A bit more of what we have been up to

We have had a fairly crazy few weeks of things going on around here( months  is probably more like it) , so I thought I would just post a bit of what we have been up to.
Brian  started sorting out the raised beds that we will grow our summer garden in, and  we  arranged to have a load of garden soil delivered. He decided to recycle our old lounge room carpet into the bottom of the garden beds, we hope that it will help retain  water and will eventually break down.
 I had promised Brian that when it came I would personally move every shovelful into the beds.

So when the truck load arrived, I set to work.

It took me two days, but I eventually moved it from this pile up above into the raised beds below.

I filled all four beds, plus the  square  bed under the apricot tree that Brian built. he has since planted then with iris plants.

We will still need to get some more as we still have a couple of beds to go, but this will at least start us off.
Since we had dispatched  the roosters last week I needed to process them. I decided to make Sweet and sour chicken with  the meat I was able to trim off three of the birds,

After packing all the chicken and vegetables in raw, I then poured the sweet and sour sauce over, sealed and pressure canned  the quart jars for 90 minutes at 15 pounds pressure.
With the carcasses i had left I decided to make chicken soup,

I pre- cooked it  most of the day in a big soup pot on the wood stove  , filled  my pint jars, sealed and  pressure canned it 70 minutes at 15 pounds pressure..
This is just so handy, a pint is just a perfect meal size, and I always give my mum some as well for quick and easy meals for her.
Hubby celebrated his birthday this week, we were just going to have a quiet night the two of us, but we had an invite from some friends up the road to join them to celebrate the occasion.
I made a cake, a Ginger Fluff Sponge,

it was the firt time I had made it, so was reasonably happy with it, it tasted great.
Our friends have a large metal "fire basket" that they have up the back, it is about 6-8 feet across.

We sat  around that fire and had the  nicest evening. Brian said  it was a wonderful way to spend his birthday.

Our girls have finally started laying, one everyday, one every second day and one at random.

Don't laugh, but I have numbered the eggs, just so I know which are the freshest.

They are a  reasonable size, mostly between 55 and 60 grams so far, but I am sure they will get larger as time goes on.I don't want them too large as then you often get problems.

I had some herbs in small pots, and decided yesterday to re-pot them into larger pots.

I have perennial basil, mint and curley parsley.
The broad beans are doing well, starting to flower now,

and there a  few spaces in the garden , ready to start  planting the spring summer garden.

Speaking of spring, the wattles are blooming( I picked some for inside off the side of the road) and our apricot tree is in full bloom, way too early we think, but maybe it knows something we don't.

Last night we had our first meal that we cooked in the new heat N cook stove that we installed, I made turkey and vegetable Korma curry( albeit an Aldi jar of sauce), in any case it worked  great and tasted wonderful.

And FINALLY our tiler is nearly done, 3 more days and our tiled area will  be fully finished.
It has been a long drawn out process but it is looking really lovely.

Just that little square( 30 tiles) to go tomorrow and then the grouting. Just in time as our daughter is coming to stay on the weekend with our two granddaughters, the house will be warm and tidy, and after  they leave next week I will begin the painting.
Until we meet again down the track,
Take care,
Cheers,
Jane.