Produce

The round of dinners and teas and drinks and nibbles continues. Tonight again... So does work and the beetle chase! Barbs has pulled an intercostal muscle and is very sore poor dear. The physio this morning left her even more battered, if better. We had the plumber -visiting the farm, look at the pressure pump and shake his head today. I wonder what that head-shake costs... He said short of replacing the pump he could do nothing about the erratic shower (takes me back to boarding school, water one minute, none the next, water again) however unlike boarding school this stays much the same temperature. I'll live with it.

They're crutching over the shearing sheds today. I heard the shearers offering brazilians, Americans, landing strips... Well, I heard loud music anyway. I'd need that for sheep's bums. This should be quite a short session though.

Eat-athon

Ooh I ate too much. I feel like Percy Pig (who is bursting his little waistcoat buttons). We seem to have been stuck in the Flinders Island eat-athon. First Jamie brought us a Swiss 'black forest' type choccy cake from his Swiss wife as thanks for hay-help, and we had to have a piece with Jamie, and then we went off to the FIAA (Barbs works for them) Christmas dinner, and seeing as I was spending $45 (she got her tucker for free) and I'm still in the appalling habit of translating that back to Rand, I made sure I ate every morsel and regretted it. The Tavern's chef (who left today) was a big step up, but (Modesty Blaise here the tall poppy speaking) I do cook better. Well, I don't have to cook for those numbers of people. But my feeling is that a rack of lamb should just be pink against the bone OR stripped of almost all fat, as lamb fat needs to be crisp and cooked. Rare and fat is hard going for my taste. The creme brule had great topping but had vast amounts of of slightly lumpy not quite set custard with no real taste except sweet. I like it firm but soft. And now I feel hypercritical and bad. It was a noble effort, as the Tavern hasn't risen to this sort of food much. Anyway after a night of indigestion, we went to church this morning, ahd too much cake after... and then took a crayfish cocktail (this - very typical South Africa 1960-1970 standard restaurant fare - from seafood cocktail (at the bottom), to prawn cocktail, to crayfish cocktail at the best fell out of favor, probably because the silly beggars put too much mayo and rubbish in and too little of the crayfish. Done right, with just enough good mayo to stick it together, a splash of tomato sauce, a tiny bit of chilli pepper, and some fresh chives, it is very good) to a friend's 40th party. Only they'd stocked up on a lot of German food (he is of German origin) which we had to try. And the other 40 families had all brought their party pieces... Barbs has bravely gone to the carols (which the kids and the a-capella ? spell? group are are doing), with port and mince-pies after, and all the island there I would guess. It would be lovely I am sure, but I have seen enough people and eaten enough.

Instead I harvested another 18 heads of garlic - bringing our total so far 24. Some of these are real beauties, and a few just average. There is still a fair bit to come in but I am leaving the plants with good scapes another day or two to let them mature a bit further. Nothing to do with the stress of bending my overful tummy over the planting tank. I will sun-dry them a bit tomorrow and plait them.

Beetle my beating heart.

Beetles - I have killed over a kilo of the little beggars so far. And thick and fast they come...

I had a dive yesterday, 3.5 hours and I have miserable ears and a sore head today (no not the bends, sinuses, and eustachian tubes) Still, we have some crays. Are sure I can't offer you a beetle?

Present time

Today was present time, at the post office - no, no cheques or royalty statements, but some very nice people sent us things which cheered me up no end, even if they did make me feel quite guilty,and like a whinger for complaining yesterday.

I now have some more bush tucker to experiment with. And I have a turkey-caller... we do most of turkey shooting more like drive-by shootings here... so this is a very novel idea. Besides I got a present I bought myself, a couple of rather battered Footrot Flats cartoons books off e-bay that I hadn't read. I always enjoyed them, but living as we do I find them hilarious and accurate now.

It was the CWA Christmas lunch today so I had to pass on a dive with the master crayfisherman. Greater love hath no man... and actually the women who would have been eating the crays weren't that impressed either. Oh well, there will be other days, and it was rather fun making turkey calls at the CWA. Yes I am a bad man. What else is new?

We've had the blessing of a bit of rain today, which the land needed, and it seems to have brought out the bugs in force. That's farming I guess.

I think I'll sneak across to my neighbour and turkey call under his window :-) Only I might get lead in my tail.

I spent some time today drying to set up the micro-irrigation for the rest of the veggies, as otherwise they'll die while we're away. It's more complicated than one thinks... anyway, it should be at least partly effective. Next summer I putting in a request to neither move house nor have to go anywhere. Winter is when the crops need less tending.

We're doing quite well out of the garden and countryside and of course, sea, although I wouldn't mind more crayfish and more sea flexibility - but that must wait on a more reliable motor for the Zoo, and the trailer being finished, and eventually, a hookah. All of these must wait on a little more coming into the kitty, and I don't mean the one who decided to nest in the trousers around my ankles while I was on the loo this morning. There are still so many things to explore so many foods to try... keeping pace with what we do do is hard enough. If B wasn't being paid reliably and we were having to rely on publishing... well, I am sick of being paid late, and having to worry and nag frightfully politely about it (Amazon, and the shorts I have on that at least pay me 70% of the price - unlike the 4-10% I see of some the others, and reliably and promptly. I will be putting more e-books up for this reason. It's not a lot of money, but it is mine. Baen will also be putting up some books on Amazon soon, and they say they will pay more than now, but I doubt if it will be more regularly or more on time, to be blunt. They are always some months late (the six months January-June should be settled in September (we have computerized records now, not hand-counting copies in a warehouse, so why it can't be sooner I don't know. Perhaps it is to give retail time to pay)... not possibly in December. I'd sympathize because it is not easy in publishing atm and they have done me some favors, but it is difficult to tell the vet or the supermarket or the dentist you'll pay later, and if Barbs wasn't working her socks off we'd have to. Besides the Aussie dollar keeps going up and therefore every day is a pay-cut. Anyway. Onwards. Enough whinging. But if you're going to by an e-book by me to try, the ones which list me as the publisher get my vote :-)) It does work on my ability to write well. Anyway, we live comfortably, and eat very well, tonight we had couscous (with onion, and other bits in it) and a spicy Moroccan style flathead, carrot salad. Yesterday we had calamari and yellow rice with fresh peas and a green salad and green sauce, and fresh strawberries for pud. The night before we had some lamb crusted with saltbush someone was kind enough to give us, and the first zucchini fried with the garlic scapes, and bandicooted baby pink-eye potatoes. Tomorrow I plan to slow cook some wallaby shanks with fresh garlic, rosemary and the last tomato out of the freezer. Almost all our food comes out of Hindustan Imports (ie in bulk) or we catch or grow ourselves. We probably spend more on kitty crumble and dog cubes (they get fresh wallay, or fish, and the dogs get some rice, but there is always 150 grams of dog pellets each) than we do on our meals.

Anyway, tomorrow is the interesting experience of the CWA Christmas lunch. The husbands are invited... I think we're the first course, after which it our failings for mains, and morals and virtues for dessert ;-).

Of spacing, pigs, and veggies

One the deep joys of planting your own veg is watching your beloved kitty cat find this nice, almost clear piece of ground and not only ornament it, narrowly missing your carrot seedlings, and then methodically scratch out a quarter of a row of same seedlings to cover it while you yell at her and try to get fluffy-bumness's attention (it's a long way from a door, barring the kitty door) and the windows have fly-mesh. Then a little later, you see her Wednesdayness,in search of kitty tootsie rolls, in a garden dogs supposedly cannot enter, digging for buried 'treasure'. That I grow anything at all is a minor miracle. I do wonder if our 'healthy food' is merely all the antibodies.

The pig continues his excavations. I shall forget butchering him and sell him to Gina Rhinehart. He's getting still bigger, and decided to have a tentative taste of my trouser leg today, and got a wallop on the nose from which he retreated looking very contrite. I doubt his sincerity. He's starving pig, or so he tells me. Pigs have a purpose. They make Labradors look like fussy delicate eaters. Mind you I was glad not to have my camera with me this morning. I gave him about a liter and a half of milk that had separated after being frozen. I literally thought he might drown, he had his piggy snout right underwater while he was trying to get it in as fast as possible. He then looked at me, black snout with a milky ring and milky whiskers and did his desperate 'more?' grunt. The Labradors were NOT amused. Spare milk is theirs. They used to get quite a lot back SA. Here, not so much, as we are not getting a fixed amount from the dairy, and it costs a lot more. Roll on the cow.

Talking of planting I really have to get this spacing thing right My potatoes - which started as 5 rows, are now knee high, and a solid impenetrable mass. The boiled turkey poo or something has worked to some extent I think. Whether I now get any potatoes as hilling is a real challenge, is another matter.