Well....

Just a quick post while I am trying to wind down after a hectic 24 hours.

As mentioned yesterday ds had a gastric bug. Well this took a turn for the worst and he was hospitalised yesterday afternoon and put on a drip to re-hydrate him.

He went down hill fast and before I knew it I was at the doctors surgery and then sent straight to the emergency department at the local hospital. He had been vomitting every half hour all day and although I was getting him to drink fluids he could not keep them down. He was so weak and couldn't even walk. I had to carry this 12yo from the carpark to the hospital and it felt like miles. A nurse that had just finished work saw me struggling so offered to get a wheelchair. He spent the night being monitored and I stayed at the hospital with him overnight. The paedatician was worried that ds had appendicitis but this turned out not to be the case.

Anyway I was not sleeping well and at 2.30am I got a call from hubby who had succumbed to the virus as well. I had to leave the hospital at some unreasonable hour to come home and pick hubby up and transport him to the hospital for a jab in the rear end, bring him back home with all his medication and go back to ds. I arrived back at the hospital at 4.30am.

Eventually when I finally drifted off to sleep it wasn't long and breakfast was served and the doctor popped in to check on ds.

We arrived home at around 2.30pm today and I crashed into a deep sleep for an hour. All the time I have been thinking "when is it my turn?" but nothing yet although I have a queasy tummy and I pressume that is from disrupted sleep. Knowing my luck I will be up all night suffering with the virus but I hope not as it is a nasty one.

So needless to say the very hot day yesterday was soon forgotten about and some of the nectarines have fallen to the ground. I am not feeling at all like picking any at the moment, maybe after a good night sleep (hopefully) I can attempt them tomorrow. Yesterday evening I had to leave ds at the hospital while I came home to give the garden a drink and check the animals. I had to do this as well this morning as hubby was too sick and sleeping like a baby. He is still sleeping but feeling a lot better. Ds is a lot better although his appetite is a bit off and he is feeling a bit flat.

I had to cancel all the Day Care children and advise them to stay away for a few days.

Will be back soon,

Tania

Healthy recipes ~ The heat

Just what I didn't need right now. (now is the time to remember what I am thankful for)

All the preserving jars are cleaned and ready to go.

43C (109.4F) melting temperature for today. The nectarines may just get cooked on the trees as most are not quite ready although I have picked a few. I checked them last night after the hot day yesterday and they felt quite spongy from the heat, but not ripe. With an early rise this morning I have given the fruit trees a good watering to try to get them through. The chooks are feeling it too, so water has been laid around for them as well.

To top my day off nicely, dear son has come down with a bad dose of gastro this morning. Poor little soul.

A Praying Mantis graced us with a visit this morning. He was on the screen door taking in some cool air.

I have started the New Year with a healthy food plan. I began last Saturday and have already lost over a kilo without feeling hungry. Sugar and dairy have been omitted from my diet as part of getting my liver back healthly.



Here are a couple of healthy recipes.
They don't taste too bad either.




APRICOT CHEWS

1 packet of diced apricots

2 cups of orange juice

4 tablespoons of honey

3 1/2 cups skim milk powder

1/2 cup soya flour

2 cups chopped almonds

2 tablespoons grated orange rind

2 cups sultanas

2 cups currants

2 cups coconut

In a saucepan, simmer apricots, orange juice and honey until apricots are tender (5-10mins). Mix in milk powder and soya flour, add almond, orange rind, sultanas, coconut and currants. Mix well and leave to cool slightly. Roll mixture into log shape and roll in extra coconut, refrigerate, cut into slices when firm and store in container.

I halve this recipe and add mixed dried fruit instead of sultanas and currants. I also used plain flour in place of soya flour as I was unable to purchase soya flour.


FRUIT AND HONEY LOAF



3/4 cup cold tea

1/3 cup honey

1 1/2 cups mixed fruit

1 large apple, grated

1 egg

2 cups wholemeal or high fibre SR flour



Preheat oven to 180C. Combine tea, honey and mixed fruit in saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer 2 minutes and allow to cool. Stir in apple, egg and flour. Transfer to greased and floured (or lined) loaf tin. Bake in moderate oven for 50 minutes.






Today will be spent inside apart from going outside to check on the animals and garden.



x Tania

Sunday outing

Out driving on a Sunday afternoon.

We are at Port Patterson going along the dirt road when we couldn't go any further

We turned around and headed back the way we came.



There was water lying everywhere.
This water is leftover from the recent rains that caused some flooding.


View of the power station from behind.

Hard to believe the green around here at the moment. Even a horse in a green paddock at the back of Stirling North.

This is what happened to the road to Yadlamulka Station, just around the corner from us.

This was a river of water. Unbelievable where we live.

This railway crossing that goes to Leigh Creek was washed away.

Driving along the repaired road it can be clearly seen where the road had turned into a river.

The side of the road completely washed away.

It is great to have so much greenery around although the hot weather is about to hit us with tomorrow's forecast to be 41C (105.8F), so one would pressume this will soon be all gone.

Until next time,

Take care,

x Tania

In My Kitchen

Some baking going on. We had run out of snacks so it was time to bake some

Anzac cookies and Pumpkin Cake.

I prepared the Bread and Butter Cucumbers courtesy of Rhonda Jean and let them sit in the brine for three hours. None of the shops had celery seed in so I just omitted it. Have a look at Rhonda's blog if you haven't already done so. Great resource if you like simple living.

The finished product. I shall make some more tomorrow.




Hopefully I will get to have a nice swim in here after tea tonight if the weather is still warm enough. The temperature in the pool was 32C (89.6F) Outside today was 35C (95F). Here is our pool Therese
Therese and I finally met up for a coffee today. It was nice to meet you and your lovely family.

x Tania

Random Bits

It has taken twelve months but our solar panels are beginning to work for us.

Our power bill should have been $187.77.

Our solar system generated 265kw hours @ .44c/kwh. This equals $116.60cr making the power bill $71.17.

$53.87 of the $71.17 was for service charges and GST.

Our carbon footprint for electricity was $17.30 for three months.

Aint this cute. Mama hen sitting on my back step with her chicks underneath, all except for one peeping out.

Go you Reds

The boys enjoying themselves

Adelaide United verses Sydney FC

Now I have always been an Aussie rules fan with my favourite team being the Adelaide Crows. DS barracks for Port Power (sigh). But....

Last Saturday the A League soccer was held in Adelaide, so we went along. It was held at the Adelaide Cricket ground.

Adelaide were playing against Sydney.

Let me tell you it was a fantastic atmosphere. The crowd was very vocal (more than any AFL match I have been too) and we had a wonderful time. We joined in with the Mexican wave that went six times around the arena. The roar was very loud everytime it came around.

We will definately go to one of these matches again.

x Tania

Gifts and Garden

I received some lovely gifts for Christmas this year. Lucky me.

This teaset was a gift from my eldest daughter, Sarah. We used it Christmas day as most of us are tea drinkers, it makes a nice cup of tea.

Outdoor setting from hubby and son.






Some much needed pyrex dishes complete with lids from hubby and son.



I have been spoilt well and truly.






The hibiscus is flowering profusely at the moment, probably because of all the rain we received a few weeks back.

Nectarines are almost ready.

Cucumbers in abundance.

Pumpkins coming along nicely.

It's a jungle out there.

We picked these a few days ago. 6.5 kilos of cucumbers, and 1.1kg of capsicum. The first Zucchini for the season as they had a slow start.

With all these cucumbers, I will be making some of Rhonda Jean's bread and butter pickles very soon. I made these last year and they turned out well and were a great hit with hubby.

I have nearly finished giving my house an overhaul. I cleared out the pantry and re-organised it a couple of days ago. I needed to make room as I couldn't fit anything else in there. Plenty of room now. I will be washing down walls etc shortly.

Glorious weather here at the moment, I guess the hot weather is coming soon!

I just had a look on my old post and this time last year we were sweating our butts off, with temperatures in the 40's (104F plus).

We have had a couple of slithery friends in our backyard here this past week. Only young Brown snakes, about 1 -2 feet long, but still deadly. I nearly stepped on the second one while outside, but at least I scared it before that happened and it disappeared under our rainwater tank really quickly.

xx Tania

Happy New Year

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year, may it be all you wish for and provide you with lots of health and happiness.

This is what we have been doing on the first day of 2009.

I had a sleep in this morning and awoke to no water in the house. Hubby went to find out why and this is the result. A big hole in the pipe buried about three feet underground.

This pipe, like many others who live out this way, bypasses our neighbours house and she had the wisdom to get the water turned off and then wait to see whose leak it was.

We would soon discover that it was our pipe that was leaking.


So hubby has been at it all morning trying to get it fixed. He had to chase up a plumber to get some fittings and glue. Of course it occurs on a public holiday when all the shops are closed.




Eventually it was done, but now we have to wait another couple of hours before turning the water back on. We do have rainwater on storage but it is not connected to the house.

Not a good start to the New Year, at least one can hope that it can only get better. Fingers crossed anyway.

Hope your day is a good one.

xxTania