Birthday camp and olive oil

The oil before separation.

July 11 2017

We are now going through the coldest part of the year but this did not deter Ollie who decided to celebrate his birthday early with a camp out here for his friends. About a dozen teenagers arrived yesterday and set off across the property looking for mobile phone reception.  You can climb a lot of hills without much luck on this quest and even if spots are found who wants to sit alone in the dark all night on a hill side in mid winter. Eventually it was decided that communication would have to be conducted by direct conversation, and amazingly this outdated system worked surprisingly well and everyone found a lot to say.

Bo had the pizza oven hot by sundown and when she went back to work in the restaurant Simon and Edd cooked food for everyone.  Teenage skills were less apparent when it came to putting up tents but some people just opted for sleeping in chairs around the campfire or swagged up under the shelter shed.  It was a cloudy night so the temperature stayed above freezing and everyone woke unexpectedly cheerful. Some bright soul even got the fires going. Bo slept here in case of trouble and ferried everyone back to Yarra Glen in the morning. Yarra Glen is with out power today so mobiles could not even be charged up there. Shock horror!

Life has been easier since Edd got back from his holiday.  We have moved the young chicks outside this week because they had grown too much to stay in the cage in the shed. Edd has also brought a light-flashing thing and set it on a post,  facing the stone pines.  At night it admits random flashes of red white and blue and hopefully frightens off marauding deer.  So far we have not had another attack so it might be working.

Al and pip are now in Thailand for a wedding and a holiday.   Al stayed with us one night last week and we all had an evening meal at Bo’s place.  I had actually booked us in to her restaurant but there were no other customers, so she re-organised us, closed up early and sent her staff home.  Al brought up some pulp that he had ground up from olives he picked and I pressed it in cheesecloth in my old cheese press.  From this I have extracted a small amount of clear, golden oil that tastes nice and mild.   Our first attempt at oil making has definitely proved it is possible.   Ben and Indi have given me a bottle of the oil from the commercial set up they are managing but it is cloudy and green.   I now have all the equipment brought to set up my own oil grinding system but the olives are over for this year so there is no rush.

I am still making cheese and the goats are starting to look fat and pregnant so we are at the lowest milk production for the year.  We need to keep the supplies going for ourselves and also to feed any needy lambs when the older sheep start to give birth.  The sheep are now in the house site and mowing down any cape weed that has started to grow on our roof.  The goats are not eating any cape weed but they have begun the job of clearing the blackberries from the gully.  I have cleaned up the dead leaves in my indoor jungle and also move most of the rocks from Toby’s garden. One more day should have that task done then the dogwood tree needs to be removed and we can start garden building.