New Chairs and Coconuts

We have had a great weekend. Our number one and only son had a friend stay over on Saturday night and we had friends come for lunch on Sunday, and I made Tzatziki dip for the first time ever using one of our homegrown gigantic cucmbers (actually, only using half of it). I turned out gorgeous :D

We went into town early on Saturday and played squash, picked up some groceries and bought us all new office chairs.

We all needed new chairs for various reasons, our number one and only son has one that is older than him and the wheels are falling off, I needed one as I didn’t have one and my back was aching from sitting on the organ stool, and my partner in crime had one that he broke soon after getting it (it was a cheap one so can’t expect too much).

We spent slightly more than cheap, and the quality is so much more. The men ended up with typical colours, black and brown, I wanted purple but have to make do with red, there was also not a lot of choice as the trucks with stock are still stuck on the other side of flooded roads.

On Saturday afternoon we lit a fire, the boy’s tried for about two minutes and insisted that the wood was too wet and wandered off, so my partner in crime and life went and had it going in about five minutes. We took over the BBQ plate when the fire was nice and hot, gave them some sausages and tongs and left them to provide for themselves. They also toasted a whole bag of marshmallows on sticks, and then I think the rain kicked in a little, but they enjoyed themselves.

We had friends come for lunch on Sunday and they are on a similar journey as us but they have 3 acres. It was good to compare notes on what we each are doing and we also exchange seeds and seedlings. Last time I was up there I came home with seedlings of natives and this time, we sent them home with strawberry plants, Aloe Vera, gigantic cucumber seeds, a gigantic cucumber and wild cherry tomatoes so they can eat them and save the seeds.

Apart from being a cheap way to get the garden growing, we sometimes get things we didn’t know about before and if I happen to kill off my stuff, I have somewhere to go and get more seeds. The seeds are all heirloom, non- GMO, organic, not stuffed around with ones that we CAN save seeds from. Not like the ones you buy from other companies that are sterile, and you can’t continually grow generations of. I still buy seeds from the good companies even though I can save the seeds, sometimes I don’t save the seeds as it is too difficult or I kill off my plants.

I have rosella plants that are about fourth or fifth generation :D I also gave some seeds to the Botanical Gardens as a friend volunteered there and theirs all were lost (can’t remember why), she knew I grew them so I saved seeds for them. It is good to spread the love, feels good.

We were given some coconuts over the weekend, some for our non laying chooks to eat (honestly, they have the life of Riley) and five sprouted ones to plant. So we went and planted them this morning between the driveway and the boundary fence but not close to anything that coconuts will drop on and destroy.

We have been wondering what to do with that area, it doesn’t do anything but grow grass, it is close to the boundary and the people next door have their shed (which they live in) close to the fence so we had think carefully about it. Being a fairly wet area the coconuts should go well there and we don’t have to look after them much.

Today I have made a chocolate cake and two pumpkin fruit cakes, all very yummy. So going to go have some more cake with my cuppa tea.

ON OTHER MATTERS

Talking about seed saving, I am obviously not the only one thinking out it. Over at Just A Prepper's Place she is also talking about it.

There is a news article at ABC news about how fruit and vege prices are high due to our natural disasters. There is also more and more talk about global food security. One thing we can personally do to help ourselves in regard to high food prices and food securtiy is to grow our own, regardless of how small an area you have. High food prices and food security are concerns that are not going to go away.

Something I didn't know is that American milk is banned in most of Europe, Australia and a couple of other places due to the bovine growth hormone. Over at Living Prepared is a post about it with some links. Personally, we drink biodynamic organic local milk, it is gorgeous, the correct colour for milk and supports our local farmers.