Burringbar by Way of Murwillumbah

Howdy folks.  

Last weekend, I took a great trip to the Hinterland of the Gold Coast, into a beautiful area of the bush.  I rode in a blue Chrysler Valiant and traveled with three others (Roy, Liz and Verona) to get away and explore.  We listened to some good ol' country music, ate fish & chips, went on a bushwalk and cruised by the ocean.

I had the pleasure of staying the night in a timber and stone house that was built by Roy's parents.  Complete with solar panels, a wood-burning stove and a natural, non-flushing toilet, this house was a little taste of what I hope to live in one day.  There are heaps of plant and tree varieties and I spent lots of time simply looking at everything around me.

There is another great Aussie word, but I don't know how to spell it.  I'll set up it up for you:

I was trying to phone one of the members of the National Parks Association of Queensland but couldn't get through.  When I told my boss that the line was busy, he said "oh, she's probably having a good "SHINWAG" ".  (It sounded like that to me...with a "sh" sound at the beginning.)  I said, "she's having a what?"  We discussed the word for a bit and he couldn't tell me why it's called that.  I was imagining shaking shins...like you do when your legs are crossed and the top leg is going up and down (like my Aunt Benjie) but when I proposed this, he got a real kick out of it (pun intended).  Online, I have found the words "chin wag", "chinwag" and "shin-wag".  It's all quite confusing, but I imagine it's a "chin wag", as in you are moving your chin a lot and talking and people are just misspelling it.

 I found a photo from the honey harvest.  The resolution is shit, but I wanted to show how stylish my outfit is (on the right).

 

Last week, I skyped with my two sisters.   As they called, I was eating a crumpet and Hugo was preparing to go see the Ashes cricket game.  (The Ashes is a 5-day game of test cricket that happens every two years between England and Australia)  Could we have been more Aussie/English in that moment? 

Joel Salatin is coming to Brisbane this weekend and Hugo and I have tickets.  I am looking very forward to it.  For those of you who haven't heard about this hero of mine, he is a "fulltime farmer in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. A third generation alternative farmer, he returned to the farm fulltime in 1982 and continued refining and adding to his parents’ ideas.

The farm services more than 3,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey and forestry products using relationship marketing."

 

Some of you might remember him from the movie Food Inc.  Check out his farm, Polyface.  Start with the principles page...  http://www.polyfacefarms.com/principles.aspx

There are some great excerpts from his book "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal" here:  http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Everything-Is-Illegal1esp03.htm

Support your local farmers!