Some cool days

We’ve had a couple of beautiful cool blustery days, and cold evenings, which we know is going to give way soon, only to be followed next week by some fairly serious hot summer weather –  but right this minute, the late afternoon shafts of sunlight are coming down through the trees spot-lighting the thick still-to-be-mown grass, turning the deep, rich greens to emerald brilliance; and the shadows cast by the tall gums along the fence line are lengthening, as the day slowly draws to a close…

There is a brick new-build going up a couple of paddocks over, and it has risen from the ground with such astonishing speed, that already the roof is on.

It seems that each time we look, they are so much closer to their finish line – but rather than it making us feel slow or inept, it has just become something we’ve watched and marvelled at.

Yes, our simple home could easily have been at completion by now, if we had thrown the money, the staff, and the endless hours at it that those folks over yonder have done – but for us – that would have defeated a big part of our purpose, and the reasoning of the how and the why we are doing what we’re doing…

Things that have been accomplished this week:

• M&B came over and spent a couple of hours at the Farm, and Magical M fixed up the ride-on with a nice new fan belt – and of course removing that sneaky little piece of stick that had hidden itself lodged between the deck and one of the blades assisted greatly too – and its back in action, and the mowing of the paddock has once again commenced in earnest, in between weekend appointments.

• While M was fixing said ride-on, once we’d got suitably filled up on coffee and conversation, B helped put up a ‘visual wall’ made with curtains and insulation tape, as we’d been tossing around the idea of rejigging the internal design, and moving the bathroom – and now that we’ve been able to get a spacial feel for what the area would be like if we did move the bathroom – we’ve decided that we definitely will….Well its definite this week anyways!
  Its such a huge blessing for us to have these two wonderful people as our friends. Whether its a simple coffee, or a chat, or a dinner-date, or a helping hand – they’re up for anything – and always have a smile, a hug, and lots of encouraging words to go with it…We can only hope that we bring to their lives, even just a small part of what they’ve brought to ours…

• Another two sheets of insulation have been put up, and we’re already noticing the difference when we come out and open up the shed.
  Its already waaaay cooler inside than pre-insulation, and so far we’ve only got just under 50% of under the roof done – so it bodes well for when we get it all finished!
  For now though, we’ve run out of insulation, so have to wait until we can get another roll before we can get back on with that job.

• More boxes have been scrounged, imported, stripped down and laid out for the big veggie garden, and clods of dirt plopped on them to hold them temporarily in place, until the edging and soil is added.

• We’ve had some yummy meals this week – last nights dinner was based on a jar of our ‘Strigidae Salsa’ and some Strigidae-grown zucchini, and we’ve had some super scrummy salads, with lettuce also grown on the Farm – the tomatoes are all starting to fruit, and the raspberry and sweet potato are both throwing out loads of gorgeous new growth – as are the Kipfler potatoes, and the zucchini.
  We desperately need to get some new garden beds going, and planted into, as the conditions are just perfect at the moment and picking your own produce for dinner sure beats paying a fortune at the supermarket – and the taste is ohhhh soooo much better!
  We’ve also – sadly – just about come to the end of our current carrot crop, and don’t have many meals left before they’re all gone, so we need to get more in the ground as soon as we can, as theyre one of the things that take a while before you can actually get results.
  Ideally – we would have planted a crop a month or two ago, to overlap with the end of this crop – but as yet we just don’t have the beds to put them into…maybe next season…

• We’ve dragged the metal frame we got a few weeks ago, out of where its been stored, and have commenced designing and turning it into “Palais de Poochi” – aka a dog house. Its looking preeeety darn cute already too, and will even have a deck out front. We’re discussing flower beds along the side walls, but are reasonably sure that Sir Pissalot (Digby) will eat them…..we’ll see…..

Sooo – the plan is that we’ll go out to the Farm mid-week after work hopefully, and get a bit more done on the small shed – we just got a bit sidetracked with other stuff this weekend lol
(Palais de Poochi kinda took on a life of its own…!)

Have a good week all :))