Getting Organised.

Once again, I'm sorry that I haven't updated as much as I should. My bad!

Well, we've been keeping ourselves busy getting ready for the end of our stay. We've been doing a bit of cleaning here, a bit of packing there, and a bit of trying to finish off all those projects that we didn't quite get around to. G & L will be back home on the 22nd (just got the news as I was writing this), but to to be safe, I want to do as much now as I can. I'll be returning to Rocky in a little over a week's time, and I'll be there for about a week. I kind of feel like I left Gryph in the lurch when I headed down this way, and this time I don't want to leave too much for him to sort on his own.

So why the return to Rocky, I hear you ask. Well, Lara's having an operation on the 8th of May to remove the plate from her leg (she broke it in a car crash a while back). So, I want to be there for her. She'll be in hospital for at least a few days afterwards and I want to stay with her to keep her company. She's a little worried and I know that the ex won't even consider that as important, so I want to do that for her to help keep her mind at rest. Let's just say that my ex is not the shining example of an attentive father that one would hope for. Put it this way, he hates hospitals, hates the sight of blood (or anything icky for that matter), and seems to think that taking a week off work will be sufficient. This girl won't even be allowed to walk on her leg for a couple of weeks at least, will need her wound cleaned and dressed every day, and she'll be on pain-killers... so she'll need constant care. I wonder if that's why his 'girlfriend' (using the word loosely here, considering that before we moved down here they both denied even being involved for anything other than... erm... a mutual need, shall we say) has suddenly moved in? Oh well, if she's happy with that who am I to complain? She'd just better damned well care for my child properly, that's all I can say. Anyway to get back to the point... I doubt he'll let me see Lara much after she leaves the hospital because it's 'his turn to have her', and he's a very selfish man. He definitely won't want me near his house, which is fair enough I suppose, but I'll stick around for a few days just to make sure that he's doing the right thing by her. I'd be happy to bring her back down here to look after her, but it's more important for the ex to think that he's winning against me... the dragon woman who stole his children away from him when we accepted this job. Never mind the fact that we'd arranged for them to return home at the beginning of April. Oh well. My kids all know what he's like, and that's all that's important to me.

Anyway, there's going to be a few ideas for this place that we'll give up on because of a lack of time. We didn't quite get around to getting the pump from the dam going. We were planning on having that all hooked up for G & L's return so that they'd have water for the garden without having to use the tank water for the house. But due to a couple of hiccups, we didn't have the money to spare for the diesel. Never mind, it's all set and ready to go otherwise. The seedlings are coming along nicely, and should be quite drought-tolerant. We were going to add some water crystals at the time, but again, it comes down to dollars. Besides, after the initial couple of soakings when we first planted the soil has been holding moisture nicely. We've only been watering them about once a week which promotes a deeper root system and they don't seem to be suffering. The herb seeds in the front garden get watered every couple of days in smaller amounts, but only because they're still tiny and some haven't come up yet. I'm starting to think that some of the seeds were just no good. The strawberries haven't grown much, which is a bit of a shame, but they haven't died either, so maybe we just planted at the wrong time.

Now, we were going to get the lawnmower working again, but again didn't have the money for fuel or parts if they were needed. Likewise, we never got around to trying the quad or the beach buggy out either. Those plans will all be by the wayside now. We cleaned up some of the stuff outside, namely camping gear and stuff that was starting to become a little weather affected. We tidied up the storage shed to make a bit more room, and it's all in there now. We did manage to get the chimney for the wood heater in about a month ago, with the help of Big Sis and Big Bro-in-law. I'm glad we did too, as the weather has been a bit chilly of late. We went and got a load of wood at the time too, but we're going through that pretty quickly. We might have to go and get some more yet. We were also going to move some of the building materials etc, away from the shed. We've done a bit and we might still be able to do more if we can organise for Big Sis and Big Bro-in-law to come over for a day this weekend to help us out with the heavy and/or awkward stuff. I'd like to do that for G & L, if only to help try to keep the mice away from the shed.

Speaking of mice, they seem to be breeding fairly quickly. We were only getting a couple a night, but we've been getting more in the house for the last few nights. We've set up some 'humane' traps (well, as humane as killing things gets, I suppose). We have one in the house, along with Sabrina, who usually leaves us a little surprise to find each morning. We had another in the storage shed and got a couple each night in that one, but we moved it yesterday to the tool shed. It had been empty for a couple of days, so we figure that we must have depleted the shed stock. It's empty again today, so I guess they don't like the tool shed, but we'll leave it there again tonight and see how it goes. There's another trap in the shed where the donkey food is kept, which has netted us a couple of dozen or so over the last couple of nights. That seems to be the most popular mouse recreation area, natural I suppose. The oats haven't been touched though, but it is stored in a plastic bin with a lid on it. My guess is that they're after the mulch and/or sawdust next to it.

Today I was going to strip the bed in the 2nd bedroom, wash the sheets and make it back up, but the weather has turned and is threatening us with some nasty looking black clouds. I think I'll just content myself with some tidying up and a bit of blogging and see how it looks tomorrow. I hope it clears up a bit because there's a couple of days of washing to do.

Well, that's about all that I can think of for now, so I'll sign off. We're off to Big Sis' for dinner, but I might chuck up some photos of the animals, either tonight or tomorrow. But Gryph might need the 'puter again tonight. He's been trying to get the web site up and running before we run out of time here. It's kind of hard though, as Bordernet has slowed the connection right down. It's been frustrating him no end, so it would probably do him the world of good to have some time away from the screen, anyway. No promises though. :o)

Anyway, take care all.