New cards,a prize and harvest already!

Back again, but feeling mighty guilty about this blogging business, there just doesn't seem enough hours in the day anymore! I am thinking, if I am struggling to get round all the other blogs, is it manners to delete mine? But I love the blogworld, -the support, encouragement and connestion -when time allows me...surely things will settle.....What do you think? Leave a comment on this, the cards or anything today...and as a thanks for "hopefully" re-enthusing me you, will go in a little giveaway draw. Gina and lady hopwood know that because I have grand plans, my giveaways don't always get mailed the next day...but I am guaranteeing Christmas delivery for everyone! LOL! i especially feel I owe those 60 or 70 people who statcounter says check in on me everyday!! Thanks..and take the time to comment, or email and you will go in the draw! Just put blog in the email title so I open you!

Weather here is unseasonably hot, looks like it may be 10 days of over 30 degrees and it is still Spring! This means DH is working around the clock, last night he fell into bed after a 39 hour "day'...if that makes sense! Valiantly trying to beat the weather to the hay.

So I am playing the supportive wife and getting back into the harvest swing of being available 24/7 for any job, preferably with food always on the ready!

The card range has grown to 150! These are the new ones added today to the blog site, so feel free to go over and have a look. I did a market on the weekend and sold almost 100, so am busy replenishing! Off to clean enough to "legally and morally" get in some sewing time, just feel like having a sleep on the couch really! Bring on February and the end of harvest...boy, that seems a long long way away! Cheers, Tracey

Granny Goose has received ny washcloth swap parcel so I can show what i sent! Two matching wash cloth/pot holders and the requisite seeds.

I received mine from Oh sew busy, chenille cloths in almost the same colours as I had sent to granny goose1 great minds think alike! The seeds are planted so not in the pic!

Catch you soon, with sewing! Remember to comment to enter, Tracey

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!!!