A Day of Flukes and Lessons

Today was a day of flukes and lessons, hopefully not harsh lessons, but we won't know probably until tomorrow.

Fluke One: The puppy found some rat bait. We don't exactly know how but we had some out at the land a while ago and we didn't use it all. We had it in an unmarked bag, on top of an old chiller. But when the builders cleared everything out of the shed, we think they just chucked it on the rubbish pile, not looking in the bag first.

Fluke Two: I saw the puppy eating the poison. I had gone outside to take Madam-almost-two to the dunny and there was Emma, the puppy, munching into her second fist-sized bag of bait. Of course I stopped her from eating the rest, but to have caught her eating it at all was lucky.

Fluke Three: My Father-in-Law was out there with us. Not a usual thing, but he was helping us paint.

Fluke Four: He had driven his own truck there, not caught a ride with my DH.

F.I.L is an ex-possumer and he still does trapping and poisoning as a bit of a sideline. He was the one who gave us the bait in the first place. He knew exactly what to do and he carries the remedy in his truck all the time. Washing soda crystals forced down Emma's throat made her heave up the bright green bait in about two seconds flat.

So now we watch and wait. The remedy is Vitamin K and to be certain, I'll get some for her tomorrow.

Lessons learnt:

1. Never use poison if you can avoid it. If you don't have it, then you never have these problems. I always try to be organic as possible and this just gives me another reason for doing so.


2. If you do have poisons, always keep them in a clearly labelled container and preferably in a locked cabinet. What we did was just asking for trouble and I should probably be very thankful we weren't shoving washing soda down one of the kid's throats.


3. Know the remedy or treatment for all poisons you use or have in the house - and yes, even dishwasher powder can have devestating effects.

Little Cutie Quilt

This is a quick little quilt I whipped up recently. I make them for the hospital where I work to use on the bassinets. Makes them look a whole lot less like plastic fishbowls! The ladies from Kerikeri Patchwork and Quilting Club donate them too.

I tend to use up my bits and pieces, like blocks I made to experiment with, strips leftover from cutting, or, charm squares like this one. How easy is that! Then for the batting I use old woollen blankets I find in op shops, wool being much better for babies to sleep under, second hand is cheap and already pre-shrunk ('cause they've usually been washed a million times before) and I like recyling/repurposing etc. Then I use calico for the backing, because it's cheap, no-fuss and easy to write on a label.

If anyone has little bits and pieces lying around like me and don't know what to do with them, approach your local Neonatal Unit or Special Care Baby Unit to see if they would like little quilts. The Maternity Units are often too busy to bother but the Special Care units often use them to make the place a bit less scary for parents. They may also use them to wrap stillborn babies in and then give them to the parents to take home as a memory.

They're quick, cheap and can really make a difference. xx

Come on, I wanna move in!!

So a couple of months ago I was a little hesitant about this move, and now ALL I think about is moving in. I wake up ticking off little moving 'to-do' lists. I daydream about my vege garden to-be. I am boring my friends and whanau because every sentence begins with, "When we move out to the land..."

No striking changes in the photo. Doors on (no handles), most of the gib stopping done (nothing even remotely interesting to say about gib stopping), and all the skirtings and architraves done.

For me, this weekend just gone was all about putty. When you nail architraves, skirtings and window surrounds on, you punch the nails in a bit and this leaves neat little holes. Neat little holes that my charming husband informed me have to be filled with putty. By me. Not him. Me. So 963 holes later, I'm an expert puttier.

Why not him? Because he was busy knocking together a chicken run. No photos of that yet, not finished and just so rough it's embarrassing. I'm hoping it'll look better next week! So instead you get a glimpse of my new vege garden. Imagine raised beds, rows of healthy brassicas, lettuces, a climbing bean frame, tomatoes, basil.....mmm. Ok, so I have a bit of work ahead of me!

Layouts

Does anyone have any fabulous suggestions on how to get a nice layout to your posts? It irritates me that no matter how I fiddle with it when I'm writing it, it always ends up looking funny when I post it with weird spacing ..... ok, I know I'm a bit retentive! But please help a blog newbie out!

The Kitchen has arrived!!

Last weekend (I know it's late, sorry to disappoint the millions of fans who have been waiting with baited breath!) my dear husband and my dear brother, who was visiting, lifted our kitchen into place.

The weekend before, this room had just been insulated. Now all the lining is up and the kitchen in place and it's really starting to look like a home.

So the first pic is of the men themselves flexing their muscles and the second one is when they have finished. Of course no oven or fridge yet, all in good time.

Yes, we are going to have a pole in the middle of our lounge. No biggie. I grew up in a pole house (look familiar, sisters?!) except this one spent many a year holding up a wharf, so, as my brother pointed out, we have a few interesting decorations on it, aka barnacles!

This week is skirtings, architraves (think that's what they are called, those bits of skirtings at the top of the walls) and hopefully gibstopping. We may even get to paint next weekend!

And just for interest's sake. Here is a cutie pic. I visited my DH's aunty and uncle on the weekend. They have a little yappy dog who sometimes needs locking up to calm down. The kids thought her cage was fantastic and played 'puppies' the whole time. Might have to get myself one. Just won't tell the vet it's actually for the kids, I might have a visit from child welfare!