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!).
Monday, 30 May 2016
Wednesday, 18 May 2016
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.
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
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.
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!
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!
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
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.
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.
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
Quiet weekend at home - not!
Another busy weekend for us. I had some of my old school friends over on Friday night for dinner, I made homemade gnocchi and a creamy mushroom and leek sauce. We had an unexpected visitor - a 10 month old dog who was scared by the fireworks and ran almost 2km to our house. Luckily we were able to find her owner quickly. I also played a soccer game on Friday night. First time goalkeeping in a loooong time. I had a great time, and I still have some of my skills!
OH visited his Mum last week and came back with heaps of awesome produce. One haul was a heap of guavas, so we made a lot of guava jelly.
It smells a bit funny to eat but it's very tasty. He also brought back about 12 cups of rosellas, so we made a bit of jam too.
We've still got 2/3rds of it left so we have grand plans for a bit of cordial. I also made a very basic soap from soap flakes, water and vanilla essence. It's hardening now and we'll see how it goes. It almost seems too easy!
We also ran around on the weekend to build a cool new seed raising area. It's 3x1m so it's pretty big! We used almost all recycled parts, except for the roof and screws. I am worried that it is too exposed but we'll see how it goes. Sometimes its good having an OH who did carpentry for a bit.
I've also spent my free time digging a big hole in the yard. I convinced OH to plant out the Rosellas, and as we don't get much frost here hopefully they fruit before the lease is up. The patch is going to be a permanent flower garden to bring some bees to the garden. I will post photos of it when it isn't just a patch of dirt! This long weekend we are heading off to my parents farm, hopefully the weather is good. Time to relax a bit I think. Have a good week and long weekend!
OH visited his Mum last week and came back with heaps of awesome produce. One haul was a heap of guavas, so we made a lot of guava jelly.
It smells a bit funny to eat but it's very tasty. He also brought back about 12 cups of rosellas, so we made a bit of jam too.
We've still got 2/3rds of it left so we have grand plans for a bit of cordial. I also made a very basic soap from soap flakes, water and vanilla essence. It's hardening now and we'll see how it goes. It almost seems too easy!
We also ran around on the weekend to build a cool new seed raising area. It's 3x1m so it's pretty big! We used almost all recycled parts, except for the roof and screws. I am worried that it is too exposed but we'll see how it goes. Sometimes its good having an OH who did carpentry for a bit.
I've also spent my free time digging a big hole in the yard. I convinced OH to plant out the Rosellas, and as we don't get much frost here hopefully they fruit before the lease is up. The patch is going to be a permanent flower garden to bring some bees to the garden. I will post photos of it when it isn't just a patch of dirt! This long weekend we are heading off to my parents farm, hopefully the weather is good. Time to relax a bit I think. Have a good week and long weekend!
Sunday, 10 April 2016
Market time!
What a busy weekend!
Today we went to the Green Day Out in Brisbane to try and sell some of our old shop stock. We sold everything half price (what we paid for it) to try and get rid of some stock. We sold more than 60 items so we made a pretty big dent in the stock. Here is our stall.
And here is our lovely spare bedroom with heaps more space. The clothes and market stuff now fits on the 3 racks and in a box.
It is a really great event and an awesome simple living resource. I bought an electric yogurt maker which I'm really keen to give a spin. It seems really easy to use and I can make dairy and non-dairy yogurt. I also got a preserving starter kit which has things like jar tongs and lid lifter. Now I just need some food to preserve and a good book and I'm ready to go. I also got some bicarb so I can make more cleaning products.
Yesterday I noticed that there was a heap of rio in the skip bin from the construction next door so we grabbed it to make a trellis. We put it up next to our peas. We haven't had much luck with trellis' staying up and being tall enough for our plants. This one looks good and sturdy.
Our seedlings are also plodding along, but we haven't been able to plant at the beginning of the month like planned. They just haven't really got past the small adult leaf stage and are really struggling. We also learnt this week you need light coloured shade cloth rather than green for letting enough light in. Oh well!
Hopefully we can plant something soon other than peas!
Today we went to the Green Day Out in Brisbane to try and sell some of our old shop stock. We sold everything half price (what we paid for it) to try and get rid of some stock. We sold more than 60 items so we made a pretty big dent in the stock. Here is our stall.
And here is our lovely spare bedroom with heaps more space. The clothes and market stuff now fits on the 3 racks and in a box.
It is a really great event and an awesome simple living resource. I bought an electric yogurt maker which I'm really keen to give a spin. It seems really easy to use and I can make dairy and non-dairy yogurt. I also got a preserving starter kit which has things like jar tongs and lid lifter. Now I just need some food to preserve and a good book and I'm ready to go. I also got some bicarb so I can make more cleaning products.
Yesterday I noticed that there was a heap of rio in the skip bin from the construction next door so we grabbed it to make a trellis. We put it up next to our peas. We haven't had much luck with trellis' staying up and being tall enough for our plants. This one looks good and sturdy.
Our seedlings are also plodding along, but we haven't been able to plant at the beginning of the month like planned. They just haven't really got past the small adult leaf stage and are really struggling. We also learnt this week you need light coloured shade cloth rather than green for letting enough light in. Oh well!
Hopefully we can plant something soon other than peas!
Monday, 4 April 2016
A Weekend of Microgreens and Dishcloths
Last weekend was lovely. Saturday was weeding and knitting at OH's Dads, and lots of homemade pizza and red wine for dinner. It was nice to have a few drinks (and many more laughs!).
Woke up with a bit of a sore head on Sunday, but after a slow morning of reading we headed off to OH's mum's house. OH and his mum are planning on growing microgreens on a fairly large scale, so Sunday was spent preparing. We built a large worm farm from something that was intended to be a dog kennel (???) but it is totally perfect.
There is a bucket going down the hill for worm juice. We are planning to put a table/bench thing on the plain steel bit on the side. We also did a trial run of some different potting mediums, like coconut fibre, seed raising mix and worm castings. It will be interesting to see which one works the best. We also tried 3 different types of seed to see what happens.
Woke up with a bit of a sore head on Sunday, but after a slow morning of reading we headed off to OH's mum's house. OH and his mum are planning on growing microgreens on a fairly large scale, so Sunday was spent preparing. We built a large worm farm from something that was intended to be a dog kennel (???) but it is totally perfect.
There is a bucket going down the hill for worm juice. We are planning to put a table/bench thing on the plain steel bit on the side. We also did a trial run of some different potting mediums, like coconut fibre, seed raising mix and worm castings. It will be interesting to see which one works the best. We also tried 3 different types of seed to see what happens.
In between all this work I managed to finish 2 dishcloths.
It's been a while since I knitted last but I seemed to pick it back up quickly and I was quite surprised that I finished 2. Now I need to find a needle to finish it off. I think the weave (?) might be a bit loose, I guess I will see when I try to clean something. Might use smaller needles next time. Here is a nice photo of a sunset I caught last week while on a walk.
This weekend we are going to see a concert on Saturday night, and trying to sell the rest of our shop stock at the Green Day Out in Brisbane. We had a good day there last time so hopefully we will be able to get rid of a bit of it. Have a lovely week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)