Category: Uncategorized

Yah – this is neither yarn nor soap.
But in the background I’ve been working on a few things.
Finishing off the garlic was one.
I did a second batch of garlic salt – so we are fully stocked with enough to give away here and there as presents (maybe haha)

I also did a plain batch of garlic powder. This was the second lot – I sent the first plain batch to one of my sisters. I can’t remember if I wrote about it. The Post Office truck driver said the whole truck smelled of garlic!!! (And I double bagged it too!!)

Confession.
I haven’t been blogging as much mostly because photos suddenly became REALLY time consuming and tedious to upload, multiple failures blah blah.
And because I am now hardwired to avoid support lines because my phone service provider is total agony to deal with – I really didn’t get in the headspace to just sit and sort it out.

And I might have mentioned in the past about my slight procrastination issues haha.
Anyways – I finally had a hissy fit at the system and contacted support… who kindly and expertly sorted my issue out in under five minutes!!

I. Am. An. Idiot.

Eyeroll! Writing note to self about how great Bluehost is and not to compare to Telstra in future (which has all but left me in therapy)

Watching all tonights photos upload in a heartbeat was rather satisfying!

Again – background project.
Making Mum a Christmas present.

Then I got obsessive… and had to get it done! I was enjoying it a lot but wanted to see the final product!

A nice wrapable size (Was that a word??)
And because then I was so totally overexcited about it, I put it in the mail straight away as a ‘Happy Winter Present’ instead of trying to wait until Christmas. (I’ve always got soap as a back up pressie haha)

(The outside shot shows the colours a bit more true to real life)
Of course, Mum was rather surprised and pretty rapt (wrapped???)(I kill me)
🙂

I am currently using up scraps to make more squares so I can make leg warmers… Jeff is horrified! Bahahaha – I never claimed to have style.

I haven’t done a lot of soap lately…

I attempted some ‘soap on a rope’ today but haven’t taken a snap.
It will take ages before I can test it to see if I got it right.

This one was chai tea with poppyseeds

One of todays batches – couldn’t resist being a bit loud.
Next time I’ll leave the straight circle pattern and cut and see how it looks. But today I mucked about with it.

The colours make me think of toffee apples…
The red I’ve had trouble with in the past… tends to disappear in the middle when I cut it. This time I hydrated it with oil not water – so we’ll see in the next day or so if that works better.

Anyway – it was a wet, cold, dark, gloomy and miserable winters day – was awesome being inside enjoying the fire and some soap making!

Hope your week is going well!
Stay safe and healthy!!

Cheers

Hi – I didn’t actually take photos of me hauling wood about but… feeling it. 🙂
Probably a lot to do with the sleep I didn’t get 😀

Cousin Jeff rang and wanted to know if we’d sell some of our macrocarpa to his brother!
Sure! No worries!
So I moved a lot of it up to the driveway before they got in, just to look keen.

Anyway.. above – the experimental winter hothouse potatoes in their bottomless pot.
These ones were growing up nicely so topped up with some compost.

I saw a neat home made chook feeder that I wanted to try out.

I didn’t have the right drill bit to get a nice hole in the bottom of the bucket but it did an ok job.
The eye bolt goes into the bucket and the bottom screwed into a toggle of wood.

I made a makeshift hanging pole and tested it on the girls

I had to fiddle about a bit to get the right height etc, but the girls are getting the hang of it pretty quickly.

They peck at the toggle or bump it and more grain drops out. Plus they spend time pecking up all the bits rather than leaving so much for the sparrows

I’ll let you know how it goes 🙂

The weather was rather lovely – so I cleared up another couple of plots while I was in an ‘outside mood’.

Both plots I’ve put some more cow-poo-straw in and topped with dry or conditioned straw. They can just sit and be happy until spring (There are some not dead carrots under the cover)

The garlic is going along so nicely! Especially the purple shown here in the conventional plot and the straw bale

Even the white garlic is starting to show up

Sweet peas making their appearance!

The strawberry runners escaped!!
The main plot has been eaten right down by a pademelon or possum… The whole plot will need to be dug and filled and replanted – leaving that job until spring though

Happily I didn’t kill the borage plant I picked up ages ago! I am hoping it will self seed well.

The protea plant is looking lovely right now.

I love the way water sits on nasturtium leaves! I’ll have to get out there with the macro lens

And check out all the passionfruit I picked up yesterday!!!
I’ll really have to dig out the passionfruit butter recipe that my friend sent me and make it up!! Yum!

Hope you are all having a great week so far!
Cheers

(Pip is still living his best winter life!)

Hi there!
Sorry for the neglect!
Here we are stampeding up to the half year mark!
Weather has mostly been dark and gloomy.
Poor apple trees – they are done 🙁 Going to have to take them out and start again!!

The new beds have, of course, sunk over the course of the last season.
I want to revisit the idea of getting both the big raised beds planted out with strawberries. I dumped a couple of bins of coffee grounds in, then topped up with one of the bales of straw that’s been breaking down nicely.

Once I am ready to plant, I’ll top this up with soil and compost.

I ran out of pickled beetroot. (Horror)
Easy thing to go into the garden and pull up a heap and get cooking!

So glad I still have lots of lovely rocket in the garden to raid!

And – finally finally finally it looks like I might get some broccoli!!
I was beginning to think I’d planted cabbage!

The other day I went mad and planted about 50 lettuce seedlings around the place

In the hothouse was the main lot then scattered the rest about the garden outside.

I decided to try out the eggshell slug barrier again – because I was feeling way too lazy to cut up bottles for every plant.

You need a silly amount of eggshells really…

And they don’t work!! Well… the ones in the hothouse are mostly surviving – but its a lot drier in there so I am guessing slug population is small and they have to cross a lot of dry area to get to them

Pretty much every single one from outside is gone!

Oh well… Now I know to stick to what I know works best.
Bit annoying though.

Garlic (purple patch) is sitting up nicely so far!!
The garlic in the strawbales seem to be going along happily enough so far too!

I asked my friends husband if he would pop over some time and instruct me on pruning my raspberries.
I’ve never really known what to do and have winged it each season.

Gerry arrived under instructions from Maureen to ‘be gentle’ hahaha
I am a shocker at wanting to leave everything.
But – I wanted to learn so I was really brave 😀

I do need to restring the support wire and tied the remaining canes to it so they’ve got some support during the spring winds. These should grow well without all the weedy ones sucking out the energy from the plants.
Next season I should dig up the whole row thats closer in the photo so I can weed it properly and replant.
Next season…
Gerry also spent time with me pruning the fruit trees and sharing good advice so that was all really awesome!

On a bit of a roll that day, so I tackled another overdue job that was on my mind.
The asparagus plot. The soil in this raised bed hasn’t been touched much for years and had sunk so low.
I thought I might try my hand at digging them up and separating some crowns,

Weird tentacle creatures
I used most of the leaf mould compost – it was so lovely and chock full of worms!

Not sure if I’ve done things right, but for better or worse.. they are all replanted and with luck, spring will show some new growth

Today has been so dark and dismal!
I’ve pottered about inside – continuing the last lot of garlic in the dehydrator so the place smells… amazing? Garlicky? Insane?
I’ve got another batch of salt in and some plain to make some powder.
It’s taking ages.

Hope you’ve got some fabulous stuff planned for the weekend!
Cheers!

Jeff was soon to do another couple of nightshifts so we took the opportunity to get out for a decent hike the other day, now that the NP’s are open again

We wanted to go to Cradle but the main road in was still closed and no buses – so thats a 7km hike in BEFORE starting any ‘real’ walks.
So we just went up to the Postmans Track at Rocky Cape

Inland this time instead of scrambling over the jagged rocks along the coastal track.

Muddy!

Some wattle unexpectedly making an early appearance

Dead calm day! The ocean was like a millpond – strange to hike with no wind to fight!

I forgot to grab my gaiters as I headed out the door… so annoying!

Apparently the chest strap at Jeff’s neck doesn’t choke him haha !! Really would bug me for sure!

View back over the farmlands

Such a beautiful peaceful afternoon traipsing up and down hills

I enjoy walking along the almost ridgeline of the area. Clouds were starting to rest on the hills too!

Time to find a spot to sit and have lunch!
Dark is falling early now so we didn’t want to be walking back too late.

Sandwiches taste a million times better when you are sitting out on a hill somewhere (although I will admit the home made relish helps)

Not a bad view…

And then back home we go.
Something like 18km that day … bit footsore afterwards!
Was hoping to get some snaps of wildlife but didn’t see any while I had the camera out of course!

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!
Cheers!

Night time adventures of Pip and Lisa

So… the other night I was (most likely wasting time on Facebook) and I heard quite the ‘KERTHUNK’
I look around to see Pip on the floor instead of on the couch, towel wrapped. I thought he had a bad dream but then I realised he had a mouthful of mouse!! (Mouseful?? Snicker)

Another Proud Mummy Moment… with reservations.
Remember last time he lost it.

Anyway, he brought it into the dining room (appropriate I suppose) to torture play with it.
Poor Mousie Mouse.
It was pretty speedy every time it was let free. Just love the way they run AT me.
Anyways, I was determined to do my bit and not leave the operation up to Pip who had by this time lost it twice. I had to reposition cat in Mousie Mouse direction. (Its like a cartoon – Pip over excited running in circles completely oblivious to where the mouse went!)

I couldn’t go out and get gloves otherwise I’d lose track. I pulled my windcheater sleeves down over my hands in the hope I’d get a chance to scoop it up.
Finally it got wedged between the wall and a leg of furniture (and dust) and I was able to actually catch the mouse!!
Little wriggler!
Outside I went to deposit into the garden where Mousie Mouse was bound to have a happier cat free life.

Return to put lavish praise on Pip for not muffing up the whole operation this time.
Pulling back on windcheater momentarily thinking how funny it would be if the mouse was still up my sleeve and I had brought it back inside.

…

…

Er. Yah. Real funny.
Found unexplained soft lump at about my elbow. (NOT where I last saw it at all!)
Back outside to re-deposit Mousie Mouse into the garden. This time actually witnessed the little scamp as he plopped into the grass and scuttled!
Thorough self pat-down still ensued before returning inside.

Hope your week is Mousie-Mouse free!
Cheers!

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!!