Winter is coming

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

Watering system

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


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

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

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

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

This is the hose going into the 1000 litre tank

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

I have been slack

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

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

now 3 weeks and sales are non exsistant.

A little bit of stress there!

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

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

Taken two loads of rubbish to tip (always fun)

Made batches of sweet pickles and pickled vegetables

Harvesting tomatoes for sauces

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

that I can download my pictures

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

A change in the weather

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

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

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

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

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