Tuesday 31 March - Coronapocalypse edition

Done:

• coffee, breakfast
• put in a load of laundry
• drained and rinsed jars of mung beans and salad sprouts
• watered flat of microgreens, planted out half the punnet of brocolette into empty spots in #3 and #4 (where previous seedlings got chomped), picked a pocketful of tomatoes
• sowed a punnet of kale "Cavolo Nero", also into the wooden box on #5
• dirty laundry round-up (Eric), put in laundry #2
• family time: played D&D with Hugh and Eric 
• foraged for blackberries
• break for fizzy water; took VitB12 tablet

• hang out 2 loads of laundry
• showered and got dressed
• clean out the slowcooker, put in spaghetti sauce

  To Do:

• Cooking/Food Prep:
• make spaghetti sauce (slow cooker)
• make chia puddings
• make amazeballs (please)
• make silverbeet tofu quiche with cauliflower almond crust
• Laundry:
• do 1-2 loads of laundry, hang out undercover
• sort and put away any laundry that is in or comes into the house
• sow some seeds
• spring onions - try sowing in a window box then bringing it inside to the living room?
• lettuce (windowbox); bring window box from Dan's courtyard into my courtyard for some TLC
• kale (1 punnet of Red Russian for succession planting)
• chives 
• purple sprouting broccoli (then transplant to pots to overwinter inside, then plant outside after frost for spring cropping)
• plant something 
• yak shaving: spray paint big pot for stevia
• second leek resprout in #4
• go foraging
• apples; blackberries
• preserving: 
• clean out a big jar, try first small batch of sauerkraut
• make apple blackberry compote
• try pickling or fermenting green tomatoes?
• transfer frozen blackberries to tub; freeze diced rhubarb and start a new tub
• harvest something: 
• rhubarb; ripening tomatoes; silverbeet
• manage food storage: 
• update next week's shopping list as appropriate (ongoing)
• put the freezer stockpile items in the freezer; sort stockpile as needed
• put almond meal in a jar or put the bag in the freezer 
• Garden (other):
• chuck some old cow manure around the rhubarb
• ORDER VEGIE MIX before my cabbage and brocolette seedlings spend too long in their punnets
• Community resilience:
• Country Brewer for Fowler's kit 
• LLSG for vegie mix

• put in laundry #1 (clothes) - on hold due to rain
• (with Eric) install fence/gate posts along the east border of the food forest - on hold due to rain
• install round galv iron bed in plum orchard - on hold due to rain
• Dan's courtyard: dig out and level area behind brick step, add pavers (may need builder's sand) - on hold due to rain
• hang out laundry #1, put in laundry #2 - on hold due to rain
• hung out laundry #2, put in laundry #3  - on hold due to rain
• hung out laundry #3, put in laundry #4 - on hold due to rain
• bring in dry laundry that got wet again overnight, sort and put away all of mine - on hold due to rain
• hung out laundry #4, brought in dry laundry - on hold due to rain

Sunday 29 March - Coronapocalypse edition

Done:

• coffee
• removed chickpeas in slowcooker (dammit, should have done this last night but forgot)
• finished watching the Microgreens video from Milkwood
• breakfast; accidentally had one too many coffees oops
• drained and rinsed jars of mung beans and salad sprouts
• sowed punnet of spring onions 
• sorted all the laundry in the living room, folded Dan's laundry and put it neatly in a basket so it doesn't get unsorted again waiting for them to take it outside; put away my laundry
• showered and got dressed; dirty laundry round-up
• sorted and paired socks in Lonely Sock Club
• tidied my growing/harvest counter in the kitchen
• changed towels
• changed cat litter tray
• spent some time in the courtyard breathing and observing
• break for fizzy water; took VitB12 tablet
• started laying out ingredients for briami, washed many many spud
• sorted spuds from out of the two baskets; layered bigger ones in a box between newspaper
• made a giant tray of briami 
• sowed a flat of microgreens from the pile of old seed (mustard, cress, lettuce, rocket) - most of this stuff will probably germinate
• made vegan cauliflower cheese
• sowed a punnet of lettuce seed
• clean out the slowcooker, put in spaghetti sauce

  To Do:

• Cooking/Food Prep:
• make spaghetti sauce (slow cooker)
• make chia puddings
• make amazeballs (please)
• make silverbeet tofu quiche with cauliflower almond crust
• Laundry:
• sort and put away any laundry that is in or comes into the house
• sow some seeds
• spring onions - try sowing in a window box then bringing it inside to the living room?
• lettuce (windowbox); bring window box from Dan's courtyard into my courtyard for some TLC
• kale (both kinds - Red Russian is doing really well!)
• chives 
• plant something 
• yak shaving: spray paint big pot for stevia
• second leek resprout
• go foraging
• apples; blackberries
• preserving: 
• clean out a big jar, try first small batch of sauerkraut
• make apple blackberry compote
• try pickling or fermenting green tomatoes?
• transfer frozen blackberries to tub; freeze diced rhubarb and start a new tub
• harvest something: 
• rhubarb; ripening tomatoes; silverbeet
• manage food storage: 
• update next week's shopping list as appropriate (ongoing)
• put the freezer stockpile items in the freezer; sort stockpile as needed
• put almond meal in a jar or put the bag in the freezer 
• Garden (other):
• chuck some old cow manure around the rhubarb
• ORDER VEGIE MIX before my cabbage and brocolette seedlings spend too long in their punnets
• Community resilience:
• Country Brewer for Fowler's kit 
• LLSG for vegie mix

• put in laundry #1 (clothes) - on hold due to rain
• (with Eric) install fence/gate posts along the east border of the food forest - on hold due to rain
• install round galv iron bed in plum orchard - on hold due to rain
• Dan's courtyard: dig out and level area behind brick step, add pavers (may need builder's sand) - on hold due to rain
• hang out laundry #1, put in laundry #2 - on hold due to rain
• hung out laundry #2, put in laundry #3  - on hold due to rain
• hung out laundry #3, put in laundry #4 - on hold due to rain
• bring in dry laundry that got wet again overnight, sort and put away all of mine - on hold due to rain
• hung out laundry #4, brought in dry laundry - on hold due to rain

Saturday 28 March - Coronapocalypse edition

Done:

• coffee
• got into farm clothes
• sorted Eric to go to the laundromat to wash Dan's doona and Hugh's fleecy bedspread
• did F&V shopping at Chris' stall
• made scrambled tofu for breakfast
• put chickpeas in slowcooker
• (Eric) put doona and blue bedspread on line 
• updated next week's shopping list
• put in laundry #1 (linen/towels)
• discussed garden plans with Eric, moved all the posts to the side of the house, got him started with fence/gate posts along the east fence for Dan's courtyard/food forest
• rolled round galv iron bed into plum orchard
• drained and rinsed jars of mung beans and salad sprouts
• (with Eric) Dan's courtyard: replaced gate post and rehung west gate; made brick step; built and erected trellis frame; fixed problems with east gate; added netting to trellis and gate
• fell in a heap but tried not to comfort eat too badly
• got a reply from Country Brewer - they do have the Fowler's Simply Natural unit in stock and have a new order in if they sell the last one they have in the shop before I get there, but I'm waiting for a price now (and I should probably talk to Eric about my desire to buy one - at least it's couching it as "supporting a local business" rather than a big online company)
• later that night: heard the satisying (and amusing) sound of marsupials boinging off netting where no netting used to be

To Do:

• Cooking/Food Prep:
• make briami (when I have cooked chickpeas)
• make chia puddings
• make amazeballs (please)
• make silverbeet tofu quiche with cauliflower almond crust
• Laundry:
• sort and put away any laundry that is in or comes into the house
• sow some seeds
• spring onions - try sowing in a window box then bringing it inside to the living room?
• lettuce (windowbox); bring window box from Dan's courtyard into my courtyard for some TLC
• kale (both kinds - Red Russian is doing really well!)
• chives 
• flat of microgreens (lettuce, mustard, cress, etc)
• plant something 
• yak shaving: spray paint big pot for stevia
• start potato tyre stacks
• go foraging
• preserving: 
• make apple blackberry compote
• try pickling green tomatoes?
• transfer frozen blackberries to tub; freeze diced rhubarb
• harvest something: 
• rhubarb; ripening tomatoes; silverbeet
• manage food storage: 
• sort out a better solution for the potatoes
• put the freezer stockpile items in the freezer; sort stockpile as needed
• put almond meal in a jar or put the bag in the freezer 
• Garden (other):
• chuck some old cow manure around the rhubarb
• ORDER VEGIE MIX before my cabbage and brocolette seedlings spend too long in their punnets
• Community resilience:
• 
  

Friday 27 March - Coronapocalypse edition

Done:

• emptied night buckets
• coffee, breakfast
• updated stockpile spreadsheet
• started gathering ingredients etc for curried sweet potato soup in the slowcooker
• rewashed load of delicates in the machine
• dealt with Dan's "chuck out" pile of clothes
• got into farm clothes
• reworked my night bucket station
• dirty laundry round-up (excluding Eric)
• put in laundry #1 (clothes)
• hung out delicates
• put curried sweet potato soup in the slowcooker
• cup of tea; watched Milkwood video on sprouting
• started jars of mung beans and salad sprouts
• hung out laundry, put on laundry #2 
• watched the first part of Good Life Permaculture's Crisis Food Gardening video in case there were any new tips etc (and I've learned that for winter slug control, I should definitely ditch the mulch in Dan's courtyard, and lay more paper to kill the grass, then top with vegie mix and sow broadbeans direct into that)
• made hummus and felafels 
• hung out laundry #2, put in laundry #3 
• roasted sweet potato boats 
• made nashi, walnut and currant muffins to use up the nashis which were turning bad
• put on chickpeas to soak
• ate potatoes, mayo and spronions for lunch
• hung out laundry #3, put in laundry #4
• brought in dry laundry, sorted and put away all of mine (including the stuff on the bed)
• fell in a heap
• pulled up old mulch from potato beds in Dan's courtyard, added to second raised bed
• added netting to west fence in Dan's courtyard to keep geese/pademelons out and cat in
• supervised Dan triaging their clean laundry for donations/binnables
• hung out laundry #4, brought in dry laundry

To Do:

• Cooking/Food Prep:
• make briami (tomorrow, when I have cooked chickpeas)
• make chia puddings
• make amazeballs (please)
• make silverbeet tofu quiche with cauliflower almond crust
• Laundry:
• dirty laundry round-up (Eric)
• take load of doonas, blankets to laundromat; hang out
• sort and put away any laundry that is in or comes into the house
• sow some seeds
• spring onions - try sowing in a window box then bringing it inside to the living room?
• lettuce (windowbox); bring window box from Dan's courtyard into my courtyard for some TLC
• kale (both kinds - Red Russian is doing really well!)
• chives 
• flat of microgreens (lettuce, mustard, cress, etc)
• plant something - yak shaving: spray paint big pot for stevia
• go foraging
• preserving: 
• make apple blackberry compote
• try pickling green tomatoes?
• transfer frozen blackberries to tub; freeze diced rhubarb
• harvest something: 
• rhubarb; ripening tomatoes; silverbeet
• manage food storage: 
• sort out a better solution for the potatoes
• put the freezer stockpile items in the freezer; sort stockpile as needed
• put almond meal in a jar or put the bag in the freezer 
• Garden (other):
• chuck some old cow manure around the rhubarb
• ORDER VEGIE MIX before my cabbage and brocolette seedlings spend too long in their punnets
• Community resilience:
• email or call Country Brewer re Fowler's kit

Sunday 15 March

Done:

• [6am] breakfast, coffee
• watered houseplants
• emptied compost buckets
• put farmhouse soup in the slow cooker
• emptied my fridge of dead stuff; restocked some of the jars on the shelves
• made chia puddings x 6
• found some recipes for what to do with green tomatoes
• [11:00] made cauliflower rice and reheated tempeh mootballs for early lunch
• put away drying up, did most of the washing up (including food processor blades, frypan etc)
• put in a load of whites
• made two batches of TVP/butterbean sausages and put in freezer
• put in a load of white sheets to soak, then wash
• changed cat litter tray
• wrangled Hugh to put out the laundry (not sheets) and bring in the dry stuff
• made cabbagey TVPmincey noodley thing
• helped Dan with their hat project (bias binding, top-stitching)
• picked tomatoes

To Cook/Make:

• hummus and felafels
• pull one silverbeet plant and strip; caramelise big batch of red onions; make spinach rice pie
• amazeballs x as many batches as I can before I die of boredom/run out of ingredients
• pick bunch of rhubarb; make rhubarb applesauce and freeze half in small jars
• make lentil burgers; buy more dry brown lentils and cook/freeze
• apple and blackberry crumble (made with or by Dan)
• roast sweet potato and pumpkin slices/dice/boats
• pick any ripe tomatoes, cook down with red onions, balsamic vinegar and basil/oregano for pasta sauce; bottle
• make a batch of green tomato and apple chutney; bottle
• mix up a new batch of trail mix

To Do:

• change towels
• hang out sheets
• change my bedlinen
• 20/10 in my bedroom
• 20/10 in work room
• 20/10 in kitchen
• 20/10 in living room
• 20/10 in learning room
• 20/10 in bathroom

Getting In Garden Supplies Ahead of Shut-Down (Eric's "Honey-do" list):

• take shredder to Harvey to see if it works
• spoiled hay from Jenny on Fourfoot Rd
• trailer of topsoil
• trailer of horse poo 
• trailer of sawdust
• install proper latches on gates to Dan's courtyard
• assess stocks of nails/screws/other hardware for job list
• buy roll(s) of chicken wire
• help me move big tyre
• help me move new round garden bed

Tuesday 18 February

Ta Das:

• emptied night buckets
• dirty laundry round-up
• put in laundry #1 (linen/towels)
• coffee
• put in laundry #2 (delicates)
• made breakfast; picked fresh blackberries to go on pudding
• hung out laundry #1, brought in dry laundry from shed
• put in laundry #3 (linen/doona), hung out laundry #2 in shed
• got into farm clothes, cleaned my teeth
• cleared more area for mulch (finished plum orchard, started cutting path around blackberries near goose shed)
• added another layer of horse poo to #3
• took Dan to psych appointment
• went foraging for plums and blackberries in the paddock with Dan 
• transferred frozen blackberries to container, put in more blackberries to freeze

To Dos:

• make compost smoothie for zucchinis, water any containers I didn't get to yesterday
• fill window box in Dan's courtyard with potting mix; sweep concrete pad, remove rubbish from courtyard, move hall stand to concrete pad, bring in big grey planter
• start laying out paths in food forest, mulch remaining beds
• do BotVC stocktake and plan, menu plan, shopping list

Rest of the week has increased chance of rain, so aim to do as much in the garden as possible today then take three days off to do the shopping and work on paperwork and costuming.

Costuming:

• finish copper overskirt (except for ruching)
• finish green skirt
• do duct tape bodice pattern

Paperwork:

• find or reconstruct Hugh's HESP
• do a substantial amount on Dan's

Monday 17 February

Ta Das:

• decided not to fuck up all my hard work
• coffee, not breakfast
• checked time for Dan's singing lesson, updated calendar
• discovered the idea of building swales on contour instead of digging and piling, using tree branches and waste from site clearing instead of digging - this idea may have much more promise for widespread use, given my physical limitations! (although looking into it, it probably still involves digging, but maybe not as much)
• got into farm clothes
• surveyed The Heap and decided how to adjust it before mulching
• make any changes that can be done without the brush-cutter (IN PROGRESS - involves digging and moving rocks to make terraces)
• harvested silverbeet, zucchini, carrots, snowpeas, beans and parsley; cooked brunch (scrambled tofu) for me and the kids
• logged/planned my food for the day
• did some more work on The Heap, got Eric to help moving rocks
• rest and rehydration break 
• did some more work on The Heap, finished the round terrace
• showered and got dressed; had a nap; went to Geeveston and played Wizards Unite
• watered all the raised beds, borders, potato beds and containers (need to double check with watering can)
• made hummus; helped Hugh make dinner
• helped set up/clean up after BBQ

Sunday 16 February

Woot. Have made some progress on the recipe folder mess, after resenting the heck out of it for months - all the reformatted and printed recipes Hugh did have been sorted, the old/dog-eared/food-stained originals removed, and I've started going through my folder on the computer and editing and printing out ones that ought to be in there. Go me!

Just noting that I also did a big chunk of the food forest - I finished prepping the ground (although I think I still have some levelling out to do of the heap in the last section so I don't break a leg) and mulched it until I ran out of mulch.

Friday 14 February

Priorities:

1. physical self-care (shower, clean teeth, make my bed, drink lots of water)
2. do a substantial amount of work on my costume
3. get on top of the laundry (not good to already be recycling one's underpants on the first day of one's bleed)
4. work at the batch cooking without spending all day on my feet
5. honour my fatigue and rest regularly throughout the day, but balance that with not being a potato by doing paperwork instead of procrastifaffing like I just did

Plan:
[11:45] put away drying up, dirty laundry round-up
shower and dress, clean teeth, make my bed
put in laundry #2
hang out laundry #1
bring in any dry laundry
[15 minute break] drink water, get everything set up to work on home ed paperwork
[12:45] do as much of the costuming as I can in 45 minutes
[15 minute break] drink water, go through one HESP and start making notes - need to do this as a separate long block and use the 15 minute breaks as downtime
[2:15] put in laundry #3 (no more pegs in wood shed and the forecast is for rain)
hang out laundry #2
manage laundry on outside line
cook something on my list

[15 minute break] drink water
[3:15] do as much of the costuming as I can in 45 minutes
[15 minute break] drink water
[4:15] cook something on my list
[15 minute break] drink water
[5:15] go through one HESP and make notes/changes


and continue for as long as I can...

List of costuming tasks to do:

• Green Underskirt [FINISH THIS WEEK]
  • unpick/cut away slip of green skirt from bling; remove slip
  • finish adding bling to front
  • finish sewing on lace [in progress]

•  Copper Overskirt [FINISH STEPS 1-6 THIS WEEK]
• hem sides of front (decided not to bother hemming the bottom since it's the selvedge so it won't fray, and will be ruched up so won't be noticeable)
• finish adjusting final width of unpleated front panels vs pleating, sew pleats to white linen waistband
• add linen waistband and heavy-duty belt loops (entire weight of skirt is held up by narrow leather belt)
• add interlining panels to strengthen front panels; attach ring-clasp to front of skirt to hold it together (not weight-bearing)
• sew first point of central ruching in place on each side

• Hat
  • finish blinging hat

[2:15] After a couple of long blocks, I've realised I need the mental relaxation of the 15 minute breaks just as much as the physical, so I'm going to have to rejig the plan so I can just pootle around in the breaks instead of driving myself to do the HESPs and not getting any downtime at all. Time to get back to it and do some laundry now, but I will add a long block where I can just look at the HESPs later.

Saturday 8 January

I need a day off from doing the brush cutting, and I also need to focus on food prep and cooking ahead as I have been getting unbalanced in that area. There are so many plates to keep in the air at the same time, and if I let that one in particular drop it makes the rest of them much harder to juggle. And I need to do a lot of cooking ahead for the family because otherwise I will drop that ball as well. So, cooking ahead lists:

• chia puddings (no cook, me/Hugh)
• briami (oven, me)
• felafels and hummus (food processor/oven, them)
• mac'n'cheese (stovetop/oven, them)
• lazy lasagne pasta bake (stovetop/oven, them)

[Break for washing up to happen and oven to be vacated]

• roast sweet potato and pumpkin dice (oven, Hugh)
• brown rice (rice cooker, Hugh/Eric)
• cauliflower-crusted silverbeet tofu quiche (food processor/stovetop/oven, me)
• lentil burgers (food processor/sandwich press)
• corn chowder (stovetop, them)
• TVP/cannellini bean sausages (stovetop, me)

[Break for washing up to happen]

• creamy coconut dhal with carrot (stovetop, them)
• green curry (stovetop, me/Eric)
• sweet potato red curry with silverbeet (stovetop, me/Eric)

After shopping:

• cabbagey mincey noodley thing with TVP (me/Dan) 

OMG. I have a sore back and sore feet, but I have cooked many many things... I dropped one or two things off the original list when I discovered I didn't have the right ingredients for them, but I've made everything except the TVP sausages. Go me!

Wednesday 5 February

Somehow it is already February, and we've just celebrated the first of the harvest festivals. I'm doing that thing of "Where the hell did the year go?" even though for quite a bit of it I can look back and see exactly where it went.

Done:

• coffee
• got into farm clothes 
• emptied night bucket
• dirty laundry round-up
• put in load of laundry #1 
• put in load of laundry #2 
• started daily Tummy Beast blog entry, finished shopping list
• did one tank's worth of slashing in top orchard/plum orchard
• put in load of laundry #3 
• screwed pipes of hoop house on #5 North to front of bed to keep hoop house stable
• harvested herbs, carrots, kale, snowpeas, zucchini and silverbeet for scrambled tofu
• made nettle tea and scrambled tofu
• hung out three loads of laundry (Eric)  
• did one section of mulching in top orchard
• showered, washed hair, got dressed  
• supermarket shopping, tip shop etc
•  
•  
• filled all the water bottles in the kitchen, made sure there are three in my fridge
• updated Trello 
• watered the indoor plants
• watered raised beds and containers in both courtyards
• worked on levelling/mulching Dan's courtyard
• rest and rehydration break, made mineral water
• put away shopping
• 9:30pm electronic curfew and bedtime

To Do - Inside:

• catch up on Monday phone calls/contacts
• work on HESPs and 2019/2020 online/hard copy portfolios
• printed out portfolio dividers, added them to Hugh's portfolio, sorted out existing content
• work on handwriting with Hugh  
• 15 minutes tidying up in my bedroom
• change towels, bathmat, teatowels, hand towels (Thursday)
• cook Mexibeans for Dan
• cook rice; make spinach rice pie
• make hummus
• clean out my fridge, freeze black bananas
• make rhubarb applesauce, and make some into chia puddings
• work on steampunk costume 
• reorganising my "study": need to go through the in-trays and file portfolio stuff, relabel Dan's tray, and declutter/stocktake stationery supplies
• change my bedlinen
• sort clean laundry and put away
• put in load of laundry #1 
• put in load of laundry #2 
• put in load of laundry #3 
• hung out load of laundry #1 
• hung out load of laundry #2 
• hung out load of laundry #3
• bring in laundry from wood shed 
• write to grandparents
• enrol Dan in MTC
• print/file dividers for Hugh's portfolio
  
• write an explainer for Dan's Patreon and the SPG fandom
• start 2019 reports, 2020 HESPs
• compile/print missing monthly notes for 2019
• January (less urgent)
• February (less urgent)
• April (less urgent)
• August
• November
• December 

To Do - Outside:

• emptied horse poo into #4 and covered with hay
• compost smoothies 
• do a bonus tank's worth of slashing in the bottom chook run
•  
• harvest silverbeet for spinach rice pie
• harvest rhubarb
• throw ash around the young plum trees (use a ladder)
• deadhead roses 
• by Dan's cottage
• in front garden
• block geese's access to the tomatoes in the courtyard with wire/netting
• give geese more bedding