Got a few quick snaps on my way to work. Here’s our main garden. It’s a little bit barren now because the Winter crop is waning and we’re getting ready for the Summer setup, but those tomatoes are still producing tons. Got herbs, leafy greens, carrots and strawberries out the front in raised beds. Potato bags on the far left in the pic, and a lemon and orange trees to the left out of pic (not producing yet, only planted in the last year, but blooming like crazy right now).

A bit messy (didn’t have time for photo staging!), but this is where we spend most of our time. I’m standing at the business end with fridge and chest freezer on my left and gas grill on my right. If we could put a bathroom out here, we’d never go inside the house.

Haven’t finished setting up the pig space properly yet, got some pallet wood stacked that I’m planning to turn into a firewood rack and will probably include storage for the smoker when it’s not on. Right now most of my wood is stacked behind that slat wall.

😊

LOVE your space! I really dig your little wood fired grill, looks awesome.

Would love to show you my backyard, but it’s dark here now. Will get some pics tomorrow. ☺️

Haha “before the fire…” So ominous!

There’s no way I could freeze batches of wings, I love having leftover wings in the fridge too much! 😆

I thought it was pretty self evident.

Are you talking about a pellet smoker? They look super nice for stable temps and smoke and just being able to turn it on and ignore it.

I do kinda like pure wood because it’s a good excuse to not have to do anything else for a few hours while I have to baby the fire 😜, but sometimes it would be nice to have something a little more self sufficient.

I always wanted a bullet smoker, but the ongoing cost of charcoal and the meat I’d want to put in it has kept me away. I was able to justify the pig because it’s a fantastic pizza oven or just straight fire pit.

I’ve been making air fryer wings for a while now that are really good and easy as hell. Been saying for too long I should try them in the pig. Finally did last weekend and they blew my mind. In fact, I just decided I have to make them again next weekend. 🤤

Haha yeah, I’m not a total noob! I used to churn out some pretty good stuff on my weber classic back in the states using the snake method, 2 tiers of cooking grills, and creative placement of water baths. The learning curve was more to do with keeping the wood fire both small and stable, which I’ve gotten pretty good at now. 😉

And yeah, I’m definitely getting more creative to work within budget and physical space constraints. My repertoire used to be brisket, pork butt, and ribs, but now I’ve expanded into chicken (holy crap my wings last week!!!) and sausage, to keep myself from spending too much money!

Thanks. In typical style I didn’t get any finished products shots, but it all came together nicely!

My first couple of attempts at slow cooking in the pig were a bit of a disaster, with getting used to a wood fire directly under the smoker, and I thought I might only be able to smoke in it and have to finish off in the oven. But I’ve got the hang of it now and it works really well. And only having 4 10-inch grates keeps me a bit more under control! 😜

Yeah, but both are holding a loaded gun and it doesn’t seem like they understand the consequences of using it.

I recommend checking out Nate Hagens Youtube channel “The Great Simplification.” He’s been working on this for years and his videos are brilliant. Here’s a few good ones I randomly picked as starting points:

How might daily life feel in the next decades? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlkAeQ5xdeQ

Protect the irreversible - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfzVhTWMDM

How to play 5D chess - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPctKcmnTvQ

And his most recent one, 4 things we can’t afford to get wrong - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONtWQjRa0GY

I know recommending videos sucks, who the hell has half an hour to watch a video suggested by an internet stranger? But this guy is the goods in my opinion, he’s worth a listen and I hope at least one person checks him out.

Got some ribs in the pig currently. Feeling brave so I’m going all the way without foil wrap. Going well, they’ve been stalled for a while but I reckon they’re going to start up again any minute. They’d be good to eat now, but they’ll be amazing in an hour. And my daughter made cornbread muffins. ☺️

Dinner tonight will just be plain old grilled chicken and salad wraps. Last night was a different story.

For my birthday my wife did her usual shenanigans.

Tomato, basil and herb tart:

Roasted leek, onion, and goat’s cheese tart:

And the thing de resistance, crinkle pie with her home made tomato sweet chilli jam. She crinkles up sheets of filo in a pan, stuffs slices of brie in the crinkles here and there, then pours egg custard all over, a few dollops of her jam, and bakes it. 🤤

All veggies and herbs grown in our backyard.

Finished off with mint Oreo cheesecake. I’m investigating ways to legally have birthdays more often!

Stay calm everyone, the shareholders will be bailed out by the taxpayers so no rich people will be inconvenienced and the wealth will continue to trickle down as it always has!

Seems like the republican party has no problem whatsoever with neo-nazis.

Pffft, lucky. I expect I’ll die in extreme poverty some time after I age out of work and can’t find another job.

My American wife has been living in Australia for over a decade and since trump’s second term has started telling anyone who asks that she’s from South Canada.

I’m more shocked that this is a headline. All the places around where I am in Coffs Harbour copped the same recently, so I’m surprised 6 in Melbourne is any kind of news.

Yeah, we’d need a fix for that too. We need a whole new system.

Agreed, there’s a great deal of distance between this and that, and realistically it seems unlikely that it would ever be possible. But it sure is nice to imagine, no need or desire to accumulate more than you need in one lifetime, and nobody starting 10 steps ahead or behind.

Just append the words “so far” and you’ll never be wrong!

Inherited wealth is antithetical to an egalitarian society. And people whose lives have been influenced or stand to be influenced by inherited wealth are terrified of egalitarianism.

Take a moment to imagine a world where everybody started from the same point and nobody was able to ride the achievements of their parents or grandparents. We could have a true meritocracy, instead of being ruled by rich people’s spoiled kids.

And when you die, your property goes back to the state to be bought by someone else. If you started and built a company, it goes under democratic control of its employees.

Sounds pretty nice.