As mentioned in some of my other articles I visit my country retreat almost every weekend. We bought this beautiful piece of Australian shrubs about two years ago. And yes, since then we have spent many hours fixing up the little house and cleaning up the land.
It is an idyllic 100 acres of undulating fields with eucalypt trees and native bushes. Even though it seems like I am working harder on my weekends then during the week at my job, it gives me a certain joy and sensation of achievement. We are still living a bit ‘backwards” and that is, I believe, what makes it so enjoyable. For once we do not have electricity. We use hammer and nails to build structures and only rely on the power inverter which we hook up to our car to do the jobs where we just cannot do without. A tractor is another luxury we ought to buy one day when we can find the right one for the right prize…
Even though I do have a fully (well maybe not as fully as in the city) functioning kitchen, I prefer to do my cooking outside on a campfire or in my pizza oven, which took 6-7 weekends to finish. I am not a labourer and bricklaying is not something I have ever done before, but I gave it a go and with lots of trial and error this oven is now my pride and joy. It makes the best pizzas and fantastic breads and roasts.
This weekend however I did some cooking on a campfire in a big cast iron pot. For the first time since cooking on fire, my dinner burned. It was disgraceful. And all just because I left the pot without supervision for 15 minutes to check on some sheep our neighbour gave us.
Our three little sheep…. Our neighbour had little to none grass left on his property and because we have no animals other then natives anywhere in the place he gave us three of his sheep to take care of. They are still a bit shy, probably because they grew up in a big herd with little contact to humans, but we are getting closer to them every week. If anybody has some tricks on how to get them to be less shy, I would appreciate some advice…
The best things in the country are by far, the fresh air and the wonderful starry nights. It is the most WOW experience to just lay or sit next to your campfire and stare into the sky. I have never seen so many stars, so clear and bright. My big dream is to build a couple of extra cabins and hire them out to visitors for holiday accommodations, but for now I will just enjoy it with friends and family.
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