Great Aussie Camp Out and Chiminea Cooking

Saturday was the Great Aussie Camp Out.  A perfect opportunity to dust off the tent we purchased second hand on Ebay months ago. Actually it seemed a little less than perfect, chilly, grey and drizzly, but our big Bowerbird was not deterred.  It was with some relief that we found all the pieces were there, and that the tent is waterproof and can withstand winds - we have discovered (with disastrous results) that these basic features are not a given.

Here she is, pegged out in our yard, hilariously it is meant to accommodate 6 + 2 people, not 8. I think that number of people inside would be seriously squeezy, however our family of 5 should fit cosily. The big Bowerbird and her friend helped put it up, mostly girl power, with a little of dad's input at the end.

 We lit the chiminea for some added camping atmosphere.

 There were wonderfully toasted marshmallows and scone dough cooked on sticks.

  

  

 A few tasty scones cooked old school, in the oven, as well.

 Christine at Slow Living Essentials has been using her Chiminea to cook up all sorts of delicious creations.  It made ours seem positively neglected, so we had a go at making some pizzas.  Rather than find all the proper equipment for cooking in a Chiminea we've gone with the Buy Nothing New spirit of things and used the junk lying around our backyard.

 We found the bottom was cooking a little too quickly so an old shovel helped create an extra heat barrier. After about 8 pizzas (just the pita bread type) we had the technique down pat. They were smoky, crunchy deliciousness, just as a wood fired pizza should be.
 Only the big Bowerbird and her friend camped in the tent, and they actually came inside at 3am as someone's car alarm disturbed their peace. It was still a lovely outdoorsy weekend, "just like a school camp" the middle Bowerbird exclaimed with delight. The smaller Bowerbirds are very keen  busting to have a sleep out in the tent so I may be camping with them sometime soon.

Autumn, Leaves, Ribbons, Petals, Pizza and Junior Landcare

A nasty bug is attacking our maple tree, marring the beautiful Autumn leaves.  It is the first time this has happened, I think I might give the tree some mulch and food, and see if a bit of love will help it build its defences. Anyone know what it might/mite be?

The little Bowerbird and I have been playing with ribbon and leaves, threading an Autumn garland to hang inside. 

Suddenly there was an urgent gathering of rose petals, she was very proud of her ingenious idea to thread them onto a stick to make a rose petal tree.  Such studious concentration.

  

We made caterpillars out of Iris berries.

   

 Then spun sycamore seeds, watching them flutter like helicopters without pilots in the sky.

Today we had a wonderful Junior Landcare session making wood fired pizzas with produce we had grown in our school garden. After some bitterly cold days the sun came out and the children picnicked on hot pizzas amongst the Autumn leaves.  The Grade sixes teamed up with their prep buddies and we cooked up 70 small pizzas (note for future reference - 3kg of cheese, 2kg of shredded ham and 3 bottles of tomato passata is about the right amount for this many pizzas).  We added from our school garden - tomatoes, zuchinni, spring onions, chives, basil, thyme, and oregano.  We also fried up some thin slices of potato and Jerusalem Artichoke to snack on whilst the pizzas were cooking.


There was some left over cheese and meat and chopped vegetables which was going to go to the school chickens but instead came home and fed our family a delicious dinner - I made 4 pizzas - there's even some for lunch tomorrow. I'm always the one taking home the leftovers - I hate seeing things wasted.  

(Source)

Linking up with