December 17 2017
This is the run in to
Xmas. I am pretty close to panic
mode. Today I am attempting to
cook Xmas cakes, I am afraid that this sort of cooking is not where my talents
lie. I am also making a hard
cheese in the dairy and I am much happier about that. This year the vacuum packing has allowed the cheeses to
mature well with out going mouldy or drying out and they are very
successful. Cakes are another
thing altogether, but we have decided to give small homemade gifts between
family adults and I have to try. My biscuits last year were pretty hopeless!
Food on the farm is a
safer bet. We have beans and zucchinis,
and lettuce and spinach. The snow peas are coming to an end but the tomatoes
are growing and the sweet corn has started to develop heads. We have parsley;
chives and today I harvested the first garlic. The young chicks have grown well but they are stinking out
the house and need moving to new accommodation. The goats love the freedom hot weather brings and swagger
home every evening with bulging sides. Annie, who broke her leg, is now back as
part of the herd and is coping well, with no lingering problems.
I have spent a lot of
time working on the donga. We hired
a carpet cleaner from the local super market and cleaned the floors three times
removing vast quantities of mud and dog hair. We also cleaned the couch and Edd’s ute seats. This all worked better than I expected and
was well worth the effort. We resurrected
two beds from dumping spots and brought two new mattresses so the accommodation
is now ready for Xmas visitors. I
have had fun choosing bed linen and towels to match. Today I got down on my knees and scraped what I assume was bee’s
wax off the kitchen floor. The
floor looks a lot better with out big black stained areas.
Edd is trying to
organise a fly screen for the donga door.
The donga heats up in the evenings so we need to let the hot air out as
much as possible. I have hung old curtains over the west facing windows to keep
the evening sun out which helps.
We need a new tap for the sink as the existing one has collapsed and
refused to function but other wise things are now not too bad. I was very, very
grateful about being given the donga to live in when we had no house after the
fires and I feel happy to see it cared for again. If I can get it to last
another ten years it should see me out.
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