Block Swap

This is my block from Shauna from Canada... just what I asked for red star and aqua background love it... the background fabric is so pretty the  photo doesn't show that very well at all..

Shauna and I have signed up for the swaps via ''Quilting Block Swaps Australia"... you don't have to be Australian to be part of this swapping group either...

Our weather has turned extremely hot these past few days 42c and it is expected to rise to 44 or 45 over the next few days... the mozzies are so bad after the rain we had and they are loving the evening when we are all outside sitting having a cold drink before dinner...

Yesterday evening we went down our south end to where we have a set of caurts hills... hubby's Dad's request before he died was to have his ashes scattered from these hills on a windy day... well we decided that it was time while all the family was home... up we went his ashes, a bottle of rum and a steep climb...

Hubby scattered the ashes in a slight breeze and we all had a mouthful of rum ''straight'' mind you hahaha... 

It was his favourite tipple ''rum and coke'' or coffee with room 

after dinner with friends...

We left the bottle up there with him and came down the hill where we had set up some chairs and a table we had bought some cold drinks with us and some hot nibbles and sat and waited until the sun when down.. was very nice and he would have loved that we had done what he wished and ''he would laugh that we left the bottle for him too'' hahaha... we couldn't stay to long as the mozzies started!!!!

 What A Great Day....

Family Friends Food Fireworks... oh and Drink

hehehe

 oooooo aaaahhhhh ohohohoh

 ooooo wow oooo

 wow oh oooo

 and of course the ham... recipe by???? cook by me...

maple and apricot jam and crushed hazelnuts

smelt soooooo good in the oven

 and our famous 'bush Christmas tree''

I think a fair bit of squeezing went on by one daughter!!!!

and my very merry runner from Lorna in Canada...

Hope you all had a great day and aren't to sun burnt or hung over or toooo over fed...

 

To All My Bloggy Friends 

Thank You For All 

Your Friendship...

Words Of Encouragement

Help

Swapping Partnerships

and

Sharing Your Blogs

Have A Great Christmas 

With 

Your 

Family and Friends

Off TO Town We Go...
Yesterday we decided to make a trip to town to check the road out and to see how much water was laying around this end... our kids will be coming home starting today and we need to see if they could get out here... the road is 63kms of dirt once they get of the highway...

as you can see there is a little bit of water around the house area!!!

Middle daughter car will not make it through this... so we will meet her in town tomorrow and drive out with her and once we get to this part we will park her car up... unpack it of ''all my chrissy pressie'' hehehehe and leave the car there... it will be safe...

Our eldest daughter is coming today with her boyfriend and he has a four wheel drive so they will be fine... just slow and steady... the youngest our son is travelling home on Friday and he has a ute with four wheel drive so he should be fine in getting through the water... he will ring when he gets to town and then hubby will go wait on the other side for him and guide him through...
It is still very overcast and we had a few showers of rain yesterday....
Luv T xxx

When Your Down And Out...
I was blog surfing this morning and came across something at chookyblue's
you must go check her blog out and her latest posting of this
very well done... I am not a u-tuber either but there are somethings you just have to look at hahahahaha

Rain... Water... Blocks
We ended up with 94mls of rain from the ''low'' that came across from Carnarvon it was beautiful steady soaking rain then on Friday it got a little heavier and then our neighbours rang and said they had had 110mls........ WOW... that when we knew that we were going the get water around our house....
Hubby was out on his motorbike checking during the day to see how close it was... it was coming but very slowly which was a very good sign as the last time we could hear it coming through the bush with a roar... this time all we could hear was the frogs coming with it....

The water started to arrive last night about 6.30pm always at night never during the day... hubby was up every three hours checking to see how it was rising...
These photo's were taken 15 mins ago... first photo is up near the pool fence... that paddock is where I rescued the rams last week...

Outside the front fence running past... it comes from that direction...

This one is outside the gate near my sewing room... which is all packed up as it is the first room to go under our homestead is a little higher than the cottage that has my ''cubbyhole'' in it...
We aren't going to get the water through here like in previous years which is a good thing... the ground is so dry it seems to be soaking in... the bush is going to look so much better the saltbush is going to sprout with new shoots and hopefully there will be lots of summer bush grasses for the stock....

Before I had to pack my sewing room up I did get Kaaren's last two blocks of the ''Raggedy and Friends'' put together...

I am still working out of my ''green scrap box''...

The next block will be out today or tomorrow and the blocks are all up there still to download... go check out Kaaren's blog and see her ''moving house''....

Lastly... we do hope everyone in Carnarvon are safe and those along the Gasgoyne River... they have had over 200mls of rain there and major flooding is happening...
stay safe...

Finally It's Raining... but
It has been raining since Thursday night and we now as of 10 minutes ago have had 70mls... 30 minutes before that we were up to 63mls... it is wonderful...

BUT....
if it don't slow down or stop we are going to get flooded... Hubby's Grandparents built the house area in the middle of a water way to Lake Austin :(
They weren't to know that... since we have lived in this house ''18 yrs now'' it has gone through the house twice... the first time we had no idea it would and we lost carpets, furniture and food and we moved into the shearer's quarters... the second time we were half prepare and took food, blankets and pets up to the quarters and had furniture up high and it went through even higher... and red silty mud is revolting to get out and the only way is with a hose... since these two floodings we have built brick fences around the house and have pumps and we block all gates off...
so fingers crossed it wont happen!!!

Lets hope that we are blocking off gates in the next few hours and packing up my sewing room as it is the first room to go under...
It is so good to see water everywhere though and hopefully there will be a heap of summer grasses for the stock...

This is my new bed... ''our new bed''... our Christmas present...
we had had the same mattress since I was 21 mmmm... I feel like the princess and the pea climbing into it as it is so much higher that our last bed...

Another block finished in the ''Homespun magazine ''Life Is A Celebration'' BOM... I am behind hahahaha

Two New Swaps For 2011
Maree at On My Veranda is hosting two new swaps next year... RAK- random act of kindness and a Colour Swap... these swaps are only open to Australia and New Zealand bloggers and you must have a blog... so go check out here to find out more... be aware that by clicking on the email address as it don't work so leave Maree a comment...

BUGGER...
Yesterday we headed off to Geraldton to do some Xmas shopping we left at 5am as we only intended to be there for a few hours... one of the main reasons to head that way was we needed a new bed well a new mattress but we decided that after 25 yrs of the same bed and mattress we would by ourselves a whole new package for Xmas to each other... we now have a new bed arriving today so we will pop into town later and pick it up... the part I don't like is putting it all together ''ho hum''...

When we arrived home just after 7pm this is what we found... a squashed washing line ''bugger''...

it appears to be just resting there but once hubby starts using he chainsaw that could all change and really fall and really do some damage... we thought that branch looked a little heavy a couple of weeks ago and typical of gum trees who are known to just drop branches when they feel like it even with no wind around...

Swap Block
My block from Mary...

A red star... thank you Mary...

Swaps...
Today I have been catching up with a couple of swaps... I am in a very simple easy hexie swap at IFQ and I am on my 4th swap partner...

This is the hexie for my partner Lynette...
I have added some bling crystals for her hope she likes the finished product...

While I have been making hexie's to swap I thought it would be a good idea to do two and keep one myself...
as usual I got behind so today I made three for me...
no bling yet as I just aint to sure what I will do with mine yet...
I am also doing the ''mosaic tile'' swap with IFQ

and this is the block I made for Nancy who sent the beautiful center square... the photo doesn't do the fabric justice at all...

That BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER is actually a BULL and how I didn't write that instead of STEER... maybe I was still breathing heavy from the excitement of it all...
We are now going to start feeding our rams lupins each day as the poor things are just suffering so much from this lack of rain here in the west...

The Chase Could Have Been On.....
I just went to turn the pump off that gives us water to the house and I looked across at the paddock behind the house and saw one of the rams down... thinking it was dead I thought I'd best go check and who else do I see there.... the BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER.... well if i keep this side of the ram and the trough and if I just get close enough to see if the ram is dead then I wont have to deal with the BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER... BUGGER the ram is still alive and I see another down as well... GEEZ... maybe the BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER will ignore me... so far so good... one ram back up on it's feet and that is no mean feat as they weigh a tonne... now to skirt around the tree while the BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER is still laying down in the shade... OOPS ^%$%@## he is up... well I am just going to have to risk it... now I have the other ram up on it's feet... the BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER is pawing the ground and it looks like the ball tap on the trough is blocked and not much water is coming out maybe just maybe.... &^%^$^ run Tarnyia... geez you just don't know how far away that fence is when you need to be on the other side of it... lucky he was only bluffing and just stayed pawing the ground hahahahahahahaha... at least I have the two rams on their feet... the trough I will check later when the BIG BLACK GRUMPY STEER isn't there...

Now...
This block is hot off the sewing machine and it is for Mary Chow from Canada... she requested teals and neutrals... Mary and I have both joined a block swap here

Frozen Christmas Bombe/Granddad's Ice-cream...
A few years ago I found a recipe for this ice-cream and the picture looked good and thought I would give it a go... even though temperatures generally reach around the 45 mark here at Christmas and the freezer situation was crap as we didn't have 24 hour power... well it was a hit especially with my father-in-law who's comment was ''you can make that again''... which I have done every Christmas since with a few changes... my father-in-law died 2 yrs ago and each Christmas since the kids have said ''don't forget granddad's ice-cream'' hence the new name for it... so it is now a tradition at Christmas to have the ice-cream in memory of Granddad...

The gathered ingredients... soaking fruit, frozen berries, choc chips and toasted flaked almonds...

Whipped cream and condensed milk...

Ingredients all added...

Mix them altogether...

Into the prepared bowl and straight into the chest freezer...
Now we do have 24 hr power ''solar power'' it freezes so much better and I don't have to fight with the gas fridge freezer...

Recipe....
1 cup mixed dried fruit... I use sultana and raisin
1/4 cup of sliced glaced cherries... I use dried cranberries
2 tbls brandy
1 x 395g can condensed milk... put in fridge to get really cold
600 mls thickened cream
1/2 cup dark choc chips
1/2 cup white choc chips
1/2 cup toasted flaked almonds
1 cup frozen mixed berries or more if you like

Combine dried fruit and cherries with brandy and let sit for 30 mins
Line a 6 cup capacity bowl with plastic wrap
Beat condensed milk and cream with an electric mixer until double in size and thick
Fold through all other ingredients
Pour into prepared bowl
Place in freezer for several days... I try and make mine a week before so it is really frozen
Turn out onto a plate and slice like traditional pudding...

Home Again....
After spending a week in Perth packing, moving, unpacking and cleaning I needed a rest but........... now we are trapping goats... I am a person in demand...
My middle daughter and her partner have bought a house... a beautiful house with large rooms and a yard which is rare these days as so many want a big house with lots of rooms and a big outside entertaining area leaving no area for a lawn or garden... this house has it all...
Then we had to clean the rental and we are not messy or unclean people but it took us 8 1/2 hours... these property managers can be quite uuuummmm the word I would like to use is tttttoooooo rude and the one we have been dealing with lately is a real &%@^&... and that place was gleaming and we just knew she would find something wrong and she did.... wait for it........... the light switches were not clean???? now why would we wash the walls and miss those????
Turned out when daughter and partner had to go back and clean them that it was only the one in the garage??? OH and there was poo on the patio!!!! we didn't have a pet so obviously that wasn't there the day we cleaned....
so glad we are out of there...

Something Nice...
Well while the dollar was so good and my stash was lacking large printed fabrics I went shopping on the net at the Fat Quarter Shop...

Bright and cheery

Most are half yardage... the star fabric is to be used on my string quilt as I thought the dark background would be a better choice and the star's were all the colours used in the quilt...

So very pretty... and I see that the Fat Quarter Shop has some Amy Butler in and I told hubby yesterday that I need danger money with these goats as some are very jumpy and my head seems to be the right height for them to aim for... and I said about $100 US would do it as the 3 fat quarter bundles were about $30.25 US each... he didn't say no so maybe there will be shopping again.... heheheheheh