Yipppeeee... building work has started

Well when I say started......

After what has seemed an age we met up with David and Sid (the builders) to agree on the orientation of the house.  As we want to have as much of a passive home as we can we really need the largest windows in the house facing true north... not magnetic north as they had marked out.

Well from a spectators point of view it did look funny, a kind of Aussie Morris dance with tape measures and pegs rather than hankies and sticks.  2 hours, 5 attempts with the house moving up and down the slope later we thought we'd cracked it, until that is I remembered the Fire Service rule of a building having to be 15 meters from any trees and 20 meters from shrubs.  Rick and I went back later and moved the house site back up the hill to hopefully its final resting place.  The builders had left us with promises of the site being leveled the following day.... which eventually happened four days later  on Monday.

Aussie Morris Dancing or marking out the site

A rather large sand pit in the making

The Butterfly Farm or the veggie patch

Starting back left are the cherry tomatoes, loads of flowers no fruit yet, next to them are what remains of the brussels sprouts (thank you caterpillers!) brocolli raab (bit bitter probably won't grow that one again) broadbeans with silverbeet between them. Peas and parsnips.  Next row either side of the trough is some garlic, then broadbeans, chook food, beetroot and turnips. A pot of Arum lillies, my dear little strawberry patch with garlic planted around it (I'd read that bunnies can't get past the garlic... fingers crossed) and the salad patch.  Yum... Oh and the other side of the big bed are the compost pits which will be ready for planting pumpkins.

The Winter Solstice - the shortest day
I felt the winter solstice really needed to be celebrated, and a good time to introduce my lovely family here to the joys of a Wassail Cup.  The bonfire bit didn't need any encouragement.  I felt certain though that I'd not find a yule log to burn so I thought I'd make one.... to eat.

Gluten and dairy free with meringue fungi. I used a victoria sponge for the base and once out the oven spread the whole thing with deliciously sharp homemade kumquat marmalade before rolling it up. I'd imagined a fairly serene moment of rolling (bit like Merry Berry) but it ended up a bit of a wrestling match. I belatedly realised that I should have trimmed the sponge and got a clean tea-towel ready for the rolling bit... thank you Rick for coming to my rescue.... once you'd stopped laughing!

The fungi were pristine white mushrooms until I put them in an oven that was a wee bit warm and caramelised the poor little things! I finished the decorations with sprigs of fresh Rosemary and homemade candied Kumquats. It tasted like a jaffa cake......

Not a bad attempt......

The Wassail Cup was mulled cider, warming, deceptively potent and delicious (modesty being my middle name) I'm very happy to share the recipe.

Fred wasn't quite sure what was going on but he was very happy to be with his pack. It was a beautiful clear dry night.  The stars were out in force, I'd never seen so many, it was incredible to see. With the fire roaring and the mulled cider going down a treat, it was quickly decided we'd eat here and camp out for the night.  Leaving Deb and Fred with the bonfire and Wassail Cup, off we went in various directions for swags, food and more giggle juice.

Flame shapes like something out of ghost busters.

It was a great celebration, the food went down well (we were starved and everything tastes so much better in the fresh air).  Deb and Rick rigged up some music. Fred decided he was chief food taster and helped himself to a sausage from the BBQ.  Taking his duties seriously he made sure he was always on hand to test anything going and lick plates clean. Being environmentally conscious he was very happy to eat the plastic plates rather than see them go to land fill... if we'd have let him.

At the end of the evening the troops rolled out their swags around the fire, Fred settled down on the warm bits taking it in turns to keep an eye on his pack.  I confess I rolled my new swag out in the back of the Territory.... it turned out to be a good ideas as there was hardly room for me once I'd got most of the queen size doona inside it!

It was wonderful waking up to the sound of the laughing magpies, curious about these very large green caterpillars around the remains of the smoldering bonfire.  The Kookaburras were chuckling away fairly quietly for them.  We slowly woke up to a beautiful misty winters morning, fire was revived to cook brekkie.... perfect.

Fred enjoyed the cabbage and baked beans mix... hmmm, so glad we didn't have to take him home later.

Wrestling with a smaller doona and my lovely new purple swag ready now for another adventure.

Naracoorte

We've not just been gallivanting around the countryside, exploring and going to events. After each trip out Dora gets some more fine tuning, the bike has been worked on, gardening done and I've been busy making yet more preserves.  

It is a time of harvest here, apples, pears, citrus fruit and quinces are in season.....we were very kindly given lemons and kumquats (which here are spelt with a c) and a box of scrummy apples I was determined to do something with them before they went off. After consulting all available cookbooks (Debs, mine and the internet) I decided to give mint and apple jelly, lemon chutney (delish), kumquat marmalade, candied kumquats and kumquat liquor a go. Fingers crossed the store cupboard doesn't come off the wall before we've managed to eat them... or give them away!

Meanwhile at the veggie patch.....

The veggie patch is growing... literally.  I've now got a patch of very healthy looking strawberries, huge thanks to Debs chooks for the fertiliser and a kind donation of potash from their lovely wood-fires (Deb and Roberts that is, the chooks are not that spoilt).  The bed is surrounded by garlic which so far seems to be keeping the bunnies at bay.

I've got a very healthy caterpillar nursery on plants which resemble doilies which should really be Brussels Sprouts.  I kid you not the little blighters are huge and very cunning, they blend in very well with their favourite food.  But interestingly they have left the broadbeans alone and don't seem to know about the healthy crop of silverbeet (chard) in amongst the broadbeans. 

I've been wanting to make a compost heap at the block as since the weather has become a lot cooler the Bokashi bin has really slowed down and although Debs chooks have done a stirling job eating our excess veg scraps we'd prefer not to give them chillis and onions.  I eventually had a bit of a brain wave and have dug a couple of deepish pits to put the scraps in, each scrap dump gets covered with straw and soil and will slowly break down.  This should enrich the soil and eventually when the season is right I'll be using them as my pumpkin patch.

I'm not sure if I've ever posted photos of Naracoorte... we woke Sunday to a beautiful sunny morning and felt the need to talk Fred for a walk (much to his delight), I remembered to take the camera. These are Naracoortes main streets on a sleepy sunny Sunday morning.....

Naracoortes Pioneer Park

And the Nature Walk Park where we take Fred for a swim in the creek, it is truly beautiful planted with many stunning native plants a lot of which are flowering now.

Best way of getting Fred's attention!

Hakea of some kind

Banksia candle like flower

And it's dried seed pods like wee furry beasties

I tried to capture the tiny beads of dew on the ends of the grass hairs

Not sure quite what this is 

We did some more exploring around Naracoorte this time with Deb and Robert leading the way going across some really interesting 4wd terrain.  Sun was shining, birds singing so off we went for a bit of a wander by foot and the heavens opened.  As soon as we got back to the car it of course stopped... and looked so pretty in the sun... it made up for being soggy and cold!

Rain drops

One happy Dora in a sunny glade

And I also managed to fit in a trip to Mount Gambier with Deb.  It is coming up to the end of the tax year here so there are many sales on in the shops... well what girl can resist a bargain.... we did very well and managed to save lots of money!!  It was a great day out, lots of fun.

Our tree, Clayton Farm and Fairview Conservation Park

Well it's been quite a week... infact possibly more than one!  Rick and I visited a local carpenter who makes fantastic things out of all locally sourced wood.  Amongst other woods he uses Red and Hill Gum, which are renowned for being extremely hard woods. We mentioned the tree we (a term I use loosely) felled and asked if he thought it would be any good to use in the house.  Well as it turned out it is Hill Gum and superb for turning into all sorts of things and yes he could slab it. Yipppeeee! So the challenge now was to somehow get the main trunk to him.... and it is incredibly heavy.

With an enormous amount of help from Deb and canine encouragement from Fred, we did it.  Rick maneuvered the tree with the tractor, I did my best trying to get the trailer into position and very slowly we got it on the trailer.  With Deb's following off we went in convoy to the 'Red Gum Man'

So hopefully in about 6 weeks time we should be able to collect our slabs, stack them with blocks in between and patiently wait.... for about 4 years for them to dry out.

And it may well take that long for us to decide what to do with them.  Sadly turning them into kitchen work surfaces was not recommend. Oh well...... at least we can use it for more than firewood.






Clayton Heavy Horse Day
About an hours drive away is a beautiful old homestead called Clayton Farm the sheds/barns and old homestead are exactly as they were when they were first built and it is amazing to see.

Huge Red Gums cut, somehow put into position to support the cattle shed roof

A single room workers cottage

Life must have been very hard back then... but it was also I guess the start of just how creative and skilled rural folk are.  

Sack cloth soaked in water and draped over the sides of this cool box evaporated slowly keeping the contents coolish.  

And of course horses were used for all sorts of heavy work, snigging (dragging trees) working the fields etc. etc.,  It was so lovely seeing these gorgeous gentle natured Clydesdales being put through their paces.  And the sun shone.... a wonderful day out.

Both of us were extremely impressed with Roger (our recalcitrant GPS) we programmed the destination and 'he' even recognised the unsealed roads.  Believe it or not this is Dora sitting on one of the A roads home, we kept thinking we were going up someones drive!

Fairview Conservation Park

It was a long weekend so we took Dora out again on Monday to do some more exploring, off we went picnic and warm clothes packed to Fairview Conservation park.  It was beautiful, Dora and Rick were delighted to discover it also involved some four wheel driving

The park had so many native plants, huge beautiful gums, old Stringy Barks, grasses, banksias to name but a few and many many more we didn't know the names of.  Wide open spaces, hills, flats... you name it we found it... every thing except water.  With so much variety in the flora department there was of course a diverse range of fauna to.  We spotted wallabies, deer and bunnies darting off to find cover.  We even spotted an Echidna waddling off, much like an Australian Mrs Tiggywinkle, into the undergrowth.

Aussie Mrs Tiggywinkle!

We were all having great fun driving around the park and then we spotted them.  A flock of about 20 Red Tailed Black Cockatoos, it was amazing to see them.  These beautiful birds are sadly endangered, they feed mainly on Stringy Bark and Buloke seeds modern methods of farming and townships have meant a reduction in their food source and nesting sites.

The glossy black males have bright red panels in their tail feathers and the females have pale yellow and orange stripped plumage. They are mainly found in the Limestone coast area, where the best food source is.  They are counted by volunteers every year and this year the count was just 1064.

We stopped for lunch surrounded by Redtails noisily eating theirs, screeching at each other as they went, magical sounds.  Once Dora was turned off it didn't take long for many other birds to come back to feed, tiny wrens (about the size of a large moth) and honey eaters to name but two.  

It is a wonderful experience to be able to sit with just the sound of nature around you, no cars or jet planes....

I was amazed to find this tiny little fly catcher covered in tiny droplets of dew, the whole lot was about the size of my thumbnail.

Big News and the 'bombing' of Penola and a visit to Horsham

Firstly we have at long last got planing permission for our house build from the council. Even though they seemed to take an age we are now sooooo glad the council took their time going through the plans. They actually found two mistakes on the drawing made by the draftsman, which would have caused quite a problem when the roof was to be fitted.  Thank goodness they were so thorough.  

So now the house has been pegged out and once we've checked the orientation the build can begin, strangely enough by digging a few holes first, one for the septic tank and one for the rain water tank. This soil will then be used to make the slope level for the waffle pod to sit on.

It is so exciting, everything crossed please for good building weather over the next few months.

The weekend we took off to the big city was also the weekend of the annual Penola Arts Festival.  This pretty little town just 1/2 hour drive from us is right in the middle of the Coonawarra wine region and host to some amazingly creative people.  The town was 'bombed' most stationery things were beautifully decorated with very colourful knitting and crochet.  One of the cafes had knitted sushi, prawn and sea creature mobiles hanging in the window and a little knitted terrier tied up with it knitted lead and it's knitted bowl of water 'greeting' people as they entered.  It made you smile and really brightened up the start of winter.

There were all sorts of events taking place in the surrounding winehouses, singing, local artists displaying their work... well all sorts of things and something the whole community seemed to take part in.  

And we've visited Horsham... the one in Victoria... which is also the one which has a population of just 20,000 and is a rural city.  It has some interesting buildings lots of them with an Art Deco influence and some interesting art works dotted around.  The Information Centre was a very good place to start our exploring, the very knowledgeable lady there gave us an abundance of information on the place, maps and a list of 'whats on'.  And a wee bit of history...The town was named by a settler called Darlot, he originally had lived in Brighton in the UK and had visited Horsham... there seems to be no record of why he thought it was a good name for this town.

The place was fairly bustling when we arrived in the morning but come lunchtime everyone seemed to disappear, most of the shops had closed for rest of the weekend.  There were a couple of cafes open but that was about it.  No matter, we found the local Lapidary were holding an open day, it was brilliant.  I was very surprised how varied the stalls were, a couple of lady silversmiths working away, a chap polishing opals he'd mined from his own opal mine.  Others were cutting and polishing some beautiful gems, there was a bone carver and a chap selling hand crafted viking and anglo saxon style jewelry.  All very interesting, tempting and really lovely to meet and chat to the fascinating characters and hear their stories.

The main street which was full up with people when we arrived!

English Elm trees, a rare sight since the Dutch Elm disease took most of the UK ones out.

Horsham was very different to how I imagined it would be and very different to the UK one but it still had a good feeling to it.