My dehydrator stopped working after 12 years of service...
So i just had to buy a new one pictured with the dog biscuit mix drying..
Every Sunday i throw two chicken carcass and the scraps for the week in a pot to make the mixture you see above and make two big bags of dried dog biscuits.... the dogs love them.. but this Sunday my dehydrator didnt do anything lit up but no sound on heat..
I paid $45 for the first one mail order didnt have the internet and the electrical stores didnt stock them... Today it cost me $170 to replace..
So the dogs are happy they can smell their doggie bikkies drying and i have a dehydrator that works, with more racks and multiple drying settings very cool!

I bought a olive tree today!!

Do not know how it will survive our climate but i got one regardless!

i absolutely love olives but will continue to buy jars of processed olives whether this fruits or not i am just happy to have one!!

All i seem to have done the last two days is buy plants. At a fete friday night i picked up two passionfruit vines and two birdsnest ferns for $6. Yesterday on my way to work i stopped at the shopping centre and managed to walk away with three red pawpaw, four avocado, two chilli plants, jackfruit, long eggplant and two new ginger plants in pink. Total outlay $39.
Chickens have hatched have 3 new chicks, hen wouldnt lay on remaining eggs, have slipped them under another clucky chook.

I reallly didnt want to take this photo due to how ugly this corner looks!
But in order to look back in 12 - 18 months time to see the transformation it has to be done.
Funnily i dont see it as it looks above i see what i am hoping to achieve so while i am down in this corner planting and watering i see a lush fruit garden and only get more excited about what i am going to plant next..
So far i have plant 11 soursop trees 9 have survived so far, 1 mango, 2 mulberry, 1 peach, 1 plum, 1 cape gooseberry and a huge bunch of lemon grass.
Around the established trees, the gums and the poincetta i have planted luffa vines, pumpkin, cucumber and watermelon...
i would like to add some pawpaw and bananas and to give this area a room feel i am going to place trellis for grape and passionfruit on the outer edge..
If it grows the way i envision there will be a bench inside for sitting.. oh well i can dream
yesterday we removed 2 old bombs from this corner. i towed them down there but since then the boys broke the tow rope and used what was left for a tyre swing..
So i was left with 2 horrid wrecks in my precious garden... anyway i spat the dummy and my darling son used his car to push them out... this in it self was hilarious as no one was steering and the car and van were off in every direction.. They are now sitting in the middle of the paddock but they are well out of my way...

This is the bag i bought due to a recommendation from'H' on simple savings.. i took this photo weeks ago now it is full and the mint is brimming.. i have followed up on a number of recommadations from the forum, these hints are not posted on the vault. most of my childrens christmas have been purchased from websites some else has recommended.. 'H' also asked for viewers of the forum to click on a website to enable free mamograms.. i had to go one further and look at the shop while i was there. The clearance shop was brillant for $60 australian dollars i got two pair shorts which i absolutely adore... three bracelets and 3 woven coin purses. These have been put away for christmas..

In the garden i have actually been really busy, the veg garden is almost all cleared and resoiled for a new crop.. DH built a shelf hanging of wall of the house for me to pot on. The shelf is actually a fence panel but after watching a gardening australia dvd he decided a wooden bench is not practical..

The new trees are planted will post a photo tommorrow.

My First Watermelon

I found this little baby this morning i am so excited my very first watermelon.
I have loads of rockmelons and honeydew melons but this is the very first of the watermelon vines to fruit so i will be guarding this little baby against the possums...
My son has his half day off on Tuesdays so off we went to Bunnings, he of course was driving, i really should get my hair coloured soon i can feel the grey developing... how do you teach 16 year olds to slow down for round a bouts and red lights? Anyway he loves gardening and eating so i spent $80 on trees. He chose a plum, peach and a mango and has promised to help plant them tommorrow.... then we visited BCF where he pointed out things we could use if we have a cyclone this year. Last time we had a cyclone we lost power for 4 days we survived but in a block house it gets really hot with no aircon or fans and its dark. We werent prepared for that i had stocked up on batteries and food and we manage to cook so food wasnt a problem it was sleeping.. Extreme heat and mozzies, so this year we are buying a genarator and mozzie nets. Already have a lantern and wind up torches... As a family we even discussed moving into the gym to sleep as it is open to the breeze, out of flood waters we just need netting over us for the mozzies. If it happens it will certainly be interesting and a learning experience. Next week its Anaconda and Wow so he can give me hints on christmas presents..
Woolworths had Mushrooms on special for $4.50kg so i bought heaps and made Mushroom Pasta for tea tonight.. we what was over i prepared and froze for next week... so for approx $9 two meals.

The above photo is our contrete tubs used for growing strawberries, well was for growing strawberries. The two main plants are planted in the middle two tubs and the two outside tubs had old potting mix in them, i have been chopping my veg scraps in the food processor and layering the veg and old soil in the tubs in readiness for the strawberry runners. i dont know why i didnt notice the excessive growth but today i did. My very first rockmelon hanging on the side of the tub i only noticed because of the orange colour showing though but alas i wont be eating this one it appears the possums know my garden better then i do and had completely eaten the inner and left the shell of the rockmelon hanging for me to find...
It is extremely windy here at the moment and getting very warm looking at our roof i realised it is definetly time to clean out the gutters and the roof needs cleaning as the last time the boys did it they only finished half of it.. i have a problem with this as i cannot even climb a ladder let alone watch the boys on the roof..
Last November while we were in Hobart i climbed the Shot Tower 259 steps i think from memory, the only reason i counted was to keep my mind off the spiral of steps in front of me...
normally i would have climbed a few and waited for the others to come down but my son totally freaked out convinced the steps were going to collapse and he would fall.. because there were eight of us and three being adults i couldnt let the others tease my big strapping boy.. so despite my own fear we took one step at a time and we made it to the top together for some incredible views...
This same boy can climb onto to the roof use the guerney to clean it and scoop the muck out of the gutters!
The boys built my first chicken tractor on Wednesday night so i am eagerly awaiting for my chicks to hatch.. they used old materials stored behind the sheds, poly pipe, an old canoe oar and a metal frame even found leftover chicken mesh so i didnt have to buy a thing..
this one is small as it will only need to house 1 hen and her chicks but we already plan to use the old swing sets for larger pens...

My Bunnings purchases!!! six pack of herbs planted in my new $1 pots.

And my new sultana grape vine in its new $10 pot.

Also bought a blueberry bush and ate my first blueberry last night.

And my other grapevine a red seedless planted out near the veg garden on a trellis.

Found this new guinea bean in one of our sheds while cleaning this weekend.

I used to grow these on the chook yard fence for the chooks, cow and pigs to eat.

We ate the small young ones, the larger ones i dried for the kids to use as shakers at school.

Anyway i want to grow them again so i am going to have to break this one to get to the seeds,

and hopefully be lucky enough to germinate one.....

Raintree in the back yard...

This would have to be my favorite tree.. Downside it drops its leaves every spring so at the moment it is bare....

A Glut of Pumpkins

Coffee Trees and washing flapping in the breeze View from side of house looking towards the road. ILove Sunflowers!! Will post photos of back at a later date.

Well the past few days have had me mowing, raking and mulching. I have planted some luffas next to a big gum tree. Due to my pumpkin glut i have been seeking out new recipes to use them, one that was particularly popular with the meat eating men of the house was from a Donna Hay Off the Shelf Cookbook.

Roast Pumpkin with Brown Sage Butter Pasta

1 kg pumpkin diced

75 grams butter

3 tablespoons of sage

pasta

1 cup parmesan cheese

Baked pumpkin in olive oil in oven for 30 minutes or until soft

melt butter and sage simmer until golden brown

cook pasta until al dente

to assemble place pasta in bowl next pumpkin and parmesan cheese and spoon over sage butter.

season with salt and pepper.

I was a little shocked this was accepted as well as it was as obviously there is no meat in the recipe, and in this household the bigger the bone the better.

After much oooing and aaahing i am finally taking the plunge and starting a blog!

About me, i am the mother of 3 children + 1. 2 daughters 15 & 19 and a 16 year old son.

+ my daughters boyfriend who has lived with us for a little over 2 years. We have 2 acres that i have neglected while studying, in the last 12 months i have regained my interest in the garden and have a vege patch that is doing very well, that is if you enjoy pumpkin and eggplant.

The garden consists of 2 manderines, 2 oranges, 2 limes and a bush lemon...

3 established mulberry trees and 5 more just planted. recently planted 4 coffee trees and 13 soursops. the soursops are planted in the back corner that i would like to fill, in order to give privacy and protection to other fruit trees i will plant down there later.

I enjoy cooking from stratch and spending little or no money, i really dont like shopping for food and tend to buy basics flour, sugar etc.