URBAN ESCAPE: Our new life in the country

The Backyard Benchtop

2012-02-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

The arrival of the backyard bench top. Grahame and our neighbor The Clacka built this beautiful benchtop that now adorns our kitchen. It's made from Australian Ironbark. It still has to have a few more coats so it looks more glossy and shiny. There is gong to be a sink put into it (unfortunatlely). It just looks too good too cut a hole in it. I should have went with the original plan of having a white fireclay Butlers sink. It would have looked awesome. So now we just have a boring steel sink.
I orginally bought the laminate bench top and a heap of cupboards(not the ones you see here) for $100. Surprisingly the color suited the paintwork. But that benchtop now supports the timber top so it hasn't gone to waste.
The benchtop was built so it just slid right over the other. Doesn't it look great?
Will definitely do the other 2 bench tops in timber now as well. This was a much cheaper way of getting a timber benchtop than buying it through a cabinet maker or kitchen company.

A little light

2012-01-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

2011-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

Will update soon. Kitchen is under construction, photos soon.

Hubby is home

2011-12-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

Back in April Grahame first went to Afganhastan, then came home then went again. He arrived home last night. Our family is all together once again. I wish we had of taken photos at the airport. The boys didn't know he was arriving. So we went our for dessert after dinner, then drove around wasting time then made up a story about putting rubbish in the bin, so we stopped at the airport to put rubbish in the bin.( it's a tiny airport incase your wondering!). And there was the Daddy and the look on the boys faces was priceless. Very happy moment.
And look what he bought home.

A beautiful silk Afghani rug.
Together with my newly upholstered chairs and the curtains the house is really becoming very homley.

Curtain call and mote chrissy decorating

2011-12-01T01:05:00.000-08:00

With a little bit of drama and fuss the curtains are now up. I think they make the house look much more homley and give a certain elegance to the place. I really love how they look.

Today we went out to a christmas tree farm to choose a real tree. We raced around the paddock looking the best one of course. However many had already been earmarked. Some since as early as October. Who on earth is thinking of christmas trees in October?

So with choosen tree closely guarded so no one else would take it, Elliott and Harison tried to cut it down. But the owner had to do the honors as the boys couldn't get the saw going.

Desperate to decorate it tonight we raced to Go Lo with 10 minutes to spare before closing time. Me having no say in this, I just handed over the cash for deco's. So after dinner the kids all decorated. It looks good but I think we might need another trip to GoLo to really tart it up. Needs more sparkles.

We have had a thorough drenching this week. Very boggy all around. But we have managed to get some fellas in to do some work on the orchard.

The Vegie patch/orchard is having a bit of an upgrade.

Sunday clean up

2011-11-27T00:37:00.000-08:00

After being here for almost two years now I think all but a few boxes are unpacked. I have had a massive clean up over the past few weeks. Timothy has worn a path to the tip with the copious amounts of rubbish for the tip. We have also filled the Merimbula Salvos bins on a few Sunday nights. With stuff, stuff and more stuff. I couldn't believe how much stuff we had for no good reason. Stuff that sat in boxes for many years through many removals. It was time to say good bye.
Now as much as I hate Grahame being away it's the perfect opportunity to throw away the stuff without him shaking his head and rolling his eyes. I usually remind him how much of it has been donated to us, much of it Gilly junk(family joke). But it just had to go.Yes some of it was sentimental but that doesn't mean you need the stuff to remind you of good times.
So now we have an organised and fairly clutter free shed space.

Y

Now it may still look like there is alot of stuff but you should have seen it before.
Harison has been doing some christmas decorating and Elliott has put up the first christmas tree.

Our over grown orchard with trees baring hardly any fruit.

The over grown garden, I only weeded it 2 weeks ago and now after all this rain, well I shouldn't have bothered wasting my time. They are all back bigger and better than before. I need Roundup, shares in Monsanto.
Who I'm totally opposed to by the way.

For Grahame, sorry about terrible photo, it was just too blingy.

Only he will understand the significance of this photo. Suprised!!!
While we are here I might as well show you Elliott's baked white chocolate and cherry cheese cake.

Allyson and I accompanied Timothy to his Year12 formal dinner night. It was lovely and it was a chanced to get dressed up.

And the two who had to stay home, well they went for a sleepover.

And finally have started to put some art work around the house. It was all gathering dust in the shed so I thought I should at least move it out of there.

Now we are yet to finish this build. It's very frustrating living in a half finished house. We had a good builder but now he's chasing the big bucks and he's kind of left me in the lurch. It's really dissapointing because he knew how much I wanted it finished before Grahame came home, he knew I was here on my own trying to manage this, the kids, the property(Violin please).
Anyway it is what it is and he can stick it.
And if he doesn't come and get his band saw and saw horses he can re buy it from Merimbula Salvos!!

So apparently my dear husband is going to be on the telly tomorrow night. A whole show featuring his work for one whole hour minus the 35 minutes of ads. Channel 10 at 7.30pm. don't know what it's called though.Although he says he runs away from the camera when it comes close. He'll be the one shying away in the background covering his face with a coffee mug or such. He's too important to be seen!! Ah here we go it's called Tour of Duty: Australias Secret War. I'm sure it will be rivetting.

WANT

2011-11-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

All decked out

2011-11-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well here we have it. Almost complete The Mega Deck to go with The Mega Shed.

Timothy has now finished HSC exams and we now await for the exam results. Allyson made her little brother a graduation cake. Caramel Mud cake yummmmm.

We have alot of work to do in the next few weeks. The race is on to have everything complete before husband dearest arrives home. Not sure when he's coming but he'll probably land on our door step with Santa. So to ensure he can come home and put his feet up and take it easy the kids and I are doing as much as we can so Grahame will rest. But that word does not exist for him so we'll probably have to tie him down.
Then I think it will be time for me to have a little holiday!!!!

This looks good,
or perhaps somewhere with a beautiful garden

It's been a long six months and we look foward to our Daddy and husband being home.We miss you very much.

Building by correspondance again.

2011-11-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

For Grahame,

what do you think, will the $100 bench top cut the mustard? Picture with new white cupboards and handles, I think it will be fine.

Halloween

2011-11-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

20 kids, raining and stuck indoors for nearly all of the party, lots of sugary treats and it was one hell of a party.

Today we have grout.

2011-10-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been excited to see grout in your tiles? I'm excited as it means another step closer to the bathrooms being finished.
Cheeky seems to be surviving rain and all.
Allyson has been cooking up a storm for tomorrows Halloween party. I hope it's still not raining because that means entertaining 20 kids indoors. Wish me luck.

What a surprise.

2011-10-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

Heres the story.

We have our neighbours goats in our little paddocks because one was their other goats was sick and the others needed to be moved to clean paddocks. So hence they ended up at ours. John had said that one was pregnant and would be due in 4-5 weeks.
So last Monday it gave birth but unfortunatley it was a still birth. So we were all sad to see that. Then Elliott decided to clean out his fish tank. Being novice fish owners we have since learnt we did it wrong as Elliott managed to kill all 5 fish. More sadness.
Then the next day the goat who gave birth went down hill rapidly and died. Oh gosh more sadness. So we are starting to think our land is spiritually posessed as we have already had another goat die and half the guinea pigs. Plus several baby chicks. OMG I'm just realising how many things have died under our care!!

So as we are getting ready to prepare dinner last night Tim comes running in, "quick quick eveyone we have a baby goat, it just came out then, I saw it give birth". Yeah right Tim pull the other one.
So we go out and low and behold this is what we find

We didn't even know the other goat was pregnant. It was so exciting. It was only minutes old. It was covered in goo and the Mumma was cleaning it up. we stood there watching until it got up on its feet which took about 20 minutes or so. The kids were so thrilled to see this. Mother nature at its best, new life coming into the world. Even if it is just a goat it is a privellage to have been there for the whole experience.
Thankyou little goaty, we are naming you Cheeky.
By the way, incase you didn't know, apparently when cleaning out a fish tank you only take out 25% of the water and replace with tap water. This ensures you keep in all the good bacteria that the fish need to live off.

Have you ever seen a deck this big.

2011-10-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the most enormous deck that ever existed.

And getting ready for our first Halloween party (and probably our last). We are only doing it because Elliott was born in America and he'll probably never go to one in the USA so we're having a little one. Halloween in the USA is so much fun and I have told the kids for a few years now that we'd have one. So the time has arrived. Halloween Butler style in Pambula.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Found the best tradies ever

2011-10-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Ok so you want a job done, well sometimes you just have to do it yourself!
Allyson and I took to the tools to get the job done. Later that same day Tim and I worked in the rain to get the joists attatched to the bearers. All to save money paying the real tradie. It was an easy job and it saves a few hours of labour that would otherwise pay Tim ( our real tradie) that can now be spent on "pretty" things for the house.

Look what we have now

2011-10-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

A flushing toilet in the house. Yeahhh

More decking going down.

Our latest honey being "extracted" by Elliott. We got about 700mls out of the few bits of honey comb. Not bad hey.

Building by correspondance. This ones for you Grahame, does it look right?

Got to run, assembly to attend.

Tiling and weeding

2011-10-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

A big day in the garden, tidying up the orchard and vegie patch. Always something to do.
I took me most of the day to mow with the hand mower, it's such a huge job. But it always looks great when it's finished. The vegie patch will be re constructed in the near future.It was over run with weeds and the beds need to be raised. Next job is to get all the clematis in the ground. I reckon there are about 40 of them which I got for free. The plan is to line the boundry fences with them.It should look beautiful, alternating mauve and white.
Harison's bathroom is almost finished being tiled. Yeah.

A glourious morning view

2011-10-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

This is the view on this beautiful morning from our study window.

This view is from the living area.

The morning sun.

New linen.

Tiling in laundry and powder room

A few days with the Carrolls

2011-10-07T22:55:00.000-07:00

What a great few days we had with our friends The Carrolls who came from Adelaide to stay with us. A little too much of the good life means a little detoxing over the next few days.
Tim cooked us some fabulous pizzas. Annie and Elliott made delicious chocolate mousee. Steven arked up the tools and finished off a bit of decking. Harison made a mini golf course, Alex learnt to ride the quad bike. And Kerry & I watched it all sipping bubbly.

We now have a beautiful clock in our kitchen to remind us of their visit. Thank all it is a lovely gift.

The tiling so far. We are at a standstill again as far as tradies.

The oven.

The garden is growing and looking colorful.

So I've been to the nursery again. Clematis and $5 bargain trees. A big thank you to Jim & Nancy for their generousity, they GIVE me plants for FREE. I'm very lucky.

This is a garage sale find for $260. I saw a similar thing in Harvey Norman for $3200 !!!!

Quick post

2011-09-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Photo's for Grahame so he can see how his house is progressing.

Moving in-kind of

2011-09-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

The day has arrived where we can officially start moving things into the house. At last, but it's just like moving house again with all the unpacking. This is when you find stuff that you forgot you had and wonder why the hell you still have it! I haven't seen alot of this stuff since December 2009.

So as I unpack the ornaments I'm realising I have far too much asian stuff. All the little trinkets I collected from living in Malaysia. I went overboard on Buddahs but they can probably go into the garden. Then I found things unopened mind you, that I bought when we lived in America such as native american kachina dolls and medicine men ornaments. A packet of chilli, yes chilli shaped fairy light covers!! OMG.

Sorry husband ( I know your shaking your head right now), I think it's time for a change in decor. After all it is a new house, it should have new stuff. I actually feel like I've just picked up our Canberra house and placed it in this one. Definitely time for a change.
Maybe once I take the time to arrange things properly it will look better. Maybe once all the pictures are hung. Oh hang on they are asian too. Framed rubbings from Angor Wat, Cambodia, Vietnamese hand stitched items that I had framed and Indian tapestrys made out of antique saris, oh boy. The painting of Monument Valley, Utah can stay in the shed. It's in a purple frame!!
Would it be wrong to paint the dining table white? It's supposed to be antique indonesian teak, not the actual table but the wood it's made from. Hmmm I wonder if I was fed a line by a little chinese -malay. Actually I bought it from a gorgeous butik barang (furniture shop). Over priced just for expats.
So looks like a spot of shopping is on the agenda. What a shame there really isn't any of those kinds of shops in Pambula/Merimbula.
This is how we are looking today.

The cross counrty path to negotiate whilst carrying furnitur and boxes.

The aftermath of starting to move. What a pig sty Crap everywhere. Where did it all come from?

We still don't have a kitchen. The carpet is going in on Monday. Tiling should start during the week. It's finally coming together.

Dissapointment

2011-09-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

Well you can imagine how the excitment was quickly sucked out of my day when it was obvious that the carpet layers weren't turning up at my house.
So I marched myself down to Carpet Court demanding to know where my carpet was. Only to find out that they had booked it in for the 12th rather than the 5th. Grrrrrr

But this may have been a blessing in disguise as this allowed Tim the builder to screed the upstairs bathrooms without worrying about carpet. I have FINALLY chosen the floor tiles. They are something I thought I'd never go with.
I'm sooo wanting to move stuff in as I'm fed up with the pig sty I'm currently live in. We have stuff every where including 5 million pieces of Lego which Harison leaves every where because he doesn't really have any where to put it.
Never ever have we lived in such chaos, it's doing my head in. I can't function and I don't know where to start.

May be I'll have some more to report after Monday.

Flooring. CHECK

2011-09-03T13:27:00.001-07:00

The carpet is being layed tomorrow. We're getting closer now. YAY

How did you spend your Sunday?

2011-08-28T00:35:00.000-07:00

I spent mine laying this floor. I have done it nearly all by myself!! Yes by myself.

Look what we have today

2011-08-26T00:47:00.000-07:00

Hopefully by Monday we'll have a fair amount of the floor covered.
Very exciting.

More paint

2011-08-25T01:36:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Timothy and I with the help of our carpetner Tim will start to lay the floor. The carpet will go down on the 5th Sept and I hope before that the tiles in wet areas will be laid.It's nearing the end.

Harison's room

Harison's new wardrobe

Harison in Elliott's room

The Red Door, still in need of another coat. I decided to tint up the paint slightly darker instead of choosing a new paint. Tomorow it will have it's final coat.
The whole door has to be re-hung and a new jamb and step put in. Nothing like paying for the same job TWICE!!! Grrrrrrrrrr

The shiny new door handles.

Red Door not convinced

2011-08-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

The red paint aint tuggin' at my heart strings so I'm going to change it. Luckily they have only done 1 coat so far. I think I'll go a deeper red with more pink in it.
What do you think?

I love this pink !

Paint me pretty

2011-08-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

.For those that are interested

The paint colours are all Dulux. The white walls are Hogs Bristle quarter strength, ceilings, Antique USA white, dining wall is Sea Breeze full strength, kitchen is quarter Sea Breeze and bedroom is half Sea Breeze. This turned out brighter than I thought, I thought it was going to be a more blue grey but I like the result. I really like it.
The bathroom is Karma but alot of it will be covered up with white tiles.
The study I looove its called Adept. The boys rooms, Elliott's is Blue Expanse( only one wall here) and his bathroom has one wall of Corfu. The pine lining looks fantastic, so Hamptoms style. Harrys room is Springsprout but will also have a stripe of Blue Expanse on the green on the others walls about half way up and the remainder will be Hogs Bristle. His bathroom wall is Golden Rod.

All colours up stairs have been chosen on the horizontal line of the fandeck and the down stairs colours are all vertical on the fan deck( colour chart). So in the same color line. Basically that means they are the same shade but in gradually deeper shades.
So hopefully this means a harmonious blend of colours and not just picked willy nilly from colour charts. That's my theory for what its worth.

I decided to brighten up the boys bathroom with colour for now until I decided on tiling colors. Besides they are kids rooms and they should be fun.

The brackets outside are painted in Bristols Adams Red as will be the front door and back door. I think I might paint the inside of the door black.

It was hard choosing colours. Not knowing what they really would look like on a large scale. The Sea Breeze looked really grey blue compared to the other blues on the fandeck but didn't turn out that way.

The floorboards will be a spotted gum, not too pinky or yellowy. The carpet I have for the stairs and study is beautiful Axminster carpet, very very expensive.
But lucky me got a sweet deal on an end of roll. They don't sell much of it down here so I was extermely fortunate to spy it in their warehouse where they stock the end of rolls. It's the sort of carpet posh people have!!! The other carpet is for the rest of us plebs and is colour matched as best as possible. This will meet the axi at the top of the stairs and will also be used in the down stairs bedroom.
Definitley shoes off in our house now. Don't worry I'll put out a little basket filled with fresh socks for our guests to put on!!!!!

Tiles as I said are undecided yet. The ones I like, well, per square metre are only $292!!!! And that's only for the shower base.
Guess I'll be out driving taxis to save up for those ones.

That's where we are at today. Oh yes and my oven has arrived and is sitting patiently at Retravision Tura Beach.
Picture black oven, black range hood against light blue wall (eventually tiled in light blue subway tile if I can get them), white shaker style cupboards and white stone bench tops. Hmmmm sounds good to me.
Oh all door frames, doors, arcs and skirtings in gloss white.
Oops I forgot the main bathroom photo. Next time.

Here we go

2011-07-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

New pictures of our home, now you probably won't be as excited as I am about our progress so I hope you aren't bored by these pictures.

Updates soon

2011-07-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's almost August and I haven't updated for so long.
Promise to have photos soon. We now have plaster, cornice, skirting,arcs, doors being hung and pine ling has been re-done. Wet areas are sealed. Garden beds have been made. The rock pile is slowly diminishing, weeds are out of control, it's cold, it's rained too much and we love the mud. We now have a budgie, Grahame will be home on a fleeting visit. The boys has grown 10 inches too long, Tim is even studying and I've lost 20kgs and morphed into a supermodel, true true it's all true.

Stay tuned.

It's been a while

2011-06-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

But it doesn't feel like much has happened over the last month or so.
The plasterers are still plastering and the place has been such a mess.

Another week of plastering and I hope they are finished then. We had to sack our carpenter as well it just wasn't working . Let's just say that after having to pull down quite a bit of the pine lining due to mould we weren't happy. Even after assurances of "she'll be right mate". Well sorry it just wasn't right . So we now have walls with missing boards and hopefully we have pulled all the mouldy ones down.
Next on the agenda is waterproofing the bathrooms.

When we started this house I wasn't sure it was going to be big enough even though Grahame assured me it was . Turns out he was right and wrong, it's TOO big. The problem being, the bigger it is the more money you have to spend (obviously)!
Now I'm a real tight arse unlike Grahame and with him away I'm finding it hard to say yes the $15,000 floorboards or the tiles that are $150 per square metre even though I really like them. So it will be interesting to see what I choose and how it's going to look. Infact I'm really motivated to make my home as stylish as possible on the least amount of money.

However I did lash out on this beauty. The Falcon Classic 110. Super excited to have this in my kitchen.

Isn't it great, at 110cm it's huge it has a matching rangehood as well. We have the induction cooktop rather than the gas. It's the closest I could get to an Aga and it's actually made by the Aga company. Aga's need to be on 24/7 and aren't really suited to a hot Aussie summer. So this was the next best thing. I wold have chosen the red one but the rangehood only comes in black or stainless so black it is.
This will be delivered in August.

That's it for now. Hopefully there will be faster progress after the plaster is all done.

Stone Fireplace and chimney

2011-05-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

The long awaited fireplace is finished and we have started putting small fires in it to "season"it as the stonemason advised. It looks yellowish in the photo but is exactly the same as the chimney. Maybe it's all the yellow insulation around it. Now what to do with all the left over stone.

Easter fishing and a trip to Melbourne

2011-04-29T03:46:00.000-07:00

The building has been going on at what seems snail pace so I don't want to bore you with the same old photos. So here's some recent adventures.

Sorry no photos from Kandahar or Kabul.

The boys were very lucky to go fishing on a gorgeous autumns day with our friends Kylie & Steve.( Thanks K & S) By all accounts they had a fantastic day but had to throw their catchs back because they were too small.

From Pambula river to Melbourne city. Here are our 4 beautiful children in the gardens of the Melbourne museum.

With 4 kids one of them always pulls a silly face, in this case Timothy.

Inside Melbourne Museum

Outside the Melbourne Museum

I love Melbourne's architecture of yesteryear. They just don't build magnificent buildings like they used to. It's such a shame that that skill and workmanship has been all but lost these days.
Just look at those gargoyles. I want some too.

And the reason for going to Melbourne. MCG packed 90,000 out to watch the ANZAC day clash of Essendon & Collingwood.
No I don't support either team, I'm a Geelong girl but the organiser of this is a Pies supporter and he didn't even get to watch the game!! He was on his "man holiday " in the Sand!!

Bread

2011-04-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

As promised

WOW! Look at this wonderful bread! Yummy! This bread is looking very promising! I can't wait to have a bite of it!
By Elliott ;)

Pizza pizza pizza

2011-04-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

Timothy thought we should fire up the oven tonight and have ourselves some pizza. So we did. Tim had his first"in charge of cooking pizza" experience tonight and he did a dam fine job.
He had the oven roaring and the pizzas ltierally took 30 seconds to cook. Tempreture was around 450 degrees,probably a little too hot. But that means by tommorow morning I'll be able to bake the bread which I whipped up this evening. yummy fresh bread in the morning!

Harry with his tuna & corn pizza. He didn't have to worry about anyone else wanting THAT pizza!!

Too much pizza for Ellz.

The trick to a good pizza (in my opinion) is to have a great base. Use good organic flour that has no additives in it and organic cold processed olive oil.

The toppings obviously should be fresh , fresh herbs, today we used basil from our garden and capsicum. I try to buy the best quality deli meats that don't contain too many nitrates . Thats what gives you that awful taste and dryness after eating highly processed pizzas.

It's a bit tricker getting the good meats here unlike Canberra. But I have found a butcher that cures their own stuff in pineapple juice instead of suplhates and nitrates and all those other chemical compounds.
And then there is the cheese. Buffalo mozarella is a great choice but not in Merimbula. So I get the next best thing. I try to avoid the Mainland & Begas etc etc but sometimes that's the only choice. We also use Feta, Bocconcinni, Haloumi and they all taste great.

The fun is in experimenting with different toppings of course. We've made many great ones and some not to be repeated. As far as tuna & corn goes, we'll leave that one to Harry!!

Let you know how our bread goes.

The unveiling of the pizza oven

2011-04-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

Drum roll please.................

The Canberra crew once again enjoying a Butler pizza on the first official firing. Long way to come but worth it no doubt?

This area is still not completely finished yet. There will be a pergola, more decking and wooden bench tops that sit on the stone.

The beginings of the chimney

The fireplace ( This has taken 2 weeks so far!)

It's been a few good weeks for the tradies turning up. Not only have they made a good start on the deck but also inside. Rooms are actually starting to take shape now.

This is the upstairs play/tv area for the boys.

Looking to Harison's room from play/Tv room

Here we have the laundry.

And here we have a mess.

Now why is it that builders can NEVER tidy up after themselves.

So there we have it folks progress is being made. I do hope the plasterer turns up soon to give us a quote. Maybe in a few weeks every room will have walls.

The stone mason's work is slow, not because he is slow but because of his meticulous attention to detail. Very impressed with his work. But when your paying by the hour sometimes I wish he would just slap those rocks together!

Pambula under water

2011-03-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

These pictures are of Pambula Flats well and truly under water.

We faired well in the deluge. No bogged cars thanks to our new gravel driveway. The water tank is overflowing, the creek is raging again and the dam is full. There's been alot of damage to roads and properties so we are grateful to have escaped any damage. Oh we did loose one guinea pig who very sadly was trapped in some water that puddled in the cage. On the bright side we had one chicken hatch.

House is slowly moving along. It seems to take forever for the batons to be screwed on for the gyprock. All bathroom fixtures have been bought. grahame & Tim have almost finished the plumbing and done alot of electrical cable .
Just wait until we unveil the pizza oven, it's going to look ~~big~~ awesome .

Put your orders in !!

I have bought the bright red paint for the door and trims but it's just too wet to paint. Can't think of anything else to report except that it's raining again right now!

The tale of 3 goats

2011-03-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it feels like not much is getting done at all. But the pizza oven is on it's way to being useable. In Canberra we built a pizza oven which cooked many a fine pizza as some of you will know. However we thought there was room for improvement on that design so we've done it differently this time. This is where we are up to with it.

Well as you know from last post the word was we were getting ourselves 3 goats. So all week the kids kept asking "when are we getting the goats". Finally they turn up and our little farm looks so lovely with 3 grazing goats in the front paddock.(The perfect Kodak moment.) Kids visit them, no problems they're a bit timid but all is cool.
On Saturday Elliott walked up to the paddock and all of a sudden they just clear jumped the fence and they were off.
OMG how do you catch 3 goats gone mad? Soon 2 lots of neighbors were out helping us chase them all over the place, what a sight. After an hour or so the 3 naughty goats were captured and immediatley sent back to their owners up the road. They had no problem taking them back as that was part of the deal, they just didn't think it would be so soon.
So you think we'd learn't our lesson-not so. So another neighbor( Nice neighbor) who has minature goats offered one of his and we said yes. Little Nuggetts is so cute but he's also partially(maybe fully) blind. Here he is.

Far cuter than the 3 billy goats gruff. Nuggetts knows his name and makes his way to you. How could we refuse him?

Now that we are (very) amature apiarist' and on a huge learning curve, Grahame decided I should check out the hive. Well if only a video camera was around. Not such a good day to check on them, a little too early a little too cold. Big brave me

yep thats me there all suited up trys to lift the lid off. Bees getting stirred up. I nervously keep trying and walk away several times. Bees hovering all over. Mr" he knows bees is" shouting orders"just get the lid off". Me getting more scared . Ouch, ouch, ahhh I'm getting stung, not fun, bees going mad. Mr who is in shorts and t shirt is soon being a landing pad for bees, he starts running, bees stinging him. Me wants to run but knows to act cool and calm whilst bee is in my boot.

So really you had to bee! there but is was funny. Both of us stung and completely hopeless at what we were supposed to be doing.

Nice neighbors who I did the bee course with(and slightly more experienced) came and sorted the hive I let them have the proceeds which wasn't much .

The honeycombs. There was quite a bit of honey but as I left it out foe several hours the bees took alot back to the hive.

Now I just have to show you how lucky we are to have this on our doorstep. We've been coming down here alot after school as the weather has been so perfect for afternoon swimming.

Here's Harry.
This spot is the Pambula Rivermouth and it is so gorgeous. This area is known as the Sapphire coast but the picture doesn't do justice to what the colour of the water really looks like. Or perhaps it's just my rose coloured glasses!!

I feel very lucky that the kids have this to play in just 10 minutes from home.

Life in Pambula-Blissful.

A beautiful autumns' day

2011-03-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

With all the rain comes all the weeds so once again I've had a bit of a clean up of the orchard. The trees have grown quite alot. I only hope that next year they bare fruit.

A new bed by the orchard. The chooks dug up the last one so I've add more soil, weeded and put in the last of the hundreds of free agapanthas I got from a very generous farmer. The rest are up the driveway. My very wonderful husband dug them up early one Sunday morning. It was hard work. All I did was put them in the back of the ute.

Our rooster Stretch

Stretch

More plantings. I've been extremley lucky to have been given lots of free plants from family and friends but also at the nusery I go to. Jim & Nancy have given me hundreds of plants including trees. Mind you I've spent quite alot of money there and they aren't going to be short of soap any time soon!!

This is when I don't like rain

Goats will be arriving this afternoon. Photos to come.

Another rainy Sunday

2011-02-26T22:47:00.000-08:00

Allyson has now left us and is now living in the home I spent most of my childhood in and she is even occupying my room. Allyson will start uni at Deakin next week and studying primary school teaching degree.
Of course we were very sad to see her go and wish her well but it means I have to take over cooking again.

Timothy has been lucky enough to score a voyage on The Young Endevour. He set sail today from Fleet Base east in Sydney. Allyson also has been on the voyage a few years ago. Incase your'e wondering how to get a voyage for your 16-24 year old, you apply through The Young Endevour website and cross your fingers to get a placement.

This week it's just myself Elliott & Harry at home. Grahame has taken the long way to work this week which is in Melbourne and gone via Sydney to drop Tim off. He will spend his working time at the Avalon airshow pfaffing about looking at aeroplanes ????

This week we will finally get the goats but not the goats that we had been waiting for. Sorry Jo & Scott it has taken too long for you guys to get around to giving us some goats. So another neighbor has scored us 3 goats from someone up the road and they are for free and if they become too much trouble they'll take them back. Good deal I reckon.

We also now have Stretch the rooster strutting his stuff amongest our girls. Yet another freebie from a neighbor. The chicks have now doubled in size and aren't so cute any more.

In Geelong last week I picked up the decorative brackets for the house. Just need to get the barge boards.
And picked up some aromatheray supplies from Hallam on my way home.

When I got home this is what I found.

There will be a BIG deck area here and these are all the supports for it. But we cant do the deck until the stone mason builds the fire place and moves all the rock to the other side of the house. Chimney will go between the 2 big windows on the right.

Now I know some people think it's weird when you say you live in a shed but here are one of it's benefits.

The kids can swing from the (steel) rafters.
How many kids get to do this inside on a rainy Sunday afternoon!

A few more photo's

2011-02-11T22:02:00.000-08:00

A lot of progress made on the pizza oven base. The slab on top now awaits the actual pizza oven to be built. Then that will be insulated and covered in rock.

We have relocated into yet another temporary bedroom in the house.

The boys too have relocated into what will be Harison's room. The gyprock is up and they have some power and a temporary wardrobe.

Boys room again. Elliott's bed is where the built in desk and cupboards will be.

Mess in what will be the boys playroom/tv room located between their bedrooms.

More mess

2011-02-11T02:35:00.000-08:00

Finally have found time to post again. Life has been rather busy. The kids and I have been to Melbourne and Geelong. Tim & I have been to Canberra, Harry & I have been to Canberra, Grahame and I have been to Canberra several times and Tim has been to Woolongong, Allyson to Nowra, Grahame & Tim to Gosford and in between all that Grahame has been making weekly overnighters to Perth and back. (gosh we get around)
Kids have gone back to school and enrolled in all their activities again, drumming, band, basketball and choir, Tim footy and water polo, oh and soccer .
Next week Allyson & I will drive to Geelong where she'll start uni at Deakin. Then the week after Tim is off to Sydney to join the voyage on The Young Endevour for 10 ten days. After that NO MORE. Perhaps a holiday might be nice!!

House news-
Rock delivered for pizza oven, fire place & chimney
Pizza oven has started
Wiring up stairs complete
Plumbing upstairs complete
Harison's room insulated and gyprock up
Balcony balustrading up
Nearly all tophat attatched ready for gyprock

Shed news-
All window frames complete but still need painting
Doors on bathroom, mezzanine level and living area of shed now on

Slowly it's coming together.

The rock ready for the pizza oven to be built.

The beginings of the pizza oven

Finally the balcony is up.

Front verandah in the process.

Shelter for our mini milking goat, when ever it comes.

New veggie beds which Grahame & Timothy made out of left over bits.

Chookies

Mother Nature at it's best

2011-01-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

As mother nature is wrecking havoc on much of our country at the moment with devestating consequences, we today had the privellage of witnessing one of it's miracles.

To the boys absolute delight they witnessed the miracle of life with several chicks hatching from their eggs today. They were so excited to hear the pecking of the chicks within the eggs to seeing the chicks making their way out of the confinements of the egg. Then seeing a slimy skinny being quickly transforming into a very cute and fluffy chick. Very exciting stuff.

The brown lump behind the little chick is another chick emerging from the egg behind right of the chick.

A little ball of fluffy cuteness.

The proud Mumma and her first bubba

On an another note. The kids and I attended our first market at Pambula. It was hot and long and rather unsuccessful. However I did have a lady from Yarram approach me who was interested in buying wholesale for her shop. She bought 3 bars of soap and gave me her details and she took mine. She said she would contact me after next week when she had finished holidaying. Fingers crossed that she will and order lots.

The first market stall

Allyson is still having a wow of a time in Kansas and where ever else she has been. Grahame is away earning the bacon. Tim is out with the mates and going to play soccer this evening. On this overcast drizzly late afternoon Elliott and Harison are watching , as Harison thought it was called The Vegetarian Rabbit which is infact The Velveteen Rabbit. What a lovely movie, no smut no violence just pure family entertainment. So lovely that they don't need all that crappy modern day stuff to entertain them.
The other thing we did this morning was to go exploring our local area. So we headed off to Wolumla and of all places we explored was the local cemetry. Of course we had to find the oldest headstone which dated back to 1880. They concluded that there were no Moffitts left in the area as most of them appeared to be in the cemetry!
Now I'm off to make dinner. A yummy beef red curry with the beautiful grass fed beef we just took delivery of. If you are still eating the crap meat dished up at Woolies or Coles you don't know what your missing. Remember cows eat grass not grain. What's in your beef tonight besides beef??

Post christmas update

2011-01-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

I told you we do everything BIG. The BIG Zucchini weighing 3.7kgs and the BIG squash. Guinea pig food.

Fondue as you do. Chocolated coated stawberries(from the garden) , it doesn't get any better.

What can I say???

Allyson proudly displaying her secret santa gift.

Awwww so cute.

The fine work of 2 young builders of ginger bread houses. May be I should employ them to finish the house.

The things we do

2010-12-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Allyson & I spent what seemed like hours creating yummy treats for Elliott to take to his end of year social at school. We made lots of mess and had fun making these.

Merry Christmas and the year that was.

2010-12-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

I thought it fitting that our blog should be in the christmas spirit so hence the very christmassy background.

The sun is shining today and hopefully the ground will dry out a bit before rain is forecast again next week.

Here's a bit of an update.

3 more days of school left. Harison recieved an academic award for academic achievement at school yesterday. Timothy's awards night is next week where he too will be recieving an academic award . Elliott was lucky enough to achieve a credit in the University of NSW maths and english testing for kids. Both Elliott and Harison recieved excellent end of year reports.
Obviously they take after their mother with their academic abilities!!

Allyson is off doing her Bronze this weekend. Looks like Allyson maybe heading to New Zealand to start a degree in primary school teaching. Why NZ you ask, well because her gypsy blood is calling for her to travel. For those of you who don't know Allyson decided to leave the Navy so she could persue a teaching career which I think she will be much better suited to.

Elliott has had a busy year learning guitar, african drumming, choir, nippers, tennis and also being in the winning grand final basketball team. He is also trying to breed guinea pigs.

Harison started the year off doing nippers. He also tried tennis but wasn't fussed about it. He much prefer to sit at home with his pens ,pencils and paper and create. He also renewed his passion for Lego building Lego cities and creating Lego Harry Potter Monopoly games complete with hand written community chest and chance cards.

Timothy had a great start to the AFL season by being knocked out in the first ten minutes of the opening round. For this he got an hounarable mention in the local paper. He has completed his Bronze medallion also, is Jet Ski proficient and IRB proficient. He is now a fully fledged surf life saver as is Grahame. They both now do regular surf patrols with Pambula Surf Life saving club. He is also playing soccer. Tim is now in his HSC year and is majoring in history.

He is just starting to drive on his L's after having had them for about 12 months already. He has had 2 minor "issues" on his motorbike and we've had 2 visits to the local hospital for him. (stitches and being knocked out).

We started of the year in a very big shed with a camping toilet,solar camping shower hung on a tree and a bucket to do the dishes in and slept on air mattresses.

Now we have a flushing toilet a shower, a partly built kitchen with a sink and dishwasher. We have our beds and make shift wardrobes.

We've all been busy building , making, creating, carrying, lifting,pulling digging, heaving and hoeing in order to make our home in the shed, our gardens and orchard,veggie patch and the house.
It's been a very busy year and I think we have achieved alot in our short time here. But there's still a hell of alot to do.

Our orchard has been dubiously named Guantanamo farm by our (good) neighbors. This would be because from up the road it looks like a eyesore prison. Kids think thats a great name for it much to my disgust. So much for my quaint counrty potager.

So I've had to plant trees and wisterias, climbing roses and jasmines around the outside of it. On the inside I have wild yam, grapes and passion fruit which hopefully disguise some of it's ugliness.

Why is it that all the men that see it say "now that's the way to build an orchard". Hey can't you see it's ugliness. But like Grahame keeps telling me it ain't going to fall down or rot and nothing can get inside it. Once your in, you can't leave.
A bit Hotel California-ish!!

This year I've tried my hand at soap making, cheese making, bread making and lotion and potion making. I've learn't to drive the tractor, operate the post hole digger and use the bucket to move tonnes of dirt. I've planted nearly every plant bymyself and create all the veggie beds. I have also completed another subject of my Naturopathy study.

Allyson and I also just popped over to Thailand and Malaysia (as you do) for 3 weeks in July to enjoy the craziness of the city life that is KL and Bangkok.

Bangkok

Allyson, when we went to a Thai cooking school.

The school that Allyson and Timothy went to when we lived in KL.

Grahame has expanded his vocabulary of expletives to such a degree that's it's highly embarrasing when the wind is heading up hill(to the neighbors, even the good neighbors!!). He has been an electrician, a plumber a builder, a gardener, a fence erector, a home brew master(up grading to kegs instead of bottles) a repairer of all things. Including one of the roller doors yours truly backed into.

He's played competetion squash and become a surf life saver. As well as being one of the few males who volunteer at both the high school and primary schools canteens. And amongest all that I've made him go and bring home some bacon (so we can build) from Canberra. He's also travelled to Perth, Adelaide Melbourne and Sydney throughout the year in pursuit of that bacon.

Speaking of bacon, I was very pleased to find nitrate free bacon here in Merimbula. It's cured in pineapple juice and apparently very good. (I don't eat it).

All the rain has filled our 140,000 litre tank, the water hole is full and the leaking dam has water in it. The garden is growing the trees are growing, it looks like a good year ahead.

So the agenda for 2011 is to get the house finished.( Please GOD be on my side and not let me spend another winter in this freezing shed. Please GOD of the lotteries let me win lotto so we can complete house !!)

Let there be no more guinea pigs.

Make the dogs stop barking.

Buy a milking goat, get the bees for the hive we have, get meat chickens .Then we should be fairly self sufficient.

Wow what a year. We have not looked back since we left Canberra. This has been the best thing we have done. We also left behind our need for TV. That has made such a difference in our life. The need to be at the shops buying things we think we need. I love that there are hardly any shops here, crazy I know but it really is great. I love that I don't have to blow wave my hair eveyday. Haha.I love that I can wear my oldest daggiest clothes all day and not have to go out.

There's lots of things to love here.

We love our new life.

Finally

2010-12-08T01:42:00.000-08:00

Well finally we have managed to have the carpetenr turn up and actually do some work. We've had so much rain that he has not been able to drive down the drive way. But he's on a roll now I hope and slowly we are able to see his handy work progressing. Up until now not a whole lot has been happening down here.
I think we've had about 150mls of the last week or two.
Weeds are going off, which of course I'm not too happy about at all. However the trees are all growing which I desperatley want to block out the neighbors. Whinging,whining bloody neighbors. OMG never have we had to put up with this. Wonder how they'll feel when we put up the machine gun turrets!!!

This was a fun filled day, undercoating and painting hundreds of slats for the baulusrading.

More painting and much more fiddly.

The start of balcony balustrading.

And the junior apprentice carpetenters building the new guinea pig house.

Harison has found a new play place.

Allyson has been trying her hand at home made pasta. We've had fettucine, gnocchi and lasagne. She's so clever , our girl.

A must when having guests at christmas time. This one , although not connected is sure to please our guests as it's in the house and not the shed. This one has a door unlike the one in the shed which has a curtain and is located next to the dining area!

Todays harvest

2010-11-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

The fruits of my labour are starting to pay off.

We have spinach,celery,cauliflower,broccolii,snow peas, strawberries, rocket,coriander,basil,chammomile and eggs.

Soapy business

2010-11-08T20:13:00.000-08:00

I've been busy creating which is what I love to do best. What do you think? Would you buy this.

This soap is made from the fresh milk I got from the dairy, honey, poppy seed and ground liquorice root.
I hope to have a market stall at one of the bigger markets here in December-hence the christmas packaging.

A few more photos

2010-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent the entire day learning about bees, basic bee keeping , honey and honey extraction. Fascinating stuff. Everybody should have a bee box just for pollination purposes. So I've come home armed with all the equipment. All I need now is the bees. Did you know you can mail order bees!

The start of garden beds

Veggie patch flourishing

Hundreds of seeds that I've planted.

More dirt, more garden beds to be made. Many more truck loads of dirt required.

here the promised update

2010-11-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

We have moved a step closer to being in a modern world. After 10 months of bucket flushing the loo we now have a button to press. How exciting. However we still save the bucket water from the shower to flush with as a means of water saving.

The plumber

More plants means more work.

Oh I hate blogger now it's just deleted all my photos so thats it for today.

Sorry after sitting here for the better part of an hour I've had enough.

Sorry it's been a while

2010-11-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yes I know I have not kept you informed of the goings on down here on "the farm".
Actually there hasn't really been that much to report. The camera batteries are dead and I keep forgetting to buy new ones but I while tomorrow. (will someone remind me please.)
There has been no progress on the house. We found a really good carpenter and cheap too but getting him to turn up well that's another story. Yesterday he came by, did a lap of the drive way and promptly drove off .Don't know what that was about.
Once I take some photos I'll get them up as soon as possible. I know how boring a blog is without photos.
I'll be back soon.

Oh and the Edam cheese

2010-09-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

Complete disaster. But not if you like the taste of an old leathery shoe!!

Perfect Saturday

2010-09-25T04:00:00.000-07:00

Wild Mullien or Arrons Rod . Great as a tincture for respiratory problems.I'll see if I can dig some up and plant them in my herb garden.

Wild Cleavers. Good for skin problems, eczema,psoriasis etc.

A recently discovered little water hole.

These rocks are on the northern boundry and are wet so there must be underground water which feeds into the creek below.

A beautiful gum tree.

Looking westward. My blossom trees are blossoming. They should look gorgeous in a few years when they are much bigger.

Apparently this is Australian Indigo. It's very pretty with a delicate pink flower.

Need to find out if this has any medicinal properties

View from the north looking south.

Grahame out picking the noxious weed Fireweed.

Even the kangaroos were enjoying the day.

What a beautiful day it was here today. We spent most of it outside. Grahame and I both spent much of the day picking Fireweed which is a noxious weed . It's everywhere around here. Poisionous to cattle and horses and self seeds like crazy. We also finished fencing one of the small paddocks. For the past week we have had the neighbors pony. Today we made a temporary fence so he could graze on the long grass. But before we knew it he had knocked it down and bolted home up the road. So I put him back in his paddock and didn't bother bringing him back to our place again. The dogs also escaped up to another neighbors so I had to go and rescue them.
After watering the veggies and tidying up that area it was wine o'clock and time to listen to the third quarter of the Grand Final. Then I decided to get the camera out and take a few snaps of newly discovered plants and trees that looked lovely from where I was sitting. Which was in the grass near the creek with wine in hand and just admiring the beautiful scenery. Spoilt by the cursing from Grahame to the Collingwood players who he couldn't see mind you, but listening to the commentry on the radio.
Why does there have to be a loser? Couldn't both teams had won, they both played their hearts out, they both deserve to win. But no someone (team) has to be the winner and and the other go through the pain of being declared "The Loser". Messed up world we live in!
It would have been a good game to watch though. Now for the re-match next week to see who the loser really is.

School holidays are with us now. I loooove school holidays. Love not having to think about ironed uniforms, homework and what put in the lunch box. The boys will all go camping for a few days down near Eden. Camping is not compatible with my beliefs. My beliefs of comfort and not having to fumble with a tent door in the middle of the night whilst I look for a tree to squat behind. No siree I'll stay here with the porcelain bowl even though I have to flush it with a bucket .Have fun camping boys.

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of meeting up with a very old school friend. Not she's not old, infact she's as young as me and looks even younger than me, hard to believe I know! Dawn Scoltock and her gorgeous little girl Holly came for a visit. We haven't seen each other in over 20 odd years. It was so lovely to catch up after all those years.

I really love that I can find new things to look at here. Now that spring has sprung I'm discovering flowering shrubs and trees that I never knew were there before. And as we clear up the creek we find beautiful pockets of little rocks that have water trickling down them or little water holes. And also the wildlife and birds that come to visit.
Simple pleasures.

Curds & whey

2010-09-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today I've been house bound with two of the boys unwell and not able to go to school. I was supposed to go horse riding but the day is very windy so that was cancelled anyway.
So what to do? Play with curds & whey by using up the rest of the milk. So on todays menu is Edam cheese, vanilla ice cream and chocolate icecream. After doing that I pasturised the rest of the milk to use for soap making. No more milk left now. Oh no there is still buttermilk and whey left! Have to think of something to do with that.

Chocolate and vanilla icecream

This will apparently turn into Edam cheese if I'm lucky.

Looking at the "Langkwai" room
(lol Kon & Gabi !!)

Your looking at my new walk in pantry, the walk in pantry I've longed for many years.

Ol' Jimmy and his sidekick have been busy putting framing up which oneday will eventually be lined by Grahame (and his sidekick-Me)
It's starting to look like a house inside but is a loooong way from being finished.
The earth movers are coming in soon to play in the clay and dig holes for cables and pipes to the house. Once thats done and re levelled I can probably start the mammoth task of a garden and lawn.
So much to do so little time for lattes!!

Haloumi cheese

2010-09-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

Look what I made. Haloumi cheese, real haloumi cheese. It was a pretty easy process but lengthy. Not too messy either.
I tastes great, even squeaks like real haloumi does when you bite into it. The only thing I didn't do was add salt to it which would have made it more flavoursome.
Oh I wish I had some home grown tomatoes and fresh basil to go with it.

Lightly pan fried in a bit of olive oil.

Home made cultures for more cheese making. This fresh milk and buttermilk has had to sit out for nearly 48 hours. I hope it works. I'm also going to be trying to make Camenbert cheese. Will show you the results when finished.

Pioneer woman- hmmm not so sure

2010-09-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

The making of butter.
Me in my infinite wisdom thought it would be a great idea to make my own butter you know with my new pioneer woman status since we moved to "the country".

I've been wanting to source some raw unpasturized, unhomogenized milk for a while now. Last week I found a source. So yesterday we packed up the kids in the car and drove over a hour to a beautiful dairy. Once we were there we all pitched in a helped as we learnt what to do on the spot. We fed the calves, Harry got to help round up the cows and feed the enourmous bull they had. Once the cows were up we went into the milking shed and learnt how to attatch the milking equipment and how to clean it all down after the process is finished.

For our reward we walked away with 30 litres of fresh raw milk.

Overnight of course the milk and cream were lefrt to seperate.Today I did my best to scoop out the cream and began beating and beating and beating. Thank god for the Kitchenaid.

This turned out to be a rather messy job.

After the seperation of solids which becomes the butter and liquid which is the buttermilk

we have the final product

The Butter handmade by ME!!!!

Now what to do with the other 25 litres or so?
It was a time consuming , and messy process for little product. But it's as fresh as you can get with out any thing but fresh cream in it. The proof will be in the tasting. I'll let you know.
I'll make buttermilk pancakes with the buttermilk.
The taste of the raw milk is delicious. It's a magical taste, energetic somehow, akin to eating a snowpea straight of the vine or apple off the tree.
It's what we should be eating and drinking.
Did you know it's illegal to sell raw milk in Australia? That's why I can't reveal our source of milk. The farmers were very generous to allow us to buy some milk from them and we really apprciate there time and milk.

Progress

2010-09-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

The begining of the celing being lined along with a fan & light that now turns on at a switch rather than plugging in the extension cord.

Upstairs rooms taking shape.

Plumber and sons.

Eggxactly what we've been waiting for.

2010-09-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

Here she is. Finally after all this time and with 11 chooks we now have our very first egg.

Thank you chookies

2010-09-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Since moving here part of our frugal lifestyle is trying to make as much of our own things as we can. One of those is bread. We've been making lots of yummy bread. How do you say no to piping hot freshly baked bread with lashings of real butter and blackcurrant jam? Answer- you dont!!

The view from above

2010-08-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful Sunday here in Pambula. We were busy in the veggie patch and Grahame continues to put up the netting. New beds need to be made in the veggie patch and I still need to buy the citrus trees for the orchard.
The bulbs that the kids planted are starting to flower and there is blossom on the fruit trees and ornamental trees. It's starting to look a bit more colourful. I just hope it all flowers around the same time.

The view from Elliott's balcony.

The view from Harison's balcony

The guinea pigs Oreo held by Harison on the left and Elliott with Oscar

The newly ploughed veggie patch has had a clean up and ready for new beds to be made.

The stairs have been built, they lead up to Elliott and Harison's room.

The front door waiting to be painted.

Saturday

2010-08-21T02:48:00.000-07:00

Look what we discovered today. Just a few kilometres out of Pambula on the road to Wyndham there is a turn off on the right to Goodenia Rain forest. So Elliott, Harison, Bowie(dog) and I went and checked it out.

It was a beautiful area of rainforest tucked away between Myrtle Mountain and Wolumla Peak. There was an easy walk (1.2kms) around some beautiful scenery.

Sunny Sunday

2010-08-15T01:41:00.000-07:00

Finally a day where the sun shone and it wasn't freezing.
The big boys went off fishing this morning but there was no fish on the menu tonight! Better luck next time. I spent all day in the garden again. Planting seeds, moving plants, trying to make plants grow in the clay embankment that needs covering. I dug holes with the post hole digger and moved rocks. I'm so glad we bought a tractor. It makes life in the garden so much easier and I love zipping around on it.
After I had done all that Elliott decided he wanted to ride his bike around Pamboola. This is an area down on the Pambula flats that is a conservation area. The old race course is a part of it and you can ride bikes around it. So off he and I went, he rode and I walked. It was a lovely late afternoon activity.
Tomorrow Timothy & I are off to Canberra for the day for his dental appointment.

Todays photos are of a bit of the garden and Elliott at Pamboola.

Baking and bog

2010-08-10T02:06:00.000-07:00

Today it rained after I spent hours watering yesterday.
So I baked today day after spending half the morning waiting waiting and more waiting in a government department. Only to get an answer I didn't want to hear.
Then Grahame successfully bogged the car yet again.
Transact sent us bill demanding payments for service up until April. Hello Transact we cancelled that in December and haven't lived where that service was for 8 months now. How hopeless are these so called service companies. No matter how many times you tell them they still get it wrong then act like its our fault! What kind of morons do they employ.
So now the cars are parked at the road again and we have to make the journey up to them through the mud. Better than getting bogged and going nowhere though.
We gained yet another guinea pig (thats 3 now), looks like Elliott's breeding program will be going ahead.
Baz went missing the other day and I thought we'd lost him. After several hours I found him tangled up in the black netting on the far side of the orchard. Him being black, we didn't see him there. It was only after I heard him wimpering that I found him. Poor puppy.
Oneday Grahame let both Bowie and Baz off and they were missing for 6 hours. Thought we'd lost both of them that day. They turned up like 2 naughty boys soaking wet and exhausted. They must have been on some adventure.

Food Inc - Official Trailer [HD]

2010-08-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered why you should eat organic produce then watching this (trailer) for Food Inc may give you reason to.

I had heard about this film and last night an opportunity came along for me to see it. So myself and 2 friends braved the cold night and headed to the Eden community Gardens to see this film. Although it is American, I believe the Australian food industry is much the same.

We are all being bluffed by the major food coorporations into beliving they supply good wholesome food. But the reality is they couldn't give a shit as long as they are turning a profit. They also don't give a shit about the farmer who produces for them.

I think Woolies and Coles in this country probably have alot to answer for.

This is why you should grow as much of what you can so you know exactly what you are eating. This is why we have invested into our orchard and veggie patch. We are also thinking of raising meat chickens too and we already have our laying hens. We already buy local grass fed beef in the hope we are getting an honest product, which I believe we are. I try to buy local organic milk too.

The more organics that are purchased buy customers forces the coorporations to change their practises. So there is good reason to buy organic and also to help local producers who suffer at the hands of the big rip off guys.

It's no different to the stories we here of Woolies or Coles squeezing out the small Mum & Dad business. It's just shocking to hear of that happening and all in the name of greedy profitiers. As if they don't make enough money already the greedy bastards.

Ok thats my Sunday rant over and done with.

Today was a very productive day. I built up some more beds for the herbs I intend on growing. I transplanted some trees from pots to garden beds. I continued to help Tim who worked hard most of the day moving boxes and things from the shed to the house. And had a cuppa with the neighbors.

Great weekend was had by all. However Grahame wasn't here as he's visiting Pop in Gosford and we wish him well as he's in hospital at the moment.

Famous

2010-08-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

The great thing about a country newspaper is you will quite often finds your kids featuring in articles. The weekly paper that costs one buck 60 has nothing better to report than schools and sporting clubs happenings. Not that we mind. So far Tim has featured at least twice that we know of. Elliott has been in at least 4 times and I believe this is Harrys first time.
Pambula has a local paper that comes out once a week and Merimbula, less than 10 minutes away has a weekly too and then theres Bega, just 20 minutes away also has a weekly. Surely they could become one paper and make it more interesting. But then I guess the kids would be fighting for their space in the paper.

Could be worse, all Geelong has is the Geelong ( Cats ) Advertiser which mentions nothing but The Geelong Cats all year long. No chance of the kids appearing there unless they play for the Cats. Or unless they make an infamous mention in the local crime scene or todays court apperances. Ahh Geelong such a fine town. Yes I can say that because I'm a expatriate of Geelong, Ima a former Geelongeong, or is that Geelongite oh whatever, I was lucky to escape it long ago.(only joking)
Now don't be offended those who still reside there it is still a great place to visit (for those that don't).

So why are the kids featuring in the local.
They were part of the South Coast Learning community concert in which they sang in the school choir. And I must say out of the 20 acts performed the choir performed beautifully. The concert featured kids from all the local schools, high school and primary. It was over two nights and more than 500 hundred people attended. I was impressed. It was a well run production. The only thing I found amusing was that Grahame and I dressed up as we normally would(like for a Canberra Grammar event) and the local people were dressed in their finest flannos and moccasons.
I'm going shopping for a steppin' out pair of moccos' now. I must say they were smart as it was bloody freezing that night.

2010-08-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going horse riding today. I probably won't be able to walk for a week after it.

Oops

2010-07-31T03:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-30T23:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-23T17:45:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-07-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-07-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Welcome to the BIG family

2010-06-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

We like it BIG here or so it would appear. It wasn't intentional but this is how it seems to be turning out.
First there was the BIG shed

Then there is the BIG water tank

And the BIG orchard and veggie patch

And then there is the BIG.... cottage?? It was supposed to be a cottage.
It appears to be HUGE. It looks bigger than the BIG shed. The slab looked soooo small. Usually I'm fairly good at visualling things but it's apparent I just can't visualise space. The celings will be really high and I guess that makes it appear all the more bigger. Even the windows are big.

The windows should be in by the end of the week and hopefully the roof on as well.

The veggie beds are now taking shape and Grahame has netted almost half of the orchard/veggie patch. We have prepared no dig garden beds using layers of newspaper,staw. mulch and organic matter. Last weekend we had all the kids out making veggie beds including Allyson as she was home. It was lovely to seem them all grubby handed and enjoying the dirt. The dogs even enjoyed it too trying to eat the organic fertilizer!
After a week or so we'll get the seeds into the beds and the other seedlings we have and we should be on our way.

I'm still waiting on my bare rooted fruit trees to come in (to the nursery), about 12 more trees,mostly apples and stone fruit.
We have also recently planted raspberries, blueberry, logan berry, silvan berry and all the strawberry runners are in. It should be a very berry summer with any luck.
Grahame will pick up the 12 Isa brown chooks we have ordered on 2nd July and the egg production will begin. The chook house (the green you can see in the orchard photo) is in the orchard where they will be able to roam safley out of the clutches of the Wedgies and foxes.

I've been very fortunate to have been given lots of plants and cuttings from friends. Thanks to Lyndy, Jane, Jo and my Mum. My Brother Jamie and his wife Jacque have given me bulbs and I hope they make a beautiful spring appearance. Hope, I say as I fear they may have been washed away when we had all the rain. I'll let you know when spring has sprung.

The joys and not so joys

2010-05-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Mud

Glorious mud -NOT

Why?

Because it's been raining. And when it rains it doesn't just rain, it pours. Nothing like getting about 100mls in 24 hours. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain but that amount in 24 hours can do such damage. I bet all my bulbs and seeds that I planted last week have been washed away. That dissapoints me. The driveway is a mess and it's highly likely to get bogged when driving on it. Topsoil in the veggie patch has washed away. So while we need the rain a gentle soaking would be easier to bare.

Well the ducks sure like the wet, even the kangaroos,note the( one of 50 or so) behind the post love the rain.

At least the water hole is full again. This is where we pump the water for watering the garden. Even if it doesnt rain again for sometime we should be able to pump from here for a good 6 months.

There was so much rain that the footy post has been dislodged

I suppose it's not fun much being a dog in all this mud.

Now to the house

This is where the house is at. The builder just starts then decides he needs a week off! Typical tradesmen hey. But he should make a return on Monday. Anyway if all this rain he would have had the week off anyway.

At last an update

2010-05-13T01:21:00.000-07:00

We have a house. Yippiee
Not everyones idea of how a house should look. But at least we have the parts for it now. Hopefully, fingers crossed it will start construction next week.

Now some people wouldn't get excited about concrete. But we have. It's very exciting. It means less mud being trampsed through the shed.

The obligatory AFL goal posts!!!

The outside shower-now complete

Oh how the time flys by. I guess we have been so busy with our new life we just haven't had time to update you all with our blog.

Lots of little jobs have been achieved but they all take time. Grahame is famous for saying"oh it will only take an hour or so to do this", only to find him at the end of the day still cursing and swearing on that "only one hour job"!!

None the less we are fairly happy with our progress. That of course is the "royal we".
I try to find myself busy ( in town) or the likes when I know the job at hand is going to involve heavy lifting and me trying to mind read Grahame 's instructions. Like "lift it there, "where " I say. "there"." Which there" I say through gritted teeth. There are lot's of "there's", I'm apparently to know which one it is!!

We now have carpet and lino. Not exactly what I had in mind but hey I got it for free. I even got some brand new off cuts. If you go to carpet stores they are happy to give away old carpet that they have pulled up because it means they don't have to dump.

Grahame putting together the kitchen

One bench finished

I have plenty more photos but I don't want to bore you all.

Let the building begin.

2010-03-29T20:51:00.001-07:00

And so begin.
The building task is finally on its way. First the slab preparations must begin. Would you believe we haven't had any rain until yesterday when the concreter was ready to start. So we are in a boggy mess yet again. With all the earth works I really hope the rain holds off at least for another week. So here is the bobcat doing his thing.

The morning started off with the bobcat breaking the sewage pipe so a plumber had to be called in whilst the earth movers dug up the damaged pipe. Luckily it was a quick fix and didn't hold up the work for too long.
Grahame has been busy starting to erect the fence for the fruit and vegie garden. Bloody birds and kangaroos, I wonder if they realise how much it's costing to keep them out of our vegie patch!

We should be able to have some regular photos now that the building is on it's way. I asked the concreter if it was a small slab because the mark out looked so small. He said " no it's bigger than The Shed including the verandah". I said "no way, no way will it be bigger than The Shed slab , it can't possibly be because The Shed is ENOURMOUS". So we'll see, it will be very interesting to see just how big it is.
On the home front, Tim competed in his first surf carnival on the weekend. He had lots of fun and now realises how much he has to work on his fitness. He partnered up with another young fella and together they did ok. Elliott and Harison have finished nippers for the season. So sunday mornings are now free again.
The school term ends on Thursday, one term down at their new schools. Allyson will be home for easter and so will the concreter!! He plans on being here over easter , what a dedicated tradesman.

More photos

2010-03-13T20:08:00.000-08:00

Photo 9

Photo 8

Photo 7

Photo 6

Photo 5

Photo 4

Photo 3

Photo 2

Photo 1

These are for my Mum who wanted to see how we are living.

Yes, it looks chaotic and messy and it certainly is dusty but we love it. We actually have alot of room but no real storage. Thats why most of our stuff (crap we don't really need) is still in boxes.

We actually now have a kitchen with real cupboards and bench tops but it hasn't been assembled yet. So it's still in boxes!

So lets take a tour.

1.The Kitchen

2.The lounge room

3.The laundry and dishwasher

4.The bathroom

5.The bathroom

6.The Main Bedroom- note the "floating" wardrobe above the bed!!

7.Elliott & Harisons bedroom

8.The garage part of The Shed- tractor, motorbikes etc

9.??The hallway I suppose

Sorry for the backwards way this is done but I find Blogger is completely useless when putting photos up. Or perhaps its just me!!

2010-03-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

One room almost finished.

This is Tim's room on the mezzanine level of The Shed. It's not just a tin shed room. Between the walls is ALOT of insulation and the windows are doubled glazed so it will be cosy in winter and cool in the summer. He survived this summer without the insulation or fans so it shouldn't be a problem.

Grahame checked the 140,000 litre tank yesterday and it is just about full after all the rain we had.

I have planted some 60 odd trees and tube stock over the last week or two. I just hope they all survive.

Tim & Grahame are now fully fledged surf life savers having completed their Bronze Medallion recently. They have their first patrol next weekend.

Warning: stay out of Pambula beach next weekend!!

Hopefully the slab will be laid next week. Then the real fun begins!

Ultimate Sin Should he be forgiven???

2010-02-23T21:48:00.000-08:00

My husband has committed a terrible sin and I don't know if he can be forgiven!

Ok so I gave him the title of MOSH-Master of the Shed but I don't know that gives him the right to go out and chose a new kitchen without consulting ME, yes ME first.

He has chosen the colour, design, size, everybloody thing!

Then says "oh by the way be home on Friday because the new kitchen is being delivered.

THE WHAT I said. You chose a kitchen without my consultation. Without my design input. What the HELL!

Worse yet Timothy was in on it as well!!

The man who has no design sense or color co-ordination has chosen MY kitchen. Well I might just have to hand over the reins of the kitchen to the person who chose it. He choses, he cooks, he cleans.

Actually this may well work in my favour. I could just sit back sipping a sparkling and watch him in HIS new kitchen preparing a meal that has to meet the approval of the toughest -THE KIDS.

Yeah, I'm liking this more and more.

And a few more photos

2010-02-15T02:19:00.001-08:00

Photo 1After the first down pour last week.
Photo 2 Baz taking advantage of the high tide in the dam.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY......

2010-02-15T01:52:00.000-08:00

Photo 1 The creek at the western end of block

Photo 2 The neighbors dam filling up which then runs into our creek.

Photo 3 The creek raging at the northen end.

Photo 4 Overflow from dams and waterway from north.

Ok so I know we need the rain but how much do we really need. I think we have our fair share now so it can stop raining now PLEASE.

Today at 3.30pm 110mls had fallen into the rain gauge today. All the neighbors dams have overflowed and all heading to our creek from various paths. The creek was raging and was so high over our bridge that we couldn't even walk across it. The cars are parked up on the high ground up the road. Now we have to wade our way through mud & water to get the kids up to the school bus.

Even with all the potential of flooding our shed I still wouldn't swap it for Canberra.

THIS IS THE LIFE....

2010-02-07T16:00:00.001-08:00

LIFE AT PAMBULA

The Dam

The dam

Fun in the waterhole

After the rain

The serious photo

first day of school

The not so serious

Tim & Baz

Tim on the tractor

Finally able to give you all some updated photos. Finally I have some time to write properly.

In the last few weeks we had the pleasure of having Allyson home. It was wonderful to have her home. She thought it was going to be awful and boring but when it was time for her to leave (to start at ADFA) she didn't want to go.

She cooked up some fabulous meals and kept the boys supplied in delicious cakes. This was when she wasn't out riding the waves at the beach. now i have to keep up the cooking standard that she set!

We now have hot water in the shower, the bathroom vanity is in. The toilet has been vented.

Grahame has moved all the topsoil onto the vegie patch. Now we have to plant a crop of green manure which will be grown then cut down and turned into the soil to add nutrients and nitrogen to the soil before planting the friut trees and veggies. It should all be ready for winter planting.

Grahame & Tim have been working on lining the mezzanine level. although I'm not sure how much work Tim does, he resembles a council worker leaning on his spade!!!

We had a massive down pour which bogged us in. The upside is that we probably were able to capture around 25000 litres of water in the tank, the dam is quite full and the water hole is full and the creek is flowing.

The kids have had an absolute ball playing in the water hole. Who needs a pool when we have our own natural pool. Only problem is that it's not always at capacity.

The house plans should be approved very soon. So far no objections (bloody neighbors), that we have heard of. Once approval is given we should be able to start shortly after.

The kids have started their new schools. Now listen to this, Tim actually really enjoys his new school , he goes willingly and without complaint. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that it's co-ed. He has just spent 5 years at all boys school.

Elliott & Harison appear to have settled into their schools. I just hope they are finding new friends. They say they are.

The boys are enjoying their new toys-The Motorbikes. Tim has his first battle wound. 7 stitches on his shin. He didn't fall of but actually cut his shin on the metal foot peg as he went over a rock.

He has now learn't his lesson and will now dress more appropitly for motorbike riding. Long pants and boots.

We've had our first official visitors visit us. Thanks Jennifer, we enjoyed a lovely BBQ on Australia day (i think)

Boys have joined Nippers and Grahame & Tim are going to do their Bronze certificate starting Friday. The dogs are going to obedience school starting Wednesday. Tim has a job at the local supermarket although it will never pay as well as his Rubicon ironing job. we have met the neighbors. The kids all know each other now.

Life is great.

LOOK WHAT WE HAVE

2010-01-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

Never knew having an (almost) flushing toilet could be so exciting. No more camping toilet, we have the real deal now!

Now when I say almost flushing I mean the cistern hasn't been fitted yet so we have to flush with a bucket. No problem though. The water pressure from the pump is fantastic. We also have a shower recess installed. Although we only have cold water, it means we use very little water! But surprisingly it's quite warm in the day as it sits in the pipes being heated by the sun. Makes me wonder why we installed solar hot water which hasn't been connected yet.

Yesterday saw all our house and triple garage belongings delivered from Canberra. We are surrounded by boxes but at least we are sleeping on our own beds now. I blame Grahame for most of this as it's mostly his crap that we cart around.

Here is the latest addition to our family. Bowie, a short haired Border Collie. This is Ellioot's dog. Bowie is great company for Baz. They run wild tackling each other. They are both pups, Bowie is about 1 month older than Baz. We take them to the beach and wear them out in the mornings. They chase kangaroos and Tim usually has to go trekking after them to bring them home. On the whole the are well behaved and get on great with each other.

We are having a down pour right now and now that is wonderful when you are on tank water as our roof space is 220 sq metres.

So thats going to mean a decent amount of water going into thr tank. Tomorow morning we'll awaken to a big boggy mess and we'll be up to our kness in mud (in our thongs!)

Our little house in Narrabundah was officially sold yesterday. There's no going back now. But who would want to anyway.

LIFE IN THE SHED

2010-01-07T01:41:00.000-08:00

So here we are 13 days into it, living in THE SHED. We have power, we now have some water in the 140000lt water tank. But we have no plumbing yet , so camping showers and toilet is what we are using. Great fun that is!!! We have a stove and fridge along with the BBQ so cooking is ok. I hate washing up dishes in a plastic bowl though. We have a huge mess as of today with all the plumbing trenches being dug. We also got an area scraped where the vegie garden will go. Oh and we have a real clothes line too.

Trips to the laundromat in nMerimbula are wearing thin, at $4 a wash and we always have several loads at a time. But its all good.

We go to the beach each day, sometimes twice a day. We have been socialising with the neighbors already. The kids have made friends and can just wander up the road, although it is about a 300 metre up hill climb. Tim has found a casual job at the local supermarket. The motorbikes are on order, the tractor arrives on the 18th, new body boards & wetsuits have been bought.

Life is great, we are having fun and enjoying learning the new language of living on the coast. We need to learn what winds are blowing, which way it's blowing, how it affects the surf, the tide etc etc.

THE MEGA SHED

2009-12-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

So we finally have some photos of The Mega Shed. It certainly looks very BIG as you approach our block. We have started to move some of our things down to the shed. We had to do 3 ute loads to move all the pot plants. We officially start packing up our house on 12th Jan. Something to look foward to. no matter how many times you move it never gets any easier. Not going to enjoy that part, well really its the unpacking thats the pain in the arse.

We still don't have our water tank yet. We had a major down pour on Thursday night and weren't able to capture any of it. Today being the 19th dec, the water tank peeps reckon they'll have it in by christmas. yeah right!!

Christmas day will now be spent in Canberra. We are having christmas lunch with our dear friends, Mary, Brett and the kids Alex & Jake. and some of Mary's family.

Today we are (Grahame) is cooking pizza in our pizza oven for the last time. Sadly we can't take it with us as it's firmly cemented in. I just hope the new family use it and love it like we have.

The Shed

2009-12-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

Send the MOSH to the land to take progress photos and this is what he comes back with!

2 photos of the same thing.

Anyway great progress has been made. The boys are off again on friday to start the wiring and take down some stuff.

Stuff, stuff, stuff, takes a move to realise how much stuff you have. Most of it never seeing the light of day. Like the 30 year old encyclopedias He isnsits on keeping. Do you think He has looked at them in the 5 years since we unpacked from the last move. NO but we have to keep these out of date relics "just incase" !!!

2009-11-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

The builder has started to put up the walls now. I can't wait to go and see it. Finally MOSH & I have agreed on what to build for our house. It was a bit of a comprimise , not exactly what I had invisioned, but it means we'll probably be able to afford a pool as well. Anything a bit bigger than what we live in now will be lovely. And it will all be new and I wont be able to hear my neighbor coughing and spluttering any more. Just the peaceful sound of frogs and birds.

I wish the photos below had of turned out better. But it gives an idea of what the property is like.

IN THE BEGINING

2009-11-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

The work has started. It may only be a slab but its a start. The Shed erection has started too

THE EXCAVATION

THE SLAB

THE WATERHOLE

THE CREEK

Excitment plus

2009-11-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

How does one get excited about dirt being moved? Well because it means the work has started. The slab will "apparently" be poured on Friday. Wednesday will see the shed bits and pieces being deliverd with construction begining the following day. Holy cow it might just be up in time for christmas!!!

I wish I had some photos to share. Grahame who I think I'll now refer to as MOSH - master of SHed will be there on Sunday so I'll ask him to take photos.

Here's a puppy photo anyway. Tim will be the very proud owner of puppy (possibly named BAZ) from next Thursday. I have even allowed him to take the day off school for master and puppy bonding. How generous am I?

Sorry, I've kinda distorted his proportions whilst trying to move photo on page.

Okey Dokey

2009-10-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's about to start. The marking out of the first slab has been done today.
Tuesday we head down again. (thankyou Canberra for the public holiday). We'll meet with the architect who will hopefully agree that we have ourselves come up with our own ingenious, creative acrhitectually designed abode. He just needs to draw it for us. I'll remember to take the camera this time.
So there should be more action happening over the next few months.

The Works about to start.

2009-10-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is the concept of what we would like to build.

So after the drama of the neighbors complaining about our industrial size shed it looks like we are all set to go.

I've been madly trying to come up with a concept for our house. Grahame has been madly telling me to hurry up with it. Tommorow I have to find a draftsman to draw our plan. Then submit that to council too. Hopefully no complaints from the neighbors this time round. Otherwise Grahame will be setting up perimeter machine gun posts for those who dare to cross our boundry to complain.

Of course we are going with something way more funky & cool than what our neighbors have built. The house will be built out of colourbond mostly. On the western wall I want blue stone(dark grey/blue). On the northern will be mostly glass. The rest of the walls will be pale green colourbond and on the roof light grey, as will be the window frames. Just don't know where I can fit pink into my colour scheme yet!

So as we start to progress I will post photos.

House is SOLD

2009-09-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

The House is SOLD. We are really moving now. What an intense time the auction process is. But thats all behind us now. we are heading to the coast tommorow. Camping as we have nothing on the block. Forecast is rain!!!!! But Grahame has to meet with contractors so we have to go. Will take photos. Hopefully with all the rain the water hole and dam are full again.

This is what we first had in mind to build. I've always wanted a period style home and I love this one. But I'm also thinking ultra modern to.We are north facing so it makes sense to have an expanse of north facing windows. Many options, got any ideas?

2009-08-19T23:55:00.001-07:00

We are offically on the market.
http://www.allhomes.com.au/ah/ah0073?slid=167386950

2009-08-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

Can't rely on anyone these days. How much work do you think the draftsman has done? Ah that would be zippoooooo. When do we want to move in to THE SHED? That would be December. C'mon.... I need somewhere to put the christmas tree. Somehow I don't think a tent is a good place for the chrissy tree. Besides that would mean no dunny!!! (toilet for the non aussies)

2009-08-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

This is the sort of SHED we'll be building and initally living in. I think our shed will be alot bigger though-believe it or not. It's going to be a mega shed. It will have more windows on the top level and sides and even a set of french doors, all double glazed mind you. We'll have solar hot water and plenty of room for the future solar voltaic cells on the roof. This will be home for at least 12 months.
Where up we up to. well the plans are with the draftsman. Of course Grahame wants them drawn up yesterday. The shed needs to be up by December.
The house will be on the market next week. Really hope someone makes us a crazy offer.

Pambula tempreture today about 24 degrees, Canberra about 4 !!!!! No wonder we want to get out of here its flaming freezin' in Canberra.

Massive TV for the shed

2009-08-02T00:49:00.000-07:00

A boxer for Tim

2009-08-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

Harry's choice of dog.

2009-08-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

Groodle. The dog Elliott wants.

2009-08-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

Timothy's new Vixen Red Ute

2009-07-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

its not an Audi R8 but at least it's new