Dreaming...

On the weekend we spent some time with OHs parents in the Sunshine Coast. On Saturday night we went to a small town called Kandanga and watched a movie about Joel Salatin and his farm. The local coop also put on a curry dinner, which was really nice. The movie was a bit preachy and didn't really teach us much, but we will probably check out some of his books and see what he has to say. We also had a discussion about what our long term plans are and if we want to band together and have a bit of a farming enterprise. It seems we are all on the same page, and we are super excited for the future.

The main idea is OHs mum and stepdad buy a property and we rent a house or something on the property and do farming things. We are all hard workers so I think it could work out really well. So, on that train of thought, we went to look at a property on Sunday morning. Even though they aren't in a position to buy yet, we thought we'd scope out what's out there at the moment. This one had been on the market for a while so we thought why not.

Well, it was perfect. Under an hour to my work, established fruit trees, lots of empty land, plenty of water and a nice house. If they can't get this one (which is likely), this property is going to be hard to beat! We are going to pretend that we do own it and make a bit of a permaculture/long term plan for a bit of practice.

Last week we bought a bread maker off gumtree. We finally had a chance to use it last night and OH made a loaf of bread with butter in it. It's very good for the first try. What a good buy! And now we wait for the lovely property to hopefully sit on the market for another 6 months (I wish!).

Fraser Island Weekend

From Friday to Monday we spent some time at Fraser Island. It was my first time visiting and my first time taking my new car four wheel driving. It is a really beautiful place and there is a lot more interesting nature than I thought. This is some of the beautiful dense forest that we drove through.

We went with the Sunshine Coast Land Rover Club as part of the island cleanup. There were 300 cars there from all over QLD. We tagged along with OHs dad. This is Lake Mackenzie, which is all fresh water. It was really nice for a refreshing swim.

This is my car on the beach, it was really good for pulling out a bit of quick lunch as we had everything with us. I am extremely happy with it for camping and four wheel driving.

And for good measure here is a nice one of it on the beach.

Just before we left last week I received my big order from knit picks. Yay! Can't wait to get started, once I finish my scarf of course.

OH has been having a lot of luck with growing seedlings using 2/3 seed raising mix and 1/3 worm castings. No seeds have started in the garden and I'm glad we've got the seedlings as a back up. My chickens are going well, however my unreliable broody is now molting! So she has only really laid for 2 weeks this year. Very disappointing! She is lucky she is cute. We have plenty of eggs anyway so not all bad. I am playing basketball this Saturday and Sunday will probably be working on the car. 

Have a nice week.

Mother's Day Weekend

Last weekend was a quiet one for me. On Saturday we spent the morning in the garden, weeding, mulching and planting. It looks a lot nicer now.

OH cleaned up the tomatoes that weren't producing and we planted some new seeds. The previous seeds must have got carried away by ants, but OH still insists on planting them in the ground???? Oh well. OH has also been selling seedlings out the front of our house. We have made $8 so far which pays for the seeds for the couple varieties we sold which is nice.

OH and his brother left to go and visit his parents on Saturday afternoon so I had the house to myself for A WHOLE DAY! It was wonderful. I spent the time grocery shopping, making a carrot cake for mothers day, and making rosella cordial. It is divine.

On Sunday afternoon I spent a couple hours painting the homemade roof racks on the ute. The paint was peeling off and it looked pretty ratty. Even though I ran out of paint it looks a lot better.

On Sunday night we went out for dinner for Mothers Day. It is a special occasion this year, as it is my Grandmas first mothers day without my Grandpa. We went to a really nice seafood place in Manly and the food was nice. We ate the carrot cake afterwards and it was very nice. Will have to write the recipe down.

I have also been knitting a scarf from yarn that I picked up when I went to the last CWA meeting. Its a bit lumpy on the edges but I love the pattern! Its very geometric which really speaks to me as an engineer. This weekend is a 4 day trip to Fraser Island! I've never been before and I'm very keen to take the ute for a spin. I've grabbed my late Grandpa's nice camera for the trip so hopefully I can upload some nice photos. We have fishing rods ready to go, I'm so excited!

Have a nice week!

New car!

This past weekend was the second long weekend in a row (how luxurious). The first one we spent at my parents farm, I spent a lot of time reading and knitting. It was nice. This past weekend we went to Chermside shopping centre to buy a new work jumper for me and ended up getting a car too! Here are some photos of my new pride and joy:

It is a 2001 Toyotal Hilux dual cab ute with a canopy. It's so beautiful! We were thinking about getting a car for OH to better suit his work, and we stumbled across this one. It was too good to be true so we had to get it. It cost $11,000 and I paid $7,500 cash and my Dad put up the remaining $3,500 until I pay him back. We are going to Fraser Island next weekend and this car will be PERFECT! I am so in love. We added some LED lighting to the inside of the canopy too, a strip along the middle for the inside and a strip along the bottom of the rear window, so that when you open it it can be used for light for cooking etc.

All that took up most of the weekend, and also dreaming of what we want to do with it. So much potential.  At least it has all the basics like roof racks and tow ball which is great. We also finished digging a BIG hole in the yard, ready for our permanent flower bed. I hope they all are self seeding flowers and that we will never have to go in there. Here is the photo of the finished hole.

I also used my new electric yogurt maker to make some coconut yogurt. All I needed was coconut cream, a bit of culture and some sugar. The end result is very delicious! And it was very easy with the yogurt maker too. The garden is going well, the peas are going strong and the lettuce has gone to seed. I think it's time for the tomatoes to go, they don't seem to have much fruit on them. The root veges are going well too, but OH thinks that something is coming and eating seeds and small seedlings. We can't seem to grow anything at the moment! Our seedlings are finally getting stronger and hopefully we can plant them soon.