The grass is always greener......under the car!!!

As I cooked dinner I was entertained by this.....

Look ma. See how far I can get under here.

Yes dear the grass is always greener under the car.

And next to the human inhabitants door too.

Really. Let me see.

This grey stuff isn't anywhere near as good.

Nup Don't like it.

I bet its much better under the caravan.

Thump. Thump. Baa. Maa!!!!

Cheers. Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

On the Move - a very short run to Brisbane

Mt Fix It and Son - contemplating the next job.  Matching stances even!!

 

We finally got ourselves up to Brisbane to see the QLD family members recently. In typical K style we got up early, really early I mean, and made the run up in one day, arriving in time to grab the youngest grandson and take him to dinner with his other grandparents while the rest of the family went to play practice.

 

Also in typical K style we stopped off at Macadamia Castle for late lunch and to buy our favourite coffee grounds. We have been stopping here for coffee and food for many years. We like the coffee from the area because it is smooth and not bitter, and Australian grown as well. The food is pretty good too! It is a sad trip to Qld if we can't call in.

 

Our eldest son and his wife have four boys who, because of K's heart issues, we have not been able to visit this year. Youngest son is also in Brisbane so we got to spend a couple of evenings with him as well. Ate some pretty amazing Japanese food one night.

 

 It was a relatively flying visit because K left some unfinished work in Rathmines which he is happily working on as I write. Something about door locks and finding tins of paint I believe.

 

The last time we spent any time in Brisbane the family were deep in renovations, creating an ensuite bathroom, play room and extending the lounge out under the verandah. Mr Fix It and Son, (one afternoon it was "and Sons") worked on this for a number of weeks.  This visit the transformation is amazing! Really classy. 

 

This time K made and fitted flyscreens to the windows and together the men cut down a commercial flyscreen door to fit the odd sized laundry door frame.  

 

We girls did the usual things around loads of washing and school runs.

 

K made Lego creations with the grandsons and tried to make huge soap bubbles with a special kit. We went to Prize Giving evening and were royally entertained with songs and plays. There was a massive feast of food!

 

The youngest not quite two year old took a little bit to thaw out to us. One of the hazards of long distance grand-parenting I'm afraid. But once he decided we were in fact the faces to match the voices he hears on the phone, he was right into it. Cries of  Poppy" and "Grandma" were peppered into his long, but not quite intelligible sentences. He was quite happy to sit in his car seat in 'Poppy's car".

 

Poppy (Mr Fix It) is a favourite with the kids 'cos he will get down on the floor with them. (I can get down but getting up is another matter. I need everyone to leave the room so they won't laugh at me crawling to a chair.)  He had pop-gun battles and played games. The older boys have favourite things they like to do with him and, of course trot out all the toys and gadgets that need fixing. I believe he also did a repair on the Son's laptop.

Dinosaur Harry on his way to scare Poppy - note the big feet 

Too soon it was time to leave.

 

We dropped into Dick Johnson Racing, of course, on the way south and then to Lismore to see friends.

 

Late dinner, very, very late dinner at Rathmines when we got back. Good thing I had stuff in the freezer here.

 

Home made bread, crust-less quiche made from farm eggs and salad
Late night supper

This last week K has been working here at Bible School doing things. The afore mentioned locks, painting doors and stairs, tap seals and such like. And pulling one of our 12 volt fridges apart. It has decided to run nonstop and therefore freeze everything!!! Needs a new set of controllers or something. Pesky thing!  Not a disaster since we can get the parts and I have a repair man on tap, but its a long walk down the stairs in the morning to get milk for my "coffee that should be in bed".

 

We journey tomorrow back to our caravan on the farm.  I am very please to report that the coffee machine and the fridge live in much closer proximity in the van. So less chance of me doing a before coffee, I'm not awake yet, face plant while I hunt for milk.

 

We will drive down towing our old mini-trailer which has been returned to us after a long stay in Brisbane. It is carrying a window which son gave father to put in our shed on the farm. One less piece of "useful stuff"  in the back yard in Brissy.  Hmm! ...... Actually we do need the window and the little trailer will be ideal for us to use at the farm.

 

Afternoon coffee time. Last of the banana bread about to get eaten.

 

 

Cheers Sue

 

A Ferg on the Move 

 

Lazy afternoon with friends and family

We have been away from the farm a bit in the last few weeks. We lobbed back in time for Master One Year Old's birthday party in a lovely park at Picton. Good food. Kids every where.

Back at the farm yesterday we were delighted to join in an afternoon with Mr Homemaker http://mistahomemaker.blogspot.com.au/?m=1
and his wife and girls who had come to visit with the Crookwell family.

It was a warm, breezy day. Typical of the best here.

By the time they all left the wind has risen and thunder sounded a few times. Then rain. Love the sound of rain on a roof.

Quick spaghetti meal, a movie and snuggle in bed.

Great day.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

12 months off grid on the caravan.Keeping busy getting ready for summer.

The caravan has been great through the winter. On sunny winter days the canvass annex absorbs the heat and acts like an electric blanket. By breakfast time we can open the doors and windows onto the annex and take the chill off inside. At night we drop the blind and shut the curtains and keep the heat in. We even managed to cope with storms and a bit of snow.

In preparation for warmer weather Mr Fix It has fitted a new fan in the shower alcove, scrubbed and vinegared all the walls to kill any residual winter mould, and removed and replaced silicon sealant joints around fixtures in the shower, kitchen and toilet room to complete the mould proofing.

Time to think about changing the annex walls to shade cloth so one piece has gone into the canvass man for repairs.

The water filter on our pump from the rain water tank has been changed. Tap seals replaced, and the shower head cleaned and refitted.

The afore mentioned bathroom fan caused a bit of work. The new one had to be altered, wired differently and reshaped to fit. Our van is now 10 years old and spare parts have changed. Be a bit hard if you weren't handy.

A couple of weeks ago there was water under the kitchen sink, in the cupboards that is not the sink itself. After a few minutes with his body contorted into the cupboard space Mr Fix It concluded that our hot water tank had rusted through. So trip to Canberra to buy a new  one. K charmed a discount, but its a good thing that K is good at fixing most for next to nothing. The savings were needed cos the water heater and integrated tank were not cheap.

The frustrating thing was that the heater was working, just the tank needed replacing and there are no tanks for our model. Anyway the new one was working  half an hour after we got home.

Winter clothes to go under the bed and summer ones in the wardrobes, scrub the extra fridge out cos it is no longer cold enough to leave things out, and then we are summer ready.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Reflections on 12 months off grid in our caravan

We have just reached the 12 months off grid milestone. Our caravan has been parked on the family farm since this time last year. We travelled down from Mataranka Northern Territory in time to farm sit while the new baby was born. He turns one in a few days.

While we have ventured off sans caravan a few times,  the van has sat happily enjoying the view for a whole year.  At first it sat in its spot dressed in its summer gear. Shade cloth annex front and back. Solar power was abundant. Water had to be carried in from town though.


 Summer in Crookwell is very mild. Even so we did have occasion to run the generator to power the air conditioning once or twice.

Winter however is entirely another matter. When we realised K was gonna need to hang around for cardiologists, the shed was born.

As the weather grew colder, the caravan grew its winter skin of canvas annex. And the shed grew a closed in room and a wood fire.

We had rain, wind, fog, snow and sleet. Not all at once mind you. And the rainwater tank filled very fast. No more water carting. Yeh!!!!
There were wonderful sunny, cold winter days as well. Lots of farm things, and family time.

Then there was spring. Naked sheep after shearing and now lambs. While it is still cold at night the sun heats the annex quickly. Soon it will be time to shed the canvas annex in favour of shade cloth again.

Through all this our tiny home has remained just that. Home. K spent a weekend away recently and I cuddled up in the comfort of the van. Didn't even go out and light the fire.

We are still working out what the pattern of life will become. What mix of work, travelling and family time we will enjoy in the future, but we have really given the off grid setup of our caravan a proper work out. It is almost 10 years old now. Not so new anymore. (I will have to tell you about the last lot of repairs Mr Fix It has done.. Maybe next post)

We still haven't got to spend quality time with the QLD family. Maybe we will get to do that next year. K's heart is behaving so far post his operation. He is easing back into full days of activity and its hard to keep up with him again. All good!!


Love my life still.


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

Frugal repurposing. A day behind the sewing machine

My sewing machine lives at my daughter's in Crookwell. I decided it was too heavy to carry in the caravan, besides these days I don't sew a lot. Mostly it languishes in the linen press probably dreaming of the days when it hardly got a chance to cool down between marathon sessions of clothes making. Poor thing! Or maybe it enjoys its well deserved rest.

 Today we decided to give it a workout.

I reshaped some pants of mine, let down and/ or took up a hem or two, fixed a side seam on my long black skirt and darned some holes.


My daughter had a pile of clothes to work on as well.

Leggings into bike shorts and jeans into shorts for Miss Four and a Half. Little Miss has shot up not out so the legs were all too short and colours were definitely not for Master Almost One. She measured and cut and I matched threads and sewed cute rolled hems for the shorts. 

Seven altered garments later we turned our attention to mum. The sewing machine spat out two pair of grown up shorts cut down from jeans for mum as well.  

The final masterpiece was a dress for Miss Four and a Half from a jumper dress of her mother's, created while said mother put elastic into the waistbands of some pants.

A very satisfying day indeed. Nice to repurpose instead of giving away.

The only person not really happy about it all was Master Almost One who thought grandma should pick him up rather than run the sewing machine.

 

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Spring is sprung.

We have been away from the Crookwell farm for two weeks at Rathmines.

It has rained a bit since we got "home" and the gods of mobile phone reception have not been kind at all. No signal for three days.

This morning the sun was shining and as I hunted for a spot somewhere with phone reception I got a chance to check out the signs of spring.

The grass is a bit deeper and the hill is covered yellow flowers.


There are new lambs everywhere
 Hopefully the weather will continue to be kind and they will all survive. .

The view back up to.our camp was pretty.

As was the one down to the shearing shed.

Green shoots under the trees.

Today we are between storms and it is still very

cold at night. I think I saw zero in the night temp forecast for later in the week. Two quilts and a minky and hope you don't have to get out of bed at 3am.

 (No luck with the phone. Even our aerial got no signal. I might have to hang out in the middle of the road by the gate again. Things haven't changed much since I wrote this. http://fergsonthemove.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/staying-in-touch-or-things-i-have-to-do.html?m=0)


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

Modifications to our Jayco Stirling part 2. Mr Fix It does the Front blind

I finally got so sick of the curtains in the front window of the caravan that a month or so ago in a fit of annoyance I took them down. They got dirty, collected dust and trapped moisture against the window edge so I had to watch for mould all the time.

What a difference! Clean space. 

When you are the only people for miles around not having front window curtains is no problem. We just put down the outside metal window cover at night to keep out the cold.

However when we are parked in closer proximity to other humans maybe window covering might be a good idea.

" A blind would be nice," I said.

"Mmmm," was the reply.

One trip to Bunnings later, we were the proud owners of a block out blind.


Too long by far far, so it got laid out on the bed, cut and refitted to the roller.

Even altered thus, the blind was thicker

than the space the curtain rail had inhabited. So off came the wood board valance that had hidden the rails. It was installed again a bit further out from the window. Moving it out meant it hit the range hood. Mr Fix It huffed a bit and shaped the thing to fit neatly under and around the metal contraption. Never know it wasn't always in that position.

Now a caravan window slopes back. Blind once hung, drops straight down. How to manage this?
Huffing loudly Mr Fix It headed out of the van to the bits and bobs box. Amongst the things I would have taken to the tip (We live in a caravan you know. Can't keep everything) he found two lengths of white plastic covered curtain wire. Attached top and bottom they guide the blind back towards the window.

A hook in the centre holds it in place when pulled down.

When the blind is up under the wood valance out of sight I get to use all of the space right up to the window. When down the blackout backing keeps out light and hot or cold. The wire guides make it run close to the window so we can pull it halfway down if needed.


All in all a good job. But by no means simple. I really should stop making suggestions.


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

A visit to the crochet corner.

We are at Rathmines at the moment at our Bible School. K is volunteering in the dining room as usual and I am soaking up the fellowship with friends new and old. K's frustration at having to take his tasks a bit slower and stop and sit more is evident, but he is doing better each day. His myriad of friends are encouraging him and I am appreciating the love. I  am singing in the concert program, so fun for me too. Some truly beautiful music.


So....to the topic of today's post. Crocheting of course cos that's what I do when I sit.


One of my favourite sources of inspiration for stitches to incorporate into my creations is a book by Kristin Omdahl.  I was thrilled to discover her e-book on Kindle site one day when I was crocheting round and round the outside of a project. I am not in the least bit fond of the finishing part of this hobby. Boring. This is when I usually turn my mind to "what next?'  

The reason I love Kristin's ideas is that I also have an aversion to joining little bits together.  I refuse to sew things up, so when I  have to join I crochet together. By some long and round about route while looking not only for new ideas but new ways to join pieces I came across the term "seamless crochet" associated with Kristin Omdahl.  This pattern book is filled with ideas that look like the traditional motifs joined into a larger project but in fact they are created in rows. I was hooked.  Continuous crochet....... No sewing.  Yey!

Of course it was not quite as easy as that. These patterns are not for beginners and although I consider myself a reasonably accomplished crocheter and a canny pattern reader,  I spent quite a few hours with crochet hook in hand puzzling over the patterns, counting stitches, twisting the wool in all directions and not making very much progress. I just couldn't work it out.

This is not a thing to which  I am accustomed. So in complete frustration I tossed the hook and yarn away and  acting on the principle that I paid for it so I really should read it, I perused  the normally boring bits of the book. You know ... the introduction and the stitch glossary. Half way through the explanation  of how to convert a granny square into a continuous project there was a mental "ding" and it all fell into place. I still have to spend time each project puzzling out the exact approach but I love seamless crochet.

The latest project looks like lots of small traditional granny squares all joined up. I grabbed two colours, and set off on an adventure creating a sort of a maze. As it grew K acted as my design consultant making sure I didn't leave any corners unfilled. By the time I got here to Rathmines I was once again on the edging. Round and round is less boring when I have fellow crafters to talk with as I work. I lost count of   the number of people who came up and said, "Did you join all those up?" 
'Not likely," said I and watched their eyes glaze over as I tried to explain the technique. Very funny!


I just had time to lay the finished afghan on the bed, (it is sized to fit on the flat section of a double bed) and take a photo before it was snapped up and whisked off to a new home. .

Double bed afghan in two colours inspired by Kristen Omdahl's
Seamless Crochet techniques.

Lots of granny squares joined as you go by completing the bottom
 of each square, connecting it to the ones next door and then
coming back across the row to close off the top of each square.

Another  Seamless Crochet...Shark tooth pattern



Shark Tooth Seamless Cot Afghan

 I brought the rest of my store of rugs with me to take advantage of the bigger room and bed to get the photos that are not so easy to execute in the caravan. I might even be lucky enough to sell a couple as well. Need to fund the next lot. So I spent a few minutes alternating balancing on a chair and  popping down to arrange the next item. Not the best photos I have ever taken.


The other idea I discovered in my last "what next?" search was "Mile A Minute" crochet. This single bedspread is the result. Strips in different colours joined together. The scallops sit over the bed edge and are very effective. And it really was completed fast. Mile a Minute indeed.
 

Mile a Minute pattern Single Bedspread.

 

The pretty edge of a pink, blue and lavender single bedspread.

There is limited storage for my yarn stash in the caravan and I do ride K pretty hard about his collection of useful junk so it is only fair that I use my bits and pieces up.  Therefore I have decided to use of all of my scraps, or as many as can work into something useful before I buy new yarn.
We'll see how well that goes.  The end of season sales will be on soon!

My  only stash busting success so far is this cot afghan, started from the centre and worked out with mitred corners and crocheted butterflies.
 



 

 

And just to show how effective texture can be here is a friend's project that I crocheted together for her this week. Knitted in different textures of yarn. So pretty!

There it is. All the crocheting I have done for the last six months. All waiting for homes. There is nothing sadder than a handmade afghan sitting in a box under a bed.

Now to use up the rest of my scrap yarn. Wish me luck.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.


 Here is a link to a site that sells Seamless Crotchet Techniques by Kristen Omdahl. It is also available for Kindle.

Shearing day. Yikes naked sheep

Shearing day......

K slipped out very early to help in the shed. I lay in bed listening to the generator and the sheep noises. I wandered out after breakfast and between rain showers. By the time I emerged I was confronted with the sight of naked sheep. They are strange looking things with their coats gone and looked a bit shell shocked by the whole process. I tried to get close to get a really good photo, but they were not hanging around to see what this human would do to them and snuck off down the hill.

It was a changeable weather wise. Everything from heavy rain to bright sunshine. I managed to get this double rainbow just before the second one faded. Music blared from the speakers K had hung up the day before and at break times our daughter fed the shearers and other hangers on amply. Her custard slice was a hit.

Sheep can die in cold weather after shearing. Makes sense. I probably would too without a good coat. Since sleet, rain and wind are on the cards this weekend our son-in-law decided to shed the shorn ones. Wise move. Last night was miserable and today is not much better. Miss Four and Half helped her mom round them up again and kept the last few warm by shooing them around the pens while they waited for a space under the shearing shed.

After the shearing team left baby boy got let out of his stroller, from which he had supervised proceedings most of the day. I reckon it was a good thing that the generator was off or he might have got shorn like the other lambs. The crawling is a new skill. And he had a ball chasing his sister all over.


We had fun watching.




Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

Farm life. A sunny "spring" day

Just had to share with you this shot of Miss Four and a Half rounding up sheep with her dad. The sheep need to be yarded ready to be shorn.  They came past our camp site with the dogs. Miss has it all down pat. Hat on, walking stick in hand and trotting along next to dad up and down the hill.

We are expecting inclement weather ( posh way of saying cold and stormy and maybe snow)  before the weekend. K  has  delayed our run up to Newcastle in case there is a proper snow fall and we need to dismantle the caravan annex. A deep snow fall might be too much for the annex roof.

I had bought provisions to make a few meals today to take with us and decided to have  cook  up  anyway. So there is a  lasagne cooling on the kitchen bench, a crust less quiche cut into three, and two serves of chicken and mushroom pasta sauce in the freezer. I baked in my hooded BBQ as always. Then I decided to use the twin tub washer while there was sun to dry clothes so I am feeling quite like the proper homesteader.  I drew the line at a walk down the hill and back to the chickens so no cake ... I used the eggs in the quiche. Maybe I will con K into  taking the scraps down and snagging an egg for me. Mind you the chooks owners might beat me to it as they are here today as well.

After my busy morning  I am  now enjoying the sun watching the baby in the pram. He is supposed to be asleep but judging by the speed his feet are kicking that's not likely. He is playing his favourite peek a boo game  by pushing the sun cover out with his legs and grinning at me.  Not crying though so
its all good.



Down the hill at the shearing shed things are being set up for a day of shearing weather permitting tomorrow. There is hammering happening too. Mr Fix It is wiring speakers and attaching the wires to the rafters. Music is an essential part of shearing.it seems.



The horse has her coat off and is enjoying the sun as well.



Pretty good life.





Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Modifying the storage in our Jayco Stirling caravan. Inside the cupboard

K modified the insides of the storage cupboard as well as the doors. Now I have two levels with the shelves just the correct height for my boxes of gluten free flours and tubs of spices, sugar and rice and stuff. So much better than before when the baking ingredients were off to the left hidden begin the cupboard front and I had to unload all this on the bench and then pack it all back in.

I did banana bread to take down to the shed for the men who were dealing with sheep. So good, the bread and the storage as well. Just lift the hatch, grab flour and coconut, coconut milk from under the sink where the cans are and mix.

Light the BBQ, drop the lid and wait 45.

The hardest  thing was letting it cool before I snagged my piece.

Here's the recipe. I use gluten free flour, Has No Aldi brand if I can. http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21067/coconut+banana+breadCheers

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Modifying the hatches in our Jayco Stirling caravan. Mr Fix It at work



New left hand cupboard door in our Jayco Stirling kitchen

Before....left hand side is solid.

We have generous over bench storage lockers in our 2007 Jayco Stirling caravan and I manage to stuff all my baking goods and spice stash in there. But access to the third of the space closest to the door has been difficult. The designers were not cooks that's for sure because they only put an lift up hatch door over two thirds of the metre and a bit wide space leaving a sizeable section of the cupboard behind a securely bolted in cover. Deciding to cook a cake meant pulling everything out of the middle section and scrabbling round on tip toe  to reach the necessary items  while trying not to fall into the door step well and out into the annex. That hurts. I know cos I have done I a few times.





Items were stacked on top of each other in containers and restrained when travelling by a couple of heavy cardboard pieces cut to size and fitted inside the doors. Things do move around in the overhead lockers during the flight...or bumpy road travel.

Anyway on one of our trips to Canberra lest season K bought a cabinet set of hinges and a button lock with the intention of turning that bit of solid locker front into a lift up door sometime.

I came home a few days ago to find the contents of the storage hatch in our caravan kitchen spread all over the bed and Mr Fix It's head in the locker. The offending solid bit of cupboard front was sitting in the sink.



"What you doing?" I said. There's nothing like asking about the obvious.
" I was going to give the door a go, but I put the hinges in a safe place."

This statement always engenders dread. Safe place is code for turn out every hiding place in the ute, the sedan,  the caravan and now the storage shed. K never, and I mean never, remembers where the safe place is.

After running through the list of places to check I send the huffing man off to start cutting and put on my investigator hat.



Hinges in a plastic bag next to the BBQ with a lighter and some wire and button lock in a cup next to the microwave. Years of marriage paid off.

My revenge was to suggest quite mildly that a shelf would be good since everything was out anyway and there was an ideal bit of wood left over from framing the shed door.



By dinner time I was the proud owner of a pantry locker complete with a full length shelf at just the right height and angled back slightly to address movement  in transit  and a  new hinged cupboard door. Looks like it was always there. Mr Fix It had split the solid cupboard face and created a solid bit on the end and a new door, installed hinges, not easy since the new style had to be fitted differently to ones in the rest of the van. He finished the edges and put the shelf in as well. Did this sitting on the bench contorted into a pretzel shape using his short handled screw drivers in tiny spaces.




Got a new pull down blind for the kitchen window too. But that is for another post.



Love my man.



Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

A lament for high heels

This post is somewhat of a lament, a sad longing for the good old days when there was always something stylish between me and the pavement.  Before outback dirt and Crookwell weather got in the way of
a good shoe.



In my opinion shoes are just footwear if they don't have a heel. Before I became a caravan living women I had quite a collection of shoes. l had stilettos, wedges and square heels. Not a flat shoe in sight. I could stalk the halls of the school I taught at with the best of them. The extra height didn't hurt when fronting high school boys either.



Then I moved into a caravan.



Instead of a whole wardrobe floor to store my shoes I have one triangular shelf and a bit of floor space on my side of the bed. Oh the agony. K had trouble getting rid of his collection of bolts, wires and electrical bits. I had trouble ditching shoes.



So one best pair black wedges. A white and a black casual heels and my wedge heel  thongs..flip flops for non Australians....made it into the cupboard. I managed with  these everyday in NT.  Pretty heeled thongs on my feet, colour on my nails, a colourful pendant, cool bohemian top... Got to keep up your standards.



I did have flat thongs for safer walking to the hot springs and back.



Then we spent winter this year here in Crookwell.  Now I have boots, flat heeled boots, two good pairs bought locally and a couple of thrift shop soft tops. My daughter bought me some uggies. I think she was sick of seeing my cold toes. I put thick socks and boots on everyday. My few summer heels are in the cupboard and the boots rest in the annex to ambush me every morning.



I have been walking town in flat footwear. What is the world coming to?



I recently found in one of the boxes we had in storage my long high heeled boots. I must have decided they were too precious to discard. With joy in my heart I popped them on to find that not only was the zip knackered but that  I have slipped so far into low heeled-ness that I needed the heel lowered a bit so there is some hope that I can wear them again. A nice man in Bankstown altered and repaired them for me while K was in hospital and I have instituted a regime of daily training to get back into shape for their elevated wonderfulness. One can only hope.





Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

Ignored by a wallaby. Not so interesting after all.

Chunky black wallaby on the hill.

Much lighter finely built
wallaby outside our camp at Mataranka NT

Thursday  as I pottered around doing my morning jobs as well as a few of K's since he is on light duties for a bit longer, I was kept entertained by a wallaby. It was sitting in the middle of the hill above our van intently digging at something and lifting it to its mouth. I moved in and out of the van and shed for over and hour and it sat up once or twice to check me out. I was dismissed as not at all noteworthy and it returned to its breakfast.

The wallabies here are chunky and dark, a complete contrast to the delicate ones at Mataranka in the Northern Territory. I have posted about these before. There were a couple that K made friends with and would come to our van to forage when their tourist food source ran out. Tourists think it is great to feed them up in the breeding season and then we have to  watch them starve when the weather gets hot and the  grey army move south. The wallabies get so hungry they eat cardboard boxes.

Anyway I will just climb back of my high horse and get back to my Thursday morning.

You may have asked yourself why there is a picture of a bottle in a mug at the top of this post. Well that's my chilli infused olive oil defrosting in a mug of warm water. I store my heavy food stuffs in a box under the sink down low for safe travel. It must be cold in that spot at night cos my oils solidify and I can't get them to pour out of the bottle til I heat them up a bit. So three mugs at breakfast Thursday. One for K, one for me and one for the chilli oil for K's omelette.

We did quite a bit of preparation for the few weeks while K is on light duties.  He filled the gas bottles and set them up so I can switch between them and not have to lift them in and out. The wood pile is quite big and covered by the tarpaulin to try and keep it dry. Our son-in-law came in and set up the fire for us to light ready for when we limped in from Sydney  ( thankyou so much. I was not looking forward to building the fire late at night. ) and cut lighter wood and kindling that I can carry since K is restricted to under 5 kg for a bit longer. Both the Crookwell grandkids are over 5 kg.....guess he will have to get down on the floor with them instead.

Anyway enough rambling. Morning duties. Set the fire, look at wallaby, grab more wood, get ignored by wallaby, cook breakfast and eat my toast while being ignored by wallaby, pull out toilet cassette and muscle it into the ute to take down to empty while being laughed at by wallaby....you get the picture.

I think my life is quite interesting. Obviously the local wild life disagree.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move