echo echo echo.......

Yes yes I'm here :)

Thanks for the messages asking after me :)

The biggest reason for my absence in posting is that this time of year is the busiest for me business wise. I am behind business wise also which isn't at all good. Everyone wants photos in time for xmas, every year I say I will organise it better and havent managed yet again. I will rectify it though and I will get on top. Plus I am shutting up shop for 6-8 weeks over december/Jan to be ready to start afresh all organised in the new year.

Now lets see, other than work.

Queensland:
It was really great! I worked but most of my jobs finished by 10am so I had the days to explore. I drove all along the coast (from Brisbane down the gold coast) and also drove inland and through the part of the hinterlands and Mt Tambourine. I loved tamborine it was gogeous!
I sipped wine with new friends often and ate fabulous often too and I made the most of my child free time but just enjoying the peace.
Poor Husband at home ended up haivng to deal with 2 sick kids with gastro! Oh well, he definitely had a new appreciation for me once I got home!

The Garden:
Out the back is growing great! My Tomatoes are thriving, I also have them self sprouting everywhere form lasts years crops so have transplanted some and given some away.
One chilli plant died but the other 2 are going really well. zuchini, pumpkin, cucumbers, beans, lettuces are all going great. some of the capsicums are thriving too.
Out the front is a different story.
I think the soil sucks! I used mostly a heap of dirt we got from someone who mulched a tree. The father in law brought it home and I didnt really want it at the time but hoped it would be OK. I added manure and compost and blood and bone to it but nothing wants to grow in it.
Everythign is turning yellow and dying and just stunted in growth. I am now adding lots of the animal litter to itin the hope it improves in time. i am going to transplant heaps of the self seeded tomatoes to it and just see what happens. I focused more out the back this year anyway.
Oh my potatoes out the back are booming too as is my passionfruit. I have recently planted a heap of seed too - radishes, silverbeet, spring onion, parsnip, carots and some lettuce out the back beds too and they have all sprouted now.
My lemon tree seems to have coped so far wiht the heavy prune I gave it and is starting to show alot of new growth. I pile most of the animal hay and litter under it all the time too so maybe thats helped.
I reconnected the hose fomr the washing machine this week too as the grass is already starting to really brown and die, earlier this year!

The house:
is CHAOS!!!!!!
Because I am snowed under wiht work the house has been sorely nelgected!!!! I just aim for the bare basics each day and am happy if that gets done. I think I might to get osme paid help in to get back on top :(

The Kids:
are all great!

The animals:
are all growing! Stella the rabbit is gorgeous. she free roams out the back now as well as the house. she eats form the vegie garden but doesnt demolish it, probably because there is plenty there. The guinea pigs are all gettign bigger and healthier.
The dog is the same old same old. actually we realised she is getting old! she is about 13 or so now!

The worm farm:
takes care of itself mostly :) I just add every few days and they are multiplying well now!

Op shopping:
I still go most weeks, if not more than once a week. Its my release! I've picked up loads of great books and stuff for the kids. When i have more tiem I'll start reposting my bargains!

Oh I am still knitting, still basically, nothign fancy but i am building a collection of dish cloths now and I find it really relaxing!

NEWS!
After much discussion we are seriously considering selling in a year or so and moving into the Dandenongs! very exciting!

I am sure there is heaps I have forgotten but will try to get back to more photos and updates :)

Just so you have at least one photo here is my Bunny Stella, taken this morning in one of the vegie gardens.
isnt she pretty :)

Knitting, gardening and more new pets!

I haven't been a very good blogger recently!
I've been a bit flat emotionally, need to see the doc to discuss my meds. But then again it is also that time of the month so maybe thats all it is.

I have been busy again though and have lots to update on!

The wrom farm is coming along well. I havent set up the second one yet but will soon. I give the worms food every few days to once a week and they are getting it though most of it now. You can see a mouldy apple in there the kids add to it sometimes too!


I planted tomato plants and some basil and chilli and a mini capsicum in the front bed of the new beds. Yes they are bought seedlings, I am going to grow more by seed though too, we just eat loads of tomatoes in the summer season and I magaed to grab quite a few different varieties including some heirloom toms and some diggers toms as seedlings.
My parsely self seeds each year and i always have an abundance with our new animal friends enjying it I have made sure i am transplanting the constantly emerging seedlings as they grow so we have an even more plentiful supply.
The radished are coming up more each day!
The snow peas are coming along very very nicely.
This is the potato bed and I also planted parsnip seed at the far end.
Last weekend the girls and I went to the market shopping for new pencils and a visual diary for them to make into their 'nature diary'
Each of them decorated their books and are journelling some of the things we are gorwing, writing about our pets and writing about any projects we do.
This week are growing carrot tops!



and here is my beautiful bunny Stella again. She has settled so well into our lives. we love her dearly :) She is a indoor house bunny mostly though she has a run outside she goes int for some sunshine and grass munching.
nibbling parsely leaves, one of her fav snacks!
and yes I am a sucker! We have 2 more new additions ot the house!
Meet 'Puss'
and 'Boots'

our darling new guinea pigs. Puss is just 5 weeks old and Boots is 12 weeks old.
The kids adore them and they are much more kid friendly than the rabbit so Stella is happier too :)
Plus I have so much more animal manure and hay for the compost and garden beds now.
I found a good cheaper produce store yesterday too and I will be growing a lot of their food for them.

Oh and my sugar n spice yarn came in so am part way through knitting my first dishcloth!

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!

Market day.

Yesterday was market day. We live near the Dandenong market and we try to get there each week on a Tuesday to stock up on fruit and veg for the week. It saves so much money when we do this as prices are quite competitive. We usually try to go an hour or so before closing as prices drop even more.

They do have an organic section but lately prices have been insane in that area and unfortunately my budget doesn't stretch to accomodate me there. I do head there first though and pick up what I can.

Some good bargains from the rest of the market though were
$1.99 kg broccoli
5 avocados for $1
apples and pears for $1-1.49 kg
big large head of cauli for $2
big bag of baby carrots $1
Bananas a bag for $2

and much more for good prices.

With 3 kids we go through a heap of fruit anf veg each week, we always have to shop 2 times each week for them. Its great that we eat such variety but without the market we wouldnt be able to afford it some weeks.

Yesterday I also took the bagged up lettuce to school, in all I gave away 6 decent bags of lettuce and still left myself with 2 bags. the mums were most appreciative!

I also checked out my local fishing store again and this time they had red worms in so i grabbed a punnet and brought them home and added them to the worm farm.
The worm farm is going well. We haven't been feeding them a lot yet as they establish. But they are starting to eat there way through what I give them.

I'm heading out this afternoon to get osme plastic to cover my mini greenhouse/seed protector :) Will post photos once I am done!

Progress!

It's been a productive day!

My eldest child and youngest were out all day as was the other half so it was just me and jaime, my middle daughter who is 5yrs old and loves helping me!

So today I was going to sit and do computer editing work for work but once the sun shine came out we decided it was a good idea to get outdoors!

I found a use for all the bluestone we were given! They re going to edge our vegie beds out the front! The 2 larger beds will be no dig gardens and the smaller ones will be dug and will be for shallow rooted plants like lettuce etc. The rocks arent in their set places, just laid out to give me an idea of the shapes of the beds, we still have loads more bluestone if I want to change their size/shape etc.There is still obviously alot of work to do but it took ages to move all this stone!

I planted a pittosporum out the front too, I chose this as it should grow and fill that gap and hopefully deter vegie thiefs!


Meet jaime, my helper, pretending to drive daddy's ute.


After all the hard work of the fornt yard I wanted to do somethign abit more fun wiht Jaime, so we grabbed the paints I bougth this week and we decorated the worm farm. it looks much brighter now :)



We then went to the shops and got some bits and pieces and have cooking some yummy scalloped potatoes and we're having kangaroo tonight wiht them.

all in all a good day

Worm Farm

OK, we built our worm farm yesterday!
Yesterday was one of those cruddy days, I wasn't in the greatest of moods so in the afternoon I took off on my own for a few hours. I headed out to the hampton park tip/recycle centre and visited their shop. I picked up some really cheap outdoor toys for the kids, a book, a plant/tree for the front yard and a cane toy basket/chest for the kids cubby for toy storage in there.
I then headed into Dandenong and went to the op shop there and scored osme books, 2 on natural health and a couple of kids books.

I was on the hunt for some fly screen for my worm farm.
I then headed to menzies ave to the op shop there to see if I could score anything in my plight to build my worm farm. No luck. I then went to the green grocer nearby and they use all cardboard boxes so again no luck!

It was then that I thought that we actually might already have everythign we needed at home.
I was right. In the garage were 2 styrene boxes, there was no flyscreen but there was a heap of shade cloth so i used that instead. We already had tape. I used a couple of the breezer blocks I found in the new chook area to raise it off the ground. A coke bottle form the recycle bin for the drain hole and newspapers fromt he recycle bin to help start the bedding.


Some of the materials.






My daughter, aged 5, she is absolutely fascinated by bugs and loves getitng her hands into stuff. She was so excited by the box of worms and immediately stuck both hands in for a dig around. She asked if she could keep this worm seprate as a pet and wanted to name him.
Preperations.
Cutting a hole in the bottom styerene box for a drain hole. I taped it in place.


Rested the first box on the breezer blocks. I put a small piece of wood under the left block to give it a slight tilt to the drainage side.

Inside the base. I placed a brick incase the worms fallin and there is too much liquid in there, they have a place to be safe and not drown.Plus it weighs the bottom half down a bit.Preparing the top box. We poked loads of holes in the underside of the box first.

Then placed it on top of the first box and put a piece of shade cloth in the bottom.
Added the worms bedding. shredded newspaper, compost and some dirt.
we then added the worms, a very small amount of food/scraps and thewn covered the lot with damp newspaper.

I will get a hessian bag to go over the top. i know there are some somewhere in the garage, just have to find them!

Last night I cooked a deliscious lentil shepherds pie too, though we never made it into a pie, we just had the mixture with mashed potatoes on the side.