Time management

I've been contemplating time management recently, due to a series of events which have happened over the school holidays. I mostly feel like I'm chasing time, rather than organising it.

My mum very generously offered to let our daughter sleep over, during the school holidays. Great! She'll be there a whole week, as of tomorrow. What happened in her absence? It's funny, because I now notice there's more time for me to contemplate life strategies better. And, ironically, my mum is now shifting the focus of her daily routine, to the rhythms of a six-year old girl, looking for adventure. She is no doubt, at this very moment, contemplating how much sleep she'll catch-up on, once her granddaughter comes home.

I'm making it sound like raising a child is a burden. It's not actually, because I've also noticed how lost I feel without her. Even Dave says how much he misses her relentless pursuit of playing tag with him. It seems our daily rhythm has changed in the absence of our daughter. We have more time to contemplate life strategies, but in her absence, we miss the bits that make our family what it is.

There's now a realisation, time is what we fill our priorities with.

For each of us at different stages of life, those priorities will change. Grandparents have more time to contemplate routines, than perhaps parents do, in their flurry of responsibilities. Is this a glimpse of what my life will be like, after our daughter leaves home? I've not doubt, it will be. And I believe contentment will be found in that routine too. At the moment though, I am pining for my daughter's distraction - as time consuming, as it is. :)

So what does this say about my routine at home? Well, it's probably good to shake the routine around a little - sometimes - to make new realisations about your circumstances. It's very easy to be distracted by competing priorities. It helps to clear your mind (and plate) to deal with only a few. As long as it isn't life threatening, things can wait until you get around to them.

However, I am glad I've had this week off to contemplate...

1. How generous my mum is.
2. A new financial strategy, which I'll discus in another post.
3. How much I enjoy cooking for my family, and not just to provide a meal.
4. How very lucky I am to have freedom of choice.

For as long as time is my own to choose what manner of activity I'll engage in, I have everything I need to build a routine. Okay, so it probably won't be easy; but at least there's an opportunity to change as life does.

Peeps update

Well it's been over a week (more like two now) since our peeps hatched, so it's time for an update. Below is a picture of our mottley crew after a recent bedding change. Those babies can sure poop! They've doubled in size too.

We have some good news and some bad news to report. We lost a black bantam orpington chick, about 2 days after hatching. I'm not sure what they died of, but I found them laying very still one morning. I cupped them in my hand for about 10 minutes, and when I checked again, they had passed away completely.

It was a little upsetting at the time, but you have to expect some loses - it's only natural.

If you also look at the picture above, you'll notice two (very light grey) araucana chicks to the lower, right hand side. These two were part of the last 3 to hatch, and at the time I noticed they were a little noisier than the earlier arrivals. Especially one, which seemed to flop around the incubator as soon as it hatched.

I thought it was normal at the time. Turned out (24 hours later) both couldn't stand properly and needed their legs strapped together with a band-aide. This process is explained here.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all the bad news to be had. The noisiest chick which flopped around the incubator initially, had a bad case of crooked neck. This is him after having his legs taped together. You cannot really see his crooked neck, because if he sat on his bum and put his weight back, his head would stand up. Read more about the causes and treatment of crooked neck here.

I was deeply worried for him, and even contemplated culling as he was struggling against the more nimble siblings. He would get knocked over, couldn't stand and always ended up on his back, cheaping loudly. Poor baby.

After taping his legs, I monitored him for the next few days. He was getting some food and water, but always had to compete with the other chicks as his head kept wanting to flop between his legs. The material I'd read about crooked neck, seemed to suggest it would only get worse.

Dave offered to "do the deed" one morning while I was having a rest, before he had an appointment in town. Needless to say, I was very surprised when I got up an hour later and saw our little guy, still in the brooder. I was so happy Dave didn't go through with it. When he returned from his appointment, I asked what had stopped him - he said after he went in the room to get the chick, he quietly watched the little fella fight so hard to get at the food and water (with an obvious disability) he thought he deserved a few more days to see if there was any improvement.

And there has been!! Yay! His neck still isn't as nible as the other chicks, but he now has control of it. No more flopping between his legs or walking backwards. He gets around so much better - we should be able to remove his band-aide soon. The other chick is already band-aide free now, and gets around like Speedy Gonzallis.

Here is our crooked neck wonder chick today - now holding his head up high. He could not do this a week ago - his head would be laying on the ground.

What started out as a worrying struggle, turned out to be an incredible victory for our two little fighters. Would you believe I prayed that God would show me how I needed to approach life through this new struggle?

After the first chick died and it looked like we may have to kill another, it didn't feel like the victory I'd been planning. At the time, I was struggling with my own health too - my diabetes treatment wasn't working, the work outside was piling up and I felt extremely useless.

Despite all that went wrong however, the victory of those two little chicks over life, put the rest of my life into perspective. If you're given a chance - just ONE chance to live against the odds, then you have to fight for it. There are going to be days you want to let your head flop between your legs, and it feels like you're walking backwards - other's may push against you or stop you from reaching your goals too. But don't give up, because tomorrow you might get control back. Just a little bit, but it may just be enough to stand on your own two feet again.

We couldn't have hoped for a better introduction to hatching our own chicks. By the way, my health has improved remarkably too, along with the chicks; and we're all on the road to recovery together. :)

Trellis time

The last few days have been quite hectic here. Although it's the school holidays now, our daughter's having a few sleep-overs at her Nan's house. So Dave and I have either been kicking back and relaxing, or most likely, pottering around the garden doing odd jobs. Like the make-over of an old garden bed.

Remember this photo from last summer? Back then, I planted some sunflower seeds along these raised beds, to help shelter the Western facing wall (funny you should mention them yesterday, Jacqui) but while the sunflowers helped a little with shading, they weren't planted thick enough.

So this year I decided to try something new. I've been growing some greens over winter in this bed, and a few things have already gone to seed. But I thought I'd try to grow some vines for better shade this summer - time to build a climbing support.

This trellis was very simple to make. I just used 4 x 6ft star pickets. Once hammered into place, I collected some relatively straight sapling trees which had been aged for a few months. If they aren't aged, they tend to be too flexible to hold their form. The span is about 2 metres between pickets, so the sapling wood is there to brace the support together.

I just used plain old wire to attach the wood to the pickets - then ran some old chicken wire across it too. I needed an extra pair of hands to help with the chicken wire, but everything else can be done by one person.

The garden arch between the two trellises, was a gift from my mum who didn't have a use for it any more. Plus the hanging gourds were free, as I grew them in my garden last summer. When the wind blows they twist and twirl.

All up it really only cost me around $30, and that was for the star pickets. The chicken wire had been following us around for years. It was exactly 4 metres in length, which is exactly what we needed.

I've planted some luffa seeds in the greenhouse, which haven't popped up yet. If they do, they should make quite good coverage for these 2 trellises - fingers crossed the seeds will germinate!

I love lavender

There are a few herb bushes that I just adore. It's because they smell so delicious, especially on warm days. One of these plants is called lavender; Italian lavender to be precise. It's not a very big plant, as it only grows to about 30-40cms high, but it has the most pungent smell of lavender you will ever find. I can still smell it on my fingers, after this mornings activities.

Lavender in flower

Because I love this particular variety so much, I decided to see if I could propagate some more. I would love a full hedge of this stuff! So upon passing my recyclables bin this morning, I noticed a yoghurt container which could be put to good use.

Empty 1kg tub of yoghurt

After cleaning it up and drilling a few holes in the lid, I filled it to about a third full of wet sand. I pulled most of the leaves off the lavender cuttings and plonked them straight into the sand. With the lid on, I'm hoping some will take root in a few weeks time.

Cuttings placed in wet sand

But that's not all I use my lavender for. I recently changed rinse liquids from the store bought variety, to just plain white vinegar. It leaves the laundry feeling soft and fresh. Instead of ordinary vinegar smell however, I pop some lavender flowers (or stalks) into the bottle for about a week. Left too long and it starts to ferment.

Lavender flowers in empty bottle

Once the lavender is removed from the vinegar however, it leaves a slight lavender scent to it - and my washing. No soapy residue left on my laundry either, which I noticed from the store bought variety once I switched over.

Filled with white vinegar to the top

My other favourite herb bush is called the curry plant. On warm days you can smell the aroma of curry as you walk past it. The surprise is so tantalising, you just have to keep walking past it again and again! Once my curry plant gets bigger, I'll see if I can propagate it too.

Curry plant

If it wasn't for the aroma of certain garden plants around the year, I'm not sure being in the garden would be half as enjoyable.

Living with failure

Do you ever feel that empty pit in the bottom of your stomach, after realising something you've spent a great deal of time doing, doesn't work out the way you planned? If I'm completely honest, I've always been a bit of a perfectionist so learning to live with failure has been quite a bumpy ride.

In the beginning I thought it was just me and my personality - as everyone else seemed to get on fine in their life. If they made a mistake, they'd shrug it off or just try harder. I thought I was the only person in the world who made a big deal out of failure. Of course, looking a little harder, I realise it's not the case.

Would you believe that even my garden could cause me to feel like a failure at times too? I bet you could, as I know I'm not the only one. When a plant dies after carefully nurturing it, or a whole garden is wiped out by natural causes, we instinctively feel impelled to blame something for it. If it wasn't the weather, our environment, or the politicians we elect - then the next culprit is ourselves. We obviously didn't do enough.

This whole process could be avoided however, if people accepted failure as having a useful place in our society. People always adapt, despite failure, if they can accept it isn't the end of all things we hold dear. Success doesn't mean the best thing to ever happen to us. Just as failure doesn't mean the worst.

Next time you're feeling down on yourself, or some aspect in society - take another look at what you're really trying to do. Maybe you don't want to invite failure into your own life, by accepting it exists at all?

As a former perfectionist obsessed with avoiding failure, I'm here to say that it's here to stay. I feel liberated that I don't have to worry about it's presence in the world. I don't have to defeat it or change it; because that way only saps your energy further.

I've been walking around my garden lately, feeling energised by the imperfections and things I haven't gotten around to yet. It doesn't rain enough for my garden, but the dry weather means I get more construction work done. Our retaining wall still looks like a dirt pile - no lush plants yet; but it's not harrowing me to finish it either. It will wait patiently for me, if I have the patience to accept where it's currently at.

It feels great that I don't have to change things which aren't really controlled by me anyway. Things like time, weather and life in general. The things I can change however, feel more meaningful to me. That's because I have the energy and sanity to appreciate them more now.

So next time you feel that empty pit in the bottom of your stomach, make a treaty with it. Let failure have it's time, and conserve your positive energies for the things you are able to make a difference to in life.

Hilltop goes on

Our Araucanas have been living in Hilltop for several months now, but the run was only attached for about half that time. Which is a good thing now the warmer weather is coming on. The run gets some shade from the native tree in-front - to the left of the picture.

You may notice that half the run is covered with corrugated iron, and half concrete rebar. That is because I'm attempting to grow a choko over the top, to provide a cooling effect in summer.

My poor little choko is struggling at the moment, only because I recently transplanted it here. I already lost one choko seedling in the move, so this little guy has to make it. I'll mulch and water today, as I've been a little slack. The picture below, shows the side I'm attempting to grow it over and hopefully have it cover the roof as well. I've made a little garden bed with some old bricks. I'll add some herbs in there when my seedlings are big enough too.

I've also carried the garden bed around the back of the run. This is where the other choko plant was meant to grow, but it turned up it's nose and died. But I have some bean seedlings in the greenhouse, and when they're bigger, I'll grow them up the back.

Our newest addition to Hilltop has been our 300 litre water tank - originally purchased to supply water to the builders (of our house) on site. It wasn't big enough unfortunately, so we had to buy a bigger water carrier, but I knew this one would come in handy eventually. I still have to erect the guttering to the roof and run downpipes to the tank, but I'm happy just to have it in place at the moment.

In the meantime, if it rains and our main water tank to the house overflows, we'll run a garden hose up to this tank and fill it. I like to have water for the plants and this tank will be very useful in that regard. The veggie patch is located under Hilltop, so I can gravity feed any water directly downwards too. One final picture to show however:

This is the finished coop construction. Notice the brick pallets leaning against the front? They're temporarily providing some shade to the corrugated iron until we erect a trellis to grow a passionfruit plant over. It won't be directly against the structure however, it will be closer to the hillside.

I have to say I'm becoming a little more realistic with our construction projects. This particular one took us longer to make than the original permanent coop, but it was also a little more complicated. Overall, it was worth taking our time in the end. Once the plants grow, it will be complete!

New scoops from old bottles

I'm sure this isn't a new idea, but I wanted to share one of my recycling projects, involving an empty 2 litre tomato sauce bottle, purchased from Aldi. It's made of a good sturdy plastic to use in my chicken feed bags, and a really simple project to make. All you need is a marking pen and a sharp blade. Use the marking pen to draw the piece you will cut out - ensuring the handle is on the top, like so:

The next part can be a little tricky, depending how sharp your blade is. I found most of it easy to cut through, except for the joining seam at the base. That took a little more persistence, but the project still only took about 5 minutes to complete. When you're finished the scoop should look like this:

I've made these scoops before, out of old 2 litre cordial bottles (seen below) but they have a thinner plastic, so I need to be more careful when using them. Also seen below is the leftover bit from the Aldi tomato sauce bottle, which my daughter has now dubbed her "mini" scoop. Great for playing in the garden with too.

Just a final word of caution when using the blade though, be sure to cut away from yourself, or directly downwards onto a cutting board to keep your fingers safe.