Lunch with Lovely Ladies.

I had lunch out with 2 lovely ladies yesterday.  I enjoyed it and hope they did too.  We have done this once or twice before and next month we will do it again but somewhere different.  We are hoping to do something every month but haven't quite got the hang of it yet but it is something that I look forward to.

We went up to Logues Brook, OK, Lake Brockman! Cafe.   I have been here 3 times now and will go again.  If anyone wants to meet me there for a Devonshire Tea, let me know.

I will do a write up about Lake Brockman Cafe one day soon.  And I will add my thoughts on it to the Weekend Notes and Trip Advisor sites.   I will become famous for my writeups.  Or not.  

And I call it Logues Brook because that is the name that I have always known this dam by.  It was changed to Lake Brockman a while ago, for reasons that I don't know and not interested enough in finding out.  As a dam though it is very low, hardly any water at all.  We used to go swimming and marroning here but the places we went are now high and dry and it would be quite a trek to the waters edge.  The cafe is at the caravan park, I will take the van up there one day, camp the night and have a Devonshire Tea for breakfast.

Plastic Free July

 

I  have just registered for this, Plastic Free July, is anyone else taking on this challenge?  

I have gone for all single use plastic for the whole month.  How will I go?  Well, of course that remains to be seen but I'm thinking if I can stay focused then I should do OK.

It starts on Monday so I have the weekend to get organised.  To make plans. To read more of the website and decide if I will go with it or come back and delete this and pretend it was never mentioned.

What about you?  Have you done it before?  Interested in doing it this year?

It can be for a day or a week, it doesn't have to be the whole month.  It doesn't even have to be all plastic it could just be what they call the big 4.  Plastic bags, straws, bottles, coffee cup lids.

Plastic Free July.  I'm game.  Are you?

So Sorry and Thankyou.

This is an apology to all my followers.  Every now and then I do a post thanking people for following and leaving comment.  A generic thankyou.  I'm sorry.  I mean well but really I know that a personal welcome and thankyou each time I get a new follower would be much better.  It's not like I get dozens a week so it should be simple enough to do.   And a reply to the comments within a day or so should also be done but I don't.  I know I like it when I get a reply to comments I leave on blogs and the blogs that never reply to anyone sometimes get taken off my list. 

The sad thing is that though I know I should and would like to, the reality is that I might not say Welcome and reply all the time.   That's the way it is.  And I'm sorry for that too.

Thankyou Rat for bringing this to my attention.

Cold Weather Cooking.

We have had a few cold nights here and yesterday was raining so the woodfire has been going for a few days.  That means it's time to cook up big pots of soupy stuff to go in the fridge and freezer. 

I've just been out and picked some Chokos and Capsicums, I'm going to put them through the Vitamix and make up a big pot of...something.  I cooked up some split peas last night, I have 2 empty Vegemite jars on the stove, with water in them and will swish that around and add it to the pot.  It adds flavour and gets the last of the Vegemite out of the jar.  Husband gets cranky when he comes across the empty jars in the cupboard and calls me tight but hey, why waste all that free flavour.   The end result of todays mixture will become soup or have chicken added to it, frozen in portions to add to other stuff...a bit of all the that...not really sure yet.

So, I have done all that.  I went through the fridge and found some manky carrots, some older capsicums and sad looking tomatoes.  They have been through the Vitamix and are now added to the pot.

I have taken a pack of what I think is mince from the freezer.  It might be stewing steak  Whatever.   When that defrosts it will have some of this mixture added to it and that will bethe start of tonights tea and my lunch for the next 2 days.  Maybe tomorrows tea as well, if there is enough left over.  I will add the last of the big mushroom to tonights lot.

I like cooking up a big batch of something and having it in the fridge ready for eating  over a few days.   It means that there is something healthy in there regardless of how busy we have been or how lazy we are.  I should do it more often as cold weather makes it all so much easier to get plenty of vegies in.   We don't have a stove/oven and Summer means salads but you can get a lot of goodness into soups and stews. 

What is your favorite cold weather food?

Mushrooms.

When we were kids we used to wander the hills in the town we lived and go mushrooming.   Not many places have mushrooms growing now and you can't just go wandering over other peoples paddocks even if you do see mushies growing there.  That wouldn't be right.  Of course you can buy them but I don't.

So every year now I look forward to the sunshine after the first rains.  It means that there will be some mushrooms coming up in our paddocks.  If we get to them before the cows then we get a few feeds of fresh field mushies.  We have them come up in 3 areas that I know of but one paddock I wont pick from as I am not 100% sure on if they are the right type.  The ones in the triangle paddock look and smell just like real mushies.  When left sitting on a piece of paper the spores are dark.  BUT, when young the underside of these is white.  They go brown as they age and get bigger but to me the underside should be pink when small then darker/brown.  So I wont eat the ones from the triangle paddock.   I will eat them from the other 2 patches, no worries, have done for the last 5 years or so and am not dead yet so I figure I am right and they are the right ones.    We picked a batch a month or so ago and thought they were finished but with the latest batch of rain and sunshine Husband found a couple more and I had them a couple of nights ago.

A few weeks ago I mowed out the front of our place, we have been away for a week and getting home saw that it all needs mowing out there again.  I was walking out there a couple of days after we were home and noticed a big white ball growing, thought it was a big puffball and as I had read that you can eat those when picked at the right time I squatted down next to this one to wonder why you would.  Ha, not a puffball.  Big toadstool?  Didn't think so.  I was pretty sure it was a mushroom so left it there and we went back for another look a couple of days later.  I got down and smelt it and it smelt like a mushroom.   Husband got down  on the ground and the first time he looked it wasn't open yet but the next day he saw that it was pink underneath.  Looks like we have our first BIG mushroom. 

Manymanymany years ago we used to sometimes find big mushrooms, what we called horse mushrooms.  I'm not sure though if this is right as the underside is pink and some stuff that I have read says that Horse Mushrooms start off white...maybe the triangle paddock mushrooms are real Horse Mushrooms even though they are not big like I think of a HM? 

Anyway, we kept an eye on the mushroom, watched it open as it grew and I put a bit of white paper underneath to see that the spores were brown and not yellow.   And I covered it over with some grass and small branches from the trees out there, to hide it from any mushroom stealing people that might pass by though technically, as it is/was on public land it wouldn't have been stealing...

The mushroom has been picked and is in the fridge...I now need to decide how to use it but it is big enough to try a few different ways.

Do you pick real mushrooms from your paddocks?  Get big ones like this?  Know what they are called?  All comments appreciated, thankyou.

Home but no time...

We have been home from our week in Shark Bay for a few days now but I am using the fact that I haven't had a full day home yet as my excuse for not blogging.  And daughter has my camera so I can't post photos...OK, that one is not real as I do have another camera I could use if I really wanted to.  And older photos too...OK, the real reason, as you might have guest is I am a slacka.

But here is a big pat on the back for husband.   Our leaving day was 3am, Saturday, June 1st.   Yep 3am, that's early even for me.  So I was up at 2.30, you know coffee, waking up time, last minute packing...I hear water running, think maybe I left a hose on the night before, maybe into the washing machine so go out the back...there is steamy water pouring out of the hot water system.  Oh dear, that's not right.  A loud yell gets husband up, he comes out and looks, swears, turns the gas off, turns the water to the system off...We leave for the 10 hour drive to Shark Bay.  We get home Sunday afternoon a week later, no shower that night and Monday morning I look up plumbers, we talk about getting it fixed or replacing...husband takes the cover off of this so we can give the plumber guy some sort of information of where the water came from...half an hour later husband has it fixed and we can shower.  It is an old system and when he took the cover off he saw that the water pipes had pulled away, a clamp had come off the wall and the weight of the pipe had pulled it from the rusty connections.  A bit of fiddling, make another clampy thing, prop up another pipe, connect it back up, light the pilot light and we are good to go.  Thanks Dear.

It was good to get home, I missed it.  The grass was green and needs mowing...as it does...the backyard and clothesline has been taken over by the Choko vine  Tomatoes and Capsicum ripening up nicely.  June and we still have a few tomato bushes with red tomatoes, unusual but good to see.  The Luffa vine is smothered and I need to get out there and find and pick them as a few are going brown.  Passionfruit are starting to fall so I will get a lovely smell when I next mow.  It all needs work but that will come when next I have a full day at home...not this week, maybe next.  Still no eggs from any chooks.  I need to oil their legs again, I did them the week before we left and they get done a few times to combat the Scaley Leg Mite but I wonder if they deserve it.  Or if they will be culled soon anyway...but we chook people have to do right by the animal so it will get done regardless.  This weekend, I think.   But I'm busy Saturday as it Free Market day.  HoHum,  Sunday then.

Have work today and need to leave soon, busybusybusy....

Out and About. April/May.

I had a talk with the husband again last month, about us never doing anything together or going anywhere...He doesn't think we need to, is happy to stay home, do nothing, be a hermit...I am too, mostly, but think that sometimes it's good to spent time together, as a couple, doing *something*  It's the *something* that we have trouble agreeing on.  He isn't interested in things I like, I don't want to do the stuff he likes. We could compromise but then someone is doing something they don't want to, the other knows, not a fun outing...He does say that if I organised something he might go...if he isn't working, isn't busy, could be bothered.  I am going to make an updated list, organise something and see what happens.

April.
5-6th Nannup  Freemarkets and family visit sleepover.  Me and daughter.  (Daughter and I!)

May.
10th??  Lake Brockman  Cafe.  Devonshire Tea with husband, on the way down to pick up the computer.  'Twas nice.
11th.  Lions Auction.  Bought some stuff!  With husband.
17th.  Lunch at the cafe at Logues Brook (Lake Brockman)  Daughter T took us for her fathers birthday.

May is finished tomorrow and apart from a shopping trip with Husband this morning nothing exciting or halfway interesting will occur before we hit June.  June though?  I'm agunna do something, go somewhere, I need an adventure and June will give it to me.

Boring but Busy.

What a boring blog this is.
I need to start doing something interesting so that I have something to write about.
Until then I will just say what I have been doing over the last couple of weeks, boring for some but busy for me.

CHOOKS.  These have stopped laying and though I could blame the cold weather and short days the weather hasn't been that cold.  Lovely sunny, warm days in fact.  And they stopped laying way back during Summer but I blamed the heat then.  Husband says I don't feed them enough.  Whatever, from all the chooks we are not even getting any.  OK, maybe 1 or 2 a week from the Isas. The usually lay OK so I blamed the crows for the lack of eggs there and put this lot into an enclosed pen but still no eggs.   So he has started a culling program and so far has done more than 30.  Yep, 30 chooks are now in the freezer and I still have heaps.  I don't think I realised just how many I had.   But!!  He said I must be feeding them too much because there was a lot of fat on them.  Make up your mind dear -  Too much or not enough?  Whatever, there are still no eggs coming from any chooks.  We have rats so could a rat family be eating the eggs?  I am setting traps and catching a few but no signs of missing eggs anywhere.  I put in a fake egg to show the silly birds what I wanted...something has taken that so maybe something is taking the eggs.   But no sign of anything anywhere.      And to make me more cranky with them all they have Scaley Leg.   It is an ongoing problem, maybe because I am not as into them all as I used to be when I had lovely eggs to collect every day it has become quite bad on a few.  Yesterday I set up the leg-oiling station and did all of the AussieRocks and then shifted the equipment over to the Isa pen and did them.  Grandaughter helped me with this lot and as these birds are easy to catch it didn't take long at all.  Not like the AR's, they were a bugger to catch and in the end I needed Husbands help to catch the last 2.     I have 4 young chooks in a separate pen and will do them today.

GARDENS.   Not much happening in them.  I thought I was so clever putting all the old silage down as mulch but it has ended up being a Slater haven and I cannot get on top of them.  Apart from the leaf traps I have a plan that I am working on before I resort to poison but it hasn't been implemented yet so I can't write about it.   Need to get it done before Spring planting though.   As it is though we are still eating plenty.  Chocoes are going rampant, plenty of Capsicums, Sweet Potatoes when I can be bothered digging some up.  Same with normal spuds, they are there, I just need to look for and find them.  Still getting Tomatoes.  
The warm weather has meant that fruitfly is still around and this year the Mandarins have been hit.  We need to check them before we eat them but usually only lose a couple of segments and the rest looks and tastes fine, the way they should.  The first Oranges are out and there are still some apples on the one tree.

COWS.  Still have only the 2 calves.  One is a bull but no-one has ringed him yet and I think he is getting too big and old now to catch and do.  He will need to be shot and put in the freezer before he gets old enough to be a nuisance to the cows.
Son has killed and cut up a few cows for different people but we haven't  done any of ours yet because of the calf situation.  And not enough room in the freezers to fit a cow in.  I'm getting used

LUFFAS.   Still have heaps on the vine but the few I picked awhile back are being used.  I have one in the shower and I am using one to wash the potatoes before I cook them and another bit of one for dishwashing.

NEW CAR.  I am kinda happy with this but cannot believe the small petrol tank it has on it.  I used to be able to get to Nannup and back on half a tank in the blue car but this one barely makes it on a full tank.  It's not because it uses much more but because it doesn't hold enough.  How stupid.  Very cranky with myself for not finding this out before I bought it.  I could get a bigger tank put in but that will cost and I am too tight.  And if I did that I would have to find something else to whinge about and I really can't be bothered.

BEES   The bees are doing good.  I have even donned me kit and *inspected* them myself.  Alone.  OK, because I was alone and by myself I only took the lid off and had a look.  There were bees still in there and bees coming and going so I figured all was well and left them to it.  I have since taken the lid off and looked a few times but need the husband to tell me if they are pulling in just enough honey to last them the Winter or if there will be enough for me to extract.  He says I could maybe do 2 frames if I wanted too but I haven't yet.    He has put together an extracting room of sorts so I can do it without too many bees getting in so I am wanting to try that out and hoping to within the next month or so.

OUT AND ABOUT.  Been nowhere much and done the same amount.  Have been out for a Devonshire tea once then back to the same place for lunch.  'Twas nice and will go again.  The place we went was up at Logue Brook but they don't call it that now.  It is now Lake Brockman but to us it will always be Logues Brook.  Yep, we add the s to the end.  Always have.  Anyway, there is a camping area up there and they have a cafe and do meals.  Big meals.   Too big for any of us to finish but OK tastewise.

HEALTH.  I'm still fat and unfit.  Have seen the doctor and the Iron levels are going up.  Unfortunately so is my cholesterol. The first thing doctors suggest is tablets.  I am seeing a dietitian to try and get it back down first and a sports exercise person to give me some moving ideas.   I need to work within my limitations and am hoping this person can help.

VOLUNTEERING.  I am loving my 2 half days down at our local Vinnies store.  The volunteers there do  a great job.  We sort and price clothing that has been donated, steam the clothing to freshen it before putting it in the shop, serve customers, keep the shop clean and tidy, anything else that need doing there.  It's fun. 

Not much happening but in saying that I seem to be real busy and have a list about a mile long that keeps being added to so I better get out there and make a start on it.

I'm Back!

And mighty pleased to be so I can tell you.  TV is boring, I can't see well enough to read at night, it's too dark to stay outside past 5.30ish and I missed it.    And how people can sit and watch TV for hours on end is beyond me.  Yes Dear, I am talking about you!

We have been having trouble with the computer for a couple of months, it would take ages and many attempts to turn on but worked fine if left on.  It would freeze and then need to be restarted, that took forever and many attempts...It would suddenly turn itself off and then need many tries to get it going again...Until one day it wouldn't turn on at all.  No matter what we did.  So it was off to the shop to be fixed.  Not sure why I didn't do that straight off but hey, I didn't but have now and after more than a week I can only say that my life is sad as I missed it.  A lot! 

Did my life benefit by not having it here and on all the time?  No, I don't think so.  Did I get heaps done that I otherwise wouldn't have?  No.  Is my garden the once resplendent Eden it used to be?  No.  Did my hands and arms improve because I wasn't using it?  No.  And this one I thought might happen.  I thought that the dodgy hands and arms may have been from using the keyboard and resting my arms on the desk too long but they didn't improve at all.  I think reading, holding a book and resting my arms on the table aggravated them more than my using the computer and I'm not happy about that either.  I might actually have to go and get them looked at as they are becoming a nuisance and a real bother, more so that the usual Fibro aches.  So another! visit to the doctor.  But not this week as I am busy.  Am busy, have been busy, will be busy.

Busy you say, doing what, you ask?   Not a lot actually and I have all the reasons written down somewhere if anyone really cares but it seems that those they said my life would be better without so much time spend reading blogs and gardening sites and watching Youtube...They were wrong.  HighFive to me.

I do work 2 days a week.  Do 2 half days volunteering down at our local Vinnies store, do still have many many books that need reading, do still have chooks and gardens that need working on every day...Do spend a lot of time doing not much at all...See, busy, busy, busy.

Hopefully I will not get back into the habit off sitting here too much again though as there is a lot that I want to get done over the next couple of months, before the warm weather is back.  If you see me here too much then feel free to kick my butt and tell me to get outside and plant something somewhere.

Oh!, I was pleased to see that I have another follower.   Husband made the comment that I get more followers when I don't post than when I do but we'll just ignore him, aye.  I appreciate the time people take to read me and to those that read and those that follow,  Thankyou.

Watermelon Whine.

Every year I try and grow Watermelons but never seem to get it right so don't have much success.  This year has been the one year where we have managed to get more than 3 to a big enough size to think I had a chance of getting some.   I can't always tell when they are ripe though I go by what I read and am told.  But that's a me thing.   Imagine how pleased I was when we ate the first one and it was not too bad.  The next 2 were small but had started to go soft so I picked them and chopped them in half with a shovel, to see what they were like inside.  They looked good so we tasted them.  Good!  So I chopped them into bits and shared them around.    The next one wasn't quite ripe but OK.  I still had 3 big ones on the vine. 

Went out to check on them last week and Bugger!  Something has been chewing on them.

Going by this dropping left behind, I'm thinking a bandicoot.  Or a BIG rat.  What do you think?

 There was 1 intact one left.  We have put it into a shadecloth bag so *the thing* cannot get to it.