Lost

I tell you that cycling for four hours looking for two lost dogs in the bush is not an ideal way to spend a Good Friday morning. Or any Morning. Anyway why is it called Good Friday, I don't think Jesus,if he existed , thought that it was such a terrific day. The Keenan Kelpies decided that it was a good day however to go belting after a mob of kangaroos and disappear howling like Banshees into the far distance and over the Hundred Line road and into the nether regions north of Tarpeena. No amount of calling would entice them back so I cycled home to see if they had made it before me, but they hadn't. So I cycled back from where I had come and proceeded to quarter the forest through the fire break tracks, calling out like a Banshee myself for the dogs to return. No result and I had nearly given up when I saw their tracks crossing my old cycle tracks so I knew they had to be in the general area. Then I saw them and they me and we reunited in a flurry of paws and hands and darting tongues, theirs not mine! I don't know who was the most relieved as if I had returned home empty handed the prospect of facing Nuran and John who have become as attached to the dogs as I am was not one I relished. Anyway they were home safe and sound.Four hours on a mountain bike saddle is not good and I walked like a cowboy for an hour afterwards.
Don and Liz came around after tea. Don for darts and Liz to drive a drunk Don home. Liz watched a Bollywood movie with Nuran and so enjoyed it that even though the darts were over she insisted on seeing the ending. It was a three way contest in darts and John was the clear winner. Whether that was because he is only drinking water at the moment and we weren't, or whether his darts have improved is a matter of perception but the facts are he won clearly despite Don getting a 180 which busted him so didn't count ( he did win that game so felt justified in trying for it). I had a few scores of note, 3 long necks of Home Brew I think was the main one, and made the tea afterwards.
A pretty Good Friday after all.

Jewels of Tarpeena

So here are two belles of Tarpeena, one with jewellery on
and the other when she was a model for professional hair stylist and makeup artists. Now Nuran has no problem wearing gems and in fact there are two more items on their way from Hong Kong as I write! But Roxy is adamant that her ears don't need embellishing or being pierced and going by the photo she's probably right but it's nice to buy jewellery for a girl as you don't have to worry so much about size and makes birthday presents easy. Roxy's grandmother has warned her about the devilish forces that prevail in Tarpeena and predicted that she will return home overweight, married and with pierced ears! Now really!
Still if we keep eating the way we do and Roxy stops exercising the way she does then Grandma may get one prediction right. It's true we have been working on the pierced ears bit without success and if you wont get your ears pierced then I don't suppose you will let someone marry you off. It seems Grandma has it all wrong!
Or has warned her favourite granddaughter in time.

The world is our oyster

We had to go to town, (Mount Gambier) yesterday as I needed a filter for the water system. We have been managing without one as pure rainwater had been coursing through the pipes since our last rain event. Isn't it marvellous how jargon changes, rain event! The old filter had got completely blocked so the pressure pump couldn't supply water fast enough and seeing as rain water was clean I had chucked it away knowing that I would have to replace it once we went back to bore water and now we were nearly out of water so it was an urgent trip to town.
Nuran came along to get a few things and we started at Woolies. They don't sell filters but they do sell whiteboard markers and I need them for the games room scoreboard. They also sell seafood and oysters were marked down by 50%. So I grabbed a couple of dozen for entree! two dozen for the price of one, bargain. They also had prawns on a special so we grabbed a kg of them for entree on wednesday. Bargain. Then it was off to the plumbers for the filter. That was disappointing as they didn't have the washable ones only the disposable type with the washable ones due in after Easter. So I grabbed one to tide us over. Then it was off to the butchers to see what they had on special....ahhh Rabbits. They are hard to get down here so we grabbed four two for now and two for later. And a beef roast , some beef shanks for ozzo bucco and a bone for the dogs. This trip was becoming expensive! But we are going to eat well.
The home brew shop and the green grocers were next.All I had really needed was a filter but the shopping frenzy had caught us!
Back home the filter was installed but the bore pump was dry. Curses! I think the foot valve must have got a leak because when I finally managed to fill the suction pipe and got the air leaks out and primed the pump the water was still there. For one terrible moment I had wondered if the bore was dry! I can't plumb the bore to see where the water level is as the gum tree roots are choking the bore pipe, this will be fixed one day but not now. The water filled the tank and all was well again.
Then came the oysters! Ah what a beautiful feast they were, fresh even though they were on special, succulent with the hint of the sea.With a sprinkle of lemon juice and a dip in the sauces, a swill around the mouth and a bite to release the flavours down the gullet they went!
A treat even a poor man can experience when 50% off at Woolies.
The dogs enjoyed their bones and Nuran had an extra loin chop so every one got a treat!
Can't wait for the Prawns tonight and the rabbit casserole to follow!
Wouldn't be on a diet for quids.

Monday Monday

Monday Monday so the song goes and very mournfully too, but when you are retired the only significance Monday has is that it's "wash the sheets "day and Darts day and volunteer at the school day, all important and none mournful. The day started as usual with a ride with the dogs, this is a good routine whilst the weather stays fine, and a read of the papers, Monday paper is a good read as the whole weekend sport is summarised and you can see from the stats where your team stuffed up. We received a phone call from Mary Moir and her daughter Sarah had just had a baby girl, a sister for Amelie, and as mother and daughter were both well Mary was very pleased. Nuran got her DVD's in the mail, ordered on Ebay, and they all work fine so she was pleased , meanwhile I went over to the school after lunch and listened to the kids reading. One young boy was in tears and I asked him why.Apparently he had been admonished for threatening to cut the throat of another kid! Really don't know where kids these days get their threats from - we just used to threaten to punch out their lights or kick their goolies in, nothing as dramatic as cutting a throat. I blame the movies. Anyway he was left to sob out his punishment whilst the others read to me. Some of their readers are more interesting than the paper. One student wanted to stop but I told her to carry on as I wanted to find out what happened!
After school was out it was darts in the games room. John threw a 180 and then, later on, so did I. Unfortunately this form was not carried over in the the match in the evening! I played at first like a bloke standing in a hammock spraying darts all over the board. But I improved in the singles and won 2-0 pegging out 86 so I came out flushed with success and beer!
I found Nuran busy watching one of her new DVDS and not the least bit interested in my tales of success at darts so I rushed in to tell John and Roxy all about it and found John playing chess on the internet and not the least bit interested in my success at darts. So now I'm telling you guys I hope you are interested!

Sunday treat

What a lovely day Sunday is. All here except me get to stay in bed longer, I still get up early and trundle through the Pines with the dogs. Sunday is good because there is no traffic on the roads and the Mill isn't working so the whole place has a nice quiet serenity. That is except for the squabbling Cockatoos in the Gum Trees which surround our place. I despatched one and the rest flew off in alarm. Got to preserve the tranquility of the place. Autumn has set in and it's Jim's old jacket for me on the bike. It's a double sided checked wool jacket that is in keeping with two black farm dogs at your pedals. they don't know they are farm dogs, they think they are 'roo dogs and Banjo thinks he's a greyhound.
Now Sunday was surprising as John was one of the first of the others up and took the dogs over the oval for the beep test. He does the beep test to make sure the RAAF will pass him on fitness and the dogs just run around. John surprised me and washed up the lunch dishes, actually it was a mix of lunch and breakfast dishes such is the staggered meal times around here lately. It was such an unusual event for me to witness that I preserved it on camera. He usually cleans the ensuite and Roxy does the breakfast dishes and we don't see him at the sink too often.
He is off to Adelaide thursday of next week for an assessment to get into the RAAF and Roxy is off to Armidale for a week or so at the same time for lectures, then for a day we shall be empty nesters again. So I shall have no one to lose to at darts!
That's the thing, the constant practice has gradually brought their standard of play up and they are no longer a sure victory for the old man! I shall use the days they are away to practise!
I bottled a Home Brew, Coopers Pale Ale, this seems to be the beer of choice at the moment and is the second brew bottled this week. I had to go to Frank Hateleys' to get some more bottles! Frank is a good source of empty bottles as he drinks a long neck a day of Stout for medicinal purposes, don't know why he doesn't have two as then he would be twice as healthy, and he keeps his bottles. I have to pay for them with full long necks of my beer so in the end I get more bottles back! But he is a handy back up if my empties are insufficient at bottling time.
Sunday afternoon was a bit of a washout as all of Adelaide, Hawthorn and Geelong lost their footy games so there was not a victory to be celebrated by anyone in the household! So actually there was not a victory for anyone connected to the Keenan's of Tarpeena. Except that Port won but only idiots like John Davies and the next door neighbours go for them! Collingwood (Olivia goes for them) also won but I like to ignore any Collingwood victories!
Sunday tea was Kangaroo steaks, bought from Coles not found on the roadside and delicious just the same. No wonder the dogs gobble down Nuran's Kangaroo Palau that she makes for them.Funny that Nuran had a beef steak but it had something probably to do with the smell of Kangaroo cooking!
Anyway that was Sunday.

Saturday Night Fever

Routines were turned upside down and the afternoon was clear to watch football. Bike rides were completed before lunch and into the games room to practice darts and watch/hear the game. Actually the darts were more interesting than the game! Still it cant always be perfect. A beautiful meat pie was dished up for tea and then in front of the TV for the big game between the West Coast and Sydney. This was a scrappy affair and the only thing that made it interesting was the closeness of the score so we decided to try the cricket, the match was delayed by rain! Oh well it meant the soccer game on Fox was at least worth watching compared to all the other drivel and at 4 -1 the scoreline was actually much the same as the Sydney West Coast game! It's enough to make a bloke take up tiddlye winks as a hobby as well as darts! Being a couch potato is too hard a task!