. It took me five minutes of watching it and smelling it (it doesn't smell by the way) before I dared to take a sip. And what a pleasant surprise it was.... It's lovely, absolutely delicious milk. It has a very delicate creamy flavour, nothing at all like the fake stuff from the supermarket. And, having to work to get it makes it even more special, and coming from Emma who's been such a good girl makes it even more special than that. Emma has been really good with us. Annie and I are both still learning to milk, and Emma, although she normally starts kicking a bit at the end, has been extremely good with us, and patient. We're both getting the hang of it though, and we've started milking with two hands so that we're not prolonging it too much for Em.

It's making my work day a fair bit longer though. Now I'm getting up at 6am, sterilise everything, get myself ready, wait for the light, then herd the cows in with PJ, milk, strain the milk, clean the pans... and then start work. Work is getting in the way of all the real things happening. Still, I'll have to go on a bit longer while the money is helping us doing what we want to do. Wage slave or what....

I took Friday off. Annie couldn't milk on Saturday (we've divided the days per our share in the cow, but still try to be flexible) so I asked if she wanted to milk on Friday - and this would also give me the opportunity to go and see Chris and Lisa over in Bushy Park. This worked out well, and I left Thursday evening after work. Naturally I ran late - lots of phonecalls so instead of leaving at 4pm I left about 40 minutes later, which meant I'd have to drive a fair bit in the dark. Still, I had the roadmap and thought I should be ok, as we'd been there before. I got to Hobart ok, and by then it was more or less fully dark. Once I got to New Norfolk I thought I was laughing, because that meant I was on the last stretch. I seemed to remember turning into New Norfolk to go through the centre, and hoped to be finding a road sign for Bushy Park (which there wasn't at the beginning of New Norfolk). Anyway, to cut a long story short I found myself in some one way system and ended up having to stop and trying to find where I was and how to get out. This is in a town of 3 people and 2 horses (or thereabouts). But, I found my way out and managed to get to Chris and Lisa for about 6.30, which was not bad all things considering.

We had some champagne and a lovely dinner - as we're all working hard we didn't last very long and went to bed early. It was lovely being in a warm room with an electric blanket, no cold feet that night! We had decided to go for a nice long walk on their block, and we had a lovely day. It was warm and sunny, and we must have walked for 4 hours. It's very dry though, and the ground was all cracked. This is a big difference with ours. It's dry but thankfully not that dry. It looked a lot like mainland Australia. The landscape is still beautiful though, but being a bit of a worrywart I'm glad I don't have to worry about such a dry spell here. Fingers crossed. After our walk, we decided that we'd all go to New Norfolk as Chris and Lisa had seen a butter churn in one of the antique shops about 6 months ago. So we went to this lovely place, and low and behold, it was still there, so it was meant to be, a match made in heaven, and so forth. It's a beautiful churn, and even still smells of (now rancid) butter. I'll give it a good clean and then try my hand at making some lovely raw butter. Can't wait!! On the way out, Chris said she'd direct me to the highway so I could find my way out. At one crossing she indicated right, but then went straight on. I saw that as my sign to turn, only to find that I was lost yet again in New Norfolk!! After a few twists and turns I managed to get to the main square, where Chris and Lisa were waiting. What a strange little town :) Anyway, once I was on the right track the way home was rather uneventful.

We had a lovely dinner of trout and veggies and beans, and PJ bought a nice champagne as well, what a treat. We went to bed early, because this morning was milking time! We still haven't got the roof on our milking stall (will have to take some pictures though - it's fantastic) so I got soaking wet as it was raining. Still, I got 4 liters this morning so it's not bad going.

I'm probably sounding a bit breathless but that is because we have today and tomorrow to plant our 110 fruit and nut trees this weekend. PJ has just gone to pump up the tire of the wheelbarrow, and I'm trying to dry off a bit and thought I had better quickly write an update.

Tanya just phoned that she and Jamahl will come and help this afternoon after the shed people have left their place - this will be a great help. Then at 7pm we're off to Marjorie and Steve, for a quick bite and then an evening of jamming with a number of local musicians which will be fantastic. She reckons it will be a late night - this might prove a bit hard for me though since tomorrow is.... milking day!

Toodles

Porter House

We are having the Weekend of all weekends this weekend, and everything is happening at once. Our cooker arrived on Thursday, only 2 weeks late. PJ was first thinking of picking it up on Friday, but changed his mind on Thursday afternoon and went into Hobart to pick it up. As it weighs 285 kg it sat on the back of the Ute for the night, as we started thinking of how we could possibly unload it and get it into the house (with steps all around).

On Friday, yes, Friday the 13th, I said to PJ that I hoped the calf wouldn't be born on that day as it was bad luck, and as it happens Emma still looked the same, bigger udder, bigger belly, but just as friendly and just as hungry. I got a phonecall later in the evening that our trees had arrived, and we could pick them up on Sunday - the day we have set aside to build a calfpen and milking stall.

At night we had dinner over at Annie's. Annie was cooking away and we were playing games with Jazzy, memory games and what not. We were quite tired, so went home at about 10.30pm (early for the countryside!!!) and as we were tucked up in bed, I was about to fall asleep when I heard a huge MOOOH from outside. I sat bolt upright in bed, and said, 'That was Emma!' PJ was about asleep and said he hadn't heard a thing (but then, that's not so unusual for him). I listened out for a while longer, but couldn't hear any more so decided to go to sleep. After all, we had checked on Em in the evening, and gave her a bit of hay because it was so cold. Nothing was showing at that time, and she had an appetite so we thought, it doesn't look like this night either.

Saturday morning I opened the curtains, and saw Emma in her usual spot under the tree. The other girls weren't there yet, but 8am on the dot, I saw all the grand ladies of the Blues by the fence, waiting for their little treat. So imagine my surprise when I walked out, and saw Emma, and a little red and white calf next to her!! It had arrived, and she had done it all by herself in the early hours of the morning. Unfortunately it's a boy, which means that he will end up in the pot. Having part Jersey in him won't make for a very quiet bull, so BLD (Breakfast Lunch and Dinner) it will have to be. He is adorable though. Emma was fine with us being in her paddock and checking out her, and her calf. He is soft and has little Jersey spots around his eyes, and is just such a striking colour. Emma has a really soft mooh that she uses to talk to her calf, and he responds to her, it's lovely to see. All the girls were lined up on the other side of the fence, and were eager to check out the new arrival. Our new boy walked over to the fence and moo'd at them, and there was a loud chorus of moohs from everybody in the herd, like a big hello.

Emma didn't seem to care too much about him though. He was lying on the ground most of the time, shivering. She had cleaned him, but if he made a move towards her udder, she'd walk away and leave him alone. We watched this for 4 hours, and got increasingly worried. Annie reckoned we should let Emma do her thing, so we had left them alone but I did check out of the window every so often, which really turned out to be very often. Steve and Marjorie were supposed to come over for tea and playing music, but I got increasingly worried. PJ, after finding on the Internet (my cow book didn't bother to discuss this) that calves need their first drink of milk with colostrum in the first 6 hours after birth, also started to think something wasn't quite right, so we went outside to see what we could do. She didn't want a bar of having a rope around her neck so we could look at her udder, so we decided to put her in the race so we could check that she could actually give milk. I had cancelled poor Marjorie and Steve but we thought if anything is wrong we really need to know and be ready to do something.

I had phoned Ian but naturally he was out, and PJ phoned Jeff who said 'oh she'll be alright'. Jeff has lost quite a few calves though so that didn't sit well with us either. I phoned Annie but she had gone out as well, I guess that's Sod's Law for you. We decided to put Emma in the race to check that at least she wouldn't have mastitis or something like that, and to check that all her teats were working, and right at that moment Ian walked through the door having received our message and coming straight over. He checked over junior, and apart from thinking he's a huge calf and a bit on the skinny side, everything seemed ok, although it would also be good to see a poo to confirm he'd had some milk. But he too said it was a good idea to check the udder, so off we went to the cattle race, where we found that two teats worked, but the back teats were very tense and full, and no milk was coming out. Milking came surprisingly easy to me (must have been good to be doing pottery all those years and learning massage!), and after working on the back teats for a while I managed to move the blockage and lovely milk started squirting out. Needless to say, I squirted it in a bottle first, one handed, but once we were brave enough to put a bucket there, it was only a matter of time before Emma put her foot in it and spilled the whole precious load. And this was even with Ian having tied one of her legs and holding it so she wouldn't be able to kick.

All in all, we had some spare colostrum now, so that if indeed junior hadn't been fed we could feed him some in the afternoon. Ian reckoned that he should be feeding around 3.30pm, so that was something to check out for, as was some yellow poo. Emma seemed closer to the calf after we'd released the pressure on her udder, and they seemed happy together. We managed with the three of us to move the oven inside, which was hard work but a lot of fun and quite an achievement too! Just as we were having a beer and a natter, I thought, it's 4pm, let's see how Emma is doing, and I saw junior drink. PJ herded Emma in with the other cows at that stage, and shouted that junior was having a bright yellow poo, so that made for an entirely successful happy day in the end.

We asked Ursula and Ian over for dinner to say a big thankyou, and as we were thinking of names Ian brought up the fact that you'd get nice porterhouse steaks from such a big calf - and so of course the first thing that came to my mind was Porter! Of course! Cole Porter from a House cow - Porter House for short. And although it sounds terrible to talk about a little animal like that, I know that he'll have a wonderful life and that's worth a lot too. People eat meat, they're omnivores after all, and I'd rather eat something that is very good and has had a good life than the poor animals that are pumped full of antibiotics and have a terrible tortured life. Something people don't think or care about when they get their steaks from the supermarket because if you did, it'd break your heart, and would make you question our current methods of producing food.

Anyway... Ursula said it might be worth milking Emma every day already because she can still develop mastitis and there is way too much milk for one calf - and so it also helps in maintaining the milk production. So, I need to get wrapped up, PJ and I are going in the field, give a treat and start milking!

Check out the photos.....

Moodles!!

Reflections

Another week has whizzed by. I managed to be exactly 2 days without a cold before the next one came along. Must be because I suddenly know so many people with kids and they all seem to be sick and spread a lot of germs that I'm normally not subjected to. So good luck to myself when birdflu comes along!

This week I've mainly been busy with work, and painting. We painted the kitchen to be, as we wanted it to be at least in the right colour when Chris and Lisa stopped by. The cooker didn't arrive on Friday as promised, and is now due on Tuesday. I can't begin to explain how cold it is inside the house at night. I'm wearing triple layers, a hat, two pairs of socks... in other words, a heater would be more than welcome. We went into Hobart on Friday though. I was going to drop by the office, and PJ wanted to pick up some doors so we combined the two things. It was nice stopping by the office, it makes me feel a bit more connected to work. I met Rhonda who I've been talking to quite a few times, and she was very nice. It also makes it easier going along to the Ausmas party on the 28th in the Cygnet pub - I think it'll be nicer when I've at least met some people once. We also finally managed to locate some radiators that will work with our heating system, so it looks like we will at long last be able to install all of the heating if and when the stove arrives.

In the evening we had Lorraine and Alan, and Jeff over for dinner. It was a lovely evening, and it still amazes me how many likeminded people we are meeting. Lorraine and Alan are originally from Sydney and came over 4 years ago. They have recently bought the block next to ours. Lorraine and I had long talks about gardening and cows. She has 6 (!) pet steers that they will bring along once they get over here (their house needs to be built first). We will get along well, so I'm looking forward to them moving here.

Ursula and Ian dropped by earlier on Friday. I called them on Thursday to let them know that I thought Emma is getting very close. Her udder is increasing by the day, and I honestly don't believe she could possibly get any rounder (but she is). Ian and Ursula both thought that she has a few days left to go yet. But I know that I have to look out for certain signs, and Ian said in case of doubt to call them no matter what the time was. This is a comfort, as I have started to become emotionally attached to Emma, with all her quirks and moods, and I'd hate for her to have a horrible birth or complications and I wouldn't be aware of them because of inexperience. I think she also is getting more attached to me. It's funny, I remember Ursula passionately talking about her cows when we met them last year, and thinking, it's just a cow, how can you get attached to a cow? But you do. And so this morning when I went out and saw a big trail of slime hanging from Emma's backside I nearly thought she was dropping it there and then. This could hang there for some time though, so I'm just keeping a close eye on her. PJ now urgently has to start building a calf pen and a milking shed, so that in the not too distant future I can start working on my handmilking skills.

Chris and Lisa were supposed to come over on Saturday and stay until Monday. Unfortunately they had trouble with their road being graded, and so had to cancel Saturday. Instead, they came over this morning to spend the day with us. It was good seeing them again, and also nice to be able to show them around our new place. They thought it looked lovely, and especially the pasture was looking good (compared to where they bought their block, which is currently a lot drier). We spent a few hours wandering around, looking at the chooks and cows, and climbing the hill to look out over the landscape. I still love walking through our forest. Chris said we could contact Greening Tasmania to see if they'll help funding building a fence around our forest. We don't want to cut it down, we just want to copice it and we don't want anybody else coming in and chopping down our wood. I think a fence would be helpful.

We had some of my homemade lentil bread with homemade apricot/honey jam for lunch, and then decided it was beer o'clock so we went down to the Franklin Tavern which was really quite pleasant as well. They will come again on Wednesday, as they are also interested in seeing the Ranelagh markets. We want to buy two more chickens, so that we have a nice round number, and I love the big black birds. Hopefully we can integrate them easily. They went back to Bushy Park, and we decided to go back home and pick up the big fat wallaby roadkill for the kitties. It was still warm and floppy (but definitely dead) so PJ gutted it and cut it once we were back. The kitties had a feast for dinner, and it went rather rapidly. One day I will have to get over my aversion or squeamish feelings about this, and gut one myself because it is a useful skill to have.

Now more than ever I'm feeling the urgency for this. Oil rose by nearly $11 on Friday, the steepest rise in one day ever. It reached as high as $139.12 before dropping slightly again. I think Peak Oil is already here (and has been since 2005) and we are starting to feel the real pangs as we have to turn our backs on society as we know it. Seeing the number of riots and protests worldwide I presume it's not going to be an easy ride, and as time goes by and nothing is done I do still despair a bit, but am trying to stay focused on what we are doing in a positive manner. I'm not sure people around us understand our urgency with our renovations and garden preparations, but I feel we are running out of time rapidly and I don't want to be sitting around saying 'everything will be alright' and suddenly find myself caught out. We watched the UK documentary 'Century of the self' by Adam Curtis. Absolutely fascinating and horrifying at the same time. It's about an elite group controlling the masses through psychoanalysis to create a more passive and pliable people (needless to say the elite group consists of government and big corporations). The tactics used were and are smart but ruthless, and it's quite frightening to see how easily we are all manipulated, and in cases want to be manipulated. I'm glad to say that I feel by moving here and making my own conscious decisions I have moved outside society as we know it, and am less likely to be manipulated than many people that I know. It does explain to some extent how the majority of people is going around with their eyes closed and focused on their desires and nothing else. It's going to be very difficult after brainwashing people for so long to tell them that they now have to switch to a completely different thought process, and that life as they know it simply cannot continue.

I hope some of my friends and family who are reading this will start to understand the urgency and severity of the current situation - though unfortunately the majority will still think I'm ranting and raving and 'not enjoying life' (which I am, and a lot more than I was in the city). There are plenty of links on the Internet (and in the side column - HINT) to find out information about what is going on. In fact, here are some recent interviews with experts in the UK and US where Peak Oil is going mainstream.

• How to boil a frog - interview with David Strahan
• David Strahan interviewed on BBC Newsnight
  and btw, his book 'The Last Oil Shock' is very much worth reading!!!
• How to boil a frog - interview with Matt Simmons (although I dislike Americans talking about 'Global solutions' because invariably they imply the direction for this should come from the US and they are really not capable or suitable)
• And read some ODAC news (PJ contributes to this website as well by providing articles found on the Australasian region)

On a happier note, I do still enjoy my life to the full, and here are some more photos to prove it!

Cheerio,

Ma Houdini and the Houdinis

First and foremost, I'm writing this entry from the comfort of a real bedroom! After a lot of hard work we finally moved in last Sunday - and it's the first room that is really finished now. The only thing is to move in our big tallboy cupboard, but we'll have to ask Chris and Lisa to give us a hand next week as we can't lift it with the two of us, and some nice candle holders on the mantlepiece once we find the right box.

It's lovely and relaxing being in a room without a load of work computers around. I've been sleeping a lot better, even though I've had a cold for over a week now. Talking of cold, outside it is cold as well - this morning I had to break the ice on Emma's water again, so I wasn't imagining it :) Oh where is our wood stove heater that should have arrived last week?!

The kitties are all cuddled up with me, and are very tired. They are now used to going outside, and especially BB and Cannon are having a ball. It's very funny to see them running like mad - I don't think they ever got to stretch their legs as much in Perth! They particularly like Emma's field, and get very brave when I'm in with her. Especially BB likes to pretend that he isn't scared at all. He swaggers around and only runs a mile at the last minute when curiosity gets the better of Emma and she goes over to investigate.

Lucille and Emma appear to be getting friendly. Lucille hangs out quite often with Em, and gives her a good head clean across the fence. I've been spending time with all the ladies, and have found that Lucille and Chippie quite happily eat out of my hand, although Emma was a little jealous (especially as she's still on a diet). The calves are too scared, even though they are curious, and Ma Rainey only ate out of my hand for the first time on Friday. Here are some photos of our new girls: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Asynick/ChildrenOfTheForest

We've had some fun and games with especially the calves. One time I was brushing Emma and feeding Lucille and Chippie, when the calves calmly pushed underneath the fence, and ended up in Emma's paddock so that they could take a closer look at BB and Cannon (who also wanted to take a closer look at them). That was a bit of a surprise, but yep... they got it right... the electric fence wasn't quite working as it should. This happened first last Saturday. We had just walked around the block with Tanya, Jamahl, and their boys, when we saw that the calves were in the wrong paddock. Jamahl and I went for a bit of a workout trying to get them back (which we did - followed by a well-deserved beer), and we didn't think any more of it. Some further away neighbours had invited us for some fireworks later that evening and had said to keep livestock tied up. We did have a look (banjo rating: 8.75) and after we managed to escape safely back to ours, all girls and calves were close by the house, so we thought everything was ok.

During the week, the calves were getting progressively better at escaping, to the extent that I've now called them collectively The Houdinis. And what fun they have when we try to chase them! Although I did find it funny earlier in the week, after trying to find them day after day it wasn't getting so funny anymore, especially when we found them in the driveway one day, a bit too close to the big road. Luckily after they'd escaped they weren't quite sure what to do with themselves so they sort of hovered there. I only found out because Lucille and Chippie were mooing in a funny way, and I went out to see what it was all about.

Saturday we were going to Hobart to catch up with Chris and Lisa who are spending the next 6 weeks on their block in Bushy Park. We were delayed because.. yep! You guessed it... We were having to round up The Houdinis yet again. We got home late, but PJ saw them all in the field so we thought we'd be fine.

Alas, this morning, Ma Rainy was by herself in one field, and the rest was in another field. What the?! I thought she must have been the Mother of all Houdinis as we couldn't find a hole in the fence where she was. We decided to first try and sort out the fencing, especially as Jeff was having his last cattle picked up and we didn't want ours to get caught up. By the time we got one paddock working, we thought we had better have a look and see where The Houdinis were, and yes.... we found the calves in the neighbour's field, together with Ma Rainey and Lucille as well. As we were trying to get them back, on our side of the fence, Chippie decided to join them in the wrong field, and Ma Rainy decided that she was not going to go where we wanted her to go, so she led the whole lot of them on a stampede in the wrong direction. Twice. PJ got quite cranky with her and said he definitely didn't want her because she teaches everybody bad habits. I guess I don't feel that strongly about her - after all it's the fencing that is not keeping them in (although I guess he has a point: One time we forgot to close Emma's gate and she could have gone for a wander in Geeveston, but instead she stayed in her paddock). One and a half hours later we did get them in the paddock they couldn't get out of, at which time Jeff came over to see what was the problem with the fence. Together they sorted out that it was in effect short circuiting somewhere, so we finally have fully fenced paddocks again.

This was good, especially as we bought 4 more cows off Jeff - one of his deals fell through and he asked if we were interested. He had some lovely Murray Greys and one lovely Angus as well, which were the ones we picked. And that is our herd now. Not including Ma Rainey (who unfortunately will go back to Ursula) we now have 7 cows with 5 calves (and waiting for Emma's) and that's as much as we want. That way we have some cattle eating the grass, but not so many that we're overgrazing the land. We've got some beef calves for selling, and we know at least that Lucille and Chippie are already pregnant again. PJ still would like a bull, so we can run him with the herd. It would solve a few problems I guess. All our cows are quite small, so we could get a small bull.

Apart from that, it's been work as usual. The kitchen is now ready for its second undercoat, and the ceiling is ready for its final coat. We have put up some curtains in the sunroom. My work is trundling along. PJ built 2 cold frames which contain a variety of lettuces, and we moved our snail-eaten veggies into a new raised bed, and they are recovering nicely. Deuce and the girls are doing wonderfully well. The 2 Isa Browns were happy for me to stroke them today, so that was a nice change. I love our new lifestyle.

Already a week ago again, we had a really nice evening with Ian and Ursula on Friday (we all didn't expect it to be 2am when they left!!), and a lovely evening with Tanya and Jamahl on Saturday. We went to the Franklin growers market on Sunday with Tanya and the boys, which was good to see. Yesterday we caught up with Chris and Lisa in Hobart, and they are coming to stay with us next weekend, which should be really good as well - and they are our first visitors from Across the Waters! Coming Friday we're having dinner with Alan and Lorraine (our new neighbours) and Jeff, and it will be nice to get to know them a bit better.

So as you can see, there is not a dull moment to be had! I talked with my mum last week, and she was keen to find out how we are liking it, as it is such a difference from living in an inner city. And I must confess, I haven't missed it at all yet. There is something liberating and refreshing about being away from the city and doing our own thing - and I love our animals. It's lovely to see our small herd of cows disappear in the long grasses, and to see our cats so obviously enjoy themselves. And even when we're at the far side of our land, we can still hear Deuce happily cockledoodling away.

Now all I'd like is for our wood stove heater to arrive :)