Tuesday, December 22, 2009

We are Houseless

I Don't know if houseless is a word but thats what we are but in a good way.

Today Tuesday 22nd at 2pm our house in Stawell settled. We no longer own real estate, we are no longer landlord. We no longer have a mortgage. The best part was I only got a letter in the mail yesterday telling the rates had gone up again. Yeah I don't have to worry about it anymore.

This is like the final cutting of string with ties to western victoria, apart from the friendship that were formed. It is sad but also very freeing.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Trim Those Trees

Thursday 10th December.


Todays craft was turning the everyday pine cone into a christmas tree. We have joining us today Miss T. She is suspect of having chicken pox, hense the socializing with my children. After all the pine tree falling around our house we went for a wonder and collected the nicer cones.We made a simple base out of coloured paper folded in half and taped around the bottom. The kids have wrapped some tinsel string around their trees to give it some colour. This stays in remarkable well with no glue needed if you stick it in far enough. Then I found these really cool glitter glue pens that have two colours in each pen. The kids just dotted these around on the pine cone to give it some more colour. Miss E decided that her tinsel stars needed some on them as well.




from left to right. Miss E, Master J, Miss Z and Miss T creations.


Let the crafting begin

Today to keep our hands from scratching we started making our Christmas crafts and what better way to start than with the wreath. I had bought some colour streamers which we cut into little square/rectangle pieces. We them cut a donut out of a manilla folder. Puting some PVA glue down the kids then took a piece of streamer wrapped it around the end of a  pen and glued in on the manilla donut.This gives it a flat bit to stick to the glue and the folded up edges bush out. I would start in the centre circle and work my way out next time. Miss E who is only 4 found it easier just to glue and stick. No she does not have glasses now, they came in a doctor set she bought, so is wearing them everywhere.




Once completed and dried, I just taped some string on the the back and tied them to the front door.
Miss Z is the nearly completely green one, Master J did the red, green and yellow. Miss E the multi colour ring.

Monday, December 7, 2009

count the dots....

This is Day 4 of the chicken pox saga. Miss Z is lucky she doesn't have that many spots. She does have a few more on her body though. But what she gets instead of spots is glands the size or large marbles up the back of her neck and behind her ears, making moving her head hurt. plus laying down puts pressure on the glands and then that hurts.



This is also day 4 for Master J. He has copped a lot more pox than his sister. Below is a face shot but some how I have managed to get it upside down.
He has them every where that you could think of and probable more.In the ears, inside of the eye lids, bottom of the feet, in between fingers and toes and other very unpleasant places.

Found out after I bought Calamine Lotion that its not used for chicken pox any more, they think it makes them scare. So no I have burn cream and Solosite which is a healing cream for burns, chicken pox and cuts.






Thursday, December 3, 2009

Pox Pox here and a Pox Pox there

Thursday 3rd December, 2009

Thats right today my lovely cherabs are wearing spots. Miss Z all day yesterday was a bag or miserable. headachy, tired, glad swollen behind the ears. Master J was also complaining which then lead Miss E to complain. Nothing an early night and a good sleep will fix.
Then this morning I was called into the bathroom. "Look at these bites mum"
" Um I don't think they are bites" and as more appeared I quickly googled chicken poxs and the photos matched so that good enough for me to confirm it.
Master J doesn't have as many but he has more in his head and on his eye lid. Tonight his eye is sore so I'll be watching that one closely.
Theres always something going on.

car trouble part 2

Thursday 3rd December, 2009.

Yeah we have are car back. I did get a phone call at 5pm on Wednesday night saying that all seemed well, but that they wanted to keep the car in over night to check for leaks. The cost. $121 for collant and a new radiator cap that were not part of the warranty.

Oh its good to have the car back.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Car Trouble

It all started last friday on my way up the mountain. There was road works going on so we had to stop and wait for the man with the sign. While sitting there I could smell something. Looked at the temp gauge only half way it should be fine. Next thing I know Steam wooshing out everywhere. Luckly there was room to move off the road. Lifting the bonnet I had water and steam going everywhere. By God's mercy the RTA guys were lovely. " Don't worry, we have plenty of water. We'll get you back on the road". And so it was they chatted with me and got a bucket of water from their truck. After a while the slowly undid the cap and let more steam out. A while later I turn the car back on while they slowly poured the water in. They even then moved down behind my car to stop the traffic with their sign while I turned around and head back for home. We got back to Kangaroo Valley which was only about 7-8km away. We found a nice shaddy tree and parked under there for a while. Master J and Miss Z were with me so we walked the streets of Kangaroo Valley. Its not a very big place so we stopped for ice cream as well. About 1 hour had passed so I rang the Holden place expecting that being Friday afternoon my car would have to wait until Monday. But no they said bring it straight in and they would just check to make sure everything was ok.
We continued on our way, up the mountain, down the mountain and into town. Holden have just built them selves a new you bute building so we got to sit on a nice couch drink cold water, the hot chocolate was not so nice and wait.
After a while I was told that the car was still boiling and that it was not in a condition to be driven anywhere, we would have to leave the car over the weekend. Please be warned, your fan is not working, thermostate is not working and because of the heat the head gasket is probable shot.
what sort of weekend did you think I had.
We are blessed greatly though as Hubby's boss lent us one of their cars and let hubby come home at 3 so he could collect us and take us home after our little adventure.
Monday: Thermostate is not working and parts need to be ordered. Everything else looks ok but nothing will be confirmed until Tuesday when they put in the new thermostat.
Tuesday: Thermostat is in. The old one was blocked but the engine is still boiling. We need a new water pump. That too has to be ordered in so maybe by wednesday we will have the car back.
Wednesday: It is a sit and wait game.... To be continued..................

Sunday, November 29, 2009

more of our house

Well the big machinery has moved out and all that is left to do is the chipping. So I thought I would try and upload some before and after photos.

Before

After
Before
After

This is the view from our lounge room window now. One upon a time the bush to the right hand side continued around along the fence line just behind the gum tree, so there was no seeing the road or the house over the road.

Standing over the road looking at our house you never saw it before the clearing. A friend of mine sropped me off home and drove past the drive way to have a look at the clearing and commented " So thats what your house looks like"


This is on same side of the house as above but if you can imagine thick scrub and bush and pine trees thats what was there before. There was no dirt to see. You can see how thick the bush is at the back, well thats what has been cleared away to make this clear way. We are just waiting for the chipper to come through and then the fallen branches willl be gone from both sides of the photo.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Old Mogo Town Wednesday 25th November, 2009

Today we took the kids down to Old Mogo Town. There was a small group of us homeschoolers there, a couple from Switzerland and that was it. we had the place to ourselves.



The old water wheel.




Some young wayward children.



With that out of their systems, they are now back at work finding that precious metal, gold



Apparently its warm and keeps you dry. Think I'll stick to my house.



Down in the mine shaft.

It really is a wonder that anybody survive. What with green meat, OHS issues, and rum being watered down with boot polish!!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Noise, Noise and still more noise

Well, yesterday and today our peace and tranquility have been scared with the noise of heavy machinery.

It all started a few months back when the granny flat of our house got new tennants. Someone came to visit who happens to work in the fire service somewhere and they commented that the bush was too close to the granny flat. So someone from the fire service came to assess the property. Apparently the land around our yard is crown land and when I was speaking to the fire guy he said that they would do controlled burn but not this year as it was too late in the season. This is when I found out about there needing to be 20 metres between bush and buildings. Not thinking anymore about it we went on with life.

Then one day I come home to discover 2 men standing in our front yard. Well the wern't in our yard, but just the other side of the fence. Introducing himself to me was a man from the shire, "The owner of the land" and a contractor. They had been slapped with a fire reduction thingo, so here they were assessing what needed to be done. 2 more visits leads us up to yesterday when the heavy machines were rolled in. I'm a bit upset that I didn't think to take any before photos to show those of you who havn't been to our place the difference, but for those that have, you will see the difference.

The big beasty that has done all the clearing

Some of the big pines that where knocked down.


Loading up the pines to take to the mill.

Over our back fence. Until yesterday you really couldn't see the fence or beyond as it was just masses of bush and weeds and trees.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

One Giant Leap........

Is it always a giant leap when trying something new?
My life has been full of giant leaps this last 12 months it seems.
My hubby got offered a job 1000km away so we took it. Along with the move came the decision to homeschool.

The homeschooling part was just until the end of the year so we cuold get ourselves settled and look around our new diggs. But it is a lifestyle that grows on you. In January this year after our 2nd move, it was time to suss out the schools but you know what happened, the kids didn't want to go back. So a homeschooling family we have become.

Now I am blogging. Maybe this step is not so giant after all.