Birthday celebrations

We recently celebrated one of the Boys birthdays.
I took a day off work and we packed a picnic lunch and took off to a quite spot about 20 minutes away.
The Boys got to munch on a BBQ chicken and play in a stream running over and through a bed of beautiful sandstone.
They explored the creek and the wildlife while snacking on a few jelly lollies.
It was a wonderful, quite day.
We all had a great time playing near the waterfall and discovering the life that resides in this cool wet natural haven.

Produce from home

Today our Garden gave us:
- 1.6kg of fresh beans (that is a mountain on a tea towel)
- 7 fresh red tomatoes
- a handful of warigal greens
-only one egg because the girls are off the lay at the moment
- 600 grams of new potatoes stolen from under the still growing plants.
- 4 carrots
- a knob of fresh garlic
- 700 grams of zucchini

It is easy to grow fresh food. You don't have to aim at growing everything just make a start.
Surely you have the room for two zucchini plants, a row or two of beans and a few tomato plants.
Have a go the rewards are worth it!

Home Craft

The boys love making toys for craft. The DW is very talented artistically, which is great as I am severely challenged artistically.
My oldest boy, boy5, absolutely adores Star Wars. One night when I returned home from work they had almost finished making a Darth Vader helmet out of papier-mâché using a balloon to get a helmet of just the right size.
Some black paint, a stiff black cardboard collar and some black gaffer tape later and the helmet looked amazing!

Recently I was asked to make Darth Vader's ship. I fumbled about with some left over PET drink bottles, some sticky tape and a sharp knife and was rewarded with big smiles. The Boys happily played with the ships for days.

Boy5 asked for help off his Mother on the weekend "I want to make the death star we need six circles of cardboard and some black paint and gaffer tape. Before long we now have a death star hanging from the ceiling complete with a docking bay for the various figurines which visit.




On a previous weekend the five year old said "Dad can you make me a dragon or the three headed dog".
He had brought to me his craft scissors, and a old empty plastic bubble bath bottle!
Talk about mission impossible!
The picture of the dragon and three headed dog in the toy catalog that he had been studying was extremely detailed, however he obviously felt I had all the required resources. I had to laugh and feel completely inadequate!

Thanks to a recent episode of the ABC's Playschool I have been bringing boxes home from work. These boxes are transformed with some Aluminum foil, plastic drink bottle tops etc into a new life as a robots outer shell ready to entertain my boys for hours. Other boxes were transformed by the DW into a dinosaur...always a popular creation. Take that playstation!

5% you must be kidding Mr Rudd!

5% you must be kidding Mr Rudd!

I think a lot of Australians are in shock today.
The man, and the government that we thought were serious about climate change have announced that Australia will go with an unconditional 5% cut in emissions (1990 level) by 2020.

If we can get the world to sign up we will go to a 15% cut as an absolute maximum!

The government will also give $4 billion to the Coal industry.

Last week he announced close to $580 million to improve the Hunters rail network to take our coal exports from Newcastle from 97 million tonnes to 200 million tonnes per year.

What have you done Mr Rudd?

I think you have seriously damaged your support base by this response.

What incentive has any other Country got to make bigger cuts now that we have an absolute maximum cut of 15% on the table?

I am very saddened by this totally underwhelming response of our Government to climate change. We have a serious threat to the World, our best scientist urge action and our Government's considered response is a 5% cut!

Cough...cough

I have been a bit quite this week as two of three kids are sick with coughing and congestion. They are generally unwell. The Baby has had it the worst but is recovering now we have antibiotics.
I will take some pics on the weekend of the garden and other things and have some better material to post next week.

The Weekend

We celebrated a 1st birthday with some family and friends and then on Sunday we were very lucky to catch up with a good friend who currently resides in the US.



Many of the guests from Saturday's celebrations made the trip again to catch up with our lost Aussie who still does not have an American accent.


We enjoyed a simple BBQ, the ever present flies and then took him for a bush bash (bush walk) in the valley to let him soak up those Australian sounds and sights you could see the walk recharging his Aussie Battery to help him get through a few more years in the US.
We found the springs must still be active as the stream is still flowing. We saw some wombat holes but no wombats as the walk was in the day time. A walk that involves a 3 and 5 year old sure ensure any animals will hear us coming.
I then took him for a few Coopers at a local watering hole. As we sat on the deck outside the little bar all he could do was look at the cattle grazing on the other side of the creek, the green rolling hills and listen to the relaxed locals.
I predict when he has to climb back on board that A380 bound for LA that it will be a difficult moment.
Thanks again to those Friends that made the journey not once but twice on the weekend. We really appreciated it.

Visitors and Gardening

We have had a welcome visitor (see picture) He came and stayed with us for around three weeks before wandering off again.

Garden Update
The Pumpkins and rock melons are really growing fast. They are already setting some small fruit! I have around 17 vines in, with both Australian Iron bark and Queensland Blue varieties from Eden Seeds. The Rockies were raised from seed saved from a really sweet melon from the shop so it is a bit of an experiment.
So far the vines have been untouched by the wallabies, possum's, and other various wildlife.

We have had some rain but so far nothing record breaking but it is very much welcome.
We had some run off which recharged our dam that we use for watering our orchard and veggie gardens.
This is always a welcome development.

The Hass Avocado trees haven't looked back since they were planted in the orchard. They have a heap of new growth.

I am also a real sucker for freshly squeezed lime juice in a glass of cold water so a 3rd lime tree has been planted. It is covered in little fruit and has not looked back since we gave it a new home.

The garlic plants are starting to dry off I think it is part of maturing process. This is the first year we have grown garlic so it is a learning exercise. The bush beans are in full production. We officially have more than we can cope with. I will be freezing some on the weekend.

I have become a fan of Warragul Greens. It grows so fast and keeps supplying us with a wonderful addition to the plate. I recommend them to anyone again the seed was from Eden Seeds.
The DW recreated the kale tart from "The Cook and the Chef's" (see web site).
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/cookandchef/txt/s2271389.htm
It was fantastic. So I recommend this recipe to those gardeners out there with a few good kale plants in.