Sunday, 30 May 2010

Plumbing jobs...


This weekend was dedicated to plumbing jobs...
  1. Fix leaking kitchen mixer tap - after starting to take the tap apart a couple of weeks after moving in (it has a serious leak problem in the shaft part), we finally got around to turning the water off to finish pulling it apart and replacing necissary O-rings (well that's what we thought would fix the problem). Anyway we couldn't work out to get it apart anymore than what we already had, and in the process of trying to get it apart, I broke a plastic thingy, which meant we needed to buy a whole new tap! (Peter was at the stage of wanting to just go buy a new tap anyway, seeing as we didn't have a clue how the old one was suppose to dismatle - me breaking it gave him perfect excuse!). So we now have a nice new mixer tap installed - and still don't know how we were suppose to dismantle the old one!
  2. Fixing the leaking Little Squirt attachment on toilet - this ended up taken 2 separate trips to Bunnings! At first we thought there was one leak. So after 1 trip to Bunnings to get a new sealing bead to go inside the nut (the same trip as buying the new tap), we fixed that leak... Turned the water back on, it wasn't leaking there anymore, but we discovered another slow leak. We thought the solution was lack of pluming tape at another join, turned water off, added tape, turned water back on...water was now spurting out - giving Ben a shower (he had the job of watching if the leak was still there). Dismantled join again - I noticed a rubber washer was missing (must have fallen out and got lost in the move), so 2nd trip to Bunnings to get replacement washer. Now it is all fixed and not leaking at all!
  3. Fixing kitchen drain pipe - you can read the details of this one here.
  4. Cleaning gutters - being Autumn and having a couple of large deciduous trees in our yard, means that gutters need to be cleaned about once a month or so at the moment. So Peter got up on the roof and did the job (we have just had a whole week of rain, so this highlighted the need for it to be done now) and in the process discovered one of our down pipes is broken and needs fixing!
So the final outcome of this weekend of plumbing activity is:
  • Peter has declared he never wants to become a plumber!
  • We will be spending some time next weekend doing MORE plumbing jobs - related to jobs #2 and #4 from this weekend.
Picture from stock.xchng

Do not disturb The Soup

Once upon a time there was a pipe that connected our kitchen sink to the drain outside. A long long time ago, that pipe broke. So... all that lovely stuff that goes down the kitchen sink ended up forming a charming pool of toxic Soup under our house. We discovered this yesterday in an attempt to work out which pipe of the three that emerge from the kitchen was actually broken.
I managed to get close enough to the noxious sludge to be able to put the pipe back together temporarily, hopefully just until next weekend when we can remove the festering Soup and put it out of it's stinkiness.
And glue the pipe back together properly so the Soup doesn't return. Trust me, we don't want that.

Thursday, 27 May 2010

Shared kai

Today we had shared lunch at Ben's kindy. It is an opportunity for morning and afternoon kids to see each other, plus parents and teachers to mingle. Each family brings a plate of food to share. They even had a clown come and do a show for the kids. Joanna really enjoyed getting to play with some of Ben's kindy friends that we see outside of kindy and they both liked the special food for lunch. It was a bit tricky and tiring for me, trying to feed Naomi at the same time as making sure Ben and Joanna got some food and a place to sit and eat it (it was a bit crowded with so many kids and parents). It also meant Naomi didn't get to bed until an hour later than normal (not that it was a huge problem, as she didn't whinge or anything). So now I am feeling rather tired and worn out - just have to find enough energy to get through this afternoon/evening.

One cheeky chook!

Since the weekend, we now let our chooks 'free range' every day. I don't like them to be wandering about when I'm not home, so I don't let them out until I get back from my morning activities. But two times this week now, I have come home to find one of our chooks wandering around the yard, while the other three are still inside the chook run. The only way that this cheeky chook could have got out is by flying, as there are no gaps in the chook wire for her to get out, plus if it was as easy as that, I would expect all four of them to get out. So thanks to once cheeky chook it looks like that this weekend I'm going to add another skill to my 'skill set'...all four chooks will be taking a trip to the Waldeck's grooming salon and be getting their wings clipped! (I wonder if that would look good on my resume if I ever go back to teaching :)

Wednesday, 26 May 2010

The 'To do' list has made a come back!

Now that Naomi is sleeping through the night and I don't feel the need to sleep during afternoon rest time, I have started to use a 'to do' list to try and use this time most productively. I was finding that although I would do some stuff during this time, I would forget to do the important/most urgent things. So now while I'm feeding Naomi her lunch, I start to list half a dozen things or so that I need to/want to get done while the kids are all having their rest. I usually manage to get 3/4 of the jobs done and I also try to make sure I have at least 15-30min down time to recharge my batteries before the kids get up. I love being able to cross stuff off the list, to feel a sense of accomplishment for the day and also actually get the stuff done that needs to be done.

Da, da, da, da...

Much to Peter's pleasure, Naomi has started saying 'Da'. And although sometimes it is just a random thing, she does also start saying it in response to hearing his voice/seeing him. Which was clearly displayed on Sunday when Peter stood up the front of church and started talking (he was on leading church), and Naomi starts up loudly saying "Da, da, da, da...".

Winter has arrived...

We are now into our 3rd day in a row of rainy weather...a classic symptom of Hamilton winters. Thankfully it hasn't been too cold yet (although there have been a couple of days in the past week that haven't got above 13C - they have felt cold).

Chooks in OUR house!

I came out the living room, after being in the bedrooms putting away the mountains of clean washing, to find 2 of our chooks browsing through our lounge room! I had left the front door open to let a bit of air in, as I normally do and they had obviously taken this as an invitation to come inside. They are certainly getting more adventurous in their 'free range' roaming - they decided to check out the yard on the opposite side of the house to where they normally spend the day. After thinking it looked like I might be able to get away with not clipping their wings, I'm now starting to think that I might have to. Otherwise I'm going to find that they've decided to go and check out the pickings in our neighbour's backyard or worse still, have ended up as Hukanui road kill!

Monday, 24 May 2010

Chooks trained...

After a week of being shut in their run 24/7, on the weekend we started letting the chooks 'free range'. They are very well behaved (well as far as chooks can be expected to be), not trying to fly over the fence or anything. Although at the end of the day, when they usually move themselves into the chook house, only one chook was smart enough to find its own way. The other three would pace up and down the outside of the chickenwire and not go around to the opening to get in. So for two days, both peter and I would have to go out there and herd the remaining three around to the opening and in. But tonight there was progress and all four made their way back into the run and into their house all by themselves!

Getting organised...

Over the weekend we managed to get most of the garage organised. Up until now, one whole side of the garage has been a huge pile of boxes and furniture etc. that got dumped there when we moved in. Since then Peter had aquired some shelving off TradeMe, but hadn't had the time or space to put it up. So on the weekend we moved all the stuff out the way, Peter constructed the shelving, and then we spent a while organising the various boxes etc. into a workable arrangement. So now we know where everything is in the garage, and can access it all. Now Peter just needs to organise all his tools and wood!

Thursday, 20 May 2010

We are DEFINITELY going!

As Peter mentioned the other day, he is intending on running the Auckland marathon at the end of October. And he wasn't going to waste his entry fee and not end up running...Well there is even more monetary reasons for him to have to run now - I've just booked and paid for two nights accommodation in Auckland for the whole family.

We are going to stay in an apartment in the CBD (and it happens to be in the perfect location - halfway between where Peter needs to go for the race start and where I will need to take the kids to see him finish). For a family of five, it is the cheapest way of staying in the CBD, because... most hotels (well we actually couldn't find a single one that didn't) only allow a maximum of 4 guests per room (or less), so we would have to pay for 2 hotel rooms to fit us all. So we have found this site, which manages privately owned apartments which makes it significantly cheaper that the hotel option. Some of the apartments are part of the same building as some of the commercial hotel-apartment companies, but their rates are a lot cheaper than if you went through the commercial company (such as Quay West). We also found this site, which lists a whole array of different privately owned apartment options.

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

The giant cucumber...


The old tenants from our house left some plants growing in their veggie garden. One of them had long sausage shaped fruit on it when we moved in, so at that time we were guessing they may have been cucumbers or gerkins etc. But when the kept growing larger and larger, we changed our minds and thought they were some sort of melon (the are the size and shape of seedless watermelons). Anyway we picked one over a month ago, but hadn't got around to cutting it open (with the cooler weather, we don't really feel like eating melon). Anyway I had the idea last night that I could cut it up and give it to the chooks as a treat (they apparently like watermelon - especially in summer - it helps cool them down). So today I attacked it with a knife and...it was pale green/white on the inside and had the distinct aroma of cucumber! So our original guess was right! And thankfully we have chooks to feed it to, because I don't think we would feel like eating the giant cucumber.

Auckland, here I come...

I've just entered the Auckland Marathon. It's at the end of October, so just over 5 months away. Now I have to get into some serious training - which will be interesting over winter! But seen as I've entered, I'm not going to waste my money by not turning up and running - that's my motivation for getting some training done!

Monday, 17 May 2010

Graduation day...

Naomi has moved from her capsule into her rearward facing car seat.

I tried to do this a couple of weeks ago, but after getting the seat in the car and the seat belt threaded through...I couldn't find the extension strap for the anchor strap (the one on the seat is about 5cm too short to reach the anchor point), so I had to take it all out again. As soon as I realised I needed the extension strap, I knew it was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack - after the move, it could be anywhere. I tried looking in all the boxes I thought it possibly could be in (that I could gain access to), but still couldn't find it, so today I went out and bought another one, because Naomi is really getting too long for her capsule (her legs need to basically be in fetal position when she's strapped into the car!).

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Our little escape artists

Apparently chickens can get through quite small gaps in fencing. Before the end of breakfast this morning, I've had to go out and catch a chook no less than 4 times. I think we need to secure their run a little more thoroughly...

Saturday, 15 May 2010

First family pets



The Waldeck family is now the owners of 4 Brown Shaver hens - our first family pets! We bought them from a free range egg farm - old stock they were selling off. And they seem to have settled well into their new surroundings, scratching around in the dirt... We didn't even have to train them to go into their chook house at night...I went out there after dinner expecting to have to man-handle them in there, but all four of them were already inside, so all I had to do was shut the door!

(They cost us $7 each, so based on the price I pay for a dozen free range eggs at the markets, they will have to lay one dozen eggs each to pay us back - not taking into account any of the other set up costs )

Mother's day

Just realised I haven't said anything about last Sunday. Well the day started with breakfast in bed - buttermilk pancakes with honey ricotta sauce and blueberries - that Ben and Joanna helped Peter to make. But before I got to taste it, the kids insisted I open the presents they gave me first (Peter had taken them shopping the previous day, so they could purchase the presents they had decided they wanted to get me). I received a hot pink coloured pillar candle from Joanna and a green long handled gas lighter from Ben (or candle lighter as he calls it). So I then ate my candle lit breakfast in bed! (I also received a new washing line - as the one that came with the property is old and broken and I'd asked for a new one for mother's day - but it obviously wasn't wrapped or brought into the bedroom!) The only other special thing we did for the day was to have a yummy antipasto lunch - garlic turkish bread, salami, red and yellow capsicum, salami (all which i bought from the farmers market), plus home made sundried tomatoes, basil infused pesto and gruyere cheese.

We are getting chickens today!

The whole family is excited. We could hear the kids playing 'chickens' before they got up this morning - Ben was the farmer and Joanna was the chicken laying eggs up on Ben's top bunk!

Friday, 14 May 2010

This weekend's job list...

(in no particular order)
  1. Dismantle somebody elses chicken wire fence and bring chicken wire home.
  2. Pick up chickens.
  3. Make nesting boxes and perch for inside chook house.
  4. Construct a chicken run.

Friend over to play...

Joanna had her first friend over to play by herself. ie. Ben was at kindy; and it wasn't one of Ben's friends who just happens to have a sibling Joanna's age.
At 2.5 yrs, Joanna is at the stage of wanting to play WITH other kids and has been asking either to go to other people's houses to play or if she could invite children to our house to play. Which has prompted me to think more purposefully about who there is in the circles that we move that we could get to know more. So today we had a newish friend from playgroup over...she has a daughter a couple of months younger than Joanna, and twin girls who are a couple of months older than Naomi. Joanna had great fun playing with all of them.

I don't like pocket nappies...

The kids clothes always end up wicking the moisture from the nappy and so they end up with wet pants anyway (this is because the seam between the liner and the outer is right on the edge, so some of the liner fabric - which is designed to get rid of moisture - get in contact with the clothing). Any what is the big deal with pocket nappies anyway? It's not as though they are any quicker to put on than using a nappy that needs a wrap/cover put over the top to keep the moisture in. I've never had problems with the kids pants getting wet when using a nappy that has a wrap/cover over the top, plus the fact they are 2 separate things gives a 2nd layer of protection for those poos that try to escape! Give me the 2 part system any day.

And for those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, or don't care...please ignore the above rant.

Thursday, 13 May 2010

Relaxing sounds

Having lived in our new house for a couple of months now, I have realised that I find the traffic noise relaxing. The constant woosh, woosh noise as the cars go past has a similar effect to the rhythmic sound of waves crashing on a beach. Am I strange? Or is this an adaptation I have developed after living in a few houses that have been close to busy roads?

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Flop

The friands are officially a flop - although the flop still tastes good. So I won't be able to take them for Bible study morning tea tomorrow and I don't have enough butter (only have about 80g left) to make any of the other things I can think to bake...so it looks like I'll just have to take a packet of dutch spice biscuits.

What happens when...

the battery in your digital kitchen scales dies halfway through measuring out the ingredients for your baking?

Answer: Your baking flops.

Was in the middle of measuring dry ingredients for 'Blackberry friands'. I already had the almond meal in the bowl and was adding the icing sugar, when the battery died. I wasn't sure how much had gone in and had to guess. The mixture was a bit drier and stiffer than i think it was suppose to be, so the whipped egg whites didn't fold in nicely and now they are having trouble cooking.

We love our new toaster!

A couple of weeks ago we bought a new toaster of TradeMe (well it was a used one, but new to us). And we are really happy with it, it toasts evenly and quickly. It also has the extra thick slots, so I can toast my turkish bread etc. too.

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Lukewarm Hymns CD INFO


Just saw this over on Simone's blog. It made me smile.

Lesson learnt

Don't leave bags of chicken food pellets shut up in the car overnight...the car now smells like a feed supply store. Have needed too leave doors open to let it air to try and get rid of the smell (although I guess chicken feed smell is a much better smell to have in the car than chicken poo smell!).

Monday, 10 May 2010

Have a cold...

(and so does Peter and Ben)

And as all mothers would know, this hasn't dramatically affected my activities for today. Still had to drop Ben at kindy, did 2 loads of washing, put away other clean washing, did grocery shopping, cooked, fed...just did it all with that 'under the weather' feeling. The one major difference was that I didn't go to the gym this morning.

Feed

Bought pellet chook food in preparation for getting our chooks next weekend. Because apparently, although you can feed chooks food scraps, they have little nutritional value for them.

What happens when you wash a disposable nappy in the washing machine?

You get little balls of jelly goop covering everything!

Some how one of the girls huggies disposable nappies ended up in one of their nappy buckets and therefor got washed with all their cloth nappies. I had to put the whole load through the rinse and spin cycles again.

(And now I'm putting the washing machine through it's 'bowl clean' cycle as there was still bits of goop lurking around in the bowl!)

Sunday, 9 May 2010

Cluck cluck cluck!

We're getting chickens! Soon. We just bought some off Trademe, hopefully to be picked up next weekend. In preparation, we've been constructing some accommodation for them - a chicken house. We've used (free) palettes from Mitre10 for the timber, along with some plywood and corrugated iron from Demolition Traders. The house isn't actually quite finished yet - I still need to make some nesting boxes and a ramp so the chooks can actually get into their house. Maybe next week we'll have some pictures of our first family pets...

Thursday, 6 May 2010

Pastry first...

Yesterday I made my first pastry from scratch. Inspired by MasterChef and now that we own a food processor; along with Ben voicing the desire to make a nut tart/slice, I decided to give it a go.

Conclusion...making pastry is pretty easy and straight forward, if I plan ahead enough to have enough time to do all the fridging/cooling that is involved. And the nut tart that Ben and I made together tastes good and the members of today's morning and evening Bible study groups have/will get to enjoy the result! (Ben also got to have a slice too)

Tuesday, 4 May 2010

Pavlova success...

I made my first full size pavlovas on the weekend. Now I've made plenty of meringues in my life, the little small bite size ones; medium disc ones (that you make in to a stack layered with creme and fruit, for a modern take on the traditional pavlova; and large discs (for a large scale version of the individual ones). But after making a double batch of Feijoa curd, I had 6 egg whites to use up, so decided to challenge myself to try and make a successful full size one (I've been afraid up until now as it can be a fine art to get it crispy, but not burnt on the outside; cooked in the centre and not runny; for it to stay risen and not flop when it cools down...).

I used a recipe I found in a book I'd recently bought - NZ Gardner-Homegrown: Berries. The weird ingredient that it used that I would never have thought of putting in was - Vinegar! And it turned out great - the soft meringue on the inside is a smooth almost marshmallowy texture. And you don't taste the vinegar at all. Because I had enough egg whites to make double quantity of the pavlova mixture, I made two - one we took to church on Sunday for shared lunch, the other we are making our way through at home for dessert each night.

And if you are interested to know (and didn't already) - New Zealanders' claim to be the original creators of the 'pavlova', so as an Aussie living in NZ I really should be able to make one!


It has arrived!

Our PVR got delivered today. Now need to do a bit of TV wrestling (our TV weighs a tonne) to connect it all up etc.

And the product of the week is...

Blackberry jam!

Well it was last week for Ben and Joanna. Whenever we had toast for breakfast and for every sandwich at lunch time they had Blackberry Jam. Luckily I had bought the large size jar, so we didn't run out!

It did remind us of a Mr McGee story (written by Pamela Allen - we love her books!).

Saturday, 1 May 2010

Full speed ahead...

A new month = a replenished download quota. So now I can get around to watching that final episode of MasterChef NZ...