I love April!  The autumn weather, Easter holidays, our wedding anniversary…

AT HOME: Well, the decluttering and cleaning has slowed down now.  I knew it wouldn’t last long until something more exciting came up!

The most exciting news is that work has continued on the new girls’ bedroom.  I’m hoping they’ll have moved in there by Winter.  We have the paint, curtain fabric and most of the building materials, so it’s just a matter of juggling time (again).

Because we’ve been sharing and in different rooms for our first two years in this house, I’m really keen to get our own spaces finally happening.  In anticipation I bought new linen for our bed.  I hadn’t realised how much the old bed cover had faded, it looks very inviting now (the pesky cats agree)!

AT WORK: My volunteer work has kept me really busy…  I had two newsletters to work on last month (and desktop pubishing isn’t my thing)!  Add to that a few meetings and lots of organising and emails, and I was snowed under.  It’s all done now, though, and I can enjoy the benefits of all that organising.

My regular posts at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op have kept me writing, which is great as I need a regular task other than the short pieces on this blog.

I’m about to finalise my next piece for Natural Life.  I never tire of writing about gardening with children and feel more passionate every day about the importance of home grown goodness!

Thanks to those of you who have clicked on the Fishpond banner at the bottom of the page!  They’re a great bookseller - good prices and fast, free (over $50 order) delivery.  And when you click through from here, they send me some money to go toward the monthly site hosting fees and other costs.

Spiral Garden is full of fresh stock, including some lovely New Products!  There’s always a good selection of Specials to watch, mostly very limited stock so be quick.  And of course, don’t forget our Autumn Competition, ending 30th April 2009.

ON THE FARM: The weather has been divine - more fine days than not and nice cool evenings.

We had a WWOOFer here for a week last month, and he weeded and mulched Stage 2 of the orchard.  It’s an area I tend to neglect, so I’m rapt seeing it all ready for winter.

The girls and I attacked the first greenhouse and removed heaps of jungle-like plants such as arrowroot, yams, sweet potatoes, ceylon spinach and a few weeds and some crazy mint.  This cleared the way for some serious feeding and mulching.  Since then I’ve planted more cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, asian greens and zucchini seedlings.  I have lots of winter greens growing from seed, and will plant those in the second greenhouse.  Yes - it’s finished!  The Dad put the front wall and door on a couple of weeks ago and we cleaned out the chook pen and bought a huge load of sugar cane mulch to fill the four main raised beds.  There will also be two smaller beds which I’m yet to complete.  So it looks like we’re all set for huge harvests over the coming months.  Hooray!

We’re currently harvesting macadamias (by the bucketload), eggs, roosters (for meat - 4 last month, 3 to go), passionfruit (from the new vine), chokos, pumpkins (Jap and Queensland Blue), some herbs and greens, cherry and yellow guavas, cherry tomatoes, a small amount of salad greens and stir-fry veg (including water chestnuts),  a couple of capsicums, orange sweet potatoes, etc.  I also harvested my first brown rice, but will replant it.

Our new (adult) Muscovy duck has settled in well, but we got another duck and she thinks she is a chook.  She’s a brown Indian Runner named Bella who answers when she’s called.  So sweet!  We’re thinking that the ducks should start laying soon, which will be exciting.

We also got some of the tiniest bantams you’ve ever seen, from a friend who moved away for work.  We had one before who got lost (long story), and returned after six weeks!  She is happy to be home, spoiled and happy as ever.

The tractor has been fixed after weeks of issues.  Thankfully the Dad is handy with a welder, and has now learnt to fit HUGE tyres!  So all of the farm’s internal roads and paths are clear.  Next door’s cows are taking care of the rest of the long grass as I type.  It’s great to get it all tidy in Autumn, as growth slows down for the colder months.

HOME ED.: We’ve been busy as ever with four of the kids beginning theatre for the year (Snow White!) as well as their usual activities…

There’s been busking, sewing, making sculptures, building, gardening, visiting and outings galore.  The Mamu Rainforest walk was enjoyed by all last week, as was our trip to Nerada Tea the week before.  There is so much to see near where we live.

There’s also been new violins, handed-down violins, violin lessons, dance classes, yoga lessons, meetings, horse riding, art class, sleepovers, swimming and lego games which go on for days…

Lucky they’re homeschooled, there’s no time for school with a schedule like this!

We’re looking forward to the holidays, a week at home and with friends.  I’m currently planning the outings for Term 2 for ATHENS, and it looks like an exciting time…

Keep in touch!