In-laws and great ideas :- March 23 & 24 2013

Jan and Peter came up for the weekend for the 1st time in a long time.

Jan & Peter in the kitchen

Jan & Peter in the dining room

Justin entertaining Jan & Peter

We showed them around, introduced them to lots of people, pub for dinner, walk around town on the Sunday morning, and a visit to Blanch Barkly before lunch - all very pleasant.

But, not only did we have the pleasure of their company, but they provided us with some great ideas.  I always like to ask guests opinions as to how to do up the kitchen etc - given that we have the challenges of 2 x low window sills, 2 doorways, the central hearth with the wood fired stove, and  that sticky out column on the wall that stops the backdoor opening fully.

Peter loves to solve problems and so firstly identified that the sticky out column probably was structural and therefore necessary, as he inspected the house and concluded that the kitchen and now study above it were added onto the rest of the house.  The rest of the house being a rectangle with the bay windows on one side.  So I guess that we can't rip down that column, or that it's hollow and hides treasures...

He also suggested that we should replace the old corrugated iron wood shed next to the house with a replica of the replacement laundry (winter house)

old wood shed to be ripped down eventually.... 

potentially to be replaced with a replica of this shed

We would put it in the same spot as the wood shed, and have it as our actual laundry.  This would then free up what I refer to as the scullery.

old photo of the scullery looking into the flooded  cellar (from floods of February 2011) 

We currently have the washing machine and a laundry sink set up in there, and are using the shelves on the left for tools etc

The plan would be that we could use the scullery as an actual scullery, ie food preparation etc and that the kitchen sink and dishwasher would be out there, and I guess we could use the shelves for food / food preparation implements etc and the central bench as a work bench.  Not sure if the fridge and oven would be in here though - that requires further thought and full size templates.

Anyway, that means that we wouldn't have to scrounge around for room in the kitchen for a sink and dishwasher space.  We'd still have the kitchen table, and eventually replace the Lux wood fire stove with a larger Aga/Rayburn which we could cook with and could also provide heating and hot water.  Or at least that is the plan.  We would also want a "proper" electric oven (which I have actually already very prematurely bought on Ebay) and a  "proper' hotplate.

Peter then amended his eariler plan of replicating the little shed, and suggested instead that we extend the back veranda around to the other side of the house.

So - extend the veranda around the other side where the wood shed currently is

It's currently an L shaped veranda, but it would become a U shaped one.  We would close in one wall, and put the washing machine and laundry sink in there, and maybe the tools etc.  Jan even suggested that we make it a little sun room (for Winter) and could put a door through to there from the kitchen....We're very excited about these new ideas, but obviously have to wait for the money to put them to fruition!!

But it wasn't all cerebral and social, this weekend, I did manage to flex my stump queen muscles in preparation for planting my olive trees

little crappy stumps to get rid of along the fence

I got rid of most of the stumps, but there was a stubborn one at the end, and it just got too tiring, so I left it, and went to water the garden instead.  Jan and Peter arrived them also.

From a proud gardener's perspective  I managed to harvest one of my 5 golden glorious peaches

small, but tasty!

And lastly we discovered that we appear to have a leak at the water meter.  I had alerted Coliban Water about the leak in Storm Lane which they fixed, but we now have moisture/leakage at our meter.  Did it just push the problem further along?

definite leakage at the meter

Anyway, I've contacted them - so hopefully they'll come and fix it soon

Labour Day long weekend in name and action :- Fri March 8 - Monday March 11

"Mark you're too good to waste on grunt work like this, leave that to Lisa"  so said my darling husband to Mark.  I had been "mattocking" and digging a trench in the concrete hard soil in order to set up a watering system for the vegie garden.

the start of the trench

balancing

falling

I must say I was a little put out, at the denigration of my "skills", partcularly when Justin continued with "we need your brains on more important things" to Mark again.  Humph I say!  Actually, looking at the above photos, maybe he didn't think I was being serious enough in my work ethic??

Anyway, I finished with my grunty trench, and the boys went and bought a tap and some dripper hose etc and voila, we had a a new tap - from the side water tank

the completed trench around the shed

Justin starting with the tap

the completed tap

Mark watering the vegies

Justin and Fraser ended up putting in the watering system ( Mark and Karen had left by this stage, otherwise I'm sure that Mark would have been in on it)  And so, the vegie patch is now being automatically drip watered for an hour everyday at 3am

thinking what to do....

Fraser assisting

aerial view from study

doesn't it look impressive

the dripper hoses installed

And it was hot, again, very hot.  We thought that Autumn had been on the way, but no, Summer was back with a vengeance.  More than 7 days of 30+ degrees temperatures in a row in Melbourne and of course hotter in the country.

Anyway, for something different, I caught the train and bus up to Inglewood, as I wanted to arrive there before Karen & Mark, as Justin and the kids were coming later due to Fraser arrving back from school camp around 6pm on Friday.

The train was about 2 hours to Bendigo, then a short wait, and a 30 minute bus ride to Inglewood.  Got there just after 4pm on Friday.  Did a bit of food shopping, and then got cooking

Made up hamburgers, and a pumpkin fritata in the trusty Christmas frying pan

burger

fritata

Karen and Mark arrived after 7pm, and Justin and kids about 8.45 when we all sat down to eat

Saturday morning, and given that it was such a lovely day, breakfast outside

al fresco breakfast

But after this, there was work to be done.  Mark had brought up his trailer with a load of mulch, and he and Justin decided that surprise surprise my saw tooth edging of the mulberry trees wasn't up to scratch, so they re-did that. Apparently I had laid the bricks the wrong way, flat as opposed to side on, and
I should have part buried them.  Complain complain, I remember doing this months ago, all by myself and it certainly looked a lot better than it had before hand.  Anyway, to hand it to the boys, they did a good job.  They then filled it with the mulch that Mark brought up

sun smart

taking out my bricks

getting going

the finished job

empty trailer now

Meanwhile Karen and I did some weeding and trimming around that area that I had started with Mum (and we went to the pool afterwards)

Karen attacking the plumbago

another pre photo - and I forgot to take the after shot.

Madeleine got Justin to put up the hammock

Mad hamming it up a bit #1

Mad hamming it up a bit #2

Lunch under the big hoop pine

looks like Fraser is still tired from camp

Oysters Kilpatrick provided by Karen as a pre dinner starter

osyers kilpatrick

And then off to the pub for dinner

The big Sunday job was to extend the pebble path, but first they needed more edging bricks.  So Karen and I had to find some

searching for bricks

a black nasty looking spider in the bricks 

walking along the path

making sure it's perfect

And this was all hot work....You can't necessarily tell, but my face is dripping with sweat.

Karen and I also went to the Inglewood cemetery, as Steve and Denise had told us that a few Tivey graves were there

child Tiveys - away from the main grave

Joseph & Margaret Tivey

Samuel Tivey

Joseph Arthur & Mary Tivey

unmarked graves

 The boys also moved the table upstairs, and easily manoeuvred it into the study.  well, when I say easily I mean that they didn't have to take it apart, or painstakingly inch it through the door, it was tight, but manageable.

through the hall

up the stairs

up the next set of stairs

And I finally got rid of my poor sorry pumpkins which by this stage had dried up (after sliming up) in the cellar

the reamins of the pumpkins

Mad searched for food

And I took some various miscellaneous shots :-

Mark in the background assessing his work

peering through the shed

Karen behind the shed

morning tea break

Karen cuddling Denise's cat

All in all another excellent long weekend, great company and we really felt as though we achieved a lot. We had originally been going to to pick grapes at Jill's, in preparation for making some wine, however borrowing the wine making equipment fell through, so we did all of this instead.  I guess we'll just buy some wine - and/or make some next year....