Baking Day revisited

Tuesday was a day off paid work. Yay!! Did a little bit of housework, but honestly - I didn't feel like doing any more. So I baked instead:



From bottom left clockwise:
Lemon cheesecake; Annettes unbaked cake; two pumpkin loaves and a "throw everything in the whizz" chocolate cake. Kids were most impressed and there were plenty of 'taste testing' offers.

Then finished off by making Jo Seagars Farmers Country Style Frittata for dinner, with a nice lettuce salad and some home made wedges.

Baking Day

Having computer problems . . . will try to post tomorrow . . .

The big reveal . . .

Thanks for your thoughts, but no, the monstrosity is not for a vine, or beans, or a soccer net.

It also needs some buckets - painted with left over house paint




Some good quality compost (with some horse poo in for good measure)



And tomato plants.



Yes - it's an upside-down-tomato-hanger-upper! Dallas has been reading up on this for ages. Upside down tomatoes - no need to stake. He is quite sure that this will be the most wonderful way to grow tomatoes since . . . well, just since! Of course, this has led to more bets with the neighbour . . .

Still not sure why he needed to build the monstrosity. He could have just hung them from hooks on the fence, but who am I to question?

The worker

Can you see the worker doing his job? (You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it first).


Oh, and by the way, what do you think this monstrosity might be used for?

Contemplating

Contemplating life, contemplating death.

Sorry to be morbid. A few weeks ago a good internet friend had her cancer beat her. Today I went to a funeral of a 45 year old family man who had a massive heart attack.

It makes you think. It makes you want to make the most of today - for who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Sleep might be a long way away tonight.

The garden(s)

An update on the garden(s). Yes, we now have two! The second one even more 'rustic' than the first . . . and the first has gone another layer of half rounds higher. We couldn't get any more free half rounds, so we got free quarter rounds for the second garden.

The layers of the garden went a bit like this:

First layer: Newspaper:

Second layer: pea straw


Third layer: Horse poo

This was followed by some more pea straw, then compost.

The end result:
Garden One has beans along the back; red onions, spring onions, two each of cauli, broccoli and cabbage; one heritage tomato (Brandywine Pink) and one cucumber. The pot in the middle has a rosemary plant in it.

Here is the heritage tomato:

GardenTwo has heritage peas along the back, two rows of carrot seeds, mint in the pot and lots and lots of dog paw prints!!!

Also to go in this garden are beetroot seedlings when they grow a bit bigger:

Also growing well are the strawberries:
YUM!!

For sure this time!

Back in March I posted this:

Decision has been made (I think LOL) as of today that we will stay here for at least the next year and put the finishing touches on the house and section to get it into a sellable state. That way, if the right property does come up – then we are ready for it. The possibility is there that once the house is sorted, we may well sell it then anyway and effectively become cash buyers. I feel a lot more settled now. We have a plan. Plans are good!!!

Since then we've been dithering again about selling/buying/getting some land . . . well it's all come to a head this week, and we now know that we just cannot afford the land we want. Not without going deeper into debt, and that's just something I will not consider. OK, if it was just $10,000 or $20,000 then maybe - but it's much more than that and I can't do it.

So - our house is going to be getting that deck that we've been putting off for three years (with money that has already been saved for it). I can carry on with the vegie gardens with confidence that we will eat the vegies that grow in them. I can potter around creating flower gardens and making the house the home that it should be.

(This is not to say that something cheaper will not jump out of the real estate pages at me and set me off again . . .) ;-)

Let the gardening begin

A pile of old grape half rounds and some pea straw:

A man with a power tool and an attentive audience:

The finished product:

All that's needed now is a bit more compost and some vegie plants:

A nice rustic, cheap raised garden (with maybe one more layer of half rounds eventually).

Catching up:

This is from the week before we went away - forgot to post it!

Tuesday
I’m not well. I’ve got man flu – well at least I’m complaining like it’s man flu LOL.

I’ve got lots of little bits and pieces to do before we fly out to Gold Coast on Saturday. Borrow suitcases, make sure all clothes we want to take are clean, return library books, buy ribbons (or something) to put on suitcases for easy identification; make sure house is clean (or relatively so) for the house/pet sitter.

I’ve written a list so far. That’s it. A list. Don’t feel inclined to actually action said list . . .

We have a bank appointment tomorrow – our business loan is falling due for renewal so we need to go in and discuss that. Dallas wants to buy another mower, so it could be an interesting discussion!

Wednesday
Am about to cancel the bank appointment. Dallas has come down with it now as well. I’m feeling marginally better – enough to get up and tidy the kitchen bench and fold a couple of days worth of washing whilst sitting on a chair!

Yesterday I did manage to take Josh out to get his hair cut, returned books to library and picked up suitcases (Dallas picked up ones from MIL). Now if I can get some ironing done at least we can start packing.

Josh is going out to the local airforce base today to look at their avionics department. That is what he is thinking of doing in the future. Hope it goes well as it would be nice to have at lease ONE boy with some direction in his life.

A mixed month . . .

Another month has flown by. It's only 10 days until we fly out to the Gold Coast for our family holiday. I have to say I'm starting to get a wee bit excited about it, and I know the boys are too. It's the first time flying for Liam and Josh. First time overseas for L, J and Karl, so lots of new experiences to be had.

The budget has flown out the window this past month. When the holiday is over I'm really going to knuckle down and get some savings made. The groceries mainly - need to go back to using cash and not spending more than I've allowed. Also need to get more on the mortgage. Had a call from the bank yesterday regarding fixing our mortgage - Dallas wants to wait a bit longer. He has plans to make a ridiculously low offer for a piece of land when we come home and doesn't want to do any fixing before that - which does make sense!

Poor Jessie has had an exciting time since moving in with us. First he was in the local Rockquest concert/competition and won the best male musician award. Here they are warming up for the concert . . .

Then the following week he was mugged while getting some money out of an ATM! Newspaper article here . . .
We spent most of that evening first at the Police Station, then at A&E at the Hospital getting his face patched up.

Both boys have left NZ for the school holidays - Jessie has gone home to Thailand and Alan has gone to his grandparents home in the Gold Coast . . . and he'll still be there when we go over, so we will meet up with him there and meet his family.

Sadness has come in the form of losing Cleo. She didn't come for breakfast one morning - after phoning around local vets a few days later we discovered that she had been hit by a car. I went into the vet to check that it was her - and it was. Stood stroking her for a while, then said goodbye. She had passed quickly after the accident and thankfully she did look peaceful.