School holidays are here.

It's half way through the first week of two weeks of school holidays.

So far so good.

I deliberately didn't organise to do much this time, then again, we don't normally do heaps of things on the holidays anyway.  I try to find as many free/low cost activities as we can on holidays.  And here, there isn't that much to choose from, or places to go where we have been heaps of times anyway.

I figure that since we have so much land here for them to play on they can make the most of it.  It is also a lot further away from town than at our previous house, wherever we go should be combined with other places to save fuel.

We had friends visit yesterday and the kids were happy to show their friends around.  We had home made spaghetti for lunch, and our guests supplied the ice-cream and donut treats for afterwards.  It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and catch up with my friend who I haven't seen all year since moving.  

I am so over tiles and renovating.  The tiles I chose at Bunnings were delivered, but when I came to collect them they were the wrong size, wrong color and were for walls not floors.  The next day I had a message from them telling me the supplier called them to tell them the tiles had been discontinued.  So I had to go back in and get a refund.  The kind lady, who was very apologetic, did call around a couple of stores looking for light blue floor tiles for me.  

So, on Monday I began my search again, and finally found light blue floor tiles I was remotely happy with, then I had to choose new listello's/feature tiles all over again to match the new floor tiles.  I made sure they checked with the supplier on availability this time.  At least the vanity/taps/accessories are safely stored here in the shed!

It is one year ago today that our beloved Murphy was put to sleep.  Also, our beloved Lily, who went missing, presumed dead, would have turned 5 today.  Little Man and The Princess are a bit mopey today, especially Little Man over Lily.  Today we will buy some bubbles and blow our wishes and thoughts up to Heaven for them and everyone else we've loved and lost.  It's what we did last year and have promised to do each anniversary.

Amazingly, since moving to this house, the children have only asked once to play video games.  More amazingly, said video game consoles are still packed away - out of sight out of mind definitely works.  I'm amazed at how many children I see these days busily being anti-social in 'public' with their DS's or PSP thingies.  When we went camping for the last long weekend ALL of the children in the other families who came with us spent most of their time in their tents playing games, only venturing out for food or marshmallows around the fire at night.  There was one girl who walked past me as we were packing up that I swear was the only time I saw her in the entire three days.  Some of the visiting children yesterday came with their DS's and I promptly told my children they were not to play them even if they were offered it.  I think that if you are around other people, then you ought to show them courtesy by putting those things away or leaving them at home or in the car at least.

My vegetable garden is coming along nicely.  I've got lots of grosse lisse tomatoes that should start to ripen shortly, and some Lebanese eggplant ready to harvest.  The wind knocked over a huge basil plant but I've got two smaller ones to pick from.  I have planted a heap of various tomato seedlings that I was given by a neighbour - black russian, beef steak, grape and cherry's I think.  The corn is doing well (better if the dogs didn't keep running through the beds or eating the rotting manure around them), and the cucumber is starting to flower.    At the gardening group get-together I was given a heap of plants - more than I can possibly need right now so they'll be shared with friends and neighbours.  I've started a food forest outside our bedroom side of the house.  I've planted a tahitian lime seedling, two brush cherries and a native peanut so far.  So many thing to do, so little time...

The chicken yard is starting to take shape.  The frame for the house is in place - it's final location was based solely on where we could get the forklift we borrowed from the neighbour to fit in between the surrounding trees.  Now the yard measures around 11x15m.  It's bigger than the backyard at our last house!  The star pickets for the fence are in, and one side of the fence has fencing wire strung along, once the rest is on then the mesh fence can get put on.  I need to strip off the old, rusting wire off the frame for the house and replace it with small bird aviary wire.  Then the old door needs to have the hinges replaced - they were rusted on and had to be rocked back and forth to break them off.  The wire frames around the little pigeon pea and native mulberry in the chicken yard need to be secured with tent pegs to prevent future chickens from pushing them over to get to the plants.  Half of the chicken yard is sheltered by young mahogany trees that are growing in there, the other half will one day be covered in bird netting if needs be.  We have a lot of birds of prey in our area and if we start raising our own chickens we will probably need it.  Later on we will look at digging a trench and filling it with rocks around the fence line to prevent the massive goanna that roams the area from helping himself to the eggs.  I can only do so much to prevent snakes getting in to the yard but hopefully meshing the chicken house with the small bird mesh and leaving the door to it closed when they're not in there, will go some way to reducing that risk.  

We had a common tree snake at our back door the other day.  The dogs alerted me to it, and at first I thought it was an olive python because I only caught a glimpse of it - trying to get three dogs in to the house while preventing two children from getting out as well as stopping a cranky snake from coming in was a bit of a feat.  I called the snake handler to come out before The Groom happened to stop in at home to pick up stuff, then The Groom caught sight of it and proclaimed it to be a yellow bellied black snake.  So, another call was made to the snake handler informing him of this, only to have him suggest that the common tree snake was often mistaken for yellow-bellied ones.  I told him I'd leave it to him to determine.  Anyhoo, he finally came out and had to dismantle the gas bottles from the wall in order to get to the poor thing where it had escaped to.  Yep, it was a common tree snake, who was rather agitated.  The man was lovely and explained the snake to us, and let the kids take pictures of it.  He checked around our house for any 'friends' and gave us plenty of advice and tips.  Embarrassingly, I didn't have any money on me to make a donation to their group.  I offered him a soft drink instead, but he declined.  He had to get back to his paying job.  Thank heaven for the internet, I say.  That's where I found his group and information on possible suspects we could have in our yard.  Hopefully the years I've spent 'educating' the children on assuming any snake they see is venomous and they should steer clear of it is going to pay off.

Well, today I'm off to collect mail from the post office.  A parcel was 'undeliverable' yesterday (despite our being home all day) so a card was left in the mail box with the regular mail telling us to go and collect it.  I shall buy some tinned tomatoes for a slow-cooked lamb shank recipe I'll be making for dinner on Friday night, probably buy a tub of ice-cream for sticky date pudding I plan to make for dessert tonight, then come home to make sultana cupcakes, chocolate biscuits and a recipe for bacon and lentil soup I found in the current edition of Women's Weekly.  It sounds yummy.

Darn those little sick 5 year olds!

I am convinced they are the ones responsible for my being sick this week.  I get to the year 1's on Tuesday with the beginnings of a throat that feels like an unopened pack of razor blades and a headache that is about to explode.  

So, I soldiered on with a classroom full of noisy 6 and 7 year olds all week and now I'm ready to fall down in a heap.  Thank heaven for anti-histamines and paracetamol!  I have them again on Monday and hopefully, with it being the last week of school next week, I'll get a chance to stay at home and catch up on the piles of washing that needs to be folded, and the floors that need vacuuming.

I'm ashamed to say that I missed the start of the State of Origin on Wednesday night.  I saw the dressing room and introduction of the Queensland players but cannot recall being awake to see N.S.W's team.  Little Man thought it was great that mummy fell asleep early because there was nobody else to tell him to go to bed.  He's normally allowed to stay up for kick-off and a little bit of the first quarter then he's got to go to bed.

We had the athletics carnival at school today and I'm completely pooped.  I'm really looking for an early bed time tonight.  The Groom has taken Little Man to his football game tonight, then in the morning I am hosting a gardening group at our house.  I can't wait to show off the beginnings of our place.  I'm making a vegetable soup to share so I'll be off to the supermarket to get vegies soon.  I'm disappointed I don't have any of my own produce yet, but I'm sure nobody will mind.  Tomorrow night we have a birthday bbq to go to, then on Sunday I'm hoping for a 'free' day.  The Princess has rehearsals for her school musical and then is off to a friend's house to play.  

Well, that's it.  I'm about to fall asleep but I have to head out for food.  Maybe I'll just get up early in the morning instead...

Today I'm grateful for a week's worth of work.  My last fortnight's pay slip looked good, and would've looked much better if it weren't for the dreaded tax, HECS and an old Austudy loan deductions.  It's been a bit of a busy 3 or so weeks with work.  Now, I'm looking forward to the school holidays!

TIred but happy

It's been a big week.

I worked on Monday, then I thought I was meant to be working on Tuesday but when I got to school I was told, no, you're not booked for today.  Someone made a muck up somewhere, but it gave me a day to myself.  I did the groceries and bought new flannel sheets for the children's beds.  Somehow they've ended up with one set each.  Don't know how that happened, but anyway.

On Wednesday I discovered that the floor tiles I had ordered for the ensuite were not able to be ordered after all.  We had the same tiles in the last house and I wanted them again for this one.  I'm really sad as I had my heart set on them.  Luckily, the border tiles for the walls had various shades on blues in them (they are those little mosaic-like tiles in a strip), so I found a similar color tile at Bunnings and ordered them instead.  They are slightly darker and more grey-ish than aqua, and aren't as glossy, but they'll have to do.  I'm sick of looking at tiles!  Now that everything is ordered for the ensuite we just have to wait for it all to arrive and then we wait for the builder/tiler/plumber etc to come in.  Later on when we've saved up more money the children's tiny bathroom will be done and then we can get the bedrooms carpeted.  

While I was at Bunnings I got a call for some more work with the same class I had on Monday.  So, this week I've been a prep teacher and it's been really fun.  At least today I didn't go home with a headache!

Tomorrow the school is having their feast day for their saint.  It's at the same school The Princess and Little Man go to, so I get paid for spending some of the day with them.  I like that!  Little Man isn't so sure, though, especially on the day I had his class for a little while while his teacher did something else.  And next week I am working all week, too.  With supply/substitute/relief teaching (call it what you will), it's often a case of feast or famine.  At the moment it's a feast and I have to make the most of it since we've got a lot of bills coming up.  I can really sympathise with The Everyday Mum right now, she is looking at going back to work.   I fall apart on the Home Front when I have a lot of work booked, but I found that at least if we are fed and clothed in clean garments, then that's all that matters.  At least with supply teaching I don't have to plan/mark/report, so that's a real blessing for me.

Well, I've got washing to hang out, dinner to warm up (I made a big stew in the slow cooker yesterday), then I've got to climb to the top shelf in the shed and get down the box with The Princess's winter clothes in it.  Hopefully I will make it up and down in one piece!  I do not like heights at all.  Then I have to start packing and preparing for the long weekend - we are going camping.  This time, though, we are taking ready-made meals (hence the stew) to heat up so we don't have to spend all of our time cooking.  Tonight I'm getting everything ready for a chicken and vegetable soup.  I will put that all in the slow cooker in the morning and then it'll be ready when I get home.  Dinner tomorrow night will be soup and toast, then the rest of it will be eaten on the weekend.  It's going to be cold inland, so sitting around a hot camp fire, eating soup and then toasting marshmallows will be lovely!  I don't drink, so marshmallows it is for me while everyone else sips warmed port.  Mmmmmmm, marshmallows....

My favourite cleaning item

I use Sunlight soap for a lot of things around the house (now this is starting to sound a bit like an ad!) and I remember seeing my grandmother's using it too.  Sometimes I really do yearn for a life where we weren't bombarded by so many choices in everything.  I think it was just easier that way.

I remember my nanas using a soap holder that was shaped like a small square cage on a long handle.  They used it to clean the dishes by swishing it around in the sink to produce bubbles.  They also used it to hand wash their 'delicates'.   I also remember my mum using the little metal cage thing when I was quite small.  

I have looked high and low for something like the metal cage thing and came up with nothing.  So, last year when I was in Melbourne for my grandmother's funeral I found something I could use.  It was in the T2 shop of all places!  It was one of the big tea leaf ball holders that you use in a tea cup.  It's not big enough to hold a full bar of soap but it does hold the scraps of soap left over from grating soap.

I grate the soap on an old vegetable grater, using the finest hole possible.  It must be the finest hole otherwise it's too hard on the hands and it doesn't melt as well.  Once I've got about a cup or two of soap powder I melt it down in about a litre or two of hot water, stirring it gently while it simmers on the stove top.  I keep adding water as I go until there's about three or four litres worth.  Once it's cooled down a bit I pour it all into large jars or my big plastic container I have to hold it all.  Sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of lavender or eucalyptus oil and stir it in.  I use this for washing every day clothes, but sometimes I use commercial powder or liquid for The Groom's grubby work clothes.  I use about a tablespoon or two of the soap mix to the washing.  I also decant some into a spray bottle and add more hot water to make a general purpose cleaner for bench tops and cupboards etc.   

I have on my window sill above my kitchen sink two soap dishes.  One is for the tea ball thingy with the soap scraps in it.  The other has a bar of soap in it.  When I fill up the washing up tub with hot water I hold the tea ball thingy under it to make some bubbles.  I use that lightly soaped water to wash the lightly soiled dishes and glasses.  Then I rub the soap bar onto a wet cloth (I knit my own cotton ones - look for some as a giveaway later on ) and rub it over the dirtier dishes or utensils.  I then use this water to water my pot plants.  Otherwise, if I use the sink to wash up, the water all goes out the grey water pipe to further out the paddock.  Sometimes the dogs drink from that puddle of water so I don't want to use anything that can hurt them.  The amount of soap in the water is relatively small anyway, so it should be okay.  And because the amount of soap that is in the water is small I can use the same water to rinse the dishes in too.

I was talking to a fellow teacher about how I use Sunlight and he said how pleased he was to hear of it.  Too many people seem to want to take a quick route to cleaning, he said, and it's good to hear people still use 'old-fashioned' ways in the home.  Let me put my hand up right now and confess that cleaning is not necessarily something I'd choose to do in my day to day life, but I figure if I have to do it I may as well feel good about it.  And I find that grating the soap and stirring it over the gas flame is rather relaxing!  And - better still, it saves a lot of money, especially if you use a home brand bar of laundry soap.

What a beautiful day!

Some days it's just too good to be true!

I love this time of year.  It is not too hot and unbearable, but it's still cool enough without being freezing and having to layer up in mountains of jumpers.  That's if you live in the tropics.  I grew up in Melbourne and would not go back to living there.  

This morning I woke up and it was a bit overcast and still dark (at 6am).  It was cool enough to warrant putting on a dressing gown over my pj's, but as the day went on it warmed up to the point where I'm now in cargo pants and a 3/4 length sleeved top.  No shoes, of course.  

I turned on Sunday Sunrise and heard the weather report for the Southern states and gave a smug smile that our day here was going to be a fine one.

I was browsing the links to other blogs from other's pages a few days ago (don't you hate it when you find a good site but forget to bookmark it?), and came across a blog where the woman talked about the things she had in her pantry and why they deserved a permanent place there.  It got me thinking about my pantry.  

The pantry in this house is nowhere near as big as the one we built in our last house (but it was a big walk-in one, this one is just a deep, narrow one and VERY impractical), so I've had to rethink what I keep in it.  Before, I would stockpile certain things I used a lot, now I have to keep in there a limited amount of stuff and store everything else in the shed.  That bugs me because I don't go into the shed often and then I forget what I have in there anyway.

So, here are my top 5 things I keep in my pantry and why they are there.

1. Tomato paste.  I love pasta and make a lot of my own sauce.  I love it really rich and thick and you can't make a good sauce without tomato paste.
2. Dried pasta - various types.  See number 1.  I love pasta.  Maybe growing up surrounded by the families of my Italian friends in Melbourne has something to do with that.
3. Capers.  We eat a lot of fish and we make up a caper and butter mix to spread over the fillets before wrapping them in tin foil and cooking them on the bbq.  Yum!
4. Vegemite.  Because everyone should have vegemite on their toast or sandwich!  Also, a light smear of vegemite on the paw of your cat or dog helps distract them from a nasty like a vaccination needle or clipping their nails.  It's also good for their coats.
5. Weet-bix.  I like it best in winter with hot milk and sugar.  It must never be thin and watery, always thick so it "lines the tummy".  It's filling and 'homey'.  It reminds me of mornings after spending the night at my nan's as a child.  Especially because she'd let me eat it on the couch in front of the electric heater - normally we were NEVER allowed to eat anywhere other than at the kitchen table (or our lunch on the back step in summer).

So, there's my top 5.  What's yours?

A time to reflect and give thanks

Today I am at home.

Yesterday I was out and about getting prices on various things we will need for the bathroom (not including plasterboard for the walls and ceiling, or tiles - yet).  I was all over the place and also managed to get in some grocery shopping.  Tonight we are having pea and ham soup - I love it so much.

Today I spent the day at home.  I dusted the bed head (the trucks from next door kick up so much dust), re-made the bed with some new flannelette sheets I bought yesterday from Target ($35 for king size), brought in various loads of washing, as well as hung out as many as I brought in I think.  I put away the children's clothes in their new wardrobes and put on fresh sheets and blankets on their beds.  I vacuumed the floors, kept adding things to the soup, washed the dishes from breakfast and soup making (later I will empty the tub of water out on to the pots with the geranium seedlings in them), draped warm blankets over the couch for t.v watching at night.  I took time out to wander around the yard with the pooches (we have three now) and just 'feel' what is going on around me.  I even managed some time to sit and watch some of The View while starting a new knitted dishcloth (I really need to learn to knit something other than dish cloths and scarves!).  

Soon The Princess and Little Man will be home from school.  I saw the mum of a boy from down the road do the 'bag drop-off' - mums drive down to the bus stop to pick up their children only to be given all of the neighbourhood kid's bags while the children all walk home.  It's lovely and it helps to build relationships I think.  Don't think us mums are lazy - we live in a rural area so it can be a big walk home for little legs and not having to carry a bag makes it less weary for them.  And sometimes, us mums get surprised by the acceptance of the offer for a lift home - especially on hot days!  Or after a big day of school sport.

Hark, I can hear children's voices.  It's time to go and greet them with fresh (defrosted) cupcakes I made a few weeks ago.

I'm still here!

I do realise it's been such a while since I last posted and I feel dreadfully awful about it.  You see, I've been so busy or so tired that I simply haven't really had the time nor the energy some days.

We have finally got the telephone and internet connected at home, so no more driving out to the library for me!  Other than to borrow books, of course.

Our little home is coming along nicely.

The Groom has re-meshed the fences with dog mesh to keep the hounds in.  The freedom they are now enjoying!!!  Joy oh joy!

I've still only got two vegetable beds up, one is full of corn and the corn is starting to, well, I don't know what the word is for it, but there are cobs forming on them.  It's exciting to watch them grow considering I've never grown them before.

The ensuite has been stripped of its internal walls, floors, ceilings and fittings.  The concrete corner spa bath was murderous to jackhammer out.  There is no chance of the house blowing away in a cyclone with all of the concrete in the house!  The Groom was the main demolisher, I just visited often with drinks of water for him.  There was just so much concrete dust flying around everywhere that after the first day I learnt quickly to cover up the bed with a huge tarp.

I've laid out a rough plan where I want the chicken house and yard to go.  I've laid old star pickets along the ground, it's roughly 13m x 12m - I've had to make allowances for trees and existing pickets alongside one side of the yard.  Now we have to make the chicken coop and put up the fences and scavenge around places for an old gate.  Then we will get the chickens.  I can't wait!

I am really itching to get some sewing done soon.  I would like to make some colorful bunting to string along the trees in the area where the chicken yard will be.  We have some lovely birds of prey in the area, and we found a sea eagle nest high up in a gum tree in the creek paddock, so I am thinking of ways to deter them from honing in on the chooks.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  I can't make a full 'ceiling' of mesh for the pen because of the existing trees.

Well, it's another big day over for me.  This is the busiest time of the year for supply teaching and I'm taking all the work that is offered to me.  I am definitely looking forward to school holidays!

Another year older, but not necessarily wiser.

a corner in the creek

On the weekend I turned 39.  And still no sign of a grey hair.  I'm so proud of myself.  The Groom says it's because I've caused him enough stress for the two of us and he's got my share of grey.  I don't think so.  They all got me a leaf blower/vac thingy.  I'm yet to use it.  I haven't figured out yet how to work it.  Then again, we've had the whipper snipper for years now and I don't know how to work that either.  I also went and got myself a pedicure last week, too.  That was my gift to myself.  And, today, I bought myself an Akubra Cattleman hat.  I've been thinking about getting one for a while, so today I bought one while waiting for the bank to open at 9.30am.   Not a bad haul for a birthday I say.

one of the orchids in flower

Here are some more pictures from around the place. I like orchids and when we sold our first house, in 2003, I had to leave ours behind and I regret it.  Now this place has a few stuck on some of the trees, so I'm enjoying looking at them.  There are lots of plants growing at this new place that have to go.  Things like oleander, mother-in-law's tongue, heaps of frangipanni growing in ridiculous, impractical spots and lots more.  I've spoken to a nearby nursery and they'll come out and look at what I want to get rid of and if they want them they are welcome to have them.  They're interested in the frangipanni so far.  It all depends on if they can get them out, though.    

I planted two calistemon in the front paddock last week.  They look pitiful and small next to everything else.  The photo below is one of the trees nearby; I'm not sure what it is but I like it.  We do have a lot of ti-tree on the block (a sign of bogginess I guess) and we're working on how to deal with it.  The boggy parts, that is.  The Groom and I have gone around and identified which plants we want to get rid of; again, everything has to wait until after settlement before we can do anything.

I'm enjoying a life without pay tv and the telephone, but miss not having an internet connection.  The library is a bit out the way for me to plug into their connection, but will have to do in the meantime.  I think for the time being we shall have to look at a pre-paid mobile broadband, but they all seem such a rip-off and full of clauses and loopholes and fine print it is frustrating to try and navigate them all to work out what suits us.  

We are still slogging away with all the legal stuff to do with the sale and purchase of the houses.  It seems like every second day more things turn up in the mail that need to be signed or paid.  I feel so overwhelmed!  I don't recall it being this 'hard' last time.  I think once settlement of this place is over I shall feel better.

I just want to get back into sewing, start my vegie garden and chickens, and just go back to some kind of normality.  The people who own the house we are buying (settlement is next week) are here this week to get their stuff from the shed and the house.  So I'm trying to avoid being around as I don't like the woman very much and I can't trust myself to be nice to her all of the time.  They came over on Sunday afternoon and she made comments I found unfair and tried so hard to zip my lip.  Oh well, it will all soon be over.

Well, Cyclone Paul is hovering in the Gulf and I'm hoping it will not affect us here.  We don't need anymore rain at all.  I did wake up during the night to the sound of rain but it wasn't really hard or last long.  From what I heard anyway.  

I have to go and find some Easter eggs soon.  I've told the children they aren't getting anything from the Easter Bunny this year, but of course, I'll relent and get them something!

Farmer in the Dell I am not!

Well, living on acreage is proving interesting every single day.  

On Wednesday I took the garden secateurs down to the creek to do some 'pruning'.  It was like waging a war on terror with a tissue!  I got to the gate that separates the back paddock from the creek area and I thought to myself "this just isn't going to work".  I feebly nipped the ends of some chinee apple off (and managed to get the thorns stuck in my hands and on my clothes - they even stuck into my pretty pink gumboots).  I wandered along snipping off bits and pieces as I went knowing I wasn't making a spot of difference.

The dogs took off into the water and splashed around, like they are wont to do, then they sensed something and took off.  I saw a flash of white and saw the dogs were in a neighbouring property, then heard cursing from the house behind us.  I'm calling the dogs like mad, trying to get them to come home, to no avail.  Finally, as I decided to turn around and head for the car to go looking for them, they came splashing along the creek and back to me.  They got a gumboot up the bottom and sent back to their avairy (where they sleep or spend time when we aren't home).  

Isn't the picture up the top lovely?  It's of our creek and to the left is a little hole that is ideal for lazing around in.  It's not too deep but the water is icy cold on a hot day.  And thankfully, crocodile free!  There is a fair amount of erosion along the bank of the creek that we are hoping to be able to stabilise.  We just have a lot of work to do first clearing out all the weeds and rubbish plants down there.

While I was looking for them I heard a loud rustle in some grass and I nearly died.  The neighbours had told me wild pigs sometimes come into the area, so that was my first thought.  I stood stock still then realised I'd probably disturbed a wallaby or a bush stone curlew.  I steered clear of that area - just in case.

could this be a wattle growing on the creek bank?

Last Friday we got to meet our neighbours on one side because I'd come back from picking up The Princess and Little Man from school to find our white dog had a bone wedged in the back of her throat at the roof of her mouth.  The poor thing was frantically pawing at her face and I thought at first it was a wasp or some thing, then I saw she was foaming at the mouth and figured it was a toad, then I saw the blood and panicked.  The blood was from her feet from trying to get the bone out, as well as where the bone was sticking into her gum.  The neighbour drove my car to the vet while the children were left at her house with her family.  None of us could get the bone out with pliers, but the vet got it out on the second go.  $65 later, we went home and the dog was back to her normal self.

I've been sharing not only our home with green frogs, but the toilet and shower as well.  The children love it, but this morning I was keeping a wary eye on one frog that was on the shower tap and giving me the impression he was waiting for me to turn my back so he could pounce.  I do love seeing all the frogs, though.  It is a good sign that the environment is healthy around us.  

We have a little family of plovers that live out the front.  Their baby is so cute and so far the parents have been happy to allow the kids to wander around near them without trying to swoop them.  The cockatoos come in the morning and afternoon and vandalise the trees.  They are rather destructive and nip the ends off branches and let them fall to the ground.  I like the curlews most of all.  Their mournful calls at night sound so sad but they are lovely to have.  In the afternoons lorikeets come and screech around the poinciana tree in the front yard.  The mornings bring signs the wallabies have been around poo-ing everywhere.  I wonder if I could train them to do it in the vegie garden when it's built?  Without eating everything in sight in return.

Our house still resembles a disaster zone with unopened or partially opened boxes everywhere.  Some of the stuff belonging to the sellers are still in the house and most of the shed, so once it all goes after settlement we can start to get ourselves sorted and build in wardrobes and storage cupboards.  I have forgotten where I have put half of our stuff and found a half roll of toilet paper in a box with stationery yesterday.  My mind is still trying to work that one out.

So, so far nothing has been dull.  Not even the fright Little Man gave me yesterday when I was waiting to pick them up from school and he decided to jump on the school bus instead.  I had only told his teacher 15 minutes earlier their bus passes had arrived and they'd be catching the bus home from next week.  He only heard 'catching the bus home' part I think!  Thankfully he knew which bus to catch and where to get off, but it was an anxious wait at the school while the office was trying to find out from the bus company (via the drivers) which bus he would have gotten on and where he could be going.  I found him walking down our road with the boy from across the road who had caught the bus, too.  He said he didn't even notice his sister wasn't on the bus with him!  So, if he feels ready and old enough to catch the bus home, then so be it.  

I've handed them their passes and today they are both making their own way home this afternoon.  I was just worried he'd get off the bus and turn the wrong way and end up at the highway!  

Our other house we just sold settles today.  I'm a bit sad, but that's how it goes.  I had a call from the solicitor yesterday saying that at the pre-purchase inspection the buyers noticed one wall from the garden shed was missing and they told their solicitor it was there when they signed the contract!  They were adamant about it.  I called the agent who said she didn't even notice there was a panel missing, but then remembered that someone else who put in an offer on the place early on asked about the missing panel.  I told the solicitor it has been removed years ago to allow easier access to the shed for The Groom's bio-diesel making.  I told her I had photographic and video proof dating back to 2008 to show it wasn't there and to tell them that I would be more than happy to forward it on if they were going to dispute it.  I got a call from our solicitor this morning to tell me she had told the other solicitor about the photos yesterday and had a call this morning to say they'd told their client (the buyer) and they said they've decided to remove the garden shed anyway so it didn't really matter!  What the????

So, with that, I'm off to get some lunch from the library cafe, browse the papers and then head home to my telephone/internet/pay tv free home where I shall be sit surrounded by mountains of boxes and too much furniture, then I shall kick back on the couch and read my Grass Roots magazine that arrived in the mail yesterday.

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Well, we here in the North are on Cyclone Watch.  For us it's the first time this year, and it's promising to be a big one.  But the watch area is so huge nobody is sure who will be the (un)lucky recipient of Ului.  

I like the name Ului.  Reminds me 'yoo-hoo' - watch out here I come!

We've got our kit prepared but I just need to go to the supermarket and get some chocolate.  Luckily Woolies has 1litre Long Life Milk on sale this week for $10 for 1o litres!  I stocked up earlier this week - I usually keep a couple of bottles in case Little Man has drank the last of the milk in the morning and there's none left for my coffee.

We are mostly moved in at the new place.  I'm itching for settlement to come so I can start doing the things I want to it.  Like the garden etc.  The cyclone may change some of my plans if it gets to us, though.  

Looking toward where my vegies and chickens will go

We haven't got the phone or internet connected there yet, so at the moment I am driving to the library to plug in my laptop to their connection.  The airconditioner is so cold in here my arms are stiff and I'm freezing.  I've been clearing up some space on my hard drive as it's nearly full with photos and iTunes stuff, so I've been taking advantage of the high speed internet at the library to transfer photos to Facebook for keeping there. 

 

looking toward the far back corner of the block.  all 5.5 acres of it.

There is a lot to do here for my tastes and our convenience, but our main priority is to get wardrobes installed for the children and a storage/linen cupboard in the 'utility' room.  But I so want to get the vegies and chickens in.  I'm itching to dig and fork and compost and plant and grow and build.  It's a shame the cyclone has put a hold on things at the moment.  And the fact we still have some things left in the other house we need to take out this weekend - we settle on the other house on Friday next week and it feels so odd to go there and walk around and hear the walls echo with emptiness.  It feels like it is sad.

Well, it's way too cold here now and I've got goosebumps.  Next time I come back I hope to remember to bring a cardigan!