Post by JustinofOz on Apr 26, 2004 18:58:10 GMT -2
I t was about fifteen years ago when I had a farm in the outback of Queensland in some semi-arid country with my lady friend and her six year old boy.
It was a very basic living style that we had chosen, the water came from the roof and a water tank, and there was no such thing as a telephone or electricity.
We had hundreds of various poultry, several dozen goats and two german shepherd dogs.
Cooking was done on a slow combustion stove and mostly the nights were lit by kerosine lamps. The Spaghetti was cooking and the bolognaise sauce was simmering ready for the tomatoes to go in. Storage was a problem, so everything had to be preserved or dried for shelf-life. We used dried tomato flakes which were in a glass jar. Everything had to be in jars because of the persistent mouse plagues in the district.
It was dark and all the kerosine was gone, so the candle was the only light in the kitchen. The problem came when, as one jar looked like any other, I put the jar of tomato flakes into the sauce. Only thing was that it was instant coffee, which jar looked the same as the tomato flakes. The only difference was the lable, and I couldn't read that in the dim candle light.
Six year old Niel took the sauce out, about five litres of it, to put in the bin for burial tomorrow. But he put it in the chook feed bin instead. The chooks never got it. Instead, Woof'n'sniff and Snappy got to it and devoured the whole lot.
Now we all know that coffee will keep us awake, right? But the next day we had a couple of hyperactive dogs. When we realised what had happened we went to town to consult the vet who said it should do the dogs no harm, just keep them awake for a bit longer.
That night and all the next day, and the day after, both dogs, Woof'n'sniff and Snappy, chased unseen things amongst the trees and barked persistently. They jumped at shadows that were not there. They were well and truly halucinating. Between them they scared off all the goats and kept the chooks in the trees for a couple of days.
But they were seeing things that we could not. It had us wondering.
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It was a very basic living style that we had chosen, the water came from the roof and a water tank, and there was no such thing as a telephone or electricity.
We had hundreds of various poultry, several dozen goats and two german shepherd dogs.
Cooking was done on a slow combustion stove and mostly the nights were lit by kerosine lamps. The Spaghetti was cooking and the bolognaise sauce was simmering ready for the tomatoes to go in. Storage was a problem, so everything had to be preserved or dried for shelf-life. We used dried tomato flakes which were in a glass jar. Everything had to be in jars because of the persistent mouse plagues in the district.
It was dark and all the kerosine was gone, so the candle was the only light in the kitchen. The problem came when, as one jar looked like any other, I put the jar of tomato flakes into the sauce. Only thing was that it was instant coffee, which jar looked the same as the tomato flakes. The only difference was the lable, and I couldn't read that in the dim candle light.
Six year old Niel took the sauce out, about five litres of it, to put in the bin for burial tomorrow. But he put it in the chook feed bin instead. The chooks never got it. Instead, Woof'n'sniff and Snappy got to it and devoured the whole lot.
Now we all know that coffee will keep us awake, right? But the next day we had a couple of hyperactive dogs. When we realised what had happened we went to town to consult the vet who said it should do the dogs no harm, just keep them awake for a bit longer.
That night and all the next day, and the day after, both dogs, Woof'n'sniff and Snappy, chased unseen things amongst the trees and barked persistently. They jumped at shadows that were not there. They were well and truly halucinating. Between them they scared off all the goats and kept the chooks in the trees for a couple of days.
But they were seeing things that we could not. It had us wondering.
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i'll keep at it)
