The Truth about Pigs

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
British politician and Nobel Prize Laureate Winston Churchill.

Most people don't have the privilege of getting to know a pig. For most of us, the thought of pigs conjure images of dirty, greedy animals living in their own waste. We couldn't be more wrong! Pigs don't perspire, and so wallow in mud to keep themselves cool. They are naturally very clean animals and, if given the choice, they prefer to cool themselves down in fresh water. When in a natural environment, pigs build communal nests and toilet areas away from their sleeping area.

Smarter than Dogs?
Pigs are remarkably intelligent creatures thought by many to be smarter than dogs. They can be trained to respond to simple voice commands, and are easily toilet trained. Studies have revealed that pigs have a long memory and are able to focus on specific tasks even better than some primates... read more click here!

Left over tomatoes

We had a pile of left over Tomatoes and Herbs from our garden, so I have been busy in the kitchen making sure nothing went to waste. We died our herbs, made Green Tomato Pickles from the un-ripened fruit and Pasta Sauce from all the red ones. The Green Tomato Pickles recipe comes from my grand mother, they are really tasty and never last long. This is a photo of the jars still left. Click here for the recipes

Snow Garden

So as you may have already figured out its been quite cold and snowy this year in Blackheath. The only vegies that are doing much good are the seedlings in our new covered garden bed. So glad we made it and will probably have a few more built for next winter.

Where we live

We live on the top of the Great Dividing Range and our part in New South Wales (Australia) is called the 'Blue Mountains'. Its about 1.5 hours from Syndey CBD. (Central Business District). The photo shows our town 'Blackheath' on the plateau.

The range comprises a well-dissected sandstone plateau that rises from an eastern escarpment. Its slopes are generally precipitous and scary. Blackheath is 1100m (3600 feet) from sea level and sits pretty much on the very top - its kinda cool.

In 1788 the Blue Mountains were originally named "Carmarthen Hills" and "Landsdowne Hills" by Governor Phillip, (really bad names). The Blue Mountains is densely populated by oil bearing Eucalyptus trees. The atmosphere is filled with finely dispersed droplets of oil, which, in combination with dust particles and water vapour, scatter short-wave length rays of light which are predominantly blue in colour. It wasn't long after 1788 that the distinctive blue haze saw the change in name to the Blue Mountains.

The first Europeans to cross the range were the explorers Gregory Blaxland, William C. Wentworth, and William Lawson in 1813. We have towns named after them.

Snow Dog

Well it's not the most exciting podcast in the world, but we only get a few days snow a year, so to us its pretty exciting!

Chicken Cam

Yes its a little Podcast / Chicken Cam so you can see our new new girls. Its all a bit silly really, but I had fun doing it.

The Chronicles of Narnia

We went out and brought the DVD 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe' last week. I had just finished reading the books and was keen to see the movie. Although it has a stolen story line from the bible, I enjoyed it anyway - the messages are still positive ones, even if you are a non beliver.

Anyway as for the movie, I was more disappointed than a disappointed thing is disappointed.

I'm not a big fan of talking animals movies, but the talking animals where probably the best part of this movie and the kids where pretty good too. I liked William Moseley as Peter the best. The CGI was really bad in places and the story line dragged. I did not get that feeling of magic, excitement and wonder that I got from the book. My biggest gripe is probably with Tilda Swinton as the White Witch - she was so not scary at all and I thought her acting was dreadful in this movie and as for her castle, talk about dull. I expected something more imposing like Mordor but with ice instead of fire.

Maybe I was just expecting too much. I give it a 'luke warm' rating, It was just too disney.

Chicken x 3

Yep we have some new chooks (3). The Black one is Charlotte, the Red one in the middle is Veronica but the other girl, who looks like really expensive wood grain, on the left, still has no name.... If any one has suggestions please leave a comment, I would love to hear them....

PS: Chicken Video Podcast coming very soon.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Robbie Swan is a good friend of ours and is always fighting the good fight, this is a letter he recently sent to the The Mercury, Hobart (Sat 15 Apr 2006).

And violence?

Senator Guy Barnett's push to block children from having access to explicit sexual material and extreme violence in libraries (Letters, April 11) is laudable but will not work, mostly because he does not believe his own rhetoric.

For sure, he has sex in his sights and he will pursue erotica and pornography with the zeal of the morals campaigner.

But when it comes to pursuing "extreme violence" it's amazing how often this aspect of his crusade seems to fall off the agenda. If he is serious about stopping access to extreme violence then he will have to include about 3000 gruesome R-rated films that show people being decapitated, disembowelled, raped, murdered and tortured that are displayed on the websites of the nation's major film distributors.

He'll also have to filter news broadcasts which show people blown to pieces in car bombs in the Middle East, extreme right-wing hate speech sites and a host of other extreme violence sites of varying shades.

Oh, and while he's about it will he have the courage of his convictions to ban children's eyes from Mel Gibson's gruesome religious spectacle, The Passion of the Christ? Or does he see this as "religious instruction" and quite OK for 15-year-olds in the local library? Pornography, like violence, is often in the eye of the beholder.

Robbie Swan
Eros Association inc

Diggin!

Alex diggin
So the Summers over and the chill is in the air. I've been busy digging up all the old garden beds for our winter crops. Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Beans, Spinach, Rocket, Garlic and Onions.

Christopher screwing on the roof panels
We also build ourselves a new garden box over the weekend with a roof to keep the frost and snow off the lettuce.

Bunny!

Well I hope you all had a nice Easter and did not eat toooo much chocolate. Its been real quite up here on the mountain top, I'm a bit borrrred today and not really sure what to do with myself, I get like that sometimes... to much quite. This is one of Christopher's bunnies, his name is Charlie cute ay!

Sky

I was laying in the park yesterday under a lamp post and noticed just how beautiful the sky was, so I took a heap of photos, here are three. If you would like a larger copy for your desk top send me an email or leave a comment. Alexxx

Simon and Lee

Pictured Jeff, Me, Lee, Simon and in the middle Sheba the dog - Winter 1972

When I was a little kid I had a best mate Simon, we lived across from each other on Calander Street. Our dad's where in the same navy squadron at the base in Nowra - HMAS Albatross, and our mums being navy wives became best friends... and still are.

When I was about 15 his family moved away to Queensland and I had not seen Simon since.

I saw his mum Michele and bother Lee in 1986, we had a picnic at Moony Monny Creek... (do remember that Lee?) I have warm memories of that day, most of my strongest memories include days at the beach.



Pictured above Lee, Michele, Arna and Barry - Summer 1986 - Moony Monny Creek

I finally got to catch up with Simon after these many years and it was really great to see him. It felt like a blind date at first, neither of us knowing what to expect after all this time.

Simon stayed with us for 3 days and I'm happy to report he's a cool guy and was a great house guest. He's actually very similar to my child hood memories of him. I'm sure we will be both much closer again.



Simon With our dog Gus Blackheath NSW 2006

Vegitable Garden

Today's photo of the vegie garden, looking through the arbour.

Why cows hate snow!

Buffy

It was a hot summers day. Christopher, Gus (our dog) and myself where in town to have coffee. We dropped into the real estate where our friend Sue works. We brought Gus in as Sue and everybody else thinks he's adorable - he gets very spoilt and laps up every bit.

So there we where having a lovely chat to Sue about pretty much nothing, as ya do - when a old lady wonders into the office, she was wearing a knee length floral dress and has big hair that's a lovely shade of light purple and kinda on the thin side - that's the hair not the lady, she was quite ample - No, not the breasts, (I try not too look at old ladies breasts) more like her thighs.

Anyway I call Gus so he's close, as he can be a bit boisterous with the ladies. This lady walks up to the front desk and very properly asks to see so and so about something or rather. 'Just a moment, take a seat, she'll be right with you.' She took a seat - and a bit. Damn it was hot, and so was she, that's all I'm going to say on that subject, I doubt you need extra details and my memory is already too vivid. Anyway there we all where.

Gus being Gus and extremely excited by the site of this not so little old lady, now sitting, legs slightly apart, well it was hot, did I say that.... Anyway Gus gets away from me, runs and jumps - nose right into her 'special spot', sniff, sniff, sniff.... We all froze horrified! 'Oh my lord, he can smell my buffy' the old lady exclaimed!. Yes he could, I had to use all my strength to pull Gus out of the depths of her giant panties. Sniff, sniff.

We where all doing the best to keep a straight faces, not so well I might add, but I don't think the lady noticed. Sue quietly mentioned, Buffys' her dog boys... Yer we knew that.

We quickly said goodbye to Sue and stepped out of the real estate office, dragging Gus along with us. Burst out laughing and keep laughing for about an hour.

Video Blog

A cute and funny tour of our hobbie farm and animals, plus a big hello to my Friends Deb and Matt in NZ!

Our Summer Garden

Well summer has just ended and we've had a pretty good season. (although the excess rain has made it a bit difficult for some of our vegetables, like Squash which mostly rotted... sad.) Heaps done in the yard though, new sleeper steps and paths, fixed up the grass (dust bowl), put in some new fences and gates, added onto the vegie patch and done heaps of planting.



This year we managed to grow our selves a good supply of organic vegies - very tasty - and as you can see from the photo the gardens still bursting at the seams. We are now eating our own potatoes, onions, garlic, chilies, tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot, corn, zucchini and a variety of lettuce and other greens. Winter seedings will be going in over the next few weeks.



I just loving being in it, so quite and peaceful I spend hours just walking around planting, digging, pruning and harvesting... Its my gym as welll as my retreat. Such a change of life from a few years ago when we lived in a city apartment on Oxford Street Sydney.

a little furry friend

I have had a new little friend for a while now.... a beautiful possum. She/he always comes down from the tree when I come down into the garden to visit the chickens and sheep. Yesterday I found her in the chook house sleeping and today just looking out the window, like she was in an apartment. It seems I'm so trusted now I can just pick her up and put her back in the tree when its time for the chickens to go to bed. How wonderful is that.

Christopher

Christopher sure does love his bunny 'Curly' and our cat 'Fluffy'... is this cute or what!