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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Progress in the garden......

Today was a beautiful day to be out in the garden. Not too hot with a refreshing breeze. I started off inside, but we had a power cut for about 40 minutes so I progressed to outside.

The clever chicken house man returned to do some more work on the chicken mansion. Pikelets and coffee were delayed by the power cut, but it meant more work got done.

Progress on the hen house so far:

Hen house has been added to the platform and nesting boxes attached.
From a different angle
While the hen house was being worked on I diligently went back to the small corner of the potager garden I'm developing. I dug in another circle of bricks around the outer edge to walk on and dug in some of the others. Still one edge to finish, but it was hard work!! This area has been in lawn for 20 plus years and is very compacted. I need to get this area established as I want to plant more lettuces and lower growing vegetables there.

Progress in the potager.
Tom left home yesterday and was precariously carried down to the green house by Mr SFP. He arrived in one piece (Tom) and just squeaked in. His tomatoes are getting bigger by the day.

Tom has left home- spot the tomatoes.
I'll leave you with a couple more pictures inside the glasshouse. My seedlings continue to sprout and get bigger. It's very exciting and satisfying to plant a seed and watch it's progress. 
Good night Mrs SFP xx

Cucumber Spacesaver grown from seed.....by me!!


Seedlings sprouting- a miracle!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Chicken progress

Not much to report. Spent another half day in the garden. Transplanted some cucumber seedlings I'd grown from seed into bigger containers and did some more weeding. So much needs doing, it's like fighting forest fires. 

More progress on the chicken house- it now looks like this. Can't wait until it has chickens running around the run and laying eggs in the nest boxes!! 
TTFN  Mrs SFP xx

Platform which will have the chicken house attached to.
Nesting box to be attached to chicken house.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Chickens are coming........

For a long long time I've wanted to have chickens living in our back garden. Growing up we had bantams which were hatched from a neighbours eggs using their broody hen. They weren't prolific layers, but lovely company for us children. Mum and Dad also had white laying hens as well, which provided us with lots of yummy eggs. Although as kids we probably didn't appreciate them as much as we would now. All this and a wonderful vegetable garden on their classic kiwi quarter acre section. Dad is always my inspiration when I'm working in the garden. I think what would Dad have done, or how would he used this cast off thing to create something useful. Men of that generation were the backyard McGyvers LOL. Dad never threw anything away.......just in case.

If you remember the corner I've set aside for the chicken area it currently looks like this:

Area before chickens.......
One of the clever men I work with is making me a chicken coop and run. He makes lovely bespoke furniture and he has also made a chicken set up at his home. Today this arrived on the back of his trailer:

Poppy inspecting the new chicken house.
Chicken house.
Chicken house from a different angle.
Hopefully there will be more progress to report tomorrow, although it's supposed to rain.
Bring on the chickens!!  TTFN a very excited Mrs SFP xx

Monday, October 22, 2012

October Christmas ornament challenge completed......on time!!

Today is Labour day in New Zealand, which means a public holiday for most. Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day. New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim this right when, in 1840, the carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington.

It was a miserable wet day in Christchurch, so gardening was out. So, I used today to finish my October Christmas decoration and complete 2 items for my Advent swap with Mrs HMM. I'm not quite at the half way mark yet, but I have some ideas. The handmade items are the hardest to decide on. The Internet is a wealth of inspiration.

All ready for Christmas.
I also did some more of my Christmas Garland. I think there are about 26 decorations to make for it along with numerous leaves that need to be embroidered. Oh, well a little bit at a time and I'll get there. 
Hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow and I can get back outside again- everybody will be back at work and school, so I'll have the house to myself. Talk soon  Mrs SFP XX

Sunday, October 21, 2012

So much to do and so little time........

Oops, sorry, I realise it's been a while again. Although I'm not sure if anybody reads my humble blog, apart from my dear sister Mrs Hmm. I think she's the only one who gets bored with my lack of posting LOL.

I just wish I had a few extra magic hours in my day. I have several projects on the go at the moment. I've nearly finished this months ornament challenge set by Mrs HMM- just need to do a few wee finishing bits and then I'll post a picture. I had a blitz and sewed up all the other months decorations, so I'm on track there.

September's decoration complete.
Mrs HMM's working on her gorgeous felt teddy bear tree decorations. We meet every Friday for a coffee and a quick craft and she pulled them out to work on. I have a similar project, which I think might be 1-2 years old- a gorgeous felt Christmas garland. It's great crafting with someone else- she inspired me to find this and and pick it up again. (I still have a Mary Englebreit adorable felt house and cute penguin and snowmen felt decorations in the WIP basket- more inspiration please).

Gorgeous Christmas garland.
Gingerbread man is now finished.
I'm trying to talk Mrs HMM into buying and making this garland as well. Some bits look a bit confusing and I think it would be helpful (to me) if she was trying to work it out as well. So that's one ongoing project.

Project number 2 which I can't show you yet is Mrs HMM and my advent present swap. They always sound so much fun on other people's blogs that I thought we should do one between us. Other people always get so carried away and seem to spend so much money. I didn't want to let any body down with my humble offerings. At least with Mrs Hmm being my sister she'll have to like what I give her....... hopefully. Even then there is a certain amount of pressure!! We decided to do it next year as well, but start in January........LOL. I'll post after December 25th.

Project number 3 and probably the one that consumes me at the moment is the garden. I try to spend 1-3 days a week in it, depending on the weather. I think I'm seeing progress- considering I hardly spent any time in it previously, things must be moving along. Here are a few pictures of the garden taken today.

This small piece of bare earth took about 4 hours to weed today!!
Progress in the greenhouse- tomatoes are growing.
White Lady runner beans hardening off- Planted for Mr SFP.
Seedlings planted last week- more planted yesterday.
Potato tyre garden- almost ready for another tyre...just have to find a source and smuggle them onto the section. Mr SFP's not that keen on more rubber in the garden!

Here's my silver beet patch which I planted for Mr SFP- I can't stand the stuff. I picked some and steamed it for tea- he was most appreciative!


Remember Tom the Mega Tom? Well I am amazed to say he is bearing fruit and they are growing by the day. He's still living inside, but it may be time for him to leave the nest very soon.

Can't wait for these to ripen!!
I'll leave you with pictures of my 2 constant gardening companions- Zoe (Queenie) and Spock (son of Zoe). They each have bells on their collars and it's so nice to hear the tinkle and know I have company.

Queen Zoe.
Spock taking his catnip "fix".

Well, I'm off to work on the garland. It's Labour day here in New Zealand tomorrow which is a public holiday.....maybe crafting inside as it's supposed to rain, how sad LOL. Talk soon, Mrs SFP XX

Pretty white Rhododendron.