The slack blogger

Well, it really has become a bit of a weekly update around here hasn't it?

I find I'm really only thinking and doing "garden" stuff and my mind hasn't been wandering in other directions. So along with keeping ourselves busy, continuing with being mindful of fuel usage, trying to keep my thoughts away from buying-buying-buying (albeit only auction-site things), catching up with friends and just living-life, we're just cruising along quite nicely. It's become such a seamless, mostly relaxed journey, that it all feels so...normal.

A year ago I felt anything but normal, but the more I find groups of people who I can be *me* with, have meaningful connecting conversations and relationships with, the more normal it all seems (even if I perhaps appear to others like the loopy chick who belongs to those fringe groups)! It no longer seems to matter.

I feel content and on the right path. I'm loving the various groups I'm involved in that really do enhance and make life enjoyable (namely family, playcentre, transition towns and our unschooling friends).

So! Back to what I've been up to...

~ Have dug up all the potato bits that I put in the trenches that became waterlogged and planted new seed potatoes.

~ One entire bed of potatoes have now sprouted and another has a few shoots above the surface. No sign of my Maori potatoes yet.

~ Spent a lot of time fluffing around and watching my chickens. They have all settled really well. The little ones start running around all silly when they see me coming now. They still tend to freak out occasionally when out free ranging and end up flying across the yard for odd reasons, but no longer have the desire to fly over the fences to the neighbours!

~ Had a few days of rain during the week which is just what the garden needed to get a good thorough soaking.

~ Decluttered my car - what a tip!

~ Went along to a transition towns working-bee today to spend a few enjoyable hours in someone elses garden.

~ Moved the chicken tractor to clear another vege patch (was amazing how quickly the previous one turned to bare mud with a few days of rain). Sussed out with Simon where they will be located over summer while the garden is full of veges growing.

~ Went for a walk down to a local river mouth with the kids and my parents yesterday and I couldn't help but look at all the weeds lol. My step dad was really helpful in identifying a few things (but then got exasperated when I asked just one too many "what do you think this one is?" and got a "geez, what do you think I am?" lol. And he recommended I bring his mother down to do the id'ing! I come from a step-family of wild foragers and I didn't really even know it! I spotted masses of unidentified wild brassica's, kawa kawa (step dad pointed that one out to me), beach spinach, ice plant, puha and plenty of other things that *looked* like they should have been something edible. I didn't bring any home since I had no plans for using it.

Plans for the week ahead...

~ Reassessing our emergency food supplies again. A few months back we had run out of rice in the pantry. So decided that the rice in the emergency bin needed rotating. After cooking it up, the smell of laundry powder through it was awful, so the entire batch (including dinner) was dumped. Despite things being double bagged, we'll need to come up with a more reliable system.

~ Finish the frog pond - cover with netting, sort out some pond weed/plants, put a few upturned pots around for hiding in and decide what plants to plant around it (I'm leaning towards peas again).

~ Going along to a transition towns movie night to watch "What a Way to Go". I'm sure I've seen this one before, but wouldn't mind seeing it again.