Back to Basics Challenge - Week 10

What's happening in the garden

Planting

• Moon and Stars watermelon seedlings (above), rockmelon seedlings, got grapes and apricot into the ground, tomato seedlings, basil, cos lettuce, other lettuces

Back to Basics Challenge - Week 9

What's happening in the garden

• Planting - zucchini and squash seedlings, tomato and basil seedlings, and two red currant plants
• Harvesting - spuds, broccoli, lettuce, celery, lemon
• Observing, asparagus making an appearance
• rhubarb starting to come up (the white blurry blob is a statue-thing, new camera days away, hurray :))

Back to Basics Challenge - Week 8

What's happening in the garden

• Planting - Apricot tree (half Moorepark and half Trevatt), Crabapple tree (Malus Gorgeous) , Grapes (red emperor, emerald seedless) and final spuds - fruit trees and grapes Father's Day pressy for Hubs
• Us getting the apricot and crabapple home - neither children nor apricot were happy at above 60kmph

• Harvesting - spuds, broccoli, carrot, lettuce
• lettuces and cherry tomato in tub at back door 

Back to Basics Challenge - Week 7

What's happening in the garden

• Planting - carrots, leeks, white onions, red onions, zucchini, parsley, lettuce
• Harvesting - first harvest of winter spuds (baked them, they were perfect :))

Back to Basics Challenge - Week 4 & 5

Each week I take part in Belinda's Back to Basic's challenge.


What's happening in the garden

• Harvesting
• Turnips, lettuce, beetroot leaves

• Observing
• Cherry tomatoes ripening

• Snow peas flowering

• Watermelon, zuchinni, squash, tomato, leek seedlings making an appearance

• Egg total : 22 this week, 16 last week

Back to Basics Challenge - Week 3

What's happening in the garden

• Sowing seed
• Dwarf Beans, Climbing beans, cucumber, basil, sweetcorn

• Planting
• Leek border in front garden
• Harvesting
• Tatsoi, pak choy, lettuce, beetroot leaves

• Observing
• Cherry tomatoes ripening, broad beans getting taller daily, leek seedlings starting to come up

• Egg total : 22

What I've been doing

• Planning for The Future
• Thinking about moving pool fence
• Pool electrics need to be fixed before weather warms
• Trying to get blogging/writing time into a structure to stop feeling overwhelmed and taking time away from kids to fulfil commitments.
• Working for the Future
• Weekly menu plan - detailed weekly lunch/dinner plan, used for making a shopping list - working well 
• A lot of writing stuff
• New composting system starting to work well - and got worm farm up and running properly
• Fun Stuff
• Building Community
• Attended kid's school ball - lots of new friends
• Attending Jackie French talk at kids school
• Learn a new Skill
• Old skill reused: Dancing the night away, sipping champagne, feeling tired and seedy the next day and curing it with pizza

• Becoming less porky
• Present weight 75.8kgs (top of healthy weight range for my height: 67kgs)

Week Summary

• Third week of school, spent a lot of it finding socks, washing socks and losing socks
• Weekly food shop under $200
• Have got big possum out of roof - now living in possum box :)  Two little brush tails still getting in
• Removed weed matting from sweetcorn bed, dug over and planted first months planting of corn - 16 plants
• Twittered a lot

:)

Back to Basics Challenge - Week 1

A bit haphazard this week, but...

What's happening in the garden

• Sowing seed
• Last of the Snow peas - those are broad beans in front, coming up nicely after total and utter chicken related disaster.  Bamboo sticks are providing support as they always get blown over if I just use string.

• Planting - 8 leek seedlings from the Organic Seedling lady at Hornsby Markets
• Harvesting - Dug over last years sweet potato bed and got 70g carrots, 375g sweet potatoes - both totally unexpected :). Also, 1 lemon, 1 spring onion, 5 pak choy, 9 Tatsoi and 240g turnips.

• Lettuce bed starting to look a bit gappy, but some good stuff coming on quickly

• Egg total : 20

What I've been doing

• Planning for The Future
• Weekly menu plan
• Budget - sort out paying appalling rates bill 
• Researching turning raised vege beds into wicking beds to save water, and stop them going bone dry on days when its 35+ and a 60kmph westerly
• Working for the Future
•  Cooking extra loaves to stock up the freezer (and then giving them all away :))

Fun Stuff

• Building Community 

• Care package for Mumndad
• bread, yoghurt, soap, vegies
• Care package for ill friend with ill baby
• bread, vegies, dinner (spag bol), eggs
• Generally interfering in Other People's Lives and Dispensing Sage Advice - all with the best of intentions :)
• Learn a new Skill
• New skills on the list are spinning and bee-keeping. However, am very wary of taking on too much so for the moment will stick with re-hashing rarely used skills
• Grow seedlings without murdering them due to neglect
• Be nice to other drivers on the motorway

Becoming less porky

• For a starting point, at the beginning of this year I weighed around 82 kgs
• Present weight 77.3 kgs

Week Summary

• First week back at school for the screamies - getting back into the routine and Not Being Late (ahem), and planning like a military invasion to get both to school with correct equipment on right day
• Post birthday party clean, tidy and Make Good Use of left over birthday cake
• Load of wood procured - last for year hopefully
• Taking steps to slow down and look after mental health OR floating around garden with cup of tea for at least half an hour a day
• Fifteen thousand appointments

:)