Month: August 2018

Hello!!
First thing I saw when I went out this morning were these pallets! Clearly Cousin Jeff had dropped by early! Fabulous!

As I type its raining steadily. It was overcast all of today but didn’t start to rain until we had finished outside.

I had a little windfall recently and decided to surprise Jeff with a shiny new toy. He struggles a bit at this time of year especially. When the weather is gloomy for 99% of the time and you also work nightshifts… it becomes hard work to lift your spirits.

He hasn’t been able to mow for ages now – something he really enjoys doing. Partly because of the weather, but mostly because of that tree – the ride on mower just can’t get to the other parts of the yard.
He has wanted a normal mower for a while – its easy to do the small areas with.

So today he set about making the place look beautiful again!

Its been unkempt for so long, it really makes it hard to stand in among it all and wonder where to start!

Of course… I found some new projects to work on because I am the queen of starting stuff and moving on before finishing. (Really… that coat I made all in one go was something special!!)

Pathways needed tidying

This one is not done – we also need to splurge on some new woodchips.

I have decided that the whole strawberry patch needs pulling up and starting over. Getting out the good plants and really digging in to remove weeds. Will also dig in a heap of mushroom compost before replanting the strawberries.

It was getting dark and cold so we had to quit…

Earlier in the day I experimented with mulching some of the tree branches

I gave up pretty quickly. It does work… but we have had this mulcher a while now and I think the blades need sharpening… or new blades. I want something to work smartly. This small pile took way too long.
Still… I would like to mulch some of the tree rather than burning it all.

I went down to put some more coffee grounds into the compost and saw this!! Cheeky Chook. Its funny when I go down there and find all the six new girls in there and they poke their heads up! Figure I’ll have to cover it soon if I want to keep some worms.

Well… I think I need to get to bed.
If the rain keeps up I suppose I can get the house ready for the folks and maybe even bake something!
Sleep tight!

Cheers.

The plum tree is getting fluffier and fluffier!
I hope we get a decent amount of plums this season. Always depends on the wind really! (and sun!!)

We made a slow start on the low fence for the raspberries.
It always takes so long to do the first bits of new ideas. Hopefully the rest won’t take so long now that we have worked out what we are doing!
I will need to move that little plum tree though…

I’d like to paint it at some point too… probably should have done that before we started, but being honest with myself… I’d never get the thing up if I was waiting for me to paint everything!
I have also sourced a place to buy the polypipe by the metre, so I can get onto that pretty easily now.

Hopefully the whole thing when done won’t look too dodgy and will do the job I want it to do!

Parents are due in next week. I guess I should put some time aside to tidy the house a bit better. Lets hope for a rainy day soon then because now that I have got a taste of the sun, I don’t want to be stuck inside during the day!

Cheers!

Another lovely day! Feeling quite spoiled!
So… on with the gardening clothes and out to it!

Decided to start by jumping the back fence with a couple of feed bags and a bucket to stock up on pine cones for the fire and pick some fresh paddock daffies.

I should return with a shovel and pick up some cow poo as well!

I toyed with the idea of putting some out the front for sale, but to be practical… it would take me quite some time to sort out for fairly little return. And right now I am so far behind the 8 ball that I just need to get my main garden stuff going.

So I contented myself with a lovely big bucket to bring back up to the house

Its probably a couple of weeks before I should plant my potatoes, so I will finish off the patch another day.
Today, I really wanted to get moving on my raspberry patch

Its too close to the duck-yard garden and its hard for Jeff to mow in there.
So I am going to leave the right hand row where it is, but dig up the left row and move it over.  I am also leaving a bit more space between the two rows so I don’t have to fight with the canes when I go picking.

First up… I needed to get the poles out.

That was fun. Pity Jeff was sleeping today! These did not want to come out of the ground in a hurry!
I also dug up the persimmon tree which I think was pretty much dead. There is a nice young blue plum tree at the other end… I am not sure whether to leave it there and try to espalier it and keep it under the raspberry netting, or dig it up and try to relocate it…

Anyway, I put in some steel droppers and dug out a nice big strip of lawn.

Naturally the chooks think this is their new amusement park

Then there was some more digging… I dug down into the strip to break up the soil a bit.

I found the usual glass, nails and other odds and ends!

Next step was to dump a couple of barrow loads of compost in the area

I suspect my raspberry patch will have a few potatoes… never mind. They are easy enough to pull up when they appear!
I did have to cover the new plot fairly smartly because as soon as my back is turned the chickens were back into it… wouldn’t take them long to kick out the compost and eat all my worms!

We need to build a short fence around the whole plot which we will probably do out of pallets – the netting will attach to the fence rather than being on the ground and having grass grow into it. (which is a pain)
I also have grand plans for a door.
We will have to source the big polypipe that we can buy by the metre, the local produce shop only sells it in rolls – which is just shy of $300!!!
But it is an easy way to get a tall frame happening for the netting!

We got nine eggs today! Clearly the warm weather is suiting our flock!

I spent the evening binge watching Battlestar Gallactica and sorting three large boxes of collected seeds!
I am so keen to start planting but feel I might be jumping the gun a little. It is still pretty cold overall.
Patience…

Anyway, many bits of me are a bit tired now! Best start heading towards bed!
Hope your day was great too!
Cheers

Hello! Saturday and it started off pretty overcast but was generally quite a nice day! So back out into the dirt and tree branches we went!

I got all but the last little corner of my potato patch weeded and dug. I ran out of oomph to finish off… plus it was getting chilly!

As a reminder… this is what it was like a couple of months ago!

And Jeff’s woodpile?

Has grown considerably!

The huge tangle of branches is slowly being sorted out, although we will need some help with the big stuff

Tonights shower was divine!! 😀
Hope everyone sleeps well… I will!
Cheers

Hello!! Friday! And another sunny day – bonus!
My energy levels are scraping the bottom of the barrel (I suspect I need a B12 boost) but I got out there anyway. I thought pruning would be a gentle start

The salvia got the first haircut… cleared some space for the iris to do its thing.

Then the roses…

I hauled all the cuttings down to the fire and started to burn them along with a few other bits that were hanging about. The fire was still hot from yesterday!

I then thought I would feel better about life if I made a start on clearing a spot for the potatoes.
I had to rake up the area first – so much mess still in there, but decidedly less tree. I am still digging up embedded branches. One will need more than my garden fork to extract!
I then whacked in some stakes to outline the area so I knew where I was working to. Even got a little weeding done before quitting time!

If I am lucky – I might get another decent day tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

Hope everyone has a super weekend planned!
Cheers

Look at this!! A lovely sunny day and hardly any wind!
I started the day with a blood test. That got me fully awake!
No chance of staying inside today! Back out to the tree and fire pit to cut, chop and burn.

This pile has slowly whittled down to this:

But the pile by the fire pit just keeps growing

Its a huge untangling job – the axes and hand saws are just fantastic. The Gomboy is brilliant and Jeff keeps the axes and blades sharp (um… he did cut his finger quite badly today though. He has bandaged himself up well, although it probably could have done with a stitch!)

 

I don’t think that was a very successful before and after shot!

Pip came out with us for a while

We are both snuggled up in my big cardigan right now

This little axe is great for chopping down the longer length pieces and also for shaving off the small twigs on larger sticks that we will use for kindling later

Once cleaned up it goes to the shaved pile… we cut them to sizes friendly to our wood heater now so come the time when its dry and ready to use… no more effort required

As mentioned before… the Gomboy is a joy in the garden… it just hurls its way through the wood!! This was quite a decent sized branch but it took no time at all to saw through… OK – well it took less than a minute. (Probably. Maybe I’ll have to time one of these so I am not accidentally telling outrageous lies)

I love the grain in this wood!
It was still hard to get out simply because the force of the initial fall drove it a foot into the ground!

We are getting through it but there is still a daunting amount to do. I really have to take a break from it and start preparing a few patches in the garden so I can get my potatoes in and reconfigure the raspberries!

Well… I am a very tired and sore person tonight, so I am going to exit stage left and head to bed!
Hope your day was fabulous too!

Cheers

PS – today finally and suddenly we got our connections back on!! Still no word from Telstra at all about anything. (No surprises there) Just great to have the phone back especially!! Got to call Mum and Dad and catch up!!