Friday, 29 November 2024

where were we at...........

Well I've done a few posts of things but I realised I missed August and Sept completely..........
So here's a quick summary of the last few months.........
August.......
Got some new chooks and they are doing great.........laying heaps of eggs..........
No idea now what I cooked scones for but hey they were good.............
Bridget had lambs.............Milly and Billy.............They have grown up and about to leave home...........
Loving seeing livestock drinking off mum............
We'd had some rain and the paper daisies were insane..............these yellow ones were the best I have ever seen..............
I picked lots..........
The countryside was a picture of green and flowers..............

I dried lots of bunches for the retreat I co hosted in September..........
more on that later...........
&&&&&&
September was full on...........but I did survive..........
on top of everything else I hurt my back and its sure taken it's toll........
A very big wakeup call with everything piled on death and illness makes you reevaluate many things..........
This beautiful grevillea was in the hospital garden when I was with Dad...........
Sadly he passed away.............
We had a crazy trip to Darwin for my son's wedding............what an emotional roller coaster..............
random photos.............
I should have said no to this drive that Fairy Girl wanted me to take her on as I was in agony with my back in the car but I the enjoyed the early morning light and the calm was nice...........
Here's a photo of Fairy Girl and I at the wedding............
There is so much water around Darwin............
That brings us to an end for September..........
&&&
Onto October..........
Lots of cousins to see at Dad's funeral...........
then I really just shut down for a lot of it as I needed too..........
We sold most of these steers............they did well.............
Fairy Girl went for a photo shoot at the pink daisy paddock and I got to go with her..........
There was a few zooms.............more on the Cancer Fundraiser in another post.............
I had been doing some gardening and heard this garden was open so I took myself off for a visit..............
It was beautiful..........
I was so inspired..........and been enjoying plenty of time in my own garden............
Boy Wonder and family were home for a few days which was such a surprise and I thought only Boy Wonder was coming..........they helped with some gardening also.........
Mr Chooky was rarely around for weeks while he helped friends with harvest.............
&&&
Then November came around......... 
I ran away from home with my Quilting buddy Miss Jules to a retreat in Qld for a few days..........
I went back to work just part time last week........
I've been off since early September when Dad got sick...........
I took a longer break...........my poor body was in need to repair and some extra care.........
Addy and the lamb are doing well............The dodgy lamb died - it just wasn't doing well or drinking enough either...........and another one accidently got run over.......not by me thankfully.........but someone did get told off............

Its been a firey month.........mostly machinery starting fires while harvesting..............
In our area we have been pretty busy..............
This was my view to one of the fires.........Mr Chooky has been picked up by one of the neighbours to get onto our brigade truck.............I was coming along with a ute and tanker trailer..........a young bloke I found at the fire jumped on my hose............I think we made a good team..........
I know this posted started off nice and green with heaps of flowers but it has hardly rained since.............so everything has been tinder dry.............this one took off in the wind from the crop stubble and into grasses.............

We had some big trees that caused issues during the night and sparks were blowing long distances into dry grass over the road.............It was very windy that night..............
Sunrise the next day and lots of trees burning on the edge of the fire...............
We managed to hold it and all was good but you can see the dust and ash that was being picked up by the strong winds in this photo............grit kept being blown into our eyes...............
A pretty sunset...............
the clouds to the east had the sun on them as it was setting............so pretty...........
there was 3 layers of clouds............one going east, one west and another south..........they were hiking it too...........
We have just started feeding sheep this week and it is raining today so I hope we get more..........
Agapanthus have started to open which I love............
Finally I put some christmas lights up...........
the only decorating I will be doing here............
"The lamb" was helping as the poddies are in the extended front garden yard.......
There have been some cracking storms around...........
we got 20mm overnight and I stayed home from work as they have forecast 40-80mm today...........and there was lots more rain between home and town............
we'll see what happens............last time they said forecast 25mm and we got 2mm............
I am hoping to do some zoom time over the weekend since I don't need to water the garden..........
 fingers crossed it will be way too wet to garden...........
Have a great weekend..........
Chookyblue........






 

Friday, 15 November 2024

National Ag Day...........

National Ag Day.............a day to celebrate and learn about Agriculture............
I feel its a day to spread awareness of Agriculture also............
Wheat (above) a staple food around the world
The harvest isn't ours but Mr Chooky was helping out friends...........

Tractor and chaser bin follow aka chase the headers around the paddocks to get the grain from them that they have harvested..............
Header emptying into a chaser bin...........often they are both still moving............
Chaser bins take it back to silos, trucks or temp storage spots...............
GPS systems make all these rows perfectly straight............

you support your neighbours in times of need................
you get to enjoy nature daily.................
everyday ends with beauty..............
we mostly grow sheep (meat and wool) and cows..............

the joy of seeing a full dam means we have had good rain to fill it..............securing our water for our animals and my garden............

One of my neighbours grew this amazing block of pink daisies.............let me know if your in Australia and you want some............she dried heaps and now she is selling them..........
A smokey sunset................
finally I picked a bunch of these gorgeous flowers fresh from the paddocks...................
they just grow naturally...............
that's is for now..........
if you have any questions please ask.............
Catch you later...........
Chookyblue........
 

Saturday, 2 November 2024

enabling....

What's a girl to do when a friend asks if you need any Tilda fabrics..... They were a very good price.......

It was a weak moment but it's cheaper then counselling.......
I'll be back .... Lots going on here.....
I need to summarise the last wonderful zoom........harvest cooking......fire......poddies..... Sunsets...... Just prepping the garden for the incoming heat....... And probably myself also but I'm a bit tired and sore today so I'll be taking the rest of the day easy..... Which will find me in the Chookshed......
Catch you later.........
Chookyblue.......
Ps  there will be a sleep in there somewhere to as I've been awake since 3.30......🤦

Friday, 25 October 2024

Zoom Fundraiser..............

Just popped in to share the times for zoom tomorrow.................see below
Also read my last post if your not sure what I am doing..........
I'm hoping to be working on a new fat 1/4 mixer quilt..........yes got a little carried away...........
you too can get this bundle of cheeriness @The Next Stitch
Wendy will only be too happy to pull another bundle together.........
AND yes it's going to be a big quilt........
 
I am hoping to start at 6am.
Thankyou to those who have made a donation so far. 
We have about $320 so far. 
I will email you the link in tonight or in the morning. 
Depending on how fast I fade tonight..........
It's not to late to join in.........just make a donation and email me a copy of the receipt and your in for a wonderful day of sewing.........
Catch you later..........
Chookyblue.......... 

Wednesday, 23 October 2024

zoom cancer fundraiser.......

Hi readers.....

Yep not much notice but I'm hosting another cancer fundraiser on zoom.....

This Saturday 26th Oct my time...... I'll put more details up re the times. 

I don't care what cancer organisation you support in your own country but if you can email me the receipt of your donation be that $20 or a million or anything in between...... If you have limited funds please do $5 if you can. 
chookyblue2(at) gmail.com

Every dollar adds up. I converted international donation $$$ to Australian currency last time I did this to get a total that meant something to us in one currency. 

Please share this info. Anyone who crafts and makes a donation is welcome to join zoom this Saturday. 

Start time will be 6am AEDST unless I wake earlier. I'll see how long I go. Not sure at this stage. 

Cancer touches to many people.
F#$$@@#k cancer. 
I hope you are in a position to make a donation and we can sew together. 

Also tell me what cancer organisation and why you chose it in the comments to spread awareness. 

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

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

International Day of Rural Women

It's a day to celebrate women in rural areas....... The highs and lows, challenges, joy, freedom, beauty of surrounds, and everything else that fits into a rural area .......
I am blessed to know some amazing rural women....... Everyone has different strengths and interests which are of great value....... Most grow crops and animals to feed the world......
(Just the odd precious sheep like Lamby or Bridget who will never leave the farm)

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

Monday, 14 October 2024

don't be too shocked..............

 while I feel like I have lost the last 2-3 months finally I have something to show.........

So much has happened that I feel like I am back in July.........but I find the calendar says mid October and Christmas is around the corner...........

I had a retreat in between but it feels like a life time ago........so one day I will have to come back and do a post about that but I barely have any pics as other things were taking my concentration.........

But at that retreat I brought a little fat 1/4 bundle of 10 Tilda fabrics.......When I found them last week I had even forgotten that I had done any shopping at the retreat.........

Such a pretty little bundle..........
I had a little google and found a YouTube video with a quilt...........OMG my notes I drew down were interesting to say the least..............but I managed to work it out.......
So I decided to see if anyone wanted to chat while I cut it out Sunday night...........Took no time to cut out...........I cut 5 fat 1/4's at once..........
Such a simple quick quilt............perfect for my 10 fat 1/4's....
Fat 1/4 Mixer Quilt....click on the name it's got a link to the quilt.......
Just really shows off the prints...........
Quick simple and took about 3 hrs from start to finish....that includes ironing the fabrics and chatting also...........I got the block cut and pieced while on zoom and had to go to get dinner and shut the Chooks in.......so I laid it out and finished it this morning.........
Stoked I didn't cut any of the peoples heads off............considering I didn't think about it when cutting cause it would do my head in I had it under other fabrics when I cut it out...........
my finished size is 50x60 so a nice smaller quilt...........

HELP
Does anyone have a 2.5in strip of any of the fabrics in the quilt or even 2x 1/2 width..........I need that much more and I can bind the quilt with the left overs..........

Will definitely be making this one again................
I have a Di Ford bundle of 30 fabrics or bright Bonnie and Camille range...........
Which one should I cut up next??????

I feel so good actually getting this cut and pieced.........I have plenty of quilts sitting around I could work on but really just needed to see quick progress.....
and have the feel good moment................
This ticked all the boxes.........
Catch you later......
Chookyblue......

PS sorry have dropped off the planet with blog reading also but I have another months leave so hope to get a little caught up in that time.........and seek out some inspiration from you all........

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

Daddykins 16.09.2024.......

This week we farewell my Dad.............
We had a bonus 36 years with you........that's because you were so tough..........
overall I would say my dad was a pretty quiet man.........
I've been writing a lot more for this post in my head for a few weeks but I think I will leave it at this. 
Love you Daddykins...........
Louigi xxxx