The bacon was everything i had hoped it would be so there is now a large container of bacon chunks, and a slightly smaller one of bacon slices stowed in the freezer as well as four packets of prepped liver with a sachet of bacon inside so it is all there when I want to cook it. The minestrone is fabulous. But i forgot to add the pasta so it is coming back to the boil right now so the pasta can cook. So that will be minestrone for dinner as well as for lunch - but since it's so good I really don't care.

I chainsawed up a fair bit of firewood today in anticipation of the next cold spell that is forecast for the beginning of the week. Seems they only added enough fuel to let me play for a short while with it post-purchase so I also had to go into town to get some fuel. With the oil they gave me duly added, I was able to fire up the chainsaw once more and keep on cutting. It starts really easily now I have the knack so it really is a pleasure to use.

A load of washing finished off the tasks completed today and i have yet to parcel up the soup for freezing, which I will (obviously) do after dinner.

While in town collecting the fuel I called into Eleanor's to collect the outdoor foot-scrapery mat that Barry had discarded out of pure loathing. It is one of those wire frame thingies with doormat bristles at intervals, so will be good for dusting off the chainsaw flakes that presently get tracked indoors despite my new cutting location (this being due to the stockpile of stuff remaining from previous cutting exercises).

Wouldn't you know it, but having changed over to winter bedding we are now having a spell of the sort of weather we should have had in Summer.

I took off down south for a bit today and called into a wholesale butchers or two. I felt the chest freezer looked a bit bare with a thin, and partial layer across the bottom, but not much more. So it now contains about five kg of osso bucco, a kg of gravy beef (to go with the kidneys that are already in there), four sausage sized pepperonis, three pork and something or other sausages, three sheep necks and various other bits and bobs, all for rather less than you might expect to pay at the butcher's. I went to two wholesale butchers - the first was Tassie Wholesale with is near the cinema complex in Glenorchy. Was not overly impressed with their range or prices, but managed to get the gravy been from them at $6.40kg. Then onto Robinsons in Chapel street which was rather more the thing. I bought about 2kg of pork belly and, having cut off the bit with bones in it for use in something or other, have put the rest to bacon-making. It is sitting in the fridge as we speak. While they are great, they have the great misfortune to share parking space with Boks, the bacon and ham type people (hence the sausages and pepperoni). Boks also do vacuum-packed bags of bacon and ham off-cuts. So I have a kg of ham, sliced and layered between freezer paper(I have far more than I will ever use for applique, so decided to use it for its original purpose) in the freezer for sandwiches and packed lunches. There is also a large bag of bacon off-cuts in the fridge which I will package up tomorrow. I will pack a handful with each of the bags of lambs fry I freeze (also tomorrow as I can not face prepping the liver tonight) so that they are bagged and ready to cook when I thaw them out. The rest will be packaged in 100g packs for strategic use in cooking. Any appropriate slices will also be frozen for use as bacon and eggs (if the hens ever lay again).

So a fairly productive day really, despite it not containing any of the planned activities. The minestrone is bubbling away on the woodstove at present and will probably serve as dinner, even though I have not yet added the shredded cabbage.

Unloaded the ute and stacked the wood under a tarp near the door so it is ready to hand in the event I need it for emergencies.

Then I went down and weeded the garden, and cut out last years canes from the raspberries. These I poked into the ground in a spare bit of bed in the hope some will strike and provide additional canes. While doing that I glanced up and discovered that one of the cauliflowers had produced a large curd without me having noticed it previously - so guess what is for dinner.

I finished off the chicken and vegetable soup and froze it in individual servings and have started off some bacon bones which will become a minestrone tomorrow once the bones have been removed, the meat shredded and the fat skimmed off. Will have to put some lima beans to soak tonight so they are ready for use.

Then a bit of housework and tonight it is paperwork so I can work out what is going on with my finances.

Not everyone has been unhappy about the spell of cold weather just past, so I thought you might like to indulge yourselves with some photos of the cats at rest. Smidgen has a bed (well, it is actually for both the cats, but Esther only gets to use it after we have gone to bed) where he can relax totally. But he prefers to sleep cosied up to Esther, who prefers to be alone. the sequence of shots shows what happens when Smidgen becomes a little too self-indulgent in the snuggling department, though I suspect they are in reverse order as I have yet to work out how the upload system works.

However with the weather perking up considerably over the last couple of days, they are a little less self-indulgent in their lazing and have been hard and work reducing the mouse population once more.

Today has been a fairly event full day (as opposed to eventful) with a phone call from the heritage office to cheer me up over the job and, as I suspected, to suggest a meeting to talk about some piece work. This will actually suit me rather better and provides an opportunity to work from home. I will be drafting an email to send to the Director this evening proposing a meeting to 'see how I can contribute to the goals of the organisation'. I will need to talk to an accountant about ABNS and what sort of structure would be best in terms of setting myself up.

There may also be a bit of work with Launceston City Council but I will have to wait and see how that one pans out. So that was all good and I expect I will be heading to Hobart and Launceston in the near future.


Then off to quilting of course, where I completed the other Ohio Star blocks and went to complete the log cabins but realised I have to sit down and work out how many more strips I need to add to it to get it to be the right size. As you can see the log cabins are looking slightly less trapezoidal in format, which is a good thing. and I am very impressed with my stars because all the points are actually pointy ... So clearly my seaming is coming along now I have worked out you can't just bung two bits of fabric together and hope for the best.

While at quilting, Jean announced there was a ute-load of firewood to collect from her place and, during discussion mentioned their wood heater's flue is a bit short. So I dropped up the section of flue I have had rattling round the yard and loaded up the ute. Turns out it is still too warm indoors for even a flannel shirt, let alone a fire, but it will be a very useful stockpile of short wood for those times when cutting up my logs is problematic (like I am running a temperature or it has rained for three weeks etc).

You never know quite what you are going to bring home from Quilting these days. Today it was two large swedes (about the size of a baby's head) freshly pulled from the paddock (apparently the sheep miss out these days), an outdoor dining table minus the little rubber ring in the middle that stops the umbrella from rattling around (but you can always wrap the umbrella with rubber sheeting to achieve the same result - if you have an umbrella), two gem pans (the ones for cooking, not going gold seeking), and a thingy you use for cutting potatoes into chips. It also has an attachment for coring an apple and cutting it into wedges which is handy. All for nothing I might add. The last item is something I have always rather fancied but never been prepared to spend money buying. But since Caroline was chucking all her kitchen cupboard clutter to the tip I brought it home with me. A good scrub and it will be put into action cutting up one of the swedes to make some chips for dinner - perhaps tomorrow night.

Since Caroline does not cook and her husband's idea of adventurous cooking is shake-in-the-bag chicken with pre-cooked oven chips, I do at times wonder why she buys all this stuff - but hey, it is all good fodder for me and others at quilting (Tracy scored the cookie tube with various attachments for making swirly cookies ...).

I also made two Ohio stars, in case you think I spent the entire day scrounging. There were some good ideas fielded for job-hunting as well. But do I really want to work in a Detention Centre? Not sure what the atmosphere would be like - would it be like a prison or a more cheerful, welfare oriented environment????

No harm in trying I guess. And there were several other options also mooted that I will follow up on over the next few days.

Dog was happy outdoors today with a still, sunny day to keep him relaxed and happy.

I got a section of the hedge mulched today - soggy cardboard is hard to come by but i managed to get it at least damp, and then placed the straw from the remnants of the roller bale in the wheelbarrow with the water so it to was wet through.

Managed to pull apart the last two log cabin blocks and render them into a useful form, which involved having to find a few extra lengths as by the time I had got to the outer strips, they were no longer long enough with the easement resulting from more accurate seaming.

I had also hauled out the curtain fabric and had another look at my options. I found two roller blind rolls and they are clearly marked for the placement of the blind, the calico is 120cm and the rollers are 125cm so that would give me an inch either side that was not cluttered up with fabric - that should work. The fabric itself is 150cm wide though, so I will need to cut it down the middle (to keep the selvedges) and seam it together. I think I will ask Caroline to do that as her seams seem to be straighter than mine ....

Then I plan to use basting spray to stick the two fabrics together, sew down each of the various lines that go down and across at 120mm intervals which will bond the two fabrics more securely, then stick it onto the rollers. If I mount them above the windows, just below the ceiling, I can then at a later date, install a pelmet to cover the rollers and to enhance heat retention on chilly nights. From memory there is framing in all the right places to allow that to happen.

Once that was all done I noticed that Gordon from across the road had got home so called over with his newspapers (I have been collecting them for him in his absence) and was invited in for tea and to meet his lady friend. We had a lovely chat about the village and the village personalities and then home to stir up the fire to warm the place up for the evening.

Well BRRRRRRRRRRRR, hopefully it will be warming up soon. As it was, I took the new chainsaw for a longer play and cut enough wood for a couple of days. It is such fun to play with!!

Stuck indoors, I read and sewed and generally pottered around so again, not much to report at all really ...

Nothing to report really. Played with the new chainsaw (what fun! and all limbs present and accounted for). the added bonus of this is that I no longer have to cut wood at the back door which will hopefully reduce the amount of sawdust being tracked through the house.

Made some chicken soup (well, I am in the process).

Read a book - another goodie, nowhere near as deep as the last one but engrossing nevertheless.

I realised it is Good Friday today. The stunned silence of the neighbourhood was my first clue. Not a sound of activity anywhere. This is in part due to people being away, in part religious observance, and I suspect in part, lack of interest generally. So getting out the new chainsaw and playing with it seemed a bit inappropriate. It can wait till tomorrow.

Instead I did the ironing, got some embroidery done and have been reading 'the secret life of bees' which has more to do with the civil rights legislation in the US than bees, but is a good read nevertheless.

I also used up my cotton tape wrapping the wires of a lampshade, preparatory to installing a new cover. Now all I have to do is work out what fabric to use to cover it with. Still, no hurry as it is low on the list after finishing off a few other bits and pieces I have on the go and was really just occupational therapy when the book palled and the embroidery got annoying.

Sunny but distinctly chilly today, with sporadic showers with more nuisance value than rain. And the grass is growing apace once more ...

Well, life is never dull. I called the recruitment agency this morning and was advised that the person who was supposed to sign off on the appointment is on sick leave but was anticipated to be back in the office today.

So I headed down to Hobart to look at this secondhand stihl chainsaw. It was rather heavy (which probably means it was really good mechanically, but not much use if I couldn't lift it freely), so I looked at their new stock and for fifty dollars more bought a brand new chainsaw with a smaller bar but which is rather more within my comfort range for use. It is presently dripping oil on top of the freezer awaiting a more permanent home.

From there i headed over to the Eastern Shore to pick up some dog food and a new charger cable for the mobile and was driving home when Hannah, from the recruitment agency phoned to tell me they had decided not to appoint me at all!!! She has no idea what their reasons were so I have fired off an email to the person who has been pursuing me for over a year now to apply when it came up to see if he can fill me in on the lowdown. I suspect they have either been forced to make an internal appointment or not to backfill the post at all, but it would be nice to be sure so I don't have to worry about dodgy referees or something.

Getting home not so long ago, I was wondering if I should try out the new chainsaw, but discovered that someone had dropped off some short bits of wood for me anyway. So I can now sit back, and read the manual thoroughly before starting to play with the machine. The manual is huge - 463 pages of it. Fortunately only the first 21 pages are in English and the rest repeats it in all languages known to humankind.

I always wanted a new Husqvarna, and now I own one. Problem is it's a chainsaw, not a sewing machine ... lol.

I had a bit of a rummage last night as I could not find my rotary cutter (turns out it was left behind at Wednesday quilting so I retrieved it today). While rummaging I discovered I had a layer cake of the fabric I am making the new quilt out of which was a real bonus as I needed to find larger bits than are available on a jelly roll. This solves that problem nicely, though most of the lights turn out to be fine ginghams so not particularly useful for providing strong contrasts with the darks. I have managed to work around that by pilfering some fabric from a couple of other sources in tones that work with the jelly roll I am using.

I also started work on the embroidery for the William Morris cushion I bought at Stawell in October. If I can finish that off, then the remaining fabric bought for it (a bundle of fat sixteenths) can also be worked into the quilt so I should have more than sufficient for the finished work.

Apart from that not much has happened today. I will phone this lot tomorrow since i have not heard a thing about the job, and see what is happening. And I will also phone the chap about the chainsaw as he too has failed to get in touch. It would be nice to have a chainsaw that worked.

It was a gorgeous day today - managed to get a few things done around the yard before getting sidetracked into a conversation with the neighbour's kids about life, the universe and everything. I had noticed some time ago that the goat has not been in evidence of late. Apparently it died. They say it was snakebite. I would guess it was a combination of starvation and kidney failure due to lack of regular water supply. But at least it is out of its misery now. The horses are widely scattered. Gypsy is in a paddock up the road where she wandered once too often so they kept her. Rosie has wandered off and they think she is with a lady whose phone number they don't have (and apparently can't be bothered visiting) with an injured leg. The rabbit is dead. The chooks are down for four having been eaten by the dogs ... I do hope they don't get any more animals ...

The kids, on the other hand seem to have had their lives brightened up. The boys have been signed up for cadets and are looking forward to a camp at Puckpunyal in September, which should be a bit of an eye-opener. The girls are all going to dancing lessons... The eldest girl is enrolled at a college in Hobart doing design. And the hoarhound seems to have lost its attraction as a daily activity, though they still have ambitions of making a big pile and setting fire to it. I suggested they invite the local fire brigade ...

And so off to quilting where I finished shadow-quilting the last pocket and cut out binding for all four to be applied tomorrow (at least the machining bit). And then I will commence cutting strips for log cabins as I don't have the right sort of wadding to finish the bag off, and supplies for that will not be forthcoming for a couple of weeks. The quilt i plan to make is called Log Cabins and Stars. It has some log cabin blocks, some Star blocks, some stripey blocks and some other bits and sods. Unfortunately most of the pieces are 1.5 inch strips which will make it a soul-destroying exercise in cutting up a jelly roll into smaller strips. The remaining one inch strips I will piece together and cut up into squares at some point to make a tiny patchwork of half inch squares which I am sure will come in useful at some point.

It was lovely to come home to a nice tidy house that looks like a house, and the fire still had some hot coals, despite me having failed to shut it down before I left. And the load of washing I did this morning is well on the way to being dry too - so should be able to iron it and put it away tomorrow, as well as get the towels clean and dry. So my intended routine of washing every second day should be feasible with the heat from the fire to dry things out. Especially if it is a sunny day like today to aid the process.

Creative solutions 'r' us!

The mobile phone was dead flat this morning but then i had a brainwave!! I found the photo-downloader-cable and plugged it into the computer. Astonishingly enough, this actually does charge the phone for you!! Not much point though as it has thus far failed to ring. At least i tried.

It was soooooooooo cold today. A nasty malicious breeze carrying ice in its baggage was whistling around the place all day, so I tucked up indoors with the fire and did absolutely nowt. Well, a load of washing, the dishes, some embroidery, some reading ...

Last night's fried green tomatoes were a failure. The recipe called for either corn meal or flour, and I had neither, so I substituted weetbix. Not a good choice. It also called for slices of tomato half an inch thick. This is far too thick for cooking through before the weetbix burned ... Tonight I will be selecting the riper tomatoes and having toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches to make up for it.

Hmm, well dew doesn't do a terribly good job of moistening several layers of heavy cardboards, it seems, so the pile is still high and dry and I will move onto Plan B tomorrow and take the wheelbarrow down, fill it with water and add cardboard in sufficient quantities to get some work done down there.

I still haven't found the cord for the mobile phone so am sending an emergency request to one of the quilting ladies who I know had a Samsung phone that she got rid of. Just hoping she was not so organised she got rid of the cables. The phone has been left sitting on the kitchen table where a reliable signal has reduced battery use, and so it still has one bar left. There were two until today when a series of phone messages were left by my visiting friend. These were necessitated by the mystery of the disappearing Farmer's Market.

Oatlands, I am discovering, is high in good ideas, but low in delivery. The Market was moved from its position up to the sports grounds at the other end of town. This is actually a good move as it provides excellent parking and vehicle access for stallholders, and visitors alike. The problem was, they forgot to tell anyone and did not leave a sign at the old location to let people know where to go. So I turned up but Barb was not there. I went to the old location, she wasn't there. I got back to the new location and saw her driving past. I hopped in the car and chased her up the mainstreet, but she had disappeared (apparently to the loo near the lake) when I got there. She went to my place to find me - I sat at the new market location for a while before going home. We passed en route ... hence all the messages to my phone which was sitting on the kitchen table...

Anyway, we finally caught up with each other and did a tour of the estate before lunch and drank vast quantities of coffee which will be keeping me awake half the night. Then she headed back to Hobart and left behind a bag with the two apple danishes she had brought for dessert but left as I had bought a cake at the market.

Before all this, Eleanor had called around for a visit and to find out about my gardener. She stayed for a while and a chat before going back into town with me hot on her heels as I was running late to meet Barbara (see saga above). I sent her off with a big bag of green tomatoes to do with as she saw fit. I am thinking I will look up a recipe for fried green tomatoes for dinner in fact.

So today was a bit of saga, and an unproductive one to boot, but good fun despite the dramas. The weather was far to lovely to be upset ...

They forecast two degrees last night, but it actually got down to minus 0.2 so a good thing I pulled the toms when I did. But the day well and truly made up for it with lovely sunshine all day, and temperatures ideal for working in the garden. As a result I have now prepped and sown the beds from which the tomatoes were removed. A row each of carrots, parsnips, beetroot, turnips, swedes, broad beans and brown onions. I have piled mulch either side of the rows to retain moisture and watered them in. Now, no doubt, the cats will get in a play merry hell with the seed distribution and I will have goodness knows what coming up where. A similar thing happened with the carrots and red onions I planted earlier, so when weeding that bed I lifted (accidentally) a number of red onion babies which have now been assigned their own row as they were all cluttered together in their original home. Another cabbage has come out and I am thinking stir fried with soy sauce for dinner tonight.

The rest of the grass (and some areas of more rapid regrowth) has been mown and the areas where stuff is growing up between my various heaps of fire wood, lumber and metal bits has been sprayed with roundup - as has the area around the foundations of the house where weeds seem to volunteer with gay abandon and pulling them out destabilises the foundations.

The compost heap has been given a bit of a turning over and the active heap has had a few additions from the heap I am about to start quarrying, as well as from the various weeding activities (which extended to the hedge and the goose run).

Last night I moved the freezer into its new home and unpacked the bottom of the fridge into it once it stopped humming. Clearly there will be a need for plastic boxes to organise the contents as the thought of scrounging to the bottom of an inchoate mess in a chest freezer does little for me. Still, once the fridge is also in the kitchen all those ready-meals can go back into the bottom of the fridge for ease of access when I am feeling peckish.

You will have noticed a singular lack of comment about the job - well I have to assume they are still chasing referees, which also makes me assume I will be starting after Easter now, so the geese were given yet anothe reprieve (can you tell I am putting off a job I don't want to deal with?)

The weather was so good the neighbour's children were inspired to get out in their back yard with hoes and attack the hoar hound. With something like eight of them hard at work for several hours, you would have hoped to see rather more progress, but the enthusiasm was overwhelmed by lack of method and they achieved only about four square metres ...

The box from the freezer (and various other packing boxes) has been cut up and laid out in the back yard, weighted down with rocks, so that tonight's dew can soak into the cardboard and prepare them for laying along that section of the hedge I weeded today. Add straw, and hopefully this will inhibit regrowth.

I also picked the tall stems of the oregano and have hung them in the 'dining room' to dry out, leaving a dense growth of low-growing leaves to overwinter. Tomorrow I will prune the remaining older raspberry stems and stick them in to the ground and see what happens.

No rain!!! Amazing to get through an entire day without needing a rain jacket. good thing too as neither of mine is dry at present. we are, however, expecting 2 degrees tonight so I will be needing something a little snugger on the bed, and no doubt the dog will groan loudly about being banished to the floor.

I ran the vacuum cleaner through the house and placed more stuff in the container out of the way. I also did the ironing, sorted the work clothes into the more accessible drawers and the home clothes into the stickier drawers and pulled out the tomato plants, recovering a trug full of semi-ripe tomatoes that will need to be dealt with no doubt.

And the top of the box the freezer is in is now devoid of clutter (which has been placed in the rubbish, the top cupboard of the hatch or the tool room as appropriate) so I am wondering if I should perhaps move it into the kitchen, turn it on and let it get cold before adding the contents of the bottom of the fridge, so I can move it on Sunday when I have help. Will ponder that for a little bit longer, but will probably put it into action tonight so I can slaughter the geese tomorrow and have somewhere to put them. And somewhere to put all these delicious dinners I have been preparing for myself in between times. Lamb curry with basmati rice for dinner tonight!! Yum.

The deluge seems to have passed finally. The sun even put in a brief, heavily masked, appearance this afternoon. It seems to have been rather soggier down toward Hobart as there were freshets gushing madly over the road and major streams where no streams normally run. Hopefully tomorrow will be fine enough to get some wood cut in anticipation of working next week (though at the rate they are going i am not holding my breath).

The trip to Hobart was necessitated by a billing error that had poor Wayne billed for wood I had bought independently of his purchases and which they forgot to include when they billed him back in February. So I popped in a paid that off and collected some chook food to make the trip worth while.

I also popped into a lawnmower servicing shop in Lindisfarne and found they are expecting two Stihl chainsaws in next week for sale second hand. I have asked them to phone me when they have more details (like price ...). And thence to Cambridge Park to get a couple of tarps to cover the wood heap against the weather. I erred on the side of caution in these purchases, but at least they cover the top of the heap ...

And so home, where i discovered one of the down sides of getting organised. I seem to have lost my ugg boot (only one, the other is on the bedroom floor where it belongs) and rather more worryingly, my mobile phone charger cord. No idea where either of them is, but will keep on looking till I find them. Fortunately at this time of the year, the fire keeps the whole house warm so thicker slippers are not really required, but i think I will be needing something a little sturdier than thongs before full winter arrives.

I had a bath last night and discovered a slight flaw in the design plan. The light is placed so that I am between it and the window when climbing into the bath ... Frosted windows can only do so much in preserving your privacy it seems. Still, I lit a candle, turned out the light and had a good long soak. The bath is exactly the right size for someone as long as me, so I am very happy with that and the dog sent out a search party I was so long lying in it.

The dog seems to have semi-resigned himself to sleeping on the floor. He is not above trying it on if he thinks I am asleep, but will get down and go back to his bed when told. So that will make life a lot comfier for me at least, not having to share the bed with 40 kg of overweight labXrottie.

The rain has revealed a serious problem with part of the roof. I have been in touch with the plumber who will come sort it out for me in the next few weeks, and will install guttering along that side as well. The flashing around the chimney and the ridge capping have both failed on that gable, so water just gushes into the roof space under the conditions we had over the last couple of days. The good news is that part of the problem also explains the problems i had in the loungeroom. I had blamed the central gutter as the obvious culprit, but it seems the problem is water coming through the ridge capping and running down a rafter. So fixing that one side of one gable will solve all the problems I have to face this winter. And hopefully I will have sufficient funds to deal with the rest of the roof come Spring.

BB has come up with a solution for the doona, which is great. I will look into that once I am sorted out work-wise as I have no doubt some of my work will take me to Launceston from time to time.

The deluge continued today, with over an inch in the gauge this morning and about half an inch today (as far as I can see through the condensation on the side of thing.

Perforce, activities were confined indoors and my clever plan to bring in wood yesterday to dry out before cutting was thwarted by the absence of any break in the rain until late this afternoon (by which time I am too settled into the house to be bothered), so I had to venture out into the deluge to carefully select sodden bits of wood that were about the right size and set them before the fire to dry at least to the point where they did not extinguish the glowing coals when added to the mix. Fortunately yesterday's cutting had yielded enough to keep things going till they dried out.

While I was out there I discovered that the tank was overflowing with gay abandon and that the dam I accidentally created by dumping bits of old plaster there had redirected the overflow next door. So I had to excavate a channel which I will now have to monitor for erosion.

I also had a bit of an explore in the roof and discovered that all my centreline drips originate in the ridgecapping on one of the gables. Since that gable also lacks guttering on the outside and ridgecapping of any form at the front, I have emailed the plumber (who is presumably missing in action in a heavily flooded Ross) to ask him to give me a quote to deal at least with the outside surface of that gable. There were several more drips in the future dining room which will also be resolved if that is done.

Inside I unpacked a couple of boxes, and repacked the unwanted bits from the previous boxes and I now have my cutting board and a rather nice doona left behind by one of the American students many years ago. It is filled with goosedown, but the fabric has perished to the point that last time i took it to the drycleaners, they refused to handle it. Am now pondering the possibilities of making up a new cover in calico and stuffing the feathers into that. Though this will require me to work out how to make channels and boxes for retaining the feathers in suitable locations (not to mention how to transfer the feathers without causing a snow storm). So definitely one to ponder rather than to act upon immediately. I also finally found my button boxes, and my cutting board and a few other treasures like a 1950s workbox that is now filled with the various projects that will while away my evenings in winter.

The kitchen table is now relatively bare (barring a plastic bag of root cuttings and bulbs that must find a home somewhere in the garden. and a box full of paperwork that has to be sorted and filed) and so my work here is done - now all I have to do is go back through the entire house with the Dyson, instead of the industrial cleaner, and see how easy it is to do the housework.

Outdoors there are still a few chores to be addressed like mowing the rapidly advancing grass up by the house, chopping the heads off geese, installing perches in the newish chook shed so that I can move them into the goose run, and laying 75 metres of plastic sheeting where the new hedge will be planted come winter.

So, since I apparently need to make more room i the tank for more rainfall to come, I will be having a long hot soak tonight in my newly excavated bath, using newly unearthed bath salts i hvae been carting around for ages.

It has rained pretty well all day today. Not terribly productive rain this morning, but I think things have changed, judging from the radar on weatherzone. Only 4 mm last night.

I spent much of the morning rediscovering the kitchen floor and now all I have to do is find the top of the kitchen table. It too is emerging, and may yet be discovered by the end of the evening.

Due to the rain, I got cabin fever and after a quick run to the tip, retired to quilting for a short while. I had to leave early too though as the dog was on the running leash for the first time. He had retreated into the kennel as soon as I drove off, but sometime in my absence apparently discovered the running leash options and so was standing in the rain at the back door looking hopeful about his chances of getting in when I returned. Hmmmmmm.

The advent of dog beds seems to be working as he spent the night on the floor last night - a huge relief to get the bulk of the bed back to myself and only having to share it with Smidgen. He tried it on a couple of times, but settled back down with a sigh when told to 'drop'.

I had taken some wood indoors last night so was able to cut it in a break in the rain and so have supplies for the night, but will have to do the same again tomorrow. This time the wood was brought in at the same time as I cut the wood this morning so should be good and dry by tomorrow morning. I also took advantage of the rain to wash the windows on the outside - no need to rinse! and it is interesting to see the view through clean glass for a change.

The temperature today barely made it into two figures though it won't be too bad tonight. It was grey, overcast, drizzly weather - not good for anything really. So I continued with the purge of the bathroom and laundry and I now have a functional bath (having removed various items of building materials, several wads of insulation and so forth) and the laundry is looking pretty good too.

Sadly all of the 'homeless' items have migrated into the kitchen so I will have to spend much of tomorrow working out where they too can live.

The rest of the day was spent cooking. I now have a lump of salt pork (to be cut into slices and frozen for use as sandwich fillings when packing my own lunch), a boeuf bourgignon, a goulash (austrian, not hungarian, so it has carraway seeds in it instead of paprika) and a lamb and potato curry is simmering away at present, waiting to reduce the liquids and develop a creamy consistency. These will all be subdivided into serving sizes tomorrow and frozen, along with the relevant veges/rice, for reheating as required.

I planned to have pickled pork sandwiches for dinner, but Shadow ate the last one ... Not good for him or me, so he has had a stern lecture, which he blithely ignored.

The cat's bed joined the dog's bed in the washing machine today, though it does not seem to have deterred the cat from using the still slightly soggy bed this evening. It has been raining for much of the afternoon, but this morning was downright warm at times. The temperature is no longer quite so balmy, so it is a good thing I took advantage of this morning's sushine to cut some wood.

Today was spent sorting out more stuff to go into the container, and to set up the dog's running leash. That done, I chained him to it and walked him from one end to the other, but he looked as if he felt it was some refined form of torture, so I let him off the chain before taking it back to the kennel.

I also managed to finally get a towel rack installed in the bathroom, and a set of hooks behind the door so I have somewhere to put things while i am in the shower. And the final touch was installing the blind, so I now have privacy while using the loo and at night when the doors are open and I am working in the kitchen.

Privacy is of course subjective, and the lot of larrikans who were boozing down at the recreation club, accompanied by loud music and loud swearing were given a bird's eye view of me in the kitchen, but they stayed where they belonged and so it was no worries. They do seem to have perhaps broken an entire half off a gum tree in the back yard of my neighbour of many children, though that could equally have been the scuds of galeforce wind. Whichever it was, the branch is still there, still part attached to the tree and no sign of any intention to remove it.

Soup tonight, with grilled cheese on top in lieu of cheesy croutons.

Today was R&R and we went down to Bridgewater to the Brighton Civic Centre (work that one out if you will ...) where the quilting day was being held. It was great fun with lots of lucky door prizes (I won a pattern for a quilt showing lots of tea pots - not sure I will ever make it ...) and a lucky table (mine - I won an easter egg wrapped in a fat quarter), show and tell, workshops and stalls. I think it is the quilters guild that organises it, but since i am not a member, I really don't have a clue.

Before heading off I whipped up a apple cake, because I suddenly remembered one was supposed to provide something, and sorted out the dog and the chooks so they were safe and well for the day.

Home around 4.30 so had time to give the dog a few chases of the ball and feed the poultry before retreating indoors ahead of the rain. Tonight's dinner is a bit of a let-down after last night's extravaganza - home made bacon with cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches. Still, at least some of the ingredients are home-produce.

I opened a box marked 'cushions' in the hope of finding the missing ones from the couch (which I did) and found all the dog's beds and bedding. So he now has a waterproof bed for the kennel, a sheepskin rug for the loungeroom and a rather nice moleskin one for beside the bed (in the vain hope I can convince him to use it). What is more, there is now a spare cover so I can wash the others while not depriving him of somewhere to sleep. I am sure he will be thrilled when he wakes up.

This time last year I was still in the caravan, scrabbling around to finish off windows and paint out the extension with a view to moving in, but still a fair way to go. Today I moved the furniture indoors for the first time. I now have a loungeroom and a bedroom and a sewing room. OK, the dining room still has a long way to go and the loungeroom is furnished, but still has a table saw, fridge and freezer in it, but still, it's a lot better than it was. It even has a blind over the window, so I can shut out the world at night. Previously this function was served by having a door propped part way over the window to discourage peeking. Amazing how much more light there is indoors now it is gone.

The books have been carefully distributed across various bits of floor to avoid heavy loads in any particular spot, and there is still heaps of room. I will be very comfy and uncrowded once it is all unpacked (which will not happen till each room has a finished floor and there is a place to put things. This is the dining room which has most of the stuff stowed in it. And the sewing room is looking less crowded What is more, the dresser finally has its top bit on, so a bit more scrubbing and fixing of handles etc, and I can start shoving stuff into it The nice man who was giving me a hand has also mowed the bottom part of the yard and whipper snipped the edges. Not only did he do it in half the time most of the blokes have taken when I have hired them, he did a much better job. He even mowed in strips - much more of that, and I will have a genuine lawn!!! He is coming back in a fortnight to do the rest of the yard and will be weeding the garden in my absence - what a treasure! While he was doing that, I was carting rocks from down the back to hold down the various bits of plastic I have placed over the sand pile to reduce loss from rain and weed infestation.

So then I went to the tip with the week's gleanings and came home with a set of kitchen chairs that I really can not imagine why someone threw out. These are eminently collectible chairs, and OK, the vinyl needs a bit of repairing and they need new stoppers on the ends of the legs ... but what a find!!!

I am having the day off tomorrow as we have the quilting fair at Brighton. But tonight I have to cook a cake to take, as well as my dinner (chicken mignon with butter fried cabbage (from the garden) and mash. I think I need large quantities of sustenance after today's effort ...

Well, talk about knackered. I have been flat out since the crack of dawn this morning clearing out the room off the loungeroom. All lumber has been removed, sorted, stacked for relocation into the shipping container (when there is room in it tomorrow) and the floor vacuumed, remnants of ratsak containers removed and refreshed (sooooooooooo much mouse poo - anyone would think the cats had been loafing around, and there was Smidgen bringing in at least five today while I was working).

The contents that are to remain in that room have been positioned with care. The drawers for the tools etc are in the recess beside the fire place, closest to the door for ease of access. The endless boxes of nails and screws are stacked in the actual fireplace, so they should all be pretty accessible once the rest of the stuff is installed. The two chairs that were hidden under all that lumber have been given a bit of a vacuuming (they are both slated for restoration), and the two lounge chairs from the front room have been transferred, along with four of the dining chairs. That, together with removing a couple of bags of insulation) has also freed up space in the sewing room so the books can be distributed carefully to avoid heavy loading on dodgy floors. The filing cabinet has also been moved into the front room, so it can function as an office and sewing room while I am working. And the dining table will stay in there as well, so providing some sorting and cutting space.

The loungeroom, needless to say, is presently packed to the gills with stuff that can not go anywhere else until the container is emptied to a large extent, then it too will be cleared. Though I suspect the table saw will remain a feature over winter, if only because it would be a hassle to shift it into the container.

Sooooooooooo now I need a long hot bath and an early night, so I am fresh for the bloke who is coming to help with phase two. Glad I did not leave this till next week as it will probably take me a week to recover, lol.

Today was exactly what an Autumn day in Tasmania should be like. Started off with a very heavy dew and a dense mist over the ground which cleared soon after the sun came up to make a beautiful cloudless wind-free day. The lake was so still the reflections were perfect and the sky was so blue ... The cats were out sitting in the sun enjoying the change of weather. As you can see from the second photo, this has been how they have been spending their days of late ...

I had to go to quilting today (well, I really did have to ... I had the key!) so got there a bit early to set up when our new member arrived. She started talking before she got in the door and went on relentlessly all day. I moved into the ironing room and she followed me. I went into the kitchen, she followed me aaaargh!!! Still, I got well along the way to getting the fourth pocket started - only about 10 more stems of barley to go before all four of them are done and I can finish quilting the last two.

Last night I tried dying that shirt with the new dye from Spotlight. Clearly I am fated not to get good results from dying. Still, I threw i about a metre of calico to make up the weight that could be coloured with the dye and that turned out a beautful saffron yelllow. The shirt on the other hand is perfect - apart from the unfortuate tye-dye effect on the right front panel ....

One of the skirts i took i had frayed edges on the sheer fabric that hangs down at the hem. I thought I would be clever and ironed on some freezer paper to stablise it as I restitched it. Unfortunately freezer paper is plastic coated, so even washing the skirt did not release the embedded paper. So I spent a patient hour this morning picking little bits of paper out from between 3mm zigzag stitch. Still, it is dry now, along with the lap quilt that I also washed, as I took them into quilting with me and hung them on the clothesline.

Jean, having overheard my dramas with the chainsaw instructed her son to pick through the wood heap for some small bits of wood, which were duly delivered this evening. So I sent her home with two cabbages for dinner. My two are being shredded and added to the soup I plan to make with a salted ham hock this evening, for consumption tomorrow when the flavour has had a chance to develop, and I have had a chance to pick and shred the meat, remove the fat and the skin and bones etc.

I have transferred the wood heap to the right hand side of the fire, regardless of the unfinished state of the woodbox, and it is amazing the additional space this has provided in the loungeroom. That will be filled tomorrow as I embark on the task of clearing out the 'dining'room in anticipation of getting a bloke in to give me a hand with lifting some of the heavier stuff and generally getting briefed on his future gardening duties.

Today was the big trek into Hobart for registering with the Agency. The start date is designated 'as soon as possible' but I have indicated the 18th as my preferred start date. It all sounds very promising with a four day week. If I can have Wednesdays off I can have two two-day work periods, give the dog a day off the chain on Wednesdays (or even get to quilting once in a blue moon) and reorganise myself for the rest of the week. So that would work very well indeed. Still no idea of the salary offered, but no doubt it will be sufficient for my needs (I hope). And the PD reads in the same way as any heritage post seems to read - a bit of everything ...

I set off bright and early for my ten am appointment, but with road works, finding a long-term parking spot and getting a loo break in, I just made it in time. So it was a good thing their building was where I thought it would be ... After that I popped into Spotlight and picked up some fabric dye to cover up the areas where the coffee dye 'grabbed' the fabric with unfortunate results. That is now cooked and cooling and will go in the wash this evening so I will see what eventuates. Rather than waste the rest of the dye, I cut a metre of calico and bunged that in too. I chose a yellow ochre which seems to have come out darker on the cotton than the calico, but is a lovely colour if it achieves the coverup I need.

I also picked up some beads for the cushion cover and returned an open-toed foot that failed to fit my machine then hopped into the car and went to Eastlands (via Lindisfarne to collect a bag of wood) where I picked up some supplies and headed home. I went the back way so I could call into quilting where i discovered my absence had caused a bit of an uproar earlier in the day. People planning to send out search parties to make sure I was still alive etc. Then Rosemary arrived and reassured them I was still in the land of the living as her husband had seen me driving down to Hobart and reported I would not be there (you can't do anything around here without people knowing, lol).

I had completely failed to take the needfuls for doing any work so sat around and gossiped and admired other people's work and definitely admired the work Jean had done on the pocket she had embroidered for me. So much neater than my work ... Jenny had another pair of shoes for me, so that makes three pairs of shoes I have scored now, and my iron has a new plug and the chainsaw has gone off to be fixed and I am happy to say the dog was still alive, relaxed and happy when I got home. Though now he wants me to throw his ball, so I guess I have to go.

Today was supposed to be a bit warmer. No idea where they got that idea from. It started off well, but seemed to get cooler as the day progressed. And now, for some reason, the fire is a bit too warm - hence me out here in the kitchen typing away.

Last night, having discovered my third library book was in fact one I had read before (and very memorable), I gave up on reading and reverted to sewing. Tacked up more seams and hems, the moved onto quilting those pocket faces that I have embroidered. Shadow-quilting was the option and one is now complete and the other well on the way. Presumably it will be finished by bedtime (which seems a long way away now the clocks have moved ) have had dubbin applied to the rubby bits and a bit of stretching done. My ankle boots have a leather knot at the ankle which perpetually undoes itself, I think I will have to sew it together, but have no idea how I would do that without the thread showing (and my fingers being full of holes from pushing the needle through), so will look for some sort of ornamental finish while I am down town to see what I can do. They are too good to chuck out just cos of that annoyance, so will be worth pursuing a solution.

All this sort of activity was a good thing as I received a phonecall from the Agency and have to go to Hobart tomorrow to register with them (curses). This will also mean missing most of quilting which is a pity as I had promised myself that was the last day I would go. As I have to drop the chainsaw off for Anne to take home for her husband to sort out, I will call in, but won't stay. While the chainsaw will be delivered back the following morning, I think I will pick up a bag of wood while down in Hobart just to tide me over as the nights will be chilly even if the daytime temp improves.

So at least I now know I have something fairly smartish to wear to Hobart to impress the Agency staff. Now all I have to do is work out where I put my makeup...

Today did not go well. I started off by cutting up some firewood. But the chain kept coming loose on the chainsaw. So I got out the spring washer thingy that the guy removed when he sharpened it (because he couldn't see any reason for it to be there) and tried it between the head of the screw and the washer, and between the washer and the bit it was all being tightened up to, but neither option worked. So presumably it comes from inside the thingy and it is a man's job to fix it. Mean time, I finished off the bit of wood I was trying to cut, by hand and concluded there was a reason I own a chainsaw...

Then I started to have a go at putting the woodbox together. I had decided that getting the box constructed was a priority and that the lid could come later. But the box remains unconstructed as I kept running into problems with various tools and so concluded that was a waste of my time.

I moved onto clothes alterations. Last night I had unpicked seams, worked out solutions and pinned and tacked them together. So it should have been pretty straight forward. I am still working on the first skirt ...

Oh well, osso bucco with risotto milanese for dinner, so at least one thing will be good to go.

After a couple of days frenzied activity I decided to take a day off today. Well, it started off accidentally when Caroline asked me to call later than I had planned, and so I was at a loose end for a bit. Then, having arrived with my iron (for an Australian plug to be fitted), two sewing machines and the various bits that needed altering, we spent a happy two hours fiddling with the machine I got on freecycle, seeing if it worked and if so, how. Caroline is getting the machine servicing guy around to fix her long-arm so she will give him my new second-hand Singer for a service while he is there. Saves me a trip to town and this guy apparently does a better job than the bloke in Hobart anyway.

She rejected several of the garments as being 'too tricky' so they came back home with me, and after getting the fire stirred up I have had a go at them myself. I will take them to quilting on Tuesday for the sewing machine side of things as I can not be fagged unpacking the Bernina at home. Besides, while I have worked out a solution for taking in the second skirt, I have realised that the combined heads of the ladies will be helpful in working out how to execute the solution.

The first skirt was one I almost finished while I lived in the UK. It has an elasticised waistband that I had not finished off, so I have just drawn it in a bit tighter, and done some finishing on the hem and so forth. So that is two more skirts back in the mix.

I didn't totally waste the day however. I changed the sheets and turned the mattress, did a load of washing, tea-died two white shirts and generally got the bedroom finalised (at least till the last week when I have to sort active clothes into functional drawers, and not-work-clothes into the sticky drawers). And it is nice having the blind on the front window as I can keep sorting stuff after dark without being on display to the neighbourhood.

Last night i discovered why you should always label food that goes into the freezer. I selected a nice tomato soup for dinner, but decided the serving was a bit small. So after a bit more rummaging I found another container filled with something that looked the same but which turned out to be stewed apricots ... An interesting flavour combination, and oddly enough, quite tasty once I got over the shock.

Today having been freezing cold nothing went forward in regards to the reorganising, but I will get back into it tomorrow. Having a day off has helped me work out what the next stage should be anyway, so not entirely wasted. And tomorrow being the first day of daylight savings, I will be getting a bit of a sleep in (or is it the other way round????) Anyway, since I keep one clock on daylight savings all year round, I will just adjust everything to its setting.

Nothing like sheer panic to get you moving I always say. Last night, having signed off here, I sorted through the bedroom drawers and the hanging space, moved the sewing materials out of the bedroom, along with their associated chest of drawers, removed the clutter from the other three sets of drawers' tops and dusted them, replacing only what was appropriate and setting the rest aside for further sorting (guarantees, instruction manuals, you name it) and so by bedtime it was beginning to look quite spacious.

Today I opened up the shipping container and transferred all the long bits of (new) wood onto the brackets that are welded onto the sides of the container, took huge quantities of magazines to the tip, moved the smaller desk from the container to the front room, hung a blind at the window of said room and then moved the bookcase in there as well. The filing cabinet is still in the loungeroom but it too will be moving into that room tomorrow.

While rummaging in the container I also identified the suitcase containing my professional wardrobe which I will go through tonight and extract a few key items to take to Caroline to take in for me so I have something that fits.

In the middle of all this, Eleanor called in to visit and bestow jam jars on me, and to chat about her trip and the local doings. She has suggested a nice chap to look after the garden for me whose rates are manageable. It will be good to have someone in to mow, and haul out the weeds from the veges from time to time. I also checked out the cost of a new set of tyres for the ute (not as terrible as I expected) and established a linked savings account for my banking so when there is a salary coming in, I can isolate funds on payday that can not be accessed by card.

What I didn't do was call the accountant, something I was reminded of when I called in at the newsagency to check out vehicle log books and discovered there is more than one sort (who knew??!).

So there I was climbing into the car outside the bank when the phone rang and it was HT to discuss the process. Fortunately they are not as organised (or disorganised) as I feared so there will be the desired hiatus before I have to start work. In fact, they have yet to lodge the vacancy with the agency ... So I have now called the agency, registered my interest, forwarded my CV and will await events.

Phew. Not that this gives me time to sit and enjoy the sunshine (not that there actually is any sunshine), but it does mean I have a realistic timescale to get things done and not be exhausted before I even start to work.