Anderson Happenings
Frieda and Sam
This seems a good time to put down some of the happenings that have befallen us and our family. Frieda has now been an Anderson for twice as long as she was a Nolan, or put another way, Frieda + Sam has as many years and had Frieda and Sam when they were married.
The first period of our life was the raising of the family. Most of that took place at 'Karool', a farm between Maryborough and Timor. It is situated on the old gold lead country. They struck gold at a shallow depth along the flat here. So that part of the country was broken up with holes and heaps from the old workings. A lot of the extraction was by the Cianide method. This left biggish heaps of very fine whitish dirt good for nothing except a home for rabbits.
The homestead had originally been a Hotel when the lead was working. In those days it was two stories and a cellar. The cellar was still there but the top story had been removed. The floors and fireplaces were still there. There was semi - detached kitchen and laundry, both long out of use although the stove and copper were still there. We built our kitchen-laundry-dining room into one verandah. The connection between the main verandah and that went round the old kitchen made a bathroom. Eventually it made a comfortable if unusual home.
The land, as you might expect, was variable. The 'lead' paddocks were badly broken. The rest were fairly good, where there wasn't too much stone. Parts were carrying a fair cover of 'Prickly Acacia' and there were patches of Boxthorne. I got rid of most of this aftger a few years. I had to buy an old steel wheel Ronaldson Tippet tractor to handle the Boxthorne. Clover and Rye grass and pretty constant top dressing got it up to fairly good carrying. New yards and sheds helped the look of the place and trees gave it a bit more protection. 'Karool' is an Aboriginal word meaning 'Stoney'. I don't know if it should apply to the country or us. With Frieda's excellent house keeping we managed to enjoy life, in comfort, if not high in style.
How did we live? By today's standards, we might be almost called alternative lifers. Naturally we killed our own meat. We milked a cow, Frieda made butter and some of the best ice-cream you have ever tasted. We had our own eggs and when the time came round to replace the layers, we had a big 'kill up'. The ones going off the lay were killed and dressed, quite a busy afternoon. I can't claim to have us in vegies, but I had a try. Frieda after a time graduated to baking her own bread. For a long time we had what the kids called 'cricket bats'. For some reason rolls were easier to make than a proper loaf. So Frieda made 'long rolls', as long as you could get on the tray. I never noticed that the name made them back at all. A special was 'flap jacks'. We had a Raeburn stove and the cool end of the hot plate was ideal for Flap Jacks. It was a regular when they got home from school 'flap jacks and sloop'. Sloop was separated milk whipped up with Cocoa in the Vitamiser. Then change and outside to run it off. Frieda was a dab hand at making soap. The colour might have looked a bit off, but it cleaned and lasted well.
Killing our own we had a good supply of good quality fat, the main part of soap. On a special occasion for visitors, Frieda would turn on her special chocolate ice cream.
