Welcome Stella May....

Welcome to the world 

my darling....

My baby girl has had a baby girl.

Needless to say we are very smitten...

Stella is our 16th grandchild and 9th grand daughter.

MacGregor and Billy are not to sure about this pink little bundle,

They wanted to put her in the back of their buggy to give her a ride..

                                                                                     

 But they are happy to hold and kiss and cuddle her.

Going from 2 to 3 is a biggie but if anyone can handle it Cassie can.

 One more pic because I can...

Blessings......

Mandy

Gardening....

Hello and welcome..

This morning we woke up to a storm, now the sun is out

and the garden is looking so clean and fresh and well watered.

Yesterday we got in and planted our onions.

This area is outside of the house yard and we planted onions here for the first time last year and they did amazing. So this time we are planting heaps more. The seedlings we raised have done well.

The shade house in the back ground had the ornamental grape vine pulled off it so it is able to get more winter sun now.

Today I will be picking beetroot as there is some ready, we will have some roasted for dinner and i will make beetroot relish with some. Beetroot is something I have growing here all year round as we love it fresh. The brassica's take up a lot of room and every year I say I won't plant any but I always do hahaha. Living in the Lockyer Valley we have access to plenty from the farms around here.

Broad beans are growing well and I will have to trellis them soon I think. Behind in the raised bed is our spinach and silver beet which we eat a lot of as well.

Below are the carrots that we have just started to harvest as well. This is another crop I am able to sow all rear round...

We also have a lot of arches for growing on. This one is snow peas that are starting to climb.

The ones below have climbing beans and peas. Last summer I grew my cucumbers on them and it helps to shade the gardens beneath.

Mustard, bok choy and another row of beets... For our salads we have a leafy green mix that consists of

Lettuce,mustard,kale,spinach and nasturtiums to name a few.

I hope you are all enjoying your week where ever you are. 

I am enjoying being back here blogging and catching up with every one...

 Have a blessed week

Mandy

Home Day.....

I love my home days...Any one else????

I was supposed to work today so it was such a blessing I didn't have to, so

instead I caught up on odd jobs around the place.

Bread was made..

 

Laundry liquid was made.

I had run out so had to make it before I could do the washing...

My recipe is very simple.

10 litres water

1 cup grated soap

1/2 cup of washing soda

peppermint oil

If you like a powder you can omit the water and blend all together to make a laundry powder.

Then I was able to do the washing.

Next on the list was the airbnb...

It also needed the sheets washed, and a good clean ready for our next guests.

Below is the bathroom for the airbnb...

I got the rest of the seedlings in the vege garden and also planted 

out the salvias I have had to plant out. The green house in empty now 

except for the onions that will get planted on the week end..

I also went up to our local hall and got the little book lending area nice and

clean and into some order...

The little boys thought is was great playing on the play ground, they think it is the

local park, which I spose it is....

The day ended with a fire and some down time, my favorite time....

Tomorrow it is a work day

I only work Wednesday mornings, Thursday afternoon and

all day Friday at our little local post office.

I love it in there and really enjoy my job and the hours are perfect as I can still get so much done at home. I do work a lot of extra hours some times as I was going to this week but glad I did't have to ....

 

Boys...........Are.............Boys...........

We have a very full and noisy house here at the moment.

Double trouble..

Cassie is about to have baby No3

Because the live so far away Cassie and the little boys are here until baby is born.

Poor Daddy has to work and travel in on week ends.

Needless to say they are missing their daddy very much, but Grandma and Brucie are 

trying to fill in as best they can.

This is Billy

So innocent looking here but boy O boy giving

me a run for my money..

MacGregor

Don"t let that face fool you

He is a two year old....

It is so lovely having them here though.

Spending time making memories and watching them play in the garden.

                                                                             

The boys built the fire on the hill today, this is a new tradition.We sit

up here in the afternoon with the fire going.

They have also discovered the orchard.

The boys are real fruit eaters and enjoying picking and collecting the fruit.

They have discovered they  love star fruit .

A walk through the veg garden to see what needs to be picked 

for dinner each day.

So yes life here is loud and  messy but O seeing things

through little boys eyes all over again 

is a blessing and wonderful thing.

I tell my self this each evening as I poor a wine and clean up cyclone 

Robinson Boys...

Blessings

Mandy

 

Vege Garden..........

Welcome to winter...

❤

Love love love the cold weather, in saying that it is a mild day today.

I have been spending most of my time here in the glass house drinking coffee and planing the vege garden...The glass house is one of my favorite areas in the garden.

I enjoy that it is in the vege garden so I can sit and plan.

Lots of seeds to raise, all my seeds are heirloom and they continue to come up year after year.

We have all our winter veges in now with only the onions to plant out.

During summer we cleaned out the green house and let the chooks run in here to clean it

all out and also let them run into 

 the onion patch...Then Bruce made some new tables for my seed raising. 

We also got a load of rocks for the bottom tier of the vege garden and then  painted the

back wall of the shed and glass house.

Every thing looks so fresh and bright now, it needed a good freshen up.

Below two pics is before we put the stones down, it was a never ending

job to keep the weeds down.

I tried bark and that didn't work, i love the look of the stones.

The top tier is grass and is easy to mow and manage. 

We are getting so many  little jobs done with the cooler weather.

It is a pleasure to be in the garden.

I hope

you are all enjoying the cooler weather and catching up on those

lists of never ending jobs....

Mandy

 

Milking Goat.....

We have a new addition to the family.

Her name is Cherry and she is the sweetest goat ever. Over the years we 

have had a lot of goats, but Cherry is my favorite.

We choose to get a milking goat over a cow because they will eat any thing and we don't need as much room to keep a goat as you do a cow.

We don't buy any dairy now as we have milk and make our yogurt and cheese.

Cherve cheese is a goats milk cheese, it is a soft cheese and 

we flavor it to how we are feeling that day. This is the amount we get from 

2 litres.

 

I use the whey in my bread making, it gives a lovely cheesy taste.

We don't eat a lot of bread so I make cheese and bread twice a week. 

I wish I was better at making sour dough bread but I'm not so I have 

gone back to dry yeast.

 

The small loaves I use in the Airbnb for our guests, they 

love fresh bread.

below is the tray of breakfast goodies for our guests breakfast,

I also use the milk in my soap making..

I have been busy making dish cloths and washers as gifts as I was running low.

 Enjoy your week

Mandy

Blogging...Is it still a thing????

 It has been a very long time since I blogged and I am not even going to try to catch you up...

I see a lot of the blogs I used to read are like me and have not posted for years,

are blogs a thing of the past?????

I started mine in 2008 and often look back to a time past. 

Has Instagram and twitter taken the place of blogs, is there still a place for

blogs....I think there is. I know I enjoy reading them...

My life has certainly changed in many ways over the years and in some ways 

stayed the same. I still make soap, grow my own veges and continue to live a sustainable life as possible.

If any one is still out there drop by and say hello and tell me if you still enjoying blogging....

I am going to continue to blog and read your blogs...

Mandy