Time for an update!

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but I'm finally getting around to it. Since last time we've done heaps to the house and garden. The inside of the house has gone GREEN! The lounge room, hallway, our bedroom and Stylish's room are done and now A is working on Spikee's room. Stylish did her room pretty much by herself.

We've planted a lot of seeds in the side vegetable garden and in the hothouse. Lots of herbs, strawberries, leafy greens for salad and cooking, and other fruity veg too. I'm watching the seeds daily, desperate to see them coming up, they seem to be taking their time and it's really worrying me because I don't want to have to replant them all if an entire crop fails. I can't for the life of me imagine why they would ALL fail though!? Perhaps I'm just not being patient enough.

Our bare rooted apples, plum, nectarine and cherry are all going green, one of the apples has about four flowers on it, but the raspberries are also worrying me because they're not doing anything. Spring has sprung so I really would think they'd have atleast the a sign of green shoots by now. 

Angus has had his first birthday. We had a quiet family gathering and ate pizza and cup cakes. 

House of a different colour

The boys, hard at work

2/3 finito!

The latest harvest

What's happening in Antarctica

The front of the house is ready to paint, it's been sanded and had a white undercoat and puttied and sanded some more, so now we just need a few fine days in a row so we can dash out there with some paint and some brushes.

We've started killing off the grass out the side in preparation for starting our garden bed out there, we're using a salt thing that washes away after a good rain. We're also getting lots of lovely plump, dark green zucchinis and broad beans and gorgeous tomatoes out of the hot house.

There is a definite chill in the air, I can feel winter is on the way. We've been glad of the fire in the evenings. We took out thermometre outside and read it the other night, it was 9 just before the kids dropped it and it smashed, but I think it would have gone lower. Every time I'm in the yard at night I'm struck by how many stars there are and how much I love the night sky. In Sydney you couldn't see the stars, but here you can see lots of them and they're so beautiful *happy sigh*. I'm looking forward to winter in a way, I love it when it's misty, it makes me feel like I'm in a celtic fantasy. Looking out the window and watching the weather changing on the hill is my new favourite hobby!

Passing time in the valley

So we've been here since October and we're really settled in now. I keep waiting to start pining for the city, and I do sometimes have moments of longing but at the end of the day we moved here so we could have this lifestyle, and it does seem to be that it was exactly what we wanted!

Every couple of days we get a massive number of beautiful plump broad beans off the bushes in the hothouse and a whole bowl of juicy ripe tomatoes of all different colours and types. I've planted some new basil and coriander seeds and brussel sprouts too, but the chooks got in and scratched the garden bed up like mad so I'm not sure if any will come up.

The chooks have gone back to laying lots of eggs and we're planning on getting a couple more in the next week or so just to keep us on top of demand. Spikee has finally decided that he will eat what we call an "egg cup" or a microwaved scrambled egg (I should hang my head in shame) and we are all rejoicing because it is ONE source of protein in his diet.

Today we took Vinnie for a nice long walk and picked what is starting to look like the last of the blackberries for the season. We have a tin of them that we're gong to have with chocolate cake. I'm also going to get around to using my frozen banana supply in a low gi self saucing banana pudding.

The front of the house is nearly fully scraped and within a day or two it will be painted, that'll leave the side and half of the back only. Waiting for a few days without rain has been the challenge, but this week si supposed to be fine most days.

The weather has been gorgeous! Not too cold at all, just pleasant. The thermometre said it was 17 today but it can't have been because I was wearing short sleeves. I think cold is different down here to in Sydney. But once the dead of winter hits I'm sure it'll have quite a bite, so I'm buying lots of second hand cardigans.

A House of a Different Colour!

THE PAINTING HAS BEGUN! After a month of more of scraping back the worst outdoor area of the house (the ugly room and kitchen) we painted it with undercoat two days ago, and then today A put two coats of our chosen mustardy yellow on. It looks amazing! it took all day to do just that area, although he did do two coats which rather effectively doubled the time it took.

I spent the day trying to maintain some semblance of order indoors, which is complex when you have a teething baby and you haven't slept well for 6 nights. Nonetheless I managed to wash and fold lots of clothes and completely reorganise the system in the boy's wardrobe.

The chooks are slowing their laying now that the weather is cooling down, but today we got an extremely long egg, and a small one. I think the phantoms are living on borrowed time now, they both look rather elderly and haven't laid a single egg (today withstanding) for a month or more. The emus are laying less, too. We have plenty of insulation on their shed but apparently they're quite hardy in cold weather and it's hot weather that they dislike.

Summer is in death throes at the moment. Yesterday and today were so lovely and warm, but you can feel the change in season is coming. Soon we'll have the doors on the hothouse closed tightly!

A climbed up on the roof to clean the chimney because we weren't sure if the fire was working very well. Turns out ... we were right. He stuck a rope to both ends of a chimney cleaning brush and he and Dad pulled it up and down, but in the process A dislodged the flue. It was a very dicey procedure to get it back in, it involved unscrewing the top plate on the inside of the fire and wriggling it around lots until it wouldn't wriggle anymore. Finally it went back in though, and A decided that it might not have been in there properly to begin with, which would explain why the fire wasn't burning well. We suspect the last people who lived here tried to clean it, dislodged the flue and didn't know, or couldn't work out how to get it back in place. Now it's burning beautifully! We have plenty of firewood to last winter, and that's largely due to the fact that A bought a raffle ticket and we won second prize which was 3T of wood.

I keep meaning to update on Vinnie! He is finally settled in and for the most part behaving himself very well. He's toilet trained, and is still learning to walk on a lead but doing better.

J'aDoor le hot house!

Today A finished putting the door on the hot house and covered the back end of it in the PVC and secured it properly. Now all that remains is to fill the garden beds up, and build shelving! It is very strong and secure and I can't wait to get some food growing in there, it gets so hot with the sun pelting down on it, and long after the sun has set it's still warm.

I'm happy to announce that most of the pak choy has sprung up, and a bean plant and one rocket as well. We have added a red currant to our fruit tree collection, and now we have six strawberry plants, most of them with small green strawberries growing already. I haven't had time to start the herb garden yet, but it's on the TO DO list. The mint is growing beautifully, and every time I walk past it I get a strong whiff of it and feel so contented. There's nothing like the smell of fresh herbs!

The phantom chooks are doing much better since their new roommates arrived. They seem far braver and they just have a better "vibe" about them ... which probably sounds strange, but it's the truth! They even voluntarily came out of their shed this afternoon, and then this evening when I locked them all in there for the night they were perched alongside the emus ready for bed. They're eating all our kitchen scraps and I think they could eat more than we have but they get plenty of wheat and layer mix.

Productivity Report

Today the hot house really took shape. We raised the metal grid, covered in with plastic, taped it all down and then drilled wood around the plastic cover to hold it down. It's mighty hot when the sun is beating down on it and you could see the condensation building. it was a really hot day - for Antarctica - and I opened up all the windows and doors and let the cool breeze float in.

I did some googling about what we can grow in our newly erected (not completed) hot house. We're thinking of having tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, capsicum, chili, and melons, and we'll probably put more stuff in there once we're really up and running. Apparently a hot house is one of the best ways to grow melons, so hopefully we'll have more luck than we did with them in the garden.

I made caramel slices for dessert. Stay tuned for pics.

The Garden Underway!

T-Rex Family, right, Klukky, left.

12 tonnes of wood and a chook shed

The veggie garden beginning.

Today I planted a heap of seeds in little peat seedling starter pots which you just put straight in the soil when they're ready. I planted cucumber, oregano, sage, coriander (in a mini green house), zucchini, dill, pak choy and a few other things too. We also bought 6 tomato variety seedlings. A has been industriously digging up the garden where the hot house will go. We've measured it and decided to get some cheap raised garden beds, we'll put a trestle over the top of them for pots.

The cat is settled in nicely now, and he hasn't given the chickens (now named T-Rex Family and Klukky) any grief so far. Speaking of the chooks, I should probably do a more formal introduction! We have been lucky enough to be given two teeny tiny bantums. So tiny that we call them phantoms. They came from the home of an animal hoarder who had fourteen of them all living in a small chicken run, so they're extremely unused to free ranging and they are very shy when it comes to people (although they seem to be accepting A, and they cluck at him when he makes chook noises at them). They won't come out of their shed unless we go in and shoo them out, which we do gently, once a day, so they can begin to recover from their agoraphobia. When we do make them go into the garden they usually spend a little while scratching about before they go straight back into their shed. They're the cutest little things, once they settle in we plan on getting a couple more.

We've decided to make all our giftmas presents this year. We're giving people a bottle of home brew, a bbq spice rub, and a citrus fruit with cloves stuck in it to make their house smell lovely. There will be a large family gathering just outside Hobart which we may or may not decide to attend. It's hard to decide coz being in our own house means we'd quite like to spend the day here, but we've never done giftmas with this branch of the family and they'd probably like to see us and the kids. Our giftmas tree is ready to be put up so we'll do that over the coming week or so, A and I seem to be more excited about that than the kids!

We are the Proud Owners of THE UGLIEST CARPET EVER!

The carpet to end all carpet, being installed.

The $8 bowls in desperate need of an oily drink.

Carpet from the bedrooms - chook house insulation

The photo really doesn't do the true fugly nature of the carpet any favours, it really tones it down. Somewhere there is an RSL sadly lamenting the carpet someone stole and gave to us. A spent the afternoon putting it down in the strangest rumpus room ever. It makes it look much better, despite the frighteningly ugly overtures. We are planning to accessorise with the ugliest sofa bed ever, bought at Kingston tip shop in perfect condition (it's so ugly no one would go near it) and the worst curtains in this hemisphere (and quite possibly the entire universe). We decided to make the most of these unimaginably hideous furnishings by putting them all together. WAIT TIL YOU SEE IT! In The Castle they had the 'Pool Room', at our place we have THE UGLY ROOM!

On a far less garish note, I found three myrtle, rough edged bowls at vinnies for the grand total of $8. I spent a good half hour wiping them clean because they had something very sticky on them. I suspect the previous owner over oiled them with the wrong oil and then they gathered dust. I used copious amounts of eucalyptus oil to remove the black sticky layer and then equally copious quantities of eco friendly detergent to get the oil off. The grain of the wood is gorgeous, and once they get some more oil on them they're gonna be beautiful!

Moving In

A took to whipper snippering the jungle in the garden and after three days (two of those full work days) he managed to relocate a lawn. Then he tidied it up with our new mower. It looks lovely and tidy and it'd getting greener every day, it was all yellow and dead looking after being covered with layers of dead grass. It took Stylish and I a few hours to rake it all up and A and Spikee were madly making our piles of raked grass into giant piles along the back fence. We were wondering what to do with it all but we decided that it will be perfect for the chooks.

Stylish and A went out in the "to be chook shed" yesterday and insulated it using all the carpet they ripped up from in the bedrooms. Our chooks will be lovely and warm in winter and nice and cool in summer. They're the only family members I want living near that festy carpet though.

We've been slowly unpacking everything and moving is over the last week. We got heaps done yesterday and even set up a dining area and unpacked then put all the clothes away. It's starting to really feel like home!

The plan is to get everything unpacked so the rumpus room can be set up. This is happening at the same time as we get chooks, the cat comes home, and family life continues! We're looking at making a green house too. We thought about buying a kit but that would cost $1000, or there's the poly tunnel option, but they don't look very sturdy and sturdiness is a must when you house share with three wild and unschooled children. Well, two are wild and the third is working on it.

Today I'm going to finish sanding the mantle piece hopefully, then we can varnish it an put some pictures up there, that's one of those finishing touches that really makes a place feel like home. A is planning to make dhal to help ease the pain of leaving Sydney's Indian food. I might look at making some chapati to go with it!

We Made it!

We've now been in Antarctica for thirteen days now and seen several seasons already. From gorgeous summery days to quite chilly days with mist covering the top of the giant hill we look out our window on!. Today when we left home it was a gorgeous sunny day and by this evening when we returned home it was raining and you couldn't see the mountains for mist.

Our house is far better than I remembered and I'm pleased to report that the family are all happy and settling in well. We're still unpacking things and sorting out where everything lives, and the kitchen is proving a challenge because the Black Spot had quite a large kitchen with plenty storage and bench space but there is very little bench space and the cupboards.

When we arrived we ripped up a bit of the manky grey carpet in the bedrooms and were happy to discover good quality floor boards in them all, and the same in the kitchen, hidden underneath revolting lino. Actually, WE didn't rip anything up, A and Stylish did all the ripping, Angus, Spikee and I chased the pink monsters away (to avoid inhaling dust). Stay tuned because I'll put A on here to detail the sanding and varnishing.

We've started collecting power tools and plants. We now own a sander, a drill, a wheel barrow, a ladder, a beer making kit (A's birthday present) a whipper snipper, a fig tree and a blueberry bush!

I've been learning to light fires in the fire place even though we really don't need one lit tonight we have one going just because it's so nice to be able to have one! There's quite an art to it, or so I discovered after a bit of trial and error. I've played with plenty fires, stoked them, added wood, blown air on them etc, but never actually LIT one and started it from scratch.

Speaking of fires ... I'm a little perturbed by the similarities between the selling of firewood and the sale of illegal substances. It seems to me that both drug dealers and fire wood sellers are doing it to earn "a little cash on the side", you never know if you can trust them, you never know if what you're buying is the correct weight, if it's too wet or too dry or if it will burn! You never know if they'll show up on time or three hours late, they get shifty eyes when they're telling you about their wares, mates give you the number of their dealer and say "tell them I sent you" . And when one says that their stock comes from an eco friendly source??? Uh ha. And the last ounce of dope I bought was legally grown in the Himalayas and fertilised with the business of grain fed pink yaks.

Plodding Along

The cat contemplating migration ...

We're well on our way to home ownership now! The deposit is paid, all that remains is the irritating business of conveyancing, and settlement. So not terribly long after we welcome our new baby I expect we will take possession. Which will e a whole new set of issues, like insurance, and trying to work out what we can do from over 1000km away to make moving in easier!

I wanna get a few things done before we move in, and I wanna have a better idea of what some other things are gonna cost. I'm thinking I'll send a friend over to the house as soon as we take possession, and get her to measure the walls so we can estimate paint costs using the bunnings paint calculator.

We have a rough idea of what colour we want the walls to be, I want brown, not too dark not to light, warm, rich brown. We will give the kids a good helping of freedom in what colours they choose for their own rooms, and Stylish will probably be allowed to paint her own room. The kids both seem to want a similar combination of turquoise and mauve. I'm ok with that, and paint can be repainted when they decide they hate it!

We've finally got some sort of a plan organised for moving our cat which is a relief. A friend of ours will board him, then stick him on a plane. I want to be semi settled, with all our stuff moved in, if not unpacked before he arrives, because we really don't want him running off which he is prone to when moving house. He's 9 now so he's pretty settled, plus he's been in this house for nearly 5 years. I was very concerned about boarding him professionally because that would require vaccination, and we would like to keep him unvaccinated. He's lived 9 years without a problem, I'm prepared to bet that vaxing him would be the start of his health problems.

I'm now 38w round, or so I estimate, I really have no idea. I've been doing pre labour stuff on and off for a week now, and my blessingway was last Saturday. I had a gorgeous day surrounded by wonderful women, and Stylish did a henna drawing of the Egyptian frog Goddess, Heket, on my belly.

Property Inspection Complete

Today we had a builder complete the property inspection. The house received a 76% rating. The things that need to be fixed promptly are all external, and none of them are gonna bring the house down in a heap. They're just weather proofing mainly, to ensure damp doesn't creep in. There is some mould in the bathroom and the rumpus room, but having seen photos of it I'm not concerned that we can't handle it. The house we are currently in is a mould pit, complete with fuckroaches ... at least the new house has minimal mould and no fuckroaches! It's definitely a roll up your sleeves and get stuck in job, but we always knew that. By the time we've fixed it up a bit it'll sell for more than we bought it for too, so that's a bonus!

The next thing we have to work out is how to conduct the conveyancing ourselves. There are no DIY conveyancing kits for Tasmania, and working out all the ins and outs of it isn't as straight forward as googling.