Giving my home and garden a little TLC

I've been caught up in Peak oil stuff for so long now, that I feel like I've lost the desire to keep things around me ticking along, comfortable and homely. I've been focusing on just doing the practical stuff.

So today, I did more deep cleaning - the laundry and oven. Major job. But done and it look great.

I decluttered some of those high kitchen cupboards - I've been through them many times over the years, but have always found a need to hang on a little longer. But today I released a few more things and they were taken off down to the Hospice shop when we went out later on.

We've already been overrun with mice with winter arriving, so far we've trapped 5 mice. Not a nice job, but I'm also not keen on finding mouse poop and mouse stink where-ever I go and my rice supplies nibbled. So I needed to clean out the laundry cupboard of all the mousey evidence and re-sort it while I was there. When I was vacuuming Nathan's room the other day I saw the evidence of being woken up during the night hearing gnawing and scratching (Simon was kicked out of bed to free it before it ran off down the hallway) - there was a pile of wood shavings and a hole in one of his drawers.

The deck was swept and the sand returned to the sandpit - but not before both kids got absolutely coated in wet soggy mud again and needed a bath before it was even lunchtime (how can they run around with barely any clothes on in the freezing cold and getting wet and sandy??).

I dusted!

I disposed of a dead house plant and repotted it with one of my aloe vera's that had outgrown it's other pot.

I sorted the DVDs and videos which were in a shocking over flowing state around the TV cabinet and drawers.

The chicken's tractor has been relocated back onto the garden grid - it's been off it all summer. But with some vacant beds there now, we can put them back on to keep the weeds in check. It's a shame that I still have about 6 vege beds in use - only thing is that there are only a few plants per plot (mostly silverbeet and spinach, but the odd brassica too). If I were to consolidate them they would only take up two beds. But I think the plants are too big and established to risk moving them now. I will need to keep the girls nesting box stuffed full with straw over winter to help them stay nice and snug. They do like to snuggle up in there at nights and it's a firm fit, so they should be fine.