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Hi there!

I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

A very busy day.

Today was pretty busy...and who wouldn't want to keep busy with all that cold wind....It was howling today...even the roof on the shed shook......so inside work first, hoping it would warm up later on.

Today started with washing......one load finished after soaking overnight...I do that most nights now...if there is a load....then when hubby goes to work, I turn the machine back on and its usually on the line by about 7.30am.

I'm also trying to get into the habit of doing the floors and all the inside work before heading outside....because usually if I spend up most of my energy outside...which is usually garden work...well to be honest; I'm normally to knackered to do any housework.

So today started with:

  • mopping the floors..which includes the back lounge-room, the kitchen, laundry and bathroom. 
  • off outside to hang that washing on the line, fighting the freezing cold wind
  • get food out of the freezer for the days baking and dinner plans
Main meal: Sausages, home baked LSA rolls, & mushroom sauce (and steamed veg)
Lunch: Mushrooms on toast with soup from the crock-pot
Baking plans: Pumpkin for muffins, and frozen coconut biscuit dough
  • Back inside to do some dishes to warm up my hands, and cleaning up the kitchen ready for baking later when I come back inside.
  • Then off outside to build a scooter to move around under the unit easier. I slowly had to give up looking after my mushroom farm under the house. It's been so cold lately, with cold weather I seem to have more aches and pains....and after crawling around under the unit on my knees...I'm useless for the rest of the day....so I needed to come up with a plan....there must be an easier way to get around under there....so I made myself a scooter or a trolley to get around....It had to be big enough to carry the tray I put the mushies on, and the knife....and me and a cushion.....It is so basic....you could make one for all sorts of reasons...even if you just used it to move larger plants around the yard...I plan on doing a post on how to make one...so here it is....and it is brilliant. I'm really pleased with it, even though it's such a basic design....but I sat under the unit today for over half an hour, slowly adding moisture back into the mushroom compost bags with a fine mist from the water tank. I've never tried to start up again, after letting the compost bags go completely dry...so I've watered them twice today, and I shall do the same every day for a week or so....so cross your fingers for me to see if I can find any viable mushroom spores. Only time will tell.
Oh, I nearly forgot....here's my new scooter/trolley....I put a handle on the back of it, to make it easier to pull it out from under the unit....and it's great for carrying it too, if I need it somewhere else.  So basic, but so useful.

Basic, but just what I need.


Back inside to warm up...

  • have some lunch...yep: Mushrooms on toast....Hmmm the flavour....this is exactly the reason I built that trolley.

Yesterday I told you that I had to get the drill out...I've had it out building the trolley, but now I need to:

  • Drill some drainage holes in some new tubs I found at Bunnings.......as soon as I seen these galvanised DRINKS COOLERS: I recognised them from when I visited Emily from the cheese-making course we did together. She had some of these in her garden, filled with herbs...I didn't know that they were only $13 each. I got three....and I'm not normally into buying new brand new pots, but I've seen how lovely they look full of herbs....and I couldn't resist.


With buckets, I normally turn them upside down to drill holes,
but with these, it's better to keep them like this,
and place a piece of timber  beneath to stop the tin twisting with the drill. (it's quite thin)

Mizuna salad leaf
These are going to look great in the front yard....(when I clean up the veranda).

What else did I do?.....Oh!...As I had been working in the shed up until now...I packed up what I thought I would need to do the plugs in the brick wall on the front veranda....Part of cleaning up the front veranda is me hanging some stuff up...so I need to put some wall plugs in. Once I got inside I realised inside was much warmer and cosier than outside...It was 1.30pm and I had done enough out there.
I did get to bring in the tool chest I gathered up.....If you think about the job you are going to do....try to imagine every item you MAY need....gather it all up in one container.....and take that to your job.
You can save a whole lot of energy travelling back to the shed for items you need, if you plan ahead.
Here is my kit .....but tomorrow is another day....There's still things to do inside...and I need to sit.

I love this little carry all...My DS16 made it in Woodwork at school last year....He loves seeing me use it....and yep! That's my cordless drill & pink hammer. I bought that pink hammer when I was a tradies assistant...the guys kept borrowing hammers and other tools...so I got them...I bought a Pink hammer....after that I always knew where my hammer was...lol....none of the boys would borrow it...I wonder why.


  • Inside, got the heater stoked up and folding washing...2 loads from yesterday and the load I hung on the line this morning....Its amazing how quickly washing can dry, when its howling outside with almost gale forced winds. It keeps coming in bursts too....But it's great for drying washing. 
  • I Baked some coconut biscuits from the frozen dough....( I didn't defrost this) It worked...this is brilliant...Next time I make biscuits...I'm doing a double batch...and freezing one like this. A couple of minutes to pre-heat the oven, then 12 minutes later, I had nice hot biscuits fresh from the oven....It was only a test, and I only baked 6....and I ate all of them while folding the washing...
  • Next was veg prep for tea....with Cauliflower, Brocolli, Carrot, Beans, Peas and Potato...all in the steamer ready to go later. DS16 just arrives home from school.
  • Now to clean up the emails on my computer....and do more research...err blog reading....but I call it research.....lol....it's also a good time spent catching up on a well earn't break. 
  • Hubby is home now...and I put away the rest of the folded washing....
  • Tea is cooked, dishes rinsed and in the dishwasher....
After dinner, I like to sit and watch a bit of telly ......then when everyone else retires I get on here and write on my blog...as I write now though, I remember that we have run out of frozen sandwiches...and I need to make lunches for the morning........sorry it's been such a long post....I hope you don't mind....
If you have gotten this far....thank's for reading it all.....hope you all had a great day too......
Take care, I will see you tomorrow, when I tell you my little hints on making that trolley......
Oh! I get my cream tomorrow too............See ya...sleep well.

2 comments:

  1. omg! Where do you get your energy?!!!
    I'm exhausted just reading this.
    Now I feel totally lazy and inadequate.
    Oh well - I'm sure I'll get over it.

    Love your trolley. It would be fun just to zoom around from room to room on that thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much, I try to do what I can, but a day like that can only happen every few days....Today (Thursday) was not so busy.
    Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.

    ReplyDelete

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