Wow, it didn't seem like 3 weeks, but it surely was!
Dog had her 4 pups, all male and cat had one kitten 2 weeks exactly afterwards.
So I've been cooking rice, chicken carrots and sundry other vegies ever since.
They both eat heaps more than I do in a day...amazing.
I alternate their normal food with a can of food, once a week, a cryopac sausage roll thing, another 2 days in the week, home cooked stew for 4 days and supplement it all with dry food for snacks...and still they eat!
Anyways, all kinder are thriving and mother dog is great...but I think cat still has some kinder inside her yet???
Not sure, but she is not looking as bright as I think she should...will wait another few days and see.
I made her scrambled egg and added some fresh mince to it the last 2 days and she seems to have perked up a bit. Maybe she had some milk fever with 8 spiggots pumping and only one kitten to drink all the milk!
Anyways, we'll wait a bit more. She gets out and about now, goes up the street for her extra food rounds...who knows, she may have delivered some extra kittens at one of her other food supply houses!
The pups are beginning to play and tussle with each other and have started chewing on the food plate and on a piece of meat. They only suck on it now...but at least they are starting to explore a different food source!
The weather settled down and has been 60% sunny this past week, with only a few rainy periods thankfully.
The grass grows inches overnight with the bursts of heat...Mowing time non stop now!
Imre is cementing behind the tool shed to make a new room and up the far end of the toolshed as it is too hard to mow the skinny end there.
Am turning the mower and cement mixer room into a sauna room...perfect. It is 6 foot by 7ft and is just over 6 foot high...perfect for a sauna. Will complete the sauna next year, but in the meantime, am building the new shed room for extras that used to go in the little end toolshed room.
Then Imre will re-roof the woodshed which leaks a lot and all the wood gets wet...then he'll make wooden edging for around my straw gardens, put in the fencing for the grape vines and complete the pergola, now the blessed rain has stopped.
The place where the pergola is going was my veggie garden for 4 years and has been denuded and leveled...now it is a mud slush hole after the rains, so nothing got done there the past 3 weeks.
He took apart the European bases from 2 beds for me and added legs so I can clean under them better and roll those plastic storage containers under them. I don't like the swing up bases with built in storage...not my thing.
Too heavy and you really can't clean under them without straining your back by trying to shift them a bit. So now i have 2 nice bases for the mattresses and beds that are easy to move around. One happy chappy here.
Then, when the Tuzsep has more of the timber we used for pantry shelving in stock again, he'll complete the pantry!
He has to plug a leak in the roof and rebuild the other chimney, which has lost a couple of bricks, tumbling onto the roof and cracking the tiles, hence the leaks, since last year...sighhh...
Next after that, he'll tile the entry and the house basics will be completed.
I'm painting all the interior...am half finished...the dog and pups have been a pleasant distraction...but I can leave them outside all day now and only bring them in at night, so hopefully, next week I can get more work completed easier.
Dog still wants to go to the loo 2 times a night...1.30 am and 4.30 am! Anyways, a few more weeks and the puppies will be old enough to stay outside at night...I hope mother dog doesn't bark though. That's why I generally lock any dogs up at night.
Only have a few bricks to add to the repaved path I was doing a few weeks ago. Can you believe I ran out of full bricks with only 10 pavers to lay. Am now scouring the place for 10 full bricks to complete the path and that will be another job completed.
The new guy didn't come yesterday to help with the roof as he was called into work on his day off...but is coming Monday instead...hopefully.
It is good having the other people doing the cottage at the same time as Imre is completing the jobs around the house. He will move onto working in the cottage when the big jobs are done on it...the 2 end gables blocked up and windows in, plus roof on etc.
Have to buy a huge triple ladder for the task...but it will be an asset for all the roof work here in future.
So with mowing almost every day, in between the rain, the dogs, cat and cooking for them all, moving them in and out and so on, it has been a messy 3 weeks...
I can't do the mowing all in one day now, as all the paddocks are very well grassed...it takes about 4 goes...and in between showers etc...it has been a continual mowing thing!
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| Elder flowers ready to make syrup ... |
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| Imre fixing legs to the bed bases... |
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| Out to it... |
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| Pugsy... |
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| So cute... |
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| Pugsy is the biggest and I think, so far, is the cuddliest. |
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| They are growing so fast... |
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| Feed time fights! |
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| Little Poochie, the multi coloured one, has a double jointed back bone! Is a contortionist! |
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| All fed and fat... |
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| Too funny! |
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| I giggle every time I see where they fall after mother takes off for something. They just lay wherever they land...anyway up!!! |
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| Eyes open on 14th day... |
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| First tottering steps... |
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| A bit wonky, but he got there... |
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| Completed the brick paver edges to the outside path...finally... |
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| The dirt spots in the ground are a combo of mole holes and removal of dandy lion plants. |
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| All done...so happy with this as it is functional and still looks 100 years old! All bricks and cement slabs are from around the property... |
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| Now onto this one...half completed. |
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| As I was racing to finish the path, cat came and went into labour, at my knees and would not move! |
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| Oh dear...she is in labour now...have to make her a bed. Was hoping she would have her babies elsewhere in the village...sighhh. So I sent out a quick prayer for just one kitten please God and I'll keep it.... |
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| A few hours later...one kitten only! Thank You! |
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| So adorable... |
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| You can see the love... |
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| Unreal... |
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| She was purring like a tractor motor! |
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| Cuddling the baby... |
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| 6 days later...still only one kitten, a girl I think. Look at her, holding it and caressing it with her paws and tail, while kissing it. So beautiful to see. |
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| Jogging track trophies! |
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| Poor mother! |
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| Pugsie going for a wander... |
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| First strawbs of the year... |
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| Had to complete the path next dry day! |
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| This street was blossoms 2 weeks ago...now it is full of greenery... |
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| Storks have mated and are nesting now... |
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| Some lovely weeds along the path... |
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| Really pretty... |
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| Then the buttercups... |
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| They will all be mowed next time I pass here... |
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| Speaking of mowing...from my freshly mowed "lawn"... |
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| This is all the garden I have so far this year. Have moved the original and have not planted any veg yet... |
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| Lots of flowers... |
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| More Elder flowers...can hardly see the brick seat I built last year... |
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| Dog out exploring. she is having longer periods away from her kinder now... |
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| After 10 days of rain... |
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| The pergola goes along the front from the big cellar room window to the patio, to even up the odd heights of the windows. Next year I'm replacing the big window on the left with 2 french doors for easy guest access from the end room, onto the wisteria and grape vine draped pergola! Imre is on the lookout too for them too.. |
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| The first day on the grass... |
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| This was Columbus, but now he looks more like a Pugsie... |
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| Too adorable. Little Patches... |
OK, that's it for now.
Pleased about the miracle election results in OZ yesterday.
The world is awakening!
Computer has crashed 3 times in the past hour, so I'm out of here!
Stay safe and be good,
Love to all,
M
xxxx
