Dusty

So we were at camp last week. We had told our kids to be at school at 7.30 tuesday morning ready to go. At 7.30 there was not a soul to be seen. At 7.45 a few dogs trotted past. At 7.50 we saw one of our girls sitting across the 'street' and she said that she was coming, just waiting for her brother to have a shower. At 8 o'clock 3 girls turned up, and by 8.30 we had most kids. But they arrive a bit differently from city kids. A few turned up with nothing. Not a thing. Just the shorts and t-shirt they were wearing. Nice. Thats casual.
Camp was fun. I got to sleep out side with the other men folk while Jo and the girlies slept inside. Except all the boys slept inside on the last night cos they were convinced the dingoes and the boogie man were going to get them. Weird. They even asked me to leave the light on in their bunkhouse. 40,000 years of Aboriginal evolution and they're seriously scared of the dark. Even some of the men wouldn't leave the campfire to go to the toilet without a small posse. Needless to say I looked pretty tough sleeping outside.
But it was so nice to get home for a good old wash cos living outside in the dust for 4 days is a bit drying.
We went for a picnic today up in the local river bed. We drove up the road (pictured) for a few k's then drove through the scrub and found some shady trees (also pictured) and had lunch. Nice.
And followed that with an absolutely cracking roast chicken tonight.
Winter feels like its on its way too - cold at night, down to about 10 degrees and only just hitting 30 in the day. So its long sleeves in the morning.
Hope autumn/spring is looking pretty at your place. It all looks much the same here.

Quod erat demonstratum

A spectacular success.
I feel, in a very small way, like the late Sir Edmund Hilary must have when he and Tenzing Norgay conquered Mt Everest. We certainly knocked the bastard off. It looked good, it tasted good, it smelt good, indeed, it WAS good.
And there's plenty more left. Excellent. We shared some of it with our wee friend (pictured) and he loved it too.

We had a super weekend due to the presence of water. So nice. We went to a spot called Ellery Big Hole that is one of 6 permanent water holes along the West McDonnell Ranges. Its about 100km west of Alice. The water is damn cold at first but beautifully fresh. Its a deep pond sort of thing, about 40m in diameter, nestled in a crack in the range. Very pretty.

Now we're off to camp for the next 4 days with our students. Could be interesting.


See you next weekend.

hippity hop

its easter time!! woohoo!!!!
bacon update day 4 (don't panic if you think you missed day 3, you didn't, nothing happened): hardly any liquid coming out. Definite firming. Colour deepening. My concern is that we are scampering off to go camping straight after school tomorrow and really the bacon needs another day of care to be ready. I'm going to call it early, take half with us and leave the other half doing its thing. Slightly nervous, but i haven't many options. Could freeze it but that may hinder flavour development. Am I really cut out for the stresses of this industry? Doubts creeping in. Must stay focussed.
On more positive note here is a (photo) gift from our kitchen. My latest batch of hot cross buns, just in time for your (vicarious) easter feasting!
Also included here is one of our rather large easter bunny-looking neighbours, and a snap of Jo and I at the southern tip of the Andes, from early January.
long weekend!!!!!!!!

Bacon

Here we have the bacon after 1 day (top) and after 2 days.

It certainly feels a bit firmer today, doesn't look a great deal different, but as you can see has leeched a fair bot of liquid - which is the aim. The dryer looking photo (after 1 day) actually had more liquid than after 2 days but I drained it off before taking the photo.

I'm happy with the progress, and am expecting to see more firming and drying as the days progress.

The black things you can see are juniper berries, I'm hoping they impart something special.

It certainly is an exciting time.

domestic concerns

So we had a bit of excitement on our way back from Alice last evening – lightning, rain on the horizon, and a spectacular sunset. Then today there were clouds (!!!) and the definite sniff of rain…

The real focus of our excitement though should, as always, be focussed on meat. Specifically, in this case, bacon. I’m making my own.

Here’s a photo of progress day one -

Stay tuned throughout the week for daily updates. Should be ready for eating on Friday.

Good Friday indeed. Hot cross bacon. Yummo.

Next week, pate.

I’m hoping for sausages and perhaps salami come winter. It’s too warm here at the moment to be able to hang them at all.

And, after a bit of technical wizadry, here are some more Antarctic photos.

Thats the boat, with the little wee zodiacs alondside.

Penguins, with a whale backbone.

A touching family scene. Check out the nests made of stones. They spend their whole time stealing other penguins stones and defending their own little pile. Funny.

Right, well i had intended on a few more than that, but The Glitches have returned. Oh well. Better check the bacon.

ta ra.

verbose on a friday

Just recovered.

In case you were wondering we're in Engawala, which is really quite far from anywhere. Unless you count nowhere, because we are smack bang in the middle of that.

Due to popular demand here is a piccie from our trip to Antarctica. (only one at this stage - still having a few technical issues.)

We took a boat from Ushaia, at the southern tip of Argentina (I say boat, it was a cruise ship with 500 passengers and 300 crew. It was pretty flash). And, to digress a little, did you know that the name 'Argentina' comes from the Latin word for silver, argent, because that is what the Spanish and everyone else wanted out of the hills. How about that. So the boat cruised across the Drake passage and towards the Antarctic peninsula, took about 2 days, totally sunny the whole time, then we chugged in and around and through the islands, going ashore each day on zodiacs to check out the penguins. Neat fun. And chilly. Saw a few whales swimming about, and a few seals, a few albatross, that sort of thing. Back on board the Marco Polo (as our ship was called) we mostly drank. And wandered about trying to work out what floor we were on and where the hell is our cabin?

So yeah, really good fun. Recommended. Just save your pennies for a bit first.

Then we trotted around Buenos Aires and up to the Andes and up to the northern parts of Argentina and around and about.

The meat, as Berin can attest to, is unbelievably good.

And now we are here. Its been 3 weeks since we have been into Alice Springs for supplies so we're out of most things. We'll go in tomorrow and load up. Its pretty funny at the supermarket cos heaps of people come in from far away to do their fortnightly, monthly, 6 weekly shopping so there are some chockers trolleys. We're pretty close to Alice as far as communities go out here. Going to Alice also means we get to drink beer. Woohoo!!! (not allowed to here - nearly all Aboriginal communities are dry. )

That'll do for now.

ta ra

Day One. Weather HOT! and sunny.

Hello World, we have finally worked out how to put the first bit of a Blog together. Now we are exhausted.