christchurch earthquake

I was going to make a long post about my weekend in Nelson, seeing my family, showing Mrs Possum around and putting in an offer on a house down there.

But now, not so much.  65 people confirmed dead in Christchurch, they believe the final total will be 200-300.  My friend Rita lives in Lyttleton, where the epicentre was.  She was, mercifully, in Wellington for work and her partner was, mercifully, in central Christchurch.  They are both ok.  However, it's really scary for her.  Lyttleton is blocked off - no one can get in or out due to landslides and damage.  60% of the houses in Lyttleton have collapsed, they reckon everything else is badly damaged.  Lyttleton was described on the news as "unlivable." 

They bought a rundown cottage out in Lyttleton last year, and have spent 10 months rebuilding it.  They run their business from there, it's their home.  I can't imagine what it would be like to have no idea what is going on with your home, your job, your cats, your chickens, what you will do tomorrow.  She doesn't know if she can get back to Christchurch, or what she will do when she gets there.

It's truly unbelievable.  New Zealand has basically stopped.  We are all glued to the TV, celebrating each person alive pulled from the rubble.

I've just heard on the news now that there are residential areas that rescue services haven't even made it into yet.

and the next project...

To meet my goal of retiring by 40 has many different facets.  It seems as though I've been concentrating on the "saving money" and "growing my own vege" parts, but I have to remember all my other ducks I need to get in a row.  There's a list to the left ----------------->    of some things that weigh on my mind.

The most exciting thing that has happened THIS YEAR is that the funder approved my contract with the group I'm currently working for.  This means I have a steady stream of income up to 30 June 2012.  Oh yes.  What's more, I can work anywhere in the country for them (as long as I'm close to an airport). 

This means...I could get my Nelson house sooner, rather than later, now that I know I have income.  This has most excellently tied in with my trip to Nelson this weekend with Mrs Possum.  I have found some open homes that I'd like to drag her around to this weekend:

• this one has a garden
• this one has potential
• this one is fenced for the dogs, is close to the beach and has a lovely garden

So, if I want to move to Nelson soon, I have to get my Wellington house ready to rent toute de suite!  The bathroom is... nearly there.  The plasterer has finished, now just waiting for the builder to return to finish the cornices, skirtings and the electrical stuff.

The backyard is coming along nicely, all I need to do is rake over the dirt in the back, cover it with bark etc, and give the paths a good waterblast.  I can do that in a weekend.

There are two big projects outstanding - the exterior paintwork needs some touchups and a decent clean.  This will be time consuming, but I'll do it in patches.  I need to paint the exterior lounge windows, that's number 1.  They're stripped and ready.  I'll break the rest of the house down into segments and tackle one (or two) a week.  If I write it down here, then I have to do it.  Ha.

The other big project is the second / spare bedroom.  Currently, this functions as my toolshed, gym, office and room where I put things I have nowhere else for.  I could never have a guest stay in there, it's too embarrassing.  Case in point:

You can see the floor.  Give me some credit. I'm tackling this room with gusto. 

That's it from me, I'm off to Nelson!

things you never knew before

Today, I learnt the answer to these very important questions:

1. What is worse than cleaning your oven?  Moving it away from the wall and cleaning down the sides of your oven.  I recommend you do this more than once every eight years.  I have seen and removed things that no one should ever have to see or remove.
2. How badly does it hurt to get oven cleaner in a cut on your finger?   It hurts like you would not believe.
3. Where can I get huge watermelons for $2?  From Newtown New World, this week only.
4. Can you drink 4 beers in the sun in the afternoon and then take a Very Serious Work Call?  Yes.  But I wouldn't recommend you do it very often.
5. Can you use the sourdough starter you throw away each day to make bread?  Yes.  But even though it tastes like sourdough, it is not light and fluffy.

Using up the paint stockpile...

I think I'm getting obsessed by gardening.  Is it normal to check them all at least twice (often up to five) times a day to check they're not too thirsty, that the weeds are gone or whether there's been any growth?  It's scorching here right now and I'm worried for them.  I'm especially worried as I'm away in Nelson from Sat morning to Monday evening without an irrigation system.

Hmmmmn.  I've even tidied up my laundry to create a dedicated space for all the gardening things.  I love it, I'm a terrible tidier, so it's a minor victory.

Anyway, the parsnips went in the bath planter today, hurrah!  10 parsnip seeds went in, protected by another one of my excellent cobbled-together-from-free-stuff greenhouses (this one is thick plastic from my deliveries, duct taped to the back of the bath, propped up with sticks in the dirt to give it height and secured to the front by stones big enough to weight the plastic down).

It's an idea of how it looks, anyway :-)  The parsnips fill up half the bath planter.  I'm tossing up what to sow in the other half.   Broccoli?  I still have time to think about it.

There are many baby plants at the Monkey house:  radishes, more coriander, capsicums, silverbeet, more tomatoes, some beetroot, more beans, probably some others I can't quite remember :-)

The winter greens are perky.  Have I spoken too soon?

I've also recently been getting into  Centsational Girl, which I stumbled across while I was looking for some home DiY tiling hints (random tile splashback for the kitchen).  Anyway, Centsational Girl is kinda obsessed with spray painting old and tired things to transform them into new and vibrant pieces (perhaps I should get spray painted myself).   I was in a crafty kind of mood, so I decided that the time had finally come to rejuvenate the bedroom table I've had since university.  It's gloriously covered in pictures from magazines, with coverseal over the top and stapled underneath to make sure it doesn't come off.  The height of university chic.  [coughs] 

Anyway, despite my attempts to hold on to my fading youth, the time has come.  I pulled off the paper, gave her a quick wash and left her in the sun to dry.  A quick spray with white primer, then a coat of bright red paint on the top (found two whole tins at the dump 2 years ago for $10, have been waiting for the right opportunity to use them).  Finished it off with some French Vanilla ice cream coloured paint on her legs (again, half a tin from the dump for $3 from ages ago that I knew I would use one day)... and there she is.  Brand new table.  I feel so grown up.

Not grown up enough though to stop wearing converse trainers.  You can also see some of my extensive collection here.
Oh, and the bathroom plasterer was here this morning.  He may be back tomorrow.  I might not have been listening well enough.

Off to make dinner.  Chips and sausages.  I am easy to please.

weekend roundup

Another busy yet productive weekend at the Monkey hacienda - planting out some baby tomatoes, cauliflowers and starting to germinate some beetroot and Brussels sprouts seeds (best comment from Mrs Possum - why are we only doing 4?  what's the point of 4 sprouts?  cue some explanatory drawings from Monkey about how sprouts grow).  Oh, and painting the back wall. 

Perhaps it's best to do a pictorial tour:

Painted the back wall a garish purple-red colour I mixed together from leftover paints.  Mrs Possum's verdict - "it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

In my mind, it's an awful lot better than the half painted white monstrosity that was there before.  In this picture you can also see the bath planter that I've bricked in.  Parsnips are going in there, definitely.  I just need some potting mix and to create a cover-type thing to protect the seedlings and then we're all go.  Interesting fact I learnt this weekend - parsnips can't be transplanted well, you have to grow them from seed.  That's why you never see parsnip punnets at the garden centre.  I know, fascinating, right?

To the left I've planted in the tomato plants I swapped for one of my old used bikes:

Yes, there are many stakes. The back ones are actually to stake the tomatoes.  The front ones are an attempt to stop Meg from sleeping on them.  When I went out to check this morning I found her asleep in one of the plants.  Sigh.  I'll see how this goes!  Please also admire the retaining wall, I'm proud of it indeed.

Next to the tomatoes is my old lemon tree:

Old faithful.  At least a dozen lemons a year.  Not many, but enough for gin and tonic season.

Baby cauliflowers!  I love cauliflower, gotta be my favourite vegetable:

6 cauliflowers, could I BE anymore excited?   The black wire around them is from the free gutter guard I scored the other week.  It's attempting to serve two purposes - stop the snails and stop little Meg from sleeping on them.  Two are pretty broken already, I'm placing my faith in the gutter guard.

The mint continues with great gusto:

And the basil is off and away!

The zucchini made it through the weekend.  Fingers crossed, still:

Brick planters haven't fallen over either.  Yay!

Spinach is also excellent - well sheltered under their individual plastic bottle greenhouses.  Here's one, 11 more are happy as well:

The mini greenhouse might just work... about half of the greens have perked up, it hasn't fallen down.  Here's a sexy artsy shot I took looking inside:

The potatoes at the front are looking good - did my first lot of "earthing up" over the weekend.  I'm not sure how well they'll turn out, given I used regular old potatoes that were sprouting in my cupboard, rather than proper seed potatoes.  Anyway, they look pretty out on the front deck:

Today is Valentines Day.  Monkeys aren't very good at Valentine's Day, but it's a big deal to Mrs Possum.  Soooooo... I got her a feijoa tree that can live at my house.  This is a true gift of love as even though I can't stand feijoas or the way the fruit smells on the tree (like old socks, i tell you), they are Mrs Possum's favourite fruits ever, and they're kinda hard to come by in stores.  So, now I have a feijoa tree... outside my bedroom window as it's the best position for sun and access.  Sigh.  The devil's own fruit in my line of sight.

Here she is.  Mrs Possum has named her Felicity.  Sigh.  The bugger has even started to grow fruit buds:

And so... tonight for Valentines I'm making self crusting quiche and individual apple crumbles.  I hope this is a Good Thing for a Possum.

sunshine and awesome

It's been another beautiful day in Wellington... sun shining, cool breeze, just beautiful.  And Friday to boot.  Everything is great in my world today.

I spent most of the day in the garden - Mrs Possum and I managed to have about 4 dozen winter greens sprout into baby plants... I know, I know. Far too many and so they're all a bit sad and pathetic.  I planted out about 40 of them, then built myself a cloche from wire coathangers, old tent pegs and the thick plastic my potting mix was delivered in.  MacGyver indeed.  I was well proud, they sell for $30 at least.

Okay.  I admit it's not glamorous, but I'm hoping it will do the trick.  The greens were tiny, I'm afraid I'm going to lose at least half of them to "transplant shock."  This was definitely a learning opportunity about how many seeds to attempt to germinate in one go and the importance of one seed per germination pot. Never mind. You can also see to the left some soda bottle halves - these are protecting the12 baby spinaches I also planted out this morning.  I think these are going to fare a little better than the greens.  I reckon at least 8 will survive the transplant trauma.  That will be good!

The basil continues to grow, I'm thrilled.  Only one parsley plant has made it so far, but it's strong.  The peas, beans, courgettes and two tomato plants I've already transplanted are still holding on.  FINGERS CROSSED!

Saw a lovely old mate last night to sign his application form / statutory declaration for a new passport - realised mine expires next month, that was a bit of a shock.  Christ, I remember when I got it ten years ago that 2011 seemed like a lifetime away.  Perhaps it was.  Anyway, got a box of beer in return ($15), I am enjoying a cold one right now :-)

This weekend, I promise I'm going to put up the brushsticks along the back wall, get 54510945709 more bags of potting mix to finish off the back yard, plant the remaining 9 tomato plants and make my first batch of sourdough bread.  Would I lie?

sourdough, tomatoes and basil (my mouth is watering already)

Gosh, it's been a few days... that happens when Mrs Possum is here.

I have done many things.  Many, many things.  It's awesome.

First up, I finished the bath planter (will put in a photo when she's got her tomatoes in there) and had enough bricks (and brick bits) to build three small ones, perfect size for the courgette plants which were ready to plant out. (Using free bricks - 50c per brick x 50 bricks = $25)

Secondly, I finished building the retaining wall.  It was cheaper and easier than I thought it would be.  It took me more time to unload the retaining wall blocks from the car, then take them out the back than actually building the wall.  Best of all, it looks so much better than I thought it would.  My neighbours leaned over the back fence this afternoon and congratulated me!  (also, they were very impressed by the mint planter).

The beans, peas and courgettes are ready to plant out - all in bins in the front yard.  It looks great, I even managed to fashion a bean tower out of the packing tape I'd saved below.  Mrs Possum was like, yeah, I don't know, but I think I've convinced her.

From all the parsley seeds I planted, only 1 has come up.  It looks solid and strong though, so that's great. The mountain of basil seeds I planted is coming through like a dream.  Moar pesto FTW. 

I think the best score of the week is from a friend of mine, who's looking for a bike to take to uni.  I have a spare one in the garage I haven't used forever, so I said she could have it.  Well, yesterday, she came round to pick it up and in exchange left me some of her MAGICAL sourdough starter and ELEVEN tomato plants, which are huge and strong and ready for planting.  The sourdough starter is priceless, she made it herself as she was a chef in her previous life...  Tomato plants of that size and calibre in the garden store are $5 each... $55 dollars! 

And, finally... more free blackberries!  My secret blackberry patch has finally fruited, so I got about 250g of them.  I'll be back for more soon, maybe tomorrow.  ($3 there, I reckon).

Much excitement here. Nothing has happened on my bathroom in two days.  The plasterer will be "in next week."  I am hopeful and positive.