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Hello!! How was everyones Sunday? Madly busy or nice and relaxing??

We had a gorgeous day driving down to the end point of our upcoming Overland Track hike.
It was a beautifully scenic drive down to Lake St Claire. During the hiking season, hiking traffic goes one way. Starting up at Cradle Mt and hiking down. Hikers can avoid the extra track fee and hike in either direction during the winter season. (brrrr)

Because of the bus inconveniences, we left one of the cars at the visitors centre and hope it will still be there and in one piece for when we finish the hike!!
We put a bag with clean clothes, towels, shampoo in there ready and waiting. We also went to the supermarket and bought some cake, bikkies, juice packs etc to enjoy when we stagger in next week.

Day 7 you can hike the 17km around the lake or pay to take the ferry across. We are being stingy and walking. Actually we just felt we would be cheating ourselves out of doing it properly if we didn’t do the last bit.

It was grey and gloomy today. Not too cold though.
It rained last night. Not the sweet pitter-patter rain. The belting down with a vengeance rain. I was lying in bed telling it to get it out of its system! haha

If you squint you can see in the below photo Jeff and Rachel standing on the jetty.
They were ignoring me jumping up and down waving my arms like an idiot… so I just took their photo.

The drive back up was also really scenic. We did a loop, just to mix things up a bit!

Just outside Lake St Claire we picked up a stray

Katherine from Germany was hitching a ride back up to Launceston. While we weren’t going all the way, we got her to the Bass Hwy where apparently she got her second lift and into where she needed to go. (See? The bus thing! Not convenient!)

Actually it was really great. She was a lovely girl, funny and interesting. (I mean – she hiked Cradle Mt with a HULA HOOP!!! Who does that?? Just fabulous and very unexpected. We were thinking of taking a pack of cards to amuse ourselves in the evenings but now I am feeling a tad boring.)

We fed Katherine cake and got all sorts of first hand information about her experiences up on the hike which has made us re-evaluate a few things of what we were planning to pack/carry.
All in all, a good experience for us all!

Anyway – I am bushed! Time for some bed for me.
The final pack tomorrow and squeeze in a cuppa with Ruby & Margie!

Cheers!

Hello! Weekend it is and things are really busy – Only a couple more days before we head out on our hike, so there just seems lots of tasks to attend too.
Nothing really exciting to photograph and blog about. Finishing up the housework, culling items from packs, going over food, quietly panicking – that kind of thing.

Picked up Rachel from the airport this afternoon and its been fabulous catching up and brainstorming about things we are taking/not taking.
It’s the first time she has been here in the proper harvesting season, and as a vegetarian, had a simply wonderful time going and picking food for dinner!

I have done one more vegetable mix tonight – which is cooking on the stove right now – and will dehydrate tomorrow.

Actually tomorrow is slated to be a pretty big day. The hike ends at Lake St Claire. There are no real bus/public transport options to collect hikers and get them back to civilisation. The private companies cost a fair bit (around $130 per person) and take you down via Hobart then back up to Launceston – which is STILL 2 hours from home and there is only one bus per day from Launnie over to here.
All. Too. Hard.

Since we still have two cars (we bought Margies car and planned to sell ours) we figured we would do the car shuffle ourselves. So we’ll drive down to Lake St Claire with both vehicles, leave one (filled with clean clothes and treats like chocolate and biscuits)(and shampoo) hopefully ready and waiting for us when we stagger in on day 7 of the hike.

We are talking about a three and a half hour drive each way.

We decided to aim to do that tomorrow so we have Monday as a final pack day and rest day. (Afternoon tea with Aunty Ruby maybe???)

So – with luck I might have some nice snaps of the Lake St Claire area tomorrow for you!

Cheers!

Hello!
It was our 10 year wedding anniversary today! And we very romantically went to the rubbish tip.  (haha – just another of those jobs on the ‘to do’ list)
Among other things we did get back to our blackberry patch to see if anything was ready! (At the abandoned school – see here)

Sure was!

We only had an hour up our sleeves as Cousin Beau was meeting us at home so I could show him the run of the place and what he needs to do while he is here. He is pretty happy about all the vegies he will have at his disposal!! (Yeah, what I REALLY need is a few teenagers for a week or two to fang through our excess food! 😀 )(Actually Beau couldn’t stop laughing at how many tomato plants I have growing out there)

Anyway, plenty of ripe blackberries to collect!
Its a tricky job. Blackberries are one of the most massively defensive plants out there!! Some of the thorns are diabolical! The leaves have hooked thorns all the way down them! Gloves are hard to use because then its tricky to grab the fruit.
Basically its a steady as she goes kind of job that you don’t take your parents on because of the accidental swear words.
No matter how careful you are, they hook you!
But its worth it! The jam is great and I am looking forward to making blackberry ice cream!

Natural dyeing.

Two good sized containers worth today – hoping we get the chance to slip back before we head out on our hike.

Tonight I cooked them up and mooleyed them into pulp – so the jam etc will be seedless.

Into the freezer they go!
I love free food!

Cheers!

G’day! End of week fast approaching!
I don’t know about anyone else, but for me when the time approaches for going away, the list of annoying fiddly little jobs seems to grow longer and of course they are on top of all the regular stuff that needs to be done (Especially at this time of year)

I won’t dwell on the domestics (lets REALLY not dwell on me finally cleaning out the fridge properly)
We have to have two rooms ready. One for Rachel who is trekking with us and staying a few nights prior to going up the mountain. The other for Beau, our young cousin who is house sitting.
I figured I should take down the garlic that was hanging in the upstairs room for a start!

Stall update. Yesterday $30 & today $9!!
Still… I am happy as overall I am up to $138 and every little bit helps!

I had to go into Burnie today and get my travel insurance for Texas. I was going to get my visa too but I’ll do that later when I have all the extra information that was needed (Like addresses and phone numbers of my friends where I am staying etc!!)

Chillies… that didn’t take forever or anything…

All now cut and de-seeded and in the freezer. Sweet chilli sauce can be done later.

We got some more meals dehydrated, Jeff marinated some beef to make jerky tomorrow and also made extra muesli bars

And on an exciting note, I received this lovely big box yesterday…

FULL of books!! Happy sigh!!

My awesome friend, Lasse has moved back to Europe and I was the recipient for his book collection. Sweeeeet!

Judging by all the shmoozles, Pip also seemed quite happy about our new books too!

Cheers!

 

Seven dollars!!! Yep – Texas is going to be awesome with all my spending money! haha – lets hope sales pick up somewhat tomorrow.

It was good to finally have enough of this and that to put something out the front. Perhaps if I can keep it up people will know to look for it. All depends on the weather!!! (and you know how dependable its been for us this season!!)

I chopped up a whole heap of the remaining tomatoes that were very ripe and made a bit of a pasta sauce mix to put in the freezer for a day when I feel lazy.
Still bundles of herbs to choose and cook with

Oh – and that ONE chilli put the whole pot over the edge heat-wise! Wow… glad I only put one in!!

Now in the freezer. Its a start.

I put the lovely little garden bowl creation that Maureen gave me into my herb patch with some of my pretty rocks sitting in the water. Good watering place for bees now.

Jeff has been giving the next door sheep the windfall apples. This is totally fine. There are only so many of them that our chickens can eat. The sheep is now trained to think it gets apples as soon as one of us steps foot in the back yard. This is also fine.
What is not so fine is when you are pottering about the garden minding your own business and one of them sneaks up and bellows “BELAAAAARGH!!”
New pants needed

Hope your day was less surprising

Cheers

Its real!

I went into town today and got my ticket!!
I am so excited!  I will go back in next week and sort out my insurance and visa.

If you missed the reasons I am escaping the Tasmanian winter for three weeks to go to Texas – here is a quick story.

In 1980 & 81 my family was flown to Venezuela so my Dad could manage a piggery that was being built and developed. At the time Venezuela had no primary produce.
It was an amazing experience – I was only 9 – 10 years old at the time. I remember quite a lot about it. Obviously a very different lifestyle to the one we were used to.

One of my sisters and myself went to a nearby school that was set up for the kids of  American missionaries. I became very good friends with a girl named Wendy.

Time goes on… we left the country and as things happen lost touch. Women get married and change their names so until the age of the internet, Wendy and I remained strangers for most of our growing up years.

I started a search on and off (Google is your friend) for about 5 years looking for her. (Stalker much?? haha) By chance I happened upon one of the teachers of the school (long since closed) and sent her an email. She was friends with Wendy’s mother and I can’t tell you how excited I was to get that first email with her name in the subject title!

She got me onto facebook where we could share photos and stories more easily and I have become friends with her husband and three children – not to mention a few other of their friends too!

Wendy’s eldest girl is getting married and I jokingly asked if they needed a photographer! They jokingly said yes!
Then I thought, well… I have always wanted to meet up at some point, so if they’ll have me at this important time in their families lives, I’ll save up and go!

Happily they were more than pleased to welcome me along, so I began saving and preparing!
And now its less than three months before I travel!
I am excited and nervous! But I can’t wait!

Sorry no other photos – I will do better tomorrow!

Hope your day was exciting too!

Cheers!

Hello! The corn is getting fatter! Happy Days!
I love being able to slip down the back to my personal supermarket and collect dinner

Stuffed tomatoes, steamed corn, steamed potato and homemade rissoles. (Hamburger patties)

I am enjoying having a lot of herbs to mix into my dishes too. I am not being frugal there!

I survived much better on the bike today. I did my half hour while the washing was on. It was another warm-hot beautiful breezy day so the laundry dried nice and easily. (And my bottom doesn’t hurt so much just in case you were wondering…)

I gave the back veranda and the sunroom a good cleaning today. I found an oddity in the creases of the camp chairs that live on the veranda.

I think its a native wasp nest, yet each room was full of colourful dead spiders.

The spiders had gorgeous colours and patterns

I like this world of ours. Always something new and fascinating out there to discover!

Hope you have had a great day!

Cheers!

Hello! Hope Sunday was all you expected it to be!
We spent some time today putting our packs together to see what we need to take on our upcoming hike.
I am lucky to have been able to borrow my cousins good hiking pack and a few other useful things.
When you don’t do this kind of adventure very often its hard to know exactly what you need. Both over or under packing would have their own annoyances.

(Upstairs where we are packing our stuff is where I have my garlic hanging and drying which is the reason the floor is looking a bit scruffy in the above photo… time to drag the vacuum upstairs!!)

Some home comforts…

Fly veils – reckon will come in handy. Gaiters – very useful. One of the cooking tins and of course some knitted gear for when the weather gets a bit chilly!

My cousin, Fiona, has also loaned me her pack liner – extra waterproofing in Tasmania never goes astray!

I have various layers of clothes. Unless it starts to snow, I probably won’t need the big jacket during hiking day. You keep warm with the exercise.
I have really skimped on the clothes I am packing, however I have been generous with the socks and undies. I just think with fresh ‘foundation garments’ the start of a new day seems more positive! 😀

The majority of my extra clothes are in this compression bag. Handy item which has compacted them really well. Naturally I have left things like my rain jacket, scarf, beanie, gloves & main jacket more accessible in case the weather turns pear shaped on us.

I can’t tell you how much I hated going through the supermarket checkout buying two packs of 2 minute noodles. Me!! Who grows fresh food and cooks from scratch! Blah! How embarrassing!!!
The noodles do have a big advantage in that we can crush them down to pack a little better, and they certainly do cook extremely quickly. We will discard the ‘flavour satchels’ (shudder) in favour of adding my rehydrated meals. Along with a cup of soup to start – I think we will be eating well. (or coming home really skinny)(so its a win-win whatever)
I still have to test rehydrating my curry dish and make a couple more things.
Jeff wants to make fresh beef jerky and also some more muesli bars.
The chocolates will be a treat and an energy boost!
Wraps will be the go for lunches. We bought a pack today and I tested it out on Jeff. Thumbs up, so will go buy more, as right now they are half price! Can’t sneeze at that! I am hoping to be able to manage to pack several tomatoes (most not quite ripe)(they can ripen as we go) so we can put them on our wraps. I reckon I can fit in some relish and a block of cheese.

So…about two weeks away from the start date!!
Now, just to decide what camera gear to drag along too! (The MOST important bit!)

Cheers!

PS Some Overland Trail reminder photos! I can’t wait to get to the point of the first photo below as that’s where we turned back last visit! Looking forward to seeing what is beyond!

 

Jeff & I ducked out yesterday for a drive to visit our cousins Fiona and Paul. One of their sons Beau is (hopefully) house sitting for us when we go for our hike across Cradle. They are keen bushwalkers and campers and have kindly lent us a few very handy items. (Bushwalking tent for one which will cut down on weight and volume significantly!)

They have a beautiful bit of land – lots of natural bush, plenty of wildlife and peace and quiet!

 

Such a lucky find! A Black Cockatoo feather!!! Fiona found it but gave it to me! I love the Black Cockatoos… they fly over us often and they are loud and funny. I think they always must be having a great time with life!

One day I will get a more decent photo – like, with the bird attached!

Love the huge manferns!

A good walk through the bush is refreshing for body and soul! We saw lots of great plants, sniffed some ‘pungent’ ones and found fungi, berries and bird nests!

This is kind of cool and kind of sad – Vines grow on some of the trees and wrap around trunks and branches. Sometimes the branches grow around the vines giving it this twisted shape. Sadly, eventually the vine strangles the tree

Back to the house and we had to go see the new little black lamb before we left…

It was nice to get way out of the house for a change – seems like a while since we escaped!

Hope your weekends were fabulous!

Cheers

Last full day for Emma and Alasdair, so thought I better get my money’s worth! 😀
Lots of seaweed grass washed up at the moment, so we hitched up the trailer and went out to East Wynyard beach

I can’t tell you how much of a happy gardener I am! Four pairs of hands makes a massive difference! Glad I managed to squeeze in this job before they head off.

Of course, then it was a quick drive around the corner to have a goodbye cuppa with Ruby & Margie

Then a drive out to Penguin Beach to look at rocks – the tide was coming in and unusually there was seaweed everywhere!

It was still lovely down there, picked up a few new rocks (of course!)
All in all I think the kids have had a pretty good week! I know we have!

Cheers