Our Happenings and a recipe

Isn't this a sad sight?

Hubby had a double hernia operation 3 weeks ago. He is well on the road to recovery but the first couple of weeks he was hardly able to move. He has a scar to match my Caesarian ones and now knows what pain is all about. Mind you he is enjoying being waited on hand and foot. Another three weeks of rest and then it will be light duties back at work.

His appetite is still okay.

Another visitor, I swear the spiders around here are getting bigger. This one had a leg missing.

Underneath our carport we have a new little family, three baby sparrows.
Here they are when I could first see them.

As they were a few days ago...

Now they are flying around and coming home to roost at night.

You must try this Sticky Date Pudding, I made it the other night for dessert, and there was plenty to spare and freeze.

The recipe can be found over at Our Red House.
Thanks Kate, our family thought this pudding was delicious and there was enough to feed an army!

Take care,

xTania

Remembering....

This time last year I received a sad phone call from my friend informing me that their beloved daughter had passed away during the night leaving behind a young son and a devastated family.


Everywhere across the land you see God's face and touch his hand.


Each time you look up in the sky,
Or watch the fluffy clouds drift by,
Or feel the sunshine warm and bright,
Or watch the dark night turn to light,
Or hear a bluebird gayly sing,
Or see the winter turn to spring,
Or stop to pick a daffodil,
Or gather violets on some hill...
Or touch a leaf or see a tree,
It's all God whispering "This Is Me...
And I am Faith and I am Light
And in Me there shall be no night."

by Helen Steiner Rice

Weekend at Yangie

A long overdue post...

The long weekend in October we went camping with friends to a little place called Yangie, near Coffins Bay South Australia. Yangie is located in the Coffins Bay National Park.

A friendly Emu brought his family along to visit our camp.

Unusual tree formation at the top of the hill near our campsite.

Another visitor was this friendly Kangaroo. Our son went to the toilets, rounded the corner and there was the kangaroo, he couldn't believe his eyes. He had never come face to face with a Kangaroo before. A pleasant surprise...

And of course we got bogged on our first trip out and had to be pulled out the sand!! This spot has been renamed Phil's corner by our friends...

Lots and lots of beautiful, juicy Quandongs (wild Peach)

Sensation Bay...

Named after a tuna boat that run aground. Read more about it here

Friends...

Sheryl, Lyn and I.

There were huge sandhills along Seven Mile beach.

Great for trying out the sand board...

Old plough near the Rangers hut...

Cliff edge breaking away...

My man Phil...

The group....

Fishing off the beach...

Running across rocks

Gorgeous scenery...

A little honey eater...

Lovely clean surf and fishing beaches....

Crisp white sand....

Sleepy lizard (shingleback), made from tin...

Tunnel of love...

Some bush cricket...

Little blue wren hopping around near the camper trailer.

See why we want to move to this lovely area.

Good company, great scenery, lots of fun and laughter, what more could we ask for?

I do hope you all have a great weekend,

xTania

Re The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Please have a look at this great post my daughter Sarah has written about writing letters.

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My two eldest daughters are very good letter writers and correspond regularly with people from all over. I myself have let letter writing pass by the wayside, but I think I might get back into it again. It is a nice feeling when you receive a hand written letter from a dear friend or relative instead of just bills and junk mail.

Have a great day,

xTania

Living Simply

Rain water storage and solar hot water.

I know I have posted about this before, but I had a reminder the other day when I became a member of Living Simply on Facebook. One of the other members asked for people to respond with the 10 most significant things you have done/do, big or little, that has made your life more in harmony with simple living.

I responded with my list:

Things I/we have done to live a simpler life:

1. Installed solar panels for our house

2. Solar hot water

3. Harvest rainwater

4. Grow our own vegies

5. Have chickens for a good supply of fresh eggs

6. Spend less on the needless stuff

7. Decluttered and donated/give away the excess

8. We recycle our plastics, cans, cardboard etc.

9. Grow our own fruit trees.

10. Recycle waste water to garden

Below is a pic of our solar panels that we installed two years ago.

These solar panels generate dc voltage that goes through a regulator which charges our back up batteries. Once the batteries are charged during daylight hours any excess power generated from the solar panels is sold back to the grid.

Our electricity bills are now between $150 -$200 for three months.
Rainwater storage that we would like to increase soon. We have about 15,000 gallons (67,500 litres) on hand. By the condition of our local water supply,

the River Murray we are going to have to depend on our own supply of rainwater at some time in the future. At the moment the rainwater is not connected to the house as we need to purchase a bigger pump than we already have. It is not powerful enough to do the job. We also need a plumber to come out and help with connecting up the air conditioner and toilets, so that they stay on mains water otherwise all our rainwater will disappear very quickly.

Our sad vegie garden at the moment. I haven't got to do much out there yet, hopefully I will be starting on this next week. I have cleared away all the weeds and tidied up but that is as far as I have progressed.

Our chickens provide us with a constant supply of fresh eggs.

We have about twenty chickens at the moment. They are mainly Isa Browns.

Some new ones to our brood. These four baby chicks are doing well.

Any excess roosters end up in here for our consumption.

I had forgotten about these frozen nectarines from last year so took some out for tonight's dessert.
There is also some frozen pulped tomatoes in there.

What we can't give away we preserve.

Last years preserves waiting...

In South Australia we are able to recycle our aluminum cans. We get paid 10 cents a can, a good incentive to recycle them.

Other recycle goods that I cannot make use of go into the yellow bin for collection once every two weeks.

The waste water from our house is used to water our fruit trees by way of a french drain.

Our trees consist of:

A young mulberry tree...I look forward to this becoming a big tree,

Two olive trees...

A fig tree....

starting to bud....

A young apricot tree....

with it's first fruit.

An orange tree....

Mandarine....

Grapefruit....

absolutely loaded with fruit.

We have tried to grow lemon trees but with no success, unfortunately.

Grapevines....

and we also have two nectarine trees.

I use a twin tub washing machine, and usually use just one load of water for the whole wash.

The water is pumped out onto the back lawn which is still surviving, just.

It is a difficult task to grow things where we live because of the low rainfall. We also live near a saltlake and the soil is very sandy so doesn't hold moisture. I am hoping to use garden beds this year and put a lining underneath to hold the moisture better.

Other simple things I do is make my own laundry liquid using this recipe. Make knitted dishcloths which can be washed and re-used over and over. All my cleaning products consist of vinegar, bicarb, lemon juice and water. I plan our meals (menu planning) and try to cook from scratch and avoid the dreaded junk food urge. Our meals are extra healthy now with more effort put into them on my part.

Our house is surrounded by a huge verandah to keep out the heat and cold and an evaporative air conditioner for cooling. There are plenty of things we need to improve on still and will continue on slowly improving where we can.

Hubby is very resourceful and a great recycler. He attempts to fix things that other people have thrown away. Nine times out of ten he is successful.

Have a great day,

xTania

Dust Storm at Broken Hill

This film clip was on

youtube

Take look you will be amazed!

Have a great weekend and go the "Cats" in the AFL Grand Final, that is about to start.

Have a great weekend wherever you are,

xTania

More weather pictures

Welcome to Spring in Port Augusta... again...

These pics were taken yesterday afternoon at 2pm... the sky went dark and orange....

It's raining mud...

and more mud!

The force of the rain by the pressing winds...



We lost one of our favourite trees, it is so hard to get trees established here and it is disappointing to lose them... under the tree is a playgym, now no longer usable and a swing set...

This is what we found when we arrived home in the foul conditions...

As you can see the roots don't go down very deep...

I have figured out the problem with my photos, thanks to Sarah,

What would I do without you?

More strong winds are here again today and bringing some much needed rain, not as strong as yesterday though.

xTania