"The Ridge"

We  were ready for another break away and a few of Brian's family were gathering  out near Lightning Ridge at an opal mine that belongs to  one of the brothers'.
So we hooked our old caravan on and hit the road.
We headed up through Coonamble and Walgett where the  country becomes very flat,

We were not staying in town at Lightning Ridge itself so ,

we met Brian's brother at the turn off and then followed  him to the campsite as we hadn't been there before. It's been so terribly dry out this way  and the dust was evidence of this, but at least they didn't disappear as the plume of dust could be seen for kilometres.

The area around Lightning Ridge has a lunar landscape feeling about it, all these strange little white mounds of stones and soil where people have drilled holes to test for evidence of opal or have sunk some of the thousands of underground opal mines seeking their fortune.

I got quite a surprise when we got to the mine/camp site as it was on a much larger scale than I had imagined.
My brother in law had opted to mine in the open cut fashion instead of the traditional underground
style.

Brian  put the drone up while we were there and took some overhead pictures of the site as well.

From up high you can see all those little white heaps scattered all over the area.
He also took an aerial photo of our campsite and surrounding countryside.

Everything is big out there, I felt dwarfed by some of the machinery,

Brian had a ball, like a big kid in a giant sand pit playing with the big Tonka bulldozer and front end loader.

Each night we were at camp this group of feral  goats would  come to visit and we would see evidence that that they also would wander through the camp once we all retired to bed.

We had a great time with the family  that were in camp with us, living off the BBQ each night and sitting around chatting and catching up with all the family news since we were last together.

The camp was basic but fairly well equipped, we had  power throughout the day supplied from a big generator and then we would switch over to our battery power in the caravan overnight.
There was a work kitchen in a hut, a separate shower and toilet  with water supplied  from 3  X 1000 litre pods, filled by the boys from a nearby hot  artesian bore.

The boys worked hard each day, needing to take a break here and there( they are not as young as they used to be, and I love this photo of Brian's brother with his  dog Molly having a bit of down time.

After work they often opted to take their showers at one of the rustic hot artesian  that are scattered around the area.

The water  coming from these showers is really hot, nearly to the point of requiring  cold to be added.
We girls, the gang of sister's in law opted for another  place of relaxation.
There is a concrete tub out in the paddock , with a plug in the bottom and an overflow and once the tap is turned on pumps a continuous flow of wonderful  hot relaxing water.

Most afternoons just on dusk we could be found sitting, laughing and chatting in the hot water.
As the tub overflowed it ran along and into a stock dam where cattle came and drank their fill.

Here were beautiful birds there as well each evening, this galah that came back each time we were there and the other beautiful parrot which I think is a mallee ringneck.

We had a tour through an old abandoned farm/homestead/shearing shed. It hasn't had people living there for many years and it was wonderful to see it, It was the style of home that I have always loved.

The home had three very large long screen enclosed verandahs and I could just imagine spending a lot of time out there.

Off the kitchen was the most amazing walk in pantry and I  though about all my preserving jars and  about how good they would have looked in there.

The shearing shed was amazing, a 5 stand shed that immediately took me back to my childhood on the farm where I grew up and how I adored shearing time.

I especially loved the old Lister engine in the drive room that used to run all the overhead sharing equipment and the old stove that was in the kitchen of the old shearer's quarters.

We also went to town one morning , Easter is a really big  weekend in Lightning Ridge, with stalls and markets, piglet races and all sorts of events spread over the weekend to entertain the many visitors that flock to town. We  decided that to do it justice , we would return another time at Easter to take in all the activities on offer. We wandered a little and took the kids to the hot pools filled with naturally heated artesian water for a swim.

The men spent each day digging the earth and loading it into trucks and carting it to the washery where it was  dumped into a big hopper, passed up the conveyor belt and into the top wash plant where all the earth, clay and  rubbish is washed away from the stones,

After the bulk earth  is washed in the first high drum, it is then all transferred to the lower drum.
It is then released  down the shoot,

And then the search for the precious opal begins.

My sister in law and myself spent many hours  "playing" at the washery, we stood knee deep in liquid clay and stones and searched for that precious hit of colour, but alas all we found were a few chips. The one downside was the awful heat and the  horrible flies.....

  Brian also did a drone shot of the washery area.

The men did a lot of machine maintenance at night,

Opals truly are a thing of beauty, and it was fun  having a week up there looking for them, although we personally didn't find any valuable stones for the brother in law, we were shown some that had been found while we were there.

They are stunning, and I can understand why so many people have traveled to the Ridge and decided to stay there and make it their life's dream and work. Lightning Ridge  is full of many different people  from all countries and all walks of life, many eccentric and unusual people that have to be  seen to be believed. There are also many people that live in various locations all over Australia and just come to The Ridge a few weeks a year to work their small claims hoping to strike it rich, such is the pull of that elusive magnificent black opal of Lightning Ridge.
We had a wonderful "holiday" up at Lightning Ridge and Brian is already planning  for when he can go back to play in the  big sandpit again.
So until we meet again,
Take care of you and yours,
Cheers
Jane and Brian.

Preserving production overload.

It has been a very hectic few weeks here at the farm, our list of to do jobs seemed to be ever increasing.
I had intended to update  the blog a  little more often but alas  time has just eluded me.
This will be a catch up  of some of the things that have kept us busy of late.
Firstly our long awaited  new rain water tank arrived,

And as our luck usually runs the driver announced that he couldn't turn the truck around in the allocated space and decided that Brian and his brother  needed to pull down a fence to allow him better access.

Brian did warn him to avoid  an area  that he had ripped as it would be  soft , but unfortunately  he didn't heed the warning and went down.
So out came the trusty little red  tractor and Brian  had to give him a helping hand out.

After  pulling up near the  prepared tank site, Brian  balanced the tank  with the tractor bucket on the downhill side and the driver placed straps over the tank and  gently lowered it off the truck to the ground.

We then pushed the tank onto it's  permanent position,

Brian  has since  connected up all the pipes to the new roof  guttering and it all works  well, we even had some rain a few days ago  that tested it out.
We have had a huge surplus  of garden produce  from our little garden plot, the habaneros have started  to ripen,

and one of the things that we used them   for was to dehydrate them and  blitz into a powder to be used  throughout the year.

The zucchini have also  gone mad,

So we have made 4 huge batches of zucchini mustard pickles (about 120 jars).

The parrots started to invade our quince trees a few weeks ago,  so we picked the small crop and left the fruit inside for a couple of weeks  to hopefully ripen a little more, which it did slightly.

We adore quinces and I just love how they turn that glorious peachy colour when they are stewed or preserved.
I travelled to visit  our older daughter  and the grand kids for a few days while her husband was away for work.We have a new little grandson  who is just 3 months old and is doted upon by his big two sisters.
We had a lovely few days together, attending a few activities with the kids and just hanging out together which was lovely.
One of the things we did  was a truly  lovely thing and I am very proud of my daughter and her friends who do this.
I was invited to accompany them on their annual Easter visit to one of the local nursing homes with the children to hand out Easter eggs and spend a few minutes chatting to the elderly residents.

It was so incredibly beautiful to see the faces of all those sweet elderly residents as the children interacted with them. I think this was  such a lovely thing  to do and teaches the children  that it really is good to give a little and  not to expect anything but a smile or a  thank you in return.
Around that same time  I attended a basic cheese making class that my younger daughter had given to me for my birthday. A few years ago the kids had put together and purchased a cheese making kit for me, but I hadn't got round to taking a class. It was a small group of 8 which was a nice number to be with, they were a lovely group of girls and I hope to keep in touch  with some of them in the future.
It was a fun day and our instructor Lyn  passed on the basics to us in a friendly casual manner. Lyn supplied samples of all the different types of cheese she was preparing for us to try.

We learned to make feta, haloumi, ricotta, mascapone, labne, yoghurt and a few others.
Lyn  served a lovely morning tea/lunch  which was made up of  delicious items to eat all made from the cheeses that we were learning to make.There were cheese cakes, warm ricotta pudding, sweet mascapone,dips,cheeses and crackers  and other yummy treats.

It was a most enjoyable learning experience and once back  home I got in and began making some cheese.
The first thing I made was feta,

I was  very proud of my achievements  and have made a few batches since.  One of the batches I decided to marinate the feta into  sunflower oil with  herbs,garlic, olives, chilli,

Our jalapeno  chilli have also been producing well,

Brian has always loved those sliced jalapeno  rings that you get on Subway  rolls, so I decided to try and replicate them the best I could.

We ended up getting about 3 dozen jars of these and they have  been very popular with Brian.
I also decided to make some more jalapeno jelly,

This green jelly has been such a winner, it seems to be very popular everywhere I take it.
I have made 4 double batches of it now so am finally beginning to build up a supply.
The habaneros  have also now  been over producing,

and I decided to use the green chilli jelly recipe and make a red version.
I just used about a dozen habaneros and made up the balance of the weight with red capsicum( bell peppers),

This is a beautiful jelly, sweet but with a really nice chilli kick, much more than the milder green jelly.

I have made four double batches of the red jelly as well. Our local Anglican church is having a boot sale and market day next month and I hope to have a small stall  selling, pickles, sauces, and the jellies.
I also made  some Vietnamese pickle which is a mix of  julienned carrot and daikon radish flavoured with star anise ,sugar and vinegar, this is beautiful  on a salad plate.

Yesterday I had another cheese making  day, this time I tried halloumi( I thought it may be lovely cut into cubes,and placed on skewers along with  button mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and grilled for a nice non meat option for Good Friday lunch)

We are attending a family gathering at Easter and I have been making the extra cheeses for everyone to enjoy, I hope they like them as much as we do. I am thoroughly enjoying  making the yoghurts and cheeses and as time progresses I hope to venture into more types of cheese making.
We finally have had a few showers of rain and Brian got out the mower last week for the first time in ages.  The lawn and paddocks are finally greening up a bit, but more rain is certainly needed or all will be lost as soon as winter hits..

It has been  a jam packed wonderful but thoroughly exhausting few weeks, I have had a lot of fun, enjoyed myself , produced a massive amount of jars for the pantry and for sale and  learned  a lot of new  lessons .
I am looking forward to Easter, it will be nice to  down tools for a while so to speak, and just relax and catch up with family and friends.
I will try and catch up again  before too long, but life really does get in the way, but  that is a good thing as life  is what is most important.
So Hooray  for now until we meet again down the track,
Take care
Cheers
Jane and Brian.