Making our home.....

So what have we been up to...... where do I start?

The Pantry

First the architrave and skirting boards were fitted by Rick. But the photo only shows the very smart architrave!

And then a couple of days later John the carpenter and the rest of the pantry arrived.

It's been so good to be able to unpack all the food and have it in one place, i.e. the kitchen area! There is still quite a bit of sorting out to do and total chaos reigned in the sitting room for a few days while the dining room and kitchen boxes were unpacked and the contents were found homes for... or repacked awaiting homes to be found.

I did so many trips to the recycling centre the lads and lasses who work there must have thought I had been employed!

Anyway it is ever so smart and I am really pleased with it. My biggest challenge is in reaching the top shelves and at some point I will need to get a bigger ladder. 

The Connection

Our new look roof with all sorts of things sticking out of it!
Or you may just enjoy the beautiful sky.

The same day as the pantry fitting the communications chappie arrived to test our signal. We had been told soooo many times that we needed to actually see the communications tower or we had no hope of getting a signal we (or rather the modem) could use. If you stand on a tall ladder on the roof and possibly on tip toes you may just get a glimpse of the mast above the trees. Well as it turns out there was no problem and within a blink of the eye a 'discrete square dish thing' or receiver was fitted to the roof and we were up and running. AND have a land-line to.

News from the shed

Rick set to and has been dismantling the last landy, it seems (to the trained eye) that there are a lot of usable parts from the old girl. Which will be carefully squirreled away in the shed ready for the next Landy which needs rescuing.

And he has built a mezzanine floor in the shed, to store some of our furniture till we get a wee bit more sorted in our home.

Amazingly all this was done in his 'spare' time.

Our Woodburner

For fear of being called a wimp or a whinging pom I have to say the weather did go through quite a cold spell. I know coming from the Northern Hemisphere I should be used to the cold, and it is certainly never as cold here as it can be up there. BUT it was fantastic when the chap arrived to fit the wood burning stove. We've had to have a couple of very small fires to temper the paint and it was amazing how much warmer I felt just seeing the flames. Along with the good excuse to eat comfort food a log fire is another good reason to enjoy winter.

The Water Tank

At last our last rain water tank for the house has been connected. Which was closely followed by a good evening of rain. Well when I say a good rain the clouds above our house only managed to drop 2mm BUT that is much better than nothing and over a very large roof that does add up. At least we are well and truly ready now for a decent rainfall. 

The Veg Patch

I've been slowly using the huge mound of soil we dug out of Deb and Roberts drive but was surprised when plants I recognised (and hadn't planted) started to appear. So here we have (thank you Deb and Robert) a Butternut Squash, or Pumpkin as they are called here which has and is producing tons of fruit and loads of tomatoes. Delicious! There are still beautiful sweet strawberries hiding under the net, silverbeet and courgettes (zucchini). It is also the time to plant so I've now got loads of herbs in the trough and in half the big bed I've now put Brussels Sprouts, coriander (which is apparently a good companion for it), beetroot and carrots.

That's all for now

Time out at the Autumn Shows and The South East Field Day

There are Autumn Shows at least once a week at the moment, a chance to show off the harvest and skills of the many talented craftswomen, men and children around the local towns.

We decided to visit the much talked about Moot Yang Gunya Festival and Mundulla Show. Mundulla (the English name of the town) has a population of just over 1000 people and is a very happy and thriving community. Moot Yang Gunya is an aboriginal word which I think means place on the swamp. We didn't see much sign of the swamp as it's been so dry in recent years but apparently it's there when it really rains. The effort the community put into this annual two day event is amazing. There was something for everyone to take part in even if it is just spectating and crowds of 3,000 were expected.

Lady letting very excited children out of air tunnel.

There were so many attractions from a free Kiddies entertainments tent which, among other things, featured a very popular Air Tunnel for the Littlies to enjoy. Basically a material tube abut 10 meters long which had air gently blown into it. The very little kiddywinks ran from one end to another and for some reason just could not get enough of it. It was a great sight seeing them laughing and giggling, bet they slept really well after that.




Loads of competitions like decorating round bales of hay, wood chopping, singing, all sorts of arts and crafts, from pumpkin carving, photography to cake baking and beautiful needle crafts, to name but a few.

Don't text and fly!

This was fascinating to watch, all ages and levels of skill using razor sharp axes to chop their way through the log in the fastest times. The most skilled starting sometimes 60 seconds after the least skilled. How they still had all limbs intact at the end of it was beyond us.

The local heavy working horses from Clayton Farm put in an appearance, all Clydesdales.

I can not imagine how hard it is to get a team of six to work so well together. Each pair seemed to be doing a slightly different job, especially obvious when the young lad driving them wanted to turn the cart. Just to think that it wasn't so long ago that these beautiful animals were used for practically everything on the farm.

And then there were the carved pumpkins.

And the skills of a local artist on show, one of her pieces was the first prize for the local schools competition. Magic Trees and Fairy Tales was the theme to be interpreted however they wanted, all very clever but for some reason I didn't manage to get a photo of any!

 

It was a really great day out with so many things to see and do.

And then the following weekend it was The South East Field Day

Which is our version of the South of England Show but seems more geared to all things agricultural. It is held at Lucindale, a very sleepy little community with a population of about 1,000. I have to say whenever we have driven through it I have never see anyone in the main street.... only the occasional car... yes that sleepy. But my goodness it comes alive for the really well organised Field Days. Two days of yard dog trials, cookery demos, showing and selling of local produce and crafts. This show, the local paper announced, attracted 23,000 people.

It is so big but so well organised, the stands are set out in blocks with named roads, there is a free courtesy bus for those who are weary and free goofers for those less able to walk. We walked around for the whole day and still didn't managed to see it all.

Again there are competitions for the kids, this time in the form of scarecrows and outback post boxes. 

 

All made out of scrap by the local school kids quite brilliant.

One of my favourites was in the South East Natural Resources Tent...

Meet Lucy a Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat (SNHW)

This ones a borrowed image so you can see what they are like the other way up.

Lucy was rescued when she was orphaned and reared to be handled and shown around schools to educate people about the plight of the SHNW. They are sadly an endangered species and live here in South Australia. Except Lucy who now has a fabulous life doing what ever pleases her. She does attend an occasional natural resource tent, but is no longer petted. She lives at a very special animal rescue sanctuary in Victoria, to tame to be released into the wild. but with loads of space to burrow to her hearts content.

  

Best made plans of mice and men!

Not quite sure where to start.....

The Rented Place
The last time I wrote we were going to keep the rented place on until the end of the lease having signed up (so we thought) until the end of March. BUT there seemed to have been a few crossed wires and the end of the lease came quicker than we expected. So with the help, once again, of Deb and Robert, we finished the move lock, stock and barrel all in a bit of a rush.

Very much on the plus side as it turns out as it is soooooooooooo good to be here. We may not yet be able to find everything but we know it is all here somewhere in a box either in the house or the shed but for the first time ever within the same 4 acres of land. What a great feeling that is.

Dawn Chorus
The dawn chorus is fantastic. As the sun very slowly climbs the hill and lights up our gum trees with a golden light the first bird to sing out is the Laughing Magpie. So hard to describe their unusual sound. Quite often the Kookaburras join in closely followed by the Sulpher crested cockatoos, Galahs, Crimson Rosellas. Then, all of a sudden, they all seem to go off somewhere for breakfast and leave the smaller birds to it. Magical.

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/birds/featured/Top-40-Bird-Songs If you are interested in hearing the sounds/songs hopefully this link will take you to the site so you'll have more idea what I'm talking about.

As the Equinox approaches the vines, European trees and shrubs are putting on their beautiful colourful Autumn coats. Night temperatures have dropped to 3c but can still get to 30c plus during the day. The clear and chilly night skies are full of stars, most of the constellations are upside down for me. I still can't get used to Orion standing on his head! And the mornings can be really misty and still with that gorgeous fresh crisp autumn smell.... it must be chestnut time soon.

Connections
We are still awaiting a visit from the 'signal checking man' who will hopefully pick up a great signal and in a blink of an eye and installation of some equipment we will once again be back on the world wide web. And you never know we may also have a land-line telephone. Not holding our breath but keeping all fingers an toes crossed.

For now we have a whizzy pay as you go thingamebob which is a lot more convenient than loitering on the town square logging into the library connection. And we don't like to keep going to Deb and Robert for help though I am sure they won't mind.

Pantry
And I am still waiting for the Pantry to be fitted or even to be given a proper date. I guess it will all happen in the fullness of time and perhaps I need to apply the famous Aussie laid-back-ness to paying the bills..... hmmmmm now there's a thought.

The Wood-burning Stove

A bargain! Unboxed and previously a display model but a (hopefully) perfect size for us. This slow combustion triple burn action wood burner also features a fan which blows the heat out the front vents rather than radiating heat which the traditional burners do. An important feature as we are going to be installing book shelves along the same wall and would prefer our precious books to remain untoasted.

It's not connected to anything yet but it does look nice! And the fitter has promised it will be properly installed and ready to use before winter.... before he left I did get him to promise he meant this winter. Which feels to me like it is fast approaching... now where did I put those woolly jumpers?





Land Rovers
We have decided going to Auctions and clearing sales is really dangerous for us. Rick can not resist Land Rovers which need rescuing and TLC, since I last wrote somehow we've ended up with two more!

Meet Rita

Rita, at the moment doesn't have a Landy engine but does have a Holden 186s engine which for some reason a few of people seem to be excited about buying. Good news for Rick as he wants to replace it with a Rover V8 engine which through chatting with various people he has since bought and brought home! He is turning into a regular Landy Dell Boy amazing how it all comes together.

And then we heard of this one which so far has no name or engine and four very flat tyres. But will be lovingly restored in the fullness of time and several sheds later.

The last edition... so far!

Happiness... for some is obviously Land Rover shaped, and it is always good to be happy.

It seems as fast as Rick has been collecting Landys I also seem to be gathering wardrobes. As some of you may already know at auctions if something gets no bids then it is put with the next item and so on until bids and a sale are made. I had my eye on a lovely, very unloved but old marble topped table.... which I eventually got for not very much at all... along with two wardrobes and a childs chalk board! The chalk board I sold straight away for a couple of dollars, Rick commandeered one of the wardrobes and has already put shelving in it and I will restore the last one.... eventually.

And then we picked up this cast iron ring, something we have been keeping an eye out for ages now. This will be our fire ring for when the fire bans are lifted, great for sitting around on chilly evenings and cooking over.

There is so much more to tell which will save for later..... ooroo..

The end of the rainbow.....

My goodness so much seems to have happened since I last wrote about our home....

It really was time to make the move, meanwhile our rented accommodation will be kept on until the natural end of the lease.

There are a couple of reasons for this, the main one being we have no idea how much water we use but do know the major uses are doing the washing and showering. So for now the washing and showering is being done at the rented place. Hopefully by the time we have finished the inside showers and the final water tank is in place and connected we will start to have the Autumn rains.

The designated day arrived as did the really hot weather, I would not recommend moving when the mercury is showing high 30's. Deb and Robert (Fred was supervising) arrived early and very kindly helped us shift the really heavy stuff. Three trailer and pick up loads later and most of our chattels are here. Just some of the clothes and sundries left to shift and a lot of unpacking and sorting out to do.

No matter we are finally here and I have to say it really does feel like we have found the end of the rainbow.

If that hasn't been excitement enough Rick has finished the outside shower, YAY, all bar the floor tiles and I think you'll agree has done an amazing job.

 Attaching the shower head to a series of copper pipes which Sid (the builder) first thought was Ricks trombone!

Fred doing final inspection of the drain pipe

 And finally the inaugural shower

Ricks final touch, for now, was the hanging the maiden hair fern. Natural grey slate will be used for the floor so we are doing our best to keep the concrete as grease free as possible.















And then the new concrete water tank arrived......

 Backed into place

 Rick controlling the winch and tipper, John the deliverer used two very thick steel poles as rollers.

Slowly the really heavy tank slid off the lorry and settled perfectly onto the pad Rick had prepared earlier.

Just need the plumbers back now to fit up the South side down pipes... then bring on the rain.

And then we had 'fun' with the telephone and internet connection.....

We patiently waited for the chap to transfer the  phone and internet connection from our rented place to here... and waited and waited. Eventually we got a massage (wishful thinking!) we actually got a message to say the appointment had been cancelled and it would be done in a couple of days time. Well many conversations later we still haven't got a phone.

The original electricians told us they could put in the phone connection, unfortunately unbeknown to us they ran the line from the house to the nearest stobie pole. Which (for those not in the know) is where our electrics run to. And therefore a very dangerous place for anyone to work, should the electrics fail for any reason the person working underneath could be electrocuted! So we now have obsolete telephone points in the house.

We have held off on the telephone connection as we may have to run the whole thing through our internet connection the signal for which has yet to be checked out.  Are you still with me? 

So now we have a temporary internet connection which can be topped up like a mobile phone, which hopefully bodes well for the permanent connection. Fingers crossed..... and deep breath!

The vineyard visit

The grape harvesting season is here!  

We were chatting to a couple of friends (who have lived here quite a while now) about the process and learnt their son is the mechanic for one of the local vineyards. They very kindly arranged to take us down one evening to have a chat with him and watch the harvest. It was fascinating.... 

Pictures are in reverse order!

Starting near the end of the process with a gondola unloading the picked grapes into the truck trailer ready for transporting, in this case, to New South Wales. A ten hour drive away.

The truck and trailer are driven onto a weigh bridge and careful note is taken of the various weights. Each gondola load is also weighed so the final weight of the grapes can be calculated

Before this happens the load is sprayed with a sulphate based chemical to stop the grapes fermenting on their long journey. Apparently this comes out during the finings stage of the wine making,

I just could't resist the sun set which did get more colourful as the evening progressed.

Will B (the mechanic) drove us to the harvesters, due to the hours they work the work force is mainly made up of students and backpackers. The grapes are rarely picked during the day as it is the hottest time of the year. So work starts at about 6.30 pm, it is still pretty warm then and goes on through the night until the 'run' is complete. The harvesting season does vary but generally last from 6 weeks to just over two months. Makes you feel weary just thinking about it!

View from the top of the picker, in the distance are the lights of another harvesting team.

A team of three people are used, one for the tractor with harvester, one tractor with the gondola and normally a young lady acting as picker keeping the harvesters machinery free from leaves and other vegetation. The tractors are driven very slowly along the vines, gondola attached to one and the self centering harvester to the other. We were very surprised to see the way the vines are treated. The harvester centers the vine and using fairly stiff rubber fingers 'wacks' and shakes the vines freeing the grapes and some leaves etc., This is bashed onto a series of conveyor belts, some vegetation blown away and the larger vegetation picked off by a 'picker' finally being loaded into the gondola.

Apparently hand picked grapes give a different depth of flavour to the finished wine but is so labour intensive and time consuming this process is only used for the best of wines. Which now makes sense as to why some wines are far more expensive than others.

Some huge thank yous go to David Brown (vineyard owner) and who took time out during this really busy time to talk to us about his vineyard; to Will B, who spent a good couple of hours very patiently answering our questions and showing us the harvest. And to his Dad, Graham for taking us there.... and home again.

It will be though but we will be doing our very best to support our local producers........ hic!