Garden notes August

The good old girls are laying pretty well. I only had to buy two dozen eggs this year to get me through their "going off the lay " or moulting period. I check the hen house about three times a day when I'm at home as the chooks get muddy feet at this time of the year and their eggs get dirty if left in the nest.The porous eggshell can absorb the dirt and muck so I like to collect them quickly. While I'm at it I walk around the garden checking out the early spring movement with warm eggs in my coat pocket, I can't wait to see some movement in the asparagus patch.
The red head likes helping with seed sowing
so we planted another lot of cress to put on the windowsill.

I'm doing quite a few sprouts as the garden only has leeks, lettuce, silver beet, hardy herbs and brassicas at the moment. My seed catalogue arrived though making me feel a little excited about the change of season.
There are still a flock of roosters in the glasshouse getting fat. My Dad has agreed to help me kill and pluck them within the next few weeks. I saw an idea in the New Zealand gardener magazine which sounds good for spring. That is to build a hot compost in the glasshouse to keep the spring seedlings warm. It sound worth a try I think as the seedlings in the sunroom are now threatening to take over.

Alot of pruning still to finish here, waiting for some clear weather. Must get out to the beach for some seaweed and past the horse paddock for a few bags of poo.

Roll on spring!

Nearly 16

The kids know how to make me smile, it makes my day.

My first question when the kids ask for a new friend over is "Is he/she a good eater?"

They know I'm not going to cook special dinners which cater to a fusspot who doesn't eat veges. I know, a bit selfish on my part but I've raised my kids to be quite independent, eat what's in front of them and to pick up after themselves, most of the time the family works like a well oiled machine. I get a bit of hassle from them but I think they feel secure with the routine. They do all think it's disgusting how one of the teens regular overnight guests leaves plates, cups and tissues everywhere and is never ready to go on time. Grrrr. So anyway we've got a sports billet coming from Christchurch in the weekend which will mean a shuffle round of bedrooms and a bit of a de- clutter to fit another teen in the house for a few days.

This morning I made cheese on toast for the kids to take in their school lunches. My teen is notoriously lazy about making food so I try not to do it for him in the hope that he will be driven to prepare his own delicious snacks. (Not a particularly effective strategy I might add.) anyway he spied the cheese on toast for the younger children and gave me a sad face to take some in his lunch. He thought it was terribly unfair that I only gave him one and his sister got two. I must mention he excels in drama and spent the next 15 minutes before school trying to make me feel like the most heinous mother in the universe. Which of course made me laugh, but he went in for the kill as he walked out the door , teasing "HEY MUM, I hope the billet is reeaally neeedy!"

Little rotter!!

Totally unrelated but making me smile as well, some of the book fair girls are finished

I might even give them an outing at the indoor market this weekend.

Some Sewing

Hard frost but warm winter days here.

I haven't been working in the garden though, I received a bag full of fabric to inspire me, with a request for a soft doll.

That was enough motivation to spend the day cutting, sewing and ironing, all with a bent neck from talking to a friend on the phone in Aussie for most of the day as well. (must multi task of course)

I cut out half a dozen because our school is fundraising for a new pool. They are collecting pre -loved books, homemade produce and items for a craft stall. The latter being right up my alley I think this batch of softies will fit the bill perfectly.

I hope we'll still be here to enjoy the pool for a few summers to come, but regardless this awesome little country school has encouraged our children to their full potential over the past 5 years. I admire the parents who home school or unschool their children but feel blessed to have found a school which looks at the child as an individual and encourages creativity and confidence especially in art and music so well.

BROOKLYN SCHOOL BOOK AND COUNTRY FAIR 31st OCTOBER.

As well, a smock for me, a tad too big, but not as hideous as usually results when sewing for myself. A trio of bags nearly finished for "Potters Patch".

And some lanky looking lettuces and other seeds in the sun room. Some are covered with vermiculite available from Egmont seeds It was given to me by a friend and I find it works well to aid seedlings when germinating.

I notice lots of visitors from the Northern Hemisphere are stopping by my blog for garlic plaiting instructions which means they're heading for Autumn/Fall and we're heading for SPRING!!!! Wicked, I can't wait!

An orange study

I like orange.

I'm kicking myself for not getting the orange glass candlesticks I saw at the recycling centre yesterday.

Cold wet garden

July in our cold, wet, frosty garden is not yielding much to eat. A lot of the brassicas I planted are getting frosted, which means I should concentrate on getting a bit more shelter established. If I forage around I can find: coriander, calendula, leeks, lettuce, brussel sprouts, spring onions, mizuna, mustard, fennel seeds, silver beet, beetroot, celery, corn salad, nettle, pumpkins and carrots. Though many of the greens have been nibbled by a chook or burnt by the frost . Lucky the bach has a good mandarin tree and I have some good stores saved.

After months of little enthusiasm I got motivated to plant more garlic and shallots this week. I also felt sorry for the roosters I am fattening, because the weather is so cold I've given them the glasshouse to scratch around in. They will fertilise and clear it for me since I didn't manage to get a crop in there. I'm spoilt to also have the small tunnel house which has mesculen mix, peas and brassicas growing slowly but surely for spring. Not sure why I'm getting a ground moss in there this year though.

It's too wet for pruning, and too cold for planting seeds here at the moment. The snow is down quite low on the mountain, we've got the fire roaring but I think we should take up the Government's offer of subsidising some under floor insulation.

4

The child named after an angel turned 4 today. He's the one God gave me because he knows better than me, the one that defied man made contraceptives and herbal Emmenagogues to come into our family.
I read so many eloquent blogs and wish I could describe how blessed I feel to have the four beautiful children God gave me. However he did not give me the gift to put my thoughts into words. Simply they make each day worth getting up for, they make me proud though I don't deserve it, they make me feel loved unconditionally, they make me consider my every action, smile for the simple things and want to grow old for.

Just a little knitting

This basket of wool illustrates how easily I can be distracted from things I should be doing. I sorted out my stash trying to find something suitable to knit skatey boy a hoodie from the Son of stitch n bitch book. I did not find any yarn in my suitcases for the project. I found lots of small bits leftover from other projects which I sorted to give away. Then I found this pattern

and couldn't resist giving it a go. I'd like to knit enough of them as party favours for the red head's 4th birthday coming up. He's never had a party of his own with his friends before, so far we've only had family celebrations because I'm very turned off by the idea of a junk fuelled plastic party which alot of kids expect to have. I was very inspired by images of celebrations at small wonders, involving earthy crafts and gifts and am thinking along those lines for the red head.

Next Saturday the 4th of July a friend of mine has organised an indoor market, a first for our town to be held in the War Memorial hall. I hope the community turn out in force to support local crafts people and community in a nice warm atmosphere. I think there may still be room for stall holders so get in quick if you have some goods to offer.

Midwinter- make wheat bags

We can't find the wheat bag that skatey boy created at school, when he bought it home though everybody wanted it for warming up their feet and achy bones. I found some dried herbs I saved last summer and raided the chooks wheat to make some more.

Since they all wanted one then and there we didn't muck around with creative shapes just some nice soft micro fleece squares.

A few words of warning: The chook wheat was quite dusty and needed winnowing so it didn't aggravate the asthma. I'd buy food grade in future for asthmatics or dried corn sounds like a good alternative too.

We heat them in the microwave for two minutes and always with a glass of water to keep the grains moist. I'm not to sure how long they will last but if you are going to add herbs like I did just keep an eye out that they don't create a fire hazard. I did a wee bit of searching for advice, the message seems to be don't overheat, always add the glass of water.

There are reports of wheat bags catching fire so be responsible.

The solstice passed me by this year without much notice. The midwinter lack of energy and sick family making it too much effort to celebrate. The kids all perked up just enough to spend a few hours in good company in the winter sunshine on Saturday afternoon.

I'm not sure if I'll manage to get up early this week to see Matariki rise either.

The "red head" is very slowly recovering, I must say in my almost 16 years of being a Mum I don't think I've had a child so sick for so long before. My Mum came and gave me a little bit of time out because you wouldn't believe how much a week of whinging can bring you down.

I tried alot of creative ideas to make him happy. We raided the art cupboard for stickers, stamps, paper, glue, paint etc. None of that worked, neither did books cuddles or DVDs. He was off his food in a big way and has lost quite a bit of weight, the teen also lost 5kg and even once he got well enough for school he came home every day and slept.

Finally I happened on an idea for "red" that sustained his interest enough to forget about his aches and pains:

A squirty bottle with water!

He did a great job "cleaning" all the windows in the play space even if he did get the carpet and sofa a bit wet. It was worth it to have some peace.

Cough

Thanks for all those warm wishes on my last post. My sympathy to everyone else dealing with kid's winter ills, Briar mentioned being at the faintly hysterical stage, I can so relate to that! We sat at the emergency Dr's yesterday for hours because the red head's cough was developing into asthma which I find very scary to deal with in the middle of the night. A thorough search at home did not turn up the spacer the Dr gave us last winter to administer Ventolin, (totally beyond natural healing at this point) so there we were in in a cold waiting room full of people who would rather have been home by the fire I suspect, as the poor Dr struggled on his own to keep up. The red head impatiently wailed and whinged as each person went in before us until a nice man taking pity on me (or fed up with the persistent grizzling) let us go before him. The doc told me he'd done 3 swabs for swine flu that day, Y U C K! I was glad to get out of there with the spacer and some panadol ( I admit defeat) and home to the warm fire. I didn't get much more sleep than the previous few nights but the "red" was a little more cheerful today and so was I. The sun shone so I got three loads of washing almost dry. You have to count your small blessings don't you?

Midwinter at our place

The sound of winter coughs has been echoing around and around our house all week. The teen, who loves school has had to take a week off and the red head is miserable but won't take anything that's offered to make him feel better. I wake up in the night to the noise of sleepless coughing or am kicked in the back by a wee boy needing comfort and a tepid flannel to cool him down.
Exhausting being a Mum sometimes, not having any time to my own thoughts is tiring too.

I looked back at last years garden pics and was a bit depressed at how much better the garden was progressing this time last year. I let too many weeds go to seed in late summer and Autumn this year. On the plus side alot of red mustard, silver beet and lettuces went to seed so there are alot of fresh greens.

To coincide with the week of coughing, we've had some pretty heavy rain which has stimulated a bit of growth, (I'm glad I got that garlic in) and look what I noticed on my nursery table:

BABY PINE NUTS! Collected back in February . Looks like I'm going to get a fairly good strike, it will probably take three years to get them to a size to give away and likely 15 -25 years before they produce but here they are beginning life in 2009.