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Never think you shall look good

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Going in to B to dump the trash at the recycling centre and posting the census and a letter to the ATO for a stamp to send to Greece to prove that we live here. How does that prove anything? The Greek authorities and our lawyers are the pits. They can just call the council in K and the tax people in AU and check that we live here instead of making us get stamps and pay out of our noses.

Anyway. We got on our city clothes. Jen let her hair down and the weather has been fine a couple of days. The postman (lady) came through without a hitch so we thought we could leave the chainsaw at home.

More than halfway through lo and behold a tree with a gazillion vines wrapped around it! Good thing we had the machete with us and gloves. So just started hacking away and pulling off the vines until the tree was free. That nicely hanging hair in face and mouth and dirt on our city clothes. Phew! Snatch strap on tree and pull it aside with the ute. Road free after maybe 30 min! Not a bad job! Then on to the village.

Had a cuppa at the General Store and had a nice chat with, haha, shows – the postman’s father! Small world!

Food

New white stuff

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Friday.

So the day after we did our shopping in Kemp the freezer on the fridge popped. It´s been on the on and off for a week but we thought stupidly that we would have some more time to check out freezers and fridges before it totally went dead. It has three settings and the middle setting was the one that ceased but this morning all of them refused even the quick freeze button. Thermostat must be broken. Yesterday we resisted to check out the white goods in town because it is so nice to come home while it is still light. We should have.

So this morning we have a fridge full of newly bought food and a freezer full of frozen food for 5 days = 11 meals each for 2 people. To have someone come out, a 2 hour drive, from Kempsey to have a look at the fridge/freezer and either say buy a new one or take it apart and say we need a new thermostat and pay out of our nose, then go back 2 hrs. No, just buy new stuff because we need it today.

It has rained some more during the night so the roads will be worse but WTH just pack all the “saw down trees and hack away the vines” kit and get going. Most of that stuff is always in the ute anyway. But good, no car fridge, no cooler and no carton for cans & bottles. And away we go. The creeks are up so we have to go through the bush.

First stop lunch at KFC. That chicken has most definitely been frozen.

Second stop, get a sturdy trolley at Bunnings. We can always use a good trolley around here. So we unpacked it in the parking lot and went over to pump the tyres. One tyre was leaking so back to Bunnings. They did not want to give us new tyres and the guy, after humming and hawing and talking to the manager, went over to pump the tyre himself. Haha, the tyre did leak! Theeen he gave us a new tyre for free. So back to the parking lot and put on the new tyre. They were pumped already. That took at least 45 min of precious time.

Things you think will be quick are never quick. Things that you think will take time are always quicker. Ain´t that odd.

So 3rd stop Betta and have a look at what they´ve got, not impressed.

Over to the pretty newly opened white goods outlet store by the railway. All goods they had were from east Asia. After a lot of discussions we chose a Daewoo. The freezer is much bigger then we old one and that is important to us. Had to ask the salesperson how it handled on the highway. She got it immediately and said she had not tried that yet. The salesperson made sure we understood that even though there was a five year warranty nobody would come out to our neck of the woods or even Bellbrook. They would send stuff and we would have to do the rest. So up with the Daewoo on the ute, standing up of course.

Onward home. Dark clouds everywhere but we did not get any rain – yay! We made it home without cutting down neither branches or the package on P-trail. Both creeks are still high but here we have bridges.

Slithering down our hill but we made it in one piece. Then into the house to move the old one into the storage room. Stupid fridge worked when we got home but it is so off and on and that is not good. Then slide down the new one and off with the packaging (by now it was pitch black) and roll up the stairs and into the house and on it´s place. Put on handles and wheels and so on and got it going. Yaya. After 2 hrs. Mick transported the freezer goods over to the new freezer and woah it almost disappeared compared to the old freezer. Still it does not look bigger on the outside but it is slightly.

Ok, late dinner in front of a nice fire. Phew.

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More on compost and clearing among the citruses

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Vi rensar . Där ligger det en massa grejs.

DSC00558 Gräs och gräs och gräs!

DSC00559 Och där kom allting fram och ligger snyggt. Nu gäller det att inte låta det växa igen!

 Composts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Now we rearrange.

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No 1 is now resting and we put all the grass mulch there so we can use it for  the next kitchen compost. No 2 is now the working kitchen compost. No 3 is resting clearance compost and no 4 is working clearance compost. Across the road we have put all bigger branches and trees that we are taking out of the citrus grove.

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Before pic of citrus:

Composts 1, 2, 3 & 4 – Version 2

And ongoing:

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We have a lot of work on this ahead and hope it will be worth it in the end.

This is how big it is. There is a paper road going through the middle.

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Another one of those long days

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Went to town to do do errands and buy food yesterday.

We took the road through the bush and saw so many fallen trees from the last storm. We have been so lucky that the wind came from behind the mountains. The mountain took the brunt of the storm and spared us. Soo lucky! When we got home warm winds came through and the evening was very warm. It had been 25 plus during the day.

Mick went to the eye doctor to get new glasses. The doc and Jen got into a discussion and poor Mick was sitting there wondering if he should just leave or stay.

A couple of days ago we found an old piece of very long fabric from when Jen sewed some Viking dress. We checked and it fitted perfectly as curtains in our bedroom. We hung it in one window to see if we really like the colour and we doo. The super old curtains from the bedroom will now be hung in the livingroom so we bought new dowels for that (very long thin poles of wood).

The slab house is becoming more and more like a home. Most furniture is down. More and more books are being unpacked. The photoalbums are unpacked. We are redistributing repacking stuff also and putting the boxes back up in the roof project

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Waste not want not – Inget slöseri (Sw Eng mix)

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Here are the composts. 1 through 4.

Since we had visits from most surely a Bandicoot who actually mainly searches for maggots, grubs and worms but at the same time spreads our kitchen green waste we decided to put up a fence around our working compost no 1. No 2 which Jen went through with a fine tooth comb is ready to be metered out on the trees and a lot have been allotted to the patches. So in no 1 we put kitchen greens, some leaves from no 3, some ashes/wood coal from no 2 (there is it´s own pile there) and dry grass from anywhere. Lastly we layer it with compost from no 2 so the grass will not fly away. Perfect layering. If we have cow manure we will use that too. No 4 is still resting and mulling but is pretty much ready to go through and be added to no 2. When that is done we will put no 1 to rest and start over with no 4.

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Här är komposterna. Nr. 1 till 4.

Eftersom vi har besök från förmodligen en Bandicoot (punggrävling), som faktiskt främst söker efter larver och maskar men samtidigt sparkar omkring vårt köksavfall beslutade vi att sätta upp ett staket runt vår arbetskompost nr 1. Nr. 2 som Jen gick igenom med en finkammen är redo att portioneras ut på träden och en hel del har tilldelats grönsakslanden. Så i kompost 1 varvar vi köksavfall, blad från kompost nr 3, torrt gräs från någonstans, aska / träkol från nr 2 (det finns det är egen hög där). Slutligen ett lager med kompost från nr 2 så att gräset inte kommer att flyga iväg. Perfekt skiktning. Nr 4 är fortfarande i vila men är ganska redo att gås igenom och läggas till nr 2. När det är gjort kommer vi att lägga nr 1 till vila och börja om med nr 4 som arbetskompost.

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So waste not want not.

When we moved into the house soil from the hillside had washed down and covered the posts that the house stands on and under it were a lot of stuff. A LOT of stuff. So we (Mick) dug out around the top part of the ground by the house for light and to free for winds to sweep through and dry out the ground and the house from underneath. Then we took Atlas and pulled two bridge beams to behind the citrus grove and laid out as a storage area. We cleared out from under the house and kept what we thought could come in handy one day. We put that on the beams and threw the rest which actually was not much. Now it is building up under the house again and we need to use the storage area more but BUT it is sadly neglected. So we have to dig it out again. (Believe it or not but we found an old trash pile just by it. Mainly building debris this time.) This time we shall also arrange for a better path back there so we can get at the limes, grapefruit and kumquats easier.

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Ditt skräp är min skatt – hmmm.

När vi flyttade in i huset hade jord från backen spolats ner och täckte de pålar som huset står på och under huset fanns en hel del saker. Mycket grejer. Så vi (Mick) grävde ut runt den övre delen av marken vid huset för ljus och för att frigöra för vindar att svepa igenom och torka ut hus och mark underifrån. Sedan tog vi Atlas och drog två brobalkar till bakom citrus unden och avsåg som ett lagringsutrymme. Vi rensade ut från under huset och behöll vad vi trodde skulle komma till handa en dag. Vi satte det på balkarna och kastade resten som faktiskt var inte mycket. Nu börjar det att bli mycket under huset igen och vi måste använda lagringsutrymmet men men det är tyvärr försummat. Så vi måste gräva ut det igen. (Tro det eller ej, men vi hittade en gammal sophög alldeles intill vårt fina försummade lagringsställe. Främst byggnadsavfall den här gången.) Den här gången ska vi också ordna en bättre väg där bakom så att vi kan komma åt att plocka lime, grapefrukt och kumquats lättare.

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Fortsatt undersökning av bushen

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We went for a little research trip in our bush. We were told that there once was a grassy opening between Postmans trail and Postmans creek . It is very steep by the road side but we had found a little flat area at another time. This time around we were not sure if we ended up on that area or another. Most leaves on the lower growth was gone so you could see the terrain a lot better. We trudged along with Mick in the front with the machete. Here is what we found. A weird trailer, possibly for tree trunks. Rusty oil or petrol cannisters. And an odd half rusted sink – ish thing with a stand that seems like it was meant for tipping. We did not find an area suitable for pasture. There were deep crevices very difficult to cross in several places.

Vi gick på en liten recognonsering i vår skog. Vi hörde av en granne att det en gång var en gräsbevuxen öppning mellan Postmans trail och Postmans creek. Det är mycket brant vid vägen men vi hade hittat en liten plan yta vid en annan tidpunkt. Den här gången vi var inte säkra på om vi hamnade på detta område eller ett annat. De flesta bladen på de lägre växterna var borta så att vi kunde se terrängen mycket bättre. Vi traskade på med Mick i fronten med macheten. Marken passade inte så bra för kobete tyckte vi. Branta sprickdalar och för lite plana ytor men vi var kanske på fel ställe. Här är vad vi hittade. En konstig släpvagn, möjligen för trädstammar. Rostiga olje eller bensin behållare. Och en udda halvrostad hoaktig sak med en montering som verkade tänkt för tippning.

Gamla rostiga dunkar
Gamla rostiga dunkar

 

 

Överväxt släpvagn
Överväxt släpvagn

Old trailer of some kind

Tråg för tippning kanske
Tråg för tippning kanske

Annoying was that when we got back up on the road and walked home, we saw that someone vile creep had thrown garbage in the bush. We had no bag, and it was very steep but you just don´t throw garbage in nature. You wait until you get home! Just the other week we gathered wood in the forest and then we found, surely 50, old beer bottles that were overgrown.

Now that there are so many leaves after storms and during the cold season that have fallen, you see more of what is on the ground than otherwise. We also found old plastic pots that you buy plants in, at a place by the old logging road. They were also broken and a little overgrown.

Next time we´ll bring garbage bags with us.

 

Trist var att när vi kom upp på vägen igen och gick hemåt såg vi att någon slemblebba hade slängt sopor i bushen. Vi hade ingen påse och det var väldigt brant men iallafall så slänger man inte sopor i folks bush. Man väntar tills man kommer hem.

Härom veckan var vi och tog ved i skogen och då hittade vi, säkert 50, gamla ölflaskor som var överväxta.

Nu när det inte är så mycket blad efter stormar och under den kalla årstiden så ser man mer än annars. Vi hittade också gamla plastkrukor som man köper växter i på ett ställe utmen skogshuggarvägen. De var också trasiga och lite överväxta.

Nästa gång tar vi med soppåsar.

Food, Uncategorized

So what´s on the menu

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This is dry reading and no pics. Only for hard core eaters.

So what´s on the menu? Lunch and dinner:

Hamburgers / Hot dogs

Chicken soup (don´t remember what was in it) / T-bone steak with potato and salad

Chicken soup same as yesterday / Lamb leg roast with oven vegs:parsnip, potato & yam

Franks mash & pepper fried onion / Pork sweet potato & salad

Greek salad with boiled egg (egg IN salad is not very tasty) / Pasta, ham & cheese fry super yum

Franks a la Stroganoff / Orange chicken according to a Greek recipe on the internet

Ham sandwich / Cup cakes & popcorn

Chicken wraps, lots of fresh vegs in here / Cabbage and sage soup a la Nigella (this was totally disgusting)

Made fish soup on leftover cabbage/sage soup which turned out even worse! First time Nigella maybe last time too / Mince sauce with capsicum & potato

Pasta with sauce on franks / mustard, cream, carrots & leek, home made salami pizza (super)

Hot cheese tomato sandwiches / Bienenstich cake

Waffles with homemade jellies & syrups and jams / Tuna wraps

Lamb lentil stew (stew made from back of lentil package and added lamb, Indian stuff) super tasty / Chips beer cake & tea

Chicken with sauce: ginger squash capsicum leek & coconut milk / popcorn & wine

Lunch: Pork slices, chilli pepper fried onions with Uluru stew made from celeriac, swede, carrot yum yum

Dinner: Swedish prawn sandwiches, cup cakes made with lime & raisin

Lunch: Fried fish, rice & sauce from peanut butter, coconut milk a bit of brown sugar & Garam Masala super yummy

Dinner: Lamb stew made on tomato sauce, rosemary & garlic and our own dried beans.

Lunch: Bits from the pork leg roast with a ready made sauce from the store, rice and a simple salad.

Dinner: Pasta with a mince stew on capsicum, leek & our own squash.

Yep not ready to live on our home-grown vegetables yet but we are learning and next step is to adjust the sowing so that all does not ripen at the same time.

Went shopping and since it was cold and windy we had lunch at the Liberty Café: fish and chips. We also had a lot of food still in the freezer so we did not have to buy so much this time.

Store bought baguette with cheese and ham, popcorn after.

Now we take care of all the newly bought fresh meat. Usually the mince has the shortest date so we make something out of mince and the make 100 gram patties and freeze them. But this time we decided to make meatballs instead of patties.

So for lunch mince mushroom sauce with pasta and a simple salad.

Evening we had pork chops with a cream sauce with tarragon, potatoes and home grown beans.

Lunch was frankfurters in hot dog buns. Then we baked saffron bread for our little midwinter celeb. The evening passed with tasting the saffron bread and having popcorn and grog. Oooooo.

Next day was time for a nice dinner of Salmon with homemade Gravlax sauce, potatoes gratin Dauphinois and meatballs. Then we put the rest of the meatballs in the freezer.

Saturday saw us eating chicken curry and rice for lunch and BBQ scotch fillet with our own grown fried cauliflower and the Dauphinois for dinner.

Sunday: Sausage & cabbage soup / popcorn & wine

Monday: Biscuits with jam & cheese / chicken a l´orange with rice and corn.

Tuesday: Pumpkin soup & biscuits. The pumpkin soup is really butternut squash soup. Evening we made goulash on round steak and it came out to 4 meals so we froze 3 meals for the future.

Hamburgers / Lamb with potato mash made from potato & home grown swede root.

And the last day of the month we had leftover salmon from the Midwinter celeb. We made salmon sandwiches on newly baked bread and for dinner we had bits of port which we cut up and fried with mushrooms and our own squash, the last squash in the patch! Rice with that.

Soo yummy food…. all except Nigellas cabbage stuff.

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Winter

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We will starve! We only have some Swedes, handful of purple beans, less green beans, one squash, two kiwanos and possibly some sweet potatoes in the patches. If we had to live only on that we would be in real trouble.

Very foggy day. Yesterday we did all fleece clothing laundry. It did not dry. Some clothing took all today above the wood fired stove to dry out. Incredible.