Sweet Potatoes and Garden Beds

I have taken a lot of photos but have forgotten to blog about them in the last week so had best do a quick catchup.

The chooks are going along really well and we haven't accidentally killed any of them yet so we must be doing the right things. They do look like they have grown but it is hard to tell, they are still wild, but don't seem to mind if I stand still in the pen, but I am not allowed to move around :)


I have harvested the sweet potato over the weekend and replanted more in more beds. I now have orange and red sweet potato and have been given white sweet potato.


These are all now sweet potato beds, and though they look a bit scrappy at the moment, I will be joining them all up and making a circle and planting more.



I was given this really large paw paw on the weekend but it was a bit too far gone to eat, so yesterday I made paw paw chutney, and it is yummo :D


I have made my final garden row. I was going to make it out of bessa blocks like the others but haven't been able to get seconds so it hadn't happened. When the guy came and put in the roller door for the new room he told me to make raised beds out of the circular cardboard the door came in.


They turned out rather well and I have decided to continue with the cardboard theme. The boxes will be covered with dirt and they won't be seen and will eventually just break down and become One with the earth :D I transplanted out the strawberry plants which were desperate to get out of the pots, and also put in root bound parsley and little chives.


The other thing we were given over the weekend was this very large cucumber, actually we were given two. One to eat and the other to get seeds from, so I planted some out and have dried the rest.


Yesterday I made these lovely coconut biscuits, recipe from my mother-in-law, and they were being eaten off the trays, and I think I will have to make more really, really soon. The inlaws made a huge batch of these biscuits when we went down to the wedding and we ate them all weekend :)

I Grew Food

I grew food :D


I have never grown potatoes before and now I have. Unfortunately I didn't take note of when I put them in so I don't know how long they took, maybe about four months, and they were mostly neglected as I didn't really think they would grow.

My partner in crime and life was happy about this as he was thought that I would only be growing leafy things. However, I have now grown corn, snake beans, tomatoes and cabbages, all of which are now in the freezer, plus a couple of zucchini, spinach, capsicum and sweet chilli, mutant carrots, beetroot, turnips (which were quite easy, I think, I forgot I put in seeds so I think they were easy) and other leafy things.

Potatoes really are the easiest thing to grow and I don't know why I have never done it, I have grown lots of other things, and over the years we have lived in climates that they would grow well in. But I have never grown them.


So next year I am going to plants lots of potatoes, planting them a few weeks apart of course so we can have lovely fresh potatoes, grown organically (grown in dirt, as my partner in crime and life puts it) and with my own two hands.

I was very excited to see I had actually grown potatoes and didn't wait to get my gloves, just dug them up, dirt all over me, don't you just love that dirt feeling on your hands and under your nails, very earthy :D

The Teenage Retreat

The teenage retreat is nearly finished. The builders are supposed to be back today (they were also supposed to be here yesterday and the day before) but are not here yet.


At least we can use it, though we can't actually move our number one and only son in until it is completely finished.


So our number one and only son had a friend over for the weekend and the teenager from next door also came down and they spent a lot of time in there playing very loud music and the xbox of course. That was inbetween riding motorbikes.


However, this is what happens when you let teenagers loose, including plates left on the floor which I found this morning that included ants, hope this is not what the future holds. Guess we need to impose some restrictions, though it may have happened because there was a visitor.

We will finish off the inside ourselves, walls, floor coverings, electricity (via an electrician of course), water tanks off the back, a deck off the glass sliding door and a garden down the other side. This will all take some time but at least we are nearly there, it has taken a lot longer than we thought it would.

So the builders just have to turn up and finish the gutters and put in the roof vent and we are good to go :D

We Have Chooks

Our little chooks arrived on Saturday, not sure how old they are, maybe about 8 -12 weeks old.


I think they may be all different ages, their legs are all different shapes and sizes, though not sure if that is a good way of telling their age, though I think I will run with that, works for me :D


This one is a little rooster like, it is the largest and has the biggest legs, maybe it is just the oldest, that is what we are hoping anyway :)


They are a bit wild and run away every time we go in, and we have been told not to let them out of the pen for quite a few weeks as they will just fly away.


This one is definitely a girl, looks quite girly :)

They have been coming out into the pen, but when we go near they run back into their house, but it is nice to look out the door and see them picking around in the pen. I really think they belong here as they have a nap in the afternoon, that fits right in with me :D

The Chook Pen

Our chook pen is finished and awaiting it's new residents. We are pretty sure it is snake proof, but you never know until one gets in, but we hope not.


At lot of work was put into it especially by my partner in crime and life, he did more than me, he was determined to have it finished before he went back to work.


We are very happy with it and hope the chooks are too.


I think they will be all snuggly in here, but not too hot as we have left air vents at the top.


We found a guy who sells bales straw mulch for $4 each and we can pick them up from his property only about ten minutes from here. So we can see him any time we need more, which is great.

So the chooks should be arriving this weekend, they are from people we know who live not far away and they have Jungle Fowl. I googled them (the chooks not the people), and it says they are the ancestors of all chooks, they are hardy and I was told they lay medium sized eggs, they are a good looking bird, being all colours. No roosters for us though, not yet, I just have to get used to having chooks and work my way along to getting a rooster :)

So the next thing is getting the room finished for our number one and only son, it is being worked on as we speak, and I will let you know how many disasters there are and how long it takes :D I am sure we will never build anything again after all this. Oh well, such is life, best go have a cup of tea :)

Family Wedding

We are back from the family wedding and we had a good time catching up with everyone. The kids have all grown and some have kids of their own, there were people and cars everywhere as we where all staying in the same place, so we got to see it all.

The wedding was beautiful, the beaches gorgeous, the company great and the food magnificent (mainly because we didn't have to cook but also because it was yummy).

So I must share my photos, as everyone looked great and the kids kept rolling around on the floor for our amusement, including distracting the bride while she was supposed to be all serious when the minister was speaking, yes I saw you Mel :D


The bride arriving with her dad in his hot rod, nice car :D


Everyone looked very flash, including the grandparents of the bride (my in-laws).


Even my partner in crime and life and our number one and only son scrubbed up quite well.


This little one I wanted to stuff in my bag and bring home, she is gorgeous.


The bridal party looked great, so young, when did everyone became younger than me :)Just kidding, they did look great though didn't they?


Isn't she beautiful? To think she was flower girl at our wedding and looked beautiful then too, hasn't changed too much really. Oh, and the groom looked alright too :)


Another gorgeous little girl, this was the best photo of her and I followed her around a fair bit trying to get a picture of her in her gorgeous dress but ended up with lots of shots of the back of her :D


Just need to cut the photographer out of this one and it would be perfect :)



Everyone just loves the babies.


The first dance.



Beaches don't get better than this I don't think, no wonder they picked this area to get married.


Not a bad photo of me as we were checking out the sights.


Just one last photo, this is the fish our number one and only son caught. There was a fair bit of fishing, wakeboarding and socialising to fit in around the wedding :D

Well, life goes back to normal this week, no weddings, no jetsetting around the country, my partner in crime and life is back at work and I can get back into some sort of routine until Christmas hits and then it all goes out the window again. Such is life :D