Midwinter Feast

June 30 2014

It is another cold, wet,
miserable day but at least it was sunny this morning when we had to go outside
and care for all the animals. We were pretty tired after our big mid-winter
party yesterday. I had spent most of the yesterday cooking the feast and moving
furniture around to get the house ready. We had roast beef, chicken casserole,
ham on the bone, roast vegetables, baked potatoes and bowls of home grown,
salad. This was followed by rhubarb crumble, Xmas pudding, cherries and cheesecake
made from our own eggs and goats cheese. We had a big plate of goats’ cheeses
too with our own preserved olives.

The latest big round
of cheese I have opened has turned out very well but I did not keep notes so I
am not sure which type it was. (Epic mistake). This coming season I will have
to label the cheeses and keep much better notes. At least I now know that I can
make a hard cheese that everyone likes. I just need to remember what I did!

Edd also worked hard
and kept up a non-stop supply of firewood so that we could keep the stove
working flat out. We also lit the lounge fire so that with the two fires going
we could get the house really hot. The reason for this was that with 20 people
to feed we would need to use the trestle tables in the solar buffet hall. The
idea was to open the double glazed doors when our guests arrived and have a
comfortable temperature in the hall for dining.

Amazingly this worked
really well and everyone enjoyed the warmth. It had been a miserable cold day so
it was a good test for our systems. We have had a disastrous week for weather
with high wind gusts and floods in the city. The SES has been busy all week
moving fallen trees and keeping the road and rails working. Edd planned his
week so that he could fetch a ton of oats on the only dry day and get barley
back from the brewery on the days they brewed.

Our party went well.
We had invited our closest neighbours as well as family and this worked well.
The two smallest girls played together so well that they did not bother with
food. Our neighbour’s sister had gone to Curtin University to study architecture
at the same time as Al and they new all the same people. Al’s wife could not
come so it was good that he had someone else to talk to.

Indi had practiced two
songs to perform with Bo’s boys. Indi played the guitar, Morg played his
ukulele, and Ollie helped with the singing. They are getting really good
together and it was good to see the boys abandoning their electronic devises
and actually doing something real for part of the time. Bo talked with Wayne’s
girl friend Dani. We are all enjoying having Dani as part of our group she is
so kind and talented that she is easy company and a great person to have
around.

All in all I feel we
have successfully welcomed the light back after the passing of the shortest
day.