…and here is part two of my trip to Tasmania! I’ve shared pictures of the community multiple times since I’ve left, mostly with family, but I’m not tired of looking through them yet! Sometimes I wonder if the maxim “a picture is worth a thousand words” would be more appreciated as “a picture is worth a thousand memories”. 🙂
The community garden, a place I worked often while I was there, as viewed from my front porch
I stayed with two other girls in a house while I was there, and some of my “off” time was spent there. All family-oriented occasions were spent with my host family, so in many ways it felt like I was with family even though my own was across the ditch many kilometers away!
My house–unit four
There were four houses in a block (and another one elsewhere). I spent a lot of time with the family that lived where the middle porch is in this picture.
The closer building has a school room at this end, and a bunkhouse on the other end; the further one is storage, I believe.
Many fun days were spent in the kitchen, helping out with various tasks. I got to help with some meal prep, but mostly my time was spent on other odd jobs around the place.
The community’s kitchen, dining, and meeting room (left building).
More storage/bunk houses, another family’s house, and the woodworking shop (on far left).
One of the biggest jobs that needed to be done was garden work. We spent many hours weeding and harvesting food from the garden! Although it was hot, dusty work, and sometimes bull ants marched across our path, I really enjoyed the chance to get my hands in the ground and see fruit from our labors (oh, and eating the fresh strawberries that had been sitting in the sun for a while…you cannot beat that!).
Tying up tomatoes
Another big job that we girls did together was work up nine kilos (over 19 pounds) of garlic. The garlic heads had split apart before they were pulled up, and wet sand got in between each clove, so we had to peel and work up the whole lot. It took three or four afternoons of work to get them all ready to be processed, and we were all a little sick of the job by the time it was finished, but I really enjoyed the time spent working together! Even if it isn’t fun work, doing it together as a group is very enjoyable. Great memories! (By the way, we figured out that if you have dry garlic, the easiest way to peel them is to soak them in hot water first—it really makes the job go faster!)
Part of the kitchen–the “bakery” area
All community meals were served up here
Two of the children who live there—I loved getting to know them! I miss having little ones around, especially the toddler stage. My baby sister is too grown up for that now!
One day we had a couple boxes of mince to repackage. Didn’t take long, but I did manage to get a picture of that! (Why is it that you rarely have your camera on you when you might want to have pictures later?)
“Detention #1 Egg Producers / Kookaburra Heights Chicken Community” — I loved their chook house!
Well, I ended up with a few pictures of the community that didn’t really fit anywhere else, so they were stuck in here. There are so many things I could say about my time there, but perhaps this will satisfy for now. Next up is pictures from a quick trip some girls and I took to Rocky Cape—what a beautiful area!
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