It Is Finished!

Yes that is right the road works have been finished and the round about is now opened, YAY.

The customers are back and sales are coming in again, Thank You Lord. It has been a long 4 weeks and I am ready to get our business buzzing again. The only tiny problem is they will pulling up the concrete foot path outside the front of the shop and I will probably have to open up the door on the other side of the building for my customers. I just hope they don't take long to get it done.

You know life throws you bumps in the road and you just have to ride them out and of course put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ because Phillipians 4:13 says "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" Amen

Watering system

It has been a while since my last post, I have been having computer problems and the road works near our business was extended for another week. So my frustration level has been tested. The road should be opened again on Friday and Dave and I will be re-arranging the shop and sprucing in up to give the customers a different look and feel as they wonder through it.


I got these drums for nothing from a factory I used to work at a number of years ago, they have only had food products in them so just with a wash out they will come handy for storing feed for the animals and storing water in. The black ones used to have gherkins in and have screw top lids which we have been using to bring water home from town.

We just tie them on the back of the truck like so and fill them up at the water main.

This is a bilge pump that we use to pump the water from these drums into a 1000 litre tank near our back door that is used for the washing machine.

At the moment we connect the pump up to the battery in the truck but next time we will use a portable battery pack that we have.

This is the hose going into the 1000 litre tank

And here is the 1000 litre tank, which is pretty empty. It is sitting in my veggie patch at the moment but we will probably move it later when we renovate the back of the house and hopefully by then we will have replaced the water tanks and no longer need this set up.

I have been slack

I have been slack with my blogging and the reasons will be listed below. I even missed 'A day in my Life' post which I started last month, because so much goes on and I seem to have gotton back on that fast merry go round of life. Either that or I have slowed down my pace and I not getting as much done as I should, meaning I'm getting lazy! Well I thought I would list the things that I have done or things that are going on to distract me.

The council are still working on the round about and the shop has been really, really quiet for

now 3 weeks and sales are non exsistant.

A little bit of stress there!

The bathroom has been tiled and the plumbing has been completed.

Getting ready to seal plaster and maybe paint in the near future.

Taken two loads of rubbish to tip (always fun)

Made batches of sweet pickles and pickled vegetables

Harvesting tomatoes for sauces

Dave turned 50! we just had a lovely dinner with friends

Cleaned Daves work shed out to get ready for next load of furniture to be made

Organized myself for another year of Scripture teaching at the local primary school

Herded an escaped Emu back home to where it belonged and closed gate ( so much fun LOL)

Help Jess with setting herself up while being away from home to do her TAFE course for the year

Jess, missing her father has organize a surprise party at home this saturday which I have to help

but cover up at the same time (good luck with that one LOL)

Oh! the hard drive on my computer blew up and died so I drag a dinosaur from home in

It is so slow it is driving my crazy and I have only just found the software application for my camera so

that I can download my pictures

Well I think that is about it at the moment, I've also missed reading my favourite blogs and commenting on them and I don't like rushing through them so I thought I'd wait till I had more time to sit back and really enjoy them.
Well the Council are supposed to be re-opening the road this friday so I planned to have the shop looking alive with two big signs out the front and balloons and I might even have a sausage sizzle to boot.

A change in the weather

I can't believe the change in the weather the last few days. At the moment it is about 20 degrees, I have a polo neck jumper and jeans on and I'm cooking a stew for dinner now if that doesn't sound like winter what does.

On another note the fires are still raging in Victoria and people are on high alert as the threat of fires is so unbelievable. The town of Toolangi is under ember attack some residents have evacuated and others are preparing to leave. The owners of a Tavern there have opened their doors to the firefighters, workers and locals and have provided them with food, accommodation and even a beer all free of charge. People have given their services as well to help the owners out with generators and volunteers are helping as cooks and waitresses. There are many stories of people helping and giving so much for these people that have lost everything.

I have abandoned my veggie patch at the moment with so much going on but it has been doing well with all the heat and now the rain. The only thing I will have to worry about is getting my stove reconnected, because Dave disconnected it when he moved it in the kitchen, and start making my tomato sauces and relishes with my booming crop of tomatoes :)

Jess has also moved down to Sydney to start a TAFE course so things have been quiet around with out her and we have both missed her. There will be the holidays coming up soon so she will be coming back to spend time with us. Hopefully by then the kitchen and bathroom will be finished and back in order :)

I appologise for the video below of the rescued koala not working as I am hopeless on these things but have now fixed the problem so if you you want to see this video please tried again :)

Koala Rescued

Victims of the bushfires are also the wildlife, livestock and pets. Up to a million animals have been killed or injured. Here is a video of a koala being rescued by one of our firefighters click on the link below.



Koala Rescued

Please keep the Victorian people in your thoughts and prayers as well as all of the injured animals and the people helping and caring for them.

What a crazy night!

After a hot stinking day in the shop with all the machinery outside digging and pounding the earth I was packing up to go home and I felt the shop building shaking so I went out side to see what machine was doing what. One of the workers on a big roller came over to me, he must have seen the look on my face and he told me that if I feel any vibrations to let them know, well I told him the building is shaking in its boots and he said he will let his supervisor know. A few days earlier a young man came in and took photos of the walls and any apparent cracks in the building just in case more cracks appeared while they are working.

Anyway I left to go home and had to pull off to the side of the road because I was been pelted with hail stones the size of walnuts along with leaves and small branches. This lasted a good ten minutes and I notices a number of cars had also pulled over. So once the hail stones stopped I was off again on my 45 minute drive home and notice further down the road smoke in the air , a bushfire was over on one of the ridges. My thoughts went straight to the Victoria fires but this was no way in comparison to that but as I drove through one of the small suburbs I noticed the fire trucks were all out. When I got home the wind was picking up and a storm was moving in with thunder and lightening, it eventually came and dumped on us 10mm of rain which was very refreshing.

Not long in the evening a neighbour came up and told us he seen a horse running full bolt down the main street, not knowing if it was my horse Buddy who should be safely up in the back paddock I was not going to take any chances so I grabbed a lead and Dave and I went out looking for this crazed horse. By this time some of the people where congregating around the fire sheds talking about the two fires burning in the area, we waved and went on in pursuit of the horse but as it was dark and the weather was a bit wild we were unable to see it . On the way home we stopped at the next door neighbours and seen his pig out and pulled over then noticed the neighbour pulling up behind us. He told us that it was his horse that had been chased out of the gate by one of his dogs and he was out looking for it as well. Well we decided to wait till morning as the conditions were not good and left to go home for a good cup of tea.

Lovely Lisa from Laughing Orca Ranch has sent my way the Earth Angel Award which is very kind of her and I also feel honoured as this is the second one I have recieved. This award is for blogging friends that are angels on earth and as I think of all the blogs I have read and the friendships I have made there is not one blog that I know of that does not deserve this award. You know a thoughtful written word is so powerful and does so much good to people that I want to pass this award on to everyone that passes through and reads my blog and encourage you to leave a comment for me and to all the other blogs that you visit, think it as a pay it forward gift :)

Renovations

Well renovations are still happening and we have accomplished a lot so far on as little money as possible. When you can do the manual labour yourself you can save heaps. Here Dave is doing the plumbing for the sink and also for the bathroom. He has cut a hole in the floor to make access easier and because he has arthritis so crawling under the house and the thought of running into a snake was a bit to daunting. We will be putting a floating timber floor in this area any way because the original timber floor wasn't any good in this section of the house.

The plumbing was fairly simple and straight forward, thank goodness.

Next we or should I say Dave looked to the old kitchen and started demolishing it with such glee. The tiles around the sink and bench top there are actually bathroom tiles and were a pain to keep clean, but with a few good hits with the hammer and pinch bar the cupboards and tiles come away with no problem.

The bottom shelf of the cupboard was actually the floor, not really good to keep out creepy crawlies.

Look! All gone :) Oh and the drain pipe didn't have an S bend but when straight down and angled out to the pit so all the smell would sometimes come right back at you (phew). We used to keep the plug in the sink for this reason.

Next! Was the stove which was where the old fuel stove used to sit but they built a little white box for it to sit in. It was ok but all the steam and splattering from the pots would hit the top of the cupboard because there was no exhaust fan. If you look at the picture above you can see all that black stuff at the top,well that is burnt sap because the people before us used to burn green timber. Dave said this is the cause of many houses burning down because the chimneys would catch on fire.

This is Sarabie, she is like my shadow and building supervisor, if anything is going on she has to be two inches from it. We will be knocking this brick work out and putting a door way in which will take you out to the laundry, bathroom and backdoor. At present we have to go out of one door to go around to the back of the house to go to the bathroom, which makes shower time pleasant as you do a bit of star gazing on the way through.

This is the new cavity for the stove Dave built (sounds a bit like " this is the house that Jack built" hehehe)

NOW! We are moving onto the bathroom, see the window on the left...that is the kitchen. The reason you can see Dave is that he pulled the wall down, he got a bit carried away with the demolition, just kidding. The outside wall was not straight and it would have cause a lot of headache for him with the tiling and moving the shower etc so he decided it would be easier to straighten this wall.

Here Dave is removing the shower so that he can turn it around to face the other way and make the bathroom bigger. The bathroom ceiling was really low so we raised it a little and it has made a big difference.

The shower was out and it was my job to clean it up and take all the glue off it.

The room was empty so Dave could now finish lining the walls and floor and move the plumbing. It all sounds so easy but we were doing this on those really stinking hot days of 45 degrees.

This is Sarabie doing a bit of surveying of the situation, just look at all that rubble out there.

The shower is finally back in and the plumbing is completed and all that is left to do is put the wall up.

Finished this stage, some time later I will show you how we will do the tiling, moving the toilet, building the vanity and finishing touches. We are lucky to have some nice marble for the floor that a friend gave us, very nice :)

Devastation!

There is no other word than devastation as our country is coming to terms with the loss of 108 people in Australias worst fires in history. There have been over 750 homes destroyed, whole towns destroyed and there are still fires burning in Victoria and NSW and the threat is still there. We ask for your thoughts and prayers be with the Australian people that are living this nightmare and for the task ahead of them to rebuild there shattered lives.

Some of the stories that are coming through the news are horrific and just thinking what these people went through makes you feel sick and your heart ache. I can't write about these as they are horrific but there are some stories of survival like a mother her son and dog as well another neighbour huddled in a wombat hole and put a canopy of wet sheets and curtains over themselves and hid in the burrow for protection until the fire past, this had saved their lives. Another story of fire fighters putting woman and children in the safety of the fire house and putting themselves between the fire and the building, their incredible courage had saved them all.

We have also been devastateded with floods with two thirds of Queensland flooded and more heavy rains forecasted. Some areas the water has receded but in other areas people might be isolated for another month. Some people are missing and a young boy might have been taken by a crocodile.

In my own town the temperatures have been in the high 30's and the last few days in the mid 40's and we have had no relief of rain this year so the ground is drying and the dams are evaporating. This week has been forcasts as a lot milder and the possibility of rain so please prayer for some relief and for the Australia people.

Blogging Buddies

My lovely friend Lisa at Laughing Orca Range has graciously given me an award and I would like to pass this award onto great blogs that I love to read and encourgage you to go and check them out

Outback

COPD-Caregiving is NOT for wimps

A Vision Splendid

Living off grid at Eclectric Culture Farm

The Empty Nester

Another gracious award given to me was from Ernie from The Empty Nester

She has overcome difficult times in her life and is full of encouragement and inspiration to others. She has gain may friendships through this blogging world, people that have shared words of affection and encouragdment to her and she has passed this love and generosity onto others.

I would like to pass this award onto those who come through this blog the ones that leave comments and to the ones that don't and to encourage you to speak up and to tell the people that are in your life how much you appreciate them and that you value their friendship and encourage them with words of love and respect.

Zucchini Cake and a New Kitchen Sink

We have an update on our kitchen rennovations. I mention earlier at the start of our rennovations that we are doing as much as we can on a tight budget and only at times when we can afford to spend on these plus we are sourcing out specials and items that meet our budget. So the latest happenings is a new kitchen sink which we found on special at our local hardware store complete with tap for only $149.


It didn't take Dave long to install it once he got his hands on it. The kitchen is looking more like a kitchen now, mind you I do have a sink on the other side of the wall which is the old kitchen that will be pulled out in the next 2 weeks. Dave just LOVES demolishing and he tidys up the mess as well and something even better is that it has hardly cost much and all that is to be done is flooring and painting.

Doesn't it look good, I feel silly ranting and raving over a sink but if you could see what the other sink area looks like you might understand why.

This is my view I will have while I do my dishes, it looks out to the paddock and dam. The breeze comes through and the wind chimes make a noise and it is so peacefull. Oh by the way there will be fronts put on those drawers on the right hand side of the kitchen below.

These are the handles that will be on the doors and drawers they have an antique look and the skirting, top moulding and architraves around window and doors will be painted a cream same as the handle.

Well! At long last I have been able to get my photos on here:)

And! I managed to get to my veggie patch maybe a little to late for my zucchinis and squashes because they have grown to an unbelieveable size. Some of the zucchinis are the size of baseball bats and squashes the size of bowls, anyway I'm dicing, grating, chopping, pureeing, baking, pickling and everything else possible with these monsters.

Now for the most delicious I have ever tasted and made is right here on this blog. So grab a pen and write it down, if you were closer I'd give you some these zucchinis as well.

Zucchini Cake

500 grams zucchini, grated

1 cup oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon Bi-Carbonate soda

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine zuchini, oil, sugar and eggs.

Sift dry ingredients except walnuts and add to mixture.

Add walnuts, mix well

Spoon mixture into greased and lined loaf tin

Bake in 180'c oven for about 1 1/4 hours

Allow to cool in tin about 15 minutes before turning out of tin

Now go enjoy this YUMMY cake I'm off to pickle those monster before the tomatoes start to take over :)