"We need food"..... the dreaded words that I hear usually 2-3 weeks after the last adventure into town to gather supplies. The fresh fruit and salad supplies are long gone usually consumed by all with gusto and glutton within a week of the last adventure. So starts the process of printing out our shopping list adding quantities (21 or 30 long life milks) and planning meals. It sounds simple right but the meals have to be planned so the ones that contain fresh ingredients are eaten first etc.... It's a big process.
Now loads of people in town leave once a week to grocery shop but I love avoiding shopping, one of the best things about living out here is that you just can't pick something up for dinner on your way home (and spend $60 in the process). I love making do with what we have and creating meals out of brown rice, frozen veggies and pastry (try it I guarantee all will eat it). I love the kids learning that when the cereal, muesli bars, biscuits, and juice runs out, it actually does for a while at least. It's teaching us all about appreciating the food when we have it and the pantry doesn't have a revolving door. We always make sure we have milk but the rest is a compromise. Recently we have veered towards wraps instead of bread because its easier to transport and store and over time we are learning more tricks and compromising more.
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| The road out of town, with cows ahead... this is in the dry season |
Beside from the planning the actual trip into town is always eventful. Our first trip in to grocery shop 3 days after we moved here was a huge adventure. We loaded the car with esky's and drove off along the dirt. We dodged numerous pot holes that could double as a wading pool for the kids, dingos, wallaby's and stopped several times for cows meandering across the road. We slowed down for 3 huge wedge tailed eagles feasting in the middle of the road. These majestic birds are amazing and I never tire of seeing them but they are so slow to take flight, their huge wings struggling to life them up and clear the car, so you always get a great view of them. After 2 1/2 hours of this we arrive at the local supermarket.
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| Good Moo....rning Everyone! |
Now to the actual shopping part on this occasion we took our time and visited the local market, the coffee factory and finally shopped as the rain set in. Luckily my husband and I were together on this trip we separated the list and split the kids to the easiest combination of the day (this varies) and shopped. If I am husband less the shop involves filling one trolley, checking out packing the car and returning to fill the second trolley with the cold goods and fruit and veggies usually with at least 2 children tagging along (whaaa not fun at all.)We each filled our trolleys met and went through the checkout, we packed the car ensuring the cold goods made it to esky's and cool bags and headed off. Since then we have learnt a few things, make sure the icecream lays right way up, cooler bags aren't great with ice in them, the milks lids always need to be tightened before travel, double check the list before you leave, make sure the mince and ham makes it to the esky and when you get home unpack the car thoroughly.
On this first shopping trip we took our time and paid no attention to the weather as we leisurely shopped as the rain poured on outside. We drove out of the town with a full car, very proud of ourselves first shop done. Not too far from home we hit the first river crossing.... umm a little running water, straight through no worries round the corner second river crossing eeek a little more but still ok, now we could exhale we were on the homeward stretch the kids were all excited we drove through the water Dad!!! ........until the dreaded 3rd river crossing we had forgotten about. Now we stopped and we watched and waited .......and waited and looked, and waited. Finally another car came past, the same size as ours but a real 4wd rather than our city version. Now its the Country Way to help each other out and the guy stopped and said we'd be right getting through and he would wait for us so we followed him through carefully watching the path that he took to stay on the causeway and eternally thankful we headed home with our food....never had a trip to the supermarket been so eventful, the kids loved it and while my husband and I relished in the excitement of it all we were also facing a huge learning curve... Wow we really are in the country now!!
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| The boot of the car after a recent shopping adventure |
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