Outside

The eieio-ers ventured out today and made some friends.... well, not not everyone was friendly....Chloe was really freaked out when she saw Sid!

Roger had a little accident but soon recovered.

Doris looked hilarious.

Chloe was brave enough to check out Bruce - here, she's actually touching him with her left paw!

 

Poofy liked them; at least Bruce didn't try to bunt him, unlike Peppie.

Cocie thought they were alright too. Anything that doesn't try to bunt me is friend of mine.

Doris, like all good librarians, is keeping an eye on the sheepish ones. They often turn out to be the hooligans in the library.

Peppie and Peachie

The two girls are inseparable now; we've been contemplating moving Peach on but I think it's too late for that.

Peppie looks like she's smiling - or like she's on one of those birthday cards where the animal, usually a dog,  has an over-exaggerated set of false teeth in it's mouth!!!

They were funny today. They just plonked themselves down in the middle of the lawn. They don't usually do that.

Eventually they got up and came over to see what all the fuss was about.

Peach checked out Bruce for "new man" material but he wasn't interested.

Peppie paid him no heed and stood for ages while Meg gave her a backbone massage.

In The Garden

My vege garden motors along quietly; a little rain does wonders. I haven't planted much lately, only lettuce and spinach for the chooks.

The broccoli didn't recover from the caterpillar attacks but I left it to grow and will either compost or feed it.

The hay bales around the worm compost patch have weathered away and sunk. Underneath is a beautiful mix of hay and dirt and so much insect life. The one bale I covered with a hessian bag (bottom left) is still quite intact and I sit on it when I fold the other bags back to feed the worms. If I tread on the other bales my foot goes straight through.

I still haven't eaten any of these but they're so pretty to grow.

A rosella plant has self-seeded from the four I grew last year. They're pretty in the garden too and the goats love them.

A self-seeded pumpkin.

One of Gibbo's large white wyandottes that lives over my side; she has three mates and they all live with my four biggest plymouth rock "chickens". They can't wait to be let out each morning - they go racing along the path and into the wide open lawns of the main garden.

Meg's New Family

Meet Doris.........

and Bruce...................

and Sid......................

and Roger....................................

They're the E-I-E-I-O family and they've been on lay-by since January.............. 

Doris is my favourite! She looks a bit like a school teacher - or a librarian!

You'll see more of them when they have their official outside photo shoot tomorrow.



Kittens and Goats

These two have taken to sleeping at the front door. They roam free now after continually breaking their wire rope leads and/or escaping from their pen. They come with me in the mornings as I feed the chooks; they go "home" during the day when no-one is here then return when we come back from the office. They leave their little pills all over the bricks but I just broom them off every morning.

If the previous owner's wife could see what goes on here she would have kittens. She, with the help of a 3 day a week gardener, had the place looking like something out of Country Style. We, on the other hand, have it looking like it should be in Backyard Poultry or Earth Garden or Grass Roots!! Goats roaming free, chooks running wild all over the yard, two dogs who think they're humans and a cat that thinks it owns the place. I know, let's blame the cat! It's the cat that always gets the blame in our household even though she doesn't have opposing thumbs!!

Serious Business

It's berry serious business, buying shoes is! Note the look of concentration......the eyes grow wide in amazement........and YES, THAT'S THEM, THE ONES I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR!!!!!!!! Now where's my credit card??

It's Food Again!

Here I am again, talking about food. This time it's Pumpkin Soup, a winter favourite. We woke this morning to grey cloudy skies, and rain. Meg and I reneged on going to the Goombungee Show and left Gibbo to pack up his chooks and head out on his own. We sat in the kitchen and talked as I prepared a range of delicacies for the dog and cat - cooked sausages, liver, raw heart - and a mince/gravy/frozen vege/rice casserole that smelt so good that Gibbo wanted to try it when he got home. He cleaned out and defrosted the little freezer and found numerous bags of mince and sausages suffering severe freezer burn so waste not/want not I cooked them for the 4 leggers.

Meg and I went to town and picked up her new family - more on them later.

It's the weather for soup and pumpkin's my favourite flavour.

I just put it through the blender and had a little taste.............deeeelicious..............dinner is ready :)

Oops, He Did It Again!!

Another essay, another HD!!

Tendering

Did I mention Gibbo called in at The Tender Centre on the way back from Brisbane a week ago? He went to Tba today to pick up the gear he bought.The only item to make it out of the trailer so far is this............and we've already had a hit. Lucky Drew wanted to play Beer Pong at his going away party so long ago now; otherwise we wouldn't have had any balls to play with. It doesn't make the lounge room look cluttered; no, not at all.

G's Golden Oldies home team played his Golden Oldies Brisbane team yesterday; he plays for the locals when the out of towners come to challenge. He scored 63 but the home team lost, by 4 balls.

Food - and plenty of it

For someone who only eats to stay alive, I tend to play with food a lot. I cooked chicken soup during the week (recipe from the internet) and was slightly disappointed with it. I have decided that I am a pea and ham or pumpkin soup girl; I remember the chicken soup of my childhood, swimming with chooks feet, gizzards and hearts; it was an incredibly good concoction, made better by being left on the stovetop and being added to each day. That's the only chicken soup for me. The two containers of soup that I froze will have to be Gibbo's dinner at some stage.

On Friday I cooked two lots of corned meat and a chuck roast for cold meat for a salad lunch at the big cricket match held on Saturday.

I am feeding 11 for morning tea and lunch tomorrow; people are coming from east and west to partake in a bit of "onboarding" - don't ask. I cooked my regular fare - the ever dependable and always popular carrot cake as well as my "throw it all in and see what happens" quiche. Lunch will be "make it yourself" ham or chicken rolls; everything is cut up and in containers in the fridge (lettuce, tomato, grated cheese and carrot, cucumber, ham and chicken). I could have done with Meg's Tefal today - I detest grating carrot - and between the cake, quiche and sandwich fillings I had to grate 6 big fat ones.

I made full use of the kitchen bench.