Oi, what a weekend!

What a weekend. Three venues over two days. And there was the potential for other activities, but these three were booked first, so this is what we ended up doing.

First stop was a gardening expo at Highfield House Historic Site. We came here, in part for the event, but also to acquire some heirloom tomatoes that came up from Hobart.

First thing I noticed upon arriving was the ruins across the road. Certainly something I wanted to check out before we leave.

Enjoyed looking at the old buildings that hosted the event.

These little rabbits are so well done that our toddler recognised them as such just by looking at this photo.

A train ride... yay! We all got on for a ride Heck, even I almost reverted back to my 89th childhood.

In the background, Highfield House as seen from the front carriage of the train.

 A helicopter flew over that seems to be carrying water. Looks like one of those units they use for fighting fires.

 On the way out I went across the road to check out the ruins. Convict Barracks. Way Cool!

Next stop was the Medieval Fair at Wynyard. Pretty sure it was put on by The Sovereign Military Order of the Knights Templar Tasmania. They operate out of Dragon's Realm in Upper Burnie.

The guy above gave a lecture on sword types then proceeded to give test-cut demonstrations in the use of strait and curved swords

What kid doesn't love a pony and buggy ride? This pony is 23 years old. 

And the arrows fly. Archery was the last thing they had a go at. All in all, they enjoyed it. Certainly they loosed a few successfully.

And last of all, Sunday, was Mount Gnomon Farm. They had the official opening of the next stage of their business, the butchery/restaurant.

Part way through was the opening speech/ceremony.

It was a great day for it. A little overcast, certainly on the mountain, but no hail like there was last year. 

A great weekend ending in midnight thunder and lightning. An all-to-rare event in this neck of the woods. 

FIRE!!!

So begins another interesting round of Ricardo Sierra's Earth Skills Seven Day Challenge. You can do this wherever you are if you want to have a go. This time round the study is fire. I've decided to use a ferrocerium rod on various materials, some natural some not, to see what mileage I can get. Below are the results of day one. I got sons #1, 2 and 3 to have a go as well. The ignitable was cotton wool and Vicks Vaporub. Vaseline is traditional, but I seem to have run out. The Vaporub worked just fine.

Me (above), got the show started.

Son #1 took to it quite well, After everyone else had a go, he came back for another go. Quite a fast little flamer. 

Son #2 had a go next. He got a little frustrated at the beginning, but he got there in the end. He also came back for a second helping.

Son #3 also had a go, but due to his young age and small proportions, he didn't get flame. Points for enthusiasm, though.

This was day one. Over the week I'll try other fire starting, but due to almost running out of bandwith credit and cash, I can't post every day. I'll update after it's all over and let you know how it all went then.