Sweating

Very hot, dry weather has me indoors for the day again. The mornings are nice enough to put on some jeans, feed and water the animals, water the remaining plants, and do the composting. The rest of the day is spent sweating and trying to get the indoor chores done. 40°C+ (104°F+) weather outside is for the critters; the insects and the reptiles. The poor magpies and choughs seek shade under the veranda, and I have water set out for them. In a blatant waste of water, we spray down the area around the back door, keeping the plants, birds, insects and the solar system slightly cooler. The ants are so thirsty, they take the water immediately, and the bees will come drink off your skin if you spray yourself down first!

It's very difficult to get a good picture of the wasp above, but it's black and white and is dragging a big brown spider into a hole. The spider is paralysed and can't do a thing about it, and will become a meal for the wasp's babies when they hatch. They're amazing, and they always find the biggest spiders that we generally don't see.

Marty and I at the big Murray Cod by the river in Tocumwal, NSW.


Marty and I have lost a bit of weight lately, since starting the all meat diet. That wasn't our aim, but we're not complaining. It's more of a toning than anything, bloating, water weight, that kind of thing. We're both feeling better, no more wondering what made us feel terrible or bloated after a meal. I haven't had any more joint pains and the pain in my sciatic nerve from my lower back down to my legs has calmed down a lot. We have more energy than usual, more often than usual. We're on our way to better health, anyway.

We're both torn between staying here and leaving for the greenery and healing ocean waters of Queensland. On the one hand, this little home on 20 acres is paid for. We can keep sheep and/or cattle if we wanted. We're free to do as we please, for the most part, and we do love it here. It's not an easy decision, and it occupies much of our thoughts.

In the meantime, we will keep working on making this place better, and hopefully Marty will be finished working in town soon, and we can really start to make some progress.

What happened in December?

Marty returned to work this morning, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to catch you all up on the holiday happenings.

It's been a wild December, with my Mum making a big move to Queensland, we did what we could to help out. Since we're only a couple of hours from the home she's now selling, we could get down there and make it look all pretty for prospective buyers.

Then, while Marty had a little time off from work, we spent a week up at Mum's new place, in the sun and sand.

The roadside honey was delicious!

Marty with his feet in the water.

It was lovely up there, so green and the humidity was quite bearable. Actually, we're both glad we took our jumpers with us, because it got a little chilly at night. It made a wonderful change to the weather at home, since it's so hot and dry, there's not much green left. While we were gone, the forecast said 43°C (109.4°F) at home, and I know we're consistently warmer than the forecast ever says. Many plants simply cooked in the heat, despite being irrigated on a timer.

Luckily the chooks fared ok, although somehow a fox (I guess) took our elderly hen, Toupee. It was sad, but thankfully everyone else is ok. The electric fence is usually fox-proof, so it must have been one desperately hungry fox!

Areas of raised dust.

We drove home to be greeted with the usual dusty dry conditions. The photo above was taken north of us, near West Wylong. That's soil, and it seems to have become a new normal. They just call it "areas of raised dust" in the weather forecast. It occurs when the soil is left exposed, around here it's done by plowing (which for some unknown reason, we've seen plenty of this December), or letting stock eat at the same ground for far too long, until there's no cover left. It upsets me, but money comes first in this world, not soil heath, not animal/stock or even human health.

Speaking of human health..

I'm always researching and learning about all kinds of things, and health and food is one of the most important things. I know that you are what you eat, and since Marty came to live in Australia, we've been trying to fix my health with diet. We've tried an elimination diet that my Doctor had us on for 6 years with some good results, but our energy levels were never great, and I still was in pain for too much of my life. We tried Paleo when we moved here to the farm, and the goal was to grow as much food for ourselves as we could. Thinking it was the poor quality food we were eating.. but that left us feeling really terrible, and in order to get more energy, we went back to eating sourdough bread and even started adding lentils and beans to our diet.

Still not satisfied with my health, poor strength or lack of energy, I did some more research and found out about the Carnivore diet. So, after a bit of re-training my brain, to begin to accept that meat is nutrient dense, that we don't need plants after all, and that yes, it really could be that simple.. Marty and I got stuck in.

We've been eating meat for about a month now, and there have been days where we can really feel the benefits of this way of eating. Super energy, super strength (I did the first chin-up of my life!), less anxiety and depression, and no pain anywhere. Other days haven't been so great, and I've had short bouts of fibro pain and on others it feels like we're walking through mud. So, yes, we're still in the transition period, but it seems to get a little better every day. So far, though, this is an improvement on how we were feeling before, so we're sticking to this for a while.

Given the change in diet, our whole perspective on things has changed a bit. It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few months! Right now, I'm less worried about having water in the tanks, because we're not relying on the water to grow any of our own food. As long as we've got enough to wash our hands and water the chooks (and Squeak!) then it's enough. Besides, since when did worrying bring the rain anyway?

Will update again soon. :)