Late Afternoon In Winter.

I finally managed to sit down at my computer for long enough to cobble together a blog post.  It is properly winter on The Farm now.  I am sitting here in old jeans, the dreaded puffer and a pair of ugg boots while the fire is burning.  After I have done this post I will pour myself a glass of red and pop a butterflied lamb shoulder in the oven.  Before I do that I thought I would show you all some photos of my garden.  In particularly my vegie patch.  I must admit to being a little bit proud of it because it looks great at the moment.  I am not showing anyone photos of the rest of my garden as it looks terrible.  We are preparing to plant it all out next week. (I see lots of shovels, mulch and hard work in my immediate future....)

So - here it is.

Vegies

The watering system is still basic.  Stuff has grown though, which makes me happy.

The Farmer is a very efficient type and loves to crop every spare bit of The Farm.  (There are lots of reasons for this - it helps control weeds and salinity plus it does give us more grain to sell at harvest.  Got to keep your eye on the bottom line....)  It is a standing joke on The Farm that he would dig up my lawn and crop it if he could.  And this year he has been super sneaky.

Look.

The Farmkid's Crop

He and The Farmchildren have hand sown a barley and canola crop in my vegie patch!!  Apparently it is a "trial".  Given that trials are usually done by chemical or seed companies and are smack bang in the middle of our paddocks I am dubious to say the least.   The Farmchildren even conned our local agronomist into checking their crop a few weeks ago.  Needless to say he was most impressed.  I think the high sowing rate has helped....

My last post mentioned that we had been mushrooming.  I struck gold in the mushrooming department this week when I found this baby on the side of the driveway.

The Mega Mushroom....

Anyway - I had best get moving and cook dinner.  We went out for an Italian night at a friend's last night and I have leftover Chianti that needs drinking too. (Which always makes me think of Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs. Fortunately there isn't a fava bean to be seen in my kitchen so my liver should be pretty safe.)

I Grew These!! Now I Just Need To Cook Them....

Take care.

Random Stuff. Reconnected.

Yay - I have put in place a temporary solution to my internet dramas (which appear to be as yet a mystery to BigPond...).  As there was no immediate solution in sight I bought a little mobile broadband thingy.  Look.

My Saviour.

I am quite excited - I set it up yesterday and then put some quality time into perusing the Country Road sale.

Hopefully (especially given we have a decent sized business plan with Telstra) things will be properly fixed soon on the internet front but in the meantime I am just excited to be back on-line.  Interestingly I have had to do this once a couple of years ago, after our house was hit by lightning and the satellite dish blew up (that's a story for another day) and we had no connection for weeks. When I went to update the card in my old device this time,  I was told it was cheaper to buy a whole new little modem thing.  Technology seems to be getting very disposable.

Anyway. Moving right along. In other farm news the crop is all in, we have had lots of lovely rain and everyone is excited as things, touch wood, are going OK at present.  The rain has also meant we were able to do one of The Farmchildren's all time favourite activites.  Mushrooming!  We often find mushrooms growing in some areas on The Farm.  They look so lovely just popping up out of the ground.

Mushroom. In Its Natural Habitat.

Mushrooms. No Longer In Their Natural Habitat.

We always cook them up and have them on toast.  They are super yummy as long as you manage to not let dirt get in their gills as then they are yummy but a tad crunchy.

Mushrooms. A Really Long Way Away From Their Natural Habitat

I have also employed some new help around the house.  After lots of harping from both myself and The Farmkids, The Farmer gave in and returned from Perth the other day with this little baby.

iRobot and My Ugg Boot Clad Foot. We Are All Style Here In The Farmhouse On A Saturday Night.

It is a robotic vaccuum cleaner and it is 100% fabulous.  I love it and the novelty has yet to wear off.  The Farmchildren are also very intrigued.  Farmgirl keeps trying to smuggle it to her bedroom and talk to it like it is some sort of robot pet.  The Farmer and I were laughing about how we can remember being kids and how exciting it was when household technology stepped up.  I especially remember my Mum getting her first automatic washing machine after having a Twin Tub, our first microwave and, most exciting of all, our first video player.  I have told The Farmer that the robot vaccuum cleaner is our first trial of robotic machinery and the first step down the road to robotic tractors.  (This is not as a big a leap as it sounds - apparently they are being trialled now with an estimated market time of the next 5 years or so.)  I have decided the next step involves a robotic lawn mower....

The Shearers' Quarters reno continues.  We are at the floor sanding stage which is excited.  I was hoping to keep the jarrah floor quite rough and rustic looking.  Unfortunately I have been informed that is very impractical and hence have given in to The Farmer's request to make it tough and durable.  It is being finished in a lowish sheen gloss that is very hard wearing and helps maintain the wood (which is very old) and prevent further damage, white ants etc.  I will take some photos when things progress.

Well that is all from me now.  I am off to shampoo the carpets.  Fun.

Take care.

PS - I have decided to go with the wood background for the blog at present.  Mainly because I am too slack to try and retrieve the old template which I fear has gone forever. And also because I quite like it.

Blogger Is Making Me Very Grumpy.

Grrr - blogger is playing tricks on me.

Yesterday my template seemed to get eaten up and half my blog background seemed to disappear into the ether.  I have spent some of this morning trying to fix it and the combination of very slow internet and a Macbook that keeps shutting itself off has meant things have not gone smoothly.  At one point my header went missing.  I have no idea where it went but it hasn't come back!  To be perfectly honest I am not quite sure what my blog currently looks like as it is so slow to load that I can't actually see.  I have a sneaking suspicion it is mainly orange which was not the plan.

However in the interest of my sanity and the safety of my Macbook (which has come perilously close to being frisbeed into the paddock on several occasions) I am giving up for a while.  Hopefully this post will publish..... But then again who knows?

Take care and I will see you later, hopefully with a better-dressed and more harmoniously accessorised blog.

Edited to add: The internet sped up enough that I could play around with a few blogger templates.  So at least the blog is no longer wearing the equivalent of an orange prison jumpsuit....  Alas the old template is gone for good.

Lots of Jarrah.

Well the internet has finally got its skates on here on The Farm and I can manage to make some sort of attempt at writing a blog post without each photo taking 15 minutes to load.

I thought I would pop up a quick update on The Shearers' Quarters renovation.  Things have definitely progressed and the bathroom is almost finished and walls and doors etc are all in place.  There is still a bit to do - light fittings and switches all need installing and then the jarrah floor needs refinishing and the skirtings put on.   Even though I am looking for a rustic feel I do think the current state of the floor is just that bit too rustic....

One of my favourite thing about the latest additions is the doors.  The builder scavenged around all our old sheds and buildings to find old handles and doors and then combined all the useable bits to make the doors.

Look - jarrah door with old handle.

Internal Door

Of course this means none of the doors match exactly but they are all solid dark wood with some sort of old metal handle so it kind of works.

External Door

The individual bedrooms are getting there.

Bedrooms

The bathroom is almost finished.  It has turned out to be slightly different to my original plan but I am still really happy with it.  I blew my budget a little bit (OK - quite a big bit) on the vanity.  Our local cabinet maker took some jarrah planks that were originally from some old sheep yards on The Farm and used them to make the vanity itself.  The front doors of the vanity unit are made out of floor boards from an old shearing shed.  The wood has come up beautifully.

Bathroom

I really struggled to get a decent photo - I promise it all looks much better in real life.  

Unfortunately there was absolutely no other way to arrange the bathroom and the plumbing so that the vanity wasn't under a window.  I will put a small pull out shaving type mirror between the vanity and the shower and a larger jarrah framed wall mirror on the wall directly opposite the vanity.  As it will only be used by guests for a few days at a time I hope they don't find that too annoying.  The plus side is that there is a lovely view of the paddock, our old shearing shed and a windmill!

So all in all we are making progress.

I hope all is well with everyone.

Take care.

Rainy Days.

It has been raining here on and off for days now.  It is so wonderful and has been one of the best starts to the season we have had for years.  I honestly think it would be over 8 years since we have had such a decent starting rain.  The country is green and the change from just a few weeks ago is amazing.
We should finish our seeding programme soon so it is lovely knowing that most of our crop is in and getting the benefit of the rain.

Green Crop and Muddy Driveway

So - we are happy farmers today.

PS - I was trying to write a longish post about all sorts of things however the internet is super slow here today and I have given up.  Will try again soon.

Random Stuff.

It is finally quiet and calm here today.  The Farmchildren are back at school and only Herbie The Wonder Dog and myself are home.  Herbie is recovering from much school holiday love and is currently pretending to be a cushion on a sunny spot in the sitting room.

Small Sausage Dog "Blending in"

I have decided to ignore him, even though he is not supposed to be there.  He has had a busy fortnight as The Farmchildren's main playmate.  They invented a game called "Commander Woof-A-Lot".  The game seemed to involve Herbie being some sort of army commander and it was The Farmkids' "mission" to track him all over the garden from their base under a big old Cape Lilac tree, "The Spaceship Tree".  It provided hours of entertainment and for this reason alone I have decided Herbie needs his place in the sun this morning.

And me?  Well I am having an extra cup of coffee and relishing the peace for a little moment.

It has been raining here which is so lovely.  We are about half way through our seeding programme and the rain was incredibly welcome.

The Farmchildren and I had a great time down south with my parents.  The highlight was going down the creek and catching yabbies and rides on my Dad's ride on mower.  Despite the fact that we have numerous very large bits of tractor-type gear they apparently pale in comparison to a ride on mower with a trailer.  Particularly if it is driven by Boppy.

Adventuring

New ugg boots were purchased in preparation for chilly nights.  The whole family now has matching pairs.

Small People With Toasty Toes

Now - I have a small confession to make.  After rubbishing reality TV at length I have become addicted to The Voice.  I am blaming The Farmchildren as they were desperate to watch The Blind Auditions. Given that is a sort of grown-up show I thought I had better watch it with them.  And now I am thoroughly intrigued.  It is creating much discussion in our house.  The Farmkids are huge fans of Steve Clisby and Harrison Craig.  I have become an unlikely groupie of Joel Madden (who knew a mouthy, tattooed to the hilt, short guy was so cool?).

I am also continually in awe of just how genetically blessed Ricky Martin is.  He is seriously one of the best looking human beings to walk the planet.  Fortunately Delta is similarly blessed as she has had to carry off some interesting outfits and has managed to do so with style. (Mere mortals would not look good in a slashed to the navel jumpsuit or that odd futuristic flesh-coloured dress arrangement.)  So, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I am now well and truly on The Voice band wagon.

So there you go - I am off to do some little jobs that have been building up over the holidays.

Hope all is well in your worlds.

Take care.

Early Morning. Servicing The Air Seeder.

Getting Away.

The Farmchildren and I are going to take a quick break.  We are headed south to see my parents and spend time with my brother and his family.  Unfortunately The Farmer will remain behind and keep working.  That's OK though - I will just stock the fridge and he can work away to his heart's content without feeling guilty about not spending time with us.  (Plus he will have Herbie The Wonder Dog for company, he is surprisingly good company considering he is a small brown sausage dog.)

Meanwhile - we will spend time here.

My Parents' Deck -Complete With Cricket Set Masquarading As Cushion

Farmgirl has been counting sleeps until she gets to see her Nanny and Boppy.  Only one to go now...

Take care.