Cooking Galah is an art in itself and once you have mastered this recipe you can cook and eat anything

To cook the Galah first pluck and clean the bird and soak in salt water for an hour or two
Then place the Galah in a HOT camp oven on a piece of green iron bark wood
Stand the camp oven on a good bed of coals and fully cover the lid with coals
From time to time add fresh coals both under and on the lid to ensure continued high heat
Cook the Galah until the ironbark is soft and then throw the Galah away and eat the ironbark very nourishing and extremly tasty

Cheers and enjoy
Furphy ;D

hey fs sounds like the same recipe as goanna only you throw in a rock and 2 spuds 4 carrots and when the rock is soft you throw away the goanna and eat the rock great feed cheers cb :D :D ;D ;D

Hi Furphy. Good old story, but in truth the pink galah does in fact make for very good eating. :)
Back in the mid 70's my late father in law brought 4 other mates up to nsw and the 6 of us went out to Menindee for a weeks fishing. Camped on one of the regulators which was releasing plenty of water the yellowbelly were coming thick and fast. After a couple of days eating fish, Rod, (my FIL) reckoned we should knock off a few pinkies for the camp oven.
Now Rod, who's 3 main things in life (at that stage) was shooting, fishing and beer, knew a thing or two about pinkies so he said to me we need 18 (2 each) for a feed so get your gun and we will find some.  ;)
We knew that upriver from Menindee are extensive nardoo areas which pinkies love. Not too long to get 18 birds (and how you shoot 18 galahs without moving from the spot has to remain an old bushies secret) ::)
Back to camp, pluck and dress the birds  (the gut is terrific bait) then Rod made up a stuffing of bread and onions, the 18 pinkies (nicely browned) just neatly fitting (neck down) into the CO. Plenty of red wine/port, a couple off chopped up carrots and then a very slow cook on low heat.
About 1/2 an hour before he reckoned they were done he showed me another good cooking trick. He made up some smallish balls of flour and butter with salt and pepper which he tossed in and stirred (there was a bit of room by then) This made a rich sauce to pour over the birds which were falling from the bone. Absolutely delicious.
That was a great week we had there, it was only a couple of years after that Rod became ill, then battled for a couple more years before he passed away. He would have enjoyed me repeating this yarn.
mikel

I enjoyed your story mikel, reminds me of a trip we did a couple of years ago and camped at Diamantina Lakes (far western Queensland) on the river bank. There was a terrible smell so I went to investigate and found more than sixty rotting European Carp in a small area on the waters edge.
Telling the story to a bloke later on and he claimed they are good eating if you prepare them properly and gave me a recipe which I've never tried.
As a postscript to that, a few years ago the Furphy Foundry had a competition for recipes for a camp oven cook book they were going to bring out so I submitted that recipe and another for a date roll done in a baked bean tin. I thought they were original enough to at least get a mention but I never heard another word and have never seen the book, has any body else ????
Rob.

Hi Mike
Yeah I am aware that the much rubbished pinkie makes a satisfying and tasty feed when cooked correctlyand I have assisted more than once in preparing and eating said birds.
Much of my early life after leaving school was working in droving plants in the far south west of qld where I learnt to cook in camp ovens.
The bloke I worked for had a huge collection of ovens and I can clearly remember cooking meals in ovens up to 3' in dia but have no idea what company made them at the time "It never really came up for discussion" but I have to tell you that more than one comment was passed regarding the contents.

During this period I was taught to dry corn meat which was totally nessacary to keep food after a fresh kill when we would eat fresh chops or steak for the 1st day and then it was a constant job trying to think of a new way of serving Corned meat in a different way at each meal, strange but corned mutton is still one of my favorite meals.

When done correctly and looked after, dry cured or corned meat can last for ages and I can remember eating corned mutton eleven weeks after being corned and it was just as good . Makes a mockery of the use by labels on food today doesnt it.  The old fellas back then would laugh at those labels and living rough as they had to back then would have been impossible.

I can remember hanging spuds and pumpkin etc in an onion bag under the hot bore head at Hebel in the west for 20min while we cleaned up in the pool and it was a real earth lined pool that the bore filled and when we collected the vegies after our clean up they were completly cooked.

Sadly in most areas this can no longer happen as the bores are being turned off. although when heading west from Goondiwindi and you turn left near the Wengallon store you can still find an active bore about 2 kms down and about 200m on the right still make a cup of tea directly from the bore head but be warned only use about 4 tea leaves Yep (4) as it makes your tea as black as the ace of spades.

During my time in the west I passed through this area many times moving cattle and sheep between Goondiwindi -St George - Dirrenbandi - Hebel and into the south western corner of the state and I can remember a family who camped permanatly on the river bank at Nindigully and did bore delving (This was the dragging of a vee shaped plow along the miles of bore drains to clean them out ) but this family was still using horse teams to do the job and the house or caravans were huge covered wagons and they were kept in top condition by the family who I knew very well at the time. some of my greatest memories are of seeing 12 draught horses each side of the drain pulling this massive plow for miles and the bloke who owned them not having to say a word to them they knew their job thaat well.

I am starting to ramble a bit but your yarn just got me going (Sorry) :-[
Will catch up later
Cheers Furphy






 

G'day Furphy.
I reckon those days in a drovers team would have been pretty interesting. Good few years ago I got shanghied into a shearers cook job. Worked 8 months and reckon I cooked nearly a sheep a day for that time. Used quite a bit of "quick cure" too, but I think that stuff is a no no these days. Amazing what comes out of a sheep, steak and kidney pie, beef schnitzel, rissoles etc.

The team I was with were from Bathurst and we worked from around Warren to up as far as Barringun. Really enjoyed the time, managed to get through the weekly vote ok! Today a baitlayer makes really good money.

These days spend most of winter western Qld. in the Eromanga area. Have an interest in an opal mine, at the moment more money going in than coming out! In the drought 4yrs. ago we ran out of drinking water so had to resort to a local bore. Funny thing about bore water, it can be really good in one area (like Quilpie) oily/gassy Eromanga, and the bore we drank from whilst tasting ok gave us the worst attack of scours imaginable! It is sensible that it is now being conserved, just the slight drawback of no drains for yabby capture. Have never cooked veges at a bore head, but seen little fish swimming in water too hot to put your hand in.

cheers mikel

Hey Mike
Sounds like you've been around a bit and surviving as a bait layer is a real achievement  ;D seriuosly though they were great times but I have to say I dont miss them too much getting to old and soft nowadays and prefer my creature comforts.

As a matter of interest you can still get quikurit in most western stores but under a different brand name and I still buy it for home where I still do my own corning using the shortcut method 3 tablespoons coarse salt 1 tablespon quikurit and 1 tablespoon sugar then boil for an hour and empty and refill with fresh water and cook.

Most of my week is still spent in the west as part of my job as I am required to travel all over qld including Normanton - Croydon - Tablelands - Mt Isa and all other areas but stay in motels nowadays and I have to say that it is great to get back home.

My work vehicle is a Holden Crewman fitted out with an auxilary battery and 12 volt fridge and all the goodies yeah I know bloody spoilt when looking back to the old days laying on the ground in a swag made from an old shearers bed tick a few blankets and wrapped in a piece of tarp.  I still shiver remembering waking up in the old days nice and warm on the side facing the fire and the tarp on the side away from the fire covered in frost and having to climb out of bed to walk after the horses that were a real mongrel to catch even though they were hobbled. Mongrels were never keen to be caught and made to work.

I was just thinking this post has really deviated away from Galah cooking has'nt it there you go you got me going again bad influence on me you are.
Look forward to catching up
Cheers Furphy

Well, FS, Mike, and anyone else who's got real life tales like this, keep telling.  Very good reading.   I haven't got any tales to compare to this, but keep writing them.


(I've never done anything so labour intensive.  I've never had to live on heavily salted food, but I certainly have met plenty who have.  Now, I have some idea why you all are so heavy with the salt shaker.)


Is this the bird:  http://www.parrot-haven-aviary.com.au/galah.htm  

I like the pictures here better http://home.iprimus.com.au/readman/galah.htm

It would be quite interesting to have a live web cam on a nest.

:)

Hi Lk
Happy to share a few yarns about the old days just an old bloke thinking about being young again and I am sure that Mike will have as many good stories about his life.
I am amazed that a bit of a joke about cooking parrots has taken off in the direction it has I guess its all about people recognising a little of themselves in others.
I am finding it enjoyable yarning with both you and Mike and not to forget Poddydodger and camperbear who has been on as well.

Cheers Furphy ;)

Well mikel and furphyslinger, my early working life does'nt really compare but I spent a lot of time in the 60's road building in Central Oz . Sleeping on the ground, under a tarp or in the back of a truck and then all day, six days a week on a 'dozer/scraper with the temp over 40 deg in the summer and freezing in the winter, ahhh what fun, those were the days.
Now I wonder why I have those skin cancers on my arms ?
BTW what has this got to do with cooking galahs ?

Sorry PD for diverting from the original, but then again I spose if the camp oven is nicely settled and that sweet caramel aroma of roasting meat is wafting around then the yarn topics can swing around like the evening breeze before the moon rises.

I am enjoying the diverse input to this forum, after all a camp oven is but a camp oven. Cooking in one  (for me anyway) is a great way to complete the day, time for contemplation, and when it comes to it, whether from the el cheapo or most expensive, its a good camp oven meal with always a few yarns to follow (washed down with a chateau red of course)

Think I will order waffles for dessert (with ice cream, but could be dreaming)

cheers mikel

Hey PD
It was people like you who made it possible for people like us to get to where we were going on those long - rough and dusty dirt roads and I bet you have a story or two to tell us as well spending day after day on your own camping in the middle of nowhere I could'nt have been always easy living and I bet if you think back you can come up with a yarn or two  Mike that wine sounds nice and I hope to share a glass around a fire one night under some of the stars that you can nearly reach out and touch at night during winter.

Good lord here I go again Yadda Yadda Yadda
Cheers Furphy

L_K
Re your remark about not using too much salt in foods, until you have seen a shearer at the table you have never seen salt eaten!

Whether its because they perspire so much I dont know, but a baked dinner ends up looking like it has a frost over it. Possibly this is the reason many shearers end up arthritic. I recall one shearer (admittedly nearly 70) who would come into the kitchen after knock off bent over like a half open pocket knife. Bloody hell, cooky, he would say, give us a spoon. He would get a large spoon full of salt and pour on it as much black sauce (Worcester) as it would take then swallow in one gulp. A bit of writhing around and he would be standing back up straight as a broomstick. Known as "the judge" he was a tough old bugger too, could keep his tally up with the best of them.

Bringing back a few old memories, so whats this got to do with cooking galahs?
mikel

Hey Mike

I have seen that salt and black sauce used in the past and it would make a peewee fight and emu I dont know what chemical reaction it has but if used right it would nearly heal a hole in the sole of and old boot.  Bloody hell did I say That?
Oh well more yadda yadda
Cheers Furphy

mikel mentioned earlier that he did a stint as a babbling brook, I remember some beauts we had when I was working for a mob out back doing land clearing. " One Spoon Jimmy" he used the same spoon to dish everything out, sweets included, if you were down the end of the queue  by the time you got served every thing looked the same, all intermixed.

Another cook we had was as queer as a $3 note, a fight blew up in the cookhouse one day and he flattened two of the biggest blokes in the camp, he got treated with respect after that.

In these camps the cook was on contract to the men in the camp so everyone put in ten pounds a week I think, out of that the cook bought the rations and took his wages. It was reasonably successful, you would'nt want to serve poor meals to some of those blokes.
Enough reminiscing. Rob

Quote:

Enough reminiscing. Rob

Nah, not near enough keep going guys.!


:)

It would amaze people today just how wide spread and the different areas that camp ovens were used in the past and without blowing my own trumpet I still believe you can tell when someone has learnt to cook in a camp oven people are generally found standing around the food that has been cooked by these bush cooks.
Did a stint in a timber camp where cooking was done with camp ovens and some of the best feeds ive ever had came out of that camp.
The babling brook was a pretty well known chef from overseas and had never cooked with ovens before but it didnt take him long to get the hang of it and when he left he said that it was the most interesting cooking period of his life and he would never forget the experience. We didnt either when we went back to plain bush tucker with the new cook.

We used to snig (tow) logs back in those days into a central loading area where the old Mack trucks etc could carry the logs to the mill and we used to use draught horses to pull the logs out of the scrub into these central areas. I can remember how cunning these horses became when they wanted a blow they would pull the log up against a tree and stand there taking it easy while you struggled to clear the mess that they had created.
Most times you would have to move up to the bridle and guide them away from the tree to clear the log and there was one particular baldy faced horse that had a hoof about 18" across who persisted in accidently standing on your foot and leaning up against you so that you could'nt get away and I swear you could see the mongrel grinning while he did it

Anyway enough for now
Cheers Furphy

That one brought a few more recollections. Did similar sort of work as a young bloke in the Gippsland rough country.Because of the terrain the shoes had to be cleated and cogged.

Agree too about the horses developing a fair bit of cunning but the show I was with snigged with a logging arch, ratchet winch to lift the butt off the ground, wooden spoked wheels about 5' 6"diam. with about an 8" steel tread. Every morning had to jack each side up, (trewalla jack) take the cotter out, ease the wheel sideways and grease up with tallow. Made the job considerably easier.
This was in the mid/late 50's.

cheers  mikel

Hey Kel, I must be younger than you as we used 'dozers instead of horses. LOL. I was engaged in land clearing for soldier resettlement farms in the late 50's. Our accomodation was just a corrugated shed on skids big enough for two beds. Every month or so we'd move camp closer to where we were working by dragging these "early model caravans" several miles cross country behind a dozer. Pretty rough and ready but the money was good for a young bloke.

We got paid for the hours shown on the hour meter of the dozer (Caterpillar D7, D8 and D9's) so as soon as the truck dropped you off of a morning you started your machine, cranked up the revs and let it run at full throttle all day including lunch time until the truck picked you up at dusk. Work by yourself all day and would'nt see another soul. Workcover and the Unions would have a fit if you did it today.

Rob.

PD
You are right about the workcover issue but I recon we had a great life living in the bush and the reason we used horses to snig timber was the terrain was to rough for machinery way back in the hardrock area of "The Dungeon" as its known its in the area between Ashford and the Qld border country out near a place called Texas beautiful unspoilt country still running brumbies today. We had hells own trouble holding onto our horses with the brumby stallion trying to add any mares to his mob.

I have used dozers to snig timber and if you have spent any time on them I am sure that like me you have back problems today because they were as rough as guts in heavy timbered or rock coutry and putting in a full days work pulling timber had getting to bed early a favorite past time you would be that buggered.

Mike I have to say that I have never seen timber moved that way and would like to see any pics unfortunatly I have non of the old days "just didnt think to do any and I didnt even own a box brownie back then"  and anyway lost a lot of memorabilia in a house fire back in the late seventies.

I carry a good quality digital work camera in my car now and will begin to get a few photos of the western parts of Qld and post any of interest on here.

I was travelling between Tambo and Augathella last year and came upon a bloke driving an old done up Cobb and Co coach with a 4 horse team and when I saw it I thoght that someone had laced my morning coffee but had a yarn and this bloke was travelling all over aust and he actually did saddle repairs to make a living and was doing alright
I got some photos and will try to find them to show you guys

I have just thought of another funny incident that I was involved in when staying overnight at Hughenden I had gone down to the local service station to fuel up and while doing so an old bloke came up and started going through a rubbish bin not far from where I was fueling up "The bins in Hughenden are shaped like a dinosaurs foot" and I thought he was looking for cans but bugger me if he didnt pull out a hamburger someone had thrown away and he strolled of eating it with the service station owner roaring at him. I went back to my motel and I just couldnt leave it at that so I grabbed a few bucks change and went looking for this bloke and found him in a shelter shed in a park on the western side of Hughenden and realised that he was from overseas and he had got hold of an old woolworths shopping trolly and it seems he was walking towards MtIsa Hughenden is about 350km west of Townsville and he was about 600km from MtIsa

I was leaving Brisbane heading to Toowoomba months later and saw him walking towards Brisbane still pushing that bloody shopping trolly anyway the upshot was I gave him enough for a feed and told him to stop eating out of bins "Not sure if I got through to him as he didnt seem to speak much english"

Bloody hell Ive gone on and on again you guys
Catchya
Furphy

I'm really enjoying all these tales even if we have strayed off the main topic. I don't think young people today have any idea of what it was like in the 50's and 60's, and how much things have changed in fifty years.
Like you Furphy, I did'nt take any photos in those early days and I've seen some amazing sights, well amazing to me anyway !
Rob.

PD
Leave tomorrow for the west once again headin for Rocky monday then out through to Emerald Alpha Barcaldine and Blackall Tuesday and through to Roma Wednesday travelling through Tambo - Augathella - Morben and Mitchell Getting back home Thursday and will try to remember to get a few pics. Kingwilly travels around a lot as well and he can spin a good yarn.

Getting some extensions done at home at the moment and I have been picking up some bush stuff for the BBQ area got quite a few horse shoes and bridle bits - spurs and Ram horns etc and have picked up some side flitches round back cutoffs anf have spent some time carving wagons and other pitures into them with a router to hang in the BBQ area when the work is done. I want my kids and grandkids to see some of this stuff while they are young and I want to pass on an understanding of life away from the city as well I have a mate who is buiding me a replica 4' high cobb and co coach for a display as well and it has a toybox under the seats where the grandkids will be able to actually get inside the coach and play.

In a couple of months I will be able to post a few picks of the finished result

You are right mate we sure have got away from that bloody pinkie and it amazes me that I am actually getting some of these yarns in writing but for some reason I am really enjoying yarning with you guys and I'm starting to wonder where we will end up

But while we are having fun I guess its hurting no one so brace yourselves
Regards Furphy

F & PD.
Me too, never had a camera, bloody hell, how do you afford a camera on just tucker a week then get the films developed. These days we have the digital, take pics, put on an advertising site, sell the item, money transferred by direct deposit, bit of a change in 50yrs!
Do wish however, I had some shots of those days. Some of the timber we felled on our place (we fortunately sold it to a family friend) opened up the canopy and the regrowth is incredible. But that is nature doing its work.
By the way Furphy, you reckon a D7 can jolt your back around a bit (I am still operating one) did you ever experience an Oliver Cletrac? That was the most pig of a dozer I ever drove.
mikel

Furphy.
Missed your last post, in the sense I was writing mine.
The intriguing part though is your comment "where does this end"
Well, it seems that PD and I (we) met some years ago, quite by accident, on a side track off the Quilpie /Eulo road. We were looking for an O/N camp spot, it looked like rain, and another couple pulled in after us. Well the gidgea was blooming,(quite a charming scent) it did rain, a black soil road, and we left a bloody mess getting out. The van one side, the truck on the other. The other vehicle there was (you guessed it)  PD. Their trip out was quite hairy, we spoke to them later in Quilpie. Its a small world, eh?
mikel

Gee I'm glad I never abused you for chopping up the track Michael ; 8-) in truth it did'nt worry me.

Furphy, you probably know but there is a replica Cobb & Co coach in the museum in Surat plus a bit of other interesting stuff. I usually avoid museums and the like when we're on a trip but in Surat they have a live fish exhibition in huge tanks which is worth a look. Free camping area on the north side of town too, they encourage travellers and we found the natives very friendly !    Rob.

Mike & PD

No never had the pleasure of operating one of those dozers but if they were as you say you have my sympathy old mate you would have been pleased to see the end of the day turn up most of the machinery that I operated were D4 etc only little stuff and did a hell of a lot of work plowing with these and only a few months pulling timber so most of my time was in level country not so you and you are still at it.
PD go through Surat quite often and have gone through that museum bloody big fish in that tank and it is a great little camp area alright use the toilet there now and then and there is always someone there trying out the fishing.
I have been off work all week with a pulled muscle in my lower back but back into it Monday and I will be back WEd or Thurs and will yak on again my camp oven mate should be here when I get back and I look forward to trying it out
I have to say that I am enjoying our yarns and hope to keep them going and look forward to some input by others when they find out what we have been up to here

Cheers guys
Furphy

gday guys cb here again great posts so far .  i have only been on a horse stud as a stud groom myself  but i have heard some bloody great storys from shearers and shearers cooks over the years.  Has anybody ever cooked topnop pidgon? as i have been told they are great eating and i have never tried them although i have eaten snake ; not to bad on taste  :P also european carp salted for a while tastes good the italians make fish cakes out of them they say they are the best fish to cook Time for me to finish this chat and give someone else a go till next time cheers cb ;D

Ok, group,  I too am enjoying the yarns, although I live on a different continent and can't really add to the yarns.

But I have to ask, do you all know what I mean by a timberjack?  This one is a lot like my neighbor's.

http://www.bclivestock.bc.ca/articleimages/MVC-006S%20timberjack%20skidder.JPG

& for using it, well, I had this silver maple tree that had a double trunk.  One December just before snow time, right after I heard that silver maple trees have a short life, one trunk came down.  The following spring I asked neighbor Tex, who is in the pulp wood business, to take down the 2nd trunk.    

Here's the tree limbed and the timberjack with cable attached.

http://www.rvlivin.com/scrapbook/albums/userpics/11775/normal_MVC-004Sa%7E0.JPG


& the tree fully down all of the parts gathered behind the timberjack

http://www.rvlivin.com/scrapbook/albums/userpics/11775/normal_MVC-017Sa%7E0.JPG

Then Tex hauls it away for landfill on his own place.

http://www.rvlivin.com/scrapbook/albums/userpics/11775/normal_MVC-018Sa%7E0.JPG


Have any of you seen/worked with that beast?

:)

Furphy, I suppose we can take it that none of the Antique Shops on your route have any camp ovens for sale ?
I went thru Alpha last year and an old bloke had some junk out the front for sale including a very daggy cracked C.I. pot with no lid, he wanted some ridiculous sum for it, maybe its still there ?

No LK I've never operated one of those; the logging industry has some incredible highly specialised equipment nowadays.

Rob.

CB.
The topknot is a fairly large bird, but being a fruit eater dont know how it would go taste wise. (not to be confused with the crested pidgeon, which is a grain feeder)
I have eated many a bronzewing and wonga which are very plump and top eating.
Dont forget they are all protected, but I guess if one "accidentally" kills itself there is no reason you should not eat it if starving!
Once again, like wild duck, they benefit from a very slow cooking in the CO.
cheers mikel
ps. ferel pidgeons are fair game and generally eat well. Just tend to be wormy.

LK.
Those machines are very popular here and have in many instances replaced dozers for log snigging.
They are known here as "skid steer loaders" and have the advantage of lifting the butt of the log off the ground which makes for easier skidding and reduces environmental damage.
However, they in turn are being replaced by a fully integrated machine which holds the tree upright whilst its built in chainsaw cuts it off at the base, the trunk then rotated whilst the head is cut off then finally the bark removed. The machine then lifts the log, stores it on a rack then moves on to the next tree.
These machines are particularly adapted to plantation grown stands.
cheers mikel

Working on a chain gang, no not that sort, the sort clearing scub with a huge chain, usually an anchor chain off a ship, dragged between two dozers, sometimes animals would get confused , go into the scrub between the two machines and get stunned by falling timber. It was then easy to grab a wild pig, wallaby and the occasional wild calf. Even after a spell in a yard being fed kitchen scraps etc pigs and wild cattle were still pretty strong and "gamey". As tired as we were of mutton and beef they were still better than the wild game we caught, I've never tried pigeons or parrots though. Have had horse (apologies camper bear) a couple of times, not too bad.
Hope I have'nt put anyone off their lunch.     pd.

Hi

I moved Furphys photos the General Chat to This Thread

Off topic replies have been moved to This Thread

Thanks Derek
We seem to have drifted right off the Galah issue here and its great that you have put the photos in a more appropriate location I will add more as time goes on
Regards Furphy

Furphyslinger wrote on Sep 14^th, 2006 at 4:43pm:

Thanks Derek We seem to have drifted right off the Galah issue here and its great that you have put the photos in a more appropriate location I will add more as time goes on Regards Furphy

Folks

Rather than just keep adding to the posts, feel free to start another one.  ;)


Derek

Hi Mike

I have had many meals of Wild Duck and believe they take some beatin
My Mum used to cook them in all different ways but they always tasted great.
I believe that was the specialty with the older generation as they can make a great meal from anything and the flavour is worth talking about for weeks

Well i will have to stop thinking as i am drooling everywhere

Regards

KW

My mum was a pretty respectable cook, BTW she died in February this year seven months off her 100th birthday. Anyway she used to make jelly by boiling up pineapple skins and adding gelatine, also coffee flavoured jelly using coffee grounds , tapioca pudding, lemon sago pudding and lots of others you never hear of now.
As a main course she'd cook fricaseed sheep brains, tripe, mutton necks, ox tail, ox tongue, kidneys, pig cheeks and pigs trotters the list goes on and then to wash it down a cup of tea made with bore (boar) water, we wasted nothing in the old days. Yeah I know thats an old joke.
Nowadays you can't even buy those cuts of meat, I tried to buy mutton necks a couple of months ago to make a meal in the C.O. and the (young) butcher was amazed.
Rob.

PD. Reckon your mum and mine had a similar background. I remember as a kid in England her father (grandad) making his own black pudding. They had a pub in a little village called Monyash in derbyshire, also milked cows, made cheese, their own bacon etc.
It was a treat when we went to visit, grandad was a great poacher also and grandma always cooked pheasant when we were there.
The old pub dated from the 1600's, no tap water, communal "bog" out the back and hollow walls where you could walk through and get into the rooms via hidden panels, could go on for ages! ::)
Hope this is not on the wrong page? :-/
cheers mikel

KW
Yes, arn't wild ducks a flavour of there own.
Where I went to school in Vic. (by bus) I often took a cooked (cold) teal duck for lunch, just a nice amount. I also often had my lunch away from the school grounds (not quite the rules!) at the local town lake. It wasnt long before I worked out a very simple way of getting a couple of ducks from there, a bit of fishing line tied to a rat trap baited with a crust of bread, floated out then "whack", duck for dinner again.
Very politically incorrect these days, but so are many other things.
cheers mikel

Mike, PD & KW
I can remenber years ago I was just getting into my teens and we kids (about half what we had in the family at the end) used to sneak into a cold room that my dad had constructed under the high overhead tank that was filled by the windmill from the well in the back yard. He actually burnt logs of the Australian Box tree and had run chicken wire around the tank stand uprights (They were timber logs about 300mm dia) and he ran the wire both inside and out and filled the gap between the wire with charcoal after lining the gap with old used wool bales and he then ran wicks (Lengths of hessian) from the tank water down into the charcoal creating a water flow through the charcoal which then cooled the area inside the walls and roofed in area this cooled the room down to very low temp and mum used to make her own butter and our cooked meat butter vegies fruit and drinking water was kept in the cold room and we would sneak in to get a bit of corned meat or fruit and best of all mix up a cold cordial made with rain water from the house tank kept cold inside left that room many a time with one of my ears ringing after being caught red handed by mum bloody memories

Cheers Furphy

Jeez, Furphy, that coolroom would have been a classic. Love to see something like that, if only the remains.
Mum made butter, cheese, which were kept down the well.
Also had a Coolgardie type (which my sister still has) made from gal. iron with side panels which look like asbestos? The top has a water trough with bleed holes to keep the sides wet. Still in remarkably good condition. I cant remember the maker name.
After that came the kero fridge, Defender, made I think, by International Harvester (or at least distributed by)
These days we go bush with a 60l. Trailblaza, no trouble to keep a months worth of frozen meat and veg. with enough space left to keep a couple of stumpies cold!  :P :)
cheers mikel

Mike
Its all about memories mate you are right about that coolroom being a classic the water runoff at the bottom was used to water the vegie garden and was drained off into chooks ducks etc
I can still remember mum cooking all of the stale bread in cows milk and us eating it for breakfast smeared with good old cockys joy.
Dont think I could get my kids to have a go at it today
Cheers Furphy

Yair, well we were pretty flash too, we also had a Coolgardie safe, a round galvanised one, which kept the butter from melting and the milk from going off, that is if you remembered to keep the water in the tray.
Also had a "Black-Jack" which I had to light every morning to supply hot water to the house, was'nt it a happy day for me  when we got an electric hot water system installed.
Stale bread in our house ended up in a bread and butter pudding and for breakfast we'd have toast with dripping and Vegemite or maybe "French Toast", bread fried in milk on the wood range, not bad.
What happened to the cooking galahs topic ?
Aaaah memories most of 'em good.    Rob.

Pd
You mentioned the old "Black Jack" mongrel things my dad was never happy unless he was having a go trying new ways of doing things and as you know not being on town water meant that our water pressure was gravity fed from the high overhead tank and as a result you could and generally did create a stronger stream when you (well never mind that) in the end my dad came up with a top idea he got a length of 1/2" water pipe and after heating it up with the oxy wound it round and round a piece of bore casing ending up with a coil of pipe after he had squashed it down like a coil spring and then he put it inside a 13 gallon drum that he had made up with a fire box in the bottom and he then filled the firebox with dry sand placed the coiled waterpipe insde the drum suspended above the firebox and hooked the top part of the pipe to the water supply and put a tap on the outlet side, all we had to do then was pour either petrol or shellits into the dry sand and light it (when petrol is poured into dry sand it dose'nt explode just lights up and burns for ages) dad had learnt this in the desert during the war. Anyway the water then heated up to near boiling as it travelled round and round the pipe then into the bath (no showers them days).

Our first powered lights in the house were 12v powered by an old pump moter and a generator and voltage regulator from an old customline ford charging up a 15 plate tractor battery this also ran a 12" black and white 12v TV my god we were flash.

Cheers Furphy

You were flash alright Furphy. The first electricity we made to charge a battery was a motorbike generator (6v.) direct coupled to the stem of a hand cranked cream separator.
Once it was up to full speed it put out about 4amps. Guess who wound the bloody handle.
This was to charge a 6v. car battery for the LT voltage in our first radio, the high voltage came from 2 x 45v. dry batteries.
Now do you remember "Take it from here", the Goons, Tony Hancock etc. We would always be about 1/2 way through an episode when the 6v. battery went flat!
cheers mikel

;) Hancocks Half Hour.  I remember that.   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

;D With Syd. James, Hattie Jaques et al.  ;D

Good lord you blokes all I can remember is Greenbottle and country music on the radio although can still remember winding up and old gramphone in the loungeroon and playing old 75's Gene Autry and early slim dusty played Rusty its goodbye until it wore out
Bloody hell dont start me again
Furphy

Quote:

Bloody hell dont start me again Furphy

But yes, Mike, PD, KW, wazza, please do








start FS again.
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Mike

You must remember the old Southern Cross "one lunger 32 volt lighting plant I can still recall being sent out to start the thing down the back yard in its own shed had a pile of batteries in the room I think they were 2 volt batteries linked together to make up the 32 volts and we had a fuel tank that was filled to certain levels for most nights the tank had a glass gauge on the side and was marked out in hours and we filled it to cover the period up to lights out, was a mongrel when visiters turned up and we had to torch our way down to the shed and top up the tank (could'nt really ask how long they were staying ) bit rude so you had to fill the tank and then go down again later to turn the plant off. mum used the stored battery power during the day for fridge ironing etc. Still remember how much I used to hate that crank handle on that old power plant it used to get stuck on the flywheel and you would head for the hills until it spun itself off  and put another dent in the tin wall or roof bloody thing could break your arm or anything if you didnt time it right.
We all had our own tilly lights in our rooms those days and you would read by the light of those having to pump the pressure up every now and then to keep them bright and around 9 oclock mum would start to yell about getting up for school or work and turn them lights out.
Had eyes in the back of her head that woman!!!!

Cheers Furphy

Keep this one going guys.  It never was sitting right in the recipe section so I moved it.  ;)


Derek

You can move them Derek but you cant hide em "we will follow you anywhere" just to keep you bored with our ramblings.
Cheers Furphy

G.day Furphy. Tilley lamps, you say? Well heres some of mine hanging in the shed
ssssssssssssss!!  mikel

---

Bloody hell Mike Taa Taa Taa
Furphy

Gee you blokes had it soft, electricity and Tilley lamps; we went to bed at "Can't See" and got up at "Can See". Thought a Hurricane Lamp was a real luxury compared to the candles we had. Wait until, (sob sob) I wipe my eyes, aahh thats better. Our kids don't know how tough we had it.
BTW Furphy check your PMs
Rob.

hey mikel they look quiet tilly hanging around  lol   ;D u certainly have a few   i can rememer them in my young 44 yrs  punping then up  or putting new mantel on them great collections  congrate wazza

pumping up to pressure

Hey Wazza not just Tilly lights look at the camp ovens under the bench I am more than happy to assist if he needs somewhere to store some of that gear wink wink nudge nudge
Furphy :) :)

hey furphy i bet you would  ;D ;D ;D ;D

mikel  cb here do you have a spare glass for a tilley light as i have one without a glass mine is stamped tilley of england dont know how old it is but would love to find out cheers cb :) :)

Was talking to a mate on the weekend and he reminded me of a funny story that we were involved in many years ago when we both worked together in a large gang of men in the west.
There was this old bloke who when we stopped for lunch always and I mean always went to answer the call of nature and it was behind the same tree every time. My mate noticed that this old bloke had this strange habit of when he completed his business he would pick up a handy stick and carefully study the results of his labours before proceeding to redress himself and returning to the group.

My mate decided to play a bit of a game with this bloke so during the course of a morning took a small piece of galvanised iron over to this guys tree and tied a roll of string to the iron and placed it on the ground and covered it with grass and leaves etc.

The old guy as usual went to the tree at lunch time carried out his business and grabbed a stick the mate had put a few feet away, while he was getting the stick my mate who had hidden behind another tree at the end of the string pulled the piece of iron away with the string and with the old guys dump sitting on the iron.

The poor old bloke turned around to check his dump and could'nt find it . He walked around and around the tree with this lost look on his face scratching at the ground trying to find his lost item and spent the rest of the afternoon with a bewildered look and every now and then he would walk over and go round the tree again.

Never told him what had been done and for days you could see him spin around to make sure that everything was working OK during the course of his labours.
Cheers Furphy

CB. re tilley glass.
You did ask me that q. in a previous post, and sorry, no I dont have a spare. In fact I have 2 tilleys without a glass.
I do however have a spare to fit an Aladdin pressure lamp.
mikel

Er mikel, forget the spare Aladdin glass, you don't happen to have a spare camp oven there you could let me have for while, I promise to look after it, that big one on the left there looks good, heheh.
Rob.

PD : I will have to give that offer just a little bit of thought!
      Then again on second thought perhaps I should be improving shed security. Nah, Peggy takes care of that

      But thanks anyway, mikel  8-)

I was looking at a display of old farming implements at Lockhart in Victoria a couple of years ago and one of the items on display was a rabbit poisoning machine, a large funnel on wheels dragged behind a horse. The instructions were printed on a sheet and went something like this:
Lay baits of diced apple or carrot around fence line and continue this for several days .
When rabbits are used to baits, introduce Strychnine to bait bin at the rate of ......
Be sure to wipe hands well before eating after handling poison.

No wonder there is a shortage of farm workers, they probably all died  trying to eradicate the rabbit plague.

PD do you think that Mike is just a little wary of our offers of assistance I mean all we want to do is help
Sneaky Grin ;D ;) ;) ;) ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D
Furphy

Gee Kel that mikel is a suspicious bugger, I was only trying to help a mate look after all his black pots and he talks about putting his dogs onto me !!!  mmmmm even dogs gotta go to sleep sometime.
Rob.

mmmm no trust u  would think he would share seems there just sitting around  ;D cheers wazza

Gee wazza, I'd think you'd be the greatest risk to Mike.   What with those 8 kids and all, you need some big pots!!!!

:P

hi LK your right i would have to take all off them plus the tilly lights :D ;D ::) ::)

Careful Wazza, I want him to post at least one pic, better yet 3, each from a different  angle, of his rig loaded.   We don't want to make him too wary of posting pics.

8-)

yes it is a nice rig would like to c more cheers warren :P

When growing up in the west not far from the NSW/QLD border actually living on the NSW side of the border and going to school in QLD it seems that there was plenty of oppurtunity to play the wagging game without to much chance of getting caught, and boys being boys as it were I had 3 brothers who took that oppurtunity for about 7 months straight in the early sixties. this being made possible because the education department in these states did not communicate so kids who travelled over borders were lost in the resulting mixups and even worse could not seem to pass final exams in the state they lived in because they were being educated in a different state.
Getting on with the story when my brothers were finally caught (My dad who returned home early because it was raining checked the 200lt mailbox drum at the gate for mail and found 1 of my brothers hiding in the drum out of the rain) he then dobbed the other 2 brothers in who were hiding in a cubby house they had built nearby in the scrub so they could watch the school bus go past and then head down the track about 3 miles to the house.
Punishment was swift and a pot stick that was used for serious offences was well and truely utilised on some very unhappy rear ends.
My dad then decided that he would convey my brothers to school next day to place the offending boys on the carpet to apologise to the Headmaster for having the day off school.

What a shock for him when the Headmaster told him that the boys had not been seeen at school for 7 months

More vigourous pot stick work was the order of the day eagerly watched by myself (is'nt funny how we are happy to watch someone else cop it when we dont)
3 very unhappy brothers were then reintroduced to the education system and had to undergo an extensive parole period

Ahhhhh memories
Furphy
 

Gee Furphy, in these days when corporal punishment is a no no I can remember the days when my mum brandished a big stick and walloped us kids with it and I don't think it did us any harm, we still loved her and were loved in return.
I can remember getting caned at school many times and also getting a size 12 coppers boot up the bum plus a slap around the head for being cheeky, maybe a bit more of that today and kids would show some respect for authority ??
Thats my 2 cents worth anyway. Rob.
I keep asking, what has this got to do with cooking galahs ???

Hi Rob

yeah talk about stray from the subject What Bloody Galah

I find myself going through this part of the board and it always seems to jog my memory of things we did as kids and I will put them on here as I get the chance we lived on the banks of a beautiful river and as kids swam - fished - made canoes from sheets of roofing iron shot wild duck - rabbits everything that you can think of had a real Tom Sawyer upbringing great memorys to think back on.
Reminds me of Charlie Prides (Roll on Mississippe) song
Will catch up
Kel

god these storys bring back memories. let me tell you all a little story of my own
as a youngen i can remember getting up at 4oclock in the morning to milk the cows so we could have milk for our weetbix before we went to catch the bus to school. also we used to take the same thing to school almost every day bloody weetbix god i hate them these days. or having to chop the wood so mum could light the stove before dad went to work. things were tough but we made do as we were 10 miles from town we had to make our own fun like making a toy we called a roller it was made from a milk tin with the lid on it we filled it with dirt then we put a hole in the bottem of the tin and a hole in the lid we then poked a peice of wire through it twiched the ends together found a peice of bailing twine tied it to the roller then we pulled it around behind us we had hours of fun with these things
till next time guys cheers cb ;D :D

Talking about Weetbix brings back memories of the time I was with several blokes in a construction camp clearing heavy timber in mountain country, near Mt Gosper in NSW. We got rained in and no one could get in or out despite several serious attempts.
We were living in tents and everything was wet and things were pretty miserable and cold, got sick of playing cards to see who'd go and boil the billy for a pot of tea.
After a week or so food was very short  but we still had plenty of Weetbix and tinned strawberry jam, I won't go into details but god I hate bloody Weetbix.    True story.

Rob.

The outlander needs enlightenment re. Weetbix?????



8-)

hi LK weet bix are a breakfast cereal comes in a rectangle bar  you put milk/ hotwater/ or you can eat them dry with  vegemite/jam ect on them  back when we all were younger that was our  main breaky cereal and after 14yr of eating them you get sick of taste smell ect..  cheers wazza ;)

It sounded like cereal, but sheesh, lunch, supper......


>:( >:(  >:( :o :-/

Well, I used to love PBJs, but not any more.

:-/

ok lk what the hell are pbjs cheers cb ;D ;D ;D

What used to be Mom's stand by for lunches and kids fav. in my school days - the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.

I think the nutritionists are now having problems with the PBJs.

8-)

Hey CB
LK's Jelly is our Jam not that I can understand why they add Peanut butter with it unless they want the Jelly/Jam to stick to the roof of your mouth "Hey maybe thats why they have a strange accent"
Cheers Furphy ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Well guys, jelly and jam aren't the same.  & really a PBJ could be peanut butter and jam, we just said jelly all the time.

Jam has fruit in it.

8-)

I love wholegrain bread spread thick with crunchy peanut butter and a handful of sultanas, have introduced my grandkids to this gourmet delight. I often have it for morning smoko or just a quick snack. Rob.

Little Koppit

Check out the Weetbix site at http://www.weetbix.com.au/


Derek

Well I grew up in SW Qld and Furphys stories bring back so many memories of growing up in the bush
Weekends and holidays were spent,  in younger days with the shangi in the back pocket, a billy can full of hand lines, a can of worms, a jam sanger and a box of matches in the pockets.
Parents never had to worry about us
Off we would go away all day, to return home on dark, filthy with a feed of fish.  The worm can now contained birds eggs from nests we robbed risking life and limb to collect
A couple of years on an Air Rifle replaced the shangi and anything that moved was fair game.
The carnage we created amoungst the local bird and wildlife population was horrific but that was the way it was back then, if it moved you shot it if it didn't you pushed it then shot it or chopped it down.
I am not proud of what we did as kids but we knew no better
Weprogressed to rabbit trapping and most Fridays after school someone'S dad would drop about 5 of us off at a property for the weekend where we trapped rabbits and ate rabbits all weekend. All we took was bread water a billy and a CAMP OVEN.
We survived and made a few bob out of the rabbit skins from the old Indian fruiter come skin buyer who probably robbed us but we were happy
OH DEAR HAVE TO GO AND SEE IF I CAN FIND THE RABBIT TRAPS

Kev ;D

Just remembered Rabbits  are like Weetbix
Ate too many as a kid
 Hate them both

Hey Sooty dont you dare rubbish underground mutton it was the main diet and usually paid for the cockys joy that we spread about an inch thick on the bread and when we got around to eating it it has soaked right through a 2" slice and man i used to enjy sucking that Golden Syrup back through the crust.

By the way Dirrenbandi has changed from the seventies old mate but a dirren boy has got to be good value
Cheers Furphy

Hi Sooty

Reminds me of the time we were shooting and Trapping Foxes in the Mid 70's and we took the fox pelts into the skin dealer.
there was an old blokethat bought in a large sugar bag and the skin dealer had a go at him because the Fox the week before was about a week old and did not smell the best and proceeded to thell the old fella to bring them in a bit fresher.
That was short lived when the dealer put his hand into the bag and the fox latched onto his hand

Cheers
KW

http://www.wheaties.com/  They used to have the motto:  Breakfast of Champions, when I was a kid.

Re: rabbits.  Let's see sooty.  Have you tried in your house's conventional oven to put a wild duck or a rabbit in a small roasting pan with an apple, an orange and an onion for the stuffing?  Old time bluenosers (Nova Scotians) say you throw away the stuffing, but not me.  

Or, how about 'you can't have a good rabbit meal without the onion'?

8-)

ahhh sooty i had put rabbit at the back of my mind   bad memerys flooding back now ahhh.. skinning . them   all them delious rabbit stews rabbit legs  o well back to phyciotrist more sessions  rabbit ..rabbit .. cheers wazza

Dirran boys are the salt of the earth . UG mutton  and Cockys Joy  
Oh you are really giving your age away now. Check your PM's
Kev

yer furphy changed the wheels on your walker yet cheers wazza ;D ;D ::) ::) ;)

Sooty
Already read the message and replied I guess that I am getting old but i'm having a ball getting there check your PM's as well Kev
catch up Furphy
you better watch out you could end up in poems for a member ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Hey Furph The best part about getting old NOW is we have some really great memories to think back on.
What we did and the freedom we had without the threat of some of the  ?? ( cant find the right word to describe these individuals who prey on society especially the young ) is something that todays younguns óf today will never experience.
We were lucky to be born when we were. The only downside is the wheels on your walker wearing out
Kev

KW, nothing like  ;a fresh skin must have been a clasic
Wazza, just go outside and dig a hole you will feel a lot better
;D

hey guys me again just reading your posts bringing back more memories like goin to work with dad hardest bloody boss i ever worked for. i had to work as hard as he did stick picking and burr cutting near killed me couldnt wait for smoko or lunch we used to have golden syrup sangers and cup of tea. dad used to drink his tea black with a bit of cold water no sugar;yuck. if we were lucky we would be near a river and we could go fishing during our lunch break. today i dont like eating fish but love catching them  :D we also used to do fencing. i  remember the hardest fencing job i have ever done it was up the side of a little hill; well thats what the boss said. this little hill a mountain goat would have a struggle getting up thats how steep it was. we had to dig all the post holes by hand as no machine could climb it. it took us 2 months to build it then the boss sold up and the new owner pulled the fence down. he said it was a waste of time. at least we got paid.
time for me to go again cheers guys cb ;D ;D :D :D :) :)  

Camperbear'

You must have had a great Boss back then

Several years ago a mate and I were doing site maintenance work at a coal mine near here, all hard physical stuff, and his 15yo stepson came with us for the day as part of his school work experience. We deliberately ran him off his feet so by lunch time he was so tired he could'nt even scratch himself. This was to dissuade him from becoming an unskilled worker and it did, he started looking at apprenticeships after that and is now an electrician. Mate and I have a laugh about it now.
Rob.

Ah, a tale I can share.

Well, PD, I sort of did that too.  The house I have did not have a basement, when I bought it.  But I wanted the place for  the land, which is good for gardening.  Now, the drainage could be improved , so I really had to raise the house and put in a basement.  & the $ I had then didn't include putting cement in the basement floor.  One neighbor told me how to save money and whom to get to supervise the job.  Ok, I hired this guy and his helper, but the other helpers were teens in the neighborhood.  The job turned out to take about 13 hours.  These 3 teens - 3 guys and one gal, got minimum wage, which I'm guessing was $5.50/hour.  Every single parent thanked me.  The job cost me about $1,300.00 vs. over $3,000.00.  & I have a beaut cement floor.

[smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Reminds me of the time I was doin something I can't remember doing .
Must have been after a session at the Hebel pub or Nindigully pub or the Dirran pub or the St Goerge pub or at the Surat pub  or that other pub out there.
If i remember I will let you know.  :o
Kev

hey sooty you dont know where i can find a good pub do you? ha ha cheers cb

TRY SURAT ITS GREAT SONS LIVES OUT THERE CHEERS  GOOD FISHING TO CAMPER WARREN

You guys
fanncy knocking weetbix look at the shape if used correctly and you eat them the right way they self wipe on the way out
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Just reading through some of the memories that people have left on this post and I am still shaking my head about a joke recipe for Galah has turned into one of the most interesting posts I have been involved in and at the same time a real piece of history is being recorded for the young ones following my son is checking the site every day now and he tells me that he is learning not only things about his old man but also a lot of stuff that can be used in the bush if he is ever stuck or things get tough.
Mikes stories about babbling brooks and Poddy dodgers yarns as well as the rest of you guys are sending a positive message of how good life can be in the bush NOW DEREK you are sitting back with litttle input how about a few yarns about your travels mate.
Cheers Furphy

SURAT PUB,  Walked in there many years ago cold sober, well almost and was confronted with a ROUND POOL TABLE with Bue cloth. Thought I was in the horrors. The only one I have ever come across
CB I can honestly recomend any pub that sells beer as a good pub
Kev ;D

Tried to explain today to my lad about bush life and he asked me about how me used to keep clean and I got yarning about some of the baths that we used to have. Found him looking in disbelief when I told him about baths in a 20lt or for those still using imperial a 4 gallon drum with the top cut out and a wire handle attached so that you could fill the drum and place it on the campfire to heat for the bath.
I then had to explain that no you could not fit into the drum, but you carried the drum and all of your gear to a suitably private spot out of sight of the camp and then laid a corn bag or piece of tarp on the ground and then placed the drum alongside of the bag. you then undressed for the bath and placed 1 leg in the drum and washed that side of your body. You then removed your leg and stood on the bag and placed the other leg in the drum and washed the other side a simple and effective way to keep yourself clean. We then used to reuse the water to cook dog and horse tucker thus wasting nothing.
Hard to get through to some of the young ones about how tough it can get and what you have to do at times
Seeya Furphy  

Yeah FS I can relate, we were ISSUED water, about four litres a day each and that was IT, all our water was carted in by tanker and there was'nt enough for luxuries like a shower, so you had a wash, cleaned your teeth and then had a shave, in that order and all in the same water, I kid you not. At night you usually went to bed dirty, too tired to care.
After several weeks in the bush you were going through your dirty washing bag looking for the cleanest stuff to wear, this is after operating heavy earthmoving machinery for probably sixty hours a week so every thing was pretty (very) grotty. At the time it did'nt worry us as we all smelled the same, BAD.
pd

One good thing about not being able to wash up, the bugs won't bother you. Back, way back in the logging camps they men would get into camp in late fall, early winter and come out in the spring.......and they were ripe!

I logged and we slept in a tent and had cold water only. We had to walk to another place to take  shower and in our tent THE lightwent out at 7:00 PM......so it was a cold shower and stumble into a dark tent at near 0°C or ''slide''.....most of us slid til Friday when the camp shut down. You gotta stink pretty bad to overcome the smell of spruce.

Out cycletouring in the boonies and no chance for a shower. The first night my wife and I slept together. The second night we drew straws to determine who slept outside. The third night we both slept outside, and I was upwind from her.........LOL

For those of us young enough to  remember.

My old uncle smoked LOG CABIN tobacco. The lid of the tin had a log cabin scene on it.
For years when I was young the old bugger, he had me looking for the dog on the lid. I searched in vain for that bloody dog that he had me convinced was there. I was probably about 5 when this started so I searched for that dog for about 5 years after.
Yes the BLOODY DOG was there.  He eventually told me that it was,
"BEHIND THE TREE HAVING A PISS"

He was a true bushie and taught me so much about life in the bush.
Shooting my first rabbit, catching my first Yellowbelly, seeing my  first lamb born, cutting scrub  to pulling  drought starved sheep from muddy waterholes and shooting those who wouldnt 'survive with an old Lithgow single shot .22 , I was about 11 at the time.
My Dad was not a hunter/ fisher type of person and so had no interest in things that my life revolved around. My Uncle and Grandmother were. They taught me to Fish, Shoot and all the bush craft I have today along with a genuine respect for .
My Grandmother was a real keen fisher and I spent many a time, either day or overnight trips with her. We would drag the Bore Drains for yabbies , dig worms till we were exhausted, the go and get her favourite bait Emu Guts.

Yes back then it was ok to shoot an emu or a roo or anything you wanted to but Grandma always had her Emu Guts for bait. She always out fished us and always was the best shot.
They are both long gone, but I will never forget the time I spent with them They were the best times of my life. I learnt so much from them.

Dribbling on I guess but somethings are important in life and to me this is.

See Ya Kev

Sooty

Good onya keep em comin this would have to be the most read forum and very entertaining

Cheers

KW

Hey Sooty
Looked for that same dog for bloody yearsbefore my dad went to Champion brand and I still have a number of those tobacco tins in the shed remeber Turf ready mades and Capstan etc bloody hell that takes me back.
Got a yarn about my brothers growing up in the west, as you know most of us learned to drive when we were only young and we all learned to repair old vehicles to keep them going for shooting and spotlighting rabbits or carting in firewood etc. Well anyway we owned this old Austin A40 or 50 not sure which but it was an old ute that had no back on it and to make it comfortable fo shooting we put an old single seater lounge chair on the back and fully intended to attach it with approved No8 gauge fencing wire as you did in those days But kids being kids we of course forgot the wire and as in all things we realised that we had to do the manditory test run (For safety of course) and as happened (In our family anyway) the youngest brother duly volunteered screaming of course to take the initial ride in the lounge chair.

As you know a ute with no back ends up being extremly light and when you take off quickly so as to give said volunteer no time to bail out the vehicle tends to flick rather dramatically from side to side and as well being on a dirt track added to the effect.
Well those old Austins had a fair rate of knots at take off and the driver really wanted to test things out so at about 40mph or around 70kph in todays speeds at the apex of a particually violent flick of the rear end the said lounge chair decided to part company with the Austin.
I have to tell you that you would of been proud of my young brother, not a sound came from him and apart from an extremly active eye pupil movement and a widening of his eyes he just sat there and hung on for grim death. The lounge hit the track and began to take on a life of its own bouncing from table drain to table drain with smoke comming from where friction was heating up the timber and cloth bottom before comming to rest after it ended up somesaulting into the scrub and coming to rest, said brother who thankfully survived the failed test hit the ground running and head for home yelling dire threats of telling dad etc. bloody hell that pot stick used to hurt and my brother was very skitish around us for a few weeks until he for got the incident

You would not be dead for quids would you
Cheers Furphy

In Canuck we say 'fishtail' for
Quote:

vehicle tends to flick rather dramatically from side to side

.  It's a sign you're on the edge of losing control on mud, snow & gravel, especially snow.

:P

that story takes me back to my younger days in the bush as i have said before we used to make our own fun or so we thought.
well out west the summer sun can make things pretty hot .well this day my brother had brought himself a 125 motor bike from a mate and we were riding it around the dirt road near our house so to cut a long story short we had an old fj bonnet just lying around my brother decided to tie it to the back of the bike and tow it and me around; as i was the youngest i had to do as i was told or they would bash me  >:( :( :'( so im on this bonnet being towed up and down this road. now things are getting pretty warm on the old feet .so i start yelling for my bro to slow down cause my feet are starting to burn. as there is no baffle in the bike its very loud so he cant hear me properly so he thinks im having a good time so he goes faster and my feet are getting hotter well by the time we stopped my feet were that burned i couldnt walk. when we got home the bro told dad that it was my fault and i had burned them on the muffler of the bike. in the end i got in trouble for not being careful enough and he got away with it
funny things you remmember
cheers cb

Got to thinkin again bloody clever of me hey! ;D ;D Back in the big flood of 74 our place which was out of town (no phones or power) and near a river was flooded in, water everywhere we couldnt get out and the only way anybody could get in was by helicopter. We were stuck for 2 weeks without being able to get fresh food in and it was getting very desperate. As the water started going down we would pick bush mushrooms and pickup  fish (yeah literally pick them up) that had got stuck in small pools as the water went down. Well at last  my eldest brother who lived in town was able to get a helicopter with some food sent out to us. To us kids it was very exciting to have a helicopter land in our front yard, being country kids we had never seen a helicopter up close before it was a great yarn to tell my school mates. My Dad was terrific, we thought we were goin to die but my Dad was so calm and sure that everything was going to be fine, he kept all of us steady and made sure we had something to eat even if it was only scones or anything made with flour. It was rough but we all survived.

cheers CB

Have to agree I am really enjoying this topic . Furph I too still have some of the old tins and other rubbish as the missus calles it. One mans trash is her husbands treasure.
KW too many stories too little time to tell

Kev :'(

oh so true the fun you could have in our days .. the kids off today   dont know what there missing out on ...all there interested in is vidio/ dvd // mobile phones and games ,,back in our day if you wanted to talk to mate you would ride up to his place ect ...  o those were the days cheers warren :-/ :-/ :-/ :-/ :-X :-[ :P ::) :-? 8-) :( ;D :D ;) :)

Wazza

True mate the youngsters of today
I was only saying to the Missus obout all the good times we had growin up and her comment was that todays generation the kids really do not have an imagination of thinking of enjoyment as we had to and also that with the Video games and the cost to put your youngens into some type of sport is unreal but this is how we kept the weight off and enjoyed life.
Back in the early times they supplied uniforms, Fees, ect but now it costs an arm and a leg just to get them enrolled and they wonder why they can't get the parents to have kids more active.

Sorry startin to ramble

Cheers

KW

Hi Kingwilly
I am only new to this site and look forward to joining in with all of the fun and games
Best Ned Kelly

Welcome Ned Kelly

Look forward to chattin

Cheers

KW

Howdy Ned Kelly.

I see you're all suited up.

How's that suit do out in the camp?

:)

LK

Might be a bit cramped

Cheers

KW

Just had a feed of fish and its taken me back to the days of walking along the banks of one of the prettiest rivers in qld where I grew up and fishing off the banks catching Jewfish Cod and Yellowbelly and how we often just packed the fresh fish in a coating of mud and then placed the fish in the coals (no camp oven back then) and we would wait until the mud hardened and the turned the fish over it usually only took a few minutes and when you cracked the dry mud open the fish would be sitting in its own natural plate and the gut would be shrunk into a little ball and the skin would peel away with the hard mud case and you would eat the pure white flesh piping hot it was some of the best feeds I can ever remember.
People rubbish the old freshwater eel tail jewfish but I honestly believe that cooked that way and not eating the skin they are the sweetest and whitest fish I have ever eaten and I still enjoy a good feed of these fish. and you can skin then if you run a knife around the gills and pull the skin off with a pair of pliers.

and there is nothing as good as a bucket of yabbies cooked fresh in the camp and peeled for sandwiches bloody hell i've got my own mouth watering already great feeds as kids no wonder we became self sufficient in the old days and never went hungry with food all around us and with no preservatives like we mung on today.

I can go on cant I
Cheers Furphy

I can remember sitting on the bank of the river fishing with a hand line and using freshwater shrimp as bait these were easy to catch by using a container of any size with nail holes for drainage and a piece of soap non scented is best tied to the bottom inside the container and a piece of rope or bailing twine tied to the opened top of the container to pull it out of the water and waiting for the water to drain away to pick out the nearly clear shrimp and the fish loved them when you used them as bait.

Muscles as we called them which looked for all the world like a small clam and were found by pushing your hands into deep mud along the edges of billabongs or anabranches of the river untile you felt thier shape in the mud and added them to your bait stockpile some recon they were good eating as well although I have never tried them but they are top bait for the cod and yellowbelly.

We made our boats or canoes out of galvanised roofing iron generally knocked off of any run down or collapsed building and nailed or bolted to a keel generally cut from a handy willow tree and trimmed with a tommyhawk or wood axe "FOUND" on a handy woodheap somewhere the ends were then tank bolted together (remember the tankbolts) and then sealed with blackjack mostly removed from the tank repair stockpile in the shed and then we made our oars from more  willow branches with a piece of board wired to the end to make the paddle pretty basic and rough but we thought we were just it paddling up and down the river to our favorite fishing areas.

An old single shot 22 rabbit gun or a 410 shotty given to us by our dad after being taught the rules of using guns and we got that good with them that we could knock a wood duck out of the air 6 out of 10 shots and rabbits were sitting ducks to a kid that was looking for a feed or a few skins to pay for his ammo.
Most of us had 50 to 100 rabbit traps and in winter we would set them on the thousands of burrows and we were up and running our traps just before daylight to pick up our catch and gut them and get them to the front gate for the collector to take into the iceworks and dad would pick up out takings at the end of the week and we would pay our share of our board from that and pack away our few bob for christmas and birthday gifts and get our few lollies and go to the pitures now and then.
This was all done with frost everywhere and before we got ready for school.

We had great fun following the guys pushing and falling timber in the paddocks and we usually found something to catch or pull from downed trees young parrots or galahs (HEY I KNEW WE WOULD GET THEM INTO THIS AGAIN ) young pig suckers flying in and out of the timber you had to look out for mum and keep your eye on a handy tree to climb if she happened to get you in her sights and the suckers were used at home after putting them in the pigsty and raising them on scraps until they found thier way into the bacon stockpile

I think I should stop here and carry on a bit more later on
Anyway Cheers Furphy   :) :)

Guys
Lets not make it all about Furphys memories the idea is to join myself Mikel and Poddydodger in telling of our memories as kids come on KP and CJV you have to have something to pass onto us aussies

Join in guys Furphy

What?

Don't tell me you want to hear about the time my Dad had it all set up for my friends and I to go handlining for cod  in a lobster boat off the Maine coast.  In an hour he and my friends caught 100lbs of cod.  LK got two sand sharks and a sculpin.  LK cannot feel a fish on the line.

8-)

So your forte is camp oven cooking or camping tell us about that
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers Furphy

CJV, HELP!!!

8-)

I shal pursue this LK
Furphy ;D ;D ;) ;)

I told you Furphy, op's not me's.  Here's a famous set of op's.*

http://www.americanfolklore.net/paulbunyan.html


Quote:

The Birth of Paul Bunyan retold by S. E. Schlosser Now I hear tell that Paul Bunyan was born in Bangor, Maine. It took five giant storks to deliver Paul to his parents. His first bed was a lumber wagon pulled by a team of horses. His father had to drive the wagon up to the top of Maine and back whenever he wanted to rock the baby to sleep. As a newborn, Paul Bunyan could hollar so loud he scared all the fish out of the rivers and streams. All the local frogs started wearing earmuffs so they wouldn't go deaf when Paul screamed for his breakfast. His parents had to milk two dozen cows morning and night to keep his milk bottle full and his mother had to feed him ten barrels of porrige every two hours to keep his stomach from rumbling and knocking the house down. Within a week of his birth, Paul Bunyan could fit into his father's clothes. After three weeks, Paul rolled around so much during his nap that he destroyed four square miles of prime timberland. His parents were at their wits' end! They decided to build him a raft and floated it off the coast of Maine. When Paul turned over, it caused a 75 foot tidal wave in the Bay of Fundy. They had to send the British Navy over to Maine to wake him up. The sailors fired every canon they had in the fleet for seven hours straight before Paul Bunyan woke from his nap! When he stepped off the raft, Paul accidentally sank four war ships and he had to scramble around sccooping sailors out of the water before they drowned. After this incident, Paul's parents decided the East was just too plumb small for him, and so the family moved to Minnesota. You can read more Maine Folktales in Spooky New England by S.E. Schlosser.

Map  http://www.google.ca/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=

Just take your mouse  and click to get the mouse paw to grab the map.  Drag left to move the map east where you can see Maine and the eastern seaboard.  You will see Minnesota just left of the the Great Lakes.

8-)

*other people's

You didnt cheat did you LK but even if you did its not bad
Cheers Furphy ;D ;D ;D ;D

Check the credits.    There quite real.

I don't think any kid gets through school in the U.S. without learning about Paul Bunyan.

8-)

Keepem comming LK look forward to more of the same but you must have some of your own
Furphy

Furphy and Mikel, your accounts of early life in the bush sound exactly like my father's life growing up in Jerilderee 50 - 60 years ago. Whilst he's always waxed lyrical about those early days and how wonderful they were, I grew up in suburban Melbourne. That said, my brothers, mates and I still managed to amuse ourselves.

Activities such as hunting rabbits with bows and arrows in nearby scrub and paddocks kept us busy. Our strike rate was pretty poor, but it taught us heaps about stalking. Then there were the snake and lizard hunting expeditions. Coming home with a sugar bag containing a dozen or so blue tongue lizards and 3 or 4 small whip snakes, then emptying the contents on the front lawn. This was met with a response to the effect of, "Get those bloody snakes out of my yard", from mum. She just didn't seem to appreciate the benefits of juvenile herpetological investigations. Then there were the bait collection trips to the local beach and rocky foreshore on a Saturday in preparation for our fishing trips on Sundays. We'd load up our bikes with fishing gear and ride the 7 or 8 Km to the favoured jetties, where a bucket load of esturary species could be had at the right times of year. In the summer months we'd snorkel for hours in the hope that we'd spear a leather jacket or butterfish over the nearby reefs. A weekend was lost if it wasn't spent fishing, hunting or snorkelling. I have fond recollections of sitting around a camp fire on the beach in the evening with a few mates. We had been fishing and gathering shellfish throughout the day, and were enjoying the spoils our our efforts cooked over coals. A truly golden memory. These hunting and gathering pastimes made up the bulk of our self entertainment during my childhood and teen years.

Now that I have young children, and live in a semi rural environment, I am ever conscious of encouraging my children to explore the natural environment around them. My 8 year old son accompanies me from time to time when I hunt deer and, along with my 7 year old daughter, has been fishing many times. They are well accostomed to controlled shooting with the .22 on the range and already understand firearm safety better than many adults that I have met.We usually holiday in a bush setting and/or near the seaside and they love building cubbies in the bush, scavenging for 'treasures', exploring and collecting things. They also help out when cooking meals on the camp fire and are showing great promise. With a strong appreciation for our natural world, conservation and offsetting the groceries with food that was collected or caught, they should grow up with grand tales to tell their grandchildren, I truly hope so.

Ausy
You are giving your kids the most important and wonderful lessons that they will ever have people today try to give fancy names to what is a basic right that our kids deserve and it is the interference of the radical fringe enviromentalists that cause so much heartache to those who just want to share what real nature is like for thier offspring. You dont need to have nazi style police rangers tramping around behind everyone just because a few idiots who have never been given an appreciation of the things around them, whaat really needs to happen is that kids are taken under the wing of either thier parents or the cubs / scouts and show the real beauty of what is out there and let them go feral on the real ferals (cats - pigs - dogs etc) I mean have you ever seen a scout destroy or fail to recognise the beauty of the bush around them they take what they need for thier camp and are taught to replace what they use and clean up after themslf all through being educated by the right type of people and here I am not even a scout.
Anyway enough of my high horse stuff, well done once again and I am happy that you are getting something from our stories,
Derek has been really good about setting things up so a lot of the old days are not lost and forgotten and I guess that I would'nt want to go back but its great to remember what used to be without thinking that it was better than todays life.

Cheers Furphy

You're spot on Furphy. It's been long proven that kids involved in field activities under guidance, rarely go off the rails, get into drugs or turn to crime to amuse themselves. I see this daily in my line of work.

Essentially kids growing up with outdoor experiences have plenty to amuse and occupy their minds. They also learn life skills and values that are being lost to our technical age. Don't get me wrong, my kids love their computer games as much as the next, but it's about balance and common sense. Besides, the electronic babysitters don't build strong, long lasting relationships.

Aussie
Your post about lizards and snakes reminds me of the time we were living in a station house on a property in south west qld and my mother who was deathy scared of snakes got the fright of her life. I was about 13 - 14 at the time and had killed a brown snake down in the creek near the house and for a bit of fun I tied a piece of nylon fishing line around the head and placed the snake under the stairs at the back of the house with the intention of scaring one of my siblings sister or brother I didnt care anyway I was hiding around the corner of the house and I heard theback door open and footsteps start to come down the steps. Now rule 1 I have since learnt is to look at who is going to get caught by the "Joke" before actually carrying out the prank. Not so this day and one uneducated prankster(myself) pulls the fishing line causing said snake to appear in a very lifelike manner under the feet of said very scared of snakes mother. All sorts of choice comments were made after ths screaming and airiel acrobatics were duly completed and punishment was swift and well applied (that bloody potstick again) I never learned back then and was well massaged around the stern by that stick. I always meant to keep that thing when I grew up to hang on the wall as a warning to those who follow after.

Furphy

The early saturday morning ritual of getting the seperated cream from the charcoal cool room and the salt etc used to be one of my favourite days when mum used to make the butter for the up comming week. we would sit at the end of the table and wind the handle of the butter churn turning salt cream into the best tasting butter that I can ever remember and I am still a sucker for fresh bread and butter and quite often use our breadmaker to cook some fresh home made bread and against all advice give each slice a generous coating of the evil menace called butter. My problem is that my kids seem to be able to know when I am cooking bread and they turn up braced for action, I think I have a traitor in the camp who rings her children and tells them what I am doing.

The washing machine used to stand outside the back door and house rules meant that we had to pump 10 times as we went past and look out if we tried to sneak past without paying our penance .

The Sunday roast was usually a huge leg of lamb with the bone removed and stuffed with home made stuffing made of bread onions mixed herbs pepper etc and tied up with butchers twine and baked with big spuds and pumpkin baked until they were crispy and then covered with home made onion gravy and I always thank my mum for teaching me how to make the gravy.
Smoking the bacon and hams in the old wooden toilet that had been cleaned out and converted into the smoke room with the sides of bacon and legs and shoulders hanging from the roof and a half 200 litre drum sitting on bricks and filled with sawdust (always hardwood and not pine) and left to smoulder and the smoke comming out of the smoke vents that dad had put in the wall near the top man that bacon and ham tasted great and we used to sneak slices of it out of the cool room.

Cheers Furphy

im coming to your place 4 tea furphy  ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)

No worries Wazza always welcome
Cheers Furphy

How much have things changed in only 2 generations.

Nobody but the old diehards seem to make jams, preserves and pickles these days. Baking ones own bread, cakes and biscuits is more a novelty than a regular practice for most households. And, how often do you hear of ritualistic weekly family gatherings where 3 generations sit down to eat a Sunday roast together?

The "I want it now" and "haven't got time" world that we live in, is eroding those time honoured practices and many more like them. It is a shame, but it is also a clear indication of where our children's lifestyles are likely to be another generation from now.

yes i can remember having to sit at table  all together  4 tea and yer i can remember those roast sunday lunchs ,,,so gone are the good old days ... nowadays every one eats in bedroom/lounge in ft of tv    not to worry the new generation mmmmmmmmmm cheers warren 8-) ::)

Now I'm back home from the Millmerran Camp Oven Cooking Festival I can tell you all how good it was and all the things I learnt. I thought I knew a bit about "Black Pots " but some of those old timers certainly showed me a thing or two.
It was hot, in the high 30's and the dust and flies would drive a man to drink so I did.
I had hoped to buy or swap a pot or two but the ones available were rubbish. The Millmerran souvenir Furphy's were a con, the lids were aluminium and did not even go close to fitting the supplied pots, the 12" pots were $135, with the souvenir lid $160. I don't know how many they had but they sold them all, not hard I suppose as there were over 1500 campervans and caravans on site plus tents and day visitors.
The queues at the food vendors would put off all those but the desperate, entertainment great, cooking displays great and the cooking contests with teams doing three course cook-offs brilliant.
More later, Poddy Dodger

Hi Rob

Thats a shame about the furphy ovens.  I know the bodies come from China as Furphy told me.  I expect the lids were made here in australia somewhere.

Here is a copy of their email to me:

Hi Derek,

We do donate in the way of Camp Ovens to the Festival.  Since we no longer cast iron at this Foundry, we will be donating the new Chinese manufactured Furphy Camp Ovens.

For further information please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.

Regards

(name removed)
Office Assistant

Cheers


Derek

Maybe I'm a little naive about these matters, but how compatible are the cast aluminium lids with the iron pots. Surely they'd have significantly different expansion and conductivity rates, thereby affecting the fit of the lid and the heat required top and bottom.

Any experience or ideas anyone?

G'day Ausyowie, in answer to your query, those Millmerran Furphy aluminium lids did'nt even go close to fitting to start with so expansion rates  are unimportant. I spoke to a member of one of the cooking teams who had a Furphy pot he'd won in 2004 "Champion Cook Millmerran 2004" same story, aluminium lid painted black to look like C.I. poor fit, he was unimpressed. Same bloke said to me he uses the cheap Taiwanese pots and still gets good results.
Didja notice the Furphy that sold on eBay last night..... $320 for a 12", a nice pot and all but I dropped out of the bidding long before then, that was'nt you that bought it Kel was it ? A 12" Metters sold for less than $100. As much as I'd like an old Furphy I'll wait until one comes up at the right price.
pd.

PD,

At this point in time I too use the cheap imported co's and haven't had any problems with them. The last one that I bought is a 17" model without legs or a lip on the lid. I got it on Ebay for $30 and was able to pick it up. It needed a little filing around the lid to get a good fit, but it still cooks well and is ideal for baking in, as the base has an internal diameter of 36 cm. It is no Furphy or Metters, but it still serves a purpose, and at a bargain price too.

poddy dodger wrote on Oct 26^th, 2006 at 7:56am:

G'day Ausyowie, in answer to your query, those Millmerran Furphy aluminium lids did'nt even go close to fitting to start with so expansion rates  are unimportant. I spoke to a member of one of the cooking teams who had a Furphy pot he'd won in 2004 "Champion Cook Millmerran 2004" same story, aluminium lid painted black to look like C.I. poor fit, he was unimpressed. Same bloke said to me he uses the cheap Taiwanese pots and still gets good results. Didja notice the Furphy that sold on eBay last night..... $320 for a 12", a nice pot and all but I dropped out of the bidding long before then, that was'nt you that bought it Kel was it ? A 12" Metters sold for less than $100. As much as I'd like an old Furphy I'll wait until one comes up at the right price. pd.

Rob

I was a bit sus about that one.  Looked like it had been polished on the outside with a grinder.  Regardless still to much I reckon.


Derek

Thing is Derek these old Furphy's are bringing big $$$, comes back to supply and demand and people who think a Furphy oven is a must have, makes your projected camp ovens look good.
I agree, that $340 one last night looked like it had been given a thorough going over with a wire brush on a angle grinder, IMHO the Metters was the better buy.
Rob.

Hi PD
Back from the North and No it wasent me who bought it I am after a 15" but I am resigned to the fact that I will have to get a cheap one if I want one
Cheers Kel

Friday was always a busy day at our place we always did our killing (meat ) on friday and left the carcase to set overnight in the meat house this was a room constructed primerially of fly screen walls to allow the cool night breezes to flow through and help cool the meat down. The next morning before the sun got up to high we were in the meat house breaking down the beast or sheep and cutting it up for storing in the cold room and freezer. All scrap sections were kept and placed in the mince bin to be made into mince or snags and I still recon that my dad had the best snag recipe that I have ever eaten, all of the mixture was made by him with breadcrumbs, spices pepper etc and I always remember washing the pigs stomach tubes over and over and then packing them in salt to preserve them. Our snag making machine was a piece of brass well pump with the rubber inside around the centre rod to make a seal and then we pumped water into the tube with a hand pump and pushed the mixture of meat and meal out of a 3/4 inch nozzle and into the skins to fill them and then tying them into snags as the skins filled I always remember that the meal and meat had to be mixed with ice water to make the snags set correctly. Those snags were the best I can ever remember because unlike today they didnt shrink and you were full on 1 or 2 snags. My mum used to get the lambs fry (liver) and soak it in salt water overnight to get it clean and in the morning put it in flour and cook it with onion gravy for breakfast great tucker and we loved it. Once every 3 months was the big kill and that was usually a beast and 6 - 2 tooth lambs and a couple of pigs to do the freezer top up we were always busy those days doing the steaks chops rolled roasts and pumping the corned beef and hams as well as setting up the smoke room (an old converted dunny house) cleaned of course hanging bacon side and legs of pork and lamb to cure. I still have all of my butchering gear including knives - meat skewers electric mincer and meat saw they dont get much use these days but you never know when you may need them, I was still making my own snags only a couple of years ago but using the meal mixture from the butcher supplys.
Nothing as good as doing your own meat a taste all of its own and you know what you are eating

Anyway enough for now
Cheers Furphy

Over here, my source of a side of meat and all the meat cutters, who deal with big game of moose, caribou, etc., have cooled hanging areas.  Meat has to hang more than a week before it is considered ready for cutting.  My current side of beef, which I got last December, hung for two weeks before it was cut.  Now, cooked in a D.O. nice and slow, with absolutely no seasoning, except maybe a couple of servings of veg., it is just that tender and very yum, yum, yum.

But Furphy L.K. is going to remember you have those tools.  & will be thinking about them at Oz trip time!!!  Consider that fair warning!!

8-)

LK
I am duly warned and will be awaiting developments I assume that snags may be on the menu???

;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers Furphy

With suitable expectations of having 'just a taste' or 'um, um, nice, more.'   to an enthusiastic 'How much do I dare eat of something different?

8-)

LK

The food like the company will be excellent
Cheers Furphy

hi furphy is this gunna be on the new bbq u talk about :) wazza

hi furphy mate ii think we all would like 15"  :o  but u can ony use so much at once :'( ;D ;D ;D

wazza
"GRUB"
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers Furphy

Those 15" ones do exist but hard to come by.  Paid $205 for this one.


Derek

---

Derek, it would have been a bargain at twice the price, ain't hindsight a marvellous thing. pd

Derek
More than happy to give it a home I promise that it will be with a caring and appreciative family who will lavish it with love and affection tah tah tah   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Furphy

Furphyslinger wrote on Oct 28^th, 2006 at 1:50pm:

Derek More than happy to give it a home I promise that it will be with a caring and appreciative family who will lavish it with love and affection tah tah tah   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Furphy

It's value has increased at least threefold since I bought it.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

BLOODY HELL, In 2 months and the eleventh page ,  we have gone from cooking a Galah to a $600+ camp oven.
Just imagine cooking COCKY in a $ 600 pot, would still tase the same. A bit like Galah I guess.

Brings back memories of things like Freshwater Mussels cooked in the coals on the river bank. Enjoyed the Prarie Oysters a lot more than the mouthful of warm mud.
Topnot pigeons were a favourite along with the big Western River Blue Crays

Who knows as to where such a mundane topic will lead.

On Butchering
Remember well the days as a Jackeroo when I had to kill a sheep every 3 days, meat would only last 3 days back then (no freezers). The dogs ate well. Get up before daylight next morning and cut the bloody thing up. No bandsaw just a knife, axe and cleaver, the chops had to be perfect. The butcher (ME) got the scrappy ones. Shearing and Crutching time was worse could be up to 4 a day to kill depending on the size of the team and the cook's menu. At least the cook cut them up.
Got to kill a beast about twice a year, was a big occasion. Also used to catch a few suckers and fatten them up for a bit of Pork.
Place had a bore about 300 yards from homestead no hot water system as water was as hot as. Had cooling tank for cool water. Pigs were scalded at the bore head just the right temp for it.
Had a great time there 90,000 acres of wild country full of Scrubbers and rough horses,  reconed I could ride a bit before i went there soon found out and learnt sooner. Was 15 at the time

BUT I STILL HATE BLOODY MUTTON


Kev
 

Could it be Sooty that we old codgers still have something of value and interest to pass on to those who are astute enough to listen I still believe that experience is the real educater in a persons life and I am happy to learn from everyone and pass on a little wisdom of my own now and then anyway these stories of what we got up to are just great reading and I enjoy reading others yarns as well as telling of a few of my own.
Lets just bore them anyway ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers Furphy

Guys
Cooking Galah is rapidly heading towards the 2000 mark a real milestone for this chat room it must be the special flavour of the hardwood stick when it is cooked.

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers Furphy

G'day furph.
Nah mate, its the real true flavour of galah. And everyone who gets a taste loves it. ::)
And geeez, arn't there still a few about? ;)
cheers  mikel

yes theres heaps the little bliters keep me awake when im camping so may have to throw one on the barbie ::) ;) :) cheers warren

Yep, lots of galahs around, are we talking the ones who sit in the fast lane doing 60kph or those pink and gray buggas that are so tasty if cooked right ?
I live in an area where there are thousands sulphur crested cockatoos and I hate them with a passion, they are noisy and destructive and strip the new growth and young fruit off my fruit trees, I call them flying rats.
On the up side we also have rainbow lorrikeets, black cockatoos and many others but no galahs, maybe they got eaten out !
Rob.

PD. The ones I know as "flying rats" are those bloody Indian Mynahs (spell?)
When we lived on the central coast they were the worst enemy. Find a way to get in and we had a communal nest in the roof. Next thing the surplus lice that lived on them started dropping through the ceiling. Right over our bed! Bad memories. I caused the demise of many of those rats via a .22 air rifle.
Next on that particular list are cockroaches. They are the bloody pits. Walk across the kitchen floor in the middle of the night and "crunch crunch". No matter how we tried they are impossible to cook into a tasty meal. I found a good way to capture them was to sink an empty beer can into the back yard lawn, put about a spoonful of port into it and the next morning it would be full with a few more waiting to get in. But even with port marinade those buggers dont rate.
White cocky's, had one as a pet. Was very affectionate, talked his head off, ended eating the top off an old car battery, drank the juice and carked it. (many years ago) :(
But they were a bloody pest in those days too, we grew oats, days of reaper and binder. My job was to stook the sheafs then knock the cocky's off with a .22 when they settled on the stooks. A better system (as we discovered) was to boil up some sweet corn kernels, soak in strychnine then place in the lid of empty boot polish tins on the top of a few stooks. Never saw a cocky fly more than 10 feet after trying that. The other treatment was catching one and painting it black. His mates hated that, and away they would all go.  ::)
But in todays age of political correctness I never said any of the above.  ;)
Will stick with the old galah anytime! :)
cheers mikel

yes your right there in cars ect there all bl--dy annoying galahs they see the flame from ur fire then they just sit on there horns all nite >:( truckies too :-/ o well things we put up with when we want a brake...................... ;D cheers warren

G'day mikel, I made myself a shanghai and use the seeds from my Cocos palms as ammunition but the cockatoos are very cunning and keep clear when I'm in the yard. I liked your story about the cockroaches but same as you find them hard to eat even when marinated in port.
Rarely see stooks or haystacks nowdays but last year in Tasmania we saw both, reckon the number of blokes who can build a decent haystack would be few and far between.
Warren, I learned never to camp in sight of the road especially in the top end as the road train drivers like nothing more than to give you a 30 second blast on their air trumpets in the middle of the night, really gets the blood racing.
pd

Know what you mean Wazza, soon as one truckie spots you its yak yak on the uhf and you get a non musical blast from every one that goes past all bloody night. :o
We always camp as far off the road as poss. and light the fire on the side least visible. We also like to be fairly inconspicuous  so that we dont attract to many other campers. We prefer our own company when on the road. 8-)
cheers  mikel

Cockroaches
Bloody vermin and you cant even skite about killing them but I have to say that I have never met a pissed cockroache or maybe I have but didnt realise it (does that comment smack of State of Origin) I hope not as it was not meant to "phew" pleased I cleared that up.
one of my worst memories is of a mouse plaque in the early sixties we used to go to bed at night after clearing hundreds of the stinking things from our beds and you were kicking all night to keep them away from you until you just got to tired to care and I have hated the mongrels ever since we had 44gal or 200lt drums with the top cut out with a little bread in the bottom and a stick leant against tne side from the ground up to let them climb up and we had a near full drum every morning they used to smother each other in the drum and omly the last 6 inches could get back out I wont tell you how we killed those that were still alive but they got very hot very quickly most of those who did this have passed on but they were always proud of thier catch.

Always had trouble with our flour as well thats why most of the early recipes always gave the flour in sifters not weight as you always sifted the flour to clear it of the usual residents :P :P.
Bloody hell where will this cooking galah end now we are into roaches mice etc it just goes on and on catch ya later
Cheers Furphy :) :) :) :)

Yeah we've sure strayed from the subject but the mention of flour reminded me that a couple of weeks ago I paid $3.00 for a one kilo packet of SR flour in a country town, last Monday I paid .68 cents for exactly the same  in a Sydney supermarket. Sure I believe in spending in country towns but thats a bit rich. >:(pd

Quote:

I made myself a shanghai and use the seeds from my Cocos palms as ammunition

What's a shanghai?

:P

hi LK
a shanghia is a weapon constucted of  a{ y} branch of a tree prefer dead as stronger ...then u cut up your push bike tube into strips, about 6-10inchs long depending on the width of your fork stick.. u then tie 1 end of tube  on each  side of fork ... :o   u then find a rock // seed  clod of dirt ..ect .and  u would put ur projectile in the middle of tube and pull back streching the tube.. take aim and shoot .. normally takes a while to get said shot to hit what u aim 4  hopefully :( mmmm galah 4 tea maybe ::)...but practice makes perfect.. cheers warren

Little_Kopit wrote on Nov 2^nd, 2006 at 9:23pm:

Quote: I made myself a shanghai and use the seeds from my Cocos palms as ammunition What's a shanghai? :P

I think you would call it a catapult LK  ;)

Nope, a slingshot!

Though a catapult works on the same principle, it's just bigger, definitely a multiperson weapon.  Shanghai and slingshot are 1 person weapons.  

:-)

Yeah great to make and even better fun to use "if you are on the giving end not the getting end" was a real pro at building these in my young days but we used to make our frame out of heavy guage fencing wire bent in the required shape of a forked stick worked really well and the forks didnt break after a lot of use as did the wood ones
memories of the past
Furphy

---

Sounds like you had the later model FURPH

Cheers

KW

Going through some old photos the other day reminded me of how cold it gets in the west during winter when we used to have what we thought was fun in those days spotlighting rabbits for ready cash was the usual weekend activity the fun had nothing to do with it of course with the most hated job being the actual spotlighter because you had to sit out in the cold for the whole time freezing your rear off while everyone else got to jump off and run down the live rabbits after the initial shot had been fired over the rabbits head. Not a popular job and if you got lumbered with the light you could'nt sell it to anyone, As the sun began to show so did the frost and I can tell you that nature did not stink in its delivery of some of the coldest and whitest ground covers that you can imagine shame there were no digital cameras in those days. 89cents a pair was the price paid in those days yep 40cents each now a rabbit will cost you as much as $20.00 each that was 21 pair in those days what a mark up and I looked at the price of second hand rabbit traps and the bloke wanted $10.00 each for them and I can remember paying that much for 50 traps in the 60's lord I wish that I had bought a couple of thousand and kept them (Yeah I know if wishes were horses old drovers would ride)
Bloody rabbit we ate it every way you could cook it and it always tasted the same no matter what you did you could never even get enough curry into the pot to change the taste cant see myself paying todays prices for a feed of underground mutton woul rather a good steak or lamb chop
OK OK I know enough whinging

Seeya Furphy

---

G'day Kel, your ditty brings back to mind several things, although I grew up in Tasmania I don't ever remember the nights getting as cold as they did when I spent three years working in the desert west of Coober Pedy, bloody cold out there. We went spotlighting of a night to supplement our rations and nothing was safe, foxes, feral cats, dingo's and 'roos but we only ate the latter.

As a kid in northern Tassie I earned pocket money selling rabbits, 2 shillings a pair and I had no shortage of customers. I had several ferrets and went out  by myself most weekends on a bike with their boxes, nets etc etc and a sawn-off mattock to dig the little buggers out. Never lost a ferret but boy I dug some almighty holes. LOL.  Later on I bought myself a 14 gauge shotgun and then a .410 (or was it the other way around ?)  but it was never as much fun as ferreting,    aaaaah memories.     pd

Underground mutton eh.

That brought back a few more memories. And as mentioned before, we certainly ate plenty of them.
Dad made me wait until I was a "teenager" (13) before I was allowed out with the .22 on my own. But not such a crack shot at that age and bullets (I think) about 5/6d. a box and only 6d./pound for skins never really balanced the books. So an investment in "leg irons" was made and the result of 2 runs late afternoon was quite profitable. Then came the meat buyer, field gutted rabbits, skin on, about 2/6d. per pair. These were hung in pairs over a horizontal pole near the road gate and covered with a large piece of hessian. Occasionally the buyer was a day late, but he always took them and always paid correct weight! We only ate rabbits with a "clean liver". Often used to wonder if the folk eating those from under the hessian knew how fresh they were.

Anyway, still have a bit of that gear left over from those days, who knows it might yet become useful again
cheers  mikel

---

Get a look at that photo PD  Mikel must be the most self sufficient bloody bloke in Australia those sheds of his seem to be able to produce anything I know where I'm heading if we ever get invaded straight to his sheds and bugger the dog I'm just gonna sit near the door and cry until he lets me in.
So be warned Mikel   ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers Furphy

Y'know Furphy, it makes me reluctant to posts pics of my few pots after mikel's shots of his Tilley lamps, C.I. pots and now all those ankle irons. I can see he's a believer in the old saying, "Never throw anything out, it'll come in handy down the track". What else does he have in that shed of his ?
I'm planning on a trip up his way around April next year so maybe I'll find out, mikel be warned.

pd

& PD you all carry the scent of dog on you shoes, if not on your hands, so maybe Mike's best friend will recognize you as friend.

Now, by times I am a pack rat.  In Nova Scotia I used snares for rabbits.  I've never found convenient territory here, but maybe down the road I will.  I bet I still have them.    

But I could hear more about this spotlighting.  I don't quite see how it works(ed).

:question

LK the gentle art of spotlighting was a popular activity for rabbit shooters both seriuos and those after a bit of fun when hunting if that word can be used loosely the millions of rabbits that used to be such a problem before the introduction of rabbit control measures by government.
Spotlighting was used at night utilising high powered 12 volt lights much the same as the driving lights (not headlights) used on cars to assit normal headlights. these were set up as hand held lights that could be attached to the car battery and then shone over the grass flats etc where the rabbits usually came out at night to feed. Once you caught a rabbit in the light beam you destroyed its night vision and you then shot a bullet over its head causing the rabbit to cower into the ground thinking that because it could not see you could'nt see it you could then usually (if you were quick) just run up to it and pick it up alive off the ground providing after the usual despatching of the animal an unmarked carcase for sale to the freezer works who were the buyers in our area anyway. The animal was required to be presented with its intestines removed after it was despatched of course.
A lot of fun could be had when using 3 or 4 catchers when the rabbit became aware that someone was there and it tried to get away and many times the supposed hunt after a rabbit ended up in everyone rolling around to weak from laughing to try to catch anything hence to reason for it to be so popular by young people in those days and in fact i've seen it used for sports training for football cricket etc and girls usually loved to get involved although they most times insisted that the rabbit be released when caught (Yeah Right) bloody females were most times more bloodthirsty that blokes.
Anyway hope I explained the gentle art of spotlighting clearly

Cheers Furphy


 

---

We'd have a little problem with that. most places.  If we didn't the coyotes, would be right plentiful.


The Battle of New Orleans


Well, in eighteen and fourteen we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British near the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, I see'd Mars Jackson walkin down the street
talkin' to a pirate by the name of Jean Lafayette [pronounced La-feet]
He gave Jean a drink that he brung from Tennessee
and the pirate said he'd help us drive the British in the sea.

The French said Andrew, you'd better run,
for Packingham's a comin' with a bullet in his gun.
Old Hickory said he didn't give a dang,
he's gonna whip the britches off of Colonel Packingham.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, we looked down the river and we see'd the British come,
and there must have been a hundred of 'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made their bugles ring
while we stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
if we didn't fire a musket til we looked 'em in the eyes.
We held our fire til we see'd their faces well,
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave a yell.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, we fired our cannon til the barrel melted down,
so we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind,
and when they tetched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

We'll march back home but we'll never be content
till we make Old Hickory the people's President.
And every time we think about the bacon and the beans,
we'll think about the fun we had way down in New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin,
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

Well, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast the hounds couldn't catch 'em
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
But there wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.


http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/battleof.htm

8-)

G'day mikel, I just looked up the price of ankle jewellery on eBay and even the common ones are worth $10.00 each so you have a tidy sum hanging on your wall.
I did a job at a derelict house yesterday and apart from picking up several old rabbit traps found a cast iron loaf pan or baking tin if you like, hidden in the long grass, its very rusty but not beyond recovery.
I have never seen a cast iron one before and when its cleaned up it can replace the "Willow" tin one I use to do meat loaf or cake in the C.O. At this rate I'll have to tow a trailer to carry all the paraphenalia I take with me on trips.....       pd.

Just be aware guys that possession of rabbit traps is illegal in Victoria and carries a significant fine per trap. Sure, there are millions of them hanging in sheds around the country, but you'd hate to be the unlucky bugger to get a DSE officer on a bad day serving it up to you.  :'(

Take care.

Ausyowie, I did'nt realise rabbit traps were totally illegal (in Vic), here in NSW I believe the are banned in metropolitan areas because people were setting them to trap cats whose owners let them wander at night. (No comment)
I have several  traps which I use to catch and relocate 'possums that live in peoples roof space.  I believe this is also illegal so I'll remain anonymous.

PD,

Yes, mere possession of rabbit traps is illegal in Victoria. You don't have to use one to get into trouble. Although, disabling the trap by welding it to render it inopperable is acceptable to the law.

I think that you'd be pretty stiff to get caught if you had a few hanging in your shed, but I certainly wouldn't have them in my car, around camp or where I could be deemed to be using them.

As far as trapping possums goes, you'd be hanged, drawn and quartered yourself if you were caught using rabbit traps to catch them. Personally I'd use a cage trap which doesn't harm the animal, then release it a long way from home. Check with your local shire about the relocation of possums as I'm not familiar with NSW legislation. You may even find that your local shire has the traps for hire, alternatively look on the net for a suitable design and make one yourself. I used to use one to catch feral cats years ago when I was running a chook farm. If you make it long enough, you may even catch Basil Brush.

No, I'm certainly not a greeny, but I am very cautious when it comes to the law. Personally I hate cats, but I'd never use a rabbit trap to catch one, there are far more reliable methods available. ;D

Hi guys send em all up to me they are not illegal in QLD so I can hang them in my shed for you (see how helpful we can be up here in the FREE state
Cheers Furphy

In case anyone got the wrong idea I use a cage trap to catch 'possums and it does'nt hurt them. When you transport them some are quite placid others get a bit cranky so I stand well clear when I release them.  Signed the anonymous 'possum trapper.

Hey Guys new I could get us back to the Galah so here it is

Cheers Furphy

PS PD If I remember some used to say that possum tastes better than rabbit "Not that I would know" Furphy

---

Have never tried Possum. Have eaten most of  the local population in my time  roo, emu, snake, goanna, dugong & witchety grubs .  
Fruits napan,  quandong &  snottygobbles
Emu egg  omlette say no more
Kev

What at one sitting Soot that must have stretched the freindship amongst other things
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Furphy

Well I'll be Buggered.
I was only thinking this morning that the Galah thread had finally died , then Furphy comes along and here we go again.
Not in one go Mate, that was just a normal day's feed when I was a youngen.
2 Emu eggs and a small roo for breakfast, whatever was handy at lunch (used to call it dinner) usually a Emu drum stick and a couple of Goanna's or a large Carpet Snake. The night time feed (that was Tea now called dinner) was the big meal, A scrubber bull, or a mob of emu's or roos along with whatever desert in the way of snottygobbles etc was the usual fare. Lucky that there was only the TWO of us  to feed hey. Usually had a 5 gallon billy of tea at each feed too.
Speaking of Scrubber BULLS, I get the feeling that there is a fair bit of BULL involved in the previous half a dozen lines.

I'll still be Buggered,
;D Kev

Sooty, you after being the Aussie Paul Bunyan?

http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/me5.html

;)

No LK, we aussies may stretch the true meaning of a story but would never ever tell such blatent untruths as portrayed in your link  http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/me5.html

:D ;D :D ;D ;) ;) :D ;D

In true aussie tradition a 5lb fish caught in the morning will weigh 50 lb by 3 pm but that is only due to the unique climate here along with a few (lots) of brown ales or rums
NO  B/S

Kev
PS Most of the pics you see of kangeroos are really only small aussie rabbits 8-)

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh, just you look here.  This is by an expatriate Aussie, a lassie sometimes known as Outback Annie (yep, PD, that Outback Annie)

Snow sculpture in true Koala size!!!

http://lynnestcalbums.phanfare.com/show_image.aspx?album_id=177964&section_id=228266&hmi_id=10415261&image_version=6&rend=WEB

:) :) :) :) :) :)

Snottygobbles ?

SNOTTYGOBBLES  ?   ?   ?    ?

I have had to lie down. . . . . . . . . . . .  lol

Can Sum Wun translate  ?

JtB
"Never let the facts get in the way of a good yarn !"

Good lord above Sooty you have me hanging my head in shame a good Dirrenbandi boy only scoffing 5 gals tea at each meal and the emu eggs not enough to cover a decent sized piece of toast I know blokes on "Cubby" who would hang their head in shame. And only 1 Drumstick ?? What were you ill cripes man next thing you will be telling me that you didnt even have desert you know half a bathtub of rice and custard

wheres that bloody galah again
Cheers Furphy

A white koala bear ! Struth, I thought for a moment it was one of those terrifying Drop bears that come down outta the trees and carry off your women folk.
Some one told me they're a cross between a Yowie and a Bunyip, there's some pretty scary creatures in the Ozzie bush and I don't mean tha animals.

pd

Quote:

there's some pretty scary creatures in the Ozzie bush and I don't mean tha animals. pd

for example..........

:P

LK

Seen the odd ringers wife in the bush that would scare the bark off an old white gum and most of them are toothless
;D ;D ;D ;D
Furphy

you forgot the bundy rum with the drop bear lol

hey wazza what bundy rum iv been out west and seen alot of stuff that would scare the pants off most blokes and i only had 2 stubbies of gold at the time  :D :D :D :D ::) ::) cheers cb

Hi all
over 3000 views not bad for a tough old Galah when we mention him anyway just going through some old box brownie photos (the things you do on holidays) and came across some that my old dad must have taken of us boys in the rapids near  a south western town where we lived on a property at the time and we were riding through them on a home made raft made out of 60lt or 13gal metal drums lashed to some cyprus pine poles, from memory the trip wasent planned and we were as busy as a one legged man in a bum kicking contest just staying on the thing but we got through ok cant remember how but I think that was the terror factor kicking in used to fish that old river day after day and most times she would never let you down for a feed and the water used to be so clear you could count the eel tailed catfish in their nests on the bottom and you could drink the water as sweet as rainwater from the tank, thats without the worry of copping a frog in your mouth when you drank from the tap. Wild duck soup no duck season back then yabbie and shrimp lunches on the bank and this was on school days (oops disregard that) never wagged school in me life but have been geographically embarressed at times and not able to find the school blimey I copped that potstick a lot. Can remember laying on the bank under the old willow trees and leaning over with the pick and digging anywhere to get a handful of earthworms for bait and mum was really proud of us for years thinking we were taking the soap to wash ourselves with until she found out that shrimp just could'nt resist soap as bait in our shrimp tins (soap got harder to get after that) Knocking over an odd rabbit for tea with the old single shot 22 rabbit gun always got us in the good books and liberal application of solvol sand soap when supplies were getting low reminded us that she was just that bit smarter than us most times.

Good lord I've rambled again and just to remind us see old mate below  "Galah"
Furphy

---

Hells Bells, Furphy, 3092 views since you made that post on 2/9/06 and 35yrs. plus a couple of months since I cooked that mob of galahs in the camp oven. 8-)

I was so overcome by nostalgia I immediately went out to the shed, lifted the lid on the old oven to see if any lingering aroma remained. To my complete surprise (sniff, sniff) there it was after all that time. :)

Until I realized I had lifted the lid on the camp oven we used to cook the koala in. (or was it the platypus?) :o
cheers mikel ;)

Hey Mikel
Where ya been missed ya  yeah looks to be a pretty popular post and its been all about cooking one of the toughest (Well maybe not) birds hasent it ???? in the country hey watcha think about me old mate I'm gonna put him on all the posts to remind us where it all began need a few yarns from you and poddy for insperation and you coulda give me a call when you were heading for the shed purely in the interest of assisting you to check the aroma of course never mind I'm sure that in the fullness of time that will occur even if its 1 or 2 am in the morning and no dont get out of bed just for me. there I go again the perpetual gentleman
Cheers Furphy

---

Keep it up gang.  These tales have the ring of great memories.  & great pride in what you did/are doing.  

Does everyone of you know how to live off the land?

Oh, and Furphy, would you give me Mr. or Ms. Galah's cell phone #, please.

:)

After reading mikels post I immediately went looking thru my recipe books for Koala Casserole and came across some others that might interest you, Tassie Tiger Tacos yum, yes Platypus Pie gets a mention too, Feral Cat and Fetta cheese, European Carp with eggplant , Cane Toads on toast and hey, here's a whole chapter on roadkill, lemme see, it says, "First select your animal, the fresher the better.

Makes me wonder about some of those early explorers who died of hunger when living off the land is so easy and so much fun. :o

pd

Would wild bird poultry still be regarded as good eating if it tasted fowl

---

Welcome back Furph.  Haven't seen you here for a while.

Cheers


Derek

i think he has been: ducking: lol for cover  ;D ;D ;D
cheers wazza

Furphyslinger wrote on Sep 8^th, 2007 at 8:56am:

Would wild bird poultry still be regarded as good eating if it tasted fowl

This would be Dependant on the cook and the stones used .
Various wild birds require different types of stone
eg
Duck = Sandstone
Magpie = Granite

There are some hard rocks out there and even harder birds Furph
The Soot

Jus' been on an extended trip thru western Queensland, took awhile as I hadda wait for me pension cheques to catch up. So dry out there there isn't even road kill to fill the pantry, drier than a dead dingo's donger as me missus says. Looked everywhere for an old CI oven, jees they is scarce.

Went to a Bush Cooking Comp at Trundle last weekend and was blown away by the large number of all size Furphy ovens being used, none for sale BTW. A lot of them had the owners name cast on the lid, it wasn't until I lifted a lid off before I realised all the lids were aluminium !!!

pd

Quote:

Went to a Bush Cooking Comp at Trundle last weekend and was blown away by the large number of all size Furphy ovens being used, none for sale BTW. A lot of them had the owners name cast on the lid, it wasn't until I lifted a lid off before I realised all the lids were aluminium !!!

Furphy still make them if you want one.  They look good.

http://www.furphys.com.au/

The site isn't opening for me tonight for some reason.


Derek

Looks like they are no longer doing the Aluminium Lids.

I am sure it was on here http://www.furphys.com.au/legend/Merchandise.html


Derek

Derek.
Now I am sure you have read (through this thread) just about everything you or anyone would need to know about cooking a galah in a camp oven.
But. And this is the big one,eh.
It is totally impossible to cook a galah, or any multiple of, to a satifying degree, in any Camp Oven with an Aluminium lid.
It doesn't matter what is embossed, how good the coals are, that 'ole Galah, he sure gunna tuck the wings.n.legs in and say "you muck around with dat almulium.n.castrion, well you sure not goin't get a nice tendrfeed outa me"
So there you go.
Just a ittle bit more on CG!
cheers..................
OK. been on the Port again!    mikel  ;) ;)

I just peed myself laughing  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

poddy dodger wrote on Sep 21^st, 2006 at 3:32pm:

Gee Furphy, in these days when corporal punishment is a no no I can remember the days when my mum brandished a big stick and walloped us kids with it and I don't think it did us any harm, we still loved her and were loved in return. I can remember getting caned at school many times and also getting a size 12 coppers boot up the bum plus a slap around the head for being cheeky, maybe a bit more of that today and kids would show some respect for authority ?? Thats my 2 cents worth anyway. Rob. I keep asking, what has this got to do with cooking galahs ???

By gee's you're on the money there PD. I'm not that old but when we were growing up you were more than happy to cop a boot up the arse from the local walloper than have the 'old man' find out your capers ;D ;D The hiding that anyone else would meter out would almost pale into insinificance! Yes, I believe your kids are what you make'em - it all starts at home.
I'm slowly working my way through these yarns under 'cooking galah'  ;D & have been enjoying them immensely.
Furph, you mentioned 'the dungeon' around the  Ashford area, I'm not familiar with it but my family is mostly situated at Delungra, so I know where you're on about at least. I read with interest, the stories about work with heavy horses. My great grandfather was a bullocky in the Wingham district & I recall a few stories of his various campaigns. I'll be happy to convey at some stage but not tonight - am buggered.
Must remember the page at least, so I can pick up later.
Looking at the tilly lamps reminded me of a hobby at school. I used to collect & fiddle about with the old Primus kerosene stoves. I guess a blokes lucky it was only out of interest rather than necessity. When I think about how some of you fellas lived many years ago, it makes a bloke appreciate the simplicity that we have today - the convenience rather - & how far we've come, because, it really wasn't that long ago in the big scheme of things. Anyway, lads - later eh?
Hooroo [smiley=1.gif]

Seems this Galah will never be cooked, Pensioner.
Look forward to your input.
The Soot

---

OK guys, I have a serious question here, and not meaning any offense to all you Aussies, but, you don't really eat that beautiful little bird, do you?    

Julie

I found this recipe in an old book called 'Bush Cooking' by Max Bryant.

Nah Julie we don't eat them anymore although I believe they may have been a meal for a few people years ago.  They are actually a protected species here in Australia.

Galah Stew

Ingredients
4 galahs
70 gm packet vegetable soup mix
150 gm packet dehydrated peas
2 onions
Pinch salt

Method
Pluck or skin galahs and remove entrails and place in camp oven. Add packet of vegetable soup, peas and sliced onions and salt to taste.  Cover birds with water and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

They are actually a very pretty bird.

---

Oh, thanks, Derek!  I sure do feel better!  I'm a bit of a bird nut, and grew up with a fabulous parakeet!  At one time, I had three cockatiels and my parrot  Now, the only indoor bird is my parrot, Big Bird (a/k/a Joey):

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Stream/5287/Big_Bird.jpg

Oh, and of course we have about 23 chickens, two geese and one duck outside!    

Even though we have our own chickens (I could never butcher them!), we eat a lot of chicken!  LOL   I guess I just don't think about "our" chickens when we have chicken for dinner!  LOL

Julie

I had a cockateil as well.  His name was Fred.  He used to talk as well as whistle opera.  He lived for 17 years with me and then one day was gone.

My two daughters bought a large pot and planted a shrub in it with his remains so that he would never be far away.


Derek

wrote on Dec 1^st, 2007 at 2:05pm:

I had a cockateil as well.  His name was Fred.  He used to talk as well as whistle opera.  He lived for 17 years with me and then one day was gone. My two daughters bought a large pot and planted a shrub in it with his remains so that he would never be far away. Derek

Out of the three cockatiels I had, I sold Gypsy (he didn't get along well with the other two), and Freida and Crackers both died unexpectedly.  They are both buried at my parents' place where we have a full blown "pet cemetery" with 7 dogs, 2 parakeets, 2 cockatiels, 1 toad, 3 cats, and probably some others that I'm forgetting!    Fred (our original rooster) will go there when he's gone, too!  He's a special guy, so he gets special treatment!  

Julie

sooty wrote on Nov 30^th, 2007 at 8:48pm:

Seems this Galah will never be cooked, Pensioner. Look forward to your input. The Soot

G'day There Soot,
Your on the money I think!! Although I have realised that, after 16 pages we have come full circle as Derek (I think - how do you go back & check, in the middle of a post?!) posted that latest recipe!!! ( I knew a bloke who used to say "rec -ee- pee" not as strange as different I s'pose) on how to cook the buggers. I've never had a crack at 'em but wouldn't be shy about giving'em a run with some of these recipe's. That last one sounded pretty good.
It's taking a bit to get through this topic ;D I enjoy the posts & am an avid reader but can't seem to get time in front of the screen - plenty have the same problem I guess.
I have a couple of kids, Maddison (8) & Nicholas (6) which soak up a bit of time. I nearly have to plan it in. Why is it that 'The Minister' always seems to catch me as soon as I've plonked my rear end in front of the 'puter!!
The kids are always keen on a stint in the bush & as for me, well I can't get there often enough either. But, we'll keep working on it.
Hooroo for now [smiley=1.gif]

Was poking about in the shed today and found my old whip from a couple of years back, thats when I was a young and fearless  ringer,  chasing scrubbers in the bush.

It was made for me by an old bloke who lived on the bank of the Culgoa river, from the hide of a Roo he shot, then tanned the skin by the old Wattle Bark method and made into a 12 plat roo hide whip.

After reminesing Resmerisen  ah remembering the old days I threw it over the railing thinking I'll have a crack at that tomorrow.

Was disturbed just now by what I thought to be Fireworks and ventured outside with cold drink in hand to have a look as to where the display was.

Would you believe ?


THAT a light breeze had sprung up and I had left  about a foot of the thong the with fall and cracker hanging over the railing and that was enough to get the old whip cracking away.

Those among you who disbelieve this tale should contact either Furph or Poddy for the truth as they are both horribble gentlemen sorry I mean Onarable blokes
The Soot

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Good to hear from you sooty, thought ya musta' been away. We've been down to Tassie to visit the family and have a couple of Boags Light Ales, I grew up on that stuff, aaahh luverly.
Drove the truck camper down, everyone says "Oh, you went across on the ferry ? " but no, we didn't go that way.

pd

Yeah right you mob

bloody whip cracking in a (light) breeze ????????? come on it would need to be a little stronger than that (not much though)

Poddy did you put the bigger rims on when you went across found I had to regrease the axles on mine on a trip over there and wore out 3 sets of wipers

cheers

Right on Kel, missus says we're not going that way again, scenery is awful .

Hope youse all had a great Christmas, I under estimated my family, they came up with some original presents for me connected with with my love of camp oven cooking. A serious heavy duty apron, long stainless tongs and some rocket fuel for the cook.
I had asked Santa for a full set of old Furphy ovens but Derek has changed address so many times Santa couldn't find where to pick'em up.
pd

Travelling from Hebel through to Gore near Warwick with 6000 crossbreed sheep in the early 60's was no easy feat and our plant ran to 5 drovers, the first 3 weeks was spent isolated from people while pushing the mob along hard to find stock routes through heavy mulga country.
every day our cook a young bloke in his early 20's used to drive our old Brdford 4 ton truck about 6 miles and he would then run out rolls of ringlock fence around trees to build a large enclosure to pen the sheep at night.
after a few days we pushed the mob out of the scrub and onto the banks of the river main river running through that country not sure which river it was but every day after setting up the camp the cook would set a net we always carried with us and most days when we pulled the net there were a number of fish man oh man what a change from mutton and thst was usually sated after killing day, at least we had fresh meat for a couple of days after killing usually chops the first night and for brekky then a nighjt of stew with the left overs on toast next day, all this done in camp ovens what we didnt use fresh was dry corned and I have eaten corned mutton up to 11 weeks after corning, all we used to do was turn the corning bag every day and the meat lasted for weeks no fridge or esky back then and vegies came out of a tin, I still love to eat corned mutton and stews made with tinned vegies, the only dried food back then was peas and they had to be soaked over night to soften them.

Bed was an old metal shearers stretcher with chain wire as the springs and an old swag rolled up in a piece of tarp with your blankets (no sheets) and in winter you just invited the working dogs usually tied to the legs of the stretcher into bed with you and placed your feet on them to keep warm dogs didnt seem to mind and in most cases were in the bed when you crawled in yourself, didnt take them long to learn.

after 16 weeks we delivered 6021 sheep to Gore after 6aking delivery of 6000 and that was after eating a shhep a week yeah I know the maths dont add up but thats the way it happened you always seemed to get extra and they in most cases were what was picked up along the stock routes.

Only a young bloke myself in those days and was lucky enough to meet many old timers born around the turn of the century who were happy to pass on a lot of experience about camping and cooking as well as recipes for camp oven cooking and the bug bit and has stayed with me ever since
Judging by the amount of visitors I get when I fire up the camp ovens at home nowadays the recipes are still good and the plates are always empty at the end.
Bugger it the old Galah has raised his ugly bloody head again
Furphy

---

Great story Furphy!A lot of nostalgia in that. Although I was young I can remember my early days at Dajarra Qld where Dad was the Station Master and the ringers and such as the Dajarra Devil drank from  quartpots. Those old iron beds were a beaut wern't they, especially when you would throw the legs over the side to get up and forgot that you had no jocks on. Boy couldn't those springs latch on when they compressed again. We always had the mandatory canvas water bottles strung up under the tankstand and thats where the meat locker usually hung in the shade too - along with the hang up galvanised shower and rope to put your foot in.
PS. bet you don't eat much mutton/lamb now!

All the best
The Roosel

Well Furph, as usual you spin a good dit, you can sit around my camp fire any night..... er,  as long as you bring yer own tonsil lubricant.
In the early 60's I worked with a road construction crew west of Coober Pedy. We made several of our camps at disused stock watering tanks in the desert which consisted of huge corrugated iron roofs feeding into water tanks then troughs, usually stagnant. However written in charcoal on the timber supports of these roofs were messages like, "Bill Smith passed through here on bicycle 10/10/1929". etc etc. These tanks were VERY remote and sometimes I wonder if this graffiti was genuine.
Further north we camped at the site of a well dug by a bloke called Tietkin in the mid 1800's. He was trying to establish a stock route from Adelaide to Darwin but couldn't find water ! His camp site was well preserved with his rusty old shovels and pannikins still lying around, no tourists out there to souvenir them!
Temperature wouldn't drop below 100deg day or night for weeks on end no bull.
pd

Well thats a bloody good yarn Furph, and as you say that ole Galah will pop up when least expected.
Had not seen you on the pages for some time, then noticed you had been a bit crook? Hope you are now back up an kickin, this getting older is surely a PITA.
Apart from a couple of things I now seem to be on the glaucoma list. In fact the bloody stuff I get through the mail I could be a life bloody member.
Only a few nights ago was poking about the shed and spotted the old homemade camp oven we (well, father IL) cooked those Galahs in now seems so long ago. He has now been a long time gone, up there with his Greener Empire knocking over tasty little teal and those lightnin fast, zig zag jack snipe!
There always seemed to be a few doubts on the posts that it was a bit of a tall story, but it was perfectly true.
These days a bloke has to be a little more careful what he poaches, but Wonga's, Bronzies still seem to keep ending up in the CO, as do Woodie's and not so often in this area a nice big, plump black duck.
Tonight we had a nice rump of venison cooked in the CO with baked spud, carrott and kumera. A thick port based sauce from the CO scrapings, steamed black beans made for a reasonable Monday night dinner.
Now sitting here with a very nice Stanthorpe port (or 2).
Thanks furph, for your contribution and jog of the old memory.
mikel

mikel wrote on Jan 14^th, 2008 at 8:06pm:

Well thats a bloody good yarn Furph, and as you say that ole Galah will pop up when least expected. this getting older is surely a PITA. mikel

Mike, & the alternative?  

:-?

Fair enuff LK, will suffer the PITA with as much grace as one can muster!
The alternative has no attraction at all.
mikel

Bugger it just spent 10 min writing and I lost it for some reason

Poddy and Mikel
great to have your memories as well and some of the things that you talk about sure bring back memories I can remember Mikel posting a photo of those yabbies you cooked on one of your trips bush and I can recall camping alongside bore drains and catching some for a fresh feed and they were great on fresh damper spread with butter or marge even if it was the tinned butter you could get back then

Poddy camping alongside some of those old earth tanks in the old days brought back memories of having to refill the two 44 gal drums slung under the old Bedford and straining the water through a piece of cotton into the drums
can recall having to scoop up water from table drains to top up in some of those remote areas and mate tea sure tastes better when its not gritty

I( remember cooking rice as a desert and all we did was mix the cooked rice with sugar and Sunshine powdered milk with a little water and still do it sometimes today and the kids seem to love it as well they call it uncs desert remember the 7lb powdered milk that you could get the empty tins made great billys when empty

Every now and then I mix up a damper done the old way and the better half stands there shaking her head wanting to know what we are going to do with all that damper but as soon as the mates and relies know that I have done some (I am sure the cheese and kisses rings them) they all come out of the woodwork and there is never any left at the end
One of the best things that have happened to me of late was 5 or 6 of the younger ones wanted me to show them how to cook in the camp ovens and we sat around while our food was cooking and they all sat and listened to some of the yarns about my younger days in the bush and when we had fed ourselves and it seem most of the district as well 2 of my nieces who were with me gave me a hug and told me they had the best time they had ever had and best thing was they all want to do it again so it seems the bug has bitten another generation (I am sure that it will cost me I guess I will have to buy them their own ovens it will be worth it if they carry on with it)

Rambling again and its your fault Poddy and Mikel
The Furphy

Carry on, just carry on Furph.

:)  :)   :)  :)   :)

I enjoy yarns, I think a lot of us could now be at the top of the tree and if these stories arent told and written down they will be lost forever.  This is a photo of my sister and a friend many years ago.  Ok I admit to photoshopping it and cant find the original.  But we hunted for flounder, sole and blue swimmer crabs at low tide and enjoyed eating our catches.  It has been  many years since these seaweed beds showed as in this picture.  In fact you dont see many local children on the beach at all and yet we lived on it.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1881/suere3.jpg

Aha. Furph.
You mean these tasty little critters eh?
Had another good haul over Christmas, but being local NSW only 1/2 the size of these.
mikel

---

What a great feed  (Ya mongrel) now youve got me tounging for a feed best I can do is prawns just not the same mate just not the same
Furphy

---

G'day Fellas,
Hope you'se all had a good xmas & new year. I've enjoyed catching up on the stories - sounds like a pretty handy whip Soot! It's great to hear that the kids have taken such an interest Furph, that's a bit of a special moment for ya. It wouldn't matter what the cost (buying'em a bit o gear) it'll be something they'll always treasure (I'm sure ya know all that already). It's reward enough, just to see the look on their faces & the enjoyment they get - a simple hug just tops it off doesn't it?
Great looking feed Mikel, I can't eat meself, but it'd have'ta get the drool runn'in in anyone that can, wouldn't it?!!
I remember my Grandfather tell'in me a yarn about when they were drov'in with a mob o sheep in the Ashford region (beyond Delungra) & he was scout'in ahead with his brother, hop'in they might find a bit of adjistment.
They rode up to this  old farm house & called out - no reply.  Ty'in up the 'hayburners', they made there way around the back, but it was soon apparent that there was no one about.
About to depart, they noticed a 'jugged wallaby' hang'in under the tank stand & by the look of it, it was pretty well ready to go.
Grandad's brother, Ronnie, said "Well, we'll  call back & try again tomorra' & if they ask us to stay on fer a feed, at least one of us better check that bloody wallaby's still under tha tank!
They told me that jugged hare or wallaby wasn't uncommon in those days. I've only ever heard him speak of it though. I've never seen it, let alone try it but from all accounts, they were'nt big on the idea either!
Anyway, won't rattle on.
Hooroo for now, [smiley=1.gif]

Jugged hare and wallaby are not an urban myth, my mum used to sew either one up in unbleached calico and hang'em out under the verandah for two weeks. The idea was that all the sinews and gristle would break down, flies came from miles around and the smell.... phew. I was only a littley at the time and don't remember if I ate it or not.
Other items regularly on the menu were sheeps brains, sheeps tongue, lambs fry, ox kidney, mutton birds and shark, there wasn't any waste in our house, we even had boar or is that bore water ....lol

pd

G'there Pensioner.
Glad you like some of these yarns, I get a lot of enjoyment of stories of yesteryear.

Ashford is just up the road from us, Have permission to fish whenever on a place on the Macintyre, funny thing is coming from the east have to cross the Severn to get to it.

The last few years the rivers out that way have been clogged up with weed, couple of weeks ago they were all running a banker so good fishing (and fish spawning) will be the go when she steadies.

Never hung a wallaby, nor any desire to do so. Many years ago when growing up, we had a house rule that if you shoot it, it is eaten. Well I shot a hare, skinned and dressed, was in the old kero fridge for a few days then Mum decided it was time for it to go in the oven. She cooked it to perfection, meat falling off the bone and the home grown bacon melting in the mouth. Spuds, carrots and parsnips done to a turn but the HARE, bloody hell mate, it was RANK.

We grew up in East Gippsland in the '50's on rabbits, ducks, 'roo, pigeons, and all manner of parrots which Mum always cooked to perfection with the plates licked clean. But mention HARE, and she would light up like an old time neon sign.
In later years when recalling the episode, I wondered whether I had left its nuts in or not!

cheers mikel

Yep, you're right on the money PD. I just don't think I could bring meself to partake in it somehow :-/ We were a bit spoilt, looking back. The 'old man' never went much on brains, lambs fry, heart etc (I know, I know, some of you will argue it's the best part ;D)  he always reckoned that if he had to eat that stuff then he kill another one!
So, as a result, us kids didn't have to worry about it either. As I mentioned - a bit spoilt probly! Don't worry, there wasn't much wasted just the same, the offal was always used by someone in the family. By gee's boar'd be pretty rank wouldn't it  ;D Or, like you said, maybe it was the water ;) ;D How'd ya have the mutton birds, in a pie?

Mikel,
Grandad always used to take us kids fish'in on a place called 'Bedwell Downs', knowing you've been about the area, you're likely familiar with the name at least.
I haven't wet a line up there since we were kids I'd say, up on the Macintyre. But as you'd well know - it used to make for some fine fish'in & camp'in.
By hell I had a laugh when ya wondered why that hare mighta been so rank, funny stuff that ;D ;D. I've only tried hare in rissoles (minced the back 1/2 of 'em) & they we're pretty passable.
Talking about you're Mum, some of those women really knew how to cook didn't they? My Nan would be the best cook in our family hands down & that's looking at both sides (my Aunt - Nan's sister, by comparrison, could barely make mashed spuds ;D. She doesn't cook much now, unfortunately, but ya know, she could turn her hand to just about anything & just cook it to perfection, wether it be rabbit, sponges, steamed puddings, whatever. I guess some just seem to be pre disposed to the art. I'd say just about every family can claim a really good cook, somewhere in amongst them - one that stands out. And they worked bloody hard didn't they. Anyone using today's modern appliances would still struggle to go 'round em.
Better move along anyhow. I really enjoy the yarns. I have a bloody good laugh at most ;D. Being from the younger generation, I can't recall first hand, as you fella's can but a lot of those yarns would strike a similar chord with my grandparents, uncles/ aunts etc. Aside from the humour, there are some terrific stories of early living & working. I try & read 'A Fortunate Life' every now & then, by gee's it keeps ya grounded!
Allright, better give it a rest.
Hooroo for now [smiley=1.gif]

G'day P, I worked on Flinders Island in Bass Strait years ago and we'd get the mutton birds fresh, split them open and fry them in their own oil, struth they were rich, go straight through you, I kid you not. We shot wild pig, wild cattle, wallaby and Cape Barron Geese on Sunday's our one day off and bought under sized crayfish (Jinx) for ten bob a sugar bag full off the cray boats.
Flinders is known for its tiger snakes and every year a few mutton bird catchers get bitten after shoving their arms down burrows after the chicks, not a job you'd willingly take on.

pd

G'day PD,
Yeah, I reckon there'd have to be better options than stick'in ya hand down a burra , when it's know snake country :-/ Nearly makes me hair stand up think'in about it - ya could forget the chicks in that burra, they'd be gone for sure!
Never mind the omega 3, a bird a week'd keep ya as regular as you'd want, & anything more'd be downright dangerous by the sounds ;D ;D
What sort of work did ya partake? One thing about the mutton birds, they'd make the fish look pretty good!
Hooroo for now [smiley=1.gif]

Geeez PD, at last you have come up with a bird more delicious, tasty, tender and in all other ways better than a Galah!

In my early, as a young bloke days, we (couple of mates etc.) would take off from our bush work for a few days at Port Albert, little fishing village just E of Wilsons Prom. (Vic.)

Catch monster flathead, spear flounder in the shallows, and (as young blokes in those days did) have a bloody good time.
One thing I do remember very clearly though is one of the blokes buying a "jar" of mutton bird chicks.
The locals used to get them from their nesting burrows off the nearby islands (one called Snake Island, wonder why) dress then preserve in a brine solution, about 4 to a jar.

Not cheap, we were told they were a gourmet bird, a real delicacy, best split then grilled, blah blah.

Well, they may be a gourmet bird, but bloody hell, the oil that came out as they cooked, then the horrible greasy taste of those things was enough to make a bloke puke.

Would sooner eat a water hen, and they aint real flash either!

Did have some good times down there though. Once took 4 girls down to the Promontory for a week, stayed in a cabin, lived on fish and abalone (I know, 4 birds/1bloke sounds greedy), hiked down to the lighthouse and back one day (26mile round trip) discovered quite a few things I didnt know before. :)
Those were the days, eh! 8-)
mikel

Yeah mikel, well your post put a smile on me face, must say I did a bit of growing and learning on Flinders too but we won't go there, (but it was fun.)
You're right about mutton birds (aka Sheerwaters) they're an acquired taste, in Tassie you can buy them salted or in brine, not for those with a touchy tummy.
I worked for a mob doing land clearing for soldier resettlement farms, we chained down miles and miles of Ti-Tree scrub with Caterpillar D9's  which was stacked and burnt then the whole area ploughed with huge tandem ploughs behind D7's. Read years later that the farms weren't viable, totally unsuitable for farming and the strong salt laden winds just blew every thing away. Now they're trying to repair the damage we did without success.
pd

I saw on SBS a thing on King Crabs and in Norway they threw in a cup of sugar as well as salt in a very large (looked like a big drum) container to cook them.  The factory owner even remarked to a prospective buyer that they were the only place that added the sugar.

 ;D yep, good post Mikel. Good bit of humour there. The old days eh......... ;D

Anyone seen a Galah lately.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

No but have seen a few Black Cockatoo's lately.
Seems the galah is stewed
Kev

Just got home from my dad's 81st birthday BBQ at nephews and am amazed at the range of food provided.

As a young fella a BBQ was was unheard of, a couple of snags on a green stick over the fire was as close as we got.

No potato bake , seafood salad, stuffed mushrooms and such.

Many a night we had tinned  baked beans or spaghetti on toast  or bread and drippin' for tea.

Kev

Can remember walking through paddocks picking mushrooms after rain and taking them home and just sitting them on the top of the old Crown stove turning them over and wiping them with a bit of home made butter-can still taste the flavour as I sit here writing this (never seem to be able to find mushys anymore sad how things change.
used to go out to the garden and knock off small spuds had to be careful they werent green could kill you if thet were made me crook a few times but we would just chuck em in the coals and then peel the burnt layer off tasted great

remember cracker night we used to spend hours building a huge bonfire and then letting off our sky rockets and bungers (bloody laws that take that awy from kids) sure there were a few injuries now and then but overall most families were careful and looked after their kids and it was only a few (as it always is) who didnt do the right thing and as usual everyone gets penalised as I sit here I recall hjundreds of harmless things we did being taken off us and look at the money the mongrel drag out of us for the odd fun things we like to do licence to fish etc/

Was thinking about the rip offs that we get hit with I have always paid my rates on time and was allowed to have unlimited water now they reduce your water use to 140 liters a day BUT THEY DONT BLOODY LOWER THE AMOUNT YOU PAY for your water If a business did the same thing people would be up in arms

anyway back to the bush getting up at 4am in winter in the west with frost like snow on the ground running the rabbit traps to get a few bob selling them I actually found my old bunny knife (thats the brand of the penknife we used to gut our rabbits) and was amazed at how its lasted in good condition never used it when we moved east
as wel still got my old 22 that I used to shoot bunnies with must remember to tell a few yarns about spotlighting rabbits one day some of the best fun Iv'e ever had

bloody hell the old galah strikes again

---

Yeah! Furph the good times are behind us mate! Your story reminds me when we used to trap Rabbits near Stanthorpe and the frost would crack beneath our shoes. We used to tie newspaper around us under our cloths to keep warm those westerlies were a cow. The handle bars on our bikes proudly wore the inside out Rabbit skins that we placed our hands in to keep warm. That worked pretty well actually. And many fun hours were spent in Quartpot creek mining tin, I found a gin clear Topaz one day and only recently had it cut into gems to be set into rings etc for the girls in my life. The jeweller said he had never seen such a beautiful specimen and the 12mm stones set into the rings look just like diamonds.

All the best
Skip

Ok, can anyone put a hand on a rabbit trap, take a pic and post it.

I'm saying 'Huh?'

We use snares over here.  Hmm, the part of the country where I'm going might be suitable for that.    

:question

Hey Skip
spent my younger days around Texas and Silverspur so know what you mean about the bloody frost

We had a rabbit trap exactly like this hanging up in our memorbilia collection but on moving house its gone missing.  Sparkeys Uncle lived in hut at Bolga in the National Park and supplemented his food by catching them.  

He always had a pot of stew on his cast iron stove and offered it to one and all.  The weekend trippers always gave him any left over food rather than carry it back up the hill at Stanwell Tops and it all went in the pot. Nothing wasted.  Sparkey was always happy to tell  him we had already eaten  :D

He was a great bloke and everyone loved him.  When he needed to go to the town he would stop at my MIL's and always tried to bring up a lobster or two.  They dived for them just outside his hut.  Probably banned from that these days also.

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/7449/image1cy5.jpg
Sorry about the size of this but its untouched.


Rabbits never lived long where I grew up as they got mixi.

The good ole days.... we got oysters off the rocks (would kill  you these days).  

Cream on top of the milk both what my father got when he milked a neighbours cow and then later at school.  I have never had fresh butter but still think its the best flavour of all.

I also often wonder as I drive through the country on the fact that you never see mushrooms growing.  Maybe its all the chemicals.  We got them here after rain and nanna was said to know the good from the poisonious so we never got sick eating them.

Blackberries - now considered a pest - the only pests were the occasional blackbellies who lived in them.


Backyard fires to cook potatoes in their skins - alfoil wasnt around then.  

We put dough on sticks to make a damper - golden syprup is thankfully still around.

I  have to admit to also cooking and tasting a wichetty grub.

Also I skinned a blue tongue and it looked ok so I had a bite.

Later years a bbq was built that was my mothers pride and joy and she made the best skewers with pineapple and meat.

Strewth it gets cold there Furph,
                                          I lived in Seattle for 3 years and it was nowhere as cold as out that way. I think the winds cut through you and the toes & fingers begin to ache within minutes.

No doubt about you Carolyn, sounds like you'll try anything once. I mean blue tongue lizard can't be good tucker!!

Regards Skip

:D Very young then Skip, older and wiser now, but I hope I still have a sense of adventure till I die.

Went spotlighting one night (found nightime is best light works better) and was driving an old EH station wagon young brother and his mate standing on lowered tailgate and holding onto a full length roof rack
anyway was spotlighting round the edge of a paddock full of young oats and in off the Texas - Yetman road over the border picking up the wildlife coming out of the scrub onto the crop (rabbits roos and pigs etc) It was winter and cold as buggery and as a result Fox pelts were bring big money so when one ran through the light I took off after it with the young brother keeping the spot on him I chased him for a couple of KM's ubtil he ended up stoping in a clear spot we sat there for a while with the fox just sitting there in the light watching us I coulden't understand why it was taking so long to pot the fox and yells out to my brother \'shoot the thing before it takes off" my brother leans down and looks through the station wagon and says "bloody love to bro but we have to wait for tony to catch up with the gun because he fell off about a Kilometre back"  
Had to let a beautiful fox go while I drove back to pick up his mate

---

We were out spotlighting one night in a favourite spot with foxes, rabbits & the odd pig, with a mate who has always been a keen shot gunner, I've got the light & he is shooting when I spotted this rabbit sitting right along side the track we were on only a foot or two from the rear wheel, being as we were standing on the tray of a ute it was almost a "straight down at the ground shot" with a 12ga he could have poked him with the barrel.....& he missed!!!!!
We never let him forget it!! ;D ;D ;D

Same bloke another time, I was using the .22 after rabbits for food. but I had to get in quick before he hit them with the shotty, on at least one rabbit I recall we must have fired (me first) about 1/2 second apart so as most of you may know, when you hit a rabbit clean through the hart they jump about a foot in the air,
So I've made a clean hart shot & whilst the rabbit was in mid air he has driven it back about 3 feet with the shotty, there wasn't too many rabbits made it to the table that night :-[ :-[ :-[

I'm hear'n ya about the cracker night Furph, it was my job (being the eldest kid) to drag up as many fallen trees as I could with the tractor then snig them up on to the biggest bon fires I have ever seen, with several families taking turns to let thier collection off, & the kids running for ages through the paddock chasing the parachutes with the bon fire as the only light.

Mick.

caught the grand daughter yesterday with an old trick grabbed a banana and a sewing needlw and pushed the needle through the skin and rotared it inside the banana effectivly slicing the banana into 20mm pieces inside the skin

said grand daughter could not believe her eyes when she peeled the banana and it was already cut up for her now believes "Poppa" grows special banans for her

nothong wrong with grand kids having those sort of beliefs about old Pop

Furphy

---

Yeah, I tried the old, "Pull the thumb off" illusion, fooled my grandkids for a full thirty seconds and it is only recently that I learned how to do it....  oh well !
My dad used to write our names on eggs with indelible pencil the night before he boiled them for us for breakfast and tell us the chooks had laid them specially for us, had me conned for years.


pd

Furph/PD Copied this from old galah post as am too lazy to retype it

My old uncle smoked LOG CABIN tobacco. The lid of the tin had a log cabin scene on it.
For years when I was young the old bugger, he had me looking for the dog on the lid. I searched in vain for that bloody dog that he had me convinced was there. I was probably about 5 when this started so I searched for that dog for about 5 years after.
Yes the BLOODY DOG was there.  He eventually told me that it was,
"BEHIND THE TREE HAVING A PISS"

Best part of getting on is you can use the old ones on the young generation
"Pass me the left handed screwdriver"
" Go to the hardware shop and ask for a Long Wait"  :D

Kev

Oi Furph; ya see those shielas on the other post turnin the nose up at the good tucker?
I mean why would ya wanta crum ya nuts? Bloody shovel over the brandin fire was good enuff for us hey. Bloody Yuppies   ;D

Nothin wrong with brains crumbed though. Old Unc told me once that eatin brains made you think better and nuts made you perform better.

Think I ate too many brains and not enuff nuts as all I do now 'IS THINK ABOUT IT'   :D ;D

---

Gets like that Sooty

It now takes me all night to do what I used to do all night!

Robbo

Soot
with you on the shovel thing and you are right about the slow down thing guys

I thought it might be because things have to travel so far when you get old
Its not only female upper structure that gravity causes to hang lower I have noticed a decided lowering of a couple of swingers as I put a bit of age on or it could be that my legs are wearing down

I always figgered that those things were pretty safe ther until I sat on them one day :o :o :o :o

Good onya Furph, now I've got a visual!! [smiley=puke.gif]
Maybe you could invent a little support sack for the boys, call it a B-string...might make a fortune.

Robbo

Robbo
stick with it mate you will be amazed what you can learn here

[smiley=beatdeadhorse5.gif]

Boom boom.  :o

Good onya Derek for bringing this one up.  I learned so much here. & laughed lots and lots.

:)  :)  ;)  ;) :-/ :)

Little_Kopit wrote on Nov 7^th, 2008 at 9:08pm:

Good onya Derek for bringing this one up.  I learned so much here. & laughed lots and lots. :)  :)  ;)  ;) :-/ :)

Yes LK.  Brings back many memories.

Derek, It's excellent story telling.  

:)

I,ve just read the whole thread,I laughed so hard at times I was crying.True gems,the lot of you.
cheers George ;)

The times I go back to the Galah often bring a tear to my eye.
I miss you so much Kel me old mate, your posts and our correspondence are sadly missed.
Not a day goes by that I do not think of you.
:'(
Kev

Got to reminiscing about my early days in the shearing shed and shearers cooks.

Food was basic but plentiful, mutton was the staple diet being sheep country.
Smoko was usually mutton sangers and brownie with an the odd occasion scones or piklets.
One day we had a treat Sultana Scones, something different so I hoed in while most refrained  and that night I commented to theBabbling Brook how much I had enjoyed the  Sultana Scones for smoko.

" they weren't tanas youngin, I left tha screen door open when was cookin the meat n tha bloody flies got in so just mixed em in, too much trouble ta pick em out.  :'(
Soot
 

Sooty.
At the time I was "bait laying" there was always a fair bit of shenanigans going on and in the team were three brothers (shearing).

One of the other shearers said to me one day "hey, cooky, you got any channel swimmers, we gotta peg the bro's back a bit".

Well I was smart enough to keep off the vanilla essence, but didn't know anything about "channel swimmers" (sardines).

So on Monday when the order went in, 12 tins of sardines were part of it.
Tuesday smoko, and the trap was set. The "bros" got "channel swimmer and onion sangoes" for smoko.

I think you could guess the rest.
Amazingly, got the vote again the next week!!

They were bloody good times, eh. :)
mikel

I love sardine and onion sangers.(better on toast) :)
cheers George
ps.can be cruel under thr doona though ;D

And they buckle a gun too George!! :'(
mikel

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
:o :o :o :o :o :o
cheers George ;)

mikel wrote on Nov 11^th, 2008 at 5:07pm:

They were bloody good times, eh.

They sure were mikel, we had none of today's pressures and problems.
Love the channel swimmers story. There were some tough men amongst the shearers.
We went to town about every 3 weeks and after the boys had been drunk all weekend and consumed the supply bought back to the shed including all the cooks vanilla and lemon essence along with any metho around.
We new to keep out of the way untill the "orrers" were over and normality returned.
All great blokes and worked hard but on the grog hopeless, 3 weeks pay gone in a weekend to be repeated again and again.
Kev

I can remember the days when the local shop had bottles of metho in the fridge  with the boot polish placed conveniently alongside.
Early morning would see those more fortunate than I { they had money  :D} waiting outside for the doors to open.
As a youngin my only known use for metho was the old metho stove so I asked mum why we didn't keep our stuff in the fridge like the shop did. "We don't need to was the reply",  what she failed to mentioned was that the old man would probably have drunk it if it was cold as he drank everything else including most of his pay packet.

Going back a few years when they first put the purple die in metho I was up at Woolies supermarket with the missus and she wanted some for cleaning. There was none on the shelf and along comes this bloke in a Woolies uniform with manager on his name tag. I pulled him to and asked him if they had any Mentholated Spirit's.
"I will go and check sir"
He gets 10 paces away n I says " Wound mind a cold one if ya have any mate n where da ya keep tha boot polish"
Was about 10 days before the missus spoke to me
True story
Kev

Kev and Merle are an old Islander couple in their 80's with whom I am friendly
Merle buys a bottle of Rum and uses a little bit for the Christmas cake. Merle goes away to visit rellies, Kev drinks rum and carefully refills bottle to exact level with cold tea as he knows Merle will have somehow marked to spot. Next Christmas Merle is making the cake, Kevin is resting
'Kebin' no reply cos he knows
'KEBIN'
'KEBIN'
Gives in 'Yes Merle'
'Does Rum go Mouldy'
'Cause it Friken does, chuck it out , bin there too long, itill ruin ya cake'

Sooty.
In the team I cooked for were 2 brothers, Gus and Slim (platinum, from the way he walked).

They were bits of winoes, and had their own recipe.
"Lucijet", 1/3 rum, 2/3 port in a flagon bottle, "Bush Blush" 1/3 beetroot juice, 2/3 metho in a lemonade bottle.

Slim was the presser, and in those days a few sheds still had manual presses.
Could that bloke work, and at about 6'6'', with hands like bloody dinner plates could go a bit too!

Was a handy mate to have around if things got a little tetchy, like chatting up the barmaid and you didn't know the cove sitting next to you was her old man! :-?
mikel

mikel,
             Have not heard of the "Bush Blush" brew before.

The real "Lucijet" was a pretty potent bit of stuff. As a poison for foxes and pigs it was much better than the commercial variety "SAP".
Arsenic or arsenick as we called it and cyanide were commonly used with the same care we use to butter our bread along with all the drench and dips we used back then.

A days drenching or dipping would see you covered in the product.
With a spray dip you would be in there under the sprays, picking up fallen stock, or prodding more in,  be it sheep or cattle.  The Plunge dips would see you swimming  half the day with the bastards to either get their heads under or save them from drowning.

Always had a beer bottle of Dip in the saddle bag for the flyblown sheep, cut the maggot invested wool off with the pocket knife  and apply the poison .  

You would eat smoko or dinner with maybe a quick splash on the hands if near some water, and now when I think back it is a wonder we are still alive to remember how good the old days were.

Wouldn't workplace health and safety have had a ball back then?
Cheers, Kev

An 8 hour day was unheard of when I was working on stations as a young fella.
Depending weather it was mustering, shearing, crutching, lamb marking, branding, fencing  or whatever we worked from sunrise to sundown with no penalty rates just a fixed weekly wage, mostly 7 days a week.
No smoko breaks just diner when you lit a small fire and boiled the quartpot , added the  amount of tea and sugar to compensate for the water quality [at times you went to the other side of the waterhole to get away from the dead animal in the water] No flouride there  :D
Eat your hot mutton sanger with pickles that had been bouncing around in the saddle bag since dawn. What was food poisoning  back then?
Work till dark then kill a sheep, shearing time was 2 or 3 depending on the cook, hang it then arise well before dawn to cut it up and be ready for work at sunrise.
$15  a week with keep to chase those woolly fly blown bastards who I eventually came to call the ENEMY.
Most of the cattle had never seen a white man so were a little bit wild, ended up trapping what we could and shot the rest. sleeping out under the stars in your swag  
Hard days and I loved every minute of it.
Now days if the ipod or mobile goes flat is a drama , I listened to Neil  Armstrong  land on the moon on a state of the art transistor radio while mustering the enemy.
Jesus I am in a reminiscing mood tonight, miss the good old days
Kev :'(

The worst thing about sheep is the the last one you have to catch in a day is as fresh and as strong as the first one. Not good when there are hundreds on em...... :( :( :(

Fly blown or not, they dont like it when you grag em and there is always one ewe that is as cranky as a hornet on will have a go at ya.... til you tip them over :) What was that stuff called KLM? Looked like milky water.

Stew

Kills lice and maggots  ;)

1971 and a very much younger Derek was just turning 19.  The Vietnam War was well and truly being lost but Australia was still sending 19 year old draftees over that way to die needlessly.

Arrived home from work one day to find that dreaded letter from Her Majesty's Government basically telling me that my time was up and that I would be in the next intake of conscripts to be sent off to Asia.  "Do not leave the country and do not change address and wait for further instructions" is what they told me.  Yes I was being drafted.

19 years old.  To young to vote and to young to drink but old enough to be sacrificed.  Well as fate would have it there was at that time a big push by the people to stop sending our troops away and ultimately good old Gough came into power and it was all stopped.

For many though the draft was a death sentence.  Those who fought the draft drifted around the countryside and a lot ended up in the hinterland surrounding Nimbin in northern New South Wales and a community was formed of drop-outs and hippies as they were called.

It became the marijuana capital of the country and was always in the news.  People my age thought it a great place where there was free love and free drugs for all.

Why all this nostalgia you might ask.

Well today I drifted back up the hills towards Nimbin to take a look and see what had changed since those many years ago. What did I find.

I found the same type of people still there, the drug addicts, the unwashed and the same shops and stalls selling just about the same stuff as in the 70's.  

Did it bring back good memories.  No it didn't.  I felt out of place as people with blank looks on their faces gazed through me.  The sweet sickly never to be forgotten smell of smouldering hashish hang over the town.

As I was wondering along the footpath a car of scruffy young guys and girls (I guess they could have been me many years ago) pulled up alongside me and started to get out of the car.  They were preceded by a cloud of hash smoke and one of them attempted to hug me.  At that stage I looked at my phone and realised I had no mobile coverage so headed for my car and out of there.

I did take a few photos though in the rain and while they have not turned out the best here are a couple for those who have never been there

http://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/Photo/Nimbin/nim1.jpg

http://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/Photo/Nimbin/nim2.jpg

http://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/Photo/Nimbin/nim3.jpg

http://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/Photo/Nimbin/nim4.jpg

Perhaps this is more a Galah thread Derek, I can connect with you on this only in a different enviroment
Kev

sooty wrote on Nov 16^th, 2008 at 7:42pm:

Perhaps this is more a Galah thread Derek, I can connect with you on this only in a different environment Kev

Yep, moved it.

To return and seek the past can sometimes be heartbreaking Derek
Things seem to have changed a bit since we were young and uncaring about the future.
A return to my old fishing and hunting grounds a few years bought tears to my eyes as the cotton farming had cleared every tree and bush for over 300,000 acres.
:'( Kev

I see it all the time in my travels Soot.

The photo below is all that's left of a great bass fishing stream I fished in as a kid.  It's now choked with weed because there are no longer the flows in our rivers because of the cotton farming and other farming taking all the water.

---

It would make a grown man cry wouldn't it
What have our kid's and grand kid's got left to enjoy apart from man made impoundments.
A day on the pristine creek no matter what size was always a pleasure for us
Kev

Ok, what differences are you seeing with the capping of the bore drains?  That's something I've been picked up when I wake up in the night to Oz Radio.

:-/

G'day LK (or is it G'nite!)
I reckon the long term future of the artesian water is in the capping of the well heads.
Artesian water has been drilled for and running "free range" for so many years many property owners (mainly lessees) thought it would go forever.
From my recent understanding, the well head capping, then underground poly. piping to cattle watering spots has been accepted as a very necessary requirement to maintain the resource.
Where we work in W. Qld. during winter, stock are now much easier to find because they have to congregate at a common watering spot instead of drinking anywhere along a "bore drain".
mikel

Somehow missed your question LK, Yes I agree with mikel as to the amount of water wasted.
The open bore drains wind for miles through the country and the evaporation rate alone is immense.
Mustering a 10,000 acre paddock with a drain through the middle was a lot harder than a similar paddock with just a few watering points as the stock had no general watering place.
Kev
 

Thanks guys, what you say makes sense in many ways

Over here we hear how parts of the US are borrowing water from other places.

& there are those who want to be able to buy Canada's water 'in bulk'. That scares the heck out of me.

8-)

There was an interesting interview this morning on ABC RN, a "bore runner" in the NT.
That job, and "windmill expert" have to be amongst the most interesting and diverse jobs in the country.
Away for days or weeks, checking this, that and repairing as required, more than likely the only mate with you the ever faithful dog, it requires a very level headed and resourceful bloke to be successful at this job. :)
Failed stockbrokers should not consider this to be their next career opportunity! :o
mikel

In the past many people thought the "Great Artesian Basin" was an infinite water source, landowners sank bores indiscriminately and just let water run off into the desert to waste. We're a bit better informed nowadays and many bores are being capped and water is being harvested and protected from evaporation.
I read recently where in the future  the rich countries in the world will be those not with oil but with water. You can't drink or irrigate crops with oil.

poddy.

Not wrong there,

Water will become a commodity worth bottling......

Stew.

Stew, some are trying that.  I hope you're joking, but I can't take it as such. It's too serious.

Canada is a water ok country.  There are those who are trying that.  & believe me, I get very active politically, if that gets tried.  I'd even put up $ and sacrifice my trips to Oz and other places.  That's the planet, right there.  

If there is one thing that will save the planet, it's water, some of it Canada's water.  

8-)

LK, it was a bit of a jibe at the people who charge more for a liter of bottled water than what a liter of unleaded fuel is worth.

I agree that we should take it seriously, but find it hard to take things seriously...eg our new government, as one of its first acts, ratified the Kyoto protocol a year ago. This was nothing more that a stunt. No goals have been set or met other than those being met before we signed the magic bit of paper. Next month our government will attend the conference on climate change. They are not announcing anything new there either. Gab fest..... The Govt has stated that it would like to take the lead on climate change but doesnt have the testicular fortitude to do anything about. Pollies are all the same....

That's my eight cents worth (Don't get me started :))

Stew

As many of you know from the news, the Queensland Government is this week introducing fluoride into the water here.

I listen to talk back radio on the ABC during the day and from what is being said, the sales of bottled water and water purifiers is going to be quite big as a lot of people do not want fluoride in their drinking water.

Will be interesting to watch the progress of things in the coming year.

Driving up the Brisbane Valley Highway just north of Esk on Friday and saw a sign advertising a RANCH

My understanding is that this is the Americanisation of our word STATION.

When are they going to leave our Australian culture and history alone.  >:(

Yes, Derek, ranch is a US originated word, also used in Canada, given that larger numbers of cattle grazing folks came up from the south while the official 'use' of Rupert's Land and New Caledonia (all provinces west of Ontario and a bit of it too) was fur trading.

But in fact when I check the dictionary (Canadian) ranch comes from a Spanish word.

When I look up station, origins are middle English.  

Excuse me for asking this, but could the party who put up the 'ranch' sign be wanting tourists with $US?

:-/

Derek wrote on Oct 19^th, 2009 at 12:18pm:

Driving up the Brisbane Valley Highway just north of Esk on Friday and saw a sign advertising a RANCH

And there was the Sonshine Ranch on the Minden Range...  A group of bible thumpers I am advised...

Rastas000 wrote on Oct 20^th, 2009 at 5:36am:

And there was the Sonshine Ranch on the Minden Range...A group of bible thumpers I am advised...

What part of your son did they shine   ;D

Sheep/Cattle Station or Property never a Ranch in my day out in the west
Kev

Had a first hand experience in Galah type cooking over the weekend

Plenty of rocks about for  the chef to choose from, so no problem there  ;D
Back to you all for comments  ::)
Sooty

---

Bet you don't know who the cook was   :)

---

I roasted a chook last week and it turned out pretty ordinary, more broiled than baked. Analysing why, the bride and I agreed that it not been thawed out fully (one day) and still had a lot of moisture inside it. There was a lot of liquid in the bottom of the oven under the trivet which steamed it more than roasted it and I was too busy, read complacent, to keep checking to see how it was going.
Good one Sooty, those look pretty good to me.

pod

Sooty.
To me they look cooked to edible rock perfection! And the corn an excellent complement too.
Mouth watering good.

Just seeing your post under the old heading brought back many memories, particularly of Furphy's yarns.
Still miss the old bugger, always expecting to read a new yarn or poem from him.

Reply No.2 on the thread is a true story. Miss the old FIL too.
Thanks Sooty.
mikel

Looks like one of Jono's shirts in the second photo..... ;D
SBB

Saltbush Bill wrote on Apr 27^th, 2010 at 10:23am:

Looks like one of Jono's shirts in the second photo..... ;D SBB

Spot on mate, we had a bit of a fish ( and a bit of a drink) over the weekend.
Will let Jono tell the fishing story  ::)
Kev

Asked the young fella what he wanted to eat tonight.

His reply was " I would love some of Jono's camp oven chook, that was the best chook I have ever had".

The 100 or so  CO chooks I have cooked and he has eaten in the last 20 years then declaring that was great Dad, pale into insignificance.  :'(

sooty wrote on Apr 28^th, 2010 at 8:23pm:

I would love some of Jono's camp oven chook, that was the best chook I have ever had

Jono cooks 2 chooks,  and Sooty goes from the penthouse to the outhouse..
:-[

Aart

TBF wrote on Apr 28^th, 2010 at 8:27pm:

and Sooty goes from the penthouse to the outhouse..

And feels at home in the Shithouse  ;D

I don't think this old thread should ever die hey Soot.  Sorry I missed you when you were up here but if you have been following the news on immigration you will know my life just aint been my own lately with everything thats going on

Derek wrote on May 1^st, 2010 at 9:37pm:

I don't think this old thread should ever die hey Soot.

Have to keep it alive in memory of an old Droving Mate Derek.
As soon as Jono went looking for a rock to separate the chooks I knew what I had to do. The youngin's were just talking about them and telling a couple of mates how great they were.


Derek wrote on May 1^st, 2010 at 9:37pm:

Sorry I missed you when you were up here

No worries have to keep the Towel Heads out hey  ::)

Streuth ruth...I'm 43 and worked a few traps and lines over the years...A few things to ratify here...

Galah is a very healthy bird to eat as it eats mostly grains and seeds... because of this it has very little fat content and I have found that adding some wombat fat to the oven adds a whole new unique dimension to the overall dish...

Btw talking about wombat fat.....it's the best fat you can ever use to season your oven...once seasoned properly it will never rust again on you and you will find you will only ever have to add a slight amount of oil to cook with it ever again... way better then teflon... and you can kill two birds with the one stone if you get a small one and decide to roast him whole in the oven... not only will you have a tasty meal... you will find you have seasoned the inside of your pot...

wombat fat makes a great remedy also for sandfly, march & horsefly and mosquito bites...throw a bit of fat into the oven or pot, melt it down alongside with a handful of gum leaves and then add it to a 50/50 mixture of metho and kero into a small bottle and keep it handy to sooth the bites and keep them from itching...

Re rabbit traps in NSW I believe its still legal to own them...but not use them..unless there teeth are ground down and are lined with rubber... you can buy modern traps which are rubber lined and aparantly work extremely well....btw if you have a pesky cat about... putting some fish paste on a set trap tongue works very well....

Somewhere here someone was talking about hares... when a young bloke I shot a hare and mum stewed it up... we all sat there at the table eating this hare in silence... because of mums temper we dared not say a thing.... it was the worst rancid thing we ever ate.... later on mum discovered she had cooked the stew with the sink plug in the pot... giving it the rubbery smell and taste... I have enjoyed over the years many tasty roast rabbit and hare dishes...and nothing beats a hare thats been left hanging on a fence for a day or two for yabbie bait...

Enough for now

Yeah, very droll Craig lol but you didn't specify whether to use the common southern tablelands wombat or the hairy nose northern one, could you please be more specific.

My mum often cooked "Jugged Hare", she sewed it up in calico and left it hanging under the verandah for seven days before stewing it, did the same with brush wallabies, an acquired taste which I never acquired although I don't mind a bit of underground mutton.

Years ago I worked land clearing with 'dozers chaining down scrub  and we were never short of feral pigs, wombats or wallabies for the pot, I'm a bit more fussy nowadays, prefer shop bought lamb or pork .
pod

Hi PD... you can use the northern hairy nose wombat, but experience has shown me that because the more common southern tablelands wombat lives in a colder climat hence it has a bigger fat content.

I forgot to add that wombat fat is so useful. It can be used to make soaps and is much better then candles. An old bush trick is to fill a cup with it, with a string to the bottom and light it...it burns clean and throws a much better light then a candle.

I haven't tried jugged wallaby though have eaten kangaroo tail soup...as to feral pigs... if you can get a piglet there is nothing better. Depending on the climate the australian feral pig normally doesnt have much problems with worms..though like all game animals it does pay to cook it right through.  

  I just spent hours reading this entire thread. It's been over 3 years since it saw the top of the board. I reckon it needs a bump.

Pure Gold.


Chris

Yep, it's a ripper thread alright :)

I was sitting in my courier van waiting for a tow truck today when this pops up out of the blue.

Got through the first 5 pages and what a brilliant read.

Will digest the rest when sitting under a tree  :) :)

Recommend for all members to have a read of this thread, as you won't get any better history lesson than right here.

Thanks to all that contributed and has given me a lot more respect for the original members here.

For those who have never seen this thread, grab a glass of something and take some time out to read right through it.  :D

When I noticed this evening that Derek had bumped up the old galah thread, I went straight to the cupboard for a glass and opened a bottle of port.

I often think about that very special member, the late Furphyslinger (Kel)

His contributions brought out the best efforts from the rest of us. There was that objective but always humorous view of things and particularly his way with a rhyme.

I miss the yarns and anecdotes of those days, it was the gravy on the camp oven roasts.

Thanks Derek, I have just spent a very pleasant couple of hours in memory lane.
mikel

Do you know I still enjoy reading through here.

Thanks Derek
reading this has been a lot of fun. I am still wiping away the tear. Have not had a good laugh like that in a long time. :'(
Thanks again. ;D ;D
regards Kevvie (Kev) ;)

Yes Derek, and so do i too  :)
Just realised that 14 years ago, Furphyslinger started that thread on my 69th. birthday......how the time has flown.

Very happy Kev., that you also enjoyed the read. I do miss the interesting yarns that used to develop, maybe the short facebook type responses have much to do with it.
One big advantage of a COG is the sitting around the fire letting the port and yarns flow.
To paraphrase the Cadbury ad. "there's a bloody good yarn in everyone"  8-)