To iron, fold ,do dishes ..or blog?

Start with a few Australian natives, I have been rebooked to provide the cards for a big festival next year, so am working on my portfolio.

What do you think?

As you can see on the blog title , not any fun alternatives here today, house work and more housework! Things got a little out of control around here during shearing, so I am catching up. It is also beautiful Spring weather and I am in garden and clean mode. But surely I can sneak in a little blog!

Gotta love the black sheep in the pack, even though you don't want any of it's wool getting near the good stuff.

Kids were good helpers, daughter kicked me out of the drafting yards, said that job was hers! Didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Got over it fairly quickly, I remember how proud I was when I became my Dad's #1 drafter...and some possible farmer husband in a lot of years may appreciate her training as much as my DH did!

Here she is modelling her tin dog, it makes the noise that gets the sheep moving, my Dad has a business making them.

Oops!Dh just walked in, and I am NOT doing any priority items!!-better look like I'm working!!

We did get to the Pompeii and St*r wars exhibition, I had better keep those pics for next time!
See ya!

Here comes the shearing...

How much am I loving a laptop! Mobile internet access and a card slot for the camera memory card and I can actually keep up with Flash Forward and blog at the same time...wow!! We are at Episode 3, is that similar to the states? seems like quite a good show, interesting premise!

The fridge is packed full of baking, roasts and sausage rolls ready for shearing to start tomorrow, a very busy time here and looks like uncertain weather so it will drag out. We are hoping to get to Melbourne for the Day in Pompeii exhibition and St*r wars at science works before they close, but it all depends on this shearing.

Mainly farmy stuff to share, only sewing I have done is stuff I can't show just yet.

Canola is flowering, seems I have shared photos at this season a good few times, it is my 3 year blogiversary next weekend, that's gone quick. I wonder if there will be a competition?

I have taken a few photos of my girl, her friend..and Rosie, her pup...who should have had a bath!

Rosie fancied herself a sheep dog today, the pet lambs have grown..hugely...and got out and ate my rose garden today. We wont go into the ingratitude they are showing for those 4 hourly night feeds!! The "farm" dogs and kids helped get them in the orchard, quite a circus!

Weather is only just ok, but didn't stop the kids getting in th dam to celebrate the big Holden Bathurst win yesterday!Their father was celebrating even harder!

Hatched a late duckling out in my girl's hand the other night, thought you may like to see the last stages...

Gotta love the little egg tooth on the end of the beak, that will fall off withing a day ot two. Just there to do it's job.

And, here we are! It is truly amazing how things hatch...if they have been left unwarmed for longer than the hour a day they can manage in their incubation period, they will often continue to grow in the shell, but don't have enough built up energy to get out the shell...so die with the end in sight.

That's why we kept an eye on this one, the dawdling is often a bad sign but warm hands and a light did the trick and it went back to it's mum safely out. We never interfere and hatch them ourselves, even an hour too soon can mean they haven't fully absorbed the egg yolk and what's effectively their umbilicus wont heal up properly.

Better sleep, big days ahead!

Have a great day, Tracey

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

Rainy day fun...

Pouring rain here, and gale force winds...the best kind of weather for a spot of sewing. I had a play with a Fig and Plum Jelly roll. I was hoping to get to the basting this afternoon, but it's too wet to even wander over to the sewing room!

Good weather for playing board games though...especially my latest birthday present.
My lovely quilter friend, Robyn, surprised me with this little delight on the weekend, have you seen it?

Stitcher's monopoly! How great is that! The counters are a thread cutter, cotton spools-you get the idea. And the properties are all stitch instructions.
........Now, if I could only convince DH how much he would really love to play!!!

They all grow up...

Look what i found in my bath?

Seems my darling children have been too well trained. These chickens wandered out with their mother from some secret nest and she promptly abandoned them, my kids heard the cheeping and spent a hectic hour or so tracking them down..all while this mother was insisting on more beauty sleep as she had watched cricket until way too late and it was the weekend!!
I should have got up as when i finally did it was to find the chickens living in my bath!!and on a good towel, with half of our latest loaf of bread added for good measure! ahh, the joys! They have now been rehoused to a better mother (that's the chickens, not my kids!) and the bath has had a good scrub out to return to normal.
Seems the kids grow up way too fast, visited my niece, Daisy, on the weekend, she is now walking! I used her a crash test dummy on a few chenille bibs i want to make more of, she scored these two and is a much better model than me just taking a pic of them on the floor...don't you agree?

They were a hit with her, and her fashionable mother, so I will make a few more.
My own daughter has been doing lots of growing up and has been giving me the third degree about the reality of Santa. As you know, we are a religious family, but I have never felt that that precluded the fun of Santa. My daughter has a different view and seems to think that it has been a form of lying to her...and that it is counterproductive to the true meaning of Christmas..oh to be given that lecture by your 11 year old!! The only salve to my conscience is how much she enjoyed the 10 years of "Santa!"
We haven't delved into it much further since that chat, any advice from those who have been there??
Have a great day, Tracey

More birthday, and a winner.

Oh, is there anything more dreadful than a Dh with the flu?

Because he is so far in the good books I will just leave it right there!! And keep getting the panadol!

I had a lovely time reading through the Tracey Kasem Top 40 ( or 30!) Amazingly a good few songs I didn't know, and i thought I was a music trivia-ist!

The random winner is Lady Hopwood's blog, http://primrosegirl.blogspot.com/

I hadn't heard this Dr. Hook song and enjoyed the youtube version very much. If you would like to contact me, Lady Hopwood, I will share the birthday joy!

Continuing the birthday joy theme, my kids bought me the Pandora bracelet and my family started off the charm collection.-all courtesy of an organizing sister!

There's a heart, an elephant, the zirconia one, the sand coloured to represent the beach my sister and I are both happiest upon, the rose from my sister that she thinks looks like my patchwork on, The Church and the chook make up my collection so far. I am being very well behaved and not wearing this or the ring when doing my farm work!

Our quilt group has birthday buddies for the year. Christine was my buddy this year and I was very lucky to score this beautiful table runner that I have shown previously. I love her first try at machine piecing, and I love IT very much! Thank you, Chris.

This is the back.

I am loving these patterns as well, the melly and Me chooks look great fun!

The lovely Chookyblue sent me these gorgeous cow salt and peppers, hope you regular readers remembered it was Donna's birthday Saturday!!

And I will leave you on a floral note, I have been asked to provide australiana cards for a big event coming up here,

Here's a little taste, they really do look like kangaroo paws, don't they!

Have a great day, Tracey