Getting Dinner Straight from the Farm & vegemite

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for reading my blog and commenting! I had mentioned in a previous entry that I had tried vegemite and didn't like it. Well, I tried it again and it really isn't that bad anymore. It actually tastes like concentrated beef bouillion. I've been having it lately and I think I might be getting a taste for it. Hahahaha. At least I'm getting my Vitamin B! Of course, the trick is to have a miniscule amount on your knife for a whole slice of bread. Vegemite is sometimes put in gravy and I agree that would be good considering that it tastes like bouillion. Rys actually bought a small jar of vegemite for the wwoof house. This small jar will last for years.

Fri Jan 2 - Sujin the korean wwoofer left today and Allison's parents came to visit for the weekend. After dinner, everyone (except me) played 500. I am still trying to learn it and the french guys love this card game.

A friend of Rys and Allison came today to show us how to make armour. Blaney is from the medieval society SEA (?) and there are members around the world. There are kingdoms in Australia as well as the US (ie. Phoenix, Pittsburgh) where members will convene to fight wars. Blaney is a knight in the society which is apparently a rare honour. He showed us how to make a metal helmet by hammering a sheet of metal and putting the pieces together.

I went into the chicken dome to feed the chickens and found 4 eggs. I accidently dropped one which broke. Before I could pick up the pieces, the greedy hungry chickens were pecking at the broken egg. I had to take it away from them as soon as possible and feed them extra food to make them forget the taste of egg. Otherwise, they will know that their eggs are edible and eat them. Chickens eat everything....they even eat cooked chicken leftovers.

I've started running again which is great! I ran on New Year's eve and again every other day. It feels so good to exercise again! I run up and down the long driveway.

Sat Jan 3 - today was an action packed farm day!!!! First, we killed 2 chickens for dinner - a brown female and a white male Silkie. The chosen chooks were caught in nets and taken away from the others so that the other chickens do not see. The brown female was chosen because she makes the other ones nervous and the male Silkie was taken because we only need 1 rooster. Allison tried to break their necks so that we wouldn't get blood but it didn't work. I learned that chicken's necks can twist many times without any effects. So we had to do it the old fashioned way with an axe to the neck. Allison held one down and Pat swung the axe while Cara and I watched on the sidelines. I've always heard that headless chickens run around and I can confirm it now. The male Silkie actually ran a bit and then jumped and pirouetted around all over. Cara got excited since she loves chasing things so we had to keep her away. Then the chickens were hung upsidedown to drain the blood. The next step was skinning them which Allison did for the brown chook and started on the white Silkie. I finished skinning the white Silkie with a knife and large rubber gloves. The interesting thing is that Silkies have black flesh! They taste the same as the paler variety and apparently they are popular in Asia (China?) because of the colour of the meat. After removing the skin, I had to violate the chook by inserting my hand in to take the guts out. First came out the long intestines which looked like a long worm or thick spaghetti. Then came out the organs. Yuck. Since the 2 chooks were too little for 5 people, Allison made a stew using wine, potatoes, carrots, and barley. We had the stew over rice and it was delicious! I usually don't have seconds but I did this time! Yum. (Some people may be appalled that we killed chickens for food but I personally rather have them from a farm than a supermarket where they obtain them from places that mistreat the animals).

In the afternoon, I helped put up the greenhouse by hammering bolts into the wooden frame base and putting the walls together. It is a team effort from everybody and it takes a couple of days. The instructions that came with the greenhouse are so confusing. Allison's father is good with these types of things so he guides us on what to do and we do them.

In the evening, I went to the dam (pond on the property) with Pat to fish. It was my first time fishing and we caught 5 fish each!!!! We only kept 4 of the biggest ones and the rest back. The fish are red fin perches; they have beautiful brightly coloured orange fins (that are spikey) and striped black grey bodies. I was told that it is not normal for 1 person to catch 5 fish in 2 hrs! I'm so happy my first time was so fruitful! (I also caught a lot of weeds too while fishing). We are going to have the fish for dinner the next night.

Sun Jan. 4 - I got to pet a duckling more today while he was eating.

We needed to go back to the pond to catch more fish for dinner. Allison's father is a fisherman and he wanted to catch some too; therefore, he, Pat and I went to the pond to fish. No luck tonight.....they weren't biting. The only one who caught something was me and I got a tiny red fin perch which I threw back. The fish from the day before probably told their buddies about us... That's ok, we still ate the other ones we caught last night today. They were cooked in wine and ginger. Mmmm, they were good! It's so awesome to eat fish that I caught!

Socializing and Bank Stuff

Last night I went on an outing with the IEP group. We went to the Glenmore Hotel for some drinks and food. I had 2 beers and fries...hmmm, very healthy. I met more Germans (a couple) and finally some other North Americans. I met 2 girls from Florida, 1 from Texas, and 1 from Toronto. The Americans I've met are here on the 4-month visa because they can use as many of those as they want whereas, the 1 year visa can only be used once. One girl from FL is working at a high end Italian restaurant at Hyde Park. The pay isn't the best but she gets to eat yummy food and watch people play the huge chess game in the park. She told us that we can get ice cream cones from McD's for only 30 cents! All the McD's here look like high end restaurants with nice decor and beautiful displays of pastries. Apparently, McD's in Europe are similar.  On our way back to the hostel, we dropped into the McD's for an ice cream on a windy cold night.

This morning, I woke up to find none of the bathrooms had toilet paper. Ugh. But alas, I went into the guy's bathroom and stole their only roll. Hahaha. Sorry guys. I can't wait to go to my WWOOF thing next week and do medieval crafts! Yay!

I'm going to visit Hyde Park today to see the huge chess game and the Botanic Gardens to see the large bats in the trees.  Tomorrow, I will be going to the famous Bondi Beach with 2 of my roomates (a Korean, and a Swiss). I turns out that girl who didn't really talk is Swiss. I got to talk to her last night and she's very friendly. I think a lot of people want to talk but are too shy because english isn't their first language.

I picked up my bank card today! Yay! Now I can leave Sydney! This city is too chaotic like NYC...I need peace. I heard that Melbourne is really cool. Apparently, Sydney is like Toronto (busy city), Melbourne is like Montreal (cobblestones, beautiful, cool, amazing.....biased, am I?), and Canberra is like Ottawa (BORING). I will see and let you know if this is true!

By the way, if you guys need to wire transfer money it can be a pain if you don't know what to do (because the bank people don't know either). I called the general number and I was told to either do it automatically on the phone with my phone code OR call my branch during their hours. Since I don't have my code on me, I decided to call my branch between 12:30am-9am Sydney time (9:30am-5pm EST). I got up early to call and my branch tells me I cannot do it through them. I had to fax a request. Arrrgh. So I faxed it and now hopefully everything works out.

Found my 1st WWOOF place!

I found a WWOOF host 2 hrs south of Sydney! I will be helping a couple with gardening and making medieval things such as armour, woodwork, sewing banners, etc!!! How cool is that? I will be taking the train down there next Tuesday. I can't wait!

Who am I rooming with now? There are 2 french women, 3 Koreans, 1 Chinese, and 1 white girl (who doesn't talk but stares). There are a lot of Koreans here because most of them were studying english on the Gold Coast and now they are just traveling. I always go to the hostel kitchen and tv room for breakfast and supper where I meet a lot of people. Last night, I met another German girl (there are many Germans too) who is also looking for fruit picking work. She said that there is not much out there - she called 30 places and nothing. She wants to WWOOF too and I told her that's a better bet right now. It's high season right now and very competitive because many students are off for summer vacation. So I will look for work next year and I will most likely go to the west coast since no one ever thinks to go there (thus, less competition!). And I will be able to meet up with my cousin while I'm there.