Category Archives: life on the farm

goodbye to some dear friends

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I have some dear friends who’ve been there for me through thick and thin, through the good times and the bad… I’m really quite attached to them.
I’m talking about my Blundstone boots.
Tasmanian made, all Australian, tough and comfortable. 
I love them. They’re the first boots I bought after moving to Tasmania in 2003. They’re 10 years old now.
All in all that’s a pretty good run for boots… They’ve been failing for a while now and I’ve been planning to throw them out every time we go to the tip, but somehow I can never bring myself to take that final step.
Sometimes you just have to face facts and admit that its time to let go.

When I had my first litter of standard poodle puppies they chewed off a pull tab so its been hard to get one of the boots on for years.

Then last year something in the vamp seemed to collapse and make them uncomfortable to wear, but I persevered and we got past that hickup.

They have scuff marks from kicking weeds, scratches from having things dropped on them, dints where I used them to prop up doors when screwing in hinges. They have at least 3 different colour paint splotches on them from when I wore them while painting my house in Fentonbury first, then here later…

When the soles gave way I knew it was time to say goodbye.

*sniff*

To make matters worse, the boots I bought for riding are starting to smile. And they’re only about 3 years old and nowhere near as comfortable for all day wear as the blunnies…

On the upside, I can now buy myself a new pair of Blundstones…

🙂

z

getting there slowly – kitchen update

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Not much has actually happened in the kitchen yet, so the title of this post is misleading. However things are going to be happening. Soon, I hope.
This is where things are at.
Handyman has been over and worked on the end of the porch till he ran out of wood. That’s semi enclosed for now and already making a difference when its really hot, and today when the wind picked up and it rained horizontally.
Yesterday evening we sat on the bench at the end of the garden and looked back at the house and I’m loving how its looking. I love the enclosed end of the porch and the way the retaining wall frames the house.
Just squint a little and picture the painting finished… perhaps with some decorative corners on the posts…
Meanwhile the electrician has put in the new meter box and the gooseneck thingy where the power comes into the house. We’re waiting on the electricity company to come move the power before we can put the new window in the kitchen and finish lining the walls.
All the power points have been moved and we now have a power point outside for those times when you need power outdoors. Power has been pulled to where it’ll be needed for the new stove, dishwasher and rangehood.
My kitchen maker has been to confirm measurements and will be placing the order on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday here) and thinks the new kitchen will be ready to install in 3 weeks.
That means that the week before we need to rip out the old kitchen bench and cabinets, lift the lino and masonite on the floor and hopefully find floorboards in decent condition. If so, I’ll need to give them a sand in preparation for the new cabinets to go in. If not we’ll be putting the masonite back and organising vinyl for the new floor.
I really hope we have nice floorboards.
Soon as I get the precise measurements for the new benchtop I can give them to Handyman so he can start making it. Then it can go in soon as the cabinets are in place.
I’ll have to organise delivery of the stove, rangehood and dishwasher so the kitchen can be put together at the same time. I think… The timing of this still kind of stumps me.
I know I need to organise a plumber gasfitter to come get everything ready for the stove and sink before they’re put in place, then come back to connect them up…
Ditto with the electrician when he puts in the bits he needs to wire in.
Remind me never to do something like this again…
Meanwhile I found this little beauty at the tip shop while looking for something else. I think it might be the perfect mobile island bench for the new kitchen. All it needs is new handles, a bit of TLC, a shelf and castors. Oh, and a new top to match the benchtop Handyman is making.
On another note, the garden is going well. I’m waiting for 3 of the 4 of these plants-who’s-name-I-have-forgotten to bloom so I can decide if and where I’ll put them in the garden. I love the pink but I don’t want red.
Wierd, but I don’t remember planting these seeds… Remember, I never wanted yellow flowers in my garden and now I have plenty of yellow flowers.
Oh well. The garden is a work in progress. I can always dig up, pull out and move things I don’t like.
Yesterday I planted a ton more seeds in pots so hopefully they’ll start sprouting soon and I can add them to the garden. There are already a few things which are ready to be put in. Its just a matter of deciding where they should go and put them in.
I’ll have a pretty garden yet!
z

the holes in the wall – kitchen update

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The kitchen renovation has stalled. I already mentioned this before but haven’t given an update of where we’re at.

Handyman has been here and has been working but he’s been diverted cause we realized that the power points had to be moved before he could finish pine lining the wall. I mean, he could only work on the 2 walls as it was as we’re waiting on the power company to move the power so he can put in the new window before he can pine line the front wall…

Its all about doing things in order.

Usually I realize I’m getting ahead of myself after I’ve already made plans for something, then I have to stop it to backtrack and get something else done first.

And when I say “I” I mean Handyman. I plan, he has to do.

So for over a week now this is what our kitchen wall looks like.

A bit more rustic than I’d like.

Meanwhile, we’ve kept Handyman busy. He’s put the ceiling and insulation in the mud room (I should take pics huh?) And he’s started enclosing the end of the porch as per Wayne’s instructions.

See, when it rains here the rain comes in at an angle and almost everything on the porch gets wet. If its wet and windy simultaneously everything on the porch gets wet. So having part of it enclosed, especially near the door, will provide a bit of protection from the weather. We won’t have to worry about soggy boots this winter.

The windows removed from the kitchen are going into this new enclosed area.

So far only one side has been done. Eventually I’ll be painting this all the same colour as the house so it won’t look this dark.

This could be the right place for my plastic chandelier… though its too long to hang there unless you’re only as tall as Chipmunk.

I wonder if Chipmunk would like a chandelier in his little stable shed? He’s a special boy, he deserves a special home, right?

z

dancer is home!

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Our girlie is back!

Dancer’s been away for a long time… we took her to be broken in to saddle before I went to Greece last year, then, for one reason or another, her return was put off again and again.

Over the last few months I’ve been going down to visit her and having a few rides to get used to her (and her used to me and my clumsy ways). But now our girlie is back home, finally.

She’s looking gorgeous. She’s such a sweet-natured girl. But she’s green. And I’m not the best rider in the world. I mean, I never was the best rider in the world, but I had balance and I could stick to a horse back then.

Makes sense that after many many years of not riding, many many additional kilos, compounded with middle age, that I’d get myself a green horse to ride. I got myself a pair of sticky-bum jodhpurs but I’d need superglue-bum jodhpurs to stay on if Dancer jumps sideways suddenly…

Anyway, Jenny has done a wonderful job in schooling her. If you have a horse you need broken I highly recommend her. Dancer is responsive to a light touch, a shift of weight and a squeeze of the thighs. Suits me perfectly in one way as I’ve always had soft hands. Doesn’t suit me at all (yet) in another as my balance is still off… I’m still riding like the sack of potatoes my first riding teacher used to accuse us of being.

That will improve with time and more riding.

I hope.

Gotta go.

I have a horse to ride!

z

what i have and haven’t done

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Despite all rumours to the contrary, I haven’t been abducted by aliens, I’m not in some out of the way hospital with amnesia and I’m not lying dead in a ditch.

Although, when I look around the house right now I’m seriously tempted to run off and join the circus…

I’ve just been… busy.

The kitchen is… not quite happening… I’ll have an update on that soon.

The living room looks like the dogs are running the household. They’ve trained me to do the washing but they’re really useless at folding and putting clothes away. Eh. That’s ok. The baskets of clean clothes fill in the spaces in the living room which would otherwise look bare and boring.

The guest room… well, let me put it this way: I went in there to find something the other day and got pinned under a stack of boxes. If the dogs hadn’t found me I think Wayne would have wondered why I’d left him till the smell gave it away.

The office looks like my brain exploded.

Yeah. Really. Every project, every little thing I’ve kept cause ‘it’ll come in handy one day’ or ‘I have plans for’ is on the floor. Every available surface is covered in ‘things to finish’, ‘things to sort’ and ‘things to put away when I find a place for them’. When you walk in there you have to shuffle so you don’t step on anything sharp.

I went in there the other day to clean up so I can find the paperwork I know I need to do, but I was so overwhelmed by the site, I gave up. I just didn’t know where to start.

I think I need to move.

How do people manage?

I mean it, how do people manage to do everything that needs to be done? I know I’ve asked this before, but no one is giving away their secrets.

I’m only working 3.5 days. And I groom dogs which is really another job, but its at home so it almost isn’t like having a ‘real job’. You’d think I’d have tons of time to DO things, right? Well, I thought I’d have tons of time to do things.

But I don’t.

Sometimes I know its cause I’m just too tired or worn out by the heat (have I mentioned I hate the heat?) to lift a finger. Not to even fold washing.

I had such big plans for this summer. I was going to finish painting the house – then found I had a great excuse to put it off… after all, I can’t paint till the new kitchen window goes in, right? I was going to paint the rails on the porch… At least I managed to wash an section of them today so I can (hopefully) start painting there this weekend so the potato vine can start climbing instead of grovelling. I planned to ride more. Or ride SOME. I planned to make stuff for the next market. ha. I planned to do up a couple of old pieces of furniture…

I guess I should consider the few things that I have done and not beat myself up about it. I’ve started a kitchen renovation. I’ve patched up the bathroom to make it more user friendly without actually remodelling it. I put in garden beds (by organising someone else to do the work) and grew a lot of my own plants from seeds. I (we) got the driveway and dam fixed. I (we) raised ducklings. And got geese. And a miniature horse. I got Dancer broken to saddle and have started riding her.

So I’ve done tons.

Why do I feel like I haven’t done anything?

z

wally and mini me

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Never say never, right?

We always used to let horses in the front yard. We had no garden in our front yard.

I now have a garden which I’m loving. I’ve really gotten into watching plants grow and flowers bloom.

I said “we are never letting horses in the yard again.”

Here is Chipmunk.

In the front yard.

Dancing dangerously close to the garden bed…

Chipmunk has been coming into the yard every day. Twice a day if we’re home.

So far he’s only eaten my blue fescue. That poor plant. It was just beginning to come back from the last time it was cropped by a horse.

He’s nibbled on my pink cordyline. He sniffed around the alyssum and got yelled at.

And he’s walked through two of the garden beds.

He has no respect!

Chipmunk and Wally have really hit it off. Wally seems totally taken by the little guy and I think he quite likes Wally as well.

So far they’ve only been allowed to spend time getting to know eachother over the fence. We’re not ready to let such a tiny horse in with such big ones.

The really interesting thing is that Wally is Chipmunk’s protector as well.

Cas hates Chipmunk. I saw her coming at him, ears back and teeth bared. Wally got between her and Chipmunk, threatening her with bites and kicks. It really is amazing to watch. I’m really surprised too. I really didn’t think Wally would take to the little guy. Its beautiful to see them together.

z

chainsaw vs thigh – retaining wall update

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Thought this image was scary enough without being too graphic.

Yesterday was one of those days where I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Handyman was here, putting the new shower head in (one of those handheld things on a rail), Wayne was finishing off the front end of the retaining wall and I was lost sheeping (wandering around wondering what to do), when Wayne solved my problem.

He thought spending the rest of the day in the emergency ward of the Royal Hobart Hospital would be a good way to pass the time.

He wanted to even off the tops of the posts on the wall and thought the chainsaw was the easiest way to do it. All was going fine, though not exactly neat, when the chainsaw kicked back.

I was there. I saw it happen. I started yelling and swearing at him before he jumped back, blood dripping down his leg.

Man. If he really wanted to cut his shorts off shorter he could have asked to use my scissors!

Luckily the chainsaw didn’t cut off his leg. There was a big deep cut on his leg just above the knee though.

I’ve had first aid training. I was prepared.

I ran around screaming, in a panic.

Thank goodness Handyman was there. He asked me to get a towel and tape and asked me to calm down. He wrapped the leg in the towel, secured it with the tape while I got the car and drove Wayne to the e.r. where he eventually got 15 stitches to show off to his friends. Eventually, 4 hours later.

What can I say about emergency rooms? I’ve been to one myself four times (once in an ambulance). This time was no better.

Honestly.

I really wonder about their priorities. Wayne saw the triage nurse who removed the towel and put on a dressing, then he was asked to wait. And wait. And wait.

While we waited we saw all kinds of things. People walking in who looked totally healthy and not in pain, yet they were seen straight away. I realise there may be more to a case than meets the eye, but..

A guy with a broken toe was seen before Wayne.

A broken toe. One of the smaller toes.

I’ve had a broken big toe and I didn’t get an xray or anything. I was told to go home, rest and keep it elevated. I did get a set of crutches though.

One guy came in with his partner, dressed for a wedding or something, and told the triage nurse he’d been having heart palpitations for 48 hours.

48 hours. He could have gone to his doctor. But he waited till Saturday afternoon to go to emergency.

Say the word heart and you get seen straight away.

Another group seemed to be having a social occasion, friends arrived and gathered as we waited. “Bit bored today. Think we’ll go hang out at the emergency ward.”

I was in the middle of giving Wayne a lecture – all about how if he’d cut his leg right through and it was hanging by a thread, how he’d have bled out before I could get him to hospital, let alone wait for an ambulance – when a guy walked by holding a single shoe in his hands. Oops. Hope his partner didn’t lose her leg….

Anyway, Wayne is fine. Physically. Mentally I’m no so sure about.

And he’s in the dog house as well.

Though that expression is wrong for this instance cause around here it means the lap of luxury cause the dogs are more part of the family than we are.

I’m not very happy with him right now. I mean, he’s made a mess of the retaining wall. It looks like crap.

Plus, I had things I could have done in the city. If he’d needed to go in earlier I could have gone shopping while he waited in the e.r. How inconsiderate can he be?

Sheesh.

I really could have done without that.

Ever.

z

the tiny guy is home

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Chipmunk is home!

We picked him up today. You know we’ve been going up to see him every afternoon and slowly getting him used to being handled, lead and taking food from our mouths.

He’s just SO cute.

He walked right up into the float behind Wayne. No fear, no panic, no trouble. He walked right up the ramp and that was that.

Of course, putting a miniature horse in a float meant for ‘normal’ sized horses was a new experience for Wayne. The breastplate/bar was above Chipmunk’s forehead…

In the end Wayne rode in the back with him just in case, to make sure he was safe. When we got home the little man just talked off calmly – poodles jumping around him, sniffing his butt and barking, Wally carrying on in the paddock. It was all new but he took it all in his stride.

As if all that wasn’t enough for the little guy in one day, Wayne walked him down the steps into the casita, all the way to the dutch door at the end where Wally was waiting to meet him new friend.

It was gorgeous.

But most of all, I couldn’t believe how calm Chipmunk was through it all, through all the new stuff: home, animals, environment. He took it all in his stride. And for the first time ever, he let me touch him all over his body and legs and wasn’t skittish at all. I got my fill of hugs today.

I’m so proud of him.

For now he’s in the tiny yard off the casita, till he settles in. Then he’ll move into the smallest of our paddocks. I don’t know if I want him running with the big horses. He’s just so small. I also want him close to the house so he can come in to ‘play’ more often.

He’ll be like one of the dogs. I’d love it if he and the dogs would play together. Wouldn’t that be cool!

z

i’m not perfect

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I know, I know. Its a shock. But its true. I’m not perfect.

In fact, I have no idea how those bloggers I follow manage to do so much in their day! They blog every day and have something productive to share every single time.

Its not that I don’t DO things. I do. I make stuff, I re-arrange furniture, I change rooms around… I work at a ‘real job’, groom dogs, try to keep up with the yard work, fight the never-ending battle with cape weed and dirty dishes. And I don’t even have kids. Some of these bloggers have children.

How do they do it? I mean, I can ignore the dogs if they pester me while I’m trying to work. You can’t ignore children. Well, not unless you want child services to visit…

Do they never sleep? Is that it?

See, I have these photos. I took them the other day when the guys were here working.

I just never got around to resizing them and posting them when I blogged. Even though they were relevant to that post.

So in the spirit of sharing, here are the missing pics.

This is the ‘before’ pic of the side of the house. Actually, its a little after ‘before’ as one plant has already been pulled out and a concrete slab has been put down for the hot water cylinder to sit on.

Here is the hot water cylinder, sitting on our front porch. With Barney watching over things.

Here is the hot water cylinder on the slab at the side of the house. A much better spot for it. Out of the way.

Here is the porch minus the hot water cylinder. Much bigger now. With Romeo overseeing things.

Here is the retaining wall on the side of the driveway. 
Here is the retaining wall with the next section started. Wayne worked on this in the hot sun all weekend.
How do you know when Wayne has had enough for the day?
There are always a few things left lying around in the yard… I guess he’s not perfect either.
z

romeo and juliet

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This is Romeo with Juliet.
I did mention that an old friend and her family visited us on New Year’s day, right? Well I’ve finally got around to sharing the photos.
The girls are gorgeous, but best of all was the look on Juliet’s face when I introduced her to Romeo. 
It was a match made in heaven!
Of course Montana and Barney got their share of cuddles too!
Our kids. Mine just happen to be furry!
z