It appears we finally have the chicken pox.  A grand total of 16 pox have taken up temporary residence on my eldest son.  5 days of no school – and 5 days of what could be considered torture with this hot weather, with 1 itchy boy and 1 mum who just wants to soak her puffy feet and catch a quick nap and 1 boy who is insisting on driving his brother and mother crazy with silly rhymes and songs – seriously how many ways can you sing twinkle twinkle little star with a 4yr old version of rude words thrown in?  Hmm we are up to at least 20 today…..

But life is full of comprimises.  Such as I can help sort all of the lego into their different colours, play mouse trap for the 100th time and watch another espisode of Playschool.

My bundle of knitting will wait and so too will the dishes.  But occasionally they find a fun game to play together and I get to go online and discover cool blogs such as:

• www.se7en.org.za
• www.smallnotebook.org

And a knitting pattern c/o SouleMama that I have been busting to try for days now!

• baby heads and baby toes

I commented about a house down the road that recently sold.  The new owner has ripped out all of the gardens that the previous owner tended to so lovingly and is building a big shed. 

Hubby’s comment  ‘Cars don’t need gardens they need sheds.’  (The new owner is obviously a car person with a total of 4 project cars – we won’t mention hubby’s 3 in storage!)

I rebutted with ‘Yes if I wasn’t around our place would look like that too.’ 

Answer ‘ Heck no, I’d have a vegie patch, I couldn’t go back to eating that c**p from the supermarkets.’

Just when you think you know a person after 12 years!

Happy Anniversary babe!

Summer is almost here, but going by Toowoomba’s recent weather patterns you would think it is here already.  Buckets upon buckets of water are being poured into the gardens with very little help from the sky.  Carting the buckets is great exercise but each week I am finding it harder and harder to lug the 30 odd buckets a day up to the gardens.  

Drip irrigation is something I really want but it means I will need a pump.  That in turn means I will need power and pipes hooked up.  That means money.  Something I am not to keen on spending at the moment.  So I have been looking for alternative options. 

Inspiration hit me reading an article in the Nov/ Dec issue of  Organic Gardening Magazine.  Called Gardening in Dry Times (on page 26)  It explained about mulching, soil improvement and then Water Spikes.  Having tried these in the past I scoffed as they did not water the plants slowly.  Our greedy soil guzzles the water up in minutes not hours.   But what is this about filling the spikes with sand first? 

*Cue trumpets and lights inspiration has hit her*  I had to try this.  Sand and spikes in place – heck it worked (I imagine there is many of you thinking ‘how did she not know this!’  I too am wondering the same thing).  The water slowly over about half an hour emptied out!  Now I can water in the evenings and not be as concerned about fungal diseases.  Oh and save my back as I can use the hose to fill the containers!  

I love Saturdays, my Mother-in-law takes the boys for the day out to do secret Grandma stuff.   So once I catch up on a little bit of housework the day is mine to do as I please.  How spoilt am I!

I get to spend my time doing things like this

Baby jacket, booties, vintage patterns and making doily cushions.  But that is not all.  I have been busy in the garden to popping seeds in everywhere in anticipation of the rain due again tonight.  Finally green grass and new growth on plants.  Tinges of green are popping up all over the place and the chooks are sending themselves silly with the sudden arrival of green pickings. 

I really love Slow Saturdays

Gosh the days are ticking by a bit to quickly.  It is November already!  Yikes nearly time for the tree and gifts….  I don’t think I am ready just yet for that.  First we have to get through the Chickpox epidemic at Prep, 6 kids today and 3 last week.  I am on spot alert, thank goodness Hubby and I have already had them. 

Meanwhile I’m finally getting eggs only one or two a day but still eggs!  The other GLW has gone clucky - the silly thing and the two babies are growing quickly.  One is looking to be a boy and the other one is making chooky noises, but more on them later.

The vegetable garden in popping out goodness everyday, not a great deal but enough for now.  The garlic this year was a bumper crop and the onions are big and sweet.  I will have to pop back later with the pictures, I left the camera in the car and am too lazy to go and get it at this time of night.

But the big news I have been meaning to share 

‘IT’S’ A BOY

We just had to find out, incase I had to buy all new pink baby clothes.  But alas its not the case, thank goodness I kept everything.  He is due roughly around the 8th of March.  Everything looks good and I feeling slightly human this week.  22weeks and counting.

So that is it for now, I have heaps of pictures to share and some new things I am trialing in the garden.  I hope to be back tomorrow….  with spot free kids!

Something is falling from the sky!  I hope you are all getting some too!  I all off to plant some seedlings in between downpours…

I am starting to become concerned about our clucky chook Goldie, she is still sitting on her ‘nest’.  It has been weeks now, longer than the 21days it takes to hatch an egg.  She shows no interest in getting off her nest, she will not leave it for longer than 20 minutes at the most, more often no longer than 5 minutes and this is only when I remove her from the nest.

Any advice on what to do with her, as I think she is just about to pass the point of obsessed!

I know many others in our local area are possibly feeling the same as me.  Defeated. 

I want to childishly whine about the drying winds, the lack of rain and wacky seasons.  The seedling eating slug and the just bad luck I am having with the garden this year.  But I refuse too.  No this will be post showing the goodness that is growing and hopefully eaten in the future!

Bed 5 has finally got some plants in it.  4 capsicums, 2 tomatoes and 2 eggplants so far.  The plants are growing so well the tomatoes have tripled in size in the last two weeks!  Today I noticed the first flower buds.

Meanwhile in bed 4 the pea plants are dying off and I am harvesting the dried peas.  While the peas are winding down the beans are just starting.  The first planting is growing fine and the second crop is just emerging from the soil.

Meanwhile the shalots that I planted are up and growing well too.  Also a handful of sunflower seedlings have been planted out, they are looking abit sad but hopefully they will perk up soon enough.

My lettuces are looking good, I think I planted them  too thickly, but I will prick them out in a few days when they are a bit bigger and share them with mums at school who also grow a few vegetables.

And finally the best piece of the garden - the herb garden.  It is busting with goodness chives, parsley, mint, lemon balm, silverbeets, pepino, lemons and borage.  I truly love this garden, I have only planted out some flowers the rest is all self seeded or perennials.  Occasionally I pull out some borage as it is just taking over the garden, its popping up everywhere. 

So despite the tough conditions summer is starting in my garden and soon I will be harvesting onions and garlic.  Lovely!

With school holidays coming to a close I can get back to regular blogging.  YAY!   Keeping my very active 6yr old busy has been a challenge in itself.  Thank goodness we live next door to one of the most loveliest neighbours in the world whom children are always up for a play.  It has kept our combined brood of 7 busy and out of trouble. 

An idea I have had rattling around in my head for the last 2 weeks is to feature your Chook Houses here on littlefarm.

With the arrival of Spring many of us are buying or even hatching chickens.  And some of us have been very busy remodeling or building accomodation for these arrivals.   So to celebrate all things chicken I am asking you to email me a picture and a bit of a blurb about your chooks home such as where you brought it, who made it or what you made it from.  From brilliant mansions to humble Diggs I want to see them all!

Email me at:  littlefarminthecity@hotmail.com

So to start the ball rolling I will show you our evolving chook accommodations over the last 3 years.

This was our very first chook house, tractor style.  It consists of parts of my Nanas old fence and an old dog kennel.  The door was never finished properly and the wheels never attached it was also heavy and awkward to move it, but it worked a treat and housed our 2 hens for over 18mths.  With the dry weather (no grass) and the arrival of another hen it soon became apparent I need better accommodation to house my brood.

The old kennel was eventually removed from the tractor and placed inside of a pen.  Eventually the kennel started to fall to pieces and also I need a bigger house to accommodate my 6 hens. 

So the pallet palace was built.  Yes it is constructed from an old pallet ands some free corrugated iron.  After a horrible visit from a fox, a new fully enclosed penwas built.  And it is now housing our 4 new chooks happily.

So if you have a Chook house you would like featured on littlefarm, drop me an email.

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