April 28th, 2008 AndrewD
I have been on holidays for the past week and definitely did not get everything done I wanted, but it was one of the greatest weeks I have had, spending time with the family (the kids were on school hols as well). One of the downers was as I am in the middle of a project at work so I had to log in for a few hours each day. My eldest daughter Lynsey also got out of the house for a few days, spending time at friends houses.
So what did we do this week? Well we planted two apple tress this week. Just some standard varieties: PInk Lady and Golden Delicious. We plan on getting 4 apple trees but the last two will be of heritage nature and hopefully one of them good for make apple cider.
I’m off to catch the XPT back to Sydney now (suppose to leave at 4pm, but now its running late so 6.30pm) – I will finish updating later.
Posted in Family, Gardening | No Comments »
April 26th, 2008 AndrewD
Well just over 6 months, and what have we discovered. Well to start I have not accomplished everything I would have liked to by now. We still have our house in St Peters and I am still working full time. But the big question are we happy? And the answer has to undeniably YES.
The kids seem to have settled into school here OK and both have a nice set of friends, Lee Ann has lucked out on a new contract and working three days per week, that allows 2 days to get the house in order and now we hit the acre on the weekend.
I am still traveling between work on the XPT, it does now mean that I am going thru a book a week (haven’t done that for a long time).
One thing that I am hoping to change is I am trying to get on my bike more often. You see I am a mad bike nut (bicycle). I love riding my bike. I am currently VP of Bicycle NSW and Pres of BikeSydney and since being down here I have been on my bike twice to the shops – not good enough, so over the past week I have been on the bike at least three times into town and one bike ride on some dirt roads around town. I have to say how unfit I am now.
The other thing that goes with riding less is that we have been driving more. One of the reasons that we bought this piece of land is due to the fact it is less than 2kms to town. When living in Sydney the car gathered cobwebs and was only driven once every few weeks. In 10 years it had only done 90000 kms. Here it seems we are always in the car, even for the smallest item. Well no more.
So far I have the three vege patchs, hopefully vege patch number 4 in a weeks or two. One crop that does look like won’t be as good as I thought is the garlic, I am not sure how many cloves I will end up, but I was expecting 50- 60, now it will be between 10 -15 cloves.
Another thing is that Lee Ann and I have discovered we find it hard to do the same task for more than two hours, whether it be building rock logs or digging a trench.
So the next six months, what to expect? Well I hope to have our St Peters home rented out in a few months, just doing some repairs and patch ups at present then onto the rental market. That should free up some cash and I can start planning the garage and the chicken coup/run.
As far as the vege patches hopefully have at least another 6 in before Spring hits – we really want to become semi self sufficient by then.
We have now seen two seasons here and so far only a small surprise with the location of the winter sun, Lynsey’s room gets no direct sun in the winter so it is the coldest room, not sure what we will do about that. Anyway to the next 6 months.
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March 30th, 2008 AndrewD
Well after a week of hot weather, which all of Australia got hit with – the last hurrah of summer, autumn has now well and truly hit with this week mornings dropping to single digits (the coldest being 3 degrees and the daily max temperatures all being under 20).
The thing about that last hurrah of heat was that the house eves provided very little in the way of shade onto the house as the angle of the earth had moved slightly (obviously for autumn) and the sun came directly onto the house heating it up – so we felt the full effect of the the 34+ heat. In summer with the sun being higher we shade the house pretty well.
Now with this cool weather I am guessing that the sweet corn won’t develop fully. It was put in late, but I will leave it another week before I pull up everything in Vege Patch #1 give it a shot of manure and plant some more in there.
Also we now have a new kitten called Pixie. This was picked up from one of Lynsey’s friends in Sydney when we went down to also watch the mighty Blue Bags (Newtown Jets).
Posted in Animals, Family | No Comments »
March 1st, 2008 AndrewD
Well last (weekend of the 23rd of Feb) week we went to the Royal Canberra Agriculture Show – a bit like the Show in Sydney at Easter time, but a lot smaller, but I believe more fun. All the same rides and show bags but less people and the entry fee is about half the price. Of course there was no horses on show due to last years equine flu but over all we had an enjoyable day.
Another reason for going is that at home we have been discussing what type of dog we should get and approx 3 months ago I found a breed which seems to have ticked all the boxes – and we had been in contact with a breeder of them, as luck would have it she was going to be at the show, so we met her and she introduced us to her dogs which we believe will be the perfect dog for us, so hopefully come April there will be one for us. For those that do not know here is a bit on the Swedish Vallhund from Wikipedia “The Swedish Vallhund is a breed of dog. It is believed that the Swedish Vallhund distinguished itself during the age of Vikings, more than 1,000 years ago. Known as the “Viking dog”, the Vallhund were bred to herd cattle, catch vermin (such as rats), and guard the home. The Vallhund were also referred to as “the little cattle dog of the Vikings”.
Lynsey on the cop motor bike
Alyssa and I on the ferris wheel
Posted in Animals, Family | 2 Comments »
February 4th, 2008 AndrewD
Well Lynsey and Alyssa started school midway thru last week (Wed 30th Jan). Lynsey the eldest daughter is now in Year 7 (1st year of high school – Yass High) and Alyssa in now in 1st class (Berimba Public). While Lynsey will cope OK (I hope) Alyssa has always had her ‘big sister’ at school to help her, she does not know what it is like not to have Lynsey around – but so far so good.
Also Alyssa has started sleeping back in Lysney’s bunk bed with Lynsey on the bottom bunk. This is despite the fact that Alyssa does have her own bedroom. She is OK to go to her room and play etc, she just does not want to sleep in it by herself.
Posted in Family, School | No Comments »
