I Have No Stove So Cannot Cook.

That's my excuse anyway.

I actually have 2 gas stoves out in the shed surounded by *stuff* And the space I want to put the stove inside is full of *stuff* (Hubby calls it a different word but it starts with the same letter.)

And I have some money tucked away in a drawer, not doing anything, just sitting there. If I did something with these 3 things then I could have a working gas stove in the house.

If I had a working gas stove in the house then I could use it to preserve some of the food that I have been wasting on the animals. And I could cook better meals for Hubby. He would like that. It would mean my excuse is gone. May need to rethink this...

With this rethought in my head I rang a couple of plumbers to see how much it would cost to get it all together. One guy will ring this afternoon, the other will call in on Monday for a look.

I feed the cats in this corner where I want the stove so will need to find another spot for their dishes and their food bucket. And it needs a darn good clean...

So with that thought I better get to it.

We Grow Our Food...

Yep, we want to be self sufficient in vegetables so we grow our own.

Then we give it to the chooks because we left it too long and it is now way past our eating stage. It was corn and cucumber to the chooks this morning. Cucumbers went to the pig last week...

I had picked some corn last week and it was really nice and we were going to pick the rest last weekend when Hubby was home but never got around to it. I should have done it on Monday. This is something that I really need to work on.

Oh well, at least the fridge garden is now empty so I can get it ready for something else.

The pig loves the corn stalks.

First Fig

It must be fig season as I have seen them mentioned recently on a few blogs that I have been reading

This is our tree, it is in the Mixed Breed chookpen and is great for shade, roosting, food. This is the first fig and it was yum.

We were thinking about removing this tree and replacing it as for a few years we weren't getting any ripe figs. Then I was in there one day last summer and could smell them so went looking among the branches. Who knew but you can get a white fig! I had only known the purple one so that was what I was waiting for. These ones lose the green unripe colour, go soft and you can smell them when they are ripe but the colour is not purple.

Once upon a time I never liked the taste of them but I do now so I am glad that we have them growing. We have 2 smaller trees in the orchard and a small one in a pot that will get planted out somewhere this Autumn. One day we may have enough to dry. That would be cool.

Bye, Bye Hammys'.

The pictures say it all really. I had this sign up outside the house this morning, some people called in and bought stuff and now I have some money for chookfood. And I have less chooks, the ducks are gone...Double bonus there.


Another good thing is this sign that Hubby made for me over the weekend. It is a lot better looking than the scrappy cardboard sign that I was using before and it has wheels, well, balls, so it it a lot easier to pull in and out. It has a blackboard surface so I can rub things out when they go, add things I want to go. Totally brilliant. I knew I kept him around for something.


I am so lucky...Life is good again.


I need help here though please. The word Hammys in the title...is that the wrong spelling? Should it be "ies" on the end? I have shortend the word Hamboughs. Thanks.

Plastic Bags.

I am inside for a bit, suposed to be tidying and cleaning.

During the cleanup I am coming across too many plastic bags that I can't reuse for the things I usually use them for. Hubby brought home all the fridge stuff from work last week and there are some bags in there but not really clean enough for me to want to re-use. They are not the shopping type bags that a lot of us use as bin liners, there are a couple of bread bags, a fruit and veg type bag, I have a bag from cereal...things like that.

Now probably most people would just scrunch them all up and put them in the bin but I can't seem to do that. Should be easy...pick up bag, scrunch into little ball, put in bin. Simple right? Well no, it's not that simple for me.

You see, I hate throwing things in the bin knowing they are going to the dump to fill the big hole they dug and just sitting there taking up space for ever. When that hole is full they will did another big hole and start filling that. Soon there will be no room for any more holes and then what do we do with our scrunched up plastic bags.

So I re-use them for other things, they do eventually get put in the bin but they are used quite a few times before they do.

I will use the breadbags for rubbish holders, we don't have a lot so these 2 bags should do awhile and they will go out into the big bin when full. I usually use them for cheese or sandwiches or keeping some sort of food in the fridge but these ones had mouldy bread in them so are no good for stuff like that and I have others anyway. I will use the cereal bag to wrap Hubby's lunch when he needs to take it to work, or my sandwich if I need to go anywhere. I use these wrappers quite often. Sometimes they get a spray of vinegar to freshen them up but not after every use. Depends what was wrapped.

What do you do with your plastic/cereal bags? Could you re-use some of them and so make the big holes last longer? Please leave a comment and pass on any ideas that we could use, lets all do a little bit to save the planet.

There's something In the House.

I was quietly sitting here last Saturday, when I heard a noise just over there, in front of the sink. Got up to see if the cat had brought in a mouse and this *thing* ran under the stove. This BIG thing...I can sometimes deal with a mouse if I am here alone and have to and it is dead but this was bigger. Probably a rat. Or that bandicoot that keeps pinching the eggs. Hubby must have heard the panic in my voice because he slowly strolls in from the shed. I tell him it's a rat. Or the bandicoot. I tell him *something* ran under the stove. He has a look, makes a noise that could be a laugh, puts up a barricade. I'm thinking that's so *the thing* can't run out and get me. He is so thoughtful and caring.

But then he tells me to go get the net and hold it so *the thing* can run into it. So I was wrong about the thoughtful, caring part. He tried 3 times to move *the thing* into the net but I kept getting scared and jumping back and *the thing* kept running back behind the wood box. He finally takes the net off me (about frigging time!) and I poke *the thing* and get it to move into the net. Ha! It goes in, he lifts, twists and we have it. Not a rat, not a bandicoot. It is a big skink. It must have come in through the catflap. It could have been just as scared as me. Going by the mess on the floor though I think he was a bit more worried about things than I was.

You may need to click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see *the thing* which we now know is a skink. We took it out the back and let it go on the dam wall amongst the trees.

Too Much To Do...

Again...Still...Anyway, I have too much to do.

I had too much to do last week but a couple of days of not being able to use my left arm and I now have more too much to do.

Not sure what was wrong with the arm but my oh my it hurt. Could have been something with the fibromyalgia but I think it was different. Maybe too much whippersnippering. Maybe too much lifting the grandkid up.

Seems to be OK today though so after my coffee I will get out there and make a start. Might get a couple of hours in before it gets too hot for me.

Australia Day.

My husband thinks that I am unaustralian. Because I am not interested in the tennis. Or the cricket. Or any other sports that Australia plays.

So I was thinking...What makes an Australian. Why is he more Australian because he barracks for Australia. I see that it makes him someone who is interested in sports. And I am not. We are still both Australian though. And I am glad of that. Some people see me as a racist. Because I think Australian rules and laws should apply to everyone living here. Everyone in this country should be treated the same. It shouldn't matter what race I am when I am filling out forms. That question should not even be on the paper. People are people and the rules should be the same.

I have no wish to travel outside of our great country but would like to see more of what we have on offer here. One day that may happen. Not that I will see our country in a day but you know what I mean. lol.

If you follow sports, good on you. If you don't, good on you too, it takes all sorts to make a country like ours.

There are some problems though and if I ever get into politics I will see what I can do about fixing them. But until then I will continue to live here, I will continue not following the tennis and cricket. I will continue being an Australian. And I will enjoy it, I hope you do to.

Whatever your views on the subjects are...Have a great day but don't eat too many Lamingtons!

I'm Glad It Wasn't Serious.

Had a call from a daughter yesterday around lunch time. T. said that she had been to see the doctor and he was sending her over to the Hospital for tests. He was quite concerned. I drive her over to Peel Health Campus, 40 minutes away. We show the letter from the doc, say he rang to let them know she was coming, where do we go...

It is 1pm.

They sent us to Emergency where we see a nurse pretty quickly, we're told to sit on the blue chairs and wait 'til we are called. Two hours later the nurse sees her again, does blood pressure, takes blood, etc. T gets faint and dizzy so they puts her on a bed in Emergency.

It is 5.30 before a doctor comes to see her, says it's too late for any of the tests she was suposed to have and sent her home to come back next day.

It's 6pm before she leaves the hospital.

So I will take here back over there today for scans at 1. She then has to see a doctor for the results at 3.30 in a different town 20 mins away and depending on what the scan says she will go home or go back to hospital.

She says she feels OK but still has sore stomach. Hope the scan shows that she is OK.

Thankyou to L who had T's daughter until we got back.

Updating to say...Daughter is OK, needs to see doctor again on Monday (today), needs another scan to see if anything has changed, needs to go back to emergency if the pains happen again. She is sore but back to doing stuff.

Thanks for your concern. Much appreciated.

Wednesdays Lunch.

I picked our first corn this morning and decided to have it for lunch with homegrown salad. The beetroot and gherkins were also grown out the back and *processed* by me. So there was different lettuce, carrots, tomato, beetroot and gherkin. I forgot to put cucumber on there which is a bummer as we have too many again. Will have the other half of corn for tea tonight with fish and salad.

Couldn't get much fresher or nicer.

Had eggs and homegrown veg for breakfast this morning.