A grey day today. So grey it looked like evening all day. And there was a bit of rain to go with it (but not enough to compensate). And the neighbour's chooks came in for a visit. Twice. The first time i panicked and thought that Shadow may have damaged the fence, or dislodged the gate when he was off running around yesterday, but no. When I went down all five of my hens were in situ, but the black hen I had spotted had disappeared, so doubt remained. But the gates were shut and the fence was intact, so it was all a bit of a mystery. Then two black hens materialised outside the loungeroom window. A bantam and an australorp. The latter looked disturbingly like my Australorp, but was not, on closer examination (and mine were still all in their run). So expect that rumours of my negligent fowl-keeping will continue unabated.

I dodged out this morning before the rain started and cut a heap of wood as I was down to the last two pieces (well, I still had my reserve stack, but wanted to keep that in reserve) and after that tidied up the kitchen, then moved into the front office which still contained various boxes of papers awaiting sorting and filing. That is now all pretty well done (though there are a few bits that have no logical home so they are awaiting further though), and I now have an office (rather than the kitchen table) in which to work when the need arises. The kitchen, on the other hand, is now fragrant with the smell of oxtail slowly simmering in the slow-cooker. It will be tomorrow night's dinner (and several more after that) as I have still one more serving of the beef stew to go.

My paperwork for the census work arrived today. There is an incredible number of forms to fill in, Federal Police Checks, where does the money get paid to, what is your TFN, where do you want your super to go, oh, and a double copy of the contract so you can keep one for your records. So that will be the first bit of work I do on the newly cleared table-top in the 'office'.

Tomorrow. Of course.