Marry HAD a little lamb...

One of the (surprisingly many) benefits to living in the middle of nowhere is plenty of land and having friends who raise animals on it.

My husband's family is friends with just such an family, and we just bought a yearling lamb from them.

The lambs were delivered to the abattoirs last weekend, and this Friday, we got the meat. Came out to about $6 a kilo for the lamb (which is what the sale price is on BBQ lamb chops at the butcher we frequent).

Not only is the a free-range lamb (not sure if there is any other kind?), raised by people we know, but it's cheap. And tasty. We ate some last night, right after I'd divided up the cuts into two-person-meal sized bags and put them in our freezer. The whole lamb, by the way, will provide us with over a months worth of meals.

Back to cooked lamb, though. Neither of us are big fans. Unless it's roast lamb. Roast lamb is fantastic. Lamb most other ways I'd had before, not so much. It's just... gamey, tough, and, well, it's lamb. But it's everywhere here (the unofficial meat of Australia I think. I haven't looked it up), so I looked up and invented a few recipes, and now we quite enjoy eating lamb (which is good since, you know, we bought a whole one).

The first night of lamb was something I have affectionately titled "Goin' on down to Egypt Lamb". Because it's made with as many leeks and garlic as I can put into it. It's a funny name if you like Bible humor.

But anywho, I chopped up some of the undersized leeks from our garden (I'll be the one planting the leeks next season. Or at least making sure it's done properly by a certain husband of mine). Salted and seared the lamb chops a bit, threw in the leeks, chopped some garlic and threw that in, and then used the chops to kind of stir the whole concoction to coat them a bit with leek-y garlic-y goodness. Put in a tablespoon or so of water, put the lid on and let them cook away.

It's delicious. Unless you don't like leeks or garlic or red meat.

*Note: I am aware that you're not meant to use the green part of the leek. But these leeks were severely undersized. And we really really wanted leeks, so I caved a bit and used only JUST a little of the green bit, right were it starts to go from white to green.

Also, those mashed potatoes were full of New Zealand spinach, also from our garden. I've taken to putting it in mashed potatoes because it's a really bitter, and sometimes it's just easier to use one pot instead of two, or adding a steamer.

Our one year anniversary is coming up

That was FAST. Today is, in fact, the 11-month mark. Not that we celebrate those month-marks, we just... note that they pass.

But yes, it's been nearly a year since we said "I do", which means it's one month more until I've been living Down Under.

To celebrate we're.... not entirely sure what we're going to do. Both our birthdays fall very close to our anniversary (Phillip's a few weeks before, mine a few days before) so we just decided to simplify things this year and combine gifts for both occasions. Which meant, in our minds, we could spend more on one nice gift that was really wanted/needed, rather than budget for both birthdays and an anniversary.

So Phillip got a Kindle (he's been envious of mine for quite some time) and I got a new camera (since mine was dying). Phillip seems quite taken with his Kindle, and is enjoying looking up free ministry books and turning them into PDFs to put onto his Kindle so he can read them in better form on it's nice e-ink screen instead of looking at the computer or printing out hundreds of pages (he got the Kindle Keyboard, not Kindle Fire, because other Kindles have a screen that is better for your eyes). My camera isn't anything super special. Just a Canon S95, enough like the G10 I loved so much, but compact. Still just a point-and-shoot, but with some pretty nice manual controls, and takes really good photos in low-light conditions (that's about all the playing around and getting used to it I've done as of yet). It's nice. It takes quality photos. And still fits in my pocket so I don't walk around looking like I'm pretending to be a professional photographer.

As for actual celebration, we'll probably end up holding a family and friends get-together for everyone on this side of the globe who didn't get to make it to the wedding. Play the video, go through photos, eat food, hope that our house somehow holds the 50-something people that are on the "invite" list (we have space, just not a lot of seats), that sort of thing.

As you can tell, were not extremely romantic. At least not with what a lot of people would look at as big gestures for important occasions. We have our moments, like pancake breakfasts every Saturday, Brinner (breakfast for dinner) nearly every weekend (when we're not able to do our pancake breakfasts for one reason for another, or just because I make some killer scrambled eggs), walks in the bush, indoor picnics, trips to the beach, or grocery shopping, second-hand shopping, or even just sitting on the floor in front of the fire talking about random stupid things, or really important things with a mug of Milo. No, we don't often do big gestures, but the little ones over the past 11 months have been quite wonderful.

Frosted

Yesterday I woke up (at 8mumblessomething) to a freezing bedroom.

Typical, since we heat the house with a wood heater and, because of the way the house is built, the heat doesn't reach the back rooms very well.

But then I opened my curtain and squeeled with glee.

There was frost everywhere! It's... the closest thing to snow we'll get at this elevation. Or something along those lines. But frost! Beautiful, fully-coating, white frost! And a most beautiful sunny day too!

I jumped in my gum boots (still in my pajamas which, as cold as it gets, consists of many layers of warm clothing) and took off for a quick walk outside to snap some pictures and just enjoy the actual winterness of it, since my previous experiences of winter here have been filled with almost nothing but cold rain and damp air.

I felt like I should run inside and turn on Christmas music and start baking cookies. My seasons feel so messed up at the moment, seeing as how they're literally backwards from what I'm used to.

Our view of Mt. Roland from the chicken shed
(The house is somewhere hidden to the left)

Fall raspberries
Not nearly as good as summer ones, but still fresh,,
And the ones left are attracting some really pretty birds

My frosted rosemary bush

The neighbors horses. Some of them anyway.
They loved the cold morning and were quite frisky.
(Except for in this photo...)

Our landlord's cabin (he lives just behind us behind a copse of trees.)
His view of the mountain is spectacular.

As the sun rose higher, the frost very slowly melted from the grass and made quite a romantic mist, while still leaving trees and flowers beautifully frosted. I felt as frisky as a foal walking around the small bit of property in the cold. It was just wonderful. And even better, to come back to the toasty (front of the) house where my husband had stoked the fire before leaving for work at 6AM.

Donut King: Hot Dog

We tried another hot dog.

Donut King (which I mentioned in this post briefly once) is in a grocery store we never frequent, but will occasionally go to to use their toilets, or if we know of something that is on sale (other than that, we're creatures of habit and tend to shop only at one place for most stuff).

But we finally got the time (and on a NON holiday so they weren't closed) to try one of their dogs. They were about $5.50 apiece though, so, being cheap, we agreed to just split one, since we had no idea what they would even taste like (and neither of us tend towards eating much during the day, but eating TONS at night for dinner, and second dinner, so a whole hot dog would have been a large lunch).

I do love all the cheese pilled on top...

Anyway, we ended up getting the Aussie Dog (sans onions), because, well, mostly for this blog. And the other selections didn't look all that appetizing at the moment. I really was a typical Aussie thing (as far as my experiences go thus far): smothered in bacon, cheese, and some sort of sauce. In this case, a very sweet barbecue.

Bacon chunks.
It's not like strips of bacon or bacon crumbles
you can get on nearly everything in the States.

It was... a hot dog. Again. Nothing spectacular or even really note worthy, other than that the "bun" it was in was so light and fluffy I could have kept eating them. The dog itself was bland. Nearly flavorless in fact. Though that could have been because it was swimming in so much barbecue sauce you couldn't taste much else. Not BAD, just made us both miss a good ol' American hot dog. What made the craving worse was we came home to look through old photos and came upon some Phillip had taken when we went to Gene and Judes.

Not that I'm a hot dog snob and will throttle you if you put ketchup on it and skip the onions (because I will skip them myself and if I don't you'll see me hurl), but if you can, go to Gene and Judes. They're GOOD. I mean really good. Or Portillos. Just... do it.

I laughed for a few minutes at their slogan because my brain
stopped reading at "Life is a hole"

Visa Paperwork

After months of hard work, collecting information, evidence, and certified copies of every form of identification my husband and I have, we've finally sent in my application for my partner visa. A whole 2 months and some days before my current visa expires.

Why so long? Well, the deal I made with my husband was this: If I planned the wedding, he had to take care of the visa stuff. And he had very specific ideas about what kind of evidence we should have to show that we are in a real committed relationship.

And no, being married isn't proof of that. We needed evidence that other people considered this a real relationship (so statements from friends and family here in Australia, cards sent to both of us, package slips with both our names on them, bank transfers in both our names, etc.), that we were committed to a long-term relationship (shared bank accounts, both our names on bills, loan applications, tenancy agreements, our wills), and that we actually live and work together (statements on how and when we met, how the relationship progressed, when we decided to get married, and how we divvy up household responsibilities). And then there were slews of personal information that was required that involved a lot of emailing back home to parents, siblings, government agencies to get certified copies of all sorts of things.

All up, when we sent the package, it weighed nearly two kilos. In PAPER. Plus some paper clips. And we haven't even gotten medical checks done yet (those can wait apparently).

Just ignore all the stuff Phillip throws in the back of his car

Now, it's a waiting game to see if they approve. I'll be put on a temporary visa thing of some sort (can you tell how well I've looked into this?) while a case worker reviews the book we sent, and then they'll give me another temporary visa that will last up to two years while we continue to prove that we got married because we wanted to and love each other, and not so I could gain citizenship to Australia. THEN I'll get my permanent residency under my Partner Visa.

Though I'm not going for citizenship, just permanent residency. Too much of a hassle to give up my U.S. citizenship, and it takes, like, another six years to even think about applying.

AgFest

Saturday, Phillip and I went to Agfest (Agricultural Fest, for anyone who didn't understand that).

No, Agfest isn't just an Australian thing, I know plenty of people that participated in them back in the States, I just never had a need or desire to go to one, so... Anyway, living in a state that even it's biggest cities are classed as rural, I wanted to go. Plus Phillip really wanted to go so he could eat some oliebollens that are at a stand every year (they were pretty tasty).

Aside from all the farming equipment that was pretty well priced, we stopped by craft booths (though most we had seen at the Deloraine Craft Fair earlier this year, and lovely as most of it is, it's not really in our budget), and, my favorite, the dogs and horses showing off their skills. And the alpacas. I love alpacas. They make a sound like, "Meh" and it makes me think of my sister (in a good way!). And they're just so fluffy and odd looking!

Unfortunately, my camera chose that day to show it's age and start dying on me. It's at least 4 years old, my little Canon Powershot, and taken several thousand photos, so it's not entirely surprising. Oh well, it still works well enough that I won't be upgrading any time soon.

We wore out gum boots in anticipation of much mud.
They're like the four-wheel drives of footwear!
I ALMOST felt bad for all the women/girls there in pretty shoes and boots.

Border Collie showing of it's skills. Still in training, but having a blast.
It's cool how much of the herding instinct is just BREAD into them. 

Girls from a local Pony Club on their Arabians showing off some skills.
Horses were pretty stoked to be showing off, too.

This gadget apparently helps you turn sheep better for things like dipping,
crutching (cutting off their you-know-whats), and other sheep... things.

See? Adorable fluffy baby Alpaca.

Vice: Coffee

Today, we actually went out for coffee.

I know, I know, not a big deal. But since our coffee press broke, for the second time, a month ago, we've been drinking nothing but instant. Now, it's good instant coffee, but it's still instant. That, and we really never go out anywhere to grab a drink or eat. And it seems like we've been almost unendingly busy for the past few weeks (visa work or familial obligation), unless we outright say, no, this <insert random day> is OURS and we will not work, we will not socialize. We will drag mattresses into the living room, the only warm room in the house, and lounge on them watching hours of Scrubs and eat food that is bad for us and talk.

Anyway...

There's no such thing as Starbucks here, or Caribou (I'm not really sorry about the Starbucks, their coffee is overrated and tastes like the burnt inside of a shoe...). So we ended up at a little (VERY little) place called Vice Coffee.

The smell alone made me feel like I'd fallen on a giant coffee cloud of awesome. It was homey and wonderful and warm. Phillip got a triple shot cappuccino, I ended up with a Vienna.

Most of the population ( at least, my admittedly small sampling) seems to mostly like instant coffee. Odd for me, especially since my dad actually roasts his own coffee, so I was kind of spoiled on that front, by really good, really fresh coffee. A "standard", I've been told, is one small teaspoon of instant coffee, 2 of sugar, and plenty of milk. We... do not do that.

End of story: Short dates and small, non-chain coffee places: Love.