A productive day!

How do you get done all that needs to be done? I have a notebook and write down my jobs/tasks. Most days I only get a few things ticked off but today I got heaps done. I had a refreshing bout of motivation today. My mother would be so proud...haha!

I bottled some chutney. I pulled the glass jars out of the oven and put them onto the stove top. The second one I did though cracked. I had placed it right on top of some water. A hot jar on cold water does not mix…and to think I had laughed at my mum when she did something similar when we were bottling apples. Oops.

Miss Z and I paved under the wheelie bin today. We have a stash of old bricks for a path around the house. We took the wheelbarrow and collected some from the front shed. One short we were...back we go. All done and looking much better. It was fun. Not sure how I will go getting a large area like a pathway flat and level but this small job was fine.

The calves are now eating the grass down properly. Can you see the zigzag line of eaten and fresh grass? Aj has worked out a great system for grazing them. They need to eat it down so that it comes back well. Otherwise they will just eat the new fresh shoots and the grass will grow uneven. He's a great farmer in the making I say.

Firewood!

A couple of weeks ago we had a truckload of firewood logs delivered into one of our paddocks. Just over 15 metres' worth. Today Aj started to cut and split them with Gary, the previous owner of the house and a good friend.

After six hours, the result was somewhat different...

Much of it has been split, but there are still a lot of rounds to go. Then there's all the stacking...!

To market to market

Just a small piece of history for you.

The first complete recorded version of the rhyme appeared in 1805 in Songs for the Nursery with no reference to a pig:

To market, to market to buy a penny bun,

Home again, home again, market is done.

When the rhyme reappeared later in the nineteenth century, it took the now common form:

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Well I went to market, two of them, and have come home again.  Thursday's market was at our local MOPS. It was a closed group market and while I thought I wouldn't do well, compared to Saturdays Art & Makers Market in town, it did do well.

People loved the baby shoes and tee shirts but weren't overly interested in spending. I came home wondering if my items are marketable.   I need to work on how to promote my product.  There are people in this town who just can't justify spending the money that my products are worth. So back to the drawing board: Etsy site? Pay for advertisement on madeit? And then there is the possibility of putting them in a shop in Stanley called The Brown Dog. I have left samples with the new owner and am looking forward to hearing from her soon. 

My mum and Grandma are here at the moment. Great to spend Mothers Day with them both. I miss having family around so much. You can have supportive friends but nothing beats family, especially mum! 

And what did I get for Mother's day?Two beastie  beauties and  15m of firewood logs.

 Fresh mushrooms, straight from our paddocks (yes, rest assured  they are edible. I let Aj eat them first though) 

Mr T is reading his way through a stack of joke cards that Aj had as a boy. They are the typical nonsense jokes that kids laugh at but don't get. I thought this one was very appropriate for Providence Meadows. 

Q: How do you stop a cockerel crowing at daybreak on Sunday?

A: Eat it on Saturday night.

Comparison

A friend has this up on her wall. It speaks loads to me.

I often find that I am comparing myself to others. Better at craft; better at running a house; better than running a business from home...and the list goes on. 

But guess what: I am ME. No one else can be me. All that matters is that I am doing what God has asked of me, by serving Him in all that I do and taking care of my family.

Things that I am good at. Not to toot my own trumpet but because doing this is hard! You try it:

Loving God and serving Him.

Loving and caring for my husband and kids.

Listening to others when they need it.

Not compromising on things that I believe in.

Being creative at lots of things. I may not be an expert at any one thing but I enjoy what I do.

Gardening.

Preserving - sauces and jams.

Making Choc Chip Biscuits.

As I write this I am thinking about a market coming up and thinking that my things will look daggy compared to others, that she makes and sells HEAPS of earrings...But I have to ignore those thoughts and focus on what I am good at and enjoy and rejoice in those things.

Shopping local

Do you shop local?

Being apart of a small town in Tassie means that we don't have a large range of shops. We do have all that you would need to day to day living though. It would be easy to by pass our own community and go up the coast to the chain stores. You would, yes, spend more in time and fuel but the savings would surely out way that. But then what would happen to our local shops? They would go!

Why am I writing all this? We have a number of empty shops in town. It is sad to see as our town is by no means dying out but the shops will if our community doesn't start shopping locally.

I am a bargain hunter and happy to OP Shop but I have had to dig deeper of late and be the support our town needs. Plus if you only buy the things you actually need to need up saving money as you aren't tempted by all the things you don't need.


I found this non local site on the reasons to shop local and although based on Chicago I think it aplies to our town too.

Think before you spend. Can you buy it locally? If so do so and support your community!

Bottling and Preserving

It is school HOLIDAYS!!! I LOVE HOLIDAYS!!!

(blog started Friday night)

draining the liquid

reducing/thickening

This Wednesday gone I attended a Bottling and Preserving Course with Rural Health.

There were 10 recipes and as it turned out 10 course participants so we took a recipe each. I took the marmalade as I have not ever made a marmalade before and as it turned out, I choose the hardest one ;) Lots of peeling, slicing the peel and boiling...and I had to write out my labels as there were not any left. 

It was a great experience to be working with people from our community that I had not previously meet and to be learning in such a fun atmosphere. It renewed my passion for getting a Fowlers Preseving kit similier to this one. Although I will look out for new or secondhand one on ebay or gumtree. I have also asked my mum for all of her old fowler  jars.

I have been preserving apples too; straps/roll ups, pies, dried rings, apples in jars (for crumbles or pies) and also been adding them to the sauces.

So as we sit now, just having finished watching a movie, jars are popping (sealing) and Aj chuckles as they do so.

combined goodies

what I bought home with me

I finished painting a car track on some MDF to go into a old cupboard draw. The kids love it and it keeps the track and cars contained.

I have painted a wall in the kids room, a nice neutral grey, I have also painted a set of draws in the same colour. The plan is to glue a map on the draw front. More pics as I get more done.

 

Planting in the rain

Ducks like rain and I love planting in the rain...with a big jacket on and my back to the rain that is.

Pink Cascade

I love planting in the rain as it means the plants get an extra watering. The natives I planted today were as follows:

Leptospermum – Pink Cascade

Leptospermum –Copper Glow

Grevillea - Flora Mason

Leucadendron – Safari Gold Strike

Leucadendron – Red Gem

Ozothamnus – Radiance

Flora Mason

I planted  #2, #4 and #5 up the back near the chook house to give them shade and shelter. The others I planted out the front, inside the fence. They will fill in the garden bed so that the road will be blocked off and the fence will not be seen. They will also attract birds to the yard. The Leucadendrons also make lovely cut flowers.

I also moved some roses*, planted a new rose and planted a new orange dahlia. I have some small foxgloves in a pot to grow before planting out the front in the cottage garden, as the ducks and chooks ate the last lot. 

*I know that it isn't the right time of year but I don't ever seem to do things at the right time. I cut the bushes back, getting rid of the up coming flowers and old leaves which means the plant focuses on the roots not flower production. I also water well for a while. 

***

The front yard

We have also been working on the Secret Garden/Cubby that we have put inside the Pittosporum trees in the front yard. We have one central tree and lots of runners that have come off it. Someone suggested using the inside of the trees as the cubby. We cleared the lower branches and some the the main tree trunks. Miss Z was the one to find it...she thinks it's great. I need to make a seat to fit around the central tree and I want to build a door with an old window on the right of the cubby garden. That and waiting for the trees to bush up, which I'm sure won't be that long ;)

On the plan to the left:

1. Pittosporum

2. Leptospermum – Pink Cascade

3. Leucadendron – Red Gem

4. Front path

5. Cubby cottage garden

Learning to use the chain saw and creating the doorway.

On the right is the central tree and seat position.

All done.