Out with the trees (or, hubby bought a chainsaw)

We had to go and get some things for the puppies today.  You know, collars, leads, dog shampoo, food...


The Big Fella took us to a farming supplies store first and we ended up with some cat collars (the dog ones were way too big), a couple of leads, some dog bowls, puppy shampoo, a chainsaw!


Yep, the Big Fella finally owns his own chainsaw.


I did know, but had somehow forgotten, that when he gets his hands on chainsaws the garden tends to get a severe haircut...

The front of the house when we first moved in.  Note the conifer on the left.

The right side of the house, again, a conifer and the mango in front of the little shed.

The left of the house.  Note the tall yukka type things and the papyrus looking thing.

The new front of house.  No conifers and a little line of rocks.

Here are the rocks a bit closer up :-).  We collected these from the side of the road.  They have some great colours and shapes and make the yard look like it's going to be a garden already!  Yay!

The right side of the house with the conifer removed, the mango trimmed so we can get into the shed a bit easier, and the neighbour's bush trimmed back to his side of the fence.

And here Frankie is showing the now cleared left side of the house.


Now we're ready to finish putting in our rock edging, kill the grass and dig it out, fill it with soil and plants, get rid of all the prickles in the lawn and make it green and lush, make a vege garden and herb garden, and build a chicken coop.  Phew!

Meet Frankie and Choccie

Today turned out to be more full than I'd expected.


We woke fairly late, around 7:30 and I thought I didn't have anything to take to playgroup for morning tea so I started to make a batch of choc chip cookies.  Unfortunately the butter was in the fridge and the morning was cold so it took forever to get the butter and sugars creamed.


I realised we were going to be late to go to the kindy to put the Little Big Fella's name on the waiting list for next year so I put the dough in the fridge and found a pack of chips in the cupboard.  (Which, by the way, is kind of weird because I rarely buy chips when I do the grocery shopping but just happened to this week!)


The Little Big Fella and I drove to the next town and visited the kindy.  He loved it!  Their playground is awesome; it has a massive sand pit with not one but two diggers!; they have mowers; an awesome, rather large cubby; all kinds of fun looking play equipment; and swings!  He was in heaven.


Unfortunately the paperwork only took a couple of minutes to complete and then we had to go.  He was not a happy camper!


After dropping a couple of large boxes (!) of clothes at the Salvo's we went back to our town for playgroup.  I felt much more comfortable at playgroup this week, which I think is mostly because of the time I've been able to spend talking to people during the week.  Continuing the long process of friendship :-)


By the way, have you tried the Smokey BBQ Grainwaves?  Yumm!!!


When we got home the Big Fella bundled us into the car and drove us to a home where we met Frankie and Choccie.  Before we moved here we'd half decided that we'd like the Little Big Fella to have a dog.  We didn't really know what kind of dog but it wouldn't be a toy dog breed and it wouldn't be big.  He absolutely fell in love with these mini Fox Terriers!

The Little Big Fella with Choccie, a female mini Foxy

Frankie, a male mini Foxy

When we left the Little Big Fella cried like his heart was broken!  But we decided to go home and sleep on it - it was a big decision that shouldn't be made on a whim!


At home we had lunch and some rest time.  I did a little research on registering pets in our area, basic dog obedience (the Big Fella and I had a Jack Russell who wasn't trained well at all), and general new puppy tips.  I think we'd pretty much decided to get one of them, but maybe we should get both?


Late in the afternoon we received a call from the lady selling the dogs, had a chat and decided we would get them both.  We got a few things ready then headed out and picked them up.


For the third time in one day the Little Big Fella was in heaven!  He was so excited when we told him the puppies would be coming home with us!


At home he just wanted to pick them up (I think that's going to be an issue for a little while).  Frankie and Choccie started checking out their new home, thankfully didn't try to escape under the (now we've noticed) large gap under the gate, and settled in after a play and some food.


The little girls from next door came over to have a play with them too and I got to have a good chat with their mum for the first time.


When it was time to go upstairs for dinner, the Little Big Fella had another meltdown.  He wanted the puppies to come in the shower with him and sleep on his bed!  It was kind of cute but really annoying when he didn't stop crying or whining for ages.


Frankie and Choccie are sleeping in a box (with a blanket) inside downstairs.  I've only been down twice - once because they were barking (the light was on so after a little pat and reminding them where their bed was I turned that off), and once because there was a yelping sound and I needed to assure myself they were okay.  No doubt they'll be up bright and early and ready to play.


So there you go!  We are now a two adult, one toddler and two puppies family.


(I'm pretty sure I can hear groans and giggles and see rolling eyes from certain people.)

The long process of friendship

As I was growing up my family moved towns a couple of times.  I also lived overseas for a year.  With each new location I got to (had to?) start the long process of developing friends.


I've realised a few things about me and making friends through these experiences:

• Although I normally get along with people pretty much straight away, it generally takes me about 12 months to really feel at home with new friends, longer if we have infrequent contact
• After about 3 to 6 months the previous town no longer feels like home and I tend to feel home-less
• I can appear to be a bit of a snob initially.  I think this is because I tend to be a bit guarded until I get a feel for how new people or groups interact.  And I am a tiny bit shy in new situations (I know, some of you just won't believe that.  I've learned to override it a lot but it's still there making me uncertain to begin with).
• I think I am a bit of a chameleon in that I change to look like the group I'm in until I feel comfortable enough to really be myself.  I love it when I just click with someone and can be myself straight away though.

I've been watching myself as I meet new people and then run into them around the place here.  (Go the over-analytical part of me!)  I've deliberately tried to talk to people and introduce myself.  I've tried really hard to remember names, which is okay if I meet one or two people at a time but a bit harder in a group.  I've tried to join in conversation rather than just observe.  And I've tried to remember to ask questions about others and their life, rather than just making them lead the conversation.

I got to hang out for a while this afternoon with one of the mums I met at the local park.  It was so good to just spend time and have the kids playing happily together (mostly).  I found out a bit more about the area and how things work and what's here and so on.  And I discovered someone who enjoys making things from scratch like yoghurt and butter and cheesecake :-D!!!  I got to begin the long process of friendship.

So now I think it must be my turn to start having people over for a cuppa and a playdate and a chat and the start or development of friendship.  Because I don't want to get a few years down the track and feel like I know people but have no friends.  I think I deserve better than that... and so do they! ;-)

My 100th post, dedicated to my Mum

Wow!  I'm up to my hundredth post already!  Who'd have thought I'd keep going this long and that people would still find it at least slightly interesting!


Now, what could I say that would be worthy of this milestone?


I think, especially with tomorrow being Mother's Day, I'm really don't have any other choice but to dedicate this post to my Mum.


I'm the oldest of four children and Mum stayed home with us until my brother, the youngest, started school.  Times were often tough and Mum somehow made the budget stretch to keep us all fed, clothed and entertained.


I think Mum sometimes feels like she didn't do the best job (I wonder if that's just how most all Mums feel, at least sometimes) but I know that my sisters, brother and I know she's awesome!  I mean, how many people do you know that could successfully keep 4 kids in line, not only with strong discipline but also plenty of love?


Although I know she was strict, that's not what I remember.  I remember the fun dinners with a colour theme, dressing up, baking slices, learning the 1-2-1 formula for a basic white sauce, tramping around in the bush and lighting a campfire, her incredible wisdom and the best hugs in the world!


Mum is creative in a million ways!

• She has some great crafty skills and style.
• I don't think I've ever read or heard of a thrifty skill or idea that I haven't seen her employ.
• She can make a meal stretch from feeding 6 people to feeding 20 with barely any notice!
• She can make a meal when there's nothing in the cupboard!
• She can turn a boring wet day into an awesome adventure.
• She can make the Women's Weekly birthday cake book cake of your choice and it will look awesome :-)

I got to work at the same place with my Mum for several years and the thing I noticed, the thing that stood out about her compared to everyone else there, was that the Mum I grew up with, who made me feel safe, comfortable and at home, was the person others got to meet.  Mum has a wonderful sense of hospitality and an amazing ability to put people at ease.  Whenever we had new staff she'd just take them under her wing and make them feel comfortable and relaxed and welcome.  She'd help them settle in.  And it wasn't her defined role that made this happen, it was her personality and unique skills.

My husband jokes that when I'm in a bad mood I need to speak to or visit my Mum.  When we lived in the same town he'd bundle me into the car and we'd drop round for a visit.  He says that she somehow makes me happier in a way that he doesn't know how to.

I remember as I was growing up, so many times wondering how my Mum got to be so wise.  She always knew the right thing to say (even on the odd occasion when I didn't want to hear it).  She was my comfort, a source of challenge, my most trusted adviser and confidant.

Since having the Little Big Fella I have appreciated even more how unique and wonderful my Mum is.  The hours of care, the constant encouragement, the wisdom, the stamina and the love my Mum has shown to me and my siblings blows me away.

Mum, I love you!  If you couldn't tell, I think you're awesome!  I miss you and I always love talking to you.  I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day and that the others still in Victoria do their best to spoil you like you deserve (I know they will).  Big cyber hugs and kisses (and a tissue coz you probably need one too).  I love you Mum.

Our first party, vacuum cleaners and blinds

This morning we had to go to the Post Office to post a package to my grandparents, and collect our mail of course :-)  It is so quaint living in a town that doesn't deliver mail and I'm (just quietly) getting a bit of a kick out it.  This was only our 2nd visit to the Post Office and the lady had our mail out ready for us before we'd even gotten the parcel sorted out.  Now that's what I call customer service!


Anyway, on the way home we were passing the home of one of the kids we've played with in the park and her mum ran out and invited us to the little girls' birthday party this afternoon.  How cool is that?


The party was a really easy plate of sausage rolls and party pies, lollipops, cordial and, of course, a cake, in the park where all the kids play after school anyway.  Call me a middle-class snob if you like, but I've never seen such an easy party... and I loved it!  Especially after the huge effort of the Little Big Fella's Cars party, it was really refreshing.


The kids ran around and played happily (although there were a couple of injuries), some of them ate when the food came out and we sang Happy Birthday, and the adults sat around and chatted.  It was so relaxed!


Although, I did come across this amazing pinata biscuit idea on Pinterest last night...


Yesterday, after the Big Fella got home we decided to go to the closest big town to try to buy a new vacuum cleaner and some curtains/blinds for the house.  We got there at midday, had to wake the Little Big Fella and then didn't know where to go.  We had a bit of lunch at a nice, busy cafe with man-looking food then found our way to the new shopping centre.


The vacuum cleaner is absolutely awesome!  It even sucks the little prickles that make their way into the house on our shoes out of the carpet in 1 or 2 pass overs!  I just about threw the old one into the bin but the Big Fella said to keep it as a car cleaner so I moved it downstairs.


Blinds we didn't do so well on.  After getting rather discouraged I ended up doing an internet search on my phone and called a curtain maker in that town.  He came down straight away and gave us an idea of what they could do.  It'll take a few weeks but we'll probably get the kitchen and dining windows covered by them, then maybe replace some of the others over time.


On the way home we ended up stopping at a little weir outside of the next town over.  The sun had started to set and it was incredibly peaceful and beautiful there.  We're talking about camping there for a few days if we can hire a camper trailer (the Big Fella doesn't do tents or caravans but thinks he'd cope okay with a camper trailer).  It'd be awesome if we could hire or borrow a tinnie too and do a little fishing - the Little Big Fella would love that!


As we were driving home I was reflecting on the spontaneous nature of our trip and the kilometers we'd travelled.  In our last town I'd developed a bit of a closed mind about travelling, and being spontaneous I guess.  Most of that was in reaction to the Little Big Fella, who used to be absolutely painful in the car and made being spontaneous a little more than difficult on occasion.  So I'd kind of given up and we didn't travel more than 15-20 minutes without planning at least several days in advance.


But here, especially after such an easy drive up with the Little Big Fella, I don't have any of that.  Give me 15-20 minutes to get myself together, make sure everyone has had a toilet break, and gather some food and drinks and we're good to go!


And I love the sense of freedom that comes with that!  It feels so good and, for some strange reason, I feel less weighed down and restricted than I did before.  Which makes me wonder what kinds of changes I'll go through in living here!  What will be different about me in 5, 10, 20 years because we've lived here?  And that's a challenging and exciting thought!

The guided tour

So I thought today, seeing that the house isn't completely trashed, I might give you a little look around our new place.

Here's the view from the driveway.  I love sunrise and sunset here.  It feels a bit like we're in the bush and the sunlight on the gum trees is definitely food for my soul.

Here's the front of the house.  To say I was underwhelmed when we arrived is probably a bit of an understatement.  And this is after it's been mowed and whipper snipped.  Yep, there's a bit of work to do outside.

Here's the western side of the house.  The Big Fella just bought a roller shade to put on the verandah and keep the house a bit cooler.  We'll get a little table and chairs too so we can sit out there and have breaky or a drink in the evening :-D


You can see (just behind that mango tree at the back) a little garden shed.  We'll possibly put the chicken coop on the left side of that (so that they get plenty of shade on the hot days).  Although, I quite like the idea of a chicken tractor - a coop that you can move around the yard so that they can fertilise all over the place and dig up the vege garden or whatever.

This is under the house.  Still a work in progress but it's going to be quite useful.  We can fit two cars and the motorbike on the one side.  The other side has the laundry (against the wall, behind the blue tool box - you can just see it) and will be the workshop area and possibly hold our gym equipment too.

This is the back yard.  Lots of space but kind of un-useful at the moment.  It gets shade for most of the day between the house and the washing line so I'm thinking that might be where we'll spend time in summer.


In the corner, behind the washing line and near the fence, is where we're planning to put the vege garden.  I'm not sure if we'll do much more because we'll have to undo any changes we make before we leave.  We'll see...

Here's the eastern side of the house.  This side is shaded in the hot parts of the day so gets the most use as an entrance.  We're probably going to take out that straggly bush on the right and the two tall plants and possibly put a herb garden along the fence - the kitchen is at the top of the stairs.

Here's the dining and lounge rooms entering from the eastern stairs.  On the left is the kitchen.  And yes, the Big Fella does his own ironing for work (although I do it for him sometimes, just because I love him).

Here's the kitchen.  You know, I think we have way too many kitchen items!  The cupboards and drawers are chockas!  But it's so much better than our last kitchen and works pretty well.  I'm going to have to get some kind of sliding storage system in the pantry because it's deep and stores lots, but is useless for finding stuff.

The hallway - facilities on the left, bedrooms on the right, office at the end.

Yucky old loo, lovely new bathroom.  Although, the bathroom is impossible to keep clean!  I wipe it over all the time!  I think I'll either be cleaning it every day or lowering my standards or I'll go nuts.  Mmmm, probably lowering the standard a little - cleaning constantly would probably drive me nuts too :-D

Master bedroom.  We are going to have some serious issues in here.  We have too many clothes for the storage space.  And there's still at least three boxes to unpack in here.  Sigh.


On the bright side, we're due to replace our bedding, and probably our bed in the next 12 months or so.  Yay!

The Little Big Fella's room.  There are no cupboards in here so he has the tallboy, a bookshelf and the bedside drawers.  Luckily his toys were already in stackable boxes or it would be a complete disaster zone!  But it's so much bigger than his old room and will work well for us in the end.  It's fairly cool in this room and nice and dark during day time naps, which are, unfortunately, becoming more rare.

And last, but not least, the office/craft/playroom.  Again, no cupboards but we'll work out a solution for that.  We'll replace the "desk" at some stage but the current plan is to have the office basically where it is, a craft storage space on the opposite wall, and possibly use the floor area as a play zone with the Little Big Fella's road mat on the floor, and the "toys of the day" in maybe a small 4 or 6 box cube shelving next to the craft stuff.


Great things about the house:

• fans in every room (including the kitchen)
• floorplan works well for us
• lots more storage in the kitchen, bathroom, and hallway/linen press
• air conditioners in the bedrooms/office and space for one in the lounge
• nice, new bathroom with awesome hot water and lots of pressure in the shower head :-)

Not so great things about the house:

• prickles in the grass :-(  The Little Big Fella still hasn't learned to put shoes on when he goes outside
• the floor creaks so walking around quietly is actually impossible - really sucks for the Big Fella when he's doing night shift and trying to catch some daytime zzz's
• the carpet is average (but serviceable), the tiles in the loo and bathroom are ugly
• not enough storage in the bedrooms, and the wardrobe doors in the master are falling to pieces
• no curtains!  We brought a few with us but we'll have to get some more pretty quickly

So there you go!  A look around our place.  I've been dreaming of lovely storage solutions and have a Pinterest board with some of the great ideas I've come across.  I've just ordered an Ikea catalogue and we'll probably visit the one in Brisbane in a few months so I'll have my shopping list ready :-D.  I think most nights I go to sleep dreaming of beautiful, practical options for the various areas in the house, which pretty much means I go to sleep smiling.  I love organising and sorting and setting up systems.  I wonder if that's an illness???  ;-D

Continuing to discover

The Big Fella took us for a little drive this morning to see the rest of town.  We took a drive out of town past the paddock across the street to discover the best trail bike area here, the rubbish tip, and the horse racing track.


I have to tell you about the tip because, just quietly, it blew me away (and no, it wasn't the smell).  I don't recall the last time I went to a tip that wasn't manned or signed as to where you should put your different kinds of trash.  Oh, wait!  There was one sign for a "domestic waste only" area.  No little booth with someone in it to make you pay for certain kinds of rubbish.  No painted lines on asphalt roads.  Just a dirt track to a big pile of rubbish that someone had recently set on fire (I guess that's what I smelled yesterday).


I also had my first visit to the little post office today.  There's no mail delivery here so you have to go to the post office to collect it.  I also had to post off our Mother's Day gifts, which brought a bit of a surprise.  The scales used to weigh my parcels were the kind where you place weights on a plate and balance it with the parcel on the other!  I didn't know they still existed except in museums!  Unsurprisingly they didn't have EFTPOS so I have to drop in tomorrow to pay the balance because I ran out of cash.  Yep, I live in a small town :-D


At the park this afternoon the Little Big Fella had his first go on the skate ramps with his scooter.  He only went on the little one of course, but he was so excited about it and ended up scooting around balanced with one foot in the air.  He's growing up before my eyes!


I also met a new lady at the park this afternoon who has only been in town 12 months.  She had a 5 year old son and a 2 year old daughter and was really lovely to talk to.  Amazingly, she was from the same area we've just left as well!  She did mention the gossiping part of living here and that she and her husband tend to keep to themselves a lot.


Tomorrow the Little Big Fella and I will go to the playgroup for the first time.  I'm excited to meet some more people and see how life here works in a little more detail.  No doubt I'll see a bit of that gossiping in action but I'm hoping to also meet someone/s that I click well with, who has a similar approach to parenting and life as me.  We'll see!


The Big Fella got annoyed in the kitchen this morning and cleaned the windows.  Seriously, I think my biggest memory from this whole move will be cleaning windows!  So then we got the benches cleared (we have enough cupboard space to put the dish rack away!!!!!) and I shined my sink (thanks Mum and FlyLady), clearing away the rust spots and gunk around the taps.  The sink has obviously been abused so it still looks a bit splotchy but it looks so much better and going in to the kitchen being able to see through my window, my bench empty and ready-to-use and my shiny sink makes me feel good.


We've decided to spend about an hour each day tackling a room at a time until the house is up to scratch and we feel like we can relax in it.  At the moment there are still boxes all over the place and things that don't have homes.  But by tackling a room at a time, together, it becomes less overwhelming and we'll get it done without killing ourselves (or each other).


I feel happy!  Not mostly happy.  Not happy when such-and-such happens.  Just happy!  I love living with my husband again.  I feel hopeful.


Sure, I have moments when I lose the plot or the Little Big Fella pushes my buttons, or the list of things to do overwhelms me.  But overall I feel happy, and even when I'm feeling a bit shirty or whatever, underlying that is happiness.  And it feels like it's been a long time since that was my main mode of operation!  I like it a lot!  :-D