Berry Goodness

A friend revealed they had some thornless blackberries in their back yard, and it was giving them more fruit then they could process.

When Taph and I heard this, we sprung into action.

One and a half kilos of fruit later we were home and processing it into jam. In-fact we were able to get six big and one little jars of jam bottled.

We also got a little bonus. We were able to dig up two vines that we have stuck into pots at home. If they grow, we will have our own supply of thornless blackberries for a couple of years time.

How to tell if you are frugal?

How to tell if you are frugal?

You fix broken clothes pegs.

Frugal, economical or just tight. You be the judge.

The Paving Project

The paving project took a bit of a weather hit (sorting pavers in 37o heat is no fun) and health hit (with my knee playing up, and Taphs hip going out), but as the photos show we are going well and getting the pavers organised before we start laying them.

The piles of unsorted pavers are getting smaller.

the piles of sorted clean pavers are getting bigger

and the piles of pavers with concrete stuck to them are also growing (but not as quickly as the piles of clean pavers).

And Snowie the Dog has been the foreman in this whole process.

Be careful of what you wish for

One of my neighbours was having their paved driveway removed, and replaced with a concreted driveway. He put a few little piles of pavers out the front , with a sign on them of "Free, please take away".

After i have taken three piles away, i asked him how much more was he planning on doing.

He pointed over to a paved driveway, and said he was getting in a bobcat to dig it up, and they were going to the tip.

At that point we agreed that i would take the lot, and he could get the bobcat driver to drop them on my yard.
When i agreed to this, i had no idea there was going to be this many pavers.

However after a few days, Taph and i were able to sort them into several piles. Good pavers, Dirty pavers that needed cleaning, and pavers that we would hang on in case we needed any half pavers.

Inorder to make the cleaning easier, i made myself an alter of frugality. a raised platform of stacked pavers that i could use as a workbench to clean the dirty ones on. Now i am out front on most nights chiseling off the bits of concrete and dirt.
It's a big job, but i have most of the Christmas break to do this in. I will have to wait until after Christmas to get a bobcat in to dig out the area where i want the pavers to go, as i doubt i will get one over Christmas.

I will post some more updates as we go along.

The forth stage of life.

They say in life there are four stages.

1. You believe in Santa Claus
2. You don't believe in Santa Claus
3. You are Santa Claus
4. You look like Santa Claus.
From these photos, it looks like i have reached the fourth stage.
Merry Christmas to all.

Melbourne

My work decided that i had to visit our Melbourne office for 3 days, so i figured this was a chance to explore in my off duty hours.

In my time there, i headed down to St Kilda, had dinner and watched the sun set over the bay.

A wander down Bourke St showed that Myer were in the process of putting up their Christmas Windows.

On the next night we went out for dinner in Chinatown. Don't ask me where we went. i cannot find it on google maps, but it was a delightful little dumpling place behind Her Majesty's Theatre on Little Bourke St.

On our way out of town we had an hour of so to kill waiting at the airport for our flights, however i did spot Adam Spencer in the Qantas lounge. It was a pity that i had not stunt knitting with me so i could do a proper Kineer* of him, but this was the best photo i could do.

And of course a visit to Melbourne, or Adelaide is not complete without a visit to a Haigh's chocolate shop.

* "kineered" or "kineering" is a Yarn Harlot term (and my loose use) for sneaking a photo of someone/thing, I think. I might be mis-using the term (and possibly mis-spelling it).

Good Karma

I had an interesting week. On Sunday Taph and I were in the queue at the local Aldi getting our groceries.

A lady asked is she could jump ahead of us as she needed to buy one of the Aldi trolley tokens. Following my free range money challenge, I have managed to collect 15 of these little buggers tokens, so I offered her one, and suggested she pay it forward.

Later that evening, Taph reminded me that my parents wedding anniversary was coming up, and what was I going to get them. At the time I had no idea, so I said, I don’t know, however, something would turn up.

The next day I was in Salvos at Belconnen, when I spied this vase on their shelf.

This vase, along with another vase I had picked up earlier were both Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz patten, and would match thier dinner setting. I figured these would be great presents for their anniversary.

Later, when I mentioned this find to Taph that she said that Karma had decided to repay my previous good dead in full.

And the toy car? Dad collects the old matchbox toy cars, and I just gave it to him. .