This cordial is very delicious; I'm going to make some for our Christmas hampers. After looking up recipes I'm also going to try some Lemon and Lime cordial too.
When we were in town on Saturday picking up the stump grinder we bought some fast growing sugar gums from the nursery - we planted them and the flame trees in the Turkey/Duck enclosure after we got home from the markets.
These are the flame trees - one is called Harold and one is called Mary. You'd get the significance of that if you lived around here for long enough (and if you used to play rugby and went drinking with us after the games).
There was a big tipuana tree overhanging the clothesline and in the road of where the new house rainwater tank is going to go. Apparently it needed to come down. Somehow, G and I got the clothesline off the pole. I have height but not a lot of muscle. He has muscle but not a lot of height. The piece of pipe that goes inside the pole is very long. I can vouch for that.
G is ever the optimist. His belief in his ability to perform a task often sometimes doesn't quite match the end result - what I mean is that what he thinks is going to happen doesn't actually end up happening. Often. See the gap in the photo below - the big gap between the green spiky plant at the tank and the gum tree on the right? That big gap is where the tipuana was supposed to fall with the help of some strategically placed chainsaw cuts.
See where the tree actually fell? Nowhere near the big gap. It actually fell at a 90 degree angle to where it was "supposed" to fall.
See how close the tree came to the tank, the septic, the house AND THE POWER LINE TO THE HOUSE? The tank has a scar on it. The clothesline was never in danger. As I write, it's still sitting on the ground. It was a Hurculean effort to get it off; I have no idea how we're going to get it back up and into it's pole.
G wanted to attack the very large gum tree on the right of the gap. I suggested we leave it to another day (and to someone who actually knows what they're doing but I didn't say that bit out loud).
Dragging away the biggest branch. This one nearly took out my pond garden as it went past and gouged a furrow in the ground that is deep enough to plant something in.
After all that excitement we had a quick lunch then treated the weaners with a pour-on and moved them to a new paddock. Actually, they moved themselves to the new paddock after unpredictably turning left out of the yard gates instead of right into a holding area. Another episode where what G thought was going to happen didn't actually happen. He had wanted us to walk them up. So that didn't happen either.
Then we went fencing at The Chook Forest. I had a few stressful moments here while holding the logs while the chainsaw worked in quite close proximity.
I found some old packets of nasturtium seeds while cleaning out the lounge room boxes. They expired in 2005 and 2006 but I thought I'd give them a go. If they grow they'll climb their way up and over the chook pens; that should look lovely. I planted them while G toiled away.
The pond is still intact; just. The mint in the big blue tea cup was upended on the ground when the tipuana flew past.
We burnt some sticks and pear in The Chook Forest while we fenced; you might not think it but it looks much neater.
After this we went to the Pig Palace and continued running the wire for the electric fence. I had the job of putting all the plastic holders on the steel posts; the little doovers that hold the hot wire in place.
And there was a birth - certainly not an unusual occurrence in our household but just as cute every time.
I've never been quite so relieved to get into bed and fall asleep, exhausted.
1 comment:
Thanks for the morning giggle Mare, just snorted my way through my coffee. So much so, that Matthew at his desk had to know what was so humorous. I read choice pieces to him regarding Gibbo's tree-felling exercise. He think you're being rather harsh!
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