Grumble. Now windows is telling me it is not geniune, and will only work in safe mode. I have had computer hassle to the back teeth

cutting cupboards

"I cut up furniture, I forget to eat my lunch, I go to the lava-tree... Which was more or less my day today, not so good for writing, but very good for the sawing of cupboards in two. I should have checked the insides of them for circus ladies first, but as it was an over-tall ex-hospital cupboard (from the days before chipboard - color me pleased.) with 'surgical gowns' on the outside, I wasn't expecting her in there. It's OKay she says says she's quite used to circular saws by now, and the dogs licked up most of the blood (actually the only bit of blood came from me skinning my palm moving it.) Anyway with some coarse timber-surgery, we now have one small cupboard, and one medium cupboard, and one set of drawers-low & cupboards all for $60 - which is less than some other bidder paid for one chip-board rubbish cupboard. These will still be going strong in 50 years when hers are dust. Interesting times were had (as they are mostly real hardwood not ply and chipboard) moving them into the bedroom for Barbs, as she was working at the surgery today, and I am not known for my patience, so I did it 'man aleen' as they back in the old country. And now, man, I lean. Anyway, it got done, just before the rain.

Auction

There is an auction tomorrow which I have to go to on my own, as Barbs is at the church stall at the market. I probably won't buy anything as I am terrified of auction fever (and as mean as cat's wee, too). We're looking to the future and homes and the like so the demolition proceeds from the old hospital are being sold off and I am going to have a look. Peter will be green with envy (being away), and all the my other junk-men friends will be there. I find it amusing that I've found this set of kindred spirits here. It's been, in away, much easier for me to find and make friends with similar interests - fishing, diving, shooting, growing veggies, doing our own meat, the whole self-sufficiency gig - as well friends who are much better at reviving dead bits than I am - than I ever did back in the old country. I've come to a home I never knew I had.

I must say we had one of the more fun sessions at Scottish dancing last night - two very puzzled young med students (both I think Chinese, so major culture shock) Anyway, they were good sports, got stuck in and were soon laughing and getting in a mess with the best of us. Mary (our 99 year old instructress) was AWOL with her dog being a little unwell. She did 2km in the Flinder fun walk/run challenge on Sunday, so we were all a bit more hooliganish than usual. The average age of the group is probably 60 - so it proves you don't stop being a hooligan when the teacher's away.

Barbs has come down with some nasty heel ligament thingy, which will cause her some discomfort for some time. I am still wrestling with the flu/cold. Planting is not going to plan.

But life goes on, and the island is showing little signs of spring.

We had a somewhat iffy night thanks to a smoke alarm that kept deciding to go off. I think the battery is dying so it has been replaced. My brilliant guard dogs barked at lots of shadows, occassional farm vehicles but missed the petrol delivery truck - drove in filled my tank and left. Now we have to go and find the bloke and pay him...

I mowed today (I try and put in 1 hour of garden work a day. Not more, not less.) which played havoc with the planting, but the grass was getting out of hand. I should have left it for bait for the Wallaby, which I battled to find tonight. I have a new hand-held spot, which was quite good, but possibly too bright? I saw a lot running off. And other than that I did a lot of research into the black death and some good plotting... my life.

It is James and Alana's Wedding anniversary today, and I hope they're having a great day :-)

I'm slowly on the mend, having been decidedly unwell for a while (and yes, getting older in the middle of it. Weird how a year can pass just in a day :-)).

We're definitely into the starving months (when spring veg aren't quite up) and I am regretting not having put more effort into my brassicas (we've always done well with brocolli. Not this year). I think by the time summer comes we're going to be very very sick of swiss chard (sliverbeet) and fennel, and for some reason, leeks. A few asparagus have been eaten, and the Artichokes plants are looking 1)fantastic 2)okay 3) a bit small 4)too small 5) too small 6)deceased (yes I have 5 plants) Still we still have frozen apple and frozen tomato and lots of dried apple, and some other fruit. And I have been getting enough Cape Gooseberry to eat off the plant. That's it for winter fruit, so that is quite relevant.

August was just generally windy and horrible - barely got to sea at all, thank heavens for shooting. We still have loads of meat, it's just fish and shellfish that are at historic lows. I have a new rechargeable yacht spotlight to try for wallaby. We're still cutting firewood - but the ground is now so boggy as to cut me off from my favorite she-oak patch - a pity it burns hotter than most

Well now, Barbs and I have somewhat ill, but I hope on the mend. Some kind of gastric flu at a guess. Thank heavens for two loos. So there hasn't been a lot of excitement unless you consider the scramble for the loo the sort of thing I ought to write about.

But tomorrow may be different :-)

Frost and food

We had a bitter frost last night, which did the poor potatoes no good at all. I really need to get spring plants going but it's been wet and cold.

Barbs had brought home some sandwiches the ants had got to from work. I gave them to the chooks and you've never seen such a scene -- 4 sandwiches - 8 pieced of bread, and three chooks. Plenty for everyone... except what she has got MUST be better than what I've got. Each of them running off with a piece... dropping it and running after the other, and then so the third drops their piece and runs to steal the one dropped. Pieces get trampled lost, ignored, while they fight and squawk over much smaller scraps... Honestly, it's just like government in action ;-) Still they thought it was Christmas.

I sliced two of my fillets of smoked gravadlax, and froze two whole. It's just a touch salty the trout fillets were thinner than I guessed. Still, it will be delicious on fresh brown bread with a dash of black pepper for a dinner party some day. We some with a few tiny fresh asparagus spikes from the garden.

I honey glazed a large smoked leg-chop yesterday, and grilled it and sliced it up, served with slow cooked leeks and pumkin fritters and home made apple sauce it was very good (if yes, you guessed it, a trifle salty.)