The Maiden Voyage

We blew up the zodiac... um. Make that... inflated. If you have ever suffered from flat feet I have a foot pump (and an electrical one, in case you have or want a flat battery).



We did this at home, thinking it best to get problems ironed out (with a steam iron) before finding ourselves at the sea shore and failing to get the essential piece from the shed. The next step was to put it on Jamie's ute. Alas... eet weel not go iin! The boat is 4.5 metres long. The ute back about half that...

So the next day we repeated the process, having partly deflated the boat, and taken the floor-boards out. This time we got to Patriarch's estuary at high tide. Well... high tide according to Willy weather. Not according to water-level. Fortunately we now know the good ship Zoo has a VERY shallow draft - a couple of inches. Cap'n Dave had a lovely tow around the water!

Bit of a catch up post

Life has been a bit like the infamous green sauce (good with everything, even dessert) - garlicy, interesting and not always simple.

First a couple more food pictures

'Waiter, there is a tentacle in my soup'


A 3.2Kg crayfish/spiny lobster - almost needing the BIG pot.

And cooking muttonbirds in the rain next to the newly restored fountain.

On food

Mel has taken pictures of her meals here for her food diary. She kindly offered to let me share them. They're made with local produce, as far as possible from scratch.
Crayfish cocktail


mains - roasted leg of wallaby with garden veggies



and spelt flour sticky date pudding

The tip

Yesterday we gave a hand at the clearing of the tip. It was once a house, rather a nice little one on a neighboring farm, but the bloke who was living there had reduced it to a place where even flies battered themselves to death trying to escape. It was upsetting not only for filth and stench and abysmal hygenic standards, but also for the wastage (which REALLY offends every ounce of my Calvinist soul). Obviously considerable money flowed into the house, and though tens of thousands were wasted on booze and drugs, it was also wasted in every direction - there must have been 10 good pen-knives under the piles of dropped dirty clothing (some rat-eaten and rotting) and discarded plates and half-eaten food. A fridge that had got too filthy even for this... lifeform wasn't cleaned out, or even thrown out. It was just closed and left running, and he got another. The stench was really unbelievable. There were dead rats, rotten potatoes (on the same shelf as new food had been put!) and used condoms on the floor (one has to wonder what kind of girl would get that close!). It was the sort of thing I imagined with heroin addicts in the grungy inner city, not out in our beautiful country.

It took spades, rakes and strong stomachs to clean it out. As commendation to giving your head to the local weed... NOT.

I'm a bit pressed for time right now - we have a house full of guests, and Barbs is sick (yes, has been to the doctor, yes, has had bloods taken, yes all the short-term are negative, so it's either viral or possible Ross River Fever.) Anyway, I've taken them clamming, kayaking, fishing, diving, spear-fishing. Of course there is a lot food being prepared. They're lovely guests helping with that and washing up, but it's still stretching me a little thin. They're on Strzlecli now, so I have a little time to write.

Jude speared her first fish, Mel and Jude caught their first fish, and the excitement has been large. :-)

Phew. In between French drains and rains, and making myself a rod rack (the workshop/shed was impossible to move in with rods, collecting the extra long shaft outboard for the zoo-diac, unrolling the same so we could read the builders plate (in French) for the MAST form, and then running the motor in a barrel of water, to discover its tell-tail blocked and the various tilt and lock bits not too well... exciting times. Anyway, it was a lovely day, and I did not go to the sea. Maybe I will get a reward in heaven, which would be good because I'm feeling rally guilty about how much writing I'm getting done. But we have some windows to clean and we're mostly ready for our French cousins and our friends from Melbourne - all at the same time naturally.

Mist and dragons.

Well, some hay moved (hay hay it's Wednesday) and the gate and pallets moved although I don't have them made into the new compost heap for the rest of the several tons of cut grass off what will be our lawn. Also one 3D dragon jigsaw done (repair to a bit of dragon-statue dropsy that did not end well) and a new pump ordered for the fountain, and a new mist-generator for the dragon (what do you mean you didn't know dragons needed mist? Where have you been all your life? Go to the the Drakensberg. Plenty mist there) and some cursing at lousy Aussie light fitting company that lets you order goods and pay for them... and then say oh they're waiting for their suppliers to deliver before they can dispatch. Gah. Friday will hopefully see the new septic tank. I may fill it with water and do a little swimming, just so i can say I have done that.

I've borrowed a little outboard for the Zoo-diac (whose name on the MAST form is 'Zoo') and have been trying to register the boat. And I am not going diving tomorrow, because I have to work. That deserves a halo.