Fascination with sunrise.

Sunrises are an integral part of caravan life. Light blasts past the curtains each morning alerting us to the new day. A peek outside can reveal amazing sights. Some places we have camped have treated us to gentle displays of rising colour creeping up out of the land into the sky. A perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee on the doorstep of the van.

Closer to the equator as we are here, sunrises are almost aggressive, the difference between dark and light measured in just a few minutes. If I have to drive some distance to  a community,  like I will have to tomorrow,  I tend to watch these minutes with some impatience. Light means safer driving.

So I just love it that K stopped to watch and take these photos one morning when he was in Mataranka early to unload stores from the 6am delivery truck.

He's looking across the road towards the bush.


I'll let them speak for themselves.


Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move




Sunrise Mataranka 6.30am



Sunrise Mataranka 6.30am



Sunrise Mataranka 6.37am



Sunrise Mataranka 6.40am

 

 

 

The morning dance



Moon still in the sky at first light.

We are pretty good  at being together in a small space.

Mornings have a comforting routine. The alarm goes off. K dresses and then clears out to the kitchen end of the van leaving me to complete the important tasks that turn a rumpled mess into a polished adult female. During this process the bathroom of the van is out of bounds to my husband. There simply isn't enough room for two in front of the mirror in the tiny cloakroom. Particularly as I have to be jammed up against the mirror to be sure there is a face to put makeup on. I'm so blind without my glasses that I do this task more by feel than anything else.

View across the park at first light.

Up the kitchen end the coffee machine is doing its thing and breakfast makings are  flying out of my super organised storage locker. K indulges in yoghurt which is now especially good since I am making it myself. ( I still can't understand why anyone would eat the stuff. Cook with it yes. Eat it no.)

Pack a lunch. Make another coffee to go Juggle past each other to the wash basin and off.

Brolgas on the road on a foggy morning

If it is a work day we are up to see the sunrise. Work days start very early here as a reaction to the heat which is coming later in the day. In the tropics the difference between too dark to drive and full light is a matter of minutes. 6.30am dark. 6.45am load up and drive out.

  Fog on the road to work.

While this might read very much like a morning in any other working household, this dance is achieved in a 20ft by 8ft very well appointed box.

Bear in mind that this box might be parked just about anywhere we choose and I reckon life is pretty good.


Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

When small is just right.

We are watching Better Homes and Gardens TV show tonight. The chippies in the family are not fond of this programme. I think they resent the "just do this and you will have a wonderful...what ever." Like it can be done instantly.


The feature build this week is a house made from a shipping container. At 40ft long it is twice the length of our caravan. So while it is tiny to some it is huge to us. Take a look.

Our bathroom lives in two sections across the back wall. The wardrobe is in the centre, two door with drawers. Perfect for winter clothes, good shirts and my yarn stash. One side has a shower cubicle with a curved sliding door. 

The other side has a cassette toilet and hand basin. Getting in to the toilet room is a bit of an art. Sideways shuffling is necessary but once in....
K has added a full length mirror to the toilet door, and nifty stick on storage baskets to the mirror above the hand basin.



Over the door towel hangers allow towels to hang on the wardrobe doors.


Unused towels are rolled in the shelf above the bed.


All the mod cons.


Who needs a 40ft long palace?


Cheers Sue


A Ferg on the Move

 

 

 

Staying in touch. Or the things I have to do to get mobile phone coverage.

I recently spent a week in a community with no mobile phone coverage. This made me very conscious of how dependent I am. We have family spread over half of Australia and use SMS to chat, email and Facebook to see the grandkids, new cars, holiday and event photos and  just plain gossip.
Banking, online shopping and of course blogging is conducted over the internet. No landlines here.


At one of the schools I visit regularly there is one spot on the basketball court where "one bar" is possible. There is often a huddle of staff and community members jockeying for position to get reception and download something.  Strangely reception will happen elsewhere for no apparent reason and for random amounts of time. One day at this school my phone beeped at me in the class room. I was so shocked I turned quickly next to a chair and landed in an undignified heap on the floor. Later on yard duty I was treated to a replay by the year one kids, in language, complete with very convincing acting.


Here where we are parked at the moment reception can be very patchy. K has been known to have an extension USB cable attached to his internet dongle. The dongle lives on the roof and the cable come down from the roof vent  to the computer on the table. Placement is critical. I am unpopular if I use the vent for its original purpose, light and ventilation that is.

I could get lots of exercise roaming the caravan park looking for the best place to download  a book to read.

Bats on the move just before sunset.

 

 

At our daughter's NSW farm phone reception happens at the gate. That is for everybody else who can lean on the gate ordering Chinese dinner or something. Not me! My phone refuses to give me any bars until I am standing in the middle of the road preferably first thing in the morning...... Something to do with signal skip I've been told.

Picture me, early morning checking for emails and SMS or doing the banking standing in the middle of a dirt road in rural NSW hoping that I spot the dust cloud indicating approaching vehicles. Or more importantly that no one comes along to see me in the middle of the road in my jammies with a phone held to my ear.

On a more serious note, I am grateful for the technology that allows me to live in wonderful places in our grand land and still stay connected to the people I love.

No need for mobile phone here. What K does while I download a book.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move.

 

Home is where the heart is. Or wherever the road takes us.

So the conversation goes like this......


At home on the farm in NSW

"Where do you live?"
"In the caravan," I answer.
"No. Where do you really live?"
"In the caravan," I answer.
"Ok where is home?" they ask with some level of frustration.
"In the caravan," I answer with a grin, settling down for another lengthy explanation of our lifestyle.



At home with visitors in the Northern Territory

It is true that for the past few years our registered address is at the tourist park here in Northern Australia where we spend 7ish months working. It is also true that we have NT drivers licences and the vehicles are registered here but that is a life style choice rather than an anchor.


At home helping with the renovations

Home for us is our caravan. After a day out in Katherine NT, Goulburn NSW, Brisbane QLD, Broome WA (you get the idea) we go home to our tiny house.



At home behind the rain water tank

We are at peace inside its walls or sitting under its annex. Everything we need is here, wherever here happens to be.

Home is where the heart is and with the one who has your heart. (That's you K. I think I just earned  a coffee in bed one morning.)







At home with K

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

 

The outdoor kitchen

Baked vegetables and sticky lamb ribs loaded into our portable hooded BBQ.
Put lid down and bake  1 hour on medium 180 degrees Celsius
No smell or heat in the caravan
 

I promised you a tour of the outdoor kitchen. 

Regular readers will remember that my caravan oven  is actually deployed as a coffee pod storage cupboard, a use it was obviously designed for because the pods fit perfectly.  I have just packed away 40 cartons containing 10 pods each. Not a centimetre to spare but they fit.

So .... the outdoor kitchen is currently deployed at the front of the caravan under a free standing gazebo. At other times it lives under the awning.

We use a double burner gas stove set that can be used as two large burners for the kettle and a pot. It has a non stick BBQ  plate as well. This pretty much covers our everyday cooking needs.  K installed a drop down table on the side of the van and when we are mobile the two burner stove can be dropped onto it in a matter of seconds.

Double gas burners with BBQ plate

Double gas burner stove with room for kettle and a pot.

The hooded BBQ is just the right size and shape to slip into back of the ute. It is easy to lift and gets used not only by us but  by the family when we stay on the farm. K put a oven thermometer in the lid so I have started using it for baking as well.

Gasmate BBQ with a stove thermometer installed in the hood.
Well used and well travelled appliance.

We kept two electric appliances. The slow cooker is tiny, only 1.5 litre capacity. It  can be run off the battery inverter and I have been known to break my "no cooking inside" rule to set it up in the kitchen sink and have dinner cooking in the slow cooker  as we drive. We get some funny looks at fuel stops when there is a delicious smell emanating from the locked caravan.

Glass turbo oven and 1.5 litre crock pot,

The last item is a glass turbo oven, a cheap version, which travels tucked under the kitchen sink. If I want to do serious baking and we have 240v electricity this is fantastic. However as I get better at regulating the heat in the hooded BBQ I am using this appliance less and less,




My caravan outdoor kitchen. Gas and electric appliances  that all pack away when we travel.
Note the gas bottles. We are connected to the large one at the back which has the gas lantern connected for light in the cooking area at night. The black lead on the right comes from the caravan battery inverter.

I don't have everything out usually, but in your honour here is the whole kitchen set up. 

Of course  now I have to put some of it away. Oh well.    Guess I can tidy the mess under the sink at the same time.


Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

 

 

 

Friends without fences

I reckon if you sit still long enough in one place on the Stuart Highway (the road up the centre of Australia from south to north) the whole of the Grey Army (retired people travelling Australia) go past sooner or later.



Australian entertainment complete with didgeridoo, guitar and mouth organ

This  belief was  reinforced for me when, whilst  sitting having dinner last night sharing one of the fantastic staff specials here at the caravan park and listening to the live music, we  were delighted to be greeted by a couple we haven’t seen for over two years.  These two were regulars here at the park and we have met them in other places on our travels. The rest of the evening was passed catching up with each other’s lives, and planning when we might meet next.

Further around in the quiet dining area was a table of five couples we know both by name and their caravan and car set ups, and whom have become part of our travel family.

Mataranka Hot Springs where the problems of the world
are solved and friends for life made.

 

City life has changed. When I was a child we knew all the names of the children in the street, knew their parents by name and were welcomed most of the time into each other’s houses.

I am quite ashamed to confess that during the two years we were in our last house the only time I interacted with our neighbours, other than a friendly wave as I drove out each morning, was when they were packing up their camper to go on holidays. We agreed to do the neighbourly thing and keep an eye on the place.  Even sadder than this was that I didn’t know my neighbour’s names. Although we did know the name of the two dogs. This important piece of information was gleaned from the “Be quiet *****,” that was uttered late at night and early in the morning.

At this stage our social life was much more likely to consist of formal dinners out, and large gatherings of friends and family from other places in town than a friendly chat over the fence or a block barbecue. On our street people lived inside their fences and did everything possible not to be overlooked by the neighbours.

Later that year we moved with the caravan into a city caravan park. The idea was to iron out any issues before we embarked on our changed life.

What a contrast!  The van wasn’t even properly in our spot before there were people over perusing our rig, discussing the proper way to anchor the annex against strong winds and checking out K’s wind generator.  K really prefers to set up witout spectators so his usually ready smile was a bit  strained after an hour or so, and I had exhausted our supply of bought biscuits by then but we had made friends.

Later that day we explored the park and to our delight found old neighbours who had been next door to us in Darwin the July before.

Sunset on Mindil beach Darwin, with friends

So I wonder why it is so easy to make friends on the road. Does it have something to do with fences, both literal and figurative I wonder.

 

 

Cheers Sue

 

A Ferg on the Move.

Resident Snake

I couldn't resist. I had to blog this in reply to House of Simple's Phil Polson recent post.
If you haven't read his snake post then hop over to here The snake that threatened HOS. It is just the best story.

Any way here is the resident python at Mataranka Homestead. 
We thought we had been burgled. The office was a mess. Bin overturned. Papers everywhere. But no!
Just a python passing through on through on the way to the garden. In under the door. Once round the desk and off to find some shade.



And here comes the python head

And now the python doubles back.



The tail of the python follows behind.



Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Battling the ants

Sitting reading on the bed and I feel a little tickle. Ants again. What they think they will find as they travel across the window behind me I don't know.

Maybe they just wander off on a road trip and drop into Fergsville for a break.



Relaxing in the annexe

They get in the food. Yuk!

On cold nights (yes  we do get them in the NT) they hide in anything warm, like a  clock next to the battery or inside the lights. They get into the relays in the car, especially the fuel pump relay, which I am reliably informed is the one in the middle of a bank of them and stays warm the longest. Anytime something electrical doesn't work a cry of  "It must be ants," can be heard.

Just get them out of my caravan!

Begone I say. Begone.

In case that doesn't work here is a site with some ideas.

8 ways to keep ants out of your caravan to keep ants out of your caravan

Off to hunt ants.

Sue
A Ferg on the Move

 

 

 

Our ways of being frugal. Or making sure we have something to live on in the off season.

What we earn here in the peak tourist season in the north of Australia has to fund the travel and family visits later in  the off peak times. So we need to be frugal or at least as self sufficient as  we can manage. Otherwise the need to earn money will  overpower our desire to live simply and be mobile.

I read with interest, and a measure of envy,  the wonderful things people do in their frugal lives. They cook everything, grow everything, make everything and reuse things as well. 

I would like to grow everything ... and the wallabies and local birds would like it if I did too. The quarantine guys at state borders would get a kick out of confiscating my pots of herbs twice a year as well. So dried herbs and shop bought vegies for us I'm afraid.


Wallaby lazing in our annex munching
on a sweet potato

 



This very sick wallaby joey crawled out from under the caravan step
She was not able  to hold food in her paws.
K is helping her eat a pear core.
She survived and comes back to visit most nights
even though we don't feed her.

I would love to make all my own soaps and cleaning products, but in my tiny caravan there is nowhere to store either the ingredients or the end products. So I clean windows  and other surfaces with vinegar, spray stains on clothes with dish washing liquid and treat the portal-loo  toilet waste with biodegradable  no brand nappy sanitiser. The last item is $3.50 for four weeks treatment as opposed to $30 for the same   amount of fancy and nasty chemical stuff. No money going down the loo for us.

Do not waste money on expensive toilet chemicals. 

I try to remember that a special bought in in Woolworths 109 km away is not cheaper than the same product from the local mini mart..........unless I have to make the trip for work and then someone else pays for the diesel. This is a hard one, sometimes the urge to see the "big smoke" is irresistible. 

We cook just what we need.  In another  life the left overs made lunch for the working men who took them to work. But no one wants a hot lunch in over 35 degree heat so its best to cook smaller amounts. And we take advantage of the staff meals provided at here for K. When the meal is something we like we get it. And the serve is a proper outback size. Plenty for two or even three maybe.

Staff dinner of roast pork and veg.
Big enough for two. We often share a pub size meal.

We buy small quantities, just what we need. This is a hard lesson to learn. Its not frugal  to buy in bulk and give it away before it goes off. Generous yes, friendly yes, but not great  for the wallet.

We make own power when we can from the sun the wind. We use the twin tub and reuse and save water when we camp.  And of course K fixes and reuses things as well.

Frugal or simple, but fun.

Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

---

A long drive to work

Echidna in the car park.

Tonight I am 250 kilometres away from the caravan in a cute motel room in a small town on the Stuart Highway. I drove 120km to one school this morning and the rest of the way here after school.  I'm doing two days teaching in the two-teacher school here giving the staff time off to plan. (I used the word school lots of times in this paragraph didn't I? Editing skills are not so good tonight)




Since we have made our dry season home here I have worked mostly in two schools within driving distance. Ok,  within a 150 radius but out here that is close..

The classes here have mostly indigenous students for whom English is a second language (ESL)
I have come to love these classes.

For eight weeks last term I went much further afield and worked in fourteen remote indigenous communities to provide release time or non-contact time to teachers. Over that time I did 8,500 kilometres of outback driving, some of it on dirt or gravel unsealed roads.

River Ford. This one has a concrete base

I wish I could show you some of the classes, but professional conduct and privacy rules prohibit publishing photos of the students.



But I can hit my personal highlights.


Now I was pretty nervous about dirt driving. K does all the hard driving normally and is not a very good passenger at the best of times. I have therefore, out of consideration for his nerves, not done much dirt driving at all. However these schools can't be reached without gravel road travel, so armed with the skills learned in a "4WD on dirt roads" course last year I ventured off. Fortunately the roads were ok. Corrugated, rough but ok. No dramas.

Creek bed crossing.

But I can  boast of crossing/fording four rivers twice each. Alright, they were more like creeks at this time of the year but there was water and rocks on the river bed and everything.

 

The outback loo stop... Nup not gonna go there!

Magnificent scenery. Reds and golds and the most brilliant dark greens.



Baby salty croc in a terrarium.
On loan to the class from Wildlife park

I could rave about the wildlife; kangaroos. wallabies, donkeys, wombats, echidnas, eagles, hawks, wild pigs, brolgas, bullocks and goats on the road.  AND a baby crocodile in a classroom terrarium. Only in the Northern  Territory of Australia!

Brolgas on the road as I fill up with diesel.

But the great highlight of  all continues to be the generosity of the people in town camps and tiny settlements who welcome me into their school with kind words and grins. Who ask about my family and my country and "where is your camp miss Sue?"   And who great me by name whenever and wherever we bump into each other again. I love my life!

I need to prep for tomorrow's classes. Catch you soon.



Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move

My home. My haven

Today I'm the only one home. K is hard at work moving stock with the forklift attachment on the tractor he fixed yesterday.



K hard at work on the old tractor

Yesterday I made an emergency run with the ute to town so it could do a "transformers" like morph into THE SHED and disgorge a vital  part. Mr Fix It worked his magic again. Good thing too, or he would be unloading three pallets of alcohol for the pub by hand.
Anyway back to my thought for today. I am on my own in need of a peaceful couple of hours. What makes a personal haven?  And how do I create one in our tiny mobile space?

Camp armchair.
So comfy with the footrest up
 

Sometimes my haven is my camp lounge chair with the footrest up, facing the trees while I knit or crochet and enjoy quiet interaction with nature
Or maybe it is sitting in the annex on a warm night with a book and the live music from the bistro traveling up the hill.

My private bit of bush

Or strumming the guitar or dulcimer in the caravan doorstep. Music always does it for me.



Bed at night, lounge room by day.

Or my bed in daybed mode, with pillows, a coffee and a movie. Sometimes the contained small space that is our home is exactly what my cluttered mind needs.

Not that I hide inside all day.
While the caravan is located in a caravan park, as it is during the working part of our life, I am blessed and enriched by daily interactions with fellow campers. We are a sociable bunch, ever ready to help each other out or sit and share our experiences  of tiny mobile living. But.....


Sometimes like today I just want my space!  I'm off to lounge inside.



Cheers Sue
A Ferg on the Move

Welcome

So here we are. It's 7.30 pm. I have just finished a fantastic dinner of lamb, brought with us frozen from our daughter's farm when we drove up here from NSW in May. Here is 100k south of Katherine NT, and frozen means in our little WACO fridge freezer. Inside our caravan two long steps from me my husband is making coffee and the temperature outside is cooling down to a lovely 20 degrees. This is our simple life. Hope you enjoy my ramblings.