Survival game part 8 ...

Day 48 ...
Harry the rooster, let the world know the suns up at 4.30 am, time to rise and shine. Thanks Harry, boy his got a beak on him, nothing wrong with his crow! We up early anyway, having a mug of milo and maybe just manage to catch another hour of sleep too. It's the normal morning routine, feed and water the chooks, talk to the sheep and give Miss Daisy a scratch behind the ears. Serve breakfast, do the dishes and then have a second cup of coffee. Asked the boys to work on a run for the young meat chooks, they started one using some school fencing, bird wire tied to it and over the top, (for protection from the lace monitors/goannas)and covered it with some shade cloth. I wonder if they have seen the claws of a lace monitor lately, he will just rip it apart if he wanted too. Lucky I haven't seen one for a while.

Today is nothing different to any other day. I find a little time to study the Home Cheesemaking book by Neil and Carole Willman some more, I can kick myself for not having done a cource in cheese making, haven't got half the stuff needed but have to improvise I think. Some fetta would have been nice. The butter and buttermilk still looks the easiest. We have to make butter soon anyway.

Fishing is still a waste of time, the river has gone down but it's running to fast. You won't even get a nibble and might only have caught a cold. lol Maybe this afternoon I spend a little time sorting out the pantry and taking stock. This morning I get George to chop the last of the bigger meat chooks heads off and get them plucked. Except the chosen few kept for breeding purposes, that might be a bad idea but worth a try anyway.

Well there is one bright highlight for the day, it was only a false warning, Eliza is all smiles again. Darn a little girl would have been nice!

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Day 49 ...
The yesterdays stocktaking went rather well, all the shelves have had a wipe over and jars have been filled up with half packets and we still looking alright atm. A huge dent has been made but the veggie patch is starting to produce a little, green beans and Chinese broccoli, sweet potato, still getting some cherry tomatoes. I'll send for some lemons again to make a little syrup/cordial for drinks. Without the extra food everyone brought along we would have been in a sorry state by now ... Every bit helped.

Talking about the veggie patch, those potatoes I planted when we first got here have heaps of purple flowers on them, so not long to go before they die off and the stool dies back, then only can we start digging the potatoes up, a few stools at a time. Next swap meet I take some with. Later today We'll bake a cake for Luke's Birthday tomorrow, (it's mine as well, our wedding anniversary and George's dad died on the same day) so maybe now you'll understand why it never a good day for me. Can anything else happen on that day... not!

The boys need to collect wood again to keep the supplies up, cut and stack, that should keep them out of trouble for the day. Atleast the rain has stopped, but it's humid. We took a walk down to the river after breakfast and the water level is just under the bridge. So tonight the boys can head off to help with the milking, maybe bring extra milk home. I want to bake some buttermilk rusks and we'll be needing a little butter soon.
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Day 50 ...
Daylight comes and it another beautiful morning, a group of kookaburra sit laughing at us while we having breakfast. (Cheeky birds.)That's the one thing about living here, there's birds lots of birds. At night you can hear the Tawny Frogmouth with his deep voice calling. And if it dark enough you can look up and see the whole milky way, it's awesume. We all sing Happy Birthday to Luke, and share a slice of cake with him.

The morning chores are soon done, the Matildas present us with 9 eggs for the day.
The boys continue collecting wood, cut and stack, they must be thinking let's just get this over with so we can go fishing again. Truth be told I would love it if they could catch a few fish for dinner. Tonight we need a nice meal to go with the celebrations, so I marinade a few chicken breasts with masterfoods portugese marinade and cook a pot of spicy rice and make a green salad. Eliza makes a loaf of bread, 4cups of flour with sundried cherry tomatoes and fresh herbs through the mix. It smells so nice. Life is good with our family and good friends to share this day with us.

We even get to open two bottles of wine to go with dinner ...

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Day 51 ...
Today we'll bake some veggiemite scrolls for lunch, it only uses 4 cups of flour to make them, we'll have to watch our usage of flour from nou on. Use the homebrand cake mix packets for making muffins and just add required fruit to them. It works well enough and there is still 8 vanilla and 4 chocolate pkts left. Tanya used to buy heaps at a time cause she loves making cupcakes. While the ovens still warm from the scrolls, a tray of chocolate cupcakes are ready to be baked. I found a tin of caramel to spread over and chocolate chips to add to the mix.

Another task is washing that never seems to end, atleast that is done for the day and hanging on the line. Then there's the weeding,the cooking, washing up ... it never stops does it. Tanya decides it's time to mow the yard a little and it takes her an 1/2hr before she's done. The sheep have done a great job of the first paddock and they just about ready to be moved on to the next. We don't have a ram to service them this year or just have to make do with another breed's ram which I would rather not do. There's 1 weatherer ready to be slaughtered but that's not going to happen before easter cause there really is no space in the freezer with all the chooks. So it's going to be chooks and fish for a few weeks still.

We might start thinking about another kangaroo for more dog and cat food, still enough for another week. The ones we have around here are not very big, so it does't go to far. Only this time we'd just make burgers with some of the meat. Can't say I like the taste to much. Well that's another day survived ...