Not going to plan

Bad day yesterday.  Woke up crabby - well it'd been a vile week, with massive stress due to our current lack of funds and the very painful decision that we're going to have to sell one of our cars - and yes I know you can survive with one car but living as far from public transport as we do, its going to mean life is just that little bit more difficult.

We've had another sudden hot spell, the last three days have been above 35 degrees.  The chickens had already decimated my leafy greens bed (beetroot, carrots, asian greens, turnips). So, feeling really pissed off about it all, I replanted the lot and put some chard and a few other odds and end around the outside of the bed to distract the chickens.  Six hours later the temperature had hit 37, all the new plantings were beyond dead and the chickens had got through my anti-chicken defences and laid waste to all that hard work.

Hot and crabby I decided to hide inside and read Jackie French, she always inspires me to keep going and keep trying. But not yesterday.

"March is a time of harvest," she said. Oh really, I thought.

• The sun isn't as fierce - oh yes it is
• The weather is cooling - oh no its not
• Tomatos will be glutting - I have a handful of green cherry tomatos to show for my glut
• Melon's will be ripening - I have about seven melon vines they are all dying of mildew (despite spraying with milk) and so far I have one melon about the size of an egg and two water melons about the size of peas
• Pumpkins - not a one, not a single sodding one, they've all rotted off, well the two that even started anyway
• Summer vegetables will be mature - no they won't they'll all be burnt off by the relentless sodding sun and no sodding rain that's dried out all your raised beds to the point where they can't hold water even if they want too

Yesterday I was quite prepared to cover the entire garden in concrete and paint it green.

Today the chickens have been banished to their new (nearly finished) coop.  Something has chewed through all the shadecloth I put around the bottom - already, after less than a week.  YAY.  The leafy green bed has been replanted AGAIN and is covered in wire and booby trapped with hand grenades.  Hubs and I have put in my lattice to provide a bit of privacy and grow something up (grape? kiwi? peas?).

I went around the garden and picked things to prove to myself that this is all worthwhile and I can get food out of my garden - and ended up with a small bowl of chilis and a handful of beans.  It hasn't  helped.

So I retired to the kitchen and made plum sauce, with the leftover plums frozen from spring

And got some sourdough starter started.  Which I'm thinking is going to be a very interesting experiment, in breeding new life forms in the kitchen at least.

Sigh.

Busy in the kitchen and Teacuppery

The thing about all this homemaking business is that you spend a heap of time in the kitchen.  This morning I've made blackberry and apple jam, muffins, dog food and yoghurt.  Still on the list is granola, plus dinner, and by the time that's all finished it'll be time to get the kids.

I also spent the morning doing with weekly shop ($117.20 - woo hoo, the savings there will just about cover a slight pizza mishap midweek -ahem), getting our private health insurance premium lowered (turns out we were covered for hip replacements) and depositing a cheque for $3.29 in the bank. Yes. ANZ could barely contain its delight about that. 

Scintillating, No?

Glanced out of the kitchen window whilst doing load of washing-up number three billion and noticed the leaves of the Liquid Amber across the road have just started to turn, up the top.  Last year they began to turn at the end of January and we had an early but mild winter.  This year they are turning a whole six weeks later, I wonder what that means we've got in store?  Given that its 30 degrees outside right now I'm still having a hard time believing summer is over and the Autumn solstice is in a couple of days.

It also occurred to me that I haven't put up a teacuppery post for forever!!  I suppose that its mostly because I haven't got any new ones for a while, but still, they're so so pretty I should still be putting them up here for everyone to enjoy.

So, without further ado, allow me to present three of my most favorite cups.  They are all by Shelley in the Rosebud pattern.

The two smaller cups are miniatures that Shelley made as teasets for children to play with.  Miniatures are quite rare and I treasure these.

The larger cup is in the shape called Henley.  These type of cups were made from around 1920 until the company shut up shop in 1967.  Judging by the quality of the glaze on this particular cup I rather think it was one of those made in the sixties.

This teacup was one of the first I ever owned and part of the very beginning of my love of Shelley teacups.

:)

Brainfried

My lordy what a day. It began sorrowfully with yet another bread disaster. Loaf on the left was the same as the last three using my new bag of defiance bread flour. Loaf on the right was made with 50/50 bread flour and lauke bread mix (which has extra yeast, bread improver and god knows what else in it).  Beats me what the problem is, but I'm going to use up the defiance flour by mixing it with other flours and not buy it again.  The bread machine hates it as well.

Having dropped my angelic children at school I met up with some of the other SAHMs (stay at home mums) and nannies in a local cafe to discuss the recent spate of parent/teacher interviews, and, much more deliciously, the fact that...

1. My daughter's kindi teacher turned up at work with a HANGOVER on Monday
2. She was dumb enough to tell one of the parents

I KNOW.

Needless to say I'm feeling that there is a situation brewing that is going to end badly.

The whole hangover thing was not helped by the fact this teacher had told most of us in our interviews that our children were average.  Yes. AVERAGE. I was actually fairly philosophical about this, Miss 5 is, well, 5 and being told that she is not going to be an A student this year didn't overly bother me.  No. What mattered to me was that she was a happy, much loved member of the class. Always first to lend a hand and keen to answer a question however randomly.  I mean, yanno, she's FIVE.

Still, listening to the other mums chatting about how much reading and writing work they do with their kids at home got under my skin.  I ended up feeling that I was letting Miss 5 down a little bit but just reading the books that come home from school and then letting her watch Superhero Squad and other drivel. So after coffee I whisked myself into Borders and bought an armload of learn-to-write books.

Then I sped home and spent a few hours polishing an assignment for Uni - oh after a brief skirmish with the snotty man in the hardware shop WHICH I WON and left with the staples I wanted and carried the bag of sugarcane mulch to the car all by myself. Rargh.

Next it was back to a cafe.  Miss 4 had Grandparents day today, and I met up with Mumndad after it was all over for a full report and restorative coffees for them.  Grandparent's Day is something of an ordeal.  If you're not being entertained by your offspring's offspring singing in French and Mandarin, then you're donating books to the library or being chatted up about making bequests.

Then home again with the kids where I presented them with their new books (got some for Miss 4 just so she wouldn't feel left out).

WELL.  They leapt upon them, loved them to bits and it was only after two hours that they started to flag with all the letter copying and matching balloons and playing spot the difference.  I started to flag after about ten minutes, but was kept on track by them both,  answering question after question and trying to explain all sorts of tricky things (like why is that fish purple?) and frankly oh my god it was exhausting.  The moment hubby arrived home I scarpered to water the garden and just give my poor overworked brain a chance to rest for a moment.

Holy hell. It was a nice afternoon, but I'm looking forward to the novelty value wearing off.  Not sure how much more of this I can take. :)

Garden Pics

Apologies to all who were bored to death by my last post on car insurance. I just thought it was amazing the difference in price.  And thanks Epskee for her great comment.  My parents had a similar nightmare trying to get a car repaired with elcheapo insurance as well. Given our current financial dire straits our choice was between no comprehensive insurance and the cheap stuff, so I went cheap.  I just hope we get through the next year with no mishaps.

Anyhoo.  Have spent the day in the company of my wonderful Mother cleaning the house.  Yes, she rolled up her sleeves and bravely fished out everything under the kids beds.  What a woman.  Presently our kitchen smells of new bread and drying basil, the bathrooms smell of eucalyptus oil and the lounge of lavender.  And I can walk through the playroom without getting some small and annoying toy embedded in the sole of my foot.

Hurray.

A few things are looking good in the garden right now.

Mini-capsicums nearly ripe - sorry about the quality of the photo, late afternoon sun is most annoying.

The King Purple beans, and their pretty purple flowers are cropping.

And after my strawberry patch blitz (including snail bait) we are starting to get a heap of strawberries (well two).

And on a final note, I'd like to congratulate my agent on having two of her authors on the long list for the Miles Franklin Literary award. YAY Sophie :)

Car Insurance

Have been scouring the internet to get Comprehensive Car Insurance.  Just wanted to share results really

NRMA $839
iSelect's best price $920
Payasyoudrive (for 5000kms a year) $526
Youi $433

Youi takes into account I'm at home, not commuting, live in a quiet suburb and have no demerit points.  Rather pleased really. 

The Kitchen

So I cleaned under the microwave on Sunday morning.  There were Things under there. THINGS.

Then I decided that the microwave was annoying in its present position - it was hard to open the door without swiping, oh you know, a cup, a plate or a stack of pasta dishes off the bench-top and onto the very hard slate floor.

One thing led to another and four hours later I'd re-arranged the entire kitchen and decided on a new colour scheme.  Oh how I am tired of living with the previous owners horrible taste in wall colours.

So now the microwave has a new home, and the toaster is where it used to be.

Have been baking. Lemon cake for Miss 5 who brought a cook book home from school last week and is still miffed that so far I've only cooked macaroni cheese out of it.  Note charred edges on cake on left, will have to use lots of (curdled) lemon curd icing to cover them.

I also realised that I own an unseemly amount of tea.  Every single canister in this picture has tea in it, except for one with hubby's coffee bags.

Work is coming along on the new chicken coop.  We ran out of nails yesterday and after another awful night (involving a husband out partying until 2am and children with nightmares, leg cramps and 'itchies') I am not venturing up ladders or nailing anything into anything else.

Sigh.

Strawberries, Snakes and Firemen - Just another Saturday really

So it was one of those days that began quietly enough, tidying up the strawberry patch -

Which looked like this...

And now looks like this...

Found quite a few strawberries, not that anyone else in the family knows that.  The snails have been making off with a lot of them as well, so have sprinkled snail bait about the place.  I am organic in all things but when it comes to snails I have to put out bait (also use Round Up to kill couch grass and oxalis) otherwise I'd never get anything at all.

Mornings jobs ably assisted by Miss Pepper or Empress of the Front Garden as she prefers to be called...

And somehow ended up with a visit from the Firies.

OH OKAY, technically they were next door, but it was us - well more specifically me - who spotted the 1.5m red bellied black snake making its way from our chicken coop through a hole in the fence to next-doors yard.  Perhaps spotted is putting it too casually, I was contemplating the planting arrangement for my new bed under the liquid amber when the snake glided past, not two metres away from me.  I'd been standing very still for quite a while and the snake had no idea I was there.

I watched to see where it went, then sent hubby next door to make sure Louise got Ebony (her Kelpie) in (though in a fight my money is on Ebony to be honest).  Louise rang the firies - our local ones are all trained snake-handlers and they turned up within a few minutes to check things out.

Of course no sign of the snake. SIGH.  Bloody hell I wish they'd got it.  But they did check under our cubby and other likely places with no luck, so chances are the snake is making its way back from whence it came. I hope.

The main consequence of all this is because the snake was attracted to rodents, which in turn have been attracted to the chook food, we have to come up with better chicken accomodation.  Funnily enough we were planning to move the chooks into a new palace this weekend anyway.  Presently their coop looks like this...

Yes, an eyesore.  The whole arrangement hasn't been working for me for a while.

But, hubby had a brainwave.

You see we have this useless gazebo by the pool. This morning it was filled with empty paddling pool, inflatable pool toys and gardening tools.

But it is being converted. Oh my lordy yes.  This will be the chooks new home. Today I've been putting in top to bottom vermin proof mesh, plus shade cloth along two bottom sides so that the chickens have a nice protected area.  The best bit is that they'll be under cover. AND I'm going to turn where the coop used to be into a lovely new garden.

I'll post finished pics tomorrow.

:)

Frugal - Yikes

OH MY GOD.  We are on a spend-no-money drive in the Nicholas household. Ug.

Yes, ug it may be, but, also it is empowering. Indeed, I have been empowered - and OH how I am restraining myself from making super-person puns and quips right now. Barely. Holding. Back.

Anyway.

Was inspired by three things.

1. The parlous state of our budget and the stark realisation that we are going to struggle to register the car (yes the one that is 20,000kms overdue for a service) when its due in a few weeks.
2. Notes from the Frugal Trenches - and her spend no money days http://notesfromthefrugaltrenches.com/no-spending-days
3. And its been bothering me for a while, I can see a lot of cash slipping away simply because I'm not organised.

So this week we had our first Spend No Money Week ever.  

Frankly we have done So Bloody Well.  No seriously.  You are looking at a couple with mortgage and kids, that still have trouble believing that they're not DINKs (Double Income No Kids).  And apart from an essential $20 of fuel into the car we have spent no money from Monday to Thursday of this week.  Honestly, it wasn't that bad and holy hell are we pleased with ourselves about it.

We did plan to have a frugal Friday as well, but after yesterday's bread disaster (too much water in the dough - thanks Belinda) we had to go lunch orders for the kids, and then I realised that it made more sense to do the weekly shop on a Friday morning when the supermarket is quiet(ish) rather than tomorrow when its... when... okay I can't find the words.  Beirut comes to mind, Baghdad maybe?  Only the strong survive Saturday morning shopping in Hornsby Aldi, no really. Its that bad.

So, last week (from Saturday until Thursday), I spent $60 on groceries.  From that I fed my family breakfast, lunch, dinner and endless snacks (endless - my children graze) for six days.  The first thing I did (inspired by Frugal Trenches's Frugal food posts) was 'go shopping in my own pantry.'  I could see we were way over supplied with food, so really, to get through the week we only needed essentials such as milk, eggs, cheese and so on.  And took it from there.  

The thing I did the most during the week was make different types of bread and bread products.  Loafs, brown and white, rolls, calzones and muffins.  The bread maker has been used twice a day, though more for making the dough than cooking the actual bread. 

Our usual weekly grocery bill easily makes it up to $300 a week. Easily.  So, not wishing to be milquetoast about it, I cut that to $150.  Honestly I didn't think I could do it.  But I made my list, stuck to it and got everything I want for $159.

Rather chuffed about that. :)

Anyway.  We're going to continue.  Next week Monday to Friday will be Spend No Money.  Exceptions being filling up the cars on Tuesday (cheap petrol day), Hubby's train ticket on Monday (yes lavish I know) and I think we'll get all wild and wacky one day and have a coffee and a muffin - Hubby was begging about it this morning :)

Been harvesting things in the garden as well.

An armload of basil.

And a few other odds and ends.

:)

I'm Not Sick, But I'm Not Well

I can't decide if I'm ill or not.

For the last week I've been impossibly tired, had a bit of a sniffle, but its refusing to turn into a cold or go away, my back has been kind-of twinging, but nothing that'd make me say I've Got A Sore Back. Throat a bit sore, but might just be too much yelling at the kids, head kind-of aching, but that could just be the x-rays beaming out of my laptop screen and into my eyes.

Universe, I'd like to be sick or not be sick. If I'm sick I'll go to bed, drink lemsip and get over it. If I'm not I'll to stop sneezing everywhere and feeling like I'm about to be sick.  Similarly, back, just aching when I'm driving the car and not aching when I'm slumped on the couch with my laptop setting my legs on fire, is so not acceptable. Just make up your mind already.  If you are going to go, then go, and I'll book the physio.

sigh.

Had a bread disaster this evening - out of nowhere.  Did everything right and used yeast (yes, within its use-by date) I haven't had any problems with.  Just ended up looking like this...

Looks like a brick, weighs as much as a brick, therefore it is a brick and not edible for anyone except hubby and the chickens.

So now we have no bread for lunches tomorrow.  FFS.  AND on a day when my home made bread was being noted and praised by Miss 4s teachers.
YES.
Oh hell yes.
I basked.
"Oh," I said, "I bake all my own bread." In my coolest 'its no biggie but I am, in fact, awesome,' tone of voice. And now they're going to turn up with pappy packet bread tomorrow.  Farking karma (or something).

I've been reading The American Frugal Housewife (its free online as part of the Gutenberg Project) and I'm afraid that Lydia Child (the author) would've been appalled, no make that APPALLED at my housewifely skills, and not only in the bread baking department.

Although, I have been unravelling a decrepit jumper and knitting it into dishcloths. (Look I don't know why, its just chux have always irked me. IRKED.  Actually most things irk me, but chux more than usual).  So maybe I'd be able to win Mrs Child over, well if she hadn't been dead for 130 years.  Anyway I'll do a post on my jumper unravellings when I finish a dishcloth that comes out rectangular, rather than oval, or, well, blob shaped. 

sigh.

Best thing since sliced bread

 

sigh.

My Famous Mumndad

Mumndad have got a new dam.  A dam so exciting that its made it into the Penrith Star.  Yarst.  I know darlings.  Its not easy living with the fame, but we manage.

A few weeks ago we had a shitload of rain. Between midnight and three am that day we got 146.3mm, and at one point it was coming down at 6mm a minute.  Which is a heck of a lot of water. Some months we barely get 6mm rain in total.

Mumndad's old dam was in a real state of disrepair - totally neglected for many years (not by them, by the property's previous owners) and it was obvious that the dam wall wasn't going to hold for much longer - everything around and under the wall had been severely eroded, and we all knew it'd just take one massive downpour and it'd all collapse and end up in the Nepean river. 

But, when that downpour finally happened, mumndad had their new dam, it'd been finished just a few weeks earlier.  The screamies and I were there to watch the water go over the new dam wall and the spillway start working for the first time.

That's the 'trickle pipe' working (inbetween the screamies).  Not much of a trickle really!

And hubby and Miss 4 inspecting a rather swollen Nepean river.

:)

Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance: The Exciting Bits

For some reason, don't ask me why, the part of publishing that thrills me the second most is seeing the book go up on Amazon.  The first most thrilling part is getting your author copies and going 'holy crap did I write this epitome of literary brilliance??'

So The Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance (let's just call it MBSOR from now on) has just gone up.  You can see it here.  I have spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at My Name in the index, and getting goosebumps from all the great authors that surround my name. I mean they are so great. (Here I planned to make a list and put loads of exclamation marks and smiley faces and things like 'oh oh' and 'I am not worthy' but then I realised that I have ferocious PMT and have retained every drop of fluid I've drunk in the last fortnight - yes people I am a whale. A WHALE - and so therefore my judgement of what may or may not be classed as entertaining has disappeared to the same place as my sense of humor and patience.)

 MBSOR is also up on my most favorite book ordering website... The Book Depository.   They are almost always cheaper than amazon and do FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING.  If you are ordering books, get them there. No, don't argue. Just get them there.

 

  

Finally, the book might just be in Aussie bookshops. MIGHT. I don't know for sure yet - but rumour has it that if it is then it'll start appearing around 1 May.  Don't worry, I'll probably mention it once or twice when I find out for sure.

:)

Too hard

Wanted to say, re my post below on my latest rash of domestic disasters, that yes, I am laughing!!

This post has gone all rambly on me. I make my point in the last bullet point, down the bottom there...

I always laugh at my catastrophes - well mostly - and I put everything up on the blog to be laughed at/with.  It is my greatest wish that you smile or grin or at the very least nod, okay, I'd take grimace...

Yes, well, when the creddy card was refused at the petrol station, Miss 4 had been kicking in classroom doors and one of the chooks went awol for 24hours, I wasn't laughing at the time.  That one was just a bit overwhelming, it caught me in the middle of an already busy week and I was stressed.  Looking back at that day now I grin and roll my eyes and wonder why the hell it always happens to me.

I've been wanting to do a post about making the changes I'm making at home, changes on the blog, why I'm doing them and you know blah, blah, blah.  But I've been putting it off and that generally means its probably pretty boring and if it bores me then it'll bore everyone else (I have an extremely low boredom threshold and consider myself a good litmus test).

Anyway, bullet point list, we shall summarise why I'm going all homemaker at home and plastering it all over the interwebs.

• I'm at my happiest when I'm giving myself lye burns making soap (note: never get hot lye in a cut on your finger, it makes you say fark a lot more than is seemly), baking bread, planting things.  When I need space to breathe and be calm I water the garden - or have an inspect if its been raining.  So I'm not trying to change the world, save then environment, or pay off the mortgage in twenty five minuets - I'm just doing stuff I enjoy.
• These things have much potential for disaster, and given that I have no patience it just seems to extrapolate from there.  A voice in my head is almost constantly screaming NO, STOP, DONT USE THE OLD YEAST, but I never listen.
• I am very goal orientated and it gets my goolies jiggling (or something, hmm, not quite what I meant to say, but oh well) when I achieve things.  So when I post blog posts at 5.59am, add tertiary education to my already packed life, or decide we MUST have a preservative free breakfast NOW, please be aware that it is an inherited trait and makes me a pain in the neck to live with (just ask my first husband :))
• This blog used to be a lot about how my children crapped in their pants at MacDonalds.  They're getting bigger now and the crapping, whilst it does still occur, is not nearly as bloggable.  It was time to move the blog on as the kids grow and I grow (fatter mostly).

• Finally, and the thing I want to stress most, is that on a lot of other homey, crafty, gardening blogs (and tv for that matter - yes I'm pointing at you BHG), all this domestic stuff looks dead easy.  And its bloody not.  
• Its all bloody hard work, and to make perfect bread each time takes practice and experience, as does knitting anything at all, or crocheting, or looking after chooks.   Its a hell of a lot easier to buy a box of OMO than to find washing soda, lux flakes and borax and mix them all up and keep in a shoe box - you know what the OMO will do - but the other stuff may not work in your water, turn your washing grey, or strip off the inside coating of your washing machine.
• And as for gardening.  I heard this sad story of a family who put in big vege gardens, it all failed in the first year (a drought year) and in frustration they ripped the lot out and grew the grass back. Gardening is very hard and very frustrating.  For example, all the pumpkins I've planted are refusing to have girl flowers, and the two that I have hand pollinated rotted off, and now the powdery mildew has got them, and it wont stop raining.  I know however, that it will work eventually, because I've grown damn fine pumpkins before. So I keep going.  But I do know where that grass growing family were at.
• Do it yourself projects that look easy are not, unless you are a mechanic, a chippie or gifted with your hands, have a shed full of well kept tools and have fixed things all your life.  Our chook pen is a joke - a rusting joke, an eyesore.
• Er anyway, where was I? Yes. Hard work.  We're told and shown this domestic stuff is easy, when it isn't and I think people feel bad or not-good-enough when they don't get it right first time (or second, third, forth...). So I want to blog about all my disasters, so that everyone can see how I struggle and my frustrations and hilarious failures, so maybe they'll keep persisting with whatever they want to achieve.

That's it really.

:)

Homemaking? I does it well.

Had an absolutely frantic couple of days getting through my lists of ToDos.  I haven't made it through the whole list of course, just been doing the things that will keep this boat afloat, and me not totally embarrassed in my Uni lecture.

Of course it all hasn't gone to plan.  My most major disaster has been bread rolls.  The first batch I made were paragons of light fluffiness which I had to whack into the oven before they rose out of the pan and went everywhere.

The second batch I made yesterday were not.

They were small and bullet like and the best use we could come up with was to put them in a sock and send them into kindi with Miss 5 as a self-defence weapon. Oh kidding. We'd only send them with Miss 4.

My yeast failed.  Well okay, my yeast failed because it was a THOUSAND YEARS OLD and I should've known better. Do not use old yeast people.

My second most major disaster was the icing on the banana cake I made. Goddamm frickin too hard butter going all lumpy in the mixture and then not magically smoothing out when I put it on the cake. Goddammit.

Has enough icing sugar to taste good but.

Cakes have never been my forte and now that I live with an oven which has two settings of Too Hot and Far Too Farking Hot, most of the baking I do requires icing to cover where I cut the charred bits off.  sigh.

Third worst disaster was the casserole I made.  Dragged out the slow cooker and flung in all sorts of things from the fridge - including a little bit of leftover cooked angel-hair spaghetti.  I kind-of thought that after around nine hours of cooking that the spaghetti would've melted away, but NO. It remained and caused the children to screech WORMS, WOOOOOORRRRMMMMSSS.  And then refuse to eat anything.

Also I already blew the weekly budget at the supermarket and now we've run out of dishwasher powder.  Am going to steal money from my children to cover it.  I mean there are limits.

:)

Too Many To Dos

355 / 355 pages. 100% done!

So this morning I took a deep breath and hit the send button.  Drive Me To Distraction has undergone its rewrites - with little grace I might add - and is now sailing off to endure the gimlet eye of my agent.  Oh I hope I found all the typos and remembered everyone's name and hair colour.

There is of course no rest.  My list of Writing To Dos is as follows

• Critique Kudrat DONE
• Critique Sam 
• Critique Sarah DONE
• Read, analyse and summarise: Introduction, Narrative & Narration, Wants, Art Voices, Mullet Leap
• Start The Drovers Wife analysis for leading discussion next week
• Start short fiction for workshop piece
• Start Boys of Summer (next novel)

I'm really nervous about the critiquing I've done so far.  Because I've judged a lot of writing contests I'm very used to pulling apart other's work and telling them what's wrong with it.  But I'm not sure how used these writers are to that sort of constructive criticism AND I have to deliver my opinion face to face in a workshop session.  Gah.  I know all they want to hear from me is that their work is brilliant - I'm just scared that they'll take it personally when I say that it will be brilliant with rather a lot of work.

Of course these to dos are just writing. Then there are the domestic to dos;

• Reply to emails
• Grocery shopping
• Make sausage rolls
• Clean bathrooms
• Wash dog
• Dry dog
• Make bread
• Make bread rolls
• Think of something for dinner, purchase ingredients and cook
• Wash beds
• Put away clothes
• Tidy
• Sort out what kids need for excursions
• Post office
• School forms for Miss 4
• Buy new hat for Miss 5

Just the tidying alone could take all today and  tomorrow.

Then there's the to dos in the garden

• Plant banana passion fruit
• Find cure for powdery mildew and apply to rapidly dying melons
• Mulch around the pool
• Water seeds
• Change litter in the coop
• Weeding
• Hack hibiscus back
• Sweep driveway
• Move frangiapani...

The list goes on.

sigh.

March Planting

Today has been my planting day.   At the start of each month I check the gardenate website, have a look at what people in a sub-tropical (ie Sydney) climate should be planting and then diligently plant up the seeds that will be burnt off by the sun, drowned by three days of downpour, dug up by the chickens or eaten by slugs.

We have a very high mortality rate at my house.

Still I persist. 

Anything on this list that does manage to survive I expect to start harvesting around June - though things like onions won't be on the menu until October at the earliest.

• Beetroot
• Broad beans
• Broccoli
• Capsicum
• Carrot
• Celeriac
• Beans - climbing
• Cucumber
• Eggplant
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Onion
• Pak Choy
• Parsley
• Parsnip
• Squash
• Sunflower
• Swedes
• Sweet corn
• Turnip
• Zucchini

 I tend to grow really ordinary stuff, mostly because I like walking around the supermarket produce section being all smug that I don't have to buy things because they are in my garden.  These days I have about 30 square metres of my garden growing vegetables in a six bed rotation system, but it wasn't always like that.

Nope.  Hubby didn't like the idea of anything but lawn at first and I had to wheedle, cajole and do unspeakable things to get every garden bed. 

I started small, on the left there is the beginning of my garden in around June 2007.

At that stage instead of trying to grow all my own veg, I would aim for a meal.  We eat spagetti bolognese a lot - so I set myself the goal of growing the ingredients (not the beef, obviously).

In my spag bol I use;

• leeks
• carrots
• celery
• tomato
• onion
• garlic, and
• basil

 That year I nearly got there.  I had to use shallots instead of onions, and had no garlic or celery. But I did have leeks, carrots, tomatoes and basil. 

I stuck with the 'grow a meal' plan, as goal-wise it wasn't too overwhelming.  After spag bol, I wanted to grow the veg for a roast dinner. So I had a go at pumpkin, potato, carrots, zuchinni.  They worked, kind of.  I'm still getting the hang of potatoes and pumpkins annoy me. 

It hasn't been until this year that I really feel like I've got a chance to rely on my own garden for my food rather than the supermarket.  Before now it would've been way too much to embark on a list of vegies like I have above.  But, over the last four years I've grown all of the things in that list, know what works, what doesn't, had disasters, endured hailstorms, ended up with nematodes, planted seeds and know that if you let them dry out even for a day then they cark it, seen the effects of not enough fertilizer, too much fertilizer and a four day westerly gale. 

My main advice, though, to anyone who is embarking on a bit of gardening is the following...

Patience, Persistence and Sunscreen.

:)

Winds of Change

Here is the pile of Christmas decorations.  That's the tree's box down the bottom, and the baubles on top.

Today I moved them from the lounge into the shed.  It took me about two minutes.

Well after I got rid of all the spider webs and dust adhering them to the carpet.

Mystery Pillow Explosion

Walked down into the lounge earlier today only to find that Somehow one of the pillows had exploded.

Am still wondering how this happened.  Clearly there are forces at work in my house that are beyond my comprehension.

The Chook News - Edition II

PRODIGAL CHICKEN RETURNS

In news just in, there is rejoicing tonight at The Coop. Pecky, The Prodigal Chicken, has returned.  Thus far she has refused to comment on her whereabouts though a close personal friend has suggested she may or may not have been hanging out at Robbie Williams house.  Local F-list celebrity and relieved Landlord, Caitlyn Nicholas said, "Wait a sec, four chickens? What the ... ?"

Ms Nicholas then rang The One Who Forgets To Shut The Coop At Night to check that one chicken had indeed gone missing the previous day and a comprehensive search of the property had been carried out.  When this was unequivocally confirmed there was much head-scratching (Nits have been ruled out as a cause). It has been concluded that when Certain People water dowsed on the weekend they opened up a hole in time and Pecky fell through it.  There have been unconfirmed reports that she gave Bird Flu to everyone in the future and we are all DOOMED. DOOOOOOMED I tells ya.


HEARTFELT APOLOGIES TO NEXT-DOOR KELPIE AND LOCAL PIGEONS OF PREY
Relieved Landlord and local F-list celebrity, Caitlyn Nicholas said, "Er, about that whole murder accusation yesterday.  Bygones? Yes?"

A member of The Coop who wished to remain anonymous doubts the washing will ever go un-shat-upon again (by the birds).  The Next-Door Kelpie was heard to mutter that she was a patient dog. A very patient dog.

CHICKENS FOUND LIVING IN SQUALOR

Caught here running for cover, members of The Coop were ashamed to admit that they live in a compost heap.  Somebody was heard to mention that they only stayed around for the Day Old Bread with  buttermilk/whey that arrived around about lunchtime.  Local F-list celebrity, Caitlyn Nicholas said, "What? I do the poo-hosing and compost digging on Saturday, if you don't bloody like it then do it yourself."  Unconfirmed reports suggest that she then stormed off in a snit.

:)

All home made

Afternoon tea at our house today.

Butter - made by me this morning
Strawberry jam - made by me a few weeks ago
English muffins - made by me and the bread maker

The recipe for the muffins is...

• 1 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 cups plain flour
• 1.5 teaspoons dry yeast (or one 7g sachet)
• Polenta

1. Put ingredients in your bread machine in the order listed.
2. Run the dough cycle.
3. Sprinkle polenta over your work area.
4. 
Use your hands to pat the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle.
5. Turn the dough so that each side gets lightly coated with polenta.
6. Cut into rounds with a cookie cutter
7. Let rise for 20 - 30 minutes--until not quite double.
8. Heat a big frying pan - I give it a little squirt with canola oil.
9. 
Cook the muffins about 5 to 7 minutes on each side - 
they should be golden brown when you turn them.
10. 
These freeze well and can be reheated in the microwave or toasted if you manage not to eat them right away

Downward Slide

Oh well this is going to teach me for being all sodding smug about Breakfast isn't it.

To make matters worse I had, in a fit of organisation, saved a little list of things to post about.  Breakfast photos, it said, raiding kids piggy banks, rave about how awesome first night of lectures was.

sigh.

Well, breakfast was an un-mitigated disaster.  I didn't take photos, no, I was too busy trying to persuade Miss 4 to eat something, anything.  She toyed with four blueberries for forty minutes and then, after my patience had well and truly run out, did a back-flip (not literally) and scoffed crumpets and honey.  To say that when I departed for school I was just slightly frazzled would be a gross understatement.

And yes, I did raid the kids piggy banks.  Hubby's work has deferred and deferred again on his pay. The sum we were supposed to receive on Friday when we ran out of cash, had still not appeared on Wednesday morning despite myriad promises.  Both cars were out of petrol and I knew I wouldn't get to school and back after driving around with the empty light on for four days.  So I scraped together $10 from the kids piggy banks thinking I'd get that much petrol when I got to school.

Had a busy and productive morning with a few school related social things and then ended up in Hornsby Westfield with an hour to spare before the afternoon school run.  After a year of unemployment , you can imagine the parlous state of our credit card.  Still I decided to tentatively try it out in Coles so that I could feed the children tonight and was rather chuffed when it actually worked. HURRAY. Funds.  So, I lavishly spent my $10 of shrapnel on some Sushi and a drink and then beetled off to the petrol station and filled up the car.

Phew. All was going okay.

Until the credit card was declined at the petrol station.

There followed the most humiliating twenty minutes of my life.  And now I must be at that petrol station by 8am tomorrow morning or my name will be handed to the police.

Naturally I will be there waving cash and continuing to grovel and apologise and offer to exchange my second-born child, as hubby's pay FINALLY went into our account about twenty minutes ago.  YAY, looking forward to that happy experience.

Then I arrived at school, fifteen minutes late, parked in the wrong place and was gently given a list of Miss 4's transgressions for the day.  These included hitting a teacher for the second day running, kicking the door of her sisters class room and literally running amok to the extent that her teacher had to find a substitute to mind her class whilst she dealt with the situation.

Great.

So, a felon AND worst parent on earth.  Wonderful.

Well things couldn't get worse than that? Could they?

When I got home we only had three chickens. One of the Australorps has gone.  I'm presuming she either got taken by a bird of prey or flew over the fence and got eaten by next doors Kelpie - who savages possums whenever the poor things set a toe-nail in her yard.

Then I rang my mother and cried.

Breakfast

Did I say I was tired yesterday?? Ack, its nothing compared to today.  You see Miss 5 decided at 4.30 this morning she'd howl the house down in the hope of getting hold of Hubby's iPod to play Sims or somesuch.  When it was made clear that her cruel and bleary parents were having none of it she proceeded to have a tantrum that then woke Miss 4, the dog, the chooks and the neighbours dog, who started barking which set off all the other dogs in the vicinity.

FFS.

Of course everyone was back asleep by 5am, except for insomniac me. I got to listen to hubby slumbering LOUDLY next to me for an hour before it was getting up time and finally I could have some tea. Thank GOD for tea.

Needless to say the morning did not progress well from that point and I was heartily glad to see the back of my children when I dropped them off to wreak havoc at school today.

So, breakfast.

Breakfast has been bothering me for a while at our house.  Here are our perpetual four types of cereal - they are four that are relatively low in sugar and high in fibre.  We never, ever have anything like nutri-grain or coco pops.  The kids don't even know they exist.  We go through these four boxes in about a week - maybe a bit slower on the vita-brits - and the cost is around $25.

Even so, below is a typical bowl of what I'm throwing away every day.  Yes. I do give them a small amount, which they eat, then they insist they are still hungry, so I give them another small bowl which they don't eat - so usually leftovers amount to about this much.  And I challenge any parent to deny their child's request for "more pweese."

The leftovers go to the chooks who love them, so its not right into the bin, but still I'm not happy with the whole breakfast scenario.  Those cereals are processed and expensive and I think we could be doing better.

So, my breakfast plan for tomorrow is as follows

• Home made yoghurt (which I did yesterday and is in the fridge) with granola (recipe below)
• Blueberries and strawberries
• Home made muffins (which may possibly be made in the breadmaker and then finished off in the oven - unless hubby's company deigns to actually PAY HIM SOME MONEY and then I might buy some, ready made, whee, the anticipation...) with strawberry jam
• Fruit smoothie - milk based or orange juice based with frozen fruit from the freezer (I buy it in bulk from Frozberries in Hornsby - its about 50% cheaper than the teensy weensy packs you get in the supermarket - also their tag-line is We Put The Thrill Back In Chill - which has always caused me much amusement though I have no idea why).

Best Granola Ever
140g/2 cups Rolled Oats (7 points)
110g/1 cup hazelnut meal (9 points)
110g/1 cup flaked almonds (11 points)
50g/0.5 cup sultanas (2 points)
80ml/ 0.3 cup honey (3.5 points) I mean a third of a cup of honey here

Mix all ingredients well (I heat the honey briefly in the microwave so its really runny).
Spread evenly over a baking tray
Spray lightly with canola oil (I often forget to do this)
Bake in a moderate oven for about half an hour (my oven does not know the meaning of moderate so I tend to leave it in for ten minutes at 150 and then get too stressed about it burning to leave it longer).  Basically it needs a little bit of a cook, but whatever you do don't burn it - makes the whole thing taste bloody awful.
Cool
Keep in an airtight container.

Weightwatchers points for 50g of granola are 3 (so I usually have 25g of it on a cup of low fat yoghurt (2 points) which gives me a breakfast of 3.5points).

Also, I use a digital scale and am a capricorn so it all Must Be Precise. However, sometimes when I'm feeling all wacky and out-there, I double the quantities of rolled oats, use dried apricots and even prunes, well once, but it went a bit gluggy and pruney, so I fed it to hubby. I even put in more almonds and less hazelnut from time to time. I know, I can barely stand it.

I'm not thinking this breakfast will be much more trouble than the cereals (other than the children having a fit at something - holy crap - different). I'm in the kitchen doing lunches when the kids eat anyway and the smoothies won't be too much effort and the rest will be ready to go.

So breakfast. There you have it.

Homemaking & Blog Changes

Despite being at page 348/350 in edits I took today off writing.  In that last gasp of Drive I need to include a scene which adds a twist to the ending, its going to have to be short and snappy and not make the reader roll their eyes and wish that the book was over already. I find the best way to approach tricky ones like this is to leave it for a couple of days and then they just arrives, on their own.

I'm tired today (why? because I was reading my uni texts last night and got all excited about my course and couldn't sleep.  sigh) and we have a ridiculously busy couple of weeks ahead, so I've spent today getting organised, making menu plans, washing, and all those sort of home-making jobs.

Its also frickin HOT again. So cross. I had decided that hot weather was over and planted lettuces, which will now turn bitter and bolt to seed. Whhhy OH WHY? SIGH. I will have lettuce. Oh yes. This shall not defeat me. Rargh.

It was green and gold day at school today.  For the winter olympics or something.  It is hard to describe how a pair so cute can also be so evil. But trust me, they are.

Anyhoo, speaking of homemaking, I've been devouring http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/.  There is such a lot Rhonda is doing that I either already do myself or want to do.  I talk about it here but in a pretty random and haphazard way.  So I thought I'd get a bit more organised, keep the usual ranting and vegetable happy snaps but include a bit more depth.

Last year was an annus horribilius for hubby and I, what with him having no job and all the crud that goes with that, like a shitload of debt.  However, as I've said, a lot of positives came out of that year as well, having hubby at home and the improvements in our relationship and the feeling of a solid foundation beneath us.

Now that he is back at work though, I feel like those positives are slipping and that the lessons we learned are being swiftly forgotten.  We really don't want this to happen.  I like living simply, even though its sometimes hard, and now that we have the chooks I can't describe the really confident feeling I get knowing that we can provide our own food from our own little suburban block - or will be able to once they start laying eggs and the weather stops KILLING MY LETTUCES.

So, I thought I'd blog more about how we're keeping it simple, how we're feeling about it, what works and what doesn't, and what we just can't live without (hint: dishwasher).

So, watch this space.  Its going to be fun :)

Water Dowsing

So you've probably been reading my blog long enough to know that I'm really not one for wild flights of fancy (if you're new, a big HI THERE from me - and yes, that is as friendly as I tend to get). Logic and science and rational explanations are my thing, all a result of a sensible factual up-bringing and education.

Lovely.

However. There is an aspect to myself that I kind-of tend to steer clear of. Its the side of me that has odd experiences that may or may not be due to ghosts, and the side of me that water dowses.  The side that isn't 100% explainable in a logical way.

Water dowsing or water witching is when you take a stick or metal poles and walk over the ground, the stick or poles move when you cross water or a ley line or pretty much anything you care to imagine under the ground (yes bodies and/or gold if you so desire it).

My mother taught me how to water dowse when I was about seven or eight.  Well taught is not precisely right, she put two straightened out coat hangers in my hands, instructed me to walk around until they crossed and said something like, 'look you can do it too,' when they did.

Since then its pretty much been a good party trick for freaking out prospective husbands.  Although, when I move into a new house I do tend to have a quick go to figure out where the ley lines are.  Just cos, really.

Well, today we have been in the garden (just for something different) and are sorting out a new bed to go under the liquid amber.  As you can see, its really tatty and mozzie-ish under there, and for ages I've wanted to turn it into a usable bit of garden, rather than an old toy dumping ground.  I thought it'd be fun to find out where the ley lines were and use them to design the garden around.

So I butchered a couple of coat hangers, and bent them into the right shape.  Those are broken kitchen chairs btw, mostly I use them to grow beans up.

Then marched up and down the bit of garden I was interested in, taking note of when the rods crossed and when they didn't.  I can't explain the rod crossing thing any more than that.  They move, in my hands, on their own and they cross and uncross as I walk over the same spot or line every single time. I think its to do with magnetic fields or something.  Interestingly hubby can't do it at all.

After ignoring the fact they were crossing every time I stepped over the hose (ie water) I ended up with the pile of white clay which marks the intersection of two ley lines.  The spade (which is a bit off centre) shows the direction of one.  (The white clay was leftover from Miss 4s poo smearing days and has been rock solid in a perfectly good bucket for ages).

The other line runs through the chair, the white clay, and the orange kids bbq. And hey look there's all my washing, up on the blog, awww, and is that an empty yellow bag of chook food blown into the lavender? Ahem yes I think it is (blush).

Well, tomorrow we'll mulch the whole area, and then, using the bit with the white clay as the centre-point, start to plant up rows of different coloured lettuce, leek, kale etc, etc, to make a 100% edible formal garden bed.  You can already see some of the mulch in the top photo.

And that's that really.  Many people can water dowse, its not unusual. There are water dowsing associations around Australia and people run their own businesses dowsing professionally for farmers etc who want to dig bores and so on.  Its fun and freaky and if you happen to have a couple of old coat-hangers lying around I'd highly recommend you give it a try.

Seriously.

Chess lessons

Miss 5 spent the afternoon dressed in a Tinkerbell outfit teaching her sister how to play chess.

I nearly died from all the cuteness.

Well, until the bickering broke out.

:)

Text books

Been in to Mac Uni this morning. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE that place.  I LOVE IT.  Its just getting ready to kick off into the new Semester next week and the place is abuzz.  Cannot wait to be back there. Can. Not. Wait.

Got my text books :)

We're doing the Great Gatsby - wheee!!

And I am already half-way through the course notes.

Drive Me To Distraction - the book I'm racing to get finished - is practically there.  Got to Chapter 18 last night, so just two more chapters to go. Although, I know there is a fair bit of rewriting in those end bits, so its not going to happen that quickly.  But still, the end is in sight.  Mum and Hubby are deep into proof-reading and are telling me its good so far - they always say that, just in case it gets awful later on!

Whilst at Uni I caught up with an old work friend (Hi Brian :)) and made him go all fainty with Miss 5s birth story (which involved scissors, forceps and heaving on both my and the obstetricians part).  Brian's wife is due in a few weeks and they're just getting through all their birthing classes.  I feel a bit mortified actually, as scaring dads-to-be is one of the things I kind-of promised myself I wouldn't do, and there I was doing it without even thinking.  Sigh. Yes, I have turned into One Of Those Friends - you know, the ones that mean well, but tend to make it all worse!  Anyway, have resolved to Shut The Hell Up in future - yeah, cos I'm good at that.

Now I have to decide.  Do something about the appalling state of the kitchen or go and snuggle in bed with a cup of tea and read, read, read?

:)

Operation Make-Over Part II

Went shopping yesterday with me-mum.  Yes, nearly 40 is still not too young to be spoilt to death by your mother :)

Got some new shoes.  Now I am not a shoes person.  So I tend to wear them until they fall to bits before setting foot in a shoe shop.  But still, I do appreciate a good shoe.  The leafy green bits in the photo are my new banana passionfruit.  How Awesome Is That???  Its going to grow over the chook pen.

AND I got a photo of my new blueberry plant as well.  The possums ate my last one, but I'm hoping they're too busy destroying my apple trees to worry about blueberries at the moment.

Anyway.

Did discover that Colorado, in their wisdom are doing short leg length jeans for little legged people like me.  So will hopefully spend this winter not walking through the hems of my jeans. Hurray!

So here is me and what I wore to drop the kids off today - plus the shoes at the top.  Operation make-over is getting there methinks - mostly because I would not change a tyre in this outfit (very nearly did wear it to haul mulch around the garden though - sigh).

ALSO, am saving tomato seeds - certainly more exciting than clothes. You have to do that seed fermenting thing to save tomato seeds, so right now the kitchen smells of decomposing tomatoes. Nice huh?

These are the seeds of golden and white egg-shaped tomatoes.

:)

Socially Inept

Firstly a quick word on the whole God situation in this house.  You may have noticed that I was just a wee bit rattled by all the God chatter and hymn singing that has suddenly burst forth in this house of religious ambivalence (or The Unchurched as my friend Emma likes to call us :)).

Well, Miss 4, in her endless mission to Prove Her Mother Wrong, brought home the book below as her library book for this week.

Her logic being that if there is a book about how tall God is then he must be a real person which is in direct contravention of our earlier agreement that he is a pretend, invisible person that some people believe in and some people don't.

Yes, she is four and no I am not looking forward to the teenage years.

Today I had a playdate with the rest of Miss 4's class.  Honestly, being an introvert, I don't do being social at the best of times, but when its with a group of people I don't know and my children are there and are completely shattered after a hot and humid day at school - well, let's just say that I had a deep suspicion that there'd be something bloggable by the end of the day.

No, Miss 4 did not poo in their swimming pool.
No, Miss 5 did not say fuck, bitch or bloody, not once.
No, Miss 4 did not hit, bite or steal, nothing, not a thing.
No, Miss 5 did not break things, nag, whine or investigate the contents of their bedside tables (Miss 4 got shut in their walk-in wardrobe, and then I was found in a situation where it looked a lot like I was going through their clothes, but when I hauled out my grinning child all was explained and smiles from everyone).

I was rather proud of them actually.

But it was their mother who raised eyebrows. Oh yes.  You see they had a chocolate fountain.  You know, one of these things, where you dip the fruit in the warm melty chocolate.

Well I resisted as long as I could, but when everyone was in the pool I managed to sneak away and have a little taste all on my own.  It was then that I had a disaster. My hair, which was up in a french knot, unwound itself and without thinking I brushed it back. Then I realised I had chocolate all over my hand and THEN realised I had chocolate drizzled all over the front of my blue shirt.

Quick dash to the kitchen and some paper towel resulted in a greasy brown wet mess across my capacious bosom, which I tried to hide by unbuttoning my shirt another button and sort of pulling out the collar.  Dismal failure.

I washed hands, tidied my hair and rejoined the group. When the time came we headed home (with no tantrums - yay us).  Hour or so later and I picked up hubby from the station.
"Have you been eating chocolate?" he asked.
"Why?"
"It looks like chocolate in your eyebrow.  Is it?"
I rub my eyebrow. Yes. Chocolate.
"And hey, what's that in your hair. It looks like chocolate too."
Yes. Yes it was.  Chocolate. IN. MY. HAIR.

I am never leaving the house again.

NEVER.

Valentine's Day

So, on Valentine's Day eve, I would suggest that you don't rant on to your husband about how Valentine's Day is a total waste of time and money and frankly if anyone ever wanted to spend $40 on flowers how you'd much rather they took that money and bought you a couple of tea-camellias, or maybe three blueberry bushes.

Because when you wake up in the morning and find flowers, a card and a chocolate breakfast in your favorite Shelly teacups, not only are you are going to look deeply, deeply ungrateful, but there is also nothing you can say or do to save the situation.

It is a good thing that my husband enjoys laughing at my discomfort and loves me to bits in equal measure.

Yeah. He's a lucky man.

:)

And I am without doubt, the luckiest girl in the world as well. 

Love you, my sweet, and thanks.  I never, ever expected such a lovely, wonderful, beautiful surprise (obviously!)

The things we Do

You can tell that I've got a book deadline looming AND have hit a flat scene that I am struggling to inject any life or interest into. WHAT. SO. EVER.

Why? I hear you ask.

Well.  I got up this morning and re-arranged the woodpile.

For entertainment the dog runs at the chook pen and all the chooks run to the other side of the pen. Then the dog runs around the other side of the pen, and the chooks run back. Then he runs around the other side... well you get the picture. Back, forward, back, forward.

Its driving me nuts.

So I've foiled that little game.

Then, at the sight of my youngest child getting out of the pool, howling in indignation, blue with cold and with poo dripping out of the bottom of her swimmers - I ran into the house, got my keys, jumped in the car and went to the garden centre.

No, I really did.  Sometimes in life you just have to walk away.

Got some lettuces though.  Generally I'm a growing-from-seed girl, but given the heat and the rain, everything has carked-it, and I'm sick to death of buying lettuce from Coles.  So I decided seedlings were the lesser of two evils.

Hubby rang me when he'd finished hosing everyone off and had them all warm and cute and happy in front of a DVD. Then and only then did I come home, bearing hot chocolates and a cinnamon rolls.  We hid in the front garden and ate them.

Now I am making dog food. The smear of brown is bovril - like vegemite only it tastes horrible and is runnier. Also, I have no idea how it ended up in my house. Everyone I know denies leaving it here. Odd.

Generally the dog eats leftovers. BUT, I made an awesome chicken stock a couple of days ago, one thing led to another and it was left out on the bench for a day when it was 30+ degrees and 95% humidity.  Yes. Wasn't feeding that to the kids.

So happened to be browsing my new most fave blog Down To Earth, and came across her home made dog food recipe.

Perfect way to use up the ruined stock.  I also add a little garlic to her recipe. It can help with fleas.

So yep.  Next up cleaning, and making ratatouille, which takes about three hours. And then I'll be Far Too Tired to write and will have to think about it all tomorrow.

sigh.