Once I learned to read, I spent my days outside playing with the animals (I include my brother and 2 sisters here) and when inside I read.
Somehow, we were always warm, clean, well fed and happy. I don't know how my mother managed, really, because both she and Dad taught full time, but she came home and cooked on a wood stove and did all the laundry by hand, boiling the clothes and sheets in a big copper kettle. The horse period was a time when my parents entered a "let's-be-self-sufficient" phase, so we had a horse, but no electricity and all our water came from the rain tank.Īs well as the horse and dogs, we had 2 cows (Buttercup and Daisy and one of them always had a calf), a sheep (Woolly,) goats (Billy and Nanny) dozens of ducks, chooks, and a couple of geese, a pet bluetongue lizard and a huge vegie patch.
In case you imagine we were a filthy rich horse-owning family, let me assure you we weren't. I have to say, dogs and horses are great audiences, apart from their tendency to drool occasionally. Family legend has it that I used to spend hours playing in the sand pit, with a dog on either side of me and Rocka the horse leaning over me, his head just touching my shoulder, while I told them stories.
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