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Hello!
Wow…it was icy cold today!! Still is! Been keeping the fire company inside today and taking a break from the tree.
It rained a lot – and heavily. But we did get some nice rainbows!
I had an ambitious list written up, but I slept in scandalously late so didn’t get through most of it.

I did get the beetroot cut up and pickled. Whew. I was down to my last half jar. I still have a garden full of beetroot. Happily they don’t look like they are going to go to seed or anything. I’ll just leave them alone for now. Otherwise I’ll have to look into how to store them – hopefully without processing (which is another reason I LOVE my potatoes… so easy)

In a weak moment I baked another apple tart.
We are a little keen on them!!
(I get to work off the calories on the tree so I feel no guilt whatsoever!!)

Pip spent a lot of the day wrapped up in a warmed towel sleeping!
Its a good life for us all!

Have a lovely weekend!
Cheers

Hi there!!
After a good deal of the morning was spent in domestic chores and stretching out the kinks from yesterdays efforts, I felt keen to go back to the tree moving. (Jeff has three upcoming nightshifts so he was peacefully sleeping!)

The tree guys piled up branches and limbs either side of the neighbours paddock gate so I wanted to concentrate on moving a lot of that so he has more room to pull in off the highway

You can see our back/side fence there – so I helped myself to his paddock for a while… propped open his gate and started hauling through the branches. I know he won’t mind. If I had to drag it back up the highway and in our gate we’d be here until next year!! This way I could take it to the fence, chop it if necessary and fling it over.

This is where the wanton athletics kicked in.
The straighter limbs I could spear over like a javelin – the more wonky ones I hurled like a discus and the bigger logs got the shot-put treatment!
I had to chuck them over as far as possible as there is a lot and I didn’t want it building up too close to the fence. The last thing I need to do is go and handle it further by having to go and pull all the moved stuff further away from the fence.

Starting pile (above)
Finishing pile:

I had overly ambitious hopes of getting that whole pile moved but probably luckily for my back, Fiona dropped in and rescued me!
Oh – my new rule… no one passes unless they bring in a branch.

Having paid her branch-toll, Fiona was welcomed in and we enjoyed a catch up over a well needed cuppa!!
She actually thought one branch was a bit of a woossey effort so before she left she dragged a few more up the highway for us!! Awesome! 🙂

Anyway, that was my day! Productive!!
Cheers

Hello! No prizes for guessing what we got up to today!!
Yep… made a really good start on moving that tree! Unfortunately this stage is all double handling as we need to get it all off the side of the highway and back onto our place so we can chip, chop and stack (and probably burn a little!)

Where we started from today

I’d started piling up some branches yesterday as I had to make a space for the postie to reach our letterbox.
Jeff had continued a bit before I got myself out and started helping.

(Tomorrow I need to go move that pile on the far right – give the neighbour more space to pull in off the road if he needs to!!)

It looks daunting, but it was good just working through what we could.

It rained on us a bit… but we did get a rainbow. 🙂
Working by the highway isn’t nice. Will be glad to get this bit over and done with.
As we worked down the fenceline we were able to just throw the branches over, instead of having to drag them around. Much quicker. Once we cleared out a lot of the fluffy stuff Jeff was able to get in there with the chainsaw and cut a lot of the bigger logs to manageable sizes… and I transported them around by wheelbarrow either to the ‘To Be Split’ pile or stacked straight onto some pallets where they can spend time drying.

We have a lot of piles of tree to contend with!

Idiot me threw my little axe over the fence with one of the branches after specifically telling myself not too! I think I was getting tired!! Was a total pain clambering up on that precarious pile!!

I think we cleared a surprising amount today!

We’ll probably have a word to Cousin Jeff about doing a little work for us if he has time with some of the bigger logs. Jeff’s chainsaw had done a good job so far, but there are some logs there that need a bigger blade.

The chooks stay well away from the noise but are back like mozzies on a summers night to scratch around under the trees once we are done.

Once we were done and put the tools away and sorted things out I went and filled up the barrow for the usual evening fire. (That was a challenge pushing it up the back by that time!! I was really feeling the aches!) I found this little chap in the wood pile!

Tonights shower was bliss and it was a quiet night watching a movie over dinner – and I FINISHED tucking in those tails!! I am a bit pleased with myself over that! I do love the finished blanket!
I don’t have a photo of it, but I did take a selfie with my beetroot!! haha
Enjoy
Cheers!

Well… here we are! The day arrived and we are making a start!
I am rather sad to see these beauties go but it would be unthinkable if another fell onto the road.
This is the ‘before’ (8am)

This is the ‘after’ 5pm

Its actually a fascinating thing to watch… and a little scary!
We had a lane blocked off and traffic management keeping the vehicles under control. (Couple of funny incidents there… at one end the bloke is being told off by some lady driver (because, you know… less than five minutes inconvenience is way worse than potentially been squashed by one of those monsters as well as taking out the power lines) while at the other end the other fellow had some girl passenger flash her boobs at him!!! Scandalous!!! 😀 )

There were two ‘Tree Guys’ One who scampered up the tree (well attached) and dropped the branches etc and one on the ground guiding and clearing/cutting and stacking up by the fence.

There’s Warrick clearly enjoying himself!!

We now have a HUGE clean up ahead of us before we call them back in to do the next bit.

That will deter visitors for a while… haha

Basically today while this was happening, while I wasn’t standing about gawking, I was in the garden cleaning up a bit

Two of the tomato patches that were affected by that scaley skin I took out. They were close to finishing anyway, so it was pointless nurturing dodgy tomatoes.

I’ve still got the duck yard tomatoes and several patches of cherry tomatoes so all is not lost. Oh, and I dug up some splendid spuds from one of the tomato patches.
As you do…

Picked all my butternut pumpkins!! Pretty happy with them this season!

Pulled up a few more monster beetroots

What lettuce survived in my first strawbale garden are looking pretty happy! I will eventually pursue this!

Oh look! More tomatoes! (Promptly gave them away to the tree guys!!)

Hope your day was great!
I wasn’t climbing trees, but still feeling a bit sore tonight… got to get some good rest before diving into the big clean up tomorrow!
Cheers!

Hello!
Cut open the teeny tiny rock melon and it was rather nice!! Not too many mouthfuls in it, but tasted good, so thats a small win 😀

Just got a message that the tree guys are due to come in tomorrow to start the large process of getting our trees down!! Wow.
So it will be an early start for me which means I shouldn’t be sitting her at 12.30am mucking about!!

We had a reasonably quiet day – picked some more tomatoes etc and I baked another apple tart to take over to my cousin Leonies place as we went there for dinner and a catch up tonight which was really lovely!

I also got my crochet squares all together and edged the outside… even tucked in a few tails, but it will take a while to get all those done!!
OK… better dash off to bed and get some decent sleep for a big day tomorrow!!

Cheers!

Hello! Happy Easter!
Well… I’ve been obsessively working on this rug the last couple of days.
I taught myself how to crochet them together (thanks Youtube) and went for it. The below photo was taken this afternoon, but I finished it tonight as well as edged around the outside.
Not the tails though. I started tucking them in but its going to take an eon!!
In hindsight I should have done each one as I went along… but I was a bit over excited about putting them together.

The colour is a bit wonky in the artificial light, but you get the idea. I’ll take it back upstairs tomorrow for a better snap, especially now that its all together. Its lovely and big too!

Jeff decided to go down our rabbit hole to see what he could see…

As suspected… a lot of dirt. We haven’t started digging yet but will keep you updated.
He did spot what he thinks may be the septic pipe and did a bit of searching/digging but we haven’t located the septic yet. (Yes I did the wifely thing and told Jeff to dig carefully)(Thanks Captain Obvious)

One job I really wanted to get done was to take the garlic out of the shed and clean it up. Its a messy time consuming little job but glad to have it done.
Jeff came and helped me finish it once he had done with digging around the yard and cleaning out the gutters.

They can all now live inside in the pantry – easy access!!

I also did a quick (kinda quick) tomato pick.
Lots of the big ones have that funny skin problem… really really need to just pull them all out and leave the cherry tomatoes in.
Hope your Easter Sunday was peaceful and enjoyable!
Cheers

Hello! I didn’t come through on the vague promises about Overland photos and stories!!
I did have a nice little list to work through today and I achieved what I wanted so that was a plus.
I started with the dreaded clothes folding!! Should have seen the pile on the spare bed (yes… beds are spare now haha)
Oh dear. That took an eon.

Then it was on to the tomatoes. Sorting, washing and chopping.
Such a lovely mix of colours!
Its been on the stove for hours cooking and reducing. Now cooling. Tomorrow I’ll run it through the food mill and finish it off in the oven (possibly)

THEN: Since Mavis from over at One Hundred Dollars a Month posted that lovely looking Almond Cream Pear Tart… and I just happened to have some cream cheese… I was totally in the mood to try something new.

Granted, it has not a trace of almond or pear – but it turned out soooo gooood!! 😀
I substituted desiccated coconut in the base and vanilla essence in the middle instead of the almond bits.
Oh… and apple for the top. A scoop of ice cream on the top and – bliss!

I finished most of the library sorting to the level I wanted it at. Just a few last things to arrange and I can move on to another space for sorting and clearing out.

After lots of other bits and pieces it was nice to sit down and relax with dinner, dessert, the fire, a movie, my crochet and a VERY relaxed cat.

Jeff went back to bed early as he came off a single nightshift so he is just trying to get some sort of rest that didn’t really happen through the day.
So, all is pretty quiet here!
Hope your Friday was lovely too!
Cheers

Hi!! I was going to work on some Overland photos for tonight but…. my clunky old computer is not really in the mood. I’ll try to do some tomorrow after its had a little rest!
I am still lollygagging my way through my days blissfully unaware of time or dates. Its all very nice until –
I did it again!! I went shopping on the day before Good Friday!!! I am such an idiot and will never learn! No carparks within cooee of the supermarket (you know, in tiny Wynyard)
A supermarket employee walking towards me while I was on my way in just said ‘run for your life’ haha
My shopping was just the usual stuff. Everyone else had one or two shopping carts full – like they were prepping for a zombie apocalypse not one day of the shops being closed. Madness.

Unfortunately I don’t remember Easter dates so well. We don’t normally do anything over the Easter weekend unless someone is visiting and because the dates change every year I don’t remember. Plus, since Easter eggs and hot cross buns have been out since the first week after Christmas – its easy to just accept it as normal 😀 Oh well

So…. anyway, here are some photos of our large hole in the ground!
Our cousin Beau dropped in after work yesterday and wanted to check out our ‘not-septic’

You might remember I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about this.
Jeff took the plate off what we thought was the septic tank to check it out and just found this massive hole!! Its nearly 3.5mts deep (11 ft)
Its also really wide!!
You can see some rebar sticking out of the sides and the small pipe that trails in goes nowhere.

Beau was pretty keen to go down but I told him to come back earlier another day when it wasn’t raining. I’d put the extension ladder in and pack him a sandwich.
He did spy an electrical outlet under the slab that we hadn’t spotted!! It was making me kinda nervous him leaning into the hole… it wouldn’t be a nice landing if he toppled in!!

So… what was it? A well? !! Tempting to fill it up and remove the slab since its really serving no purpose.
And where does our poo go??? haha This is the question isn’t it??
All our waste water from the house has to go somewhere!! I find it odd that its not obvious or marked!

Anyway – clearly hitting rock bottom (soil bottom) with my posts now that I am just showing you a big hole in our yard!!
Perhaps I’ll deliver on the Overland Adventure photos tomorrow!!
Have a wonderful Easter Weekend everyone!!
Cheers!

Finally – the poor chooks! We picked up a bag of the chopped straw and found time today to clear out their coop.
I am sure they will have a lovely time kicking that all out again!
Little darlings. They continue to dig holes in our yard!

I didn’t light the fire back up today. I think we’ve sorted the majority of the rubbish for now. The cement blocks are all crumbling away. I think we need a proper and more permanent fire pit.
I did move more wood and sticks over to the pallets.

Jeff finished off pulling up the corn stalks

I think we need to mow again soon!!
Hoping that next week will be start of the tree removal. Also hoping that we can make a lot of woodchips too – just to dump on all the pathways and slow that grass/weeds. (And pop into the compost)

I filled the compost up with chook-poo straw and made it smell better by mixing the coffee grounds through it.

Looking forward to next season as I think the asparagus will have settled in. Fingers crossed for lots to pick!

My butternut pumpkins are getting lost in the tall weeds. I think I will just have to go in and take them all out. Some small ones have started but really – they won’t have time to develop at this time of year.

The hothouse needs pulling apart completely again – and Tentacular needs a severe trim!! Its hard to get in the door and he keeps grabbing hold of me! haha

And I think I should give up on melons. This is my one rock melon.
I will cut it open tomorrow and hope its still sweet and edible. Not very awe-inspiring though!! Never mind.

These tomatoes were all from the duck yard garden.
Picked up a few fallen apples too.

The last patch of corn didn’t pollinate very well – I wonder why?

Anyway, its good to get tasks done. I am enjoying crossing things off lists!
I still have too many projects on the go at once, but at least I never have to say ‘I’m Bored’ …. ever! 🙂

Enjoy your day!
Cheers!

Still muddling along here at Norwich House!
A few more tomatoes to add to the collection!
I used my home made tomato paste in a spag-bol sauce yesterday and was rather pleased with it. Thinking I should make up some more. I certainly have enough tomatoes to use!

The fire down the back has been going for days now. It took a while to fire back up this afternoon but it eventually got going again.
I probably don’t essentially need to keep burning, but its cool out there and I like an outdoor fire!!
The area is looking nice and clear ready for the huge job ahead.

I picked up my coffee grounds today. I bought another bin, so I can just swap in a new one when I collect one. Seemed to make more sense.

The protea is putting out new flowers

The salvia is looking pretty but its being swamped by the tree that was only supposed to grow to 2mt!!

Enjoy your week!
Cheers!