Where is the time going??

School holidays are almost over and, like both dogs, the cat and about 20 roosters..I am flat out chasing my tail!

Sleepovers here, sleepovers there, a new calf to feed, 10 new ducklings, 6!! more clucky chooks...to bring the total to 10, playdates here, playdates there. an hour's trip to catch up with my friend home from Kuala Lumpur..and BIG Geelong grandfinal win and celebration day. The sewing room is meant to be clean by Friday night quilters and unless someone is coming here tomorrow with a heap of Oompa loompas and a large truck or two that is NOT going to happen!

Today was start day, kids were at Holiday Bible Adventure all day so i was to get the tax stuff done, go to pilates and then all go! I haven't managed pilates for 5 weeks, surely today was the day...no, a phone call from the Landcare group who need a slideshow of photos of the land killed that next 2 hours. That got me to lunchtime...all ready to start..until a phone call from the Bible Adventure, the boy wanted to come home after getting wood or sawdust in his eye...went to get him, only to find out that he was now right! Then home and handed bills to pay in town..the other direction! Back for pickup, thinking i had a clear 3 hours to start before tea...the boy shows me the 3/4's of a front tooth he has left after an accident with his knee, so find a ride home for the girl and head 100 kms to the dentist who will see us!! Pretty unlucky day for a boy who was at a Bible adventure!

An hour, a rebuilt tooth and $160 later (not too bad I thought!) we headed back home, to organize 200 cards for a big wildflower show! See why the oompa Loompas would be handy?

I'll leave you with what my darling niece and nephew got upto on their farm adventure-they never wanted to leave....I could make money hosting farmstays-IF they invented a 30 hour day!..DN woke up at 5.15 am the second day, ready to see of the ducklings had hatched and to feed the chooks some more!

Have a great day, Tracey

ps, the calf's name is Hagrid!

Here comes Spring..kind of!

All the signs of Spring are here....
my chooks just keep walking out of any bits of undergrowth with babies.

These are the latest...13!
I found this nest today..fortunately noticed the hen cluck clucking around the yard and followed her back to this icanthus..right outside my bedroom window!
The bees are going just crazy! Never seen anything like it, they really must like pigface, they had no interest in me putting the camera virtually right up against them, they were only intent upon their work!


The only thing slightly unspringlike, well not in the last 10 springs anyway...is that it just keeps raining! We have had close to an inch again in the last few days, with much more due...and all this while NSW and Sydney areas are enveloped in dust storms..it's a strange country!
This canola is slightly struggling under the weight of water
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Gotta go...gotta sew!
Have a great day, Tracey

So much for a quiet Sunday....

10.30 pm and the day still isn't over, a funeral in another town tomorrow and a Church meeting here tomorrow night mean I really have to clean!

Day started early with Church cleaning and flowers before Church, with Sunday School teaching thrown in, then bought a friend home for the kids, helped Dh cut up and pack two sheep for shearing,then performed the Dalek operation on 9 unwanted and ugliest looking roosters. You see I did a census last night and found I had 29!!! I probably only need 4 or 5!

After that clean out the kids and I went and bought a trio of pekin bantams...working on the one in, one out theory!! Takeaway tea and choosing videos, then home to work!!

Cleaned up things I seem to have ended up with from my DMIL's kitchen. Thought you may be interested in some...

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I actually know the story of these cooking slides. i wish I knew more of the stories, but you unfortunately don't always ask. Grandma always fed the workers until about 20 years ago when they werent living on the property any more, Between 50 and 60 years ago one of her workers loved her kuchen and fashioned these slides with 3 flat sides and just a lip, and with the holes, to help with the elaborate kuchen process. I asked grandma to teach me kuchen last year but I think i left it too late, she said it was too hard, too time consuming and I should forget about it! My German grandma was well into alzheimers and Parkinson's by the time i was a teen, so she never taught me either. But I am glad I have the slides, fabulous for my bulk cooking.

These extra long spreading knives have come my way as well. They aren't pearl handled, not quite sure what you call them. You can see the top two are discoloured, I have some more like that, does anyone know any maintenance techniques or anything I can do to improve them?

These seem to be some kind of pearl handled set. Don't quite know what the wide one is for, any ideas?

Now I really need your help... Any ideas what these would be for? They are wooden, they were in the retired shelf, so not been used for a long time. Are they a kuchen thing? They are definitely kitchen related.

I think my Dh may feel they should all be going to the tip, but I can't get rid of my stuff, let alone my Dear MIL's! What do you think? And any help?

Have a good day, Tracey

Always keep my promises...

No broken bones!! Both of us returned intact from the snow. I promised you photos of me skiing, well, turns out it was only the first day i was on my backside a bit-(and these were day 1 pics..by the look of those knees!!)..all those pilates and circuit classes may not have made me skinny, but they made skiing a piece of cake! I threw the stocks away on the second day and made it much easier.

I do have to confess to having found a lot more muscles now than I thought I owned before, but it was all good fun and only one bruise!

My girl did well, all the kids did. They all mastered the chairlifts and could ski down from the summit. The best plan was the private camp blog, I uploaded pics and text everynight and all the parents loved being in the loop, took all the anxiety away!

Got some sewing to show you, but still catching up on washing, the kids and sleep, so may be a day or two...

Cheers, Tracey

Quilt group sewing...and snowing!

Off to the School Snow trip tomorrow, 5 days in Mt. Hotham, 10 hours to get there in the bus!! I cannot believe the amount of organising it takes to leave home for that long with only one kid!But I am determined to have the house and life in order before I go, even cleaned the pantry...Dh worried I am pregnant or dying! Think either would be equally traumatic for him!

Think we are all finally on the road to recovery, one sick after the other! My boy, who is never sick, has been home for 10 days, girl about half that time....which probably explains the clean pantry!

The weather hasn't helped, although much of Australia is unseasonably hot, we are having the most rain for about 10 years, a little too much for cropping, but we really shouldn't complain, at least we can shower!

Dh needed me last weekend, (even more than usual!!)was putting out urea fertilizer on his canola and this happened...

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spreader was nicely bogged

I had to help pull him out, well, I drove the green and he the red, then I had to take the red one back across to the gate...luckily you can't hit much in a paddock-that thing is big!! As we drove out of the paddock we said, this crop might be right if we get no more rain this weekend...we then got another 2 1/2 inches!!

Lots of little sewing jobs, these bags for presents...

And then last night we had our stack and whack night at Quilters, got some very different quilts...a few girls were away but the ones who were there produced these-

Kath's blocks...had a real sun, sand and surf feel.

Robyn's quilt top

(heather Bailey's fresh cut)

Christine's Kaffe fasset

and my Heather bailey, with partial sashings...we realised it was 12.30 am!!! Time stands still when you are sewing!

I may drop you a line from my mountain adventure. I have set up an invitation only snow camp blog for all the parents and am taking my laptop and camera to keep them in the loop, I may show you a good photo of me on my b--- as that is where I imagine I will be as I learn to ski!!Any good tips from my overseas friends?

Have a good week...hopefully I will! Tracey