Somewhere over ...

... the rainbow.

We've had a day full of thunderous storms, amazing lightning and heavy rains.

A water spout crossed onto land and caused some damage in The Bay.

A woman was hit by lightning at the Howard markets this morning. I don' t know the status of her condition.

There have been a number of short blackouts here in town, but Howard lost their power for hours .. in fact, I don't even know if they have it back on yet.

I rode my trike to the local supermarket this morning, thinking that I could be there and back before the big storm hit, but I misjudged badly and ended up having to ride the storm out in the supermarket. After about 30 minutes, there was a break in the rain and I pedalled home, but there was still a lot of lightning about and I was afraid that I'd get hit! Obviously I made it home safe n sound.

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen today.

Overnight, I'd made a good batch of chicken stock, so I packaged and froze some of it and I made some chicken and vegetable soup for a friend who's husband is very ill and malnourished. I tried to deliver it today, but she was out and he wasn't answering the door. I'll try again tomorrow.

I had a heap of organic oranges, so I juiced them with kiwi fruit and coconut water and now I have a huge jug of delicious juice in the fridge.

I cooked a corned beef in the slow cooker and we had that for dinner with a delicious cabbage/onion/bacon mixture simmered in some home made beef broth and then sprinkled some toasted slivered almonds on top.

I had plans to make an apple and coffee cake, but that might have to wait til tomorrow.

No study today .. I couldn't focus with the crappy weather conditions .. not that I ever need much of an excuse!

More storms are forecast all week long, so I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Nite all.

Never too late!

Just goes to show that it's never too late!! 96 years old!!



I'm super excited to announce that I STUDIED today!!

Woot! Woot! Three whole hours!

That's it. Now that I've started, I may have kicked that procrastination bug up the butt!!

I'm feeling confident :)

Chemistry was my subject of choice today and even though the lecturer said that Chemistry really isn't that hard .. I feel that she lied .. just a little bit, because I'm only part way through the first lesson and I'm already bamboozled!!

Anyway ...

Nite all.

Mango Promises

Our mango tree has fruited for the first time and it has LOTS of mangoes dangling from the branches.

The animals and birds ate my peaches and my mulberries and I'm not going to let them eat my mangoes, so today, I found the old exclusion bags that we used to protect our tomatoes and I put them on most of the mangoes on the tree.

So now I have an exclusion bag tree .. of which I will take a photo tomorrow to show you.

That was my first chore this morning to start the procrastination process for the day, to avoid study.

I cooked up some curried sausages and roasted a chicken. I made the dog's food, which took a bit longer than expected, being such a big batch. I got 13 days worth of meals all packaged and frozen.

For all the time it took to cook and prepare all of that .. it took just as long to clean the kitchen afterwards! I emptied and refilled the dishwasher 3 times today and still had big pots and bowls that needed to be hand washed.

Anyway, that took up all of my day and now I am watching one of my favourite movies "Fried Green Tomatoes".

Adoring Husband spent the morning doing a forensic search down in Gympie with the SES, spent the afternoon at the SES shed, came home for both lunch and dinner, then returned to the shed for training in the evening.

So we've both had a full day.

Here's a photo of The Sex Therapist, Nurse J and myself, taken by Adoring Husband last Wednesday night at the local pub where we went for dinner. We look so happy!

Nite all.

Who knew?

Who knew that Cod Liver Oil was so expensive?? Even more expensive than Coconut Oil!

I've decided to make the dog's food from scratch.

The vet recommended dog biscuits for our dogs after we told him that we fed our dogs fresh meat only, and have done so since they were puppies.

Our dogs are aged 8, 8.5 and 9yrs.

One of our dogs got pancreatitis and so the vet decided that the 'heart smart' mince that we've been feeding our dogs has too much fat in it, which caused the condition.

So we bought dog biscuits and changed their diet.

Big mistake.

The smell of the poop and the farts is unbearable .. this was never a problem before!

The dogs can't get enough water into their bodies, to help digest the biscuits, so they fluctuate between constipation and diarrhoea.

They don't like the biscuits very much (and we've tried 3 different varieties), so the food stays in their bowls, which attracts ants .. yes we put their bowl on top of a large plate of water to stop the ants, but the dogs drink the water lol.

There are no guidelines or safety standards for dog food, especially biscuits, so I don't trust that this is a healthy diet option for dogs. They also contain grains, which have never been part of a carnivore's diet in the wild.

So I've done a bit of research and found that making dog food is a good option.  I'm not going to cook their food but combine raw beef mince, liver, heart, raw egg, blended green leafy veg, mashed pumpkin, cod liver oil, ground egg shell for calcium and a small amount of plain yoghurt or kefir which works like a probiotic.

I don't have measurements or a particular recipe for this - except that dogs shouldn't eat more than one egg per day and the offal needs to be in small amounts in each batch of food.

So that's my priority for tomorrow.

I bought two new pairs of shoes today. I threw out 8 pairs yesterday!

I was wearing a pair of shoes today, that are about 15 yrs old. They were Colorado sandals with a low heel and very comfortable, but I've only ever worn them (perhaps) twice each year. Just after I bought my new shoes today, I was walking across the carpark in the Bay, when the sole of one of the shoes that I was wearing, broke in half and literally feel off the shoe completely!

How lucky that I had new shoes to replace them!

If any of my friends out there want to check out my throw-away shoes before I take them to St Vinnies, please feel free to come visit me. They are all size 7 (maybe a couple of size 8s in there) and most are in very good condition, a couple 'like new'. There are joggers, sandals, flats and heels.

I also have two bags of clothes in which you might be interested.

Adoring Husband has a big day of SES duties tomorrow, so I wonder if studying is in my immediate future???

Enough of this frivolity. Time for bed.

Nite all.

The Hero Returns

Adoring Husband has returned safe n sound *insert very happy smiley face here*

My day was full and busy and distinctly lacking study time.

I started at the Seat of Knowledge with my boys. Morning tea with the girls was next, where I had a very pleasant time with the lovely little Lola.

I eventually came home to attend to some housework, including cleaning our walk in robe, which had my shoes and handbags scattered all over the floor so that I could barely reach my clothes! Now it's immaculate.

The air conditioning guy turned up to investigate a problem with our ducted system. It may very well be costly by the time he sources the replacement parts that we need. Bummer.

I made a birthday cake for Happy Harry, and during that process, the electric hand mixer died .. it's well over 10 years old, so I think I got my money's worth. My hair dryer died on Friday night as well, so I'm not having a lot of success with my small appliances!

I met with 'the gang' down at the Lion's Park for our monthly evening barbecue and the cake was a success. Thank goodness, because it was the first time I'd made this red velvet cake (sugar free and gluten free) and it was for a special occasion, so it would have been a disaster if it was a failure.

Then Adoring Husband arrived, looking tired, but very well.

We came home, and by the time I cleaned up and packed everything away after the barbecue, I got to sit down and my feet thanked me profusely.

Here are some quotes that I enjoyed today.

Nite all.

Unproductive

Oh I wanted so much to study today.

Instead, that "P" word came into play and I found so many different things to do, instead of studying!

I procrastinated by

• Watering the garden 
• Reading my emails
• Checking facebook
• Surfing the net
• Getting clothes off the line
• Feeding the chooks
• Searching for frogs in the garden
• Researching camera lenses
• Playing Words With Friends
• Watching a movie
• Or two
• Collecting the eggs
• Checking my flickr mail
• Ordering my FROG box

I briefly checked some due dates for assignments and exams and then signed out.

Probably my most unproductive day for a while.

Adoring Husband will be home tomorrow :)

Nite all.

The Challenge

The flickr challenge this month is "A Bug's Life".

There have been a lot of submissions and they are amazingly good! None of my shots even come close to being competitive this month, but I've submitted one just to be involved.

I've searched high and low for a different kind of bug .. there are dragonflies, spiders, bees and beetles and I really wanted something different in a different environment, but I didn't have much luck and the weather has been so windy this month, that it's been difficult to use the macro lens effectively.

Anyway these were my efforts this month and my final choice was the frangipani with the beetle.

I wish that I could share on here, the other submissions, but I can't.

Adoring Husband is still in Brisvegas cleaning up after the storm. They've asked the team to stay on for a couple of extra days, so I have peace and quiet for a little longer.

Here I was thinking that it was about 9.30pm but I just looked at the clock and it's after 11pm!! Where has the time gone? Time for bed!

Nite all.