What do we really need. Reflections on our simple life.

 

 

Sitting on the bed watching the tennis yesterday  I was inspired to comment to K about how comfortable we are in our tiny house. We are parked on the farm without town electricity, gas connection or running water. We were sitting on the bed, with a coffee from our coffee machine, home made bread sandwiches on a plate. The fan was going, dinner was ready to heat up later. Our setup works just about anywhere. However we are really grateful to our daughter and son-in-law for allowing us to set up here in the summer.


Like most people we had worked most of our lives to keep a roof over our heads and provide for our children while they were our responsibility. A joy most of the time. But now we are kid less and able to do what we want together. I guess I had envisaged a cottage by the sea, or a town house somewhere with amenities, new furniture at last. But here we are in a 20 foot long box......


Our box has gas bottles for heating, cooking and the fridge. It has battery power charged by solar panels or the generator, for lights, fan, coffee machine, microwave, washing machine and camp fridges. We can watch TV, listen to music, wash clothes, shower and cook.


Our tiny space has all the things two people need. We can even cram in visitors for a meal, even if someone has to sit on the bed if outside is too hot or cold.


And there are blackberries ripening in the bushes outside.






Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move.

The reasuring rhythms of caravan life. Or I was right again.

It is good to be back in our own space. We pulled up next to the caravan late Saturday night to be greeted by the farm dogs barking and the horse grazing nearby. We planned to grab the food, chuck it in the fridge and climb into bed and unpack in the morning. A puddle of water on the floor put paid to that. The gas had run out just long enough ago for the ice in the freezer to have melted. There was nothing of note in the fridge but out came all the shelves and the vinegar to disinfect the fridge just in case. 

Now far be it from me to crow, particularly since K was the one on his knees wiping the bottom shelf, but I did ask if there was enough gas in the bottle to last the fridge a fortnight. Sometimes life is just cruel. Got the fridge cleaned didn't I.

We have unpacked inside, and under the expert supervision of our sometimes dog ( she lives with us when we are on the farm) the annex has been set up again. We pile everything up against the caravan wall when we are not home so it all has to be inspected and sprayed for spiders and other creeping things before we use it. Milly is now quite used to me leaping for the spray can and the broom. She just moves to another spot.

By Tuesday with bread made, yoghurt done...although this lot took ages to set...and washing on the line it was time for a traditional Australia Day. Sheep work of course. I put in a hard day baby watching and the other four, K, our daughter, son-in-law and nearly four year old granddaughter, caught and lifted lambs to be vaccinated and drenched. K is going to be very sore. He can testify that the lambs are putting on weight. He followed granddaughter's expert directions and caught the lambs she chose out for him. She keeps them moving in the pen so they don't jam up against the wall and get crushed.

Baby is grinning lots and his mother reports that he has begun giggling. Hasn't done it for me yet! But he slept through the noise ok. Lambs have loud voices.

Good to be home, here where our mobile house is.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Finished projects and off home to the caravan

One more yarn stash project finished just in time to pack it in a bag and head back to the farm and our caravan home. I am very happy with this one. It is draped over Mum Fergs lounge chair in this photo. Might try to sell this one, if I can get my act together.

I am torn between longing to get into my own space and so sad to be leaving family and friends. However said family are in the bad books for giving us things to carry to both sets of grandkids. Lovely thought. So much for travelling light.

 

I have to keep fending off offers of useful bits of junk. Plaintive cries of "I live in a caravan you know," do not seem to fend off these "gifts".  

Early start tomorrow. Catch you all when we get home.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

Still contented. And a job for Mr Fix It

In my last blog I made the mistake of accusing my brother-in-law of leaving things for Mr Fix It to do when we visit. He replied on Facebook that Mum Ferg collects them ready for K. Maybe true. However what ever the truth is their vacuum cleaner arrived last night for a visit with K for a health inspection. Loose wires in the plug was the diagnosis. An over night stay and a new plug today.

I have a feeling I am the victim of this joke.

I navigated the road closures for the Tour Down Under to slip into my mother's place at Lyndoch yesterday. I appropriated her sewing machine to alter a dress. I don't carry my sewing machine with me in the caravan so major jobs get done when we are here. I dropped into the Gawler Bakery and grabbed a pasty plate for lunch. Mum kindly put away the cold meat plate she had prepared so we could indulge. When we lived in Freeling this was my go to cheats meal after a day of shopping. Nostalgia at its tastiest.

Mum's Great Dane spent the day dozing on his mat, the kitten did its best to steal my yarn and then likewise settled into her basket thingy.

The Adelaide area was our home for many, many years. I am always apprehensive when we come back that I will find myself longing for the "home place".   It hasn't happened so far, although the inevitable changes to roads and landmarks catch me in the heart at times. Being here is a bit like window shopping new caravans. I find myself intrigued by a familiar city but still content with my lifestyle.

I love my small space that wraps around me like a comfort rug. So good to have minimum cleaning. I love the quiet. City noise is disconcerting now. I have got used to the sociable nature of country people so the waves of humans who don't even look at you as they pass is "not nice".

Good to know I still love my life.   Miss the family but.... Given that they live in all corners of this country I guess I would always be missing someone. Starting to long for my caravan which has the incredible ability to be a home wherever it is parked.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Useful lessons from Mr Fix It and Mothers

Mr Fix It has just finished rebuilding a battery pack for his mother's battery powered carpet sweeper. A trip to Jaycar for batteries, some soldering and it is now sitting in the charger being juiced up. There are always a couple of fixing jobs to be found when we visit. I think maybe K's brother leaves a few things so Mr Fix It feels needed the few weeks a year we are here.

He is now watching a Cook and the Chef rerun. We were at Maggie Beer's Farm Shop watching a cooking demo last week. Got to see the lady herself as well....

Mother and I had a lesson this morning on how to use a screw driver to pop the lock release on lockable internal doors. This was prompted by having to run the long way down the corridor when one of us accidentally locked one of the doors to the two way bathroom. Inconvenient if you are in a hurry. This got Mum regaling us with the story of her and her sister-in-law poking a broom handle in the window from outside trying to pop the door lock after a similar but much more troubling accidental turning of the toilet door privacy lock. I think buckets, a mop and accidents were mentioned. After  we stopped laughing Mr. Fix It got into instructor mode. The trick works too. Who knew!

Mother has rearranged her living room furniture again. Back to the way it was .... And the layout I prefer. The highlight of this arrangement us that from one lounge chair you can see the trees and sunsets. They are not bad either. For city sunsets that is. Mum was so excited about the colours last night I had to get the camera. The three of us were out on the deck for 20 minutes oohing and aahing.

This got me thinking about the joy there is in the simple frugal things that our parents, especially mothers, still practice. A few pots together to make a garden, when you can no longer handle a large one. Home made meals in the freezer, for when you are too sick or tired to cook. Or visitors pop in. Water saved from boiled vegetables to make soup later. Old biscuits turned into peppermint balls to take to church for a friend. Jam or chutneys cooked up when friends donate fruit. (Both my mums are pretty good at making something from nothing. )

I reckon we have the independent, frugal, simple, small space living down pat. To live fulltime in a caravan, some of that off grid, we have put a bit of energy into it. However watching the mothers manage daily on little money and failing health is an education.

Tomorrow I am off to spend the day with my mother. Some alterations and repairs are on the agenda since her sewing room is set up. K is doing a doctor run with his mum. These are very precious times since we are so far away, and even more so as the years roll on.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move 

Using up the stash. Or in the pink

Just a quick post to brag about making something useful with my odd balls of yarn. I decided to set myself a challenge to reduce the size of my stash so a few clothes that would benefit from being hung up could fit in the caravan wardrobe.


Pink is not my favourite colour so it was quite ironic that I found myself finishing off this afghan at Jasmine Cottage this week. If you check out my last post you will see the pink Parisian décor. So I sat on the pink lounge sipping wine from very classy pink glasses, crocheting pink, white and lavender yarn. Started in the middle and keep going till the yarn ran out. No more pink yarn wrapped around my hook. Yeh!

The next bag of yarn is a combination of a very soft textured white and an equally textured apricot as well as one of those thick and thin stiff yarns in pale blue grey, apricot, white and pink. I made lots of hexagonal grannies and so far it looks good.

So two bags of yarn down and two to go. Expedition into green and white we get home.


  I might have the space empty in time to catch the end of season sales. I tend to just buy the colours that grab me at a price I am happy to pay and fit it all together later. I'm not sure what possessed me to buy pinky tones.... But I have risen to the challenge. 

This week is mums' week....his and mine. So lots of quiet days reminiscing...and fixing things of course.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move 

A week with friends. Jasmine Cottage Lyndoch

We are in Lyndoch in a holiday cottage with friends this week. South Australia has turned on really hot weather. 38 degrees here today. Great days for sitting on the lounges catching up on a whole year of each other's lives, while jockeying for the prime spot to catch the air-conditioning. I staked out the corner spot just where the cold air bounces back off the wall. Movies, crocheting, eating. Wow!

This week is pretty significant birthday wise in my family. Sister's birthday Monday...sent her a message first thing yesterday before the others were up. She was having breakfast on her balcony.
 My mother and one of our grandsons' birthdays today, 78 and 5 respectively. Got my act together and his present was hidden in his parent's car during their visit to Crookwell. Go grandma!

Made lunch and took it over to mother who just happens to live 5 minutes away.  Delivered baby photos from Crookwell and a dozen farm eggs. Go daughter!

The cottage we are in is heritage listed and beautifully set up in Parisian style pink. We keep finding little treasures everywhere, like the collection of pink glasses in the dresser. Wine tastes amazing in romantic glassware.

There are quaint clocks all over the place. None of them have batteries and I had to threaten Mr. Fix It with something awful so he didn't rush off to the shops to get some. Clocks all ticking, all over the house. Yuck. I think they are decorative. Look pretty. Don't make noise. My watch keeps good time thankyou very much.

The owners provide breakfast provisions for the week. The menu is painted on a door! Bread, cereal, eggs, bacon, pancake mix, tomatoes and hot beverages. The bacon is local Barossa valley cured. Amazing taste. The pink theme continues in the kitchen as you can see from the kitchen shot further up the page. There are even pink saucepans.

I walked to the local supermarket this morning. The owner recognized me as belonging to my mum. Had my hair up. Whilst it was nice to be welcomed it just confirms that I really do see mum in the mirror each hot morning when I give in to the need to get rid of my mop of hair off my neck.  Getting older. 

The cottage is small. Two bedrooms kitchen, lounge, but seems very luxurious to us pair of caravan dwellers.

http://jasminescottage.com.au/

 Simple food, good company, a taste of luxury. Not a bad way to spend the week.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move. 

 

Some musings. Place names and travel sound tracks.

I took this picture a few weeks ago when we decided to spend our coffee money at the "top pub" in Crookwell. Funny how most towns have one of those..and a bottom pub as well. It doesn't seem to matter what the real name is the location takes precedence. Anyway I love this piece of art. Such an ingenious use of barbed wire. I don't think the picture does it justice. The dingo grows out of the wall in a spectacular fashion.


Anyway back to the peculiar ways we name things. Creeks and rivers. How many "....Mile Creeks" are there? Obviously the settlers needed to know how far they were from somewhere. As I traveller I wouldn't mind knowing just where that somewhere is.

 And if it is not a distance then we are blessed with doubles and triples of  someone's name .. like George or Lee. And lots of Little creeks. Mind you it is useful when entering Crookwell to find the Crookwell creek. (There is a Fergusson River in the NT. That one I am not complaining about) 

And then there are roads. Most of our capital cities have the same street names... Elisabeth, George etc. Be nice if the royal family had been a bit more adventurous with names so the developers could have honoured them with a variety of street names and I could remember which capital I am in. Cos George Street is in a different place in Sydney and Melbourne.

At least we can always feel at home. Never far from the familiar.  I grew up in Fullarton in Adelaide. There is  a Fullarton settlement not far from Crookwell. And so it goes on.

 

We are on the road today having got organised yesterday so we could jump in the sedan at 5.30am just as the sun rose  and make a dash to Adelaide .  This route across the Hay Plains is very familiar. We know the cheaper fuel stops and have our favourite places to stop for tucker.

As usual the sound track for this stretch of road is John Williamson. We often pass Tubbo Station to the tune of his song. Sometimes it is even raining. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7f44-NsL6Wg

We are at Hay for lunch at 12.30. Perfectly timed. I believe the trip so far has gone well. I am only taking K's word for this as I slept most of the way. About 550 k's. I woke up in time to do the writing of this post on my lap.

Lunch has arrived so that's enough rambling for now.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg  on the Road.



My caravan. My home.

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We are back at the farm in our caravan again. It truly is home wherever it is parked. We are heading over to SA for a quick visit so we are only "home" for a couple of days.

Everything is all ok. The contents of the annex survived a fortnight without damage. The fridges are all running, the batteries fully charged.


We drove out of Newcastle ahead of the really bad weather. It had rained here on the farm but not really heavily. Yesterday was cold, cloudy and windy. I dragged the minky blanket out from under the bed. Nice and cosy and light rain on the roof. Heavenly. I made hot brunch for our wedding anniversary. Homemade bread, bacon, eggs for K and banana and cheese for me. Coffee in our new espresso cups.

Today the sun is shining. The washing is dancing on the lines at the back of the caravan.

When we first arrived the blackberry bushes were flowering. Now the first berries are ripening.

While checking out the berries I looked up and caught a wombat coming out of the blackberry bushes up the hill. It moved purposefully across the rise and climbed through a convenient hole in the fence. I grabbed my phone and snapped this shot. Looked good as I framed it...but he turned his head away. Oh well. You get the idea.

This morning after the washing I sat out "reading" in the annex on my camp lounge chair and lost an hour or two.







It is good to be home.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Rathmines reflections. The first week of 2016

Our Rathmines Bible week is over. The attendees have all packed up and headed to their homes. K is pottering around dealing with the final clean up and minor repairs. We have emptied the fridges (its amazing what people forget they put in the fridge when they got here). The last song is sung, the last scripture read...until next time.




The kookaburras have sung most days. There were three in the trees by the lake this morning. I tried to get close but without food they ignored me. You can just see them high up in the branches.

 

We have had the pleasure of the company of the Brisbane family again this week, but they are off to QLD now. Won't see them again  'til we take the caravan up later in the year. Last hugs, last cuddles. I met K's baby nephew for the first time this week. They head off to Adelaide tomorrow.


One of the grandsons sang a little solo in the Song and Praise night on Friday. Very cute, although a grown up 8 year old might not appreciate that choice of adjective. I sang for half the programme then took my sore lungs (I'm still a bit tender on one side from the collapsed lung) off to the orchestra and played my viola. A very kind local family babysit my viola between our visits to Rathmines. She doesn't like the caravan very much, or rather the change in temperature and humidity. I do love to play her but sadly I no longer do her justice as I am so out of practice. I hide in the lower registers and try not to wince visibly when a bad note sounds.

 Last night was the children's concert. Always a delight. Talented kids directed by inventive and enthusiastic leaders. Of course our grandkids shone, at least as brightly as everyone else's. Not proud much....


There were a number of keen knitters and crocheters here. We chatted away over coffee and cake creating hats, afghans, baby clothes, scarves and other wonderful things that appear magically when some sticks are waved around in the vicinity of coloured yarn. My grandfather called it "gentle witchcraft". My project was to make something from  a set of packs of 5 colour coordinated balls of yarn I picked up in a 2 dollar shop. I was in the mood for circles so four circles, a square and four triangles later here is the as yet unblocked finished baby rug. This one was fun and had everyone including me, if the truth be told, guessing how it would turn out. I joined all the ends of balls together in random order to do the border. Not a scrap of yarn left. Frugal.

I have started a much more gentle afghan now. A bed size cover I think if I have enough yarn.

I get asked all the time who the rugs are for. Usually no one in particular. I just enjoy painting with yarn. But I do need to sell a few items from my finished afghans before the caravan bed won't go down over them. (The as yet not adopted finished items live under the bed)


It has been a truly wonderful week and an uplifting, refreshing beginning to 2016.

We are off to a friends' place for dinner then back to our caravan on the farm tomorrow I think.



Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move