Living simply

Class is in session.....

2012-02-12T07:15:00.009+10:00

When pondering on our goals for this year it also included change. Without the help of DS we needed to really re-think what we could acheive and not. So we thought long and hard on wether we actually wanted to keep sheep. The negative being that they aren't quiet, and frankly I'm getting a bit long in the tooth to be running around them everytime we want to get them in the yard and in order to breed them we need to purchase a ram, more money and they don't come cheap. The positive being they don't crawl through fences, in fact we have never had any problem with them getting out and secondly we really do want to raise our own meat organically. Decisions, decisions so in the end we left it to the powers that be, the universe or God (depending on your veiw point).

The first sign - going through the local classifieds online DH noticed an advert "Give away 2 male border collies 6mths old" long story short he went out to veiw the parents and pups and decided on "Flip" this was just before we were flooded in so had to wait before we could pick him up. DH who used to breed kelpies for working on the farm and sheep dog trails was quite suprised that the owners were giving them away instead of selling them as they are well breed pups.

The second sign - during a Christmas break up party we got talking to another bus driver about dorper and damara sheep. Turns out he breeds them also and gave us plenty of information concerning the breed. At that time we mentioned that we were on the look out for a ram. A couple of months later, out of the blue, he rings up as asked if we would be interested in purchasing a cheap ram as he needed to change bloodlines for his flock. So we became the proud owners of a 3yr old meatmaster ram which was recently introduced to our 5 ewes and he is very happy with his new arrangement.

So for "Flip" school is in and he is learning to become a working dog. DD willingly lets "Prince" her goat participate in the lesson. The fact that he leads makes life for DH a bit easier too. LOL :)

Working towards raising a homemaker ...... first steps

2012-02-05T11:56:00.006+10:00

I believe home schooling doesn't just involve study through books and this has been re-affirmed through many of the blogs that I follow. For example, DD's daily chores teach her animal husbandry skills and agriculture. Recently I've added home economics to the mix and this starts at the grass roots level - the garden.

DD now has the opportunity to cook dinner for everyone once a week, an idea I got from kids and canning jars. To my suprise, she has added her input each week when we do up the menu plan, letting me know what she is going to make. "Pizza" being her favourite at the moment.

So in order to make pizza we needed to make the bases. We just used a 1kg bread making recipe for this. Instead of letting the dough rise for the second time we divided it up, rolled it out, placed it onto trays and baked them for approx 10 minutes each. Once they were cooled we wrapped them up and put them in the freezer. (Another idea I got from a homestead blog I follow)

Making five bases from the mixture we played around with different base thickness, some thick, some thin and some in between.

Pictured above the bases cooling before being wrapped ready for the freezer. The smell of these cooking was a bit too much for DD, we just had to try one for lunch. After carefully chopping up the ingredients for the topping, it was back into the oven.

Wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the finished product as it was eaten quick smart. All in all DD did a pretty good job and one day in the not so distant future, I am hoping she will be able to make her own dough from scratch. Well that is the plan!

In the garden the butternut pumpkins have done very well. These were grown from the seed that we save each year from the longest lasting pumpkins. Thanks to homestead revival posting about the "back to eden" way of gardening, which makes alot of sense, we have also ordered the DVD which was cheaper for us because of the aussie dollar and has taken care of what to get DH for his coming birthday.

Goodbye January

2012-02-01T07:33:00.005+10:00

Wooosh...... and the first month of the year is gone. It has been a time of adjustment and change for us, with our DS leaving the nest, DD starting high school through distance education and I have to admit we are sticklers for our routines and all the rain has certainly played havoc with this.

I am happy however, the school bus is now running again and yesterday I was able to do a little mowing and brush cutting. (Really the place looks as though the owners have moved away if you know what I mean) So todays agenda is "Mowing" I am itching to use the ride on mower now that it has had two new front tyres fitted and DH will be busy slashing, once he gets back. Of course our plans are dependent upon the weather, so here's hoping.

One thing that doesn't seem to mind all the rain is the dragonfruit and we are now eating the first of this seasons fruit.

Keeping in mind our goals for this year we were lucky to come across an advert giving away a roller door, great just what we wanted for the garlic shed. Bit of a bugger we were flooded in but DSIL came to the rescue and collected it for us and as it turned out the people had two to give away so he got them both, yay!! He kept the electric motors and will be fitting them to his doors as we don't need them, so you might say it was a bonus for both families.

As you maybe able to see, I am having problems again with blogger. I can not get spacing between my paragraphs. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be most grateful.........

Staying put ......

2012-01-29T13:02:00.004+10:00

This morning we received a call from our neighbour, they are out of milk and were wondering if we could spare any. They are going no where as you can see from the below picture, trees have fallen across the road and in the creek and where my neighbour is standing the actual road is being washed away, at present there is a washout over half a meter deep.

Darren crossed over up stream where it was safer and met us on the other side. So they will be right for a while. Not bad considering we have now been flooded in since Tuesday. Below is a picture of the same creek crossing - down stream.

I remember this time last year we were flooded in for six weeks and in that time I ran out of matches !!! (yep I've stocked up) DD is feeling the pinch as we are running low on tomato sauce. Not to worry I have plenty I can substitute with. Funny how things work out, "Joyfulhomemaker" just did a posting on her pantry provisions about making tomato sauce and used the same tomato press that we have been eyeing off on ebay and is on our list of must haves.

Our days have pretty much been moving from the house to the garlic shed and back as we busily prepare the garlic for sale. This job is time consuming and tedious but we are close to seeing returns which will make it all worthwhile. At least it is a dry task ..........

It's wet here ..........

2012-01-27T08:51:00.003+10:00

Yesterday we received 75mls of rain in approx 15 minutes. Above is a picture of our driveway which is normally high and dry.

All the dams are overflowing on our place. The creeks are running and we are flooded in again with last nights total rain fall coming in at 135ml and it isn't over yet.

January xmas finish

2012-01-25T19:00:00.004+10:00

Here is a sneek peak of my January finish, this is for my mum who is an avid tea drinker way before they discovered benefits like anti oxidents etc.

I have come to learn two things whilst making this M--R-- (just in case mum is reading this).

1) I spent more time trying to find my sewing stuff than it took to actually make it. As this is the first for the year, I am hoping that by the finish I should be more organized in this area.

2) That it is time to have my eyes checked. I am pretty sure that ones vision shouldn't blurr when doing close work like sewing.

Until the next deadline............ Happy sewing ..............

Creative days .....

2012-01-20T17:18:00.005+10:00

Yesterday it was our youngest does 1st birthday. Feeling the need to celebrate this special day DD wanted to make a gift for "Honey", deciding on a collar, she ventured into her room (never know what hidden gems one will find in there LOL) found a packet of scoobys and started plaiting strands together, when she had three, she then plaited them together like a braid and hot glued it to a collar. I'd say she has been creative and resourceful.

On the farm we are still taking our babysteps and I am hoping that come the end of the month one of these jobs will be completed (stay tuned). All our focus is now on preparing/finishing off the garlic for sale. It is a big task and with the help of our eldest son and family have made a great start. So it's back to the garlic shed for me.

I hope your summer holidays are productive and treating you well ............

Firing up the smoker .......................

2012-01-17T08:04:00.009+10:00

On Saturday we decided that it was high time we used our smoker for the first time. It has been set up for a few months now and for one reason and then another we hadn't used it until now. So the wood was sort and a fire lit.

The day before all the meat is minced together ( 6kg pork shoulder & 1kg beef mince) to this we added garlic (of course) black pepper and the smallest amount of preserve. It is all mixed and then left in the fridge overnight.

Our Polish neighbours came the next morning to help us with the actual sausage making and we got to use our newly acquired mincer. The sausage skins were rinsed off and filled to make sure there weren't any holes, the meat was then made into balls to fit into the mincer hopper. Filling the sausage skins is a two person job, one to operate the mincer and one to handle the actual sausage.

Once all the meat was done the sausage was then placed onto the smoking rack and then placed into the smoker which has been heating while we've been inside making the sausages.

The actual time to smoke polish sausage depends on the quantity of sausage and outside weather, for us we were looking at a time frame of about 3 hrs. During this time the fire is checked periodically.

This is what the sausage looks like when it has been smoking for about an hour and a half.

When the sausage is finished, we then took it inside and washed it to remove any ash etc and then it was wiped with paper towel and left on the bench to cool, of course after everyone had a taste test that is ........ What was left we placed in bags and placed in the freezer. It is a time consuming task but well worth it.

Starting on 2012 goals .......

2012-01-14T13:41:00.005+10:00

After many months the "publish post" button at the bottom of the page is finally working again. For the past few months I had to save as draft and then publish from there. Another added bonus is the spacing between paragraphs are working too, yeahhh! (hope I haven't spoken too soon)

We have broken our 2012 goals right down to baby steps, 15 - 30 minutes at a time, for instance we spend this much time in the garden a day and over a period of time we 'should' reach our goal, in general we have taken the same approach to most things done on the farm. I now have seedlings ready to be planted, the first garden bed for the year. Some of these have been brought and some I have grown from seed.

Our eldest DS and his family are due anytime now and will be spending the better part of the week with us, so thought I'd get a quick blog update in now. What he doesn't know yet is that we have a list of jobs we need a hand with whilst he is here, like moving the clothes line, hehehe.

We are currently averaging 6-7 litres of milk a day from our two milking goats. (Pictured above "Lilly" ready to be milked, this is her second lactation) DH and DD have mastered the art of making yoghurt using the goats milk, so that it doesn't turn out "too" runny, a tablespoon of powered milk is also added. Not only have they been busy making yoghurt but have made a fantastic batch of fetta cheese. Yummmmy! This is way different from the cottage cheese they normally make.

Making time for family...........

2012-01-09T19:04:00.004+10:00

I have one sibling, (a brother 3yrs younger than I) and come from a rural farming background, which included helping mum milk the cow and chopping wood for the fire which kept the house warm during the freezing winters. When we were old enough and it was time to spread our own wings, I embarked on travelling North with our then two horses and now husband. My brother headed for the bright lights and the city............. and that was that.

Until two days ago when he rang to say that he and his family were holidaying in the area and did I want to catch up? So today we bundled into the car and headed to Gin Gin to met my brother, his family and for our DD to meet her Uncle for the first time "ever". It has been 22 years since the last time I saw him and the most remarkable thing for me was how similar we do things. Like taking crazy photos after getting the good ones over with, jinx. The day was full of great memories and for us getting to know his two beautiful young daughters and partner.

We agreed to try and meet up again in about six months time and on the drive home my husband and I both agreed that we needed to make more time for family, and it was great to see him and his timing was lets say "uncanny" and dare I say it needed as we are both still coming to turns with our DS flying the coop.

Goals for 2012

Complete the garlic shed - still a bit to do on this

Build an implement shed - to house farm machinery like the plough

Vegetable Garden - make more productive - lifeline to the kitchen

1 xmas item a month - aim to complete 12 projects

Going West............

2012-01-05T09:36:00.008+10:00

Happy 5th birthday DGS

DD reading away to her pet goat "Prince". (her captive audience)

On the 4th our DS fluttered his wings and travelling with his sister (Beccy) and family headed west. His eldest sister (Mel) has work lined up for him, so they set off and thankfully all arrived safetly if not a bit later than was planned. We did hold a "sending off party" for him and those present duly gave words of wisdom, advice and warnings during the speeches.

I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that my baby has left the nest and instead (in my mind) am thinking of this as a prolonged sleepover or visit, that way I don't seem to cry as much. As to our new year resolutions, well lets just say that without this help they have been scaled down some and his absence can be felt everywhere. Oh gosh here I go again, have you ever tried typing and crying at the same time ?, makes reading a bit hard. Ok I have to go and do something else, channel my attention elsewhere, it seems to be working thus far..................

Will post our goals for 2012 next time.

Happy New Year......

2012-01-01T11:08:00.004+10:00

Yesterday I was thinking back to what New Years Resolutions we had set for 2011 and ended up

re-reading my postings for January. Oh boy, I remember it was wet, the garden did resemble a jungle (I can't believe I actually posted those photos!) and when compiling a "to do list", I actually stressed my DH out trying to cram in 4-5 years work into one causing a few heated discussions.

We did reach middle ground and decided on one major project, the garlic shed, and acouple of smaller ones (to keep me happy). Although the garlic shed is not quite finished, (need to add the windows and a roller door), it is up and at present houses aprox two tonne of garlic, so I'll say that we did in fact acheive our goal for 2011. Yippee !!!!!!!

Although the garden doesn't resemble a jungle as it did this time last year, it isn't as productive as it should or could be and most certainly could do with a good weeding. So while I await my "seedy" headed boys to come round (yeah they did see the New Year in) I'll ponder on New Years Resolutions for 2012, how about you?

Our Christmas........

2011-12-30T15:37:00.007+10:00

To all my friends, new and old in blog land, I hope that your Christmas was everything that you'd hoped for. Christmas is also a time for catching up and our family was very happy to receive an ecard from "Wakako" a wwoofer who stayed with us and we unoffically adopted as a member of the family. Christmas morning was spend hurriedly doing the farm chores, then a quick wash and it was time to open the presents. DD gladly took on the cheif role of handing out the presents and the first one she opened was from Granny Janni (Grandma) and upon discovering her new yoghurt maker, quickly hid it behind her back and told her dearest father to keeps his eyes off it!

The animals weren't left out, they either got a new lead, collars or brush thanks to a shopping trip arranged by DD. This does include the goats and pictured below is "Teddy Bear" being fitted with his Christmas present which is a collar.

The past couple of days have been very humid and hot. Yesterday saw an afternoon storm with plenty of thunder but not much less, I think its building up for another one. We have finished the "Reds" new chook shed. There is a little doorway in which they enter. Inside is their ladder to reach the perch and two new laying boxes. It's a bit hard to see from this picture but there is also a doorway for us to access the shed so that we can clean it out from time to time or catch the chooks if need be. Note the red flap on the side, our user friendly hatch to collect the eggs.

Looking through the hatch you can see the new laying boxes and inside them farm fresh eggs. The first day we collected 5 eggs, not bad considering we only have 6 of this breed of chook.

During the year I have been following the progress of "pins & whiskers" and the one Christmas item a month and have taken the plunge from the sidelines and signed up for next year. Anyone who reads my blog will soon realize that my sewing is very few and very far between so it will also be a personal challenge for me and although I only managed to read 8 books from my goal of 12 it is never-the-less encouraging. Now the question is whether my crafty bestie "highland hen" will step up and also take on the challenge or is she really a chicken??????? What says you chook?

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T16:11:00.008+10:00

What's in the box? This is the first present to arrive in the mail for DD and this year Grandma was more than prepared, there's not one place on this parcel that DD can lift sticky tape and take a sneek peek.

My now traditional Christmas Pudding presents have all been lovingly made, wrapped and posted in readiness for tomorrow.

Our brigade has been very busy organizing a Christmas get together for our community for some time now. The last week has been particular busy as last minute details were sorted, purchases made and a working bee carried out at the local park, our venue for the evening. Yesterday the 23rd was the night our event took place. It rained, not drizzled, not a shower but steady soaking rain, 74 mls worth to be exact, the gazebos and marquees could only do some much and some of us got quite drenched. Pictured, cutting up the pig after cooking on the spit.

Happily the festive spirit remained with those who ventured out (over 50 people) and still a good time was had. Being able to adapt to the situation at hand made the childrens activities all the more fun especially with a captive audience and the most important guest of all (SANTA) was still able to find us.

Preparations have been made for SANTA to visit here tonight, the lights are now on and flickering so that he knows which window to come to........we don't have a chimney and all going well we will spend Christmas day with our DD and her family, that is if we don't get flooded in between now and then.

Merry Christmas ..........

Catching up on loose ends...

2011-12-04T18:15:00.008+10:00

It is still very hot and humid but we have received some good rain about 100ml so far which thankfully put the bushfires in our area out (Thank God). I have tackled, for the first time, selling on ebay, here is the picture I added of our beautiful organically grown garlic. I am, however more apt at buying and have picked up some great Christmas gifts for family members.

Now that the boys are back from the front line so to speak, we are trying to get a few odd jobs finished before Christmas. With the rain and humidity the grass is starting to grow again, amazing really when you think only a week or so ago it was brown and appeared dead. DD up until the holidays has been living a charmed life but alas this has come to an abrupt holt and under much protest in which I am sometimes left thinking to myself it would have been easier and alot less stressful if I just did the job myself, was delegated the job of mowing. After a lecture (I mean safety talk) on how to operate the push mower she was set the task of mowing the garden area. For the record this is the first time ever that she has used a mower and I just HAD to get a photo of this epic event hehehehe........

While DD was busy, I grabbed the brush cutter and started tidying up around the house yard and garden. Our wonderful chooks are laying really well at the moment but something else has also discovered this and at times there are no eggs at all, the culprit being a goanna. Adding to the frustration, the chooks have now worked out how to escape the pen by flying up and walking over the greenhouse. grrrr.......

To tackle this problem a run of netting will be erected to stop our escape artists. Up until now a laying box and perches were set up under the bench in the greenhouse, thus providing shelter from the elements and the chooks body heat during the night keeps seedlings heated in winter, all sounds good in theory and we did give it a go but having the laying box placed where it is makes it too difficult for us to get down on our hands and knees to collect the eggs and secondly the stench is just well, something else...... So an actual chookhouse is being erected and the laying box approriately placed within, you might say it's user friendly for all LOL. A work in progress.....

Summer is here.........

2011-11-30T17:33:00.006+10:00

Make no mistake, summer has arrived! The mercury has really been soaring around these parts, with readings of 34 degrees in the shade. That equates to hot in anyones' language. Just to add a bit of spice to the mixture, old mother nature has thrown in a hand full of humidity to top it off. Apart from running around like a headless chook in the cool of the morning and afternoon, the majority of the day is spent avoiding the blistering sun and swealtering heat. That is if your not fighting a bushfire....................

The strawberries however are thriving so I ventured off into the garden and picked as many as I could before DH raided it yet again and made up a few bottles of strawberry jam. I'm hoping they will last until Christmas where I plan to crack open a jar on Christmas morning (well that's the plan)

Since my last posting the first of our two expectant milking goats kidded. This is Lucy with her first kids which goat girl has named April for the doe and Buddy for the buck. Lily the other doe is due any day now. With an expected influx of milk and the school holidays, I'm anticipating alot of yoghurt and cottage cheese will be made. Pictured below is DD (aka Goat Girl) at her graduation dinner, gosh time sure does fly.

The last two days have been more hectic or should I say kaotic then usual being that the boys have been busy fighting a bushfire in our area. All the weather conditions have boosted it on and unless we get some rain they invision it burning for a while. You wouldn't believe it though, the brigade took possession of a brand new slip-on unit not two days before hand. They say everything happens for a reason.....................................

Harvest time....

2011-11-21T15:37:00.008+10:00

It's time....... time to begin the 2011 garlic harvest at our place. All the flowers have been cut off to allow the nutrients to go back into the bulb, the plants how have two to three dead leaves at the base and the rest are starting to dry off.

The mulch is removed from the pathways so as not to block up the cutter bar as it goes through and cuts of the roots of the plant. DS holding the first garlic of the season. Yippee.......

DH and DS making sure the depth of the cutter bar is ok, periodically DS will pull up a plant to check the roots, too long or too short and the cutter bar will need adjusting. This photo was taken at about 5.00am.

Once this has been done we then go through and pull up the garlic and lay it in bunches on the beds. This is a big job and at times we need an extra set of helping hands. So throughout the year we trade - DH put in a driveway for our neighbour in exchange for her help at harvest time.

When all the bed is finished the garlic is layed on the truck and taken up to the shed where they are topped and tailed and laid onto the drying racks to dry in our new drying shed!!!! Apart from building the shed a few days before harvest we acheived a frantic pace. You see two days ago this truck wasn't even running but the boys burn't the midnight oil and alas it was ready in time. The drying racks that we used last year had gained surface rust so they needed to be painted to prevent the rust from staining the bulbs. This was my task and I can report that after a few practises that brush was flying and a rack could be completed in 10 minutes. On top of this we need to make an additional thirty new racks. Now I did say frantic and by no means am I exagerating!!!!!!!

All the tops (stalks and leaves) and tails (roots) were stacked into a trailer and brought back down the paddock. Now remember earlier the boys picked up a ute load of pony poo? well this is where it comes into play. You see it and the tops and tails and a bit of the dry mulch from the paddock are used to make compost which all going well should be ready to add to the paddock as fertilizer in about a years time. This has a two fold benefit, first we don't have the problem of what to do with all the by product of harvest and second it becomes a low cost food for all the life in the soil.

The harvest took about three days this year. The list of post harvest jobs have started and should make life a bit easier for next year. Have we had time to look and ponder over the fruits of our labour, sit back and take a deep breath maybe? In short the answer is no. We are now presently helping another neighbour harvest his crop and all going well today it should be finished. Then maybe then we can just sit still in which case we will all probably collapse in a big heap.............

10,9,8,7,6,......

2011-11-16T14:45:00.008+10:00

This morning we had to put off our harvest start date because we aren't quite ready although the garlic is bummer.... Since my last post I was wiped out by a 48 hr bug and slept through most of it, good thing for me is that I am now back on track. Other noticeable changes since last time is that things are really drying out our way. The lawn is dead in parts and other parts crunch under your feet when you walk on it. The mercury has started to saw, at lunch time today it was 37 degrees under the back porch, needless to say darn hot when your working with steel and iron.

Putting up the ceiling, very hot work and although they tried to scheduled this part of the building for the cooler times of the day it was still jolly warm work. The difference could be felt as soon as a sheet of iron was added especially when ones head was right next to the roof....

Before the walls could go up, the blower (it actually sucks the hot air from the shed and blows it outside - but "sucker" just doesn't sound right :) had to be installed, so a frame was made and it was lifted into place and given a test run. Once this was done the boys started sheeting the walls and at 9.30pm last night they were still cutting the sheeting/iron for the last wall in the cool. Can't complain about the hours they are putting in......

This morning the last wall was put up, yeah, its looking like a shed!!! Below is an outside view of the "blower" the flashing still needs to be added either end of the shed to stop the rain from coming in however, this is certainly a job for a cooler time of the day.

Next the windows were cut out, these will allow the air to enter the shed and once the ones on the other side are also done, will create an air flow, just right for drying garlic. My job was to paint the raw cut edges with cold gal to stop the iron from rusting. At this point in time we could start using the shed if push came to shove....... ( big deep sigh of relief)

Yep its not finished yet, but its looking mighty good :)

However all plans were put aside when the boys got a call from firecom when we walked in for lunch. DS our 2nd and 3rd Officers responded to the call, DH left 1/2 earlier than usual to clean the bus, something that should have been done a day or so earlier but didn't have time for. So alas that leaves me with enough time to blog and mow my small patch of green lawn that is becoming a tad bit unruly........... DS has just returned and it looks like we could be busy with a wildfire if our current weather condition continues.........just great ............

Life in a pressure cooker ..........

2011-11-11T15:45:00.007+10:00

November is without a doubt our busiest month of the year along with the annual garlic harvest, which we have managed to put back another day or two, this year is shaping up to be the most frantic one yet! This is a brief overview of our week.......

Monday - Girl guides meeting night. Busy programming as will not be able to make it during the harvest and need to ensure all is well. Boys work on shed.

Tuesday - School tuckshop. An all day affair travelling to and from the school on the bus.

Wednesday - Tidy up around the shed building site and in general and take to the rubbish tip. On the way back boys collect a ute load of pony poo. (why, you'll see soon enough) I spent the afternoon in the garden and after mowing planted out potatoes amongst the pumpkin vine.

Thursday - Brigade was lucky enough to receive sponsorship to purchase 4 new drip torches. This involved an evening out to attend the handover meeting. Pictured DH with the great group from our local Bendigo branch.

Our heifer "Molly" also came in season on Thursday so after a few calls, arrangements were made and that afternoon she was artifically inseminated. So all going well come the 1st of August next year she will have a lovely Jersey heifer......... well thats what we are hoping for.....time will tell.

Friday - Boys take a hurried trip to town between bus runs to pick up the materials needed to make more drying racks for the garlic and sheeting to finish the shed. Whilst they were gone I had an appointment with the brush cutter and the fence lines.

So now - Friday afternoon the boys are entertaining a guest under the shade of a tree in the backyard with a coldie and whilst I type this the apple pie I plan to bless my family with is cooking nicely in the oven.

Times a ticking away .......

2011-11-09T07:32:00.008+10:00

Over the weekend grandson Kayne and I spent time harvesting and building up our vegetable seed bank, well that's my view of things, if you asked Kayne he was collecting seeds to take back home for dad's garden. His nimble fingers found the task of splitting open the seed pods a wee bit easier than grandma.

The boys have been spending nearly every daylight hour working on or should I say building the garlic drying shed. Here you can see that the frame for the main shed is up, yeah!

Now it is a matter of levelling out the ground either side of the main frame as we are going to add an awning. Some of this task was done using the tractor and some of it was done using a maddock and elbow grease. All the time being mindful not to hit the water pipe.

A good day spend in the shed weilding brackets on the posts while the cement footings for the awning dry was tedious but the end result was well worth it. Pictured here the awning, the one for the other side will have to wait, the clocks ticking away and the list of jobs to be done is still huge.

lTuesday saw the boys and a neighbour put all the roofing on. Wow what a difference its looking like a shed now. Today they are starting on the ceiling, yep it has to be lined to stop the condensation and alas water dripping on our dry garlic, plus it will have the added benefit of cooling the shed down.

So thats where we're at. DH has been doing a daily early morning check on the garlic plants and feels that we maybe able to postpone the harvest for a day or two. Good thing too because there's still a lot to do..............tick........tock......

The Countdown Begins........

2011-10-31T07:02:00.007+10:00

We are just a few short weeks from harvesting this years garlic crop. Last year we commenced harvesting on the 10th November, and if we hadn't of bothered keeping records then these garlic scapes are heralding the same message......

So as you may imagine getting the drying shed built in time for the harvest has become our number 1 priority. Thus far the main shed footings and rat walls have been poured some 20 bags of cement later. While the cement hardens, DH and DS have been spending 12 hour days in the shed, prefabricating the walls. Pictured here is the first of five being put in place.

We were blessed to have our DDIL and grandchildren visit over the weekend. As with each visit, on top of the childrens list of "to do" are collecting the eggs (at seemingly 10 minute intervals) LOL this being Kaynes' job as he can actually reach the laying box.

and our grandaughters all time favourite ....... drum roll...... visiting the goats. It would seem that "Sunshine"(pictured with the blue collar) has actually taken a real shine to Charlotte and stands still to be patted and kissed. All in all it has been another busy and productive weekend with the added bonus of catching up with family.

Shearing time .........

2011-10-25T15:40:00.006+10:00

Saturday's schedule was a busy one and everyone was up early. On the boys list of "to do" was setting up the form work and pouring the footings for the new garlic shed. This involved gathering all the sand for cementing. No problem but, we need to access the sheep paddock, ok its time to treat them for internal and external parasites anyway so in the yard they go. But alas they really need shearing as you can see. No worries ring a neighbour who has a pair of electric shears and ask to borrow them. (Should mention here that last year we did it with hand shears, not going down that path this time). Neighbour replies "no worries of course you can borrow them, but the shearer is coming tomorrow to do ours @ $10 a head". (send silent pray to heaven, this is definately our lucky day, I mean what are the odds?) Sheep are kept in the yards overnight and the crate is loaded onto the ute in preparation for Sundays shearing.

Sunday lunch the sheep are once again back home, somewhat lighter, in their new paddock.

With that chore out of the way it was time to mix cement and pour the footings. DH, ensuring everything lines up just so before the first pour.

Good things still coming..........

2011-10-20T07:07:00.005+10:00

Last weekend was our Regional Girl Guide Camp and of course it didn't just rain but we had lightening and thunder and a power outage just to keep us on our toes....... It certainly was a learning experience and I for one have come away from the weekend a lot wiser. DD was a gem on camp and didn't complain at all. She really enjoyed the activities although couldn't quite come at eating the worms (lolly snakes covered in cocoa) at the base called "Fear Factor" but did drink the sewerage sludge (don't ask but I think it involved ice cream - I opted out on this one :)

So while the girls were away the boys were busy. We have about four weeks now until garlic harvesting time in which we also need to build our new drying shed. These are the developments that I noticed upon our return from camp. From this pile of steel............

Trusses for the shed were made, all lined up ready to go........

The ground was being ripped up ready to be levelled out in readines for the new shed......

Yep the boys had been busy not only did they acheive all this but had assemble and set up a rainwater tank near the front of the house and had extended the roof on the existing shed to house the fire brigades slip-on unit out of the weather.............

Good things come to those who wait...and wait......

2011-10-13T15:48:00.003+10:00

Thanks for your kind words and encouragement regarding my crafty finish. In the end the plate bags looked just dandy. The girls finished them off with a drawstring top and used puffed paint to add their names and the reverse side was then screen printed with the Guide logo.

OK it would seem that all my efforts put into the "Spring clean/renovations" have not gone unoticed. Pictured here is myself and DS holding up the posts for what is going to be my awning over the steps and laundry. DH purchased the steel at the begining of the year and it has been sitting where it was unloaded all that time, of course I didn't nag (for once!) because I had been waiting for this for moment for ten years, so figured if he had the makings for it, it was going to happen sometime.......hehehe..........no rushing these things. Anyway long story short, it took three solid days but I now have a new awning..............am I happy about this.............yeah.....what do you reckon.......!!!!!LOL. Thoughts of getting drenched going up and down the stairs during another wet Summer are now in the past................Yipppeeeee.........

A Crafty Finish?????

2011-10-07T07:12:00.007+10:00

Our guide unit is getting ready to go on Region camp and the girls need plate bags for this. A plate bag is their bag in which they keep their plate, bowl, cup and cutlery. So I draged out my overlocker, brushing off the dust first and then the trusty sewing machine (less dust because I'd used it for my lounge reno) Lucky for me DD had matched up the materials and no two are alike.

We made 20 in total the girls will finish off the drawstring top and add their names to each bag using puff paints. After visiting "Pins and Whiskers" blog I am now wondering if this would be considered crafty and a finish for the month?????

Caught up in life.......

2011-09-28T10:10:00.005+10:00

Amazingly time has gotten away from me yet again, I say this because I haven't been idle but the actual opposite really and still it got away from me......

Our Rural Fire brigade was a Queensland Finalist in the 2011 Australian Safer Communities Awards. On Friday 16th (DD birthday) we travelled to Brisbane for the presentation (dubbed "The Road Trip") One hundred entries were received for the five sections from various organizations in Queensland and we were awarded the Encouragement Award for our brigade newsletter. (Pictured: me on the left and our brigade Editor Jane on the right)

I became inspired after reading Roses & Creams' blog about Spring and so decided I'm not going to moan about what I can't do but get up off my franny and do what I can........ and so my Spring cleaning or should I say revolution began in earnest. (Many thanks for that post by the way :)

Highland Hen, I am happy to report that after years and I mean years..... I have finally recovered my lounge, looks great. No more trying to hide it from view of visitors and I have purchased the material to make some lovely bright coloured cushions to go with it.........

With my attention now drawn away from the lounge, I seemed to notice that the actual room was in need of a fresh coat of paint (odd I didn't notice this before) so I enlisted the help of DS and we started painting and painting and when the lounge room was finished we move into the hall and then the bathroom and then my bedroom, which at this stage is half finished but the boys are busy fencing now so will I'll have to cool my heels a bit.

Of course the help with the painting came with a price, yes... DS wants to paint his room, no worries matey I thought to myself. Black was not an option, I was firm on this one but any other colour..... in the end he picked out a nice darkish blue and will have white ceiling and trims and lucky for me I had purchased (on special) white sunblock out blinds.

With the boys off fencing some of the chores have fallen to me, so off I trott to fill the sheeps trough only to find a large brown snake sunning himself on the path............ ok so when my heart started beating again I made a mad dash back to the house. DD had just set up my new camera (bless her cotton picking socks), so I grabbed it and went out again to take a photo for evidence. Darn good thing it has a zoom len cause there was no way I was going to get any closer. When I re-told the tale of why I didn't do my task DD was amazed that I stood still long enough to take a photo in the first place!!!!!!

What this actually triggered was the start of my outside spring clean up, yep been spending my time mowing, brush cutting and generally tidying up with the help of DD.

Blogger frustration............

2011-07-11T20:05:00.004+10:00

Some days I think I should just stick to weeding the strawberry bed in the garden......

Just wondering if there is anyone out there that maybe able to help solve a frustrating blogging problem that I'm experiencing??????

I would like to and have tried on numerous occassions to leave a comment on blogs that I follow. So basically what happens is I sign into blogger dashboard, click a cross to a particular blog, get inspired and try and leave a comment, only to be redirected to the blogger sign in page, I do this, click back to where I'm trying to leave a comment, click post comment only to be directed back to the blogger sign in page yet again. I have discovered however, that this only seems to be a problem which I have to choose an ID account. ie Open Id, google, etc.

Please if anyone could shed some light on this problem I would be very grateful.

Winter - It has its purpose.......

2011-06-30T09:03:00.005+10:00

Winter - Not my favourite time of year but it does have its purpose. Now don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy freezing on a cold and frosty morning but the frost is good for the citrus, it sweetens up the fruit which makes them more enjoyable to eat. It kills off the grubs that attack the cabbages, cauliflowers and the like. Lastly the garlic looooves it!!! It needs the cold to be able to set the bulbs.

Its been busy times on the volunteer front as we gear up for the school holidays. Pictured below the brigade had a training burn off here at our place. It was one of those days that if it rained we'd cancel but lets just see what the day brings, luckily only dark rain clouds and the rain did hold off until the evening. It was one of those days that just flowed and everyone got in and had a go as well as enjoying each others company.

We held a bike hike for girl guides break up and pictured on the left is Bibly (responsible one) and myself Dove (not responsible) getting into character prep as native Indians (Juniors), we embark on a journey across unknown lands whilst trying not to cross paths with the bushrangers (Seniors). As you maybe able to see, we have as much fun as the girls.

So now that it is the holidays, DD and myself have been busy homemaking. We've been pottering in the garden, cooking up some great recipes and yesterday I reached the point of no return and started dismantling my lounge with the intention of re-covering it. Now, I have to be honest, after finally finishing the first cushion, I was starting to wonder what I'd really taken on and thoughts of just ditching it and getting a secondhand one were floating into my mind. However after a productive day I spent sometime blog hopping and visiting those I follow and it dawned on me that what we are doing in and around the home is important and does make a difference. So thanks to everyone out there in blog land, your experiences and words of wisdom were just want I needed to hear (or should I say read?)

First Move ......

2011-06-14T09:24:00.005+10:00

It has been mostly fine and cold in our neck of the woods. Although on Saturday it did rain, all day and it was just freezing. Some one must have mentioned to some one above that the brigade had a sheduled training burn off for Saturday, geez what luck!

June must be the month for "family" first it was our eldest DS and his family for the weekend and last weekend my DH's brother and friend called in and stayed on their way back to the Atherton Tablelands. They certainly made the most of the visit too, I think from memory its been about 6 years since the last time they had seen each other.

This is a good thing because not only did we get to see them but prior to their visits we had a "companys coming" clean up and I'd have to admit that the place is looking better for it.

The goats are now ready to move to a new area and its the first time that we'll be moving the portable goat house. First things first though, we cleaned out the trailer and collected all the poop which is now waiting to be put through the mulcher then to the worms it will go. This was a quick and painless job.

Spent our Sunday preparing the next area for them to go into, which thanks to all the rain the fence line required slashing first. No drama except that some areas of the paddock are still a bit water logged and soft and alas the tractor got bogged.

Yep, just a wee bit bogged!

DS to the rescue.

Bouncing back from this little hiccup the electric fence was put up and come early evening the goats were caught and given a worming drench then locked in the trailer to purge overnight. Ok I need to mention here that should anyone be thinking of building a portable animal shelter then add (when constructing) places to hitch or tie your animals to. It all works well when they are trying to get out of the rain and remain dry but when you change their normal routines the pecking order kicks in and we found that the "boss" was being exactly that. We needed to tie them up to prevent injury. Mental note : weld hitching rings to each corner of the trailer before we need to worm them again. Now they are joyfully grazing in their new paddock.

I managed to do my normal back to school cooking which generally consists of smokos for the lunch boxes. DD was pestering me for a slice of the date and walnut cake, with the answer being a firm "no". But whilst I was out helping with the fence, look what happened to the cake...

This is the scene that greeted me on my return........ I have to give her credit for her efforts. On the right bottom of the photo you can see a note, written left hand so that I wouldn't be able to recognize the handwriting.....ummm.......and it reads "Oh my god, this cake is yummy"........ and paying a compliment no less !!!!!

Autumn is over ........

2011-06-05T16:34:00.003+10:00

Winter will hopefully (weather permitting) see us erecting the garlic drying shed, the awning over the back steps of the house and a bit of fencing, well thats the plan. DH has managed to get a woodstove which requires a little TLC so his pet project is to get it working and fitting it out with a hot water system (a step along the path of self reliance) my pet project, dare I mention it?? is to recover our lounge suite. I have never tackled anything like this before, so it will be interesting to say the least LOL.

For the past last week we have been busy building a shed, well actually extending and lining an extisting shed to be precise. Completed on Friday it now houses the rural brigades' fire truck and equipment freeing up our spare room just in time for a visit from our eldest son and family.

The grand kids love the farm, collecting the eggs is done almost on a hourly basis and they know when grandma asks for potatoes to cook for dinner that it doesn't entail a trip to town but actually getting ones hands dirty digging them up. The highlight of this visit was building a bonfire so that they could toast marshmellows. Lucky for us it wasn't as cold as it has been. A fitting end to a very busy weekend.

Farm Project - part 2

2011-05-20T07:51:00.010+10:00

Well no guesses as to what this farm project is, so here are a few more clues for you. Add to the recipe some sheet metal, brushable tar, a few screws and some wire.......

Above - this project requires a slatted floor....

Below - what it is being built for.....

Can you guess now???

Tad Dah.... A portable goat house.

Its built like a meccano set, and can be removed leaving the trailer and crate free to use if need be. The floor is slatted and has been painted with sump oil to preserve the hardwood timber. The trailer floor and sides have been painted also with brushable tar. So basically the goats aren't sleeping in their manure and we can collect the droppings for our worm farm (no waste), the tailgate has been cut out so that the liquid (wee) can drain off. When we want to move the goats to a new area we simply put the ramp in the trailer and just hook onto it.

Ok so its not quite finished, still requires mesh to fill in the gable top and on the draw bar will be added a tank to collect the rain water which will be caught from the guttering so that we can set up a water trough irrespective of what paddock they are in.

The portable goat house can house 4 goats comforably, so hence my milking goat herd limit. "Lilly" I am happy to report has regained her sight. All the goats are looking and feeling good and recovering well from their terrible bout of illness.

Farm Project - Part 1

2011-05-12T08:40:00.005+10:00

Ok, you know its cold when you open the fridge and it feels warm........LOL. Yep the mercury has certainly dropped. Tuesday night I was moaning about it being cold enough to frost in which my DH told me to toughen up. Well the next day the sweet potatoes were showing signs of frost burn.. so there!.. but there was no mistaken this morning, it was a good frost. brrr...... The upside to frosty mornings is that the days are normally beautiful.

Our latest project.........

Take one secondhand chicken cage - scored from a friend that was looking to get rid of it. Now add to that a trailer that DH got from the recycle centre for the sum of $20. (I should mention that it didn't look like it does now, in fact the floor and sides were rusted completely but DH fixed it up, he is handy!) Add to the mix some secondhand hardwood tomato stakes at 50 cents each.

What do you get??? These are the ingredients for our latest project. Any guesses?????

Out of hibernation.......

2011-05-07T14:34:00.006+10:00

I was pondering on what to give my DM for Mother's Day and remembered that I had started this stitchery some "years" before and never finished it off for one reason or another. So last Sunday I dragged out my sewing machine from hibernation, dusted no less than an inch of dust from the cover and after plugging it into power it whirred to life (OMG it actually still works!!)

First I finished stitching the flower pot - then cut the border strips with my rotary cutter which I noticed has grown surface rust (gosh, has it really been that long??) and then it was a matter of sewing the whole thing together - straight stitch and a bit of overlocking - nothing complicated.

I have to confess that working out measurements did not come as easy as it once had and even thought my machine has an automatic button hole stitch, I couldn't remember how to use it! The thought of searching through the manual to find instructions was not an option as this was

a "day project" so I ended up securing the back pillow insert with velcro.

I hope she likes it....... tomorrow will tell!

Miss Molly......

2011-05-04T08:19:00.005+10:00

As promised here is a picture of "Miss Molly" our jersey heifer who is working for us as a lawn mower at the moment, note the length of the grass behind the wire. We can't keep on top of all the slashing so have been using the animals to do the job by electric fencing small areas for them and once all the grass has been eaten move them onto another area.

A while ago I was talking about moon planting. To our suprise, eldest DS and DIL got us a magazine subscription as a combined present and alas it has exactly what I was looking for - a moon planting guide. Needless to say we look forward to getting the mail at the beginning

of the month, thanks guys.

Speaking of gardens, there is still quite a bit of work to be done in ours...... so I best get to it!

April in Review........

2011-04-30T09:01:00.008+10:00

After the garlic planting the next most anticpated event is

The local annual agricultural show

Entries in the produce section were up and DS had a great day.

DD celebrated her birthday, in which she had a caramel cake, this one was to take to school.

Sweet corn with melted butter, yum (we beat the birds to it!)

Rosella picking (on going) our fingers are so sore from the little prickles, note the band aids!

But alas DS's seed bank is growing.....

April - a very wet month this year. Seems like it has rained nearly every afternoon.

We were flooded in over Easter.

The evenings are cooling down and a blanket is needed at night - it is now too cold for mozzies.

Experiencing a mice plague.

On a sad note - We lost two milking does to intestinal worms.

After drenching, the two remaining older does went blind.

This was/is heart renching and has left us scratching our heads and asking

"Why do we keep goats again?"

April.........time to plant garlic

2011-04-29T07:17:00.011+10:00

The cooling off in the weather signaled its time to plant the garlic. The actual soil preparation for the planting site started 12 months before;

* Green manure crop

* Applying BD 500

* Making compost

Just before planting the soil was tested and lacking elements were added, beds were formed up, trickle laid. Then we started planting, this was made a bit easier with the help of our neighbours and in turn we will help them when needed. The wet weather prior to planting gave us the opportunity to break up and grade the garlic seed, all 480kgs of it!

Here DH is seeding the beds with worm eggs and is then covered with mulch. This is done to encourage the life in the soil. "Healthy soil = Healthy plants = Healthy produce" It would be fair to say that we grow our garlic more bio dynamically than organically.

Spreading the mulch on the plot to supress weeds, normally done with me driving the tractor and the boys actually spreading the mulch. Last year we noticed quite alot of worm life as they were composting it. A good sign.

Nearly half way - its a big job and is done over a few days although this will extend as we increase plantings. DS is on the other side of the camera this time, so didn't get a picture of him but the genetic farming gene did not skip him and at odd times you will see him grab a handful of dirt and smell it (something about the smell and wether its acidic or alkaline..)

The neighbouring paddock is locked off from the cattle 12 months before hand to let it grow. About a week before planting DH slashes it and then rakes it into windrows. It is later collected and used to mulch the garlic. (now I did mention that each member of the family has their "own" pitch fork, I wasn't joking)

April or Autumn really is a busy time, garlic is in and growing but now we are busy harvesting DS's Rosella crop.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T09:28:00.003+10:00

Happy Easter Everyone!!!! May it be happy and safe doing what you love doing...........

Autumn is my favourite time of year (betcha heard that before LOL) it is also the start of busy times, so far we have planted this years garlic crop, celebrated DD 12th Birthday and have commenced harvesting DS's Rosella crop and if I can manage it, the lawns will be mowed!

Here is a picture taken of the young corn in the garden. It is now almost ready to eat and it will be a race between ourselves and the birds to see who gets them first.

Something Special.........

2011-04-13T13:09:00.003+10:00

Not so long back, the Area Director contact me, the Brigade Secretary and asked if I could give him some back ground information about our Brigade Editor as he wanted to nominate her for an Australia Day Medallion. I was estatic for her and more than happy to help out, but it was oh so hard to keep it "mum".

About six weeks later I received a letter informing me that I'd been nominated for a Medallion. All correspondence is normally sent to the Secretary irrespective of whom it is for, so I just added the letter to my pile of incoming correspondence thinking that it was an adminstrative error and the name should have been that of the Editor.

Two weeks later a very happy and excited Editor rings to say she has received a letter saying that she has been nominted for a medallion, of course I just had to fess up at this point, she thought I'd nominated her. It wasn't until she read out what she was actually nominated for that the penny dropped. Yep, this is where our letters differed. Holy Crow! It is me!!! I had been nominated also!!!!!!!

We both received invitations to attend the presentation which took place at Gympie but were unable to attend due to all the flooding (of all the times to be flooded in!!) Anyway recently we were presented with our Australia Day Acheivement Medallions.

It is nice to know that someone is watching and noting all the effort that goes into what we are doing. I was awarded this "For dedicated commitment in logistic support and brigade management".

Am I humbled, estatic, shocked, happy and excited about it??? You betch ya !!!!!!!!!

Bookfair............

2011-03-30T08:25:00.004+10:00

At DD's school this whole week is bookfair week. Yesterday was dress up as your favourite book character. Pictured here is DD dressed as "Ivy" from the book "My sister the Vampire".

What do you think? Can you see a likeness?

New Heifer.........

2011-03-15T10:21:00.004+10:00

My goodness time gets away. This is just a quick post to let everyone know that we are still here.

Its raining again, just like at Christmas time and once again the bus has been cut off due to flooding. So lucky for me DD received book club just the other week so is spending her time reading.

As mentioned in a previous post our thoughts of getting a house cow grew and last weekend we took possesion of a 9 month old jersey heifer. She is at present kept in the cattle yards where she can get out of the weather and we can start getting her used to us. Her name is "Miss Molly" and she has a great nature. I will post a picture as soon as it stops raining but at this rate maybe I should consider investing in a water proof camera hummm......

The news about Japan is devastating and we have a few close friends who live over there that we made while they were wwoofing here at our farm. Our thoughts are with you and your families at this time.

With Autumn now here it will soon be time to pick up our new buck for the breeding season. In readiness we have planned out new paddocks for the goats to rotate to as a measure against worm control. When we first fenced the farm it was for cattle not goats and its time we got things organized before the pitter patter of little hooves. All the materials have been purchased just need it to stop raining so we can start fencing.

Being trapped inside once again I think we'll finally finish setting up our computer and email addresses, yuck, but it has to be done.

Organic Garlic

2011-03-02T06:53:00.006+10:00

During the past couple of weeks we have been very busy grading our garlic in preparedness for sale. It has been a very large job hindered by our hot and humid weather. I have been given the task making posters to attached to the display boxes. Pictured below is what I have come up with minus the wording.

It was a bit difficult to try and fit a whole year of photos showing the different stages of the garlic cycle onto one page but hopefully you (and potentially our customers) will be able to make sense of it.

With planting for this years crop only a month away the boys are spending more time than ever down the paddock making sure the plot will be ready in time. They turned the compost for the last time on the weekend, we now have 8 tonnes of quality compost that needs adding to the plot and then turning in.

Of course like anything, just when your needed to lend a hand at home you find yourself tied up with volunteer committments. Last weekend saw us girls attend church for "Thinking Day" and this Sunday we will be doing our bit for "Clean Up Australia Day".

I am hoping that somewhere in all our plans we can fit in tree planting. We purchased two different varities of advocado tree as our original one died this summer because of all the rain. Our tree came about because DH ate an advocado and like anything else the food scrapes went to the chooks, suprisingly this seed started to go so DS potted it up and when it got large enough planted it out. Five years later they started munching on home grown advocadoes. So here is hoping that these trees are as fruitful, that is if we ever get them in the ground!

Un-welcome guest

2011-02-15T10:10:00.002+10:00

After another busy day the boys were relaxing and watching the NRL game of footy on tv, we girls sort the comfort of our beds and were just reaching the sound sleep range when we were startled awake by the very vicious growl of our dog.

This isn't normal behaviour from our placid pet, but he continuted on sounding very mean and agressive. The boys raced out to investigate and discovered just below our back steps, a very large black snake. A bit too close to home for my liking and the dogs it would seem. It was quickly short shifted. (Mental note to self: always turn the outside light on before desending the stairs during the night)

With the commencement of school so do the other organizations that we are involved with. As I mentioned before I am the secretary of our local rural fire brigade and pictured here are a few of us testing out the new knapsacks during our regular training day at our local park. As this is a family affair, DD also comes along and if you have a really good look you will be able to find her in this picture as well. We normally end the session with a sausage sizzle and it is great to just sit and relax and talk with the neighbours, particulary so after our enforced isolation due to the flooding. At times we couldn't get past our cattle yards little lone down the road.

Girl Guides has also commenced much to the enjoyment of DD. Unfortuneately our regular leader is too busy to continue and so this has brought about a few changes. One major one being that I am no longer a parent helper but now an actual leader (geez what have I done!) So we have been busy organizing programmes for the nights we meet. The girls themselves are also very enthusiastic and have been organizing their own "day out". It was great to see all of them have an imput into their forthcoming event.

Since my last posting and after much frustration we took our old computer in yet again to be fixed (upgrade some parts etc) only to be told it was too old and the parts we wanted were no longer available. So long story short, I left the shop with a new computer and a much lighter wallet. We are still getting used to the new programme (windows 7) and because we've been busy on the farm haven't had the time to finish setting things up but alas at least it works when you turn it on!! LOL

Collecting mulch has been our main focus and I'm happy to say all the trees in the backyard and the garden have now been mulched. The seeds that I planted a little while ago have now been planted out into the garden. Hopefully we will soon have zucchini and cucumber to add to the menu. All going well............

A hot one......

2011-02-06T10:00:00.008+10:00

Since my last post we haven't had that much rain, a few showers here and there and fortuneatly cyclone "Yasi" missed us but we've been enduring a heatwave, the humidy has been unbelieveably high. Just to sit still in the cool of the house has one dripping in sweat.

But alas planting time waits for no one, and Saturday saw us planting potatoes. Only one row this time. I've enough pototaes stored away to last us until this crop is ready to harvest, well at least I think I do!

We spent sometime sorting through potatoes from the last harvested and selected enough good seed pototaes for planting out.

The boys went through and using their "improved" chipping hoes, made a furrow for the pototoes which I placed and spaced behind them.

Once this was done, DS went ahead and put a bag of organic poultry pellets in the furrow thus placing the fertilizer in the root zone.

Then it was just a matter of covering the pototoes over again. Sounds simple enough, however during the day it was either outrageously humid or showering which cooled it down for a little while until the sun broke through again. In fact it was so hot that after showering the sun would come out an actually steam the rain that had just fallen. The paddock was actually steaming!

The evening brought with it a full on thunderstorm, (something had to give) lightening, thunder, good soaking rain and with it a repreive from the heat. Thank God.

Racing the weather.......

2011-02-02T14:40:00.006+10:00

Fearing a drenching and not being able to get onto the paddock and the fact that we are in the right phase of the moon, today was a race to get the fertilizing done on this years garlic block. The thunder clouds have been gathering the past couple of days but are looking quite threatening and the spiking humidity is a dead give away that we are in for it.

Now when I say fertilizer, I'm not talking chemical based. We practise fertility farming, meaning we feed the soil which in turn feeds the plant. This morning it was I whom stirred the brew, five minutes one way creating a vortex, then five the other and so on for an hour. BD 500 is what we are using which is made from cow manure and horns which have been buried in the earth for a period of time.

I am sure to anybody looking on that I would have resembled a witch standing over her cauldron stirring her magic brew! This reminds me that I have to tell you about this great book that I'm currently reading (but another time!)

Once the brew was finished, it was diluted in rain water and placed in the spray tank ready for spraying out onto the paddock. Pictured above is the boom spray my DH made after nearly falling over backwards at the cost of purchasing one. The trailer is also his handy work, made from the tray of an old ute and the wheels he got from a lawn mower that had died a natural death all of which do the job just nicely.

Applying the fertilizer, DS is going ahead while DH lightly disc ploughs the cow pea straight after, only just turning the soil thus allowing the fertilizer to work above and just below the surface of the soil. The cow pea is looking very healthy and has been slashed twice already leaving the cut tops to mulch down on the paddock.

The round bales will be used to mulch the garlic when its planted. It is our aim to be able to make these ourselves as we have the area and know how but "Rome wasn't built in a day" as they say and after having just finished collecting 20 ute loads of mulch for the Rosellas alone my shoulders are aching at the thought of it! LOL

New Arrivals......

2011-01-31T08:35:00.009+10:00

It's been a time for "arrivals" on the farm. Firstly let me introduce you to this little darling. Her name is "Honey" (the one on the left that is!) It wasn't in our plans to keep this little doe but she is so loveable and of course goat girl has already started training her, what can I say, our hands are now tied.

On Sunday the boys went and picked up our new damara ram "Finnic", this is his registered name but I reckon we'll end up calling him "Baa-ram-u". He is 4 months old but should be ready to work come breeding season. After being wormed out and kept in solitary over night he is now getting acquianted with the "girls". We are aiming to build the flock up to 12 ewes, this being a longer term goal.

Another arrival, not of the flesh and blood type though, was the new steel for the garlic shed. Woohoo! I reckon the driver of the truck got as big a welcome as Santa Clause LOL

Overseasing the unloading are DH and DS looking on like proud parents.

Here is a before picture of the actual shed site. Yeah, there's plenty of work ahead!

These are some of our "New Years Resolutions" or goals and its happy I am that we are working towards them in and amongst the normal day-to-day and season-to-season things that need doing on the farm, works in progress you might say LOL

Collect mulch while the sun shines.....

2011-01-27T07:56:00.001+10:00

Look what was waiting for us in the mail the other day when we ventured into town! I have been stealing glances, but with the good weather and a mountain of work to be done outside it will be night time reading for me LOL

"Make hay while the sun shines" well in this case "collect mulch while the sun shines" and thats exactly what we've been doing. Such a valuable resource and even better for us with all the rain that we are able to collect it on farm. Everything is growing like mad, DH had to slash a track just so we could see to where we were going.

So DS and I started pitch forking all the mulch onto the "old girl" (the pattern for the next few weeks) This mulch is ear marked for the path ways of DS Rosella crop to supress the weeds.

He recycled the mulch from the garlic crop to use on top of the actual beds but once the pathways are done these also will need to be done again before the plants become too big.

Council have been busy working on our road making it passable not only for 4wd's but the school bus. One section of the road is still closed but they are working on it as I type this. Today we picked up the bus in readiness for school tomorrow. I know there will be a few happy parents who now will not need to make the trip to school twice a day.

Fessing up......

2011-01-23T20:07:00.000+10:00

I have spent too many hours researching my latest fad "planting by the moon" since my last posting. Finally got my head around the wanning and waxing and what to plant only to discover that the constallations also play a major role, lining up the moon and stars at this point in time is a far beyond me. Now I have to confess that when I mentioned what I was embarking on to my DH he said that all I needed was here, written in the latest Biodynamic Farming magazine. I look a glance and promptly told him no thats not it, what I'm looking for is when the best time to plant, leafty crops, root crops and weed etc. Well I have now come full circle and would you believe the article that he draw to my attention was in fact exactly what I was wanting, I now know this after all the research I've done in the meantime...... geez..... So I have duly planted my first lot of seeds and will in future use the guide provided in the magazine.

All the energy I have spent in the garden has not gone unnoticed and to my surprise DH and DS without any prompting (translated...."nagging") from me were busy Saturday morning in the garden laying pavers that they'd made. DH feels that we need a nice area to sit, have a cuppa and appreciate what we have and have done. Just sit back and relax, well I'm all for it!

With school starting on Monday and thanks to our DS for lending us his ute (our van wouldn't get far on our boggy and washed out roads at the moment) we made a mad dash for Bundy to get school stuff, new shoes and the like. I had hoped to pick up some seedlings to kick start the garden but alas there weren't any, so I'll take it as a sign to be patient. DH, however ordered all the steel for our new garlic shed, yay!!!

It was all good until the storm clouds gathered not long after we'd finished lunch. It was then a race to see if we would make it home before the creeks swelled and we'd be cut off. We were hurriedly fuelling up when a strange noise came from the inside of the ute, once, twice, three times. We had no clue what it was and began searching frantically to find the source of the noise much to the amusement of the people in the vehicle opposite us. Red faced, we located the offending device, DS's mobil phone!!! He was double checking to see which way we were coming home because he had already measured an inch of rain in the past half hour. I can tell you it was a pretty silent trip home, the absence of traffic was deafening and as we reached each creek crossing everyone was holding their breath. It wasn't until we turned into our drive that we gave a collective sigh of relief, we made it!

A glorious and productive weekend.......

2011-01-17T07:37:00.000+10:00

With the absence of rain and wonderful sunshine we managed to get quite alot done during the course of the weekend, yay to be outside again! Look what I found flowering in the garden, the dragonfruit. The bees were very active pollinating the flower but I think the frog is a bit confused.....

Being a person a tad bit afraid of snakes, I like to keep the backyard, garden and greenhouse in reasonable condition, at least I'll be able to see if a snake is there or not. With DH busy slashing the green manure crop and blading under the potatoes and DS away with his brother, it became blindingly obvious that this chore would fall in my lap. I was given a crash course in how to use the ride-on-mower (generally I use the push mower but takes way too long) after this it was another course in operating the brushcutter (my arms are still aching!!) of course these jobs were juggled between what needed to be done in the paddock first but alas I know now that I don't need to rely on somebody else to do it! Very enpowering ;)

The last row of potatoes have now been harvested and we have prepared another row about 45 meters long for our next crop with the fresh potatoes stored away ready for use. DS pumpkin seeds have all pushed their way up and are looking very healthy. After conquering the greenhouse on Sunday we are ready to start setting seeds again for the garden. With this in mind I did some researching on the moon phases and when to plant/seed what. I know it works especially when taking cuttings of the lavender. I have modified our calendar accordingly, I figure we are starting from scratch so why not give it ago. Yet another experiment, I'll keep you posted.

We will attempt to journey into town tomorrow, fingers crossed that the road is passable. We haven't had mail since 6th and I'm sweating on getting our new books on cheese making and building a smoke house along with getting a few supplies. Wish us luck!!

Rain or Shine.............

2011-01-10T10:02:00.000+10:00

The weather pattern seems to be a few patches of sunshine then showers which alternate throughout the day. With so many jobs needing attention we have come up with this system. 1st of all forget about actually finishing a job in one go, just doesn't happen. So when the sun is out the boys turn the compost, as you can see from the top photo. The crop to the right is DS Rosella crop and on the left the green manure crop of cow pea which will be turned in before planting next seasons garlic.

When its raining, we all make a bee line to the shed and husk the garlic, getting it ready for sale or break up the bulbs ready for planting. With all the moisture around it has taken a lot longer to dry the garlic. When not doing this we are tackling the frustrating task of sorting out our computer problems with the help of our computer guru via the phone.

With these jobs out of the way DS has gone to visit his brother for a well earned holiday, however getting him out of the valley wasn't quite so easy. The creeks are well and truly flowing and if you thought that to be the only obsticale, then how about this for a road block!

The Northern way out was definately a "no go" but he was able to get out the Southern way as it would seem that they haven't had as much rain. Either way its the first time we have been able to get out for a while and he will get a good receiption because he has all the Christmas presents with him!

New Years Resolutions....

2011-01-05T09:51:00.000+10:00

After much discussion and goal setting our main aim for the farm this year is to ........ wait for it..... drum roll ....... build a drying shed for the Garlic!!!!! This is will be a major project for us with the deadline being Nov/Dec, in time for the 2011 harvest.

Along the way we have also added a few "not-so-major" goals, one being to reclaim the garden. With all the rain the weeds and grass have really got a go on with any remaining vegies being waterlogged, as you can see from my embarassing before photos. Another sign its time to "get your butt into gear" is all the talk about big price hikes in produce due to such large losses from the flood. So here goes...........

Jungle or Garden?.....hummm (The before Photos)

My DH got a few really good books for me about preserving and storing in a root cellar, so I have been scanning through these pages when retreating from the rain. We also have ideas (gosh never thought I'd say this after 7 years dairy farming....!!!) of getting a house cow so that we can make cheese, another step along the road to self reliance but at this stage we are still in the planning stage as we'll need to build a shelter and milking bales within close proximity to the garden so that any manure can be used in the worm farm. Next door to the goat barn, yet another project we plan on embarking on this year!!!!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T09:25:00.000+10:00

Our new little doe "Sunshine" isn't she just the cutest.

What can I say? I never thought I'd be so happy to have a sunny day (yep, even in the middle of summer) but oh, I am soooo grateful. Just to be able to go outside without getting drenched. What did we do then? Well the washing machine was put into overdrive, lawns were mowed, hedges trimmed, gardens weeded and goatling training started.

Sliver Perch

Here is a picture of a silver perch that was caught by hand in the spillway of our dam. Some years ago we stocked the large dam with silver perch and yellow belly and with the water running for more than a 72 hour period the fish are sporning. So we have been feasting on these beautiful pan sized fish.

Merry Christmas ........

2010-12-28T08:27:00.000+10:00

A belated Merry Christmas to you all! Our family get together didn't quite go as planned due to the fact that we were flooded in. Yep, the main road into the valley was cut off a week before Christmas so no mail for us (hope the post office holds it for us...) Christmas eve and another 65mls saw the Northern route cut off also. So we spent a happy day playing uno and eating goodies after opening our presents of course!

Our Front Creek

I was given a new window cleaner for Christmas,(among other wonderful things) and only yesterday between showers was able to test it. It works a treat and has cut the time taken to clean the windows by half as I no longer have to use a ladder to reach as it has a telescope handle.

About the garlic..... the best laid plans of mice and men....... Because DH's op was postphoned we were unable to build the garlic shed so we dug out under the house, a cool dry and airy place. Great no problem, it will get us through this time....yeah right! Imagine a pool slowly filling, this was our drying area as the underground water table rose and almost engulfed the first rack of garlic. So in the rain, it was all hands on deck as the garden shed was cleared out, the contents stuffed here and there, bit like the aftermath of a cyclone really. All the racks and garlic were then transferred, crate by crate and about 7.00 that evening we had finished moving the entire crop, about 600kgs worth. We have the fans going on it 24/7 so just see how it goes. This little lesson has taught us a few things and thus have been taken into consideration in the plans for the new shed.

We planted a "ley" for the goats (an area planted with all different grasses and grains) which was opened up just before Christmas. It has increased the milk volume, so today DH and DD are making Feta cheese as I write this. Dede who was due to kid on New Years Day had a doe on Boxing day which DD has named "Sunshine" (probably because of the lack of it!) needless to say she is just the cutest. Fortuneatly we had a shed that we prepared for the event, so mother and daughter are high and dry and doing well.

Compost completed!

2010-12-04T09:01:00.000+10:00

It seems the weather is dictating what we can and can't do around the farm lately. In the last 10 days we have received 137mls of rain. The ground is absolutely drenched and the creeks are flowing with a good shower now being the difference of being flooded in or not.

(Pictured one of the compost heaps)

In betweeen showers we have managed to make the required amount of compost which will be spread on the plot where next years garlic will be planted. The green manure crop of cow pea has reached heights that DH has not seen before. A good indication that we are on the right track with our fertility farming.

All but the last row of potatoes have been harvested and the yeild was higher than we first thought. However due to the wet I don't think these will be any good because of waterlogging. So next year we have decided (with the wisdom of hindsight) to grow two small crops instead.

Christmas cheer is in the air, plans for the family gathering are well underway and most of the present shopping has been completed, yeah! Last night was our school concert and it was great fun. DD was very pleased to find that she was successfully elected on the student council for next year. This is where the power is she reckons, like you get to decide on discos and free dress days...............

Harvest time.....

2010-11-21T16:26:00.000+10:00

Phew! We survived, all living and accounted for. We have just endured our first year 12 final exam week. You see DS have been doing distance education since grade 4 and the last two years thanks to the technology of today, it has been online, a virtual classroom. This is by far his favourite way of learning. So thinking that he had until the end of the week to submit his final assessments, it came as a bit of a shock when the teacher phoned and asked for it by Wednesday night!!!!! Three multi media presentations no less........ But alas its over now....... Pictured below our high school graduate and volunteer fire fighter.

So apart from year 12 exams it has been busy around here. Since my last posting I have also gone away and completed a fire fighter course, yeah I know not my normal past time but I figured with the boys both being operational members of the brigade, chances are when there's a fire they will be called away thus leaving me to watch over and possibly defend our place. Best to learn some skills ;) and while I was at it, I brushed up on my first aid as well.

Now while this was going on DH was preparing for the 2010 garlic harvest. To make things a wee bit easier this year (on account that it nearly did his back in the year before hehe) he retreated to his man cave aka the shed and from a broken bus spring, two mower tyres and very little else made cutter bar to cut the roots of the garlic.

The first test run, notice the wheels, they have something to do with the depth at which the blade cuts ( a bit technical for me). Last year the garlic was dug out using a shovel.

Of course if it cuts too deep then it will not cut the roots and if it is too shallow it will cut the garlic bulbs. Pictured here the boys making a minor adjustment.

And then success! Yes just right and as you can see the first bulb of garlic from this years crop has been lifted from the ground. With the impending rain predictions, it was all hands on deck as we got the garlic out of the ground and up to the carport where it was topped and tailed then onto the racks to dry. Doesn't sound like much but it sure was a busy week with the last bed being finished just as the wet weather came in. Offcuts were added to the compost heap which was also on the go, nothing wasted here!

Through out the growing period DH and DS have been monitoring the growth of the plants and keeping records for quality assurance. You see this is the first year we have grown the garlic organically and if the bulb size and crop yeild are anything to go by then yes it can be done successfully.

This year I am getting a bit creative and keeping 400 bulbs aside, I have trimmed all but 2 leaves and these have been laided out neatly on the rack to dry. These will be made up and given as a Christmas present. Now I'm not going to give all the details now cause sure enough some of the recipents will read this, so mums the word, but after Christmas I will post a photo.

So if you can imagine all of this going on at the same time and then to add a spanner in the works our computer caught a virus, geez when will we learn "PC" means Personal Computer! Fortuneatly DS let the moths out of his wallet and brought himself a laptop computer about 2 weeks before hand so all was not lost.

The wet weather seems to have set in, last time I checked the rain gauge we had received 45ml so that takes us up to 60 inches of rain so far for the year. The biggest worry isn't bushfires but have we got enough fuel for the outboard!

Until next time

Bec

New babies.......

2010-10-04T16:25:00.000+10:00

Over the course of September we have had the pleasure of watching our resident willy wag tails nest on the internet dish which is located on the roof and in clear view of the backdoor. The two babies have just left the nest and spend most of their time in the backyard. This little one seems to like DD's garden. There seems to be an influx of bird life around our parts due to the great season we've been experiencing.

DH is back to his normal self after the operation. The only problem now is that he doesn't over do things. With the help of the kids and our wwoofer (willing workers on organic farms) Chris we have been able to acheive quite alot during the holidays with work beginning in earnest for the forth coming garlic harvest.

Whilst the boys were away purchasing timber to make the slated floors for our new goat shed, DD thought she would make afternoon tea, chocolate patty cakes, yummmy!

In the garden....

2010-09-30T14:39:00.000+10:00

Even though the recent showers have made it difficult to get the washing dry, the garden has been loving it. Everything is growing even the lawn. Spent the day in the greenhouse potting up seedlings which will be planted out once they are big enough.

Been stocking the freezer with cauliflower also, this year we seem to have a bumper crop. DH picked a cauliflower that was huge and after being put on the scales weighed in at 2.4kg.

DH is on the mend and feeling quite useless at the moment, however he did manage to keep a close eye on the work carried out in the paddock. Our neighbour brought his excavator over and dug out the stumps that were left in the paddock. Boy sure made short work of it, less than an hour and it was all over red rover. I remember last year the 3 of us spending a day just getting one stump out!

Hard to believe that they got all these out of that one paddock. Now that its free of potentially implement damaging stumps it will be worked up and planted with a mixture herbs and grasses for the goats to graze on and then be ploughed in as a green manure crop to enrich the soil.

Progress......

2010-09-26T09:13:00.000+10:00

I was gathering all the ingredients to make soap after dinner when DH slowly shuffled into the kitchen and after casting an eye over what was laid out said "Your going to make a natural soap, right?" well that just eliminated the pink colourant and the rose fragrance oil. This one is made from macadamia oil which gives it the colour and is topped with oatmeal. So its off to the meat safe to dry for the next 6 weeks.

Enlisting the help of DD we tackled the task of painting the laundry. Her reply to what she thinks of my colour choice is written on the wall, cheeky bugger. I am happy to say that after spending many months multicoloured it is now finished and even DH likes the end result. Think I'll have to make a washing machine cover for my new machine to finish the project off.

Just before DH went into hospital we began tidying up in preparation for the fire and cyclone season. You could say we have been spring cleaning, you know the stuff that seems to pile up for one reason or another. Theres still a ways to go but hey it didn't just get there over night. (I'll just keep telling myself this) Thanks to the help of the kids the banana area is looking a whole lot better and all the dead dry leaves (a potential fire hazard) have now been composted and the plants themselves desuckered. Its feast or famine with these but right now its FEAST!

Whirl wind.....

2010-09-23T18:04:00.000+10:00

Since my last posting I have spent more time in the car travelling back and forth then I have in a whole year! When I am home its either drizzling or dark. I haven't been in the garden for acouple of days and the sure signs of withdrawals are starting to show.

On our anniversary my DH brought me a washing machine, now you may think this an odd present but its been a few weeks since my old machine died and I have been washing in the bath tub after the evening showers, my bit for water conservation. So I can honestly say that I REALLY appreciate my new machine!

DD was part of the school team for the local truck pull which took place on the 11th. They really gave it their all and I was informed that they practised with the truck full of water and the tyres half flat. Turns out that it paid off, they won 1st place in the primary school section.

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DD in light coloured shirt - Giving it their all at the truck pull.

Today whilst I was in town yet again, I called into the paint shop for a friend and while there I brought a tin of paint to finish my laundry. I started this sometime ago (not quite a year, I think?) and was using the paint I had on hand. I've actually painted 3/4 of it three times with different shades but end result I was't happy with it and prompty moved onto something else. So its my aim to have it finished by the end of the school holidays. This will work out just fine as I need to be in hearing distance as DH has just returned from hospital after having an operation and has been sentenced to bed for a few days.

Before the rain.......

2010-09-20T06:58:00.000+10:00

Last weekend we awoke to the sound of drizzle on the roof, the cow pea seed showed up first thing in the morning and all our focus was to get it in the ground before it became too wet to get the tractor on. But first we had to attend the Annual General Meeting for the fire brigade in which I am secretary (of all the days!) anyways the rain held off and I survived the meeting.

Got home about lunchtime but no time to sit still as the clouds were getting darker so with sandwiches in hand and eating on the run we managed to get the cow pea planted just before the heavens opened up. (Luck of the Irish!) Why plant cow pea? The cow pea was planted in the area intended for next years garlic crop and will be ploughed in as a green manure crop thus enriching the soil naturally. We ended up receiving 68ml of rain that weekend. Woohoo!

Garlic crop approximately six weeks from harvesting.

This weekend with more rain predicted our aim was to get the potato crop mulched. Since being planted it has been hilled up by hand 4 times and we haven't had to water it as yet. Its been nearly five weeks since they were planted. Don't they look great! At this point in time we believe the crop yeild will be better than expected and may even have some to sell. Know anyone who may want fresh organically grown potatoes?

Here you can see the boys hard at it, putting the mulch on. The green tinge on the left is the young crop of cow pea. Behind that is the garlic crop. Grow my little darlings, grow.

All our family are pretty handy with the old pitch fork and we have one each. The formed beds on the right are intended for sweet potato and corn which we will grow for seed. Beyond that you maybe able to make out our milking does happily grazing.

The caulifower in the garden is almost ready for picking, yum love raw caulifower but the aim is to stock the freezer. Speaking of stocking the freezer we did over a wether and now have lovely chevron in the freezer. The mulberries are outdoing themselves so my next venture will be to make mulberry pie, wish me luck!

On the mend......

2010-09-01T17:08:00.000+10:00

Still in the land of the living although at times just........ All trudged along to the quack (doctor) yesterday to try and do something about this awful flu. For the most part we have been taking it easy and waiting for the antibotics to kick in. DS took the opportunity to have a professional driving lesson while we were in town, yep it won't be long now and he will be more independent.

So while we haven't been doing much, mother nature hasn't been idle. Our newly planted potatoes are pushing their way to the surface and you can now actually make out the rows. This is quite exciting. Not only are we planning on growing enough potatoes to supply us for a year but as part of this we are going to build an underground cellar to store them and other preserves. DH has been discussing this at length and raided our magazines in which he found and earth garden mag which featured a cellar and it even has the plans. Knew there was a reason we kept these!

Being also the first day of spring the advocado tree is flowering along with all the citrus trees, peach trees and macadamia trees. When we first moved here we had a plan to plant 1 tree every week, thus establishing an orchard without breaking the bank and for the most part we did stick to it until making an income took over.

In hindsight those first trees are now supply us with fruits and we wish we had stuck to the plan, in particular the nut trees as it is such a long term thing. But we are once again focused and have started our planting again with 10 peacan trees, another variety of mandarin and olive tree already in.

Our computer has been fixed and it didn't cost an arm and a leg we have traded a favour for a favour, call it community networking but it sure does help and there are so many talented people and skilled trades people living in our community. This is not the first time we have done this, in fact our Polish neighbours need a hand to shear their sheep and in exchange they will teach us how to make smoked polish sausage.

The bug is back........

2010-08-29T17:25:00.000+10:00

NO! not me too..... yep that nasty bug has returned with DH going for round two and this time it got me as well. Generally feeling awful, sore throat and persistant cough. Boo hoo.... Saturday morning I discovered that the washing machine had died and come lunchtime thought I'd best check my emails only to discover the computer is not working..... it just gets better GRRR!

Our original intention for the weekend was to get all our lovely glady bulbs in the ground. Although not feeling well DH ploughed it over again making sure the soil is broken up and all the weeds dead. So while he was doing this I thought I'd de-cobweb one wall of the house, with the timer set for 10 minutes I grabbed the ladder and broom. I started my accent on the ladder no problem there except that I'm scared of heights. What can I say! except that it took a few 10 minutes and I had to speak sternly to myself at one stage but it actually looks like someone cares for the place now.

The unexpected arrival of visitors delayed the bulb planting and eventually we just gave up on the idea of getting it done this weekend. DH decided to water his garlic crop instead which meant that he would be running the pump so that means pressure in the hose. Couldn't possibly waste the opportunity to wash the mouldy wall on the otherside of the house. Not so timid on the ladder now and I attacked the wall with gutso and diluted bleach. Wow what a difference it made and I managed to get it all but done before the pump ran out of fuel. It looks 100% on what it was.

DH spraying the garlic with diluted liquid seaweed.

Well I can honestly say that this weekend did not turn out how we had planned and that we have had better but the house and the garlic are better for it! DD is out for the count on her bed, a sure sign she is not well. Tired, DS is now home and has brought home with him his sore throat. Oh my poor babies!

Snow pea bounty........

2010-08-26T12:30:00.000+10:00

DD still has a bit of a cough more so in the evenings so we didn't go to guides on Monday night. DH is somewhat better although he over did things on the tractor yesterday and took a bit of a step backwards but all in all is on the mend.

Ventured out to the garden to see what I could harvest with the mindset that if there were no shops would we go hungry today? (I'm thinking along these lines as I have just finished reading 4 books by Laura Ingalls Wilder but more on that in a minute) Alas no! These beautiful juicy snowpeas were just waiting to be picked and of course I was doing my duty by making sure they were ok with the not so odd taste test here and there hehehe......

A bit of recycling here, the actual frame for the peas is a bed frame held in place by pickets. Once this crop is finished we can easily move it onto another place in the garden. I was able to pick 1 1/2 kgs of organically grown snow peas. I also harvested some loofahs. We've ditched the synthetic sponge in the bathroom for the more natural loofah and I have to admit that I'm surprised how long they actually last. (I have seeds to give away should anyone wants some.)

However, it was the self sown cherry tomatoes that really inspired my creative side. I thought hmmm what can I do with these keeping in mind my waste not want not attitude and my first (or should I say second?) idea was to make jam but I didn't have enough and they looked so good that I decided to make pizza and use them for topping. Great idea but how do you make pizza dough? no drama, I just googled it! Now to get it to rise in a warm and draught free place, hmmm got it! DS ute with the windows rolled up and the doors closed and its only metres from the kitchen door (worked a treat) Anyway my lovely children were most pleasantly surprised when they returned home to the smell of fresh pizza and I can add that there wasn't any left over!

As I mentioned the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder were 3 of the little house series ie "Little House in the Big Woods" and the other "Farmer boy" which is my favourite so far. DD is reading these which then got my interest going. I got them off ebay for a song. I find it very inspiring to follow along the path of our forefathers and most interesting are the detailed accounts of how they smoke their meat to last over the winter, cheese making, making butter, candle making - well all of it really! It has given me a new appreciation of my modest cottage and I haven't nagged my DH about our old mattress that is in need of replacing since I read that they make their mattress frames from lashing ropes from side to side and filling the bed sized bag with dry grass from the prairie!

Bye Ruby Jane .........

2010-08-22T09:34:00.000+10:00

Pictured on top of her shelter, is "Ruby Jane" one of our young Toggenburg milking does. This weekend we said goodbye to her as she goes to a new home to make new friends and later when she is old enough will supply the family with fresh milk. I must admit that it was sad to see her go as each doe has her own personality and quickly grows on you. The upside is that she will be doing exactly what she is bred for.

I escaped the house of "sickness" and spent sometime in the vegie garden. This is a picture of the most mature garden bed. Picking the snow peas will be a job for tomorrow but I have been stocking the freezer with brocolli. This time round we have used all eden seeds and will save many for next year, thus eliminating the cost and being more self reliant. We have two mandalas on the go for most of the year, excluding summer as its even too hot here for lettuce. The garden design is from the book "Permiculture in your backyard" by Linda Woodrow in which we have added some of our own personal touch.

During the week I gathered some nice,ripe, lemons from a near by neighbour who was happy to see them go and on return I squeezed my way through two buckets full of lemons. Once this was done the majority of the juice was placed in ice trays and frozen for later use.

However, on the weekend I was able to get my lovely, DD to make some lemon butter as we had just finished our last jar. I believe that lemon butter has a shelf life of about 6 months, I'm actually not quite sure about this as it never lasts that long in our house! I just make a few bottles at a time. Anyway she did a great job of it and may even enter some in the local show next year..............

I have added the recipe below should you also have a surplus of lemons. This recipe makes 1 jar (500ml) so I usually triple it and a hint: much sure you beat the eggs well or otherwise you'll end up with egg white lumps in the final product, other than that happy cooking!

Lemon Butter

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs (well beaten)

1 tablespoon butter

Juice of 2 lemons

grated lemon rind of 1 lemon (this is optional)

Place all ingredients in a jug, mix well. (I do this in a small saucepan) Stand jug in a pot of boiling water (I just use a larger saucepan approx 1/2 filled with boiling water) and stir until mixture thickens. Pour into pre-warmed jars. Enjoy!

Down but not out......

2010-08-21T08:53:00.000+10:00

Big plans for this weekend but the flu has caught DH and I think DD is going out in sympathy!

A slow but short trip to check the garlic crop after the brief rain last night was all that he could muster this morning and I can now hear snoring coming from the bedroom.

Scooping off the crackling

Last weekend we saved the lard from the sheep and during the week DH boiled it up and has made tallow. The crackling was scooped off the top and kept for our somewhat spoilt dog. This is the first time that he has done this as we have always be too busy. It is now neatly stored away for future use.

Hi Ho it's potato planting we go ........

2010-08-15T19:36:00.000+10:00

A frosty Saturday morning

Well I thought I would be off to guide camp this weekend, but nope DD had a cough so that ended that. So Friday night the boys did over a sheep and the meat was set beautifully after a frosty night, so spent the morning butchering and our freezer is now stocked up.

After that I spent a few hours preparing the potatoes and DH starting spreading our newly acquired chook manure over the paddock in readiness for planting.

Sealing the cut potatoes in ash before planting

DD helping with the planting

A birdseye view of things. This kookaburra is not a pet!

Well Sunday all hands were on deck and we got the potatoes planted. Purchased a 40kg bag of sebago seed potatoes for $37.50. With the aim of producing enough organic potatoes to supply us for a year. Turned out we ended up with two more rows. So in total we planted 4 rows with 300 potatoes per row.

So yeah us! Another step on the road to self reliance. I'll keep you posted on their progress, but for now I'm heading for a hot bath to ease my sore muscles............... the ones I didn't know I even had!

The super hoe!

2010-08-12T18:13:00.000+10:00

Just had to add this pic of DH's super improved chipping hoe. This was one of his gems that he got at Rocky swap the other weekend. I'll post the others when he has finished with them.

It was a bit chilly this morning, the wind seems to be coming straight off the snow, even the does were shivering when they were being milked. Poor girls! In fact whilst I was waiting for the bank to open I happen to mention this to the elderly lady waiting beside me and she said that her father had a dairy farm and before school each morning she would have to milk the cows (by hand). I'm thinking that she probably had to walk to school too. How so much has changed in just one generation!

In preparation of our new "potato patch" we went to town today and picked up some poultry manure pellets (chook poo) and after nearly two hours, the van smelt like the inside of a chook house and I'm off for a shower too!

The Garlic is growing..........

2010-08-11T08:09:00.001+10:00

The planted garlic

Seeding beds with worm eggs and covering with mulch

Breaking up the bulbs

Farming really is away of life for us and the whole family is involved. This years garlic crop is in the ground and growing well and ground ear marked for next years crop is already being prepared, organically of course!

Our focus this year has turned more to the path of self reliance and this has bought about a few new ventures for us.

1. We have purchased 3 Damara lambs named Amber, April and Apricot these girls will be our foundation stock.

2. Growing a years supply of potatoes. Yep now that we have found an organic spray to stop the look-alike lady bugs from chomping their way through our potato leaves in the garden. Can now grow these on a larger scale with the seed potatoes already purchased and sorted without the crop being wiped out.

I'll keep you posted on the above..............it will be interesting...........

On Monday we decided that we would shear our 2 black sheep. Ok so we have a basic knowledge of this as DH has worked on sheep farms before but it is the first time that he has done this with hand shears.

Do you ever have one of those moments when you start something and then think oh gosh....... now I have to finish it.......? These thoughts scrambled through my head when the realization of shearing sunk in. Lucky for us Ba Ba Black sheep is very quite, we laid her down, not the traditional method but hey we were going to be here for a while and wanted her to be comfortable. I was holding her front legs, DD was holding her back leg and DH was on his knees shearing, click, click, go the shears.

Long story short, it took longer than we thought and she wouldn't win a beauty competition. They reckon there is only a few weeks between a bad haircut and a good one! But the feeling of acheivement when it was finished is something else. For the record, our new sheep do not require shearing.......

Oh so quiet....

2010-03-28T16:23:00.000+10:00

Aha, today I've had an uninterrupted, peaceful hour or so hopping from one blog to another. Yep Cara is out for the count as well as her beloved dog and the boys are participating in a fire fighter course at Wallaville and oh its sooooo peaceful at the moment......

This week it is my aim to master skype, at the moment its still beyond me but, I have managed to set up an account and my daughter in law sent me the phone just haven't worked out "how to" actually use it. I'll keep you updated on this one.

The compost is done and DH did a PH test and its just right, yeah. We had the soil tested and asked for recommendations for growing organically. DH practically did a course working out what mineral does what and a good thing he did because when we went to purchase what was recommended none of it was organic. Anyway the next couple of weeks for us will be busy, busy, busy as we begin planting garlic.

Unfortuneatly the sorghum we planted for the purpose of becoming mulch grow very well, however because everything is soooo wet we can not get on the paddock to cut it. DH attempted slashing it and made a hasty exit from the paddock minus the slasher otherwise both would still be in the paddock (bogged). Now of course the sorghum is going to seed, bugger. So will have to come up with plan B.

Well Cara's pumpkin didn't win the pumpkin competition but was only 8kg away from the winning one. Boy is she keen for next year, so close. Now with the show looming she is busy clicking away photos. Here is one she took of her goat which she named, "Ruby Jane Crystal Clear" standing on top of the goat shed.

Sneak Peek

2010-02-28T16:41:00.000+10:00

In keeping with the trend that I have noticed whilst jumping from blog to blog, here is a sneak peek, I am hoping to have it finished for Easter. Well actually it was going to be finished for Christmas, but hey that already came and went so hence my new finish date.

Yesterday we had a very pleasant and rain free BBQ lunch to celebrate my son's 18th birthday (his birthday is really next week) it was good to catch up with family and friends and it ended up rolling into a BBQ dinner. His older siblings pitched in and brought him a surround sound system in which we added a tv. He really had no idea at all! Surpise!

It has been very humid today, great for drying the clothes but the clouds are starting to roll in. All in all it has been a very good weekend catching up with kids and grandkids and I even managed to get a few stitches done!

Pleasant Valley Sunday

2010-02-21T19:48:00.000+10:00

I awoke to another overcast day, geez I'm over the rain. So after hanging the washing out we set about to get as much done on the farm as possible before lunch. For the past weeks its been the norm to be overcast in the morning and showers to rain after lunch with the odd thunderstorm thrown in for good measure.

Along with the normal farm chores we also managed to turn the compost pile before lunch. I'm happy to say that it is coming along nicely. Curran got on the net and finished some school work that he'd put off and wouldn't you know it, still no rain. Yippee! The washing actually dried on the line so I was able to bring in 4 days worth.

And still no rain! So we grabbed the opportunity to crank up the mowers and went for it. Who would have thought we'd be so happy to be mowing??? Ours weren't the only mowers going either you could hear the echoes coming from the surrounding properties.

Yay! an actual rain free day since I don't know how long. Today really was a very pleasant valley Sunday :)

Just another day in the office!

2010-02-15T15:27:00.000+10:00

If asked "What did you do today?", I would reply "We Made Compost" hmmm doesn't sound like much does it?

Over the last couple of days DH has been busy slashing the grass between our fence line and the road and all morning we have been busy raking it into piles, loading it into the trailer and then unloading it with pitch forks. This might not seem like hard work but with the high humidity from the impending thunderstorms and the recent rain we were most of the time ankle deep in water and rained on periodically.

About lunchtime my mind was coming up with plans of how to put it off until tomorrow and my aching muscles were turning traitorous too. With the weather forecasts being for more rain it was vital that we get all the grass picked up. So after lunch with all the materials gathered we began the process of making the compost and just to keep us on our toes and not slacken off we had a thunderstorm to the right grumbling away and one to the left side of the mountains which was much more intimidating. Managed to get it done but only just before the rain began!

Now with all the rain we will miss yet another guide night and I know that I will have to come up with something really special for smoko this afternoon because DD will not be happy!

She has entered in the Junior Landcare Pumpkin Challenge and here is a recent picture of her pumpkin named "Jazz" The kids register and when the challenge begins everyone receives a packet of seeds (about 5 I think) and then each month they log on and record the pumpkins' details and upload a photo. Check out all the great pumpkins so far by typing in Junior landcare pumpkin challenge in google.

Recently my BB sent one of our culinary lavender recipe cards to Peg Coen at Happy In Quilting. You just have to see her blog entry, its just great! Thanks Peg.

Even the ducks are heading for higher ground!!!

2010-02-08T17:36:00.000+10:00

OK well the bread turned out just lovely but Saturday turned out to be a fine, sunny and humid day so I talked DH into going to town to do shopping. In hindsight it was a smart move. You see it has been raining on and off for about a week now with the road being unpredicable due to flooding creeks and washouts. We grabed the opportunity with both hands.

Today about lunchtime we received 50mls in about 15 minutes and it was all running off the already sodden ground. As we watched the drenching from the windows our main focus turned to the already bulging dams. The top dam was flowing through the overflow at maximum capacity then add to that the runoff from the mountain and it became touch and go as the water started pouring over the top of the dam bank wall. At this stage all fingers and toes were crossed in the hope that the wall doesn't tear out which would spell the end of the dam. The upside to all the wet weather is that we hadn't been able to mow it so all the grass held it together.

Thank God!

Ya really think the mail will get through today?

Over the road it goes

The dam wall

Not game to let the ducks out just in case they get bogged :)

Quack, Quack, errr Quack

2010-02-04T20:00:00.000+10:00

Ex cyclone Olga has dumped bucket loads of rain in our area, 235ml over the last week or so. All the dams haveth run over and the creeks are a flowin'. The school bus hasn't been able to get through since Monday morning, its like school holidays all over again.

As a trip to town for supplies are on hold for the while, its a good thing the garden is producing lots of lovely organic veggies. Although I should mention that tomorrow I will be dusting the cobwebs off the bread maker tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed all goes well.

2010 Here we go!

2010-01-30T20:21:00.000+10:00

The Christmas tree has been decorated for the festive season and now resides unadorned in the yard. School holidays have been and gone, fortuneatly without the "Mummy I want" in the supermarket on shopping day, routines started as we say goodbye to the first week of school and as I write this might as well say goodbye to the first month of the year!

Happily an upgrade to a newer model computer for my son's virtual class room has allowed me the freedom to blog again, yeah! The frustration trying to log on even became to much with the old computer and countless calls to my friend, "where do I load a picture?" only to find that the toolbar to allow this was missing, grrr.

The prolonged drought has taken its toll on our farm and sadly we will not be opening to visitors this year and although lavender is very hardy, it has suffered. The upside (there always has to be one) is that we are starting the year with full dams. Anyone living on the land may well appreciate the importance of this. The veggie garden is still producing, the hens still laying and the goats have outdone themselves, producing what seems like gallons (or should I say litres?) of milk. So much so that Kevin and Cara are trying their hand at cheese making.

Our first crop of giant Russian Garlic, grown without herbicides and pesticides has been harvested, dried and awaits planting which should happen around March. The ground in which it is to go has been replenished with a green manure crop (cow pea) which has been recently turned in. The sorghum crop now stands as high as me. It is intended to be the mulch layer to go over the newly planted garlic. Kevin has spent many an hour in his shed making a bed shaper for the garlic out of an old logging skid that he purchased for a carton of beer. I will post a pic when its finished, he really is quite talented when it comes to making things with next to nothing.

There's no spur of the moment show entries for Curran this year, no siree! He started planning last year and has handed me a few extensive lists of seeds that he will be needing for the 2010 Mt Perry show. Along with everything that went into the permaculture garden, he also got his father to form up two 100 meter rows complete with trickle irrigation and this is just for his pumpkins!

Our cosy neck of the woods also hit the limelight later part of last year as the worst bushfire in 40 years ravaged the area. It actually started across the road from us and as it built intensity we witnessed it jump the neighbouring road. Had you been in the area on that dreaded Thursday afternoon you would have seen us busy hosing our house down as floating embers began drifting across. It was touch and go for a while but alass help arrived in the form of the Rural Fire Service and our place became the incident control centre. Lucky for us (or perhaps someone was watching from above) the wind changed and sent the fire in a different direction. For me, what really came to light was how the community came together to help each other out during the crisis and it prompted me to take on the role of secretary in our local fire brigade when the AGM came around.

Thats one community group that I've recently joined, the other being Girl Guides at Mt Perry which commenced mid way through last year. Cara has been a lone girl guide for a few years but with a unit starting up just down the road, give or take a 45 minute drive either way depending on the condition of the road, she was eager to participate. So on a Monday afternoon us "girls" go off to do our "girl thing" at guides and any fundraising activities that are associated with it. Below is some pictures that my budding photographer took on Australia Day with her new camera.

Show time.....

2009-04-19T08:05:00.000+10:00

Talk about spur of the moment! At 4.00pm the day before the show the children decided that they would pick some veggies to enter. Of course they wanted chokos which were growing on top of the greenhouse. With a battering of the eyelids and a bit of sweet talking from sweet daughter, dad took on the task of picking them.

Risking life and limb

Fortuneatly the kids did manage to get the veggies they wanted just before the storm which hit us about 7.00pm that evening.

The next morning Curran took on the task of entering the produce which was aided by the helpful staff running the show. When the pavillion was closed for judging we all took a collective breath and sent up a silent prayer. It seemed for us to take forever but I'm sure it wasn't that long at all.

The gates were opened and people filled in to see the results and displays. Curran was amongest the crowd and a while later came out with a happy grin which, although trying to supress couldn't quite pull it off.

No wonder he was happy turned out between them they had won 5 first places and 5 second places.

(Below) Giant Beans

The giant beans certainly got people talking with only 3 pods making up the weight to 500grams.

When we got back from the show and Cara was informed of how well they did, the planning of what they will be growing to enter next year has already begun. So my advise to anyone out there who wants to get their children to help out in the garden, let them enter something in your local show.

Pumpkin scones anyone?

2009-04-17T07:41:00.000+10:00

With a vegetable garden full of organic butternut pumpkins Cara and I thought we'd make some pumpkin scones (a change from lavender scones) so we spent some qualitity time in the kitchen and yes they did taste great!

Now the school holidays are a test of patience for some, I mean just visit the shopping centres and watch the frazzled mums as they try and keep little hands from the lollies just in front of the checkouts. I like the holidays because its a time generally that everyone is together.

We had a "big day out" which saw us gals seated infront of the big screen keeping a steady movement of the hand from the m&m pack to our mouths whilst our eyes remained glued to the movie screen. If there is anyone tossing up wether to go and see "Race To Witch Mountain" then do so, it was good and the special effects great!

The boys spent their time wandering, bug-eyed around BCF (I know this as I have seen it first hand). Our eldest son has just moved a block from the beach so of course Curran now needs to set up to catch flathead and brim so a new rod and tackle was the purpose of their visit uninterrupted by "can we go now?". (A situation that is reversed when browsing in spotlight.)

With a bit of forward planning we were able to indulge in a great day out without breaking the bank. We have begun planning already for next school holidays.

March, has marched on......

2009-03-30T20:48:00.000+10:00

Centre peice for my washing machine cover when I finish it that is...

It's hard to believe the month is nearly over and oh I have neglected this blog, sorry. I do have a good excuse though. We have been flat out getting the farm ready for this season. Take a look at http://www.lavenderfarm.com.au/Purple_3_webstudio/Becs_Blog.html this will give you some idea how frantic things have been.

My laundry remains multicoloured - still haven't picked up the paint chart for it yet. But we are heading to town this week and I am hoping (time permitting) I will be able to take a peek in spotlight for some material to finish it.

The pumpkins have out done themselves this year and we will be able to stock up for winter. I am hoping to get one for this years local show. We've started planting brocolli and cauliflower. The tomatoes have a bumper crop that doesn't appear to be damaged by fruit fly (yay) We also have eaten our first dragon fruit (pitaya) this month, really nice, similar texture to a kiwi fruit.

The downside is the chooks have gone on strike. So, therefore my baking has also ceased (maybe this isn't such a bad thing for some of us who are watching our expanding girths). Anyway like alot of other families, we are also looking at ways we can save money. The simple savings website has a wealth of information. Check out the link on the right if your looking to save some money and time in and around the home.

Sticking to our new years resolution, we have been planting trees, so far in the last week we've planted close to 100 to attract birds and screening. By chance we discovered our local hardware store gets fruit and nut trees in periodically at the bargain price of $3 each. Instead of getting our routine cuppa on the way home we decided to invest in our orchard instead and got 16 trees. Victor has finished clearing the regrowth and we have been ripping, stick picking, ploughing, more stick picking and once the ground is levelled out we will be able to plant. But this will defineatly be a job for next month, just like painting the laundry and finishing the washing machine cover!!

Fools rush in...

2009-03-10T08:22:00.000+10:00

Life on the farm has moved into high gear with the cooling of the weather and the looming opening date (1st April). I have been doing so much probagating and potting up of new lavender plants that my buttom has taken on the shape of the seat in which I sit! (Well maybe not quite but it sure seems like it.)

The boys have been forming up the driveway and bus parking area (the gravel truck comes this week - weather permitting) as well as stoking up the piles of regrowth that have been pushed out by the dozer. Then its levelling the ground out again and more stick picking. This was hot and dusty work up until Monday.

We had a cool change not long back, just a reminder that Autumn is here. I absolutely love Autumn! You can work outside without frying or freezing and the nights are cool enough to snuggle under the blankets. Anyway with the drizzle from the cyclone and the cooler weather we'll now begin planting out the lavender.

In keeping with my fluttering around the house cleaning and decluttering I decided that I'd paint the laundry. I had two different shades of paint leftover from the kitchen so it was full steam ahead for me. This project was allocated 1hr a day until finished (I still had alot for stuff to do on the farm) Anyway first day I got 2 1/2 walls painted. However upon stepping back and admiring my work I soon discovered that although that shade looked great in the kitchen I didn't like it in the laundry. The next day I painted 3 walls with the other shade of paint I had. Unfortuneatly its the same story. I really liked the original colour. Painting has ceased, I have a multicoloured laundry at present and each time I get a minute whilst in town I grab a paint colour chart - still looking. My other genius idea was to make a new washing machine cover seeing how I'd already dusted it off. The center piece is finished and I'll finish it with blue and white gingham, that is when I finish planting lavender.......

Brushing off the dust......

2009-01-18T14:58:00.000+10:00

Well Christmas was wonderful and relaxing for us but New Years Eve was blisteringly hot, the mercury topped at 45 degrees here. (Is it getting hotter or because were older feeling the heat more???) The kids put their new water pistols to the test in an attempt to cool down while we sat in the shade soaking our feet in the wading pool sipping on cold lemonade. I mean what can you do when its THAT hot?

Family members also migrated home during the festive season and it was good to catch up, boy the grandkids sure do grow fast. It was because of their recent visit that I dusted off my sewing machine (It's a wonder it didn't blow a fuse!!). I made the boys swags for Christmas, one Buzz Lightyear and one Bob the Builder so now they'll be set for camping trips and friends sleepovers. These turned out to be quite inexpensive as I managed to pick up the material when it was in the clearance rack, bargain!

The grandson's swags - minus matress and sleeping bag

Before I needed glasses, I also made my kids Christmas stockings and did the fancy work myself. Here is Cara's Christmas stocking. Now with each new addition to the family I still make a Christmas stocking but use the fancy stitches available on the sewing machine instead of doing it by hand.

Cara's Christmas Stocking

The Tell Tale Signs.......

2008-12-12T08:55:00.000+10:00

The other day I walked into my local country post office and after greeting the lady behind the counter guess what I saw? (Well ok apart from the various postage packaging etc that one would expect to see.....) In view, but off limits to the public I could see a large table, upon this I saw a sewing machine and sitting neatly beside it was a small stash of colour co-ordinated fabric pieces, also a cutting board and rotary cutter. Not far from the table was an ironing board complete with iron. Ho Humm wonder what she uses it for?????

Ahhh, imagine being able to layout your finished blocks, according to the pattern, the being able to move blocks around to get the right colour mix without the children re- arranging them for you as they run through the house playing chasey or whatever. Not that this has been a problem for me lately. I think my sewing machine would go into shock and I wonder if it even remembers how to do patchwork.......

If you can't beat 'em ....

2008-12-10T14:31:00.000+10:00

She may be small in statue but she sure is persistant! I'm referring to my best friend, known to many as highland hen. You see its her idea that I start this blog. Concerned that I need regular contact with other she's, as I live in a fairly remote area. "Come on Bec! It'll be fun!" are words that I've heard more often than not and finally after months of "pestering" (sure gives meaning to the term "hen pecked") I finally caved and so here I sit writing this my first post and wondering if anyone really is going to read it.

So you see my friend I have made a start

and as the old saying goes, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"