Apricots are in season here in Australia ATM and they are at a really good price too. We (I) just love jam made of apricots, there just has to be chunky bits of golden fruit in it. Spread on a little toast or a dollip of jam on a bread roll cut in half and baked in the oven till light golden yummm. As if I don't have anything better to do right now, when I should be cleaning the house, washing the last few loads and packing to go on holiday. Well I have decided to make us stick to the original plan and leave on Friday, Giving me enough time to make my jam and dry another batch of onion in the dehydrator and bake a tray of biccies to take with. Not head off half assed as hubby suggested as he has now finished what he had to do. Well that was an post I had started just before we left on our working holiday. And in all this rush I forgot to save the recipe, now I can't find it ... THAT WOULD BE RIGHT!!! ( you could wonder what the pic below has to do with any of this, well she's blabbering on sounds just like these rainbow lorikeets) UPDATE found the link ......

Continue ... We are having some much needed rain in Mulgoa (West of Sydney) THE GRASS WAS JUST ABOUT DEAD, the sun baked it good. the only bit of green was where the laundery water was diverted onto the lawn. We had been buying bails of lucerne and bags of my special chaff and pony mix for the animals for a while now. While the rest of Australia is having fires and other part are flooding we have had wonderful heavy rain filling up every pond all along our street, from one property to the next ... a chain of ponds over flowing, the ground soaking up every drop ... new blades of grass already turning the fields green. lucky we had no flooding into our lounge or the house, only because we were ontop of the pool as it filled up to the rim, drained a good 6 inches out into the field. I am sure that did help that we were spared. Pool watch continued until the early hours. 26th January was Australia Day, really I hear you say, no post to celebrate! While everybody was off having a BBQ and waving a flag.

A Bride and Groom were getting ready to pledge their lives together, in sickness and health, and all that.This will be one anniversary date the groom will not be able to forget in a hurry. New Zealand looks like a wonderful destination for a honeymoon.

The brides mum, my Japanese friend Pina was putting on her lovely blue dress and getting her hair done, looking stunning. And then the bride's Japanese grandfather walked her down the aile to the waiting groom. The church was packed with family and friends. At the reception a photo booth was provided to take silly photos of the guests. (must be a new trend)Like weddings go, it was after midnight we got to bed.

More pics of Rose Cottage ...

You can't say we did not work our little butts off the last few weeks. George admits we did just great getting so many jobs ticked off the todo list. We had a week off to rest and had to be back at the farm to recieve the delivery of roofing sheets we had ordered. The weatherman had predicted rain and only a small gap of fine weather our way. The section needed to be prepped, old sheets off, a small deck built only because it lended itself to make a cosy corner for the doggies to sleep out of the cold and rain. The corner post had to hold the roof up

The bathroom frames had to be erected and squared up. New roof trusses had to be screwed into place, that in itself took a whole day to do, all double jobs as the old had to be removed first. At this point I need to mention a beam had fallen and nearly sent me off to dreamland. I do have a nice shiny bump to proof it. trouble come in 3's they say and that day was no exception. next I tripped and fell om my bum walking backwards pulling and pushing the big beams,just lucky it was a soft landing. Then up went the sheets all 7.70mtr of each sheet, after I wrestled them in the correct position. It took both of us to lift them up and push the sheets up.

With rain on the way we had to work fast to get the sheets secured.

lucky we had done the stand for the cube, and installed the first gutter, when we first arrived. George admiring his handy work.

The stand is made of treated sleepers for the box and rails screwed on top.

The kitchen window had to be moved, to make space for the 3 door cupboard sbove the bench top.

The man was not a very happy chappie.

We installed the blue boards ready for the next step.

Which created another job for him to fix the cladding. While he was cladding we just continued around the corner. One of my jobs is painting which I just love. Colour scheme info is here And then another window had to be installed in the bedroom, it was 45 degrees and we were dying cause there was no breeze through the bedroom. Once again he wanted to go the easy way but then the window would not have been centre. I won that one. The red cedar cladding had to come off and replaced with cypress cladding. How we managed to get through all this work in 10 days I don't know but we did it.

Until next time rina

Two weeks at the farm ... work, eat & sleep

No problems with George feeling a little unmanly in my straw hat, it does the job keeping the sun of his near bald head. Check out the screw in the mouth lol. I have since bought him his own hat.

Awhile back we had bought a few sheets of new corrogate roofing for this side of the cottage, being a little to long they barely managed to fit over the ute without the cops pulling us over. But we got them up to the farm alrught tied up on a few 2 x 4's to give them extra support. This roofing project was the first item on George's to do list.

First he had to remove the doggy roofing and so called roof trusses, and build new ones. Of cause I had to make his life difficult by wanting a storage compartment in the roof. Somewhere to store my empty fowler vacola bottles, misc stuff and years supply of toilet paper.

The compartment is accessable from inside the kitchen/diningroom. He still needs to put doors on the front. Always wanted a large kitchen with a table and chairs to have meals at, just like my stepmother had. We would visit around the table, everyone used to help with laying the table and it was just such a lovely atmosphere.

The kitchen cupboards are also still waiting to be installed properly, that will be done as soon as the bathroom walls are up and the new roof trusses on that side of the cottage are replaced too. We are expecting a delivery of corrogated sheets for that side to be delivered as they are nearly 8 mtrs long on the 11th January, we will be leaving for the farm on the 10th with the gutters and more corrogated for the next project he has been working on.

The new roof extended over the small deck making it a lovely spot to sit in the morning. By afternoon sun filters through the gum trees and manages to bake onto the deck. George has promised to put a lattice screen up to help solve that problem. another job for the to do list.

This was never on the list George said but it was something that was needed esp after finding 2 snakes in one day. Racks to store building material off the ground, solid as a rock and pretty strong to hold all the materials. As usual I had to add a little supprise to the project, a lean too for the sheep with gutters to catch the rain. I was given a lot of small corrogate offcuts and thought they would work really well here.

Looking good so far George, he works hard but then so do I being his apprentice hold here, bring that, fetch this, switch off the generator, start the generator, hold the ladder and then still doing all the painting. We even concreted 4 posts and hung the gate. All this working with the sweet running down, consuming bottles of water by the dozen. This Ozzie sun can get hot, by 10am it's nearly 38 degrees already.

Christmas day we were installing the pink carpet in the bedroom, a hand me down from a friend who had bought a new home, pink was not his colour and being in a near new condition offered it to me. Yeah thank you I will have it. Carpet laying will not be a job we want to repeat in a hurry even if this one came out great. Another small job that got done was the hole in the kitchen floor. Finally it got closed up!!!And then he started on the wardrobe ... by this time we were both ready for a proper shower and a good hair wash, George was missing his remote and the cricket so a few days at home resting was in order. I did miss my washing machine, not so much fun doing the rain dance in the blue tub with the washing soaking from the night before, no you can have that thank you. As I mentioned before we have to be back at the farm on the 10th

a little wild life ...

found this little fella sitting in a black plastic pipe, see we disturbed his home and was not aware he was in the pipe, only after hours in the hot sun he stuck his little head out just enough to catch my eye. Quickly relocating him into a shady place near the bird bath.

Baby possum will have to relocate too along with two bigger possums living in our roof. Right now there are just to many access points to the roof to get them to move on. Not even the banging of hammers and working on the new roof seamed to bother them to much.

Hand reared Maggie the magpie still comes for her breakfast of cooked oats or scrambled egg depending on the cooks choice for the day.

Mr hairy huntsman thought a visit on the building site could be enough to scare some folk. but it inside a car while your driving and you eye catches a sudden movement hmmm not so funny then. Then there was the snakes and 4 mice, the later coming to a grizzle death while trying to nibble on a piece of bread with a little peanut butter on it. unfortunately they had to step on a little plate which set of their untimely end.

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