Six months and more off grid. Small and cosy

Inside our little house on wheels is pretty cosy. The winter annex is up, with the hooded Bbq at one end and the folding bed from the shearing shed still in there from when our oldest son from Brisbane stayed to help with the shed.

It is cold so the bed is dressed for winter with K's favourite Wolf blanket. I am a very accommodating wife.  (Ok those of you who know me ....stop laughing) No flower patterns for us.

My camp twin tub fits next to the annex door in cold weather. Too cold to stand outside to do the wash. I confess to boiling the  kettle to take the chill off the water. My hands were very thankful. Now that the shed wood fire is going, drying winter jumpers and jackets is easy. I just peg the things to metal coat hangers and brave the scary step ladder to hang them from the metal roof beams. Clothes dry in the hottest part of the shed. We won't talk about how long it takes me to climb down again and recover my balance. I hate heights and slopes.  I have perfected the art of knocking the hangers down when its all dry and catching the stuff before it hits the ground thus avoiding the step ladder. Big things hang off the line in the open bit of the shed or on the pull out racks on the back of the caravan. The other minki blanket that I found in storage boxes is hanging on those racks waiting for the rain to rinse out the dust before I pack it away again. My twin tub is not up to that amount of wet blanket. In fact I think the blue minki, yes a blue wolf patterned minki, has only ever hung on the line and had soap and water sprayed on it and been hosed off. Even in a real house I never had a washing machine up to its bulk.

We are used to working half of the year, but the wait for K's medical treatment has us grounded in this delightful place. After living here off the grid I think returning to work life and having people close in a caravan park is going to take a bit of adjustment. Although electricity and water on tap might be worth it....maybe.

One of the byproducts of being on our own most days is taking pleasure in the daily tasks.  I realised just how far I have relaxed into semiretired life when I was telling our granddaughter what my day was like.  Make yoghurt, mix bread and rise it in the car window, bake it in the Bbq, wash clothes, light the fire, throw a ball for the dogs, read a book, slow cook dinner on the fire and crochet lots. All of this interspersed with trips to hold things for Mr Fix It and remind him that we live in a caravan so that whatever it is he has salvaged can go on the pile of things for the tip.

Talking of the tip we took a load there yesterday. This is always a hazardous expedition causing Mr Fix It great pain. You see people throw out things; sinks with fittings still attached, belts, pulleys, nuts bolts, tv's and such. He has to leave them there, unlike in Mataranka where the tip is the unofficial spare parts shop. Oh well life is not meant to be perfect.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

A tale of bread, sticky date pudding and washing.

Today didn't go as planned.

I had four things on my to do list today; try out the new gluten free bread mix that has arrived in the post, cook gluten free Sticky Date for K, make some more yoghurt and do the washing. After that I was going to go have a swim with the holiday makers and catch up with the caravan gossip for the week.

My first gluten free cob loaf

I read the bread mx instructions last night. I'm really keen to get this working. I found it after some serious research. Most mixes are a batter, this one makes a dough and can be shaped into rolls or a cob loaf.

Gluten free cob loaf risen ready to go into the oven

 A great deal of emphasis is made about the need for accurate measurement of ingredients.
Now I am a chuck it all in from memory cook so naturally my mini kitchen scales were right at the back of the under sink cupboard.  K came in for a cuppa just as I had the whole lot on the floor in front of the fridge.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Just cooking," said I stuffing everything back in with great care.

Carefully assembling the ingredients I weighed out the flour mix, adding a bit more, still more and some more again. Since the flour was overflowing the small container I had on the scales I concluded that the scales had better be checked for accuracy. Sure enough a 250gm unopened cheese block weighed 50gms on my scales.

What to do?  While pondering this problem I made up the yoghurt and had a cuppa.

Yoghurt made up and sitting in the bench, I fired up the ute and made a 14km trip to borrow scales from the cook at the roadhouse in town and catch up on the town gossip for this week.

Back on track I mixed, kneaded and set the bread to prove in the obvious place. The dashboard of the ute.

Bread rising inside the car on the dashboard.

All went well with the sticky date because I had popped into the supermarket to say hello on my way to get the scales and remembered that I didn't have dates! That was a good save.   AND I had to use a pot as a cake tin because the right tin was ... you guessed it ... under the sink.

Now the oven. Not willing to trust the bread to the BBQ the first time I baked it I decide to use the glass oven which was sitting snugly in its usual storage place. ....You guessed it again.....Under the sink where had put it after I did the photos for the outside kitchen blog.

K breezed in on his way to fix the commercial drier.  "Still cooking," said I stuffing everything back in with great care again and dumping the glass oven next to the outdoor power point in the annex.

Sticky Date Pudding in the glass oven.

Sticky Date in the oven and bread  rising beautifully in the car  I lifted out the twin tub washing machine, pulled out the power cord and ....  No free power point.

So I currently I am sitting on the bed in the caravan waiting for the bread to finish, doing the washing with the twin tub in the shower, plugged into the power point under the bed and using the shower head to fill it.

Washing machine inside the caravan in the shower.
I usually do this when it 35plus degrees outside. 

K has come in from work to have his Sticky Date with cream and have a shower... Ooops.



Gluten Free Sticky Date Pudding and cream

I still have to return a set of kitchen scales.


Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

Caravan wash day

So today is wash day. In fact it is clean and tidy day as well, a task that takes two hours if I turn out a few cupboards and wash a curtain or two, and an hour if I am feeling lazy.

Which brings me to my washer and drier.

Caravans may come equipped with a washer, usually a small automatic plumbed in to the bathroom.
We chose a camping twin tub. Ours us three years old and doesn't owe us a cent. It's light, fits in the caravan front boot when we travel. When we free site I can save and reuse water or bucket it in from a free local source.  Water is one limiting factor for where and for how long we can camp away from a town park...but more about that another day.


Light weight camping twin tub filling up with water.

On a nice day like today, 28 degrees, light breeze and sunny I set it up outside. If it is hot, and 42 degrees is not uncommon during the build up to the wet season, I lift it into  the shower cubicle in the van and use the shower head to fill and rinse.  I can turn  the air conditioner on, sit on the bed and read. Sure beats sitting in a coin laundry minding the wash.

Now I mentioned my drier. Well mine uses free sunlight and the breeze. Very effective most of the time.


Double pull-out drying lines sit under the solar panel rack on the back of our van

K put these two pull out lines on the back of the van under the solar panel rack. We tie them up when we drive.
Then there is always the line strung around the annex. Or a folding mini hoist. But we have donated that to another camper.

 

Got to finish hanging it all out.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move