Thursday, December 1, 2011

2 days

Still busy getting ready for the tourist ship.  Mum and I have now baked 1 large rainbow cake, 1 large ginger cake, 1 large fruit cake, 4 dozen jam tarts, 4 dozen neenish tarts, 4 dozen strawberry cheesecake tarts, 4 dozen yo-yo's, 4 dozen mince pies and finally 2 boiled fruit cakes.  The 2 boiled fruit cakes are now in the oven and they are the only things that I can say that I have actually made.  This is because mum has never made them.  I think they are very difficult and I have seen more failures then succssess but they are also the most popular of all the baking.  Usually I can talk Christopher into making them as he is a better cook then me but he is still pretty busy.  We will see in an hours time if they are a success or just another failure.  My part in most of the cooking has been the rolling out of the pastry and biscuit mixes and checking the oven.  Mum is not used to a gas oven and it is a bit of a trial and error event to get the tempurature correct. 
Christopher has been busy, doing what, I'm not sure.  He has cleaned the landing beach where the zodiacs land the passengers.  He also fixed a petrol lawn mower for me that he picked up of the rubbish dump in Stanley.  The lawn is looking good and for the first time I have mowed my clothes line yard.  This was actually built to keep my pet lambs in but the netting was too big and they just walk out through when they are small.
Today Christopher is away to Speedwell to pick up Shaun and Tanya to help with the Bremen.  First he is going across to Flores Harbour to pick up our rib.  The rib is really good for going out to the tourist boat as it is better if the weather is a bit rough.  Christopher will use it to go across to Tea Point on Barren when the Bremen is landing passengers there.  We always have people on the ground to make sure that the tourists keep the recommended distance from the  Gentoo penguins, Southern Sea Lions and Elephant seals.  It is also imperative that they keep the recommended distance away from the Southern Giant Petrols who are now sitting on eggs.  The Southern Giant Petrol is quite a nervous bird and easily scared of the nest and there is always a Skua waiting to pinch the eggs.  Over 30 species of bird have been recorded on a single visit to Tea Point.  It is a great place for bird enthusiasts and because the area is flat as a table top it is easy walking.   The Bremen also have their own guides so it is a controlled visit that causes as little disruption as possible.
Christopher has told Shaun that he will be doing the shearing display on George Island.  He is not keen as he is a bit shy.  Christopher said well I will do it if you like but you will have to do the dog trial display.  Funny, it would be funny.  Shaun is very pleaed with his dog and she is coming along nicely for him but neither him or the  dog are dog trialing standard yet.

The Bremen with the landing jetty at Useless waters Tea Point.  The jetty was constructed with the help of a group of BSCS students.
 On Speedwell Shaun has been busy.  Christopher was really pleased when he rang and said he had changed the springs on the Toyota.  This is a first for him.  Mechanics is probably his weakest area at the moment.  He was even more pleased with him when he rang and said he was fixing his motorbike.  This was a complicated job and christopher had to talk him through parts of it on the telephone.  It doesn't help that we have hardly any of the manuals that go with the machinery.  Living on an island means you have to be able to turn your hand to anything and he has also cut and laid his sitting room carpet that arrived on Concorida bay.

1 comment:

  1. The visit by tourists looks interesting. I would love to see all the birds and sea mammals.

    In spite of having a trade, as well as a profession, I always hate fixing mechanical things. Using old equipment I think I often was fixing it more than operating it.

    There are sites on the Internet where you can view manuals of all kinds of equipment and even order paper copies. You might find mechanic manuals for you machines online.

    ReplyDelete