Happy Birthday Alanah-May

17 today....

How quickly these last 17 yrs have gone.

Alanah you have always been a special child, quick to smile

and to tease.

You have a soft heart, and always

go out of your way to help others..

Psalms says that happy is the man that gives...

If this is the secret to happiness, than you will always be happy.

Continue to dream and to follow those dreams....Keep your eyes

on the goal that you have set for yourself and

continue to work towards it.

It wasn't hard to find photos of you as you are always taking
them, so I thought that I would use some of my favourites.











God Bless you today Alanah....

Enjoy this your special day.


Blessings and Love



Mum....

Catching Up.......

This has been the early morning view

looking out across the farm. Fog rolling in with the

promise of more rain.

Life has been slightly crazy here this week.

On Tuesday we got the beast all cut up and packed away,

I even took some photos to share, may-be next week.

Greg has been in hospital since Tuesday night, so that

has thrown us all for a sixa. Lots of long days at the hospital

and late nights after school.........he is doing fine though

and that is the important thing..

We don't think he'll be out until next week, depends on the infection.

Tomorrow is our big community garage sale at the hall

and I haven't even had a chance to tell you about it or make any-thing. I will just have

to be a looker and buyer instead of a seller...That's O.K though..

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end...

Tomorrow is Alanah's B/day, we

are going to have her B/day tea tonight up at the hospital

so that will be fun..here's hoping they don't kick us out....

Blessing to all

Mandy

A Full Week-end.......

I feel like I spent all week-end at soccer...

Saturday we had the usual games of soccer,

in the cold and wet.

Sunday Robbie had try outs for an under 11 rep team.

At least it wasn't raining on Sunday.just cold..

He made the team so it was all worth it..One happy boy.

Congratulations Robbie....

On the way home we stopped by the markets as they were

closing and look what we found...

Meet Rocky the rooster....

Robbie has wanted to get a new rooster since

Beautiful Bruce dropped dead...

Rocky is very tame and loves to be held.......guess

what I woke up to at 5am though, it was still dark.

I must say he does have a good crow...

In between soccer and birthday party's on Saturday

we got our first beast killed...Now I have to be honest here

I didn't take the photo!!!!!! I couldn't look in the

cold room, Robbie took the photos...you

should see the rest that he took......better you don't, lets

just say 11yr old boy with camera in cold room

I think you get the idea...

Alanah said she is going vegetarian....I will eat it

that's not a problem. In fact knowing that it is our own beef makes

it all the better.

I have to pack it on Tuesday.....I won't be blogging until

Wednesday as Tomorrow will be a full day.

With the weather getting cooler it's time to

get out the flannelet sheets.

The beds are getting to chilly at night now for cotton.

Won't be much longer and we will be lighting the fire place.

Sunday afternoon we cleaned out the fire box

and brought in a large pile of wood. I have decided not

to light it until after the meat is all packed away

though, that way the kitchen is still cool.

The family room becomes my favourite room

in winter. Below you can see how the sun

streams in through all the windows. On the drying rack you

can see some jumpers, it was time to get them out of the cupboard

and wash them all up as well. They dried really fast in

this room...

I'm going to make myself a cuppa coffee

and catch up with what you did on the

week-end now...

Blessings to all....I'll be back Wednesday...

Mandy

Meet the New Ladies.......

I was pleased that I got all the mulching finished

last week, with all the wonderful rain we had I got it done just in time too.

When I mulch though I have this problem.......I always

make the gardens just that bit bigger than they were, I'm

sure I'm not the only one with this problem though!!!!

The garden below used to be 2 separate gardens and I decided to make it

into 1 big garden, it looks much better this way I think.Meet the new girls.......

This morning Greg decided it was time to get some new

laying hens....So we had a lovely drive around the back roads. We did

get a little lost, but we saw some nice houses so it was worth it..

Our new ladies are just the plain old run of the mill chooks, I would dearly love

to get some pure breed ones. I don't know any one

that sells them in our area so I 'll have to make do for the time being.

The old girls aren't to happy about the new company.

they have been at the door cackling loudly ( I think it might

be a chicken protest) Hopefully they will all get

used to one another shortly.....

I thought I would show you my first attempt at Canal ware..

I am pleased with it, though I have a lot more to learn. When we got

home my book was in the mail box so I

will be able to experiment a lot more now.......

I hope you are all looking forward to the week-end..

I know that some of my fellow Queenslanders will be busy cleaning

up after the rain.......We didn't get any where near as much as S.E QLD.

But the tanks are full and the garden is fresh looking, so we are happy........

Blessings to all.......

Mandy

Enjoying the Rain......

Even the birds are enjoying the wet weather.

They have been flying in and out of the

birdbath all morning.

Greg hasn't been to well the last couple

of days, he is having a lot of pain

in the kidney area, and is sleeping quite a lot as well.

He wasn't able to have chemo again this week as

his kidney levels are very high as well as his white blood cell count.

Thank you for all your

encouraging comments, I don't always have time

to answer each one, but I always read them.

I love to visit new readers and drop in to say hello as well,so if you have never left a comment please do then I can visit you as well.......

Blessings to all

Mandy

Simple Pleasures......

Look what came in the mail today!!!!

I love them!!!!

When I made every-ones pyjamas I had to make tags to

tell the front from the back. So I decided to

get some made.

See the little cow on the left hand side and of course I had to get

The Old Dairy on them.....lovin them

They cost $50 for 100 which I thought was very

reasonable, and it will take a long time to use 100.

Now I will have to get sewing so I can use them..

It is still raining here today, I love to watch all that

wonderful water going into the tank.

It has come just in time as the main house tank was nearly empty

and I was going to have to pump out the shed tanks to fill it.

So what a blessing....

I have been at the dentist this morning,

that's it every-one drilled and filled for another year..

Thank goodness.....

As I am sitting here I feel

so peaceful and content with the sound of rain

on the roof, the smell of bacon bone soup cooking, and bread baking.

I am thankful every day that I am able to be

a stay at home Mum and enjoy these simple pleasures.....

Blessings to all

Mandy

Left Over Muffins........

Before I could make any thing it was a

quick trip in the RAIN down to the chook pen to

get some eggs as I had used them all for breakfast......

Thankfully there was three hmmm enough for muffins.

Now what kind will I make.

There was left over chicken, roast potatoes,broccoli and cauliflower from

lasts night tea. that will do.......

Some salt and pepper

cup of grated cheese

garlic

fresh basil

What I make often depends on left overs and every-one

loves savory muffins on a cold and wet day...

For cooking I also use powered milk as it

is much cheaper...

I use a basic muffin recipe for my muffins and change it

as to what I have on hand...

3 cups plain flour

2 tbls baking powder

2 eggs

2 cups milk

splash olive oil

From this I make savory and sweet muffins...

There is no after photo as they are in the oven..

This morning I am of to craft, we are going up to

Toowoomba today...I am sure it will be very cold

and foggy up there as well as wet.

A great day to sit chat and do some knitting.......

Then of to chemo with Greg

more time to knit, I think by tonight I should just

about have Greg's scarf finished...

Have a great day all

I know I will just because today it

is RAINING....

Blessings

Mandy

Garden Time

Saturday's are spent at Soccer, it is often a long day

but we enjoy it and the boys love their sports.

We had glorious weather on the week end.

Makes sitting at soccer so much easier when it is warm.

Sunday there was not a hint of wind so

I spent the day in the garden. Yes still mulching.

Where I live I am surrounded by Lucine farmers so

there is usually some-one with cheap mulch.

It seems to be taking me forever to get it on the gardens.

I got 5 round bales and only have 1 to go.

I do tend to get side tracked a lot though.

I pruned a lot of the saliva's and so took some cuttings,

they are the easiest plant to take cuttings from. I just

put 10 or so in the one pot and as they get

bigger I pot them up.

Thanks Linda for the site on Saliva's,

I even managed to find a site that has 100s of photos

of all the different saliva's.

Mine is a vary pale pink, it comes in

the 2 types so I will have to get hold of the hot pink one like yours.

I also found a mail order specialist so I will be

able to order a lot of the ones I can't get here.

The vege garden might look a bit bare in this photo,

as this is where I planted my onions and leeks, they haven't come

up yet though. This is my first time at growing onions.

The beans are doing really well and we are getting enough for tea.

The snow peas are starting to die off now but we are still

getting the odd few.

Here are Robbie and Will at the dentist, we seem to have been spending so much time in

this place lately........William is all finished with his work now.

And Robbie needs to get a filling.His teeth are good ,

William is a different story though.

He's had 5 fillings and 2 teeth removed. Why his teeth are so

bad I have no idea as he eats the same as

the rest of us..

I hope you all enjoyed your week-end

and did every-thing you planed to do............

For me it is time to get this house clean

and then I'll try to get some more mulching done...

Blessings

Mandy

A good day's work.........

Yesterday was a wonderful day to be out in the garden,

sunny but cool enough to just keep going without getting

to hot. I planted out alot of pots that needed

to go into the garden..mulched,mulched and mulched some more.

Pruned all of the natives.

I also brought alot of new saliva's home from Mum's that I needed

to pot up.

I am not to sure of the name of them yet as I have to

look them up. We always make sure we buy different ones so that way

we take cuttings and share them. Saliva's are such a beautiful

plant as they are so drought tolerant as well.

I was ready for bed at 8p,m last night, but their is

something energising I find about falling into

bed after working hard in the garden all day. Knowing that

I am making a better life for my family. Living a more basic life

is a freedom I don't take for granted. I know for many it is still a dream

and you are still working towards that life, every day brings you closer though....

I think I am going to have to move my vege garden.

I am finding already that the wind is doing so

much damage and the westerlies aren't even here yet. Things are

getting wind burnt....Where the vege garden is up at The Dairy was only

temporary any-way...I am just going to have to move it sooner

than planed.....

So the new plan is to have it up and ready to go for spring..

We were to be getting Japanese students tomorrow for

a few days but they cancelled coming to Australia

because of the swine flu.......

On there T.V is warnings about the epidemic of

swine flu in Australia.......come on I think there

is 2 people I don't call that an epidemic there

is more with the common cold.............

Any-way the busy week-end will now be quieter.

Soccer with the boys tomorrow,church Sunday and

lots of gardening in between.

Chloe is off to Roma to visit her sister for the week-end,

she is taking her boy friend out to meet her, so

they'll have a good time I'm sure....

I hope you all enjoy your week-end....

Whether it is Spring or Autumn...

Blessings

Mandy

A Garden Tour.....

Yesterday I went for a drive to my parents place,

come with me for a look.
After dropping Alanah at T.A.F.E. I set off to Cooyar, it

is only 90 kms from Toowoomba so it only takes me a bit over on hour to

get there.

Through Crows Nest and straight past

Salt's Antiques which was very hard not stopping

but I used all my willpower, also I had stopped at

the bead shop at Highfeilds and well not alot of cash left after that little stop!!!!!

Cooyar has a pub on one side and shop/post office/petrol station on

the other, blink and you will miss it.

Turn up and drive a bit over the hill and

we are here.....

Looking at the place now you would never know it was on

old hall before, would you......

My parents are really an inspiration to me,

in every thing you see here they have made them selves.

Dad revamped the hall inside and out.
Below is some photos of around the garden

(clicking on the photos will enlarge them)
Left to right

This is looking down to the garden,as you can see

it is very dry as they don't get much rain at all.

Looking from the bottom of the garden up to the house,

and there Bar-b-que area.

When ever Mum sees an idea either her or Dad will
go and make some thing. Dad made all the bird houses for Mum.
The out door seat and trolley to stop and
have a cuppa and work out what cuttings I need.
The wild bird feeder and purple arbour behind it.

A wagon for the front garden with chrysatheums growing around it. A Dove

coat for the side garden, and the most wonderful

garden art yet a rusty ball of barbed wire. I have to make one

of these isn't it fantastic...

Well that is Mums garden, you can see

where I get the gardening bug from.

Remembering that the only water they have is tank water.

Most of Mums garden started with cuttings from my

garden alot of saliva's, lavender, succulents,geraniums,

natives and buddlia tress.

I have to show you the lead light windows in the

Lodge before we end this tour.

The front door.........................The front room ................

Kitchen windows........ windows around top of Lodge...

Being an old Masonic Lodge the windows

are all around the top.
And yes Dad did all the lead lighting as well.

I hope you enjoyed your visit with me

and the tour around my Mum's garden....

Blessings

Mandy

A quiet day today I think...

I managed to survive the week-end of Cassie's sleep over..

The theme was a Pyjama Party.........

My laundry was turned into the dressing room and makeup room. The girls

all dressed up in vintage pyjamas that I had collected from the 2nd hand

shops..We had bed jackets from the 60s, lacy little numbers from the 70s

they had so much fun. They finally went to sleep at 2.30........

Last Autumn I brought this Japanese Maple tree, as I love the colours that it

turns....I'm still waiting for the leaves to turn red on

it though. While at the 2nd hand shops I stocked

up on old blankets and sheets to use on the fruit trees and

hedgers to protect them from the frost...I lost alot of things last year to the

frost and I aren't taking any chances this year...

Tomorrow I am of to Cooyar to visit my Mum and Dad..
I haven't been out there for awhile. I am going to take my camera and
give you a tour of her garden it is so inspiring....
That's Mum below, her house is an old Masonic Lodge that they did up.
It is truly amazing!!!!



Today I have a sick boy home so I won't be getting all
the gardening done I thought I would.....May-
be lots of knitting and cartoons are the order for the day..

Have a great day all....

Blessings
Mandy