Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Coffee, permaculture and an eventual animal commitment....

Caught up with Tammy for coffee yesterday. We were there for 3 hours! It was a long chat. Tammy has done welfare and counselling, so she had quite an in depth talk with Toni while we were there about Sat night, to try and clear things in her head for her. We finally heard from the girls family today, who have said that she is being discharged from hospital today, and that they don't hold anyone responsible, and that it was just a terrible accident. All well and good, but I am afraid that I do hold this girl responsible, it was her decision to totally wipe herself out with alcohol and jump on my daughters bonnet and seriously injure herself, and cause Toni such distress in the process, I am really happy that she is ok, and no serious damage has been done, but seeing how upset Toni has been over the last few days has been really hard to deal with, I just hope that everyone that was at this party has learnt something, I would hate to see no lessons learnt out of all of this, at least this girl's parents are now aware that there teenage daughter is wiping herself out with alcohol and can maybe monitor this a bit, I am not naive enough to think that Toni does not ever have a drink, but I know that having her licence and her driving to these things means that she won't be drinking, I know that she would never drink drive, she does take after me in this respect, I have never ever driven after drinking, and I know she feels exactly the same as me about this, thank goodness.....anyway....hopefully everyone can move on now....On a happier note, I recently reserved a permaculture book from the library, and picked it up today, so this will be my before bed reading for the next few weeks.



I am really interested in learning about the permaculture way of doing things. There is a course I could go and do , but it is nearly $1200, and I may still go and do it yet, but if I can learn everything out of a book, I would like to, even though I do love doing the practical side of learning, and find that I usually learn better that way these days...my brain definitely does not take to learning theory as well as it used to in my teens and twenties and even early thirties. I am also waiting on a permaculture design book to come in to the library that I have reserved, and will read that as well, much cheaper than spending $200 to buy it online.  I would really love to totally immerse myself in this way of doing things, and get more animals and spend most of my time outdoors.....but I haven't been game to commit to more animals, having horses was a really big commitment, and I think it has taken me a couple of years of not having them to get over the amount of time and effort that took, not to mention money! Damian called them the 4 legged money pits, the whole time I had them, which was true to a degree, and I found that I no longer had the really relaxed disposition around them that I had when I was much younger, and you really need that to be able to deal with the skittishness that they have. I also found that I no longer really enjoyed riding them due to the same reasons. I would really love alpacas, a donkey and miniature goats, even a miniature horse would be lovely, gorgeous animals, a bit quieter, and lovely manure for the gardens, and lawnmowers in the process....Damian would like sheep or a small cow as he would like to have them for the meat side of things, but if I had a cow I would want a milking one, and I definitely don't want to commit to milking a cow twice a day right now....maybe down the track I may get my head around that!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Noodle Box Christmas Crackers

I like this idea, it was in the Homelife Newsletter sent to me today, which is part of the Notebook magazine. Something a little different to the Xmas Cracker/BonBon......

Watching the chickens and vege garden spreadsheet

I took Kasey to gymnastics this morning, they had a 2 hour session, and she really enjoyed it. She started to learn about tumbling and doing handstands etc, and they did a little bit on the low balance beam etc. The afternoon class was cancelled as they didn't have enough people, which really surprises me being school holidays, so instead of a refund I said she could go to the 3 x 1 hour blocks Wed, Thu and Friday instead. It means no sleep ins for me this week, but oh well, I do prefer to be up a bit earlier...though it doesn't feel that way when I'm still snuggled under the doona! Toni is feeling a bit better today, she has been trying not to dwell on things, and she had a huge sleep in and seems to be over the initial shock of everything... I spent a little time just pottering around the vege garden in the afternoon, not doing much, just enjoying being up there, and sat for a little while watching the chooks while they were scratching about...Sam is doing the rooster thing with the girls....he is a bit unco though, because he's a fat little ball of fluff, he falls off half the time..hehehehe....and he took one look at big Bertha and she just went "No way"...and took off a million miles an hour..it was very funny. Big Bertha is the matriach of the chook pen...she is absolutely huge and no-one pushes her around...  it seems like I have had her for years and years...she would have to be at least 10, and she shows no signs of not being around for another 10....
I started on my vege garden spreadsheet today. I have 1 page for the planting side of things..how much I planted on what dates, harvest times, replanting schedules for continued supply etc, 1 page for the harvest records, and 1 page keeping track of the costs..it's a work in progress but getting there.














3 eggs today, 6 passionfruit and 1 x 2.5kg pumpkin.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Vege garden, Sunday and a near tragedy....

I took Kasey to a Gymnastics open day today, she seemed to really enjoy it. I have booked her in to a school holiday program for a couple of hours tomorrow, and will see what she thinks. If she really likes it, I may book her in to the actual program during school terms. Today I sowed some carrot seeds in the vege garden, cleaned out the chook pen, and placed new straw, pulled out the last of the carrots from the last crop, along with some sweet potato and corn. This is today's harvest:



Kasey enjoying a freshly picked carrot from the vege garden..

I am going to keep the small cob of corn for seeds, as the corn has been delicious, very sweet and juicy, so I would definitely like to grow some more of this variety, as I think it is the nicest corn we have ever had. I think there will be about 150 seeds on the small cob, so I have it in the pantry in a mesh bag to dry for a few weeks. I will probably buy some more in the meantime and plant another crop very shortly. While getting the straw out of the storage shed this afternoon, I discovered a batch of rats in there, Max has turned out to have very good ratting abilities, and made short work of 1, but the rest scattered and took off, but I will let him in there each afternoon to try and get rid of the rest. While I don't like the idea of killing anything, a plague of rats is definitely not needed, and I think Max taking care of 1 in a couple of seconds is much more preferable to baiting them, which to me is inhumane. I also spread some more straw around the vege garden where needed. Last night, I made my first attempt at a crocheted dishcloth. It has turned out ok, a few missed stiches here and there, but practice should improve things. I think I may knit them in future though, as crocheting seems to use way more wool, even though it's quicker.



Toni had a bad night last night, and equally bad day today. As she was leaving a party last night, a very drunk girl jumped in front of her and laid on her bonnet, and fell off and hit her head on the bitumen, and is in hospital with a hairline fracture to her skull, bruising on her brain etc. Luckily, Toni was in first gear and only going about 5 klms an hour, but an ambulance was called and the police turned up, and breath tested Toni who returned a 0.00 result, and the police have told her she was not at fault and have cleared her of any charges or traffic infringements, but Toni feels awful as this girl is a friend of hers.  She has been crying all day, and is worried that her friends are going to blame her, and she has been feeling sick all day about it. It just really irks me that people do such irresponsible things, which causes distress to others. The girl is going to be ok apparently, but will be in hospital for a few days, and she can't remember what happened. It is a very hard lesson for her to learn though. I can only imagine how bad it could have been it Toni had been going faster, or had had a drink at the party....

Friday, June 25, 2010

Friday Wrapup

I picked most of the chillies today. I wanted to leave them until they had started to turn red, but something has started invading them, and has started to chew on a couple, so thought it best to pick them all and leave them on the bench to redden. With what's already in the freezer, plus these, I will have enought to fill Christmas requests for Chilli Jam....it is very popular with family members!


I was quite out of sorts this morning, I have lots of things I could have been doing, but just couldn't seem to get myself started. Finally, I decided to bake an orange cake and that seemed to be enough to get me moving. I put on some pizza dough in the breadmaker to mix, I made a double batch so I could put half in the freezer. I did a few other banking errands, wrapped a bouquet preservation being picked up next week, started the hardening process on one in process at the minute, put on a batch of yoghurt, vacuumed and did a bit of dusting, did a few loads of washing and a quick tidy around. We had pizza for dinner tonight, there is heaps left over, so can probably have that again tomorrow night, we have heaps of quiche left over from last night also, so that's another option also, but I may end up freezing that for a quick easy meal for another night yet.Ann came over tonight as she wanted a bit of help with some internet advertising, and stayed for a couple of hours with cuppas and chats, so that was a nice catch up. I was going to try and start on my vegetable garden planning, but didn't get around to it today, so will put that on the list for the next few days/weeks....I am going to go and get some yarn from the American Yarn shop tomorrow, for some of the sugar n cream yarn, to knit up some more dishcloths, and look for some other lovely yarn for my crocheting plans, and then we are going to go and pickup Toni's formal dress, and may have a nice lunch while we are out, so hopefully a lovely day coming up tomorrow :)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Completed Sewing Projects

I have finished a few sewing projects in the last couple of days...

The sleepover bag:


I really like how the sleepover bag has come up. I will definitely be using this alot.


MAKE a bag and cosmetic purse


Clutch bag for Toni's formal

I don't think Toni likes it...I have said she doesn't have to use it if she would rather have something else...

Today I have sowed in seed raising mix the following:
9 mixed lettuce
9 mini cabbage
9 Pak Choi
9 Broccoli
9 Leeks
9 Silverbeet

Hopefully I will have more luck with these than I did the last time I sowed some seeds.

Our first female PM....

What an historic day....our first female prime minister....

got to feel sorry for Kevin....who'd want to be a politician, and I think we have lost a great ambassador in Therese Rein....

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

hmmm....today was well.....hmmmm

It has definitely been one of those days today. I have found it really hard to get myself out of bed this last week or so, and this morning was no exception. I think I have dropped Kasey off at school after the bell most days this week, which isn't like me at all. Last night I applied some liquid nails to the inside of the souls of Kasey's school shoes, as she has been dragging her toes on the concrete in her shoes and they soul has been flapping around in it's own universe for a couple of days. So this morning, the liquid nails had dried, apparently, so she popped her shoes on. I was busy cleaning her room (as usual) and she brings in a tissue and says "Mum, is this the colour of the stuff you used to glue my shoes together?" I was very frustrated with Kasey this morning as she was being a bit hard to deal with, so I didn't even look at her, and said, "Look Kasey, just give me 5 minutes, I'm not going to answer you right now, just leave me to get a bit organised"....I lived to regret that....when I came out of the jungle, I saw liquid nails smeared all over the floor, from the dining room to the lounge room. It had been seeping out from her shoes, as the stuff in the middle of her shoes hadn't quite dried yet....so after spending about 15 minutes scraping it all off the floor, I said, right, let's go....and as Kasey turned around to head out the door, I spotted it.....the back of her school pants was covered in liquid nails...!!!  oh lordy....
anyway....after I changed her, took her to school, and then returned home to scrub as much of it as I could off her pants, I proceeded to do the mountain of washing that has once again accumulated. I then did some bookwork, and organised the insurance renewal for Damian's car, then I went to the demo at the sewing centre for the Palmer Pletsch dressmaking course, picked Kasey up and took her to the doctor. Turns out she has a ringworm on her arm, so have to put cream on it for about 6 weeks. So this evening after doing all the usual stuff, dinner, light the fire, do the chooks, feed the dog, load the dishwasher etc, I was quietly sitting at the table reading some blogs, and Kasey decided she would make me a beaded necklace. Something in the back of my mind was shouting "danger, danger" to me, as I was envisaging all these tiny beads being spilt all over the floor, when Kasey took the lid off the beads, the lid was stuck so she pulled extra hard....and....yep....the teeny tiny beads ended up all over the floor....Kasey is in bed now thank goodness, so my floors might be safe for another day.....then again, Toni is due home from work any minute....so you never know....
4 eggs today, 1 chilli picked, a dozen or so passionfruit, 1 stalk silverbeet and a few heads of broccoli for dinner....the tv is off, the kitchen is tidy, and peace currently reigns....bliss...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Solar, Library and Sewing

We had the energex people come out today and hook up our solar meter in the meter box, so we are now officially making power....yippee.....also got the power bill in the letterbox.... :(
I don't know how much difference the solar system will make in the grand scheme of things, but hopefully it will cut our bill down by about a third.....that would be good. We have plans on adding more panels as we can afford it, and possibly a larger inverter, so we can add even more panels. It would be fantastic to eventually get to a point where we are generating enough power to cover what we use, but I don't think that is a possibility at this point in time with kids, a pool and an inside fridge, an outside fridge/freezer for bulk goods, a bar fridge and a flower fridge (even though this is only turned on when I have a wedding to do)
I am feeling much better today, I have only had to take 2 lots of painkillers today for headaches, and the sniffles seemed to have cleared up.
I dropped Damian back at the airport this morning, after this I called in to Spotlight and picked up a zip to continue on with the MAKE sew along project, and a new jeans zipper for a pair of jeans that the zip keeps coming down on. After this I went up to the library, I haven't been in ages, and I picked up a few goodies:

I am really looking forward to the "how to crochet" book. I can crochet, but I only know the very basics, and am really wanting to learn all of the stitches that I can do, and be able to construct more than a crocheted flower! It has lots of projects in it to work through as well, so that should be fun. I am going to try and do some sewing shortly, and work on the MAKE project, depends how I feel though, I am pretty tired right now, but I am keen to do some more on it. I have a demonstration to go to tomorrow afternoon at the sewing centre, they are telling us all about some dressmaking courses, so I am looking forward to that. I also have to take Kasey to the doctor, she has a sore on her arm that doesn't seem to want to heal, so I am going to go and see what that is, and get her 2nd swine flu needle. So, it will be another busy day tomorrow.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The dreaded flu lurgy has got me....

I have felt this coming on for the last few days, and have had a constant headache the last few days, and yesterday it has presented along with flu like symptoms. I feel pretty dreadful today, headachy and tired mainly, the cold and flu tablets are keeping the runny nose at itchy eyes at bay most of the time....so I have propped up on the lounge with the heating on, and might try to catch a bit of a snooze......bet the phone rings.....

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Egg and Bacon Pies

I made egg and bacon pies a couple of nights ago. They are very filling and very yummy, and so cheap to make. I generally have everything I need to make them in the fridge or freezer, or the vege garden.

Ingredients:

2 silverbeet leaves, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 egg per pie
1/2 rasher bacon per pie, sliced finely
1/2 small handful grated cheese per pie
1 sheet puff or shortcrust pastry - 1 sheet makes 4 pies

I have a pie maker, so I make mine in that. You could make them in a large muffin tin, and bake in the oven at 180 degrees until golden, probably 20 mins or so...

Cut out the pie bases, and line the base of each pie dish in the pie maker. Line base with 2/3 of the bacon, add in a little of the silverbeet and shallot and cheese. Crack egg into base, and top with more silverbeet, shallot, bacon and cheese. Spray top generously with cooking spray or brush with olive oil. Bake in pie maker for 8 minutes. Yummo!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

More vege garden updates...

More vege garden updates:

The pumpkin patch:


The 2nd vege garden, sweet potato, rhubarb, corn, potatoes, silverbeet, strawberries, broccoli, english spinach, lettuce:
 
The new seed potatoes planted in a tub:


Sweet corn:

Strawberry plants

Zucchini's:

The broccoli are nearly ready:

Silverbeet (sun is shining behind, leaves aren't yellow!)

English Spinach starting to grow:

Green fancy lettuce starting to grow:

My everlasting shallot plant
Tomato bushes starting to grow:

Each time we have a nice pineapple, I try to plant the top, I have about 5-6 growing at the moment, and will continue to add more:


I have lots more planting to do over the next few weeks as time allows. I won't get to the markets in the morning to purchase more seeds due to the wedding expo, but will hopefully aim for next weekend. I must try to plant some seeds in some seed raising mix in the greenhouse some time this week as well.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Friday already....

With this week being a short week with the public holiday on Monday, the week has gone very fast. I have spent most of this week catching up on work in the office, other than on Wednesday when I went to sewing to finish off my sleepover bag. I didn't quite finish it, almost, but hopefully I will get to it over the weekend. Mum is coming down tomorrow afternoon, and staying the night, so we are going to have a girly night in and do some craft and she wants to use my overlocker, and she would like me to make her some bows. I have a wedding expo on Sunday, I have spent this evening making a couple of extra frangipani bouquets for my display. I just have to pack the brochures and some vases tomorrow and pack everything else in the car, and I am completely organised. Hopefully it will be worth the effort. I would also like to do the next stage of the MAKE sew along which is the cosmetic purse, I will have that done by Tuesday though, so we can move on to week 5. I have enjoyed spending a few moments here and there up at the vege garden this week, spending time in the garden is one activity that really grounds me, and relaxes me. I find if I am feeling stressed, or just over it, that if I wander up to the vege garden, within a few minutes everything is right with the world again. Here is a few shots from the vege garden this week.


Penny and Sam stealing some sweet potato leaves....
The huge rhubarb plant, need to pick some and make some apple and rhubarb crumble...yum...

The chilli bush is buckling under the weight of the enormous chillis that are currently growing..

I'll post some more vege garden photos tomorrow, I'm falling asleep on the laptop..zzzzz.....

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Make a bag sew along - bag portion completed

I have finished the bag for the make a bag project. I am really happy with how it has come up. There has been such varied fabric used by everyone participating in the sew along, so it is good to see how this comes up in other colours. Everyone has done a really nice job.  Bring on week 3  :)

Monday, June 14, 2010

Baking Day

Today I have tried to catch up on some baking. It seems like months since I have spent a day baking, other than the odd cake here or there, which have been few and far between, I just haven't been getting around to baking. I have dropped back into some bad habits of buying biscuits, chips etc..as my time has been a bit limited and time seems so busy and the days go so fast. It is hard sometimes to stay motivated with baking when it isn't appreciated a lot. Damian isn't a big one for home baking, and Toni will eat it, but not that much, and trying to get Kasey to take home baking in her lunches is a hard fought battle.  She is only in grade 1, but already there seems to be such a large emphasis placed on taking packaged items to school and of taking the same thing as what the other kids take. Kasey doesn't take purchased muesli bars, and never has, but I have been a bit slack and have been giving her packaged biscuits and the like on more occasions than I would have liked. I am trying to get back in to a routine and also encourage Kasey to take more home baking to school. She does understand that home baking is much better for her than shop bought, but it is difficult for me to stay on target when I give her home made yoghurt, or home made yogos, homemade banana cake, pikelets, choc chip biscuits, choc chip muffins etc, but most of the time they come home because she is too embarrased to eat home cooking at school. It would be great if home cooked food was more the norm in childrens lunchboxes than store bought food, it's cheaper, more nutritious, and we know what gets put in it..... Tomorrow her school is having a no packaging lunch box day, and will have no bins other than compost bins in the grounds, which is a really good start. Kasey takes a no litter lunch anyway, as I put everything into containers, so it is no effort for me to do this....great to see them taking this initiative though. Anyway, today has been a huge baking day. I have managed to make the following:

2 Banana Cakes


Meusli Bars with Choc Tops


Caramel Slice made with home made condensed milk of course...


Moist Fruit Cake


And for dinner, garlic prawns....very yum...

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Today's Wedding...

Today's Wedding for Mercyanne:

Bridal Bouquet



Bridesmaid's bouquets:


Corsages:

Friday, June 11, 2010

Friday wrap up....

I made Toni's clutch purse yesterday. It is come up really nicely, albeit quite plain.  I am going to embellish it with diamantes etc, so I will post some photos once done. I sat up last night and got my sleepover bag up to date, so now it is ready to finish off at the next class on Wednesday. It is coming up really, really nicely.

Just the top half and the inner lining to go.  This includes a zip and pockets, so it should come up really nicely. The sample bag had bias around the curve of the pocket flaps, but I had real trouble with the bias binding, so I decided to do piping instead, which I like much better anyway...well that's my excuse anyway....  I have a wedding to do the flowers for tomorrow, which I have been working on today. It is an all tulip wedding, so I have done all the wiring and taping and basic construction today, but as tulips continue to grow after they have been cut, they need to be finished on the day of the wedding, as they will usually grow overnight, and be out of place in the morning, so will need adjusting. Then I just need to wrap the stems in ribbon, and they will be done. I will need to deliver these about lunch time, and then we are going to pick Damian up from the airport at 2.30, so I will take Toni and Kasey for some lunch and then head over to the airport. I have also done the construction on the frangipani silk teardrop bouquet for the silk wedding I am working on at present. It has come up beautifully as well, just needs the finishing off of the handle and ribbon.

On a different subject, this is today's harvest. There is an abundance of chillies on the chilli bush at the moment, I am just waiting for them to turn red, and I will pick the rest.  I am placing them in the freezer in a bag at the moment, and I will make some chilli jam once I have enough. I only found out a week or so ago that chillies freeze fine, so I can actually keep them until I have enough for a particular item, which is fantastic.


There is a really little pumpkin here, as I ran over the pumpkin vine last weekend when I mowed as some of it was escaping, and didn't realise there was a pumpkin growing, oops, never mind, it'll do a couple of nights vegies for us.  The chillies are quite a dark red, but I will let them get a little more red before putting them in the freezer with the other chillies. Anyway, I am bushed, so I'm off to bed.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The best laid plans....

I got up early this morning. I had sewing class today and wanted to get nice and organised first up so I could have time for a cuppa before leaving, and wanted to catch up on emails etc. Well...things didn't go quite according to plan...after waking Toni up..(this took quite some time!) I ironed Kasey's uniform and made her lunch, then woke her up and got her dressed etc. While in the kitchen about to make some breakfast all of the chooks appeared at the back door, which made it obvious that Max had gone up and broken in to the pen, and left a big hole for them to get out. So I donned the gum boots and went up to put them away, only to find the black chicken out and sitting on the ground..Max had knocked her over again!! She is the only one he goes near, and I think because she sits as soon as he goes near her, she is an easy target. She is fine though, I picked her up and put her away, and didn't let her out this afternoon when the others were out. I will give her a few days to fully recover before letting her out again. So, anyway, I grabbed some corrugated iron and set about repairing the door, but the piece was too large for where I needed it to be, so I put it in front of the door and put the big feed bin in front of this to keep Max out while I was out today. Kasey came down while I was doing this, and because I mowed a couple of days ago, and the grass was wet, she ended up with big clumps of wet chopped up grass on her shoes, which she promptly walked through the house, including the carpet. So after fixing the chook pen, I needed to vacuum the house again....and in between this Toni decided to have a bit of a meltdown about me insisting she take her proper bag to school which was insisted upon by the school....so much for a rush free, relaxed morning!  Lucky I got up early, or I would have been running very late. Michael came around this afternoon and cut the corro to size and screwed it to the chookhouse door for me. So this should keep Max out now, unless he finds another spot to push through. I want to go around the bottom of the chook pen all the way around with corro about a foot high to stop him or anything else from breaking in. Tonight I have been working on a silk wedding that I need to finish this month. I have sewing club tomorrow, we are making a clutch purse, so I am going to make this for Toni as her formal is coming up next month. I am going to make it out of silver satin, as she wants to wear silver shoes and accessories. I'm heading off the bed shortly, I have been having a few late nights, and need to catch up on my sleep so I can continue on the with the early mornings, hopefully less hectic than the one this morning!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Still hanging in there

So far so good with the chicken.  She is currently still  hanging in there, she does appear to be in some shock, but I imagine this will probably take her a few days to get over. Her tail is a bit droopy, which would indicate that she is not feeling very well, but late this afternoon she came rushing out for the scraps, and she is walking ok and there was no blood on her...I think Max may have jumped on her, not actually bitten her. She is not looking real flash, but getting there.

Kasey has been home today, she has had a headache for the last 2 days, and showing signs of a cold, so I thought it best if she stayed at home. I had a dentist appointment this morning to have root canal treatment on a back tooth. It has ached a little since then, but not too much. Only had 1 lot of painkillers since I had it done, but may be due for some more soon. I have been working on my back on the farm quilt this afternoon, I have got 2 blocks positioned, they are now ready for free motion sewing tomorrow at the monthly block of the month club. I may try and get 2 more blocks positioned up at class tomorrow, but if not I will concentrate on the sewing, and do the other 2 blocks before the next class. I will post the photos of the next 2 quilt blocks after I have done the free motion stitching.We had shepherds pie for dinner last night and tonight. Very yummy, I have posted the recipe on my recipe blog. I always try to get a roast lamb or beef that is large enough to get 2 meals out of, 1 as the roast meal, the 2nd I usually always make a shepherds pie out of, it is one of our favourite recipes.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Oh no, not my favourite little chicken..

I thought I would spend the morning cleaning the bathrooms, and doing the floors, but ended up doing the whole house instead. I feel so much better now that my house is clean and tidy.  It took me all day, but it is worth it. I did get into Kasey's room as well. I think once your child's room starts to really frustrate you, and your child is not able to keep it tidy or play with anything because there is so much stuff, it is a good sign to do a cull and get rid of some things. I cleaned out her toy cupboard, and got rid of all the bits of rubbish she has collected over the last few months, pictures scribbled over bits of paper, plastic rubbishy toys collected from the odd happy meal, broken bits and pieces and general clutter. I also went through her chest of drawers, and bagged up a heap of clothes to donate to the local charity shops.
This afternoon I got a phone call from the neighbour telling me that Max had one of my chooks. I raced outside to find my favourite black girl looking very dead, but to my surprise she was still alive. I quickly scooped her up, and put her under my jumper to calm her down and she is now recovering in a box in the laundry, covered with an old towel to keep her warm. She is still hanging in there so I hope she will pull through ok. She really is a lovely girl, and is one of the only ones who will sit calmly and allow us to pick her up. She actually had quite a good bond with Max and would follow him around, occasionally he would suck her head, I know that sounds awful, but he was so gentle it seemed to be an affection thing. Max is a real character actually, he thinks he is human half the time, and plays on the trampoline, and climbs up the ladder into Kasey's cubby and slides down the slide, dives and swims in the pool. Max is a little over 18 months old, and we have had him since he was 7 weeks old, and he has been around the chooks the whole time, and has never showed any signs of hurting any of them. I think he was probably trying to play with her, but chickens don't take very kindly to being played with! Max can be so gentle, he even goes into the chook pen and steals the eggs if I am not quick enought in collecting them once I let the girls out, and he brings them down in his mouth in 1 piece, and I can ask him to put them in my hand, and they are always intact. I think if he was serious about hurting her, she would be dead...but I am so surprised by him...he has been rounding them up the last couple of weeks, perhaps that has ended up being a warning sign...I really hope she pulls through, hopefully I find her wandering around in my laundry in the morning, and not dead...I think if she was going to die, she would have by now....I'm really hoping that's the case anyway....

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Vege garden replanting....

Today has been very busy. I went to the markets this morning...didn't go too early though, as I didn't get out of bed until about 8.30.  I picked up some vege seedlings, and some mushrooms, and found a lady clearing out a heap of craft magazines for 20c each, so bought quite a few of those as I like/need to read once I go to bed, as it relaxes me so I am able to go off to sleep. If I don't read  I have a very restless night. I am so pleased after suffering for about the last 6  - 7 years with serious insomnia that I am now finally able to get a good night's sleep after my naturopath detected a large strep infection in my gut. Once I started on the antibiotics for that, I have slept soundly....amazing huh....Kasey came with me to the markets, and for once was actually pleasant to take...she usually has enough after about 10 minutes, and wants everything she sees, but I think she might actually be starting to get to the age where she can actually come shopping and I can come home in as good a mood as what I left home in! I did let her have a go on the jumping castle once I got the few things I needed to get, and also got her a Dr Suess book that she didn't already have.
On the way home we called in to Toni's work, and had some morning tea as she was in cafe, and then went to Aldi and picked up a few groceries. Got home and unpacked those, then waited for the man to come with the load of fire wood I had ordered. It was a good sized load, but so it should have been for the cost. I would really love it if we could collect our timber during the year to dry out for winter, to save us buying any...I think Damian is slowly getting more organised with this, but we have still only had enough to last us about a month, before we had to buy this load in.After that I finished the rest of the mowing that I started yesterday, so all the mowing is done, and hopefully it won't need to be redone now until after winter. After that I went out had planted up some seedlings in the vege garden. Today I have planted:
12 snow peas
6 beetroot
6 silverbeet
2 squash
6 roma tomato
4 heirloom tomato
4 fancy green lettuce
4 english spinach
4 zucchini
12 broccoli
I think that's everything that was planted today. Hopefully they all take ok. I now have a roast lamb and vegies cooking away in the oven, which should be ready in about 1/2 hour. I should have enough leftovers to make a shephards pie for dinner tomorrow night.,,,hopefully...
I got some seed potatoes yesterday when I went to the produce to get Max's dog food, so hopefully I will get them planted tomorrow some time.
I am going to try and have a look at a few gardening blogs over the next day or so for some more inspiration, and re-read alot of my warm earth mags to try and do up a gardening diary, so I know what things to plant at what time of year, based on their harvest and growing times.  This will probably take a while to get done up, but should be well worth it once done.  I thought I would use one of my A5 notebooks and make up a groovy gardening based cover for it, otherwise I will do the same but with a larger ring binder or display folder...just need to think about which one would be more useful.  I find that the planning side of the vege garden is the hardest part for me..you know, what is ready when and how much I need to plant, so putting it all in writing in some sort of logical order would be good

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Part 1 Make a Bag sew along project

Well the last couple of days has been busy as usual. Yesterday I went to sewing class, and started on the sleepover bag. I have a bit of homework to do before the next class, so that we can all finish it at the next class. Last night I worked on part 1 - week 1, of the MAKE a bag sew along project. These are the results so far - half finished, I imagine next week will be the lining and handles. I am pleased with how it is coming up.



Today has been catching up on bookwork etc, I still have probably another day in the office to catch up with this again, so no sewing tonight or tomorrow. I was going to spend tomorrow outside in the yard, mowing etc, but that will need to wait until Saturday unless I am really, really speedy tonght....can't see that happening though, there is a fair bit of paperwork to do.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Charm pack for MAKE sewing project.

This is the charm pack I have made up to do the MAKE a bag sew along project. I was going to buy a charm pack, but could only find 1 design, which I didn't really like too much, so I ended up making my own out of fabrics I have on hand. I should also have enough of all of the iron on linings etc and the co-ordinating fabrics, so this project should cost me nothing....yay...I cut 5, 5" x 5" squares, for each of the 8 fabrics, making up the 40 squares I need in total.


I think this should turn out really nice.