I Hate Mieces to Pieces

 Our Nanny, Loo, hasn't been very well. Worms again. <See multiple past entries> So we have penned her near the house. She has shelter, is given a delicious aray of different foods, and water. I would braid her tail but I think that is going to far. This morning I mucked her out, gave her new food, and just as I was going to change her water I saw something jump. A mouse had managed in fall into her bucket of water.

As I looked down into the bucket I saw that it was actually a pretty cute mouse. DAMN! Too hard to kill myself - they have those eyes. If I let it loose it would just steal more food. So I have left it in the bucket out in the open for the Kookaburra to eat. It's the great circle of life!

Meanwhile I made up this cake - it could also be used as a pudding.

Lemon-Lime Cake with Burnt Marmalade Topping

250g butter
3 eggs
2 lemons
1 lime
1kg self raising flour
1/2 tspn salt
150g sugar
milk
for topping
1 cup marmalade
100g sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Cream butter and sugar together. Then add eggs and salt, mix well. Add zest of lemon and lime and then add the juice of both. Mix well. Finally lightly mix in the flour. The less the flour is mixed the cakier the mixture - but ensure fully mixed. Add milk to ensure it is a runnish mixture. (soft peaks)

Grease a cake tin and pour in mixture. This amount of batter made two bread loafs for me. Put in oven until brown on top and mixture has cooked all the way through.

On a stove top, heat the marmalade and sugar together. Add water and stir until the mixture is syrupy. I make my own marmalade and usually have a mix of burnt and regular marmalade.

Pour topping over the cake. Serve hot or cold.

Pluck a Duck

I scared it off after it attacked

A few weeks ago, while I was in Sydney on business, Myles called me and asked me if I wanted a duck. I wasn't that fussed and told him if he got one he would have to look after it. When I returned home a few days later someone proudly showed me a HUGE duck.

The Chopping Block

Apparently the previous owner was having trouble with the duck. It had been trying to have too many 'relations' with a female duck - it was also very aggressive towards humans. Myles was keeping it in the unused chicken coop and was feeding it chicken food. A few days later Myles set it free and it spent a few days swimming in our many dams. At night Myles would collect the duck and put him back in the chicken coop - for protection. But then it attacked Myles...

We flipped a coin to decide whether we would kill the duck or just set it free. The duck was lucky and was set free. But then he got hungry...

The duck would arrive each morning and tap on the door - wanting food. Myles fed him each morning but that damn duck would keep attacking us. So we decided that for the safety of visitors, and us, he was going to have to be eaten. Because it was Myles' duck I told him he had to kill it.

So on the fateful day I spent an hour researching how to kill and prepare a duck.  I cut the corner off an old potato sack. The plan was to put the duck in the sack and when he popped his through the opening Myles would chop his head off. So Myles caught the duck and I put the sack around him. His head popped through and Myles placed the head on the chopping block. It wasn't the cleanest chop but Myles managed to do the job. The body was flapping around in the bag - so it was a good idea to place him in that bag. The worst bit was the mouth was opening and closing as though he was still alive. It totally freaked me out so I buried the head quickly.

Myles then hung the bird upside down and allowed the blood to drain. A few minutes later he had stopped bleeding. We had read, and seen, people pluck ducks and there are two methods; a dry pluck, or wet pluck. The dry pluck is more hygienic but more difficult. Basically you just pull the feathers off it. To wet pluck a duck you need to put the duck in hot water for a couple of minutes - then the feathers come off easily. Myles and I plucked the duck and found it wasn't too hard - just messy. But towards the end we realised the down from the duck was going to be a little difficult. So we dunked him in hot water and the down came off fairly easily. I then put on some rubber gloves and gutted the duck - it was not a pleasant experience!

We hung the duck in an old fridge to rest.

The next day we called the neighbours and asked them to dinner - to have the duck. They agreed so I started prepping the duck. It still had some small feathers on it so I got a disposable razor and shaved it. Inventive? It looked ugly so I trimmed off the wings and then roasted it for a couple of hours - chinese style. When it was cooked it looked even uglier. I couldn't serve that. So we sliced it up and boiled the bones to make a duck stock. I then made a duck noodle soup and added the duck meat at the end. It tasted OK but the meat was very dense.

I don't think we will ever do it again. I felt like Hannibal Lecter.

We another another two ducks who run wild on the property - they have only attacked me twice.

"I have taken us so far off our course. But now it is time to return."

The heading has to be my favourite line from one of my favourite movies, 'House of Sand and Fog' and sums up how I am feeling at the moment. In the movie a Persian Military Officer, who escapes revolutionary Iran takes his family to America, he succumbs to greed, and pride, at the expense of his family - naturally it ends in tragedy. A highly emotive and wondrous film - please watch it if you haven't already.

Myles and I moved up this way to start a new life. And over the last few weeks I believe we didn't really change anything. Sure we have learnt so much, and stepped out of our personal comfort zone. But from a personal perspective we didn't change our mindset on life - at least in the way we wanted.

Upon arriving at our house we were befriended by the neighbours. But somehow we were brainwashed into thinking we wouldn't have a life outside our property. That we had chosen a new life that only included staying on the property, drinking, smoking, and gossiping about our new small world. How stupid were we? In defence, having animals does prevent such freedom.

Some tension in the street has re-opened my eyes. Refocused what we need to achieve - what are goals are. The house is almost finished, the gardens basically finished - now it is time to have a life. To learn more about each other, about other people, and enjoy things we have missed out on since moving here. It looks like the DVD player will again be used, the stereo will pump out the volume, and we will visit friends and family.

And I will update this blog much, much more. 6 months with no entry is not appropriate.