Kids Vegie garden...

I took a snap off the girls vegie patch on the way out this morning.. There's butter crunch lettuce, english spinach, broad beans, dwarf beans, carrots, nasturtiums, snow peas, poppies, zuchini, marigolds, and viola's.

There will be photos of the boys vegie patch tomorrow..

Thursday Happy Hour 5-6pm

What's normally a trying time was happy hour yesterday..... You gotta love those moments

Bit of Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys turned up to almost max, and the dress ups used earlier in the day at playgroup laying around made for some frivolous time

Nothing beats a wood heater

A comment on a previous post reminded me that i was going to post this...

21st November 2010

It has now been 3 nights in a row that we have not had to light the fire...

Rain on the garden

Why is it that copious amounts of watering simply does not have the same affect on the garden as a little rain??

Do chickens really eat that much???

It would appear not.. Someone was helping themselves.. Ahh, living in the country is quite and peaceful (now)

Stir up Sunday

Stir up Sunday came a bit early this year. I thought the day was 5 Sundays before Christmas, but it turns out it's the last sunday before the change of the seasons... Oh well, the puds are hanging!

Just found another recipe that uses Guinness, might be another batch going in....

You gotta love this city.....

  9.30am - Date scones for morning tea, but alas, bakery all sold out
12.09pm - Bang last nights leftover spag in the zapper for 4 minutes
12.10pm - Race to a different bakery than this mornings to get some ciabatta to go with left over Spaghetti while its in the zapper, sold out of all bread
12.11pm - Zip round the corner to a different bakery while the spag is still being zapped. Closed
12.12pm - Racing against the zapper, zip to a different bakery for some bread. Closed
12.14pm - Back behind the desk, carb loading on last nights left over spag after the mini marathon
12.16pm - Finished replacing the carbs i burnt whilst on the hunt for bread. Still hungry

South Esk Fishing

I had been planning to make Christmas pudding yesterday, but thanks to a "man" read off the recipe, i forgot to soak the calico, so the pudding will be made tonight. With everyone else in the house pre-occupied, i grabbed the bike and pedalled down to the river for a quick fish. Managed one nice brown trout

I smoked him in the webber and he tasted hmmmm, well, pretty much like the bottom of the river mixed with a handful of charcoal.... I'll definitely be practicing catch and release on this stretch of river in the future.

Bad Moon Rising

I see a bad moon rising, i see trouble on the way.............

"Place your bet - Ah say - place your bets, gentlemen. Winnner plays, loser stays. Everyone's a winne - well, not everyone."

Heb Jij Ook Een Beetje Mulch???

Bit of sarcasm to start the day! Seriously, if you need some for home, drop by and get some. I might have overcooked the order......

Gardening



Raspberries



Finally managed to get out into the garden to do a bit of work. After visiting two of Launcestons most beautiful gardens on the weekend, we felt a bit inspired....



Chooks eating 38 snails



Tettnang Hops

 

Green Gauges



    

38 Snails



Birch Woods





Weapons of Mass Destruction

No, they're not to be found in Iraq! These little weapons of mass destruction came out in force last night after the rain... Anyone care to guess how many there might be???

Cleaning inside our water tank

Our water was running low so i organised old mate Bruce from down the road to come and fill it up. Just before he was due to arrive, we decided it might be a good opportunity to clean out the tank.... I should have taken some photos, but on second thoughts it's probably a good thing i didn't so you people out there can't see the quality of the water you have been drinking when visiting. (It was a little dirty)

Years of pumping water straight out of the south esk had deposited a nice layer (about 40mm thick) of sand and silt (and other things) on the bottom. Bucketing about 1,000 litres out of mud from the bottom of the tank out of the overhead  hole at the top is not a pleasant exercise....

Not our tank but you get the idea

Sunflowers

I prepared a patch in the paddock so that we can have a giant sun flower forest. The postman finally dropped of the Giant Russian Sunflower seeds yesterday. They'll be going in the ground tonight...

Taken from here

Manscaping

                   

Well... what were you thinking??????
Spent the day tidying part of the garden....

Salt and pepper squid

So it seems like squid is the flavour of the month here... Truth be told it is. I snuck out for a quicky last week and bagged another half dozen (I haven't been all that busy at work the past month, and it's nice and quiet on the river during the week)

Salt and Pepper Squid
3 or 4 squid hoods
Salt
Pepper
Sweet Paprika
Plain flour
oven fry chips

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius. Put the chips in the oven

In a large freezer bag put:
1 cup flour
2-3 Teaspoons Salt
1 Teaspoon coarse black pepper
1-2 teapsoons paprika
And shake it all about

Cut the squid hoods into rings. Put half the rings in the bag with the flour mixture and shake it all about. Melt a couple tablespoons butter in a fry pan. When it starts to foam add the squid and try to keep it at that temperature so you don't burn it.
Don't play with the food. Let it brown on one side and then turn it. Should take about two minutes each side.
Then serve the squid with chips, and we normally have peas and corn as a side (Bit of a Saturday night family tradition)

There's more squid in the freezer if anyone would like to join us for tea on a Saturday...

Blogging from the phone

Why??? Just thought I'd give it a bash...
Can't seem to be able to attach photos from the phones memory.. I'll keep searching

Christmas Cake Recipe

Christmas Cake Recipe

You'll need the following:
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
4 large brown eggs
2 cups of dried fruit
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of brown sugar
Lemon juice
Nuts
1 bottle of whisky

Sample the whisky to check for quality. Take a large bowl. Check the whisky again. To be sure it's the
highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat again. Make sure the whisky is still OK. Cry another tup. Tune up the mixer. Beat two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner. If the fired druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it goose with a drewscriver. Sample the whisky to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares?
Check the whisky. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon the sugar or something. Whatever you can find. Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't forget
to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out of the window. Check the whisky again and go to bed.
from Snopes.com
 
Hehehe... Obviously someone doesn't go too much on christmas cake. As for me, I love it and thought i'd give a traditional recipe a crack this year. Should really get one going soon. I'll keep looking for a likely recipe

Everybody say Oooohhhhh

Aren't they cute

Tree Top Dolls House

Just a little something we whipped up for our daughters fourth birthday. My talented wife designed it and prepared the cut out list, i just cut it out and stuck it together.

It was actually quite enjoyable, and it only took about 4hrs to put it together..

Happy Birthday dolly..

Yester year cars

The vintage car rally came past our house on Saturday. I'm sure that if the walls off our house could talk it would have told us all about the days when these cars were a comon sight on our roads...

What!! A seepy doak??? Gimme a look!!!

We're acting as nannies (pun intended) for some friends goat. The neighbours came to check him out...

Isn't he a cute sheepy goat....