Hello 2019!
Hello 2019…
Good Grief!!
It’s beyond ridiculous that not only are we saying Hello 2019, but have already said good-bye to January!!
So – Hello 2019 – we see you’re starting as you mean to continue – by zooming along at a great rate, and leaving us sitting in your dust with a bamboozled look on our faces – wondering just how those weeks just flew on by without us realizing it!!!
Weather-wise – for the most part it hasn’t been too too hot – with the rains having continued, and thus we’ve been unable to mow, so the house-yard and paddocks are now a stinking quagmire and the grass is growing at a crackin’ rate.
Drought to deluge…
We’ve had over 11” in less than a week, and are now almost at the point again – that tends to happen about once a year on average – when the grass gets away from us, and we have to get someone in, to come deal with it.
The rain isn’t looking like letting up any time soon according to the weather bureau, so we think it’s probably a ‘given’ at this point!
Our Family members further south around the Townsville / Charters Towers area are doing it super tough right now…
They’ve had well over a metre of rain, with at least another metre expected.
There have been mass flooding, evacuations, loss of belongings etc, and there isn’t an end to it yet in sight – though our Sister says they’re hearing that hopefully there will be some respite in view by Thursday…
So far they are all safe and well though, and whilst it is always heartbreaking and hard to lose possessions, Life is far more precious than anything one could ever own – so we treasure that they are all currently safe…
Our Big Bertha stainless fridge finally gave in and came to a screeching halt about a fortnight ago.
Thankfully the freezer section of it kept working for another few days, so we didn’t lose all our frozen food.
We’ve had to drag our small fridge back out of storage in the shed.
It has been our backup for over 13 years, and we have loaned it out many times to various friends and children over time, so now it’s back into service for the time being – until we manage to get a new bigger fridge.
Our upright freezer had to have an impromptu clean-out as well, to be able to fit the freezer contents from Big Bertha in as well – but it was well overdue, so it was good to get it done.
It’s a bit of a game of ’Tetris’ trying to put the groceries away at the moment, but we couldn’t get a new one delivered right now anyways – the truck would get bogged! lol
In other not fun news of the day – Ratticus is back!!
Time to set a trap or two we thinks…
As many of you will also have seen on Fb, Constance decided to pay a visit to our bedroom late one evening a week or so back, so Hayley & Jon came and extracted her for us.
She’s allowed to coexist in with us in the shed and office/laundry areas, but inside the Farmhouse is out of bounds…
We know she was just trying to get away from all the wet (and probably would have sorted out the Ratticus issue!) but it’s still not ok to be inside.
We figure that Blaze may have also had a lil bit of a ‘run-in’ with her, as he is now a seriously anxiety-ridden cat, unable to settle, constantly on the alert, and if you inadvertently touch him, he leaps about 6 feet up and away with legs going in all directions.
It would be (and sometimes still is!) kinda funny, if it wasn’t also kinda sad… 😐
Neither of us has been sleeping particularly well for the last couple of months, and it’s been taking a bit of a toll – so we took two nights away recently after taking the puppies to the resort, so we could have two nights/mornings of uninterrupted-by-animals sleep!
Whilst we didn’t fully catch up, it was good to just be able to rest our minds and bodies for a short while…
There are a few little thought-bubbles percolating at present about how to accomplish a bedroom that has only US in it…
January also saw us being somewhat ‘social butterflies’ – which is rather out of the ordinary!
New Years Eve saw us at our neighbours M&M for drinks, nibbles and some dinner.
It was a lovely evening or relaxed conversation and thankfully we didn’t have too far to go to get home 😀 😀
We caught up with our ‘Boy-Friends’ – A&B – for lunch at the Palm Cove Tavern when went away for the two nights, and time spent with that pair is always precious and a lot of fun.
Australia Day weekend we went to dinner with some workmates out at Rangeview – whom we’re also lucky enough to count on amongst our list of friends.
Another wonderful evening with a lot of laughter, and great mateship.
Tomorrow is going to be a bit of an exciting day in the life of Strigidae Farm – but you’re just going to have to wait or keep an eye out on our Fb page, to find out why! 🙂
Big Bertha died, and we have had to re-commission our old fridge into service.
…but first – everything in it needed a good scrub!
A kiddie pool makes an excellent large-sized ‘sink’ for awkward items. lol
and the freezer had a good cleanout and re-pack as well.
Time to make some pasta sauce!
Gorgeous tomatoes.
Then some capsicum and onions
Add salt, lemon, herbs and spices – give it all a good stir, and we’re on our way!
Getting it ready to undergo the canning process.
Cool for 24hrs undisturbed, take off the bands, and its good to go into storage for a year or so!
(it wont last that long in this lil home tho!)
Maaaaa – the rains are ‘ere!
Yep – you’re right – the guys doing the contouring took too long to make it here, and now its too damn wet for them to be able to do it! Typical…
ankle deep near these beds…
The Lilli-Pilli is fruiting like crazy, so a rainy day called for some jelly/jam making.
beautiful crisp tart fruit.
(also great in salads in case you haven’t tried that yet..)
gorgeous color – Lilli-Pilli jelly
One whole day the rains stopped for – but Dusk still needed to keep drinking from the puddles
Pretty-girl Constance
Watch this space…..!!!
(yes – that is bread in the oven lol)
