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!
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
MotY Awards
I'm looking forward to be able to say "It's not been a busy week, and we've relaxed over the last 7 days" but we can't go there yet!
This time I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, that the livingroom really is 99% finished now. We unpacked our books, and put our couch and rug in. It's a finished room! Saturday night we finally were able to grab a book and sit in the livingroom on a nice couch, and have a read. Cookie and Cannon were too scared and decided to stay in the old kitchen, but BB was quite pleased and straight away sat in his favourite spot on the couch, and fell asleep. Cookie came in a bit later and curled up in my arms, but it was all still too much for Cannon. They were a bit scared of the rug, their paws sink in quite deep and they must have not liked the feel of it. I'm glad about that, because hopefully that means I don't have to try and get cat hair out of the rug of goats hair.
The music room is also finished, albeit a bit less. We still have to sand and varnish the built-in cupboard and hang up the blinds, but apart from that... The sound is beautiful in there, I had a lovely play on Saturday night (and burnt the pumpkin soup, but still).
We did a Bio Dynamic gardening course on Saturday. It was very interesting, the people seemed very nice and down to earth. I'm looking for a way to fertilise our hay paddock without using artificial fertilisers, and I think BD might be the way to go for us. Even at the course they said the yield might not be as high as when you put Super on the fields, but I've heard and read on several occasions now that the yield from Super treated fields might be high, but the nutritional value is actually not as good as it has grown too quickly and artificially. We're going to try and do a carbon test at the end, and see what comes out.
Sunday morning I got up to do the milking, and the weather felt really strange. It was really muggy and hot. PJ went to let the chooks out, and sadly two of our babies looked dead. I think Mother Hen had suffocated them, and the heat won't have helped. We saw a bit of life in them and tried to revive them, but to no avail. PJ tried to cool them down, and I tried to feed them water and milk with a syringe. I think I might have waterboarded one of them accidentally, as it started spewing milky water and then just died. Whoops. Is this what is meant by killing through kindness? The other five were still running around merrily, so we thought we at least had some left. However, when PJ checked half an hour later another one had just keeled over and died. During the day, we had to go out and fence the back paddock as the moo girls are out of food - so we had to go and hope for the best. It was hard work but very rewarding, and we had only a bit more to go when it got dark. I thought I'd better check on the chookies again, and low and behold I found two more dead! I thought I'd leave the rest in their separate pen so that they could get out from Mother Hen, and as I heard some peeping I thought everything was still ok.
Alas, on Monday morning PJ found that one more was squashed. He was watching Mother Hen who was scratching for food, and as one of the two surviving chookies was under her paws she kicked it out of the way, and that one died on the spot too! What the?? No MotY (Mother of the Year) Awards for her this time around! Anyway, after that we did a quick search on when we can introduce the baby chooks (well the last one at least) to the rest of the flock and found that as long as the mother is considered part of the flock, the babies will be accepted. So we thought, nothing much more to lose so we put them both back with the rest. The first thing Deuce did was jump on her bones and tell off one of the Mary's when she had a go, so he obviously considered his favourite squeeze was back. So far, the lucky youngster has survived. This is a learning lesson for all of us I guess! In the meantime, one of the light Sussex decided to sit on 6 eggs and didn't want to budge. Sigh...
Monday morning before work and in the evening after work, I helped PJ finishing off the fencing. This meant that Tuesday morning we could let the girls into their new field, and how happy they were. Lots of feed in this paddock, and now we can rest for a few weeks again. Next we want to split the main paddock into two, that way we have a bit more for rotating them, and we still have to fence off the forest on the hill which gives us another paddock. Then we should be settled for our cows. Despite his Performance Anxiety Rufus seems to have gotten most of our girls pregnant - no one seems to have been on heat for a while. It should be Emma's turn, but there's nothing. A Dexter child should be easier for her at birth, and if it's a girl, I've got an extra milking cow, which should be nice.
Tuesday we had to see the lawyer about our investment property, so in 28 days from now our Super fund will own it. Yay! This means that we will have only 1 tiny mortgage left and are well on our way to being debt free. On the way back home we decided to stop off in one of the antique shops in Franklin - we're still looking for some lights and we found two beautiful old lights, and a kettle as well. Total: $75. You won't get a new lamp for that cost, that's for sure.
Apart from that, nothing much else new.... Our baby chook is still alive this morning, happily chirping away. A lesson for both Mother Hen and us - the next time I think we can let them in with the flock a lot earlier than we thought, and just keep out an eye to see how it goes.
In the world on the other hand, there are many newsworthy things happening. What a disaster with the financial meltdown in the US and the UK.... Is this going to be a real significant change in our lives already? I wonder what kind of effect it's going to have on us. During a conference call with the US this morning we asked our US colleagues about the hurricanes and the Lehman (and AIG) situation. They said it's very desperate at the moment. One of them even said, "I am looking for a place to run to, but I don't know where" - unfortunately Alex and I won't have helped with Alex saying "don't go south" and me saying "the coast is not a good option either" (they are in Austin).
Anyway, here are some interesting bits to read:
A West Texas cowboy was herding his cows in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”
The cowboy looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answered, “Sure, Why not?”
The yuppie parked his car, whiped out his Dell notebook computer, connected it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfed to a NASA page on the Internet, where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then fed to another NASA satellite that scanned the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opened the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exported it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he received an email on his Palm Pilot that the image had been processed and the data stored.
He then accessed a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response.
Finally, he printed out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turned to the cowboy and said, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”
“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” said the cowboy. He watched the young man select one of the animals and looked on amused as the young man stuffed it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy said to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?” The young man thought about it for a second and then said, “Okay, why not?”
“You’re a Congressman for the U.S. Government”, said the cowboy.
“Wow! That’s correct,” said the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?” “No guessing required.” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here, even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about cows...
Now give me back my dog.”
- - - - - -
Cheerio :D
This time I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, that the livingroom really is 99% finished now. We unpacked our books, and put our couch and rug in. It's a finished room! Saturday night we finally were able to grab a book and sit in the livingroom on a nice couch, and have a read. Cookie and Cannon were too scared and decided to stay in the old kitchen, but BB was quite pleased and straight away sat in his favourite spot on the couch, and fell asleep. Cookie came in a bit later and curled up in my arms, but it was all still too much for Cannon. They were a bit scared of the rug, their paws sink in quite deep and they must have not liked the feel of it. I'm glad about that, because hopefully that means I don't have to try and get cat hair out of the rug of goats hair.
The music room is also finished, albeit a bit less. We still have to sand and varnish the built-in cupboard and hang up the blinds, but apart from that... The sound is beautiful in there, I had a lovely play on Saturday night (and burnt the pumpkin soup, but still).
We did a Bio Dynamic gardening course on Saturday. It was very interesting, the people seemed very nice and down to earth. I'm looking for a way to fertilise our hay paddock without using artificial fertilisers, and I think BD might be the way to go for us. Even at the course they said the yield might not be as high as when you put Super on the fields, but I've heard and read on several occasions now that the yield from Super treated fields might be high, but the nutritional value is actually not as good as it has grown too quickly and artificially. We're going to try and do a carbon test at the end, and see what comes out.
Sunday morning I got up to do the milking, and the weather felt really strange. It was really muggy and hot. PJ went to let the chooks out, and sadly two of our babies looked dead. I think Mother Hen had suffocated them, and the heat won't have helped. We saw a bit of life in them and tried to revive them, but to no avail. PJ tried to cool them down, and I tried to feed them water and milk with a syringe. I think I might have waterboarded one of them accidentally, as it started spewing milky water and then just died. Whoops. Is this what is meant by killing through kindness? The other five were still running around merrily, so we thought we at least had some left. However, when PJ checked half an hour later another one had just keeled over and died. During the day, we had to go out and fence the back paddock as the moo girls are out of food - so we had to go and hope for the best. It was hard work but very rewarding, and we had only a bit more to go when it got dark. I thought I'd better check on the chookies again, and low and behold I found two more dead! I thought I'd leave the rest in their separate pen so that they could get out from Mother Hen, and as I heard some peeping I thought everything was still ok.
Alas, on Monday morning PJ found that one more was squashed. He was watching Mother Hen who was scratching for food, and as one of the two surviving chookies was under her paws she kicked it out of the way, and that one died on the spot too! What the?? No MotY (Mother of the Year) Awards for her this time around! Anyway, after that we did a quick search on when we can introduce the baby chooks (well the last one at least) to the rest of the flock and found that as long as the mother is considered part of the flock, the babies will be accepted. So we thought, nothing much more to lose so we put them both back with the rest. The first thing Deuce did was jump on her bones and tell off one of the Mary's when she had a go, so he obviously considered his favourite squeeze was back. So far, the lucky youngster has survived. This is a learning lesson for all of us I guess! In the meantime, one of the light Sussex decided to sit on 6 eggs and didn't want to budge. Sigh...
Monday morning before work and in the evening after work, I helped PJ finishing off the fencing. This meant that Tuesday morning we could let the girls into their new field, and how happy they were. Lots of feed in this paddock, and now we can rest for a few weeks again. Next we want to split the main paddock into two, that way we have a bit more for rotating them, and we still have to fence off the forest on the hill which gives us another paddock. Then we should be settled for our cows. Despite his Performance Anxiety Rufus seems to have gotten most of our girls pregnant - no one seems to have been on heat for a while. It should be Emma's turn, but there's nothing. A Dexter child should be easier for her at birth, and if it's a girl, I've got an extra milking cow, which should be nice.
Tuesday we had to see the lawyer about our investment property, so in 28 days from now our Super fund will own it. Yay! This means that we will have only 1 tiny mortgage left and are well on our way to being debt free. On the way back home we decided to stop off in one of the antique shops in Franklin - we're still looking for some lights and we found two beautiful old lights, and a kettle as well. Total: $75. You won't get a new lamp for that cost, that's for sure.
Apart from that, nothing much else new.... Our baby chook is still alive this morning, happily chirping away. A lesson for both Mother Hen and us - the next time I think we can let them in with the flock a lot earlier than we thought, and just keep out an eye to see how it goes.
In the world on the other hand, there are many newsworthy things happening. What a disaster with the financial meltdown in the US and the UK.... Is this going to be a real significant change in our lives already? I wonder what kind of effect it's going to have on us. During a conference call with the US this morning we asked our US colleagues about the hurricanes and the Lehman (and AIG) situation. They said it's very desperate at the moment. One of them even said, "I am looking for a place to run to, but I don't know where" - unfortunately Alex and I won't have helped with Alex saying "don't go south" and me saying "the coast is not a good option either" (they are in Austin).
Anyway, here are some interesting bits to read:
- The dress rehearsal is over
By Richard Heinberg. A good explanation of what is happening and why the oil prices are going up and down. - The Falling Land
A very interesting look at the US and what is happening now. Another comparison with Nazi Germany: Not the first time I've come across this. The similarities are striking and it's another case of people not learning from history, but merely repeating it, over and over again. - Global warming threatens Asia-Pacific security, warns Australian PM
Isn't it sad that all our government can think of doing is more warmongering and following the US into a downward spiral of war, destruction and desperation. I refer to Mencken's quote at the top of the page. All we can do is look after ourselves because government is not going to do anything. Note how this is not from an Australian newspaper! - Survival 101: They don't teach that in most colleges, and there's a dilemma
An interesting look at how useful a university or college degree is with the upcoming collapse. My tuppence worth: As long as you're willing to stay open-minded, learn new skills and push your boundaries, I think you are in with a (better) chance. - Survival of the nicest?
By Dmitry Orlov. A very interesting look at survival during a collapse. Take a good look at yourself and think about what you could put up with and think you would be able do in order to survive - even though of course it's nearly impossible to do so while everything is still 'ok'. This is an interesting one for the holier-than-thou vegans and vegetarians amongst us. Would you die for your convictions, or rather survive if given the choice? Years ago I read a novel set in Holland during WWII, when a family had taken in a Jewish person to hide him from the Nazis. Everyone was hungry and at one stage, the family had found some pork - a rare find and in times of starvation a real treat. When the Jewish guy came out of his hiding place at night, he looked at the meat and said "I am not allowed to eat this". His host replied that this was all there was, and he could either eat or starve, as there was nothing else. And so after some deliberation and soul searching he chose to eat (and therefore live). I can't remember the book title, but I remember that passage, and I think those are the kind of hard uncomfortable questions we'll be having to confront in the not too distant future. Of course the real question is not whether or not you will abandon your morals to survive, but whether you can live with your choices afterwards if you have broken your morals. - Dick Cheney's excellent adventure
A very astute and witty look at how the US is trying to secure more oil and energy, at any cost. Written by an American by the way. It's heartening to see that someone as bad and powerful as Cheney can get his arse kicked - I bet he never thought that would be possible. The US has been lying about so many things so blatantly (the war on terror, torture, who really was behind the 9/11 events [here is looking at you, Dick and George W!]) it's good to see that there are now people and countries turning around and saying 'enough is enough'. Have a little dose of your own medicine Dick! - US government rescues insurer AIG
News flash - I just read that the US Federal Reserve has announced a rescue package of $85bn to save AIG. Note the misleading title: the US Federal Reserve is not government owned!!!! Listen to the following as well: Who owns the Federal Reserve?. This is an investigative video about the banking system controlling the world. Bilderberg anyone? It's also interesting to note their comments about Bilderberg controlling the next election in the US. This is how Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were chosen. Normally every fourth Bilderberg annual meeting is held in the US, but surprisingly this happened in June 2008 too (it should have been 2010 I think) - possibly because of the impending elections. Obama was invited (Barack O'Bilderberg: Picking the President) and his office declined to say whether or not he attended. McCain is a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg. Hmmm... I wonder who they will choose (are we all in agreement that there is no such thing as real elections in the US - it's merely a media circus to entertain the masses. The real decisions are made behind the scene by Bilderberg, ahead of any 'election' display). Kissinger has endorsed McCain. With the US being an inherently racist nation, I would still think that McCain will be selected as the president. A man would always win over a woman (hence the exit of Hillary Clinton) and a white man would always win over a black man. Then again, if McCain keels over then you have that gun-toting pro-life idiot and religious zealot Palin in charge, whereas if Obama were assassinated you'd have a white guy in charge. By the way, Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, is the chairman of the Council of Foreign Relations - this should make it easier for Bilderberg to make a choice. Russell Brand (UK comedian) has an interesting spin on it too. He said, "Some people ... say America is not ready for a black President. But I know America to be a forward-thinking country because otherwise why would you have let that retard and cowboy fella be President for eight years?". Food for thought.
A West Texas cowboy was herding his cows in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.
The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”
The cowboy looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answered, “Sure, Why not?”
The yuppie parked his car, whiped out his Dell notebook computer, connected it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfed to a NASA page on the Internet, where he called up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then fed to another NASA satellite that scanned the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.
The young man then opened the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exported it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he received an email on his Palm Pilot that the image had been processed and the data stored.
He then accessed a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response.
Finally, he printed out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turned to the cowboy and said, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”
“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” said the cowboy. He watched the young man select one of the animals and looked on amused as the young man stuffed it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy said to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?” The young man thought about it for a second and then said, “Okay, why not?”
“You’re a Congressman for the U.S. Government”, said the cowboy.
“Wow! That’s correct,” said the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?” “No guessing required.” answered the cowboy. “You showed up here, even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about cows...
Now give me back my dog.”
- - - - - -
Cheerio :D
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Poppies, Marigolds, and all good things
And before I knew it, another week has flown by.
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:
More anon....
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....
(__) ,---------.
(oo) / :\/: _ _ \
/-------\/_/ : :: :: : )
/ ____ ll \_ ' '`-'`-'/
* "" ll \__________/
^^ ^^
Monday, 1 September 2008
Going out with a Bam(ba)
After a busy busy day at work - way too busy for a Monday really! I thought it's time to give a bit of an update of all that is happening at Tearmunn.
Last week I managed to make my first camemberts - they are ripening in the kitchen as we speak, and so far they're looking good. It was a really interesting process to prepare it, cutting the curd, stirring it, and putting it in hoops turning it every few hours. I felt I should be wearing my witches hat but couldn't find it :) I have to turn it tomorrow, then again on Friday and Sunday, and then on Tuesday it should be covered in white mould and then I have to wait a few weeks. So far it's all looking healthy, but I'm keeping my eye out for anything suspicious. Yesterday we visited Zlatty and Laura, and Laura was telling me about her experience with camembert-making. Hers turned black and blue (hmmm perhaps blue cheese?) in any case, the cheese was covered in anything but white mould. She ended up having to throw it all away. Of course, when we got home I had to check my little cheeses but... no blue so far, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I'm getting used to Rufus. I tried to give him an apple yesterday, but he was scared of me (!?!) so as Emma was impatiently tugging my sleeve I gave it to her instead. Emma is the favourite at the moment, Rufus can't get enough of her. She doesn't seem too fussed, and seems to prefer spending time with us rather than with him, which he gets very frustrated about. It's still quite fascinating observing nature in action. He licks Em's backside which makes her pee, and then he sticks his nose in, after which he sort of 'samples' it. It really isn't a good look. Maybe that's why there aren't many cow porn movies. Yesterday he got so excited after doing this, he squatted and as I thought he was going for a big poo, all of a sudden his willy shot out, and my God was it long. PJ and I fell over laughing because it all happened so fast - which is when we found that poor Rufus is suffering from Performance Anxiety. He kept on looking at us, and eventually put everything away. Emma just stood there, rather uninterested by it all. We then left them alone - but all these things make me a little less scared of him which makes it easier dealing with him as he is prancing around in the field. But I do want Emma pregnant. If she gets a girl next year, it'll be a mix of Jersey with Dexter, so that can definitely be a second milker. Then we can have milk all year round.
Spring is in the air here, and it is promising to be a lovely time of the year. One of the things Ian told me was that come Spring, Emma's milk production would go up. As I already get between 6-7 litres per milking (and I only milk for 20 minutes to save my fingers and wrists - and of course to give Porter his share as well) I didnt' think I'd really be noticing it. But low and behold, this morning I got more than 8 litres in 20 minutes sharp, it was just gushing out. More cheesemaking ahead I guess! It's easier getting Porter in these days - his balls have finally dropped off, it's all looking clean and healthy and he is actually calming down a bit, and turning into quite a sweet kind of boy. But, not as sweet as Muddy who follows us around like a oversized woolly dog. He's so cute, and I'm looking forward to being able to train him.
Friday night we went to the Book Club in Franklin. David (whom we met during one of the gigs) had been asking us for months. He is a bit older than PJ, so it was a bit of a surprise to find out that this group is really rather old, most of them even older than my parents. I don't think it's my thing - the age gap is too great and after going around the circle talking about happiness I was amazed by the majority meeting my stereotypical ideas about babyboomers. They are totally unaware and have such different values from me, that I found it quite hard listening to all of the dribble. They are all quite to extremely well off. The house where this event was held was lit up like a christmas tree - I think they must have used half of all the electricity in Tasmania. On top of that they had the absolutely biggest woodfire I have seen, which must take a forest a day to keep going. PJ had brought his book 'Six Degrees' along - he was going to say that it made him quite happy that we will soon be forced to change because nature will make us - and the fact that we will be stopped in our tracks in our relentless destruction of the planet is quite a happy thing for the rest of the living beings on earth anyway. But he chickened out after everybody was discussing self help books and children and what not. I guess it would have been a bit out there, but hey, maybe it would have made them think a bit more. Still, they were all very nice people in their own ways, just on a very different path from ours.
Saturday was really good on the other hand. Steve and Marjorie had asked me to play in a gig with them, so apparently I am now in a band called Das Swing, consisting of 3 guitars, bass, 2 violins, and a singer/accordeon player. We played some swing jazz and gypsy tunes. Then we had a few sub groups, where Marjorie, Nigel and I played my favourite Milonga del Angel. Throughout the evening we had some happy hippies that had come down from the trees who were dancing to everything as if it was a rave of some kind, it was quite surreal to observe, especially as not all of it was particularly danceable. We finished off with La Bamba which I got to sing, which I enjoy a lot as well. Cheesy as it is, La Bamba seems to always be a crowd pleaser - with Farol we played it many times as it got everybody on the dance floor - and it had the same effect here. It was a long gig though, and after practising all day and then being on stage for two and a half hours I was completely knackered by the time we got home. Steve had also told me that there was an article in the Huon Valley newspaper about Das Swing - so PJ of course got it on Sunday morning, and I was very surprised to read such a glowing report about myself - and that I am apparently a band member :) But it's good, as I was deep down quite concerned about not being able to find anybody to play music with.
Sunday we wanted to go for a walk in Hartz Mountains, apparently it was covered in snow the week before but alas, not this week. It was pouring with rain, so we ended up walking down to Arve Falls which was still very beautiful, and then going on to Zlatty and Laura.
In the house, we have now practically finished the main room - PJ has put the second coat on, and put gloss on the woodwork. It's looking beautiful. Next he will rent a sander, and then the kitchen, main room, and music room will all be sanded. Then varnish, and then we're a whole lot closer again.
And so we're plodding along, but it's all good fun. Anyway... it's time for me to make some dinner, and then we can relax.
Here is some light reading if you're interested:
Last week I managed to make my first camemberts - they are ripening in the kitchen as we speak, and so far they're looking good. It was a really interesting process to prepare it, cutting the curd, stirring it, and putting it in hoops turning it every few hours. I felt I should be wearing my witches hat but couldn't find it :) I have to turn it tomorrow, then again on Friday and Sunday, and then on Tuesday it should be covered in white mould and then I have to wait a few weeks. So far it's all looking healthy, but I'm keeping my eye out for anything suspicious. Yesterday we visited Zlatty and Laura, and Laura was telling me about her experience with camembert-making. Hers turned black and blue (hmmm perhaps blue cheese?) in any case, the cheese was covered in anything but white mould. She ended up having to throw it all away. Of course, when we got home I had to check my little cheeses but... no blue so far, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I'm getting used to Rufus. I tried to give him an apple yesterday, but he was scared of me (!?!) so as Emma was impatiently tugging my sleeve I gave it to her instead. Emma is the favourite at the moment, Rufus can't get enough of her. She doesn't seem too fussed, and seems to prefer spending time with us rather than with him, which he gets very frustrated about. It's still quite fascinating observing nature in action. He licks Em's backside which makes her pee, and then he sticks his nose in, after which he sort of 'samples' it. It really isn't a good look. Maybe that's why there aren't many cow porn movies. Yesterday he got so excited after doing this, he squatted and as I thought he was going for a big poo, all of a sudden his willy shot out, and my God was it long. PJ and I fell over laughing because it all happened so fast - which is when we found that poor Rufus is suffering from Performance Anxiety. He kept on looking at us, and eventually put everything away. Emma just stood there, rather uninterested by it all. We then left them alone - but all these things make me a little less scared of him which makes it easier dealing with him as he is prancing around in the field. But I do want Emma pregnant. If she gets a girl next year, it'll be a mix of Jersey with Dexter, so that can definitely be a second milker. Then we can have milk all year round.
Spring is in the air here, and it is promising to be a lovely time of the year. One of the things Ian told me was that come Spring, Emma's milk production would go up. As I already get between 6-7 litres per milking (and I only milk for 20 minutes to save my fingers and wrists - and of course to give Porter his share as well) I didnt' think I'd really be noticing it. But low and behold, this morning I got more than 8 litres in 20 minutes sharp, it was just gushing out. More cheesemaking ahead I guess! It's easier getting Porter in these days - his balls have finally dropped off, it's all looking clean and healthy and he is actually calming down a bit, and turning into quite a sweet kind of boy. But, not as sweet as Muddy who follows us around like a oversized woolly dog. He's so cute, and I'm looking forward to being able to train him.
Friday night we went to the Book Club in Franklin. David (whom we met during one of the gigs) had been asking us for months. He is a bit older than PJ, so it was a bit of a surprise to find out that this group is really rather old, most of them even older than my parents. I don't think it's my thing - the age gap is too great and after going around the circle talking about happiness I was amazed by the majority meeting my stereotypical ideas about babyboomers. They are totally unaware and have such different values from me, that I found it quite hard listening to all of the dribble. They are all quite to extremely well off. The house where this event was held was lit up like a christmas tree - I think they must have used half of all the electricity in Tasmania. On top of that they had the absolutely biggest woodfire I have seen, which must take a forest a day to keep going. PJ had brought his book 'Six Degrees' along - he was going to say that it made him quite happy that we will soon be forced to change because nature will make us - and the fact that we will be stopped in our tracks in our relentless destruction of the planet is quite a happy thing for the rest of the living beings on earth anyway. But he chickened out after everybody was discussing self help books and children and what not. I guess it would have been a bit out there, but hey, maybe it would have made them think a bit more. Still, they were all very nice people in their own ways, just on a very different path from ours.
Saturday was really good on the other hand. Steve and Marjorie had asked me to play in a gig with them, so apparently I am now in a band called Das Swing, consisting of 3 guitars, bass, 2 violins, and a singer/accordeon player. We played some swing jazz and gypsy tunes. Then we had a few sub groups, where Marjorie, Nigel and I played my favourite Milonga del Angel. Throughout the evening we had some happy hippies that had come down from the trees who were dancing to everything as if it was a rave of some kind, it was quite surreal to observe, especially as not all of it was particularly danceable. We finished off with La Bamba which I got to sing, which I enjoy a lot as well. Cheesy as it is, La Bamba seems to always be a crowd pleaser - with Farol we played it many times as it got everybody on the dance floor - and it had the same effect here. It was a long gig though, and after practising all day and then being on stage for two and a half hours I was completely knackered by the time we got home. Steve had also told me that there was an article in the Huon Valley newspaper about Das Swing - so PJ of course got it on Sunday morning, and I was very surprised to read such a glowing report about myself - and that I am apparently a band member :) But it's good, as I was deep down quite concerned about not being able to find anybody to play music with.
Sunday we wanted to go for a walk in Hartz Mountains, apparently it was covered in snow the week before but alas, not this week. It was pouring with rain, so we ended up walking down to Arve Falls which was still very beautiful, and then going on to Zlatty and Laura.
In the house, we have now practically finished the main room - PJ has put the second coat on, and put gloss on the woodwork. It's looking beautiful. Next he will rent a sander, and then the kitchen, main room, and music room will all be sanded. Then varnish, and then we're a whole lot closer again.
And so we're plodding along, but it's all good fun. Anyway... it's time for me to make some dinner, and then we can relax.
Here is some light reading if you're interested:
- Illusions of inclusivity in the culture of "whatever"
from Carolyn Baker's website. - GM pines for Electric Car
(Richard Heinberg) If you haven't yet, see the movie 'Who killed the electric car' please do - it's a real eye opener. - Survival Topics
I want one of them Swedish fire sticks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
