Author: Lisa

Hi – with one thing and another, we lost momentum on the continual clean up of the trees.
This afternoon I thought I’d get myself out there and light a nice big fire!
Winter – best time for it!

So, we’ve got the chooks kicking the dead garden material around (dead tomatoes? Corn? Anyway – most of that was nicely dried out (good job chookies) so made for a good starter for my fire

Started heaping stuff on the fire pit… and as you can see, everything is a bit messy out there

Where to even start hey??
All those cement blocks are just crumbling. I am going to make sure they go to the tip next time we go…. or I suppose they could just go ‘down the hole’ haha

Lost a bit of wood in the weeds I reckon!

Suddenly in the middle of it all… a rainbow appeared 🙂
That was rather nice..

So I got my fire going and started getting all the wood to different piles to deal with it later. All scrappy awkward bits went on the fire.
There is a pile to give away if someone wants some campfire wood. Seems a shame to just burn it – but we’ve got a lot and that pile is too awkward in shape and size to store.
There is a pile to stack once I get the wheelbarrow wheel back (needed an innertube and we didn’t have the gear to do it)
And some piles to cut into sensible stackable sizes later on

The chooks were so excited – someone moving the wood and pulling up weeds – bug and worm heaven!
I couldn’t get them from under my feet.
The new girls never shut up either haha

Don’t you just love the look of flames?

Bit by bit I got a lot of it sorted and into some kind of order.
I ended up having to shed the outer clothes and was working in a t-shirt for a while!!
Bit miffed I didn’t think to pick up some marshmallows!

For some reasons tonight my butt muscles are sore! haha Ouch!
Bet you that fire is still burning tomorrow!

Cheers!

Hi!!!
This is my new very favourite photo of Jeff and Pip!
Jeff took up a new hobby over the isolation period of penmanship…
The other day I looked up to see Pip getting involved – probably quality control!
Jeff had just bought some new reading specs… all the greens were quite unintentional but made for a great snap!!

Time to get raking in the yard. Was so pleased how my leaf compost worked out that I put together last year, I am dead keen to do more!

The chook fence was really bad. Believe it or not, the above is the improved version – bahahaha
Seriously!!
Once the trees are done we’ll do a proper fence here
I strung a wire across the top here but one of the chooks just goes over no problems…. will have to re think that one.

Another afternoon was spent cleaning up one of my messes.
Like flat surfaces, a container is a tempting invitation to store ‘stuff’ that you can’t be bothered finding a real home for (a dreadful trait of mine)
This garden bed was filled with netting, a tarp, pots, hoses etc etc.
Everything is now tidily stacked, folded or rolled – or binned!
I have two empty beds that I should place and fill in preparation for spring!

The snow peas I planted have found the tops of the milk bottles and are wending their way up. Thought I would just leave the bottles. If slugs find them, a bit of chewing at the top won’t be as much of a problem as ring-barking them!

The cape gooseberries are agonisingly slow

I get to eat one or two here and there!

A while back my parents gave me a Bunnings Voucher for my birthday – but since we’ve been restricted on going out and shops closed etc, the other day was the first time out there in a long while!
I picked up a big terracotta pot with the idea to grow my sweet peas in this upcoming season!

Time to use last years batch of leaf mould compost!

Of course I cheated a bit filling the pot – bit of wood and straw at the bottom as fillers.
I also mixed in a bag of potting mix to lighten it up.

Things aren’t complete until you’ve created a Dodgy-Bros trellis…
I’ve also completely overdone the planting thing with heaps of seeds in there!
If they germinate en masse this time, hopefully I can transplant some.

Well… its horribly cold this morning – sunny day but oh so chilly sitting inside without the fire on!
I have lasagne to make, soap to make, lettuce to plant and if I get thoroughly over-excited, I’ll clean the dining room table!!

Cheers!

It was nice to spend a decent block of time in the garden… with the aim of getting all the garlic in the ground! (Yesterday)
The patch for the white garlic was a bit heavy with the cow-poo-straw so I dumped 4 bags of potting mix into it to lighten it up.

My usual high tech tool to mark out where the rows and cloves will go

I’ve learned to take specific photos like below as a lot of things about gardening I do automatically because I’ve been doing this a while. Via the gardening pages I run, I get questions on ‘which side up’
Questions are really helpful as they remind me what basic things people need to know.

The bigger gardening page I run with a friend has about 18,000 members! Gulp.
We actually decided to stop taking new members – maybe we’ll open up again in spring but for the two of us… its enough work! Lots of questions are answered by others now – which is great. Very helpful.
A big whack of time was being spent on sorting the 100 plus new member requests daily! Then every time there is an influx of new members, there is an influx of new posts… often going over the same information again and again (some people haven’t cottoned on to scrolling and searching within the page haha)

Its not a big deal and we still get people the answers… but it does make an effect on the time we spend there.
So… we are just letting it settle for a while so my friend and I have some breathing space! (My friend was actually toying with quitting it!)
Yes, we could put on more moderators, but we work well as a team with how the page is now

Its actually been fantastic seeing so many people wanting to grow their own food and its nice to help new gardeners and have so many other experienced gardeners in there to share their information too!

If you’ve ever been a moderator on a Facebook page you’ll know that it also takes a bit of diplomatic skill wrangling a diverse community!
We have our dramatic moments, but overall they are remarkably well behaved!

I digress…
Above! The purple garlic patch!

Elephant garlic! I was lucky enough to pick up some of this at Ruby’s place when I visited Margie the other week! Its monstrous!!

I had run out of regular garlic patches and I was loath to tie up a raised bed for 6 months
So – experimenting with the straw bales.
They were easy to plant into which was nice! (Photo shows spacing not the actual planted clove. Once they were in the bale you couldn’t see them!

And this lot was super keen – so popped them into another bale!

All in all… 243 cloves planted!
112 white
111 Purple
8 elephant in straw bale
12 purple garlic in straw bale!

Hope they are all happy! I certainly am!

Cheers!

I didn’t take a photo of the gross stuff – I wanted to share my delightful new Wasabi soap… just loving those colours and design!!

So… whats gross in my world? Going out to the laundry to put Pip’s food out there for the night, walking across slate floor and back.
Going back out and noticing the floor is squirming.
Serious Ick (I am trying not to focus on what ended up on the bottom of my slippers)
Maggots.
Lots and lots of maggots squelching their way around the slate room.
Not even remotely nice!!

What else does anyone want to do at 1am but get the dustpan and sweep up countless maggots?
Have I mentioned the rat problem?
We ended up having to bait – so dead rats, so smelly, so garlic dehydrating and now maggots.
Just in case you thought our country life was always idyllic hahahaha

In other news… Pip caught a mouse!! That was a Proud Mummy Moment!
I gave him lots of positive re-enforcement “Good boy Pip, you’ve got a mousie mouse….come on, pick it back up… WELL DON’T BLOODY LOSE IT<<<<>>>> ARGH!!!!”
Sigh… He brought it into the dining room and lost it.

Useless cat!

Here… have another soap photo…
Cheers!

Hi there!
I got out to Sharon’s yesterday for the first time since the whole Covid19 World Tail Spin!
Some people spend ISO eating chocolate bikkies (ahem), others eat their way through the fridge. Some indulge in new hobbies or go super mad exercising.
Sharon and her husband spent too much time on Gum Tree and managed to buy 7 alpacas and a highland bull!

So I got to go out and meet them all! They are so funny and adorable! They ‘Fooff’ their chaff at you – not really spit (much) and make the weirdest funny noises!

Baby!

I think Paul is going to give them a little bit of a tidy up trim since all the girls look like Rufus-The-Rough-Nut!

Dalton is the stud! He’s a fabulous animal – pretty quiet and easy to handle… mind you he had to go back on his lead as he got a bit… amorous… lol. Yup – twas all happening down on the farm yesterday!

Who has taken an alpaca for a walk huh?? 😀

We walked over to meet… oh my, I am pretty sure its Fergus.
Anyway, Sharon took Dalton away from the ladies… buuuuut… the ladies followed! (And the ram who now seems to be part of the alpaca flock and is a bit species-confused if you get my meaning… next on their list is some ewes for the poor ram)

And here is (hopefully) Fergus. Isn’t he adorable?? (Its pretty lame to say ‘adorabull’ isn’t it? Yeah, thought so)

Damn…. haha – just checked my messages. Its Hamish. Hamish not Fergus.
Hmmm

Anyway, Hamish-not Fergus – is a gorgeous big fellow and hopefully if all goes well there will be little fluffy calves in the future – jersey & highland!

Ok… There is a Tinkerbell and a Clarabell… What is going on with my brain!?
Anyway, above cow is loving having a bit of a scratch from Paul!

And last but not least – this gorgeous hound, Betty (Pretty sure I got this name right) was picked up as a stray and has now become part of the family! She is a gorgeous girl… still timid at times as they were fairly sure she has been mistreated 🙁
She’s all bum-wiggles and pounds your legs with her wagging tail! So glad she’s found a home where she will be loved excessively!

Cheers from me and Dalton!!

So – am starting with soap! 🙂
Love these latest drop swirl ones! (Above is White Ginger and Amber and below is ‘Made to Measure’ (kind of a manly fragrance)

Testing out how to separate the swirly bits from the plain top
Above is Kakadu Plum and Bush Cucumber, below is Japanese Honeysuckle.

Today – Prepping the garlic plots.
I’ve been so lazy about going out to garden!

Ready – then a sprinkling of blood and bone and lime!

Jeff came out and helped me dig plots! Yay!

Cleared out the zucchini plot and topped with straw. It can rest until spring.

I had the garden gate open for the chooks to come in and play but only a couple discovered it!
They had a lovely time!

No broccoli heads showing at all… and I know!! I need to get down there one night with a bucket and sort out the slugs!!

Happy to still have some lovely rocket in the garden!

Still some passionfruit!

Potatoes… of course potatoes!
It would be a very unusual day to dig in the garden and NOT find potatoes!

Ta daaa… Garlic salt done.
Mind you, I’ve got enough to make another batch but I might put that job/idea on the backburner for a while!

In sad news, my photoshop died somehow.
I haven’t started to look to see if I have the original CDs or look at getting a new one. Not being able to fine tune my photos like normal is killing me!!
I’ve got a type of photo editing program I am using but its not up to scratch for what I need.
I’ve started procrastinating about sorting it out… so… in a few weeks?? Hmmm
🙂
Hope everyone is going well!

Cheers!

Drove west of our place today for the first time since all the restrictions!
I was dropping off a book to Fiona and she suggested a bit of a hike!

So – Mt Misery! (What a name) was the challenge. We are not talking so much of a hike as a bush-bash. No tracks – just game trails, a creek, a river and a lot of ‘up’

Hey look!! Its me! Complete with super-hero shirt!

The colour of the river is spectacular! Its stained from the tea trees and I just love it!

This spot was fairly shallow – we didn’t get too wet as we smartly stepped across.

How spooky does that look? Almost devoid of colour!

I didn’t have the camera out a lot as once we were really going up, it was a scramble over and under logs and fallen branches.
Soon enough the huge rocks appeared out of the landscape

On the right side above is the underside of a fallen tree!

Fiona clearing dead branches as we decided to go up this side of the rock…

Um… I kid you not. This bit was a challenge. We’d just scrambled up the soft leaf litter slope (not much shy of vertical) then up to the left on our tummies between tree and boulder!
So Fiona – nearly 60, me, nearly 50 and we are stuck up this ridiculous rock laughing our heads off because we were imagining how embarrassing the rescue was going to be!
When it was my turn, my feet lost purchase below (you know, on the sheer slope) and I am on my stomach, gripping that tree and some dirt.
Fiona got my hand and I got dragged up enough to be able to haul myself up!

Nope. Things are rarely boring here!

We found more stable ‘paths’ and got to the top of the rock where we enjoyed a mandarin, a drink and a sit down!
We firmly agreed that we’d find another way down – often sliding on spongy leaf litter and going from tree to tree to get some stability (and that goes well until your cousin tries to drop a tree on your head…)

It was an awesome afternoon!!
My clothes need a good scrubbing though!!

Cheers!

Hi!! How’s everyone doing?
Last Friday we had a bit of a fire-fail when the old baffle plate finally buckled and dropped off its rails (and smothered my fire)
Of course it does this on a Friday.
Luckily a local heating shop was open Saturday morning.
I popped in to try to get a new baffle plate. There wasn’t one the right size, but I brought home one that was close – in hope.
Sadly, nope.
Even sadder – no fire on Saturday night.
And what a drama that was!! Pip!! You’ve never seen such a performance!
He sat and stared at the flue where his towel should be hanging warming up. (Then looks at me accusingly)
So… because the little toad is mega-spoiled, I go find the hot water bottle, fill it and warm his spot on the couch with his towel.. and put him in it.
He wouldn’t have a bar of it!! I tried to tuck him in blankets next to me on the couch… Nope. I couldn’t have him on my lap (which seemed the only other place he wanted of course) as I was cutting and sorting garlic.

Cue the sad face. He sat on the floor fluffed out, then when that didn’t work he hopped up onto the coffee table where I would be sure to notice him better – all hunched up, fluffed out and woebegone.
Eyeroll
Tried the blankets and towels again… not good enough!!
Seriously award winning drama!!

I let him onto my lap when I was done with the garlic, under a blanket. He settled in but no purrs.

When Jeff got home I asked him to smash out the old baffle plate so we could at least use it until we got the new one as I wasn’t going through that again

Fire back on Sunday and someone was the sweetest content-est and purriest cat ever!!

In other news, our squadron of possums are wrecking havoc in the garden (by squadron I think I mean three)
Cute little buggers, but grrrr on eating all my parsley in the top garden! They’ve pruned the strawberries too… a lot!

The strawberry patch needs a tidy up anyway…

I didn’t mean to but I ended up weeding the plot below and mulching. (That was the B12 talking)

The possums are getting into the main garden too… I think I know where so I should be able to fix it. They started getting into the parsley there too but I now have netted it to slow them up somewhat

I am up to $110 worth of garlic sales – I’ve separated all the good planting cloves. I’ve set aside mine to replant and sold a lot more.
I’ve still got a couple of bags to deliver and then I’ll have to sort the purple garlic

All the small middle parts of the garlic or the awkward cloves I cut and peeled and finally got to and mixed up my garlic salt.
Yes, it does look like vomit!! Erk
I ended up putting 500g of garlic and a kilo of pink rock salt together – whizzed it all up and added in some parsley as well. Its spent a lot of time in the dehydrator… like 20 hours or so.
The last couple of nights I’ve taken the chunks of it and been painstakingly grinding it in a mortar. (It thwarts my Gee-Whizzer – it just jams up!)
Anyway, I am getting there. We’ve really enjoyed using the home made garlic salt over the last 12 months, so its worth the effort now.

The weather is mostly gloomy and rainy. We have been out hiking a few times this week… in the wet weather gear! Still trying to work off the choccie bikkies!
I made some soap today… hoping to do another batch tomorrow.
At some point I might even do some housework… who knows? I’ve lost the plot when it comes to any semblence of plans or schedules!!

Take care and stay healthy wherever you may be!
Cheers

Hello… Bouncing back kinda slowly after my B12.
I’ll catch you up on goings on next post – but in the meantime, here are the first five photos from the current photo challenge I am running via Facebook. We’ve got nearly 30 people participating… lots of great photos and fun ideas appearing.

Above was my entry for ‘Colour be Bold’ – basically pick a colour and don’t be subtle. 🙂

Day two was ‘Food’
So I went and raided the garden and had some fun putting all the fresh food into a big heart! So colourful!

You saw my Day Three submission for Black and White – nice frothy waves at Fossil Bluff.

Day Four was ‘Make us Laugh’
My caption for this was
“Sebastian was crushed when he realised, that without legs, he’d never get to wear the Yellow Jersey… “
My Dad made an alternative suggestion (too late) and now I wish I had set Sebastian up with a satchel and some letters and titled it ‘Snail Mail’
(Future project only when very very bored as snails take sooooo long to do anything photogenic!)

And tonight I posted Day Five: Scavenger Hunt.
We had to go find 10 (or more) objects starting with ‘R’ and get them all in a single shot.
Its actually quite fun searching each photo for all the R things!
I had no clue about this one until about an hour before posting… During my driving about today I had an idea how to set it up. Then Margie gave me the idea about a reaper (Scythes from Ruby), so I get home and …”Jeff… I got this GREAT idea!!!”
He hardly even eye-rolls now!!

Cheers!

PS – How many R objects do you see??

Hello!
Yesterday I raced off down to Fossil Bluff to get a photo suitable for ‘Black and White’ for my photo challenge. The area is now open but only for exercise.

I exercised up the (very empty) beach, rested and took photos…

And a few more…

Exercised back again then rested slowly and might have accidentally found a few more agates and other pretty rocks 🙂

This morning I got my B12 boost… over a month overdue… that certainly explains my lethargy.
I have high hopes for tomorrow.
Tomorrow does include a trip to Burnie with a buckled baffle plate from the fire.
It fell out, mostly crushing my fire!
We certainly need that fixed ASAP as the warmth from the fire tonight dropped considerably. Really hope they have something in stock I can just get rather than having to order and wait. Fingers crossed.

Jeff back at the hospital tonight! His ward is finally open again

Anyway… time for bed!
Cheers!