THANKS!

Thank you everyone for your concerning comments and especially to Lisa from The Tin House for your most generous offer and concern.

We did not have major flooding here, just water lapping at the back door!

I have not been "in Blog Land" as I have some "things" happening in my life that has been occupying my thoughts lately.

I'd rather not get into it.....sorry for worry you!!

I also want to apologise for not visiting your blogs either....I have a lot of Blog reading to catch up on!!

image from www.nepress.co.uk

Building an ark!!

We have had so much rain lately!

Since the beginning of February we have had 364.5mls; 70ml in the past 24hrs and 104ml in the previous 24hr period! Don't get me wrong, I'm loving it :-)

Our chooks (hens) need to grow webbing though, so they can swim,lol!

One frustrating thing is that our second rainwater tank still hasn't been delivered and it was due here on the 4th February.

Media Consumption

Lightening has tagged me for an interesting MeMe which asks us to look at our media consumption over the past week.

Media refers to various means of communication and therefor these days encasulates the internet as well as the more traditional forms of newspapers, television, radio and books.

The internet has become a huge media source for many people and I must admit that it is my biggest source of media consumption. This is due to the enormous amount of reading (and even listening) that is possible from one source!!

I used to read many books but know it usually just to quickly refer to a gardening book; I have so many that are topic specific that it is quicker than "googling".

So, my media consumption for the past week is not that varied;

* TV ~ snippits of the news each day, Biggest Looser, snippits of Oprah!

* Books ~ a quick glance at a gardening book

* Radio ~ whenever I'm in the car and a bit on the weekend

* Internet ~ daily I read a number of blogs, read various news websites, check my local Freecycle group, log in at Swap-bot and "waste" a lot of time internet surfing!

* Newspapers ~ I read our free weekly local paper and flick throught one weekend newspaper.


What has been your main source of media consumption this past week?


image from http://www.allposters.com.au/

Gratitude

The Miriam Webster online dictionary defines gratitude as

"the state of being grateful"

I often think about how fortunate I am for many things in my life.

Recently I compiled a list of 100 Things I am Grateful For. It was for a swap on Swap-Bot, an internet based swapping group which I recently became a member of. I thought this swap was a wonderful idea though at first I thought "100", I'll never be able to do that!!

There is even a blog where people from our swap can post their lists and I've added mine to it!

This is my list;

100 Things I’m Grateful For

1. My good health
2. A home, safe place to sleep at night
3. My husband ~ for everything
4. My daughter ~ for being “her”
5. The opportunities that living in Australia can present to me if I wish
7. Having enough money to never have to go without
8. My parents for raising me as they did
9. Airconditioning to help with humid summers!
10. Having traveled so much as a child ~ opened my eyes to the world
11. Being able to travel overseas regularly
12. My two dogs ~ their companionship
13. My hens ~ their delicious eggs and manure for the garden
14. Being able to have the garden of my dreams
15. My organic veggie patch and it’s produce
16. The people who read my blog (www.ourpatch.blogspot.com)
17. Rain
18. Living near the beach and walking there often
19. Not living in a third world country and having to struggle for everyday things in life
20. Both my parents & inlaws for all that they do for us
21. The lovely breeze when it’s windy
22. Plentiful food
23. Hugs and cuddles from both my husband and daughter
24. Walking in the bush near our house and seeing kangaroos regularly
25. Butterflies hovering in our garden
26. All of the opportunities I’ve had so far in my life
27. Earthworms in the garden
28. Flower buds about to open
29. Developing veggies growing in our veggie garden
30. The bright cheery sunflowers
31. Our comfortable king sized bed ~ having a great nights sleep
32. My dogs being excited to see me
33. My daughter telling me any problems/issues she has
34. Airplanes ~ a great mode of transport to just about anywhere!
35. Money ~ never needing to worry about it
36. The support of my husband & daughter with my environmental “efforts” at home
37. My daughter’s good health
38. Having a car and being able to drive anywhere if I choose
39. Internet
40. The beautiful plants in our garden
41. Being able to jump in the shower when hot/dirty
42. My husbands like of cooking as I dislike doing it!
43. Smiles
44. Hugs
45. Friends
46. Family
47. Time together with my husband ~ just him and me
48. Holidays, especially overseas
49. An abundance of foods
50. Always having clean water to drink
51. One on one time with my daughter
52. Family outings/events
53. My dogs wagging their tails at me
54. The beautiful view from my windows
55. The natural beauty of the bush
56. The smile and laughter from my daughter
57. My husband, for just being “himself”
58. Friends accepting me for whom I am
59. Talks on the telephone with friends who live a long way away
60. Bargains when shopping
61. Treasures in op/thrift shops
62. The joy on someone’s face when I give them something
63. Dreams
64. Imagination
65. Laughter
66. The sound of my husband’s car on the driveway when he arrives home
67. Our huge Balinese daybed to relax on
68. Mocha flavoured drinks, either hot or cold
69. Kookaburras laughing in the nearby bush
70. The beach
71. Public holidays as my husband is then at home more!
72. Talking with friends
73. Bees that germinate the flowers on my produce plants
74. The wind on a hot day to help cool me down
75. The dogs wagging their tails
76. Airconditioning in my car
77. Holidays
78. Cool showers
79. When school resumes after long school holidays!
80. How supportive my husband is
81. The love from my husband
82. The love from my daughter
83. Lychees
84. Cold drinks on a hot day
85. Warm drinks on a cold day
86. Asian foods
87. Caramel flavouring
88. My craft desk and “stuff”
89. Music
90. Books
91. Colour
92. Rainbows
93. Trees
94. Flowers
95. Gel pens
96. Our house
97. Computers / technology
98. Jewellery
99. My hearing
100. My sight

I challenge you all to compile your own list; don't worry about trying to list 100 things, just write and see how many you can come up with :)

It's raining it's pouring......

What a night!!!

It's been raining for most of the time since about 8.30 pm last night and during the night we have had some monstrous downpours including thunderstorms.

I awoke at 1am this morning to the loudest clap of thunder I've ever heard!!!

Earlier in the night I had to get up and let the dogs inside due to them being pertified. Are your dogs scared of thunder too? We always end up with them sleeping in our bedroom on the floor and I have to lay there with my arm hanging off the bed to keep patting/comforting our Staffie!!!!

Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night; my eyes feel like they're hanging out of my head this morning!!

At 7am I ducked outside and saw that there were 78ml of rain in our rain gauge. I wonder how much will be in it at 9am when I take our reading and record it.

** Updated **
At 9am the reading on our rain water gauge was 100ml!!!!

Ironically our second rainwater tank is delivered later this week..........

image from www.quietlywild.com

January records and other goings on

This past month saw us with a record number of eggs from Ruby, Penny and Lucy; a total of 91 which we are so grateful for!

We also receievd 100ml of rain which has kept our 3000l (660 gallon) tank topped up. This next week our other 3000l tank is delivered which will go on the other side of our house. The concrete slab is ready and waiting for it :)


Today I got this box of lettuce scraps from the greengrocers (free) for our chooks. They are currently happily pecking away at a handful of it oblivious to the drizzle which has just begun!

I have decided to put our paper/plastic recycling tub in the garage as it's only a short walk from the kitchen. It's out of the way there so can't be tripped over and also not far from the outside council recycling wheelie bin that it needs to be emptied into on a regular basis.

It's interesting, after yesterday's post to see that we all do things in a similar way. Thanks for your comments :)

Organising household recycling

Here at Our Patch we recycle as much as possible.

Any food scraps go into a container in the fridge and then whatever is suitable for the chickens goes to them, and the remainder to the worm farm or compost bin.

We have a plastic tub in the family room for paper waste as there isn't much floor space in the kitchen for it; the kitchen bin gets in the way as it is!

We need a better place to this plastic tub but don't have any spare kitchen cupboard space at present..........

How do you organise the recycling, especially the paper waste at your home? Do you have 2 bins in the kitchen?