Saturday, October 29, 2011

Forced hiatus

My computer met an untimely death last weekend :( My work computer won't let me access blogs :( Therefore, until the budget can stretch to a new computer I'm not going to be able to blog or join you guys on gbc.

Play nice while I'm gone!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Forget the guns, tell me about the horse

From today's news:

Boy, 13, with arsenal of weapons found in clapped out ute towing dead donkey, say police

AN armed 13-year-old boy has been caught driving with high-powered weapons in his clapped-out ute while towing a dead donkey.

NT Police may have not immediately noticed the loaded firearm allegedly sitting beside the boy when they pulled him over for a breath test, nor the shotgun, high-powered rifle or 100 rounds of ammo allegedly lying on the back seat.

The ute was towing behind it in the dust a noticeably deceased donkey.

The boy's 52-year-old father is now facing a slew of charges for allegedly allowing his son to drive unlicensed and possess firearms, reports Northern Territory News.

Sergeant Conan Robertson, of the Southern Traffic Operations Unit, said they were doing a rural patrol on Thursday.

He said they pulled over a Toyota Hilux Dualcab for a roadside breath test on Coniston Rd, about 160km northwest of Alice Springs.

"Police found a 13-year-old boy driving the unroadworthy vehicle with a loaded .22 bolt action rifle in the front seat,'' Sgt Robertson said.

"The rifle had nine rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber.''

"There was also a 20 gauge shotgun and a high powered .243 rifle laying across the back seat with more than 100 rounds of ammunition.''

Sgt Robertson said the ute was unroadworthy and had ``severe damage'' to the front end and the bonnet was held down with a tie-down strap.

It also had a damaged windscreen.

Sgt Robertson said the boy was the only person in the car when they pulled it over.

He was allegedly driving from a nearby station towards the Stuart Highway at the time.

The police took the boy back to the station and spoke to his dad. They say he knew his son was driving the car with the firearms.

Sgt Robertson said the man would be summonsed for offences including delivering a firearm to an unlicensed person, failing to secure a firearm and permitting an unlicensed shooter to possess a firearm.

Meanwhile, the firearms have been seized and the boy will be considered for youth diversion for traffic and firearms offences.

Sgt Robertson expressed concern.

"It is very disappointing to find the child was out there armed with firearms and driving an unsafe vehicle with the full knowledge of his father," he said.

"We certainly hope that the fact the father will now face court will make others consider their actions before engaging in such reckless behaviour."


Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/boy-13-with-arsenal-of-weapons-found-in-clapped-out-ute-towing-dead-donkey-say-police/story-e6frfkvr-1226167435077

What do you do when ...

A new fruit & vegie shop opens up not too far away with potatoes, onions & carrot selling for 29c a kg? You go there, of course, brave 2000000 other people (okay that might be a slight exaggeration), and make soup!

They also had 2 heads of broccoli for 99c; cauliflower heads at 99c each and 500gm of garlic for 99c. The Japanese pumpkin at 1.99/kg also turned out to be DELICIOUS.

When we got back home with our haul all four of us got busy in the kitchen and quickly turned about half the ingredients (and a large handful of home grown parsley) into three soups. Two consisted of the fresh vegetables; with roasted garlic while the third was a roasted vegetable one (roasted cauliflower, pumpkin, onions, garlic, capsicum and carrot).


Tomorrow I'll attack the remaining ingredients and make more soup! Hope there's room in the freezer.

BTW Miss 10 likes roasted cauliflower:

My first car meme

OldNFO tagged me for this one, so I'll play along - but remember I'm a GAL not a GUY therefore cars to me are objects designed to get one from A to B, sometimes (depending on whose driving) via C - so don't expect too many details.

My first car was a Holden Gemini. I bought it second hand - no idea what year I got it (must have been around 1984/5 though) - I think I paid about $2000 andd it was in good condition. After a couple of years I had it resprayed (it was a light brownish colour) and I took that car everywhere - even bush! Never had many problems with it except once when the timing chain went. My brother arranged to get it fixed for me, which he did, and when he was driving it back to my place another driver ran into the side of it :( This wasn't long after I had it resprayed so I wasn't that impressed!

I'm not even sure when or why I got rid of the car ... it could have been before I went travelling in Europe for a couple of years - sorry folks, details like this don't stick in my mind!

Anyway, let's see who I can tag to play ... JayG from MArooned, Christina from Lucrative Pain and PDB.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Sweet Impossible Pie with Fruit - Take 1

Regular readers will know that I've been experiementing with "Impossible Pies" and have worked out a recipe for savoury ones that seems to work each time. I've not had the same level of success with sweet ones. The other day I was in the supermarket and spied some blueberries at slightly less than exhorbitant prices so I bought a punnet and went on an internet hunt for an Impossible Pie recipe with fruit.

(Hey who pinched the spellchecker from blogger's toolbar?)

I found this recipe and decided to give it a go.

My version (as I'm totally incapable of actually following a recipe) is below:

Impossible Pie with Fruit
Fills 23 cm pie dish

Ingredients:
80 g butter melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 cups fat-reduced milk
4 eggs (slightly beaten)
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup diced fruit of choice - blueberries

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Place everything other than fruit in a large bowl, whisk until combined.
Pour into a greased pie dish. Add fruit.
Bake at 180C degrees for 30-40mins until the top is golden and crusty.


The finished product:

Now I've said "Take 1" in the title, that's because even before I eat it I'm not happy with it. I mean it looks lovely from the top, but doesn't have the 'body' that I'm looking for in a pie. So there will be a Take 2 (at least).

[Update] The girls and I have just had a piece. Miss 10 reckons it tastes like eating eggs. Miss 8 reckons it needs to be cooked longer at a lower temperature.

I actually agree with both of these opinions. It is a bit low on taste - not sure whether more vanilla essence or lemon juice would be the best option. And yes, the top was brown and crusty but it wasn't cooked enough in the middle. So definitely a Take 2 planned.[/Update]

PS This is my first attempt too at a 'scheduled post' so I hope it actually appears!

Heard in the kitchen

Miss 10: "We have a possum"

Me: "Yes, I know"

Miss 10: "In the roof, it was running above my head in bed last night"

Me: "I know, I heard it when I was on the phone to [Shooting Buddy]. He suggested a 22lr."

{brief pause}

Miss 10: "Yum, possum pie"

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Just got back from 'up north'

The family, Shooting Buddy and I spent 5 nights "up north" doing a range of fun things. It's a pretty nice time to visit the region as it's not too hot and the wildflowers were still out (however, so were the flies which weren't quite as nice). We did get some hunting in but there weren't as many rabbits around as I had hoped and we didn't see a single fox.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Found around the farm

A Bush Turkey - first time I've ever seen one

Miss 8 hiding in the Wheat

And Miss 10 checking it out

Miss 10 driving my car (automatic) for the first time, all survived

Miss 8 obviously enjoyed her turn at the wheel

And over at the "other" farm Miss 8's favourite animal

Seen while Out and About
This area is near the farm and is known as 'The Salmons'

Termite Mounds - seen on a detour to Coalstream Park

Still some water around at Coalstream, yes they did get muddy

Pink & Grey Galah - Sitting in a nest - seen at Coalstream

Budgies - again seen at Coalstream

There are lots of salt lakes in the area ...

We found some caves to explore


Can't get away from those *(&*(^ phones

Wildflowers:



All in all a great trip. Check out my previous posts if you want to know more about the area here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Monday, October 10, 2011

I guess there's limitations to stock photo archives

Well that's the only reason (other than ignorance) that I can think of as to why this photo is used for this story:



Story here: http://www.news.com.au/world/nypd-cop-saves-his-own-life-by-jamming-finger-under-felons-gun-trigger/story-e6frfkyi-1226162271411