Planting Potatoes

After the success of my trial potato plants, we've had a bit of a potato planting frenzy here. Jackie French reckons you need 60-80 plants to feed a family of four. We haven't quite got those yet, but these 25 plants should give us a good start. Assuming that they all grow of course, and that I don't kill half them like I did last time. (I'm pretty sure the grass was too green and heated up too much. Hopefully that won't happen this time, as the grass is dryer, and the weather is colder.)

Basically what I've done is put the seed potatoes ($2 a kg at my mum's local produce store) on the grass, and covered each with a spadeful of potting mix. Then covered the whole lot with some dry grass. As the plant grows, I'll add more grass/mulch, and hopefully keep building them up.

I've also had to cover the whole lot with an old sheet to stop the chickens scratching all the grass off. Hopefully they'll have given up by the time the potatoes actually come up, or else we'll have fenced this section too (which I suspect we'll have to do).

Getting Close Now!

A couple of days ago, our second tank went in, and it was all connected up to our roof. The building company only put in enough allowance to have 2 downpipes connected, but we paid the extra to have the whole roof (about 115 sqm) connected up. Hopefully it will fill quickly. As you can see, we've had a bit of rain since it went in, but mostly the annoying drizzle that the vegie garden loves, but not enough to really fill up the tanks.

The second tank is the same size as our stainless steel one, but is dug half under the ground to bring it below the roofline so that gravity will fill it. The water will run down the downpipes (with screens at the top), along a pipe under the ground, then back up the pipe on the side of the tank. Though the pipes will remain filled with water (there is a drain on the other side to flush them periodically), the screens will keep mosquitoes or bugs out.

Now all that is left really is connecting up the hot water and temperature test, clean up, and the final council inspection. We still don't expect to be in before the end of the month, what with paperwork etc, and getting the flooring done. Hopefully the end is in sight now though.

Inspiration

I bought a new book today. I've been on the look out for Jackie French's "Backyard Self Sufficiency", after seeing it in a bookstore several months ago and stupidly neglecting to buy it, but still no luck. However, I found this one, also by Jackie French, and it's instantly become my favourite book!

I bought it simply on the strength of the name, but when I first opened the book to this page, I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. I just love it. Jackie French brings organic gardening from the realm of too difficult, into the reach of those of us who don't have the time or knowledge to test our soil, or get everything just right.

I was inspired enough that when we got home, I went out to the vegie garden and staked up my tomatoes (with stakes cut from scrap wood left over from the house building) and planted some more peas, beans and cauliflower. I was also going to have a harvest picture in this post, but unfortunately the 3 potatoes I uncovered had lots of brown spots, and the miniature rockmelons weren't ripe (self seeded out of season, so not surprising). The peas are going great though, had my first one a couple of days ago, and savoured the whole 5 peas that were in the pod! Lots more on the horizon soon. Jackie French guesses that you need 4-6 square metres of peas to get enough for a family of four. I think I have maybe 2 square metres. I think I'd better get planting! Unfortunately, it's a bit dark for that now.

So instead I'm going to get knitting! I've promised DH a beanie, and I think this beautiful grey wool, spun and plyed, looks just right. This was my first attempt at plying, and I think it turned out OK. What surprised me was that wool plied from two strands actually ends up thicker than the two strands together would be! I had two bobbins of this, and plied them together to get three! Very strange.

It's now all washed, and wound into balls and ready to go. How satisfying is that? I also love the way the wool winder leaves the middle end of the wool easily accessible. Knitting from the middle of the ball stops it rolling around the floor as you unwind it, much easier! Now to figure out how to knit a beanie...

Laura Ingalls Wilder - Quilted Memories

This is the first time I've participated in one of these blog world games, but I just couldn't resist. Miss Sandy over at Quill Cottage is having an "I remember Laura" blog-a-thon, in honour of the author of "Little House in the Big Woods", Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder books from a very young age. I think we first read Little House in the Big Woods in school, maybe grade 5 or 6? And as usual when I loved a book, I searched out all others by the same author. Her writing is beautiful, and her story of a family living simply in as they travelled further and further west was inspiring. In fact, I think I might just start re-reading them.

This weeks theme for the blog-a-thon is Quilted Memories. Quilts have always been a big part of my life. My sister and I both have memories of choosing out material, and arranging squares (or triangles, that one drove my mum mad, but I loved it.) Now my mother makes the most beautiful crazy patchwork quilts, I'll have to get a photo of one some time. Personally, I haven't done much quilting (except for the velvet ones I've posted about before, which are very simple quilts really), except for this one.

The history of this quilt goes back 14 years, to the year I was eighteen. I appliqued the 9 squares in this quilt, by hand, and sewed them together interspersed with pink floral squares. Each square was embellished with ribbons, ribbon roses, lace, and embroidery. It took ages to sew them all.

I think you can probably guess what the common theme of the quilt was? An impressionable 18 yo, I was obsessed with love and romance, and showed this by appliqueing hearts in one form or another on every square.

This was the very first square I did, and since I hadn't decided on the hearts theme, I embroidered some on later.

This is my favourite square. The original bird was a peach silk, that has long since worn away, leaving only the outline and embroidered roses. The blue colour is painted on.

I took this quilt with me when I moved out of home, and it adorned my bed for many years, until it started to grow tattered and worn (you can see in many of the pictures how worn the origional squares are), and I was well and truly over the hearts stage. In a big clean out, I was going to throw it out, but my mum, who was visiting at the time, asked for it. A few weeks later, she gave it back to me like this! She had taken apart the original quilt and saved my carefully constructed squares. She'd mended what was able to be mended, painted the spaces where applique's had worn away and pieced it back together in colours that fitted my decorating scheme at the time.

She added new appliques of dolphins (my obsession at the time), butterflies, teddies, and even this castle which she traced and painted.

This little girl she said reminded her of me as a girl, waving at the bird. (Although I don't have blond hair.)

It is still worn, but it is holding together. It doesnt normally live on our bed like this, normally it is folded at the end until bedtime, when I unfold it, and put it down the side of my bed for me to cuddle up to. It's the perfect weight and size for this, so it had better not wear out any time soon. It would be very hard to replace.

100th Post!

Back when I started this blog, I wasn't sure if I would keep doing it or not, but family and friends, and I think some others, check my blog regularly, and I find that thinking about what I will write during the day, or taking photos for my blog, keep me motivated. It's also a great reminder of what we have done here, and what our lives are like, and I hope my daughter will enjoy looking back on it one day.

I've been racking my brains all day for something to make this 100th post memorable, and finally I came up with this. It's a poem I wrote in Grade 6 or 7, and after much searching, it seems I have lost the original (although I am still hoping that it's somewhere in an unopened box that I will find again one day), so this is from memory, and I think some of it is missing. I seem to recall it being longer than this! Anyway, hope you enjoy.

She saw again the old log hut, each tree felled by her dad,

She remembered how the cattle died, the year the drought was bad,

She felt again the welcoming warmth from the crackling kitchen fire,

As the rain beat on the iron roof, while outside the floods rose higher.

Her fingers traced the stitches fine, each worked by a loving hand,

To join the patches of their lives, in an unforgiving land.

"Come on Gran, it's time to go, there's nothing here to see,

Just a tumbled down old shack, beneath a mango tree.

So come on Gran, it's time to go, it isn't very far

It won't take long, the roads are good, just half an hour by car."

The trip back from that old log hut, if only they could see,

Takes half an hour for them it's true, but ninety years for me.

Warm feet!

Well, I did it. I knitted my first pair of socks. Though I've been an avid knitter since I was a child (I started about 5 I think), I've always been a bit nervous about trying knitting in the round. But after finding several tutorials, I figured I'd give it a go. And I have to say, they didn't turn out too badly at all.

After looking around at a few tutorials, I decided to use this one, at Tameson's Musing. I chose it over some others (Silver's Sock Class and Socks 101) mainly because I prefer the method of doing the heel. However, I'd definitely recommend checking out those two as well, as they have some great instructions and photos about knitting with double point needles that were really useful.

Knitting on double point needles definitely took a bit of practice. It feels very awkward, and preventing the spaces between the needles being all loose requires constant care, but overall, I really enjoyed it. Funnily enough, I found myself knitting inside out! With knitting in the round, you constantly use the knit stitch, and I still did this, but on the opposite side of the circle to me, with the knit side going down inside the sock.

I had to turn it inside out to do the toe and heel, which I did in a different colour, just for fun. I found it much more awkward knitting right side out, but luckily these bits don't take too long.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, although getting the sizing right is a bit tricky. Both these are a little too big around my foot, one more so than the other. It's extra difficult using homespun wool, as it's not a regular thickness, so I'm going to have to work the size out all over again next pair. And there will be a next pair. I'm addicted. Well, they might have to wait until after I knit the beanie I've been promising DH...

Just in time.

After several months without rain, we've now gone to the opposite extreme here, with about 4 days of rain, and counting. We were sorely in need of it, being down to about 4 rungs of water in our tank. That's still several thousand litres, but we were starting to become concerned. Thankfully, after the heavy rain today, we're back up to around 2/3 of a tank, which should see us through the next couple of months, even if we don't get any more rain.

We had a few issues with the guttering at the back of the shed overflowing because it was choked with leaves. We didn't realise that until the heavy rain hit, too late to clear it. We did get it done in a break in the rain, but haven't had too much more since. Hopefully we'll get another lot of rain overnight, then it will clear in the morning, for DD's 4th birthday. We're all heartily sick of not being able to hear each other over the drumming of the rain on the roof.

Of course, it would have been even better if this tank, delivered the week before the rain, had been installed! It would have been half full by now, and might have stopped some of the buildup of water lying around the back of the house! Even once the tank is in though, I think we're going to have some serious drainage issues here.

Of course, these drainage issues are kind of serious too. This is our driveway! It's not really the water that's the problem, but the mud. It's that really slippery clay, recently dug up and put back to put the electricity cable across here. I haven't been bogged yet this time (happened early on, before we moved in), but we're being very cautious. At least, if it happens, we don't have far to walk home!

The garden is certainly enjoying it. I swear the peas have grown about 3 inches since it started, and they're all flowering like mad. Everything is greening up, and I think all the rooster booster I threw around last week was put down just in time. The rain is dissolving it all, and sending it into the ground.