Christmas 2009 - done and dusted LOL

Wow!! Brilliant Christmas 2009. Lunch at Greg's Aunty's place and dinner at Mum and Dad's place - I didn't have to do anything (guess who is having/doing Christmas 2010???)

Kid were spoilt rotten as usual. Alex worked but partied at our place on Christmas Night with her friends after visiting Roger (step-dad) and Nan & Pa (her other Grandies). I picked Jemma up from Rogers after lunch - she was absolutely overwhelmed with pressies!!!

My beautiful friend/step-daugher/Jemma's sister got engaged

WHOO HOO - GO COURTNEY & ERIN!!!!!!

Rembering those that are not with us (I LOVE & miss you all xxxx) & those that are left behind to handle it (thinking of you at this time)

What a fantastic Christmas day....................xxxxx

Probably my busiest time of the year

We put up the Christmas lights today and they look great. I have some at the entry but couldn' t photograph them - too dark I think. They are solar ones and they work great!!

I havent posted for a couple of weeks as I have been so very busy and by the time I get a moment I am exhausted............ work is going crazy at the moment, Christmas shopping to be done, lots of baby chooks to be tended to, garden to be watered etc........ I'm sure you get the picture LOL

Well, the silky babies hatched - they are so cute and we got 6 babies out of 8 eggs which is great. They are so tiny and fluffy. Here are some:

The other babies are out in the run now. I still can't tell if we have roosters yet, so not really looking forward to finding out if they are!!!!

My seeds have sprouted (except the lettuce, but it looks like it is about to and the watermelon) so I will have to transplant them soon. The dogs keep walking all over the veggie bed so I am going to have to block it off.

I am taking 2 weeks off work after Christmas and so is Greg. That will give us an opportunity to get some stuff done around the house which will be great.

I am REALLY struggling with doing everything at the moment. Just because I am busy in most aspects of my life. Work is crazy, Michael is still waking at least once per night minimum (and that would be a great night) and I am feeling frazzled. I don't know what will happen once I go back to work full-time. I really want to be able to bake, do gardening, make my own stuff - washing powder etc but it takes TIME to do this, which is in short supply LOL. I do sometimes spend a bit of time on the internet but I have to limit it now as I have so much else to do - it is my relaxation time though (as I don't really watch TV). If I didn't have Greg, it would be impossible to do what I do as he is an excellent help to me.

I am going to ponder this dilemma a bit more and maybe write a post about it later........

In the meantime - Merry Christmas to you all, even if you don't celebrate it - Happy Holidays!!! I'm not one bit religious but I love Christmas - the lights, Santa, kids excitement...... so much FUN!!! Jemma is hanging for Santa to come and I love this special time (it doesn't last forever - although Alex (20yo) still puts out her Santa sack on Xmas Eve hahaha)

Be safe, be well and I hope you get lots of pressies :0)

I hope to post again before Chrissie but may not get a chance.

Luv

Rach

xxxx

Getting the Veggie garden happening

I decided I should get the veggie garden happening again. I have been slack for about 2 years so time to get going again.

I went to the local nursery and OMG the price of seedlings - up to $7+ for a punnet. Nah, I'm not paying that. So I got Alex to get me a styrofoam box from her work and i planted some seeds. I planted - tomato seeds (Grose Lissie), Capsicum, Sunflower, Watermelon, Spring Onion, Nasturium (flower), ummmm can't remember what else but some more I think LOL. Fingers crossed they go well in my little hot house. Will update. I dug over the garden bed and then realised that it was hydrophobic (ie the soil won't take water). Lucky I had some soil wetter stuff for that problem and it was fixed in a day thank goodness - you sprinkle it on and water it in and it bubbles like detergent and then the soil will not repel the water. Amazing stuff that - the soil is now as good as new!!! (it took 3 goes though).

We have had a few dramas in the chook house. The black chicken I call Rooster seemed very aggressive towards Blackie who is sitting on her silky eggs - trying to peck the eggs under her etc, so I decided to move her into the big pen. She is NOT happy but hopefully will settle down soon.

Baby Isa and Rooster (she is not a rooster but looks like one)

Yesterday, Baby Isa X went CLUCKY!!!! I totally cant believe it at all. Anyway, I decided to move her to the big pen too today to get her off the cluck. WELL that was a bad idea. She was NOT happy either and somehow flew above the fence onto the top of the baby pen, then dived onto the ground, back up to the nesting box.

I looked this evening and she had stolen 2 of Blackies fertile eggs and was sitting on them !!!!! I did a bit of a swap and put a non fertile one under her and the other 2 back under Blackie. I don't have enough baby cages for 2 of them to have babies so I don't want any to hatch under her GRRRRRRR

Anyway will see how it all goes (why do they have to want the same nest too???), Blackies bubs are due on Friday or Saturday (fingers crossed).

Other than that not too much happening. I worked Saturday night at Movies in the Park. It was a lovely night - well behaved crowd and lovely weather. Have grand plans for the house and another veggie garden etc but not sure if that will happen in the near future. Poor Greg still hasn't finished the second coat on the bedroom yet, but he will get there. So much to do, so little time :-)

Pretty stuff

Poor Alex has split up with her boyfriend Troy. Some of her friends bought her these Tulips to cheer her up. They are beautiful as they have opened now.

When I got up this morning and went out to fix up the chooks, Blacky was off the nest and

stretching her legs. I popped in the nest and grabbed the non fertile eggs that she steals when the others lay in her nest LOL.


I think they look beautiful - one is pure white (from Baby Frizz), one is cream (from Baby Isa X), and the other is light blue/green (from Roo - cause she looks a bit roosterish to me).

Also here is a pic of the peaches that I harvested from our tree. These ones aren't quite ripe yet but Greg ate the ripe one yesterday and said it was yummy. I have some more on the tree but just waiting for them to grow a bit more.

These things made me feel happy today...................they are so pretty.................

Am I wierd???

Michael loves pulling the books out while I cook lunch LOL

I have been thinking about this lately, well thinking that I may be thought of as a wierdo. It doesn't worry me really, although sometimes I do feel a bit sad when people make fun of me and what I do (even when it is in fun and not meant maliciously) - although I laugh along - afterwards I feel a bit sad.

Because of this, I don't openly put out there what I do or believe in. I haven't told anyone except my mum that I made some washing detergent with home made soap etc. I don't talk about my chickens much, even though I LOVE them a lot.

Saying that, if someone does express an interest in those things, I do let them know what I do and am happy to show around my chickens and give them tips!!!!

I totally lost motivation this week............. we had take away about 3 times because I was unorganised and hadn't got shopping done etc. Despite costing a FORTUNE, it wasn't nice either. I am getting organised for next week now. I don't want that to happen again.

I went to an "Open Garden" yesterday. Jemma & I had been to the shops and on our way back I saw a sign for the Open Garden Scheme just around the corner from us, so I decided to take a look. Amazing stuff!!! The owners have before & after shots of their garden and what an amazing transformation. I wish I had my camera with me. It was just a suburban block with lots of grass & they transformed it into a beautiful oasis. It wouldn't be any good for me, it is a very high maintenance garden, taking at least 8 hours per week in Summer (due to all the watering I would guess) and I personally would like more vegie garden/chook area than they had (they had 2 chooks) but it was lovely. It has got me motivated that I have to start on ours!!! but something with a little less time to maintain.

I would totally love a vegie garden, but I have to face reality. I just don't have the time at this time in my life. Saying that, I do have time for low maintenance veggies, so will focus on that next weekend (I am going to see what would suit me the best). I may be going back to FT work next year so will even have LESS time but I try and get a balance - work, family & doing stuff I love such as chooks & garden. I am going to see if FT work is worth it for us and if not then try and negotiate not doing this. Time will tell LOL.

I made a really yummy, oh so easy lunch on Friday as I was off work (due to working the Monday instead). I should have done this for the takeaway nights this week!!!

Chop up some veggies (anything - I used capsicum, tomato, spring onion, corn) and some ham or bacon or chicken or don't worry (I used bacon).

Chuck it in a frypan with some oil and fry up until softish/cooked. Meanwhile, grate some cheese and crack some eggs in a bowl (see above) and whisk.

Season the cooked vegies/meat with salt & pepper and sprinkle the grated cheese over, then pour the whisked eggs over.

Cook for a little while until egg is cooked through. Lift up from bottom and put onto plate. Season with S&P again and ta da!!! lunch in about 10 mins flat (you couldn't drive to maccas in that time). MMM very yummy, cheap & healthy and even Michael ate heaps of this off my plate.

mmmmm tasty lunch

The baby chooks are all doing well with their mums. Blackie is still sitting on her silky eggs and has 2 weeks to go!!! Can't wait :-)

I'm a bit too busy at the moment......

BOO!!!!
Michael playing at the Halloween Party

Halloween Party at Stacy's!!! (Jem & Michael at the front)

I usually like to post at least every week, usually on a Sunday but I ran out of time this week. We had a HUGE weekend with two parties and lots of other stuff going on.

Anne's brilliant ladybird cake for Raiph's 1st Birthday

I also had to work on Monday as work went a bit crazy on Thursday & Friday of last week. Mum came down and minded Michael for me which was great. I am having this Friday off instead.

Michael at Raiph's 1st Birthday

Mum found another possum in the chook pen on Monday, but sadly it was alread dead or died very soon after she saw it (she was too scared to get it). Monday I was flat out in the morning as the trains got mucked up and I have to waste 45mins picking Mum up from the station. I didn't get to look in the pen that morning because I had to race out the door to get Jemma to school and get to work. There was no baby in the pen on Sunday afternoon, so I'm thinking that it's probably the sibling of the other one I found and their mum came down into the pen again to get water or food and then the baby dropped off for ??? reason and sadly has died.

I virtually ran out of washing powder recently and my sister had made me a gel type liquid for last Christmas, so I started using that. It worked very well. I had used all that up so decided to make my own washing powder. I prefer a powder because I can add stuff do it. This is what I did (recipe from Down To Earth Blog):

1 cup of laundry soap grated - I used my home made soap as it wasn't getting used as everyone here uses a liquid. It was probably about 1.5 or more cups that ended up being grated.

1 cup of borax

1 cup of washing soda (letric soda)

1 cup of oxy whitener - I used the Sard one I got on special but also bought the cheap brand one too (same ingredients & oxy %). This whitens my whites as I don't want them to go grey.

I whizzed it all up in my food processer and use 2 little scoops per wash (approx 2 Tablespoons). I put in some dirty towels and Jemmas very dirty school uniform and washed. They came up lovely and clean & bright & soft. Very happy.

It did suck grating the soap. I firstly broke up the soap into smaller pieces but they didn't grate well, better off using a big piece as these grate well. I did scrape the last of the laundry detergent out of the container I use and whizzed that in too. Other than that, all went really well.

Blacky the Silky x chook has gone clucky AGAIN!! Since her little baby I got her was taken my a mean bird and killed, she obviously is desperate to have some babies so on Friday I went down to Ryde and I got her 8 silky eggs to sit on, so fingers crossed she will hatch some babies.

On Saturday I bought a metal rabbit hutch from Wahroonga off an ad on Gumtree. It was $50, so not too much $$ and is perfect for my needs. I will be able to give my friend Lillian back her hutches when the mummy chooks grow their bubbas a bit bigger. The babies are going well and growing quickly. They are very cute.

Here is a cute video of Jemma making Michael laugh. It is very funny and Michael LOVES Jemma so much - she makes him laugh....

Update on the baby ringtail

Just a very quick post to let you know how the baby ringtail got on.

I called the vets on Wednesday to see if it had been put down, died or survived.

Great news!!!

The nurse told me she was so glad I called. WIRES couldn't come and pick it up on the Tuesday, so she had taken it home for the night. She said that it was doing really really well. It had taken food from a syringe with no problems at all and was very lively and SO cute.

She was really positive and had obviously fallen in love with the little one (it was really cute).

What a great outcome!!! I'm really pleased - I think if I hadn't found it when I did, it would have died within the next 15 mins or so - for sure. It was so cold when I picked it up, it felt like it was dead. It barely moved when I grabbed it.

Very happy :-)

Look what I found in the CHOOK PEN!!!

So, I was checking the chooks and the mums & bubs, topping up water and food, giving the others a pat etc etc while Michael was having a sleep.

After I had finished, I happened to glance down at the base of the confier tree and YUK saw a dead rat.

Yukky I thought, it look to have a bit of blood around its mouth. Then I looked again & thought hmmm that doesn't look like a rat. Peered down and had a closer look and thought......

Oh NO, its a dead baby ring tail possum. Poor little thing, i'll go and get a plastic bag and put it in the bin. Whilst I was peering down...............

I SAW IT BREATHE!!!!!!

OMG, IT IS ALIVE!!!!!!

I bolted to the house and grabbed a towel. Quickly picked it up - wet, freezing cold and half dead and wrapped it in the towel. Bolted back inside the house. Quickly found my wheat pack and chucked it in the microwave for 1.30mins. Raced to the recycle bin and pulled out one of Alex's shoe boxes she had put in there, pulled open the cupboard and grabbed a handtowel. Put the wheatpack in the box and put the handtowel over it and carefully placed the wet and cold little bubba in the box and covered it up.

Immediately it snuggled in to the warmth (it was freezing cold). I called WIRES and they told me to take it to the local vet. I called the local vet and advised them that I would be there when Michael woke up.

By now it had warmed up and was much more alive!!! I checked it over & it seemed the blood may have come from a scrape on the nose. Its fur was drying and becoming fluffy.

Poor little baby. The vets said it was very little (it was about the size of a rat). They said they would check it over and call WIRES if it was ok. I hope it is saved........... it seemed to pick up after some TLC from me. With a good feed, I hope it will survive.

Weekend stuff

Whitey with 3 of her bubbas, 1 is snuggled under her

Another fairly busy weekend here. Michael is asleep at the moment and it is quite overcast. Jemma is playing with some toys. We are meant to be going to the park but I don't really want to wake Michael up yet, so will wait a little.

Frizz with 5 of her bubbas, the grey ones will lay blue/green eggs if they are girls

Well, the chicks have all hatched. I guess there were about 12 eggs that didn't hatch and only the one in the incubator which drowned. None of the others have hatched. All up, Frizz has 5 babies and Whitey has 4 babies. One baby died as it got out of the nest and couldn't get back (before I moved them to the hutches).

The chicks are SO gorgeous. They main ones to hatch were the bantam chicks (these are the grey/blue coloured ones). They will lay blue/green eggs!!! Jemma is responsible for taking care of them and she is doing a very good job.

Here is a pic of my chook pens that Greg built. This one is the big chook pen - the original one that Greg built. This was an unused part on the garden and is now very productive!!!

The big pen, with the chooks

Here is a pic of the baby pen (although now the babies are big). This wasn't a very productive part of the garden either (the garden bed it was on didn't do very well) and now is!!

The baby pen, still need a paint - we will get there eventually!!!

I bought a passion fruit vine on Saturday. I want it to grow over the wire of the pen. It will serve a few purposes - shade for summer for the chooks, passionfruit for us YUM and I believe the chooks like to nibble on the leaves. What a multi purpose plant!!!!

The Diggers Heirloom tomato plant on L, passionfruit on R

Jemma wanted to grow some tomatoes, so we bought a plant. I love tomato and so do the chooks so it will do us both!!!

It has been lovely working in the garden this weekend. I hope you have a wonderful weekend too ;-)

LOTS of babies now.....

This morning i went out and Frizz had 2 babies and White had 1 baby.

This afternoon Frizz has 6 babies and White has 2 or 3 babies with a couple pipping (I think, hard to see properly).

They are absolutely gorgeous - the pics above Jemma took as she was very excited.

We are going to move them tomorrow into the hutches. I will put any eggs into the nest but will watch and if the hen get off then I will put in the incubator. Very exciting.

No more have hatched in the incubator - so not sure what is happening there??? We will wait and see.

I'm still sad about the little bubba we lost but these little ones make it all worthwhile. The drowning incident will not happen again - live & learn.

They are just lovely!!!!!

Poor baby chook dies - I am very sad

I am in tears at the moment after we found poor baby chookie in the water container, drowned.

We set up the incubator a little differently this time as we were caught off guard last time with an early hatcher, but this time we were prepared and we fitted the floor to the incubator better, but the water container was open - we didn't even consider it a problem.

Jemma said this afternoon that she thought it might get into the water but I thought it was high enough that it couldn't. Silly me, it did cross my mind too but I thought no it wouldn't be able to get up over the top and then in there.

We have now put mesh over the top and this will never happen again. I am devestated as I watched this little one hatch and it was beautiful.

One of the other little blue eggs has hatched under frizz, which is good news, but no others yet. No more in the incubator have made a move. I hope this one wasn't my only one to hatch in the incubator and then I accidently killed it............................

So sad......................... :-(

They say with highs you get lows and the bigger the high, the bigger the low and I was on such a high from seeing that new life come into the world today and now, gone................ I feel extremely low right now and such guilt because I feel I should have known that it might get into the water.

Well, tomorrow is a new day and fingers crossed for some new little ones tomorrow........

New baby chicken!!!!!

Very exciting news - our first little bubba in the incubator has hatched!!!

It is a bantam lavender Araucana chick. Fingers crossed it is a girl and she will lay blue coloured eggs!!! BEAUTIFUL!!

When Greg got up this morning this is what the eggs looked like:

And at 12 noon this is what I watched emerge from its shell:

I haven't actually seen a chick hatch from an egg before (I missed the others). It was amazing!!! I was in awe that this beautiful chirping little thing could come from some eggs we put in a man made environment - amazing stuff!!

I hope the broodys go well, the grey silky has some due today and feisty frizz tomorrow. Will go and check for chirping!!!

Very excited!!!!

Changes

Michael sitting on Gregs lap for a cuddle

I decided to make some changes to the blog, hope you like it. If not tell me and I can change it back. I thought it might be a bit easier to read?? We'll see!!!

Some exciting news........... the chicks should be hatching this week!! The eggs are under the chooks and they are still sitting tight :-) Also, we stopped turning the eggs in the incubator this evening. Here is a pic of them ready to hatch over the next couple of days (hopefully).

The egg on the far right I don't think is developing, but the rest seem to have large masses in them

I went over and met a Lilian, who I met on BYP site. What a wonderful lady and her backyard was fantastic - she had the cutest chook pen and a great garden - it was really lovely. Sadly they had been on holdiays and a creature came in and killed their 3 chooks. Very sad. Lilian loaned me 2 rabbit hutches that I will put the mums and bubs in so they are protected from preadators while they are so little. If she would like some more chooks, then she can have some of the hens that hatch.

The bedroom reno is virtually complete. We needed to put another coat of paint on the feature wall, but as I wasn't 100% happy with the colour, I changed it. Greg will re-paint next weekend as we ran out of time this weekend.

I went to Spotlight and got some curtains and a black cushion. I also picked up my Wedding photo on Tuesday - I love it - it looks so beautiful. Greg now just needs to patch the wall where we took down the brackets from the pelmet (not needed anymore) and do the feature wall!!!

I was going for a hotel room kind of look and I think I have achieved that. Very happy with the look I have achieved!!!

One of my oldest friends, Liz, has had a terrible operation this week (Thursday). Liz was diagnosed with abdominal cancer about 2 years ago. It was a rare form - one in a million the Drs said (thats our Liz). They operated and Liz recovered really well. Sadly the cancer came back and they have had to operate again. It's a very nasty operation & I don't think they will leave much of her abdominal organs inside this time, which is extremely sad as Liz doesn't have any children and is so young (36yo) & just got married this year :-( I wish her well with her recovery - she came through the operation really well and is in ICU now. They are starting chemo tomorrow :-( Good luck Liz (((((HUGS)))))

A party day & bedroom reno progress

Cupcakes that Chris made - SO yummo

Jemma, Pyrate, Sophie & Julian on the trampoline


Some of us posing for a pic!!!


Michael with his party hat on, eating a sausage

Our kids birthday party was meant to be last weekend, but it was too cold & wet. We postponed it until this weekend. Once again it was cold & wet so we had it at our place.

It was great, I think everyone had a great time!!!

Also, Greg painted the wall on Saturday and I set up all the linen on Saturday night after we got back from Mum & Dads place. I think it is looking pretty good. The colour is a good match, not quite perfect (but it will do!!!! ) It looks quite "pink" in the photo, and it is a bit, but not as much as that pic represents. I wouldn't repaint (OMG paint is nearly $40 for a 1L tin) because it looks fantastic still!!! I still have to get a little black cushion and change the curtains, but so far so good.

I got the black throw at Target for $25 which was a BARGAIN. Its beautiful & soft & looks great. I bought some other bedside lamps from Target but they were crap, so I took them back and got these ones (not taken out of their plastic in the pic). They look pretty good.

Am picking up the wedding pic on Tuesday from the photographer. It will look great with that up. Now on the hunt for some curtains.......................