Why am I so slack lately with posting here.  Maybe because I am so busy out there *doing* that I just haven't the time...I wish!  No, it's my usual reason, I'm too lazy and just can't be fagged.  I'm pretty sure I have been busy though...I just can seem to see any results from it.  Most of the gardens have been trimmed, weeded, cleaned up but they are still messy looking, not at all like I see other peoples.  The grass needs mowing again but I think I will get on top of that by next week.  If I don't start the painting that I want to get done.    The inside...well lets not go there, that will never be the way I want it to be, again, because I am too lazy.  And too tight to spend money on getting it fixed up so it would be easier to tidy and clean.  Choices.  Sometimes the choices I make aren't the best for how I think I want things to be...But they work for how things are.

I have had heaps of cucumbers and zuchinnis this month.  I have blended a lot of the zukes with capsicum, onion and chilli and frozen it for soups during Winter.  A batch of Bread and Butter Pickles has been made though I am one jar down.  And after 3 washes there are still sticky bits on the floor.  I like the idea of using glass jars and getting rid of all my plastics but when this happens I wonder why I didn't use the Peanut Paste jars instead.

I have powdery mildew on some of the zuchinnis and have pulled up a couple of too sick cucumber plants because of it but after cutting off the worse looking leaves and giving everything a dose of Molassas they have started fruiting again.  Hubby wonders why I bothered, he says I should have pulled them all up.  Ha, not likely fella, you will eat them again.

Speaking of husband.  He is still working in the area so I am still needing to make lunch for him every day and have a halfway decent cooked meal for him at night.  This good wifey thing is hard work.  Last night he brought back some *scrapings*  If I get around to doing them myself I will write about them.  It is the wax that has been scraped from the hives.  I need to strain it to get the honey out, smoosh it down and strain it again and then somehow get the wax seperated and cleaned.    I was hoping to do that today but haven't started yet so will ask for instructions again tonight and do it early tomorrow before the bees start hanging around.  I need to get used to the bees though as I have been given a hive from the bloke up the road.  It is chokkers so Husband will pick it up for me but I need to get a spot ready to put it and learn how to look after it myself.  Doesn't seem right when he is the beekepper but that's how it is.  Again, have I made the right choice or should I have said no to it.  I will give it a go, I think it will be cool to eat honey I have done everything myself for.  

I came in for lunch, didn't realise it was so late so will have something then a coffee then back out for some mowing and more weeding and mulching before I call it a day and have a shower and start inside.  




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Draughts, Checkers, TicTacToe, Noughts and Crosses

Call them what you will but I think they are great games.  Easy to play even if you don't have a bought board.  TicTacToe can be played in the dirt with a stick, use paper and pencil or a board with the noughts and crosses or different coloured *pieces*

I haven't played these games for a long time but recently thought that they would be good games to teach the grandkid.  We don't have a board in the house here though so how could I teach her Draughts/Checkers...I know.  I'd make the game, using whatever I had around here.
What did I have around here?  ummm, Some lids from husbands Coke habit, cardboard box, a no longer needed wooden lid...

First off I had to choose my weapon.  OK, not a weapon but a saw to use.  So many and I had no idea which would be best so tried a few and decided on a pretty red one.

I smashed the handle off the lid with a small hammer, cut the edge off the board to square it up, found some sandpaper and made it smooth and clean.

Get the lids to make sure that the board was the right size.  I seem to have plenty of red ones but will need to look for some other colours as I need 12 of each.

I found a spraycan of silver paint so decided that I wanted a silver board.  A couple of coats of paint, measure up so I have 9  squares and there you, or in this case I, have it.  A TicTakToe board.  And as you can see below, I beat myself so I won.

 The draughts side was harder, I had to use my brain and work out how big the squares needed to be to fit in 64 same size ones.   Managed that and used a permanent marker to draw them in.

I was going to colour the squares in with a marker but couldn't find the thick one I wanted so thought that paint would work just as well even if it did mean a bit more work. I found some black paint but not the foam brush I wanted.  Husband suggested a stamp and made me one from a potato.  It worked OK so with using that and a small brush I  now have a finished game-board.  I have since found the foam brush, hohumm, not sure why I don't put things away where they go.

It's a long way from being perfect.  A long way from being good but it will do what I want it to and it is finished and usable.  If I waited for perfect the grandkid would have a job and could buy one. 

I have a black drawstring bag that I got from the free market and this board and all the pieces fit in that.  The bigger board that I intend making will also fit as will the chess pieces so that free bag that I was unsure what to use for will be a bargain buy for sure.

I have an idea on making the chess pieces so might work on those over the next month or so.  I'm going to make a bigger board as well, one that will use lids from milk bottles.  It saves stuff from the rubbish, gives me something to do and will keep me off the streets.

January.

Was wondering what has been happening over the last few weeks and as usual was having trouble remembering.  Seeing as this blog is my diary I will try and remember and record.  I should write things down as they happen but I don't do that often enough.

January.

Camera.  I have an older camera, nothing flash.  It uses an sd card and when they are full I put it away and buy a new one.  Went to our post-office to get one and they sold me what looked like the right thing.  It cost twice as much as the last one I bought there but she assured me it was right.  I put it in my camera but it didn't work.  Turns out it's an sdhc, or some such thing, not an sd..  It works in daughters camera though so I borrowed that.  We go down to Margaret River, I take photos...My card reader doesn't recognise this card so I cannot upload them to the computer.  Bugger!   I go over to Mandurah to get the right one for my camera but everyone tells me that they no longer make that and they don't sell them.  I buy a new camera, one that will take the new cards. It seems that I also need a new card reader so that I can upload photos easily so I buy one of those too.  My card in daughters camera fits the new camera.  Somehow though, after putting the card in the new camera all the photos are wiped off.   Not sure what happened or what we did wrong there but all the photos of Nannup Free Markets and our MR trip are gone.  Bit sad about that but I see it as meaning that we need to go again.
But!  After buying the new camera, as I was coming out of the shop another customer comes up to me and says that Camera House sells the older card, the one that I wanted in the first place.  I wander over to CH and buy 2 cards that fit my older camera.    And...the new card reader is only small but doesn't fit the usb port in the front of the computer so I can't use it so any photos taken with new camera are still stuck on that card.  I've been told that it should fit in the back but as that is too awkward to get to I  haven't tried it yet.  Why does technology have to be so complicated.

Hero Husband.
On the 12th, or thereabouts, we went down to Nannup to the first Really Really Free Market for that town..  It was good and 1 woman had put some of her things on the wooden seat there.  I went over to have a look, notice something on the ground under but behind...put my arm through to pick it up...I couldn't get my arm out.  I was stuck.  Forever.  I am useless at times like these because any little sense that I have just goes and I start to panic.  Of course the more I panic the less I am able to think.  I tried getting my arm out, even dropped whatever it was I had picked up, but it was stuck.  My fat arm was stuck between the seat and the backrest.  And I was stuck.  Forever.  Of course there were other people around but no-one close so I called out that I needed help.  Daughter heard first and came running from the garden, husband jumped the fence and they get to me around the same time.  I am nearly in tears.  Because I am stuck.  Forever.  Husband pushes down on the seat and daughter helps me get my arm out.  Phew, so not forever but that was a loong 2 minutes.
Same day, after the markets, we get directions to a dam just out of town and plan on going for a swim before coming home.   Husband finds the place, parks, we get out of the car. There is no-one else there and it looks like a lovely spot.  I take a few photos then go back to the car and leave the camera and get a towel, down to the jetty, drop the towel, dive in.  Ouch I say as I come up and tell husband that I misjudged the distance and smacked myself in the head with the water.  Swim, swim, swim, it was lovely.  Swim to the ladder, climb out, get dry, go to get my glasses and...can't find them.  Seems it wasn't the water smacking me in the head but my glasses.  My $1000 glasses.  That are now somewhere at the bottom of this dam.  I am nearly in tears, my phone rings and I am talking to a daughter, just about crying and telling her how these ones cost so much and took nearly 2 weeks to be ready...I have no idea how I will manage 2 weeks without them.  No reading, driving, watching tv, seeing much at all.  Husband calls out and is holding something up.  He had walked into the mud and felt around with his feet until he found them.  My hero.

Free Markets.  Went to these in Waroona again.  I really like the idea of these and though I am too selfish to get too involved I do help out a bit on the day.   I need to get serious about getting rid of some stuff from here though, we have too much for our little house and it makes it hard to tidy and clean. 

Crabs.  We have had a couple of feeds of crabs.  A benefit of Summertime.  The crabber people have been out in the boat and caught their limit.  Husband cleans our share and lets me have some even though I don't catch, cook or clean.  Isn't he lovely.  He is talking about going out again so hopefully we'll soon have some more.

Fish.  Netting season has started up again so if husband is home on a Wednesday he goes out and gets us a feed or two of fish.  Mainly mullet but these are an oily fish and very good eating.  Good for you too so double points to him for this.

Australia Day.  On the 26th we went to a party around the corner.  It was at friends house but they invited people from the whole block, most who we didn't know.  There were a couple that I know and like, a few that I wouldn't mind seeing again and a couple that I wouldn't worry too much if I never saw them again.  So many different personalities but I think if you have a dodgy one to start with then you shouldn't drink too much and make it more dodgy.  Just saying...

Roadkill. At this block party around the corner last week a few people from that area were saying how bad the foxes were.  It just so happened that the next day I found a dead rabbit on the road just up from our place so I set the foxtrap up with it.   It was a fresh kill so wasn't too bad to pick up and wire into the trap but isn't quite so fresh now.  If a fox doesn't take it soon it's going to be very stinky down the back of the dam area.

 Luffas.

 And look what I have.  I have been trying to grow these for a couple of years now but it seems they grow better if you actually put some seeds in the ground and water them.  Who knew!  I have lots of pretty yellow flowers now and there are a few small Luffa as well.  I hope I get them to maturity as using homegrown and processed myself luffa will be the height of coolness.













February. 
KaBooom!  Yesterday I was sitting here quietly, husband was sitting over there watching TV when suddenly there was an almighty explosion. Made me jump, bigtime.   I looked at him, he looked at me, we both looked at the mess on the floor, walls and ceiling.  He drinks coke, 2 litre bottles that he likes it cold so puts them in the freezer to get icy.  Only last week he was saying that he didn't like the new lids on these bottles as they didn't seal properly, they leaked, he didn't like them.  Yesterday proved his point.  The ceiling will never be the same and it's just as well we're going to replace it but until we do the coke splatters that he missed cleaning off will add to the other cruddy marks up there.  I rang Coke, left a message but will do so again tomorrow during office hours. 

Gardens. 

The gardens are looking good.  Full of food.  Fruit last month and this one too was/will be mainly apples and grapes but there are a few strawberries as well.
Plenty of cucumbers, zucchini, capsicum.  This is the last of the onions until the next lot are ready.  There are still potatoes, sweet potato, not many tomatoes but enough.  Lots of lettuce.  I have 1 carrot left out there.



This is some of the tank gardens out the back and to the right is grapes growing over the pig pen.  These are the main ones that are ready now.  Two other varieties are finished and we have some Red Globe that aren't quite ripe yet.

Farmers Markets.  We have these in our town but until this morning I hadn't been up to see what they were like..  Not sure that I will go again, they weren't very big though both husband and myself bought a couple of things.   The thing is if we, the people of the town, don't support them then they may shut down...but if they are small with not a lot of stalls then the people wont go back.  It's probably a problem that a lot of small towns would have.  I am always clearing out stuff to take to the Free Markets but maybe I could have a stall at these first.  It might bring in a bit of pocket money and it would be a way of adding to these.  It's something that I will look into.


It's hot again this week and as usual there is so much to do but I am not out there doing it...because it is hot...  I have been doing a bit, jobs like mowing, mulching, cleaning out chooksheds.  It seems that outside jobs are like housework,  You do it and the next day it needs doing again.  I sometimes whinge about it all but it keeps me off the streets.