The Building Continues

Saturday again and so off I went, camera in hand, for the weekly pilgrimage out to the land to see how close we are getting. Dear Husband spent all day with a friend clearing out the shed bay that hasn't been walled in so our (slightly primative) bathroom can go in there.

From the outside it doesn't look much different. The capping has gone on along the roof line and the edging around the windows (I have NO idea of the official building terms for those). But inside......big changes! The electrician has been and done the initial wiring and all the insulation is in, now waiting for the internal cladding. I think my progress shots are now all going to be taken inside.

Dear Son has decided that he would like his walls painted red. He also wants red curtains. And half blue and half red drawers. I'm beginning to think his favourite colour is red!

And while he is busy planning his bedroom, I'm busy dreaming of my vege garden. I get a weekly newsletter from Lynda Hallinan, the editor of New Zealand Gardener magazine. She set herself a challenge to be self-sufficient out of her garden for a year and only spend $10 a week on groceries. Very inspiring, and very useful for people like me, who have only gardened on a small and casual way!

And this has to be one of my other fav gardening sites, Koanga Gardens, Center for Sustainable Living. Kay Baxter, who used to be one of the mainstays at Koanga, has written two amazing books which I wouldn't be without: "The Koanga Garden Guide" and "Design Your Own Orchard", both are available from the Koanga site. They are both amongst the gardening books that I am immersing myself in at the moment, planning and dreaming with growing anticipation for when we move.

Mini Gardening

I'm soooo looking forward to having space to garden in a productive manner, but in the meantime I thought I'd show how I keep my thumb tinged green.

We live on an acre section. Sounds huge, huh? Plenty of room for gardening, so what am I whinging about? Well, it's an acre of land that sits at about a 45 degree angle! And it is 80% covered in regenerating native bush. The only real flat bit is the driveway! The soil is solid clay too, so backbreaking stuff.

But I have a huge deck. So pots it is. Lots of pots. Oh, and a bath. No space for a bath inside, so lets make use of it somewhere else!

It took about two sacks of potting mix and one of compost for the bath and if I was doing it again, I'd put in another sack just to get a bit more depth.

They do take a bit of watering in summer, but I empty the kids paddling pool into the pots as one method of saving water. Then I put a plastic basin in the bottom of my kitchen sink and it collects vege washing water, dish rinsings, hand washings and cloth washouts. Before you know it, you've collected 15 litres a day!

I grew green beans in the bath in summer. I hung strings from the shade sail rafters and had three plants at either end and lettuces in the middle. The photo of the kids is just one days collection of beans. I was AMAZED at how many beans I grew. (Actually I was amazed at how many beans I grew with the lack of attention I gave them!).

And what keeps my garden growing? Certainly no silver bells and cockle shells. Nope, just good old excrement, otherwise known as vermicast, or as my kids call it, worm poo!!

My worm farm gets vege scraps that the chickens won't eat. And that's enough to keep them ticking over and giving me a container load of vermicast every six months and a couple of buckets of worm wee too.

I dilute the liquid with water till it looks like tea and give them that every week or so and then when I pull out plants I mix in vermicast before I plant new ones.

For nitrogen loving plants sometimes I'll go scrape up some chook poo from under their night perch and mix that in too.

And there you have it. Mini gardening. It certainly doesn't give me enough to not need to buy veges, but it does give us some. And it keeps my enthusiasm up. Great for the kids to help with too. They love the harvesting bit - especially cherry tomatoes and blueberries!

Raisin Scrooge

My kids like raisins. But preferably the raisins in the little cardboard packages. I am a scrooge, sorry, frugal mum, and don't like spending the money on the little cardboard packages.

So now I fool my kiddies. I keep the little cardboard boxes, refill them with bulk bought sultanas (which are cheaper than raisins, and hey, they are all grapes, right?) when they aren't looking and hey presto, they are ready for the next round of snacks!

And the funny thing is, they eat them with exactly the same enthusiasm as they do the 'real' ones! What clever marketing person came up with the little cardboard box idea? And they don't even squeak when you blow in them anymore, like they used to when we were kids.

Getting Closer

So it's been four weeks since the transformation of our shed began. Today, and what a spectacularly sunny autumn day it was, Dear Hubby picked up a second hand kitchen that we bought and we delivered it out to the shed. And here is the progress that greeted my eyes.

DH says it looks ugly, and truely it is probably not the most beautiful building ever to grace the land but looking at it fills me with excitement! I can't wait to live here. Lawn, vege gardens, properly housed chooks, sandpits and swings and treeclimbing, space and movement and cows, a stream, a view......

Oh. And the little green gremlin in the corner? That's a dragon costume from the Toy Library. I love my Toy Library (and so do the kids!).

Thank you, thank you, thank you....

I have to write a post to say 'thank you' to all the wonderful sponsors who helped get our International Day of the Midwife raffle get off the ground and fly!

The Independent and Core Midwives all got together and grew this project and I think it really helped to bring us together as a group. I designed the quilt that we made and then we had a couple of really great sewing nights - lots of giggles and chatter. We also individually took on bits of the organising and sewing too.

Thank you to 'The PowerQuilter', our local shop, who donated the sumptuous Signature thread for the quilting.

Thank you to 'Spotlight' in Whangarei, who generously donated the batting for the quilt.

Thank you to Lindsay Hurkum, Osteopath, who donated a free treatment.

Thank you to Pamela Gillies, Bowen Therapist, who also donated a free treatment.

Thank you to Harvies, who donated a fabulous garden gift.

Thank you to Northland Limousine Services, who donated a fun Limo ride.

And a big thanks to Avalon Resort Cottages, who donated two nights accommodation.


It was a fun thing to do and we raised over $700, which we are hoping to send to the Solomon Island Midwives Association to help them support and develop midwifery.





We gave away LOTS of cake to passersby and got talking to the public about what midwives do etc etc. And we had fun too!!


I have to say, I'm glad it's over. It was a lot of organising, but it was a great success and worth the effort.