Every time we do this we say that we should do it more often. This being getting our gear together and heading over to 'The Farm' and have a bonfire BBQ. I love being over at The Farm and yes we need to do this more than once or twice a year.
We invited over my husbands family at the last minute, two sisters, a nephew and a niece made a show which is a only a small selection of my husbands family but nice to have company at such short notice. The kids loved running around collecting wood and cooking marshmallows and my nephew stated that he loved 'camping' which was funny as no tents or overnight stay was involved. Hee Hee. We had a slap bang dinner of sausages with bread, chops and french wings (what Master M calls 'chicken balls'). We managed to burn the spuds in the fire the first time and by the time the second lot cooked nobody felt like them. We looked at the premix bag of salad that Mr M had bought and decided against salad. All was topped off with chocolate cake, skittles and chips. Did I say this was last minute?? Lol
I am still chuckling about the same 5yo nephew who told me 'don't laugh at his bum when he sticks it out like this (shows he his bum), he is my friend and I won't laugh at him'. My son was just about to have a wee against a tree and of course at that age they wee with their pants down around their ankles. It was sweet of him to stick up for his little cousin. I was told by my an Irish friend that this male outdoors weeing must be an Aussie thing, apparently it was a bit of a shock to see' men just get their willys out here and there'. It does annoy me a bit that it is common practice when in the bush, but maybe I am just jealous.
My dad was a collector of vintage machinery such as tractors, steam engines and old cars. He was a bit of a hoarder of just about anything mechanical. Here are some of the old cars still left on The Farm. They have been stripped by trespassers but tend to I think that at least the parts are being used instead of just rusting away here.
Don't you think this car is such a cutie pie! It reminds me of one of the cars from the 'Cars' movie, the old rusty cars that are Lightening McQueen fans - Rust-eze.Yes you can tell I have young children can't you. This car has so much more character than the cars these days do (how old do I sound). I am a sucker for a car with curves.
I think someone had fun smashing in the front windows in this old girl. Poor thing, looks a bit lonely and forlorn. I wonder where these cars came from and who owned them, also what kind of adventures they have had in their time.
Love the funky purple/pink on this one. What a beauty she would have been in her heyday. It's funny how cars seem to be labelled as female, this one is pink though so more likely to be female. :) I pretty sure this is the car that gave our friend a fright when he was clearing blackberries with his bulldozer. The fact that it is almost in two pieces gives it away. He said he realised he had gone too far into the bush when this car popped up and met him face to face giving him a mild heart attack.
This car has been on The Farm for as long as I can remember but of course it was in a lot better shape when I was young AND had a lot more parts on it. I even remember when it had a boot lid and all kinds of things inside the boot. It was a lot more black than brown in those days. I LOVED coming here so much when I was a child. Easter bunny even hid our eggs in the part we call 'the forest'. We call it this because it is an uncleared section of gum trees. We found chocolate there for weeks afterwards.
This was where my Great Grandparents lived while building their house. It was made of mud and so, so tiny. I can't imagine living here with no electricity or bathroom (or water for that matter). I remember it clearly when it was complete and may even have some pics somewhere. I recall when a part of one wall fell down, my father really wanted to fix it but never got the time and bit by bit walls collapsed. Unfortunately it didn't help when people would break into it to steal whatever was inside. I wish I had a chance to see what was in there. There used to be a lot of old bottle and household bits and bobs all around this mud hut and around the main house but over the years they disappeared and unfortunately I wasn't old enough to know to salvage it.
Mr M's home made BBQ. It used to have a different top that fit it but not sure what happened there. We leave the base at The Farm but looks like it will need a new drum soon. He spent so long cleaning the hot plate before he started cooking...waiting...waiting...waiting.
Here is our rather poor excuse for a bonfire. However it was big enough for the few hours we were there and warm enough to give us rosy cheeks and scolding hot legs (you know when you stand with your back to the fire and then some smart arse comes along and slaps your jeans against the back of your thighs - ouch!).
At one stage we turned the cars headlights on for a bit so Little Miss could eat her tea. I was messing around with my camera, as you can see the stars are out. It's always hard to leave the bonfire, especially when it is still going, however all the children were tired so home it was smelling like smoke.
Mmmmm. Toasty...
