March 14, 2003

Quite often our Church has suppers on Sunday nights.  I welcome these - I have never known a farmer or homesteader that didn't appreciate a good meal, especially if someone else is doing the dishes!  We were originally asked to "supply a plate", but as our Captain (we are Salvation Army) is a bit of a wag, our Sergeant-Major, who reads out the Notices, had to insist that the plate had food on it, edible food, and that that edible food be left on the table for all to enjoy.  There was a great look of disappointment in the detailed legalism endured by our Captain!  These days, I am somewhat frantic with my job, and my husband's idea of a home-cooked meal is take-away pizza, so as there is a decent supermarket around the corner from our Church, I generally get a kilo of marinated chicken pieces and microwave them whilst the Meeting is taking place.  If I am running short on funds, or don't have a lot of time, I put together a bowl of mixed grapes, dried banana chips and almonds, which pleases a lot of palates, particularly those of children.  And very easy to do.  Mind you, if I hear the well-worn phrase "finger food" one more time, I will be more than likely to find something that does have a passing resemblance to human digits and serve that up instead.

 

Being, as I have mentioned before, more than a little under-motivated when it comes to housework (at least if it is on the floor, it can't fall any further), I also tend to leave designer sculptures of bits of tin and soon-to-be-fossilized wood lying around outside.  This is great if you like giving your chooks a treat, but I do tend to lift these up a little gingerly (carefully) as there may some day be a snake doing its reptilian best to stay anonymous underneath.  The chooks go mad on anything smaller than themselves, and the murderous gleam in their eyes would be quite frightening to me, but they know who is in charge of the cooking pot.  It might be worth your while to leave things of a flat nature in your chook enclosure, as it is very satisfying to watch them all scurry up in anticipation of "Me first, me first" and the death of a number of garden pests who seek refuge when you are in a vengeful mood after having inspected the veggie garden.

 

We are still awaiting a proper price rise for the calves before we have them carted off to market, but of course Muppet will stay.  I want to check out how much we can get away with in terms of taxation as hobby farmers.  If I do handicrafts or sell veggies from my back yard, is that counted?  Muppet and his ilk, and any profit we get from them, is not.  Isn't that a joy?  Tax free income!  Yahoo and yippee!

 

David was kind enough to bring with him some unwanted guests - fleas.  I have combed, I have fed them garlic, I have put wormwood in their kennel, and I have bathed the dogs (and puppy) in eucalyptus wool wash.  I would rather this rigamarole than put something on them that has a "Keep out of reach of children" notice on the packet.  How can I expose a dog 24/7 to what is injurious to a child?  We have had our worm tablets, and eat a fair bit of garlic ourselves ( I chew on cardamom seeds after - gets rid of the pong), so I don't worry about the human effects, and the dogs are not allowed inside whilst being home to such parasites.  Once in the carpet, fleas are enormously hard to be rid of, and it's a simple matter to treat the dogs as persona non grata for a short while. Although the dogs and Alice don't like it.

 

Oh, a simple gate.  When you have made your fence of three strands of barbed wire, hook the end of the wire, where you want your gate, into the holes of a star dropper, those triangular steel spears so beloved of all in the countryside.  Where the next large fence post is, slot over the top of this, and the bottom just up from the lowest barbed wire strand, two largish pieces of ordinary fencing wire,  so that the dropper can drop into the bottom ring of fencing wire and have the top ring eased over it.  Make sure that when you open up your gate that you either lie it flat on the ground or against the other part of the fence carefully.  It's a real nuisance to have to untangle the gate, caught up in its own barbed wire, just when you have to keep something with four legs on the other side of the fence.  To help keep the tangles out of the picture, seperate the barbed wire strands with pieces of wire, looped top and bottom, halfway along the length of the gate.

 

Farm Life

 

I may curse the dust

that rises with each breath of wind

I may moan with each rainless dawn

 

The skies, though clear of cloud, are

beautiful,

and I would not live anywhere else in the world.

 

Sometimes I drink each mouthful of air in

and am sated, is seems, forevermore.

This is living air!

And I would be no other place.

My life, my hopes, my dreams.

 

Dominus tecum.

Leonie