Something Old, Something New, Something Tried and Something True



Gorgeous Yoshi, wondering what the hell is going on..



Mum, wasn't there a window here...where for the love of catnaps did it go?



Yeah, I know. Where the hell has the spade been? All you've seen is spoon! Well, the beloved and I have taken the plunge and finally re clad and insulated our house. So I thought I'd share with you what's been done, and what's going on at my place at the moment....

Something Old...

Our house is old, it's a dear old house, which we fell in love with the moment we saw it, but it needed some TLC. So we spent the first year doing up the inside, and dreaming about what to do with the outside. Because it's an old fibro house built in the fifties, there was very little insulation. We also have a skillion roof, which means we have 9ft ceilings which slope into about 12ft ceilings. Not good to keep warm in a cold Mountains winter, even after we installed a new slow combustion wood fire heater/stove.

Something New..

So when we finally had the cash to do it (thanks to a bit of inheritance money) we finally decided on something a bit quirky. We had the builders put some blanket insulation over the top of the fibro, and clad with colourbond over the top. Murray came up with the colourbond idea, but I insisted we couldn't clad in blue or green because it would look like a shed. So we chose this lovely warm rustic orange with blue trim (OK, so it sounds hideous, but it works). Murray (being such a clever dick) got some new windows and installed them himself, so the builders came in after he'd done that.

Something Tried

A couple of years a go I found some tea plants at Bunnings. They weren't very big, and the chooks repeatedly dug them up, no matter how much I tried to protect them. In fact, one of our chookies I'm sure would probably be able to get into Fort Knox if she thought there would be something to eat inside. Anyway, after trying them out I gave up, not being able to find any more of them. By chance our local hardware store has just opened up a garden centre out the back. What do I find...but some nice big strong looking tea plants. So we'll be trying to grow our own tea again. since tea is a type of camellia and we already have lots of them, I think these ones will do better than the last ones. I can but try...

And Something True..

Broad beans are now in season in Aussieland, as is asparagus. The early plantings of potatoes that I have oh-so-carefully protected are almost ready for a second layer of mulch. Two beds of garlic are standing proudly big and tall already, the apple is in blossom, the artichokes are reaching for the sky... and the onions have just needed thinning out. There's lots to do!

Our asparagus plants are doing well, and the beans are growing rapidly and have already started flowering. Broad beans are a no fail crop for me, every year I have planted them they have prettily burst into flower and produced masses of pods. Although broad beans are now in season, they can still get quite expensive. Mine are ready to pick when the flush of Spring is fading into Summer and they become harder to get. We eat them fresh, as well as doing some for the freezer and drying out the rest for winter stews and soups. And because they leave the ground much more fertile, I can follow them with winter plantings of broccoli and kale. A winner!