Tuesday 2 September 2008

Self-suffiency

Edward and I enjoyed our little adventure very much!

It was special for him to meet his great-grandparents who live in the Blue Mountains and he loved their attention.





We also visited my uncle (who is only a few years older than me and more like a cousin) and his wife (who was one of my best friends at uni). Yes, I can add match-maker to my title.

They have two gorgeous boys and live in a very isolated valley in the Blue Mountains. Their 100 acre property is almost totally surrounded by beautiful cliff faces.





Their lifestyle is one of almost total self-sufficiency; tank water, solar-power, they farm 36 cattle and so eat their own beef and chickens (the meat birds are bread just for their own eating). Rachel's vegetable gardens are almost the size of my backyard and they live almost totally off their produce. She has fruit trees, nut trees and berry bushes. She bottles the excess fruit and cooks up the tomatoes into relish, pasata and tomato sauce. Rachel grinds her own flour and of, course makes the bread. Mitchell(7), is home schooled and the youngest will follow when he is school age. It is truly amazing to behold. In her spare time Rachel build dry stone rock walls. These are all over their beautiful property and she has collected almost all of the rocks herself.

I wish I had of taken photos of her wonderful work. It was amazing to see it all and I came back feeling very energised. Ready for a very busy five weeks ahead.

2 comments:

Kellie said...

What beautiful photos Tamara! I am pleased you took at my sewing room as I had thought of you as I wrote the post. Unfortunately I can not arrange things as beautifully as you ... I so wish I could! I am sorry I haven't been by for a while I find it so hard to keep up with everyone I would like to! How is your big boy? I hope that he is well.

Cathy said...

Ed looks so grown up in these photos. Glad you had such an inspiring visit to the blue mountains. Rachel sounds amazing.