Whole wheat malt biscuits/cookies

Last week I brought a jar of Malt extract to make a sourdough starter.  got to thinking that some malt biscuits, or cookies for the Americans would be nice. I couldn't find a suitable recipe in my cook book collection, so I had a look online, but couldn't fnd a recipe there that I like either, well I liked them but it used malt powder not extract, I could have substituted but I decided that I would make my own recipe up, so here it is.

250 g butter

1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/2 cup malt extract
1/4 cup yoghurt
1 egg
3 cups wholemeal flour (I use freshly ground)
1/2 tsp baking powder

Beat the butter add the sugar and syrups, then add yoghurt and egg, lastly add flour and baking powder. Cover bowl and chill for at least 1/2 hour, but they are better if left over night. Place spoon fulls on a lined bakng tray and bake in mod oven for about 15 mins.

The photos didn't turn out quite as good as I had hoped. But the biscuits didn't last long enough for me to take any more photos.

The Good Life in October

I named this Blog "The Good Life" in honor of the '70's English sticom about Tom and Barbra Good and their quest for a simple, self sufficient lifestyle, as we were just watching the dvd's of the series borrowed from the library, I was struck as how similiar our lives reflected those of Tom and Barbara. So much so that every now and then I will call Mark, Tom. Any here are a few pics of our version of the good life

Mark is preparing our corn and potato patch, this is in our horse yard, the horses don't spend much time in there over summer, except when they get too fat, we call it the Jenny Craig Paddock. We limed this after the first rotary hoe and now it is getting a second hoe. Yesterday Kath and I planted two rows of potatoes right where he has just hoed in the picture

In true Good Life honour we had to have a pig, we cant remember what the pig was called in the show, but our pig is Miss Piggy, here she is with her favourite things, namely her food bowls and some feed bags and sticks that she likes to play with in the mud wallow she and her dearly departed brother made by constantly tipping their water bowl over. Now we just fill up the wallow when we fill the water bowl and everything is good. As I mentioned we did have her brother, but he and a steer now fill our freezer, YUM.

We dont have a goat called Geraldine but we do have some dairy cows that we brought to take to the dairy that we managed, and then brought home when we left, we have hopes of building a dairy on our own farm soon. This is the daughter of one of our dairy cows feeding a few calves. We are raising about 12 calves at the moment and instead of buying milk powder and feeding them we have 5 cows in milk that do the job for us. This is Baby, she is the only one with a name, when we run out of milk in the house she is the one who supplies it for us.

Here is a shot of part of our garden, we have asparagus under the straw then there is some cabbages, lettuces, wombok cabbages, snow peas, garlic, brocolli, cauliflower, silverbeet, herbs,and weeds

The same garden from the other side

The next part of the garden is more silverbeet, (no we are not great fans of silverbeet, it just self seeded) more brocolli and cauliflower and about 1/2 of the tomato seedlings from the last post

This is a shot of the whole garden area, minus the corn and potato patch from the viewing platform of our round yard, I have seedlings in the greenhouse, and some berries behind it, Mark went crazy with the rotary hoe, but this was really all wasted space and I do have heaps of seeds and seedlings to plant. I am just a bit nervous as to how I am going to keep up with it all.

Things are not always perfect in paradise, this is what our driveway looked like the day after a 1 in a 100 year flood, our car is still parked on the other side as we were not game to drive it over the wash out in the dark, late the previous night, so we rolled our jeans up, took our shoes off, well everybody else did, I left mine on, now I can say that anything they can do, I can do in high heels.(not stilletos though).

Mark standing on what was our culvert, the water used to go through here now the level of rock on the other side is higher than here so now we have a spillway. You can see the dirty water on the left, this is where the major wash out is, it was about knee deep

Does it take millions of years to cut a ravine? No it just takes one good flood.

The dry way to cross the creek.

This part of the creek used to gently flow around to the left, after this flood it has decided to go right.

The fence in the fore ground was totaly under water. The main creek, which is the Cudgewa Creek runs well down to the right. The last photos were of our small creek which feeds this one.

Resident wombat now has an inground pool.

Going for a drive later that day, we found that there is always someone worse off, here not far from the dairy we were on the asphelt was lifted and placed so neatly heading for the paddock. This is the work of the mighty Murray.

This is the damage at Tooma. Willow trees have been declared a weed so our local landcare had poisoned them, this is the result, there was not one green willow in the pile. As a result of the flood, a big dam upstream had also burst, this also had a major impact on bringing all the dead willows down. Can you see what else was brought down?

This man decided to try a spot of fishing. The boat was stuck so tight it didn't even wobble as he got in.

This tractor, seeder and some other farm equipment was caught in the flood. This particular farmer, almost a year ago was partly burnt out with a bush fire. It brings to mind the words of the John Williamson song "On our selection": The year we came we had a drought, Then floods they put the bushfires out.

Damage done to the downstream side of the road.

And then the bridge with all the willow trees piled up against it.

So I guess it is obvious that perfect paradise won't come till we get to Heaven, we will still have droughts, and floods, and fire, and weeds. But God is in control.

A quick note from Katherine

Hi everyone!
I just thought I would write a quick note to let you all know what is going on with this blog and Mum's other blog, as it all seems to be happening rather quickly and in a great deal of mess.
Well I guess I should introduce myself, I am Katherine, I think you get the general gist that I am Louisa's daughter :).
It would be an understatement to say that a lot has been happening. Spring is here so everyone is running too and fro fixing this and feeding that, as well as planting seeds and training horses. But during this time there have been quite a few vigorous 'Brainstorming' (my new word that has affected my whole family) sessions. Most of which are about school, my sisters working hours, making money and the all important garden and soap.
I will discontinue my very rambling thoughts and get to the point. I am the new 'Marketing Director' for the Upper Murray Soap company and co. In other words I sit at a computer and type out long speeches about Olive oil in all its greatness. So THIS is now my mother's writing space and I get the Upper Murray Soap blog as well as the in-planning-facebook-page and etc. etc. etc.
I have moved all of Mum's old posts from the UMS blog to here, that is why she has all of a sudden gotten more posts and you have read them all before, but if anything is unclear to you, because of muck ups in the copying and pasting I did, please leave my Mummy a nice comment and I will fix it if I can.
Thanks!
Katherine

A hectic week

As the title suggests, we have had a very busy week. Mark and I were asked to milk for the week at a farm about 1/2 an hour away. It is situated in the most beautiful valley, almost as beautiful as ours. And it was a joy to go there even though it was very tiring as we had to come home between milkings to care for our own farm. We organised with our new neighbours to take the girls to the bus each day. This was not something that we wanted to do but is a way of breaking the ice and getting to know them a bit better. Hopefully today we will get a chance to make them a batch of cupcakes to say thank you.

I was just reading the post on A Wise Woman about the womans place in the kitchen, what  a wonderful encouragement, during this week away the girls all put in and did the cooking of the evening meal, which is such a great learning experience for them, but my heart aches that I am not able to be there to help or maybe just oversee, what a joy it is for me to come back to my kitchen and be able to cook yummy and nutritious food for my family. I feel like this is where I am supposed to be. Dont get me wrong it is a joy to see my children do the same, and to know that they are capable of holding thir own in the kitchen, even the ones who don't particularly like cooking.

Another thing that has made my week busier was organising a soap stall at a sustainability fair in Wodonga, I had thought it was in about 2 weeks, but when I checked it is this weekend. So now I have to get busy making labels and business cards. Hopefully I will be able to get some photos up in a post next weekend, and really start getting back into selling the soap.

Chocolate Velvet Mousse

As promised here is the instructions for the Chocolate mousse and chocolate curls. The mousse is very dense as it is made with only butter and not whipped cream like most mousses.

Ingredients

300g dark chocolate

6 eggs, separated

150g unsalted butter, cubed and slightly melted

1 Tbs vanilla extract

Keeps for one week, covered in the fridge.

1Melt the chocolate.

 

While still hot, beat in the egg yolks, one at a time.

It will end up looking curdled and be very stiff.

Stir in the butter

 

 

when the mixture is smooth, add the vanilla extract.

2 Whisk  egg whites with a pinch of salt until the whites form stiff peaks.

Fold a heaped spoonful of the whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then carefully fold in the remaining whites.

3 Turn the mixture into the dish and chill it is set (about 4 hours) But if you are filling the cake with it, don't let it set completely.

ENJOY

For the chocolate curls melt 1/2 block of dark chocolate, spread onto a marble slab. I use the top of a lazy susan that broke so it no longer spins but just sits flat. When it is set, but not completely hard, this is trial and error. Shave the top with a cheese slicer or a large kitchen knife. I find the cheese slicer the best. The softer the chocolate the larger the curls, but all size curls add character to the cake.

Double Chocolate Black Forest Torte

Decadent Desserts Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter

Recently when Katherine turned 16 she asked for this cake. This cake has been a favourite for years, ever since my mum gave me Beverley Sutherland Smiths Decadent Desserts cookbook. This cake graces the cover and so it was one of the first beautiful recipes that we made out of that book which has fast become my favourite cookbook. After making it once or twice I decided to substitute the cream with a dense chocolate mousse, I have never used straight whipped cream again. I have changed the recipe slightly to fit my baking dish, as I only have one dish I make the cake twice so I will give the directions for one cake and you just have to make it twice. This cake will serve up to 18 people, and keeps well for a few days in the fridge (good luck trying to keep it there for a couple of days). As it is a cake that you assemble sideways it is really easy to make one or two more cakes to make it bigger.

Chocolate cake
2 tbsp + 2 tsp plain flour (gluten free works well too)
4 tbsp + 2 tsp cocoa
Pinch salt
5 eggs
1/2 cup castor sugar
pinch cream of tartar

Syrup
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp brandy (optional)
2 tbsp kirsch (also optional)
OR I use the juice from the cherries or strong coffee mixed with vanilla

Filling
2 cups cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
750 g cooked cherries
or 2 x 450 g cans pitted
dark cherries, well drained
Or refer to Chocolate Velvet Mousse

To Finish Cake
Additional 600ml cream
1 tbsp sugar
Lots of chocolate shavings
or curls
Icing sugar (optional)

To make the Cake
Butter the base of a baking dish . Line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper. Lightly brush this again with some melted unsalted butter. I used foil here as we had run out of baking paper, foil works ok, but baking paper is better, I also sifted a bit of cocoa onto it.

Sift the flour with the cocoa and salt onto a piece of greaseproof paper.

Separate the eggs and beat the whites with cream of tartar until stiff. Add the sugar and beat until glossy.

With beater on low speed fold in the flour and cocoa mixture

Keep the beater on low and fold in the egg yolks until it is well mixed

Pour the mixture into the baking dish and level the top. Bake in a moderate oven, (180C), for 18 to 20 minutes, or until firm to touch.

Remove from the tin by lifting or sliding out the cake, still on the paper, and leave to cool.
Do not remove the cakes from the paper as it makes them easier to handle when they are assembled.

To make the Syrup
Heat the water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat and cook until reduced to half. Add the brandy and kirsch and allow to cool. OR as stated in ingredients list use the juice from the cherries, or make very strong coffee and mix vanilla extract with it.

To make the Filling and Assemble
Whip the cream until it is stiff. Add the vanilla and mix through. Or make chocolate mousse.

Cut the cakes into three long strips and then, using scissors, cut through the paper. It will be still attached.

Brush one strip of cake with a little syrup, then spread with some cream and press some cherries into the cream. Have your serving platter ready, something about the size of a pizza tray, a dinner plate is too small.

Roll the cake up like a Swiss roll, quite firmly peeling it away from the paper. Place in the centre of the tray. Take a second strip of cake on the paper and put around the outside of the first one, once again peeling away the paper.

It will be a little messy but once chilled it will hold and you can easily tidy it. Continue until you have used up all the cake, cream and cherries. Spread any mousse that has oozed out on top of the cake. Cover lightly with some plastic wrap and chill.

To Finish
Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks and add the sugar. Beat through. Spread over the top and sides of the cake. Cover generously with chocolate shavings or curls, or both.

As you can see the cake is very lopsided, looks like a complete disaster, especially after I remembered that my plate was too small and had to invert it onto a tray. But once it is all covered with cream and chocolate curls it looks like a masterpiece.

Next post I will put the recipe up for the chocolate mousse and curls.

Monday ramblings

I have just sat down with a nice cup of tea and piece of carrot cake after a morning of taking Sarah to work and in the process giving her 25 minutes of driving time and then Katherine the same on the way home and picking up our friend Kurt to spend the school holidays with us. After getting home we finished setting up my wheat grinder so now we can have beautiful fresh ground flour, Another step in getting my family on a healthier diet.

After spending almost 2 years away sharefarming where both Mark and I were milking the cows and spending a lot of time trying to fix the farm where we were, I did not spend much time inside and as a result our diet went down hill, we did have yummy raw milk on tap so we had lots of yoghurt, and smoothes. And the girls all had to step up and take over lots of the household duties, all three can cook very well, and keep up with the house work, but to make life easier we had lots of packaged foods, and the house we lived in was very damp and cold, with black mold covering some walls. The water was undrinkable, the water came from a dam that was murky, the cows had access to it and the ducks spent a lot of time in it, we couldn't even see the bottom of the bath when we ran it. We seemed to get sick more often than usual, I was so tired all the time that I was often frightened to drive the 15 minutes into town, and then so I would make it home I would buy a chocolate bar or iced coffee, and Ayala was sick so often that one of the ladies she works with gave her the name of another doctor,a lady who only sees women, so after so many blood tests she felt like a pin cushion, nothing conclusive has been found. So on moving back home I determined to improve our living conditions, lots of fresh air, sunshine, and weaning ourselves of packaged foods. I brought a juicer about 2 weeks ago, so we have been having all sorts of concotions with fruit and vegetable juices, some really yummy, some have almost caused a mutiny in my kitchen. But with the juices, salads with every evening meal, the most beautiful pure clear water from our well we are all feeling better. So another step in our healthy change was to set up our wheat grinder. I had brought it about 18 years ago and did grind wheat and make bread but I was very young and was in the process of having 3 little girls in 3 years so it became too much, and my pregnancy taste buds weren't inclined to like whole wheat. So the grinder sat in the shed till now. I brought it up to the house and cleaned it up. Dan and I set it up but needed Marks electircal hanyman skills to finish it off. and true to form, as I had started the job of setting it up and not nagging him to do it, he gladly came in and finished the job off, without even being asked, although I had hinted that we needed his expertise.

Now I need to think about what I need to do for the rest of the day. The end of June is here so our tax records need finalising, I have a vege garden that I had wanted to spend an hour every day in, which does not happen very often. but hopefully now that school is out for 2 weeks, Ayala is home, and Kath does not have any more classes although she have to keep up with her Design and Tech, so my taxi driving is limited to Sarah who unlike Ayala has to work regardless of school holidays, so I should be able to get some of the things done that I want/have to get to.

Yummy Cheesecake

This week my husband cellabrated his 40th birthday, no we did not have a party or anything like that as he has a major aversion to parties, especially for birthdays, so it was just us. But I wanted to make him a nice cake and as cheesecakes are his favourite, I went looking for a recipe but couldn't find anything that looked right for the occasion, so I made this one up as bounty bars are also another favourite.

BOUNTY BAR CHEESECAKE

1pkt Timtams
1 pkt cream cheese
250g riccotta
5 tbs castor sugar
1/2 tin coconut cream
4 eggs
12 fun size bounty bars, chopped into 2 or 3 bits

Crush the timtams and spread over the base of a springform tin, I sat the tin over the heater for a few minutes to melt the chocolate a bit then put it in the fridge to set.
Mix the cheeses, sugar and coconut cream together till smooth, then add the eggs and finally fold in the bounty bars. Pour over the base and bake in a slow oven for about an hour or till just set. Take out and cool and top with a dark chocolate ganache.

Sorry I didn't think about photos til it was too late. But the next day was Kaths 16th birthday and she asked for the all time favourite birthday cake in our house, and I did take photos of that so that post is coming soon.

My reason for blogging

After setting up this blog, well getting my talented daughter Katherine to set up the blog, to sell my handmade soap, but instead using it as a means of communicating with our children while we were on our relaxing cruise (which our beautiful children brought us for our 20th wedding anniversary) and then letting it slip as life seems to have a way of overtaking me. I have been doing a bit of soul searching lately as to if I should delete it or dedicate some time to making it work. I seem to spend some time reading other blogs and get a lot of encouragement from women who, like me, are serving God, honoring their husbands, homeschooling, nourishing their families spiritually and physically, and in some cases even farming, all on a budget.

It seems almost daily that I feel I have something that I would like to write down that may encourage somebody else, weather it be something from scripture, or the kitchen, or the garden, or the family. So I will try and continue with the blog, and maybe one day even set up the soap shop.

I started making soap about this time last year when we were sharefarming on a local dairy and the milk prices suddenly dropped, I was racking my brain as to what I could do to value add our milk. We could not afford to put in processing equipment, so I came up with the idea of putting the milk into soap. I had made soap many years ago so I got out my old recipes and did some online research then started to experiment. I used locally produced olive oil, honey, peppermint oil, lavender oil, and eucalyptus oil as well as our milk. Then went to our local farmers market which is only run over the summer, where I was really surprised how well it sold. Gradually over the summer I put the soap into local shops where it slowly sells. So I now want to expand a bit and try to sell online.

I have 10 Minutes

I am trying to time my self as internet time is quite expensive, and very slow. OK where did I get to last time? I think it was Cairns, I have been trying really hard to remember all the meals I know I tried chilled berry and pineapple soup, Last night was scallop and crab gratin which was finely chopped scallops and crab meat with garlic butter and a french roll, then I was really game and tried crocodile kebabs, they were nice but not really much different to chicken, I wont rush out to eat crocodile again. For afternoon tea we ordered room service nachos, and later had a quick bite of sushi in the windjammer, so we were really full by the time dinner came around. Two nights ago I brought the Royal Carribean Cookbook, which came with tickets for a galley tour, we were allowed to take photos, so we did. I have only ever seen 2 commercial kitchens before, one was the myers cafeteria and the other was Faulty Towers at Corryong College. This one has about 6 soup pots each one holds about 58 gallons, not sure exactly what that is in litres but it will be over 200, plus there was the stove tops, grills, salad area, pastry area, ovens. It was massive. No preparation was done there, only cooking, we didn't see preparation area, and silly me forgot to ask exactly how many meals were prepared each day.

Forgot to say Port Douglas was really nice, but we were not prepared to do anything and so took our time to read the tourist info so it was lunch time before we discovered that there was an icecream factory nearby, but it was an hour and a half drive one way, so it was going to be too rushed, so we just walked the shops and the beach before heading back to the ship. Yesterday we were at sea but went to Willis Island, dropped anchor for 1 minute, listened to a conversation with one of the 4 inhabitants,(it is only a weather station that is manned year round). The reason for the visit out there was that we were in international waters so we could get the shopping duty free and the ship could get the diesel tax free, when you have to fill 3 million litres at a time you want any discount you can get. Today is at sea, had a bbq lunch, black forest cake for breakfast, saw dolphins and a turtle while Mark was elsewhere with the camera, then we saw heaps of flying fish, now it is time to get one of my scrapbooking mags and go sit in the sun. My 10 minutes was up 10 minutes ago. OH dear!!!!!Tomorrow is Brisbane, not sure what we are doing but we will try and do it early.

First real post

Ok, I have been trying to get to this for ages but this is the first time I have actually said, "that is it, I am going to do it". I cant put any photos up but I can write.

Last Friday my husband and I left home to go on a cruise that our wonderful children brought for us for our 20th wedding anniversary. We got up at 5.30 am to get ready to leave at 7.30, we had to drive for an hour and a half to get to the airport where we boarded a plane to fly to Sydney, it is a very aprehensive thing to get on a plane waving goodbye to your children knowing that you are not going to see them for 10 days. We got into the plane, (as Aaron Wilbourne says you get in the plane not on the plane, do you know what on a plane will do to you?) and watched the 4 beautiful faces that are our children for as long as we could. Then we were in the air and less than an hour later we were in Sydney, after meeting a lady from our home town at the Sydney airport while picking up our bags, we caught a taxi to take us to the ship, our mouths fell open seeing the size of her, I know this ship is only a small one but it is huge for country people like us who only see ships on TV. We boarded the ship after taking some photos and watching a contortionist so some street theatre. We thought we would check in our bags and then go and get some lunch, but after we checked in the bags we were told that our rooms weren't ready yet but we could eat in the cafe up on deck 9, so we found our way there and beheld the biggest buffet we had ever seen so we grabbed a plate and wondered around trying to decide what to eat first, we picked fish and chips and a corn salad and a chick pea salad, (yes kids Dad ate the chick pea salad LOL!!) not just any fish and chips though this food was 5 star. Then we wondered around and took in the sights of Sydney from the ship. There was a lady who had started running laps of the ship, we thought she is really getting the feel of the place early. While we were out a plane flew overhead and started sky writing, the first letter was a J so we thought he will write Jesus, and he did, then he kept on going and ended up writing Jesus all about life. A Good Friday Message I guess. We got some photos but the first words were gone before he finished the last. At 6.30pm we set sail, I guess thats what you call it. Thankfully we weren't like Mrs Bucket when she went on the QE2!!! So we stayed out side till the Sydney harbour and Skyline disappeared from view. Yes Dan we did see the tower after the ship started to sail. At 8:30 was our dinner time, we were so tired and not feeling very well. We were introduced to Teodore from Bulgaria as our waiter and Daniella as our assistant waitress,(not sure where Daniella is from yet) Our glasses were filled with water and a selection of bread rolls were offered I picked a sour dough, Mark had a wholegrain, the next time around i think we had onion, or savoury. I cant remember what we had for entree but I think the flavours were Andalusuan it was beautiful any way, for Mains I had Roasted Rib of beef, with a rosemary baked potato. Mark chose the pan fried sirloin steak, we were so tired we passed on desert. The next day we were all at sea, we had all day to explore, which was a good thing as we had our bearings in the harbour but as soon as the ship started moving we lost all bearings and took the wrong lift to our room and then turned the wrong corner, we were still on level 2 but we were heading to the front of the ship instead to the back to our rom, in our wonderings we found quite a few other people doing the same thing. We headed back up to the top observation deck and the lady was still running around. Breakfast was room service and we chose a fruit platter coffee and a selection of danish pastries, we took a photo because the milk that was offered was Devondale, so that was a bit of excitement for us maybe we will put it in the next devondale paper. Lunch we chose again from the buffet and dinner was formal so the suit and little black dress came out food again just wonderful: entree, smoked fish tapenade; main, Roasted Duck with steamed shredded beetroot; I don't remember what dessert was but we weren't aloud to leave before dessert again, Teodore wouldn't let us. Yes I ate the Beetroot, well some of it, and Marks main included asparagus and yes he ate that too. Rob one of the men on our table decided that he would be game and try escargot, Teodore said if he didn't like it he could get something else, so Rob tried it and was pleasantly surprised. I am now hoping that it will come back on the menu before the end of our cruise so I can try it. After dinner we went to a comedy show, which was brilliant, the comedian was a singer and took off heaps of different singers, he was great.

Day 3: more of the same, all day at sea. Breakfast same as yesterday but this time we added cereal, lunch something else from the buffet. This buffet is so dangerous I will fill my plate and then decide that I just need to get a bread roll or some cuttlery or a drink (all very innocent) and the I will see some thing that I need to try, there are so many foods that I have heard about on the net or in books and here they all are, so what am I to do, I have to get another plate and fill it up too!! Our friend is still running, we havent started that yet but we always try and take the stairs, which is handy being on the 2nd deck and the main food is on the 9th. Entertainment tonight was a violin solo, The first song we heard him play was called the hot canary, and it sounded just like a canary swinging in a cage, and then you could hear the cat go MEOW. He played everything from Classical to Gypsy, all his own work, He was amazing. My girls would have loved that show.

Day 4: Ship docked off Airlie Beach, we were up early and had breakfast if the Windjammer Buffet, see above paragraph about yesterdays food, there are eggs of every kind, bacon (crispy and soft) sausages, hash browns, pancakes, breads and pastries, fruit, bircher muesli, porridge, grits, biscuits and gravy, cheeses, smoked salmon, add to that standard boxed cereals, yoghurt and heaps more. Any way I was saying that we had to be up early to catch a catermaran out to the barrier reef to spend the day snorkeling, the cat ride was a bit rough and there were alot of green people hanging off the end, we were all right but only just. After doing a quick check out of the underwater viewing area and having a cup of tea and buying an underwater camera we put on the snorkelling gear and jumped in. I hadn't done this since I was 15 and then I had done it once before when I was 13. When I was 13 I was very frightened and got quite panicky, it took Dad quite a bit of encouraging to help me gain my confidence, but the I didn't look back, however this time as we were swimming out to the reef, which isn't far, I got really panicky again and had a really hard time telling myself to realx, I knew there was nothing to worry about but it still took every thing within me to keep swimming. I did have to go back and change my goggles as the ones I was wearing were too big and leaked. The next time I jumped in I was fine, and we swam for about 2 hours. As I was swimming I realised that I was fulfilling a lifelong desire to swim in a coral reef with the love of my life. How romantic to be swimming in one of the most beautiful places on earth holding hands with the one you love. Lunch was served on the cat, which we almost missed, but one of the attendants quickly grabbed a couple of plates and filled them with salad and cold meat, which was really sweet of her. Suddenly we were headed back to our ship. We were too tired to wait for dinner so we grabbed something from the Windjammer, and headed to bed.

Day 5: Docked in Cairns, Dad picked us up from the ship after we sent him on a bit of a wild goose chase thinking that the ship was docking somewhere else, but it was all good in the end. He took us back to his place and we were able to do some washing, then we headed up to Kuranda where we had yummy wild Baramundi in the Pub for lunch, after which we wondered around the shops which were nice but all very touristy, then Mai bought us tickets for the sky rail which is a cable car that runs back into carins. The weather was rainy and foggy and we weren't able to see far but it was still really spectacular. We got off very quickly at Baron Falls which was flooding and raced back to the skyrail. Dad picked us up back in Cairns and we headed back to his place for a coffee, then took some photos of us infront of the boat. We were back on the boat in time to see the movie "The Blind Side". It finished too late for us to have dinner and when we went up to the windjammer it was closed for cleaning. I suggested the nest day to Teodore that we thought of coming in late to the restaurant and seing if he could sneak us some food, he laughed and said "of course I would find you something".

Will post more later when I pay for another internet plan.

Spring has sprung

Well spring sprung about a month ago, but with all the beautiful weather the garden is coming alive. I have been spending alot of my time outside, my back is still a bit sore and now very itchy from some sun burn I got last weekend, and I didn't think that I was outside in my singlet for that long. Back in August I started some seeds in my kitchen, I started some seeds of tomatoes, pumpkins, onions, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, lettuces and wombuk cabbages. These were all on the top of my combustion stove where I could watch them and water them every day, and in the process get very excited every time a seed sprouted, some didn't sprout as the seeds were too old. We then pulled the broken swings off an old swing set our children had out grown and covered it with plastic and now we have a nice little green house, so that is where our seedlings went. Now that the days are getting warmer I pulled out the cabbages and lettuces and planted some of them, I am still in the process of making beds for the rest of them. It is safe to put them out as the frost wont hurt them and we are still in danger of frost for about another month. Then the tomatoes were needing to be separated, I wanted to buy some jiffy pots so I could just plant the whole pot when the time came. But my budget was too tight, and our local hardware didn't have any. So I thought of an idea Katherine had about a year ago to make newspaper pots. So I went to our newsagent and asked for old newspapers, she said I only have these three stacks here but you can have them. When I got home I set her to work, she put on her favourite DVD and made pots, lots of pots.

These are some of the pots she made.

Then we lined them up and filled them with dirt, again I didn't have the money for potting mix so we used nice soil from our garden

I didn't think to get photos before I started separating the tomatoes but here is what is left.

And after they have been put in the pots, some of them are abit sad, but I watered them and fertilised them and put them back in the green house now they are happy again

Since doing the tomatoes a new lot of seed has arrived and we have put pumpkins, rockmelons, and watermelons in our newspaper pots. And I have LOTS of newspaper left over for mulch as the weeds are growing as fast as everything else.