There’s been a bit happening lately.

Tim is back working with Australia Post here in Tasmania. After arriving in Tasmania, he was told that he would have little chance of working with them here because they have no turnover of staff. But last month there was an ad, he applied and got the job. It will be a bit different for him because he is now riding a motorcycle to deliver the mail, rather than riding a bicycle.

We just had Tim’s mum over for a visit and she flew back to Sydney today. Prior to her arrival, I ordered a bunch of bulbs, tubers, warratahs and proteas from a nursery that I discovered at Salamanca a little while ago, Vogelvry Bulbs & Flowers. While Tim’s mum was here, we paid a visit to Salamanca and I arranged to collect my order from them at the market. I ordered a whole stack of different proteas and warratahs and although I’m happy that they were reasonably priced, I’m a bit disappointed that it appears that a few of them appear to be clippings that have been set in pots.  Anyway, it’s good to finally get them in the Australian native garden bed that I built a while ago and that I’m hoping will take off next year. In this bed already are 3 different types of kangaroo paw: yellow gem, big red and an in-between colour, a mix of green, yellow and red. a multi-coloured kangaroo paw. I am thinking there is way too many plants in this bed. They are little plants now but the proteas and the warratahs will grow quite big, as big as a lemon tree, and so I will probably be transplanting them into a new bed in spring. The kangaroo paws clump to become quite large plants about a metre wide, so they may need to be divided in a couple of years.

Grevillea on the right with kangaroo paw to the left and 2 baby protea plants behind:

Yellow Gem kangaroo paw:

I had planted many seeds of broccoli, raddish, cabbage, beetroot and carrot and in the past month or so they have all really come on well and they were getting to the stage where they had to be transplanted. I germinated some lettuce seeds in the seedling trays and planted those a couple of weeks ago. Already they are strong and very healthy looking.

As there is currently a lack of space in the apple crates that we set up as raised veggie gardens, I tilled over a patch of dirt underneath the laundry window and transplanted some of the seedlings there.

The seedlings that have been planted in the apple crate veggie gardens are coming on quite well. They are the tomatoes, corn and zucchini that were planted as purchased seedlings way back in about October last year. The corns should be twice their size and there should at least be some fairly large corns growing in the cob by now. They’ve been there for close to 6 months now and there’s not much happening with those so they may have to be sacrificed to make room for other healthy seedlings that are waiting to be transplanted. In this photo, you can see the tomatoes growing on the vine (there’s one red tomato there that needs to be plucked off) and the two zucchini plants are located in the front left and the front right. Then in front of the zucchini plants in a long row are the carrots that are coming along steadily.

Then there are the radishes that I grew from seed. I pulled these radishes out of the ground last week. We have about 9 radishes that we have to find something to do with (personally, I like to eat them raw dipped in a little bit of salt, but I think we should find something better to do with them). There are 8 more tomatoes that are growing on the vines that we will also have to find something to do with. Although these tomato plants are tiny, they have done well to produce such juicy healthy tomatoes.

I have ordered direct from Laminex a long benchtop (3.6 metres wide) which I plan to use as a new desk in the study.  I’ve chosen the Laminex colour ”Anticipation”:

It will be about twice the length of my current desk (which Tim is currently sharing with me) and I plan to buy some large brackets to be fixed to the wall at the back so that it supports the benchtop underneath, kind of becoming a floating desk. This was a bit of a splurge ($692 ) and they DON’T deliver, so we have to arrange for our own delivery on top of that price, probably another $70-$100.  For anyone considering purchasing direct from Laminex, be warned:  they DON’T DELIVERY! Plus, they charge a $30.00 “logistics fee” (which from what I understand is a fee they charge for manufacturing it and then delivering it to the showroom).

I hope that the new floating desk idea is a success because as I resigned from my ‘day job’ last week, I will now be working full-time in my business and getting lots of use out of the desk. Considering that the price of one good quality large office desk is about $300-$350 at Officeworks, I think the benchtop purchase will be comparatively cost-effective as buying two large desks, plus the “Anticipation” colour I’ve chosen is a little bit different to the desks that you find in Officeworks.

As I now don’t have to give my days over to someone else’s business anymore, I might now actually start getting some things done in my business and maybe even get some  things done to this house, such as, maybe, painting some of the rooms … !

The first major project though, is the new shed. Once the shed is built then we can clear two rooms full of boxes of stuff and pieces of furniture that need to be sanded and polished and then those rooms and be decorated.

For the shed project, first, we need to cut down all the ivy that is growing on the fence on and around the existing shed.  Then there needs to be a new fence erected just behind the existing old shed (we need the fence going in so that the dogs don’t get out of the yard when the existing shed is demolished, it’s currently the only barrier between our property and next door!).  Then the existing shed has to be dismantled and thrown in a skip. Then we have to cut 30cm off of one of the long sides of the old concrete slab (because there are massive cracks running underneath the old concrete slab and need to come out so that the new concrete will be poured on a steady surface). Then the concretor needs to come in and lay new concrete over the top of the old concrete and dig footing holes for the struts of the shed to be concreted down into. Then the shed guys have to come and erect the shed. Hopefully it will all go smoothly.