Timber recycle

Yesterday the tree removal contractors  that the council uses, came out and cleaned up the fallen tree and other fallout where it had crashed through the surrounding flora.

They started at about 8 am and finished around 11.30 am. I was amazed at the size of the branches the industrial wood chipper could consume.

There was expected damage to the fence that we will insist the council repair.

The manager asked if we would like to keep the remaining large logs and woodchip or have them remove it. We have friends with woodfires, and apparently this is a Blakely's Redgum, so has good burning qualities, low sparks and excellent coals. It will need to be split soon, though, as it has a reputation of being difficult to split. Considering the drought in progress and the cost of buying mulch I decided to keep that too! There wasn't as much as I thought from so much tree but it will be useful.

Being impressed by the way they worked I also asked for the company's card as there are a few trees that can be a problem, at the front of the house, that we will need to remove in the future.

Stay safe everyone, and always keep an eye on trees that creak as it may not be branches rubbing against each other!

Cheers,

Robyn Louise. 

Everything is falling into place....finally...

Well, after gaining my forklift licence on Friday I walked a couple of blocks on Saturday to purchase some free range eggs from a local lady that I've bought them from before. She has a horse but told me she is sending it over to her daughter's so they can ride together as she doesn't like riding alone. This will leave her paddock vacant and she offered it to me for my mares as she knows I am trying to find agistment. We haven't discussed remuneration yet but I think it will not be much as she said she's NEVER had to feed her horse while he's been in the paddock and she'd have to slash it without him there as the grass just grows and grows. I still have to look at the paddock but it's nearby so I could probably walk or bike to it to check on the girls. Hoping for a good tax return now so I'll have the money to freight the girls over after I check out the paddock.

Yesterday morning, at the winery, a forklift driver friend of mine told me to see the staff management guy, who I know, about holding a forklift licence. I was cleaning the lunchroom, in the afternoon, and the staffer popped in to post a work roster for next week so I advised him. Consequently, after work this morning, I dropped by his office and he photocopied my temporary licence. The production manager, who is also a referee on my resume, was there and he suggested to the staffer that a bit of "moonlighting" (the guy has a great sense of humour!) driving forklifts at the winery would help me gain experience. The staffer agreed. Now I just have to wait for it to be made legal *big cheesey grin*. The driving experience will also be on Line 3, which is the winery section I clean. I felt like doing cartwheels!! Hoping some permanent employment, that also has "forklift licence an advantage" in the advertisement, becomes available at the winery soon.

On my way to the gym today I visited the Post Office and sent off the paperwork for my permanent forklift licence. Pleased to say the necessary photo that was taken looks much better than my car driving licence photo *giggle*.

First time at the gym in about two weeks and first time on the pec deck as that is replacing the bench and freeweight exercises I was doing because, as the weight and repetitions rose, it began to affect my sway/scoliosis affected back. Also my second time doing box pushups instead of wall pushups and I've reduced the repetitions to 8 for the box ones from 15 when I was doing wall pushups. Wow, do they ever make my chest and bicep muscles work and without putting any strain on my back. In the near future I'll add the lat pulldown machine to my workout to strengthen my back muscles more. I really must start riding my bicycle again too but I think I'll need to buy or make some warmer pants as, with the current 10-12 deg Celcius temps, it's not a good idea to make your own breeze by riding a bike!

Cheers,
RobynLouise XO

Tempting, Toothless, Temperatures and Tasty

Look…look….I found a local who sells free range eggs! $4/dozen if you collect and $5 delivered. I fried 2 to have with my bacon this morning and they are the freshest, most golden eggs I have had since I had my hens on the farm 2 years ago. Nothing like the flavour of a fresh egg. I could be tempted to eat lots of these poached, fried and scrambled but I’ll be good and use most of them for cooking. Beats the beejeebers out of the pale runny “organic” eggs you can buy from the supermarket. She only lives a couple of blocks away too. Another thing I love about living in a village J.

I was eating crunchy ANZAC biscuits last night and thought one bit was overcooked then realised I was a bit short on the eating equipment! Excuse the "morning face" WYSIWYG!!

Thank goodness for friends to ask (thanks Di!) and Dentists on line and that they have a vacancy tomorrow. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to cost me a couple of hundred dollars L.

BRRRRRRRR………it’s definitely Winter!! By CRIKEY it was cold last night! I lit the fire in the wood stove again but made sure I stacked some extra wood in it before I retired for the night. There was a nice crispy first of the year frost in my back yard at 7.30am when I finally dragged myself out of bed. Didn’t think to take a photo but everyone who’s lived with it knows what a good frost looks like – right? So I thought I'd post a picture to make everyone in the cold climes feel warmer.

Made myself some chicken stock yesterday in the slow cooker using chicken necks and then added to it to make chicken and vegetable soup for lunch today. Nothing like hot homemade soup on a cold day. The ingredients are all purchased but I hope to change that in the future, well except for the chicken, but then maybe I can find someone around here who will give me a non laying freebie or sell it to me cheap.

Cheers to all plus keep warm wishes to those in the Southern Hemisphere!

RobynLouise

The Bucket List and other things.....

I had a doctor's appointment the day after my last blog post to have a small growth on my head inspected. Well, it was fine but I'd been feeling a bit tired and had a couple of head spins while in the waiting room and, as that had happened at work a few times in the previous week, I asked him to take my blood pressure. I knew it was in orbit and I was correct - 180/105. I thought I'd just go home and take the meds, I managed to exercise and diet myself off before, but doctor told me no meds, no strenuous exercise, go home and rest and come back in 3 days for a blood test. He wanted a clean test with no interference from drugs. The usual culprits - vitamin/mineral deficiencies, thyroid, diabetes and cholesterol.

Well everything was fine though I was a bit worried that my cholesterol was up to a total of 5.9 (from 4.9) again but the doc said as the triglycerides and HDL's were at very good levels and the LDL's were low he wasn't too bothered by the total reading.

So....I'm back on meds....again :(. Better than being dead though I suppose *silly grin*. Back to square one - repeat - till I'm off meds again. I'm blaming this on the work stress.

Meanwhile...over on my emails...... Booktopia were having a postage free sale so of course I went in search of the book I've wanted since it was printed and low and behold it was on sale too! Well I can't take my money with me if I cark it and I don't think the government taxes your books after you've gone so I purchased it, and a companion to it, and now I'll have something to read while I drink my green tea and snack on my homemade healthy goodies and can cross it off my Bucket List!

In a renewed effort to have more vegetables in my diet I tried out the Savoury Split Peas recipe on the side of that pack. It was quite tasty, though I did add some tabasco to it to liven up the other condiments, and filling as well as being cheap.

I've been doing some more baking and tried out this Pumpkin Fruit Cake Recipe I found on the internet as I couldn't find the original one I had. DUH!! I knew I had it somewhere safe  (I can just see and hear Matti May laughing) and of course I discovered it last night on the Recipes page on my blog after I'd made the pictured cake and started this post *picture me banging head on hand*. LOL, must be practising for senior's moments but I guess I can blame it on the vagueness caused by high blood pressure!!

I’m not happy with this recipe and I think I’ll go back to the tried and tested one I posted here.

There was a bit of rain around yesterday that kept me housebound and it was accompanied by thunder and lightning. The cat spent the day inside the house and the dog holed up in the shed outside. 

The front yard.

The back yard.

Nearly forgot! My lovely friend gifted me a selection of his brews.  Lol, I jokingly tell him that if there was some way I could clone him I would J. The bottle on the left contains Old, the centre one is Pale Ale and the one on the right is Mexican. I can drink them 3 weeks after the dates on the caps so I could have the Old now….if I could lower this damn blood pressure! Suppose it gives me something to look forward to….sigh….

Cheers,

RobynLouise

Expensive week?

Spent money all over the place on all sorts of things in the last week!

A "new" bike cost me $250 plus $50 for the helmet I then needed. Mind you, the bike is about 6 months old and barely used and is almost $800 brand new for just the bike plus it has extras in the form of locking chain, lights and little carry bags for your goodies and the bike's repair/tool kit. With 27 gears I should be able to find a suitable range of speeds/torque to keep me fit :P.

I went away for the Easter long weekend to visit my daughter but the day before I left my mobile phone died :(. Purchased a new phone whilst visiting that cost me about twice as much as the bike. As I can't take a photo of it, as it is also my camera, it should last me at least 3-4 years compared to the under $100 talk/text/bit of internet varieties that I've owned previously.

Between the bike and the phone I have a lot of learning to do *roll eyes*.

Easter Saturday I surprised my eldest daughter with an early "cake" for her birthday.

         

The centre was also filled with chocolates and choc covered liquorice. If you fancy one of these, and live near the Junee Liquorice and Chocolate Factory , they are well worth it. Organic chocolate and liquorice in wonderful types and flavours. If you can't visit then you can always buy their boxed goodies online.

For someone who said she didn't eat chocolate or sweets very much my daughter managed to demolish this, mostly on her own, by the end of the long weekend :D.

I also bought myself a few things and the jar of choccies, below, which I shared amongst a few of the guys who "torment" me at the place I work. They're a good bunch and keep me alert with their humorous comments. Lucky my hair is already going grey though!

The weather is cooling off this week so I've ordered in a load of wood to burn in the wood stove but it won't be coming until after next payday.....thank goodness.

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo

Reboot.....Back to basics in life

Friday mornings are one of my RMO's (Rostered Mornings Off) and as I needed to go to town anyway I decided to drop by the Regional Aquatic Fitness Centre (aka - the local pool!) and personally check out the facilities I'd seen online. You can never judge something from photographs - try house hunting to rent or buy and you'll see what I mean!

To say I was surprised is an understatement. The facility isn't huge but the pools are under cover and heated (yay, swimming all year round) and the Gym has a nice range of machines and weights to use without it being crowded or confusing. There's a spa too and water, sorry aqua, aerobics :). The Gym also has fitness classes that I can attend as they are in my non-working hours unlike a couple of local privately owned gyms that only had classes I wanted to do in my working hours. They also do introduction to the fitness machines and plan out an initial individual program for you when you join based on your fitness level and your little quirks - like my swinging vertebra.

This all led to my needing to work out a proper budget to see if I can warrant the $29/fortnight cost which covers both pool and gym fees. Paying a once off yearly payment is a fraction cheaper but at the moment I don't have that lump amount of cash available.

I averaged out my weekly wage since I've had this job, including public hols and Christmas shutdown, so I'm not working off the current nett pay but the average which is about $120 less a week than I receive now. I've over estimated costs with everything, and not included the money ex (still) owes me as well as adding in a clothing allowance which I probably won't use much anyway as it will only be for secondhand jeans for work, and then there's the unknown tax return I will receive this year as I nominated to be slightly over taxed.

I'll definitely have to jump into the sewing now or I'm going to have a cold Winter! Yeah, yeah I know I've been trying to destash for years but now it's become a necessary reality. LOL, now I'll also have to make the cash wallet envelope on my Pinterest board to keep all my regular payments in :). It's a bit of a bugger being paid cash wages these days.

Cleaning and groceries cost will reduce from what I've budgeted for as I'm baking bread and making my own soaps again as well as stockpiling specials more often now I have the initial base stockpile set up. In the future I hope to grow my own herbs/veges again so that will also lower the grocery cost. 

Yesterday, I made tallow based soap and changed the recipe again, as I wanted to include more tallow for eventual hardness and longevity, and therefore had to fiddle with the other oils so I had less cleaning and bubbly (I'm not that dirty :D) and more conditioning and creamy. I sort of need this now I've passed the half century *roll eyes*.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Beef Tallow 900g

Coconut Oil (not copha) 150g

Olive Oil 450g

Water 570g

Lye 206g

Fragrance 46.5g - optional - but I didn't fragrance mine as it may be used on a couple of little ones and all I have at the moment is clove or lemon myrtle oils which can cause reactions in some people as they are quite strong.

If you want to know basic soapmaking go here to Rhonda's DTE blog, as she has explained it wonderfully, and she also has her basic soap recipe there if you want to try it as well, or instead of, mine.

I can't post a soap recipe without a pic of the outcome so here they are.

When they are sufficiently dried out in about 6-8 weeks I'll weigh them and see how much I have. Should be around 2kg.

As the tallow was free, the cost was a total of $4.81 for the other ingredients as I bought the oils on great specials and the lye was regular price of $4.39/500g at the supermarket. Minimal gas used to heat the oils so even rounded up to $5 for pretty close to 2kg of all natural soap it's a bargain :D.

I made some laundry soap this evening but more on that later in the week as this post is already quite long!

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Blogging elsewhere

I've had an interesting month with job searching, medical appointments and the cold weather that is preventing me from doing a lot of crafting. I really don't want to bore anyone with my daily tasks and I haven't done anything or been anywhere interesting lately.

At the moment my health needs attention and I am the only one who can rectify this if I don't want to end up on more medications.

So this month, hopefully on a daily basis, I will be posting my progress on my efforts on another blog of mine.

Feel free to visit and either cheer me (not too much or I could slack off) or chide me if I become too casual about it (more than likely at some stage :P). Keeping motivated to keep moving and keep monitoring can be a trial on your own, even if it is in our best interests, and critical comments are still social encounters - especially when delivered by friends.

As I like photos on blogs I'll leave you with a sunrise I managed to capture at SO's last month when I woke up freezing cold as he'd stolen all the blankets! At least this made it worth braving the chill and because I'd woken him up jumping up to dress, and grab my camera, I scored a nice hot cuppa and toast when I returned inside.

Click to view larger.

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Broken, tired and bored......and it's only been 6 days :(

For those of you who don't already know I stood at the wrong end of my temperamental mare last Sunday (6 Oct) and was kicked. The kick itself bruised me but the landing broke my left upper arm and bruised most of my back.

Well, the short version is the horses arrived where they are supposed to be and are doing fine but I'm still stuck here due to disorganisation that may not have occurred if the ex had let me move out by the end of October, which is what I was aiming for, instead of trying to rush me out earlier and putting extra stress on me.

At the moment I'm broken, tired, sore, drugged to the eyeballs and bored shitless as I can't do much.

I'm also looking at another 10-12 weeks of this....with no craft of any kind that I can do, most of my books packed and difficulty even dressing myself or making a cup of tea I'm going to be climbing the walls before long.

Soooo, that's my pity party for now. Hopefully after the permanent cast replaces this temporary one, sometime next week, the prospects of amusing myself may improve.

At least I'll have company after I move as I'll have the smaller animals around - my dog , cat and the cockatiels.

Cheers,
Robyn xo

Heart Food

Found out on Friday that I haven't lowered my LDL cholesterol so now I'm on medication to help lower it :(. The doctor wants to see me in 1 month to check up on my blood pressure and in 2 months I need another a fasting blood test for the cholesterol levels and another visit to the doc about this.

I've been researching good heart foods and as fish and salad are high on the list I decided that this lovely mullet, that was on special on Friday, would be stuffed with mushrooms and capsicum, baked in foil in it's own juices and accompanied by the roast pumpkin and lentil salad recipe I found on my search for new ways to use pumpkins.

DH (Mr meat and 3 veg) wasn't overly thrilled with it but he did eat most of his salad and commented that it wasn't too bad. That's high praise from a man who thinks dried peas/beans are only for feeding hens and cows.

Guess he'd better become used to eating heart healthy as this isn't a restaurant and I don't do a la carte meals! 

For those waiting on the pumpkin scone recipe it's still coming but I thought I'd help ensure I was around for a bit longer to post these things by eating healthier ;P. To compensate I've posted the roasted pumpkin and lentil recipe on the recipe page. It is surprisingly delicious!

Cheers,

Robyn xo

Triple treat

Yesterday I went to have my blood test and bugger me, after fasting overnight and driving 40km into town I discovered I'd left my referral at home! The lovely ladies at the lab suggested I pop up to the surgery and ask if it was possible to have another one as the surgery was fairly good about this sort of thing. They were probably thinking early seniors moment!

I did so but I think my new doctor doesn't trust me to be an amenable patient as I ended up with another consultation. After enquiring about my bp readings at home and my diet he took my blood pressure and it was 115/78.....perfect! I gave him a smug look and said "I told you we're all stubborn women in my family and I could do this".  He just shook his head and smiled at me but reminded me not to go off my tablets as he gave me a new referral.

After the blood test and some tripping around town on my little high I arrived home to be greeted by another wonderful sunset, and fortunately I've been carting the camera everywhere with me, after missing a few golden opportunities lately.

It took 3 tries to find the right manual combo that gave me a picture that showed what I was seeing:

5:35:22pm
f2.8 Exposure 1/125
Washout

5:35:46pm
f2.8 Exposure 1/250
still too pale

5:36:04
f2.8 Exposure 1/320
not quite the vibrant colours my eyes were seeing

5:36:38 GOT IT!
f2.8 Exposure 1/400

and of course, just wondering what it would look like taken up once more to f2.8 1/500 at 5:37:06 and it's not too bad either, though a bit dark.

Have you noticed the coloured clouds at the top of the photos disappearing and the yellow becoming less? It all faded away in 94 seconds!


The third treat was when I arrived in the house to discover an overseas parcel waiting for me. Oh yay, my prize had arrived from Tracy! My very first signed copy of a book, Chorus of the Dead, that I won back here and not only that it is the first in a new series .

I'm going to read it all over again as book 2 in the series called "Dead Silent" will be available in the next few months :D.  Can't wait to see how that reads!

Cheers,
Robyn xo

The NEW me?

Well, not really, as I've had my hair short since about October last year but I had it restyled and shortened again before Christmas 2012 and I've also lost a few kgs so my face looks thinner. The photo on the left was taken today, on short notice, as I needed a face shot for a forum I'm in. I'm dressed in a daggy old men's shirt I slob around home in. I look a bit different to a photo I took 2 years ago, on the right. Look how chubby my face is in that one, there's no cheek bones!  Move over moonface Bert Newton! That's why I'm not posting full body ones - too embarrassing as being short I look really round while I'm overweight! Another reason for wearing oversized shirts.

Follow up cholesterol blood test tomorrow so I'm hoping the weight loss, exercise and change of diet has shifted some of it out of my blood stream. My goal is not so much to lose weight but to eat and exercise my way to no prescribed medicines if possible and a BMI between 21-25. The latter is looking acheivable as I've dropped it 2.2 points to 27.7 in the last 6 weeks. I've discovered BMI isn't about your weight it's about your fitness as I've lost this much weight before but hardly made any impression on my BMI.

No hoping about this, there's going to be a new me before Spring and I'll need all new clothes. Ones that show off a bit more of me rather than hiding it :).

Cheers,
Robyn xo