Not Already!!!

So I am driving home from school today and all the cherry farm signs are out and the cherry stand is open.  It can't be, the cherry stands signals the count down to Christmas has started!  So after the shock I couldn't but resist stopping and buying some cherry's which I am now scoffing as I write. Yummmmmm.

during the building

All Finished

OK so the boys room was finally finished on the weekend and they are all moved in and have managed to make messes of their rooms already.  For the last 19 months they have been in a big concrete floor room divided by shelves.  Now they have a room of their own and a small TV/lounge area.  So now everyone has their own rooms.  As much as I am an advocate of kids sharing rooms, I must admit that live is easier with them all having their own space.  When the kids specialist first said we should separate them I was a bit "hmmmm easier said than done" when you have 5 kids.  The girls still like to have "sleep overs" with each other nearly every few days and we allow that so am hoping the boys do the same.

The front of the house now

PJ unloading soil from the Ute

Put the kids to work weeding

We have also been doing more work on the Veggie Patch.  Another tonne of soil has gone in and all but one of beds are ready and raring to go.   We also filled many of the herb pots with soil and My lovely Hubby put his muscles to work digging up some big round metal circles from the garden off the pergola (we are eventually getting rid of that) and moving them around to the herb garden for strawberries, so they are already to go, I just have to find a day to go and buy the plants.

Little tomatillos

I planted in the herb garden today some chilli's, Chives, Spring onions, Capsicums and some Purple Tomatillos which are used mainly in Mexican cooking which I cant wait to give a go, they already have little fruit on them from the seedlings I planted.
I also planted out the tea section of the herb garden.  Mint, Trio of Mint, Peppermint and Chamomile.  I also have 1 sad little Camelia Sineisis (that's where your tea leaves come from) still waiting to go in but they aren't back in the stores till around mothers day so will get some more then.  I love home grown tea.

Our second batch of Chickens have started hatching, we had 8 hatch but 1 died,  there were 30 put into the incubator but there has been no movement for a few days so am thinking that might be it, which makes for a low success rate this time.  So the first batch is now outside in a small cage I wiped up before they are big enough to go in a real cage.  This cage is good cause with the small hutch area they huddle up and stay warm if they need to but when its hot I can cool them down with a wet towel.  Its just a bit easier to control the temperature in this than a big cage and they are still only 5 weeks old so they still need a little bit of babying.

This week I also came across this blog post for home made yogurt with the easiyo yogurt maker, so have pulled it out of the cupboard (or rather took it back from the mum lol) and have been having a go.  We go through stacks of yogurt and it isn't cheap so this is great.  I have been going with the following:

EASI YO YOGHURT Vanilla
500ml powdered milk (made up), mix in 2-3 tbs yoghurt for a starter, 1/2 cup powdered milk powder, 1-2 tsp vanilla essence, 1-2 tablespoons sugar dissolved in the smallest amount of water.  Shake to mix, top up to the top with made up powdered milk.

This is costing me about $1 a litre as opposed to the $4-5 ltrs in the store.  I made up some apricot by just pureeing some tinned apricot, but Ian and I are the only ones who like apricot yoghurt.  Cant wait till the summer fruits all come in so I can play with them in the yoghurt too


Well I thought it was going to rain but it changed its mind so I better go water all my new plants.

Catchya later