Space Invaders From Mars

This afternoon we were out doing some pruning and looking at the pretty flowers as the rhododendrons are in full display and quite lovely to behold whole trees carpeted in a riot of pink flowers.
Suddenly all four dogs began raising the alarm usually reserved for when someone unwelcome has snuck onto our property and I went out fully expecting to see the neighbors terrier had come through the bulls paddock. They know that dog is distinctly unwelcome - he has a history of harrassing poultry and sheep. I hollered for everyone to hush and instead of the usual response (silence) they only paused long enough to look at me like I was totally daft. Bark, bark, bark... "MUM CAN'T YOU SEE!?! THIS IS NO ORDINARY STRANGER - IT'S A DANGEROUS SPACE INVADER FROM MARS!!!!!"

So I go over to explore what the source of all this ruckus is and see nothing. No neighbors terrier. No one fence hopping. No, wait... a tiny bit of movement. A very tiny bit.

Meet our dangerous freaky space invader... Obviously a terrible threat to safety and wellbeing... not!

All is well

Got in to the doctors and asked him for a ticket for hCG levels (won't come back till tomorrow night) and the sonographers to check if everything was where it should be.

He felt it was MC, didn't want to give the ultrasound for several days. So I rang the place and they agreed it wasn't necessary to wait but were booked for a week. Then she called back - a spot opened up tomorrow. Ten mins later called back and told me to get there in half an hour. Got there and apparently this is a perfectly healthy baby who just wants to add to my grey hairs! Perfect size, measures to the day, heartbeat normal, every measurement normal, moving about, even smacking it's lips and hiccuping. La (between pleading to be allowed to press the MANY buttons everywhere) looked at the screen and chirped, "Hi sistah!" in a moment of cuteness.

Crown of head on left, spine on bottom, nose, eyes, lips etc visible. Right side is tummy.

Almost whole body view, crown of head where the right + is, rump where the left + is, spine on bottom, nose/eyes/face upwards, part of legs and arms visible.

This morning we were taking advantage of the weekend and laying in bed chatting before getting up, with Laurent having already got up and dashed off to grab a toy plane. He came rushing back in the room, clambered up to where Nic had his hand on my stomach 'talking to the baby' and ended up straight in the middle.

Nic: "Excuse me La, I was trying to talk to your brother or sister."
La: "SIS-TAH!"
Nic: "Oh? You want a sister?"
La: "Yep. A sister."
Nic: "You sure you wouldn't like a brother?"
La: "No, thanks!"

A few moments later we asked again and he was still insistant on wanting a sister.
Me: "What about the puppy babies La?"
La: "Oh yes! Puppy babies and a sister!"

Meanwhile I'm supposed to be taking it easy till Monday as I've had a second bout of bleeding. X_X Take it easy they say... what a joke! A million things to do and a not-quite-3-year old!

The garden is slowly starting to get under way as I reemerge with the warmer weather. I know winter is prep time but I detest the cold! At any rate I'd got a whole bunch of heritage varity seeds from Eden seeds to go with seeds from varities we'd saved from last year that had done very well for us. I put a few I'd started earlier in the bed when a few days back we got gusting winds up to 100kph and two nice bouts of hail - which ruined them and upset several trays of small seedlings on the back deck. Luckily we escaped the more major damage others around us recieved except that the day before the winds ripped the door off the chooks shed and for a THIRD TIME lift the large shed door (3m wide steel frame/colourbond door!) clear off it's hinges.

I figured since Lucy mentioned she tried to strike some cuttings once outside her mums hospital, I'd mention what learned/did with mine. (I'm sure you'll agree though Lucy, far better that your mum got well and you didn't need the cuttings.) Take cuttings in the morning during the cooler months, keep out of the sun and prepare as quick as possible. Use the twigs no thicker than a writing pencil but not the soft green tip bits either and look for a bit about 5-6" long with a node at the top and a node at the bottom, the top one preferably having a few leaves. On the 'bottom' snip 3/4 cm below the node and on the top node 3/4cm above it at 45degree angles. Remove any leaf growth except for 2-3 at the top and if big, cut them in half to reduce water loss. I used a styrofoam box also about 5-6" high with holes in the bottom and a premixed striking mix or mix your own but you can use any container that allows free drainage really. Once snipped, paint a thin layer of purple rooting hormone gel all over the twigs bottom upwards to about 2" making sure to get the 'wound' and eye. With the end of the paintbrush poke a hole for the cutting and put it in about 2" deep, firming the soil to get rid of airpockets... there seems to be a lot of variation in how deep people think you should stick it - some say no more than 1", some say half the cutting length! I went with 2" on the basis it was deep enough for the top to remain stable if knocked and gave it a good area to develop roots from instead of just the very bottom. When they're all in, pop the whole lot into one of the little 'greenhouse' from Bunnings, cost is $20.00? Mist everything well and put it in an area with indirect but bright light. Keep humidity high and the soil moist but not soggy until they put out growth, at which point they're ready to be potted in smallish pots. From this point I'm supposed to gradually get them used to more full sun and then plant in the garden and keep them watered and well tended for the first year which is when they're most vunerable to stresses.

On a cheerier note the girls are their usual silly selves, I got to cuddle with an adorable litter of 5 week old Aussies last Sunday and Laurent and I went to the opening day of the Melbourne Royal shows the other day to attend the poultry and dog shows. Smaller entries both for numbers in birds and Aussies but a good day out catching up with everyone despite La being grumpy as I had to wake him up at the crack of dawn for the 2 hour train ride. (Turns out Aussies weren't on until much later though... doh!) He had fun on a few rides, visiting the animal nursery which chiefly involved him latching onto the chook pen and even capturing them for other children who were a bit more timid... because you know it's not like he can see chickens any day of the week at home! At the entry he'd spotted the discovery trail fellow with a chook stamp and asked for one. The guy stamps his paper and gives it to La, "Here you go, a chicken!" La looks at it, looks at him and the little smartie pants goes, "No, 's a ROOSTER!" LOL

Rather sad to get back to hear two bits of distressing news though - first that an exhibitor in Australian Shepherds who also has Golden Retrievers had come down to Vic for the show, was staying with another local breeder who lives just down the road from me and someone stole her 6 year old girl, a grand/new zealand/australian champion and obviously much loved. Federal police are investigating but I can't imagine either the mindset of someone who'd do such a despicable thing or how horrifying it'd be to find your furbaby missing and hope to gods she is able to be returned safe and secure. On the tail of that, a poultry breeder who has brought so much to everyone he's met has decided to sell everything because he is sick of being harrassed for 5 years by a council on a power trip inventing excuses to come 'inspect' him constantly. BB has been at every sale and show I've been to pretty much and always is interested in helping newcomers, very involved in various clubs and a major supporter and promoter of waterfowl, guineas and turkeys. Anyone visiting the Royal Melbourne can see many of his birds, most of whom placed quite well, this week. Anyone who has seen him with them can see his whole life is about them. I honestly can't imagine it without him to chat with. :-(

In mid-July I was gifted with a lovely bunch of cuttings and plantlings from a very generous BYP member. I was very nervous being as this was the first time I'd ever tried to strike cuttings of roses. Add a touch of worry as my books all talk about maintaining temperatures and under-tray soil warmer to ensure good root growth etc. Meanwhile we still get cold nights, occasional frosts and have no under-tray warmer! (Nor the spare hundred dollars for one.)

In the end I used styrofoam containers from the local restraunt as they've got good insulation qualities and drain well, mixed striking mix, cut all the branches into appropriate sized bits, dipped them, tucked them in, watered them regularly and held my breath.

I have to say, 5-6" lengths of rose twig do not look very promising at first, I was so nervous I'd done it wrong somehow! Lo and behold, a few weeks more and the whole bunch were leafy little things!

So after a few weeks more growth today was the big day for potting up as they needed more space for their roots to keep developing. So I took them out carefully and ohhh... ROOTS! Not bad for a first effort from a rank novice! Now let's hope they all survive this phase, until they're ready to pot up in big pots and then into the garden! ;-p

After the computer started stuffing up I had to figure out why. Those of you who know me, take a moment to pick yourselves back up off the ground and stop laughing hysterically at the idea of me having to try and fix anything even remotely technologically related. From what I can tell I've got a lovely group of trojans the various programs can't seem to keep dead and deal with stupid Firefox having a leaky memory wanting to cause low virtual memory warnings. I'm sure there's other joys but those are the ugly ones atm anyhow.

To boot, pregnancy actually seems to be starting to feel like pregnancy with morning sickness giving a good nip this week. With Laurent it was awful and the only things I could stomach half the time were chinese sweet corn and chicken soup, mandarins and nectarines. This little one however apparently wants strawberries, yum cha (and not the cheap ones, this one wants the places where it takes weeks to get reservations thankyouverymuch...) and ice cream. Other than that just the usual amounts of tired, aching stuff typical of this stage.

Then, it was Miss Hopies birthday on the 8th. After thinking madam had just blown her coat because of the warmer weather since she wasn't giving any other signs she decided to go and make a liar out of me and come into season very conviently on her birthday!Happy (belated) birthday to her siblings Ditto, Harri, Rhythm, Luke, Gospel and Frank :) Hope I've got all those names right! LOL




This last one is from last years but since she looks like a neckid ragamuffin I'll wait till she's got some coat to take a big girl picture of her. She spent most of her b-day with me visiting shops in town, getting attention from people, especially one lady who wanted to sit and chat about dogs and training for over two hours with her little girl.

Appologies for the sunglare - a certain short person whose name I'll leave to your imaginations rather mashed up my sun hood, the flash on my camera is pathetic and I'm the only idiot on the planet who can't photoshop it out. *g* The shots are far from perfect even aside from the sunglare but I like them anyhow. Sometimes it's the imperfect bits that make you smile. Besides, it's SUN! That's just been in such short supply I couldn't not celebrate it!

Youse my HERO... Cami is such a crack up with Veri

(Poor Veri, there were sheep, the geese/ducks on the dam and the neighbors cattle in the adjoining paddock. She kept trying to "casually" move toward them only to be recalled. LOL)

"Ohhh... so THAT'S what sheep are for!"
Note if you will that the blip of dog dashing after the sheep is a certain Rough Tough Little Powderpuff who previously thought cattle were all she was interested in. Two days ago she reassessed her opinion and has decided they are rather interesting after all...
"I'm a good girl mum... can you release me from this stay now?"

Miss Hopie... believe it or not she's neckid. Poor thing has moulted out all her coat, except that ruff!Unintended (Very) Close-up
"How I get in da cam-wah?" while peering into the lense

"Hello? Dorothy Dinosaur? You come to tea? Oh yes! Yummy tea. And Wags? Oh. *pause* And Captain Sorda-feather (pmsl!) and Jeff will he wake up please? Ahhhhhh oh-tay! See you then! Byeeeeee..."
Finally... one of those shots I take to remind myself sometimes life with children can be peaceful!

I think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend!

Friday afternoon I packed up Laurent and Hope and headed out to KCC for the agility nationals. We're not entered but being nationals people are coming from all around the country and among the number of people I've 'met' online but not in person that included Sam and the fantabulous Jahzara who also happens to be Verity's litter sister and Hope's half sister through their mum Tilley. After having chatted online and found a number of aspects of Jahz to sound very similar to both Hope and Veri, I was very excited to both meet them and get to watch not only Sam and Jahz run (!) in person but also a number of other people who are very talented at this whole agility thing. La behaved himself mostly aside from a few tantrums (including a rather spectacular one that had people peering around their cars to see if I wasn't torturing him with hot pokers at the start) although as is typical - having La along means I did more La watching than agility watching. ;-) He did give good amusement with his variety of dog behaviours though - including one that popped up a month or so back which involves scratching his hair with his leg like a dog. ~_~' Strange, strange child!

Saturday was all mine though - Nic was home, La stayed with Nic, Veri and Hope came with me for a day out. It's so funny how so often I'd be looking at Jahz and go, "Now THAT is Veri!" or "That's Hopie all over..." They are also different of course but you could see the relation in them for sure! Kellie who was there with Fyre but who also owns Hope's half brother (same sire, Courage) and found a number of Hope's traits very much like her little man Kruze. I was also pretty pleased with how Veri handled the busy environment, she was pretty good all day albeit occasionally a bit worried and had an unfortunate incident where a man walking backwards stepped on her poor tail. She was supremely convinced Sam was just the coolest though - Sam has VERY good bikkies and was willing to give sharesies! LOL Typical Veri, firmly governed by her stomach! I'm still in awe of watching all the lovely dogs and fantastic efforts on the part of both the dogs and their handlers tbh... both inspired and left with a deep pity for my poor dogs to be stuck with ME as a trainer/handler!

Then Sunday was straight off to Euroa. Another chook auction, supposed to be some large partridge wyandottes. One was nice, one decent and not as nice but one was constantly head-flicking and the other slightly fluffed. So I put in my bid but pulled when it hit the bid hit $140. So instead I came home with a lovely bunch of daffodils courtesy of Tim (whose family owns a gorgeous daffodil and bulb farm) and spent the day chatting with everyone inbetween cuddling Cami to keep warm when it started raining and getting into discussions with everyone in their brother about how I was really, truely, honest to godly sure she WAS an Australian Shepherd and NOT a Koolie and no the breed was not made up or a 'designer' mutt. ;-p Can I also say I really, really, really wish we could change the name to AMERICAN Shepherd... honestly, I think there are a number of people convinced the Yank is trying to have one over on them! ^_^;

After we got home I pretty much collapsed on the couch, combination of being up early and down late for three days while trying to ignore my stomach being queasy, eatting junk (fries, though Veri helped!) and my body trying to turn me into a narcoleptic. I was soon joined by La and dogs. After a few moments of adjusting the blanket to his liking La patted my face to get my attention and said, "Aw, mum... so cute and sweet!" Rather flattered I said thank you La, that's very sweet of you to say to me. He looked at me, pointed at Sierra curled up at the back of my knees and said in a very plain tone said, "No mum! SISI is cute and sweet." Hn. Silly me, of course you were talking about the dog!

We've finally got SUNSHINE back! And no rain. And my lovely daffodils popping up - isn't this ruffled one just lovely - a few of which even survive the chooks for more than a day. The camellias are past their peak but the rhododendrons are just starting to put on their show. But best of all the relatively good weather means both child and dogs can romp. Unfortunately La is still feeling a bit under the weather - his normal hyper little self most of the time but ended up spending most of last night being sick poor thing. As for me, I'm trying to keep up with everything, and feeling like I'm lightyears behind given that I'm waking up feeling like I haven't gone to sleep. At any rate, some more pics.

"Mum, I do training!"

Time is getting away from me, I hadn't realized it's been that long since I wrote.

Honestly it's just been a bit of a sleepy week. First trimester is sapping energy out of me but otherwise being quite calm. Unfortunately the weather is still remarkably rainy which means we're not able to spend much time outdoors and everyone is feeling a bit stir crazy. La has picked up a cold which turned into a cough which developed into wheezing, so my poor little lovely is on an inhailer again.

Despite that he is his normal cheerful, chipper, little ball of energy self - permanently set on full speed ahead. I seriously think he's incapable of walking, it doesn't matter what he does he hurtles himself at it. On our trip to the chemist today we saw a little boy his age with a whopper of a black eye at which La ran over proclaiming, "Aw, mum, he needs a hug!" before doing just that and patting the boy on the back asking, "'You ok-tay? 'S a big ouchie!" Then he started chatting to him about his (the boys) Thomas hat, telling both me and the boys family, "Aw, he's a sweet little bubby! Aw, so sweet! Yookit mum, he's so sweet!" (Mind you, the little boy in question was at least as big as La himself!) As he's proclaiming the little boys sweetness he's nabbed him by the hand and is leading him off down the aisle chatting and giggling, while both myself and his family are laughing hysterically at La's shyness. I had to disappoint him in the end by insisting the little boy wasn't a puppy we could bring home and needed to go with his mum and dad. It's nice to see his gentle, considerate side with other children given the fun we've had lately with him getting very frusterated when it comes to the ideas of sharing and his lack of understanding that while mum understands it's a really great game to run up pretending to be a dinosaur and ROAR at someone with much enthusiasm (being a silly game we engage in, my reply either being 'ohh, my a scarey dinosaur, who will saveeeee me! or roaring back at him as a big scarey dinosaur too at which point he cracks up laughing) the random little boys and girls at the stores do NOT know it's a game and find it rather creepy to have a strange 2 year old rush them roaring.

On the upside maybe he'll be less than disappointed with the baby turns out to be an actual baby and not a puppy! He's currently rather insistant every time I ask him how he feels about a baby sister or brother that it's a puppy in my tummy.
"Yes but La, what if the baby is a baby like in your books? NOT a puppy?"
"Oh noooo mum! *laughs like I've suggested the most absurd idea on earth* Baby is a puppy! I want lots of puppy-babies!"

Hn. I forsee a rude shock coming...

Talent

That's right ladies and gentlemen - TALENT... that's what it takes to get every single inch of yourself completely wet and muddy crashing through mudpuddles almost as deep as you are, barreling through the paddocks and wrestling madly...
WITHOUT GETTING A SPECK OF IT ON YOUR FACE!

Some Favorite Veri-veri Blueberry pictures

Sorry to be quiet, everything is going along just lovely at the moment, enjoying the sunshine when it's out and watching my little clan just growing and living. It's very warm-n-fuzzy feeling inducing! Some pics of Veri I loved, more resized tomorrow when I don't have a short little person requesting constant attention.

"THREE! TWO! ONE! LAUNCH!!!"

I'm playing catch-up with my pictures... Verity's birthday just passed and I've got to get her shots up - as well as a bunch of La and a bunch of other stuff. I've been very slack when it comes to jotting down the important stuff I want to have a record of - like for example, La's finally weaning from his beloved bibi a few months back. Remarkably easy really... not at all like I thought it would be and he's never looked back from it. Something to be said for the child-led/waiting for indications of them being ready theory of things. Two years and seven months was a nice little milestone for us.

All the funny little day-to-day stuff with the dogs and La, I keep meaning to sit and write but it seems we're just too busy living to really sit and compose my thoughts properly most days. Which is good because it means things are getting done but a bit sad because it's getting lost in the tumble of hours, days and weeks until many precious moments just melt into the general fabric of life.

Another "little" thing I should have mentioned ages ago - my visa finally (FINALLY!!!) came through. I am officially now a permanent resident and wow does that feel good to not have that shadow of worry (however unlikely it was) hanging over us!!!!

The one month anniversary of Cade's passing has already been and gone, simply doesn't seem possible really. I was set to write a long, rather rambly, emotional post of all the emotions on the anniversary and when I sat to type, it just flew from my fingers how to put thoughts into words that'd make sense.

On a happier note, the other minor, little, teensy, weensy detail I might have neglected to mention... a second rather long awaited little bubba should be arriving sometime in late March or early April. Very, very, very, very over the moon with this! ^_^

Pics snapped while waiting for the car mechanic to finish servicing the car - joys of living in a teeny-tiny town, you can walk the 2k from the mechanics house to the town to putter around for a few hours and instead spend the majority of the time just chatting to people on the way! LOL

Whispering Wishes

Very Funny Geese and Ducks

"Mum DUCKS ARE SPLASHING!"

"Mum, how da clouds stuck up there?"

Some pics from the day

The whole gaggle of geese and two of the Aylesbury on the dam.

Earliest daffodils sprouting... little paperwhites.

THE WORLDS MOST TOLLERANT CHOOK HOPS UP FOR A CUDDLE
"Mum, I love Sidney. He's a good chook. He has eyes and a mouth and eats corn. He likes tickles. But mum, he likes bugs eatting! I don't eat bugs, tastes yucky. (I do NOT want to know how he knows bugs taste yucky... I just don't!) I eat soup, broccoli and bananas."

The ever adorable fluffy puppykins playing queen of the mountain.
(Of rocks brought in to build the retaining wall.)

Shark-baby has finally stopped teething on us (ow ow ow... baby needle teeth!) and with a mouth that isn't sore she's now discovering the joys of the tennis ball. Funny little pupplet thinks it's just too much fun and after chasing it and prancing around to show off her trophy, drops it to bat it around it like a kitten.

Not quite the day I planned...

The fence is in, except for the one end bit where the gate will be so, I'd intended to go to the Mountain District Poultry Show today but after feeling under the weather yesterday we ended up giving it a miss.

Instead we spent the day scouting around a plant centers with both child and puplet in tow. Miss Fuzzy Puppy manages to play Aussie Ambasadorwherever she goes and is well mannered in the garden shops and nurseries so is always welcome. The attention usually doubles when La insists on walking her - two little cute, wiggly toddlers off on an mission. LOL

We managed to locate a timber gate-house for the fence that we rather liked - very different style than my original plan which was much more formal but this should be quite suitable for training climbing roses up still. Since I was given cuttings for Squatters Dream, Crepuscule, Perle d’Or, Agnes, Rosa brunonii, a Rambling Rector seedling grown by the lady who kindly gave me the cuttings, Veilchenblau and Buff Beauty roses places to train climbers will be good!

Another place we found some lovely rocks for our retaining wall, which should arrive sometime in the next day or two.

Looked at several statuary places hoping to find a little greyhound sculpture to put in the reflection garden where we buried Cade and couldn't find one but did find something that really was very appropriate - a bronze statue about knee-height of a little cherub kneeling and touching a what looked like a camellia blossom. A tad pricey though, so will have to save up a bit.

Last visit was to one of my favorite nurseries, where I picked up some nice bare-rooted stock for loganberries and another variety of strawberry, another chorizema cordatum and some interesting variety of seeds by a company called Erica Vale which sells rare and unusual seeds - double white french marigolds (v. 'french vanilla', F1 gen) and bi-coloured lisanthus called 'rainy orange'. As I was exiting something caught my eye... the ceramic house number tiles I'd spotted months back on a house and wanted but been unable to locate in any store! Too much luck for one day! The numbers surrounded by paintings of bottlebrush and wattles.

Tomorrow we'll continue to lay the road base on the front path, screed it even, get a "whacker" to compact it (Aussies have such logical names for things...), lay the brick edging and whack that, put in the rock edging in the front beds and build the retaining wall.

Once that is finished, I'll turn up the veggie patch properly, bring in some of the cow manure and other goodies and get it underway for planting the next crop. I'm hoping to add a number of fruit trees and native bush food sources as well, so very eager to get going!

wire

The wire arrived a bit early and got started on putting it in, almost to the mailbox. :-)

From the road, toward the house. It's looking soooooooo nice! Especially compared to the old fence - rotted out unpainted nasty rounds with rusty nasty utility wire. Excuse the red bucket in the left bottom corner.