Woke up to a fog this morning which was a nice surprise - I do like autumn fogs.

A relatively relaxed morning but I had to go to a seminar given by Still Gardening at the Medical Centre. Problem was, that despite asking several times, I had only ever been given the date for the thing, not the start time. So I opted for 10:00 since that is when we usually start things off, but it turned out to be eleven. So I spent an hour sitting playing games on the phone while I waited for someone else to turn up.

The seminar was well-attended which was encouraging, but I suspect if we had advertised it on our FB page as I had asked to be done, we might have had a few more people under 60 attending. Some of whom needed to be distracted from time to time as they kept forgetting what had been said two seconds previously.

I got to take home a batch of barbecued sausages for dinner, so not all was lost - and the lunch was rather delicious also.

I took the bacon out of the brine last night and washed it off, leaving it in the fridge to form a pellicle (a sort of sticky skin that the smoke adheres to). Firing up the smoker was a challenge as I had no idea what I was doing - but finally I managed to get the charcoal to ignite and added some pellets of hickory. Not enough it seems as after half an hour no smoke was in evidence. But i added another half a cup of pellets and away she went.

The meat was supposed to achieve an internal temperature of 150 degrees. It took me a while to realise this was fahrenheit, not centigrade, but not to worry. It worked.

 And here you have it! The finest free range pork belly, brined in maple syrup and cracked black pepper, then smoked in hickory smoke!

I popped it in the fridge to cool down a bit and then, temptation got the better of me so I trimmed off some thin slices from the ends and fried the up in the left-over pork fat from the cumberburgers I had for dinner last night.

It caramelised beautifully around the edges and tastes divine. Now to wait and see if I gave myself botulism. But if I did, I will at least die a very happy woman as that pork belly will feed me for some time.

The trip to Hobart seems to have worn me out somewhat, and the dogs have had to make do with some short strolls around the oval - enough to deal with their bodily needs, but not their energy (or so Smidgen tells me as he writhes around under the chair keeping Sebastian entertained).

I actually managed to get everything on the list done, but erred somewhat in the not-on-the-list department. But when K&D is selling ankle length fake uggs for $39.00 what can a girl do (Sebastian ate the last pair which were worn out anyway). And the attractive apricot coloured windcheater at Lowes for $16.95 overcame my moral repugnance at sweatshop labour because I needed something to replace the woollen jumper I bought when I lived in NZ and which is now more holes than jumper. Oh and the doona cover at $22.00 was also on the wishlist as I find they take rather a long time to dry in winter, and with Seb making free with the bed, they are a necessity.

But apart from that I was good...... ;-)

The worst of the lurgy seems to have passed though I do appear to be operating on about 30% lung capacity at present judging by how readily I run out of air and energy.

But work waits for no man, and I had three loads of washing to get out and dry and in and folded before the end of the day - fortunately all done now. And then there was the wood to cut (no sign of my helpers at all today).

I did the wood in stages - first get out the chainsaw and sharpen it, fuel and oil it. Then rest. Then clear the smaller bits of wood out of the way to get at the larger bits I wanted to cut. Then rest. Anyway, it was all done and is all inside now as I brought a few bits in each time I came in the door.

The dog walking was similarly enervating - had to have a nap after this afternoon's walk, which was not helped by Seb's concern that I was sleeping on his bed. And then in to clean the bank which got fairly short shrift tonight i am sorry to say.

And so the lurgy goes on. Judy popped over early in the day with a wheelbarrow of horse manure for me so we exchanged wheelbarrows on the principle that I had no energy to deal with it.

She offered to pop over and walk the dogs and send her grandson to cut some wood for me. Still waiting - but at least I got in an managed to cut some myself before i ran out. I used the drop saw on the principle that it would cause less damage if I got dizzy while using it. So the fire is blazing merrily and the dogs are, fortunately, happy to lie about and do nothing in particular.

Well I was right. I was fighting off a virus. Yesterday I decided to have a lazy day and so loafed around in front of the fire with a good book for most of the day as it was too rainy to be in the Garden. Was feeling quite good until I went in to clean the bank. As soon as I got out of the ute I knew I was in trouble as I was hit with a wall of lavender perfume - from the row of lavender bushes I walk past daily and rarely notice. By the time I was finished cleaning I was running a mild fever, so messaged the boss to get someone else to do the cleaning today.

Today I have been dosing up on lemsips and lying in front of the fire with a good book, but not much improvement so far - nose like a tap, sneezing, puffy eyes, and an occasional wave of fever to make life interesting. At least it is the right weather for it with grey skies and drizzle. Will need to cut some more wood tomorrow so hoping I am feeling a little better by then.

My planned day in the kitchen was thwarted when two parties arrived late in the cottages last night and I was left to clean up after them today. Probably a good thing as I was really far too tired to have gotten anything useful done cooking-wise - I would have just loafed around instead.

I suspect I have been battling off a virus or some such thing as I am feeling a little more alert now (though that could simply be the affect of the strong coffee Judy gave me when I popped over there this afternoon).

It has been a mizzly day all day, with occasional rain to break it up. On the way home from the cottages I found this lying by the side of the road, but the pot of gold remains elusive.

Apart from walking the dogs and cutting a barrow-load of wood between showers, that was my lot for the day.

Another day cleaning cottages and another two bags of groceries -most of which are usable still. Bacon, saveloys, ham and luncheon meat slices, frozen veges, frozen oven-fries, frozen dinner (which should not have been frozen as it is designed for shelf storage) of massaman curry this time. Butter, marg, fresh veges, leeks and capsicums - you name it. So the leeks, bacon and some chicken from the freezer will make a nice meal, and the savs will be battered and fried in slices, lol. Need some fresh bread to put the sliced meat on, but am set for several days of food now once more.

Also collected my parcel of hickory pellets and thermometer for smoking the bacon which will (hopefully) happen this weekend if the rain holds off, and called into quilting for a long gossip.

Popped around to Eleanor's a collected two lengths of ducting and a fan and ceiling register for installing in the roof - I plan to knock a hole in the chimney and direct the warm air from there into the study to keep the chill off in winter. A winter cloudy day exercise I think. I will have to acquire a square section of gal with a suitably sized hole in it from the tip to seal off the bit of chimney I open the hole in. It won't get the room warm, but will at least keep it above freezing in colder weather which has to be a bonus for my books and fabrics that are kept in there.

I have a bank to clean today and am feeling rather weary already so it is massaman curry for dinner tonight to save energy for more important things.

I suspect I may have just voided the warranty on the new whipper snipper. I ran half a tank of unleaded in it accidentally - only worked out what I had done when I reached for the same fuel container while trying to get it started again. Bugger. At least it still works which I guess is something to be grateful for.

I finished off the half of the orchard I was working on, removing bits of wire left right and centre as I worked. The former occupant had installed half-height heavy duty chicken wire around the base of the fences which had fallen off over time and become buried (but not buried enough) in the soil and root systems of the grass. Bit of it stick up and catch any sort of cutting implement you use and so it needed to go. I tried hauling it up but it came very reluctantly and with several tonnes of soil on top, so it was hard work. Then I had the bright idea of using the whippersnipper to clear everything lying on top of it - this worked well till I nearly fried the motor. I have managed to get up the section along the back boundary as far as the middle fence which is a great start. A large load of ratty wire went to the tip this afternoon, along with a bottle of unleaded that was contaminated with two-stroke.

Then two barrow loads of longish grass went across the road to Judy's place and were exchanged for a barrow of horse poo.

Moments like these I wish I didn't have her curry leaf tree in my bath as I could really do with a long hot soak tonight.

I thought it was a bit chilly by the time i went to bed last night - minus .03 to be precise. Minus 2.6 was the best it could manage, but I was very glad to have the electric blanket as i am still using summer bedding (it will be necessary for some time as the really cold nights will be thin on the ground for a while yet).

The water in the chook run had half an inch of ice on it and the roosters were pecking at it and looking confused. So I removed that little lot and fed them before taking the dogs for a walk. Popped Seb back indoors while i went to collect Shadow (who gets easily side-tracked these days) and lo and behold, Seb let himself out! The back door has a lever action handle and when Seb jumps up to see out the risk exists that this will happen. Usually it doesn't, but this morning it did. When it does happen I start locking the door when I go in and out which can be annoying (moving the key from one side of the lock to the other), but necessary.

Instead of charging down the back to chase the chooks, he took off around the side of the house and out onto the road. Me in hot pursuit but he had the wind under his tail and was off and racing. Unfortunately he failed to go into Gordon's yard (a good move as I can shut the gate and round him up), and set off up the street. Meanwhile Shadow and Esther had wandered across the road to see what the fun was all about and both of them were throwing themselves in front of cars (it was rush hour in Parattah), so I decided to get them back indoors before pursuing Seb. Seb decided that if I was not going to chase him he would come back down and tantalise me so we were in and out of several yards before he headed to the school bus stop where, fortunately, one of the children caught him. Thus he was dragged home in disgrace and I resigned myself to Smidgen spending the day outside as he had taken advantage of the break-out to go outside once again himself.

The way I get the cats to come in from their morning run is to not feed them until they come in. This time Smidgen had already been out and come in and been fed, so that was the last I saw of him for the day.

All of this happened before coffee so I went indoors and had some to recover from my exertions. I am feeling very weary after yesterday's activities and a bit muscle-sore. This may be because of the activities or it may be because of the sore throat i have had for the last couple of days. Who knows - time will tell.

I did feel obliged to cut some more firewood which I did - a barrow-load indoors tonight so I should be fine. And then I set to with the whipper snipper once again to see if I could reach the back fence. I had almost done so when I ran out of fuel and energy, so I went back to the house, took the washing in and am now girding up my loins to go clean the bank at the designated time.

I have decided to get a draw bolt for the outside of the back door so I can fasten it when I am in the yard and Seb is indoors. That will save mucking about with the keys all the time, even if it does not look terribly attractive.

Despite being only ten degrees today it was sunny and, working in the lee of the house meant I was often overly hot. The adaptation of the guineapig run was not a fast job - particularly as I had to think through the problems as they arose - but it was finally finished at four this afternoon and the roosters moved in. How I will get them out is another matter entirely.

This is the hutch end - there is a door in the blue box that now has a draw bolt on it (previously it just stayed shut by will power). I have added timber frames at the midway point (previously the end of the run) and at the end. The one at the far end has a door in it also, for providing food and water (blue icecream container). As you can see, it was quite late in the day before it was ready for roosters to move in.

This is the bit of the orchard I have been working on clearing up. The tree on the right is actually the last tree I planted, but has taken off with a bang. Perhaps this is because it went in beside the spot where the geese used to camp, or perhaps it benefits from the concentrated water supply from the shed roof - who knows. It, along with the rest of the trees, failed to produce this year, but is usually overburdened with plums.

This is the other end of the coop - as you can see some aesthetic work still needs to be done to the wire etc, but i felt it was more urgent to get the chooks out of the small travelling box and into a bit more space. As you can see, the progress at this end of the yard is not quite so impressive, but at least the cleared sections are also devoid of humps, so moving the run around has been fairly easy - pulling rather than pushing seems to be the go. I left extensions on the top side bits so as to provide handles - these too need a little refining, but work well enough as they are. Certainly for the duration of these boys's stay they will be just fine.

All of this work meant I didn't get any wood cut for tonight which is a bit of a bummer as it is going down to minus two and seems to be determined to get their fairly fast if the nip in the air is anything to go by. But there should be enough to see me through to bedtime if I am careful.

At the critical juncture during construction a friend dropped in. Fortunately she is fairly handy herself so she was able to make some intelligent suggestions about how to get around the issue (all I needed was a clamp, and an extra pair of hands). She is planning to move into a cottage in Parattah but has first to sell her house - the present potential buyers have pre-approved finance and the price on the cottage is minimal so I don't anticipate any difficulties this time around (phew, this has been on-again, off-again for almost a year now). She will make a positive contribution to the village I think so I am rather looking forward to her joining our merry crew.

No-one can complain that the weather in Tassie is boring. Today was glorious teeshirt weather - sunny, warm and lovely! It got up to 18 degrees then at three o'clock it suddenly came over black and cloudy and the temperature plunged to 10 degrees in half an hour!

I spent the morning excavating the guinea pig run from the long grass that had engulfed it completely - so much so I had to cut for some time before I found it. I am still looking for the other chicken run which appears to have disappeared completely! I finally found it and dragged it out to dry out while I went off to clean a cottage. On my return I concluded it is too small to house two birds for up to four weeks, so I am in the process of modifying it by extending the run by another six feet. It has wheels at one end so I should be able to shift it around if I can work out how to join one run onto the end of the existing one while providing adequate support at the right spots. I have constructed two rectangular shapes - one will be inserted into the end of the existing run and the other will go at the end of the extension. Then long pieces of timber will be attached to the nesting box, and thus to each of the inserts. These will, as an adjunct, fix the wire to the inserts also to form a rectangular run. I hope.

At the end of the run I will fix a panel of wood with a door in it to add food and water as required. Mean time the poor roosters are still in the cats' travelling box which is on a table with the open wire face turned toward the fence to provide them with a bit of extra shelter in the present inclement weather. I can but hope there is no rain tomorrow so I can get on and finish their accommodation.

Another barrow of horse manure was delivered in the middle of all this, which has been added to the fruit trees down the back.

A day in the garden to finalise the organising and removal of stuff from our tool shed into the new location. We have stuck all the long-handled tools upside down in a 44 gallon drum until the new hooks are installed - our helper from the Mens Shed called in for instructions bright and early and seems happy enough with the job. Then we harvested some of the brassicas before dusting the rest of them. Nine small cabbages was a good haul, especially as more had already been picked for Dining With Friends which was apparently last Wednesday. The brussels sprouts are fairly small at present, but there are dozens more of them growing up the stems so we live in hope.

Then into the greenhouse to remove my tomato plants - they had grown so enormous! One had a trunk the thickness of a man's wrist - a working man, that is! So a big basket of tomatoes (they mainly appear to be green ones in the photo, but there is a large collection of ripe ones under that lot.

The roosters arrived as promised (well, two of them did, the other one gets to live a long and happy life apparently). But they are more cockerels than roosters so will need bringing on. Luckily I still have half a bag of mixed grain, so tomorrow I will deploy the whipper snipper to find the guineapig run and make sure that is secure before transferring them into it for a while. It is small enough that I can move it around to ensure they get fresh grass daily, and has a house at the end so they can be cosy at night.

They are Barnevelder crosses so should develop some meat, but not a huge amount as they appear to have take the more gamey side of the breed, despite their mothers being mongrels.

I had a bit of a lazy start but the rest of the day made up for it.

Firstly in to clean a cottage as part of their mid-stay service. This is the largest cottage and three people (mainlanders) who are working on the highway upgrade (thanks Liberals for making sure those jobs went to mainlanders) have been there for several days. One of them left this morning and his replacement arrived at lunchtime. His roomies failed to leave the key out for him, so I guess he will be amusing himself in Oatlands for the afternoon.

They are actually keeping the place pretty tidy but they left all the heaters on, and had stuff stacked around their beds which made access difficult. One had enough technology there to run his own computer shop and moving around among it was unnerving to say the least (oops, did I tread on your laptop?)

The next mission was to find a sharp hatchet. Unfortunately Roberts's don't stock them. So I thought of going to Hobart when I suddenly remembered Campbell Town is only half an hour away (it's a Tasmanian thing - I am a southerner, Cambell Town is 'up north'). They too have a rural supplier that used to be Town and Country but which is now Roberts' also. Pity - as they did not have hatchets either. With some fear and trepidation I enquired about the price of the axes they had. Amazingly they were only $30.00! So I bought one of those, as they have an edge guard and really I would only be using it for dispatching fowls as I use a blockbuster to split the wood.

Then home via Ross where I stopped off at the Bakery and bought a salmon and brie pie - not one of their better pies I have to say - and ate that in the car sitting under an autumn toned tree in the shade. On the way back I noticed there are two apple trees beside the highway absolutely laden with apples, so if you want some, they are easily accessed and look quite marvellous. I didn't stop as I had not take anything to pick into.

The poplars in St Peter's Pass are quite spectacular at the moment, so it would be a nice day out from Hobart for those who might feel so inclined (or Launceston, for that matter as it is about half way).

Unloaded the stuff in the back of the ute, loaded on the cat box for the roosters, and also the wire I plan to give to the lad to make the shed more predator proof, and then sat thinking about lighting the fire, which I have now done.

The Cumberburgers were delicious. So delicious, they were even better than the ones I used to get from Waitrose. I most definitely intend to make some more! Will need to get some casings so I can make them as proper sausages. I think I was a tiny bit heavyhanded with the fat content, but not too much so, and since the fat melts out of them as they cook, I will simply do the rest of them on the griller, rather than frying them.

Tonight's dinner of leftover pea and ham soup was definitely a let-down after last night's feast. I have three more meals of the cumberburgers in the freezer so I can eke them out a bit.

I bought some hickory pellets online today so I can smoke the bacon when it has finished brining so a veritable feast of good food to look forward to.

Apart from rendering the remaining fat there was not much done today - cleared out cupboards, cleaned up utensils etc - watched the rain falling. It was a beautiful sunset however - with pink, mauve and blues across the hills and the sky - quite gorgeous.

Those invented pork burgers tasted so damn good that I had to exercise considerable restraint to stop at two so I had some to pop in the freezer. Tonight I plan to sample the cumberland sausageburgers the ingredients for which are presently sitting in the fridge.

We had a day in the Community Garden today, commencing the process of clearing out the shed that we plan to move our tools to so as to make way for Brady's chicken empire.

He called in while we were working and I explained our process so he understands we are actually doing something (we have not touched the contents of the tool shed yet) and he sent us off with a dozen eggs and a promise of three roosters for Friday (which I will take home to dispatch).

We made three trips with rubbish (some of it quite useful stuff, like pots - but not when you have thousands of the damn things as people keep insisting on donating them). The first one was to the men's shed with any timber we were getting rid of in case they could use it - two large plywood boxes they can dismember for the ply - that sort of thing). The second went directly to the tip as I had assumed it opened at 11. I had got my days muddled and it was not due to open till one, but fortunately someone from council had the gate open so we zipped in and unloaded while he waited to let us out before locking the gate behind us. Confusion was due to me mentally assuming that if I was hard at work at the community garden it must be Friday (when the tip does indeed open at 11).

Back to the garden and we decided it was time for lunch as there was no point loading stuff into the ute then going to lunch, so we parted company for half an hour and ate - I usually park by the lake in the shade of the pine trees there as it is a pleasant spot.

Another load to the tip and we came back to find someone in the garden - it was a relief to discover it was one of the teachers (tending to the chooks) as someone has removed the padlock from the toolshed and keeps leaving the gate to the garden open. Nothing is missing, so it presumably just someone who didn't have a key and wanted to get in, but we are not impressed, nevertheless.

I finally made it home via Eric's (where I dropped of a couple more of the shelves he was so glad to get last time), to discover the smoker had been found and delivered! I am very very happy - now all I need to do is work out where I can get some hickory sawdust to go with the maple syrup brining. I expect I will need to head into town in the next couple of weeks to get another padlock for the garden shed, so will pick some up then, along with some dog food.

It is not as cold tonight and I am in two minds about lighting the fire, but I have laid it in case I decide it is necessary (which I am increasingly feeling may be the case).

Just waiting for the dishwasher (which has been working overtime for the last couple of days) to finish its latest load so I can start making those cumber-burgers for dinner!

The pork belly is sitting in a ziplock bag at the bottom of the fridge marinating in salt, maple syrup and pepper. The recipe called for brown sugar, but since I had some maple syrup I thought - why not? In two weeks time it will be ready to be smoked. If Judy has not yet found her smoker, it occurred to me I can do it in the barbecue with the lid down. Or failing that, I can simply bake it in the oven for an hour and that will finish it off ready to be bacon of my own making.

The bones cooked in the stock pot all night and when i removed them this morning I was able to pick off a couple of cups of meat in all. This has gone through the mincer with some apple, garlic, thyme and S&P and made into patties which will be tonight's dinner with gravy and mash.

The cumberland sausages will also be made into patties once the dishwasher has cleaned the various bits of the grinder for me as it occurred to me it might be a bit tricky making them into sausage shape and keeping them that way while they cooked (cumberland sausages do not include breadcrumbs).

The dogs are replete on various bits I found in the freezer that I decided deserved to be discarded and both are stretched in front of the fire.

In addition to freezing the rest of the pork (I put some bits in this morning to get them started and added to them incrementally while the rest stayed in the fridge), and the stock etc, I have cut a load of firewood as it seems to be getting cooler already and will be a chilly night. Last night got chilly quite late, so I ended up waking at 2 feeling too hot and shed all the blankets. They were incrementally added as the thermometer plunged.

It's a good thing I woke up at 5:30 this morning as I have been flat out all day.

Taking the dogs for a walk I noticed it was a clear blue sky, despite the fact it had clearly rained overnight. So I headed up to the house and put on a couple of loads of washing before starting to take advantage of the newly made bed to dump the contents of the kitchen table, preparatory to clearing out the freezer.

You know that sinking sensation when you think the freezer is half empty but you open it up and find it filled to the brim? Well I had that in spades this morning. Fortunately most of this was down to it being chaotic and disorganised. While I was still unloading the contents the front door knocked and there was him next door wanting to know how I wanted my pork cut up (bit of a surprise since they were only slaughtered yesterday....), so off the top of my head I asked for the shoulder to be boned out, the belly, chops and the rump to be cut in two, then went back to unpacking the freezer.

Part of the contents was a large quantity of nettle soup that, once tasted, was a never-to-be repeated experience. So that lot went to the worms, and I put aside some chops for dinner tonight. By the time I had rationalised the contents and defrosted the freezer it all fitted back in with room to spare. Just got that done when another knock on the door announced the arrival of the meat (at 11:30 in the morning for goodness sake!).

While all this was going on I was being interrupted at regular intervals as Judy was apparently having a clearout at hers. First a barrow load of manure which was gratefully received and distributed around the fruit trees, then two big bales of bird netting and polytunnel plastic, which went into the ute, then another barrow load of manure at which point i suggested leaving the barrow and taking mine back - aaaargh!

The meat when it arrived was sort of 'as specified'. A large bag of chops (that I have yet to parcel up and label), a shoulder that had been cut in two as apparently boning it out was beyond the resources of the butcher (ie he couldn't be bothered), the rump was in two pieces .... the hock and the rest of it. Too big for a roast, impossible to convert into ham or bacon due to the lack of a handy hock to hang it by, and a bit overwhelming really.

I set to and stripped the fat out of the belly, rolled that up to consider how to deal with it (I am thinking bacon but need to find a suitable container of the right size), the forequarter was boned out and cut into four roasts, the rump was reduced to two roasts (big ones, company roasts) and the bones set aside as they are going to be made into stock when they finally come to the boil, and the meat scraps removed from said bones set in a dish in the fridge with a view to making some cumberland sausages (since I have plenty of sage) without the skin (since i don't have any skins).

I had that all sorted when the phone rang and it was the plumber letting me know he was ready for me to call into Oatlands to collect the bit I needed for the hot water, so I shoved everything in the fridge (which also got a clean out today) and headed into town. Back again to fit that together (had to borrow a suitably small screw driver from Judy as I can't find my set of jewellers tools), and take a photo to send to the plumber to make sure I had all the wires in the right places before I plugged it in.

That being all OK I was surprised to discover the temperature for the tank was registering as 15 degrees (but I had hot water). Finally worked out that the sensor lead had fallen out of its hole as I moved the controller. Once that was plugged in it was all working beautifully. I do need to work out how to hold the sensor in position though as it just sits loosely in the hole and gravity seems to pull it back from the surface it is measuring (perhaps this is why my last plumber left the cable on top of the hot water cylinder, to reduce the drag?).

Anyway, apart from removing the contents of the kitchen table from the bed before bedtime, I have had enough for today, and so the chops will wait till tomorrow to be bagged and labelled, following which I will once again remove the entire contents of the deep freeze so the new meat can go at the bottom (for speedy freezing) and the rest of the contents can be stacked rather more rationally than the chaos that had evolved over time.

I did discover a stock pile of sausages which was fascinating as I had thought i had eaten them all - not to mention quantities of mince of various types, so I guess I will be eating a lot of sausage and mince-based recipes for a while, along with chicken thighs and legs. Good thing it is coming on winter as the beef cheeks will make great casseroles and so too will some of the other treats I found in there!

Was whippersnippering madly this morning. I had reloaded the cord which had retreated into the head and so thought there was not that much left. But I kept on till I had emptied the head and cleared four more trees.

One is the greengage which had thrown out another stem from below ground level which was the same size as the main stem. Problem was to work out which was which as the graft union seemed to have disappeared. I ended up opting to keep the slightly thicker stem which has about three inches of bark of a different texture at the bottom. Hope I was right. The leaves and branch formations were otherwise identical so it was a tough choice. The damson seems to have thrown suckers out everywhere, but at least they were fine whippy things and so easier to distinguish from the parent tree. They are all now surrounded by a high donut of cut grass, and there are now only two more trees to rediscover in that half of the orchard. Of these, one is the apple that is most likely to bear fruit in a given year (though not this year due to frosts at the wrong time), and the other is the pair of hazel nuts that have survived (fortunately mutually compatible in terms of fertilisation).

A cottage to clean and that gave me the excuse to have a cup of latte and a cinnamon scroll at the Pancake Parlour, then walking the dog. I was a little disconcerted to see that the pig slaughter next door has commenced, with one of the pigs (looking distinctly red after being scrubbed for de-hairing) hanging from the front of the barn, with the damn dog loose in the yard. I hope they plan to practice better hygiene when they are butchering it as I have agreed to buy half of one of them.

The dehairing comes before the carcase is opened, for those of you who don't know about these things. The proper process should be that they dress it out, hang it in a coolroom for a couple of days before butchering it. The cool room does exist, in the house next along, so it presumably going to be used. I will have to get a wriggle on clearing out the freezer though as that 'fortnight' they mentioned seems to have become foreshortened.

Another gorgeous autumn day today - and two more to come! Or is that one more? Sunday will be eleven degrees!!

Popped into town for some bread and came home just as the power went off. I realised (prompted by the presence of numerous vehicles, cherry pickers etc) that Aurora was cutting us off, then I remembered that they had told us this two weeks ago. The big crisis was that I had no water, but I scratched together enough from various kettles to be able to boil some on the wood heater which I had lit for the purpose (that and cooking lunch), and reheated the remaining cup of tea in a small saucepan for later on.

This reminded me I had to cut some firewood so I did that and have been steadily moving it indoors as I come inside after being out. Then I remembered I have the plumber delivering a part for the solar hot water controller on Sunday and I had to call him to confirm meetings etc. Since I had no power, I also had no signal, so I asked the nice men out the front to please move the cherry picker they had parked across my driveway, and drove into town to make the call. That was all good so home I came once more and did some whipper-snipping down the back, revealing two more trees and a third one partially (I will need to get down on hands and knees with snippers to get the crushed wire from around its base before I can finish that one off). Kept cutting till I ran out of cord, then came back inside to take the dogs for a walk, and now I am girding up my loins for yet another walk before heading in to clean the bank.

Yesterday started off rainy but cleared to a fine, but overcast day. Today was superb! Just what you want on an autumn day. Pity I was working. Still I managed to distribute another barrowload of manure over the orchard and those checking out of the main cottage left a load of food behind them.

Tonight's dinner, as a consequence, was Ingham garlic-cream stuffed chicken breasts. While I dread to think what conditions the chickens were raised in, and am not too sure I recognise some of the ingredients, they were very yummy, especially when accompanied by the parmesan, garlic and something or other fried chips.

Tomorrow I will be dining on toasted ham and cheese sandwiches - also courtesy of this lot of guests, and when the weather turns chilly once more, I will be having the moroccan chicken frozen dinner they left behind. The disturbing thing is that none of these items is available locally, so they must have gone out and bought them especially to eat while staying there. The packet of frozen corn was particularly worrying. Do people not eat proper food these days?

I managed to get some more whipper snippering done yesterday, and hope to do some more tomorrow. But today I did not terribly much at all in the garden, despite the lovely weather.

I think the regular weather man is on holidays as they got the forecast wrong again today. Supposed to sunny after the mist cleared, but was overcast for most of the day.

It was also jolly chilly!

Took the whipper snipper down to the orchard to trim around a couple more trees so I could empty Judy's barrow of the stable waste, and stacked some more wood. Then took the whipper snipper over the rest of the area I have already cleared. I am systematically cutting out the bases of the tussock grass and it seems to be working as I can now walk down there without turning my ankle all the time, and a wheel barrow moves forward smoothly instead of balking at obstacles or bouncing with a light load.

Retreated indoors after three as it was downright chilly, then took Seb for a walk once I got the fire going so we came home to a warm house!

Despite the dire forecast, today turned out quite nice and sunny, albeit cool. Good weather for wood stacking so I did some more of that then turned my attention to the remaining washing, since it seemed good drying weather after all.

Judy rode her horse (on a lead rope) down the lane which was a bit of a surprise as I had encouraged her to lunge it thoroughly before riding it. But him next door knew better so there they were, riding down the lane, with horses in the adjacent paddocks going crazy with excitement and the stallion waiting at the foot of the lane to make getting through the gate even more hair-raising than it might otherwise have been. Then out onto the oval to be lunged, complete with rider.

The girth was far too short, so they had ad libbed with some strapping that was knotted at one end and buckled through at the other side. Needless to say this stretched with the result Judy came a cropper. Fortunately no-one was hurt but the horse was definitely a bit steamy by the time they came back.

I received a message from some friend who were passing through Oatlands so went into town to meet up with them. We had soup and tea at the Pancake Parlour and caught up with the gossip from this year's get together in Gladysdale (that I didn't get to go to).

Then home to walk the dogs at which point the threatened rain decided to fall. So we came home, lit the fire and I am now waiting for tonight's dinner to cook. Last night's made a nice bonus dinner for the dogs tonight. It was not that badly tainted, but the thought of it made me feel queasy so I decided to err on the side of caution after all. Pity.

A nice quiet Easter Sunday here. Was a little confused by the swap to daylight savings as I had failed to set the clock forward and so bounced out of bed at five in the morning, with the result I had to stall a lot of planned activities out of consideration for noise regulations. I did manage a load of washing, but since the sunshine they promised failed to eventuate I decided against doing any more, and so settled for changing sheets and towels around instead.

Stacked another two rows of firewood - these loads seem to be getting bigger! There will be quite a bit more stacking to do before i am finished. Fortunately I found a few smaller bits as my access to my sawhorse that I used for cutting wood is severely impeded by the yet-to-be-stacked wood.

Tonight's roast lamb is not going to be terribly nice I suspect. Despite it having today as its use-by date it was smelling distinctly iffy when I removed the plastic. I am cooking it anyway and if it still smells off once done then the dogs will have a good feed tomorrow and I will settle for yoghurt and some more chocolate.

It will be cold and rainy tomorrow so I am setting myself the task of sorting through the freezer as there will be half a pig arriving in a couple of weeks and I will need a home for it.

My second (and final) load of firewood arrived just as I got home from cleaning the cottages. I was too tired to do anything about it, but it looks like I should be right for firewood for winter, despite it starting so early (fire is lit this evening once more).

 The neat stack at the back is the first load - the pile of logs in the foreground is today's delivery. I did manage to install one row, but gave up after I discovered a couple of smallish logs that I took indoors with me.

I took the camera on the walk with the dogs as I had found an interesting toadstool yesterday and wanted to take its photo. It was growing under a rather large pine tree that is along the track.

This is the tree - it has suffered generations of mutilation by farmers and electricity companies, but still stands tall.

And here is the toadstool - rather like a fairy toadstool, don't you think? Not terribly good to eat I wouldn't think!

we had to pause for a bit so Shadow could catch up with us. He likes to take his time and smell all the interesting smells along the way, so I don't hurry him. He is getting very old and a bit wobbly on his hind legs, so a leisurely pace suits him. While I was stopped I took advantage of some rather spectacular lighting to take this image.

Looking toward home, the light was not so kind, but I thought this image rather sums up the character of the town nicely.

The recreation ground and grandstand are on the left. The big roof in the centre is the Jubilee Hall, and the little white building to the right above the Hall is the tiny Methodist (now Uniting Church). It remains consecrated so that marriages can still be conducted there, but is otherwise unused.

Seb decided this was all very well, but he would like to start moving again, so as soon as Shadow caught up with us, we headed home. Bangers and mash for dinner and now a nice relax in front of the fire before bedtime.

Today was a bit more seasonal than yesterday, so I got out the chainsaw and cut up some wood, then set to with the whipper snipper.

Since we have been getting a fair bit of rain lately the regrowth is very enthusiastic, so I went over a bit that looked as if it was getting over-excited and then moved down into the orchard to cut out another tree for mulching. Managed to remove a bit of the bark in the process, but it is only the thin outer bark, and on half the trunk, so I think I have managed to get away with it. No damage to the next layer down which is where the sap runs. This tree was also on a bit of a lean (I suspect they all are), so was straightened up a bit, and a below-the-graft sucker removed before mulching it with the cuttings. This was later topped up with the latest stable waste from Judy's when I went to recover my wheelbarrow.

The full face mask was unpacked, but when I put it on I discovered I could not see through it. I later discovered that there were layers of thin protective film on both sides of it. Now that has been removed I can see quite well, so I will use it tomorrow or Sunday when next I get out there and cut.

The wood having been transferred to the now-empty barrow it was carted up to the house and loaded beside the chimney and is now burning merrily in the fireplace. I had decided I could get away without a fire, but then it suddenly turned chilly once the sun went down, and lighting one became a necessity. I will pop some porridge on before I head to bed and let it cook overnight.

I should get danger money with this cleaning lark, lol. What a horror story it was yesterday - I was exhausted, cleaning up after a large party had booked the entire place out and been roomswapping and generally carrying on for a couple of days. Sigh. At least today I had only one Swiss couple to clean up after, who sustained the reputation of the country for excessive neatness. I swear they must have picked up the individual toast crumbs off the floor!

After cleaning the bank last night I called into Judy's with some mushrooms (we are having a bumper season this autumn) and had a couple of glasses of wine and a long chat with her and her grandson who has come to stay with her a bit longer. She was terribly upset about her animals, but bizarrely forgiving (I wouldn't have been!). She wants us to make a project of the next door to see if we can support Annie to become a functioning human being. I am reluctant to get involved, frankly as i can see them just saying 'oh good, please do start running our lives and we will sit back and let you do all the work'. But she feels we can make a difference. And lord knows a difference needs to be made.

I have said i am willing to show them how to do stuff, but not to do it for them. Unfortunately a lot of the things they need to know how to do they think they are doing just fine anyway so it seems like a losing battle to me.

Bitterly cold today. It was sleeting while I took the dogs for a walk this afternoon, trying very hard to snow. While I didn't get any wood cut with the chainsaw (which despite its recent service refused to run for me - now fixed) I did get the drop saw out and cut enough logs to get me through today, with some rationing during the afternoon. There is one more big one to go on as I go to bed to keep things above freezing, but it is going to be a cold night tonight!