Farewell Inverness

Today is our last full day in Boort, tomorrow we hit the road again after being at 'Inverness' for over a month. The time, of course, has gone way too fast, but we did cram a lot in - a trip to Mildura for New Years, five days on a houseboat on Lake Eildon, skiing and wakeboarding on the lake here in Boort, playing with Tilly, shooting, Matt's been working with Tyler, Kate and I have been (attempting) to paint the house.

Last night we headed out to a nearby crop of sunflowers, I'd been meaning to go out there at about 8pm for weeks, then when we finally got around to it most of them were dead! Oops. There were a few hangers-on, as well as some killer light and straw stacks.

Today I actually worked! I had a job to shoot for a blog reader who lives in nearby Pyramid Hill and is a part of Tyler and Kate's church family. Alison and her husband John just bought a new farm and she wanted some landscapes to hang on their walls. Their three little blondies were a bit too cute too. Low and behold on the Boort-Pyramid Road there was another crop of sunny beauties, this time in full bloom. Bonus (but pity about the light).

 

Tonight we are headed to Lake Merren (near Kerang) to camp the night before we head to Melbourne tomorrow. Our original plan was to head to Queensland straight from Boort, stopping in at my sister's in Brisbane for a week long visit. Since we left though they have moved from Brisbane to Melbourne! We also want to go back to Inverloch and Thorpdale while we're still in the state and then head up the coast to Sydney before heading inland through New England and see some farming country we haven't before.

That's the rough plan anyway - we'll keep you posted. The Steendam's are on the road again! We've had an amazing time here in Boort, as we always do. Such a great part of the world, especially with all the lakes full in summer, and a beautiful community. The hugest thanks and bittersweet farewell to our generous hosts and entertainers Tyler and Kate, love you guys xxx

Discing Up A Storm

Tyler and Matt have got busy here discing, creating a lot of dust as they go. Kate and I have been entertaining ourselves by (almost) starting painting the house, playing with Tilly and coffee excursions to The Cup and Saucer in Boort.

This week we're going to Lake Eildon with Tyler's family on his grandparents houseboat. Bound to be lots more skiing, eating and relaxing. Before we know it it will be the end of January and our time at Inverness will be up. Time flies when you're having fun.

Pseudo-Christmas Feast

Our lovely hostess with the mostess, Kate, had a 'hand of pork' in the freezer. We arrived at Inverness laden with a plum pudding (made by my clever mum for us to eat Christmas night at Matt's family Christmas, but it never eventuated). Basically, both items were begging me to make a roast meal out of them. A pseudo-Christmas feast with our pseudo-family here in Boort.

First of all Kate and I had to google what a 'hand of pork' is. Turns out it's the foreleg of the pig, sort of like a shoulder of pork...but not. Some further googling had me convinced that I needed to try Jamie Oliver's slow roasted version. 

Kate went to Bendigo for the day, and I got to work scoring fat and rubbing salt into my 'hand of pork' to get some crackling out of my miss piggy. 

Six hours later, some roast potatoes, my friend Ange's recipe for an amazing thing called 'parsnip puff' and an equally amazing gravy made with the juices from the pork - we had our pseudo-Christmas feast. 

The pork wasn't as amazing as I was hoping for (although everyone seemed quite pleased with it). I don't think I wrapped it tightly enough in the foil so it may have dried out a bit. The gravy however was delicious, and after thinking my usual awesome roast potatoes wouldn't work as well due to the low temperature of the oven for the pork, they seemed to crisp up enough. Success!

Boil mum's pudding for an hour, serve with lashings of brandy custard and ho ho ho - meeerrry Christmas...in January?! 

We're off to Swan Hill tonight for dinner at an (apparently) good Thai restaurant with my friend from school, Olivia, and her fiance Andy who now live in Robinvale. Swan Hill is a bit over an hour from Boort, halfway to Robinvale. Should be a hoot!

Meet 'Tilly'

Yesterday was slightly cooler, Kate and I ventured south east to the nearby town of Inglewood and picked up this little bundle of shaking fur...

Meet 'Tilly' - she is Tyler's Christmas present to Kate, a Jack Russell x Fox Terrier pup. 

We pulled up in front of two houses in Inglewood, a relatively nice house and a relatively very 'rough' looking house. We couldn't read the numbers at first and secretly hoped the nicer looking house held Kate's new pup. Unfortunately it didn't and we crept into the yard of the second house with the falling down front fence and gutters, littered with kids toys, bikes and general rubbish. Oh dear. 

We joked that it was like RSPCA puppy rescue mission! Unfortunately it turned out more like that than we joked about. We were handed a box at the front door with the tiniest runt of a puppy inside, all quivering and with bulging eyes. The ad in the classifieds had said 6 weeks old.

"When was she born?"

"December 3rd"

Clearly maths was not these people's forte. We basically just wanted to get out of there after an incident with a 6 year old telling us we were lesbians and then his old sister yelling for his mum to tell Jake to $#%! off. Nice. 

We couldn't get out of there fast enough. When we eventually got the little pup home we discovered she was riddled with fleas, ticks, mites, had worms which might account for her bulging eyes, big head and lack of growth. She was also just generally filthy so we gave her a bath in warm water and eucalyptus oil, which seemed to kill most of the fleas/ticks/mites which were crawling all over her, especially on her face and ears. Kate combed them out with a nit comb and Tilly promptly vomited three times all over her new custodian. Being a mother isn't very glamorous is it? quipped Kate.

Last night Tilly didn't cry too much, she slept in a box in the laundry, shaking herself to sleep as she was so scared. This morning she is much better, cleaner, happier. Yesterday she wouldn't leave the darkness of Kate's arm, now she is exploring a little bit on the grass.

She is off to the vets to get a check up and for pseudo-mum's Kate and I to be advised on how on earth to deal with a pup who clearly should still be with her mum?! 

We've decided though that she is much better off with us and healthy, than with her mum but struggling to grow and survive. 

Poor little Tilly. She's started off life a bit behind the 8 ball, but she's going to be ok. She's tiny, tough, Tilly. 

We're off! Welcome to Inverness...

A new year, a new blog. A new adventure awaits us.

Here on The Happy Campers we will track our progress on our around-Australia honeymoon. We don't have a timeframe that we plan to be away for - a year? Two? Five? Ten?! We don't have a home or jobs to come back to, we've packed up all our belongings into storage and re-homed our three dogs. Nomadic gypsy's indeed.

We finally pulled out of the Brindabella driveway at 12.17am on Wednesday 21st December. At last on our way to Boort, our first stop on our adventure, helping our great mates Tyler and Kate with their grain harvest on the family farm 'Inverness'.

Three days of chaser bin driving for Matt, with Tyler in his prized header, to get the crop off before Christmas. We had planned to get up to Boort four days earlier but totally underestimated the painful process of moving/packing!

Kate is a primary teacher and was still working with school not yet finished for the year. I busied myself making lunches for the boys and taking it out to Leaghur where they were harvesting, about fifteen minutes from Inverness.

The mallee heat was a rude awakening to living 'north of the divide'. We figure we are acclimatising ourselves gradually as we head further north?! 

We do love how very different the landscape is up here compared to our lush green rolling hills of Gippsland. It makes for a nice change, if not a stark contrast!

I made myself at home, making rocky road for Christmas and loving Kate's cute Aussie Christmas tree. No pines up here I guess, not like at home in Thorpy. Boort's a nice little town, with a small supermarket, a few pubs, hardware, little cafe and very friendly locals. My trip to the supermarket was met by lots of smiles and hat tips. Lovely.

We headed back to Gippsland for Christmas with our families, before turning around and really starting our journey north (we're not sure if we will be back 'home' before leaving Boort). Back at Inverness to start our five week stint here, the first day back we went for a wakeboard and biscuit on Little Lake Boort. Needless to say Matt thinks he's in heaven, even if he can't sit still as he's 'on holidays' and not working!

Settling in well to life at Inverness I would say...