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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Homemaking post: A peek in my pantry

I am lucky to have a nice sized pantry just off my kitchen.



And it has a dirty window. Whoops! I really must get to clean all of my windows soon; it is such a big job with eleven of them to do. I am going to make a nice curtain to go in here too.



The bookshelf contains my recipes books. Very soon these are going to be scaled down to just the ones I use regularly. 
On top of the bookshelf is the microwave. I couldn't find a place in the kitchen for this unless I put it on the bench. I like my benches clear of clutter, so as I don't use a microwave very often, I keep it in my pantry.


Here we are looking to the left as you walk in.
On these shelves starting at the top; 
Our wok and first aid kit in the black box. At the back is a knife set that barely gets used and empty storage containers.
The second shelf contains cereals and health foods, breadcrumbs and bi carb, and the third holds baking requirements.  Also hangs the little fire extinguisher for easy access should I need it. My aprons hang near the doorway, you can just see a glimpse of them in this pic. Eggs to the right J



Looking to the right towards the window, we have our condiments, milk, glad-wrap etc.  And at the top some paper plates for barbeques.



I use Lazy Susan's where possible, these are so handy to spin and find what you are looking for.


Below the shelving we keep our rainwater. We do not have it connected to the house. To do this, the whole house has to be switched over and that is something we don't want to do at the moment. In the drawers I keep excess food that I have stocked up on, and Asian meal ingredients.


Pasta and rice, some stock and bikkies. 


Here is the tin and packet food etc. Using this type of shelving (found at Cheap As Chips) allows me even more room.


The corners can be a bit tricky to organise, so I try and keep them as uncluttered as possible.



The potato/onion box and trusty little stool that allows me to reach things.



I am so happy with these large jars that were gifted to me. I had a big bag of organic wholemeal flour and these were perfect for storing it in. 


I have placed them up on the top shelf.

 The kitchen from the pantry.

The kitchen from the dining room showing the pantry entrance.
(mobile phone pics)

Don't be fooled into thinking my pantry is always this tidy, it  most certainly is not hahaha!

I am at the beginning of my year of living with "less".

Clean out time!
All this lot came from my pantry and kitchen yesterday!

 I know I am blessed to have such a big pantry.  This allows me to stockpile regularly when things are on special, and frees up space in the kitchen.


Tell me, do you stockpile? If so how do you go about storing the excess?



Saturday, January 10, 2015

Rain

Thank goodness for the rain.

 The pots were placed out for a well earned drink...

 




 Precious water...








 I wont even complain about the mud walked into my house.

I was a feeling a little worried that we seemed to be missing out on the rain that hit our state over the past couple of days. I kept hearing about all the places that had received a very good dose of rain, the best in thirty to forty years.

Then at about four o'clock yesterday afternoon the heavens opened and we received what we had been praying for.  Not too much, but just enough (170pts, 42.5mm).   Everything feels alive again.

Did you receive rain? I hope so J

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Goanna in the Chook House!

If you look in the background near the roosters head, you will see our little friend the goanna.

 He seems to have settled in around here

 and is quite cheeky and tame.

 Well I am not too happy about this chap being in my chook (Australian for chickens) house!

They are known for eating eggs and baby chickens!

Both of which I have.

We did a head count of the baby chicks and they are all still there.

Not sure about the eggs...

See ya around Mr Goanna J

The chooks are not quite sure what to make of the visitor, they squawked a little but not a red alert squawk!

It is hot here again today and tomorrow, 38 and 39C (100F and 102F). I hope it rains soon and puts the bush-fires out that are raging through the Adelaide hills at the moment.  Twenty six homes have gone up in smoke so far.  No loss of human lives, but devastating to the animal population...



Thursday, January 1, 2015

Life's a Beach


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!



 Christmas and New Year celebrations are over for another year.  We didn't have all our family home this time around so it was a pretty quiet Christmas here, and we were asleep well before the New Year arrived last night. We must be getting old...

The day after Christmas we packed up in preparation for a trip to meet up with family for a few days at a nice little coastal town called Arno Bay, South Australia.  We left nice and early on the 27th and arrived by 9.30am. After we found the site for our caravan in the park, we packed some sandwiches for lunch and headed off to a nearby beach for a bit of fishing.

Some of these photos are taken on my mobile phone as my camera is playing up when using one of my lenses.  A new lens is in order I think.



The first beach we went to was near Poverty Bay. 






We stopped at this spot for a look.

...lovely

Our son playing silly buggers on the edge of a small cliff!

 I asked him to stand near, not ON the edge so I could capture a great picture, but instead he pretends to be falling off, giving this mother a heart attack!

Then off we went down to the beach for some fishing.




 Our son's big catch J


Whilst we didn't catch any fish to speak of, our son in law caught a nice big Mullaway.
Unfortunately he had to put it back as it was five centimetres short of the size limit.
Here is his prize catch J

 The second day we had my parents come down for lunch at the local hotel. We enjoyed a really nice meal, then went for a walk along the boardwalk at Arno Bay. I didn't take any photos, I totally forgot as we where busy chatting. Later that evening we walked to a nearby beach for another try at catching fish...but still nothing J

Early on the third day we went for a drive to Point Gibbon.


It was not a very nice day, so we spent it driving around the area taking in the sights.  The views are stunning!



I had my first drive along a beach, and I am hanging on tight! Not long after this was taken I attempted to climb my first sand hill to get off the beach and I made it, phew!


We found a nice secluded spot to have lunch, and try a bit of fishing, but the wind was far too strong.













  Later in the afternoon we went to another beach on the other side of Arno Bay. We still could not fish because of the wind.
  
We still had fun!






We did do some fishing off the local jetty but that was unsuccessful too...there is always next time though, and there will definitely be a next time.  We had a blast!


Now we are home and trying to get back into our routine. My energy level is a bit low today, so I will probably not do too much around here. It is also a hot 44C (111F), so a good day for spending inside. It is going to continue to be hot for the next few days too, with 43C (109F) tomorrow and 42C (107F)  on Saturday. A nice warm start to the New Year J