Double delight......

One of my chooks is regularly laying double yolkers............

I cracked two eggs for breaky the other morning and just as I cracked them both in I thought to take a photo.........so it's not the best photo but it looked pretty cool having them in the pan..........

Lamby is the fatest most cheeky sheep on the farm...............she has a new party trick as of the last few weeks...........she squeezes out between the double gates out the front.............jumps over the ramp...........hangs out in the outer front yard for a little bit then wanders into the garden.......once shes had a nibble she comes bleating around the doors to let us know she is in the garden and wants to be let out the Chookshed gate to go straight to the silo for some oats.........

a naughty little lamb.........she actually looks a little skinny in the photo above but I wished all our sheep looked like this..........

she's just nibbling on a few of the plants I wished she would leave alone.........

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.......

Does it work......well that depends on you.......

Thankyou for all your lovely comments on "the journey" post........ We all need support and need to keep each other on track.......I still have quiet a few to respond to.........just need a few more hours in the day.......

Quiet a few of you mentioned looking into fitbits.......I love mine....I got it before fitness trackers were all the rage....  

A big question I get asked is 

Does it work? 

Of course they work but you need to work with it.  Mine only comes off to charge briefly....... I do take my new one off to shower.......and there is only one model you can swim in...... 

The cheapest fitbit that you can get on your wrist will do the job just fine....... 

Some of the less flash ones you can get cheap funky bands on ebay...... Just take the tracker out and swap them around into the cheap bands....... 

I have the fitbit app on my phone so I can see what's happening whenever I want....... 

It won't work if you leave it at home or forget to charge it..... You make it work......Wear it 24/7.....and get moving.........

Most people who get the big chunky ones don't keep wearing them.... 

I had a fitbit flex they have a new fitbit flex 2 out now..... But I decided to upgrade to the fitbit alta hr which I can still change the bands on but also see what my heart rate is doing...... But if I was starting out I would probably just get the flex 2........

Totally unrelated photo that I took on Saturday..........
To try and keep me and you readers motivated I'm going to try and post monthly a fitness/health related post............And as I am off track a bit at the moment I had asked Sue @ KiwiKid to keep nagging me............I did a short walk yesterday and again today............only both about 5 mins but I did something.......lets keep each other moving and improving our health......

Goodluck...... 

Catch you later......

Chookyblue......

Sunday outing....

Saturday was still and stunning...............Sunday was sunny buy OMG a chilly wind blew all day and I pretty much had my coat on all day........

we had to check our cattle as we heard there was a pig dog causing trouble at the nieghbours but no sign of it thankfully..........everything was settled and happy.......

We had to find some cattle down the river............

its rough as guts driving down there...........

but stunning sights to see..........glorious big old trees.........

I was mechanics assistant...........we need to pump up a pile of tyres on field bins and jack them up to get their wheels under them............checking tyres on lots of other farming equipment...........a shitty job I hate...........my tummy muscles were sore from jacking the field bins............not quiet as easy as jacking your car up to change a tyre...............

But look what I found doing this job.............

Meet "Lucky" she was sitting beside one of the field bins........didn't get up and run away when we went over..........she did get up when Mr Chooky hunted her but just stood there and I was trying to take a photo and looking and thinking why had you not run away.........then it was quick we need to catch her as she was very hallow and hungry..........so we popped her in the cage and she traveled around with us in our work and I shared my drink bottle with her..........she was very happy to have a drink of milk last night when we got home well after dark..........Lucky we were doing that job and found her otherwise she would have died.........whether she's a twin or has a careless mother I am not sure......

 

there were babies hiding in the rolly polly.......

this one was brand spankers new........trying to find its feet and get to mum for a drink..........

oh yeah and the river doesn't have any water running in it like most of you would expect to see a river.........there is a slight hole over there against the bank in the shadows.........

Hope your Sunday was a good one.........

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.....

the journey..............

this is potentially a long post without photos.............but its one I want to write as a record for me and if you make it to the end well i'm not sure what it will be for you maybe some motivation because if I can do it anyone can do it......anyway here I go..........

I've thought long and hard about whether to write this post...........but I want it for my record.........it's my little spot in the world..........at times I wished I had written a blog along the way..........

3 years ago I started a journey..........didn't think where I would be in 3 years at all.........what i wanted to do was buy a Fitbit........I tried a few pedometers and they didn't work or I knocked them off my waist band and they cleared the step total.........I tried a couple of mobile apps but they varied way to much so I wiped them............late August 2014 I finally got a Fitbit flex..............

I had one simple goal to do 10,000 steps/day to make myself fitter.......its the bench mark they all recommend...........

My first walk was with my friend Jannimary............I remember that walk so well............OMG it was terrible...........she had some up and down country at the time............I live on the flats............I could not say they were hills but just a bit of a rise in our walk and I was puffed and it was terrible.........could barely talk walking..............NOW I cannot believe I let myself get so unfit and unhealthy..........but weight just slowly  creeps on an suddenly wham...........

I will never forget that first walk..........

So the first week I didn't do anything extra except for that walk to get a bit of a base reading of what i normally did............I was way under the 10,000 step goal...........so I got moving.......I walked out the wrong door and the long way around the house to the clothes line...........parked further away at the shops..........just tried to add in incidental walking..............do an extra lap around the house when I went out to do something...........if I was ironing I would take one item to a room at a time.........just picked up what I could where and you know all those extra steps slowly added up...........I would do short walks.............

then I paid a little more attention to my Fitbit..............it was  also showing me how many calories I may have burnt during the day............

I started looking at labels on food and thinking OMG I just walked for X amount of time and it burnt off X amount of calories.....I cannot possible walk enough time today to walk off those calories...............so I stopped eating some foods I needed to wipe out anyway.............I started looking at my meal sizes........not really much about what was on my plate but how much was there.........

At this point I was weighing myself weekly.........I found this was difficult for me.........some weeks I thought I had been good and I would not lose much or put some on...........I was losing dedication to the steps.............I started weighing myself daily.............for me this is something I would have never thought i would do but for me it works..........your weight is constantly up and down.............so long as it goes up and down in a downward direction that is all that is important..........

I started walking..........actual walks.........to start it was to the gate...........then  the ramp.......then the dam......then it was minimum 10-15 mins.......it was coming into summer...........I love walking at sunrise or sunset..............for about 5 months I didn't even really walk in joggers..........mainly slip on thongs............my girlfriend gave me a good pair of joggers she didn't fit right and OMG it was like heaven...........so much better then the crappy ones I had............. 

I slowly started changing what I ate..........and how much of it..............

there have been ups and downs along the way...........

major life crisises/changes.........

sometimes things were easy to do............somethings felt impossible............

I'd fall over so to speak but then pick myself up again and get back on track..........

I ended up seeing a natropath/nutritionist.............for me this has been wonderful............something I would recommend........not a dietitian.......they are different and better in my opinion..........

my health is so much better...........some foods just don't agree with my body...........life is better without them...........

Walking comes and goes..........over winter it is a little harder......days are shorter..........excuses easier to find.........I've discovered i still have crappy knees but know how to manage them.........also found out I have exercise asthma.........walking is like stitching for me........it's like therapy.......it is crazy but using energy to walk actually creates more energy.........revitalises you........

I've thrown out a ridiculous amount of clothes.........heaps to a friend who lost her home...........as I have lost weight i've brought new clothes and the feeling when you realise you have grown out of those is amazing..........while I look at photos I still can't really picture myself  then to now...........how big I really was.........anyway it's still a work in progress.............I still weigh myself daily............a few months ago I tried not weighing myself daily and for a month or two just did it weekly if at all and really that does not work for me........it's much easier to see the daily changes and I pull my head in much quicker.................you have to adapt what you eat or how you eat it.........think outside the square a bit to get what you want.........

ie. if I have a hamburger I still have it but just on a plate instead of in a bun..........don't add the chips to the plate.........

I drink tea, green tea, lemon and ginger tea (thanks Kris), soda water with lemon and water........I drink limited coffee.........at times I have gone months without it.............

1/4 of me is gone.........my body is healthier, I am heaps fitter then what I was, I have much more energy, I am not tired like I used to be........some of that was weight related but some due to other issues I had with my body which we have sorted out along the way.........

Winter is nearly done and the days are starting to open out so walking will be much easier again..............excuses will be harder to find........

i've challenged myself in ways with food and exercise............amazed myself with what I have achieved along the way..........

I've probably said to much here and forgotten some points I wanted to put in here............I've been writing this post in my head for ages but as I hit the 3 year mark I decided I needed to get it down on a page for me............

I wanted to change what and how I ate for the better permanently..........life changes...........not just for the minute changes that don't last.......changes that will stay with me............it has been a slow transformation but one that will stay with me hopefully forever.......

to celebrate I brought a new Fitbit HR and next time I am away shopping I need a new pair of joggers.....i've worn these ones out.....my journey continues

my words of advice........

go take that first step...........

take baby steps to start with in food or exercise........

make changes you can keep........

massive changes suddenly I think are to hard to stick with........
slow and steady wins the race............

thanks for reading if you made it his far.........

Goodluck.......

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.........

something to amuse you............

tried to do a little video feeding.........not sure if it has worked..........

ok first time didn't work but now I have uploaded it to You tube..........

the dust was hanging..........it was so still..............

I got home from work and had to feed the cows............

rushing before dark I was still  in the town work clothes...........

then the bulls came over when we were fixing the leaking trough.........

The weekend.....

Sat weeks ago I had planned a luncheon..............it was supposed to be with a big log fire down the creek and cook some camp ovens..........

Friday came and it was ghastly to say the least..........blowing a gale.........freezing cold, dust whipping up everywhere in the afternoon...............AND the same was forecast for Saturday......wonderful...........NOT...........mother nature  I was having guest outside.........nope she was playing mean and nasty.........

This photo of me taking the pets out away from the camp oven fires does not truly represent how feral Sat was...........it looks calm and still.......nice and sunny............it was far from it..........the winds were coming off snow somewhere down south it was disgusting.........dust was blowing around but we still sat outside........

lucky my camp oven fires are in pits.............they could stay warm and cook

I forgot to take photos but this one is from the internet.....you get the idea..........

Anyway I cooked a couple of meat dishes - Korma chicken curry and almost burnt the Beef in Red Wine.......I cooked chat potatoes in the camp oven too......

Some friends brought desserts and there was too much left over and we had to have that for breaky the next day............

you should try the apple and barley bake...........we also had left over sticky date  and caramel sauce and cream............yes I was a bit naughty on the weekend but its a one off..........anyway we made the most of the day..............found the most protected area around the house which made things slightly bare-able..........and we had a great time.............

I had to check the water on another property and there was a bit of a leak at the tank..............love how the water caught the light.........

glorious sunset..........I see so many good ones but I never take them for granted..........they are always special...........and never ever the same......

Catch you later......

Chookyblue.....

EPP.....Bestie.... Nibbles....

Life is good tonight...... 

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Lucy prep......

Yesterday was a great day..............

I forgot on the weekend I was going to be home yesterday morning.............

It's one day at a time here some days..............

Anyway yesterday I had a supervise an exam for Boy Wonder..........

It had to be a quiet task, not too distracting and near him to supervise.......

YES YES I can hear you.......Lucy was calling........

So I sat and preped some Lucy...........all the unprepared ones in the tin from Sandy..........

I cut the non fussy backgrounds and traced out all the fussy blocks...........

I got the 4 that were not done to this point...............

pretty happy with that.......

then I had 2 cut in the tin ready for papers so I got them glued too.............

sometimes the fussy gluing is the worst part...........trying to get it perfect on the paper because if it is glued well it sews well.............

then one of my besties arrived for the night.........

she'll be back again Fri and Sat nights too.......

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue..... 

Lucy.......

Well these blocks are not really showing Lucy progress and stitching time for me at the moment....... It's just I finally got time to take a photo of the blocks...... 

One got finished in June and the other July........ 

Today is my first day at home in about 6 weeks and the house sure is showing that......

But I have found my way to the Chookshed and I vacuumed some bugs up...... Not sure how but they find there way in......

I had some cream strips in the house for backgrounds and brought them back out to the Chookshed and finally cut some..........I had run out of pieces to join in my sewing tin.... It needed a massive restock.......

I've been in and out all day catching up on heaps of washing...... Slowly putting things away......

Wished I could find a cleaner........ Just one every month or two would be great...... 

The boys ran away and avoided 'pettycoat government' aka house cleaning....... So I got slack with what I have achieved to.... Still in my pjs and about to go have a shower and change into clean pjs.....it's been nice to bum around all day......

I'll finish with the pile of Lucy blocks...... 

These two will probably go into Lucy 2 but for now they look good on the stack....... 

I've lost count on blocks but maybe these bring the tally to 48?

WOOOPPPPPPPSSSSS

I then went looking for my other Lucy stash.........

4 hrs later I am finishing the post...........

So I have 6 of Sandy's blocks in here.............2 cut and 4 to cut............

so that makes the pieced total 42 I think instead............

AND there are another 7 cut in the tin too.......

I have said I have a problem..........My Friend Lucy is an addiction............

I think these came from The Quilters Angel..........

yes they are for fussy cutting more Lucy blocks.............

And these ones were just because I like the blue and green and they are fat 1/4's............not sure of the range does anyone know............

Anyway........must go to bed soon........

hope you had a good weekend.......

Catch you later..........

Chookyblue.......

Farm stuff........

Lots of bits............

Saturday every place we went there were water problems.............this was the biggest mess.............the cattle had got into the house yard and busted some pipes............and then they had a great time playing in the muddy water.......

While I was waiting for Mr Chooky to load something on the truck I was looking at this silo and thinking there is no way they would build silos like this now days with these sorts of steps........but I thought they were pretty cool........

we've had lots of BBQ lunchs on the weekends............

I grill some vegies too.........one day was steak another marinated chicken............

Sunset......

a real treat on Saturday night was a ring around the moon..........if you look closely it barely fitted into the photo.......but in the sky it was huge and so clear.........

last night I finally busted the echidna that I knew was wandering around.........here he was hiding under the shrubs...........

when I woke at 4am I could hear a little lamb bleating yesterday morning...........It sounded like a tiny lamb.........how I could hear it so well I knew it had to be close but where from................

Anyway once i got up i looked out and could not see anything..........

But as I was about to leave for work I could hear it bleating again and I finally found it..................look see right there at the Chookshed gateway........sitting on the path in the sun.............

so cute...........so new.......not cleaned up (licked clean by Mum) properly but dry..........

here it is tonight next to Baa..........Baa has grown so much and was having bunting games with the calves when I got home tonight...........I thought the calves were being mean to Baa but no Baa was being the bossy one and also trying to jump up onto the calves with no luck.........

I've had regular double yokers being laid by the chooks..........tonight though someone must be in a bad way as look at the massive gooey thing............whats inside resembles an egg or several.........it was dark so not sure if one of the chooks is dead now but if they are not dead then they sure would not be feeling too good tonight after laying that........

Catch you later.............

Chookyblue..........

The pets......

Finally I have some pics of the 4 babies together that you can see much better.............

just getting them onto the feeder.............much quicker gets them all done together...........Moo is on the right.......Herry 2nd from the left...........other two no names still..........

an early start to help with some mustering.................

That all went fine until the cows arrived............we ended up getting the cows away.............

Had a bit of a road block on the way to town work.........

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Shit happens.....

I actually don't feel like I am stuck in a rut at the moment I feel like it is a crater...........there is so much going on..........varying from very ordinary to really crap..............losing a special family member too..........

yesterday the Stock agent was looking at some of our stock...........

Sadly today we loaded these babies plus more onto a truck and they were sold...............there goes our income for the next 12 months for less they 1/2 of what we would get later.........beside the fact we would be keeping some of the heifers (girls) as breeders but things are pretty bad here as i have mentioned............there mums are not doing so well so if you take the calves away there food needs drop quite a lot.............

Also going today which I have mixed emotions about are the poddies from last year............we have kept a couple of heifers hopefully for future milkers..........sad to see them go they are so quiet and some like a pat BUT the 2 biggest ones keep jumping the back fence and getting into the garden..............they garden is pretty bad at the moment with lack of water but seriously the "pruning" and "fertilizing" they were doing was too much.......

We've only had just on 3 inchs for the year so far............

thats for 7 months..............

our average rainfall is 21-22inchs..........

Funny thing is that Goatie aka Black Betty and Lamby think they are cows and went to the yards and spent the night in the yards with the cattle..........they were so funny.........sorry about the terrible pic.......lucky they still have a few friends...............

anyway no need to comment I really don't have much time to answer and its all to miserable anyway..........

Some of these posts are really for my records but it is also giving people a glimpse of life on the land..........

Catch you later.....

Chookyblue.....

Droving..............

A few weeks ago I traded places with one of my brothers..........swapped cattle for cattle..........instead of being in the yards pregnancy testing and mustering I was on the road droving..........

long time readers of my blog would know I have spent many days on the road droving..........but this was just a one off day............

and whiling away the hours besides keeping the cows in line I did some stitching...........that is until you get too grotty..............Baby wipes are my friend......

Just some pics from the day playing with my camera.............

playing with my macro lens......

Swapped utes with my brother........he had a chair in so I got to sit out in the sun for awhile.........it was a glorious day..........pretty still...........i got a block finished but I can't find the photo of it and another block.........

long straight roads......plenty of these in my neck of the world..........

amazing skies.........

a couple of dogs........if only  I could remember their names maybe they would have been useful.......

Catch you later.......

Chookyblue.........