Walnuts are brilliant!

I received an email from someone full of tips and one of them was to rub a walnut over the scratches on your wooden furniture to disguise the dings and scrapes.

Before               and                 After

The leg was pretty scratched from certain pooch when he was a puppy and left in the house on his own but, one little walnut has made it look so much better!  Those that you can still see are very deep, so I am really happy with the result.

"We be jammin' man"

On my way home yesterday from taking the girls horse riding, I stopped in at a fruit shop for some bananas. I came across a box of fruit that was battered and bruised and was for sale at $2.50. I cannot resist a bargain, so I thought I would take it home and make what I could with it. Whatever can't be used in our house goes out to the chooks so I wasn't too worried if half of it was too far gone.

Here's most of it. We already had eaten a few pears and peaches that weren't too bad.

I spent most of the afternoon producing jams and sauce. There wasn't too much that had to go directly to the chooks, in fact the apples only had small bruises on one side.

I used a simple recipe; basically whatever the fruit ended up weighing, I added half of that to it in sugar  and simply added some freshly squeezed lemon juice. With the apple sauce I added a small portion of sugar just to sweeten the pot a bit and again some lemon juice.

2 jars Peach and Apricot jam, 4 jars Apple Sauce and 2 jars Nectarine jam

The Pig and girls have already taste tested the jams and apparently they are "delish". The girls are looking forward to having some apple sauce on their muesli tomorrow.


I still have the kiwi fruit and pears left so may make a crumble tonight (if my aching feet can stand in the kitchen any longer!) and I will just squeeze the mandarins and orange and have some juice with those few pieces.


Now at the beginning of this, I mentioned that I went in to buy some bananas, which I did. Well The Pig saw some banana's for 88c a kilo last night after his shift and not realising I had gotten some earlier in the day ... well, now we have about 20 bananas!!!


I mashed 4 of the ripest looking bananas and froze them in mini zip lock bags for later use in a banana cake or muffins.

2 mashed banana's fit perfectly in each.

Well that's it for now ... but I am quite enjoying all this preserving so don't be surprised if something else turns up on here real soon.

New Years Eve 2011

Sadly NZ has been experiencing rather awful weather. We have had lots and lots of rain (although it has been very, very humid), so much for a sunny summer!

Taken New Years Eve afternoon from the ranch slider to my dining area

Due to this, our local New Years Eve event at the Huntly Speedway was cancelled and we ended up spending a quiet evening at home.

We played lots of board games, much to our daughters delight and shared a block of chocolate and drank loads of ... water.  We really kicked up our heels people.

Despite the rather wet beginning to the year I am feeling very positive about 2012.

And did I make a New Years resolution, well heck yeah!  I am planning to be better organised this year. Last year I felt like I was just "winging it" and life seemed like hard work. It never seemed that I ever got on top of things, (ie housework ... groan) and so this year I want things to go a little smoother.

Lets hope prior planning prevents poor presentation! Wish me luck ... and wishing you all a content and satisfying life in 2012.

It's not easy being Green...

Overheard conversation between The Fashionista and Agent Smelly whilst they were eating something called "slimey limey" (a green jelly like substance) over their ice-cream.

TF: "Ohh yuk, it looks like boogers".

AS: "Hana, I have eaten boogers and let me tell you this does NOT taste like boogers!"

Charmer isn't she?

Thank You Notes

I think it is important for the girls to write thank you notes to the people who have so kindly given them gifts.

I don't push them to make them for the people who they thank personally at the time but, I do make them write them for the people they don't see at the time. I think if someone doesn't get to see them open a gift they especially should receive a note or card thanking them, and letting them know what they thought of the gift.

They are pretty easy to write, we keep them simple but, as they get older they will be expected to write a little more.

We usually make cards as they like to decorate them. We write first, then decorate ... sometimes, painting, pasting paper, or drawing, etc. They can let their imagination run wild and decorate them however they wish to. They do like to fit the card to the person they are thanking.

Here's Agent Smelly with a card she made for her Aunty S with a picture of said Aunty's "Mad Dog Meg" on it.

They only need to work on one card or letter each day and they are finished them in no time. They don't complain, in fact quite enjoy the decorating process, and I know the recipients really appreciate them.