Climbing a stairway (to the back yard...)

After climbing the bank into the back yard one too many times, we decided to cut up a large tree trunk from the Gembrook Retreat and create a bit of a staircase... its not perfect (one step is too high) but it sure makes getting into the back yard pretty simple...

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve: a day of errands and activity and anticipation. Last minute sewing - a Christmas skirt for Piper, and a rainbow headband. Last minute knitting - in secret in the library. Actually, a whole hour at the library, to faciliate said secret knitting, but also finding a whole pile of Christmas books to faciliate getting into the spirit of things. Cleaning up the house. Much gift wrapping, of course.

Making time for a treat, a Christmas movie - it was going to be Rudolph, but Gord accidentally downloaded a German version. So instead, Home Alone, a movie I enjoyed when I was younger - some quotes were still there in my head: "keep the change, you filthy animal!" A bit over the kids' heads, but Piper enjoyed the goofy get-the-baddies scenes. Laundry to be dealt with.

Buttery popcorn.

And then the arrival of Pippa and Poppa in the evening, right when the movie had finished. Very exciting, calling for some spinning about!

A Christmas pear tree, hopefully the first of an orchard in the front yard. A growing pile of gifts below, causing much anticipation. And finally to bed.

Pre-Christmas gathering

For those who are interested, we gathered last Sunday at the Gembrook retreat center with a few familes to go over the Christmas story and share a meal. 

Peter has written about the event here...

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2008/12/nativity-story.html

Small spaces

We have a lot of small spaces in our smallish house so we need to come up with better ways of storing things.

We added a shelf and dropped the hanging rail so Piper could get at her clothes, and then a few days later while shopping for our Christmas preperations found some wicker baskets that fit perfectly, so no Piper's room is a lot (I repeat a LOT) more organised. I think Bec spent nearly 4 hours in there coming up with a workable solution to all her stuff!

Fire is nice

By day, not much to look at...

But by night, its magic!

Have had the fire pit there for a week and I think we're on the third fire already... sharing this one with the neighbors.

Kookaburra sits on the new porch railing...

OK, so its a bit hard to see, but Linda, our wonderful neighbor to the east is hand feeding raw steak to a kookaburra. These birds are used to this, and if she doesn't come quickly enough when they want a feed, make quite a racket till they get what they want!!

Table saw

Yay - finally, a real manly tool - my new used 3HP 10 inch table saw.

Cast iron top, tilting arbor - looks like its a keeper. :)

Works on the go

Dirt - lots of dirt. Its in the way of where we think our deck should go...

Here's a look at the interm results - about 1/3 of the way through the digging I imagine.

Sometimes, what you are to notice is what you don't see. Notice the down spout from the guttering - it used to go into a water tank there - which is not there, obviously. After setting up the water pump and the main rain tank (visible in the background), this one wasn't needed anymore. Really seems to open up the space nicely.

Say what? Gord's showing off the dirt again? Actually, its a record that I dug in some pipe to connect the water tanks on the house with the tank at the top - with a sump pump in the rain tank and gravity feeding a hose between the two remaining tanks on the house, its a cinch to plug in the sump and let it do all the heavy lifting (which gives me more time to dig out the deck!)

Porrige for breakfast

Porrige for breakfast, for me, Piper and Jas - or Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear. And a bit of playing that story, too...

Christmas correspondence

Here's Gord going about the arduous task of writing a few Christmas cards...

... always easier with a bit of fortification!

Gord and Piper today, holding lollies from Pippa! Mum took the kids this morning, so Gord and I got to go out for coffee. And then Piper got to go out with Pippa for lunch (and lolly shopping), so we were all pretty lucky today!

Here's the crazy fun kids of ours...

Water tanks do roll

On Wed a few days ago our 20000 liter water tank showed up. The driver could not get the truck up the driveway, so we had to roll it from the front, up the drive and around to the back. Thank goodness that Steve was able to help out!!

Once we got to the prepared location, it was one two heave-ho and... well, nothing happened. We couldn't push it over on to its side...

Ah, but the driver was a clever little monkey, so with a few blocks under the lip of the tank, we rolled it up onto them and...

Bang, there it goes, with a satisfying thump.

Its now sitting pretty well in the corner with 5000 liters of water pumped up from the tanks on the house. We are pretty well good to go, once summer decides to start! (Its been pretty cool here for the last few weeks...)

Tung oil is a good thing

No, I'm not talking about alocohol, that social lubricant... last night and this morning, thanks to a great sander and some stolen oil, the old bench that's beeen sitting outside the house is looking a whole lot better!! As importantly, this should stop or slow the decay that was taking place through the rain hitting unprotected wood...

Weeds R us

This morning I got up at 5:20AM and by 5:30 I was out trying out the new weed pulling tool I picked up yesterday. 

This is the second pass through the yard. The first pass I got rid of the cape weed, a large beast that pulled out easily enough..

This time around, its the smaller stuff, the ones that grow over the grass and kill it to make wqay for more weeds.

Jasper is a good little helper for me. Well, he watches for a few minutes until he's bored and then carries on...

The finished result is a wheelbarrow full of weeds and a pretty bare earth.  The good news is that we've had about 3 inches of rain in the last week, so the grass should explode over the next few weeks, hopefully filling in all the holes...

So far, five wheelbarrows full. Probably another three left in the backyard...

OK, so I'm talking about weeds. Not too exciting... but hey, that's life.

Walk with me?

Wanna come for a wander around the yard with me this evening? While the kids are reading books before bed?

Here's our resident mama, discovered amongst all the ivy Gord was pulling out one day! We are leaving her alone now, but I'm sure it freaks her out that a one-year-old can now come and peruse her nest whenever he feels like it! (we try to discourage this...)

Here's the second resident mama...

This is Piper's teepee. She and I planted sweet pea seeds around the base, so eventually they'll grow up and make it a real tent, but in the meantime, sewing a cover for this is on my list of things to do, and at the moment is being ousted by any make-it plans for Christmas!

Sweet peas coming up...

Two thirds of the vege patch, one bit kind of established, but pretty overgrown by grass and weeds; the other cut in by Gord from scratch last week... My man wields a spade like nothing else! We've planted: strawberries, spring onions, capsicums, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and lettuce.

The most established (read: lightest soil) garden. Tomatoes, basil, pumpkin and zucchini.

Today's effort, while playing imaginary games with Piper: beetroot.

Today's other effort, this other seed that's growing! (another belly shot for you, Dar!)

And a little boy ready for bed.

Random life

Playing Guess Who? with Caleb at Gembrook Retreat.

Showing off the results of an impromptu craft session: feathered crowns/hats.

More masterpieces being created...

And we made some boats to boot!

Last but not least, all dressed up to go to Ellen's 5th birthday par-tay!

Family shots

Lawn maniac at it again, with the huge Gembrook Retreat lawnmower (11 horse power!)

The kids both love Gord's torch, or course.

Piper entertaining us at breakfast, wearing almost her full wardrobe, and dancing!

Jumbuck stew leftovers for dinner - yum!

Mermaid children.

A sneaky shot from Gord, taken through the window near the dining table, this morning. A wake-up story in the glorious sun.