Yee Haa !!

Cam was trying a bit of cat riding tonight.

Jack was pretty relaxed about it all…………

He will put up with a lot when he’s waiting for dinner.

I was a good girl and finished all the bamboo inserts for Kaiyah’s nappies (yum, love the softness of bamboo), and I have even cut out and overlocked all the pieces of a skirt for me.  I finished this nappy too.  It will need to have the elastic tightened in the legs though, otherwise it’s very awesome.

I got some cool minky in the post today, pony (cream and brown), and desert camo.  I’m not sure I will make Cam a nappy with it though, I might make him a toy for his birthday, or a minky blanket (patchwork minky, as I have baby blue, lagoon, leopard and celery embossed minky too).  Lots of choices.

I’m praying for rain this weekend.  We are supposed to get some, but it may pass over

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Bad girl !

Me that is.  I fell off the Sew from Stash wagon today and went to the fabric sale up in Masterton.  Got some wicked fabrics at really ridiculous prices though.  I only spent $33 (which was luckily all the cash I had left in my purse, must have been Karma) and ended up with about 10 metres of fabric in total.  I also stopped in at Hedley’s bookshop, who were good enough to order in Cam’s favourite library book, so we can keep it.  Good service and the price was very good, much better than what was quoted on Fishpond.

I getting my hair cut off again tomorrow.  Too much hassle to have long hair.  I hope Cam doesn’t get too much of a fright when he see all my hair gone.  Matt is babysitting while its done, as he has no class tomorrow.  Matt has really enjoyed his first week at UCOL, I’m glad he has gone there instead of back to college.

Time to go.  I’m off to watch Fonejacker (C4 on thursdays at 9.30 if you want a good laugh).

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Girls, girls, girls

Here are our new girls…………….

Picked them up on Saturday from a really neat farm up in Masterton, who provide a rooster sanctuary as well as breed chooks, pigs and lambs.  They are guaranteed to be pullets, if they crow, I get a replacement.  Which is great as pullets are pretty expensive.  The old girls are still laying, but with the new girls I should have 7 new layers in a few months (plus 3 more a few months after that).  I have customers who i need to keep happy, so its good to have some young blood over winter.  The farm also has piglets born most months, so when we are ready I can get piglets there as well. Our rooster was not so lucky, he has gone to make stock.

I have booked one of the big cows in for the butcher at the end of next month (earliest time available), we should really keep them a few more months, but the cost of feed is getting too expensive, and they are a pretty good size.

I’ve been doing some more nappies for the lovely Iris.  Finished this one tonight…………..

I also managed to finish the doz nappies I was making for Sophie yesterday (well not all in one day, but over the weekend and Monday), so I am pleased that they are done.  I didn’t take a pic as they are basically the same as Kaiyah’s ones I did a few weeks ago.

Clare made dinner for us again tonight as a thank you the sewing time I am putting in.  It’s been fantastic, she is an awesome cook!  And again made enough for two meals, so that is even better.  Clare if you are reading this – no more dinners – it’s too expensive to feed another family and I know that you appreciate the work that I’m doing for you.

On a totally unrelated topic, I was watching Jools Holland on TV the other night.  Did anyone else see it?  It was quite good, had Mika, Christy Moore, some really neat french Jazz / Techno / Pop group (missed the name ), and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens).

I was so disappointed at the first song that Yusuf Islam sang, the music was fantastic, the lyrics were very boring and there was just no life to it like his older stuff.  The second song was better, but still not great.  I had though I might like to get his new album, but I’m not convinced that I will like it enough to justify the cost. Anyway, enough rambling, I’m off to bed. 

It would be nice to hear comments from people occasionally.

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What the?

It must be a sign of my lack of creativity that i find it so hard to think of a title for each post.  Some days its just difficult to think of anything to start the post with.

I meant to post this pic yesterday………….

A rare moment of inactivity.  I am supposed to measure Cam for a pair of longies a TNNer is going to knit for him, but I haven’t yet been able to get him to sit still for long enough.  I think I will just guess

And this pic…

I got this jar of buttons yesterday from the 2nd hand shop.  Why is it that jars of buttons look so cool?  Is it because they look a bit like lollies, but aren’t bad for us (unless you try eating them)?

Here is the pic of Cam being washed after getting in the oil, at least you can’t see the look on my face, it wasn’t pretty!  I didn’t even talk to Ian about it when he got home, just left the mess in the bath, and when I came in from sewing that night all was clean

Bunny burgers for tea tonight. YUM !!!

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Roll on Autumn

I think I’ve had enough of summer.  It was 30 degrees here today, and it still hasn’t cooled down very much.  It stayed hot last night too, so not much sleep was had at all.

We could do with some more rain for the garden.  Meanwhile check out these babies, all things we haven’t grown before (not for want of trying).

And this….

Chocolate coloured capsicums.

Cam had a bit of fun the other day discovering some used motor oil that Ian had left in a bad place.  I will post a pic if Matt ever gets around to emailing it to me.

I have been sewing, pretty much the usual.  Making more nappies for Iris at the moment, and I’m halfway through Sophies ones.  Sometimes I go out to the sewing room with the best intentions, but lose inspiration halfway through and then come back inside.

Cam and I went to the plunket coffee morning today, we went to mingle with the other kids and also to get Cam weighed and measured.  I was a bit disappointed with the outcome as it seems like he has grown alot, however even with his clothes on he was only 9.6kg, and is 77cms tall. 

The nicest thing happen this afternoon.  My lovely friend Clare dropped off dinner for us.  She spent the afternoon making the MOST awesome vegetable lasagna.  It was so nice.  And there is still enough for another meal, so that is great too.  Thanks Clare, you are wonderful.

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Another weekend gone in a blink, here at Circ du freak :-)

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun.  Even when you’re not sometimes too.  I know my title is wacky. But that’s what came into my head.  I was thinking about  the book by that title (by Darren Shand) that Nathan likes, because I was calling Shirley the sheep a circus freak

I have been sewing, I’m putting that at the top of the post (sort of), so those not related to me (lucky people) can check out the crafty stuff without listening to me rave on about the rest of the boring family, farm kinda stuff.

On Friday I was lucky enough to upgrade my sewing machine from a Bernina 930 (which my darling MIL gave to me a few years ago), to a Bernina 1230.  The new machine is awesome.  It runs so much smoother that the older one.  So I have made wetbags (for nappies etc, and a new nappy with the PUL film, which means I can pretty much use any fabric for making a nappy, with the laminate now a thinner hidden layer.  Here’s pics.

We had a little rain on Friday, but not heaps, then some more last night which was a bit more substantial.  So the garden is looking pretty good.  Ian and I were discussing the planting of parsnips today.  We better get our A into G if we’re going to give it a go.  We haven’t grown any before.  And thinking about what to do about carrots.  We never have much success with carrots.  We are going to try again, but I’m not hugely confidant.

Lilly had a friend to stay the night on Saturday, and talking to her mother I found out about so piglets just born, so that my be worth checking into as we will be ready to get piglets again in about 6 to 8 weeks.

Ian, Cam and I went raspberry picking again today.  That may be the last of them unless I get a chance midweek to go picking (might be able to get Matt to babysit for a few hours if I’m lucky). 

I nearly forgot to add pics of Brian (the calf) and Shirley.

Poor Shirley got flystrike about a month ago, and we didn’t think she would make it.  Thanks to Ian’s hard work and care, she pulled through.  Her scabby patches are all healed, but as a consequence of the stress of it all her wool has fallen out (well most of it).  She does appear that apart from the baldness to be well and healthy again, and has no problems breaking out of the paddock to get at the newly growing grass over the fence.  So here’s hoping that the no-one calls the SPCA on us !

And last but not least, though it may not be of interest to anyone but me, as it helps me to keep a record, the chooks laid 9 eggs yesterday and again today (and 5 the day before).

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You can call me “The bag lady”

I’ve been busy making some bags.  I know I still have 12 nappies to sew, but i needed to make something that was fun.  So i did.  The first bag is made from a hammock that my SIL sent over from her holiday in Peru, but it didn’t hold up well, so I have recycled the fabric.  The inner is just some nylon I had in my stash.

Lilly liked it, so she took it off to school today.

The second bag was made from some fabric that I got off TM, advertised as cotton, but its a heavy linen really.  I have used it for the inner as well.  I love it !

I’m doing a challenge on TNN, to only sew from stash.  I am only allowing myself new fabric from swaps, not buying at all.  So I’m pleased with the two bags I have made so far.

Oh and 3rd time lucky for the raspberry jam.  Thanks to Clare for the book on Jam making, and Julie for the advice, it’s finally going to set.  Now I REALLY know the rules of jam making.  I was trying to cut down the sweetness which affected the setting (Doh!), I know now that I shouldn’t go below a ratio of 3/4 to 1, and make sure the friut is properly softened BEFORE adding the sugar.  Alls well that ends well

And the chooks are going great guns this week.  9 eggs yesterday (from 12 hens, ranging in age from 1 year to 5 years, including 1 broody), and 8 today.  So i better sell some to cover the cost of the next bag of feed for them.

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Woohoo for rain !

We have had 23mm of rain in the last two days. Yay! Finally.  We are supposed to have a bit more in the morning, but I’m not too hopeful. However we are expecting more later in the week.  How awesome.

As you can see from the pic Cam was having a good time playing outside when the rain eased off.  I was trying to persuade him that it was just as much fun to stomp in the water as it is too sit and play in it.

Nathan and Lilly have been hard to get out of bed in the mornings this week.  I know they are glad to be back at school, and it’s tiring them out too. I am finding it hard to get back into routine as well. 

Matt has been up at UCOL putting in an application to enrol in a Computer Graphic course.  I hope they have enough students to run the course and that Matt gets in.  It’s got to be a lot better than that useless college down the road.

The garden is looking happier after all the rain, and the chooks are up to 7 eggs a day.

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The good, the bad and the ugly

Well i’m not really sure about the title, but it sounded good.  I’m trying to be positive, but sometimes its hard.  I’ve just been out to do a harvest in the garden.  That’s the ugly.  Bugger the farmers in the Waikato (sorry guys), how about the dry here? One insignificant day of rain since the beginning of December! House tanks are doing okay, but the bore is as dry as a bone, and I have not yet set up the grey water recycling for the garden with the new washing machine.  The garden is really dry, it hasn’t been watered for three days.  Some nights we just run out of time to go and get water from the river to water the garden.  Every third night we have to get extra to fill the troughs for the cows too.  At least they have food, after buying in the hay.

I guess the good would be the chooks seem to be coming back onto the lay a bit.  I was down to two eggs most days, and some days none.  But it has been climbing this week to four each day, with five eggs tonight.  I should think so, they have been well fed and watered.  I do try and look after them very well, as they are a source of income.

The bad would have to be the dog, who has gone to Nana’s and Kev’s for another holiday.  It appears that she has been liberating the chickens from the enclosure.  I’m sure that isn’t her intention (that’s to steal the scraps the chooks have got), but that is the end result, and I’m sorry to say that the chooks make money, but the dog doesn’t.  I know that might sound pretty heartless, but after all she has gone to stay somewhere there aren’t a bunch of kids getting all the attention, she gets to go swimming most days, and she has another dog (and cat) to play with all day long.  I think the company is good for her.  So if the chooks stay in the enclosure, we can assume it was our dog digging under the fence. 

I guess to add to the bad the raspberry jam i made yesterday (in a hurry) hasn’t set, so I will have to re-boil it tomorrow.

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Free for all :-)

3kg of berries in an hour.  This year is the best we have had so far (in 4 years) for wild raspberries.  I have put two small punnets in the freezer to be used for berry crumbles or added to milkshakes and have put 2kg in the fridge to make jam tomorrow.  Raspberry is my favourite jam We did the picking of berries while Cam was asleep, which made it much easier and quicker, but they were just everywhere.  Hopefully I will find the time to pick one more time before they are gone.

Cam’s bandage came off his toe today (with the nail still inside it), so this is the result.

It looks a bit gross, and was a bit tender when he was walking I think, but it has started to form a scab now, which will help it heal faster.  Now I’m to scared to open the french doors to outside in case he picks up the brick again.  I will have to find another way to hold the door open in the wind.

I got my new washing machine yesterday, and did 2 washes in it today.  Those front loaders are funny, just like washing TV.  It only uses 68 litres of water for a 7kg wash, my old one was doing a 6.5kg wash with 120 litres of water.

The kids are finally back at school tomorrow.  Yay! About time.  They have been so bored the last few weeks. 

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