She was such a sweet puppy, so ringworm and all, I took my mum down to meet her. I think she was dubious at first but after she nuzzled into my mum’s arms, I think it was basically a done deal. She gave me something that I was missing for a long time, she gave me back my soul. She put back part of me that died when my dad did. And while she was headstrong and at times hard to train, she became entrenched in our lives and now we can’t imagine how it is we are going to live without her.

A few months ago, before Christmas, it dawned on me that she was growing old. She was starting to get a little grey around the muzzle and on her head and her stamina just wasn’t what it used to be. She would still love a walk but tired sooner than expected. She had arthritis and a dicky heart so I couldn’t expect her to go for miles anymore. But I still thought I would have that little bit longer with her and I’m sure my mum thought the same.

Last night we said our final goodbyes. I think she knew she was going but all the while as we sat with her and patted her, told her we loved her…..her only concern was for us and that we were protected and looked after. She was our guardian right until the end.

I will miss you my friend. Rest peacefully.

]]> http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/saying-goodbye-to-a-special-friend/feed/ 6 http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/finally-we-have-a-backyard/ http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/finally-we-have-a-backyard/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:05:28 +0000 admin http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/?p=637 It’s only taken almost six months.

But I can now say that I have a backyard. Of course it was always there but a whole heap of barren soil just doesn’t seem to paint the picture of an ideal Aussie backyard. A typical Aussie backyard should have turf in it and now ours finally does.

So now I can embrace the rain when it pours down instead of getting mild panic attacks. I can put some plants in the ground that are well and truly over due for planting. The fence can get put up. Not to mention the cats will be excited because once the turf has established, they can finally have their cat park back.

Bliss!

Once you start saving just a little bit, it becomes easier. And it doesn’t have to be a huge noticeable amount coming out of your income. I started off my “rainy day” account with spare change collected over a year and now I just maintain regular contributions each fortnight. We put just that little bit extra into our mortgage each week. And even though I’m now 30yo, I still have a piggy bank which doubles as a swear jar. I’m not sure I should be proud of my $50 per month saving habit from that particular source or mildly mortified.

We have been talking a lot lately about going on an overseas holiday and while we aren’t ready to go now, there’s no better time to start saving for it. So I got myself a SmartyPig after hearing about it on All For Women – a very big thank you to Leigh for bringing this nifty savings account to my attention. It’s a dedicated bank account for my savings with this particular goal in mind. I put in my end date, how much I’m prepared to start the account with and then the SmartyPig calculated how much needs to be saved each month to meet my savings goal. It was really easy to set up and at a glance, I can see how I am progressing towards my goal. And the great thing about SmartyPig is that you can have multiple savings objectives (holiday, wedding, new lounge suite just to name a few examples) all within the same SmartyPig account.

If you’re looking for more information on FebuSave, head on over to the Be Money Confident FebuSave website. While you’re at it, why not get yourself a SmartyPig – it’s even better than a piggy bank and just as easy to use.

That’s fine, only it looks messy and I don’t like it. So when I saw this particular item on Ikea’s website, I thought it was brilliant and a perfect solution. We could store the towers in there, everything has its place and even though we would leave the door open on the unit, it would at least look a lot tidier. So off we go to Ikea on a Saturday. Now those of you unfamiliar with the land of Ikea shopping won’t understand the significance of going to Ikea on a Saturday. You’ll probably be thinking that’s what most people do.

And that’s exactly the problem with going to Ikea on a Saturday, or even a Sunday. Because that’s when every other Tom, Dick and Harry in a 3hr radius from the store chooses to go to Ikea. Seriously, I once met people who had especially driven down from Gin Gin (about half a day’s drive away) to get their Ikea fix. The place is crawling with bodies and heaven help you if you want to go against the flow of traffic.

But we thought the end justified the means, so off we went to get our cabinet. We did what we usually do and back cut through the food court to get to the self serve area. Only then it dawned on us that we might want to have a look at it and make sure that it would suit our needs. The dimensions seemed fine as displayed on the website and in the photo, there’s clearly a computer tower sitting on the bottom shelf. But for peace of mind, we thought best check it out first.

So about 30mins later, trying to fight our way through the incredibly irritated people going in the correct flow pattern, we found what we were looking for in the show room. It looked fine….until we measured the internal dimensions. Even though the cabinet is 60cm deep, the internal measurements are at least 10cm less than that, allowing for door at the front and room for plugs at the back of the tower. I’d measured the towers at home and thought it would be perfect because it would need to be at least 58cm deep. As it was, the tower would have been hanging out the lip of the cabinet and we’d never be able to shut the door.

Maybe that’s not so much a big deal as we would probably leave it open for ventilation anyway, but for the price, I really would want it to be able to function in the way it is supposed to. At nearly $500, it’s a fairly expensive bit of portable shelving. We had a look at a lot of their other products, even ones that were not closed in – they all have the same problem in that they are too shallow to accommodate even the smallest of our computer towers.

So the search continues. If you’ve seen anything in your travels which might be more suitable, I’d love to hear about it.

But the main thing is it seems to be happening now, as opposed to the two or three months where nothing happened at all. So hopefully now it won’t be too long until there is a fence!

This weekend will probably be all battle stations working out where the garden beds are going to go before organising the turfing and fencing. Fortunately we have a lot of side access at this property so it is not as vital that we get the garden beds done before the fence goes up. It will feel good to finally feel like we can do something with the landscaping as opposed to the watching and waiting that has been going on for the last couple of months.

So finally I feel like I’ve got something to cheer about – even if it’s not quite finished yet.

The reason why we decided to get the flooring done in there was mainly because it makes the room look so much neater and it looks uber cool when everyone else has plain boring concrete! The flooring is from Flexico, installed by the very groovy Dave who is very passionate about his product. If not for the home show I begrudgingly went to last year, I wouldn’t have even known about the stuff. He had a display there of all the different types of flooring and we were pretty much sold on it before we even got the quote. For a very spesh garage floor like mine, you’ll need to set aside around $3k for a double garage, including delivery and installation.

Easy maintenance – vacuum once or twice a year and if you spill something, just pick up the tile, clean up the mess and put it back down again. Or even easier still, you can hose the entire garage out and be done with it. The type we have gotten is RibTrax….it almost looks like a checker board on some angles. It comes in all colours of the rainbow and you can design incredible patterns with it, as Dave would say, for extra groovy appeal. As it happens, we thought we would go for something a bit more conservative and have one straight line down the middle. No more hogging of the garage – he has his side, I have mine.

Pretty noice I think!

Consequently, I was rather grateful to have a gas hot water system here. No more running out in my PJs or dressing gown to flip a switch and having to wait for ages until it warmed up. No more cold showers. But since we weren’t needing the roof space for a solar hot water system, we figured we might as well put some solar PV panels up there instead.

Solar technology isn’t exactly new but it’s not exactly common either, probably due to the cost of a decent sized system. The government has been running grants to get more people on the solar bandwagon which might increase its popularity. The size system we have is large enough to offset our power usage entirely and on a fairly clear sunny day, we are feeding excess back into the grid. Essentially it will mean a negative power bill – it’s a win for us and a win for the environment. The only downside is that when it gets incredibly hot, the panels aren’t as efficient even if they are still in direct sunlight. Of course, if it is very overcast, they won’t produce as much either.

It was one of the first things we had done after handover in late September but today has been the first day I’ve popped out to see the finished product glittering in the afternoon sun. The entire process only took two weeks from quote to installation. In terms of customer service, I can’t recommend Infinity Solar highly enough – they are certainly one of the most efficient businesses we have been involved with recently. It’s not exactly cheap to get done but even a basic system such as those funded by the grant will help offset your power bill. It’s certainly a worthwhile investment in my eyes and I would love to see it become more mainstream.

I might not have anything much to look at outside right now but the inside is really starting to come together. We finally have timber shutters on all our windows (except one that got forgotten and is yet to be done, long story), we have curtains up over the sliding doors and finally, it is starting to feel just that little bit more like home – rather than a house we have moved into and yet to put our mark on.

We’re even having a crack at indoor plants! We got one as a gift at Christmas time and not to be asymmetrical, picked another one up shortly afterwards. So far the cats have behaved themselves and not decimated either the foliage or the flowers. They haven’t even knocked the pots off or even shown any interest in getting up there at all. Mind you, it took them a few years to be interested in the Christmas tree and it has since been conquered, so I’m not holding my breath…

We’ve been waiting for a few months to get our retaining wall done and the rain makes it just that little bit more difficult. Of course, if they had finished it when they were supposed to, we wouldn’t have to worry about the rain being a problem. That’s another matter altogether….

So long as it keeps raining, we will be whistling dixie to get it finished. Fortunately, we haven’t had as much rain as we have had in recent weeks today so the “creek” beside the house isn’t as full as it usually is. Even with a small of rain, this is what happens.  The amount of rain we have had means that the soil can’t absorb any more water. It is at maximum capacity, so it just sits on the surface to be evaporated by the sun. And when the sun comes out, the water is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, mosquitoes and who knows what else.

People keep telling me to think of the finished product, so I’ll just have to keep imagining it for a bit longer to keep from going  absolutely stir crazy. After a few months though, that image of how it will look is fast fading in my mind’s eye.

It’s not exactly noice is it?

]]> http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/i-dont-normally-begrudge-the-rain/feed/ 1 http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/chicken-with-pecan-honey-sauce-very-noice/ http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/chicken-with-pecan-honey-sauce-very-noice/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:13:29 +0000 admin http://www.eucalyptuscountry.com.au/?p=600 It’s hard to believe, but yes I cooked this. And just look at the presentation – it’s almost restaurant like instead of the usual “slapped on the plate” appearance that my food tends to take.  As Maccas is fond of proclaiming lately – “it’s a little bit fancy”.

Much as I initially begrudged having to get Foxtel in order to get TV reception where we live, I’ve discovered that it is somewhat useful for providing some inspiration for new meal ideas. And while I’ll never be Nigella, I am learning a few new things. Like simple sometimes being better and combining fruit and savoury together can be quite acceptable. So with my new found interest for cooking something more than bottle pasta and packet burritos, I went and got a few more cookbooks from Borders. Not that I need more cookbooks – I have shelves of them that I have never opened that are hand me downs from parents and grandparents. I even have a few I’ve bought myself and never opened.

But if I hadn’t gone to Borders, I wouldn’t have found this very small cookbook called After Work Healthy by the ever reliable Australian Women’s Weekly. I generally pick my cookbooks by looking at the picture on the front, the title and a quick flick through to see if I am prepared to eat at least five recipes in there. This one passed the test, so in the shopping bag it went.

I picked out a few recipes to make this week with my new-found enthusiasm for cooking and decided that this little number would be an appropriate first test. Enough fiddly stuff to make it seem a bit special but it seemed easy enough that I probably wouldn’t stuff it up. Success was very important tonight because I am from the Homer school of cooking – if at first you don’t succeed, resign yourself to a lifetime of easy, quick prepare meals involving packets and bottles. I’m pleased to say that it was a success and although the combination of fruit and chicken in the one dish seemed unusual, the flavours matched up really well. If serving it with the fruit really puts you off, you could always serve it with roast spuds instead.