Feasting with babies

9.7.19

We had our midwinter feast on Saturday. It was actually very warm and sunny, so it did not have much of a midwinter feel until it got dark and even then, the family complained the house was too hot.  We cut down a mistletoe clump from one of the gum trees and I added fake pearls to substitute for the missing berries.  I think Sylkie was the only person who noticed, she shot off really fast when she saw what she was sat under. Maybe no one else fancied kissing.

This year I brought a nine-kilo turkey. It took hours to cook but we put it in the wood oven, so it did not dry out. I say we, because I discovered it was too heavy for me to lift and I had to get Edd’s help to manoeuvre the thing.   Bo came on Friday and helped me with preparations. I am not sure if I could have done it all with out her help.   We had invited about thirty people but in the end only twenty came so there was no worry about having too little food. Danni arrived with several sumptuous deserts and Bo had entrée savouries and Al a salad. I had cooked the pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes.   It really made a very good feast and people ate heaps.

Al and Pele and Wayne and his family all stayed the night.  Edd cooked everyone a full English style breakfast so the party continued until nearly lunch on Sunday.   Ben was away looking after the olive trees, so Indi and baby Alice came down again to join us. It is the first time we have had all the younger family members together. Indigo’s Baby A and Wayne’s baby M are both eight weeks old and found all the people a bit stressful but Ella and Al’s son, baby P are starting to really play around the place.  Al’s son is now walking all the time and Ella is a very mature 4-year-old. She is getting too heavy for Sylkie to carry even though Sylkie herself has shot up in height.  Ti’s baby is due in about two weeks, but I think that is the end of this increase session. We will need a collective noun for babies.

Other babies have also started to arrive. The first lamb was born on the day the tour de France started and last night a second lamb was born but then abandoned. I have given it colostrum saved from the goats and left it in a small area with mum, but she does not look right, and I have little hope she will take to mothering.   She is about the oldest ewe so it maybe too much for her. 

This is not at all convenient because we have flights booked in two days’ time to take us to Brisbane for a visit to our youngest son, Josh.  Bo is going to look after the farm, and I had tried to get the work load as low as possible.  Feeding an orphan lamb adds considerably to the load.  It is also too short a time interval to offer the lamb for sale.  At least there is plenty of goats’ milk to feed it on.