Head in the Clouds – Feet in the Dirt

Hello!!!
I slipped out to Bunnings today before donning the smelly gardening gear to burn more branches.
I had to replace the broccoli before the weather really takes a nose dive and also got all keen about onions and leek.
Leeks are scandalously expensive in the shops – Seemed sensible to give them another go since I had free garden beds

I just dug some trenches and lay them down, then covered the roots. I’ve been assured they will sit themselves up. I put in the brown onion and the leeks in here. Yet to decide where the white onions will go.

Even after the rainstorm last night and not getting to the garden until early afternoon – there was still action in the firepit!

So in between doing garden stuff, I kept piling up branches on the fire. I do love a fire!! (Should have gotten myself some marshmallows!!)

While the netting has thwarted the cabbage moth – I didn’t get back to rescue my broccoli and all but one were decimated!
This time I made some slug shields – hopefully they’ll get a chance to get bigger and tougher before getting chewed on again.

I had three spare so I popped them in one of the prepped stawbales

Will be interesting to see how they go.
They also got slug shields

I wish I could have captured the amazing compost steam rising!! Its just too hard to dig and hold the camera AND click all at the right time.
The nerdy gardener in me is super excited about how much heat there is in this at the moment!

The pumpkin vines were pretty much dead… so decided to pick them today.
I might have Queensland Blues – not sure. That other one? Clueless
They’ll be interesting to cut into to see how they look and taste.

Capsicum – such pretty colours!

Foraged through the tomato plants – which are starting to look very woebegone! Still being able to pick plenty of tomatoes though.

Hopefully will get back out to my fire tomorrow – and if Jeff stays up long enough we might get to play with the chipper!!
Hope your week is going along fabulously!
Cheers

I had a perfectly lovely afternoon not doing housework!!
Instead I got the yard fire going well and kept feeding it while I was stacking the wood that Jeff split.
I am putting aside decent straight stuff to put through the chipper, but all the messy bendy stuff I was chucking on the burning heap.

The chooks immediately went digging holes in the cleared areas!

I filled these 4 pallets and put in another pallet to start filling. I need to whack in some more steel droppers so I can pile up the wood with a nice straight edge. Hopefully I will be able to do that on the right side and that its far enough away from the plum tree roots. I am not even going to try to get a stake in next to the trunk.

Was nice to be outside today… it wasn’t warm – overcast and a bit cool but no wind so perfect for having the fire going.
Its just started to rain heavily now – I was hoping my fire would still be smoldering tomorrow. Possibly not now! Sigh!

Hope your day has been great!
Cheers

Dropped into see Shirley today… she had called the other day and said she went to the supermarket and decided not to buy much because she was liking my home grown too much!! 😀
So we did a deal and I brought around some produce which I am sure is going to taste a lot better than the supermarket stuff!!
Funny – I usually take Shirley some extra produce around when she puts in an egg order. We have plenty to spare and I just think its nice to share it around. Shirley told me that her daughter gave her a bit of a telling off for not giving me $$ for it!! So this had to be a business transaction (mind you it was a very good deal!)
I really didn’t give it a second thought – mostly in the past its been parsley because I know she loves it and I usually have enough to mow so why let it go to waste?
Who knows… maybe when I’m in my 80’s some keen young gardener will drop by with produce?? 😛

I spent the day giving the place a bit of a spruce up and then started to organise dinner as Kirrily came over to eat with us. Its been a while since we have been able to catch up with her properly and it was really lovely to spend some time with her. We rather miss her around the place – but she has her own lovely little spot close to her work so thats great for her!
Of course, she also got sent home with oodles of fresh food and some pickled beetroot as she became quite a fan of it while living with us!

So… nice and social, clean house, leftovers for tomorrow! Yay!
Hope to get back out to the tree tomorrow and start stacking all the wood that Jeff split today!

Have a wonderful Monday! Cheers!

Hi!!
Jeff came home off nightshift and started splitting more wood. I was stacking it until Fiona and Paul turned up with the wood chipper that they borrowed to lend us 😀

Paul awesomely brought along his bigger chainsaw and cut the rest of the bigger pieces out the front so we could finish clearing the side of the highway. Fiona helped drag heaps of stuff around too!!
How great is my family??

Once Paul was done, we stopped and had a cuppa – and a slice of apple pie and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine out the back having a chat.
Inside is not really good at the moment… dead rat time! Blah! Time to dehydrate some garlic I think!!

At least now we have most of the wood in various organised piles. It will be interesting to get the wood chipper going and see how it works and if its going to be worth the time it takes to run the smaller stuff through it. (I hope so)

Paul and Fiona departed and Jeff went to bed, but I was keen to finish up at the front before it got dark…

All that is left is a few scrappy piles that I raked together that I can pick up in the wheelbarrow tomorrow or whenever. Also the last of the big logs that I thought I shouldn’t pick up by myself.

So very glad to have that part done!!
Now we can process it all at a bit more of a leisurely pace. I am sure we will get the fire going again. I might even learn how to chop the wood too! Who knows!!
I am off to bed! Apparently the weather is supposed to be pretty nice again tomorrow!
Cheers!

Happily the weather turned a little feral, so I’ve had a couple of predominately lazy days.
Although I did clean up the kitchen and bake my very first apple pie!
I cheated by using the puff pastry, but I’m totally at peace with that! 🙂

I was really happy with the result and taste and reckon I might make another couple to put away in the freezer.

It was pretty easy. I greased my pie plate and lined it with a sheet of puff pastry.

In a bowl I put 1/4 cup self raising flour, 2/3 cup of sugar (Dad – please tell Mum I correctly interpreted this as two thirds and not two or three cups) 😀 (Yes there is a story there)
pinch salt, half teaspoon of nutmeg and half a teaspoon of cinnamon. (I also added a bit of cloves by accident.)

I cut 6 or so apples into small, squarish chunks and mixed them into the bowl of sugar etc, then tipped it over into the pie plate.
Added a few dobs of butter and put another sheet of pastry over the top, cut some holes and baked it at 220C for 45 minutes!

Easy !!
Cheers!

Hello!!
Today was a delightfully drizzly miserable day. No pressure to go out and work on the tree!!! 🙂
Yesterday was a beautiful day and Jeff and I spent 5-6 hours hauling bits of tree back over onto our property.
Jeff did a lot of chainsawing that cleared up areas so we could get at the stuff being pinned down by big logs.

We are slowly running out of room but happily we’ve just about moved everything from the front.
Then we can concentrate on chipping, splitting and stacking.

The neighbours gateway has been freed up

We’ll need to straighten the fence and pick up the rubbish that kindly passing motorists throw out their window (sigh… how does anyone think thats ok?)

Anyway, the overall job of moving this off the roadside has dwindled dramatically… and yes… we have been feeling it!!
Very pleased to take a slower day today!

I finished the second of the four blankets I’ve been working on! This one is for me! I got to snuggle under it tonight with Pip while I was working on another one. Two more to go then I will allow myself to start a new crochet project!!

Not much else amazing happening here today… working on that backlog of photos, taking treats to the chooks etc. Picked the last apples off one of the trees – probably need to go get the others soon too.
Now… what to do with them all??
I see more kitchen time in my immediate future!

Cheers!

Well… that was quite the hiatus between part one and two!! 🙂
Things never seem to stop around here! I think I will be pleased to see a week of really dreadful weather where I can stay indoors guilt free!!

I think I left you right after we got to Kitchen Hut at the base of Cradle!
We were moving along fairly comfortably so we didn’t bother stopping. The day continued as overcast and a bit foggy at times, but no real rain (Remember last time when we were being blown off the tracks with 100km/hr winds and rain was coming down sideways)

Cradle was pretty much shrouded in clouds

The track is more familiar now – we start recognising where we are and how far we have to go and what challenges are up ahead.

I do remember this path being mostly under water last year when Fiona and I were hiking!

Even though it was limited, we still enjoyed the views.

I am so attached to these pincushion plants!

We began our trek down into Waterfall Valley and the terrain and vegetation changed fairly abruptly

We caught sight of the huts early afternoon. We were the first people in – well not quite first but the people ahead didn’t count as they skipped the first hut and hiked on to the next one!

Long drop loos on the right and the hut in the distance

Waterfall Valley Hut has a nice big cloak room for the packs and coats etc.

Fabulous dining room

And four large sleeping platforms! To be in early means you get the pick of the spots 🙂
Once we had set up our bed area we got into a bit of a late lunch – which pretty much consisted of chicken and pineapple rolls which I had made that morning.
The best thing we brought along was the container of cherry tomatoes and the hunk of cheese.

We had a lot of time to kill before bedtime… we chatted to people as they came in off the track and I went for a wander down to the old hut.

The old hut is quite serviceable but you need to store your food back up at the newer hut! Hungry bush rats !!

Quite a good start to our latest stroll across the Tassie wilderness!!
Hope you enjoyed
Cheers

A Bennets Wallaby out for a feed by the hut.

Hello!!
You’re probably going to be miffed at me…
I went and visited Ruby yesterday. She was taking a bit of a nap and I struggled with my conscience about waking her up… but I hadn’t seen her for so long I went in and (gently) woke her.
Well… apparently she wasn’t sleeping, only resting haha
She was very pleased to see me, so we put the kettle on and had a cuppa.
Since she was feeling quite chipper, I took her for a drive up to our place so she could check out the tree and what was happening. We then spent some cosy time inside in front of the fire which she loved!!
Here’s where you get to be miffed… sorry!! I didn’t take any photos! 🙁

My mad husband came home from his last of three nightshifts and went for a hike (full pack) then proceeded to chop and stack wood! What an effort!

Since I feel like I have spent a couple of days chained to the kitchen and it wasn’t raining today – I donned some fresh gardening clothes and went out to continue moving that tree!!

Look at that!! Nothing left but my shadow!!
I started on the other side of the gate and just worked my way up our fence line pulling out and moving what I could.
Its like a big game of pick-up-sticks but much more fun because you can use an axe!!

Above was from the other day… Below was after I’d finished today… I couldn’t do the same angle as the sun was blasting me!!

I’m trying to convince myself it looks smaller…

I moved a lot of lengths like this today too!!

Jeff’s reduced woodpile…

I am so glad we cleared this area!! All of this I have been able to fling across from the paddock into a nice clear spot. Much easier.

Still daunting. Will need the chainsaw back in again to make headway on some of this pile.

A recap above to make the photo below look better?

Yeah – not bad!!
Ooooo – but I am feeling it tonight! I am going to have bulging muscles by the time this is over!!

I hope your weekend wasn’t too strenuous!!
Cheers!

Hello!
Wow…it was icy cold today!! Still is! Been keeping the fire company inside today and taking a break from the tree.
It rained a lot – and heavily. But we did get some nice rainbows!
I had an ambitious list written up, but I slept in scandalously late so didn’t get through most of it.

I did get the beetroot cut up and pickled. Whew. I was down to my last half jar. I still have a garden full of beetroot. Happily they don’t look like they are going to go to seed or anything. I’ll just leave them alone for now. Otherwise I’ll have to look into how to store them – hopefully without processing (which is another reason I LOVE my potatoes… so easy)

In a weak moment I baked another apple tart.
We are a little keen on them!!
(I get to work off the calories on the tree so I feel no guilt whatsoever!!)

Pip spent a lot of the day wrapped up in a warmed towel sleeping!
Its a good life for us all!

Have a lovely weekend!
Cheers

Hi there!!
After a good deal of the morning was spent in domestic chores and stretching out the kinks from yesterdays efforts, I felt keen to go back to the tree moving. (Jeff has three upcoming nightshifts so he was peacefully sleeping!)

The tree guys piled up branches and limbs either side of the neighbours paddock gate so I wanted to concentrate on moving a lot of that so he has more room to pull in off the highway

You can see our back/side fence there – so I helped myself to his paddock for a while… propped open his gate and started hauling through the branches. I know he won’t mind. If I had to drag it back up the highway and in our gate we’d be here until next year!! This way I could take it to the fence, chop it if necessary and fling it over.

This is where the wanton athletics kicked in.
The straighter limbs I could spear over like a javelin – the more wonky ones I hurled like a discus and the bigger logs got the shot-put treatment!
I had to chuck them over as far as possible as there is a lot and I didn’t want it building up too close to the fence. The last thing I need to do is go and handle it further by having to go and pull all the moved stuff further away from the fence.

Starting pile (above)
Finishing pile:

I had overly ambitious hopes of getting that whole pile moved but probably luckily for my back, Fiona dropped in and rescued me!
Oh – my new rule… no one passes unless they bring in a branch.

Having paid her branch-toll, Fiona was welcomed in and we enjoyed a catch up over a well needed cuppa!!
She actually thought one branch was a bit of a woossey effort so before she left she dragged a few more up the highway for us!! Awesome! 🙂

Anyway, that was my day! Productive!!
Cheers