Sunday Bush Tucker

Yes...Have just sampled a teaspoon full. Loverly!!! Will keep some for you when you pas through in June.

Cheers,

Willie, You could get pickled on liquered, pickled prickly pear which could cause you to end up pear shaped, pie eyed and p....d.

Oh no, is it only three weeks!!??

Yes it is only three weeks and you had better get on with killing those flies, getting those bikini girls trained up and finding those fish....
.......and what's with the "Oh no!!!" bit.
You on the computer and Ian infront of the pay telly - how is that shed of yours looking. I am going to inspect it when I am there and I might just post the photos of it........
......and whats goin' on with a new photo every day... getting a bit too clever!!
Andrew

Do I understand that they have meter maids in Bds'ville and Ruth is tip toeing around in a bikini. For some reason I had a different pic in my mind, how nieve of me.

And as for the flies, I don't want to see one, not one when I get out there Ruth. BTW I understand that flies have a roll in our eco system, there is purpose, but why the heck when God decided we had to have then, why didn't he just make one big one ???
Life little mysteries !!

If anyone is feeling stressed, anxious or otherwise frustrated, doesn't have a prickly pear patch to pass the day away in, can't wait to get started in the truck, relieve your anxieties at this site.

http://www.hrm.uh.edu/cwcole/bubblewrap/

Cocka
Here I am thinking you are filling Willem's inbox and his thread with crap, when suddenly I realise that it is a subliminal message relating to four wheel driving. We should wrap our fragile bits (and pieces) in bubble wrap. Thanks for that handy hint.
Andrew

Willem how do think they would go as a liqueur, i make my own liqueur's amongst other beverages, just a thought never tasted prickly pear.

Baz.

Andrew,

You will have to stop over for the day if you want to sample the icecream and syrup. NO icecream allowed at smoko or daylight hours. Golden rule...

Baz,

Can't see why not. Just add the stuff you buy from the shop. Should be able to get sweetly drunk on PP JUICE.......!

Cheers,

Hello Ray,

We made some two years ago and only ran out of supply a couple of months ago. Some very prickly lessons were learnt from our first encounter with the pears.

I can go and pick any amount of pears for you and post them. Just say the word :-))

Cheers

PS Nice flag...whose is it?

The missus says after her last encounter with prickly pears she will pass on this one. If I'm ever over your way I'll drop in with some ice cream :)
I think that will be the only way I'll get to taste it.
Just thought I'd fly the flag for the state that adopted me or is that the other way around. Anyway whatever, it wont be long and I'll be officially Oztralian :)

Hi Jen
I enjoy electronics and have automated many common task on farms. ie irrigation,pig feeding,crushing grain, etc.Tempt me with your idea.

Rich soon???? Remember your dear friends in Melbourne!!
Andrew

Hi Jen,

Jude says "No way am I selling that after all the laborius work"
It is bottling time now and we are filling the pantry for winter and for ALL the visitors who are just about to leave southern climes.

Cheers,

Ok, Peecee, do you know anything about remote control for a distance of a 1-20mtrs. I cannot say here, as this will blow it to the world. Now don't laugh, I dreamt about this the other night, it worked wonders.( in my dreams, as always) but this was a bonza gadget. I told Geoff and the kids they laughed at first and then said what a great idea. So I have racked my brain as good as it could work, and thought it best for a pro. As I do not want to put my address over for all to see, I may tell Andrew and Jen, but I don't know if I can trust that Andrew, he might pinch my idea, I guess I could give him a cut or a kick. Whatever, Jen

Jude & Willem, you are so kind, catering for all the travelling visitors, you must be like us, we share our good things. Jen

G'day Andrew and Jen, In richness and poorness, we not could forget our special dearest friends in Melbourne. J&G

Just about anything can be remote controlled by radio or infrared. One day I'll get around to finishing my compressor remote, yeah I know but I like fiddling around.

Our house is an open house with lots of comings and goings and meetings taking place and a constant stream of visitors. Year before last we had eight visitors all at once. The visitors slept in the house, Judith slept in her studio and I slept in the truck. And our dog had just had 7 puppies....Bedlam! We go through a lot of coffee and tea. Expecting a party of 7 this year and others in lesser numbers. We have a large yard which can accommodate 2 caravans at least. It is a happy home :-)

Cheers,

Jen, you can tell us your idea, we won't tell anyone honest.
In your comment about richness and poorness you won't forget your friends. We know willie is OK but anyone who won't buy their thoroughly deserving wife a lovely opal ring would be mean and nasty and sinister andyou just could not trust them. Boy is that person going to be in trouble in a couple of weeks time

Des, Ok put your ear to here, and I'll tell you..................did you get it, it's a beauty eh???
I don't know about these untrustworthy friends you are talking about, only this friend I know is buying an opal ring that is worth 5 times as much as the one his beautiful wife had chosen, and he is saving madly, even to the extent of putting the brakes on her spending. I think most of the trouble has started, I thought maybe you might be able to help your friends a little bit as I will certainly, when I am a little more financial ahead, as I don't like to see relationship problems. Jen

How did we get from prickly pears to opal rings?? Something must have eluded me!! Spend all day at work - 8am till 9pm and come home and find cryptic little messages in my in tray. I have a secret for Jen - I am going to get her some nice new shock absorbers for the Landcruiser - boy she will love them. I think that the Diamantina river might have lots of Diamonds in it for me to collect for Jen and she would rather a diamond ring.
Andrew

Andrew - WRONG!!!!

Andrew, What the dickens happens in the cruiser for Jen to want shock absorbers? You must be a crook driver or the cruiser isn't as good as the Mav. Jen

Peecee, seeing we are exmembers we cannot go through you member message bank. I have had one of our email addresses over the net before only to be crammed with spam. This address has since been cancelled and we have had no trouble since. Now if you like to leave a short clear message on our Mob. Phone 0427589634, with your address I will email you with my ideas and you can go for it. I may be able to find another approach if this doesn't suit. Jen

G'day Toonfish,

I couldn't find the receipt for it. Uncle Milton went to Adelaide today and took it with him to source the diode that burnt out. Seems to be repairable, so he reckons. I should get out of it with not too high a cost. We shall see. I think that I am going to buy the cig plug in converter like John has in his Troopy.

Cheers,

Yes Ruth, I remember and cannot get it out of my mind. My Aunty to previously lived at the beach on a huge sugar cane farm and the Prickley pears were growing wild. She would pick them and make jam and topping, she has sinced passed away and I must ask my Mum if she has the recipes, including a pie with meringue. YUMMY!! Jen

There you go I knew someone else out there would. Sugar cane farm eh, well my Nana lived in Mackay and the Main Roads Camp was at Sarina I think. Your Aunty was in Queensland also?

Hello Ruth,

Judith says she cannot get the PP juice to set no matter how much jamsetter she uses. She also reckons there is not enough pectin in the juice. No recipes here. Will accept any recipe gratefully.

Cheers,

Yes Ruth, they lived at Elliott Heads, and my Uncle is aged and still there. Probably worth millions of dollars at the moment, prickley pears and all.
Willem, the setting might have something to do with the ripening stage of the fruit or the amount of simmering. I am not a eggspirt, just find out from experience. I make rosella jam and love it, nearest I can get to the PP jam. Jen

Jen - you could be right about the ripening stage - I don't remember Nana talking about that part and the receipe book is at the other house. (It's a very old Fowlers Vacola book and a very old CWA one). Sure the PP stuff came about during the Depression maybe. Jen, right again, Elliott Heads - he's probably got a nice beach house, say, $2.5M You can always buy a block of land here for $13,000 - sewered, watered, powered.

Ruth,

Are you talking about $13000 for a block of land in Birdsville???? And wot about the flies?

We bought a stone cottage on half an acre with a studio and out buildings here in Peterbrough for $17,000. Must say that was 4 years ago and prices have gone up.

Could you really get away from it all in Birdsvill?. Haven't been there since '87. Maybe a metropolis has sprung up in the mean time.

Ruth and Willem, We have great plans to retire in the outback places, flop the cities . If flies are the only sticky beaks there are in the bush I would rather them anyday than the human type. By retiring age we should be able to sell here for a couple of million and bring our money to the bush. Jen

Jen,

Better buy now as when your property is worht a million everything out here is also going to be worth a lot.

Peterborough has very few flies despite having an abbatoir. You can still buy a house for under $50,000. We have 3 months of very cold winter, 2 months of extreme summer, and 7 months of blissful weather. A dry country with around 10 inches of raqin per year.

Willem, what is the human enviroment like? I don't like sticky beaks and gossipers, but I enjoy friendliness and fun, I can always keep the flies out, or knock em dead, but humans it is a different story. A little secret.... we are looking into buying a house, and until retirement, rent it out to respectable people. So it is the air, were looking at Mt Isa, as the prices are reasonable although not cheap, but the rent is high. Peterborough sounds to have weather that is tolerant and what we experienced while passing through was friendly,clean and picturesque. Worth a thought, especially if PP's are on hand. Jen

Jen, I'd go to Peterborough before I went to live in Mt Isa! Then I think Peterborough is, amongst other good things, quaint. I like stone houses.

Willem - $13,000 gets you small block of gibber with power, water, part-sewered, close to town, tip, airstrip, water views and road to Big Red - you can sit on your verandah and watch the cars come in from the Simpson Desert. Birdsville has two service stations, one information centre, one library, one museum, one green oval, new indoor sports centre, two tennis courts with lights, one pub, industrial estate, one clinic (new one happening this year), no churches, one very nice large town hall (can fit 400 in for dinner - I did a couple), one art gallery/coffee shop, another coffee shop, airport, SES shed, number of new (ex-Amberley Air Force base) houses (buy them for $85,000 ready to live in with split a/c systems), school, school swimming pool (built from money from re-cycling cans at racetime), hotel-motel (18 units), caravan park (to fit 2,500 people) with 9 motel units and 3 fully self-contained cabins, Police station and old court house, National Parks Office, and private housing. Maybe click on my photo and use magnifying glass might be able to see the size of town now.
Jen, no good coming to Birdsville if you don't like sticky-beaks and gossip - it's our main sport in summer. Hahahaha. If you don't tell us we'll make it up anyhow. Hahahaha.

Good one Ruth, if it is a sort of sport then that is what I call fun, add on to the already stretched stories and see who gets the best reaction, especially on a tourist track:>) Mt Isa was only on our mind cos' our kids are working up that way. Our son and his wife are at Almora Station, Burketown, working and we will soon have a daughter and her husband and 2 precious babies in Darwin. I guess we can always hit the road from anywhere to see them.

Jen, Peterborough used to be a railway mecca. The railways got shut down in the late 80's and 90's and the town fell into a slump. By the end of the last century everything seemed at a low. But things have picked up and a lot of retirees from Adelaide and beyond have bought in town and moved in. About 60% of the population are newbies like ourselves and the locals have welcomed us here as we have revived the town. I do not get involved in gossip but our younger neighbour a few doors down knows the ins and outs of the town and comes for a cuppa ever so often..I disappear into my shed. My wife, Judith has taken to her cottage and the town and is President of This and Chairperson of That and lives a very busy lifestyle. I disappear in to the bush every so often and may take an old mate along for company. Peterborough has everything a retired person should need including hospital,medical centre, supermarket, chemist, 2 hardware stores, bank, Post Office, 4 pubs! etc etc. Population about 2000 (800 house). No expansion expected. We are 250km from Adelaide, 110 from Port Pirie and 130 from Port Augusta. Lots of stone houses but they are selling fast.You can access the big smoke by car, bus or rail. Email me if you want more info. I could send you a broshure. Peterborough lies in the plain between the Souther and Northern Flinders Ranges

Ruth, I am in for a surprise when I next visit your town!

Cheers,