Sweet and summery

I may have counted our chickens before they hatched. El Dorado’s last chick didn’t quite make it. It made it out but it didn’t survive for long. Now Uki has hatched three of her little chicks too, bringing the total to five. And Zombie has managed a stay of execution, fortunately for him he’s off to a new home up the road where he can strut around and hang out with some new hens. He is looking more beautiful each day and I’m kind of glad he’s not ending up in the pot.


Our house is filled with the sweet and summery, almost cloying smell of ripe mangoes – a constant olfactory reminder that they need to be eaten. They arrived yesterday as part of our organic fruit and vegetable box, the first steps of our little food co-op. I’m not sure I can convey how satisfying it is to get together with a bunch of friends and bulk buy organic food but it has so many good elements involved – friends giving up some time and energy to bring into existence something they are passionate about and believe in; supporting organics, not only for our health as consumers but also for the health of the land where they are grown; working together co-operatively, a little more empowered and connected; and saving some money. I do hope I’m not going on too much, I’m really quite happy.

There’s been a lot going on lately and I have been a bit slack in recording it here. I’ll leave it to you to pick the appropriate adjective – lazy, sick, busy, or my favourite, all of the above. I have been sick with a recurring gastro thingy that comes and goes and lays me low, exhausted and in need of a lie down and a good book. I think it’s giardia and I’ve had enough, ready to dose up on drugs just to be done with it. Ange and Ken’s house is still struggling to get going, hampered by rain but getting there. We’re ready to pour concrete and this Friday will be our fourth attempt at it, all the others coming undone as rain filled our holes, buckets, pumps and siphons getting us up and ready to go again.


We’re having 15 cubic metres of concrete delivered tomorrow, and a big concrete pump truck to get it into the holes. All well and good but when it rains it means we’ve got the best part of 15 cubic metres of water and mud to bucket out. What really gets me though is why the footings have to be so big in the first place. I can’t shake the feeling that the engineer is just covering his ass. Each of the pier footings are 500mm deep and 450mm diameter, with half of them anchoring nothing more than a verandah post. At least it won’t blow away.

Noah had a Christmas party at pre-school last week. One of the dads did a fantastic job making all the kids balloon things. Noah waited so patiently for so long, about half an hour, just standing and waiting until it was his turn, then refusing offers of swords and flowers. He knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted one of the curly balloons and he was prepared to wait even longer in order to get one. He eventually got a green one and I’m not sure Santa arriving later on a fire truck and giving him a present could match the excitement of getting his balloon.


And sadly Nugget and Coco have gone to their new home, not up in the sky or the proverbial “farm” but Gum Scrub, back to our friends who have recently returned from their trip around Australia. We’ll miss our horsey pals.