Day 1.

What a day!


Firstly I have a confession to make!

I quit smoking today. Hence the day 1 title.

I have never really been a full time smoker in my life but was leaning more that way in recent months. I'v always been a bit of a social smoker who will have one when out having drinks with friends. Then my mother died 3 years ago from lung cancer so i vowed to not smoke again. I had already not smoked for over a year due to being pregnant and then having a baby who was 4 months old when my mum passed.

Then 12 months after my mum passed my best friend was tragically killed in a car accidnet. that night I started smoking. I figured I had it under control, it was a stress thing for the few weeks after his death then it went back to being a social thing.

Again I quit a few months later to only take it up again when I seperated from my partner last year for 6 months. The stress form that was huge and for me smoking was one of my crutches i used to help me through.
I stopped at new years for 4 weeks then after a huge argument one day i started again.

So fast forward to now and the last few months my partner and I have gotten back together and things have been improving (except today but thats another story) I feel I have gotten a bit of 'me' back the last few months and I have not liked the fact I was smoking. Unfortuantly it isn't that easy to just stop.

But I am going to do it. I had my last one last night and will not have anymore. I was sititng outside last ngiht having it and was looking at my worm farm, thinking of the plans for the vegies, the chooks etc and thought how silly that I want all that yet I'm doing somethign so harmful to myself and i am sure has to be harmful to the environemnt also!

Now on a very positive note I had my working bee wiht my two female neighbour friends today! It was very productive!

We started out the front and laid newspaper over one of the larger no dig beds then shovelled a good pile of dirt form the big dirt pile that was out there.

We then headed out the back t do the chook run area.
we spent all afternoon on it and it is now ready to have the fence fixed and to start on the chook house!

This is just some of what we found under the grass/weeds
-about 40 besser blocks
-about 10-15 bricks
-about 20 heavy irons (used for hangis)
-one hangi basket
-some chicken wire
-some other wire
-corrugated tin
-2 large hoses
-some sort of pump?
-lots of wood
-2 large bread trays

and more!




We filled 3 red bins with weeds and scraps.
This is as much as we are weeding, the chooks will enjoy the rest.



I am absolutely aching, it was all very hard work but good in many ways!

planning

Ok, Today I did yet more weeding and I also went in and measured the area for the chickens so i can start to plan what and how I will build the hen house. I did this dodgy drawing in photoshop of the area wiht the measurments. I am going to draw up the whole backyard this way, saves paper and I can easily edit ideas in in photoshop. (remember if you click on images they come up larger)

Todays weeding progress.


Some of what was found under the weeds!!! Doing the measurments I realised there is a lot of stuff hidden under the grass/weed behind here!




I had a chat wiht 2 of my nieghbours today and they wil come on Monday for a working bee so we can tackle this a bit harder with help!
My goal is to have actual chickens wihtin 2 months of when I first started this. so one week into it really now.

I guess you have to start somewhere!

Ok so we started to weed the,to be, chicken run area. Oh what a mammoth task this is turning ut to be! The weeds are sooooo thick and there is just so much of it!
Uncovered a foam pillow and 2 very long redwood sleepers or at least thats what I think they are since we have them elsewhere in our garden.
I actually weeded about 2 square metres and it took a while and filled the red garden waste recycle bin (not composting this stuff due to the weed it is)
I know it looks like we barely touched it, but really we did! The kids helped too which was fun, they talked about how we are getting chickens to go there.

The Garden July 07 and freecycle

OK, so I went around today and photographed different patches of the garden.
It's a bit sad just how neglected it has become over the last 12 months. Unfortunately work and personal commitments took precedence over it but not anymore!

Firstly this is the area down behind the garage where we want to clear out and build a chook shed and run. The area is a good size and we could easily have 6-8 chickens comfortably in there (and let them out to free range properly)

This gate will be replaced eventually but the wood used form it will go towards the project or towards the new gate, this one isn't working as well as it should and isnt secure enough.

The pile of over grown grass on the left here is actually at my chest height and I am 174cms! There is a lot of stuff under this awful kikyu? grass/weed. I saw wire, tin, bricks, concrete etc, will be interesting to see what we can find and hopefully reuse some of it in the process!out the front, facing in form the street, wanting to plant something in that gap, ideally one day we'll gut the fornt yard and start all over again.

I grew vegies in the front yard for the first 2 years here, but not last year as I had thieves the year before. This year I am doing it again, will build raised beds, most likely 4 seperate ones. That dirt will go as a base in them

facing the house, very shady here and not much grows. the Jade plants are looking a bit worse for wear, well one is thriving one is dying, cant be good feng shui! again any advice?


and I've joined my local Freecycle! I have gotten rid of a full length mirror and a rocking chair so far and gained a desk.

standing on the grass at the top off our yard and shotting from each angle.

Standing in drive and shotting in each direction

I grew tomatoes and some vegies here last year, this year I want the stump removed and to make more of a garden here

from the other side(driveway side) I grew tomatoes in the lower garden by the retaining wall. This year not sure what I will do here.

the kids cubby, going to do a potted garden in colourful pots round it and get the kids to help do it.

a neighbour gave us all this bluestone, still not sure what to do with it! any ideas!