Crafty evenings in the caravan



There's not a lot of housework to do in the evenings in a caravan. We usually spend our evenings together here in the van or out under the annex mosquitos permitting.
So most nights in the week K "works" on his computer or puzzles over the latest thing he is bringing back to life.

I read lots, and lots and lots.

And when I'm not reading I crochet. I knit as well but I love to crochet.


Crochet Granny Squares surrounded by stretchy rib
 

One side of the wardrobe in the van is filled, not with clothes as was our plan when we bought this particular layout in our van, but with acrylic yarn I have bought or saved.

I was very wise, or something, to know that seven years later I would need a place to stash my yarn.




Shades of grey and green in a rectangle crochet pattern. This one is in the UK with K's aunt/

Why acrylic you ask? Because it washes and wears.

The finished products live under the bed until they are sold or given away to a good home.



Crocheted  tulip.
Painting with rows of dc *(sc in America)
Present for family member

 I love to play with colour and to create rather than follow a pattern so I research a stitch or series of stitches, grab some colour and play. Off the hook fall bedspreads, afghans or baby rugs.

Yarn scrap circles with black stretch rib
Still living under the caravan bed waiting for the right owner.

Mind you since I started blogging a bit less reading and crocheting is happening.

Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move


Dragging our home behind us

Getting to anywhere quickly from the outback town in Northern Australia in which we have chosen to spend the working part of our year is quite an adventure.
I'm planning a trip over to country NSW to help out when a new grandchild is born. The aim is to get there a few days before baby can be expected to put in an appearance.



I'm quite happy to fly although I have to drive or sit in a bus for five hours going north to the airport in Darwin, sit in the plane for four and a half hours, and someone has to do a four and a half hour round trip to collect me. Depending on flight times thus can necessitate a motel stay in Darwin.






To drive I head south and then east for 3,700ish kms, nearly four full days, very, very long way to go in a hurry. And I have to pay for accommodation each night. Dollar wise there is not much difference between the two options.









What a contrast with our usual travel routine.



Normally when we travel this wonderful country we drag our house behind us, at our own pace, no time constraints.

River side camp near Camooweal QLD

At the end of a day of driving we don't have to push ourselves to get to the next town before our motel reception shuts and the dinner service is over. We just find a lovely spot to park, maybe a roadside bay, a spot near the railway line, a river side camp or even a site in a caravan park and set up. Mostly we don't unhook the car but we do put on the brakes, put down the jockey wheel and the stabiliser legs.



Caravan just fits under this shade shed near Woomera SA

We lift out the door step, open the windows and turn the fridge over to gas, then we are all set.

Quick cooking can be done in the microwave, or if we want burners the stove set is in the back of the ute. Sometimes if I have loaded up the crock pot to cook as we travel there is a hot meal all ready. Coffee or wine, a chat with any neighbours who have joined us,  a great sunset and our own shower before bed.

Shady camp just south of Broome.

Beats a motel any day.


Now I still have to decide. Drive or fly?



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

 

 

 

Frugal Tasks

Last night I made yoghurt for the first time. Which was pretty nice of me considering that I hate the stuff.
K however loves it and it is very expensive here in our local shop. Close to twice the price I would pay in Darwin. So I bought a EASIYO system for $16 and a couple of  sachets of mix to get me started. Buying the sachets is half the cost of yoghurt at our local shop. But I found directions for how to make yoghurt from scratch in an easiyo yogurt maker  so that will bring the cost per kg down to less than $2. K can experiment with flavours for himself.



My first batch of yoghurt. Berry flavoured EASIYO mix.

 

 K needs to keep his salt intake down. So we have always  bought low salt butter spread. There is no such thing in the local supermarket so this is another of things we have to do a 200 km round trip to buy.
My daughter makes spreadable butter for her family and taught me how in the summer this year. I love it because I can make a small batch each week. No-salt butter, water and oil, I use olive oil, and whiz it up until smooth. This also works for me because my stick-blender runs on the battery and inverter so I can do this even if we are travelling. I make just enough to fit in a reused Lurpack butter container.  This is one of K's special foods that I like as well.


Ingredients for homemade salt-free butter and olive oil spread.
100gms salt free butter, 50 mls water, 50 mls olive oil

 

Another frugal thing I did today was to prepare sticky lamb ribs. Every year before we come back to the NT for work we fill up the fridge freezers with a lamb that our daughter and son-in-law have grown on their NSW farm. Great meat and really cheap. Lamb costs the proverbial arm and leg here.  This is beef country thank you very much!
Using lamb ribs from the camp freezer, the ends of bottles of tomato sauce (ketchup) and chutney, and a few teaspoons of a gluten free spice mix these ribs will spend an hour in the BBQ oven . With Potatoes baked along side, a salad and a glass of red. Not bad for a caravan dinner.

Sticky lamb ribs
Lamb ribs, tomato ketchup and gluten free hot spice mix.
 

And I did the washing in the twin tub and hung it on the caravan line.

Coffee and a book now.

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