I live...

As usual time has gotten a bit away from me. I'm still very wrapped up in my own head at the moment. This has led to much badness in terms of keeping up with correspondence, in that I sit down to start replying to someone and walk off a dozen times and then feel awful for being about a week late and probably making people wonder if I'm mad at them or don't like them or something. Meh. I need to get my act together.

In the midst of this here's what we've been up to:

• The kitchen is back to normal after the tree crashing through it and is now a nice sunny yellow instead of the dark green it was previously
  
  
• We've spent some time restructuring two raised veggie beds out back, making them six slightly lower beds and spent time planting out some of my little seedlings.
  
• After getting up the large (10 bay, each bay being 1.2m wide x 2 m deep) aviary for the chooks, we're now working on the fencing for it a bit each weekend as funds permit.
  
  
• We also went to the Melbourne Royal the other day to watch the Australian Shepherds. It was lovely to catch up with people but I'm afraid I rather put a damper on the day for Nic and La as I wasn't much in a festive mood. I did learn that a breed that had been on my wish list some years back, the Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, IS actually in Australia and spent awhile patting one though.
• La's lobby for a hermit crab won and we brought home "Crawlit" the crab the other week

• We've also welcomed ChaCha the chook, also named by La. She appears to be an brown layer cross of some variety and came from a neighbor as she was getting bullied by the hens there. She's rooming with Tiger, one of my friendly little SilkieXs.
  
  
• With the house repaired I've finally been able to test my incubator! I have a dozen std Australorp eggs in it as well as a few Partridge Wyandotte eggs to give it a trial run! 20 days to go!
  
• The lambs are growing well, except for poor Luna who came up with a bum leg last week. She either pestered one of the other ewes or it's polyarthritis but either way she gets an injection every day for 5 days to help. A few of the lambs and ewes may be looking for new homes in the future, though I'm not 100% final on my decisions yet.
  
• La has been veerrryyy excited about his birthday coming up in October. He's singing himself (a very off key) happy birthday song every day, has decided on his theme (it's going to be a brachiosaurus party... not just any old dino, a brachiosaurus specifically), planned his cake (it's got to be 'berries, mango, strawberry and mandarin dino cake that's green') and would like 'a lot of kids, his Hopie and a lot of people and Ana' there. Ana is a local Aussie breeder for anyone not in the breed and La has a wee crush going on. LOL
  
• In keeping with his party, Lily has an actual dress. You may now all die of shock - the child owns something overtly GIRLY and I even think it's cute. LOL We also got her lovely amber teething necklace in the post the other day.

I've also done a few projects which I've forgotten to post pictures of so here they are...

this scarf was actually completed ages ago but I never posted it as I was trying to find yarn for a fringe and haven't found any so.. eh... it's being called completed.

this one is a ribbed neckwarmer in handspun overdyed coloured corriedale thick-n-thin paired with a vintage French button... for when you need a scarf but don't want to be dealing with the wind blowing it up in your face or a baby grabbing it.

And for my KAL group, the September "ABC" dishcloth. I use them for burp rags for Lily and they are the most fantastic burp rags as they absorb heaps without looking gross like face washers do!

Two...

Aw, my little man is two now! So the party ended up not going on as no one would be able to come but it turned out that despite the forecast his birthday was gorgeous weather wise, so we had a nice day here just playing and reflecting, baking his cake and getting his goodies ready. Ironically, Nic's cousin Nina who was one of the people who couldn't come has a daughter with a birthday around now and had the same thing - everyone couldn't come last minute!

After running around like a wildman outside for awhile, watching Ken who boards the sheep here sorting them out and declaring, "WOOOOWW!!! Cool!" to the motorbike crew we left to pick up the new chicks.

We got seven Favorelle, which are a French meat/egg breed and a Rhode Island Red for Nic who'd been taken with them at the Melb Royal. Laurent thinksthey're far too funny for words and spends ages watching their every move and chatting with them. Their conversations are a bit funny as well.

"Chick-chicks, 'dats a food!" he says while pointing to their feeder, "Go peep peep (the sound they make while eatting), eat the food, it's yum yummmm!"

"Chick-chicks, your food (dish) is GEEN! Dats yummy, happa tummah!" (Aka green. All food on green dishes taste better and makes a happy tummy!) This is frequently 'helped' by pinching a bit of the food and letting them peck it from his hand.

"Mum, 'dose MINE chick-chicks!" with much nodding to emphasize the fact they were his and his alone!

They're also a lesson in anatomy which can sometimes be less charming than others. He points to the tail, "Mum, dats a tail!", the eyes, "dose eyes - one, two!" and of course their bums and poos which are sources of unending amusement.

They've definitely become fast favorites and this morning even resulted in turning down breakfast in favor of chick-watching!

The green theme was also apparent today as for his intial birthday outfit he chose a green top, green striped pants, green socks and green shoes. At the shops he got a green lollypop and his I lifted my normal stance on junk food and he had a kiddie cone of sorbet - green apple naturally! Everyone who saw him was hysterical and asking him if hewas enjoying it since he had it smeared all over his face, his hair, hands, shirt, pants and even his socks - ironically due to trying to eat it very neatly! It was melting and dripping, so he'd try to lick off the drip one one hand while holding it with the other... the trouble being he wasn't watching where the other hand was going while he was intent on cleaning up the drip!

As for prezzies he's made out pretty well - his big prezzie was a "big wheel" tractor with trailor (yes, it's green) but he also got a soccer ball, animal set, more crayons and paints, the "paeony, a whole bunch of green shirts/socks/pants including one that read, "LOUD AND PROUD!" I think I could have saved myself the money though and just got the chicks! While we were out we were by a mall photographer and so I had a sitting for him, which we'll get the proofs of next week.

We're having a special dinner of his favs - cannoli with herbed chicken, spinach and ricotta; watermelon, applesauce and special broccoli with (unknown to him as he's not had any so far in his life) chocolate cake with green frosting and green candles.

We also have green wrapping paper, bows, and yep - you guessed it sparkly green balloons!!!

"Ohhhh.... mum, green is HOT!"

He was rather put upon to discover the cake wasn't green all the way through and pretty much only ate the frosting, discarding the cake. A crime as it was a delish cake!

At the end of the day he was dead tired and ended up snuggling with Si for awhile. (Yes, different shirt and pants - the fifth set of the day no less! Pants are actually pale green.)

This morning was less charming. Hope is now off her antibiotics she was put on when she hurt her leg - the last one was yesterday morning. Her leg puffed up again and began weeping and as of the last bandage change her wound hasn't healed as much as I'd have expected with the center looking granulated instead of neatly closed. To boot the booger pulled the "shoe" of the bandage off and licked two small (pea sized) patches absolutely raw on her foot so I'm upping the metacam dose slightly. I'll watch tonight and see how she goes but I have a feeling we may be visiting Dr. Jayne again soon to donate to her BMW fund!