The Inner Child Inside Me.

 It's funny how small things and events from our childhood stay in our memory and sometimes  become probably more important in our minds than what they really were at the time.

I have very fond memories as a child and as a young teenager happily spending time at one of our local town's  parks while my parents were doing other business and activities that I wasn't involved with.

I had a particular attraction to two main pieces of equipment in the park, the glider swing and the pyramid climbing frame.

Many years passed and I grew up, married, moved away and had children and then we returned for a few years before leaving again for the coast. Our local playgroup had a "Teddy Bears Picnic" in the park and that day is the only early photograph I have of the glider swing( albeit a bad copy) and another great old metal rocker style seesaw.

Many years have passed and I now have 5 amazing grandchildren  aged from 3years to 10 years and since we have been at the farm I have always wanted an old style playground for them to play on when they visit.

During the years  the old equipment became a little dated and the town park equipment was replaced with so called more child friendly pieces that a grant had been obtained for. It was  many years  until we had returned and we went to dinner one night at our local bowling club only to find "my" glider swing and climbing frame in residence there in their  little playground.

A few more years passed and about 18 months ago  we heard that  the bowling club had obtained a grant  and were replacing the playground with a new child safe  fancy model, so we approached the committee and asked if they were going to sell the old equipment and if so could we have first offer to purchase it. Last year we received a phone call on a Friday morning to ask if we were still interested and if so we could have it for free as long as we came and removed it over the weekend as the new equipment was being delivered on the Monday, we  agreed immediately. 

We borrowed  a neighbour's truck and went in prepared to dig out the equipment only to be pleasantly surprised to find that they had already got someone to lift the pieces out.

 

We had to smash off the concrete  at the bases of the legs and load the swing on the truck,

The large swing frame had to be fully dismantled,

It along with the free standing climbing pyramid were then loaded onto the truck.

Part of our free deal was that we were to remove all the concrete, dirt and grass and leave the site  totally clear which we were more than happy to do.

Brian unloaded them  with the tractor and we stored them for a few months until we  had time to sort out what we would do.

We made a decision on where we would locate my playground ,and Brian leveled off an area just outside the yard  where we could see it from the kitchen and outdoor area.

Brian once again relocated the pieces to the new area with his trusty tractor.

Our son arrived for a short visit and helped to rebuild the big swing,

He also did some welding repairs that were needed on the top of the climbing frame.

My little playground was beginning to take shape.

One of our cats , really loves the climbing frame and we often see her out there climbing and jumping off it.

We added a few modern attachments to the large swing and an existing swing that we previously had inside the yard, and Brian checked them out for safety( he said if they held him they were safe for the kids).

We purchased some nice good quality timber to replace the old seats that were broken on the glider swing.

Then, I painted numerous  coats of oil to hopefully protect the seats for many years to come.

Brian brought down a few logs from up the back to create a border on the edge of the playground and still has to bring a couple more down to finish the boundary lines.

When the local laundromat washing machine died , it needed to be taken to the dump  and we offered, we also asked if we could remove the metal inside drum to create a temporary fire pit until we can get a more permanent one.

Brian also cut a few stumps to serve as temporary seats around the fire.

The plan is to lay bark chips under the play equipment and crushed metal in the fire pit area as we get time.

Last week we recycled 2 old posts that were the original supports(there were 4) off our small awning that was at the back door of the house where our big outdoor covered area now is and made them into the gate posts for entry into the playground area.

We now have a great little gateway into the area instead of climbing over the fence or taking the long way around.

We have had the grandchildren and other children  visit and they all loved the new playground, but I have to admit this playground  is equally as much for me as  the inner child in me often finds me  out on the glider swing, glass of wine in hand just swinging and relaxing.

I am so glad we were able to save these old gems, not just for history's sake but for me too, I just adore my lovely new/old playground and I am so grateful  to Brian for making this become a reality for me.

So, until we meet again, take care and  stay safe,

Cheers

Jane and Brian.

The Swinging Pendulum of Nature.

 That erratic  pendulum of nature has finally decided to swing back in our favour and this year has been so much kinder to us here on our little farm.

We have had beautiful rain, the tanks are full, the grass green and even needing slashing and the garden and  our orchard producing extremely well and providing an abundance of fruit.

I have not posted for over 12 months and it was a post that came to my attention from a fellow blogger that also hadn't posted for quite a while that spurred me into action.  This post will be mainly a pictorial post of the preserving and food storage that we have done over the last couple of months.

This year we have been in a very fortunate position , one we are very grateful for  in which we have been regularly gifted fruit and vegetables from our next door neighbour who is involved in produce moving and we have been the lucky recipients of left overs and  surplus goods.

When pears came, we had visitors and they jumped straight in to help us.

Another day it was potatoes ,carrots and sweet potatoes, so we canned the potatoes, froze and canned  the carrots and cooked and mashed and froze the sweet potatoes.

We did potato chunks and potato chips .

 

Another day, another lot of preserving, we started bottling so much as our freezers were beyond bursting at the seams.

Brian has been my ever hard working helper assisting me with the prep work wherever possible.

I am grateful for all of this and am  also pleased that I have been able to onwards gift some of this both to our neighbours and others.

Somebody in town donated a couple of boxes of citrus to our local craft shop and unable to find interest from anyone to purchase them they were gifted to me.

We put them through our food processor,

We made batch after batch of  marmalade.

We were gifted apples, so we made apple sauce, apple slices and juiced them  and put  it  in bottles for the pantry.

They gifted us peaches,

So we preserved them in my old Fowlers Vacola bottles.

We were given bags of onions , so we made whole pickled onions,

Sliced sweet pickled onions,

and, also dehydrated onions, along with dehydrated zucchini and capsicums.

 

We also  made pickled beetroot, pickled red cabbage and bread and butter cucumbers from the garden.

It was about at this time the real full on work began, our fruit on the  trees in the orchard  although not perfectly ready for picking, had to be rescued from the parrots, so we picked.......

Apricots and Plumcots.

We made many, many batches of  Apricot  sauce and Apricot Chilli sauce, both look identical but one has a nice Habanero Chilli kick.

 

We also made many batches of Apricot Jam.

A new one for us this year was Plumcot Jam.

Then Brian's brother who also lives next door  offered us the remainder of their plums off their tree as they were going away and wouldn't have time to process them, so over we went and picked them also.

It was at this time our other wonderful neighbours returned from Sydney with 4 boxes of luscious pluots ( a cross between a plum and apricot, but mainly plum)

From all this wonderful; produce, we made  huge amounts of plum sauce and Chilli plum sauce.( once again identical except for the kick).

Our son was visiting and helped with the prep.

 

Vast amounts of plum jam,

There were also enough to do many bottles of plums for the pantry as well.

Our surplus of tomatoes from our garden also saw us bottle tomatoes and  pasta sauce for future use.

Our pear tree also had to be picked early due to the birds,

After letting them sit to further ripen for about 10 days we then bottled them for the pantry.

Along the way we have also been gifted, cauliflowers, green tomatoes and chokos from which we have made many batches of sweet mustard pickles.

The following recipe is for my pickles. I use any or all of the listed base vegetables,(I have also been adding a bag of frozen  mixed homebrand vegies) the next morning after they have soaked in the salty water overnight and have been brought to the boil I place in a colander and rinse them off before adding back to the pot and adding the vinegar and sugar.I don't waterbath, I have boiling hot pickles, hot jars and hot lids, screw the lid on after filling and sit on a board(right way up) until they seal.

It has been a massive few months, there has been a lot going on here at the farm and this is just a bit of it.

We are stuck here at the moment  and have been since the 3rd of December( but that's another story to be shared soon) and are truly in need of a break away.

The preserving has been full on  and we are exhausted, but the opportunity to put all that food away in these uncertain and  unpredictable times  could not be knocked back or refused and we are glad we  did it.

Hopefully I will have time now to update again before too long.

Until we catch up again,

Please take care and stay safe,

Cheers

Jane and Brian.