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Friday, January 3, 2014

Why is it that on some days time slows

A strange thing happened today. Jean had to go out early to meet up with some former work colleagues. She wasn't planning to return early as it was a good opportunity to do a couple of other tasks while out and about.

My plan was to get a few things done then relax with a book. But this is what happened.

First up was to get all the garden beds watered in advance of the hot weather with the automated overhead watering system. While that was in progress the dogs and I went down to the dam and started the pumps to replenish the holding tanks. Got back to find Jean was ready to leave and I held the gate open and took the opportunity to move the cattle into a new paddock as is the Friday routine. Then back to the house to chop up a couple of cucumbers into a fine dice for the Ferdies (Indian Runner Ducks). They liked this meal so much it was repeated 4 more times during the day. A good way to use up the surplus of oversized cucumbers.

Some of the citrus were looking a bit limp from the hot days and a fine spray nozzle under each for an hour or so fixed the problem. Since the Mangos had some good fruit they received a similar treatment.

There was a small stand of Carrots that needed weeding which turned out to be a simple and speedy task. Being in the vicinity it was an ideal opportunity to work through the garden beds and harvest any Onions that were ready for drying which led onto harvesting a few Potatoes as well.

As it was still reasonably cool and not 10am the whipper snipper got some exercise trimming around the Tomato and vine beds. A useful task to complete to make it easier to spot snakes and not have Paspalam seed heads poking in your face while harvesting. The whipper snipper head was on its last legs with a big section missing and it was replaced before putting away. Seeing as how there were some Cucumbers ready they were collected and sorted into us and Ferdie piles.

I was curious how the bees were travelling after the robbing a couple of weeks ago and took the time to inspect the hive. Since it was a quick look only no smoke was used. They seemed happy with me poking about and just as well they were inspected as the combs are nearly full again. While working the hive the SHB trap was swapped out with a fresh load of diatamaceous earth and the dead SHB transferred to a container stored in the freezer. These are destined for use in a BD pepper to see if that will aid in reducing the numbers.

Made an entry on the calendar to rob next week. Bugger, what am I going to do with the excess honey? And what about jars. There were a few spare small clip lock jars and some time was spent scrapping off the old labels and loading them into the dishwasher for sterilisation. With those and the remaining few honey jars there might be enough. It will all be creamed as this seems the best way for long term storage and we like the mouth feel and taste of creamed honey.

Getting hot and sweaty by this time the next task was appropriate. Pull out the last of the weeds in three different parts of the garden and fork in a barrow of compost into each. Two of the beds will go towards Lettuce, Beetroot, Carrot and Radish next week and the third bed will be for a late planting of cucumber and Zuchinni. The last of the compost went onto the Sweet Potato bed which was shooting off again. That provided an empty compost bin which went on the task list for sometime in the next couple of weeks. Still only early afternoon and feeling not so tired the Asparagus bed received a weed. Not a big task as this is one of the beds we do keep on top of. And it is in need of a feed which will happen tomorrow.

By now it was after 2 pm and with spare time still hovering a shower to freshen up and then onto do the monthly paperwork. Finish the invoicing, pay some bills and complete the BAS statement.

Wrote out a menu for tonight’s meal and started the prep work for that.

Finally at 3.30pm poured a beer and sat down with the current book Endgame by David Stafford a look at the last days of WWII from the eyes of different characters. That lasted all of ten minutes as Jean arrived home to fill me in on her travels and update on her colleagues.

I can't understand how time can pass so slowly and often wonder if this happens to other people.

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