Eat and be merry

Things really have been busy around here lately. We are now 2 weeks down of our 3 week holiday and I'm trying hard not to think too much about work looming closer by the day. That'll ruin your holiday every time.

For the last 2 weeks we've pretty much had a full house. Wayne's friend Chris has been up here helping with the stable and with the deck rennovation, and his daughter Caitlin is over visiting. The guys have been working their butts off - I can hear Wayne swearing all over the place when things don't go the way he wants them to. Chris says Wayne's nickname should be Breaky or Smashy cause those seem to be his strengths.

Still, things are getting done. Today I got to use the nail gun to put down some decking. My first time with a nail gun (and this is nail gun 3.0*. I'm already looking for other things to nail down... Hm... If it moves and it shouldn't, nail it there. One of these days Wayne will come home and find I put his boots 'in their place' and nailed them there.

The saga of the nail gun

Wayne bought me a nail gun pack for my birthday. Basically, brad nailers of different sizes. All very well till we tried to buy nails for them. Apparently Bunnings sells these home quality nail guns but you can't get nails for them to do real jobs. So I took it back and exchanged it for another nail gun, a coil gun this time - not a pack and for more money, and once again... guess what? Bunnings doesn't sell nails for it! So I drove around town looking for a specialist store who would sell the nails I needed. Found them. Great! Get home and guess what? The nail gun will take the nails but they don't work! So this morning I chose to withdraw from the adventure. I sent the guys into town on the 'great nail gun' search. They returned the gun to Bunnings (again) and went to Mitre 10 where they found a nail gun which fit the nails AND (would you believe it?) actually nailed them!

I've been cooking up a storm too. For the first time in my life I understand how people gain weight on holidays! Normally I'm too busy to eat too much, but with guests food is a bit more important. We've had scones with cream and jam. Cheesecake. Chocolate cake. Thai green curry. Fettucine with mushroom cream sauce. Lasagne.Pasta Amatriciana. Home made pizza. Heaps of salads. Home made pickled beetroot from our garden.

Which brings me back to the garden. Its going well. Too well! Even the eggplants seem to have bounced back from being chewed on by bugs. The lettuces are ready now and I've discovered something about myself: I prefer my vegies clean and bug free, preferably wrapped in plastic.

I'm also learning lessons about how far apart to plant some things, never to plant anything close to the brocoli or it will be completely overwhelmed by its huge leaves, and not to plant things I don't know how to cook cause they just grow and grow and I have to kill them.

We've been out and about a few times too. Took Caitlin to Salamanca Market and to see the yachts from the Sydney to Hobart race.

And the gorgeous sculptures at Constitution Dock.

I took her to visit Cascade and to the tip shops cause I thought she needed to be exposed to the bountiful possibilities of tip shopping.

I introduced her to Banjo's house cakes (a Tasmanian institution) and gave her dog grooming lessons.

(Tip shops are recycling centres for things people throw away.)

I'm exhausted!

z