Window shopping. Or we like our caravan best

Mr Fix It and I drove across to Canberra on the weekend. It is a beautiful drive across the hills. We stopped in Gunning at our favourite cafe. There is a friendly cafe lover's war on in the family. Our son-in-law likes the first cafe on the street and K likes the second. We buy tomato chutney and chilli jam at K’s choice every year.  The owners recognise us and like to catch up on our travels.



The reason for this trip was to go to the Jayco dealer for some parts for the caravan.  (And to give the Crookwell family some time without extra adults around.) The clearance lamps front and back of the van were very dull and the covers had become quite opaque after 8 years in the sun. Mr Fix It is replacing the wind down stabiliser legs with stronger drop down ones and the seal on the toilet cassette needs replacing. Some things in our little home are beginning to show their age.



We were pleasantly surprised by the prices. Caravan spare parts and accessories are usually grossly overpriced. I guess they reckon they have a captive audience and you don’t have a lot of choice. Mr Fix It got chatting to the salesman, describing our life and telling a few entertaning caravan park stories and we got a significant discount on the already quite good costs. K makes friends everywhere!

They even had a new twin tub for 40 dollars cheaper than any other place we have looked. When our poor overworked machine finally dies we know where to come to get a new one.


Then came the fun part.  Caravan window shopping!!!!!

We love to climb inside the show vans. It is a bit like going through show homes.
I love the caravans with the front u-shaped lounge area. Our caravan is a bit lacking in lounging space.  .....Then again I like the front beds. We have an rear end, east west bed I have to climb around to get to the bathroom.
Oh and I love the cleaner, brighter, lighter colours. Our van is very brown.

We both don’t like the bathrooms in the new caravans. We want extra living space not a house size en-suite. We don't like automatic washing machines in vans because it is too hard to save water.

We checked out power point positions and types, chatted about the position of the microwave, discussed the battery system and the storage space.  We disagreed on slide out or no slide our vans. We both like the extra space, but I worry about the maintenance when the slide out is stuck out in the heat for months.





We chose the caravan we are would maybe upgrade to. Led the salesman on a bit and then........ drove home, content with what we have, and slid into our own space. And one or the other of us said, “I love my caravan home.”

Truthfully we like our caravan best.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Off grid. Living with solar and bottled gas.

The sun has shone all week. So we have not needed the generator to top the batteries up. I have made a concerted effort to manage the household tasks within the power options. That means bottled gas or the batteries for power, and of course, the sun and wind to dry clothes. Not that it matters if we run the generator as it is very economical but I have sort of set myself a challenge to manage without it. The gas runs the caravan three-way fridge, water heater, BBQ and burners and the solar manages appliances.
I’m sure I have told you that I am not an open fire lover, and anyway this is fire ban time, so wood fire cooking is out.
As an aside we were very saddened by the news of the fires in SA this week. We know the affected areas well since we lived outside Freeling for many years and our kids played sport at Hamley Bridge on weekends. As it happens the shed on our old house site was burnt down during the crisis. Wow!  Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost so much, not the least being the sense of security that home is supposed to give.
Back to the off grid challenge.
So I have been trying to crack bread baking in the BBQ. Our BBQ does not have a lot of clearance under its lid so I have to watch how high the dough rises in case it hits the top.  The other challenge is the amount of heat coming from the flame under the BBQ plate. I have been cooking cob loaves in a pie plate with five layers of folded aluminium foil in its base. I place the tin on two small pizza trays and put the whole lot on a low rack to keep a space between the BBQ plate and the base of the loaf. The loaf is a bit black on the bottom still but the bread is really  nice.

I finally found a 1lb tin that has a really heavy base and not too high sides so today’s bread looks very professional. Still cooked on the rack and two pizza tins the bottom of the loaf is brown but not burnt. The sides are crisp as well. Looks like the loaves on the suppliers web site.

It helps that I have found the correct place to aim for on our temperature gauge that K drilled a hole in the BBQ lid to install. 180 degrees at the BBQ lid for an hour produce this loaf today.( I did scones in it last weekend and it does all our roast and meat cooking.)  K was doing important things outside while the bread cooked.

The 12v 2000w inverter runs useful appliances including the our beloved coffee machine. With the power flooding in from the solar panels, as long as I don’t exceed the inverter’s capacity and I don’t run appliances too long and drag the batteries below save charge levels,  I can pretty much do any task. The trick is to do things that draw larger amounts of  juice while the sun makes the power during the day and to choose appliances that are low in power requirements. Electric kettles and toasters are generator only appliance and I don’t use them. But my stick mixer works quite nicely. At night the batteries handle lights, charge phones, run the camp fridge freezer, run the DVD player and TV and stretch to a coffee or two. Occasionally on a grey morning I might have to boil water and make plunger coffee if the batteries are low.
Today I washed in the twin tub, made coffee, ran the microwave to cook eggs for K and cooked these cake pops in a cheap cake pop machine. Apparently grandmas are supposed to have “something special for me to eat” when granddaughters come to visit. I hope she likes these little wonders. Five minutes in the appliance for 6 little cake balls.  I used a microwave cake in a mug recipe because a full cake mix would do about 30 balls. Six at a time I think I might have lost concentration well before the end.
I think this might become a grandma and granddaughter activity.

On a completely different subject, I finally finished my 12ply knitted afghan. Now all it needs is a home. This pattern is a favourite of mine. It starts from a rectangle in the middle and with clever casting on and off grows outwards. Mind you the 12ply yarn is hard on my wrists so I might stick with 8ply in future.

K is running new cables from the inverter today so I need to go and move some things out of a cupboard. I am anxious for this improvement to be finished ‘cos then I can leave the coffee machine on the bench instead of lifting it across to the inverter plug. Anything to make coffee more accessible I say.
Feeling quite self satisfied.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move.

Why the NT?

Whilst recovering here in Darwin from my operation and health scare I have been reflecting on what it is about the northern part of the Northern Territory that has made it so attractive as a work base for us. Besides work being easy to find and being able to live frugally that is.

Sunset in the NT

The weather, particular in the dry season is just perfect. Warm to hot days, cooler evenings and nights cool enough for a doona. The annex becomes an extension of our living space. I love to sit outside, with my feet up of course, on one of our camp lounges and read, or watch TV with a drink. Or crochet and watch the tourists bustle in and set up.

Untamed creek and bright green leaves

Great entertainment can be had watching the new comers each night. I wonder how relationships survive the process of parking a caravan. "Left, right, closer to or further away from the edge, level , not level"
I of course am much too well trained to presume to give K advise about backing the van.

Swimming is my preferred exercise, and we have really good croc free swimming holes. Beautiful pools, no work to maintain them and access any time. Being of somewhat larger proportions I have always found swimming pools and beaches very intimidating. Here in the tourist season looks don't matter. And a pair of shorts and a top is about as fancy as it gets. That's my kind of swimming togs.

Katherine Hot Springs

The colours. Everything up here has a sharpness. Nothing gentle. Bright vivid red, orange and brown. Crisp deep green and bright yellow.


Yellow and Green NT

NT Red road

The people. Generous and interesting characters. Capable and unflappable, unpretentious and down right nice, even if they can put away enough alcohol to pickle most normal humans night after night. As a cheap drunk who is officially tipsy after a glass and a half I am a very strange bird to them.

They have an uncanny ability to make a home out of just about anything. A van, a shed or just a carport gets tricked up into a dwelling in no time. We fit right in of course.


The kids. Everywhere I go now, "Miss Sue." Or "I saw Mr K at your camp." Incredibly loving and cheerful kids despite a disadvantaged life. Whatever your views of the system, and there's no easy solution, you'd have to love the kids.


I love every bit of our country. Love to visit the snow, settle in by the Murray river, holiday with the grandkids on the coast, visit the cities briefly, but the NT has got into my blood. I guess one day soon we might settle for work somewhere else. That is the idea of being mobile after all but NT will always be special.

In the meantime you might like to know that we had our first build up down pour here in Darwin last night. Hard enough to hurt my hand as it hit. Oh and I found a hairdresser... Luxury.

First Darwin rain clouds

Life is especially good today.


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move



Not a great couple of weeks

This last couple of weeks has been a bit of a trial. I debated whether to blog this or not. But I guess the good and the bad make the whole picture. So not for sympathy, but because remote travel has some risks. Here goes.



Two weeks ago as K was packing up to go to Rathmines near Newcastle I noticed three insect bites under my left arm. Not a welcome sight as I blow up into large boil like lumps from mosquito stings. I have layers of scars on my legs as proof. Generally I disinfect the skin and cover and if I resist the urge to scratch they pop a blister and go down. Two bites did. One didn't.


So for nearly a week I was treated at our wonderful clinic in our tiny town with intravenous antibiotics while we got the lump down from what looked like a third breast under my arm to a size they could operate on to drain and clean.

I was not very cooperative under anaesthetic coughed, aspirated, got air into the plural cavity, had to be evacuated by plane to Darwin. Went to sleep in Katherine 2pm Thursday, woke up in Darwin Friday mid morning. Missed the whole show. Well I'm not known for doing things by halves.


It's funny what your brain does.   I'm coming to, trying not to panic as they pull the biggest tube out of my mouth and there is a man saying, "Get her glasses on. Her sister says she will panic if she can't see". My head goes "Sister? Must be in Darwin." Cos my little big sister lives in Darwin now.


So they transported me 118 km to Katherine, flew me 380km to Darwin, looked after me in ICU, have me in outpatient accommodation this week so I can get the wounds dressed.... I have a hole where the bite was and a tube hole that went into the lung on the other side. They have cared for me, rung my husband daily, supplied my drugs and wiped my tears. And they are gonna get me nearly 500 km home at the end of the week.
Both hospitals were brilliant. Try getting that kind of care in some other countries.


Oh and I am ok.
But if you live or travel remote the possibility of something going wrong has to be faced squarely.


No pictures of the lump either......



Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move
 

Travel memories. Devil's Marbles NT

Devil's Marbles are probably one of the most photographed formations in the NT. The usual colours are red and orange with a bright blue sky. This particular trip up here was in June and the weather had been very, very cold. 9 degrees under the canopy at the United in Tennant Creek at lunch time. The locals looked a bit shell shocked.

It was drizzling and for once the camp area was not full. We camped over night and got up early to catch the sunrise. Can't find those photos, but these show the Marbles in greens and soft purples.
There was a bloke camped next to us who had the best outback fire and oven setup that he made himself. It folded up for travel but had a fire box with an oven space and a grill for the kettle.  Made the best scones for beer o'clock. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

Devil's marbles looking up along one of the paths

The grasses grow very tall.

The marble like formation spread across the plain for quite a few km.

Spectacular view across the plain between the rocks

The Marbles are all different shapes and sizes

The classic Devil's Marbles photo.
You can see the car park and camping area below.