Dell's Dell

The Chaos of the silly season.

2011-12-12T16:34:00.001+10:30

Well you are all probably well and truly into the silly season just like us. School concerts, final assignments, reports, work do's, Christmas shopping to finish, the planning of Christmas day - Ahhhhhhh why do we do this to ourselves. Well this year with one week (the worst chaos week at that) of school to go my lovely baby gets chicken pox. As miserable as she is there is an upside to this - instead of racing around like a mad woman all week, I have now been forced to stay home and tend to my baby. At 7 she is still the baby of the family and a huge drama queen, and when she is sick she just wants to sit with mummy and snuggle. So this week will now be a nice quiet week at home with my little one, so a lovely rest before Christmas is definitely to be viewed as a blessing in disguise (all be it a spotty one).

I got a lovely pressie from a lady at school today. She knows I knit and crochet and she works at the local op shop so when this yarn came past her way she snapped it up for me to thank me for helping her out this year with some school runs i did when she was unwell. I never expected anything in return for the helping hand but this was a lovely thought and will be turned into many loved items in the future.

The first incubated chickens

Our chickens are laying up a storm, our numbers are on the way back up as Nish bought home 3 laying Isa Browns from her school project and the little chickens have really stepped up. Also I am a bit excited because the first batch of incubated chickens look to have 4 girls and 2 boy Sussex. I am yet to decide what is going on with the barnevelders, they all look the same. lol I also have 4 plain white cross breeds that look like they might be girls to. This girl heavy flock will allow me to replenish and then all the others will go for food. So as annoying as the fox attack was it wasn't a complete unfixable disaster, and it has moved Ian into sorting out my chicken coup and run.

We had friends come over for a BBQ on Saturday and that bought with it 4 extra adults and 4 extra kids. I just love watching kids up here running around and yelling with childish delight. There was some adult giggling when I just leaned over and picked up a lamb for the kids to pat as they are more than 1/2 my size now. The sheep do look rather impressive bolting up the hill straight at me when I call them.

I would like to introduce you all to the newest member of our family. Sisma. She is my little baby and I got her from my little sis Dee. She will become our mummy cat (Ma) get it Sis-Ma. We thought we would let the kids experience kittens "just once". She is lovely and very smoochy. She has settled in extremely well and has everyone wrapped around her paws, even they other cats took straight to her.

As I was writing this the kids came to inform me that Hercules our lamb ram was stuck in a tree???? Earlier today I saw him walking around the front bush paddock, he had gotten off his tether and I thought I might just let him have a wander around, he is such a sook and wont go out of sight of either us or Billy the goat so I figured he would be OK. Well as usual when it comes to our animals I was wrong. I'm not sure why but he was trying to climb up a tree, I assume the leaves must be tasty. He had one of his back legs caught between 2 branches and was stuck. I had to lift him down but then he was limping, I can't see any damage and he keeps shacking it out so I am thinking maybe just pins and needles so we did a few laps around the house block to walk it off - crazy animal.

I thought today I would share our Christmas breakfast recipe with you. It is really easy to make, you throw it together the night before and put it in the fridge, then just put it in the oven in the morning. We put ours in just before we start with the pressie opening and by the time we are finished breakfast is hot and ready to be served.

Christmas Breakfast
250gms shredded Cheddar cheese
6 eggs
3 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
3 strips bacon, cut in half

Directions:
Trim crusts from bread. Layer bread then cheese in bottom of greased 7 1/2 x 12 inch flat baking dish. Beat eggs and milk together and stir in the salt, pepper and mustard. Pour this over bread, cheese. Lay bacon on top. Refrigerate overnight. The next morning bake, uncovered, at 180 degrees for 50-55 minutes.
Remove from oven just after guests sit down. Otherwise, it may tend to sink. Tastes just as great, but doesn't look as glamorous. Serves 6.

I hope you will give it a try, its delish and so easy.

Well that's it for this week

Catchya later

Its Late but it's Here

2011-11-22T15:37:00.001+10:30

OK so I'm a day late this week, but have had a busy week. Not sure what made this week busier than normal it just was. It was our 16th wedding anniversary on Friday and both my and Ian's parents took the 5 kids for the weekend so we could have some alone time. It was lovely, its not something we get very often so it was nice just to be a couple for a little while.

On Saturday we manage to finish putting up the Chicken area. there are 2 separate night time areas and one large outdoor area. The ducks and Chickens seem to be getting along, or at least have an understanding to leave each other alone. After our Chicken tragedy the other week the 1 remaining full size chicken has really stepped up and is laying 8 eggs in 7 days. Also our bantam chickens have joined the party and all 3 of the girls are laying an egg a day, they might be small but 3 small eggs and 1 large egg is enough to scrape by in the house so that we don't have to buy eggs, so that's good.

At the beginning of last week quite a few of the blogs I read and many recipe cites I browse all seemed to be talking about Granola. So I took it as a lovely nudge to make some. I had been complaining to my mum about how expensive cereal is and we go through so much of it for some reason. We also have a small weetbix problem, nobody will eat the broken crumby bits at the end of the box (which is about 3-4 serve usually), so this solves that problem as well. I would like to share the recipe with you, It is a combination of lots of the different recipes I looked at after tweaking for personal taste. It works out to be about $1.50 for a 3lt plastic cereal container full. That is a lot cheaper than the $5-7 I currently pay for the same amount of cornflakes or cherrios, plus I know what has gone into it and can tweak it to my hearts content. Dave has already requested a Bar Version be made for his lunch box, so that may be coming in the near future too. OK here is the recipe:

Dell's Granola

Ingredients:
    1/3 cup brown sugar
    1/3 cup oil (canola or vegetable)
    1/2-2/3 cup honey (fruit puree or golden syrup can   be used too)
    2 teaspoons vanilla
    1 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste)

    3 cups old fashioned oats Or left over crushed weetbix
    4 cups quick oats
    1 cup coconut
    1 Cup of dried Fruit (tightly packed) ) or to taste - optional


Directions:
    In a small saucepan mix together brown sugar, oil, and honey.
    Bring to a boil.
    Remove from heat and add vanilla and cinnamon.
    In a large bowl combine oats, coconut, and sugar/oil mixture.
    Stir until oats are well coated and everything is combined.
    Spread onto 2 trays with sides or pans
    Bake at 160 degrees for 10 minutes, giving a stir about the 5 min mark
    Remove from oven and leave to cool
    Mix in dried fruit.
    store in an air tight container.

This recipe is also really yummy with some yogurt and fresh fruit for a snack - Yummy. I make it about every second day and it only takes about 15 Min's, give it a try you might be surprised.

On the Knitting front, I need some motivation. I just really cant get motivated to do any, I am hoping a visit to Dee's this weekend might spur me on cause I really need to get going I have so many works in progress that my knitting basket can officially not fit any more and don't walk to close to it it may topple over.    I did get offered a stack of alpaca fleeces from my neighbour this week who just had her flock shawn so I am hopping that will kick start the spinning again too.

Well that's about it for this week

Catchya later

.

Hindsight -Grrrrr

2011-11-14T17:46:00.001+10:30

This week started off badly with a fox taking all but 1 rooster and 1 hen of our large chickens and 4 of our little chickens. This is the second time in 19 months I have lost my flock, which this time was getting up to a rather nice size (about 20 in total) and were supplying both the kitchen and incubator nicely with eggs I am no longer going to free range our chickens. We do enclose them at night but during the day we were letting them have free run of the property. Not any more. Its a lovely idea but I am pretty sure that a chicken kept in a cage with plenty of room will be much happier than a free ranged dead one!

So this weekend we began to move the cages around. We have a split in to cage off the side of the house that we spent a long time pulling apart and moving around the the other side of the house off the veggie patch/orchard. Once we put the cages back together we are planing to fence of a large area with hurricane fencing (really high stuff with a small mesh). So there will actually be 3 indoor/night cages attach to a huge run. The bright side of this is that I have been trying to get this chicken plan done since we moved here and it will have much easier access to the workshop where the incubator and brooder is. Also the ducks will be moving to so they will stop messing all over my front porch - So I suppose I should say Yay!

The week continued with Dave's asthma going into melt down. His asthma was pretty bad before we moved up here (multiple puffers numerous times a day and always sick with some chest infection) but since we moved up out of the burbs into that fantastic country air, he has been really healthy. I could count on 1 hand the times he has needed his puffer in the last 19 months. Well he ended up having 4 days off school, a trip to the hospital and a trip to the Doc's. so now he is back on 2 puffers for at least 2 weeks, and then the Doc will reassess.

I did get some more seedlings done for the garden - 8 types of tomatoes, 2 types of melons and 4 types of cucumbers. I also have been preparing more pots to plant more herbs in. Every time I go out to the garden I get hungry just thinking about the yummy food that we will be eating in just a few months.

We have been very naughty this week and have been wolfing down 3-4 kg of cherries every 2 days. I just love this time of year the summer fruits are just starting to creep in and remind us of all that light, healthy food.

A few months ago I gave a lovely mum at school some of my laundry powder and dishcloths to try after chatting in the car park about it one day. I thought if she liked them she would just make them herself but she just wanted to buy some. I worked it out at about $6 Kg (just for the ingredients). which when compared to store bought powder is not the cheapest but certainly no where near the dearest and you use about 1/4 -1/2 of what you would use per wash in the store bought stuff. She has now ordered another Kg and 2 of my dishcloths for Chrissie pressies for the Nana's. Its nice to see some of the old, chemical free stuff coming back into favour and I am glad to keep making it for her as long as she wants it.

Well even though there were no "major" catastrophes, I still felt a bit "yuck" this week and just when I needed it the following verse came up on my daily devotional reading - It still amazes me that just when you need it Gods word seems to be right there.

17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty,

18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Well that's it for this week, I cant wait to tell you all how good this coming week will be.

Cathchya later

Not Already!!!

2011-11-07T17:59:00.000+10:30

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

With Spring Comes Work!

2011-10-31T19:31:00.000+10:30

As much as I have been sooo looking forward to spring, I had forgotten that it also brings more work. Have you ever noticed that when you open the windows to let the air and light in after a cold winter that when you look around there seems to be lots of cleaning to be done. Yes you have been doing your normal weekly cleaning jobs, but now with that spring light coming through the window that cupboard door seems to be a dirty shade of cream, there are thousands of finger (and lip - Kie was giving her self kisses lol) prints on the mirror, and lets not even mention the cob webs. So I have had these things staring at me all week this week but with the boys bedrooms still being built and everything they own being stashed throughout the house I hadn't had a chance. Well there rooms are 90% done (just the bricking in of the windows on the outside to be done now) so we moved them in. That was a job seriously I think they have too many toys and little bitsy ones at that.

With Spring Cleaning in mind I thought it was about time to share with you the Jiff Cleaner recipe I use. I use it to clean all the sinks, bath, vanity areas and the toilets. We are on a bio cycle for sewage here and they work on bacterial breakdown so we cant use most chemicals or any thing with bleach or antibacterials. This works wonders and is actually the only thing that touches the build up of the dam water scale that gets on the loo. I was using it when we lived in the suburbs mainly cause it didn't have harsh chemicals and was cheap but now its a way of life. Give it a go.

Jiff Type Cleaner
1/2 cup liquid soap (I use my home made one)
1/4 Bi-carb Soda
water

mix soap and bi-carb till a thick liquidy paste.
Add small amount of water to smooth consistency (personal taste.)
This does store, sometimes it may separate but just give it a shake.

So with the boys mess back in their rooms, I got a bee in my bonnet today and couldn't stand it any longer so I started those spring cleaning jobs with the jobs I had to do today. It was the kids bathroom, floors and Laundry today. There is definitely more to come this week including a lot of glass sliding doors.

Ian also finally bought me some soil for the veggie patch on Sunday so we have loaded that in and there are 3 more garden beds ready for my seedlings. I also rounded up all the posts and plant protectors I could find on the property and started laying them out in what will be the herb garden. We have and area between the house and the veggie patch that is a decent size area and at the moment just looks weedy and messy. I cant really plant anything there because it is just all that horrible foundation rock that they use when they build the house and it would cost a fortune to get it dug out and soil brought in plus really do I want to be digging up that close to the house? so rather than just forever be annoyed with this area I have rounded up anything that looks like it will hold soil and will be filling them with herbs. Another tonne of soil and I should be ready to plant lots of herbs yay!

Whilst we were all out working on the garden I brought our baby chicks out for their first frolic in the sun, they had a ball. The ducks also finally realised that the blue tarp in front of the boys room isn't actually water and found their pond. (Did I tell you that Donald's girl friend Daisy had arrived). they aren't quiet eat out of your hands ducks yet but they love to hang around the front of the house and if you haven't been out to chat to them for a while they start peaking through the windows and tapping for you if they see you.

OK so my little sis Dee says to me (on-line chat) I need to learn how to crochet hair clips. so the hunt for some patterns and some playing around with them ensued. Here is the results (excuse the hot pink but when doing testers I use up the bitsy yarn and if it works I have little girls who love pink lol) Have a go at them the are a great way to use up little bits of left over yarn and any princesses in your life will love you. You can find the patterns here and here and the other one is in my head lol. Well that about sums up this last week.

So catchya later

The sun was finally shinning!

2011-10-24T19:50:00.004+10:30

Well we spent a glorious weekend outside, for once it wasnt raining or drizzling or just plain wet. I got some planting in the veggie patch done finally. 2 types of cabbage (one purple), 6 types of Lettuce, Rocket and Coloured Silverbeet, so thats the Brassica bed planted. All of these I have grown from seeds in the little hot houses I bought earlier this week. I am now waiting on more soil to get the Tomatos, chillis and eggplants going.

Sunday, Ian let me play with his new toy, a ride on mower. I did the veggie garden where the grass was upto my waist in some places, I couldnt see the fruit trees bordering the garden for all the grass. It wasnt as easy as I thought it would be. definatly made to be used on flat open spaces, not for swerving around fruit trees and garden beds. Got the job done though, now it looks much better, and I can even see that all my new fruit trees are coming along nicely with lots of new foliage. My Fig tree even has a little fig on it!

It was lovely to see the kids out playing in the sunshine again, all of them at some point came and helped in the veggie patch too. Hide and seek is a whole new exciting game on 15 acres but alas there is always one who doesn't get found and gets cross when they have sat in their little hidie spot for too long. I turned my back on the ride on mower for 2 seconds and Ian had it back and was mowing every flat spot around the house! There were animals running everywhere trying to get away. We let the ducks out for a wander for the first time after clipping a wing each. they had a ball checking out their new home. The kids thought this was a seriously mean thing to do especially when I told them that it was to stop them being naughty and flying away and that I would consider removing body parts of any naughty children.

Today of course the drizzle was back so spent the day inside pottering around. For tea tonight I made meatloaf and thought it was about time I shared the recipe. its one of my goto recipes for a hearty but quickish meal and its great for using up little bits of veggies that are hanging around in the back of the fridge.

Cauliflower, Peas, Bread Crumbs, Celery, Onion, Carrot

Dell's Meatloaf
Ingredients:

500gms mince

1 cup bread crumbs

1 small onion

1 carrot grated

1 1/2 cup grated or finely chopped veggies (eg zuccini, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, peas)

2 tb sp tomato paste

2 tb sp mixed dry herbs

1 egg beaten

1/4 cup bbq sauce (I use a home made one but bought will do)

Directions:

preheat oven to 180 degrees, line tray with alfoil/baking paper

mix mince, bread crumbs, onion carrot, Veggies tomato paste, dry herbs, and egg together in a bowl, mix well with hands

shape into a 10 x 18 cm rectangle and place on tray

bake until firm to touch (30 mins approx)

spoon over bbq sauce and bake for a further 10 mins til golden glazed

remove from oven stand for 5 mins

serve with veggies or salad.

NB this is fairly mild flavour (for my kids) but I add pepper sauce or any other spicy sauce when making it for us big kids.

I hope you will try it and enjoy it like we do.

Well I am off to do some homework with the kids

Catch ya later.

Spring Is Here Finally!

2011-10-18T20:35:00.000+10:30

So life has been a bit busy around here. I set my incubator going with some eggs (12 ea of Barnevelders, Sussex and mixed) we ended up with 16 chicks, not to shabby for our first run especially considering with the novelty factor I kept peaking in when I wasn't supposed to. The chicks are now in their brooder and are about 10 days old. The incubator has been reset with just mixed eggs. Aren't they cute.

As with life on farmlet there is always life and death, this is a good thing for the kids to experience. We unfortunately lost one of our sheep. Hope was one of the first 2 Border Leicesters we bought onto the property, she had a girl last year (Faith)and twins this year (Tramp and Lady) she was also a great wet nurse for one of Chastity's twin girls which she rejected. It was very sudden, she was fine Monday afternoon and by Wednesday midday was down with an exploded udder with gang-green from mastitis and died about 6.00pm. (warning icky photos)

We also have a new member to the family with a friend arriving tomorrow. This is Donald and tomorrow Daisy will arrive. They will be pets ( I know more pets lol) but further down the tract I hope to have some Indian Runner Ducks for breeding.

OK so that does the farm. We had a holiday over on the Yorke Peninsula with the Johnson's and we took the kids to the Minlaton Show. The kids had a fantastic time and it was great for mum to spend some time with Aunty Dee. The kids started back at school this week after 2 weeks of holidays (2 weeks really doesn't seem like enough). They had swimming school for the primary school kids and My big High School girl did her first mentor teaching this week. She as been doing so well (3 A+'s) that the home economics teachers have asked her to be a mentor teacher for this terms master classes. She is so excited and it has given her such a confidence boost and anything that excites a child about school has to be good in my book.

My knitting and crocheting has been an absolute disgrace and we wont even talk about the spinning and dying. I have so many projects on the go. I have decided that I really shouldn't start anything else until I finish something in this list. lets see I am currently knitting: A handspun jumper for Ian, a play jumper for David, a skirt for Akielah, a cardie for Kenishia, 2 boleros for me, socks for David, and the forever ongoing Civil war Shawl for fun. Then there is the endless dishcloths I am crocheting and I have started a table cloth too cause I am just sick of the brown one we have and I cant find another one big enough that I like. Now the weather is finally getting to be nice I am hoping to spend some time out in the fresh air working my way through this list.

The garden is still a work in progress, I have lots of seedlings I am hoping to plant this weekend (Lord and rain permitting). I also have 5 more fruit trees still waiting to go in.

I also have a great new app for my phone. Youversion is a bible and devotions app that has lots of different versions of the bible (even talking ones) and lots of devotions too, I can flag and mark verses for future reference too. I have been trying to make this part of my daily routine and so far so good. Even got to put some of the verses into action and use them in daily life with the kids. The app can be pretty much used for any Internet type phone, go have a look here, its free I highly recommend it.

I hope you like the new look.

Well that's it from me today, catch you later

Dell

Another Month went by!!!!

2011-09-22T16:51:00.000+09:30

OK so my good intentions of weekly posts fell straight in a hole, I blinked and a month went by.

It has been very busy. I have been setting up the garden, From this blank canvas, we have planted 14 fruit trees, and put in 5 garden beds (more are in the making) set up the potato area. I still have lots of grass to kill off but the rain just wont go away.

I have also started the plants for the garden off in seedlings. The pots I make up from this website. I make them up every year (although every year I have to go hunting for a link on how to make them, ha ha). And thanks to Dee finding on ebay for me I have lovely little green houses for them to start in.

Ok so do you want the list of what I have in seedlings.......

Beets	Baby
Cabbage	Cabeza red
Cabbage	Golden Acre
Capsicum	California Wonder
Capsicum	Giant Bell
Capsicum	Golden Calwonder
Capsicum	Golden Calwonder
Chilli	Hungarian Hot wax
Chilli	Jalapeno
Eggplant	Black Beauty
Leek	carentan2
Lettuce	Lolla Rossa
Lettuce	Marvel of 4 seasons
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Green
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Red
Lettuce	Gwenda White
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Green
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Red
Lettuce	Great Lakes
Lettuce	Lollo Rossa
Lettuce	Marvel of 4 seasons
Melon	Haled Best
Passion Fruit	Black
Rocket	Perenial
Rocket
Silver Beet	Colour Mix
Silver Beet	Colour Mix
Tomatillo	Purple
Tomato	Cherry Fox
Tomato	Roma
Tomato	Roma San Marzano
Tomato	Roma San Marzano
Tomato	Cherry Camp Joy
Tomato	Cherry Pear Yellow
Tomato	Cherry Pear Yellow
Tomato	Green Zebra
Tomato	St Pierre
Tomato	Grosse Lisse
Tomato	Green Zebra
Tomato	Black Krim
Tomato	Cherry Red Pear
Tomato	Black Russian
Watermelon	Sugarbaby
Watermelon	Moon & stars
potatoes	Colliban
potatoes	desiree
potatoes	pontiac
potatoes	Sebago
Bean	Bush Provider
Bean	Bush Roc D'or
Bean	Bush Strike
Bean	Climbing Blue Lake
Bean	Climbing Purple King
Corn	sweet Terrific F1
Cucumber	Burpless F1
pea	early Grop Massey
Pea	Purple Podded
Pea Snow	oregon Dwarf
peas	Greenfeast

its gonna be tasty. anything listed exactly the same twice is because the seeds are in 2 batches on from this year and some old seed I had.

Ok so thats the Gardening, onto sheep. we had lots of lambs this year, from 5 ewes we got 10 lambs (yes 5 sets of twins) and not one coloured but i wasnt really expecting any. We lost on to a fox and one to the cold and one is a little bit hmmmmm shall we say royal.

Honesty's Babies, Fred and Wilma, They are B/L x Corridale. Fred died when he got out of the night pen and got to cold

Purity's Babies, Stitch and Lilo (boy and Girl), They are B/L x Corridale.

Then Chastity had Betty and Veronica, B/L x Merino

Then came Hope's babies, Lady and Tramp (Girl and Boy) which are pur B/L (Border Leicester) Hope has also been a bit of a legend as she has picked up feeding and caring for one of Chastity's girls as well. Chastity is only dealing with one.

And last but not least is Patience's boys, Archie and Jughead who are pure Border Leicester's as well. Unfortunately Archie got taken by a fox the first night and Jughead is a bit well special as you can see.

We have all done the shearing or rather I should say my friend (and Dee's Hubby) Paul did it for us. We also managed to set up the shed as well.

This is the legendary Paul with Tinkerbell!

And just to finish off I also turned 40! I got spoilt a bit, I got all my fruit trees, a stack of Amish books, a champagne glass (just for me), some preserving equipment (for all the fruit and veggies that I will have) and an incubator so I can grow lots of chickens for eating - yum. Im sure that will fill up more posts lol. Well I think that is it. Next month i must update my knitting lol

the Slacker update!

2011-08-16T16:36:00.001+09:30

I admit it I have been extremely slack this year. Have decided that I will make an effort to keep my blog updated from now on (anyone laying bets on howlong this will last, he he).

OK so best I update a bit cause there has been lots going on.

In December a fox came through and just about wiped out all our chickens and ducks, was left with only 3 of the original ilsa browns and my little baby chicks. My adopted baby sis (who you hear lots about through out the blog), Dee came to the rescue and gave me some more Sussex, 2 girls and a boy, along with a Barnevelder Rooster for the Ilsa Browns and a set of Lanshans, Her dad also gave me a whole lot of little english game hens that are just for cuteness really but have started giving me very cute little white eggs.

January was a lovely time in Pt Turton with Dee and her Family, lots of fun with 10 kids, the beach and 2 caravan's. Dee and I had the kids organised down to a fine art so we had lots of time for spinning and knitting together. We came home to our first ever case of Flystrike and lost one of our sheep Mercy - a grey corridale. she was fairly far gone and Im not sure if the flystrike got her or the attempts of us trying to clean it out. The whole thing was horrendous, it was the first of our animals that we lost (not counting babies that didnt make it along the way).

We also got some new sheep - A coloured merino ram - Hercules, a black corridale ewe - Tinkerbell, a grey corridale Pebbles and a Merino ewe - Smurfette. When we bought her home and had a good look at her she isnt quiet right, she is very small, and has bent front legs and very odd set in eyes, so that will teach me to look at my sheep properly and not just the wool. D and a new goat named Billy.

I also went over to Dees in May and learnt to kill chickens with Dee, even got a couple of kids invovled, Kie didnt mind but David thought the whole thing was just a bit icky.

Somewhere in there we put the ram Honor in with the Patience, Hope (the B/L's) Honesty and Purity (The Corridales) and Chastity (the Merino).

I finished the Swing Top/Dress for Tycarni, A neck warmer, made from handspun wool from our merino sheep Cuttlett, for Kenishia. Socks for Dave, and few other things.

I made a dress, shrug, booties and beanie for my cousin's new baby out of some handspun and some recycled yarn

Started these for myself

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/86-25-vest-in-vienna

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/113-14-bolero-in-garter-st-with-turns-in-fabel-and-border-in-crochet-squares

ok so thats a snippett of the knitting/spinning.

well thats about it for now, the comming posts will be all about gardening and the new garden and orchard that we have going in and babies with lambing upon us.. I will try and be good and keep it updated with all the fun stuff and some tidbits that we find helpful in our road hear at our little farm

Spring bought me lots of lovely gifts!

2010-11-28T11:53:00.000+10:30

So we have been busy as usually. My lovely 2 sussex hens have been dutifully sitting on some eggs. Myrtle and Gyrtle have delivered me 5 lovely baby chicks and have decided to sit again for me. I think we have 3 sussex chicks and 2 Sussex X Ilsa Brown chick. Aren't they just gorgeous!

Sussex X Ilsa Brown (we think)

Sussex X Ilsa Brown

our 3 Sussex chicks

We also have some new ducks, A friend had them but her exhisting duck did not take well to the new ones so they now have a home here. They are Indian Runner Ducks (you know the ones, they stand upright, the movie Babe had them) We haven't named them yet but I'm thinking Duck, Duck and Duck! I know its silly but when ever I walk out there the first thing I say is Duck, Duck Duck! They seem to be changing colours nearly every day so we shall see how they turn out when they get their adult feathers. They are cute but you wouldn't believe how messy they are, I think my kids and chickens together are cleaner than these things.

Duck, Duck and Duck!

I also went out the a spinning equipment market at Littlehampton this month too. It was my Dear Hubby and my 15th wedding anniversary and he wasn't here so what else do you do but shop. I have been eyeing off the squirrel cage swift for a long time but couldn't justify the money for it, well I spend my b'day money I had been saving on getting it. and I am so glad I did, no more bribing someone to hold the skein while I ball it up and followed by the inevitable knots and yelling, and it is as smooth as silk. I also unexpectedly got a new wheel ( I know I already have 2 ashfords which I love). She is a second hand Ron Dooley wheel ( I lovely old man here in the hills that makes wheels and lots of other wood things) it is lovely and compact for me to travel with and spins like nothing else I have ever spun on, My spinning improved just using it. I made a beanie (using my pattern but used a beginning st of 5 not 4) out of some lovely kathys fibres roving, it is 21.5 micron merino, so it is just so soft.

Squirrel Cage Swift New Wheel

Kathy's Fibre Roving

Navajo Plied Yarn

Nish's Beanie

Hmm what else. oh I started the beginning of my veggie patch, I planted just some basics. It's not the veggie patch I want but that is going to take longer that expected whilst we sort out other things around the property. So for now its a start, I figured I would just keep expanding it until its the layout I want. at the moment it is just 1 little lonely bed in a paddock.

The layout of my 1 little bed

see the very lonely little bed!

The other thing I love about our first spring here is not knowing what is popping up in the garden. The gardens here had been started and even though its a bit different from what I would have done there is lots of flowers. It had been let go for a few years though and there is lots of work to be done but every where you look there are beautiful flowers of all shades coming up. There is also some exhisting fruit scattered around the place so I thought I would share some with you - got to share the beauty!

Exhisting Passion fruit Vine

the flowers on the passion fruit vine

No idea what it its but its pretty and pink!

I love this one for the changing colours in the flowers

This is a type of rose, it starts out Pink and as it ages fades to white.
It grows like the clappers and is a pretty way to hide the Bio-cycle

Well this has been a long post so better wind it up. If I don't make it back before Christmas, I hope you all stay safe and enjoy this celebration of our lords birth. Don't forget in all the chaos to love one another and enjoy.

Catchya later

Dell

Spring is definately here!

2010-11-06T17:29:00.000+10:30

As usually we have been busy here. Spring is definaely upon us and they Hayfever is in full swing. Although even with the worst hayfever we have all had in years (if ever for some of the munchkins) we have still been so much healthier over all through the last few months than we were before we moved up here - so yes moving here is still the blessing we thought it was.

Hmmm where to begin this month. How about with the sheep. After shearing I got my lovely coloured girls some coats to keep their wool clean and to prevent sunbleeching of those lovely colours. It is lovely when you let the sun get them and makes some beautiful hand spun tweed yarn, but I will generally keep them coated and then maybe every 2-3 years give them a year off. Paul and Delvene (our farmer friends) came over for the weekend with the kids and we had a lovely time. 4 adults, 9 kids and 3 dogs in the house made for a very noisy but fantastic weekend. On the sunday Paul and I ( and my beautiful spud and heys of course) rounded up the sheep to put the coats on. Here are some picies Paul trying to teach me how to handle the sheep - Yes go on have a good laugh, Ian was. (It was a miricale we got photos that werent blurred from the laughing movements) and the girls have their coats on now.

Stick your Leg out round the back like this!

There I did it! Yay Me!

Having a go by myself this time - I did get it in the end it was just unconventional

Me and Paul putting the coat on

My beautiful girls (and 1 boy) some with coats on.

Free back in the paddock now!

Ok so now you have had a good giggle, what else has been going on. The kids had their first sports day and their new school. They had a great time, which is unusuall for Dave and PJ especially. Ian has made a dog fence around the house so now my lovely boys can run free all day instead of being chained to a long lead - their behaviour is much improved. As we speak Nish is packing to go for a 6 day camp to Canberra with her year 7 class and some of the other year 7 classes from other schools in the area - she is soooooo excited. Its only a few more weeks left of this term and she is off to High School next year. Where does the time go? she is practically a teenager! Kielah has been diagnosed with Autism (so thats 3 on the autism spectrum now) nothing much changes around here with her - we always new- but at least now she will be able to get so more help at school Her speech therapy is going along great guns and she is now speaking well enough that most people can understand the gist of what she is saying. The boys are loving it here still, David is outside so much and PJ is just a born farm kid he is alway out either gardening or playing with the animals or wandering around some where. Tycarni is doing fabulously at school and still loves it she is lovin all the flowers that are blossoming at the moment - definiately loves spring.

We also have our 2 white sussex hens sitting on eggs that should beggin to hatch over the next week. I have cleaned out the cage ready for the new arrivals. You will all be glad to hear that I still occasionally have blonde moments. I got royally yelled at by Ian this week when he was on his way to the hardware store for some plumbing stuff and I asked him to get me some Hay. "You've got to be kidding me haven't you, open your eyes woman have you seen all the grass lying around the property, go cut some!" Yes I did actually forget that the paddocks are so full of hay and grass thay we cant get it down quick enough. Yes I made hay. I now realise we really do need to hurry up and get a tractor because chopping the grass with a whipersnipper and putting it through the mulcher took me ages and I got about 1/3 of a bale of hay! Oh well at least the baby chicks have a nice new clean home to come to.

I have been very slack this month and have barely looked at my spinning wheel. I have finished off a few projects of knitting though!

Next years Diary Cover - designed by me!

A vest for PJ that was done as a KAL with Delvene

Socks for PJ, another KAL with Delvene

and a Tee for Nish

I have decided to get some spinning done in november because poor David hasn't had anything done for him since we moved as 2 of the 3 things I have going for him are waiting on me spinning some more yarn. Its good to have goals!

Delvene also put me onto a great handsoap recipe, I have been looking for one for ages and couldn't find one that would work or that I liked (or rather Ian liked). I love it and thought I would share it with you.

Easy liquid soap recipe

This is the recipe from hazeltree farm but the bits in red are the bits I added or changed

This recipe makes just under two litres (half a gallon) of general purpose liquid soap. It is best made in the evening, as it will need to cool overnight before blending (the final stage).

Ingredients:

1 cup soap flakes or grated bar soap.
1.5 litres (1 1/2 quarts) water.
1 tablespoon of glycerin.
Lavender or any essential oil
food colouring if you would like to tint the soap (I use a 3 drps of red and it turns the whole thing a creamy
     pale pink)

You will need:

A large saucepan.
A cup measure, and a tablespoon measure.
A sealable glass jar, or an assortment of cleaned hand pumps or old squeeze-pack shampoo containers.
    I use a clean 3ltr milk container
A stick blender, food processor or hand-held egg beater.

Method:

Mix the ingredients together in a large saucepan over a low heat.
Keep stirring occasionally until the soap flakes have dissolved and the mixture is smooth in texture.

Let cool overnight until room temperature. The mixture will be slightly thick and milky-looking, with a jellylike
      texture. (I usually pop it into a sealable jar for cooling). (or I leave it in the pot with the lid on on the stove
      over night
add the food colouring and the food dye at this point if you wish

Blend with a stick blender, food processor or egg beater until smooth. (this is the bit that made it work for
      me, the recipe is the same as the one I had tried and failed so many times in the past and this is the only
       thing different and you wont believe the difference it makes)
Store in a sealable glass jar, or decant directly into whatever containers you want

I have used this in my cleaning spray (recipe below) instead of the grated soap and it works a treat. My eczma is a lot better of and the kids using a bit too much doesnt annoy me so much as when we were paying through the teeth for liquid soap and no more dead soap bars lying around - its great give it a try.

Cleaning Spray
2 tbs of Grated soap (now I use 1/2 cup of the above soap recipe and skip step 1 of the method)

4 cup of  water

1/2 cup of white vinegar
prefered essential oil - lavender, orange or tea tree are my preferred

Method
Mix the grated soap into 1 cup of boiling water.
once the soap is disolved and cooled of to warm add in the remaing 3 cups of water and the vinegar, once the water is a tepid temperature add in your chosen essential oil. store in a spray bottle and use for nearly every thing

- quick cleaning of spills, cleaning the vanity, cleaning glass and windows, wiping of laminate bench tops - the list goes on, there is nothing I really dont use it for it is pretty much my standard go to cleaner. The lavender is also an antibacterial so that is great too especially when there are horrid bugs or sickness in the house it is sprayed nearly on anything I walk past lol.
Now even better with the liquid soap and easier to make up as I dont need the boiling water any more and then there is no wait for cooling down time.

Well everyone, this has been a long post, thanks for hanging in there, you all deserve a chochie break now. Ok well will post again soon, stay safe and well and enjoy spring.

catch you later

Dell

Spring Is Here

2010-10-09T10:52:00.000+10:30

Yes spring has begun and this month has been all about the knitting. I have finished and started quiet a lot of projects lately and have been buying wool like a made woman. hmm where to begin, OK I made this top for Nish, and this vest jacket (with a few modifications)

PJ Scored a vest (sorry no online link to pattern). I actually did this as a knit along with my farmer friend DJ. I found this really annoying to knit and don't particulary like it cause its just too busy and like an explosion in a jam factory, but he loves it and I have trouble getting it off him to wash, which does make me feel good about knitting it.

DJ and I have also started this for our girls and this vest for our baby boys (sorry need ravelry to access this link). I am also knitting a tee for Nish and a dress/top for Tay. So yes knitting has been busy.

Ian was also concerned about the growths on my trees as you can see in these photos.

Yes they are lovely skeins of recycled yarn. I went for a little trip to my farmer friends and she took me to a local second hand shop that does recycled yarn. I went a bit nuts, I think I worked out there is about 70 x 50gm balls of yarn I bought. I will definatley need to do some more knitting. the yarn stash is getting a bit out of control now, I have officially run out of space in the workshop to put it.

On the farm, we also have a new sheep, her name is Cutlett and is a White Merino, so we are now up to 9 sheep in a vast aray of colours. We also had a first shearing. I have kept the fleeces but not sure that they will be spinable as they are all a bit short. they sheep were shorn at all different times and were all under a year ago, but to get them into the right time for here and all at the same time I had to bite the bullet and just do it. here's some picies.

Chastity - Black Merino

lovely black smooshy goodness

Naked Sheep

6 adult fleeces & 2 lamb fleeces

So now my lovelies are all immunised, drenched, shorn and tagged, so they now get to spend 6 months just eating and growing me lovely wool.

We have also taken Myrtle (one of our sussex chickens) and put her seperate with 11 eggs to see if she will sit and hatch some chickens for us - now we just wait.

The grass around here is getting a bit out of control and we have yet to buy a tractor or ride on mower. So I took to the patch were I want my veggie garden to be with a whiper snipper, yeah not something I would like to do regularly, I am only about 1/2 way through and I have had enough already.

Well thats about it for now, next I plan to work on our putting in our veggie patch and orchard, so we shall see how that goes.

Catch you later

Dell

A catch up!

2010-09-13T08:12:00.000+09:30

I must begin by saying I have been so slack with my blog but life has been very busy and exciting to say the least. Where to start well our girls had their babies. Patience had twin boys we named Justice and Honour. we were hand feeding Justice and he was going great guns. he would spend the night in the outdoor cage that is attached to the house and then in the morning he would walk out on his lead to the grass for the day, then back in at night and spend the evening getting his bottle feeds. He was just starting to really settle in as part of the family when unfortuately he got in to the old grown over veggie patch and ate something he shouldn't - unfortunately he is no longer with us. Probably a blessing that I wasn't blogging then. his brother Honour will now become our breeding ram. Hope had a lovely little girl who is very prissy and delightful. both are with their mums in the paddock doing well.

PJ and Justice

We have also added 4 new sheep to our flock. They are an early birthday present for me. Chastity is a Black Merino and she has a white bottom. Honesty is a Black/Grey Corridale and Mercy is a Grey Corridale, and last but not least is Purity who is a White Corridale. These girls a lovely addition to our flock and will supply some beutiful choices of wool for me to spin. Both the Merino and the Corridales will also cross well with our Border Leister Ram Honour to produce even nicer wool and lovely meat - We are looking forward to lots of BBQ's with friend in the years to come.

The New Girls

Life was also a bit chaotic here with Ian away for the only trip of the year that spans 2 weeks and a weekend and in true tradition I ended up with my arm in plaster the thursday before he left. This is a trick I really don't want to repeat. You think you know how much you use your hands/arms until you can't use one and then you really realise. Nish was amazing and picked up a lot of the slack helping me do things while Ian was gone. I think the toughest thing of all was not being able to knit or spin and even typing on the computer was very restricted (I'm not very good with the one finger approach and got very fustrated). Well the good news is that the plaster is off and I am back to my normal self now.

The Chickens have been supply many a tasty egg. I have added to our chickens with a Sussex Rooster and 2 Sussex Hens - I bought them home from my go to farming info friends the Johnsons - after a lovely trip over to visit them. They were laying within a day of travelling and they seem to have kick started some of the Ilsa browns to lay too. I have finally moved the out of their temporary accomodation into the big chicken house and I am now getting on about 3-5 eggs a day!

The new chickens

Talking of my friends the Johnsons, when I went over for a visit I took Heys and Spud with me and they had a lovely time running free with their mum, dad and brother tiny. I came home in the car with 2 dogs, 3 chickens and a little sickly lamb I was going to try and coax into surviving - Gracie. She put a good fight but went to supply all our spinners and knitters in heaven after about 5-6 days. The Johnsons returned the visit this weekend and taught a couple of city folk how to heard, hold, drench, tail and tag sheep and use the dogs to heard. I was so proud of Spud he was amazing at hearding the sheep, definately a natural. Heys also had a good go and is learning from Spud. Paul says we wouldn't have gotten the sheep into the pen without Spud and I was proud like a school mum really. I was also very impressed with my city boy hubby who really took to the farm boy skills and tag and drenched Patience and Honour and even tailed Honour. He had a ball and was so excited and motivated that today he went and worked on the fences and fiddled around all day on the place.

Grace

Knitting has been a bit on hold with the plaster but is back great guns. I finished a few jumpers and a hat for a friend and have started a few more projects (will update on them next time). I have also been doing a vest as a Knit-a-Long with my friend Delvene. KAL are a great way to keep motivated and I am loving doing them with her and are forever looking to the next project.

Well there are probably lots of holes in my update but I will let you know as I think of them so I will go for now and I will try to be a lot better with my blogging.

Catch you Later

Dell

Introducing

2010-07-09T11:48:00.001+09:30

Ok life has been exciting to say the least since our last post. It started of with Akielah finally learning to ride her bike (only took us 3-4 years to teach her how to do it). Now I'm not so sure it was a good idea. 4 days after having her training wheels taken off she has turned into extreme sports rider, speed racing down the driveway, testing the very steep bumpy paddock hill for bike suitability, and now riding off the garden area off the 4 steps to see if she can land the bike with out falling off!

Ian also finished the first paddock fencing so now we officially have a paddock. And he has been off to Sheep School too! We will be mini farmers yet!

We also got a PIC number (property identification code) so we are really doing the farm thing now. We also decided on a name for the Farm - Magarmhey - you will get browny points for working out why (unless I have already told you of course). So with the these things finally done, and now look what we bought yesterday!

They are Border Leicester Sheep, and hopefully they are pregnant due in late july - mid august. Hopefully we will have some very cute additions to the family soon. We have decided to name them Patience and Hope - Well that is the general consensus at the moment could change over the next day. We got them from a lovely man at Inverbrackie Border Leicester Stud. He also blessed me with 4, yes, count them 4, alpaca fleeces, so I am sure you will be seeing/hearing more about them soon.

I have also been knitting again as usual, The yarn I spun up last post is now this Beret (sorry the link is only in Ravelry) but its lovely to Knit and even warmer to wear.

I have also spun up some beutiful Alpaca roving into this lovely yarn, it is really soft and squishy - I could just roll around in it.

As you can see busy, busy, busy. Catch you later

Dell

A busy 10 days!

2010-06-26T17:44:00.000+09:30

Well its been a bit cold up here at the moment, The locals keep telling me it's not cold yet but my body doesn't seem to agree with them. As you can see from these pics its we have had a few frosty mornings. I know we had green pasture here when I went to bed!

We have also had a little bit or rain, and what else do you do when your 7 and its wet and rainy - go an play in the mud! Akielah was having a ball playing in the mud, she looked so happy it made me miss being young on a rainy day, Ian wasn't real sure about her playing in the mud on the driveway so I figured he wouldn't have been to happy if I joined her!

I have been knitting up a storm. I finished Akielah's Steppe Ahead jumper that I was doing on the long weekend. She loves it and now I have to convince her to take it off so I can wash it.

I have started a vest version for David and a Jumper version for Tycarni. The down side if having 5 kids is that they all want one and I am sort of over knitting this pattern and am ready to knit something else.

I have also been spinning as well. What started out as this corridale fleece from a sheep called romeo

became 210 metres of fingering weight, yummy squishy soft yarn and now I need to decide what to make with it. Any Suggestions?

We had a bit of a messy week this week, The good was on wednesday when my compustion fire went in. Ian had thursday off to fix up the fences so we can get the sheep on the property but when we got up in the morning there was no water to the house. There is at least 3 weeks of water left in the tanks, so we figured it must be a pump problem. He spent the day fiddling with the pumps while I was down in the city taking Akielah to speech therapy.

Her latest assesment report has come in and she has a severe speech delay (well I knew that) but it has her at about <0.1% of her age group. Then it was off to the pediatrician. That didn't go much better, he is not sure about her, on paper she presents as Autistic but he said watching her in the room not so much, however he is concerned that because of the work we did with both David and PJ for their Aspergers to help them with their eye contact and social skills and because we worked with them as a whole family, that we may have hidden or "coached" her how to act and therefore makes it hard to see some of the things he is looking for - although this is good for Akielah it makes diagnosis that much harder. So now we are on the waiting list for a child development team assesment which wont probably be until April next year! We ae however going to try and sort it out privately.We will go and see the phycologist from the team privately and our pediatrician is the teams pediatrician, she has a speech therapist and we may be able to sort it out this way. We shall see.

So then I headed home to arrive to Ian in a snoot. He had spent $1500 on a new pump to find out that its not actually the pump but the actual placement of the pump. Because the water level was now lower than the pump it couldn't get it out and up to the house. So we ordered a water delivery in and now we have water again and Ian's list of things to do just got longer (have to move the pumps). Ahhh well its all funny after the event. We will get there and we still think that a bad day here is better than a good one down in the burbs.
Catch you next time!

Dell

A Long Weekend

2010-06-14T19:09:00.000+09:30

Well we have had a lovely Queens birthday longweekend. We spent Saturday pottering around making decisions about what to do with our fences and which ones to do first. I then spent the afternoon engaging in some ehausting work as you can see from my photo below.

This is a Steppe Ahead Jumper for Akielah, I have used this pattern before for PJ's Farm Play Jumper. Only the sleeves to go now, and of course for such serious hard work you need a cuppa and chochie!

Sunday Brought with it birthday celebrations for my baby boy, PJ, who has now turned 9. We had a family lunch with us and both sets of Grandparents. PJ asked for a sheep for his present and a lovely neighbour has sold us a lovely natured ewe a few years old. We need to sort the fences out before he will be on the property but PJ did get to walk across the road to met her (her name is pricilla but PJ is thinking about changing it). When she arrives I will get you some picies to see and some more details about her. We had a lovely afternoon with good food, wine and family visiting, the kids spent the afternoon playing with their grandparents and dogs down in the paddock.

Monday as brought with it a day of jobs, we started taking down a wrought iron fence at the end of the pergola that we aren't sure why its there and it blocks the view of the property, so down it needs to come. Of course what seemed like a job that would be just a matter of undoing a lot of bolts hit a snag when we realised that the tap in one section has the pipe on one side the goes through the fence and there is the tap on the other side. So now we had to do some plumbing work too!. We did manage to get 1 section of the fence down and the tap is now all sorted, so the other section will be done some other time.

We also have been procrasting about emptying our concrete water tank for cleaning, which was full but the water was dirty. Ian thinks its about a 40000 litre tank, It is definately more than double the size of the 2 big tanks that service the house. Its one of those jobs that you know needs to be done - but wasting all that water just goes againts the grain. Well we pulled the plug today and lett the tank drain out into the paddock, at least the paddock will get a good water and grow some lovely pasture for the animals.This kids had a great time chasing the water all over the paddock to see where it was running too (little blighters wouldn't stand still for me to get a picture of them chasing water).

So this brings us to the close of a lovely weekend.

Hope you had a lovely one too

Catch ya next time

Dell

The Lurgy has hit!

2010-05-28T20:24:00.005+09:30

Well it was inevitable moving going into winter. The cold here is a bit of a shock to my system - I have been wearing an average of 4 layers of clothing and the locals are still running around in t-shirts or 1-2 light layers. Apparently I will get used to it eventually?!?. Ian and I both came down with the lurgy this week which rapidly turned into pnemonia and a trip to the local doctor for both of us - on seperate days of course. So needless to say not much got done this week, we were just happy to have the kids feed, dressed and off to school. If I wasn't sleeping I was rugged up in a blanky, with a heat pack on the couch knitting. I did get a Play jumper knit for PJ from this blog and here is the Pattern.

I also decided to make a beanie to go with it for the left over yarn. Its pretty simple and can be changed for any size. Thought I would write it down for you.

Plain Beanie

do a small swatch with your desired yarn and needles (I used plain knit but you can use any stitch pattern you like just make sure you do the pattern in the swatch)
measure the head circumference and work out how many stitches you will need to end up with (rounded to the closest multiple of 4)

To be knit in the round
inc 1 st in next st - knit into the front and back of the next stitch

I used size 5.5 mm DPNS needles with 2 strands of DK yarn and needed 80 stitches

cast on 4 stitches
next row: increase 1 st in every st (8 sts)
next row: knit 1, inc in next st til end (12 sts)
next row: knit 2, inc 1 in next st til end (16sts)
next row: knit 3, inc 1 in next st til end (20 sts)

cont in this way increaseing the knit stitches by 1 each quarter until required number of stitches
continue kniting every row until about 2.5-5cm shorter than required lenghth.

Finish the last 2.5 - 5 cm in k2 p2 rib (or what aver edging you prefer)
cast off

More Animals

2010-05-15T19:58:00.038+09:30

OK we are slowly becoming more "farm like" We have added to our family. We have now got 5 lovely Ilsa Brown Hens. The kids got to name one each. here is a list of the child and what name they came up with:

Nish: Lou Lou

Dave: Pecky

PJ: Calm ( I know! don't ask me?)

Kie: Sarah

Tay: Sally.

We got them at 4 weeks of age (30 april) and they should start laying at about 16-20 weeeks of age so stay tuned.

Pop and Pip,(our cats) and Flopsy Jnr and Mr Hephalump (our rabbits) have settled in well to.

We have been looking at our fences and there is a bit of work to be done before we get the sheep. I have an Idea where I would like to but the veggie patch and orchard but am waiting until the sheep come to eat down the grass (not point in wasting all that beutiful food)before I start, am also waiting on Ian getting a tractor to do all the heavy lifting.

I spend a lot of time walking around the property and am always amazed at how blessed we are to finally find a home.

The property is on a biocycle for all the sewarge and this means no antibacterial stuff down the drains. This isn't a bit deal as I mainly use a lot of old fashioned ways of cleaning anyway. Can't go past good old bi-carb, vinegar and essential oils. I have made my own washing powder for ages now and get asked a lot for the recipe so I thought I would post it her. It works wonders and is really cheap.

1 cup of grated and powdered laundry soap

lux flakes is ok but is quite expensive - I through 1 cake of laundry soap through my kitchen wiz with the grater attachement and then with the chopper to powder it and 1 cake is close enough to 1 cup

1/2 Cup Washing soda

found in the laundry isle powder not crystals

1/2 Bi-carb soda

mix together, use about 1-2 tbs in your wash.

you can also add white vinegar to your fabric softner intake instead of fabric softner. I don't always do this but it is good for those things you want soft and fluffy and there is no smell when it drys and you can add any essential oil to it you want - I used lavender, jasmine, orange or lemon gum or if I have some bugs in the house eycalyptus or tea tree. a few drops in 1 litre of white vinegar is plenty.

Oh and I got mothers day pressies this year - The school has a stall for the kids to buy stuff for their mums - much better than trusting the hubby who always forgets and then the kids get all upset with him - check out my loot

and this is what I made my mum

cheers - catch you later

We are here!

2010-05-05T23:37:00.000+09:30

Well the move is done - we are officially here - unpacking not so much done :-( . It is sort of surreal being here.

We have been busy though, lots of walks, visitors, walks, unpacking, and more walks. You just can't help yourself you just want to wander around all the time and there is so many things to explore.

We have picked up our beutiful boys (border collies) from the Johnsons. They are georgeous and very good. They hardly bark or anything. They love to go for walks with us but are still on the chains or in their cages (at night) until we can work out the best way to let them run free and not have to worry about them running off or getting to the neighbours animals (That wouldn't be a good way to meet the neighbours) so here are some picies of our beutiful boys
Heys and Spud

Productive Day!

2010-04-12T17:27:00.006+09:30

We had a productive day yesterday. Our kids have a cubby house that my dad made for them about 7-8 years ago. Well of course its coming with us but it is so heavy that we couldn't lift it to move and it wouldn't fit on a trailor so it had to come apart for transport. so we pulled it apart, Here are some pics of the process.

Just starting

front wall and ceiling pannels off

With my two baby girls

Nearly done, roof and walls off

My dad the champion builder!

On Saturday I woke up in one of the snarky type moods and so to try and get my self out of it I started knitting a dischcloth. These things are fabulous and I use them everywhere, but it has been a while since I have made one and I am getting low. Also a friend of mine, Delvene, has been learning to knit and is and churning them out, so I was inspired and what better way to lift a mood than a quick knit up that you can see finished.

Well the theory was good but no longer had I done a few rows but of course someone needed something, then I got distracted and then I went out for the night so didn't really get back to it. With all the packing the last thing I needed was another "work in progress" laying around so on last evening I decided to finish it. So what do you think?

These are the best thing and can be made from all sorts of yarn. This one is made from 2 strands 100% crochet cotton 4ply. They are great to use too, and once you have used these you will never go back to the store bought cloths. I use them in the bathroom, kitchen, laundry and any where else my little cherubs make mess and whats the best you just chuck them in the washing machine when your done. They really don't wear out (I have had one for at least 5 years now). They are also great for new knitters to try, something really easy with just knit stitch and yet not the boring old scarf, have some increasing and decreasing to. It is actually knit on the diagonal so it is really easy to make bigger or smaller even for the first timer. When you are ready to try something more you can easily incorporate some patterns into it. Here is the link to where I found the pattern. Have a go at one, but trust me it won't be just 1 you stop at. Well I will catch you next time and if you do make one send me a pic I would love to see your handywork!

Lazy Easter Sunday

2010-04-05T13:45:00.010+09:30

I really didn't do much packing today, it is easter after all and I was on kid duty whilst Ian packed up lots of shed stuf (read lots of crap everywhere). So I had a lazy day with the kids. I recently discovered a lovely Blog mainly about knitting, cooking and life in general (A Friend to Knit With) I have been drooling over all the knitting and especially the lovely cookies this lady bakes. Well yesterday I tried one of the recipes,   Here is a metric conversion for you.

Slice and Bake Cookies
Ingredients:
450gms brown Sugar (16 oz)                                 2 Cups oats
450 gms melted butter (4 sticks/1 lb)                   2 Cups Corn Flakes
2 Cups sugar                                                                   4 Cups Flour
4 Eggs                                                                                 2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Vanilla                                                                   2 tsp Baking Powder

Directions
Mix in order (1st column then second column). You are looking for the consistency of a plyable dough (may need to increase or decrease your flour)
Add nuts if desired.
Roll into logs and wrap in wax paper
Chill for at least 2 hours before cutting.
Bake at 180 c (350 f) for 10-14 minutes

Dough can be stored in the freezer for later use.

Check out the orginal here Slice and Bake Cookies (at the end of the page)

This was the best idea, I got about 9 logs out of it and put them straight into the freezer. Then when you want to use them just pull them out cut along the log to make circles and off you go. I wrapped mine in baking paper and then the sheet I needed was even ready to go - so easy.
This is the outcome of 1 log - I got 9 logs total. You could probably make them a little bit bigger but I like them this size becuase of course the little chicklets like to take 2 at a time.I can not believe that I haven't come across this idea in any of my Aussie cook books - its great. Here are some picies (yes I need work on my log shapping). Try them they are yummy and such a good idea for the school holidays. Enjoy and don't forget to check out A friend to knit with's blog.

Packing has begun!

2010-04-03T11:11:00.001+10:30

Well the chaos of packing up 7 hoarders worth of stuff has begun. Everything we are packing has to go into storage as we go because we have to be out of our old house on the same day we can get into our new use, bit of a bugga that. We have sent 3 trailer loads of just pot plants to my inlaws today as well as a full shed load of boxes. It still all seems a bit surreal at the moment. I have got a copy of the floor plan with the necessary labels on it.

This is generally how we will lay out the house as well. Finally a room for each chicklet, and did you notice I have a sunroom and a workshop in the main house. The workshop near the sheds is where all the lego and science lab stuff for the boys will go. We also have a family room (mainly for the 2 little girls) a lounge for the adults, a family room for the 2 boys and Nish's room (or rather teenage retreat) is big enough for lounge and bedroom. We also hope to put a bathroom in there for her too. Ian's Junk has been relegated to the Master shed, but this thing is so big I think our current house could fit inside it. The 2 lovely pups have a house/cage infront of the workshop and there is also a cattery for pip and pop. Well I better stop procrastinating and get back to packing.

Hope you all have a great Easter and stay safe.

Can you hear the Cheering!

2010-03-27T13:25:00.001+10:30

Yes its is now official! we sold our house and bought our Kersbrook house yesterday. All signed, sealed and delivered. Finally! Here are some numbers for you - trying to get Ian out ov Vale Park - 15 years, trying to convince Ian to move to acerage 5.5 years, Seriously looking for an acerage - 18 months, number of houses made offers on and lost -3, time to sell/buy house once we thought the whole thing was a loss were walking away to start again from scratch - 4 hours!

I know Monday night the whole thing was over, we had had two offers on our house but they were too low, the house we want to buy wouldn't budge, Ian had asked for our deposit back and the whole thing was over. I was devastated. at this time a year there is nothing on the market in the Adelaide hills and it just gets worse over winter. I really thought that we would looking at another 6-9 months at least. Then wamo, in the space of 4 hours offers where made prices were negotiated and the whole thing was done. We waited the 2 days cooling off and now we officially have an acerage in Kersbrook!

We will be moving in either 2 or 3 weeks - nothing like sprinting the last leg of a cross country race! I spent friday enrolling the kids in their new school, researching heaters, buying school uniforms, telling one of the kids schools they will be leaving next thursday (last day of term).

We also have lined up 2 georgeous Border Collie puppies here are some pics. Thank-you Johnson Family!

They are both boys and currently live on a farm with a family with 4 kids. They are very cute aren't they, and from talking to the Johnsons they seem like they will fit in beutifully with our family. We are thinking of names. I like Spud and Heys. Spud is my 1st dads nickname and Heys is short for my 2nd days name - I like the idea of every time I call them I will think of both my dads! What do you think?

My mind has been going a million miles a minute, I have the whole house packed and moved in my head - now if it was only that easy. At night my dreams are full of wonderful gardening plans, animal rearing, spining by the fire and cooking lots of home grown/raised food. It all sounds lovely but I know in reality it will be lots of hard work, with highs and lows, but hopefully very rewarding.

Come ride with me on this magical carpet. Let the Blog begin!

Still Waiting!

2010-03-17T20:02:00.001+10:30

Well Auction day came and went with the expected fizzle. Both Ian and I expected not to sell at auction, don't ask me why, call it a gut instinct. So now we have the house on the market as a specific price. The day after auction I got a phone call from the real-estate agent with someone who wanted to view the property and they knew the asking price. They stayed for about 20-25 mins, the agent reports that they seemed interested, so now we just wait and see. While this is all going on, the first date on the Kersbrook house contract has come and gone. However the real-estate agent said not to worry but to let the contract stand and we will see how things go. This basically means that if any offers come through on our place we will just redate the exhisting contract on Kersbrook. All very fustrating really.

I really am starting to chaff at the bit now - I just want out of the suburbs and to start up on the farm. I was looking forward to moving in the school holidays and the kids starting fresh at a new school at the beggining of a new term. I was also looking forward to having winter to settle in and start on things before spring arrived. Like planning where to put the veggie patch and get it ready for spring plantings. This is not a small task as I plan to have a HUGE veggie patch and also a orchard.

Well not much else to report, this must be the most boring farm blog so far with no farm stuff going on! Oh well, it will happen it's just a matter of when and where - stay tuned.

The beginning is Near!

2010-03-08T19:37:00.001+10:30

Well we have our house on the market and it goes to auction next Sunday. We do have a specific amount we need to get in order to get the Kersbrook property I talked about in my last post. Depending on the day of the week depends whether I think it will all carry off or not. It is literally like a house of cards, one card goes and it all goes. Then other days I feel like it is a certainty and am off desiging the garden or reading up on animal care or dreaming of my knitting/spinning workshop.

The opens have been "fun". There really should be some law against living in a house with 5 kids when you are trying to sell a house and have opens every weekend. I have 1 more open inspection this thursday and then auction on sunday! Fingers Crossed. I'm sure I will update you with the forthcoming news.

Update, Might have a property!

2010-02-05T21:48:00.001+10:30

It has been a while since I have posted. I promise I will try to be better once we get a property - I will have something to write about then. Well the Harrogate property is not a goer. But we have found another property. We had a look at it, put an offer in but the owner tried to up us by 10k, we walked away. Well over chrissie we were fairly busy, but whilst on holidays we notice the property was listed with another realtor for a lower price than our original offer. We were going to look into it once we got back from holidays.

Well all of a sudden we have a contract on the property subject to the sale of our house. I have 2 week to get the house ready for the first open inspection and 6 weeks till auction day! Ian is away for the next 3 weeks which means I have a big job ahead of me. The house has to be declutter, repainted and presented at its best whilst living in it with my 5 little mess-pots!

Fingers Crossed - now about the house

Well the house has 3 bedrooms but a big undermain roof garage that we are going to make into 2 rooms and a sitting area for the boys. There is also a teenage retreat that we are going to do up for our oldest daughter. I finally get a lovely little sitting room as well as a craft room, the 2 little girls get their own rooms too! The property has 13 acres, sheds coming out the wazoo, a dam and only 3 minutes to the local school. There is a cat house for our 2 little baby chrissie presents - pip and pop. Also a dog cage for our pending new family members, The property is also located amoungst lots of horse trails so Ian is having an uphill battle trying convince the rest of the family not to get a horse. The property has also been used for both sheep and cattle in the past so it si set up for us to have some of each. There is also a chook house and an old milk shed which is a very cut little building.

Pretty much every thing we wanted in a property is there, and depending on what we sell our current house for we probably will be able to put in the pool we want.

I will keep you updated!

I have a secret!

2009-12-09T17:11:00.002+10:30

well to update you on the property hunt, We put another offer in on the Harrogate property about 35k higher than the first offer but they still turned it down. I think that this is not the right house - it feels like we are trying to force it to be the one now and it still isn't happening.

We have looked at a few other properties but Ian felt like they were to far for him to comute.

I thought Iwould let you in on a secret. We have decided to put our house on the market and this will open up the price range we can look at. Well the day after we made that decision I found a property that looked like it could be workable. I rang the agent to find out when they were having an open inspection and we were up there looking at the property 1 1/2hours later.

The house is only 40 minutes from the city, and only about 7-10 years old and has many options for bedrooms. To say it has sheds apleanty is and understatement. I thought Ian was going to roll over and die right there and then in the bliss of the sheds. The water set up is great, It has 13 acres - all usable acres! There is a lovely little sunroom which I could see myself spending a lot of time in. The school is about 2 minutes around the corner by car (I reckon in a year or 2 they could actually walk - there is a track that cuts through!). The town has a Church of Christ which would could look into joining - most of the churches up in the Adelaide hills are Lutherans or Catholic - lovely but not really us! I am going back up tomorrow to take some picies and to show it to the parents. Both Ian and I got in the car after looking at the property and said at the same time - Yep I would sell our house and move here!

We have spoken to our Loan guy and some real estate agents and things look like they could work so on Saturday Ian and I are going to the real estate offices and hopefully we will putting an offer in, The real estate agent has subtely hinted our offer would be accepted. Now we just need to get what we want for this house!

Fingers Crossed, keep you updated!

Still Fustrated!

2009-11-24T07:17:00.001+10:30

Just to update you, we are still looking to no avail. I don't think there are words to describe how fustrated I am, I am almost past it. We are constantly looking at the realestate market but there is nothing around that is suitable in our price range. We are now considering selling our exhisting house. But even this is not finding us the right house. We have been to lots of open inspections but even though there have been some that may work at a stretch, nothing feels right, Both Ian and I still feel like the Harrogate place is the only 1 that felt right, like home. We didn't get the same feeling about the first property at Birdwood that we put an offer on like we had/have about the Harrogate place. I am hoping it was just a timing thing. It still has not been sold and Ian is going to talk to the real estate agent again about what sort of offer they would accept. Fingers crossed!

Ahhhhh!

2009-10-08T15:22:00.001+10:30

I'm getting very fustrated now, I really thought this property was the one, but our offer has been turned down. We really cant up the offer so its back to the drawing board. We are up against the clock now, Our pre-approval only lasts 2.5 more months and then we will have to reapply. This doesn't sound hard but we scraped our preapproval though before an expense change at the bank, if we have to reapply then the new rules will apply which will drop the amount the bank will lend us by about 20-40 thousand dollars. I know I have to have faith that God will find us the right property for our family but on days like this it is a struggle. Will keep you updated.

Still plodding along!

2009-10-07T08:36:00.001+10:30

Just a quick update. We are still ploding along in our hunt for our farm. We got pre-approval from the bank so we now know exactly what we have to spend which is good. We have also put and offer in on a property of 135 acres. Its got a lovely 120-140 year old stone farm house, is a working sheep farm with a lovely old working stone shearing shed, the biggest chook house I think I have ever seen and andother stone shed. It has 4 dams and a winter creek.

It means the kids will all have to change schools, but it is in a discrict of one of the schools on my list that I liked. It is actually closer to work (55mins) for Ian that the Birdwood property. I loved the Birdwood property that we put an offer on but walking around this property, I think, "what was I thinking, This feels like home!"

Well now we just hold our breath and wait on the reply to our offer. I will keep you updated, and if we get it I will put up lots of picies.

Bye for now!

Still hunting!

2009-08-14T20:54:00.001+09:30

I assume that you have guessed from the lack of posts that we didn't get the house. Someone else has bought the house and we are still on the hunt. Just about every weekend we got trapsing up to the hills to look at yet another property. We even have been looking at blocks of land to build a house on ourselves. Still to no avail. Patience is a virtue - so I am told. I will keep you posted.

The wait is killing me!

2009-07-02T22:44:00.001+09:30

the wait to find out if our offer is accepted or if someone beat us out is driving me nuts. I tried distracting my self by packing for my daugters trip to Perth on saturday. Well that was a disaster, I discovered that she has had a growth spurt mid winter and grown out of all her clothes so then had to go shopping (I hate late night shopping!) - The things that you don't notice when your kids live in school uniforms or sports/swim suits! I tried tv, knitting soaking in the bath (I think that made the clock go backwards?!?) eating nothing is making the time go quicker. well end of whine!

One step closer

2009-07-01T21:39:00.002+09:30

Well we have put an offer in on the birdwood place now its just a matter of waiting to see if its accepted. The real estate agent tells us there is possible 2 other offers beside ours that he will be taking to the vendor on friday. The waiting is excrutiating, I just want to know either way.

To distract my self I have been looking for furniture for the girls room. When (notice I say when) we move I will need furniture for one of the girls room as we will be finally seperating them.

I have also been trying to find out info on Golden Retriever dogs. Thats the dog we plan on getting once we move to the farm maybe even 2. They are good farm dogs but they tend to also be very placid which with our kids will be important. well best go will keep you updated.

School Visit

2009-06-25T22:48:00.001+09:30

Today I went and checked out Birdwood Primary School. The acting principal was lovely. The school was a georgeous school and was really well layed out, they are getting a new gymnasium and library this year. I was very up front with the acting principal about my little special joys and she sees no problems that we can't work on together. They have other children with Aspergers, Dyslexia and speech problems so our kids weren't anything they haven't dealt with before. I came away feeling good about the school.

If we can find a house and move by term 4, I will have all kids at school - 6 hours a day to myself - na surely not possible. LOL!
catch ya later

Another Property!

2009-06-22T07:45:00.001+09:30

We are still plodding along looking for a property. We went and looked at one in Birdwood yesterday - here's a link.
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?fslm=1&a=o&id=105782558&t=res&s=sa

The property is absolutely georgeous, it has a creek cutting the property in 1/2, 6 good sized paddocks, The vegie garden is over grown but is fenced in which is one less job I need to do. There is a chook pen and another animal enclosure. It also has a small dam and has both mains and rain water to the house. There is good fairly new shed as well as another animal shed and a few little garden sheds. (lots of sheds for the boys). The gardens will need a bit of work - they are a bit bushy and look like the perfect spot for snakes to hide.

The house is smaller than our current house. However my view is I can fix a house but I can't fix a property. There are many options to get the house up to par, just depends on how much we have left to spend on it after we have paid for it (if we do purchase it). Even though the house is smaller it has potential for the 6 bedrooms we need and will still have a family room and lounge room. What I do like though is that the larger room is the lounge/dinning room. This house has the large room as the family/dinning room (it is huge) but when we are sitting down at the dinning table talking with friends (adults) and the kids are finished eating then they are playing in the same room us adults are in and you end up yelling above the noise of the kids. With the formal lounge being with the dinning room and the family room seperate this will be lots better.

The house only has 1 bathroom, which we had ideas how to solve this problem. Now we have seen the house it is a priority to sort out. The bathroom is very tiny (can't swing a cat). The toilet is seperate though so this is good. We could turn the laundry into a second bath room and put the laundry outside the house, if we just added the 2 extra bedrooms by taking part of the family room for them. If we actually build the 2 rooms on then we would include a bathroom in that. It all depends on how much we would have left after purchasing the place.

I am planning to go and talk to both the primary and highschool this week. There is no reason they should be able to handle my special chicklets but I would rather check before we put an offer in on the place. Will keep you updated.

Some Ideas

2009-06-12T23:45:00.001+09:30

Well I have calmed down a bit now. DH has been wonderful, worst case senario he says we can sell our current house to move. He has obviously been thinking about it and he has also come up with the idea of buying a working cattle farm and getting a business loan for the property and then employing somebody to run the farm side, he will keep working and also learn how to run the property, I can also set up my side of the farm with the animals/veggies and fruit I want to do. Then further down the track he can leave work and run the property or stay at work and keep the property going at what ever level we want. Well you could have pushed me over with a feather!

It may not be a solution to our problems but it is an idea and shows that DH is thinking about how to achieve our dream property.

Will keep you updated.

Not Happy Jan!!!

2009-06-09T20:15:00.001+09:30

The bank man came to see us today to play around with some figures. Well everything has gone feet up.I am a bit confused. The will let us make repayments of $400 a fortnight more if we sell our current house and get a straight homeloan than if we keep this house and rent it out. They will also give us more than enough than we want if we had 2 kids but because we have 5 they will only give us less than 1/2 of what we want. The whole thing is crazy so now we have to go back to the drawing board and decide what we want to do!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

The New Blog begins

2009-06-07T16:56:00.002+09:30

Well I have started this blog to record our journey to our own farm. We have made the decision to leave the burbs and move to the country, all be it the Adelaide hills which is still in distance to the burbs. After 15 years we have finally decided that looking and talking about it is not cutting it any more and after a very turmultous year we decided that now is the best time.

After pouring over "realestate.com.au" we chose a few properties to actually look at in person. The first had handfull had 3-5 acres but very rapidly we decided that this was no where near enough land. Ian then went a bit nuts and started looking at about 100 acres. There were a few places that had potential on the web site but were rulled out when we couldn't find suitable schools for the kids in a respectable distance.

Finally there is one that stands up to most of our want list

1. With in 1 1/2hrs drive from Ians work ( He will be commuting for about 4-5 months a year)
2. Acceptable schools close by
3. more than 10 acres
4. not just flat barren land
5. Suitable water for house and animals - Dam, creek, well or bore
and the most important in the price range

The bank is coming to see us on Tues night so we can work out the best way to achieve making an offer on this property. We are planning to keep our current house and rent it out.

The next problem after working out the money is that the current owners will accept our offer. We feel the property is worth less than they are asking as there is a bit of work that we need to do to the place. Part of me thinks that we are living a pipe dream as our price is quiet a lot under the asking price but the other part of me thinks that they will accept it as they have been trying to sell it for a year and they want to move and with the govt homebuyers grant drying up soon many people are rushing to sell before that for fear of the market dropping. Well nothing much to do for now just lots of knee time.

I have been researching chooks, sheep, alpacas, grey water systems and lots more. Will keep you updated. Trying to not get to attached to this property in case it falls through.

Here is a link to the property, but shh its a secret and don't steal it! lol
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?fslm=1&a=o&id=105176772&t=res&s=sa