Trees are awesome

Silly chook

Someone has not told Quail that chooks like a private, peaceful area to lay eggs. The shed bench is quiet, yes, and with the shadecloth quite nest-like and comfortable. But quiet? Well, see the generator? I was going out to turn it off. With all the rain lately we've needed it occasionally to charge the solar and do all our power-needing activities in a flurry.

I'll have to make her a little pair of fluffy earmuffs.

Pants for Frosty

I realised the other evening, upon getting ready to go out on a cool-ish night, that my poor baby has no pants suitable for public view. Luckily he didn't need the ratty old rainbow fleece trackies I chucked in the bag, but next time he'll be stylish and prepared.

Side view

I've held off hemming them for now, as he may not need them for a few more months yet. Love Queensland!

12 months, 12 sewing challenges.

This is an awesome idea for me-it will get more of my projects off the to-do list and on the done list!

First up is something for me-i'm going to have a dig through my patterns and fabric tomorrow to see what I can come up with. I have a lot of things i've collected over the years so it may be a difficult choice. I can guarantee, however, that it will be clothing. I was not given a 'love to shop' gene, and my habit of only walking into clothes shops with five kids in tow when I have nothing suitable left for wearing in public has resulted in a rather boring wardrobe-i'm sure people think I must never wash my clothes as i'm always wearing the same one. (The nursing singlets were on sale, I have three black ones. Promise.)

December

And what a hectic month it was-first up there was lots and lots of work to do, hence the totally shameful table.

But I managed to squeeze in finalising the OSFM swim nappy pattern, in amongst the market busyness and custom orders-now just to make some for the site!

 

We had our Land for Wildlife assessment and got our really cool sign, woohoo! Lots of lantana clearing and reading has been a result, with our planning visit due in a few days time.

A goat appeared one day, it's not every day i'm sitting there feeding Frosty and look out the window to see one of them ambling past. He was duly returned to his home a few properties down after overnighting here on a run, luckily before he reached the food forest. Or he would have been chevon.

 We had a broody chook comedy occur (more about that later) and have nine chicks as a result. So cute!

Which necessitated the building of a mini chook dome, much more successful result than the Linda Woodrow one (more about that later too).

 Bella and Daisy the geese joined the family.

The food forest area has been pimped and is loving the rain that finally arrived-the resident brush turkey is a fan of the renos too.

The fairy garden was also pimped after the chooks turned it into a wasteland-it is now fenced as we try to come up with the final housing solution for them. The solar lanterns automatically turn on at dusk, which has been taken as concrete proof that fairies are there.

Christmas crafts and baking, with much camera slackery.

 

 

And sewing presents-five stocking to replace their ratty old bought things they had.

 

A Chickummyjig for F, which he ignores and the other kids adore.

 

Plus aprons and a pair of shorts each for the older four, more camera slackery.

Lots of playing with presents, but I only do it because the kids love it. You wouldn't catch my by myself. Never. *snort*

 

My babe turned one, and i'm still thinking it's all up from here :P

 Plus a few trips to the beach, a pile of tie-dyeing, renovating the kids room and half the kitchen and lots more gardening and general tidying of the property, it's finally starting to look like a home.

And this is why the blogging is sloooow-looking at the above i'm surprised at how much we've managed to cram into one short month!

Ha! Dream on lady!

One of R’s therapies is provided by a visiting person at the school instead of home because we live out of town. At his last appointment a few weeks ago the principal came to say hello, assuming that Master R would become a student in her special ed class in two years. The rest of the kids were out playing with dad in the playground, and of course she wondered when they would be coming to school. Homeschooling, said I. Oh, said she, and it was pretty plain that she sees homeschooling as a funny little indulgence, and one that i’d get over pretty quickly when I saw how fantastic the school was. As if walls full of cookie-cutter art could somehow convince me. I declined her invitation for a tour and she went back to work. That’s about the last I thought of it.

I received an interesting thing in my postbox last week-three sets of enrolment forms and an information pack from my local primary school, assumedly for the three school age girls. Interesting because I didn’t actually request it. Interesting because I made it rather clear that I wasn’t interested in sending them to school. And so all up it was rather bloody offensive. The husband was spitting chips, it took a while for the steam to stop coming out of his ears.

So I did the only sensible thing-took all the forms in and informed them politely but firmly that I had not filled them out and was returning them because I didn’t require them now, or anytime in the future. The secretary knew who I was from the names on the envelope, so there’s obviously been some gossip about the poor misguided homeschoolers.

Hopefully that is the last I hear from them, but I suspect not. However, if they think they’re going to have an easy time of getting my kids into their school they’re going to get a nasty shock-they’re not having them. Unfortunately for them I am one of the most stubborn, contrary people they’re likely to come across!

Desk, schmesk

Who needs a desk and a uniform when you have the great outdoors, your bikini and gumboots?