Our new weather station...

Base concreted into the ground for stability :)

It came through the mail off course as allot of our stuff does... Russell has set it all up and it is all installed ready to go. It feeds information and readings every two minutes back to a website which means that anytime that I am away from home I can still find out what the readings are at home. Pretty neat :) It is very accurate with the rain readings as well and wind and humidity. What I love most about it is that all this information that it is sending to the computer is not via electricity. It is doing it via solar energy :) :) :) There is a battery backup for night time but that's it other than that. Very cool... Am loving our new weather station...

Cheers Damaris

Margaret's Garden...

The gardening bug has also bitten Margaret :) She has come so far in the last few months it is just wonderful to be apart of that journey :) Enjoy the piccies :)

Cheers Damaris

Being pampered...

Being spoilt...

Went to spend the night at Margaret's the other week and loved spending the time with her. It is sooo easy being around her. She is so dear to my heart... So while I was there she took to my hands and have them a buff and a bit of nail polish. She even put some glitter on them :) Such a lovely girl. Am so lucky to have her in my life :)

Cheers Damaris

Gloves just for Josh...

They are getting a good workout :)

Seeing he has his own garden now, he also scored his own watering can, pink off course as that is his favourite colour :) And he scored his own gloves. He chose them... He loves the bright flowers on them :) Yes, they are ladies gloves but the men sizes were never going to fit him as he is only 12. lol

Cheers Damaris

5m of soil...

Lovely soil from Warwick Sand and Gravel :)

This soil pile is decreasing rather quickly... It has a long way to go yet. We mix it: 20l bucket of soil, 20l bucket of coir and 20l bucket of sheep, cow and chook manure with blood & bone and other bits. Stinks really good :)

This mixture that we use here is working really well. It lets the roots grow really well and doesn't compact too hard so that the plants are not stunted. Vermiculite is also used sometimes when we have it. :)

Cheers Damaris

What more???

As if we don't have enough plants, some 150 that have been ordered and received in the last month, now he is putting in a whole heap of seeds as well... Russell that is :) Oh I let him be as he is in heaven right now...

After nearly four years of being away from us every week, now he is home and able to do what he wants. He is loving it. He is thriving in it... We are the happiest as a couple and family that we have been in a long time and that is so good to see. It is so refreshing to see him excited about new seeds sprouting and about rain coming... All so beautiful to see... Have fallen in love with my hubby all over again :) Love seeing his smile :)

Cheers Damaris

Too many plants...

I have heard it already... The green house is too small... Need a bigger one. The shed is too small... Need a bigger one... When is this going to end??? Never :)

Yes, there are many plants that we now have and even more seeds... Goodness, there are thousands of them... But it is getting done little by little and all in good time before it gets too hot... Not much time left for that... Another reason I don't blog daily anymore. I just don't have the time to do it as I share my computer with Tim and frankly don't like being on the computer... Now if only I could post from my iPhone lol...

Cheers Damaris

Potatoes...

Josh is also growing some of those in tyres... They are doing well :)

Cheers Damaris

Josh's Gardenbed...

Growing slowly but surely... Will be faster growth once it warms up :)

Here is an updated photo a couple of days later from the last ones...

Cheers Damaris

Russell's Support for lugging wood...

Russell's invention... Don't ask me how it works, it just does :)

We are in allot of need of wood these days. We are busy building allot of things around here now that Russell is home and the boys are after some ramps as well for their jumps for the skateboards and scooters... It never ends another words... So he has made himself a support for that he can carry more in the trailer...

Clever little munchkin :)

Cheers Damaris

First of the Silky Oaks...

One is in the ground, few more to go :) Love it how things are taking shape slowly but surely :) As always, everything must be protected from the hares or wallabies... They would eat everything otherwise...

Cheers Damaris

Horseradish Trees...

Stump now, 8 metre tree soon... I hope :)

Yep, we now have two of these... Got them sent through the mail. Apparently they will reach about 8 metres. Should be able to give a bit of shade :) Can't wait but must :(

Cheers Damaris

Flowers...

My first yellow Iris :)

My Oma's favourite colour...

Love Spring for the flowers... Here are a couple just for you to enjoy :)

Cheers Damaris

Agapanthus galore...

Will look good when they're in their new home :)

Was given a whole heap... Have given some away and still have them sitting in the bucket as have nowhere to put them... I am in the process of organising a new garden bed for my overflow in the backyard but Russell's herb garden is more important right now as he has too many plants that already need badly planting out so they will sit there just a little longer I'm afraid...

Cheers Damaris

What a cutie :)

Thought of it all by himself :)

Josh has been learning how to cook. It is one of the things that they have to do as part of their chores. They must help out with dinner twice a week. So Josh had gotten it into his head that seeing he was rather good at doing anything to do with eggs he would make breakfast for us all...

As you can see from the Menu that he thought of all himself that he was after some time with either Tim or Russell and I. This was easily and lovingly done :) Was a great morning to wake up to this lovely menu... I truly hope he never looses that loveliness about him. xo

Cheers Damaris

Floppy comes to visit :)

Floppy, the chook :)

She is always doing this. Whether we are playing pool or just to check that we are still home :) Love her to bits :)

Cheers Damaris

Snow Flake Galore :)

My plant from my hubby :)

The one I bought from Aldi :)

Russell bought me home on of these... just because :) I then also found another one in Aldi and it was just as beautiful so bought it :)

They are both still giving us lots of lovely dainty flowers. Once the stop flowering I will but the bulbs out in the garden somewhere sheltered. :) Can't wait for the next lot but from the garden.

Cheers Damaris

Peace Lilly flowering :)

My lovely big plant

The large flower :)

Kate and James were convinced it was fake as they had never seen a real one they said... It's real alright and am very proud of it. :) It is still flowering after about four weeks :) :) :)

Flower on baby I say!!!

Cheers Damaris

Bees anyone???

Can you see them??? There are heaps :)

Couple of weeks ago we noticed all of the sudden that we had allot more bees coming and visiting our block... We had no idea where they were coming from but knew that they were thirsty as they attacked any bit of water we had lying around for our poultry...

We then found a wallaby carcass and wanted to give it to a neighbour as he uses them in his traps. It was there that I discovered that he was the one with the hive. Must have brought one over from his other block from across the highway. Anyway we were happy to know where they belonged and happy to have them around :) Half the hive left the other day though in a big swarm. I had heard about swarms but never experienced them. Boy were they loud with their buzzing. Shame there was not tree on our land for them to go to... I wonder where they ended up. They were on their way to another neighbour but who knows where they eventually landed...

Cheers Damaris

Josh's Garden...

Finished product of his labours...

Josh putting down the mulch, soil on top and mulch again :)

Since Russell has been home we have been getting stuck into the garden big time... This bug seems to have caught our youngest as well. Lovely to see in my opinion... So now he has his own garden bed with his own little statue that I bought for him as a gift. It's a worm and he rather likes it :)

He is growing Sunflowers, chives, parsley, Jerusalem Artichokes, carrots, lettuce just to name a few :)

Cheers Damaris

Centipede alert!!!

Was a biggy...

Yep, had one of these beauties in our house... Couldn't believe it was so long... Glad that it was out of the house and out of the chooks way so that they didn't eat it by accident and maybe die... Yuk!

Cheers Damaris

First Solar Stew...

It was delish :)

I really wanted to try the Solar Oven out not only for baking muffins and cakes and the like but also for a dinner so I just did what I normally do... Bit of this and a bit of that...

The end result was amazing. The meat just melted in your mouth and the stew was cooked by the sun to perfection :) I was so happy with the end result that it has been done quite a few times since off course :)

Cheers Damaris

Water... You say Water???

It is here :)

Yep, even though we are on tank water only, Russell likes to have it filtered just in case one of our many green and brown frogs poop into the water and he has to then drink that. What a wuss...

So anyway he order one with twin filters on eBay which came really quickly. Order two lots of more cartridges as well so that we had plenty of spares. So now we have our new under the sink water filter and all is hunky dory in this house lol

Cheers Damaris

Let's play :)

Kate and UNO = Love it :)

Kate taking the shot with Josh and James looking on :)

The day we had James and Kate over we also got a chance to play some pool... Girls against the boys. Yep, we won one and they won one as well so that was nice to have it even :)

Kate also really wanted to play UNO and you don't need to convince me to play that with kids :) So we played till Lisa got back... Fun times. Love those memories :)

Cheers Damaris

Warwick Art Gallery Visit :)

My favourate :)

I had a couple of hours to kill during the holidays with Lisa's kids and Josh after they went to the movies so I ended up taking them to the Warwick Art Gallery... It was amazing what they had on display...

There was woodworking that had been done by people from the Woodworking Club in Warwick as well as Paintings that had been done by the Warwick Painting Group. That's what I call the groups anyway. If they are different then I am sorry for misnaming them. Was wonderful to see so much local talent...

Naomi Potter who did the teaching on drawing was in there allot as well :)

Cheers Damaris

Solar Oven...

Yummm :)

So with the weather finally warming up and the sun being out just a little more than in Winter, I have finally been able to give it a good workout. Now whenever we have a sunny day, the Solar Oven ends up outside and get used :)

One thing you do have to get used to is that it doesn't make a crust on the top of the cake as in the oven when fan forced as this is only sun and no movement of air at all. Am loving the change :)

The boys love whatever comes out of it and so does anyone else that tries out what I bake :)

Love baking and not having it cost me a cent :) :) :)

Cheers Damaris

Dermal dilemma...

Here is one coming out. Was gross but loved it :)

The one I have left :) Pretty :)

So about six months ago I had two put in my right forearm... I love them as had them symbolising my two sisters... Better and cheaper than another tattoo lol

Anyway, one has been giving me nothing but grief for about two months so I finally bit the bullet and went to my GP. She took it out and good that she did too as it was only hanging on by one end and that was easily cut off... So now I only have one left. That is for both my lovely sisters instead... They now have to share lol

Cheers Damaris

YUK!!!

Some of the gunk that was in our fuel filter... Not happy as all our fuel only comes from one company...

The same day that we went to bowling in Toowoomba, Russell's car started playing up... Shouldn't as had only just had a service and was not even two years old... There was just no way the car would go over 3000rpm... Very strange. Always cut out then... On every gear... So we went to the experts and they looked at it for us straight away... What a way to spend the rest of the day :(

In the end we found out that the fuel filter was completely blocked... Nothing was getting into the engine so the filter was really doing its work but that is what made the car play up as there was not enough fuel in the line... Needless to say after allot of money and a three hour wait we were happy to leave Toowoomba... At least we got to see Spy Kids 4 :)

Cheers Damaris

Bowling time :)

Going for the Strike :)

Josh having allot of fun :)

One trip we took during the holidays with Josh was to Toowoomba... We went bowling. We booked in early and when we got there we were the only ones there. Was lovely to have the place to ourselves for the first half of the game. :)

This was also the day that for the first time ever Josh scored a Strike and a Spare :) He was so proud and so am I :) Russell off course won both games but no matter :) He used to be in a bowling league so imagine if he didn't lol

Cheers Damaris

On the computer

Josh doing this thing...

Bailey doing his thing also lol

Josh loves the laptop... Love it that it is movable :) This way he can come into my room if I am reading or relaxing and the dogs usually follow. This day he was cruising YouTube with dogs snoring next to him :) Had to take a photo... This day happened while Tim was at Bluecare. Was so nice to have a break and for Tim to have a break too. :)

Cheers Damaris