The last few busy weeks at the farm.

These last few weeks at the farm have been wonderful, but exhausting.
When we had the front room extended out onto the verandah we had to remove the plastic weather blinds that we had previously installed, and as the weather was cold and nasty  we decided to see if one of the old blinds would fit. We were lucky that the smaller of the three blinds was a perfect fit.

This has made a  lovely protected area at the entry  of our house, and a nice cozy spot for the old blue girl to  lay on her comfy bed and watch the world go by from.
Brian has been  heading up the hill up behind our place on a regular basis to  bring back a utility load of wood. He decided it was easier to just get it as we need it and then there isn't huge piles sitting around, and he spreads the  physical load on himself as well.

Our bare windows had also  made the job of heating up the  house a little more  so a friend and I traveled to Dubbo  to purchase new curtains for the lounge room/dining/office.
Brian spent the day  putting up the new rods and hanging the new curtains, I am really pleased with them and already they have made a huge difference.

Next on our agenda  was a trip to Newcastle to meet our daughter  so that we could pick up our grand daughter and grandson to bring them up to the farm for a few days of the school holidays , as Mum and Dad had to work. Newcastle  is a halfway point for both of us.
As we left home early in the morning  and along the way the scenery was  beautiful with areas of fog lingering around which made for some  lovely  views.

On our return with the children  we attended a function in town  to view the "Melbourne Cup"  which was  being taken on a tour through regional NSW visiting many small country towns like ours. It was lovely to see, there were the  normal speeches and photo opportunities and a lovely morning tea supplied by  the CWA and Progress  committees

Our  young grandson is nearly 2 years old and in to absolutely everything and nearly drove me insane  while I was trying to work in the kitchen, so I purchased  this great baby gate to  keep him in the lounge with Poppy while I worked

It was wonderful,  and it made such a difference.
While the kids were here our niece called out with her children so that all the kids could catch up and play and as she had recently celebrated a birthday and I had a surplus of eggs, I decided to make her a sponge  birthday cake.

Our winter garden has done extremely well and Brian harvested the last three cauliflowers ,

He was very proud of them,

They were huge, one measuring over 30 cm across(1 ft) and weighing 5.3 kgs(11 lbs)

I sectioned them all up  and froze flat into bags, I ended up with about 11-12 1kg (2lb) bags

The rhubarb has also been doing well and we have been picking regularly for us and for friends, I haven't canned  any  this season though.

The steel  finally arrived for our new back verandah, we were away when it was delivered( we had specifically asked for it not to come that day, but the company took it upon them selves to disregard our request), so a friend came to help unload. The truck driver  was a lousy driver and was unable to turn the truck  for some reason and he and our friend removed three different fences to allow him to  turn around and he also bogged the truck tree times and had to be pulled free with the tractor..
We were so annoyed when we were told and have had serious words with the company and will never deal with them again., But the good news is we are one step closer to  the new  verandah being completed.

The clean up of the back  shed  has progressed fairly well, Brian has  removed all the old batteries and all the old shelving and has erected the new metal industrial shelving we purchased .

I took on  the job to relocate all the "stuff" back onto the shelves, a job still not complete but not too far to go. We moved  1 set of shelving up to my laundry end to organize a bit of  that "stuff" too, we have ordered another 2 sets of the blue/orange shelving  to go on the left hand side near the  inverters to act as a work bench and storage( we will leave off the second from top shelf to allow access to  the  inverters .

We now finally  have room to move up  there and can actually access my washing machine again  and   possibly  be able to find things again. I still have a few piles  to sort through  which I will do over the next week or so.
There was so much to share this time that I decided to break it up into two posts, I hope that in doing so, that it hasn't become too disjointed. I will do the second one in the next few days.
We so enjoyed the grand kids  being here and we   did lots  of activities with them, but my daughter has requested that I not show them online, which I thoroughly understand.
They love coming to the farm and will be back again in about a months time, but with their Mum and Dad next time, which will be fun.
I hope you are all well and happy and will catch up   again hopefully a little further down the track,
Please take care of you and yours,
Cheers
Jane.