Ready, set, GO!

Well as I hoped we have certainly hit the ground running this year! Lots happening in our little world- the biggest news is that we will soon be moving again! Everything has finally fallen into place for us and life has become a whole lot easier this year.

Following my last blog post we did some major house hunting around the area (our record was 10 houses seen in one day!) and I am very happy to report we found a truly fabulous house- Woohoo!! It ticks all the boxes for us, and much more! It is a much bigger home than we have ever had, but somehow still feels cosy and homey inside which is important to us. It has that 'good energy' kind of feeling that is hard to describe, but you know when you find it. There are enough rooms to host our family from England when they visit (and they are coming....!) AND I get my very own dedicated sewing/craft room! There is an ENORMOUS family room, perfect for lounging around/ kids toys/ art tables/ lego villages ..... oh how lucky we are! On top of all that we got it for a really great price, far less than we budgeted for or expected, which means much less financial pressure. YAY!

The block is pretty much average size, but we will have 2 gardens due to the layout. One is a bit park-like and peaceful, the other is fenced and perfect for our children /dog/ chooks. The gardener in me is already planning fruit trees and veggies, though I will try to be patient and get to know the place first to plan it. As it stands it is really quite pretty and will be nice to move into.... until I get the itch to don my gardening gloves and grab the spade and secateurs !!!

We are all very excited about it, the kids are happy as it has stairs (strange fascination!) and they can choose their bedrooms and have their own bathroom (though unfortunately not the ability to clean it themselves lol!)

We are currently in that odd period of waiting for settlement, hopefully it won't seem like a lifetime, although clearing out our 'stuff' will definitely fill a fair amount of time. Where does it all come from? I admit I am was a bit of a hoarder, but really we are not the kind of people that buy or keep a lot of 'stuff', and yet our garage tells us otherwise........ :-(

A few other things happening too, but since I have raved on so much I will take a break now and post again later!

Alas poor Racey.....

Sad, sad news ..... our lovely rooster Racey died on Sunday. He developed fowl pox, which is relatively common in chooks, and usually not fatal, but he went downhill very quickly and died after having it only a few days.

A young Racey before he grew in his beautiful long feathers

One of our hens, Lady, had it first, and had been sick for around 3 weeks. I actually thought she wouldn't survive the move from our old house up to their current residence at my friend's place, but she slowly improved and looks like she will be fine. I think she had a bad time of it as she was moulting at the same time, so she is looking a little rough and has lost a lot of weight.

Poor Racey though, we all loved him, he was such a beautiful wyandotte rooster, stunning to look at and very tame and friendly. I had hoped to breed him to the wyandotte girls and have some lovely chicks next season, but that was not meant to be. He was so ill that his eyes were swollen shut, so he wasn't moving around much or doing any normal behaviour. We tried to open his eyes but couldn't, to help him find food and water. He was managing to eat, but perhaps he wasn't drinking enough, or perhaps he was going to die anyway, we will never know.

A few days after hatching- check out the hairdo!

He looked after his girls well, finding them food when they were free-ranging and always keeping an eye on me when I picked the girls up! They were obviously loyal to him too, they were huddled around him when he died.


A sad end to an otherwise lovely Mothers Day. I was showered with cards and presents from my two littlies, including hand made photo frames they made at kindergarten, small gifts from the school fundraiser and even a collection of 'special rocks' from our garden LOL!! I am amazed they managed to keep it all secret! They were so lovely I was smiling all morning. Porridge and milo in bed, (in my new pj's and dressing gown!) bacon and eggs later, and some lovely treats from the local market. Yum!


We have all settled in to our new abode, it feels great to be living here. Moving was relatively painless, although we realised we have way too much 'stuff'. A big clear out ahead I think. We are all enjoying walking to school (most days when we are not in a mad rush!) while the weather is still above freezing.....!

Movin' on up ....

Time for some changes ..... we have been so busy here lately I keep thinking of stuff I want to blog about but never have a chance :-(
I have been trying to keep our house in tip top condition, all spic and span for the inspections we have been having (not so easy during the school holidays with 2 mini-hurricanes charging around!) Luckily it has always looked tidy and clean, and we have had quite a few people through, but no buyers yet.

The good news however is that we have got ourselves a rental house to move into, I looked at a few and the only one that was suitable was in high demand! I had no idea it was so competitive, there are so many people out there going for each property. Of course that pushes the prices up as well as making it harder to get what you want. We weren't even that fussy really, just wanted a 2/3 bed house with heating (I can't believe some places don't have heating in the upper mountains ...brrrrrr!)

Anyway, we did get the one we applied for and I am so happy! I will be able to walk the kids to school instead of driving 96 km every day -hooray!

The main problem was having somewhere that has a fenced yard and will take a dog. The chooks would have been a much bigger problem, except that a lovely friend has offered to house them at her place for us while we rent. She has had chooks in the past and really enjoys them, although never had a rooster, so we are both hoping that won't be an issue with her neighbours. We still have to discuss who will be responsible for what, but they will be close by so I can visit and hopefully our shared-care arrangement will work out!

Hopefully we will be able to get a removalist to help us move in next weekend, (we have done it ourselves way too many times, its not worth the chiropractic bills, not to mention the damaged furniture!)

I will report back form our new surroundings when we get settled, no doubt there will be a few tales in between :-)