water bills and worm farms

We got a water bill today. We were down to 284 litres of water a day! same period last year was 410 litres a day so a good drop. Even 410 a day is ok as last year there were 6 people living here for that periods bill.

I picked up another worm farm yesterday too! I got this one through freecycle. its a can-o-worms worm farm. Figured 2 will give me even more lovely worm castings and worm wee for the garden!
Just have to get some worms for it as we don't have enough yet in the other one as its only been going a few weeks.

I got my diggers seed cataloguie today in the post too and have been looking through thinking what i will grow!

Recipe Book

Today I helped a good friend wiht a bit of packing as she is moving into their first home!

In the mormning I got up and decided to clean up a bit before going and then figured I'd cook too.

Yestrday I missed the osso bucco due to Joey being out for the night so we did take away.
So today i cooked it.

I photographed as i went along as i am thinkig I will make a recipe book for the kids with all my fav recipes for them.

This is Osso Bucco.

Brown Osso Bucco in a pan and lay in baking dish.




dice up
-1 carrot
-1 onion
-2 cloves garlic
-2 sticks celery
- 1/4 red capsicum

In a pan, cook diced vegies until slightly softened.
-add around 1 cup of wine (choose a wine you like whether its red or white, amke sure you at least likethe tatse!)
-1 chicken stock cube (or 1 cup of chicken stock)
-1 large tin chopped tomaotes (or fresh tomatoes if you have them)

Cook for around 10 minutes on a medium to high heat.


Pour mixture over Osso Bucco and cover with foil and bake. Preferably ina slow oven for many hours, if not ina medium to high oven for 1 hour (ours today had 4-5 hours in a slow oven)

serve with mashed potatoes and steamed greens (we had silverbeet from the garden, about the only thing currently growing !)
FREECYCLE is cool :)
Check out these gorgeous cannisters I picked up today! They are like new and are really lovely! I also picked up 2 dripper hoses yesterday form freecycle for my vegie garden.
I also went op shopping today and yesterday! I picked up this great little enamelware/cast iron pot. Its made in poland (or so it is stamped) I initially bought it to use a pot for a plant outside (have been collecting enamelware pots for this in different colours) but now I am not sure if i want to keep it in the kitchen instead!


I picked Liam up some dinaosaur activity books which he will love as he is dino mad!I also bought myself a heap of different books over my travels.
I LOVE hunting out books in op shops. i am drawn to cookbooks, gardening books, sometimes novels, books that I had in childhood etc. I love reading, love researching, love learning and books fulfill all of those things!

Some of the titles i bought:
The Australian heritage Cookbook
Australian counrty style -country rooms
The complete gardener
Natures super foods
and many more!

Menu Planning and some rambling.

Firstly 1 week of no smoking! woohoo, feeling really good about it!

I was chatting with Joey today (the other half) saying how good i felt and how I feel I am getting more organised, healthier etc etc. I was talking about how after my mum died (august 1st 2004) how I got stuck right into the garden as a way of coping and for stress relief and how it really helped, how I started to go to the gym and walk often a few months after she passed away and I felt good, it again helped me cope, How I used to be more organised, I used to menu plan, cook new meals each week and just generally take better care of myself. Then on the week before her 1 yr anniversary of her death we lost Damian, a very special friend the world just crashed around me. Over the past 2 years I have gained a fair amount of weight (am currently 97-98 kilos was 80 kilos the day of his death and was at the gym 4 times a week as well other excercise) I became super disorganised and struggled with day to day tasks.
My partner and i also separated last year for 6 months which added to the stress that was mounting in my life. Physically after my mums death I was not in a good way either due to damaging my pelvis during the birth of my son.

That all sounds quite depressing, but sometimes I think we need to look at some of the things we have overcome and gotten through in life to better appreciate the things that make us happy, to better notice when we are taking good care of ourselves, when things are going good.

For me, things are good and I like being able to say that. Not perfect, but thats all the fun of it. I am now back into gardening, have goals, ideas, plans and am acting on them. I am a lot happier than I have been for a while and it feels good.

So after that ramble! Today we picked up and delivered a washing machine from freecycle to my brother in law who hasn't had a working one for a very long time, as we did it we smiled at our good deed done for the day! We then went to the shops and had some yummy sushi and sahimi as alate lunch and then did the food shopping. I was craving roast lamb so thats what is cooking now in the oven! One thing I thought of whilst shopping is how I really need to get back to menu planning, it saves money and means we eat variety and helps us to be more organised.

So after all that rambling here is my proposed next fortnights menu plan!

Sun: Roast lamb and vegies
Mon: Lentil shepherds pie
Tues: Pork noodle stir fry/sausages and veg for kids
Wed: Osso Bucco casserole
Thurs: Marinated chicken pieces and vegies
Fri:Fried rice and honey soy chicken
Sat: Take away/fend for yourself night.
Sun: Roast Pork (in camp oven)
Mon: Lasagna
Tues: Tofu noodle stir fry
Wed: Chicken curry/ sausages and veg for kids
Thurs: Quiche and salad
Fri: Chow mein
Sat: take away/fend for yourself night.

Saturday

On Saturdays I usually work, its the nature of my job, weekend work. For those that don't know I am a photographer, I photograph pregnant women, newborns, children families etc. I specialise in black and white and used to be a darkroom junkie, but have now entered the digital age.
So because I photograph children and families I often work weekends. The great thing about working for myself and the type of job i have means I am not usually gone long when I do go to a shoot and I do only do 3 shoots on average a week so I can be around at home more and be there for the kids etc.

So yes when I have a complete weekend off it is special, so today i decided to NOT sit inside all day!

This morning we all went down and watched my daughter play netball, then afterwards we participated in some local tree planting!
They were planting at the reserve next to netball so we stayed and planted for an hour and grabbed some great info on the local environmental group and also on more plantings in the coming weeks that we will go along and help out on.

Then I dropped everyone off at home and I ducked over to pick up some match box cars that had been offered up on Freecycle. Freecycle is great. I wouldn't have bothered with these cars if they weren't in my same suburb , just round the corner and my son is car crazy so he was most impressed!





Once home I took the kids out the front and let the other half sleep as he is working night shift tonight, we got stuck right into shovelling all the dirt onto the main two front beds. (ignore the smaller ones, that was my 3 year olds help, they need completely reshaping and redoing, but hey he tried to help!) we then added some blood and bone and some organic fertiliser and mixed it all in. Have to get some manure to ad to it then mix that in then lay a nice thick bed of straw over the top then we can think about planting!!



My girls, such pretty little sweet things they are!

Day 5

5 days since i quit and I am doing just fine :)
I was a bit feral on day 1 and 2 but am feeling a lot more human now!

I haven't been in the garden this week due to work commitments but if the weather is good on the weekend I will be able to keep progressing with it all.
I have asked on my local freecycle group for any items to help wiht building the chook house, not sure if I'll get a response, I'm a little stuck wiht it as i am not a builder by any means!

Yesterday I taught a photography class at the breastfeeding assosciations Hot Milk conference. I have supported the ABA for many years now as i think that breastfeeding is a winderful thing to promote.

Teaching the class as interesting. I realised again my fear of public speaking. Initially I absolutely froze, felt myself go bright red! The class was difficult too as everyone had different cameras, some point and shoots some slrs and all different makes and models, then there were some with no cameras at all.
So I turned the class more into a long question and answer session. That was challenging as I was put on the spot but was able to answer everyone well enough I think!

I'm not entirely sure teaching is at all my forte in life, but hey I gave it a go!

Hopefully I'll be back after the weekend with some more updated garden images!

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!