A happy traveller through life!
Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens.
We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch.
Or maybe it was the week before? I am losing the plot! As above… plot lost. Below… Plot found.
Corn planted!! So much twitch in this plot. Always makes a short job agonisingly long.
Nightmare. It had been hot for a while, windy and no rain, so the ground is cracking and we needed to fill the tanks and water the garden a lot
Lots of nice peas… and weeds!
I actually think the garlic is about ready to pull up!
The bulb sizes are really good already! Then I cut off all the scapes which are still sitting in a basket forlornly waiting for me to dehydrate them
Potatoes coming along well
Even better this week as we’ve had lovely rain!
Why plant carrots when they do it themselves?
My beetroot patch has lots of carrots and tomatoes…
Its all flourishing
One of the lateral tomatoes. I have updated pics and they are really seeming to be thriving now. Plus we finally cut the feathers of Pot or Kettles wing so she seems to be not in the garden anymore… helps when things aren’t dug up the little wretch.
I spy… blueberries!
Jeff is excited…. His favourites.
The apple cucumbers have taken well.
Hothouse is jungle and I need to get in there to trim and tie up stuff again
And the broccoli is going mad!! Will update this weeks garden soon! Its all grown about 4 foot xx
Hi… I had my first Cruise Ship Market last Wednesday and it went really well. I was a bit nervous… more just wanting to know about location and setting up etc.
The Burnie City Council with a lot of volunteers, arrange this for the 42 cruise ships visiting town over the next few months. Not only do they have the market, but they have a spot for tour vendors to meet clients and go on local adventures and other volunteers are visible around the Burnie streets to ask questions or directions. Even the Mayor (My cousin Teeny!!) greets them off the ship in the morning!
I enjoyed having the gazebo up… even if it needs a little taping up now haha It gives me a shop like feel under the canopy and I could hang my lovely banner. (Note lengths of flax to make into cordage for those moments of not being busy…)
In this location we had a lot of local passers by too which was fantastic. People on the cruise ship were a real mix… Mainland Australia, Canada, USA, Europe. Everyone was super friendly and ready to chat and seemed to be having a wonderful time.
I think my ego might have gotten a wee bit inflated though as I had so many wonderful comments about my soaps. Felt pretty nice!
OK… I did get one grumpy person and one busybody annoying person. The grumpy one didn’t seem to understand my ‘Cash Only’ status. (Not owning a mobile phone means no electronic payments no matter what card you wave at me) Busybody annoying person took it upon herself to butt into the whole transaction-that-wasn’t by forcefully telling me I would HAVE to get a phone and HAVE to get a square etc etc before marching off feeling her civic duty done.
Wish I could tell her I did my best ever sales at a local market… in cash that day… (so ner ner)
Most people had a giggle at my Cash Only sign … the second line if you cant read it in the picture says “Soap maker Lives in the Dark Ages”
In fact… a few people loved my soaps so much they went on a cash finding mission just so they could purchase some! Very heartening.
Overall so far, I miss out on very little sales wise due to only having cash transactions. If Maureen is with me, she has a square to use and kindly lets me use it for my customers. But for now… I will stick to my dark ages. There isn’t that much margin in the sales – adding one more cost isn’t something I really want to do… not least trying to learn how to work the thing and relying on coverage in rural areas. The only times I ‘suffer’ from not having a mobile phone is when I am dealing with Telstra or the bank.
Actually my next investment is going to be a 4 wheeled cart. I made 64 trips to the car loading, unloading, reloading and unloading for the last market. Thats silly. And annoying. And I get sweaty! (lucky I am surrounded by pretty smelling soaps haha)
Above… soap workshop soaps!! Saturday was excellent with 4 ladies coming in to learn soapmaking. One lady returned to do it all again. She has made soap at home but was feeling she would benefit from coming again. An extra lady popped in in the afternoon to watch some batches being made as she did the course a while back but was feeling less than confident about forging ahead alone. She went home, made soap and sent me pics today and they looked great!
Jacki… who also does the cruise ship markets selling her fabulous reversible bucket hats did the above very bright and pretty soap!
Maddi wanted to go all natural with lovely clays to colour her soaps.
Dawn (my repeat student) wanted to know how to do layers…also with lovely natural clay colours. She had fun getting the offset layers which looks so effective
Terrianne wanted to do a drop swirl but also wanted a chunky built up top… which ended up working really well. She even added sprinkles to the top!
Some had mixture left over so we filled pretty moulds
My Demo soap to cut was Blueberry Jam and it worked out pretty cool
Then my demo show off soap showing the cool design technique
I love cutting these ones!
Planning to deliver most of the students soaps on Friday morning. And in the interests of keeping stock up since I have 6 more cruise ship markets and a church market next weekend, I whipped up a simple quick batch yesterday… Saffron and Honey with the saffron to colour… no fancy work at all!
Hi! We got back off the mountain safe and sound after a fab three days. Since then I’ve been running my tail off prepping for the first cruise ship market which was yesterday. Today I am working through a fair sized ‘To Do’ list but thought I’d quickly say hello with a few snaps
I am keen to get some time to post process all the photos and make a proper post telling the story. Until then… The track in was hard work for the first part. A lot of up… that kept going up, but the subsequent walk into Pelion was pretty cruisy. Hot day but still some mud puddles on the track
The native Waratah was just coming into bloom which was nice. They end up quite red. I might have some other pics of them … still have to go through them all properly
Above pic is not long out of Pelion and as you can see… nice and flat!
Beautiful Mt Oakleigh in the late afternoon from the veranda of Pelion Hut
We camped which was nice. The whole point of this trip really was a scouting trip to know where to start and what the track in was like as a Japanese friend really wants to hike in to see the ‘Japanese Gardens’
So my next proper post will be one with all the ups and downs so she can read and make choices about if this is the adventure for her!
Still love these pink trees! After a pretty good nights sleep, we got up leisurely… waiting for rain to stop and just relaxing. A spot of brekkie and we headed out. Jeff went on his own so he could stretch out his pace and climb whatever mountain he desired. I just wandered off towards the Japanese Gardens with a small pack and enjoyed stopping lots to take snaps and enjoy not rushing or having a big pack on.
Jeff actually decided against doing a whole mountain climb and I met him coming down from the gardens. So he came back up with me and we had a bit of a sit down and picnic at what I class as the prettiest spot on the Overland.
Its the rangers that dubbed it ‘The Japanese Gardens’, but its so beautiful. Looks like it has been created rather than sprung up naturally. All the beautiful moss, boulders, rocks, shrubs etc. Just the path is man made but it makes the best place (er… weather depending) to sit and enjoy fabulous views.
The Arm River Track is a great option to have a bit of a peek into the Overland without having to commit to the week long trek – or a consolation prize if you can’t get passes as these days its insanely popular, so booking can be tricky.
Well, the day didn’t have a brilliant start… last night when locking the chooks up I saw one of our girls had a lot of blood and trauma on the back of her neck!! Jeff got home from work this morning and took her to the vet (because I cant go to the vet)(or past the vet) and it turns out it was a tumor that erupted. So chookie has gone over the rainbow. We feel bad we never noticed a thing!! They were all feeding and hanging out with us like normal.
These are a few little snaps from Jude’s garden. She has so many interesting plants!
I am still going up there once a week to help out. Often coming home with a swag of plants to… plant!
Mamma bird in a fairly well hidden nest! Apparently she got a watering before Jude noticed her spot.
Even the leaves of plants are pretty!
A while back we stacked this lot…
When my friend Jaana and I have a free day at the same time (rarely) we walk over to Anniversary Bay and picnic on the beach and catch up on news!
Its always a lovely day out.
I never get tired of the sand art.
And you never know what you’ll find on the beach!
Coming back from one of our hikes I spotted the little Blue Wren admiring himself in someones car side mirror!
He had already made use of our car mirror and made a lovely mess!
Yesterday I did more planting… and mostly tending to the hothouse
A few weeds were creeping in and the tomatoes needed pruning and tying up
The second patch of lettuce is finally growing. I was worried there for a bit.
Par-cel.
Giant Japanese mustard… wow it gives a lovely kick and I love it in the salads
Messy…
More under control but there are some little tomatoes I would like to plant out later.
This lot of lettuce thrived in this spot and we’ve been enjoying eating it recently
I somehow have a potato. Why do I always have a potato???
Decided the basil was ready to just be in the ground…
Fingers crossed for future pesto… and a lot of it!
Cuttings. Couldnt resist another tomato lateral… hate throwing them away.
I was given some teeny tiny tomatoes… so I’ve repotted them and hopefully they’ll have a chance to expand
Still loving my watering system to bits! Thanks Dad!
Two of the late sprouting butternut pumpkin seedlings… thought they could go out. I’ve got more but I have to think of where they can go… which probably means more work prepping a patch.
These two beauties are ready to pick!!
And… planning on a mini adventure tomorrow!
My fitness is… lacking but hopefully it will be nice to get out. We are planing on getting to the Arm River Track and hiking in to Pelion Hut (which is Day Three on the Overland Track.) No payment required so thats a plus. Its one day in. One day to take a day pack and pick a mountain to climb. Then one day back out. I’m just finishing sorting my pack and the food and we should be right. Jeff is sleeping as he just came off a nightshift! Its a long drive to the start… well over three hours. And its a fair hike in. But… we’ve got lots of daylight now so even my slow self should be there before dark! Hope everyone has a great weekend planned xx
Hi! Quick one from me tonight. Getting super old fashioned!! We got a side of beef from cousins – last one (sob) as they’ve retired off the farm so we feel very grateful to fill the freezer one last time!
Gosh its a lot of work – those of you who have done this know! I’ve filled and emptied the freezer three times since getting the meat – memories of having to hammer and chisel the steaks off the bottom live with a person and you don’t make the same mistake twice!!
I asked for not only the bones (for friends dogs) but also the fat too. I decided I wanted to try my hand at rendering it to get tallow… and make soap of course!!
Super labour intensive… I will do smaller batches going forth. But it did work ok! I did it in the oven as my stove top has two settings. (Nuclear and Off)(None of this woossy simmering for me)
It was messy… straining and squeezing it through the cloth! But it looked really good.
The leftover fat is in a bucket and the chooks have had a lovely time… as have the magpies and I have no idea how our local crows can still get airborne!! (Our crows are like the CIA… they do not miss a trick on this property! We are watched all the time!)
I decided to do a pure tallow soap. No other oils, no colours or fragrances either. I just wanted to see how it behaved. Gosh!! Note to self. I need my speedy pants on! The first bars poured out ok then it just thickened in a heartbeat!! Above you can see the last bars ‘poured’ (Scraped out) looking like mashed potato!! Crazy!
They are a beautiful white bar. Apparently the tallow is really good for the skin. I’d like to make another batch and add coconut oil as that will increase the lather component. Then in a month I can compare the two.
While rendering the fat is a bit of a long process… it makes the bulk of the soap ingredients free as the fat would have been discarded. (Has anyone noticed the price of olive oil? Heart stopping!!)
I am really looking forward to trying out the bars once cured. As always… its a waiting game! Hope your weekend was wonderful xx
Oh dear. The year is nearly done! I am still running about doing… stuff! The days just keep disappearing on me Today I intended to make lots of soap. Somehow… I ended up in the garden (Above Gympie in her nest as she is broody at the moment!)(The chooks got a spring clean, complete with lemon balm arrangements!)
The raspberries got netted! They still need feeding and mulching. Might do that tomorrow?? Hmmmm
A couple more beds got cleared out…
then we got creative…
One of my friends has bamboo!! So we went and cut down a heap and brought back to use in the yard. This is my future tomato patch. I want to hang stretchy ties from the top and wind around plants if and when they grow instead of staking them
Another bit of plot tidying… Followed by more creativeness
This is meant to be a trellis for the apple cucumbers
And here is a bit of reality… sob
Anyway, I am ignoring those for a little longer…
Overall things are taking shape.
Laterals ready to go! Today, my soap day that wasn’t, I started planting… stuff.
Apple cucumbers on the right and Egyptian walking onions on left. Jude gave me these excellent shelter tunnels so I will keep some new seedlings under wraps for a while.
Tomatoes… and basil under the tunnels
Jeff has ice cream eating issues and I have hoarding issues. Overall for the garden that is sometimes a good thing! Shelters for the tomatoes because I am too lazy and unorganised to harden them off properly.
Another great thing about working for Jude, is that I seem to get a lot of plants!! I put in the garlic she gave me (creole I think) Bit late in the season but its nice to have a different variety. And also oca. I have had these years ago but lost them somehow. They are a root vegetable and taste amazing baked with garlic salt….
And yep… temp fencing as I have one determined chicken and some random bunnies.
Since I found the wire and had all the stuff out, I made cages for the zucchinis too. They need to not be in their feed bag shelters anymore, but would hate to lose them to the chook or the bunnies at this point. Now they can get the full sun and be a bit protected too. The other smaller plants got re covered before I went in tonight.
The gates also got baby bunny proofed!
And up comes the rocket! Mmmmm (The carrots next door haven’t popped up yet)
Bit of a lame snap but… beetroot up but its scattered with self seeded carrots!!! Now I am in a quandary about whether to pull up the carrots or leave them On the other side of this plot is plenty of carrots so I am leaning towards clearing out everything except the beetroot…
Anyway, the days have been nicer recently… we went through a week of mad wind and cold. As Tassie is known to do…. Hopefully things will start growing well! Have a lovely weekend! (Whats left of it) xx
I’m madly gardening as well… My mental to do list is a bit much!! The above photos are the cut versions of the soaps I posted about the other… Day? Week? I’ve lost track. Surprisingly a bit crumbly with the cut but they look effective.
A last batch of Christmas tree embeds soaps from the other day… actually it was a double batch. Then today I whipped up a batch and used the end of the tree embeds to poke into these citrus and sage fragrances soaps.
I had a good response from my kind Facebook friends re the terrace house soaps so I did another batch. Pic from before windows and doors installed!
I put some Christmas soaps on my shelves at the Arty Duck last week.
It was a super slow day sadly, but I spent my time making lidded fancy boxes for my fancy terrace house soaps.
I used some of them to house my other big fancy (expensive) soaps at the Rocky Cape market last weekend and they were quite popular… ie I sold 4 hahaha. Perspective tho… I don’t often sell my ten dollar soaps!
Here is my pretty setup
(I love my banner)
Maureen’s table… With her husband Gerry’s awesome willow baskets made into hampers!
Lots of lovely stuff.
Jude was also there with her beautiful plants and veggies.
It’s such a gorgeous hall.
It was well set up and the kitchen was making scones and sausages in bread and coffee etc. Sadly the weather was a bit dismal and it kept the crowds away. We sold OK … it was a lovely day out, just would have been better for everyone’s big effort to have more people dropping in. Never can tell with markets.
Speaking of markets… I’ve been accepted to join in with the Burnie Cruise Ship Markets! Basically the council have set up the event of an area of market stalls in town to coincide with cruise ship season.
However… apparently you set up for when the ships dock… mostly 7am (I am going to die) and you stay until they head out… which is about 6pm. Quite a long day!! Not sure what to expect but will give it a go. I’ve nominated seven dates over the next three months so I’ll soon see if it’s worth my time. From what I hear, about a third of the passengers just wander around Burnie and the remaining ones do paid tours so don’t wander about the city.
Overall it means I need to be consistently making soap to keep stocked up and cured in between anything else going on! Fingers crossed!
We weeded the blueberry patch and the garden path. By the time we get woodchips we’ll have lots of places to spread it around to!
Check it out! Potatoes making an appearance!
I went into the garden today between soap batches and they’ve grown a bit more which is encouraging!
The zukes getting some sun And the rhubarb exploding in size
The pear tree had lots of blossoms. Happily I’ve noticed little swellings of pears starting to grow… luckily because the wind has been diabolical today so hopefully what is there now will hang on tight.
I am looking forward to a new batch of spiced pear paste!
(These are all just snaps on my tablet btw)(So lazy)
I had to re weed this patch… and finally planted out the strawberries that the possum ate. One or two might cark it but most look ok.
More often than not, I come back from a day working at Judes with plants! What a dream job hey? My lavender died so I am replacing it with Chamomile that I was given. Fingers crossed I can keep it going. Putting this one in the pot otherwise it would probably get run over by the oregano haha
The poor sage is hanging on by its cuticles still…
In the hot house the apple cucumbers popped up really quickly. The Lebanese cukes are still… resting.
No sign of the butternut pumpkins or luffa either… But I did prune two of my tomatoes.
(Basil from seed doing fine too) Of course, laterals went into water to wait for some roots to grow
Still staring at tomato flowers…
Snowball bush about to puff out into flower
And the cherry blossom is gorgeous.
So… soap My market went pretty well… I failed to take a camera!! A friend sent me snaps which I haven’t downloaded yet. But I’ve been trying to stock up the last few days as what I make now is the last of the saleable stuff for before Christmas.
This one smells amazing…(sandalwood and vanilla) but discolours. I was keeping that in mind and the final rich warm colours are quite lovely.
I poured some more Christmas Tree embeds. Two of which I used today.
Some plain soaps for another project which I started today…
Lovely warm colours too.
Cutting them up takes longer than you might think!! Luckily Jeff has us listening to some Terry Pratchett audio books (at the moment we are well into ‘I Shall Wear Midnight’) so I was entertained whilst working
I had to do this soap in three parts (not including the coloured chunks part) today, so I am very keen to see the results of the cut!
And lastly, but the one I am most chuffed about, started as seeing something on pinterest that I couldn’t find again for love nor money, so had to just try it and see! It was also done in two stages. Above is the snap of the first pour (using dividers to separate the three colours) The leftover mixtures to both stages I made into the ‘Kaleidosoaps’
I was aiming for terraced houses with snow on their rooves and a kind of snowy sky… I was delighted with my first attempt, and indeed I have people saying they want to buy them already! And since I cut them a bit chunky and only have ten… I will need to have another soap day ASAP! (PS I had to hand indent doors and windows on both sides of soaps haha… again… audio book!)
Ahhhh… flowers on the tomato plants in the hothouse!!
Its very exciting. Just have to make sure no mousie mouses get to them first!
I’ve planted more seeds that are in the hothouse waiting for germination. The weather is doing ok… warm, but then will slip back to some cold winds and rain of course!
I found a punnet of basil… and in the interests of oodles of pesto, bought it, and separated the clump of seedlings. I just went and checked earlier and they are all sitting up nicely! (Bottom left is celery (aiming at celery salt)
Jude gave me some Japanese Mustard seedlings so I bunged those into the soil in front of where I’ve planted some cucumber seeds.
I am also suffering from lack of pickled beetroot since I never got around to planting last season. SO… in go the seeds!
Jude also gave me a couple of zucchini seedlings which I have put in near the new apple trees
And due to changeable weather and chooks, I’ve built them fort knox
So far they are both doing really well.
We had a clean up day…
I have no real before photos.. the poor old BBQ area was such a mess again! So we pulled everything out, sorted, cleaned and discarded. Two trips to the tip later… Jeff was annoyed at how much stuff had accumulated, but I think it made sense. We started not doing dedicated trips to the tip once every three or four months. Usually its me having to drop off the household rubbish when I am in town. I am usually doing a heap of other stuff so I don’t go on a trip around the yard gathering old odds and ends to throw away like we would do with a dedicated tip trip. And things build up!
Leaves and debris get into that area a lot making things messier than they need to be. So we had the idea to shade cloth in part of the structure. Luckily for us, my Fabulous Favourite Uncle had sent us some great shade cloth offcuts and this piece was perfect for the job.
Jeff cut back a lot of the branches too and now the rain wont blow in here too much either. Hopefully it will help keep the place less manky
It was a really good job to get done – it was really bugging me but I knew we needed a full day or so to sort it out.
The chooks are laying well! I’ve been making some biscuits lately…
The trick is trying to keep the choc chips out of Jeffs tummy before I get around to making these things!
Anyway, they were yummy. Emphasis on the past tense! There is a bowl of chopped up choc bits sitting there now waiting for me to transform them. Currently a packet of choc chips cost more than buying a packet of choc chip bikkies so it doesn’t make it a financially sensible option. So I got the cooking choc bar and gave Jeff the task of chopping (He might as well take part in the whole thing.) I suppose where you are all from, supermarket prices are just going up and up like petrol? Its getting insane. A good reason for me to keep plugging away at getting the garden in full swing.
I made some jam drop bikkies too…
And in a fit of kitchen activity… some tomato sauce for Jeff who was about to run out! I used the tomatoes in the freezer that he had picked while I was in Japan!
The oregano and lemon balm is incredibly lush. I’d been out a few times with the basket and scissors to gather the oregano to dry, but its rained every time! Finally got to it yesterday!
I can’t even see in the patch where I picked it all!!
Oh… I saw something on a FB reel. Someone made a plant hanger. They’d bought some craft hoops and used zip ties, but I thought I could make it using all natural stuff from the garden… and tied it together with the flax I’d made cordage out of! Pretty excessively rustic but I like it.
Ok… enough rambling from me. I am heading back to the fire. Trying for an early night tonight as I am booked to have a market stall out at the Rhododendron Gardens tomorrow! Hope you all have a lovely weekend xxx
Hello! I’ve been a bit better making an effort to get out and hike more regularly. We went back up the Blanfordia Hill loop in the Rocky Cape NP yesterday, but these photos were from the walk before
Yesterday I tried to keep camera in bag and just concentrate on doing a brisk walk.
There are lots of sweet little wildflowers on the track now too
Yesterday I managed the track and all the ups pretty well overall… I can feel an improvement
Although right now I am baking choc chip bikkies which might be slightly counter productive haha
Jeff is still hauling about a big heavy pack. At least that helps me keep up a bit
I’ll probably have to start doing the same if I think I’ll be doing some overnight treks soon
The days are definitely improving warmth wise and the longer daylight is so nice!
Michelle from Farm It Forward Tasmania has asked if I’d start doing the guided walks again and I think its a good idea.
I’ll just do it as a ‘Pop Up Event’ so when I have time and the weather and tides match.
We’ve also been getting into more work in the yard. BBQ area AGAIN cleared out and two trips to the tip. Jeff tackled a bit of the shed too.
I don’t get tired of the views…
It still gets quite windy up the top.
Ahhhh, Blanfordia Hill… the hill that goes up five times! Always thinking you are done… but you are not!
Jeff just washed the car I am doing the last batch of bikkies, then I can go out and we can finish off the BBQ area and I plan to plant a few more things
Yesterday we saw three wedge tailed eagles!! Just soaring about on the thermals enjoying themselves. By the time I tried to access my camera they were far away
Still looks like a long way to go hey?
We remembered to time this hike yesterday and it took us two hours and twenty minutes
Jeff said its about a 7km hike. Doesn’t sound like much but thats not taking into account all the ups and downs! (OK… elevation)
Sweet little natural moss garden
I tasted a biscuit (cookie) Yum. Now to try not to guts them.
Okies, thats all from me Hope your week is going splendidly! xxx
