Month: March 2020

Hello!
Thanks for all the messages, well wishers and updates of whats happening in your area. I do enjoy reading snippets of your lives when you get the chance to swing past the comments section
My birthday was, of course quiet and low key.

Jeff got in a little late so we didn’t go for a walk… he was pretty done in.
He got me an awesome present… a merino long sleeved top to add to my hiking wardrobe!
I picked up a couple of merino tops a while back and I adore wearing them on the trail!
So happy to have another lovely one- its so comfy (Yes I was wearing it today!)

I really didn’t do much at all! I think I was on the phone to family for a lot of the day which was lovely. A big ring around catch up!!
I did manage to bake myself a cake.
I planned to make some soap but… just didn’t quite get there and I was dead keen on having some cake!

Support chook is branching out in her eating habits.
I was ‘donated’ a few bags of meat that… well… went funny in someones car because they were pregnant and forgot about it and she was horrified and upset and needed to offload the sorry package.
I chopped it all up small and froze it in bits…
I cooked up meat and potatoes and tempted Dianna with it. She eats the meat and leaves the potatoes (Progress)

Our other girls aren’t nearly so selective haha – greedy guts chooks!

Dianna (The Huntress) also seems to really like baked pumpkin!! Go figure!
Really went for it (That was just in some scraps and she honed in on it)
She is getting heavier. She still forgets how to drink properly from her container. So I let the hose drip for her to get what she wanted. Its a little tedious!! She pecks a little at the wheat now too.

But slugs!! Oh the slugs!
I collected her late tonight to pop back into her cat carrier… but as I came up through the top garden with my head torch on I could see lots of slugs… so I put her down and she woke right up and got into clearing all the slugs in sight.
Can’t say I’ve ever been spotlighting with a chook before!!

I’ve decided to set myself a little challenge. Jeff is on board (Has to be two of us in this).
I will pop back to the supermarket later this week and collect a few things that we will store or freeze and top up on food and kitty litter for Pip, then see how long we can last avoiding the supermarket.
We’ve got lots of food, stored or preserved – or frozen, so we don’t usually go to buy heaps of stuff generally anyway. Often its just staples that we can’t do ourselves.
A good chance to work through the freezers and be creative.
So… it will be interesting.

Thats about all from me.
Hope you are all doing well in your part of the world!
I’ll leave you with a photo of some gorgeous sunflowers that my lovely cousin Fiona dropped off to me!
It was so awesome and so weird. We are having a long distance chat over the driveway, she put flowers down and ran back so I could collect with the ‘wash your hands’ instructions!
Was a lovely boost to my day!
Cheers

Hi – I keep getting distracted and side tracked lately, then glued to reading stuff online and then thinking ‘I’ll blog tomorrow’
Everything is changing daily – its hard to keep up!
From today (its just past midnight) no gathering of more than two outside family groups that you live with and enforceable by law.

I did go into town today – I’d been waiting to do a few things at once.
I managed to sell 10 of the above packs (seeds and soap (and garlic)) via one of the facebook pages I’ve been helping moderate for a while now.
So I picked up post boxes (they didn’t have enough so hopefully when I drop the first lot off they will have their stock in)
It was a good boost since there will be no markets for a long while. (Seeds and seedlings are scarce at the moment since everyone wants to start a garden and raided all the shops, both real and online!!)

The supermarket was stressful! Its like running the gauntlet! I overheard staff saying they get their regulars in every morning as if nothing is going on!!
So many people were in there. This usually doesn’t make me feel anxious but today was different.
The lady in front of me – her two sole purchases were a box of coke and a bottle of fizzy drink.
In my world thats not an essential shopping trip.
(And then I got the guilts because I was second guessing myself about my post office trip being non-essential?)(Although everyone has paid me for these items so … )

I shouldn’t over think!

It was nice to come home and go on a slug hunt and dig worms with my ‘support chook’ 😀

Tomorrow is my birthday! (Well technically I am an hour into it) The last year of my 40’s coming right up!!
I can be pretty confident that there won’t be any surprise parties haha.
If Jeff is feeling ok after finishing his night shift, we think we know a place thats still open to go for a good walk and stretch the legs properly.
Fingers crossed.
I am lucky enough to share my birthday with my gorgeous niece, Emma – so no doubt we will get on the phone and sing to each other!! 🙂
No other plans except there are a lot of tomatoes to cut and cook and I am pretty sure I need to make some more soap.

Hope you are all doing fine and not going too stir crazy.
Cheers

Hi! My Nurse and Nurse-Bear encourage people to stay home where possible 🙂
My Nurse-Husband went off to bed yesterday to sleep off a nightshift and Nurse Bear gave me a hand with boxing up the potatoes.

And consulted with our odd chook out who forgets how to drink normally or eat chook food…

So… first up this morning, Barry from the market knocks on the door with my 32 bales of straw! (Well, he didn’t bring them to the door but you know what I mean!)

Nice timing Jeff going off to bed!
Just me and Nurse Bear and 32 bales of straw to relocate haha

Needless to say, I did most of the work…
I stacked most up in the carport and rigged a tarp over the exposed side so hopefully that will keep most of the rain from getting at it.
A few bales I will get into the garage to keep as dry chook bedding.

I lined a lot of the bales up along the fence in the garden and will start conditioning them with watering and blood and bone so they will break down quicker for nice mulch.
If I get thoroughly over excited and organised I’ll even try planting something in them.

And I used a bale to restock the chicken coop after an overdue clean out!

Of course, a few of them were in there instantly trying to kick it all back out… and Dora was spotted AWOL in the back paddock again!! 😀

Another task on my mind was to plant some more things.
I KNOW I insisted with myself about not doing a winter garden… and things may or may not work BUT – with things the way they are it seems silly not to just try.

This garden did reasonably well with some sunflowers, plenty of rocket and the marigolds. The sweet peas never showed!!
I collected a few sunflower seed heads then ripped the lot out.

Ahhh yes – potato.
Growing in the gap of the raised bed and the fence. How convenient!

With a lot of acrobatics I managed to wriggle and wrestle up a really nice lot of potatoes! (To add to our collection)
(I laugh to think of all the careful attention of preparing a plot and planting and making a huge to-do out of the whole thing – and left to their own devices I get gorgeous potatoes with no effort from me!)

Half the plot I planted carrot seeds, the other half I added in some of the cowpoostraw and planted spinach and rocket.

And of course I had help.

The forecast is for rain coming up so I thought I should have some shelter made up for Dianna the Huntress. I could put her in the hothouse but not many bugs and slugs for her there.
I worked on the idea of a blanket-fort and came up with this stunning bit of architecture!

Cosily decked out with straw.
I was happy to see that in the evening she bedded herself down inside! We are still putting her in the cat carrier and having her sleep in the slate room. She is still very underweight so I think she needs longer TLC.

Random garden and straw shot…

Tassie update: We are kicking all the tourists out by Sunday night.
Midnight.
I am a bit curious about how that is going to work…
Jeff and I went out – we had some separate tasks to do. I topped up some things at the supermarket and tried to buy too much chicken. Apparently there is a 1kg limit on deli chicken cuts. I think its a bit too small really. Jeff and I would usually have 800g in a meal between us, so a kg won’t do two meals which means going back which is a pain and doesn’t help if you are trying to avoid town… Not to even mention that what if you are a family of 5 or 6??
People who jumped the gun panic buying and hoarding need a solid kick in the pants.

We dropped off a box of food – eggs and veggies and shared some rice with Shirley. We chatted through the door (Lots of distance)
I also dropped into my friends shop. She was closing her doors today so I made last purchases before that happened. (Got to help the locals where you can.)
Dropped off another dozen eggs at a cousins front door before coming back home.

A friend dropped in and collected eggs and fresh veggies and she dropped off 5kg of onions that she got from a local farm.

It was like the long distance dance of the eggs and veggies today!

So… thats where we are at.
Hope you are doing well as you can in our crazy world!
Cheers

Hello there!
Check it out! Enough tomatoes to make relish! We were getting close to our last few jars which was alarming! We do love this relish!
The way things are going, I reckon I might get another batch – we shall see!

So, this is all yesterdays news. I left it too late to blog last night.
I decided to go out into the garden and dig that patch of potatoes completely up!

Not a bad haul of spuds considering I’ve been bandicooting them since November!

Somebody was at my side all day! I like having a companion chook!
She still doesn’t eat much of the proper food… but she’s a demon on slugs!
Sucks back those worms like spaghetti too!

I found a rogue potato plant under the zucchini, so Diana (the huntress) also had to come in and ‘help’

Dinner… so sweet!!

The ‘fend for yourself’ broccoli is being eaten a bit but they are all surviving so far

A few blackberries on the back fence. I ate this one and had to spit it out! Made my ears meet in the middle!! (sour)

Welcome to my problem child garden!!
Yipes what a mess!!
The hugelkultures are not a raging success – so far.
Although I seemed to have ticked one goal by having nasturtiums growing all over it! (I also wanted pumpkin but…)
The season was too late, the wind just blew stuff off, battered the pumpkins and remained cold. The blackbirds dug all the top stuff off before it could even think about composting… and I think there might be rabbits living in there!! Of course, the alternative could be rats or snakes but lets just go with the rabbit idea

And weeds – must return with gloves

I haven’t given up hope. I just need to rethink.

This one is worse in one way and better in another!
It looks a total wreck!!! It was MEANT to have cucumbers happily growing all over it. Again with the weather – my cucumbers in the hothouse didn’t even do much!
However – lovely potatoes growing in the sides and a marvellous lot of tomatoes on top!! Why do tomatoes just get everywhere??

The second plot of potatoes, despite all my neglect, seem to have something worthwhile under the soil!

I scratched around to see if there was something but I will wait until Jeff has some free time to dig this plot together. He enjoys that part of the season as much as I do! Don’t want to deprive him!

In among the weeds, I’ve managed to spot at least 2 butternut pumpkins! Again – need gloves to get in there and investigate properly.

So pretty! Going to have to have a taste of them too since they are edible! First time I’ve had them in the garden! At least something in this whole plot looks attractive!

Anyway – that was my day!
How was yours?
Fabulous I hope
Cheers

No prizes for guessing where we went yesterday!!
After a number of really gloomy wet days it was sensational to get out – not to mention away from the news for a while

We met our cousins, Fiona and Abbey and we did an extended loop over the Sisters Hills and Rocky Cape. (Its so weird meeting family and not doing the hug thing and staying separate!)
We went up along the coast before heading up into the hills

Picnic lunch at the shell beach where we picked up lots of cowries and generally enjoyed a bit of fossicking!

The rope netting mess still very much a part of the scenery – I hadn’t realised that the rope must have been underwater so long it grew coral!

Social distancing…
Jeff managed to get about 30 minutes ahead of us by the time he was done! Clearly taking the personal space thing VERY seriously haha

Leaving the beach…

We actually didn’t do the full loop – there was a ‘short cut’ up over another hill that met the main track, so we thought we’d try it out.
Wow… it was a fair slog up but the views!!

We encountered a small white lipped snake… laying directly across the path! Was in no hurry to leave either. Pity I didn’t get a snap for you. I did a lot of ‘shooing’ and it was taking no notice of me at all!!
Finally it mustered up the energy to glide off into the scrub!

Looking over the other side to Rocky Cape

Just lovely tramping through the hills!

I was really footsore last night and this morning – it was the first real outing my new shoes have had. Did I tell you I got new hiking shoes?? Jeff bought them as a surprise as my other ones were falling apart.
They really are very comfortable – the soreness was really from the impact I think as I haven’t done a lot of hiking recently

So – Whats changed in the last few days in your area?
Tomorrow, nationwide, pubs, clubs and restaurants are to be closed. Take-away will be ok. Schools were to remain open but three states are pretty much saying nope, we’re closing schools.
I am sure it will be all sorted in the next 48 hours.
Interstate travel is to be restricted.
The numbers of new cases are steadily climbing.
Again – Jeff and I living the lifestyle we do with no kids – we aren’t finding our daily life/routine a lot different. Except I try to go to the supermarket even less 🙂
Disappointed in small things like no soap workshops or markets, but easy things to go without.
The biggest conundrum I have is whether to visit Ruby or not!!
What is worse? A small tiny risk to visit? Or not visiting a 103 year old lady who really isn’t able to do much else but enjoy company when presented with it!!? We saw Margie in the supermarket today – keeping all nice and separate – and she worries about the same thing.

I wonder where we will all be at in 3-6 months time? How our lives are changing!!
Take care everyone!
Cheers

Hi there!
Bit of a gloomy inside day – did a quick shop run and took some things over to Ruby and Margie.
Thought you’d like to see how the Taiwan Swirl was done – although it would be better in a video!
Mixed 4 colours up and had my dividers in the loaf – last time I only used two. This time I did three…

Slightly fiddlier getting the mixture into the middle slots!!

Its amazing how the colours stay pretty well separated when I carefully lift the dividers out!

Then there is the fun bit of dragging the paddlepop stick through the colours blending them just perfectly!

Then by running the stick around the very outside of the mould a couple of times, it pushes the pattern into more of a pleasing slant!

Here is the one I did the other day!
You can see the pattern if I cut it vertically. Nice but not what I am after of course.
The horizontal pattern is what I am after!

I’ve settled on this slightly narrower and chunky cut. I only get 8 soaps out of a loaf instead of 12, but I’ll just adjust the price accordingly.
They should look really smart once I have beveled the edges and tidied them up!
I just went and cut the other soap from above while I was waiting for photos to load – and I am pleased with the design and colour mix!!

I might have made another batch of soap tonight but you’ll just have to wait and see on that one!

On the Covid19 side of things… Tasmania is closing. At midnight (Now gone by one and a half hours and where does the time go and why am I still sitting here?)
All non essential travellers into Tasmania are required to quarantine for 14 days!! (Thats tourism done and dusted for a while)
I think we only had 11 confirmed cases but our state is an easier one to control in that way.
Panic buying in supermarkets is still ongoing. Sigh. Now towns in reasonable proximity to larger centres are being raided and stripped by bus loads of people from cities!
Firstly. That’s rude. Secondly… social distancing does NOT include bus travel with a heap of other people!
No loo paper on the shelves today, no flour either but I did get some bread!

Hope you are all coping well,
Cheers!

Hello!
I put down the soap making stuff for a day and Jeff and I went out for a drive to find a potential new panning spot and also see a new waterfall.

A nice little area – far away from people although I saw a few hoof marks from riders.

I wonder how old this log bridge is? Was still sturdy in the middle.

Jeff found a couple of specks of gold, but we were being eaten alive by mozzies! Next time we will bring gumboots and insect repellent.

There was a bit of fungi about but nothing too exciting

We failed to find the waterfall – we were in the right spot but there was no track to be seen!! Again, upon return we’ll get some GPS co-ordinates, wear gaiters and bring a machete!

We were passing near by Sharons- so we dropped in!
Woman with a big chopping thing haha
She offered to take us to their local falls which we hadn’t had a chance to see yet!! The way in was dense blackberries (Must return with bucket)
So she hacked a path and in we went!

Jeff took Lottie over the worst of it!

Sharon giving those blackberries what-for!!

Amazing to drive through the logged areas and their unkempt weedy blackberries – down to such a natural and beautiful spot!

And there it is… a short walk along the rivers edge to a beautiful clearing and waterfall!

And yes… I did get my feet wet to get better angles for my photos! 🙂

Great spot for a kid to run wild in!

And a photo for you, Judy, of your handsome lad!

Well – thats us. Out and about in our beautiful area!
Hope your week is going well!
Cheers!

Hi!
We escaped the house looking for a waterfall and a place to do some panning.
We didn’t find our intended waterfall… Jeff did find a couple of specks of gold though!
Dropped back via Sharons and she took us on an adventurous walk down to see their local falls!!
Off to bed now but thought I’d at least share one photo!
Cheers!

Hi!
Lets start with soap!!
This was the slab in the tupperware container that I made up at the show demo on the weekend.
I took it out of the mould today and cut it.
Really pleased with the bold swirls and chunky size!

Then today I FINALLY got delivery of a package I had been waiting for for I think an eon!!
Its a new loaf mould with dividers so I can do some interesting techniques more easily!

This is called a Taiwan Swirl!!
I’ll have to take a few step by step photos of it next time. The colours are divided longways into strips. The you run a paddlepop stick up and down crosswise.
Then… you run the stick along the outside edge a couple of times which pushes the design thus:

Its going to kill me waiting two days until I can cut it haha
The mixture drops in the mould a lot as the dividers are taken out so I had enough mixture left over to fill a couple of dragonfly moulds

This little fluffy-bum hasn’t been well. She’s been slow since we brought her home. She drinks well but doesn’t eat. The other day in the wind I noticed the poor girl being pushed over by it!!!
So decided she needed to be inside at night and hand fed. She ate a bit to start with, then went off everything but green stuff.
She is so light to hold!
Today I had a breakthrough! I’ve been putting her in the veggie patch for a while with me and thought maybe she’d like the compost – worms…
There was a half hearted attempt at them but not much
So… I took her out and voila! She found this horrible big SLUG and worried at it and pecked it until she finally gulped the whole thing down! (Shudder)
But good!! So I picked up an old cardboard box and found more slugs under it … then she got the hang of worms!! I’ve created a monster! I helped dig but she sucked back so many!!! One we found was huge… I tried to take it away because I like the big worms… but she actually snatched it and ran off with it!! Made me laugh. First bit of real animation I’ve seen in her!
Sadly one of the other new chooks has a cancerous growth on her leg and tomorrow is her last 🙁 Hate this part of owning chooks. She is in the smaller cat carrier inside in the warm tonight
The other three are fine. One I have named Dora. She has found a route over the fallen tree debris and happily just wanders around the back paddocks the naughty girl!! At least she returns.

Rocket seeds ready for collection!

I have a couple at least of these Goldilocks pumpkins growing well

Plenty of beetroot happening – I am still stocked up ok on pickled beetroot but its nice to know I have backup 🙂

That self seeded tomato that popped up out the back is wild! Produces beautiful large cherry tomatoes.

Lots of lovely fresh food is on the table daily. I am not much for photographing meals!! 🙂 Too eager to be eating! Anyway- fresh dug potatoes, that lovely corn and the first stuffed tomatoes of the season!! I have really missed those!

They only take a few minutes under the grill to be ready.
Really enjoyed dinner tonight!
Hope everyone’s week has started ok. I am sure so many of you are affected by lockdowns and closures… and empty supermarket shelves.
Here’s hoping we hear more of people trying to help others out and sharing where needed instead of this grabby me me me attitude we keep seeing reported!!
The next few weeks are going to be ‘interesting’ indeed.
You all take good care!
Cheers!

Hi there!!
Yesterdays show day was a success!
Sharon and I had a great day talking to people about goats milk soap and doing our demo!
Sharon even unexpectedly sold a goat!! (No we didn’t bring one)(Hence the unexpectedness)

Sharon had a big basket of lovely pure natural bars of soap and a smaller basket of her lovely creative soaps – some from classes and others she made. Lots of people were interested in the workshops so hopefully there will be more dates locked in soon!

I hogged most of the space with a lot of soap. 🙂
Again it was rather nice seeing it all displayed out!

The dragonfly soap sold well, so did the lemongrass essential oil soap, the chocolate soap and, interestingly, the honeysuckle that I thought was a bit strong.

People also really liked the slabs of soap!! So, note to self… will do more of those!

Our demonstration went well!! Sharon got momentarily sidetracked with the headset mic and swung into some karioke YMCA with actions to a slightly unsuspecting audience… but then we got into it haha

Margie and her friend Chris came along which was awesome and Kirrily turned up with her new fiance (wow) to buy soap and cheer us on.
Sharon did a great job of explaining the basics while we put together our mixtures. (We pre made the lye and had all the ingredients pre measured)

Sharon made a wonderful tray of soap with some natural clay colours and allowed people in the audience who were interested to come up and decorate the tops with dried flowers or poppy seeds…or both!
I on the other hand went for a complete contrast with one of my loud happy hippy 70’s mixes – will have to take a snap tomorrow!
I also brought along a loaf mix so people could have a go at cutting it!
I rather liked this effect!

Almost like ice cream cake!!

Anyway, it was a long day but pretty fabulous all around. I really enjoyed sharing a stall with Sharon and people were so enthusiastic about our soaps so that was really nice!
I know Sharon sold well and I am happy to report that I sold nearly $400 worth of soap yesterday!! Can you believe it??
The best thing? So. Much. New. Space… in the library to fill… already planning some more creations!

Hope your weekend was as marvellous as mine!
And here are some veggies just to show you that normal life stuff is still happening in the background!

Cheers!