It looks as though summer is going to grace us with her presence afterall, with temperatures forecast in the low 20s (and even high 20s) over the next few days! Excellent! We are not, however, fooled by the cooler weather, as the sun here has a certain ‘bite,’ and it is easy to get burnt. Slip, slop, slap.

As I write this (listening to music, thanks to a better-running diesel generator, and highly-charged batteries!), Monte is working at the house site. Instead of my almost-nightly walk around Geeveston with Tania, I have walked around the property (rather, walked up and down driveways, stopping to examine the chickens and vegies). I am glad for the longer days during the summer. Monte is working hard, building the boxwork for the slab. We got more sand delivered today (most of the first lot blew away), and over the next few days the preparation work for the concrete will be completed.

Monte is doing most of the work at the house site. I think he is so clever; he knows what he’s doing and is doing it determinedly. Today Ben helped him, and my children enjoyed the company of Milly and Harry. As Monte works onsite I am mostly looking after the kids. The way I say that makes it sound like a chore, but it is not. Sure, it is fairly exhausting, yet I am very grateful that I have the opportunity to be a full-time SAHM. Nevertheless, I am also looking forward to childcare resuming, so I can spend some more time working on the house, and also to my return to work this year.

I mentioned earlier that our batteries are now better charged. Thanks to a book that Monte bought, and some advice from his brother (thanks, Chris), Monte has got the diesel generator working. We have run it once or twice in the past week, but we have not had to run it for four days or so. The batteries are almost full. The only change we have made is that we are now running a tv and dvd player, as well as a small stereo with my ipod. The tv/dvd player are not used much, but the radio is on for several hours each day. I love listening to music! It’s mostly Beethoven blaring through the small speakers, but right now I am listening to the soundtrack to “Love Actually” and I am reminded of going to see that film with my mother several years ago. Although, it’s Colin Firth I remember most about that film. I think Eva Cassidy’s is my favourite voice.

Today was the first day in over a year that I wished I was back in Adelaide. I wished that I could visit my friends and family. I would’ve loved to have a cup of tea with my mum, and a visit with my nanna, and a play date with Amanda. I miss everybody, but am so happy that we have wonderful friends here too!

It has been remiss of me not to mention the new babies at Fangorn. We have five baby chicks – now over three weeks old. Their mother seems like a good one, and the little chicks look like they will be brown like their mothers. They all have interesting markings. I wonder how many are males? Because we’ll be eating them in about a month. The hens, however, will make nice new pets. I plan to make them very tame like the hens we had in Adelaide. They’d run to us whenever we walked out the backdoor! They made beautiful and useful pets.

I am looking forward to harvesting some vegies from our little vege garden. With the house being our major project, things like livestock and gardens are secondary, and we do not spend much time working on them. Nevertheless, we are excited about eating our own silverbeet and zucchinis and potatoes and lettuces. It is wonderful to grow food and teach children about cultivation. Georgia recently asked me why we go to the supermarket for food, and what would happen if the supermarkets ran out of food? Well, this gave me an opportunity to talk about why it’s best to grow your own food etc. I am reminded of the front lawn, which used to be a sign that you were wealthy enough not to need to grow food, so you could just use it for lawn.

It’s great when people tell me they feel inspired by my blog. Thanks for reading, and thanks for thinking. If you’re inspired to make a change: to grow your own vegies, or how to spend your hard-earned dollars, or – whatever – you will most likely change your life by enriching it and making you value things in a deeper way.