Oops

I changed the template of the blog, then lost the old one, so this is it for now. I'll probably change it again.

Saturday

And the winner is....Dawn. Dawn you will be recieving some of my samples of soap. Just let me make a few more first.

Of course it wasn't a competition it's just that Dawn is the only one so far who is brave enough to try my beautiful,luxurious sweet smelling soap. The offer still stands folks.

Today, sadly a member of the chooken club departed us. One little brown chook had been sad and totally on it's own for a few days. It progressively got worse until no more. As we are very inexperienced poultry handlers we have no idea what was wrong. The rest of the club are looking strong and healthy and its about time they started laying.

Elliott constructing the guinea pig house. Apparently we are getting guinea pigs-tomorrow,he tells me. Elliott has a breeding program in mind! We'll be off to the Candelo markets early tomorrow to source guinea pigs for the newly built hutch.

Luckily Grahame was able to make it out of supplies we already had. It's cost a grand total of $3,

that I like!!

More berries waiting to be planted

It's so exciting to see my seeds coming to life. I have about 40 pots of all kinds of seeds. Most of them are sprouting. Although the Borage didn't survive the demolishing of the green house by the chooks. Never mind I have plenty more seed. I need to make beds for these new seeds hopefully I can start that tomorrow.

The vegies are looking good after the recent rain. And before you ask, no that is not weeds growing around the beds. Thats the green manure(crop) we planted prior to making the veggie beds. It adds nutrients to the soil.

Rainy Day

Lip Balm and soap hand made by ME !!

What to do on a rainy day when outside is a bog yet again.

Well you create things and make a mess of course.

Today was my first foray into making skin potions and lotions. First of all I made some lovely lime lip balm which turned out quite well. It's a little bit grainy only because the amount was so small it was hard to get the blender in to blend it all.

Next was a hand cream with rosewater ,honey and geranium. This this too turned out surprisingly well.

After purchasing a $57 10ml bottle of rose absolute to use in the facial moisturiser this would be the one that hasn't yet worked. I'm trying to find out how to make it thicken. It was probably the cheap Aldi extra virgin olive oil that I used, instead of an organic cold pressed not heat treated expensive oil.

I also made soap with frankincense, patchouli and clary sage , my third batch and this looks like it has worked out well too.

Very productive day.

Oneday soon I hope to be able to earn some pocket money through the soaps that I make.

When I get a few more batches made I will send out some test samples for any one who is interested. Let me know via the comments box.

Must go, the sweet smell of bread baking in the oven tells me it's time to get it out-and eat it!!!

More photos

Now that I'm home from tripping around the world I can now take back my position of cheif photographer and blogger both of which Grahame is not very good at. I'll let him continue with the mannual labour tasks.
Slowly but surely the work is getting done. Next on the agenda is to line the living area of the shed and have that all set up properly. We'll clear out the shed a bit and put all the working tools into the house after the builder has gone. That will give us more room in the shed and make it easier to do the lining of the walls. Then we(the royal we) have to complete the kitchen and build the walls for the bathroom.
I tell you it's just great having your bathroom next to where we dine. The walls of the bathroom at the moment are made up of cardboard boxes and a curtain!! Lovely when you have company.

But don't let that put you off from visiting us.

The downstairs space that will become our home. As you can see there is a long way to go before it will be finished.

The house as of yesterday (Friday).

Grahame & Tim have been busy creating some paddocks for the future animals. We hope to get some miniture goats soon.

Side view(western) with the trims added to the windows. The tall grey wall that joins the white has to be re done so the white continues at the top and below will stay grey.We are going to add dark timber trims to the barge boards, verandahs and the balustrading. Hopefully it will look very cool.It's always hard to know what it will turn out like when it's just an idea in your head.

I actually wanted to incorporate dark pink but the rest of the family wasn't too keen on that. I love pink, I want pink I WANT PINK!!!

Luckily I have lots of lovely pink garden pots that can be placed around the house. I will have pink one way or another.

Meet our newest family members. They are yet to produce anything yet. All they do is eat.

It's starting to look like a house.

Things are moving along with the house. On my arrival back I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of progress on the house. It is looking much more like a house now. However it may look like a house on the outside but it will be a long time before it looks liveable on the inside.
Not to worry we are comfortable in The Shed for the time being. Although we have had some freezing nights. But that would be expected when you are living in a tin shed. All the scarves & beanies my Mum has knitted are being put to good use now.
But spring is on the horizon and hopefully there won't be too many cold nights ahead.

Sorry for the lack of progress photos of the house. I'm assuming it's coming along nicely, but I wouldn't know because I've been in Bangkok for the last 6 days. I won't be back until 15th July after Allyson and I have done our whirlwind tour of Kuala Lumpur. I wonder if it will feel like we are going back home!! I doubt it(for me anyway), Allyson may feel different about it.
We've had a great time so far, taking in a canal cruise in a long boat, done a Thai cooking class, been to the massive Chatachuk market, seen Twilight on IMAX, (window)shopped at all the fancy malls where you can't afford to buy anything, tried lots of weird and wonderful Thai foods and walked endlessly around oh and taken terrifying taxi rides with the crazy drivers!
Off to KL today.