The Fritz Video

We said goodbye to our favourite pet on Thursday. Fritz had been struggling with  back complaint and finally became incontinent. I don't want to talk about it anymore but here is a video I made to commemorate my favourite dog

Slip 'n Slide

Slip 'n Slide Karangi style

You may remember that last year during Summer Myles had to brush-cut a bank that was close to the house - he kept falling down the bank and ended up covered in leeches. This year it is going to be different - maybe?

We have decided to cover the bank in weed mat and then grow a native plant from the top of the bank over the top of the plastic. This should retain the bank and mean Myles doesn't get covered in leeches. We bought the plastic and metal prongs to hold the plastic down - from the landscape shop. Myles then poisoned the weeds on the bank. After a day we rolled the plastic over the bank and started securing it to the ground. This was marginally difficult as I kept sliding down the plastic towards the barbed wire fence!

While sliding down the plastic I was reminded of the 80's. At one stage my family lived in Whangarei, NZ. My parents had bought a piece of land on the side of a mountain and set about building their then dream home. This was done over a long period of time because they didn't have all the funds up front - well it seemed like a long time to me anyway! The garden was last to be finished so we kids had nowhere to play. Contrary to belief but NZ does get pretty hot so in summer we had difficulty keeping cool. Mum bought a Slip 'n Slide - the hot toy at the time. It was basically a long wide strip of plastic with a hose fitting on one side. You would put it on the lawn turn it on and slide down it. But we had no lawn!

Myles cuddling Chop Suey

So the ingenious Jones family put the slide in the park behind the house and ran the hose up. The only problem was the hose only reached a certain distance. So the slide was put on a bank a couple of meters away from the main fence. Water turned on, children in togs (NZ word for swimmers), children pumped for some water fun. The first kid had a big run up and slid down - smiles all around until the plastic ran out. There was noway to stop and you would hit the grass that was full of prickles and gorse. Your chest and bum would be scratched, and you would get grass burn. If you were skilled you would have so much speed that only the wire fence would stop you. And that hurt!

So I could recreate my childhood memories on our new bank - but I think I will leave it or now!

And for those following our new goat - she is doing well and loves a few cuddles.

I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight

On Wednesday I woke and looked out the bathroom window and saw our Nanny goat, Lou, in one of the animal shelters all alone. Lady animals often want to be left alone when they are about to give birth. I rushed to wake Myles and let him know the news. He got out the camera with the telescopic lens and spied on her for a couple of minutes. Something caught his eye and he rushed to put on some boots and see what was happening.

Ninja at the back and Chop Suey freshly born

In the back corner of the shelter lay a little bundle of joy covered in blood and poo. Myles and I were ecstatic that a new member of the family had arrived. A couple of minutes later Lou squeezed out another kid. Mum wasn't that interested in her kids and kept walking away. So, with the advice from a neighbour, we wired them into the shelter, with food and water. Hours later we hadn't seen Lou feed the babies but we assumed it was happening - as we couldn't watch the whole time.

Myles left that night on a business trip. I made a final inspection of all the animals - Lou still wasn't interested in her babies. I went to bed but then got up early to check and feed them. Lou rushed to get the food I was carrying down. The babies were crying and the white kid walked out of the shelter in rather a wobbly fashion, getting close to the sheep thinking they were her mother. I decided that the babies couldn't be left alone anymore and I would have to intervene. I picked up the two kids and placed them in the holding pen near the house. Lou didn't even notice they had gone!

The balcony sun umbrella was used to shade the kids because it was rather a hot day. I knew that Lou would still have to fed the kids somehow but I wasn't in a position to hold Lou and milk her at the same time so I called for some help. Lou came into the holding pen quite easily - could have been the food! We lay her on her side and managed to get the male kid to drink a very tiny bit of milk. Both kids were very hungry but unable to find Lou's teats. I then set about milking Lou - something I had never done before! It was relatively easy and I soon got about 30ml of milk. We then fed the kids via baby bottle. But it was not going to be easy to milk Lou every 2 hours so I decided, after talking to a vet, to get some substitute milk from the local co-op. Lou freaked out once we left the pen and trampled on the kids but they seemed OK.

Jodie nurses Ninja

After the trip I made up a batch of the milk and we all bottle fed the animals. The female kid was very enthusiastic, but the male was struggling. When the weather started turning bad the kids were brought inside to keep warm and feed them some more. Again the neighbours helped out and even brought dinner down to me. The male didn't have any sucking action and had to be syringe forced feed - he was also unable to stand. Everybody knew where this was going but wanted to give him the best chance. By 8pm Ninja Turtle, male kids new adopted name, was having trouble breathing. Ninja had been cuddled, fed, and kept warm by Jodie for hours but she now handed him to me.

The neighbours left by 9pm and I was left with Ninja. His breathing became more shallow and occasionally he chain breathed. At 10pm he passed away in my arms. In the movie Donnie Darko there is the line "Everybody dies alone" - Ninja died in my arms, warm and loved - I don't think he was alone...

The final hour of Ninja

Mum has been reunited with baby and they have bonded well. Perhaps Lou was unprepared, scared, and in shock after giving birth. But she is making up for it now. The kid is called Chop Suey.

We believe that either Ninja died due to some sort of birth defect or, his Mother trampled on his head.

The Harvest of Myles

The last couple of days have been very productive. I think a long weekend in Brisbane gave me a new lease of life (more on Brisbane later)

The pen is so you can see the size

As I have this new lease on life I have been turning over garden beds, fertilising, weeding, trimming, and planting the summer crops. I learnt a lot last year and am now using those learnings to perhaps have some descent vegetables and some actual fruit! My herb garden has now been moved to a shady spot, and I have quite a few lettuces, spring onions, parsnips, Daikon and Pak Choy ready to go. We also have strawberries this year! My Rhubarb has been looking  little sorry for itself, and hadn't yielded a lot of fruit - but I wacked on some fertiliser and it is going berserk!

It is almost time to plant the tomatoes and basil. I'm not a lover of tomato but it is good to cook with and I still have basil and pesto leftover from last year so we had been get eat before the next lot comes in. So I am clearing the garden beds ready for the tomatoes which means removing the winter crops. Myles hasn't had a lot of time to garden but one weekend he planted some carrots. He didn't do anything with them afterwards and I refused to look after his crop. So today I pulled the carrots out. Ah! not much of a meal there but I will still cook with them tonight so he feels special!

Brisbane

Not sure what sort of pose this is?

We drove up to Brisbane for a long weekend. Myles was going for work so I thought I would tag along seeing the accommodation was paid for. We went to a REAL Picture Theatre, ate at a fancy restaurant, E'cco, had Yum Cha, saw the Surrealist exhibition and did a bit of shopping. We also got our hair cut - which was long overdue! We were lucky to also be in Brisbane for their annual festival.

So in summary of our trip, the movie was terrible, the restaurant was a little average and the people sitting next to us annoying, loved the Yum Cha and Chinatown experience (oh how I missed it) and all I bought was a suit for work - my others were a little tight! The exhibition was excellent! On the last night we ate BBQ duck in our hotel room with a couple of bottles of wine and watched the fireworks and laser show. Overall a good little trip - it was nice to get home though.

Spring, ducklings, fishing, and the return of an enemy!

Driving around the neighbourhood I can spot blossoms on the many fruit trees. That can mean only one thing... my trees are duds! Well that is actually not true - when my parents stayed they bought me a few fruit trees. These trees were planted in a paddock and my goal was to only allow the sheep into that paddock. Sheep don't eat trees... do they? Well yes they do and I am left with sticks in a grass paddock. Hopefully the new warmer weather will allow the trees to sprout some leaves so I can transplant them to a safer spot. But as in an earlier post - I found some fruit trees hidden amongst some long grass in a forgotten paddock. So I trimmed and fertilised them a few months ago, and behold I have some blossoms on my mulberry tree. I also noticed some on my Lemonade tree. So perhaps I will have some fruit - not a lot though.

The Dam while I was burning off

Finally we went fishing in our biggest dam. The neighbour came down with a few fishing rods, worms, and handlines. "There has to be something in here" everyone agreed. A few beers later, we were still waiting for even a nibble. Someone then said "There has to be at least eels here" FAIL! Nothing the whole fishing trip but we decided some fish could be bought and released into the dam so we fish anytime we like. We might not have caught anything but we did see some ducklings and a Long Necked Turtle.

Long Necked Turtle - not one of ours

Towards the end of the fishing trip Myles went to a more deserted part of the dam with a handline. After 20minutes he suddenly stood up, looked slightly white, and swore. The neighbour and I yelled across the dam asking him what the matter was. Myles didn't answer but had the 'frightened' look on his face. Finally he came back down to plant Earth and let us know a Red Belly Black snake had moved close to him. We thanked him for finally letting us know the situation and commented that he wouldn't be very good at communicating in a disaster situation <note sarcasm>. We packed up the fishing gear and left for the afternoon with nothing.

Red Belly Black - again not that one we saw

While putting some tools away we noticed a fresh snake skin next to our car - oh joy!

Myles and I lit a bonfire and the neighbour came back down to help clean-up the piles of branches for the fire. Many many many beers later our neighbour struggled to get up the hill to his house to eat dinner ready for his wife.

So Spring is here and so are the snakes. The only good thing is my garden is now ready to plant tomatoes, basil, and zucchini.

The Great Karangi Roast Off

We often eat out - not at a restaurant but at our neighbour's house. This means we don't need to drive miles and we can have a few drinks. On Friday night we were invited to a flash dinner party with at our neighbours - with their parents, Fran and John (actually Jean-Paul - but some people don't understand that he is a boy and call him Jean).

I rejected this invitation because I was planning to cook a roast - I had defrosted the chicken earlier. Our neighbour told us to bring the chicken up the next night and we could have a roast cook-off. So I agreed and was up to for the challenge.

So the next day I prepared my roast chicken knowing that Fran was making some sort of super duper 40 garlic clove chicken.

Steve's Roast Lemon Chicken

Ingredients

1 Whole Chicken
3 Tbspns Chicken Stock Powder
2 Tbspn Honey
2 Handfuls of Almonds
1/2 cup Flat Leaf Parsley, chopped up
1/2 cup Mint, chopped up
1/4 cup dried Rosemary
8 Garlic Cloves
1/2 cup Duck Fat
1 Whole Lemon
6 Quaters of Preserved Lemon, chopped up
3/4 cup of Couscous
1/4 cup white wine
8 Potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 cup of Sherry

Clean out chicken cavity trimming off the fat. Rub some duck fat into the cavity. Mix together couscous, 1/4 of the herbs and garlic - add the white wine to make the couscous damp. Chop up a handful of the almonds and add along with 1 tspn of honey. Clean the lemon skin and squeeze the lemon against the bench - do not break the skin - this will make the juice freer in the cooking process. Cut holes in lemon using a knife. Put half the stuffing into the chicken cavity and then pop in lemon - then squeeze the rest of the stuffing into the cavity. Use roasting spears to close everything up.

Mix the some of the preserved lemon, fresh herbs, 1 tspn of honey, and a mined garlic clove. Gently push this mixture under the skin of the chicken. Then rub duck fat all over the chicken. Put in a roasting dish along with the potatoes (cover potatoes in the fat too). Cover chicken in chicken stock, almonds, rest of the rosemary, and preserved lemon. You could add salt and pepper to the top.

Roast at 250 degrees cent for 20 minutes then turn down the oven 180 degrees making sure the roast is basted. Once cooked, about 1- 1 1/2 hours remove the chicken and potatoes from the pan. Add the sherry to the pan and create gravy.

Myles and I wore a pirate hat and sailors hat to dinner. Upon arriving we let everyone know that we had been informed it was a fancy dress party - which generated a laugh. Fran made a steamed chicken with cloves of garlic - something I will have to try. You make a crust on the top to keep the steam and juices in.

At the end we all agreed it was too difficult to judge each other's recipe because they were so different.

The Birds and the Bees, and a Frog in the Toilet

Something has started to happen in the valley - while the weather is cool it feels like it is getting warmer. The Liquid Amber tree in the side yard has started gaining leaves, and there are a bees everywhere. There are Black Cockatoo munching on the native trees and the grass has started getting greener. There is also movement on the reptile front, one neighbour has seen four snakes, and another has seen Goannas on the hunt. We have only just started to hear the frogs and have been washing them out of the homegrown cabbage. When the snakes wake I think they will think Jamie Durie has done a makeover while they were shopping. All this means we are having an early Spring.

The Cottage's Living Room

As mentioned before, Heather stays with us every two months. While vacuuming the cottage where she stays I heard a very strange noise. I called Myles over so he could hear it - it was some sort of animal, and sounded like it was in the bathroom. A quick search revealed nothing and so we decided it must have been from the ceiling cavity. I got a broom and banged the ceiling to see if this would reveal anything. Nothing. We got the ladder out and gingerly peaked through the manhole in the ceiling. Nothing - but new insulation! I decided that it might have left because of the noise we were making.

Back in the house, while surfing the internet, I wondered if there was a site for Australian wildlife noises - there was. And after hearing some samplers I realised the sound was from a East Corn Froglet. Myles joined me in the search for the critter - who was going to be in a wet part of the bathroom. Careful studying of shower revealed nothing. I looked into the toilet and commented that it would need a spruce up before Heather arrived. I flushed it a couple of times. Out popped a huge frog from the toilet rim - giving me the biggest scare. To say I was 'dignified' would be unkind to that word - I screamed like a girl grabbing my heart. For gods sake it is just a frog!

Myles attempted to flush the frog into the septic - he was successful. When Heather arrived we told her about the frog - she was unimpressed with Myles flushing the frog. "What a way to go - could you imagine dying in a place like that?" She commented,and Heather had a very good point. The next day when Heather was leaving she informed us the frog was back in the loo. Whew!

Now I know why the cottage is completely free of insects and spiders. The frog has been doing it's work and eating everything. As such it will be left in peace until the next person stays with us.