WHITE LILLY

Santa the Great Imposter

2012-01-27T10:05:00.002+11:00

"Santa the Great Imposterhttp://www.av1611.org/othpubls/santa.html"
Santa Claus or is it really satan's claws, have a read of this article, it is fairly long and it is backed up with scripture. I was shocked as I read how we are letting and encouraging our precious children to follow this pagan tradition which satan is behind. If you are not a Christian or think of yourself as the religious type I would still recommend you read this and maybe your eyes might be opened to the deceptions of this world.

On a happier note, I should be back to post fairly soon, my life was hectic last year so I plan on a much slower and more enjoyable one this year. Smelling the roses and enjoying my grandchildren and family are definitely on the list.
x0x0x0

What is your weekly menu like?

2011-10-04T13:40:00.000+11:00

I wasn't going to rave on how busy my life is but I just can't help it!
Just how much can you fit into one day?
If we didn't need sleep the days would roll over each other.
My daughter, partner and grandson will be moving back home with us at the end of October as the granny flat they have been living in since our house burnt down is needed for our friends daughter. So we ( my hubby, and good friends) have been frantically adding two bedrooms, a bathroom, hall and verandah to our little demountable we have been living in since May.

Hubby has also been doing the last few things, such as tiling bathrooms, decking, bathroom fit-out, plumbing etc on the Church which is getting close to completion. As well as making furniture for our customers and finishing off one of our neighbour's extension, he is in need of a holiday. As a requirement for lodgement of our plans to council I as an owner builder have to complete an Owner Builders Course online, so much fun, I have about 60 hours of reading :)

I had a great long weekend, one day it rained but the other two I managed to pant strawberries in hanging baskets on our deck, prepare seven beds for vegetables, plant celery, beetroot, spinach, Chinese vegs, tomatoes, capsicum and carrots. My seedling in my plastic glass house are coming along nicely, I think I have done well considering my veggie patch is surround by a construction site with mounds of dirt and old water tanks. Ok that's enough whinging for today :)

What I wanted to mention today was what I heard on the radio the other day, a lot of people these day only have 3-5 recipes or meals they used in their weekly menu. Imagine eating the same few things every few days. I suppose there is a number of reasons why people do this, lack of cooking abilities, maybe they werh never taught how to cook or learnt a variety of recipes, lack of imagination, laziness or maybe with the vast options of take away meals these days people prefer the quick and easy option. I thought about my meal options and I was pretty impressed with myself, I think I could go for months with not cooking the same thing twice. How about you? Do you cook a variety of meals or do you rotate the same meals every week? Do you teach your children how to cook? Have you passed recipes down to your children? Do you have recipes that have been in your family a long time? I would love to hear your point of view :)

Take Care

Goodbye Scooby!

2011-09-02T10:36:00.000+10:00

Very early Thursday morning we were awoken by a cry outside our window, which at present is near the sheep yards and at first we thought one of the cats had caught a rabbit but after a while I went outside with the torch to investigate. I saw our precious scooby dragging himself on the ground crying in pain, my heart just sanked, I knew he was in bad trouble and I couldn't do anything for him. He had either been bitten by a snake (this was about 3.30am so not sure if snake would be out) or he had eaten fox bait so I knew he was in trouble. I picked him up in a blanket and carried him to one of our sheds out of the cold and patted him for awhile then I left him. In the morning I knew he would be gone. We have been excavating the site for our house and we had to move a camellia tree that was near the old front verandah and we thought we would transplant it and bury scooby underneath it. I posted about Scooby a few years ago when he wandered off the street into my shop as a kitten in town, he was such a beautiful big cat.
FAREWELL SCOOBY :(

It is ready to start

2011-08-30T16:43:00.001+10:00

The house has now been demolished and what building material that could be saved will be used in other building projects on the farm such as accommodation for my milking goats and storage sheds as well as an extension on our demountable. We will be making the demountable into guest/tourist accommodation later when the house is finished. My son is coming up in a few days bringing two excavating machines as well as his boss to excavate part of the house site. This house is going to be a lot bigger than the old one and we will be having verandahs right around the house, which I can't wait to sit out on a warm summers night or in the sun on a cold morning.

We have a new dog to our herd, my son unfortunately does not have a large enough back yard for this girl so she is staying with us a for a while. I will have to show you a photo of her, she is as dalmation cross and she is very large. I have to keep the little dogs a way from her, being a pup she is too boisterous when she plays.

We have been busy doing fences, looking after lambs, making furniture for our shop, looking after children and gran children, and getting ready to start to build this house, I will show photos of its stages of build later. I'm also hoping to get my veggie patch booming this year as I am wanting to have enough to feed ourselves as well as our kids and grand kids, the price of food these days especially meat is crazy. I'm waiting for my one of my neighbours to finish shearing his sheep to come and shear mine and pick up a couple of older lambs to kill for our freezer. I know some of you might not like the sound of that but when you can produce and look after your own sheep with care and know that they are not full of chemicals and you can appreciate the quality and taste you know you and your family are getting the best.

They Have Arrived !!!!!

2011-08-03T16:02:00.000+10:00

I had a great day milking goats and sheep on Saturday as you can see below all the girls were lined up ready to go. I was eager for as much information as I could as I knew I didn't have long till my goats had kidded and I would be up to the arm pits with goats milk.

The Girls all lined up for milking

Well as you can see from the picture below I am now in panic motion as one of my goats kidded on Monday and I think the other one is not too far away. I stayed home on Monday as we had quiet a few farming jobs to get done namely fencing and bringing the sheep in the house paddock as they had started lambing and to my excitement my first kid was born.

Baby born 1/8/11

He didn't take long to jump to his feet and mum was up eating and drinking straight away.

Up on its feet

After all the excitement of the day the reality hit when I started thinking I only have a week or so before I will start my morning ritual of milking the goats then storing the milk in my single fridge and start making cheese. I have written a list and am now running around buying the necessary equipment needed for my adventure as well as a second hand fridge. I will keep you posted as I stop to take a breath.

My Dairy Goats & Making Cheese

2011-07-29T10:56:00.000+10:00

These are my very own dairy goats and they are both in kid. I bought them about four weeks ago and tomorrow I am going to a goat dairy farm to milk goats and make cheese, I am so excited I feel like a little kid myself. I have been wanting to get dairy goats for a long time now but because they have been too hard to find or have been too expensive I felt it wasn't the right time but one day Dave found these pair advertised not far from us and so cheap I felt that's it, I'm getting them. They are friendly and have been in kid and milked before so I'm hoping all will go well. I went to our local Field Day a couple of weeks ago and met this lady who has a dairy farm and makes cheese so I booked myself into her course and I just can't wait. I think I have about another 4-6 weeks before the goats kid and I can start milking so I'm trying to learn as much as possible to look after them, the kids as well as milk them and make cheeses. If you have any advice or links I would love to hear from you. I will be taking pictures and telling you how the day went.

The Fire

2011-07-28T16:12:00.001+10:00

The fire was now out of control, once it gets in the roof it spreads very quickly.My two neighbours and Jess's partner tried to contain it but it was no use, but fortunately the local fire brigade had just arrived and it took them no time to jump into action. They cut down the fence and started pumping water from the dam onto the flames, mind you during this time some of them where pulling out as much of our furniture as they could. Some of the guys knew the layout of our house so they worked together dragging out beds, cupboards, chairs, appliances, clothes, toys, baby gear, pictures whatever they could put their hands on as quickly as possible. Mind you it did start to rain later on in the evening, I remember snuggled up to Dave in bed at a neighbours place listening to rain and thinking of our furniture under makeshift tarps in the rain.

The Kitchen area

During this time my daughter had been trying to contact Dave and myself for about half an hour, we were oblivious to what was going on. Jess had rang her brother and sister and they were trying to get hold of us, I had put my phone on silent as we were at a study group. During our break time I notice my missed calls and as I picked up my phone Jess rang, she was telling me the house was burning and I'm saying don't be silly only because Jess sometimes jokes around and I had spoken to her forty minuets before, anyway she starts crying and then I hear my neighbour talking on the phone and my jaw dropped and my heart sank as I heard Jess crying in the back ground..
Note: I am never putting my phone on silent in my bag again.

The spare room

After pulling myself together and relaying to the people around me that my house was burning down and that Jess and Bentley were safe at a neighbours house we had a prayer together and then just literally hit the road. I tell you it was a long drive home and thoughts were running wild in my head. As we drew closer my heart was pounding and we were anticipating what we were going to see but as we turn the last corner the flashing lights of fire trucks, police cars and ambulance were just like something you see in a Bruce Willis movie. ..................TO BE CONTINUED

My littlest granddaughter is just getting over a stay in hospital with tonsillitis, a chest infection and possibly asthma. This winter has seemed to have hit nearly everyone hard some way or another and I know for one am looking forward to some good rain and warmer weather.

Life

2011-07-22T22:38:00.000+10:00

I really enjoy my blog, and I like sitting down and updating what has been going on, like my dairy goats, my veggie patch, the task of rebuilding a new house etc but some days life is soooo full of many things that you need to just sit down and reflect on what is precious to you and how you can treasure every moment the best you can. This week one of my granddaughters was in hospital with a chest infection, tonsillitis and possible asthma. She has been sick on and off for a few months with chest infections and having chest x-rays and I think her immune system has been run down but thankfully with a spell in hospital with a intravenous antibiotics and on Ventolin she is now on the road to recovery. I looked after her on Thursday while mum had a work commitment and we had a lovely day together, she is absolutely gorgeous with a infectious smile and beautiful red curly hair. While I was down there I went to see my son, who has been upset with the recent death of a very good friend last Saturday night. They were out with a group of his friends and this young man decide to walk home and was accidentally ran over by a taxi. He was 33 and had two young girls, his funeral was today and I went to pray for and show respect for his family and to support my son. My son is finding it difficult understanding why such a caring and great guy could be taken so young. Life is full of so many hard and difficult questions yet thankfully there are many opportunities for them to be answered.
On my way home, which was like a three hour trip I had the opportunity to pick up a cot from one of my suppliers for my littlest grandson, who as been sleeping in a porta cot since our house burnt down some eight weeks ago. To his mothers delight he is now snuggling in his warm and cosy bed and hopefully will blissfully sleep through the night. As I started this post my thoughts are to remind myself and encourage every one to be thankful and enjoy everyday you have and to show love to those who you love.

Talk about Frustration

2011-07-07T16:09:00.001+10:00

I have been going crazy trying to publish my posts, I have been searching the help lines for weeks and with having no clue at all but somehow today I must have done something right because it now works. So much has been happening and I haven't been able to update my blog so now I'm trying catching up. I will be continuing my story about "The day we will never forget" as well as updating the progress on our knock down and rebuild story. Our Insurance Company has been fantastic and the gentleman, the assessor for the company was so professional and caring it was unbelievable.

This is the first of three demountables that were lent to us by a friend from Church, amazing, from being homeless one day to having a friend lending us these huge rooms to live in as long as we like is surely amazing. It took them two days to transport them and set them up. One is our bedroom which is pretty large, the other a lounge room and the third is a kitchen/bathroom.

We had to rearrange the back yard a bit to fit them in but we are thinking about buying them off our friend and making it a permanent cottage for guest, sounds good hey!

We had a neighbour come up with his tractor to move these big boys together and put them on supports

I will be posting more upto date photos of the demountables and how we have set ourselves up while we build later on. Hubby wants to make ourselves comfortable while we rebuild.
We have been pulling down the old house in pieces so I will be posting about that in the next few days and I want to tell you about the two dairy goats I bought a few weeks ago, I'm so excited and guess what they are both in kid, more of that to come. I'm so glad I can now post again I have so much to put on here my head is going to explode.

Meet Bentley

2011-07-07T15:04:00.003+10:00

Hi Everyone, I would like you to meet Bentley. Bentley is my 4th grandbaby and my youngest daughters first baby. It was Jess and Bentley that were home alone on the night the fire broke out in the roof. Bentley was laying in his bouncer on top of the kitchen table in front of the fire playing with his turtle and Jess went out to get more wood for the fire. As she return she looked up and saw flames coming from the laundry roof and ran frantically inside scooping up Bentley, rang tripple "0" and ran out the door screeming for help while running down the street.

Our next door neighbours, Nick and Hendo were packing to go away, Hendo was outside packing the car and thought he heard a fox screaming and it wasn't until he took off his beanine that he could hear Jess screaming. Hendo looked across to our property and he could clearly see our house now in flames, he yells out to Jess if she had the baby, Jess screams back that she had. I know my heart beat skipped when Jess told me about this. Nick and Hendo jump in their car and raced to our house and Jess continued running down the road with Bentley in her arms to another neighbours house. We live near a village so there a few neighbours in the street but this night most of them were either out or had gone away, Jess went to a neighbours house banging on the door but no one was not home, their door was unlocked so Jess went in and grabed a sheet to wrap Bentley in because it was the coldest day on record for the month.

By this time the the call for tripple "0" had reached our local fire department and the firemen (our neighbours/farmers) are called out, the fire trucks are in our village next door to the house Jess was in at present. When one of the neighbours received the call for the fire and was getting in his car his to go his wife heard Jess out in the street in distress and went to her aid and took her and Bentley inside out of the cold.

Jess's partner by this time was on his way home and he said when he came around the corner and saw the flames coming out of the house he couldn't believe his eyes.
TO BE CONTINUED........

The Day We Will Not Forget!

2011-06-04T21:35:00.004+10:00

May the 11th is a day we will probably not forget, it was the day my daughter was home alone with her baby and the house caught fire and after ringing tripple 0 ran down the street screaming for help.

Life has been busy and I haven't had time to keep my blog upto date but now I would like to over the next few months share the day the fire devour our house, the amazing people who came to our rescue, our neighbours and friends who have shown love, generosity and their time through the last few weeks, our Church family who have prayed and supported us. Another thing I would like to share is the demolishing and rebuilding of our house as well as our lives.

Time for a Break!

2011-03-22T15:23:00.006+11:00

Bentley's hearing test, how cute

I'm really sorry for those who occasionally look on my blog especially friends and relatives, but I have been so busy with running a business, church life, the farm, my poor neglected veggie patch, running an every increasing household and enjoying my little six week old grandson who just had his first lot of immunisation needles today :( but he is fine and will probably sleep (hopefully) well tonight.

I'm not sure when I will be back full time on my blog, I have a lot of photos to down load of our extension and renovations. I usually show off my vegetable garden but it is not happening at the moment, but I will be getting it ready for a winter crop. I would like to get the paddocks ready for lambing this season as we should be getting a lot of lambs, which I am hoping to take a lot of photos of.

My daughters partner is a mechanic and now has his own work shop of the farm and has been working on his 4WD, which he loves and loves to take visitors 4 wheel driving all around our 100 acre property in. Maybe a video of that would be good:)

Motherhood!

2011-02-24T15:46:00.003+11:00

Well, reality has hit and our household is buzzing. This little man has made his presence known and we are all trying to keep life normal and simple as possible. My daughter has mastitis and with feeling overwhelm with motherhood has not made the process easy. I drove home the other day after speaking to her on the phone, telling me she was really cold and feeling unwell, I knew I would not be able to get her into a doctors appointment so I took her to the hospital and she was seen straight away. With living 54kms from town I knew if we didn't see to her swollen and painful breast straight away things could get difficult. After a few days on antibiotics she has improved and feeling much better.

It has been nearly 21years since I have had a new born at home and I had almost forgot about the overwhelming sensation of being responsible for such a tiny little thing and how life will never be the same. My daughter who was very hormonal during her pregnancy is now having those same feelings and sometimes has moments of tears, I am thankful that I am there to hug and support her the best I can as her mother.

Now when I look at new mums I wonder if they are coping and if they have the support of their mum, I know husbands and partner do support them but it is a little bit different when you can turn to your mum for that special advise and support. Are you a new mum? Do you have the support of your mum? Have you had mastitis? I would love to hear your point a view.

He is Here!

2011-02-17T16:52:00.002+11:00

I have been very occupied lately with the birth of grandchild number four and life has been very busy to say the least. Our household has jumped from two to five and then there are the extras that come along the way. We seem to have a revolving door at the moment and all I can say is thank goodness we set up a fortnightly menu planner because it takes the pressures of dinner time away.

I had five minutes to spare before running off home and I couldn't leave without signing in and showing off our beautiful 9lb 1oz baby boy.

Floods ravage Queensland

2011-01-12T14:44:00.000+11:00

Floods ravage Queensland

Devastating Queensland Floods!

2011-01-12T14:29:00.003+11:00

Queensland is going through a time of devastation that is so unbelievable, the amount of water and the damage to homes and lives is heart wrenching. The rain is still coming down, the rivers are still rising, homes are still going under, people are still getting rescued, some are missing and some lives will be lost. How much more and how long will it take for these towns and these people to recover from such a catastrophe. Australians are tough and can pull together when things get tough but we need your prayers and support as this nation is suffering. http://http//news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8195495/Brisbane-properties-to-be-hit-by-floods

Baby on the Way!

2011-01-06T10:18:00.015+11:00

We have a new member to our family.....meet Mitchell, he is my daughters husband to be and soon to be father of their child. My daughter Jess and Mitchell have moved in with us for a while, Mitchell is a mechanic and has just started a new job in town, he loves anything mechanical and 4 wheel driving.

Mitchell is a lovely young man and Jess adores him, their baby is due on the 12th Feb and we have been busy making changes to our house to accommodate the new arrival. I think they will probably be living with us for about 12months or so, just to give them a helping hand until they can afford to get their own place and get settled.

Mitchell has been a great help around the farm, helping with the business and with the renovations. I tell you there is always something happening in our house and now we have a gorgeous little baby on the way

The colours in the sunsets have been beautiful lately, this is one of the reason I love living in the open spaces of the country, this type of beauty gets lost in the concrete jungle and people don't seem to have the time to stop and spend a few minutes gazing at the beauty of creation.

What a Year!

2010-12-30T14:27:00.006+11:00

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to everyone!

I'M BACK! and I am starting to unwind after the busyness of the year and the build upto Christmas, I'm slowly getting my diet back to normal after consuming so many festive goodies and quieting down after having precious family members around.

Life is getting back to normal, whatever that is!

My youngest daughter has now moved back home and

is expecting her first baby on the 12th Feb

SO MUCH! to organize and prepare.

I need to organized my diary as my list of jobs and responsibilities have tripled

My camera has untimely kicked the bucket,

With new baby on the way, my glass house going up and house renovations progressing.

Son-in-law has moved in and has plans of building a bike track with jumps in

one of my paddocks, much to his delight not for the livestock.

I've nicked named him (I'll explain later) Little Booger :)

I had a full on year and my Blog was been very much neglected

2011 will be bigger and better, trust me

So try and keep up!

Have a Great 2011

A need to off load!

2010-12-14T15:09:00.002+11:00

I've just popped in for a really good whinge then I'm off again, where do I start!
This will just be random, I'm hoping to feel better as I unload all of this so please bare with me.
* Christmas tree is not up yet, kids want a real one, so hubby is going bush to find one
* No decorations up as yet, before this is done the things below have to be done...
* 1 x old window pulled out of bedroom and replaced with new (ebay) window for pregnant daughter and partner who have just moved in and their belongings are lying in wait to be place somewhere.
* Excess belongings need to be taken away for storage
* Old fire place also to be taken out,in same room for time been and gyprocked
* Now house is back in some kind of order for time being. Need to start to make Christmas pudding and goodies
* Lawn mower died, grass is now upto belly button
* Keep watch for snakes around house
* Need to fix chickens pen, two hens sitting on eggs, one in middle of herb garden
* Need to put baby chicks when born in safe place away from predators
* Need to put gravel in drive way because so much rain has caused it to be boggy
* Need to take truck down to Sydney for son because he is moving house just before Christmas and need to pick
up furniture for him from suppliers
* Need to make sure daughter is booked into hospital to have baby as she has moved to another area
* Oh! need to find a car that we can buckle in capsule so we can bring home daughter and baby from hospital
* Have not done any Christmas shopping
* Need to pick up laybyes
* Buy food for christmas
* Finish clipping the dog, she looks like she is wearing a skirt
* Need to wash all (5) dogs,found a flea on one of the dogs, very strange because we have not had any fleas for 6 years
* Buys son birthday present, his birthday is Christmas Eve
* Pick up daughter,son-inlaw and granddaughter from Sydney and return home on Christmas Eve, four hours one way
* DO NOT FORGET customers orders to be made and delivered and make sure bills are paid and presents are bought
* Try and keep sane, only ten days to Christmas.
I'm sure I have forgotten some thing, anyway I feel a little bit better :)

Life!

2010-11-30T11:49:00.003+11:00

Yes, I am still around, not for very long but I do return when I am able. Life in general has been very busy and I don't have the time or enough space to update you on what has been happening in my life. All I can say is that at times it is crazy and I need some time out space. Reflecting on yesterday all I can say as a Christian is that when Jesus calls you to step in on his behalf and do what he wants you to do, stay calm and trust him. I have a few minutes so I will share a little on yesterday as I was travelling to work (54kms to town) I called into the tip to off load some rubbish as we do not have garbage pick up where I live. While at the tip a young lady (about 30) and her father (about 70) were emptying there bins off the back of their ute and while they were doing this the father slipped off the back of the truck and hit his head on one of the large bins and was laying in a really awkward position. The daughter was screaming and trying to arouse her father, as I ran around our cars to him he had a fixated stare in his eyes (at first I thought he was not alive) and he was bleeding from the back of his head. The daughter had lost it, she was in a panicked state, I ran to my car and emptied my bag contents on the back of my truck looking for my phone and ran to the road way hoping to get phone reception and to ring 000. Thankfully I had one bar on my battery so I called for an ambulance. The gentleman came to as he was unconscious and now disorientated and he couldn't remember that his daughter beside him got married yesterday. To cut the story short the ambulance arrived and he was taken to hospital where he spent the day getting check over and was sent home. During this horrible time as I watched over this gentleman making sure I didn't need to resuscitate him I comforted his daughter, she thanked me so many times for being there for her and keeping calm,as she knew she would not have copied or been able to help her father if the situation turned for the worst. What I would like to say is that there will be times in our lives when we are called to be the strong, calm person in a situation, even though we feel we are out of our depth and comfort those around us that are leaning on us for help.

Well, Christmas is around the corner and I have done nothing to prepare for it!
Take Care
Sue

A View from my Room

2010-10-19T13:40:00.003+11:00

Its hard to see but it is sleeting!

We had a couple days of wild weather, Friday had rain, wild winds, hail and snow. We awoke in the morning and notice sleet falling, it was getting heavier and heavier it was so beautiful that I opened our sliding door in our bedroom jumped back into bed under the doona and watched it fall. In the photo is sarabie, she has slept at the foot of our bed since she was a pup, well you can see in the photo she was mesmerize with the snow as well.

The wind started to get wilder and wilder then our roofing on our back verandah started lifting, as it is fairly old and next minute it was off, the trees were were getting tossed to and fro, huge branches were being snapped off and one of the trees on our front boundary fence fell but was stopped by another. I didn't go to work that day as hubby said it would be too dangerous for me as we have dirt roads which are lined with trees to travel on. In the evening we had to go into town for a meeting and there were about ten trees down, one was right across the road and we had to turn back and go the other way. Sunday as I was going to church I came across the Fire Brigade, they were cutting up a tree that had fallen onto a ute and as I drove pass I could see where the tree had dented the roof and tray of the ute, I'm not sure as to whether the person was unharmed but it would have been very frightening.

One week at a time!

2010-10-06T10:54:00.007+11:00

I had a crazy week with so much going on and as usual my blog is left to the last minute. I can't believe as my daughter said the other day that it is only 11 weeks to Christmas but I think we say that every year as we run around doing what ever we do. The sad part of last week was the funeral I went to, it was of a young man that live near to us while we lived in the Hawkesbury and that we have known since he was in primary school. He died in a tragic car accident witnessed by his brother, he died the day before his birthday and he was only 23. The funeral was filled with his mates and it was gut renching seeing these young men saddened by the senseless death of a good friend and mate.

This is a picture of one of the areas between the buildings that will have a garden and a place to sit in the sun to read or relax or just reflect on life.

The kitchen has been tiles and fitted out but won't be completed until we can raise more funds.The commercial kitchen will be fantastic when we hold functions within the church and community.

In my week we had our sheep sheared, drenched and the lambs docked and tailed. We have about 30 sheep and about 18 lambs which is great our flock is growing but unfortunately as we inspected the flock we have decided that some have to go for various reason including some for the freezer.

As my hubby as arthritis in his hands and my bad back we get a friend and neighbour into do the shearing etc and we usually help in whatever way we can. Our sheep are fairly good and are trained to come to us with the shake of the feed bucket so it was easy to bring them into the yard the day before but there were a few that needed a neighbours dog to bring down from the top paddock

This our friend Murray who did the shearing, he is in a long line of generations that have worked the land and he has about 4000 sheep.

We don't have a shearing shed but we are working on it so Murray has to rough it in the yards with a piece of timber to stand on and shear.

As Murray shears he throws the fleece onto the table and I skirt the fleece, that is take off the daggy bits around the belly and tail and throw it into one bag then roll up the fleece and put it into another.

After the sheep have been sheared they are drenched and let out of the pen.

Then it is time for the lambs to be docked (males) and tailed and then they are let out of the pen to be with their mums.

Look at my hubby's face, the lambs are a good size plus hubby can't use his hands to grasp tightly onto the lamb.

Murray was having a few problems with his new shears but quickly sorted it out. Most of the sheep were quiet and most behaved during the shearing. I enjoyed the day out in the yard and it was good to get this job done and out of the way.

The other part of my week was when I took my dog Lucky to the vet when she was unwell and off her food and to find out that she had a serious infection in her uterus and had to be operated on. I don't know what shocked me more the fact that she was very ill or the bill of $900 but put all that aside she had her operation and has recovered very well but not the back account.

Well that was my week, I hope you had a better week. I'm off now to prepare myself for next week :)

Smell The Roses!

2010-09-22T11:55:00.004+10:00

It has been much warmer now that spring has finally arrived but I just can't put my jumpers and scarves away just yet. We have had late frost right up to November and cold snaps in between. I have been sick for a good three weeks, it was more than the flu because it just knocked me off my feet. Being a mother and wife and grandmother there is no time to be sick so apart for 3-4 days when I was incapacitated on the lounge I dragged myself around.

Life has been busy as usual, the Church is nearly completed "Alleluia" well I should say that we don't have quiet enough money to completely finish it so we have completed as much as we can and the rest is upto God.

My business can now get back into full swing again as my customer orders are mounting up and I have been doing quotations left, right and centre so thank goodness summer is on its way because we will be having late evening in the shed finishing off orders.

I have been doing Grandma duties and oh what fun, my eldest grandbaby Riley turned 6 last week and she had about 30 friends over to celebrate, I don't know what mum was thinking. Little Georgia will be turning one in November and precious Sophie has just started eating carrot, banana and pears and I have a photo of my little carrot top girl with carrot all over her :) My youngest daughter is now 19 weeks pregnant and is doing well and baby is due early February.

Spring has sprung and my veggie patch is sitting and waiting for me to get my act together and get my beds ready for planting. First I have to sort out my chickens as they have been free ranging for the last five months and think they own the place, nothing is left undisturbed as they go through every inch with a fine tooth comb scratching and pecking at everything. With all the rain we have had the ground is still really soft and muddy and with these warmer days the grass has been growing like crazy so I have a lot of weeding to do.

I have been more involved in my church lately and have been given the position of secretary of the ladies ministry and just recently I have been made a Deacon as well as my other positions of editor for our bulletin and church office administrator so my days have been very full.

Life is busy and crazy so I know how important it is to have quiet times and me times like smelling the roses if you know what I mean. I encourage you to have these times even if it is just to recharge your batteries and really appreciate life.....go bake a cake and enjoy eating it :)

Where does the time go?

2010-08-17T15:18:00.003+10:00

Time has escaped me yet again and we (I) have had so much going on and I have had trouble finding time to read all of my favourite blogs yet alone write a post. The little fella in the picture is a Echidna, also known as a Spiny Anteater it was crossing the road when I was driving home so I stopped and watched him for a few minutes. Echidnas use their spines as a method of defence against predators so I just sat in my car and watched him as he would take half a dozen steps and then he would freeze like a statue then he would move again hoping his watchful predator would move along . He did this, take a few steps then stop for a second or two then move again until he was close to the tree trunk or bushes where he would blend in with his surroundings. I left him in peace and went on my way.

We have another baby arriving and I think I will be called again for mother & grandmother duties which I just......LOVE. I will be up and down from Sydney again with appointments, scans and blood test etc so my busyness will not ease up till next year.

The Church is getting close to finishing and so is the budget, we just bought second hand cafe table and chairs for unbelievable price and all they really need is to be repainted, so I'm rounding up volunteers to make this as easy as possible.

On the home front everything is at a standstill due to extreme busyness and the rain, did I mention that we have had so much rain that my house yard is like a swamp, the chickens have grown web feet and I'm not far behind them. The heavy frost has also browned off the grass, so the yard is looking pretty bad at the moment. The veggie patch is waiting its fate, I'm hoping that it will be back in full production this year as last year was grim. I'm going to nag my poor hubby to make me some raised beds in his spare time (ha) or I will have to just set up night lights and get stuck into it when I get home from work and make it ready for spring. Once it gets warmer we will finish off our lounge room, laundry and kitchen and then start painting and decorating....yay

It won't be long now and our business will be picking up pace again as the orders have been coming in fast, we need to get more stock back in the shop and hubby wants to put our business name on our truck so make people more aware of us.

My life is very busy and I am doing at least 10 things at one time but I do get time to smell the roses and thank God for every blessing he gives me and I hope you do the same :)

Sue

Grandma Duties!

2010-07-22T13:15:00.006+10:00

I have been absent due to grandma duties and loving it. My daughter and grandbaby Sophie have been visiting for a week and we all have had a lovely time together even the animals were excited having this little precious one come and stay. It was lovely to wake up in the mornings and see this little smiley face and have chats with lots of gurgles. We had lots of time to chat and spend time together, the weather was a little chilly but we managed to keep warm near the fire. As usual the time goes quickly and before we knew it, it was time to go home, but I am sure it won't be long before they will come back.

We finally had our first worship service in our new Church and it was terrific and just check out the cars in the car park. There are still things to be done for completion and the front administration building is still under construction but we will be having our "Opening Ceremony" in October.

I put on my side bar a short clip on a program I watch when I can called "The Uprising" it is a reality show about Born again pro-skaters Jay Haizlip, Christian Hosoi and Brian Sumner as they witness and share the Gospel to those around them especially the youth through skating and their everyday life. They reach out to those whose lives have been affected by poverty, drugs, crime and other misfortunes and who don't have or know the love of Jesus Christ in their life.

The Uprising....

It's my Birthday!

2010-07-02T12:31:00.003+10:00

It's my 48th birthday, there I said my age now I can forget for another year. My youngest daughter has sent me some beautiful flowers and some yummy Lindt chocolate, the white chocolate with the creamy centre which I absolutely love :).

It is raining here at the moment and there is snow not far away and I am huddle in front of my heater at work. I have been thinking about making myself a birthday cake, I like the thought of a creamy cheese cake with fresh fruit or maybe a mountain of profiteroles with chocolate or toffee drizzled down. Is it just me or do other mothers, women make their own birthday cakes because sometimes if you don't you don't get one at all?

BIG! Progress and it was so cold!

2010-07-01T12:09:00.006+10:00

After a freezing ( -6) morning start the big build started, the rest of the furniture was removed from the room and the demolishing tools were brought in. The guys did a great job, it is true many hands make work light but very dirty. When that ceiling came down so did the dust.

We pulled the all the beams down because the ceiling sagged and hubby new it would be quicker and easier just to replace it and he said cyprus pine that old would be no good to reuse because it would split and be brittle.

When the beams came down I looked at the exposed roof and it look like a beautiful cathedral ceiling well not quiet but it did look really good. Hubby said we couldn't have a cathedral ceiling because it would take too long, the room was too long and it would look too silly and besides he already planned to put the ceiling up in a day.

The guys were really great they worked well as a team, Gary pulled down the beams and David, Tony and hubby carried out the rubbish.

We cut the wiring in this room but we had another friend Peter come later to reconnect new lights and power points. We will be having down lights eventually in this room and I think I will have lamps.

The day was really cold and I was just moving around to keep warm plus I was in the kitchen cooking up a roast lamb dinner for these hard working guys.

My skylight was taken of carefully and put back. This part of the house used to be small and dark but now it has been opened up and has so much light.

Look at all that wiring what a night mare but the ceiling is all down and the room is cleaned out ready for the ceiling frames the guys made to be put back up. It was a different way of doing things but it worked and it was quicker and the ceiling will be much stronger.

They made about ten of these frames and nailed them to a main support beam (the red one)

The guys enjoyed there roast lamb (one of own bred on our property) and I had also made a few yummy cakes and biscuits for them to munch on through out the day.

The frames are just about all up and soon they were to start on gyprocking the ceiling. The day went fairly quick and most of the gyprock was put up and the guys left late in the afternoon and were planning to come tomorrow to complete the last little bit.

The next morning was down to minus (-) 8 and it was freezing. My bedroom door was iced up and was hard to open, all the pipes and taps were frozen, I think this must be the coldest day we have had here.

Everything was blanketed in frost and I did hear on the news that it was the coldest day in June for 60 years. We heard in town that peoples water meters were bursting and their pipes were frozen solid.

Hubby bought is gas heater he has in his shed inside to take the icy chill out of the air.

One last section of gyprock to go up and the job will be done. I made the guys homemade lasagna with fresh salad and garlic bread and they loved it, it was a feast. They finished early afternoon and they had to take off and get back into town because the freight courier was delivering the stoves and fridges and coffee machine hubby and I purchased for the new church.

The house is now so much warmer and is getting near completion and it won't belong and my daughter and grand-daughter can come up and stay.

Renovation Update!

2010-06-27T16:25:00.008+10:00

This weeks temperatures have dropped down to the low minuses and everything is freezing up. You know it is going to be cold when you are lying in bed in the early hours and you have to put the blankets over your head because your face is going numb, well that was what this morning was like and then the pipes where frozen and the poor dogs couldn't have a drink because their water was frozen.
I had a bit of a problem opening my car door at 8.30am this morning because it was FROZEN
On a warmer note I was blessed with one of my new kitchen bench tops, I chose a shiny cream marble looking top with a square edge.

Hubby is cutting out the top for my new kitchen sink, this bench is 1500 (5ft) long and we have to cut half of it out for the sink, but waste not, want not hubby is going to make me some chopping boards with the off cuts :)

Hubby hates doing the plumbing he is more of a wood man but after a few trial and errors we have no leaks :)

Isn't she nice and shiny, that's our friend Tony screwing the clips in to hold the sink down.

OH! my, doesn't that tap finish the sink off nicely

It even comes with a chopping board and a removable vegetable/scrap drainer.....very nice :)

And look my first set of washed dishes. I know its only a bench top and new sink but I have been waiting patiently for a long time now and if you keep reading there is more!

This is the opened gap in my lounge room ceiling at the moment and the cold breeze comes shooting down there on windy nights. BUT tomorrow the lovely guys that have been working on our new church helping my hubby are all coming out to rip that old ceiling down, replacing the beams (one beam in my ceiling is a tree branch can you believe that) and put up a new gyprock ceiling YAY YAY YAY! Mind you I have to cook up a feast for all these hard working guys but I think it is going to be worth it :)

Its a fairly long room and the whole ceiling is coming down, just think of the mess and dust. Once the ceiling has been replaced then we can do the cornices, skirting, window frames and then start to paint and then I can start decorating.

These are cheval mirrors I sell at my shop that are really nice and are often hard to find in shops, I sell them for $120 and they come in two colours baltic and walnut. I'm not sure why I have put them on this post but I have other things listed below in my shop that I sell and I could easily post these out to people if they were interested. We mainly sell large items we make but I have been getting in these french provincial items to give the shop another look.

These trays are really cute and are a nice size

This little rooster clock is only about 13cm high

This clock has strawberries and butterflies and is 15cm x 15cm

I also have a few plaques hanging around, this one would suit me :)

This is a Buffet & Hutch we make, I love the little drawers. We have made so many different combinations of these cupboards and they all look fantastic.

This is a little picture frame that opens out, I think it was so cute, it is about 20cm x 20cm and I sell it for $25, so cute.

You can display five photos is this little cutey!

Well that's about it for now, I should have photos of the next few days of our big revamp of our lounge room ceiling.

It has been Sooo... cold!

2010-06-10T11:59:00.006+10:00

Winter is now really here, the temperatures are down in the minuses and the wind chill last night was terrible. Hubby and I went to Sydney last Friday and in was pouring with rain but got to fit in a lot of things but unfortunately we did not get to see the grandchildren, maybe when we go down next Tuesday. We did manage to buy stoves, fridges and a coffee machine for the kitchen in the new Church, some of the planting for the gardens will be done next week, the brick work should be finished as well as the gyprocking. The road is getting pulled up for the water and sewer connections today and hopefully we will be having our first Church service on the 19th June.

Whats going on!

2010-06-03T13:42:00.004+10:00

Well hubby as been working on the laundry and I am really happy with it all. Yesterday he put in a bench top (it was left over from one of his jobs) and cut in the laundry tub. We are going to put in overhead cupboards and have a tile splash back. There will be another bench top on the other wall which will give me a lot of space to do folding and other tasks.

The floor is now tiled and grouted, the shelves are in, the washing machine is in and leveled and all that needs to be done is the skirting, architraves, doors on the cupboards, painting, light fittings and I think we're done :)

I've been thinking lately which is always dangerous as hubby says, I think I'd like my shop to have more shabby chic or maybe french provincial items in it. I have been looking through web sites and I'm liking the look of the creams and white furniture with splashes of vintage home wares. The canisters below sit on one of our Dressers and look very cute, I must say I am not a very good interior decorator but I'm hoping once you start adding items the picture you want will come together.

I have bundling up dried lavender cuttings and making lavender bags for our church stall we will be having in a few weeks. We have started a ladies fellowship group called "The Girl Friends" and we having a stall at our local markets to raise money for mission and community projects.

I'm off to Sydney tomorrow for a number of reasons as well as looking at stoves, coffee machines and other items we will need to fit out the kitchen in our new Church. I think we are leaving around 5am so we will be having a long day and I'm hoping to call in and see my daughter-in-law and grandbabies as well.

I'm SO Excited!

2010-05-27T11:02:00.006+10:00

After living so long with renovations going on and having no time and sometimes no money to progress with them we have come to the decision that we are sick of living in a house that is upside down. We are now on a mission because my eldest daughter who just had her first baby has asked to come up and stay with us for a week, so this made us go into overdrive. Don't you love it when you have something to strive for, it seems to give you a mission that has to be completed quickly.

Above picture is the back end of our house where our laundry and bathroom is, it looks a mess I know but now the wall is up the door is on and the gyprock has now been completed and hubby is starting to put in cupboards.

Check out that cupboard space, I am so excited that I am getting so much ..... a girl can never have enough cupboard space.

I can store a lot in these cupboards but wait there's more....

This side will have my washing machine, laundry tub, bench space and overhead cupboards.

Hubby made the cupboards himself and he will make the doors, skirting and architraves as well. These will be painted a cream and have that shabby chic look to match the bathroom ,the floor will be tiled and I'm not sure what colour to paint the walls yet

This is Scooby, he likes to hang around and see what is going on like the other three below.

As you walk out the back door you see part of my veggie patch which is looking like a wreck, anyway after we have finished the inside we plan to put decks around the house so when you walk out the back door there will be a deck and I will be able to look over my fruitful garden, perfect!

These little ones are over the renovations as well, there has been a lot of hammering and banging as well as electric nail guns and jack hammers in the house that these poor little doggies run to high ground or race to sit on my lap.

This is the back of the fire place which is in the laundry, I mention in an earlier post that we had a bit of trouble putting the flute in and had to jack hammer the back wall out. Well this is going to be modified to make an enclosed oven, I don't have a lot of details on this one so will have to just wait and see.

The Church is still going really well and we should be able to have our first worship services in a few weeks in the main building. The drive way will be in soon and then we can start planting plants on that top bank on the right in the picture.

The brick work has been started in the front building as well as the gyprock.

This is the entry to the front building where the offices, meeting room, toilets & showers, kitchen and cafe will be as well as a library/gift shop. So you see there is so much going on and that is why I'm SO excited :)

She is Happy, really!

2010-05-21T13:12:00.002+10:00

I took this photo early this morning and it was a bit chilly so Jatzie still had her jumper on. I know Jatzie will feel much better not having her hair matted and it usually takes her a day or so to get over her big day out having been bathed and clipped and everything else that goes with a good grooming. I know she doesn't look impressed but give her a couple of days and she will be out there running a muck with the cats, dogs, chickens and sheep :)

Jaztie's off to the parlor!

2010-05-20T10:58:00.002+10:00

Our little Maltese 'Jatzie' is off to the doggie parlour today for a much need trim. She gets a bit knotted because of the fine hair Maltese have and probably because she runs around with the other dogs, cats, chickens, sheep.....you know how it is when you are playing the last thing you think about is your hair getting knotted. The weather is getting colder and she probably should have had this done earlier in the year but we will have to put two coats on her at night inside of one. I have done a before photo of her and I will do one when she comes back.

I remember quiet a few years ago when Jatzie did have a few mats in her hair and I had this guy come in his mobile van to wash and trim her and I told my hubby to tell him to cut her short because of the hot weather WELL when I got home from work she was shaved right to her skin and I said what the ??###! happened she looks like a rat!.

I have had a few bad hair days myself over the years and when you look back in photographs you wonder what you were thinking to go for that look. I sometimes wonder what my hair do is going to be like when old, I might go for a blue rinse or I think I might go radical and have purple streaks :)

Cold and Frosty

2010-05-17T16:02:00.004+10:00

We have had a couple of heavy frost and a couple of days below -3degrees. I love my Lincoln rose and it looks even more beautiful with the frosty crystals on it.

The outside dogs arn't real impressed with these frosty mornings and usually anticipate the sun coming up and radiating that glorious heat.

The little ones on the other hand can't wait for the fire to be lit so they can bed themselves snugly in front.

You just have to get the right position before you settle down, that's what Abbey is doing here. She does have a bean bag under our bed and when we go to bed she will sometimes take a good

5 mins to move those beans around and get into a comfortable position. Sometimes it drives us crazy and we usually yell out "go to bed Abbey"

These two are sisters and love each other so much. :) Doesn't Abbey look cute in her jumper :)

This and That!

2010-05-12T10:36:00.002+10:00

I mentioned yesterday that we were eating fresh lamb, well we had four fat lambs killed for our freezer, I hope it did not offend anybody but we here on our farm have our own sheep and we breed them for our own consumption. With the off cuts and scraps I cook up with rice, noodles, vegetable, Vegemite and whatever else I might have around to feed the dogs. I just mince it up and freeze it for later as well as the bones.

I got about six kilos of mince for the dogs as well as two bags of bones.

This is the opening behind our fireplace I was talking about yesterday. This is the back wall for my laundry and we were thinking of making an enclosed compartment made of steel or whatever which would make it like an oven and where we can cook pizzas or bread. It could be possible!

These are my three roosters that will be have to be homed or eaten, I do have a friend coming out on the weekend to look at taking one of them and there maybe a neighbour who might take one as well so that might leave only one for the pot.

The Church is coming along, the brickies will be starting probably Friday or Monday and then the inside of the front building can be started.

Mothers Day with a twist!

2010-05-11T13:31:00.006+10:00

I'm a little late in saying this but I had a great 'Mothers Day' I woke up and the sun was shining in through the window and I knew I would hear from each of my children and the day would be blissful. My darling husband was going to make me bacon and eggs and a cup of tea in bed, BUT he couldn't wait to rip out the bedroom wall, get rid of those louvred windows and put in the new windows and sliding door. So out of bed I jump to make him bacon and eggs while he fetches his hammer and other tools of destruction he loves :)

You see he couldn't wait to pull those louvres out, they are nice in summer with the cool breeze but let me tell you our room was like the Antarctic in the winter. We would open our bedroom door and the cold breeze would hit you like you were opening the fridge.

It didn't take hubby long to pull that wall apart for the whole world to see my bedroom, just as well we live out in the country and neighbours are a fair way from us but it was mothers day and the village was a bit busy with visitors.

Do you like my bed? I love it because it is higher than a normal bed and is a delight to get out of in the morning because you just roll out and you are standing up, if you know what I mean.

When I took this photo I could see all the things I have shoved under the bed and it looked a mess.

Once the wall was down hubby put the windows and door in, by this time my daughter and her boyfriend arrived as a surprise for mothers day and fortunate for them I had put on a large roast lamb (freshly killed three days before) so there was plenty and we had a feast with triffle (cake,custard,jelly,peaches and cream, YUM) for desert.

Later on we will put a deck out here so that we can sit out there on a warm evening and maybe gaze through my telescope or just enjoy the sunshine.

At long last (18 months) we had our fire going again not with some hiccups, see that rubble on the floor and the hole above the fire well the flute did not line up with the fire place in the chimney because when you start renovating a house you get these hiccups. After using the jack hammer, the grinder, hammer and crow bar and the welder to make up a elbow that looks like a dogs leg and with much more destruction on the other side of the wall we managed to get it all together. The destruction behind the fire is where the laundry room is and hubby had to make an opening in the chimney wall to reach the back of the fire ( I will show you a picture tomorrow) any way we thought we could put a door on this square opening and make it a pizza/bread oven. I thought it was a good idea the door and oven would be well made as the guy who gave us a hand is a welder :)

The doggies enjoyed the sunshine, this is Jatzie lying on some of the timber and that is Abbey
below looking a bit camera shy, they love having their jumpers on because the house is/was cold. Sarabie is our other little inside dog and she was checking out the new entry and exit dad was making in the bedroom.

Delicious Bread and Butter Pudding!

2010-05-03T14:42:00.005+10:00

I just had the most delicious bread and butter pudding, it was out of this world, I would have taken a photo of it if I wasn't so hypnotised by its moistness or the fat juicy sultanas or the taste and smell of nutmeg hitting my senses before devouring it. I just had to pass this on because like I said it was so delicious. I had a loaf of wholemeal bread that was getting on the stale side and didn't want to pass it onto the chooks so I made a bread and butter pudding. I have made them before but this time I did not hold back with the butter, sugar, sultanas and nutmeg, let me say I just went for it and it paid off (note to self will have to run around the paddock to pay back the extras). When I cook I don't usual stick to recipes, you should give it a try and get to know your ingredients and how they work together it is liberating.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Use 8-10 slices of buttered bread (or just as many you need to fill a baking dish)

Lay a layer of bread in your dish and sprinkle with a little sugar

Now sprinkle over a lot of sultanas

Add another layer of bread, sprinkle sugar( be generous) on top, then sprinkle sultanas

Continue until you have filled your dish

In a bowl add 2-3 eggs, 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 cups of milk , 1-2 Tablespoon nutmeg

Mix and pour over bread.

You have to make sure that all the bread gets a soaking of this mixture so add more milk if you need to ( I had to)

Add a little more nutmeg if you want to (I did)

This will make your pudding moist and eggy and the sultanas plumb and juicy

Put your dish in a water bath and bake in moderate oven for about 30 - 40 mins (use a knife to poke it and if it is still runny bake for a little long until set)

Eat while hot or even better eat when cold the next day YUM!

Road Trip, Short Clip!

2010-04-29T14:29:00.003+10:00

I had to go down to Sydney again this week and I thought I try and take a video of my early morning trip along the track that takes me to the main road, apart from feeling like Steve Irwin on a safari adventure my videos were not very good. The road is really bumpy and you would probably get car sick just looking at it but I did see a lot of kangaroos on my travels and I had a few jump right out in front of me. I did get a video from the start of my trip of a kangaroo that was standing on the track so I pulled up beside it and notice it had a bloody eye and a injured leg, I didn't know for sure how bad it was as it hopped behind a tree so I left it in peace and went on my way. I don't know for sure wether it had been in a fight or injured itself jumping over a fence or it had been hit by car. I have come across a few animals injured on the road and I usually call into a neighbour or a property close by and there usually is someone there with a gun so we can put them out of their misery, it really makes my sad when people know they have hit an animal yet drive off and leave it still alive laying in the middle of the road injured. I hope my video and post have not sadden you but I am sure this roo will be ok as long as he keeps away from the road.

Home is where the heart is!

2010-04-24T13:11:00.002+10:00

I left early to go to Sydney on Thursday and hit the peak hour traffic of kangaroos, I didn't hit any but between the kangaroos, pot holes and early morning mist I was ducking and weaving. The morning was delicious as the mist sat in the valleys and it was beautiful to watch the sun rising.

This road (track) I drive on for about 20kms is really lovely and it has some beautiful views, I knew it wouldn't be long and I will be in thick of Sydney traffic and crazy people rushing to and fro.

No this is not the real Harbour Bridge it is a replica in a car yard,

The noise, traffic and the hustle and bustle of Sydney does not sit with me anymore and I sometimes can't wait to get out of there. My children live down here but hopefully in a few years they will find there way out to the country, but for now I don't mind the travelling as long as I have what awaits me at home.

As the sun was setting I was on my way home, the place where my hubby and heart is :)

The memory of traffic, smog, horns sounding and people rushing here and there are now distant as look to the horizon of my little village where my animals will greet me wide smiles and my hubby with a big cup of tea:)

Reno, Church, Haircut!

2010-04-21T16:12:00.005+10:00

We finally knocked out the wall between the bedroom and lounge room and have opened this room up into one large room and it is looking fantastic (please excuse my dirty camera). There is so much more light coming into the house and the room looks so much bigger, we like the open plan look.

(dirty camera, sorry) We are going to build a TV/bookcase/cupboard space unit in that cavity on the left where you can just see a cupboard sticking out.

The wall is nearly down, we have to leave one stud there until Dave puts a beam across the top. We have started gyprock the walls and with the long weekend coming up we shall be putting the fire place back and more.

The Church is now moving really fast and everyday it is changing and becoming an exciting building. We have had so many people come along and have been so amazed how it is looking and what a fantastic building the community can have.

We have be putting in paths and laying turf, this building is coming alive and people are getting so excited, I am for sure.

Doors and windows are going in and the brick layers are starting, wait till I show you what is going between the two buildings at the back, it is amazing!

Oh! I had my hair cut yesterday and thought I stick it on here. I usually worry about getting my hair cut because I am never sure how I am going to look but my hair was really dry and straight and because it is thin it was looking terrible. I was really happy though when my hair bounced back with a curl :)

Everything is on HOLD but the chickens!

2010-04-16T14:17:00.004+10:00

The work shop is at a stand still at the moment, the guys have been busy working at the Church
and now with day-light savings finishing there is no night work. I love it when work is going on in the shed and lovely pieces of furniture are been made plus the smell of all the different timbers and stains, it is wonderful.

This lovely chest of drawers just needs a few finishing touches then it is on its way. I think it will be another 6 weeks before full time production starts up again in our little shed, I really hope so!

With being away on and off for most of the year my chickens have been roaming free and producing babies, if you look closer there are two little ones being protected by these mums. I couldn't tell you off hand how many chickens I have at the moment (isn't that terrible) but they are all happy. One thing I do know is that I have 3 too many roosters and the time is drawing nearly near to deal with this matter :(

My roosters are lovely but two are already starting to have biffs. The one on the right is the big daddy and he has a son that is much like him in colour, the other two on the left are his also.

My Camellia tree is flowering and looking beautiful near our front door, I didn't want to show you a picture of the front door because the whole house is under construction and it is looking a mess. Is there anybody else out there who is doing renovations and feeling a little frustrated, I need a little pep talk!

Church Update!

2010-04-15T11:21:00.003+10:00

Our new Church is progressing really well and there have been big changes every week. My eyes just get bigger and bigger when I go up there to take pictures, the three separate buildings are now coming together as one and it is looking fantastic. We have a main front building that will have a main office, meeting room, two smaller offices, a gift/book shop, toilets and showers, a commercial kitchen, cafe and seating area. The back building on the right will be the main Worship Hall with a huge stage area, two small rooms either side of the stage, a cry room and a area set up for sound and lighting. The other main building on the left will be the Junior Hall which will have storage and toilet/disable toilet. The most amazing thing with these two buildings is that they are separate but are joined by a walk way in the middle which will have a awing/shutter system overhead and their doors can be opened up wide allowing it to be one huge room.

This picture shows the two buildings and the above is the awning and the openings is where the doors will be, each building can hold about 250 people.

All the trade people and contractors have been working really well together (thank goodness) and the building is moving along in leaps and bounds.

It is amazing thinking back to the early stages of planning this Church on paper and now seeing it all unfolding and I am so excited thinking about when we finally get to move into our New Church and I know that there are people in our community who don't go to Church yet but are waiting for the Church to be finished so they can come.

Sheep and a Room with a View

2010-04-13T13:23:00.004+10:00

The sheep are doing a really good job eating down those weeds, before you couldn't walk in there it was just a jungle, now at least I can get in there and start preparing the beds for next season and tidy things up. I'm hoping.....no I plan to get my raised beds up and ready this winter for next spring. I thought I might use some of the old corrugated tin for the beds, I should get at least ten good size beds.

There are four sheep there, one had fly strike which we had to treat and now her wool is starting to fall off around that area but she is now a lot happier and more comfortable.

We have moved one of the bedrooms and opened up the room to make it an extension of the lounge room which was quiet dark. Dave found a window on eBay at a fantastic price , it came with fly screen and vertical drapes it has opened up this room with so much light. Look at the beautiful view with have now and Dave said he was going to build a seat beneath the window for our three little dogs to look out of ( you should have seen the smiles on their faces :)

The guys insulated and gyrocked (plastered)the room last night, I can't believe the difference it has made. The bedroom that was moved to the side of the house has a little combustion stove and will look really cosy as a guest room, I can't wait to decorate it.

Baby Girl!

2010-04-12T11:05:00.005+10:00

After a long time waiting and having a few issues our beautifully little granddaughter has arrived. On the 31st March 2010 little Sophie arrived weighing 7lb 12oz (3.54kilograms) and apart from being perfect she is absolutely gorgeous. My daughter had a short textbook delivery, the doctor was thrilled for her.

Sophie arrived and seconds later she was opening her eyes and wanting a feed, she is now a very content baby and not too demanding and mum is doing really well. Not to mention proud grandma who was there to witness little Sophie's arrival.

Yes life is blissful, we have been blessed greatly is so many ways and life is now settling down to some sort of normality whatever that is. I am back at home and trying to catch up on house work and life in general, today I am at the shop and trying to get back into a routine and catch up with customers, who I may say have been so patient and understanding.

We are still renovating at home and with winter coming upon us we are trying to get the fireplace back in, the walls insulated and finished and have the house nice and snug. I have let some of my sheep into the veggie patch to eat the wild weeds growing and aerate and fertilise the soil. Hopefully the patch will be bigger and better next season, I am determined to get my raised beds in have the patch booming again.

Hopefully I am back to regular blogging now life has quietened down and now I'm off to read some of my favourite blogs

Sue

A Quick Update!

2010-03-29T12:06:00.003+11:00

Just running in and running out, life is still busy and guess what! My daughter is going into hospital tomorrow to be induced, so it won't be long and we will have a new beautifully baby to smother with love. As you can see our Church is progressing really well and is starting to take shape. We met with our local nursery to discuss trees and gardens and to get some idea of what will do well on our church block. We also discussed about our feature tree, if you look at the picture above, through that opening you can see trees, well when you come to the opening of the front building you will be able to see right through to the other buildings and see our spectacular feature tree. We are still discussing what our feature tree will be, we do have some choices which I will post about later.

On another note my veggie patch is now a jungle and is waiting to mowed and mulch to slumber till next season. The renovations in the house have come to a stand still and I'm getting anxious about our fire place sitting in the shed waiting to be installed, the mornings and evening are slowly getting chilly and it won't belong before winters gets its grip. Daylight savings finishes next week and with this things usually start to slow down.

I had one of my little dogs to the vet this week with a grass seed embeded in her paw, she had to be sedated and with a little cut the seed was removed. I'm off to Sydney tomorrow for a few days and hopefully after baby is born my life might slow down a bit but I doublt it. Take care everyone and once I get back I hope to be back blogging regularly.

Sue

So Much Going On

2010-03-03T21:32:00.002+11:00

I have so much going on that my head spins. I have a spare few minutes just to document what is going on. My youngest daughter is now finally settled in her own little place which she has been so excited and waited for a long time. You don't realise or she didn't realise how much of the basic things you need to set up your own little home things like a potato peeler, dust pan and broom and even a toilet brush, but she has been lay-bying things as she thinks of them and it won't belong and she will set up.

The other exciting thing going on is my son is starting up a furniture business like ours and my youngest daughter will be managing it, in fact the 'Grand Opening' will be happening this Saturday. I'm hoping to have photos of the big day and of the shop on here next week. There is so much to organize and think of and being three hours drive away from them it makes it a bit hard but I have been managing the drive up and down every week. We, Dave, Tony and I had a busy weekend organizing daughters move and arranging furniture and when we were traveling back, Dave in the truck and me in my ute late on Sunday night I came across a man on one of the bush tracks he had swerved to miss a kangaroo, lost control of his car and flipped it onto its roof When I seen him he was dazed and had blood coming out of his mouth. I quickly assessed him and noted he had a broken arm and pain in his shoulder, I asked him if he was ok and tried to get him to sit down. Because we live so far from town and were on a bush track my phone did not have any reception but the man said he had a next G telestra phone that would have coverage any way I had to climb into this mans upside down car and try and find his phone. After putting my hand in his butter and squashing his sausages I finally found his phone and rang for the police, ambulance and fire brigade. To cut a long story short every one came and the man was taken to hospital and after over an hour waiting around we finally started the last leg home not before running into a neighbour who was out looking for us because it was now nearly 11pm and my daughter had rang him so worried.

My eldest daughter had her fortnightly check up on Friday and her blood pressure for the second time had been high and because of the worry of her epilepsy the doctor has told her that he wants to bring her delivery date forward two weeks and if her blood pressure is up again next Monday when he sees her again he will put her in straight away to have the baby. So the pressure is on to get the final baby things in place, her dad has to make her a chest of drawers and stain the rocking chair and we have to get a few things off lay-bye for her.

So that is what is making my head spin at the moment, so I'm off for now but I will be back again next week with photos.

The church is moving along nicely but we have been spending so much time on the church that our own orders for our business have b een falling behind and I have been feeling the pressure.

I'm Back!

2010-02-23T14:11:00.009+11:00

I think I have used that phrase before! Anyway I have been SO... busy and I am juggling so many balls in the air that I will have to keep moving but I thought I would just drop a note to say that all is well. As you can see from pictures our Church is progressing well and everyone is getting so excited seeing it develop before their eyes. This Church is going to be a witness to our community and our God is going to do powerful things in our community.

My daughter ( photo at very top) is doing really well, she is now 34 weeks and we had her "Baby Shower" on the weekend. The hot weather has been making things a bit uncomfortable for her but she is keeping fit and healthy. I have been driving up and down to Sydney every week and I think is catching up to me because I have been feeling a little weary myself.

I will have to take a picture of my veggie patch and I think I will call it"Veggies gone Wild". I'm a shame to say I have let it go wild because I haven't been there to give it the tender loving care it needs. I managed to fight my way through the jungle to get some corn and beans, I'm not sure to let it go or get what I can get out of it and make it ready for my winter crop. It did have a tough time with the hot weather and lack of water due to our problem with the dam. Anyway that's life!

Have to go now this has taken me all day to finish as I have been in and out at work, Hope everyone is well and I hope to get around to reading your blog.

BYE SUE

2010-01-05T16:00:00.011+11:00

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a good start to the New Year. I love that the holiday period is relaxed and people are still in that festive feeling and one day rolls into another, the kids are on holidays and the evenings are just casual summer dinners inside or out maybe a BBQ, friends drop in for a hello and a cuppa. I love strolling around the garden especially after the lovely rains we have just had and see everything growing and producing their bounty of fruits and vegs, the greenness of the grass and hearing the frogs and night life in the dams and creek.

As usual life has been busy around here with so much going on. All the concrete slabs have been poured for our new Church and the buildings will start next week. People are amazed how fast the project is moving and how much we have accomplished.

See that water tank there on the right hopefully that will be coming to my place so that it can be cut up into three raised beds for my veggie patch :)

The truck and crane used to pour the concrete for the slabs.

This is the front main building, the last one to be poured.

Check out that crane! The contractors have been fantastic and everything has gone smoothly especially this was just before Christmas.

Now this is my dining/kitchen area and Dave surprised me for Christmas with new flooring and I was so excited that finally we could pull up the old flooring that was part carpet (yuck) and part linoel, it was really old and look disgusting. We were going to sand the floor boards but some parts needed to much work so we went for a floating floor that looked like natural flooring.

Dave, my hard working, talented hubby has so many jobs going I don't know how he keeps up but he likes to make sure everything is done properly and no corners cut

The kitchen is coming together nicely, check out that flooring, very nice.The skirting around the kitchen cupboards is finely done and it won't belong and we can start painting.

We finally had the much awaited rain on Christmas Day and it kept coming, we watched in great delight the dams filling up, the water tanks filling up and the water just flowing in the creeks and water ways.

Just look at it, amazing. One farmers wife I talked to before Christmas said they only had about three weeks of water left in most of their dams for their live stock.

This was good rain that soaked into the ground.

A few of our cause ways were flooded but in the truck it was exciting crossing them, just to see and hear the water was refreshing.

Dave had another surprise for me, he got the timber to do the laundry room and the back door. I know it is another project but they are all connected and once Dave gets started he works to get it done and the finished product is going to be amazing. Where you open the new back door we will be putting up a deck which will go along the back of the house

And when go out the back door you will see my veggie patch, which has just boomed with all the rain and sunny weather. i thought this year will be terrible for the veggies but it has just taken off.

At the moment I have growing a variety of squashes, egg plant, celery, lettuce, a variety of beans, snow peas shallots, onions, potatoes, a variety of tomatoes, spinach, corn and variety of herbs. Not bad for a late start and the lack of water.

Our yard is greening up nicely and sheep in the paddocks are just loving the new green shoots. Well that's about it for the moment I hope all is well with you all :)

A new Pantry!

2009-12-16T12:03:00.004+11:00

I've just had a nice couple of days with my girls, my eldest had another appointment with her obstetrician so I got to see her and baby again. She is now23 weeks and is truly showing a belly. We went to a spotlight store and bought some fabric to make baby wraps and cot sheets, it was a lovely time spent together. I can't believe how fast time has flown but I suppose when there is so much going on around you time does fly.

The first slab for the church has been poured and the next slab will be Friday and the last next Wednesday. We are pleased how things are going, apart from the tragic news we had from the supplier of the shed we will be getting, his two brothers were killed in a helicopter accident last week. They rang to tell us the sheds want be ready until January 2010, we truly understand
their situation and are willing to wait until they were ready.

This below is Tony, he is our friend who is staying with us until we can catch up with our orders. Do you think he likes our animal and visa -versa. For a person who hasn't really had any animals in his life he is totally wrapped in these characters. That is scooby sitting on his lap, he was the kitten that wandered lost into my shop and who was nearly put down. The little one on the right is his favourite, Jatzie, she doesn't usually like males, and goes absolutely crazy with barking and snapping when one arrives (very unsocial) but with Tony she loves him, weird.

This is my now tidied pantry, it took me about 4 hours to get in their and tidy it up, throw out of date stuff, put my containers in order and just a general rearrange and clean up.

I have had a lot of problem with ants lately, but I think it is the weather because everyone I ask are having the same problem. So every thing went into containers and jars. I wrote out a list of stuff I am low in and that needs to be stocked up in. I usually like to have a well supplied pantry because we are so far from town and I do a lot of cooking from scratch, I like it to have as much as possible. When we moved here we found the neighbours were always lending to each other something they had run out of, its great.

My preserving stock is running low and I don't think my veggie patch is going to be as good as last years. The heat and dryness is taking its toll on our land and the farmers. I have noticed many farmers are getting rid a lot of their stock. We are just not getting any rain, the dams are drying up and there is no feed in the paddocks.

I store a lot of my bowl, jugs, Tupperware and stuff in my pantry because it is fairly large.

Dave made the shelves adjustable so I can make the shelve spaces any sized to fit what ever I want to put on them.

I tried to cull some of my cook books but found it a bit hard, above my books is my yogurt maker, which i love.

This shelf has my oils, sauces and vinegars and the shelves below has my condiments, spices & herbs and all my cake making stuff and the top shelf has my preserving lids, seal, rings etc.

The little cupboard my son made years ago, I keep my potatoes, onions etc in. Then the microwave sits on top then a bread box on top of that. Well thats it the pantry is done!

Baby Bump and other things!

2009-12-05T11:51:00.006+11:00

Baby is coming along nicely and all is well! This was a photo I took of my daughter last month on my phone when I stayed with her for a few days. I couldn't find my battery charger to charge my batteries for my camera so I haven't had any photos lately and I have just downloaded my photos from my phone. Check out that little bump isn't it gorgeous :)

We finally got the go ahead to start construction of our new church. Clair, the lady in the photo is one of the founding members of our Church, next year will be the 60Th year Anniversary of the Baptist witness in our area. Here one of the Deacons is handing to her the shovel that will be used to turn the first sod for our new Church.

This is the front of the 10 acre block purchased a few years ago to build the new church on and Clair is standing at the entrance with balloons and streamers and a sign inviting people to come and witness the turning of the first sod (I put up those balloons and streamers and let me tell you it was such an effort because we had gale force winds that day)

This is the start of the new drive way which will go down behind the buildings for a car park, on the right is the boundary fence and where we will put in gardens

The machines were quick to get on there and start excavations of our new church, we had sprinklers around to try and keep down the dust.

It wasn't long and the water tanker was there to water down the site. It won't take long and the excavators will be finished and the concretors will be in. I'm hoping to take enough photos to document this for the church members to keep them up to date and also for future generations.
After months of planning and discussions it is great to see the start of our church, we are now looking to the future and for what God has install for us as a Church and a community.

Oh Baby!

2009-11-19T11:45:00.004+11:00

I had a great few days away with my daughter and I took her to have her ultrasound, see her obstetrician and her neurologist. The ultrasound was amazing, she is nineteen weeks pregnant and we saw everything on that beautiful baby, all the limbs, organs, the heart and its valves ( the heart is the size of your little finger nail), the spine, blood vessels, it was amazing. We had a great time checking out baby clothes, prams and things for the nursery and by the time we got home we were exhausted. My camera is not operating at the moment so I don't have any photos yet, I do have some on my phone but have not down loaded them yet.

The weather here is going to be 40 degrees for the next four days, not happy Jan! The heat just wipes me out, I haven't turned the lights on here in the shop I thought it might be a lot cooler and besides there is enough light coming through the windows. I planted some of my seedlings and now hoping and praying they will make it through this heat, I don't think my veggie patch is going to be as good as last years and will just have to be happy with what ever I get to grow.

We had our information night last night for our church members about the proposed new church building, it went fairly well, Monday night is voting time for the members to approve the start of the build. If we get the go ahead the machines will be moving in to get it started and we are hoping to have the slabs poured and the two main building erected before Christmas. I should have photos coming in thick and fast as we get this church up and built YEY!

Update Baby News!

2009-11-13T12:28:00.004+11:00

I'm trying to come down from cloud 9 with the birth of our beautiful grandbaby girl now officially named Georgia Grace, but it is so hard. On Sunday I'm off to see my eldest daughter in Sydney, she is having their first baby and because she has three appointments on Monday I will be driving her around so we will be having a baby full day not to mention looking at all things baby in the department stores and discussing setting up babies room. Do you think I have a baby fever coming on? Poor hubby won't know what hit him when I come back home.

Apart from the baby news everything else is just chaotic, we are frantically trying to get orders out from the shop, the quotes and plans for the new church building have just about been finalised and we will be having a church member meeting on the 23rd Nov to vote for the go ahead, the house renovations are at a stand still, the veggie patch is moving along so slowly because I don't have the time to get out there to plant and attend it, we still have our friend Tony helping us in the workshop, the dogs are still having their fights but overall life has been good and oh my gosh I haven't even plan Christmas!

IT' A GIRL!

2009-11-12T11:03:00.004+11:00

OUR NEWEST LITTLE ONES HAS FINALLY ARRIVED, WEIGHING 8LB 8OZ AND SHE IS GORGEOUS. I HAD MY FIRST CUDDLE YESTERDAY. SHE IS SO SOFT AND SMELLS SO BABY DELICIOUS, HER NAME HAS NOT YET BE CONFIRMED SO WE WILL HAVE TO WAIT A LITTLE TO SHARE IN THAT JOY. MUM IS DOING WELL AND IS RESTING AND SO IS EVERYONE ELSE.

You should see the other car!

2009-10-22T13:42:00.005+11:00

My daughter hasn't had her 'P' plates for very long and last friday she went down to Sydney for a few days for some work related interviews and on the way back she had a car run in the back of her at a set of traffic lights. She was ok just a little shaken and not sure what she had to do. The lady in the other car was pregnant but was ok , just very upset about it all. My daughter kept her cool, she checked to see if the lady was ok and was able to get her details and give hers in return. When all was done she went and had a cool drink to calm her nerves because she had another 31/2 hours drive ahead of her. Thank goodness the lady in the other vehicle was not going that fast but she did manage to break the tow bar on the back of our car and bend our back tail gate. The ladies car has a lot of damage to her bonnet and front guard and maybe more, I have booked my ute into the repair shop for three days to be repaired thank goodness our insurance company gives us a rental car for that time. I tell you what it is nerve racking when your kids start to drive and especially when they want to take long trips from the country to the big smoke.

Jesus, all about life

2009-10-16T15:41:00.008+11:00

"Jesus, all about life" is a campaign running in Australia with the use of television and mainstream media to get the community to think and talk about Jesus and seek more information about who he is and what he said. It is going to run for about 6 weeks and you will see the blue logo on banners through NSW and WA. It is a way for churches to deliver the Gospel to the community and reach out to them in a sensitive way. If you want to know who

Jesus is go along to your local church or give them a ring and talk to somebody it could change your life :)

Doggy Mayhem Continues!

2009-10-15T10:38:00.002+11:00

Abbey

Ok! I still haven't sorted out this doggy mayhem and not sure how all this will end by here are the three main characters. Above is Abbey she is the middle child and sister of Sarabie. Abbey goes with the flow and does not cause any friction or dramas, she like her belly rubbed and like to play with balls and she always seems to comfort or protect anybody or anything that is under threat. Abbey is a Maltese cross terrier.

Jatzie

This is Jatzie,a pure Maltese, the oldest of the three and has been the boss. She is always marking her territory when outside and barks at visitors when they come. She is protective of everybody and feels it is her duty to know what is going on all the time. She barks and gets aggressive when visitors come and we usually lock her up when they do come.

Sarabie

This is Sarabie, sister of Abbey and a Maltese cross terrier, probably more terrier than Maltese. I suppose you could say she is my dog because she is always with me around the home and in the garden. Sarabie was the one who got her tail caught in the door and is the one fighting with Jatzie. Sarabie is all passive when Jatzie is around then Jatzie growls and if together (which is impossible now) they will fight, aggressively.

This is what I have just bought, 2 muzzles as I don't know what to do with them beside keep them separated. They both had their muzzles on yesterday because I was doing some obedience training with them and they both were at each other for about 5mins. In a fight they have no intentions of stopping until they are pulled apart, even then when I pulled Sarabie away from Jatzie, Jatzie made a flying leap (about 2ft) off the ground to have one more go at Sarabie. I then separated them into different rooms, thank goodness they had these muzzles on otherwise there would have been blood.

Well, If anyone has any advice I would gladly listen, I have even been on The Dog Whispers web site to see if he has any advice. I'm sure it is a pack issue here and there is a imbalance, the dogs are unsettled and our happy home is not so happy in the doggy department at the moment, even the cats run to high ground. So if you can help with any advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Sue

The Shearing Shed

2009-10-10T12:01:00.004+11:00

I still have my doggy mayhem going on and we are still trying to sort them out so I will post about our situation in a couple of days. We have a good friend that has been coming and staying with us for the last 3 or 4 months, he has been helping with building furniture and helping with our renovations. At present he is helping with the extension on our shed were we build furniture (photos to come) anyway we try to give him a taste of country life occasionally and yesterday Dave took him down to a neighbours shearing shed. This time of year a lot of the farmers are shearing and nearly every shed is buzzing with sheep and sweaty shearers, this particular neighbours has about 12,000 sheep to be shawn.

They muster the sheep and they await in pens then they are moved up the ramp into the stalls in the shed. The sheep when shawn are pushed down a chute and are penned below the shed like the ones above.

These sheep in the back ground are in stalls awaiting to be shawn. There are lot of helpers called rouseabouts and they help the shearer by picking up the fleece when shawn and keeping there area swept and clean.

The dogs are also there to help muster and move up the sheep into and out of there pens. The farmers mainly use the Australian kelpie as they are a good working dog.

The shearer goes in the stall and grabs a sheep and drags it out with it sitting on its backside and him holding its front legs. See the rouseabout sweeping the floor.

There were three shearers here on this day and it takes about 3mins to shear a sheep. Some shearers can shear upto 200 sheep a day, they usually start about 7.30 and finish about 5pm.

The fleeces are thrown on to a wool classing table and the shed hands remove the seedy, short and inferior pieces of wool from the edges of the fleece (called skirting) and rolls up the fleece ready for classing.

The wool classer which is James in the red shirt, who at present has a broken arm from his quake bike while away on the weekend assesses (classes) the skirted fleece and places it in the appropriate wool bin, see behind his dad in the cap.

The wool presser takes the wool from the wool bin and presses it into wool bales. It takes about 50 skirted fleeces to fill a wool bale. Once pressed each bale must weigh a minimum of 110 kg and a maximum of 204 kg. Most wool bales weigh in the range of 170 to 190 kg that is a lot of wool. Once the shearing has been completed the wool is trucked off and sold at the wool selling centres Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne

This here is where they treat the sheep for lice, I haven't seen this in action but it looks like interesting. Well I hope you enjoyed the shearing shed because our friend did and he took these great photos for me so that I could show you guys.

Doggy Mayhem

2009-10-08T11:54:00.004+11:00

I have doggy mayhem at the moment and I'm hoping we can sort it out this afternoon. I have a pack of five dogs, two are outside dogs and three little ones that come inside and at the moment we have two that have been fighting because one of them had their tail pinched in the door and she yelped in pain then the two started fighting and now we have to keep them separated. I have a dog behaviourist coming out today to try and get the pecking order back in order. I probably should have let them fight and sort it out themselves but I just couldn't do that. I have treats of cooked chicken ready for the session which will start at 4.30, so here is hoping that we can overcome this conflict and get this happy little family back to normal, what ever that is!

Tomorrow I will have photos of the dogs and tell you how we all went as this is going to be a family affair if you know what I mean.

The Veggie Patch!

2009-10-06T12:25:00.004+11:00

With a few days off over the long weekend I was able to get into my garden. I have been saving the cardboard toilet rolls for ages now and used them to put my seeds in as my veggie patch is not ready to plant and we are still experiencing a few days of frost. I also used the plastic strawberry containers, I find them good because you just shut the lid and you have an instant miniature glass house.

The guys haven't finished with this ditch yet, it connects the power to the shed and goes right through my patch. They promised it will be finished with the next few weeks and they will close the ditch and put my lovely soil back on top.

These are my leeks and spring onions which are going great, they are a no fuss vegetable and grow really well (and I haven't killed them off yet).

I bought some Russian Sage at a garage sale on the weekend. I don't use sage very much in my cooking but now that I have some growing I will have to start.

In this old water tank I put the Russian Sage, Oregano, Lemon Balm, Peppermint,Thyme, and Chives. I have another tank beside this one which I prepared for what I am not sure yet. I'm not very organized and will plant out my garden as I go. I ask my neighbour/farmer yesterday if he could come up and plough part of a paddock for me as I want to plant a crop of potatoes, corn and pumpkins, so hopefully in the next two weeks after he has finished shearing he will bring up his tractor :)

My cabbages and Broccoli are still growing well considering they were surrounded by weeds which I pulled out. I still have a lot of work and weeds to get through before the patch will be ready for planting out.

Just Grandma!

2009-09-30T14:58:00.002+10:00

This grandma is going to be consumed with her grandmotherly duties, she is going to immerse herself in bootees, baby blankets, bonnets, jumpsuits, rattles, doctor check ups and so much more. My first gorgeous grandbaby has just turned five and she will be off to school next year and number two will be arriving early November and number three ( my daughters first) will be arriving in April so there is much to be done. We have a three to four hour road trip to each one of our children's places which is not going to stop this grandma. I've told my daughter that I will be there for her any day or any time and seeing she cannot drive at the moment due to the two fits she had last year I will be around for her when her doctors appointments are getting closer apart and even when she is getting close to the birth.

Grandmother's Talent

A grandmother has a special talent-

She always knows just what to do

To make her grandchildren happy

And to show them that she loves them, too

At family get-togethers

she's the first person to look for,

She can entertain small children for hours

And they always keep asking for more.

You can always tell when a grandmother's teasing

By the twinkling that shines in her eyes-

She an expert at settling problems,

For she's loving, patient and wise.

Her grandchildren always admire her,

Even when they are grown-

They always feel proud and happy

To claim Grandma as their own!

~By Mary Dawson Hughes~

My Pantry

2009-09-29T13:11:00.004+10:00

Don't be horrified by this chaos, I do intend to get in there to clean and sort my pantry and it is on my To-Do List. With such a big pantry I still seem to fill it up, the box on the floor contains my empty preserving jars. I do have a system but it needs re-organizing as things have gotten a little out of hand. After last harvest season I was looking for more space for my jars of jams, pickles and preserves etc. My stockpile is very low at the moment so I need to clean it out and restock. I was hoping to start making more whole grain breads because I usually just make white and I think it is about time my family started eating more grains. I also like to start using more pulses and more herbs and spices, the family have been playing it safe but I think it is about time I introduce a bit more substances and flavour.

These are the pantry doors Dave made for me, they have mesh on the inserts and a rubber seal to prevent any crawlies or moths from getting in.

This is how they looked closed, we still have to put on the architrave and skirting plus handles.

I am really happy with the look! In the picture you can see that we haven't painted yet that is because we still haven't finished gyprocking, but in time it will all come together and look fantastic.

The little brown hen standing behind the rooster is the one we were given by one of Jess's friends. She seems to be settling in ok, I was going to let her gradually get to know the other hens to make sure she fitted in but because I wasn't home at the time Dave just put her straight in with the rest of them and hoped for the best, thank goodness they are all getting along.

How far can you stretch yourself!

2009-09-28T13:00:00.003+10:00

I had a chaotic morning on the farm today but things have been sorted and I have a mental list in my head on what I have to do. The problem is I have many other things on my To Do List and the more I am stretching myself the more I am getting frazzled.

I need to get myself back in order and start prioritized things. This morning as I was doing my chores I went and checked on the sheep because on Saturday I organized the sheep to be sheared, they were way over due and the fly season had started and we already had one sheep down with fly strike. After they had been shawn we left them in the yard for a day and a neighbour found some of our sheep in his paddock so we penned them and this morning one of the ewes who had not long had twins had her foot well and truly stuck in a wire grate and was dragging this grate around. I went and got Dave and we pinned her down to try and free her foot which was now bleeding and she was in considerable pain but we eventually got her foot out by cutting through the grate. Over in the chicken pen there was something going on, I went over there and notice one of the eggs had hatched. The hens were confined to there pen because we had to use part of there fencing for the sheep yard and plus there was a new hen in there which Dave bought home on the weekend because for some strange reason one of Jess's friends in town had it running around his house and he didn't know how it got there, so with this strange hen in the confine pen there was a lot of chasing and pecking going on. We re-erected there extended yard and made a closure for the hen, chick and the rest of the eggs. After all this drama and the occasional dog getting out and the rooster chasing the cat all seemed to settle down. We cleaned up the sheep yard so they couldn't get up to anymore dangerous situations and filled up water troughs and now I think I will clean out a few other areas that have been neglected and the feed shed as well as the chook yard and not to mention the veggie patch.

Well now that I have gotten all this off my chest I plan to get up earlier now that it is getting a bit warmer and get stuck into the yard and animal duties. There is one issue still not sorted and that is the dog that I rescued from being road kill last week, she is still at the pound and has to about Wednesday to find a home or she will be put down. I have told the ranger that I will consider keeping her but with five dogs and at the moment I have two little ones trying to sort there pecking order out, things are a little difficult.

Baby News!

2009-09-25T13:26:00.009+10:00

Baby On The Way! and We are just full of Smiles!

My eldest daughter is having her first baby and it is due on the 11th April and we are all very excited. My daughter had a time not long ago where she had a couple of fits and they thought she had epilepsy, but things have settled down and she has been to the doctors for regular check ups so all is well.

On the other baby front my son and daughter-n-law could be having their second child sooner than thought, Megan had a bit of spotting so she had a few days in hospital to make sure everything was ok and when they measured the baby they told her by their measurements she could be two weeks further than thought, every mothers dream:).

I think I will have to kick this granny into top gear and get my fingers clicking if I want my knitting projects finished before they start arriving.

Fruit Trees, Dust Storm and a Dog!

2009-09-23T10:49:00.004+10:00

On the weekend Dave and I went out to our local nursery and bought some more fruit trees, we have been working pretty hard with the business and felt we have earned a special treat. So we bought six bare rooted fruit trees, and because they were bare rooted Dave had to plant them straight away, so Saturday afternoon/night we were outside planting these trees.

I was so excited with the prospect of having a harvest of fruit in years to come I spent more time day dreaming, and taking photos than helping Dave.

The ground wasn't too hard but the jack hammer did make it quicker and easier digging the holes. Dave being a carpenter had to get out his string line to make sure they were all in a straight line and looking good.

The bare root trees were cheaper than the potted ones which was fine by me. We bought four apple trees; Granny Smith, Red Fuji, Pink Lady, and Delicious, and we also bought two pear trees; Williams and Packhams. The other fruit trees we have are two Early Moorpark Apricot trees, one Golden Queen Peach tree, President and Angelina Plum Trees. Like I said I can't wait for the day when I pick these beauties and start my bottling, preserving and pie baking :)

Last night we had a storm and through the night I'd occasionally lift my head up to see through the window a yellow haze, I didn't realize till I got up in the morning what exactly the haze was. Apparently we are experiencing the worst dust storm in 70 years and for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from the outback to the city there is dust blowing and covering everything.

This was my car this morning and it was shielded beside our truck. The 55 km trip into town was gusty and dirty and you couldn't see much ahead of you.

You can usually see mountains and paddocks here, and would you believe it I ran out of water in window wipers so I had to pull over to wash the window with a bit of water I had in the back.

When I got to town the truck had a layer of orange dust over it, and the furniture in the shop also had dust over it, it must have got through under the door and in fact the whole town has a dusty orange tinge to it.

As I was opening my shop I noticed this poor dog running fearfully around the road in between cars and I could see an accident waiting to happen. I tried to call the dog off the road as cars were swerving and tooting their horns but to no avail. I rang the local council ranger to see if they could send someone up here to catch it as I knew it wouldn't be time before this dog would be hit. Anyway some how I coached it into the shop with my homemade date scones and locked it it till the ranger came. She was really scared but started to trust me and wanted to be patted, as we waited we chatted, she was such a lovely dog so gentle and timid and I hoped that her owner would retrieve her from the pound. When the ranger arrived he said that he has had about ten calls this morning about dogs running around the streets obviously from the storm last night. I gave him my card and told him if no one has claimed her to give me a ring as I could not bare the thought of them putting her down, she does seem young and would be easy to find a home for anyway I thought I might give them a ring in a few days to see if she is still there unclaimed :(

Look how dusty my shop is, I am going to have to wipe down everything in this shop, every nook and granny :(

This little girls looks like a kelpie and maybe she is a working dog, maybe she jumped off her owners truck or the gate on her pen blew open. Who knows I just hope she will be returned to her owner or I can see myself bringing her home :)

Check out our Shop!

2009-09-19T13:07:00.006+10:00

I did a video of our shop a while ago but never posted it, well today I felt adventurous, but the only thing is that we have since sold a lot of the furniture and have rearrange it differently. We are starting to make more and more of our own furniture now and people are really loving it. We as a family have been making and selling furniture for a long time and we have noticed the decline in the quality of furniture that is being sold. What you buy these day in most big department stores and furniture businesses is imported furniture. Now this furniture comes from countries like China, Vietnam, Malaysia etc where the weather conditions are hot and dry which is different to the Australian climate and the timber in the furniture dries out and starts to open, crack, bow etc and what you get left is a pile of junk for the tip. I sold a Bedroom Suite the other day, which was really nice but it was imported and when I went to check it for delivery I could not open one of the drawers with out making a sweat. Dave try his magic on it but in the end we had to take it home for major surgery. This is one of the major reasons why we don't want to sell much imported furniture because it is not worth the money or the trouble and we can make a far superior furniture with quality Australian timbers for less the price.

When you go to buy furniture give it a good going over and make sure everything opens and closes and that the joins are not starting to open (crack) and it is of a sturdy build. Imported furniture is fairly cheap and looks OK at a distance but when you check it out thoroughly make a note to yourself is it worth the money or should I look around for Australian made even if I have to pay a little more for a more superior Australian made piece which will last a lot longer.

Make sure you look after your timber furniture by giving it a good oil often so that it doesn't dry out. Timber is a natural product and it gets thirsty so to prevent it from cracking splitting etc look after it and it will last for years :)

YAY for Daniel!!!

2009-09-07T13:19:00.006+10:00

My nephew Daniel has just won Bronze at the World Skills - Calgary 2009 in Web Design. There are 900 competitors in 45 skills in categories such as Automotive, Building and Construction, Client and Service, Computing and Business, Electrotechnology, Food and Beverage, Manufacturing and Engineering. You know this is the 40th World Skills Competition and Canada has hosted it twice and there are 51 Member countries/regions that compete against each other. They have an opening and closing ceremony plus there are thousands of volunteers, delegates, experts and family that help and encourage the competitors. Click on the link and see if any one from your country or region is partaking in this amazing event.

My new Oven!

2009-09-03T09:35:00.002+10:00

Well I never thought I would get such a beautiful oven, but I have been blessed with this little beauty. It is 900 wide with five gas burners and a large electric oven and it is just gorgeous.

The exhaust fan above has a glass surround that is not on there yet but it has great lights and three levels of exhaust and it is wonderful. Do you think I have been spoilt by this little beauty? Don't answer that!

These are the front gauges, it has about eight different options for the oven; defrost, grill (two levels for grilling) and about five for the oven.

The top will be great to hold my big pots for cooking jams, pickles and everything else I do with preserving. Fantastic! Dave is going to give me a stainless steel surround and tile the rest. The kitchen is progressing slowly since we have so much going on and the year is going to get even busier.

Changes!

2009-08-31T14:18:00.004+10:00

The seasons are changing and on the record Spring is tomorrow but things have been changing for a while and yesterday I seen a frilled neck lizard on the track. Let me tell you I am not looking forward to the snake season. The fruit trees are budding and flowering and the bulbs that have been dormant are starting to appear.

This trench that Sarabie is inspecting is through my veggie patch and the cable is power for Dave in the shed. We had an electrician out the other day to connect the power to my new stove, which reminds me I haven't got a photo of it yet, how silly! Anyway he did a few other jobs while he was there like a power point and light above vanity in the bathroom, down lights for the kitchen and more power to the shed yay!

This is an ornamental plum near the back of our house and it is flowering beautifully. A couple of seasons ago we have a lot of fruit on it, they were the size of cherries and tasted yummy.

I have no idea what plant this is all I can say is it some kind of daisy!

The chooks have had a change in pens recently and have done a really good job in scratching and picking at the ground. Their old pen I am going to plant pumpkins, zucchinis and squashes. There was an old tree stump in that pen and Dave lit it and it burned for about 3 or 4 days and when I had a look at it the whole stump, roots and all was gone. Amazing! It would have been a few days work getting it out of the ground if it was green.

This is Sarabie and she does not like change. Here she has gone to the sanctuary of my bed because at the moment we are plastering and setting the walls in the kitchen and pulling up the old carpet and tiles. She doesn't like all the banging and loud noises, plus we have moved the lounges and other furniture out so the place looks like it has been turned upside down. poor thing, mind you the other two dogs and cat have crept in to keep her company :)

2009-08-19T11:19:00.004+10:00

My daughter enjoyed spending time with her brother and riding in his truck

My son had a busy day removing rubble, making a retention pit and cleaning up the building site of the old house that was demolished.

My son loved playing with his trucks when he was little, I knew when he grew up he would have a job driving or operating this sort of machinery :)

All done! for now that is. There is so much work that goes into building a commercial building which I didn't realise but am finding out now. My cousin was the Architect for the church design and considering being on a tight budget the design is really appealing and different. There are so many concepts in the design I will have to show you later as it all unfolds. For the construction you need the expertise of many consultants such as engineers, surveyors, plumbers, fire and safety consultants, consultants for the road works, sewer works etc and the list goes on. By the time this church is built I will have a good grip on how and what goes on with building a church or anything else. My little job in the scheme of things so far is mainly ringing people, emailing, faxing or posting plans relaying information etc and once the church has its meeting and agrees on the final plans and quotes and the budget is fine tuned then the green light will be given and then the church will be started yippee!

The New Driveway!

2009-08-18T16:12:00.005+10:00

My son came up on the weekend because he was going to do some excavating work on the site for the new church so while he was here he cut out our new drive way that we have been wanting and waiting for a long time to do. We had the fencing and the gate there but the drive way needed to be cut in and tided up. My son bucketed off the top soil and put it to one side so that I can use it for my garden and then cut the new drive way in and I must say it looks fantastic. I will be able to put a garden out the front and down the sides. I didn't get a before shot because my batteries were flat again but I did manage to find an old photo of the drive way.

The new drive way behind the timber post before the machine did its stuff.

This is the new drive way entry, on the left where my truck is parked is the old drive way. The gate on the old drive way has to stay there so that the energy company can access the power pole for maintance but we can make it look like part of the fence but still be a gate.

It was a big machine and didn't take my son that long to do. Dave and my son went and got three truck loads of gravel from one of our neighbours to put down on the drive way for nothing, how good is that!

It started to get dark and start to rain but my son got the job done.

Wouldn't you like to have one of these handy for those pesky jobs that you want done but can't do for yourself :)

Demolishing the old house!

2009-08-14T11:04:00.003+10:00

I just love the Australian bush ! This block of 10 acres I was walking over yesterday was just beautiful, I noticed quiet a few wattle trees around that are really pretty with their yellow flowers. This block of land is where the Church is going to be built and we are at present demolishing an old house that needs to be pulled down for the church to be built.

As we demolish this old house some of the material such as the roof iron will be given away to an old couple that need to repair their roof and the rest will be used for another shed that will be built, the timber frame work will be cut off in sections and loaded onto the truck and used later for the frame work for another shed, the roof timber will be use for frame work for something or another, the sand stock bricks that can be salvaged from the house will be given to a gentleman who will use them for his own purpose, a lot of the steel, copper and other metals that can be salvaged will be sold as scrap and the monies will go into the church kitty. The water tanks will do really nicely in my veggie patch as raised beds.

I suppose it will take a little longer to demolish this house but it will be organized and most of the materials will be recycled and re-used which is a win win situation. Once the house is dismantled as much as possible my son will be in with his machine to pull down the rest and remove the rubble that will be used as fill. I will have pictures of his handy work on Tuesday.

It is going to exciting seeing our new Church built and for us to have a major part in its construction. I will have photos of its progress over the next few months and of its final completion and the Grand Opening! :)

I'm Coming Back!

2009-08-13T12:03:00.004+10:00

I feel like I have abandoned my blog...:(.... but not for long because I am back and I am going to have my little site pumping with so much activity that you won't know what day of the week it is, well I probably won't. I have recharged the batteries in my camera, sharpened my pencil ( for my to-do list), looked over my veggie patch plans, got my first load of broken down beautiful sheep manure, waiting for my new stove to be fitted into the kitchen, getting ready to start setting the gyprock in family room, preparing old chicken pen site for new veggie bed, waiting for the three old water tanks to be cut and prepared for my raised bed section, getting ready for the start of the new church build (last few quotes to come in), machine is coming up on Sunday to start grading our new drive way and other various jobs :), lambs are popping out everywhere, we are still pumping out furniture and I think that might do at the moment I'm feeling a little bit nauseated just writing this stuff.

Anyway I'm hoping to share all this on here and hopefully a few clips on the workshop, the business/shop, and of course my crazy animals that are just a bundle of laughs every minute. They have their own distinct personality with quirks, some are rejects that have some how landed with us but they are so loving and just add to the craziness of our lives.

Oh so Busy!

2009-07-06T10:47:00.003+10:00

I've dropped by my blog today and I didn't have any pictures or any thing in particular to write but I found this picture on the web and thought it captures how things are at the moment. We have been really busy with so much going on in the business and with family. The business is changing directions for the better and is getting quiet busy. I guess with this picture you can't quiet see what is out in front of you but the light is streaming in to give you warmth and direction. We are having a few problems within family, I won't go into detail but we are praying with time and love we will all be stronger,wiser and have a closer bond with one another.

We had another heavy frost this morning, everything was covered in a blanket of whiteness. A nice hot bowl of porridge for breakfast this morning was needed to get everyone moving. Even the dogs were a little hesitant in getting out of bed this morning, brrrrrr!

I had my birthday on Thursday and my daughter decided I needed to stay home and not open the business, so I did! Jess and I had a lovely day together and she did spoil me with her pampering all my needs. Plus she made me a lovely sponge cake with strawberries and cream, yum!

My veggie patch is dormant at the moment with not much happening. I scored a bale of hay that was lying on the side of the road this morning, I say it must have fallen off the back of a truck. I will use it as mulch around my frozen cauliflowers and broccoli's.

Well my time is up now and I want to check out my favourite blogs and leave some comments so it is bye for now, I think I might do a video of my shop or even of our work shop were we are pumping out beautiful furniture next time:)

I Miss Blogland

2009-06-11T14:31:00.003+10:00

We have just had our first heavy frost and the temperatures have been below zero Brrrrr
Apart from getting out of a warm cosy bed the mornings have been pretty with the ground covered in frost and icy puddles that look like broken glass when you drive over them. My days have been busy with so much going on and my blog has suffered greatly and not to mention I have not had time to look at and comment on my favourite blogs. So to my blogging buddies I am sorry you have not seen or heard from me for quiet a while. We haven't had the Internet on at home for a long time because we live so far out from town and what usage we get for the price is outrageous. But not for long because we have just found out a good deal with the government and we will soon be back on at home. YAY!

My lovely husband and daughter gave me these beautiful flowers recently and they were gorgeous. Our business has been busy and we have had so many orders to fill that we have had to drag in family and friends to give us a hand. So my house has been a whirl wind of people coming and going. I must say it is quiet nice having a different person at our dinner table to share a meal and good conversation with every week.

This is a single/double bunk bed we made for a customer, it is looking pretty good. They have a really small room and the lady was worried about changing the sheets on the bottom double bed so we put a hinge on the ladder so she could swing the ladder to the right and be able to get in there and change the sheets and when she puts the ladder back she can bolt it so that it won't swing when the kids climb up. Clever hey!

Other things going on in our life at the moment is that the DA (Development Application) has been approved for the construction of our new church and probably next week we will be busily running around getting quotes and contracts for its construction.

Our own renovations are not going very well at the moment as we have been too busy and the veggie patch has only the basics such as cauliflower, broccoli, broad beans, spinach, celery, carrots and onions.

We still have that kitten that wondered into my shop and it has made its self at home playing with the dogs and curling up in front of the fire. Oh! I also discovered that she is not a she but a he, so we have changed his name from Ruby to Scoobie Doo. I know I didn't look properly :) The little dogs have been feeling the cold lately so I will have to look into making them some coats for inside and outside.

You know life is big and beautiful and there are many things we should be thankful for and enjoy whether big or small. So get out there and live your life :)

Great Expectations!

2009-05-19T13:26:00.005+10:00

During Autumn on my way home I would pass this tree, its green leaves would slowly turn a spectacular golden shade and eventually all the leaves would turned that deep rich golden red colour and it would stand out as a flaming bush amongst brown dry landscape. Well after admiring it now for two Autumns I decided to get one my self, the thought of having a spectacular burning red tree in the middle of my paddocks was awesome. I came across one in my travels and as you can see below it has a long way to go to meet this expectation

The botanical name for it is a Koelreuteria paniculata (have ago at saying that) or the name I like to call it is a Golden Rain Tree, pretty hey. In Spring it has a magnificent display of tiny yellow flowers which fall like rain and carpet the ground, flowers are followed by papery bronze-pink seed pods in Autumn. Awesome don't you think! So that is my Great Expectations.

Now onto the renovations, which are still going on with stops and starts. We moved the front door and hung it here in the new opening and we have a nice lead light door for the front entry. We have finally put the new toilet in and pulled out an old cupboard and the walls of the old toilet and have been putting up gyprock on the walls. I will have photos of this next week

My veggie patch is looking pretty baron with only lettuce, celery and spinach growing at the moment. I have mats down to surpress the weeds as my gardening time is practically zero and it hasn't really had a good down pour of rained here since December last year.

I'm hoping to get my raised beds in this winter ready for spring. The green house is not happening either, we have been too busy with the business,trying to keep things moving and not let the Recession affect us.

Little Ruby the kitten that wandered off the streets into my shop is doing really well now, she has put on heaps of weight and is racing around the house playing with the little dogs, I tell you it is a circus here sometimes.

Freddy's Day At The Beach

2009-05-15T10:56:00.008+10:00

I would like you to meet Freddy, he is such a character and he is only 7months old. Freddy belongs to m daughter and son-in-law and when I stayed down there to have my hair make over we went down to the beach. It was Freddy's first time and he had such a good time and he would like to tell you so him self.

Hi my name is Freddy and I am going to the beach with my mum and dad and of course grandma

My dad has to carry me across the road because he says it is very dangerous for a young fella like me and besides I like being carried :)

Mum,Dad and Grandma had a sorbet while we were walking around the Mall, I was to busy thinking about the sand and surf and checking out the gorgeous girls!!!

Like this little cutie, she had already been in the surf and her fur was a bit wet but she still looked good and I really like blondes :)

Dad was a bit slow getting to the water so I had to drag him to it

I like walking on the wet sand and feeling the sand between my toes, ooh

The water kept coming up to me and I was a bit scared

When the surf came up to me I had to run away, not sure why and I hope that little blondie wasn't looking I didn't want her thinking I was a puss or anything

I finally overcame my fear and it was really great and mum and I started running up and down the beach and it was really cool!

It was so nice looking at the surf and I had to let mum catch her breath

Mum really like getting her feet wet and playing in the water with me, Dad and Grandma didn't want to join us they said it was too cold

Mum was really enjoying herself and she like the sand between her toes as well

I had to run up to Grandma and tell her how much fun I was having but she didn't like my wet and sandy feet

She gave me a funny face when I told her that I forgot my towel and I had to get in her car like this, but she said she had one for me, I just love my Grandma

I spotted a rabbit in the plants near the sand and no one believed me, can you see it?

There it is, I wonder if this was its first time at the beach like me :)

we went home and I played with my favourite toy Bernstein Bear with mum

Mum looks good in her PJs (pjamas) doesn't she?

I had a great day at the beach, bye

Love Freddy

My Make Over and look what I found!!

2009-05-11T12:56:00.005+10:00

This is the first time I have had to sit down and work on my blog and I have so much to put on here and to discuss. I had four days away sort of business and pleasure but they were jammed packed. I can't put them on here yet but I want to tell you guys this, I had my hair cut and coloured with the hairdressers who do the girls for Australia's next Top Model. My girls gave me this special promotion voucher for Christmas and it has taken me this long to get there, my eldest daughter also had her hair done. I had foils in my hair, a head massage and hair treatment and a cut and blow dry.

Oh My! Now that is frightening. Here I am having my foils. I think I put going to the hairdressers in the same category as going to the dentist :)

My lovely daughter :)

Kylie look gorgeous I'm a little bit wind blown.

The other day while I was working at my desk I heard this screeching sound sort of like a weird cat meow, I looked around and couldn't see anything, turned back around to keep working and heard it again a lot closer , I turned around again and seen this little kitten sitting behind me. It had this deathly meow I picked it up and it was virtually all bone but very fluffy and pretty. I took it out the back and gave it some milk watered down with hot water. To me it looked very sick and frail and definitely wormy so I took it down to the vet to get a verdict if it could be saved or needed to be put down. It was a 50-50 decision so with a $6 worm tablet I took the little one home to a good feed, a hot water bottle and a bed in front of the fire. A couple of days latter it is much healthier and happier plus my daughter said she would like to keep it. She has a puppy called Freddy, I will be doing a post called Freddy goes to the beach in a few days because o my days off I went to the beach with my daughter and son-in law and of course Freddy, anyway she said she would like to have this kitten we now call Ruby.

Here eyes were glazed and not focused. She was also very dehydrated and her gums were really pale.

She is a pretty kitten and with the needed TLC she will make a lovely lap cat.

You know the day after the cat wandered into my shop I had another unepected caller which horrified me....it was a baby

I was closing up my shop and this little one, Ithink she would have been about 18months old dressed in a nappy and eating a biscuit, she came upto me and I looked around and did not see anybody around her. I asked her where is mummy and she turned around and ran down the foot path, I followed her of course and she stopped at a house and I knocked on the the door and asked the woman if this was her daughter and she was horrified that it was and that she had gotten out. At first I was angry that someone was not watching over this little one and ready to let them know when I found them but when I seen how distressed the mother was I let it slide. Children are so quick and need to be supervised all the time.

Have to go now but I will be back with lots of photos of Freddy's day at the beach and my adventure in the city with my girls and I will be doing a video of our shop because when I was away Dave rearranged the shop and added a few more pieces of furniture and it looks great :)

I'm knitting! & Furniture

2009-04-29T11:58:00.006+10:00

I have been dying to start a knitting project and at last I have. I found this old knitting book in my collection I got from my mum, it is a baby jacket my grandmother made for my daughter many years ago. I thought I would make the set for my son and daughter-in-law who are expecting in november.

The book has about fourteen different crochet and knitted patterns of layette and shawls. We had our first open fire last night, the nights and mornings are starting to get a bit chilly and it was nice sitting there knitting.

I went and picked the last of the corn this morning and cherry tomatoes before the frost hits. The veggie patch is coming to an end and I have to get out there and attack those weeds and prepare the beds for my winter crop. The days are much shorter now that daylight savings has ended and my out door time has amounted to zilch any way I am pleased that my pantry and freezer is full of this years harvest.

We have been busy with the shop and have now decided to make 90% of our furniture ourselves. Below is a box bookcase and a single bed we made for a little boy who was turning two yesterday. His mum was doing his room up and he was moving up to a big boys bed, how sweet.

We also made a bedside table for him as well but I didn't get a picture of that.

This is a nice simple bed that is very solid, we thought we will do it in double and queen sizes as well and sell it at a affordable price. It is so hard these days to buy value for money. I think I will call this bed the "Stockman", what do you think?

I'm Back! Now to Catch Up!

2009-04-22T12:30:00.002+10:00

Boy! Time does fly, I can't believe how long it has been since I have been in blog land. I have not
only missed putting up post but I have missed reading all of my favourite blogs and now I am trying to catch up.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter, I certainly did and had a few days off as well. The only thing about having time off and relaxing is that I relax too much and let my guard down and with out fail I seem to pick up some bug and become sick. This time I got the flu, it hit me hard for a day and I fought it and now I'm just about over it.

I have had Jess home for about 2 weeks which has been great and we have enjoyed lots of laughter and fun together. She will be going back to Sydney on the weekend.

I am now Editor of my Church's Bulletin, I would never in a million years predicted that one. I think having a blog has helped a lot because I am more of a thinker than a writer and writing my post has just come naturally plus it has helped me operating this computer.

Daylight savings started not long ago and I have already hit one kangaroo, it did jump away so hopefully it is alright and I have had others run out in front of me, thankfully only my spotlight was pushed in and there was no other damage. I have only another 6 months of this till daylight savings is back LOL

I don't want to make my post too long and besides I don't have any photos of anything at the moment. I will have to get back to a normal routine with my blogging and there is so much to update such as my veggie patch (weeds are back), the renovations ( I have had a few mice in ahhh), the shop (some big changes which will make the shop stronger and better), Oh we now have a truck, the building of the new Church and much more :)

Custom Made Bookcases

2009-04-08T15:53:00.004+10:00

This is a huge bookcase unit we installed over the weekend. We made them in four pieces, put each one in place, screwed and bolted them for stability and finished off with skirting and beading. So they now look like they have always been there. The one above the door was a really tight squeeze as there was a air vent on the left of it, mind you the ceilings were 13ft high and the guys who helped us had to climb on ladders and lift this bookcase high above their heads. real scary stuff. We started Saturday afternoon and left the peoples home at 11pm then we went back again on Sunday because they had to go out and we didn't leave till we had finished and that was 12am and by the time we got home it was 1am. On the Sunday I made a beef stew and put it in the crock pot not knowing what time we would get home to eat it, so after six hours cooking it was delicious.

You can't see in the pictures I took but there is a fireplace in the middle with a huge mirror above

The bookcase above is also for a TV to sit on, we had a few hiccups but sorted them out thank goodness. The couple were thrilled with their bookcase and with the service we gave them that they can't wait to tell their family and friends and hopefully pass some business onto us :)

The Caveman Look!

2009-04-04T12:15:00.004+11:00

If you would like a good laugh today have a read of this article. It is saying with the global financil crisis woman will looking for a man that will be big and strong to provide her with food and security, in the articles words... "their taste in men will shift from the androgynous hairless metrosexual towards the more muscular primal hairy male". The visions in my mind after reading this article was so funny. I can just see a woman walking down the road with a big hairy cave man on her arm and dragging half a cow home to the cave LOL.

So What Has Been Going On!

2009-04-02T12:04:00.004+11:00

I'm sorry I haven't done a post for a while and the usual excuse is I have been busy. I can't believe it is already April and I can't stop my thoughts from jumping ahead of me to things like enjoying winter fires, preparing the veggie garden for spring, the long hot summer nights and preparing for Christmas. No wonder the year goes that quick, we are always thinking ahead and not enjoying the present. I'll just take a deep breath for a minute..... phew!

Our building alterations are still going on and would you believe it we still haven't put in the new toilet (to the horrors of my daughter) and the fire place has not been installed. I just hope winter starts off mild till we get the house prepared for winter because last winter we had snow :)

My veggie patch is slowly getting taken over with weeds as the plants squeeze out their last goodies and collapse with exhaustion. I need to get in there and pick the last of the tomatoes for my relish and then I think that it is it for tomatoes, boy am I over them.

The business has picked up and we have a lot of orders to get out to customers and I might post photos of some of them because there are some really nice pieces of furniture going out.

Our Church has finally agreed on the plans for our new Church and the DA (Development Application) will be lodged with Council in the next two weeks. We are all very excited about the prospects of having a new building as at the moment we meet in a shed. Dave will be overseeing the build as project manager which again is exciting.

I have been asked to be Editor for the Church Bulletin, which is so daunting because I have never done anything like this before so here is to jumping in the deep end:)

I haven't had time to read my favourite blogs and now I have new ones to read, you see I only have the use of the Internet at my business and not at home so my blogging time is 9-5pm so if I have a busy day then blogging gets left out :(

My trip to work

2009-03-26T10:25:00.012+11:00

I have about a 45 minute drive to work and there are dirt roads and gravel I travel on and there are many sites and smells a long the way. You think 45 minutes is a long time but when you enjoy your trip it doesn't really matter, I have lost count of the many times I have seen foxes hiding in the bushes as I drive past or foxes taking their tasty morsel of road kill or little rabbits scurrying across the road ahead or right in front of me and then there are the kangaroos and wallabies that I see in the paddocks or on the side of the road just standing there or the ones that jump right out in front of you and you curse them as they bounce off into the bush. I have to mention the Goannas that lazily cross the road or run high on their legs across the road and run up the nearest tree and the many gecko lizards sunning on the road or the red belly and brown snakes that I try to swerve. Then there is the occasional turtle with its neck out stretch crossing the road, sometimes I have stopped and carried it across because the thought of a car coming before it has safely reached the other side is too much for me. I have seen other wildlife cross my path such as Echidnas, wombats and the number of eagles I have come across eating road kill is amazing, one I thought was injured so I stopped and he jumped to the side of the road and crawled under the fence and eventually flew off ever so slowly.

Now for the smells, I now know when I am travelling if I see old road kill on the road to quickly wind my window up or the smell lingers for a while in the car. I love the smell as I cross a creek or the smell of freshly ploughed fields or freshly cut lucerne and the smell after it has just rained.
I love looking at the mountains ,the hills and the paddocks of sheep and cattle as I drive along so my trip to work is so amazing and refreshing and a lovely way to start the day

You just wait till I till you about my trip home from work now that is another story :)

These are just some of the sights I see on the way to work :)

A new door!

2009-03-17T09:46:00.007+11:00

Before demolition

New door opening

check out the toilet on the left LOL

Our renovations are still moving along, little by little. Winter is coming and we need to get the things we started finished so we can keep the warmth in and the cold out. On the weekend Dave and a neighbour pulled down one side of the chimney and one fireplace. It was originally the place where they had their combustion stove and then later made it into an opening for their new electrical stove. Well we have moved the stove over the other side of the room where we made a new kitchen and now we have pulled this out and made a new door way leading out to the bathroom and laundry and to the back door. The other fire place is still there and we are restoring it and making a surround for it with a mantle.

The toilet will be moved to the bathroom because it originally was in a separate room and Dave will build bottom and over head cupboards and a bench in the laundry. We have a busy few days getting this work finished because my cousin Stephen and Jess are coming up over the weekend for a few days and I'm sure they will not like the bathroom conditions as they are at present LOL

Help a Stranger

2009-03-12T12:47:00.005+11:00

I had an older gentleman in my shop this morning asking if I had any work, he had a backpack on his back and he was walking the area looking for any sort of work. He said he was on the pension and finding it a bit hard,to make ends meet and that he only wanted a few hours a week so that it wouldn't affect his pension. I told him that I had nothing at the moment for him to do and I told him of other places that had or might be wanting someone for work. We chatted for a while and I told him to call in again if was passing.

After he left and I spoke to Dave and I could see that there were ways I could have helped him more. I could have just given him some money or I could have let him polish the furniture or tidied up out the back, it might have been a one off but it might have helped him. Then I suppose I could have offered to bring in for him a box of fresh produce that is growing abundantly in my veggie patch or even some of my beef that is in the freezer, after all how long is it going to take us to eat 200kgs of beef.

Times are going to be tough for people this year and I think we should be prepared for someone who might pop in asking for help. It could be someone you know or a strange on the street. I know it has now made me more aware and hopefully I will be more giving next time.

Oh Baby!

2009-03-11T15:30:00.003+11:00

We had great news last night that our son and daughter-in-law will be having another baby and we couldn't be more delighted. The expected due date will be around the 2nd of November and their number one daughter who is four is so excited. Our daughter-in-law has four other siblings and two of her brothers and their partners are expecting as well which will make an exciting year of babies.

The Church & Lunch

2009-03-10T12:31:00.005+11:00

Things are sort of quiet at this present moment which is a nice change but I think we are just catching our breath because we are gearing ourselves up for the start of the building of our new church. We had a meeting on the weekend to get preparations for the DA (Development Application) for council which we are excited about. My cousin is the Architect and Dave will be the project manager. We are on a tight budget so we will be putting our heads together to keep the balance of building something spectacular yet very cost effective. I would like to post pictures later on of its building and progress. The church will be built on 10 acres of bushland and we are hoping to incorporate the building with the natural surrounds.

I had these for lunch today and boy they were yummy! I bought them from Aldis and I had them with my homegrown tomatoes. They contain 36% of wholegrains as well as Spirulina and garlic mind you they have a green tinge to them.

YUMMY! and GOOD FOR YOU!

The Cool room

2009-03-09T12:39:00.003+11:00

The cool room walls

The motor

These pieces stacked up here is our cool room it is about 2mx2.2m. I did some work for a friend at a health resort last year and my payment which I was excited about was this cool room. It needs to be scrubbed and cleaned up but I think it will be great and we are even thinking of installing it in the white container it is leaning up against. The cool room will come in handy when we process our own meat and at harvest time. I will keep an update progress of it has we clean and install it. We also have to get the motor checked out as it hasn't been used for a long time.

Winter is coming

2009-03-06T16:33:00.007+11:00

It has been great reading that the other bloggers from the other side of the world who have been experiencing snow and rain are now getting ready for spring. The excitement of ordering seeds and preparing the garden as been like an epidemic but for me on the other side of their world I have been feeling the chill of the cooler weather moving in and the thought of digging out my winter PJ's (pyjamas) and my scarfs and long johns. Last night I had to put the electric blanket on to take the chill out of the cotton sheets and I even had a hot milk chocolate as well. I think it was about 4 degrees this morning and the car was slightly frosted. I suppose it won't be long and I will be curled up on the lounge in front of the fire and making nice belly warming stews and eating my peach and blackberry pies :)

Note: I have now fixed up the link to my new blog so I apologise to those who tried to check it out and failed.

Guess What!

2009-03-05T14:40:00.003+11:00

I decided to make another blog, a little different to White Lilly. I'm not a very good writer but I feel a little bit more comfortable since starting up White Lilly and have decided to express myself a little bit more on this blog "A Joyfull Heart" I feel that I/We need to take a step back from our busy life and see the beauty and joy that is around us, we need to breathe in and take hold what is joyful to us and share it with others and store it in our hearts. So please go and check it out and leave a comment if you like to let me know what you think.

Update on Veggie Patch & Road Works

2009-03-02T10:36:00.005+11:00

The round about is now finished and the road is opened and the traffic has been flowing once again. Unfortunately the footpath on my side is a bit more difficult than the other three sides and will take a little longer. They have pulled up one side and are paving and concreting it as we speak and once that is completed they will pull up the other side.

On Sunday I eventually spent a bit of time in my veggie patch and harvested the potatoes. I wasn't sure if you waited till the potato plant started to die before you pulled it up because mine were still lush and green. Anyway we pulled them up and were pleasantly surprised.

We had some for dinner last night with butter and herbs, delicious.

I pulled up the remaining corn as well, I still have another crop of corn which we be at least another two weeks. I blanched and froze three bags full of them. I am so please with my Roma tomatoes, I must have got at least 25kg and the plants still have heaps on them.

The golden nugget pumpkin is good value as well because each plant had at least five nuggets on them. I harvested five plants yesterday and I have at least another eight still growing. I also have a Queensland Blue growing wildly in the patch. My beans made it through the heat and have started producing again. Overall I am really happy with this seasons patch, my patch has gotten better and better each year and I feel next season will need a bit more effort to make it better than this one. I also think I will not by store seedlings and only use organic and heirloom seeds. I think I'm sort of ready to step out of the square and start to be more adventurist

It Is Finished!

2009-02-28T14:10:00.003+11:00

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

2009-02-26T12:12:00.004+11:00

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

2009-02-18T12:59:00.004+11:00

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.