garden update.

We had an awesome thunder storm the other night, I had just gotten home from work when it started and I was a tad bummed as I work on the 8th floor at the hospital there would of been some awesome sights from up there!

The garden loved the big down pour... Im not so stoked tho... now I have to mow the lawns!!

Heres a few pics of the garden now, still not harvesting much from it, the chooks attacked the sliverbeet, the spinach, brocs and lettuces all bolted so I biffed them over to the chooks. At least now three out of four are laying so I guess its not all a waste.

The chooks went on a rampage when I was raising seedlings so I ended up planting unknown seedlings randomly in the garden a couple of them were sunflowers, this one has a massive head and is short.

This one has multiple heads sprouting off the stem! and doesnt seem to have a middle just lots of petals.

Everythings pretty crammed in there... at least theres no room for weeds (that I can see any way!) The cornflower has gone crazy and I cant for the life of me recall what its good for! Will have to google....

My spaghetti melons have gone on a rampage.... Its a point I dont know if I should cull it or leave it! I havent even tried it before so no idea if its worth eating or not.

My poor corn is fighting for a spot, and tomatoes... welll they might be in there somewhere... There was celery once upon a time...

It had even hooked itself on the neighbours garden trellis and had grown to their house *blush* so I yanked that off. Its growing towards the fence keeping the chooks in and to the other garden...

But it is fruiting 'ok' Ive harvested one (but not cooked it, will do that tonight, will need google for that too...) and theres three massive ones growing that I can see, chances are theres another one or two hiding.

I wish they were watermelons!!! Next year....

Strawberries are on their third round...

The plums are ready! I cant decide if I can be bothered making them in to jam or not tho??? Why is jamming season the hottest season when you dont want to be standing over a hot stove!

New edition updates

Its been such nice hot sunny weather in Hamilton this week, its wonderful. Jakes been cooling off in the afternoons after care by jumping on the tramp in the sprinkler, keeps him entertained for ages. He cant use the tramp without the sprinkler at the moment, it gets way too hot and burns ya feet!

We have EGGS!!! Only one girl tho, Ive been giving the other three a lecture every morning about earning their keep, Im wondering if they are nesting somewhere instead of the nesting box? Jakes loving collecting the egg every day he calls it "special egg from chooks bum" Shes laying bigger each day, at the moment they are pretty small, the first one was tiny! (and fair enough too... Im sure if my first child was small and not 9lb 7oz I would of managed it better too! lol)

And Jake got some new babies today, hes such an animal lover and is so caring with the hens and cat I decided to let him get a couple of zebra finches. He spotted them at the pet store a few weeks ago and loved them! Thankfully he has cheap taste, they were $9 each, the other birds for sale were $30 upwards. I think he likes how flighty and action packed they are compared to the bigger less moving birds. He chose the only white one, was set on having it (poor pet store girl had a mission catching it!) and said he wanted a random grey one (bet the pet store girl was glad about that hehe). They are wonderful birds, sing lovely tuned songs, it is very cute and relaxing to listen to them. :)

The white one got out of the shoe box when I went to transfer them! Dammit, I knew that would happen, thankfully Id closed off the hallway and kitchen. I had to wait for her to land on the ground and chuck a towel over, got there in the end!

The new year

Its been a week or two since my last blog, Not much new to update, have been busy at work so that takes most of the day away and with my low iron Im to tired to anything crafty in the evenings. But oh well.
New years eve I was getting ready to go out, putting my face on and what not and Jake asked to put some on so I gave him my eye shadow and lippy...
Well turns out eye shadow wasnt standing out enough for him so he used my lippy on his lips, cheeks, nose, forehead, eyelids, eye brows.... I dont even put make up in half those places! He then annouced he was pretty and ready to go out to grans for the night and proudly showed everyone there his master work, I wasnt too worried at the time as it ment he wasnt around my feet while I was trying to get ready but then well, the Lippy set like cement to his face. Was a time consuming mission to get off, which made me late leaving and he still has a small dot on his eyebrow...

And Ill finish this blog with my chooks... as you can see my fence contains them well...

Sorry Little einsteins

But Jake cant help you on your mission this afternoon (for those who dont watch LE, they ask the child to help them solve the issue and go on a mission, Jake said No, I asked why not?) because hes....
"To big to fit in the TV" !!
Oh dear I said, Im sure you can squeeze you in if you wanted Jake?
"No its square, Im not."

Fair enough I guess.

Anyway today I was bored waiting for the porridge to cool down this morning so made a bag for Jakes inhaler. I used some monster fabric that was used to wrap a swap I recieved a while ago (... 2 yrs ago...) and always planned on making something out if it. See it pays to put things off and stock pile fabrics sometimes you do NEED it ;)

The inhaler goes in the pocket (still to be snapped) and spacer in the main body of the bag.

I even got out the hammer and put in a proper eyelet.

And for good measure, Jake with his inhaler, I covered it in stickers to make it more fun. But hes actually accepted it well and already asks for it when he gets wheezy (not bad for a few days of use!)

Then this morning we went Strawberry picking. Much easier then Blueberry picking... almost too easy... Didnt take long to fill four icecream containers at all.

Jake and Mum

Grans bum was in the way of some good ones... and yes she knocked him over when she stood up and yes I just stood there and took a picture and didnt give any form of warning about the child behind her...

M, L and Z, L was the master at picking the green ones... ;)

The loot. 3 icecream containters full. (M took one)

And Ive been Pav and meringue making! I wanted to do some meringues so Jake didnt miss out, as the pav is going to have cream on it. (Mean mummy will NOT have pav without cream!! ;) ) I put 100s n 1000s on them. Will take most of them to the bbq tonight at a friends. (odd looking because I dont have a piping bag, tried to make one but the bottom seam brust and I had mixture oozing ut of two places! so mish mash meringues it is!)

And my Pav... Its a pretty good looking pav too if I dont say so myself!

I think I may have found the secret to pav making..... At first when I started I thought I was a bit mad.... towards the end I decided that yes I was in fact a bit mad... but look at that pav! And what secret weapon am I talking about???.....

A hand held mixer! Haha, I have a normal big mixer but it is missing a beater... for the last three years! I dont think it will ever show up :( but Yes I did make both a pav and meringues with a $12 warehouse handheld mixer!! It got a bit hairy towards the end, when the handle even got too hot hold and the pav was cooking on the beaters, but Im sure that happens often?? I pushed forward and figured hey worse case I kill my cheap mixer, $12... I can spare it so long as the pav works! then it got a bit smokey smelling (well a LOT smokey smelling!) so I stopped... Decided it was beaten enough anyway. Wonder if it will work next time I try to use it!

Ive also finished off Jakes outfits and made a last minute crayon roll. Im suprised I got the clothes done! Just have to snap them tonight, Im wanting to use jean snaps but I cant find my tool for it!! Dam! Will have a proper hunt for them later, fingers crossed its somewhere simple!

Kmart tree day

Jake was still too sick for care today (First time on a new antibotic so I wanted to keep an eye on him, plus he was still a bit wheezy and needed his inhaler a few times) So we jumped on the bus and dropped the presents off at Kmart. They had a scale this year aiming for 5000! 5000! Thats lot of kids in Hamilton going without! (I assume its for local kids because they collect until xmas eve so dont have the time to transport the gifts else where) Sadly it was only at 250-300 :( I wish we could do more. Jake took great effort in carefully and nicely placing them under the tree, so cute :)

After this we went for 'icecream' Jake was limited to a choice of two sorbets (only dairy free items) but he really wanted one of their monster icecreams so I asked the girl serving us if she could make it a monster and she did, right down to rolling it in the coating (but it didnt show agaisnt the bright red) Thank you very much Wendys :) She didnt even charge more for it. Totally made his day :D (He had eaten the nose and mouth before I got a chance to take the pic but you can just make out the eye balls on the last pic.)

Oh and apperently waffle cones "taste like wheatbix" hahaha.

Today I did Jakebs name out of wooden blocks covered in scrapbooking paper, I totally stole the idea off Laura http://kahurangiskies.blogspot.com/2009/12/manaia.html Which makes for a change ;) I think it looks great, wonderful idea, now I have to work out how to put it on the wall still...

'Tis the season...

For Blueberry picking!!
Jakes most loved berry (He begs me to buy them if hes spots them, at $6 a punnet eeeek!) So decided to go and pick them ourselves, which is more fun then supermarket shopping, and teaches Jake were food actually comes from (not a clear plastic container shock horror!)
I was hoping it would cheer him up a little too as hes unwell today so missed out on his last day of homebased care (But we popped in to say bye and deliever the lolly tree, so he was happy with that.)
The Berry company is just past Ohaupo and it costs $8.50 kg (and punnet is 250g!! MEGA savings!!)

Inspecting the berry...

CLose up of a wee bunch.

The car was down the end there.... somewhere... We went in deep in the row to get to where it hadnt been picked muched but....

There was still miles behind us untouched! And there where rows and rows and rows of this! Amazing, and both sides of the road. Great set up and the staff were lovely too. Plus it was a lovely sunny day.

Blueberry bush, I was hoping to show all the blue but couldnt get close enough, just believe me when I say there was alot of blueberries!

The smaller one of the three containers we filled. We ended up with 6kg! We though it was Much more, total cost was $50, which is brillant. We are going to freeze a lot for blueberry smoothies, blueberry icecream, mum brought me an icecream maker a few weeks back to make Jake dairy free icecream, I imagine homemade blueberry yoghurt icecream will be divine!! *droool* blueberry muffins, blueberry cheesecake......

They taste fab too, much nicer the store brought, theres no tarty bite to them. Next we are going strawberry picking, Jakes second fave, hoping for xmas eve day. I just have to hunt down a place that does it.

And then to finish off the day we ended up at accident and medical with Jake :S Will add pics later of his new toy! Hes all now good tho, him and his 11 items of medication!!! Thank god hes free to medicate! Again lovely staff and very quick process, we probably waited the same amount of time you would if you were at your normal GP with an appt. Just awesome, I dont know why more people dont use it instead of waiting up at the hospital or Accident and emergancy (and pay for children!) for hours.

Why I love my house

Even if it is a very dodgy area, it has so many benefits.

1st one being the massive plum tree right outside our lounge! (My landlord owns next door too which includes the vacant section he wants to sell off, so we have permission to help ourselves) If the pic was closer you would see the whole branch Jakes holding has plums all the way along it, hes so excited! The weight of the plums is making the bunches sag within reach so even better.


Rubbish picture, but its an apple tree covered in apples :) Theres two on the section, two different types too! Double bonus! Theres also a peach tree, Fejoa tree and Orange tree. Im in self seffcient heaven, soon our fruit bill will be zilch.

My garden that I installed. I need another as I run out of room. off the top of my head theres silverbeet, lettuces, toms, corn, cauli, brocs, brussel spourts (purple ones) onions, Marigolds and cornflowers, Chickpeas and spaghetti squash and more. (soon vegie bill... Zilch ;) )
Close up of one of the Spaghetti squashes, one vine is HUGE (mass of green growing upwards in the far left corner in the above pic) and is producing a lot of female flowers (as well as male) so looks like Ill be getting a good crop *touch wood* I've never grown it before so was going to be happy with just one squash as a tester.

My Chickpeas, spourted from dried peas out of my cupboard, I was not expecting much from them but they are starting to flower so they might be furtile after all! (they are ment to be heat treated and not spourtable! Ha!) Never grown them before so will be interesting, I cant wait to try fresh chickpeas, yum!

Strawberry patch!! Its doing so well I might have to expand it out next year to make room for the new growth. Theres also garlic growing. (Companion planting) Sadly none are ripe at the moment a couple more days and they will be. (Second round of fruiting) The round tub Jakes standing on and the far one has Rhubarb in it and Ive just planted Popcorn in one, I was hoping to have another raised bed ready by now for it but life has been in the way so we will see how it goes. Hopefully its not too close to the sweetcorn so we wont get cross pollination.

Plus I have four bedrooms, one of which is full of my sewing and craft stuff and a garage. I am happy to overlook the horrid street for a little bit longer, esp. while the sun is shining and making everything look so wonderful! :D