As we have been whittling our way through this epic journey of felling, cutting, splitting and stacking all the wood from the 5 huge, dead, eucalyptus trees in and around our 7 acres. We experience a curious sense of exhausted comfort in working our way through the last tree. Tomorrow should see the end of it.

We couldn’t have done this so quickly without the help of friends and students to do some of the carrying and stacking. We worked quite hard today in the light showery sprinkles of rain to get half-way through the last tree. It’s hard to say exactly how much wood we have processed and stacked to season in the last 3 weeks of part-time labour, but I imagine that it must be somewhere approaching 20 tonnes. I’ve gone through almost 8 litres of bar and chain oil and the same of two-stroke mix in maintaining the saws. Chain saws are such a great invention. They make so much work possible. I couldn’t have done all this without them.

Of course we were aided at every moment by the chickens. They know the sound of the chain saw and the splitter, and as they are free ranging all day, every day. They know where we are and what we are doing from the sounds that we make. It only takes minutes for them to turn up. Freshly split wood means fresh bugs and termites.

After all this work, we reward our selves with a high carb, but low GI meal of solid wholemeal pasta topped with a home-made tomato passata sauce and a side dish of lightly steamed broccoli from the garden. All this without the addition of oil, salt or sugar. Not to mention, there are no preservatives, pesticides, or fertilisers used along the way. This is wholesome, fresh, homemade, nutritious food. Simple and plain, but not boring. A green garnish of fresh-picked basil and parsley completes the meal.

Our little small holding here produces fuel for our stove and kilns, but also fuel for our bodies. Real work with a defined and obvious purpose, that leads to a positive and creative outcome along with home-grown and home made whole foods, these are all part of a well-considered complete life. I’m not sure if all this is working, but we are certainly having a good go at it.

We have spent the week chopping and stacking wood for the weekend wood firing workshops. No matter where we are on the 7 acres of bush where we cut the dead wood for kiln and house fuel, the chickens will hear the sound of the chain saw and turn up within minutes. Yesterday I was in the most remote part of our land, after bashing a track through the under growth to get to a fallen dead tree. I hadn’t made more than 3 cuts when the first chicken turned up, then a minute later, 2 more. They just love to get in amongst the dead wood and bark to scratch out the termites and insects.

They show no concern for the noise of the chain saw, the flying wood chips or the falling logs. They are obsessed with being first in to get the bugs. With 3 chickens helping me, it really slows me down. I have to be especially careful when I’m dragging logs out with the tractor and heavy chains. They have no fear of me or the tractor and will get right in front of the wheels if there are insects there. I have to keep a very close eye on them all of the time, to know exactly where they are.

Spring is well and truely here now, with the cherry blossom, but we still had a frost on Saturday night. The temporary cloches will have to remain on the tomatoes and other ‘soft’ seedlings for a few more weeks yet.

We are just in the beginning of spring, but there are still icy winds blowing gale-force off the snow, interspersed with the occasional calm, sunny, warm days. The winter garden is almost depleted, with just 6 carrots and 3 leeks left from the autumn crops, but we still have plenty of broccoli and spinach, which have become a main greens, while we wait for the newly planted seedings  in their new/old cloches, to start to produce.

Keeping to my philosophy of making-do and living frugally, I use what we have in the garden to make a risotto. Its a bit of a hotchpotch affair this time, but ends up really delicious and it couldn’t be more wholesome and fresh. I raid the garden for whatever there is today. We have spring onions, parsley sage and thyme, as well a sprig of oregano. I pare off a side-shoot of some old celery. These little side-shoots are the most tender part of the plant at the moment, as the main bush is heading for the sky, ready to bolt to seed in the coming warm weather.

There are a couple of new asparagus shoots. The asparagus isn’t doing all that well this spring, as it hasn’t rained properly here for two months and the ground is desiccated by the winter gales, drying everything out. We are having to water everyday now, just as if it were high summer.

I return with my basket of goodies and start to finely chop the celery and older spring onions. While I soak some of our dried mushrooms in hot water, they smell delicious and start to make me salivate while I’m preparing the other vegetables. I go to the trouble of very finely slicing all the veggies, as they are no longer in their prime, going to seed, and getting a bit tough and troublesome, just like me.

Everybody knows how to make a risotto, so I won’t describe the steps in detail, only the variations. I sautéed the onions and celery for quite a while, maybe 15 mins, to soften them through and get them well cooked, adding the fresh herbs halfway through. Next I stir the rice into the oil and get it well coated, but then continue to heat it while stiring until a few of the grains start to ‘pop’. I was told how to do this by an Italian chef. Clearly there are many different ways to make a risotto.

I don’t have any white wine open, but I do have a little red wine left in a bottle from the previous night, so in it goes with the softened mushroom chunks. I don’t have a pot of boiling stock either, but I do have a little jellied chicken stock in the fridge. It all goes in, but needs some extra water to create the needed depth of liquor to lubricate the rice and extract the starches. This needs to be continually stirred with a little more water added as necessary, for another 15 mins.

It all comes together into a very delicious risotto that reflects the season, and in particular, this windy, dry, time of year.

I fly in from China with my cargo of porcelain bowls safely stowed in my hand luggage. A dozen good reasons to feel happy.

I have one day to do 3 loads of washing and pack up the car with camping gear. We have season tickets to the National Folk Festival in Canberra. It is held over the 5 days of Easter each year. They bill it as 5 days in a perfect world. And this is true, but not for the reasons that they think! I’ll return to this later.

We enjoy the music, the food, the people, catching up with friends. It’s all good. We get to catch 3 different concerts with Heath Cullen, always good, but this year, 3 times better.

I also catch up with Mal Webb a really ‘out there’ performer working at the edge of what is possible with mouth percussion, 12 instruments and a loop machine!

A really great week.

We return home and work the washing machine to the max. I have a kiln to collect from the galvanisers. I welded it before leaving for China. It’s been ‘hot dipped’ now, and ready to collect. I have a week to fettle, clean, etch, prime, and top coat it before Janine and I fly out to Cambodia, at the end of the week, where we are volunteering for a couple of weeks.

To say that there is a lot a poverty here is such an understatement. Almost everyone is dirt poor. There is so much ingenuity here to ‘make do’. I’m so impressed with these people’s resilience in the face of grinding poverty.

If I ever hear another Australian winge  about how hard their life is……

We live in a perfect world. We are so lucky. We just don’t know how lucky we are.

A little time away working in a third world country really grounds you.