When there’s ‘nothing to do’

Make a cobb oven!

Georgia and Matty enjoyed watching the building of the cobb oven!

It was a pleasant evening and we were playing outside before dinner. We decided to make a cobb oven (beautiful for pizzas, roasts, breads, cakes etc) - an outdoor dining experience sure to please!

First, mark your site for the oven. We used an old bus tyre to mark our the spot. If you’re not lucky like us, and you don’t have a spare bus lying around, use something else that is round, or draw it free-hand. Then dig out your circle, leaving a mound in the centre. Get your children to collect some rocks, and gather rocks around the outside of your circle. This creates a little wall. And it is fun to collect rocks. And it uses up some of the many rocks that were once where the vege patch is. If you are not lucky like us, and don’t have a plethora of rocks at your disposal, you might like to use bricks or something.

Get some reinforcing wire mesh and place ir over your hole. You will see that our wall is two rocks high. The little ones are the ones that Matty and Georgia put in. It was a family effort.

Mix some concrete and pour it into the hole. Smooth it out. We forgot to write our names and the date in the concrete, but you might like to do that for posterity. It will probably get charred anyway.

Stay tuned for the finishing off and then the cooking in our cobb oven!

Goings ons

I have been a slack blogger of late. Partly by choice and partly not. I’ve had a revelation that if people actually wanted to know what is going on in our little life then they would make contact with us. So why should I blog? The other part of me has not been blogging because our power situation doesn’t really cater for it. We’re spending more time outside and it is great fun enoying the beautiful weather and the sunshine. We’ve been choosing to go without phones and computers lately (well, partly choosing and partly not).

So, what is new? We are growing some veges, thanks to Monte’s persistence with his double-dig vege garden. We have lettuce, brocoli and siverbeet popping up now, as well as some other greenish things, and lots of potatoes!

Yesterday we waved goodbye to our goats, Anna and Giddy, who are off to our friends’ farm for a thistle-eating holiday! It benefits all parties, as we are low on the weed front and Craige and Kristina need some furry friends to fight the thistle dilemma. Anna and Giddy will be pleased; they were getting hungry.

On the house front, we are still waiting to choose a plumber. Some people run their businesses badly, in my opinion, and do not get quotes in quickly enough. We are scouting opinions from pure-bred locals as to who is the best. We have a fair idea now on who to choose. We have the concreter lined up and we’re meeting with the power guy tomorrow. We would like to have the slab laid by Christmas, but we won’t hold our breath.

It looks as though we will be in the little cabin for another year or so, depending on how the building goes (obviously). With the drought, we are concerned about the supply of straw for our little home. Nevertheless, we will keep our chins up. We have a cosy caravan and we actually enjoy waking up together in the same ‘room’ every day. The children have a playroom and they are using it beautifully. We’re not ‘camping’ as my father implied. We are making-do whilst we build our dream!

We haven’t talked much of our home here on the blog. We’re keeping it a bit private until it is built. Sometimes I wonder if there is any part of my dream home that we are not incorporating in the design. I cannot think of anything that we are omitting. It is wonderful to discuss the dream and I recommend building a home if you have the guts to wait it out and put up with a fair amount of stress. I am not good at waiting or dealing with stress, so this is a real challenge for me!

Amish

An interesting title to get your attention!

PJ and Miranda gave us some more films to watch. “For Richer or Poorer” was one of them. It is about a vacuous couple who run away to an Amish community to escape the IRS. They learn that the simplicity of life is good for their marriage etc. It’s a nice film to watch whilst crocheting a baby hat.

A message that struck me happened when Samuel told Jacob (Tim Allen) that the western world thinks that the Amish people are hiding from reality. But, he goes on to say, it is the Western world that is hiding from reality. This struck me as quite true. What we as Westerners are holding dear to us: money, career, houses, cars etc - (second to family, health etc, of course) are not actually real things at all. Money is not real; it’s paper that gets us things. Things do not matter, really. How greedy we are, compared to the simplicity of other cultures.

Having said all that, I’m not going to join an Amish community or anything, but over the years since my son was born, my values have changed significantly. What was once very important to me is now not as important, and my life is simpler and happier for it. My family, for example, cannot understand the change that has happened to me. A lot of people don’t understand why we’ve moved down here so we can eventually build a self-sufficient existence. It’s just something we want to do, for the benefit of our children’s future. We don’t think the western world is going to remain the way it is for ever.

Look out for me in my bonnet, as I tend to my kitchen herb garden. But don’t think we’re taking the easy option.

Great news for Fangorn

Our current exciting news is that we have finally received building approval for our house! That means that we can start working on it! It is a great milestone for us but we are still waiting on plumbing quotes. One plumbing quote was $5000 beyond our budget. Some quotes have been well above our budget but most are pretty good; Monte has done a great job with his estimates! GST can be a hidden killer.

Christmas for us is set to be in Adelaide. We bought the tickets in February and now we have mixed feelings about a return. Obviously it will be great to see our much-missed friends and family. However, we had begun to love the idea of our first Christmas on the farm. We were excited about celebrating our Fangorn anniversary, the New Year and Monte’s birthday with some Moet on the house site. Nevertheless, being back with our family for Christmas will be wonderful. It will quite likely be our last Adelaide Christmas, so we hope to make it special, especially for our children. We couldn’t return to Adelaide without the help and support of our wonderful Tassie friends, who have ‘volunteered’ to help with our livestock (cat, dogs, chickens and goats).

I think we are very settled in our little cabin and are becoming well accustomed to our more humble existence. Our carbon footprint is much smaller than it once was, unless having the monster Hilux counterbalances all the changes we have made! We’re running on solar and wind power now, and that is a good feeling, even if it’s not always reliable (we have some glitches to fix). Sometimes I wish just to sit infront of the television and be mindless for a few moments. As it is, we watch some dvds, and our friends Miranda and PJ keep giving us dvds of tv shows to watch. We’re not missing out much at all, really!

I’ve never done so much crochet in my life. These past few weeks have seen me quite busy making little gifts for little children; little stocking fillers. Georgia is my tester. She tests my first models and gives me the silent yay or nay as to weather a little child would like what I have made. The Huon Show is on in less than 2 weeks and I am considering entering something in the knitting/crochet department. It’s a bit exciting, even if it is just an excuse to do more wool shopping (like I need more wool!!).

Building progress:

Life is fairly busy at Fangorn; children, animals and every day business keeps us occupied. We’ve had some visitors at our place recently, which has been lovely, but it has rendered us slightly fatigued!

We now have a plumbing permit. This means that we can begin the plumbing work for our house. We have a few quotes underway so we hope to start work very soon!

I’m going through the process of deciding which study to undertake next year - if any. Life is full with children and house planning and caring for the few animals and plants that we have at the moment.

Georgia has just celebrated her fifth birthday and we are delighted with how happy her birthday was. She has a new dolls house and my mother made her a gorgeous fairy skirt, which she has not taken off since Monday!

Fangorn Residents and Residence

I’m going for Peter Cundall. Burke has always annoyed me to a degree, and I am a fan of Pete. If those two are at loggerheads over the logs, I’m with the blooming marvellous man.

When we first moved into this - er -cabin on December 31 2007 (Monte’s 21+10th birthday), it was a pretty sorry site. Now, although no McMansion (which I actually despise), to be sure, this little cabin, with the help of the trusty caravan, helps us to maintain a level of comfort and warmth whilst we prepare to build the actual house.

Speaking of speedily, cheaply built dwellings, our little cabin will one day serve as a guest house. We’ll call it “Fangorn Cabin” and there will be enough beds to sleep about 4 people. It’ll be nice to have people to stay. Also, it will serve as a studio, where MG or I can escape from the house to have some quiet time to pursue things like crafts, preserving foods or working. Already places at Fangorn Cottage are filling up (seriously), so if you have a date that you would like to visit and stay, let us know. We’re thinking we’ll be out by late next year, but we’re hoping that we’ll be out (and in the new - slightly unfinished - house) by next winter. [Add on the extra decade it takes to finish a building project, and make a date to stay with us at Fangorn!]

My good old husband has done a lot of work in this little space we call home. He put windows in the bathroom and in the room that is now the playroom. He laid insulation and floor boards (yay Ikea) over the entire cabin - bar the bathroom. He installed a kitchen sink and lined the walls of the playroom with pretty blue insulation, with silver stripes (tape) for a bit of effect for the children. Good old Monte has finally put all the power onto batteries, apart from the washing machine. We are now on solar and wind power. We have diesel generator that has kind of kicked the bucket, but when that is up and running it will be a good back up for the batteries.

It is such a relief to sit in silence and watch a movie. Having lights on all the time (not acutually *on* all the time, but powered) is really convenient. For one minute, I praise our little sojourn into the world of minimal power. Then I complain. It’s a difficult thing and every day I feel challenged. I’d love to power up the vacuum and do the floors good and proper. I’d love to get the sewing machine out and sew up a few bags and dresses and skirts. Now the sun shines through the windows, I feel like sewing! I do sew, by hand, on the couch by the window, but it takes longer, and I am an instant-gratification crafter. Quick beads, quick knits, quick crochet and quick sewing.

So here, in our little cabin, we plan things for the future. Predominantly these plans reside in the residence (”Fangorn Lodge”) for which we wait almost patiently. The plans are currently sitting in a pile of papers with the desk people at council. We’re going ahead with getting quotes for all manner of things: plumber, concrete, trusses, windows etc. It’s getting exciting; getting these things done gives us a great feeling.

Today Monte, Georgia, Matty and I were at the house site. It was the middle of the day and it was very sunny. Georgia lay on a picnic rug next to the ute. Matthew ran around getting dirty and throwing rocks into puddles: “Splash!” he’d shout, with glee. The reason we were up there, aside from just hanging out and checking out the view (which we frequently do), was to measure out the house area (again). I have never been a fan of maths, but I’m glad Monte remembers some simple equations (they spew from his mouth), because we had to work out the “hippopotamus” (hypotenuse) of the house area. It was fun. I did a bit of a prance around the rooms in my house-to-be. “This is the laundry and this is the kitchen,” that kind of thing.

Housing. Something that this western world takes for granted. When I complain about my little situation, I remember the people in this world who have far less than I. We are actually quite blessed.

Southport

We’ve just come back from a lovely weekend away with our dear friends, the Smiths. We went to Southport. We also visited Cockle Creek. Cockle Creek is the most southern driveable road in the country. It’s a shame that the road is so terrible. It was so slippery and slidey! Just as our cars were slipping on the loose gravel, we noticed another car that had rolled into the ditch at the side of the road! Still, we have lived to tell the tale that we have been to the bottom of the country - er - world.

Monte and Ben fishing

The view from the holiday house

Cockle Creek (you can see the whale sculpture)

Cockle Creek

It was great to get away for a weekend. It was lovely to spend time with our friends; they are the closest thing to family that we have here. Even though the children all look like they could easily be cousins, we are only related because Monte’s sister is married to Ben’s brother!

We are having many wonderful adventures in beautiful Tasmania!

Lovely day!

For a while now, I have been contemplating laying my blog to rest for a while so I can focus on some fictional writing. After hearing from my groupies, however, I have decided to keep writing posts, albeit, perhaps, less frequently.

Today was a good day. Great in fact! Although we are sad to say goodbye to Monte’s parents, after their visit, we have had a happy day. We went on the Tahune Airwalk today, which is by far the highlight of Geeveston. My stomach was churning throughout the entire walk; I hate heights. Nevertheless, it is not the vertigo that I shall remember, but the beautiful scenery that surrounds us at our very doorstep. That, and my mother-in-law’s happiness at what she saw; she loved the airwalk and it was great to see her so happy.

The five of us at the Tahune Airwalk (Matty was at childcare)

One of the many beautiful views form the Airwalk

We live in a beautiful place. The roaring river, the soaring eagles and the pouring rain. The trees that climb to heaven. The ferns that kiss the ground. The birds that call their merry song. People say to us: “We’ve wanted to do what you two are doing for a while,” and I suggest to them that they pack up from the rat race and follow their dream. We get to dream many dreams, and get just one chance to fulfill them.

More highlights of my day were to follow. First, the birth of my good friend Tania’s son, Will James. A beautiful healthy boy. A brother for little gorgeous Evie (pictured).

I feel so happy for people who get “one of each” child. A boy and a girl. How lucky we are. [Ed: I feel happy for people who have a child, full stop. Their sex doesn’t actually matter!] I read recently that we tend to think that boys and girls are more different than they really are. In fact, girls and boys are quite similar. Although they develop at different rates in different areas, they both possess similar needs, and a son should be given dolls and hairbrushes as much as a girl should be given trains and sneakers to go jumping around in mud. Thankfully, Monte and I do these things already, because we are such fabulous parents

And another lovely thing happened to me today. I got a snail mail letter -yes, a *real* letter - from my longtime friend, Brooke. She has known me for ever - nearly twenty years! I loved hearing from her, and the seven-page letter did not seem long enough! I wanted to keep reading the letter because it was almost like sitting with her over a beer. Being in touch with people is a blessing. Every day we are blessed by those around us, and for that I am grateful.

Me, Matty and Georgia with my long-time friend, Brooke, and her children, Zoe and Josh

More on the fence…

You will be pleased to know that the fence works. Surprise, surprise. Matty walked down there today - completely supervised by Monte - and got caught on the barbed wire as he tried to climb under. He’s fine. I haven’t checked his new jumper though. I know that it is practically covered in mud!

Speaking of jumpers, I am finding the most beautiful, new (or good as) knitted jumpers at the local op shops. I am a huge fan of op shopping.

Back to the fencing. Monte moves the goats each morning, and he is starting to build the next fence by hammering in the posts for the goats. This new fence is below the cabin site, so it will detain Mr Matthew even closer to our (temporary) dwelling :D.

The Fence…

We are very excited that our fence was finished today. We are most grateful to Jamahl for all his help! Hopefully the cows, and the son, will stay away from the dam now.

Jamahl and Monte hard at work 

The barb…

We are convinced that this will deter cattle (and people) from the fence, despite a 6-inch long scar that I behold on my shin from a battle I lost with such things… 

The fence