Day 184 Nubeena Sunday 31st July 2011

Morphine cleared the undergrowth through here for the fence



The mound to be included in the Stalag



Another view



The chicks learning their trade. Mum scuffs the ground and they rush in and savage anything that moves. Mum meanwhile savages any other hens that get close. Lucky our Rooster seems to have immunity though!


Hi there,
A short blog tonight on account of it's late and i have been playing with my new laptop! exploring the 3D function.
A regulation day today. Susan helped with the sorting of stuff from the shipping container. She also removed the dressing from her nose and it doesn't look too bad although I am not allowed to publish a picture.
I moved on with the electric fence. It was finished until a certain person who shall remain nameless suggested that it would be good to include the mound of dirt pictured inside the compound as goats apparently like to sit up on things and look around. No doubt to contemplate the meaning of life. Tomorrow this section will be reworked!
Tea for us was sausages and lovely fresh eggs another 2 of which were produced today.

Night folks
cheers Simon

Day 183 Nubeena Saturday 30th July 2011

Hi Folks,
It didn't really seem like Saturday today. That's the thing about here there are no markers for the weekend.
Susan's nose is sore but so far there are no mishaps although the dressing is driving her crazy. Tomorrow we might try to remove it.
Ilan didn't tether the goats last night so this morning Phoebe was wandering the carpark chewing on the proteas. Looks like we had three eggs yesterday but by 3 pm today we only had one.
My day was spent mainly sorting out the Brownbuilt shelving in the shipping container. One of those simple quick jobs that has a lot of sidetracks when you do it. The main problem was there were few clips so the shelves had to be bolted. However at the end of the day it looked ok. I also made a small start on making the electric fence three strand rather than one. A job that could be finished tomorrow.
Suzanne cooked community dinner tonight. We will miss her when she goes in just over a week. A lovely spinach soup and home made bread followed by lasagne all delicious. Morphine and Fan Fan tried their hand at sticky date pudding and did an excellent job with Susan's recipe. We had a quite a few laughs at tea with everybody contributing to the hilarity.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 182 Nubeena Friday 29th of July 2011

Hi all,
Our day off well sort of. Susan did reception from 8 till 9 and i did a bit with the pools and animals before we left. We did make a reasonable fist of getting away on time only 45 minutes late. We drove to Hobart pausing at Sorell to buy some liquid for my dehydrated body which was struggling after the excesses of last night and some more electric fence components.
I read yesterdays blog just now with trepidation as I couldn't quite remember what was in it. My general rule is to never publish anything on the internet when I am a bit merry. It was actually ok.
In Hobart we trooped through the usual retailers of computers as I tried to firm up my choice of a replacement laptop. This one, a Dell 4300 has been fine but is starting to get a bit battered. I shall continue to use it whilst travelling but it really is not so good for a semi permanent set up as the keyboard and screen are quite small and it lacks ports. After a few stops and ideas we proceeded back over the bridge to pick up pieces of flue for the kitchen from Plumbtec and thence to Susan's appointment at the skin cancer clinic for her excision. I waited in the reception area doodling on the computer while the operation took place. The other room was being used for immunisation and there followed a constant stream of parents and 3 - 6 month olds through the waiting room. Each disappearance into the corridor followed shortly by infant howling.
Susan returned after an hour with a large dressing on the bridge of her nose. I was surprised at the size of the material in the jar to go to the pathologist. All up a total of 8 stitches to be removed next Wednesday.
In the waiting room I had made my decision. After consulting with the patient we popped back to the CBD so I could complete my purchase. This took longer than expected because the only one left was the demo model which had to be reimaged before i could take it. This meant we were delayed leaving and more of the anaesthetic had worn off by the time we arrived at Sorell to do the shopping. We completed it although Susan excused herself at the checkout to go and rest in the car. She did have a brainwave about tea though which was to go to the hotel at Dunalley on the way home. We did and the food was good. Home made bread, seafood chowder, lemon squid and flounder rounded out the bill. Susan had a glass of wine whilst I stuck to a soft drink. I was already feeling "tired" from last night and with a reasonable distance to drive decided to take minimal chances. Susan dozed and we arrived home about 845. As I type this she is resting comfortably under the influence of panadol. Hopefully she can avoid banging her nose while it is healing. She is having to wear her reading glasses perched on the end. Anyway fingers crossed. I have told her she will have to take it easy however the the chances of that happening short of applying physical restraints are slim. I don't know hat happened at the resort today i guess we will find out tomorrow!
night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 181 Nubeena Thursday 28th July 2011

Looks like a Salmo Salar being held by a stunned mullet



Finally a fish worth posing for!! Ok so it's only around 5kg but what the heck you have to start somewhere!


Hello all,
Tonight's blog is brought to you by several eminent persons. Mr Wolf Blass, Mr Bill Taylor and Mr William Penfold. We had community dinner tonight. Twas only four of us the two S's, Ilan, and Tony from the Hobart Mercury. The repast was a reprise of the potato and leek soup, followed by fresh chunky Atlantic Salmon fillets and finished off with apple crumble. My contribution? hmm very little, I filleted enormous Salmon, picked carrots, retrieved sultanas from storeroom, and arrived in time to finish cooking of salmon fillets to perfection. The rest was all Susan's doing!
The wines, Wolf Blass Riesling 2009. Superb. Too cold from the fridge but as it warmed opened into a beautiful floral bouquet. Grapes come and grapes go but you can't beat a good Riesling. The Taylor's chardonnay was competent as was the Penfolds reserve port. Hmm do Penfolds still make the Magill port? I must investigate,
Now to the days events. 3 eggs as per usual, well done girls! My main task of the day was erecting the electric fence for the travelling goat enclosure. The most difficult part was locating the star picket/dropper driver. I was having a man's look and of course it was where it was supposed to be. Once the fence was constructed Ilan put the goats in tethered by a short cord to each other. We had the fence power set to low which was good when Ella scrambled under and kept dragging Phoebe into the wire. Boy did she jump. Susan was screaming "turn it off, turn it off". We need a bit of a rethink with the cable height and an extra cable.
After tea i wandered into the cafe for a few more sips and to claim a rain check coffee from Amanda. It has turned into a late night after an 11pm spa. It's a tough job but some one has to do it. Tomorrow morning will be "struggle town"
Oh and the teaser from last night. Look at the pictures folks!

Night Simon

Day 181 Nubeena Wednesday 27th July 2011

The apple boxes and the trailer from yesterday.


I don't know that if they actually decided to move the straps would do anything



Boxes lined and filled in the skinless green house


Hello,
A chilly start to the day with our second day of a nice white frost and too boot the water in the chooks bowls had a good film of ice. However it is not overly cold here in the south probably because we are surrounded by water. Certainly it was colder when we were in Peterborough (SA) last year.
Today was spent mainly shuffling items that arrived in the shipping container yesterday. The big move was the large stainless steel kitchen bench from the shipping container to the games room. The rest of the project is proceeding with concrete being laid today and said kitchen installed on its plinth.
The rest of the day was fairly standard. The chickens produced 3 eggs. The goats annoyed me again managing to split the skin on my finger when they pulled extremely hard when it was trapped between a rope and a star picket. The bad news for them is it looks like we have all the components for an electric fence. We will move their old house inside the wire and move the fence as required which will obviate having to bring them in and out each day. I want to be a fly on the wall the first time they bite the fence cable like they do everything else! Whether it will contain them successfully remains to be seen.
We had cafe pizzas for tea very nice. The "Ellis" which has now appeared officially on the menu was very tasty.
Susan has given up alcohol, coffee, chocolate, cheese and is back on the fish oil and glucosamine plus mineralised water to try and improve her arthritic fingers. She reported that after day 1 there was a marked improvement. She was going to celebrate but the question was "how?"
The other surprise of the day was ..... no it can wait until tomorrow when we have a picture. This is what's called a cliffhanger in journalistic parlance to make sure you return
That's all for today folks

Cheers Simon

cheers Simon

Night folks

Day 180 Nubeena Tuesday 26th July 2011

Hello,
This morning I hitched up the yellow trailer to carry 6 large apple boxes back from Huonville about 120km away for use as greenhouse planter boxes. By the time i had fed the chickens, tested the pools, despatched the goats into the paddock and taken on the last minute instructions it was 1030 later than i had intended to leave.
Driving northwards I passed a truck with a light blue shipping container at Dunalley and correctly guessed it was Ilan's cargo from the farm sale.
I arrived at the country market at Sorell and picked up our order. I had to return to pay for it but that's another story. My next stop was Cambridge to view some laptops at Hardly Normal. It was fairly underwhelming but I did get some ideas. On the way out they had a couple of pairs of Gardena, Made in Germany secateurs $5 a pair in the bargain bin. I bought them both! I don't know what I will use them for, cutting my toenails maybe.
Onto Hobart and a fruitless exercise trying to find a park near or at Officeworks with the trailer attached. My one hope was the loading dock but that was filled with a Toll truck. Oh well they won't stop making laptops and next week there will be ones that are better cheaper. It was then onto the southern outlet road and down to Huonville. The road is quite hilly but relatively modern with few bends. It affords a good view of Mount Wellington. Mount Wellington was quite picturesque with its light covering of snow. During the "weather" that we had a couple of weeks back I think this road was closed by snowfall and I garnered the impression it would be a slippery icy road in winter. On the way back I passed a road crew driving along spraying what I guessed was a ice retarding liquid on the road surface,
The Huon valley appears to have 2 industries, wine and apples. The apples are mainly housed under enormous black nets presumably to protect them from critters. They don't seem to use them down our way. Maybe they have more barbarous methods.
The contact at the apple farm was friendly, helpful and competent as he loaded the boxes. I strapped them in and proceeded gingerly out onto the highway stopping to check the straps which required minor retensioning on the first stop but were fine after that. The higher the trailer is loaded the more paranoid I become. The rest of the trip back through Hobart, to Sorell for food and fuel was uneventful arriving back at around 5.
Susan had a busy day with the major tasking being unloading the shipping container to access the kitchen components required for the community kitchen. Looks like I picked a good day to go travelling.
Anything else? We had 3 eggs today from the chickens. That's about it.

cya tomorrow

Cheers Simon

Day 179 Nubeena Monday 25th July 2011

Good evening,
This evenings blog is courtesy of Mr John Walker. I became acquainted with him again after a separation of many years. He came to community dinner with Fanfan and Morphine after being left behind in their unit by Walther. In my youth I added dry ginger but not tonight. I expect to be having nurofen in the morning. Unfortunately due to Mr Walkers influence i don't have an overly clear recollection of the day.
As i recall it was pretty standard fare. Ella had pushed her head through the chicken wire to bite bark off the tree so one of the first jobs was some more repairs.
2 eggs were laid under the Hilton rather than in it but I'll take that as a win.
The rest of the day was spent doing unspectacular chores. The highlight was digging up some large flat weeds with a fork in the pen and watching the mother hen seize morsels from the dirt and toss them to the chicks who seem to be growing rapidly. Today was the first time they drank en mass from an upturned lid. The internet tells me they need lots of water.
After vacuuming and mopping the unit i put our washing on and attended tea.
Tonight's tea was a blend of fresh (Tasmanian Trumpeter) and frozen fish (PFD Trevally) prepared by Susan. Fish bbq'ed by me. A few laughs as per usual.
We ended up on youtube watching THIS. Then we moved on to some 50yo Beatles videos thanks to Mr Walker and then we were the only ones left!
Tomorrow i am off to Hobart and beyond with the trailer to pick up vegetables and some large crates to use as planters in the greenhouse. I will also take the opportunity to kick some tyres on some laptops I feel the need to upgrade!

Night Folks

Chers Simon