Feeling Crafty

Well, it seems my spacious surroundings have inspired me a little. Well, that, and this Flickr group dedicated to felt food. DD is similarly interested (she's very into play food right now), so I went to my (new) favourite craft supplies online store, and have ordered a big order of wool felt, dollmaking supplies, and a few other bits and pieces. Eagerly awaiting it's arrival, then hopefully I'll have something exciting to post pictures of.

Pictures have been sadly lacking here the last little while, mainly because I just haven't been doing anything to take pictures of. I mean, there's only so many pictures of my new house that one can look at (OK, I probably haven't reached that point yet, so maybe I'll take a few more tomorrow), and I'm not going to take pictures of things like the very messy garden shed that we spent half today cleaning out. Maybe I'll take one once it's clean! Or better yet, once it's all renovated for our chooks to enjoy. Not that they don't enjoy hanging out there just the way it is right now mind you. As soon as you open the door, they're in there. Very curious creatures our chooks. They even made it a few steps inside the house today when someone (probably me) forgot to shut the screen door. They were a bit discomforted when their feet slipped on the floor though, and they got a bit stuck trying to get out the glass door, couldn't figure out why they couldn't get out.

Things are starting to look slightly less bare here now. DD has a few toys and books in her playroom, although she still mostly plays in the living room! Have to work on that. So far I haven't had much of a chance to start organising my sewing room, which is what I'm most interested in of course! Oh I'm so looking forward to being able to go into that room after DD is asleep, and whip up all sorts of exciting and beautiful things!

Settling in

Sorry for the lack of posts, life has been hectic here as we slowly relocate things down to the house. We're heading for our 3rd night in the new house, and it's finally starting to seem normal(ish). The first day we didn't start till 1pm when the floors were finished, and only got the beds, TV, lounge suite and enough food for the first couple of days. Then yesterday my sister and brother-in-law came over and helped move the rest of the furniture, and push DH's car (who's battery is dead) into the garage into the space we've made. After over a year out of the garage, he's happy to have it back in. Computers got set up late that afternoon, 24 hours after we first started moving.

Today, we've done very little. Arranged our clothes in the new walk in wardrobe, moved a few more of DD's toys down, and generally tidied and arranged things.

Don't have much to report, as that has been taking up all our time lately, but thought I'd just list a few random facts about life in the new house.

• It's approximately 4 degrees warmer than in the shed, which is 5-6 degrees warmer than outside, but feels much warmer than that. I only have one jumper on tonight, where as in the shed, I'd have 2, and still be cold. I think the floor rather than carpet helps a lot.


• The chooks were most bewildered by the whole experience. First morning we let them out, they pecked forlornly at the garage door, wondering where we were. They only discovered where we'd gone this afternoon, and kept peering into the door, jumping back at the noise whenever we opened it.


• DD decided to sleep in her own bedroom, first time ever, on the first night. She stayed there till 11pm the first night, and all night the next one. She's unfazed. Mum and Dad are feeling a little bereft. So much for all the comments that we'd never get her out of our bed though!


• From a tiny little portable wardrobe, we've managed to expand into the walk in wardrobe with no effort. I thought our clothes were going to be lost in there, but it looks quite full.


• The shelves I bought on eBay are exactly the right size, and I had to actually put them together in the wardrobe, as there wasn't enough room to maneuver them in afterwards!

Posts might be a bit thin on the ground here for the next few days, as there is still lots more things to be moved, organised and tidied. We're all thrilled to finally be in here though, and plan on really enjoying the rest of DH's days off.

Moving Day!

Floors were finished at about 1pm today. We're in the process of moving in. May or may not be back later for a more comprehensive post.

Still waiting....

Nope, sorry to say that there is no nice picture of our new floors tonight. The contractors turned up, checked the floors, and they needed a tiny bit of leveling in the main walkway areas (around front and back doors), so they put down some concrete type stuff, then went away to let it dry. They'll be back tomorrow morning to start laying, and will finish off on Saturday.

Aside from the obvious disappointment in the fact that I have no floors to photograph, I'm not really that upset. It's better to have it done properly, and since DH is working through the weekend, we couldn't move until at least Monday anyway.

The rain is putting a damper on everything right now too. It's not good heavy tank filling rain, just continuous (all day without letup even for a few minutes!) dribbly rain. Enough to mess up the road again, nearly got bogged on the way in this afternoon, and to make everything muddy and miserable. We've also discovered that the pipe that we hit the other day seems to still have a leak, as it's hole filled up much more quickly than all the others. Can't do much about it till the rain stops though.

Murphy's Law

I suppose I should not be surprised, it has been the way of things since starting building, but none the less, today's drama takes the cake.

Our laminate flooring is booked in to be installed tomorrow. Since the contractor wanted to be paid on the day, and the bank wanted the floors installed before they would give us the money, yesterday we sent in all the forms for collecting a bank cheque. Bank arranged it all no problem, but made the mistake of sending the cheque direct to the contractor instead of for us to collect. Not a big problem, at least the money was arranged we thought.

Until I got a call from the contractor today, just confirming a booking, and in the process of explaining about the payment to them, I discovered that their head office had moved 12 months ago, and the invoice I had had the old address on it! So our cheque was effectively 'lost in the mail'.

A few phone calls later, and it was cancelled and a new cheque arranged, but we were a little concerned there. Murphy must really be out to get us on this, because if only one of those mistakes had been made, we would have been fine, but the combination of both was just too much.

Still, it's all organised now, so hopefully (touch wood yet again) it will all go smoothly now. I spent the afternoon down moving all the plants into the laundry/bathroom/toilet, where there are tiles, then mopping the rest of the house. I'm so glad I took the time to do this, as there was plaster dust everywhere. I had to keep getting fresh water every few square metres, as it was just so dusty. The thought of all that dust being trapped under our floors is scary.

All done now though, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be posting that the floors are down, and the house is finally finished! Stay tuned.

Discovering Money

Yesterday afternoon, DD realised for the first time that she had money. She's had it for quite some time, about 6 months at least, in her little purse that sits in the shelves in her playroom, and she often plays with it in her games, but yesterday it actually hit her that she could use it to BUY stuff. So at 3pm, she got herself all dressed up, shoes and hat on, handbag (from the dress up box) on her shoulder, and asked if we could go shopping. How could I resist?

Our first stop was the second hand shop, where she looked around carefully, and finally chose some huge fairy wings. We looked at the price tag, found out the price (second hand shops so conveniently have round dollar amounts, rather than all those confusing $1.95 type prices), worked out what money she would need, and how much change she would get, then she went up and paid for it.

Onto the newsagent, where she found some balloons and a magazine, then to the supermarket, where she found some chocolate coins. Then near the end of the supermarket, she found a My Little Pony. Now one of DD's favourite things are My Little Pony's. My sister has quite a collection, and DD loves to play with them while visiting. She's started building up a collection herself, all bought second hand at markets or garage sales, her eventual goal being to have more than Aunty Mandy. So I suspected this was going to be interesting.

We looked at the price on the shelf, $18. We counted out her money. She was $2 short. I offered to lend her the $2, but said that she would have to put the chocolate coins back, as she couldn't get both. I expected at least hesitation, but no, she quickly put the My Little Pony back, and said she'd take the chocolate.

I expect lots more fun shopping trips like this one, where we learn about the value of money, both numerically, and in terms of evaluating what we choose to buy with it. Hopefully it will also help at those times when I tell her she can't have something because it is too expensive, or not worth the price that is being asked.

Learning a new skill - Plumbing

Well, the last 2 days have been.... interesting. We've been trying to hook our new house up to our stainless steel tank, rather than to mains water which the builders did. It seemed like an easy enough job in the beginning. Cut a few pipes, join in a few new ones, no big deal.

Which might have been the case if it weren't for the fact that all the pipes were under the ground, and not at all where we expected them to be. I should have paid more attention when they were laying them, but at the time, with a 3yo demanding my attention, it didn't even occur to me.

So after several hours of digging holes all over the yard, trying to work out where on earth the pipes actually went, and which direction the water was flowing in, we managed to put a mattock through a pipe. Bound to happen I guess, but very stressful at the time, involving much swearing and angst. Luckily it wasn't a particularly bad pipe to hit, if you had to hit one. This is the pipe that takes the water from the gutters to the water tank, so not high flow, and most importantly, not sewerage (the sewerage pipes go nowhere near this area, that at least I was sure of!) We made the wonderful discovery that there are fibreglass patches available for just this occurrence, which saved us much cutting of pipes and more swearing. Thank goodness for the helpful staff at Bunnings!

Finally, after disconnecting many pipes, and finding out which taps no longer worked when disconnected, we managed to work out which pipes were which. Then we decided to sleep on the problem, and the next morning, we managed to actually change over the pipes! This shows the mains water now diverted up to a stopper on the end of the pipe (later to become a mains tap, just in case we need it), and the tank water joined straight through to the house. A brief test seems to show that we're now running on tank water, but we need to change our carbon block filter before the final test.

We also spent the afternoon sweeping out all the mud/clay that had been traipsed into the house in the last few weeks, and scraping all the drips of paint/putty that was in lumps on the concrete, meaning we're all ready for the floors to go in on Thursday. It's starting to seem like we might actually get to move into this house after all!

Jacket - Completed!

I just love making clothes for DD. She has a way of making anything look good. I have to admit, this jacket is one of my better efforts as well. It's taken a week or two to knit, with that edging taking as long as the rest of the jumper put together! It's worth it though. She's really getting into 'pretty' things, particularly in pink, so hopefully this will make her cooperate with wearing something a bit warmer in this cold weather.

Although we've already had arguments over those little flowers hidden under the bow. I did a combination of colours to match the combination of colours in the wool, but apparently they should all be pink!

That's one more project crossed off the list to complete anyway.

Decluttering

Ever since I discovered Flylady about 5 or so years ago, I've been aware of the problems with clutter. Unfortunately, I'm a hoarder. I find it very hard to throw things out. Sometimes, this is because I think I might need them in the future, sometimes it is because I feel bad throwing out something that someone gave to me, but often, it is simply because the item still has life in it, and I can't bear to waste it.

This isn't helped by my new reading on the amount of energy/materials that go into making each item, or how much landfill is filled by all these unwanted items. Over the years, but especially since having a child, we have bought so many things that we really didn't need, and that both clutter up our lives, and use up resources that could best be spent elsewhere. There is nothing we can do about the past, but we can stop doing this now. Now we choose DD's birthday and Christmas gifts very carefully, going either for something that has long term usage, encourages creative play, or is an experience rather than a thing. For example, for her birthday this year, we bought DD some craft materials (paint, stickers, printed paper etc), and took her to the zoo. Once we are a bit more settled, I hope to make some of these presents, such as a doll, some dollhouse furniture (if that doll house ever gets finished) and other toys. I think these few items, chosen carefully with care or made with love, are far more valuable than a large number of packages to open.

So we have made inroads into stopping the influx of new clutter into our home. What we need to work on now is getting rid of the accumulation of clutter that we already have. I was doing very well at one point with throwing things that we didn't use out. Huge amounts of toys, bric-a-brac, clothes and kitchen items that we didn't use were either thrown out, or if there was still use in them, donated to charity. Yet for some reason I've stopped. I'm letting things pile up with the thought that I might have a garage sale, or because I think that though they're not good enough to sell, they're too good to throw out. Somehow, I need to stop this attitude, and get back into the frame of mind to throw things out.

I DO NOT want to bring all this clutter into our new home!

Plodding along...

I know, I know, I've been very slack in posting for the last few days. We've basically been spending the time working out what still has to be done to the house before we can move in, and slowly arranging it all. Not particularly interesting to write about, but I'll summarise here for completeness.

• Floors will go in on the 24th.
• Currently trying to arrange electrician to run phone cable, put in an extra phone plug for the computers (to save running an extension cord right across the living room floor), and put in one extra power point near the existing phone jack. Hopefully Thursday, if the man we talked to today gets back to us
• Bought a set of shelves on eBay for the walk in wardrobe. It only has one top shelf, and hanging space, so we need something there for everything else. Picking it up tomorrow afternoon
• Trying to work out how to hook up our rainwater instead of mains. We've found one outlet into the house, but still need to work out where exactly the pipe goes after that. We're also having an issue with the pump not kicking in properly. Hopefully it's just the filter needing changing, we'll check that tomorrow.
• Curtains were stressing me out for a while mainly due to not knowing exactly what I wanted. I have some sheets for temporary curtains while we decide what we want, but I didn't want to put up curtain rods only to want something different once these decisions were made. Solved this by putting up some temporary curtain rods of that stretch wire with hooks at either end. Cheap, and easily pulled out and replaced for something permanent later.
• Still trying to get rid of the paint smell, which is quite strong. We're opening up all the windows and doors each day, and I'm filling the house with as many indoor plants as I can find. Hopefully it will lessen by the time we're ready to move in.

We still need to:

• Arrange for locks for some doors, only the screen doors on the sliding doors have key locks! The others lock from the inside, but can't be unlocked from the outside, how silly is that?
• Fence the front yard, and start preparing it for planting
• Pavers around the edge of the house. Looked this weekend, and there are lots listed in the weekend shopper, so we should be able to find something relatively easily.
• Decide on air conditioning unit, and arrange installation

This last list won't be done in any hurry though, they're things that can wait until after we've moved in if necessary. Hopefully we'll be in our new house by the end of the month!

1000 words

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What words do you think this one represents?

Staying Warm

It's been a particularly cold day here today with the rain. Mostly, though it gets quite cold overnight (down to 6 degrees Celsius some nights), the sun warms things up to quite a comfortable temperature during the day. Now I know some of my readers in colder climates will laugh at me saying that 6 degrees is cold, but remember here that we aren't in a heated, insulated house, we're in an uninsulated shed. So 6 degrees outside usually equates to 7-8 degrees inside.

I have to admit, I'm not so dedicated to low power usage that I would forgo the use of a heater, if it actually achieved anything. Unfortunately, the large area (56 square metres), combined with the lack of insulation, means it barely makes a dent in the cold.

So we have to solve the problem in other ways. Firstly, I've hung pure wool blankets (bought secondhand for $5 each at the markets) around the walls near the bed. This adds a tiny bit of insulation, as well as stopping any drafts around the garage door (which our beds are up against). I wasn't sure if it was making any difference until I realised that sitting on the couch, also right next to a garage door, was much colder, so it must do something.

I've also put another wool blanket under DD's mattress protector, and another over the head of her bed, further insulating her. Most nights she sleeps in a fleece full sleep-suit, fleece sheets and two doona's (when she doesn't kick them off). This seems to have helped, as before we did all this, she was waking up cold at about 2am.

On a really cold night, I will heat up our two wheat bags, and DH and I will use them to warm up the sheets before we jump into bed, and then pop one in with DD if it seems cold. I'll also warm it up again for her when I get up in the early hours to go to the bathroom if it is cold.

DH and I stay warm enough with our doona and bamboo blanket (king size for extra snuggle room). We also use lots of jumpers, the slippers I've knitted, and the velvet patchwork blankets I made over our laps while we're awake. Again, if it's really cold, I'll heat up the wheat bag and put it in my lap while we're staying warm.

So that is how we do it, for very little cost, and very little energy outlay, and usually, it's quite comfortable. Can't wait till we're in the house and have insulation though!

Starting out small

Today's Harvest

Many times I look at the small tastes I harvest from my garden, and wonder why I bother? I compare my harvest pictures to the people who have a whole basket of tomatoes, or enough peas to actually cook for a meal. I put so much effort, yes and money, into my garden, yet seem to get so little back.

It's then that I have to remind myself that this garden is only 8 months old. Eight months ago, this place was a bare block, and since that time, I've grown a whole garden. Yes, it isn't particularly productive yet, but I consider that I'm still in the experimental stages. I need to grow some pea plants, or tomato plants, or pumpkin vines, to work out what conditions they like, how close together to plant them, whether I can successfully grow them at all, and how many I am going to use, before I go ahead and plant a whole crop of them. There is no point me going ahead and planting a whole crop of corn say, then finding out that I didn't plant them close enough together so they didn't fertilise. And if I had planted out the whole packet of climbing peas, not having any idea of how high the trellis needed to be, I'd have even more of them falling over and making a mess!

I imagine that in another year or two, I'll be so much closer to my dreams of being partially self-sufficient (I don't know that anyone is ever totally self-sufficient, unless they live on a desert island!), and all because of what I am learning right now. So instead of feeling down about how little I get, I'm going to celebrate what I have learnt with each plant grown, each fruit or vegetable picked, and each mistake I've made.

Today's Harvest 2

For example, today I learnt that the broccoli you can buy in the supermarket is nothing like the real deal. I'm not a broccoli fan, but this stuff is actually edible. When cooked (lightly), it is actually a brilliant green, not that washed out half blue look.

I learnt that to grow decent sized Luffa's, they need a lot more water and fertiliser than I gave these. Yet even so, I have two more luffa's than I had before, and...

... even a tiny, stunted luffa contains enough seeds to grow many many more luffa vines. Like rosella's, once you've bought one lot of luffa seeds, you'll never need to buy another. And neither will your friends.

But the most important lesson of all, was the one my daughter showed me. That even if we never produce enough to eat, not only is she learning so much from watching our garden grow, but she is enjoying it. She carefully arranged this entire basked of flowers, leaves and produce (yes, that's some broccoli and some parsley in there too), and was so proud to show us. She put the trim I'm knitting for her jumper down the bottom. A perfect show of simple living!

First Project Completed!

Well, already the new challenge is spuring me on. I sat down this afternoon and finished DD's mermaid doll. It only took an hour or so, I can't believe I've been putting it off so long!

DD really wanted this bright red acrylic wool for the hair. I didn't have anything else in quite the right colour. Damn Disney's Ariel! DD is really happy to have her doll finally, and is here telling me she is going to cuddle it in bed tonight.

July Challenge - Unfinished Projects

The July Challenge over at Aussie's Living Simply is to finish off some unfinished projects. Which is just what I need right now. So without further ado, here is the list I have planed to finish for July. Let's see how far I get!

First up is to finish the jumper I'm knitting for DD. I have half of one sleeve, then the trimming to go. Should be easy to finish, as I knit mosts nights while watching TV with DH. Then I'll finish up the dishcloth I'm crocheting (teaching myself from a book). These are both pretty recently started projects, so I would have finished them this month anyway.

Some of you may remember that back in Feburary, I made a fairy doll for a friend's daughter, and also a mermaid doll for DD that never got finished. I just need to do the hair, but we had a bit of an altercation about it. DD decided she didn't like the colour I was doing it, so have to pull it off and start again. Time to stop being annoyed about it, and finish it already!

The major project I'd like to finish is renovating DD's dollhouse. My dad made it for me when I was 10, and I'm now updating it for DD. It needs the interior walls done (which means removing all the old paint/wallpaper), then the new front cut, attached and painted, then the windows, doors and stairs put on. I would be SO happy if I could get it finished for her.

Finally I hope I finish the planter box I'm working on too, only needs a couple of bits of wood put on.

Hopefully it will be a productive month, with lots of photos of completed projects!

Yet another delay...

I really should have found some actual wood to touch after writing this post saying the house was nearly there. As usual, I should never have expected any stage to go smoothly!

The valuer from the bank came out yesterday to assess the house before making final payment and, as I have been TELLING the builders for the last couple of months, refused to pass it because the floors have not been laid. They say the house is not complete. The only way they'll do it is to take the allowances out of our contract, and the bank will pay them to us instead (after the floors are laid of course!) Which on the surface of things seems simple enough. All they need is a new invoice from the builders, showing the adjusted amount.

Of course, actually getting that from the builders is next to impossible! DH has spent half the day on the phone to them today, only to be told at 5:30pm tonight, that he needs to fill in a form before they will do it! Now why on earth has this not been mentioned in the other 5-6 phone calls he's made about this today? And, of course, they can't actually send us the form now, so that we can fill it out. We have to wait till tomorrow.

Seriously, by the time we get into this house, I'm going to be old and grey, and I'm not sure whether it will be the stress of the process, or the amount of time that has lapsed, that will do it first.

Gardening Stuff

Although I have to admit to not doing too well in the daily gardening right now, I have achieved lots in the garden. I have managed to plant the second bamboo down near the house, some native violets in a nice shady place, and some daffodil bulbs in pots.

The carrot seeds I planted in the pot have come up, and are looking good. Hopefully they'll fare a little better than my original efforts, which were inedible. The chooks enjoyed eating the tops though.

I've been a bit discouraged that all those pea seeds I planted haven't come up. I think it was my fault, I planted them into some (store bought) compost, and I think it was too hot for them, as when I dug around, the seeds were brown and rotten. I've added some potting mix, and tried planting a few again, so I'll see how that goes before planting the rest. I also found that one of the strawberries I planted was dying, I think also because of the compost, so I repotted it in potting mix. Hopefully it will recover, but I won't hold my breath.

The original peas I put in are still doing well, although the bush peas at the bottom have been a little overwhelmed by some self-seeded cherry tomatoes. The climbing peas are going great, although I drastically underestimated their height in the original trellis as you can see. Still, I'm getting a few pods of them each day, so that's nothing to sneeze at. I'm definitely going to try this again, but with a better trellis.

The chickens have been devastating the leaves on this poor choko, so I built it a little wire cage for protection. Hopefully this will give it a chance to get a bit started and hopefully grow above chook height!

I'm getting some good harvests coming on. These Roma tomatoes are starting to ripen, picked about 5 already, and as you can see, many more coming.

This is the first of the pumpkins, about half full size now. There are about half a dozen more that are smaller, and still lots more coming each week.

The strawberries are getting more flowers by the day, and the newer flowers are much larger than the first few. I think all the watering and fertilising is paying off.

I finally found time to fence of the potato patch, the chooks kept trying to scratch up all the mulch, and I think eat the new shoots. I can't say for sure yet, but it looks like all 25 potatoes are going to come up. I've also planted another 12 seed potatoes in the space where my compost heap used to be. Hopefully there will be enough sun for them there.

I'm still trying to keep the fruit trees watered and fertilized. I was lucky enough to find a while mulberry tree at the markets last weekend, and I splurged and ordered an apricot tree from Daley's Nursery. The postage cost me more than the tree, but since I haven't seen one around here at all, it's worth it. Of course, having said that, they'll probably be everywhere at the markets on the weekend, in which case, I'll probably buy a couple more! I love apricots!

Nearly there (touch wood)

Well, it's been quite a slog, but it seems we are nearing the end of this building journey! The house is, for all practical purposes, completed. There are a few minor things left to do, like the washing line being installed, and the front screen door being put on (the one they bought was the wrong size, so they had to get another one), but other than that, it's done. Now we're just waiting on the bank to sort out the final payment, then we should get the keys.

Of course, even once that is done, it won't be time to move in. We'll still have to arrange to have the floors installed, the phone connected, curtain rods put up, and many other little details. Still, hopefully it won't be long now.