We’ve had a stretch of mostly really lovely days! I finally caught my Straw Guy (Barry) at the market and happily he still has straw bales available. I’ve ordered about 30 for drop off (tomorrow I think) but we grabbed one on the spot so I could clean the coop.
First off – I am so delighted at being able to easily get the wheel barrow through the new chook run door! Its a comfortable width so I don’t even have to watch my knuckles! Having the barrow at the coop door to shovel all the pooey straw into is so much better!
Freckles couldn’t resist getting in to see what I was doing!
I did a bit of extra weeding and then dumped all the straw straight onto a couple of the unused garden beds
They won’t be used until spring so I am hoping any of the fresh manure will have broken down and aged enough by then
I did a quick prune of the Rosemary bush and stuck sprigs of it everywhere and stripped and crushed some branches off and scattered the nice smelling leaves into the straw and nesting boxes
Much better. Gets mucky quick with 15 hens!
I am trying to work out how to describe (without using swear words) how HEAVY this lump of timber was!! Basically after I got it up into the garden I looked up to see:
Nice timing Husband!! I wanted to use it as an edge to the garden that had the potatoes in it last season. I started digging around the whole plot but its sodden and way too hard to do effectively at the moment. (The red soil sticks to my boots and I end up about 2 inches taller!)
So I just did this bit to get a permanent path between the patches
First a sawdust layer… should compact and help smother the weeds
Luckily I had some cardboard on hand
And finally the woodchip I’ll wait for another day to weed the ex-potato plot then I’ll put a thick covering of straw on top.
Hello… just zooming by today. Sun is shining so need to pull on my hiking pants and get out there!
Above is a start to a new basket I did while teaching my cousin Fiona and her friend Prue how to do it! We had a lovely day. Fiona has heaps of flax in her garden to use plus she made us an awesome lunch. The day was cold and dreary so a good use of a winters day!
My current basket is coming along nicely. At Fridays workshop, the teacher, Adele had supplied some pretty yellow/green flax which I’ve incorporated into my basket.
The colours will fade (and they have already) but the remaining hue will be different from the other flax used I just got a photo while it was fresh and bright!
Hello! A lovely sunny winters day here… After forcing myself into a bit of housework, I got out to the garden and pulled up the carrot patch.
Normally I wouldn’t bother and just keep pulling up carrots as I want them, but I want to use this garden for the white garlic. Why? Because its the biggest space with the least amount of work to do to get it ready haha (how lazy is that?)
I have a lot of rather nice carrots salvaged! Some had been nibbled and some small I’ve put together a small crate to take off to basket weaving tomorrow and people can just take what they want to use. I’ll use some of the nicer above ones – maybe grate and freeze some and also share some around to local friends.
Anyway, the plot is ready… will need to dig in some manure/compost/blood & bone or something then get my white garlic in. Then thats my winter gardening done! (Yeah – totally not hurting myself over it this winter 🙂 ) Still cleaning up jobs to be done which I will save for nice sunny days and do that bit by bit!
Hello! Last Tuesday I did one of my ‘guided walks’ with the aim to walk up the coast to fossick for shells etc. Two ladies came along that are friends of mine (Kaz and Marilyn)
The weather was spot on that day!! And check out this – I either have never seen this or didn’t register it in my brain because I didn’t know what it was
Marilyn explained that it was a stingray that had fooffed about in the sand at high tide leaving the body and tail imprint! How fabulous!
We continued up the coast navigating those rocky shores
Its not a fast place to hike thats for sure
Takes a while to carefully pick your way across and then up and down even more jagged outcrops.
The ladies were still in good spirits and I was asking the sea gods to PLEASE make sure the shells were still on the beach that I was aiming for haha
The small creek runoff that I was expecting was a LOT wider than usual. I stomped over it but Kaz and Marilyn adopted a daintier approach that saved their feet from getting wet.
At least no-one fell in…
Always so much to look at on the shores
As usual great textures in the rocks and sand
It was taking a while to get to my fossicking beach!
Some interesting sponges – mostly orange
We even came across that hell-stinky-not-ambergris sponge (I didn’t get a photo and nor did I touch it!!)
Amazingly bright colour!
We spent some time on the shell beach although with the recent weather, there were more rocks than shells than usual We had lunch there and at that point Marilyn was quite emphatic about NOT going back over the rocks to our start point. So I figured we’d walk on and up to the inland track and double back
Goodbye jagged rocky beaches and hello scrubby pathways!
Sometimes almost monochromatic landscape!
Finally coming out of the gloom
Where we started to get fabulous coastal views
We were then to ‘take a short cut’ across the hills to meet up with the inland track to take us back.
Its been a while since I have done this and I GROSSLY underestimated the distance. You can see Cathedral Rocks so at this point we were closer to Rocky Cape than Sisters by a long shot. And Blandfordia Hill went on and on and on and oooonnnnnn
(and up)
Yes the views were stunning but I was a little concerned about the ladies and this unexpected extended hike. Kaz had mentioned it was a bit of a dream of hers to hike from one end to the other… little did she know…
We got some really lovely rainbows too
(Still going up)
Some cloud drama
The afternoon light was so rich.
Still smiling! And still no sign of the inland track!!! Yipes
When we finally reached the inland track junction there was a sign that said we had 2.5 hours to reach Sisters Beach (and our cars) or 50 minutes to get to Rocky Cape (no cars) We started off to Sisters and then I thought to ask the time!! 4pm!!! We were going to be hiking in the dark which wasn’t optimal!
Luckily Marilyns husband was willing to drive over to Rocky Cape and collect us and deposit us back to the cars, so we doubled back and headed to Rocky Cape instead! Epic. We were out for about 7 hours and finished up right on sundown! Poor Marilyn – she was about done in by the last bit but wow… she did amazing. Later she said she shaped up ok and was really proud of her achievement as she never would have deliberately done that walk but totally loved it! Kaz was also a bit sore but was thrilled to tick that walk from end to end off her ‘to do’ list! I was just glad I got everyone back in one piece and we all had such a good day even though it was a bit unexpectedly long!
Hello! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a good start to the new week.
I drove over to Smithton yesterday to set up my little spot at The Arty Duck. Over the weekend, Maureen helped me sew up some material to make that curtain. I busily elasticised it and tied it on THEN spotted I should have dusted off the iron and given it the once over.
Anyways…
It took a little time to set up as I had to label each product with my code etc
All in all I was happy with the final look and I got a notification today that I’d sold a few already so yay for a great start!
Whilst on soap…
A batch of Lemongrass and Exotic Lime… all the colours back into the pot and poured together…
Its fun to do and it was good to see the designs once unmoulded
Pretty pretty!
And progression on my current basket:
(Actually its got sides now so will have to take another updated snap)
Hey! I used some of my soap $$ to purchase myself a proper hiking pack!
I’ve taken it on a couple of local walks and its lovely and comfy. Smaller capacity than I am used to but hopefully I won’t have trouble loading her up for the big hikes.
Chook News. They all seem to be settling in well together! A few squabbles here and there but overall they are all doing well! Some are more timid than others (both from the new and old flock) I’ve had to pick up Freckles a few times to take her out of hogging the food and explain a few basic manners too.
Thats Freckles above. She’s quite a big bird!
Thats Cocoa and… poor Gimpy who still doesn’t have a proper name yet.
Of the new girls we have Speckles and Freckles (of course). The two black ones I can’t tell apart so they are Pot and Kettle. (Yes I amuse myself) There’s Mamma and Nihon (the Japanese Bantam), Cocoa and at some point I will come up with a brainwave to name Gimpy something suitable.
Hey! I did some gardening. Watching the calendar days tick past and fretting about the garlic
Bit of clearing and digging needed
The little woven fence had had its day… so out it came
Happily we have a ton of timber hanging about so I was able to shore up the left side that was getting holey and put in a whole new side on the right
At this point I wanted to woose out and quit (I’d accidentally hiked for 7 hours the day before and was starting to feel it)(details next post) – but I told myself to suck it up and get on with it.
So thats the purple garlic in
I have high hopes of getting the white garlic in this week. I want to pull up the carrot patch and use that area.
Before I quit for the day I also popped 4 spuds into the hothouse garden. Fingers crossed for a few feeds of new potatoes early spring!
The broccoli in the hothouse are a little leggy still but growing nicely
I also picked the chillies and collected our first eggs from the new chooks!
Someone said chillies were in her local supermarket at $85/kg!!!! I am clearly sitting on a gold mine! Our local supermarket they go for about $28/kg so no retiring for us yet. Speaking of food costs… what is a head of iceberg lettuce going for in your neck of the woods? Shortages due to flooding and transport issues due to covid have really pushed up the prices of a lot of stuff. Our supermarket had the lettuce at $6.50 but around the country they were topping $12 each!! I mean really… who wants an iceberg lettuce THAT badly? People are flocking to join the gardening page I run again because of soaring food costs and supply issues of various products. How about fuel? We were hovering just under $2/litre for a while. Then I ducked into town late at night last week and it had gone back to $2.06. (regular unleaded) 24 hours later it had jumped 17 cents!! Sigh. Things aren’t getting easier for people are they?
Hey there! How is everyone’s weekend going so far? We had lovely weather today so popped out for an Anniversary Bay Loop. (huff puff)
Just catching you up on bits and bobs that are happening here – although mostly its been a nice slow winter pace!
I don’t think I shared with you the photos of the last soap that was cut. Quite pretty! This ‘Galactic Skies’ really benefitted from only a half dose of the fragrance. Its lovely but SO strong!
I also did a ‘shimmy’ design that worked out rather neatly (coconut and lime fragrance)
On the subject of soap… been organising a display for a shop in Smithton that I hope to be able to sell my soaps in I bought a small set of garage shelves and (kinda dodgily) spruced up the boards so they weren’t plain chipboard
I put all the bits together and started to mock up a display
I plan to make some curtains to cover the bottom shelf which is where I want to store excess stock – so any of the people working at the shop can easily restock the baskets
I still have a few things to do but am pleased with how it looks.
Started this weird basket thingy
I enjoy these crazy non precise creations
Its not finished yet… and probably hard to see details within the tree!! However, I need to secure the bottom and I have this vague plan of hanging it in the kitchen to store my garlic in. It’ll be a talking point anyway haha
And I’ve started another more orderly basket. My plan here is to use it on the coffee table where we mostly eat dinner to house the salt/pepper etc. Right now they are meant to live on a plate but they do get knocked off a bit.
I haven’t been in much of a kitchen mood forever. Just agonising over dinner daily is enough. But I did have a go at making some rocky road for Jeff! While it was pretty good we need to fine tune. Less biscuits (cookies) more chocolate and more marshmallows.
Will leave you with some beachy stuff from todays walk! Have a lovely weekend everyone Cheers!
Hello! I put up another notice locally to do a guided walk to Cathedral Rocks. The weekend had some pretty wild weather (lots of snow and diabolical winds – lot of damage around the state with downed trees etc) I was a bit dubious about going on the walk as no-one had committed. But hey, I got up and decided to go down and do the walk anyway.
I drove through a lot of rainbows getting to the start! It rained on and off until the 10am start time. No one had shown up so I set off… Was just heading up the hill and I saw a lady drive past and park next to me.
So I wandered back and asked if she was here for the walk! Yep! So I met Val, and we set off – huffed and puffed up the hills and chatted on the more even pathways! Very nice to have someone brave enough to thumb their nose at the weather and come along!
Funnily enough – we got no rain and lots of sunshine for the entire walk! Plenty of blustery wind though.
Was happy to have it nice and clear to enjoy the views. Always spectacular along this coast.
(Doesn’t take long to put a fair distance between you and the carpark!)
Now for the ambling downhill bit!
Now here’s a treat!! After three or so years they’ve finally done some track work! We’ve been looking at the materials left along the side of the path that were choppered in here forever ago! That made walking over the swampy bits a lot easier!
And there were are. Nearly at our destination
We wandered over the rocks a bit but decided not to rock scramble all the way out to the point – there is no path and I’ve not done it before and also wasn’t sure if the tide was coming in or going out.
So we found ourselves a nice bit of driftwood to sit on and had a snack and soaked up the sun and peacefulness
Then… of course we had to go back ‘up’
This is my cheerful hiking companion Val! And below a shot to send to her friends asking why they didn’t come along! (She had invited some but they’d taken one look at the weather and inquired if she was mad or something and no thanks very much, we’ll stay home where its warm haha)
We really had such a lovely day and I think got really lucky with the weather
ummm – photo of the wind? It was getting pretty fierce at times!
Love these coastal paths!
Thats the thing about this time of year. Dress for the weather and just go for it! Even though I like hiking through crazy weather, a lot of the time you’ll get lucky with some beautiful sunshine!
Mind you, I got home and we lost power for an hour or so. It came back on long enough for me to have a shower and cook dinner, then out it went again and we didn’t see it again for 18 hours!!
Thats it from me! Hope your weekend was lovely. Cheers
Yes I know… thats not a chook. Thats a Reproachful Siamese Look Seriously… it was a hell dark and miserable day that had it all. Rain, wind (sun) cold, hail… When I was in the house, Pip followed me about everywhere then hunched down in my direct line of sight looking as woebegone and pathetic and cold as humanely Siamesely possible. I guess he thought I was extremely tardy about lighting a fire.
Anyways…
Yesterday I saw a post on the local noticeboard that someone had chickens for sale. Seven of them. Mother and 6 younger hens (About 5 months) So I messaged the fellow and confirmed with Jeff once he got up (All sleepy so didn’t have much of a chance to think of any good reasons why not haha)(Just kidding… we wanted more birds anyway) Went over and picked them up just on dark as they were roosted and easy to catch.
Mamma had disappeared so he sold me this Japanese Bantam instead. The rest are Plymouth Rocks. Ever so pretty!
The two black ones I haven’t worked out if I will be able to tell them apart properly
This very pretty white with black trim has a gimpy wing – I had to put a stepping log in the coop tonight so she could get up to the first ledge
Actually last night I left them in the cat carriers in the hothouse all snuggled up. This morning I blocked the chook run door to our original hens and let them have the run of the coop and sheltered run.
(Two of them are speckled) I got a message from the seller. Mamma had turned up and was searching for her daughters!! So he said I could have her free. He wanted to keep them together. (I paid in soap though – they were very pleased for the barter!) So I went over and picked her up. Haven’t got a snap of her yet. Funny thing… they not long have bought the property… came with a heap of chickens. Most of them they sold off as they were attacking their bantams. About three days after the purge, Mamma comes marching back out of the bush with 6 chicks in tow! All hens would you believe!!
I spent a LONG time late this evening in a puffy jacket at the coop waiting for them all to get in for the night. The original girls weren’t keen to go in. Apart from Flossie of course who wandered in, nary a glance at all the new girls, ate some lettuce, had a peck at the grain and went and put herself to bed!! Nothing fazes that chook! The others milled about being nervous. Meanwhile the Japanese Bantam had roosted herself. Until our ring neck matriarch got in and they got into a dust up straight away. So I shoved the Ring Neck into the smaller cat carrier so she could think about her behaviour and set it in one of the nesting boxes while everyone else got sorted.
It took forevvvvvvaaaaaa
They were finally all in. Original girls on back roost, Flossie in a nest, RN in the carrier and the others dotted about – some on roost, some on bench, gimpy on nest edge. I’ll need to get out there early to let them out and shoo the original girls back out. Would like to keep the newbies in the run for a while so they get used to it as a home base and not fly off down the paddock or something annoying like that.
Better get to bed Hope everyone had an excellent weekend! Cheers!
Hello! I’ve been working on a new little basket. I am enjoying working on the small ones.
I got on a bit of a roll tonight with this one and finished it off
In a fit of creativity I wove in a handle!!
Basket weaving class is tomorrow morning, so I am keen to take it in to show it off. I should take my camera and take some snaps of all the other amazing creations people are putting together. For a single class – there is a LOT of variety!
Sob… one job finishes and Cousin Jeff brings over a truck load of wood!! It’s currently being rained on! Lucky us though! This is dry wood so what we have now should see us through the winter/spring.
It might be winter, but the leaves in the yard are still looking pretty
A quick dash outside this evening to take a couple of snaps
I only got one batch of soap done before all the wood turned up…
Small disaster in the making as I stupidly put the stick mixer down in the bowl – and because its a top heavy mixer of course it tipped! So nice to be scooping up raw soap to try to salvage it. I didn’t have gloves on so my hands won’t thank me for that!! (Its all ok tho) Jeff heard my dulcet tones (er… swearing a bit) and ran in to help with the rescue operation!
‘Galactic Skies!’
Its a nice fragrance but boy, is it ever strong! I only put about half the usual amount of fragrance oil in this batch as last time I couldn’t stand being in the same room as it for a few months!!
I am hoping to start getting my soap into a shop up in Smithton – and was coming up with a way to make labels as each soap needs a sellers code. Its one of those shops where you rent a space and also volunteer to work one day a month as part of the deal. Jeff and I drove up on Monday as Maureen has her crafts in the shop and it was her working day. Its a lovely space and I should work on having a regular outlet for my soaps.
Nothing fancy re label as yet but it will do the trick.
Well… thats all from me! Better get myself into bed! Have a lovely day everyone! Cheers
(My glass corn actually did ok!! How pretty is it?!!)
From yesterdays miserable weather to today lovely sunshine! Not bad for the first day of winter! So – Jeff not working (yay) – perfect opportunity to get some stuff done on the chook yard!
We affixed the final bits of tin so the entire skirting is now done
Big enough for chooks? Yep Later on when they came over to stickybeak at progress they all marched through the opening
Next step was to put in the support battens for the roof so it didn’t sag and makes sure the rain runoff keeps heading the right direction
I might add that was an awkward job but we got there in the end!
To tidy up the top, we cut a nice big bit of timber and screwed it in just under the clear polycarbonate and were able to screw that down a bit better at the ends Much neater and fewer gaps
We still need to do similar to the other side and the front but… not today!
Too much time on Pinterest! Seeing how this feeder might work I’ve clearly only temp attached it and I want to put it elsewhere – now that I’ve worked out the approx height that they can reach the food but NOT fling it out everywhere (Cough, Flossie, Cough)(Had to get an extra extension because of her!) I can put the feed down the main tube and cap it off, and they should be able to fossick what they need from the bottom.
And finally… the thing I’ve been dying to do most… THE DOOR!
We’ve got other bits and bobs to do but nothing critical right now So pleased with what we’ve done – the space under the roof is so good – of course despite all the recent rain, its still lovely and dry and a great place for the girls to congregate and snack without getting wet and wading through mud!
Also when I reattach a gate at the left there, or some kind of barrier, we can contain them in the chook run and duck yard for part of the day. (We need a retraining on where one should lay ones eggs!)(Right now? No idea where any eggs (if there are any) are being deposited!)
