Separating Egg Yolks from the Egg Whites

Today, we decided to make pavlovas to take along to a dinner outing. As always, when I went to separate the eggs, my 'egg separator' had mysteriously disappeared, and I thought that once again, I'd be separating them by hand, using the shells.

Not so! My 16 year old commented she'd seen a video online, using a plastic bottle. With a big grin on her face, she fetched a bottle, broke an egg into a bowl, and with one, short squeeze, sucked the yolk into the bottle, leaving the white behind! Soon, it was the new craze, and I was most glad that we had 12 eggs to separate - it was a hoot! It worked perfectly, only failing once when I accidentally broke a yolk.

Anyways, I though it may be of used to someone else, so here's the link:



Have a great day, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Linda.

So yes, the River Certainly Does 'Run'!

The past 24 hours has seen the Clarence River (out our back door) rise, and rise, and rise - until it has now come over the levee.

On January 3, the section at the bottom of the levee looked like this:

Yesterday, we watched as the river rose up and up, and eventually covered those trees completely:

Today, it is right at the top of the levee - and now, the river is just 12 paces from our back door:

Out the side of our house, it is flowing over the levee, and down to the highway:

We now pretty much live on an island!  As one person said, we currently have the 'Clarence River' out the back, and the 'Pacific River' out the front!  Sandbags are in place, and we currently are waiting to see if the river has peaked, or if it will continue to rise. I just got a message from my friend in Grafton sayting it 'ain't finished yet'! so we shall see. The river is currently reported to be at 6.02 metres - and our levee is 6.00 metres.

And, it is moving fast - the speed at which is is flowing by our back door is amazing - I admit, I've been most amused to see  the poor little ducks go racing by, often facing backwards, quacking at the top of their lungs! 

The main concern has been the speed of the water, and the waves - it's been simply amazing to witness just how high the waves have been.  We have been on evacuation alert since yesterday - and still may need to leave yet;  time will tell.


Thankyou to all who have phoned, emailed and left messages - we have sure appreciated it, and it's wonderful to know that so many are thinking of us.  We're simply unable to get back to you all, but thankyou so much!  For now, we are fine - but watching very carefully.  No doubt, though, I'll have more blog posts to do in the coming days!

God bless,

Bill and Linda.

Games Night and a Party!

After we had arrived and unpacked most of our belongings, we made the exectutive decision that we would host a 'games night' at our house once per month, inviting the various people we meet along the way for some time out and some fun and games.

Our first such night was held last Saturday, and as it was our first, we decided to put on a combined party, making it a house warming, a games night, AND a birthday party for our girl Helena, who was turnining seventeen!  Wow  - seventeen.  How the years are flying by.  It's so hard to believe that her days as a homeschooled student are mostly over - although we do have a few things to finish up next year, most of her time will be spent at TAFE and at the Conservatorium of Music.  I've not yet grasped the fact that she'll be out and about as an independent young adult, but I'm sure the reality will hit come February.

Anyways, back to last Saturday.  As always, there's nothing like a stack of visitors arriving to inspire some extra cleaning, and by 6pm, we were ready!  Our living room / dining room at that point looked something like this:

with the poker table set up and ready to go!

Soon after, our guests began to arrive, and the games were well and truly underway.  Poker was, of course, very popular, as well as spoons and 'Billionaire'.  As well, there was plenty of time to sit and chat out on the patio, and the dads enjoyed relaxing by the river.

I think the count was around 28 guests, and it is good to know that 28 extra people can fit in our house without too much drama!

Later, it was time to cut the cake for Helena's birthday.  As always, the Mahers were in fine spirit, with Dad posing for a lovely photo with his beloved daughter:

And one of sisterly love:

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All in all, it was a great night, and a wonderful welcome for us to our new home.  Thankyou to all who came along and made it such a special evening.  We hope you can join us again next time!


Linda.

Random Moment of the Week

After our son arrived on this afternoon’s plane (Yay!), we were sitting in our lounge room, just chatting away, when I suddenly said, ‘what’s that noise’? 

Daniel instantly stood up, looked out the door, and replied, ‘There seems to be some random people in our yard, patting the dog’.  So we wandered out, and sure enough, a young couple was standing in the back corner of our garden, lovingly stroking the dog, with huge smiles on their faces.

We of course said ‘Hi’, and the young lad explained that they were on their way back to the Gold Coast from Sydney, when they decided to stop and take some photos of the river.  They then spied our dog, and being a kelpie lover, he couldn’t help but say hello to our beloved pet.  We of course replied that it was fine, and they asked a few questions about her temperament, how old she was and whether or not she could do any tricks.  Daniel replied that she does know how to fetch, but quite obviously, she’s not a very good guard dog!  After a few seconds of silence, the young lady replied with, ‘Well, yeh – I mean - we could’ve been anyone!’.  At this point, Daniel looked sideways at me and raises his eyebrows, as he is thinking to himself, ‘Well yes, you are!’

But all was well – we had a lovely chat, they thanked us for ‘allowing’ them to pat the dog (?) and then they continued on their merry way up the highway towards home. Daniel and I were most amused, but we very much enjoyed having people drop in - even if it was only for a short time, and it was people we'll most likely never see again. 

This whole living on the highway business is reminding me of my in-laws – back in SA, they once lived on the main road leading into town, and would often have miscellaneous strangers call in for water, food, Christmas dinner or even somewhere to sleep – looks like we are keeping the tradition alive!  :)

Linda.

A Successful Week!

So much has happened since I last posted a week ago!  Normally, any one of the following events would entail a blog post on their own, but with limited time, let's squeeze in a heap of stuff into one, concise blog post:

1.  Our girl has her P-Plates!   Last week, our Jessica sat for her licence, and passed with flying colours!  Congratulations, Jessica - it's a wonderful relief to know you'll be able to head out to your various activities in your own car.

2.  The following day, Helena headed off for her audition at TAFE.  As she and the lecturer emerged from the audition room, they headed straight for the registration desk.  The receptionist asked if that would be for 'Certificate II, III or IV'?  The lecturer replied, 'Oh, Cert IV - with bells on!'  He then marched up to me and introduced himself - I definitely got the impression he was very impressed with our girl, and delighted to have her in his class next year.  Well done, Helena!

3.  Next, it was Daniel's turn for his audition.  This was conducted via phone as he is still in SA, but once again - no problem.  The lecturer was very impressed with Daniel's answers, and he was accepted into the course straight away.  While Helena will be studying 'Cert IV in Music', Daniel has opted for the 'Sound Production' course, which I must admit, sounds like a very interesting one.  Well done, Daniel!

4.  On Sunday, it was time to put our skills into action and perform at the Conservatorium's end of year concert.  Keep in mind that we'd only been to two practices, but nevertheless, concert, here we come!  And it was a great day - with Helena performing in five bands, and myself in two.  I am constantly amazed how well Helena can turn her hand to any type of music, and learn her pieces so fast!  But she does, and she performed each piece beautifully.

That's Helena and I on each end - don't you love the way we both were positioned at the front of the stage?  I was a little concerned that it may be so they could give us a 'shove' off the stage if we messed up, but fortunately, all was fine!

5.  And finally, today - We've just received the news that our son Daniel has also passed his P-Plate driver's test!  So now we have two with their licence - woohoo!   Congratulations, Daniel!  This is the reason our boy stayed behind in SA, so now with that test out the way, he can make preparations to join us in NSW very soon.

Not a bad week, eh?

Linda.

Something Else New

Now here is something else new - didn't have one of these on our property back in SA! 

Apparently, you turn on the tap and use it to water stuff, like plants and things.

Weird.

Linda.

It Seems That Size DOES Matter!

Since moving to Grafton, we seem to have made quite a few trips to our two new favourite stores:  Harvey Norman and Bunnings.

The other day, I went into Harvey Norman to see if I could find myself a little Ipod dock.  My plan was to have my music playing while unpacking, and I could take it around with me, depending on what room I was working in at the time.

Did I say little?

Oh, well!   It's certainly loud enough that I don't HAVE to lug it around with me!


Yesterday, we were working in the car port, and we realised we'd need a spirit level for the roller doors we are installing.  So yep, off to Bunnings -again.

I did have a spirit level that I'd brought with us, but I couldn't seem to find it.  Bill assured me it didn't matter, mine was a fairly small one, so he would go and buy a larger one, meaning we'd then have the two different sizes.  How a laughed when I saw him emerge from the store with this in hand:

So yes, I guess size does matter!  Well, it's a whole lot more impressive, anyway!

Linda.

Our New Home

As I go to write my ‘first’ post about our new lives, I hardly know where to start!  We’ve only been here a few days, but the activity has been just amazing! 

Well, I guess we’ll begin with our new home – it’s situated right on the Clarence River, and Bill and I have been enjoying daily breakfast out under the patio, as we chat and watch the ferry merrily chugging back and forth across the river. 

I just LOVE the house!  Yes, it’s smaller than what we are used to, but it’s still four bedroom, and we will soon enclose the car port to give us a ‘games room’ – a place to put the pool table, my exercise equipment, the dart board, and maybe even a tv and a couch.  Currently, we only have the one living area, and while we are coping, I can see a few issues, given that the house we came from had two large living areas at opposite ends of the house, as well as a separate dining room and kitchen.  The patio certainly helps, though, and being just outside the back door, gives the feel of extra room, even though it is outside.

Taken from our back yard!

The Ferry - Again, Taken from our Back Yard

The Patio

So many people have come to welcome us!  We’ve met new people as well as being greeted by old friends.  The neighbours are beautiful people, and are more than happy for us to use their ramp to get down to the river, have popped over to help us move cupboards, and have even put Bill to work already when their lawn mower broke down – yep, Mr Fix-It was at it again!

We were greeted on our first day by some friends who dropped by and delivered this very special welcome gift – a cake that said, ‘Welcome Mahers’ – what a delightful surprise it was, and such a beautiful cake!  

We were also given the gift of a tomato plant to put in our garden by a new friend – here’s hoping I don’t kill it – gardens and me have never really gotten along, so time will tell on that one! 

Of course, all my ‘old’ friends have also kept in close contact, whether by email or through Facebook, and I’ve been merrily updating them all on our progress.  I do tend to go through ‘moments’ with FB, and even deleted my account all together a while back, but I’m ‘back’ now, and happily kept my Facebook friends updated all along the trip from SA to NSW.   It was wonderful to receive the storm warnings – thankyou! We did pass through one storm on the way, and needed to pull over for little while, but we were soon back on the road, and made it safely 'home' with no dramas.

We went for a walk around Ulmarra today – that’s the town where we now live, just 13kms out of Grafton.  It’s small, but that suits me just fine.  With such a short drive into Grafton, it makes things very easy – although it will take a while before I’m confident enough to tackle the highway – driving lessons, coming right up!

So many things are an absolutely novelty – I’m like a big kid, jumping up and down with excitement whenever the mail is delivered (new experience for me – no mail delivery where were used to live) – and we even had one parcel dropped off via courier!  So no more trying to figure out where to have those parcels sent – just straight to our door, thank you very much! :)

And,  I just received a delivery of my FIRST EVER automatic washing machine!  Due to the lack of water at our last address (rain water only) we needed to use twin tubs to save water – but now, we’re on town water, so an automatic it is!  (another episode of Mum going crazy with excitement!)  

As well, we have BUSES!  The bus to Grafton goes straight by our door, meaning that my conservatorium students can catch the bus until I feel confident enough to tackle that highway.  We didn’t even know about the buses until just before we got here – so that’s an added bonus. 

Well, there’s so much more I could write, but the post is long enough!   No doubt I’ll be adding more to the blog soon.   For now though, it’s back to unpacking and sorting!

May God bless your day,

Linda.