to our awesome B3 :) 8 years old Saturday just gone..

No big party but it's the 1st time in a looong time that the man of the house has been home for celebrations on the actual day. As requested, we had McMummy's for lunch followed by a Green Piggy Angry Birds chocolate cake that I created, I think it looked pretty good and B3 was very happy with it.

B3 chose his own gift, lego of course and as a family we gave him a dvd player, headphones and a lego dvd, now he doesn't have to borrow his sisters dvd players!

That night we had a bonfire at a neighbours house which was a great end to a special lil mans birthday :)

Until next time
~x~

 

 

Not potatoes I've grown. These came from a spud farm not far from home and are now on their way to the Smith Chip factory in Queensland.

The joys of having a husband who drives trucks, the munchkins and I get to visit places we'd not think of visiting otherwise. Mondays excursion was to a potato farm. The potatoes are normally freshly picked but these ones had been stored in the ground, commonly known as root cellaring, for a couple of weeks, meaning, they were dug, dried out a bit in the sun for a day then turned back into the soil usually with a layer of straw mulch over them so they keep fresh.

B3 was quite excited to help with the grading of the spuds. After the spuds went through the washer he picked out the ones that had rotten soft bits or were cut with the harvest and threw them in a crate that was destined for animal feed or for the farmers dinner table. The really small spuds went into a different crate and were taken to another farm for planting. The spuds then went up a conveyor belt into the truck and off they went on their journey.

Until next time
~x~

*sigh* where do the days go? There's either not enough hours in the day or not enough days in the week, it doesn't help when we keep losing days, or is it we're losing our marble?? lol


Our B1 turned 13 this month. I still find it hard to believe I've been a mum for 13 years! She had a quiet family party at home the weekend prior to her special day and received some special gifts. My mum made a gorgeous quilt for her, not quite a single bed size but much bigger than a lap quilt. B1 has been wrapped in it ever since, it must be warm! On the actual day we had a special dinner and icecream cake with a couple more gifts from her siblings.

the gorgeous quilt

icecream cake 

Family party



Mothers day was also celebrated on the same weekend. I received some great school made gifts from the munchkins as well as a cozy dressing gown and my darling husband gave me the most gorgeous gift, a quaint 1960's caravan. I'm going to give it a big makeover, outside and in, it's something I've been dreaming of for the past 3 or so years and it will probably take another 3 years to get the makeover done! I'm forever looking through the Vintage Caravan magazines and drooling over the cool, retro vans and accessories. I have a pinterest board of all sorts of ideas I can do to my van, who I've named Eveie. I've settled on a colour, just not sure of the shade, I also have half an idea of how I want the inside to look. I'm excited!

Eveie the 10ft 1960's van

The vegie patch is growing well. The brassicas are all forming heads, onions have popped up after I thought the summer heat had been to harsh for them, we even have what we a certain is a sunflower plant growing where the pigs were, don't know how as we've not fed sunflowers to the pigs but we'll let it continue to grow and hopefully it will flower. It seems I also have sunflowers growing in the lawn out the backyard, they can only be from the guinea pig feed, it's such a muddled growing year in the Wimmera of Victoria!

Our little town has been saddened by the sudden death of one of the locals. He was a fit, not quite 70 year old, semi retired farmer. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family.

We've had a couple of bonfires the past month, not as many as we had last year, it seems everyone has busy lives this year and it's no fun having a bonfire on your own lol.

Until next time

Keep your loved ones close

~x~

2 years ago Wednesday just gone we turned this shoe box into a home, got the munchkins settled in school and made new friends. It's been a challenge at times, I miss not having my family in walking distance, the extended family is missed too but I know we did the right thing and we are blessed to have what we have.

Nothing gets done in a hurry around here lol It seems like the house will always be a work in progress but we are having fun doing it so that's ok. Each little bit we do is one less thing we need to do next time :)

Until next time
~x~

Ahh, the hot months are now behind us, the fire restrictions have been lifted and we can start enjoying our weekend bonfires once again.

Here's a look back at some of the 2012 bonfire season :) I have lots more shots but didn't want it to look like we are pyromaniacs lol

On Thursday when The man of the House was home, i made him light our 1st bonfire for the season. Unfortunately B1 wasn't home to celebrate but i wanted it done before we had the 1st neighbourhood bonfire and hubby wasn't going to be home for that. Lots of very dry twigs and leaves, cardboard and the odd unuseable pallet put out a huge amount of heat.

Saturday night the 1st neighbourhood bonfire was lit. Gosh, how i've missed the warm glow of an open fire, the smokey haze, the relaxing with neighbours and friends from afar and of course toasted marshmallows!

The kids had a ball toasting marshies, well, setting them on fire lol, making them crunchy on the outside and a molten gooey mess on the inside.

A simple bbq, a few drinks and lots of laughter made for a lovely night.

toasting marshmallows over the homemade bbq

being silly for the camera

Until next time
~x~

A giant atlantic pumpkin grown by my neighbour. Circumference 123cms. Weight approx 120kgs. Hollow and not at all good for eating but the pigs enjoyed it! Very few seeds. There were a couple of smaller pumpkins on the vine but most of the energy of growing a big pumpkin went into this one.

We'll try to grow an even bigger one next season :)

Until next time
~x~

Easter weekend also saw us at our very 1st tractor pull at Quambatook.

What is tractor pulling? It's simply a motor sport to see who has the most powerful tractor for pulling a heavy weighted sled.
Back in the 1800's farmers would boast about the strength of their horses while pulling farm machinery or fully loaded wagons so neighbouring farmers would hold contests to find the strongest horses.

There were vintage tractors and super modified ones. There were young kids under 12 with modified ride on mowers doing their thing.

It was a looooong day, and sometimes it got a little boring, there's only so many times you can watch a vintage tractor pull a weighted sled a few hundred metres down a dirt track but as the day wore on and the bigger, noisier  faster tractors did their thing it got better and more entertaining. The vibrating ground and the burning fuel was my kind of entertainment lol

The Easter Bunny made an appearance in a monster truck before he hopped around the countryside doing his Easter Saturday egg delivery ;)

Would we go again, hmmm, yes, but we wouldn't spend all day there, we'd go after half the events were over, it was great just long.

Until next time
~x~