Author Archives: zefiart

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About zefiart

Blogger, DIY-er, poodle lover, graphic designer, dog groomer, recycler, artist, wonder woman in my spare time.

name and shame…

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Yes, he’s so cute.
He looks so sweet and innocent. Dopey even. Mommy’s boy. A sook and a cuddler.
 
But leave him alone in the house with nothing to do and this is what I come back to:
Romeo.
Yep. That’s the one.
He’s not so innocent or sweet after all.
He’s a pillow killer. And a doona killer (who can forget this?)…
And, it turns out… he’s the chook killer.
Not that I have proof. But the circumstantial evidence is mounting up.
Yesterday he was out in the paddock for ages with Wayne as he worked on the stable (which, btw, is looking great). He was good all day.
Then, just as Wayne was getting ready to knock off and come in, Romeo went off after a chook. I heard the squalking and the swearing and ran out. We called him off the chase, but he did it.
There’s no denying the fact that he went after a chook.
Sigh.
Anyhow, here is the stable – the third bay is up, walls finished. All it needs is a roof (and guttering and a rainwater tank) which the guys will be putting up this weekend . If all goes well. Looks like we’ll have stables for the horses for this winter!
Meanwhile we’re looking after a friend’s golden retriever while she’s on a bushwalk for 3 days. He’s a gorgeous boy. Who can resist those soulful eyes?
His name is Maru. She adopted him when the chinese students who owned him returned to their country and left him behind about 8 years ago. She said she’d foster him till he found a new home and a week turned into years. He’s 12 now.
The poodles noses were out of joint but I’m not sure who’s more worried about who… I know Maru is a bit worried about going into poodle territory unless I’m there to usher him in (he clings to me, so sweet), but I’ve seen the way the poodles both give him ample personal space.
Maru will grumble and let them know when he’s not happy!
Anyway, there’s a truce going on now, he’s been accepted as part of the pack so all is well. Though he’s NEVER allowed out into the paddock. He doesn’t know horses and I thought Wally had surely killed him last time he went out there (while he was visiting with his mom). He went for Wally not realising that Wally doesn’t back off to dogs, then flopped into a submissive position when Wally returned fire. Our dogs know to run when horses go after them. So Wally stomped on him. That’s what I saw. Wayne says he didn’t… but I was sure we had a dead dog. 
Thankfully he’s fine and that was over a week ago now.
Phew.
A chook killing poodle is more than enough to deal with!
z

a new place to store eggs

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Today was a day of relaxation and enjoying eachother’s company at Wind Dancer. No house painting.

We started the day with a sleep in, some time just sitting quietly and watching our animals, a brunch of french toast, bacon, maple syrup and banana… Then we spent some time reading and relaxing.

Then we went grocery shopping.

Ok, that wasn’t relaxing but we started out going for a drive to a small town I thought we’d be able to have a coffee in a cute cafe and explore the antique shops. Turns out the town had ONE antique shop and no cafes… Who knew?

Anyway, since I haven’t done much new lately in terms of craft or decorating, I thought I’d share my cute little egg cabinet. I found this at a local op shop a couple of weeks ago. I just loved it! Had to have it. Even Wayne agreed it was gorgeous.

So now I’m the one in charge of storing our eggs cause I have a strict rotation system. Fresh eggs go into the cabinet, then when that fills up, are moved into the fridge. Wayne tried to grasp my rotation method but decided it was safer to just let me handle it.

I now find eggs all over the kitchen where he leaves them for me to store.

On the subject of eggs… we lost 2 chickens in the last 2 days.

I’m not impressed. I found one of our black chooks dead in the yard yesterday afternoon, and this afternoon Wayne found one of the brown ones dead.

Both had been obviously killed by the dogs. But this is what I don’t get. Yesterday morning when Wayne went out to the hen house, one of the black hens must have come into the yard… But neither he, nor I heard any sounds at all.

Later on, while grooming, poodles locked in the house and Barney and Mischa in the yard, I did hear some loud sound. I went outside and saw nothing untoward, thought I’d simply heard the rooster crowing and went back to work.

Well, now I think it was Barney and Mischa killing that chook. Because there was no sound of squabbles or anything later on when all the dogs were in the yard.

This afternoon when Wayne went out to feed the chickens and put them in the coop he said he was there, with the dogs the whole time. He said they ran around and ignored the ducks and chickens like they usually do. There was no chasing or squalking or sounds you’d associate with a chicken hunt. Yet there was a dead chicken with obvious bite marks on her and still warm.

I just don’t get it. They’ve all been so good at ignoring the chickens for so long, why this suddenly?

I am heartbroken.

On a happier note, one of our chickens is sitting on 5 eggs. We plan to catch them soon as they hatch and put them in a pen to get them through chick-hood. If we don’t the birds or stray cat we’ve seen around here will get them as they do the ducklings.

We’ve lost all the ducklings we had a couple of weeks ago.

Sigh.

Its nature I guess.

z

house painting progress – slow

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Why is it that things always take so much longer than you anticipate?

I’ve been painting pretty much all day. Six hours at least. And I haven’t even finished the first coat of the short side of the house!

I started off by finishing the top right hand corner of the mud room under the porch where I had to stop when it started raining the other day, then moved along painting the whole south side of the house.

I filled my paint bucket 3 times, telling myself that when I finished the 3rd refill I’d quit for the day. I really thought I’d have it all done by the time I finished the 3rd bucket. I only took one quick break to have some chocolate when I realised how hungry I was and found there was nothing I could have a quick snack of in the fridge. I forgot about the twiggy salami sticks. I just had those now. 

I was sure I’d finish the whole side within my 3 bucklet limit, but as it turns out I didn’t. I was THIS close!

But by the time I got to the end of the paint in my little bucket I was absolutely buggered. My arm is killing me, I have callouses on my middle finger where I rest the brush and my legs are sore me from balancing precariously on the ladder.

I need a higher ladder…

Sigh.

I’m exhausted.

I don’t mind the actual work. I quite like painting. Plus I had Jeffrey Deaver and Lincoln Rhyme to keep me company as I painted (audio books have saved me on many occasions!) But man, the time!

I guess using a 2in brush doesn’t help.

(I tried using a bigger brush, 3in, but the weight of it was harder to handle with my sore arm.)

So, what do you think? The colour is strangely lighter than the sample I’d painted on the walls inside and outside the mudroom to live with for the last year to be sure its what I wanted for the house. Perhaps it will darken with the 2nd coat. Still, I think its ok.

Later on I might consider painting the small timber shed you can see behind the house and the garage a darker shade of this grey.

I wish the roof was dark grey, not that blue. But what can you do? I ain’t getting up there to paint that!

z

yeah, no…

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There’s a very common expression here in Australia which kinda doesn’t make sense when you first hear it…
“Yeah, no.”
You hear it everywhere. Confusing? Not really. Its pretty simple – it means “Yes, I hear you, but no, I don’t agree.”
Merrill said it the other day and that’s when she realised she’d been living in Australia too long. I, on the other hand, have been saying it for so long I’ve lost track…
The weather has cooled down a lot since since the heatwave of last week which left me in a puddle in front of a fan and an evaporative cooler. On Tuesday I had to stop painting when the paint flew off my brush in the wind. And yesterday it was downright cold outside.
Today its meant to be 20-26 degrees, overcast and possibly some early showers… I hope for no showers as I want to get out and start painting again. But its still pretty cool and very windy. 
How do house painters do it? If I was a house painter I’d starve to death. I think I’d only be able to work about 10 days out of 365…
Speaking of painting, I started a commission yesterday since it was a non-house-painting day.
This is a portrait of a friend’s dogs. I’m doing this in return for 2 adirondack chairs and a matching table which her husband makes. Cool swap huh?
This is stage 1 of the portrait:
And this is one of the chairs he makes. Mine will be painted solid turquoise and will sit on our deck facing the dam.
We visited their house on New Year’s Eve for the first time. She has a cute little ‘secret garden’ thing happening which I love.
A cray pot with a cute tiny ivy growing through it houses a family of wrens. I took some of that ivy but I don’t think any of it survived the heatwave… 😦
A few cute weathered fence paling bird houses hang in arbours or off trees.
Cute fountains here and there..
Driftwood sculptures and washed up marine objects decorate the garden – what else would you have in a seaside cottage?
I better go outside and check the wind strength vs my ability to keep paint on my brush.

z


house painting – taking the first step

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Well, I finally got started doing something productive on my holiday. Like painting the house. The outside of the house.
Ever since we moved here I’ve wanted to paint the house a different colour to the one it is currently. I don’t particularly like that creamy yellow colour every other house seems to be painted. Like there’s been a huge sale on that colour for the last 15 years…
It took me a while to pick the colour I wanted and I spent many drives dangerously paying more attention to the houses on either side than the road ahead. I’d gone for a pale grey green for my house in Fentonbury and I still love that colour, but I wanted something different this time. More grey… but a warm grey.
I found a house I absolutely loved one day and I’d found my colour! I put a note in the letterbox asking the owners if they knew the name of the colour. Surprisingly, I got an email letting me know the colour was Wattyl White Pepper. Fantastic. 
Step 1 accomplished. I had the colour of my dream home.
Of course, our house is downright ugly compared to the house of my inspiration, but with the addition of the porch and the new enclosed mud room its not quite as bad as it used to be, though there’s no chance it will win any beauty contests any time soon.
So, I had my colour picked out. All I had to do was wait till my holiday to get started. 
Then I had to wait till the Christmas busy-ness was over.
Then I had to wait for the weather to get better.
I finally started working on it after the worst of the heat wave was over. First I had to evict quite a few birds from their nests. Then I got out the high pressure water cleaner and hosed down the south side of the house (the short, shady side).
First I undercoated the raw timber on the mud room and the blue aluminium window frames on the south side.
Today I started the first topcoat on the newly undercoated mudroom walls. I was doing great till the wind picked up so much it blew paint right off my brush. When it started drizzling I knew it was time to stop for the day.
Only in Tasmania can we go from 33 degrees one day to cold the next. 
The dogs, of course, were there to help me every step of the way!

More pics to come as I get more done.

z

smokin’ hot

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This was the view from our front porch 2 nights ago. The bushfire started at Lake Repulse by idiot campers who didn’t put out a campfire (great name for a holiday destination huh? “Hey honey, lets go to Lake Repulse for a weekend getaway”….) spread down towards Ellendale and all the way down to Bushy Park. 
Fortunately for me, Fentonbury was spared although the fire went within 1 kilometre of the house.
The smoke has been hanging around the entire Derwent Valley and Hobart for days now, but we’ve been lucky. Nothing like what happened with the fires down south where a whole town burned down and thousands of people had to be evacuated by boat cause the roads were all closed. People had to stand in the sea to escape the flames which burned right down to the beach.
Its wierd. Here I am watching the news, seeing images of the fires and thinking “that doesn’t look that bad, they’re just small fires”… nothing like the huge fireballs in Victoria a few years ago which burned out King Lake and killed so many people. Compared to those fires, these were piddling little fires.
Seems the size of the fire doesn’t have to be so BIG to do a ton of damage…
We’ve been fine here but it really does make you realise that there are certain things you should have when you choose to live in the country. For instance, on Wind Dancer Farm we have bore water so we have ample water to defend our house and our animals. But without power we’d be lost like everyone else. We really need to buy a generator to run the pump. Cause if there was a fire in our valley we’d have to give serious consideration to what we’d choose to do… if a fire was coming down the hill behind us and our road out was clear, we could just leave. We could take the dogs, but what about the horses?
If a fire was coming up from below us and closed off the road, we’d have no choice but to stay and fight. And to do that we’d need the pump to work.
Since we have pasture around the house and very few trees we think we could easily fight a fire around the house using our irrigation system.
We just need a generator.
Shopping list: 
1 petrol generator.
z

junk finds

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Over the last few months I’ve quietly been adding to my collection of junk. I’ve been so busy, however, that I didn’t have time to actually sort through it, photograph it or decide what to work on or how.
The other day, being on holidays and all that, I finally got the chance to go through my booty and take photos which I thought I’d share.
The one downside is that I bought a milk bottle carrier from the tip shop and I can’t find it anywhere. I know I bought it. I remember it clearly. I was thrilled to find it cause I was picturing it on the table as a centrepiece, jam jars where the milk bottles would be, holding cutlery, napkins and lavender… or holding my blue sea glass bottles with flowers…
But its nowhere to be found. And I’ve searched repeatedly.
I’m holding out hope… barely. Maybe its somewhere under something, behind something in the shed…
Fingers crossed.
So, meanwhile, let me share these finds with you.
A very large wooden bowl, one of the wooden bowls I’ve added to my project list. This would look great painted and holding fruit on my table…
An interesting brass trivet. One of a few…
I got tons of frames of various sizes. I just adore the print in this one.
And I love the vintage photo in this one. I think I’m keeping her. I can pretend she’s my mother as a little girl… She looks like my mother might have looked. Heck… she looks like me so she must be related!
I got tons of old books. Love this little booklet. Oh so many things I could do with this…

And this tin lid. No tin, just the lid, but how gorgeous is this?
A sample of the tons of miscellaneous junk I’ve added to my collection… I love my junk. Things to hang off my dangles… and the tape measure! They are so hard to get at a decent price around here.
I love old tools and old bits and pieces…. that old level is just gorgeous. That makes 2 old levels now. One will go in my vintage tool display, the other I have big plans for.
I see another hand sander dangle in my future… and more egg cup bird cages. I now have a substantial collection of both dangle and birdcage materials. I just need to get working.
Now how could I leave this pretty little doorstop piggy behind?
More rusty bits. I love rusty bits. No idea what they are, but I know what I’ll use them for and that’s what counts.
I have one word for this little silver dish: birdcage!
And I see an extra large wind chime in the future for this:
Wayne got me some of these things (the man may complain about my junk collection, but he knows me well!). He got me this little spice rack too. Now I know I can use this for something other than spices… not sure what, but it will come to me.
Love old tins. This still has the protractor in it.
A french book and an old tray. Just one of the trays I got. And just one of the many vintage books I got.
This was a gift from a friend – an old rake head. Love it.
If you think about it, I must be so easy (and cheap) to buy gifts for. Old, chippy and rusty will do it every time.
Like this tiny little wood plane – it doesn’t work but who cares?
I plan to use a lot of the old tools to make another display to match my old shears display. I have two more shallow crates and it wont take me long to put them together. I think they’d look great in the mud room or on the deck with some hooks to hang often-used working tools. 
I just have to get organised.
Organised.
Easy to say. Not so easy to do!

With the heat lately I’ve been too wiped out to even sit in the living room in front of a fan and create. I do not cope well with the heat. I managed to strain my arm doing the tiny bit of gardening I did so even hand sewing was out of the question on the hot days.

When its not too hot I have plans on jobs to do outside that I have so far successfully managed to avoid.

For instance I’ve been talking about removing the bird nests from around the house so I can start washing/painting the house and porch railing… Yesterday while ‘researching’ and ‘planning’ I noticed a dead bird’s head hanging out of the roof. Great. Better get that out today before it stinks up the office…

 
Better go. Its still coolish outside. Maybe I should go look over what I could be doing. Then figure out a way to avoid it.

z

i killed santa

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I haven’t blogged for days. I’ve been lazy. And busy in other ways. I did a bit of gardening work. And I mean a BIT. While mowing I killed Santa. He was a toy the dogs have had for a few years now, he was lying on the grass… I did try to mow past him but he got sucked into the mower blades and was dismembered. There were Santa guts everywhere. The dogs are in mourning.
I’ve also had a lot to think about… about myself, new year’s resolutions, where I am in my life and what I want from my life. I’ll have some more to say on that later at some stage. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. For now I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know we’re ok.
There are fires burning around Tasmania with the strong winds and extreme heat, but we are safe.
Its been really hot.
 
Too hot to blog.
But then again, its too hot to do anything and at least the amount of energy expended typing is less than that expended doing anything else.
I’m sitting here on a recliner, two fans and an evaporative cooler working overtime to keep the living room bareable. Occasionally dripping water I’ve poured over my head. Dogs flat out, panting around me. The phone is next to me. As are the tv controls. Getting off the chair uses produces too much energy and thus heat. The less I move the better.
Dinner for tonight will be fruit, cheese, dips and crackers. No cooking.
z

an old bookcase gets a new look

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I’ve been itching to get stuck into this particular project for a while now. Ever since I made up a space in the living room for Wayne’s office. When I did that I moved this bookcase into the space under the window into the kitchen (a perfect fit!) so Wayne could hide away his bits and pieces…. which he never does… but that’s beside the point.
The point is that it started out like this: an op shop find, a little worse for wear. It obviously had had glass in it at some stage, possibly a kitchen cupboard, maybe a bookcase…
 
First I gave it a fresh coat of paint, no distressing in those days. Then I put flyscreen in it to use as a towel cupboard in my bathroom.
That worked well for a while, then I  moved it to the spare room where Bonnard (one of my standard poodles) destroyed it by digging at the flyscreen. He only destroyed the top part of both doors so I just cut the screen and left it like that for a few years.
I mean, it still worked. And it was easier to access things on the top shelf without a screen there!
So, when the office area was created the bookcase lived there without the top screen for a few months. I’d planned to replace the screens with burlap, just hadn’t got around to it till today.
Here is a photo after removing one of the doors.
When I’d put in the flyscreen I’d used narrow quad to hold it in place. I had to remove that and managed to do it on both doors without breaking it. Great accomplishment!
 
I had planned to use some grain sacks I’d found at an antique shop but they were too short. So I got out my stencils and some sharpies and went to work.
All went well till I realised that I’d put the burlap in the first door upside down. Darn. I DID check you know… but somehow still managed to get it wrong.
I had to remove the quad and of course broke every single piece of it that time. Something to do with using slightly bigger flathead nails instead of tiny bullet head ones… d’oh!
Oh well. Live and learn. I had to put the burlap back in right way up using tacks and glue and folding it over to prevent it from fraying. Didn’t look too bad actually.
Lastly I had to find a handle. The one I had on there had been gnawed on by Bonnard plus it no longer suited. It was fine for the bathroom as it matched the vanity, but not for the new look. I found an old brass handle I liked in my box of knobs and handles and added it.
 
So here it is! A little more battered than before, a little more lived in, and way better for hiding all the junk I’d like to keep out of sight when visitors come over!
Ok. The words aren’t entirely straight. Pulling on burlap to stretch it has that effect. But I’m pleased with it.
Now… onto the next project! 
z

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digging it up

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This is Dancer, our gorgeous girl. She’s a 3yr old anglo arab x warmblood, but she’s almost entirely arab to my eye. She’s not that big, if she cracks 15hh we’ll be happy. But she’s the sweetest, prettiest thing. So gentle and loving and trusting. And she moves like a dream.

I’ve organised a lady who comes highly recommended and who’s a great rider to come work with Ben to get him going for me. Hopefully she’ll work on me as well to get me going for Ben!

When I feel confident with Ben I think we’ll get her to start with Dancer. She’s not had any work so far other than the work Wayne put in to get her trusting us and giving us her feet. He’ll start ground work with her soon (at least that’s the plan) so she’ll be ready to start.

If it goes well, I figure this winter Wayne and I will be riding on our tracks! Finally!

Meanwhile, today I finally got off my butt and got motivated to do some work.

I started by clearing out one corner of our metal garden shed. When we first moved in it was meant to be the gardening shed, plus storage since its nice and dry. Over the last 2 years things have spread and it got messy.

I got in there today and made a pile of stuff to go to the tip, organised storage stuff on one end, camping gear in a corner, fishing rods hung on the back wall, gardening tools and equipment one one side. The ride on will park in the middle of that side.

Its clean. Its tidy. And I have room to put my ‘projects to do’ and to store large finished pieces waiting for a home.

I went down to the casita and climbed over the broken fence (which Wally broke last winter rushing the gate to get into the corral) to retrieve one of the 3 old metal lockers we inherited out on the porch.

I managed to drag one into the casita where I dumped it. I’ll ask the boys to bring it up to the metal shed for me later. I figure the lockers will act as storage as well as a space divider.

Then, since I was on a roll, I decided to tackle the oily bog in the garden bed.

I doubt you’ll remember this fiasco, but  not long after we moved in I decided that the small ‘garden bed’ near the small timber shed and carport would make the perfect spot for my hydrangeas. I’ve always loved hydrangeas and really wanted a spot to grow my own.

So I dug out the pebbles, found weed barrier, pulled that up and started digging holes. Put in the first two hydrangeas ok. Then I hit oil.

Sump oil.

Seems the last owner of this place used that spot to tip out the oil when servicing his cars.

What kind of person does that????

Sigh.

Needless to say, I did what I could. I dug and dug and carted and dug some more. I got sick of the smell of oil. So I did what anyone in my place would do. I put it in the too hard basket.

I put three hydrangeas in the not affected areas and left a hole to deal with ‘later’.

Today ‘later’ finally came around. I started again. Pulling up oil soaked weed barrier and digging, carting and digging more.

I’m a weakling. I can only do a job like that for a short time before my arms fall off. So I called the boys. Wayne and Chris (who’s visiting). Chris is too polite to refuse to do me a favour so I got them to dig the soil looked normal. I have a nice big hole now. Tomorrow I’ll take the trailer down and buy some topsoil to fill it and I’ll finally be able to put in the last hydrangea.

Talk about having a quiet day!

z