A busy 10 days!

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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.