Life at Fangorn – an excerpt from a letter

“Things are good here. Just when I get annoyed with the lack of space and close contact with everybody, we do a big tidy up as a family and things get better. I thought it’d be easier to keep a small space neat and tidy but it’s no different. Toys are everywhere, mostly, and my wardrobe broke, so my clothes were everywhere on the kids’ floor. Monte doesn’t “do dishes” so that is something I have to contend with. Our twin tub went to washing machine heaven so I use the local laundromat (which is great) or go to my generous friends’ houses to do washing and have a cuppa.

“Being a full time mum is pretty cool but I am thinking about getting my papers out to register as a teacher and do relief teaching. I don’t want to have a permanent job until the house is built. I think things would be harder for us all if I was going out to work all the time. Plus, I like being lazy and sitting on my bed doing crochet in the afternoons…

“Georgia and I are baking some muffins in the wood oven. Having a wood stove/oven is certainly different to a normal oven! It is harder to keep the heat consistent but we really like cooking with it. I am looking forward to doing a roast one day! Meat is quite succulent in the wood oven. This weekend we are having our regular dinner party at our house. We have a 2-person table so we won’t be sitting at the table. We’ll sit around in the kitchen area with the kids on the bed watching a dvd and eat in a circle on our laps. We were thinking of doing lasagnes but might have an indonesian night and do nasi and mie gorengs with a choice of toppings…

“Today cousin janice is coming to visit so I have been a bit stressed about getting the cabin ready because I want her to be able to tell the gouldings that yes, the cabin is satisfactory! It is warm and cosy. Did you know that Monte put windows in the bathroom and kids’ room and there is a bathroom door? This happened a while ago now but it made the cabin feel more like a house and less like a shed.

“Matty has just gone down to sleep. He cried but he stayed in bed. he went to childcare for the first time yesterday and he had a ball. He walked in with his lunch box. He put his lunch box on the table for lunch boxes and then started playing. When I came to collect him – nearly 8 hours later – he didn’t want to leave and when I told him we were going home he ran away from me, shaking his head and saying : “no no no!” I am glad he had a good day paying with everything from trucks to prams. He even sat still with the other children at story time! Plus he slept for nearly 90 minutes! It couldn’t better. It’s cheap as chips to send him there too.

“Georgia is back to sucking her thumb and we actually get cross about it. It started happening at the same time she started talking about missing her grandparents. Now she is always asking to ring people from Adelaide. She has friends here. We are good friends with tanya and jamahl, who are from Adelaide also. They have Tao (5) and Kai (3) and Georgia is tao’s girlfriend and Tao is georgia’s best friend. Very cute! The boys are just gorgeous. I love them! Georgia is also friends with Evie who is 2 and the daughter of my friend Tania, who is really lovely also.”

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We are excitedly awaiting a few more developments at Fangorn. We are waiting for a dam to be built. This dam will be fenced with a leccy fence. We are also waiting for our dreadful driveway to be graded and mended, as well as the house site and grounds being cut, levelled and lanscaped. In the next week or so we will have our house plans in to be approved. We’ll probably hire a private dude to do the checking etc so it speeds up the process. It has been a great experience designing our own home and we are confident that we have included everything we want. We are discussing flooring at present.