We have green bits...

Can you see the green bits???

In the hothouse that is. :) We have been waiting for over two weeks but it has been mostly cold so they are taking longer than we wished for...

The shallots are starting to push through the soil and showing us their greens. :) Yay... Mind you they are only about 1 cm tall but hey, gotta celebrate all life right??? hehe

Cheers Damaris

Operation... Hospital...

Cham rather ill...

Joshua's Axolotl is not well... Since we got him he has not once fed out of his hand so doubt that he did that in the pet shop as they said he did... We have therefore rarely observed him feeding. Over time he has been getting thinner and thinner so now he is in hospital... ie the Fridge...

Yep you read right, he is being, what they call... fridged. This means that the metabolism slows right down so he doesn't loose more weight. It also means that he is basically in hibernation and doesn't eat much if anything. I did put a worm in there from my worm farm but he was not interested at all.

Since going into the fridge (you have to change his water every day) he has still been loosing more weight. I think he has anyway. His legs are really skinny and all we can find on the net to do is give 10 minute bath salts once a day for three days. We have changed about 20% of his water to ensure it wasn't that. The end of his tail is now curled which indicates stress as well. Poor mite. Today will be his second salt bath so will see how he goes...

In my opinion he looks terrible and I really hope and pray that he survives... Joshua off course is in mourning already... He is not dealing well with it at all, blaming himself. Must find out how to make an axolotl eat...

Cheers Damaris

Love this book...

One of our favourite cookbooks these days is this one... Was written by Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from down south... We love to use it as it helps us with our Failsafe Diet and makes sure that we are on track. The two are very much linked together and very similar...

I am so glad that Russell found it in the Library. We have had it for a long time now, we keep borrowing it. Sometimes someone gets it as they reserve it but as soon as that time is up we get it out again. We love it... And to think when it was originally printed it was only $7.95...

With more Birthdays and Christmas coming up we are looking forward to utilising the book even more so that we stay failsafe but still have a ball food wise :)

Cheers Damaris

Bowing to pressure...

For a while now I have had just a press dial phone in the kitchen and a cordless phone in the Study. I keep that one in the Study as we make our phone calls through VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). We make our calls through the Internet which is saving us a fortune actually. :)

Last weekend Russell changed around the cables on the computer to isolate the ones that were drawing power while not actually turned on. ie Speakers, computer, monitor etc etc. I didn't realise that they were still drawing power if they were not on but the switch at the wall socket was on... Things you learn when you have a power meter to tell you these things. Now I can switch on the Internet on its own and not draw power for the rest. Yay!

So we also changed the VOIP to be just over our mobiles. We have just changed over our ADSL to ADSL 2+ and this meant that one of the phone filters was not working at its best. So the cordless has been placed out in the kitchen area and I have bowed to... not pressure but a certain amount of hint giving shall we say, mostly from my little sister... (God love her :)) that I also put a cordless phone in the bedroom. That was my intention anyway... Both the phone batteries were getting on so I knew that they would need replacing. That I did for $58 the other day. I get home and one is working fine now but the other battery is not working at all...

So now I have to go back today, get another battery and then charge that one for 24 hours before it will be of any use. That one is going into the bedroom... While I know it will make life easier to have it there I don't like it that it draws the power. I am trying sooooo hard to reduce the usage not increase it. At least I don't have to bolt at night in the dark for the phone anymore. I guess you have to weigh up your options... Still don't much like the usage but am sure I will get over it...

Cheers Damaris

Painful Latch...

The 'painful' latch...

For a while now we have been trying to save the gate latch... It just doesn't want to play. Two days ago Joshua came home from school and there the gate was open as far as it could go with the latch bits just lying on the ground... The other one behaves, why not this one...

Anyway, just for the moment it is behaving again. I am off to Ladies Group today so on the way home will drop into the Hardware and get a new latch. I am armed with a photo and will come home with the same sort of thing but hopefully it will last just a little longer than this one has.

It is the gate that the dogs sit at while they watch the world go by and keeps them away from the chooks so need it to work. Plus it is at the front of the house which everyone uses. It just has to work. The problem with this latch is that the bolt that holds all the bits together doesn't want to stay in. It keeps popping in and out. What a pain... Not after this weekend though. It will be replaced. It has done its dash. :)

Cheers Damaris

Joshua's so clever. :)

Joshua is rather proud of his efforts. hehe

This morning he was mucking around with his Mighty Beanz... Still loves those things but doesn't play with them as much as he did at the beginning... Usual really.

So he had them out and was trying to stack them on top of each other. Rather hard to do but he managed to get four on top of each other. Had to take a piccy... He insisted. lol

Am off to have a quite day reading and pottering around the place. Done all my chores already. Making bed, tidying etc, dishes are done as well and kids are at school. Must get some more wood for the fire as only two chunks of wood left in here... Can't let that go out with the wind blowing a gale outside as it is...

Bliss, is all I can say... :)

Cheers Damaris

Senior's Morning Tea...

Some of the Seniors at the Hall...

More Seniors and School Staff...

Ms Shelley with the kids, singing... :)

Yesterday the village was in for a real treat... The kids had been practicing and you could see Joshua just busting to share his singing abilities. hehe

Yesterday we had our Seniors Morning Tea at the Maryvale School of Arts Hall... We had a bus load of people even come out from one of the retirement villages in town. There would have been around 30 people and then the 14 school kids on top of that...

So they sang and entertained us with their Music Teacher, Ms Shelley. It was wonderful to hear them sing. They even sang harmonies which was very impressive to watch and listen to. The Seniors had a ball. You could see the light in their eyes. :)

There was more food there than you could poke a stick at as well. Joshua was good and only ate what I had brought. There was plenty for him and he was happy to spend most of the time taking trays of food around and seeing if anyone wanted a cuppa. Garry was there too, our neighbour, was so nice to see him there. He seemed to have a lovely time. :)

I spent allot of my time with the Seniors from the retirement village and came across one lady that I will be seeing again. Her name is Barbara and she has no parents, brothers or sisters... The way she spoke had me very interested in getting to know this lady better. No such stories of self pity or sorrow. Amazing lady. I asked her if I could come and visit her soon and she said she would love that. So I am going to... I also would like to write to her as I don't get to go into town all that often other than to shop... Will see what happens :)

Couple of the parents of the kids at the school also came along for the singing and general chit chat. Was so nice to see them. :)

Cheers Damaris

Going for a walk...

Photo that Russell edited... Isn't he clever ;)

Off the beaten track...

The boys walking off ahead of me. :)

I truly believe you get to know your neighbourhood much better and quicker when you walk it instead of always driving through it...

Last Sunday, Russell, the boys, the dogs and I all went for a long walk. It was great to walk up some grassy paths where only a few cars had been. It was also nice to be off the bitumen and looking on the ground in case there were some treasures to be found...

Timothy did find some lovely rocks that he off course had to bring home... At the front door they still sit. :)

It was also great to look at our house from the bottom of the valley. It looked quite different to what we are used to seeing. We loved walking off the beaten track and quite a few saw us walking the dogs. They also loved the change in scenery. :) We waved whenever we saw someone and they always waved back. :)

Was a great way to spend a chunk of the morning and will be done again this weekend... The weather was so perfect too... Must make that a more regular occurrence. Great idea Joshua had... :)

Cheers Damaris

Rainy Day...

My view out of Brad while waiting for Timothy's bus to come and take him to school...

This morning when I was woken by Russell leaving at 4am I started to hear big drops of rain hitting our roof... Yay the forecast of rain was right :)

Since then it has been constant and sometimes very heavy. When taking the electricity meter reading this morning I stood there for a while just holding onto the down pipe where the rain was coming down. Love that noise and feeling of the water hitting my hand on the inside of the pipe :)

Just got inside again after getting three crates of wood from our pile when it started bucketing down... Just made it back in time :)

I have done all my baking for today. Anzac bikkies and bread was on the list today. We are having left overs from the weekend for dinner so now it is time for me to finish off here and do the sweeping of the house. All else is done...

After that time for a good book in front of the fire I reckon. Enjoy your day everyone :)

Cheers Damaris

New 'Driveway'

The pile before we started...

Found some treats for the chooks...

The end result. :)

Earlier this year there was some cutting down of Pepperina trees at the school. I happen to be at the pub for a very, very rare drink and the people that were taking the wood chips away. They asked if I knew anyone that would want the truck load of wood chips or they would be forced to pay to dump it at the local dump...

Well off course I took them to my place :) They dumped the truckload as the school didn't want it. All the better for me. :) We have let it sit and rot, let the chooks comb through it for many months now so decided to use the bark not just for our gardens and pots but also to make a bit of a driveway so that we could park our cars up closer to the house. This way even when it has rained we won't get stuck in the black soil which is so muddy. Very happy with the end result. Dry and clean under foot and still have half a pile to go.

The best thing of all though was that we did it as a family. We got Timothy off the computer and out into the cold windy day, which he didn't really appreciate but we really wanted to do it together... Joshua, as usual, put his whole into it and did a fantastic job helping... It was a great achievement in the end even though it didn't take very long at all...

Very good idea you had there Russell. :)

Cheers Damaris

Missing Roslyn...

Down to 17 hens, 2 roosters, 2 guinea fowl and 1 duck...

One of the first chooks that we got given to us when we got out here was Roslyn. She was a Rhode Island Red and I loved her to bits. Jackie couldn't keep her anymore as she was on her own with two doggies so she came to us...

Last week I noticed that I had not seen her for a little while... Went looking for her and couldn't find her. Another point for the fox. Bugger him...

Cheers Damaris

Failsafe Spring Rolls

Rice Paper in warm water, soaking...

Russell rolling...

More folding...

In the hot frypan...

We came across lovely sized Rice Paper last week in the shops and thought we would try something different. Our very own version, failsafe off course, Spring Rolls...

For the first lot we tried it with mince, last night with chicken that we minced in the Thermomix. Both turned out really well. We had to watch that the water that we soaked the paper in was not too hot or too cold. We ended up leaving the paper in the water for about 20 seconds and that seemed to just be enough to make it easy to use and not break. They are very fiddly things though I must say...

We also used up a leek each time, some garlic, cabbage and a little salt. The brown rice we had left over from a previous meal and just defrosted that from the freezer... So all in all a very inexpensive exercise. Russell did end up with a sore back both times though as he was doing the wrapping and he was leaning a little too much. It took all up about an hour each time. First time we cooked them in oil on the stove. Last night we put them onto Glad bake with oil spray and put them into the oven... The second one was far less oily and just as yummy as the first lot.

Will be making them again that is for sure. :) Was a good dinner to have with Pear Ketchup and the kids loved using their fingers as well. :) Win, win I reckon...

Cheers Damaris

Timothy cooked Dinner :)

Last night's dinner made all by Timothy, was Yummy :)

Timothy had cooking at school again yesterday... Last week we blessed our neighbour with what he made at school. This week I wanted to make sure we could eat it. lol

I spoke to his school teacher and she said that he could make whatever we wanted to eat that night. Yay I thought, how wonderful is that. So we got ingredients ready for failsafe dinner that he would be making... I tried to keep it easy so we chose:

Chicken Nuggets and French Fries...

He complained when he got home that peeling the potatoes had been a pain. I thought that would be the case as his muscles for fine motor skills are not very good. It was very strenuous he said. But he did it. I had already cut up the chicken into pieces. I gave him rice crumbs for coating as well. His teacher asked where I got the rice crumbs from... hmmm the Thermomix :) :) All I do is put in brown rice and put Bimby to work on Level 10 for about 40 seconds and there you have it. :) Very, very fine rice crumbs... Love that Thermomix.

Along with all the ingredients, I also sent new instructions that were easy step by step so that he knew what to do when...

The end result was a very yummy dinner :) I am very grateful to his teacher that we could change the recipe so that we could eat his creation for dinner. :) That teacher Rocks :)

Cheers Damaris

Russell's Babies...

Russell's Babies...

He has always been into plants of all sorts. These are the latest purchases. One will go to replace a dead one for his mum on a mounted plaque. The tillandsia is one of my favourites... :) Another words - air plant. Amazing how they survive on nothing but air. But then all of these are like that. Glue them on a board or magnet and you have them for ages and ages...

Cheers Damaris

New seeds...

Our trays...

Last Sunday, Russell and I potted up a few trays with seeds for our veggie gardens. The are Leek, Celery and Shallots. Cabbage and Butter Beans and Parsley are yet to go in but will in the near future. :)

I love planting out and have made sure that I have a reminder in my phone every day for 8am so that I don't forget to water them. Last thing we need is for it all to dry up and die. Am so glad that we have the hot house. Plenty of room in there for all sorts of trays and plants. :)

Cheers Damaris

It's nearly Christmas time :)

We are nearly ready for Christmas :)

When I did that closet the other day I also came across allot of presents that I had stored since the last Christmas sales. I don't believe in paying full price for something that I can get for half price or less. :) Allot of the gifts this year are also homemade by myself. I love the personal touch and know the recipients will too. :)

One of the three drawers that I have at the bottom of the closet is for the presents. Well it was so full that I couldn't close the lid on it so ended up covering all the presents that I had and put them in stacks... One for Russell's Family, one for mine and one for Friends. Am only missing a couple on either side and I am d.o.n.e.

Feels great as I have not been this ready in many years. Usually I am done by November, well and truly before the mad pre Christmas rush. I try very hard to stay away from the shops as much as I can so this is certainly helping.

Now to complete my handmade Christmas cards and get them sealed... Another day I think :)

Cheers Damaris

Another Milestone :)

Well I took readings again today, as I do every day and today was a rather special one :)

Today I read that 700.8kWh have been produced by our Solar Panels since 20 January 2010. And the other good news was that today we had a total of 200kWh go into the grid since connection to it.

I really do wish I had more panels and trust me I am working on it but for now I am very happy that we have had 500kWh of free power. :) Thank you Sunshine :)

Cheers Damaris

Under the Bathroom Sink...

So much space. :)

This is another little job that doesn't take long but one that I wanted to get done today. I know stuff was lurking under there that needed to be in its proper home. So that is where it went. :)

I found old make up that was tossed and massage oil from The Body Shop that I have never used so that will go to Charity. They love me there as I have kept bringing all sorts of things over the last year. I love going to town with a full car of stuff to give away. I also give allot away to local families and regularly ask if there is anything that people might like. Best out of my house and into someone else's.

When we originally planned this house, Russell actually had a program on his computer that enabled us to measure our furniture and place it into the program. This way we knew before we even moved what furniture we could take and what we have to sell or give away. We came from a house that was nearly twice the size as this one so allot has had to go over the time. Freecycle got very lucky with allot of stuff. So did the neighbours across the road from where we used to live.

This is another reason why I can't just let anything into my house. Any piece of furniture, for example, that comes into the house must have another already homed piece removed in order to fit it in. There is no room for new stuff I am afraid and am quite happy with that actually as we don't need anything else. We have more than enough. We are happy with what we have and make good use of what we have. Less is more as they say and I totally agree with that...

Cheers Damaris

It is finally done...

Love my new look cupboard...

I have three linen cupboards... Two are actually used for linen and the other holds all sorts of bits and pieces. From spare tissue boxes to my hammer and needle and thread for hand sowing...

I needed to rearrange it and get it more flowing as it was in a bit of a pickle. So after procrastinating for the last six weeks about getting it done... I finally got it done yesterday. And what a relief it was so nice to see it finished. I went to bed last night with a huge boulder off my shoulders that is for sure.

There is nothing wrong with me keeping at myself to get it done I realise that but when I keep saying to myself I am going to get it done this week and don't do it... well it just gets me down after a while. To take it all out, sort, throw out stuff and donate a whole heap more and then rearrange and put it all back together took about four hours. Four hours well spent in my books. I love going in there now. :)

Joshua is finding it all strange too as he went there yesterday afternoon to get a pencil so that he could do his homework. Never mind he will get used it being there and not on the butchers block. I want to keep that free from clutter so in the cupboard in a neat box it goes.

I love it all nice and neat. Tidy is what I love and crave so that is what it will be :) Amazing the amount of things I found that I had no idea I had. I found two containers of Borax of all things. I had been looking everywhere to make some more homemade soap and there the last ingredient was all along. Amazing what you find when you tidy up :)

Cheers Damaris

Daddy time :)

Russell with no room to move :)

The other night we were all bunking down to watch a DVD. Joshua had Nova steal his spot while he was not looking. He told her to get out of his spot, please, and she did... Where did she end up???

Right on Russell's lap, he was nestled into the couch with three dogs all surrounding him. Yes, Toby is there too... in behind Nova... What a hoot :)

Cheers Damaris

Local Ladies...

Our neighbour Tricia is sitting on the left. :)

Look what the local ladies have been up to... A couple of weeks ago, the day the freezing cold Sports Carnival was on in Warwick, a journalist came out to Maryvale School of Arts Hall and interviewed the Ladies from our Craft Group...

This was all in preparation for Senior's week which is on soon. :) Can't wait for the school kids, all 14 of them :), to perform for the Ladies... Tuesday, next week it will be :)

Cheers Damaris

Ladies Group, Here :)

Vicky, Bec, Kathy and Merryl...

Sharon and Caron...

On a Friday I would normally pack myself off to Sharon's place for Ladies Group... Yesterday they came to me... Most didn't get lost, only one car load did. lol When Kathy and Caron finally got to my front door they were chanting: "I've been everywhere man :)"

So we had a lovely catch up... We sang, we prayed, we shared testimonies, we ate (Allot) and drank lots of coffee and tea. Bec and I even ended up playing a game of pool :)

All in all by the end of it I was exhausted as stayed on my leg too much of the day. By the time I realised and sat down it was already aching but have had a good night's sleep so all good this morning. :)

I felt so blessed these ladies coming out all this way. Thank you again for coming out. :) Had a great time :)

Cheers Damaris

Rain, glorious Rain...

The View from the front Door...

Looking nasty...

So the piccies above show how the clouds looked just before we got such a deluge of rain that our tanks are now again full and overflowing... Was amazing to watch. The clouds came over just after school on Monday and went away again. Then that night the sky opened up and poured out all its lovely rain. It was constant and unrelenting... It was wonderful...

Now today we are left with a huge amount of wind and lovely sunshine... There was enough clear sky last night that Russell ended up getting up at 2:30am so that he could watch the current meteor showers... He was out there for 1/2 hr and couldn't stay any longer as it was just sooooo cold out there. The wind was amazing... He got to see some really cool sky action though. :) Boys are wanting to get up tonight as long as the clouds go away again. Hopefully it will work out and we might all get up... lol

Cheers Damaris

Something Different...

Joshua's Banana and Chip Sandwich...

So Joshua asked for a sandwich the other day... He had seen Russell have a chip sandwich and thought he would have a go at that as well... I thought he should have something good for him as well in it so suggested a banana...

End result: A yummy Banana and Chip Sandwich... Boys...

Cheers Damaris

Opa's visit :)

Yummy beaters. :)

My Dad came up for the afternoon yesterday and spent lots of time with Joshua as well as Russell and I. It was wonderful to have him there. Missed my step mum though... At least she has a couple of dozen eggs from us to know that we love her very much...

We had homemade Pizza for dinner and dessert was Pavlova. As you can see Dad and Joshua loved licking the beaters after I finished making the Pavlova ready for the oven for baking... Cream and bananas on top and voila: It was done.

Joshua had his little friend James stay the night as well so we were able to share it amongst the five of us. Everyone thought it yummy... Russell did a fantastic job with the Pizza's. We have plenty of leftovers as well. Russell will take some to work this week and then the last will be for the boys and I to enjoy one night as well. :)

Around dinner time my Dad and I enjoyed the sun going down in the west and after dessert we all went outside and looked up into the sky with Russell's mother of all telescopes. :)

He found a moon just off Saturn and its rings. Venus was 1/2 visible as well. We also looked at a whole heap of stars in the Milky Way. It was one beautiful site. No Moon or clouds to worry about. As we have no lights out here it was easy to see the beautifully lit up sky...

A lovely day to remember for a long time. I know for sure that Dad will be back too, soon I hope :)

Cheers Damaris

Joshua's French Knitting Effort...

Joshua and his French Knitting... All 10.91m of it :)

OK, so at last count the long snake ended up being 10.91 metres. It was used for the School's Jumpers and Jazz entry and the tree was lovely as I have posted earlier. :)

Can't quite believe it ended up so long but did watch him do most of it. He did a great job... :)

Cheers Damaris

Gifts I received...

The rooster one is my favourite... :)

Yesterday, Russell came home after a LONG week in Brissie... He had a package for me. :) I peeked inside and there were 10, yes 10 double hand towels... They are currently being washed so I can use them asap. How sweet is that of Russell's Mum??? Very, I say. :)

Can't believe how lucky a gal I am!!! I feel very blessed right now :)

Cheers Damaris

Grandma's Visit...

Russell's Mum getting her first ever Manicure...

Joshua loving the Massage Chair...

Russell brought his Mum home with him last Thursday to stay with us for the weekend... The boys always love having her here and are always wanting her attention to show her something or rather. :)

It has been a while since the last visit and the week before she came to visit us she had been in Hospital with fluid on the lungs. We were sure glad to see her and have her here for the four nights.

On the Friday I took Mum with me to Ladies Group which she enjoyed and then afterwards I took her to Tiffany's at Flavio Spa and Nails... Oh what a lovely time was had. We had Joshua with us as well as he had completed his entries at the Sports Carnival at Wheatvale State School. He had an early mark, they completed all the jumping and running by 1pm. :)

Joshua had a ball sitting in the massage chair this time, just like Timothy enjoyed it previously... I got my nails done. They needed refilling badly and ended up having the old ones taken off and a new set up on. :) Mum ended up having a manicure, something that she has never had done before. She loved it. She chose a really good colour as well. :)

We also took her to the Dairy we go to for milk which she appreciated as she used to milk 60 milkers twice daily about 45 years ago herself... Bit of a trip down memory lane. :)

But most importantly lots of family time was spent with her. She loved having the boys around her and having little nanna naps when she needed them. Oh it was soooo nice to have her here...

Come back soon, Grandma :)

Cheers Damaris

Sports Carnival Time, again...

Our little school ready to go...

Ball games time :)

Joshua doing Longjump. He got 1st :) (3.26m)

Yep it was cold... As Carly beautifully demonstrates...

This is the third one in two weeks. I am worn out and am not even competing. Yesterday the weather was absolutely awful. Only thing missing was rain... The sun peeked out slightly but not warming things up at all at about 1:30pm. We had a terribly chilling wind with nowhere to hide all day. I must say this is one Sports day I was very happy to see the back of. I ended up with a cold and went to bed early as had a terrible head. Stuffy nose you name it...

Joshua and his little school of 14 did really well again. :)

The kids had a wonderful day spending time with their peers and kids from other schools that they have gotten to know over the years. Some rivalry but mostly just having a great time. Was nice to see the encouragement they give each other even if from another school. :)

Cheers Damaris

What the???

Timothy in the front, Joshua in the back...

When there is nothing else to do but wait for the time to tick by till Timothy is allowed back on the computer, what is one to do???

Hit a balloon (which has a rubber band on the end of it) with your foot up in the air... Off course once Timothy started, Joshua just Had to join in... Was rather amusing to watch... Timothy had decided that it was not fun enough to do with your hand so tried alternatives. He tried it on his head as well. lol

Cheers Damaris