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How can an entire year have gone by?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:13:28 -0500

I remember sitting at my computer a little over a year ago and taking up a blog challenge of blogging once a day for 30 days. I had a few slips here and there but managed to catch them up and get through my 30 posts. Well those 30 days finished, and I did a few more blogs, tried to start another challenge, but somewhere along the way I got through 2 more weeks of blogging before I stopped totally. And it wasn't until I was moving my client's websites to a new server that I rediscovered my blog just sitting there waiting for me to return. And I'm left with the challenge: how on earth can I catch up a year's worth of missing blog posts?

Perhaps there is no real way of catching up, and I should just carry on from today, even though so much has changed. We're still living the life we love on our lifestyle property, with lots of animals. I've made some great friends in the last 12 months, a couple of guys who I've never met but talk to almost every day about everything and anything, though I must admit it's mostly about Battle Pirates which is a Facebook game I'm totally hooked on. I blame George, he got me started and the challenge has become to be a strong player who will take on anyone that annoys me. On the other hand, I'm proud to admit that I've given up most of the other games I used to play.

I'm looking forward to trying a few new things this year too, spending more time trying to make our lifestyle block work for us. And I should really spend less time on Facebook. Ha! Whatever. I know a few who won't believe that until they see it.

Anyway, that's me for now. I'll be writing again soon - I've got a hell of a lot of catching up to do :)

Learning to Drive

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:21:33 -0500

Today I learn to drive and operate the newest vehicle addition to our farm - the tractor.

We picked it up this morning, and hubby drove it for nearly 2 hours to get it home, crusing along at about 30kph. Earmuffs are definitely a requirement!

The tractor arrived home, and while I carried on with the rest of the things I needed to get done, the tractor was busy moving lots of gravel from one end of the property to the track we have around the duck pond. This track was often a mud pit, being lower than the rest of the track and water just pools in it.

After a number of hours, I was interrupted from my computer card game (come on, I mean it is Sunday after all) and asked if I wanted to have a go. Why not? I could always come back to my card game.

I discovered that there are a lot of levers and petals in a tractor. There's 2 hydraulic levers to control the loader and bucket, another 2 to control hydraulics for anything on the back, gearstick, high-low ratio stick, accelerator stick and pedal, clutch, pto clutch, the metal switchy thing that changes which hydraulics are used (plus the random bit of metal pipe to get it back out again), two brake petals and probably some more that I've forgotten about.

The gearbox was definitely interesting and will probably be the most likely to catch me out. I mean, a normal gearbox usually looks like this:

1 3 5
| | |
2 4 R

The tractor however looks like this:

1 2 4
| | |
3 R

Oh well, time to try things out. And I must say I didn't do too bad. I drove up to the other end of the property, let hubby pick up a scoop of rocks because it involved using about 4 levers at once and I was still getting the hang of driving the thing. We backed up, drove back down the property and dumped the rocks in the track. I did this another time and decided that twice was enough, and it was about time that I fed the animals.

Hubby did one more trip and I thought it was about time I grabbed the camera - the photo above was just after we dumped the last load. The tractor is now parked up in it's home for the night and it's dinner time.

Visiting the Neighbours

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:34:52 -0500

We thought that seeing we had been in our new place for 2.5 months now, it was high time we got ourselves sorted and threw a house warming party. And of course, that includes inviting our new neighbours.

I hadn't really thought about how many neighbours we actually have, but had noticed that for an empty country road, we do get quite a bit of traffic. It wasn't until we attempted to visit only the neighbours that are on our boundary or very close to it that we realised just how many people live out this way.

Sunday was our starting day for visiting the neighbours. Mother Nature decided that the best idea would be to have the hottest weather that we'd ever had. It got up to 40 degrees Celsius at one point.

Perhaps walking was not the best idea. We did 2 very long driveways - they were about 1km long. We were quite disappointed that the first one only had 1 place at the end and no-one was home. The second had 4 places along it, and we stopped to visit everyone. At the very last house, they offered us a beer - which was accepted with relief. We found out some interesting facts about our property, including what type of well pump we have, as this neighbour was the person who actually installed it!

The worst thing about dying in the heat and drinking beer was you tend to drink it faster than normal, and feeling slightly dehydrated from the long walks, it went straight to my head and we stumbled home. Ok, so I'm over-exaggerating a little but in the heat of the day, anything could have happened.

It was no surprise that we decided to wait out the rest of the afternoon, and take another stab at the visits after dinner. It was still hot enough to cook you, so we took the car - damned if I was going to walk those other long driveways that day!

We visited 6 more people that night and had to decline multiple offers of coffee, otherwise we would never get around everyone. By the time we got home again we had to move the irrigation sprinklers in the dark. Fun.

Tonight we visited another 4 neighbours, moved the sprinklers in the dark again, and only have 2 more to visit tomorrow.

Looks like it's going to be a great day on Saturday, most of our neighbours will pop in at some stage, and hopefully a number of people from our business network groups, townie friends and some clients of mine as well. Let's just hope that the weather is not as hot as yesterday but a lot sunnier than the downpour of rain that hammered us today.

The Next Challenge

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:00:39 -0500

Well I couldn't get to the end of the 30 day blogging challenge without taking on another one to keep me going. So I got myself on another couple. The first is to learn something new each day for the next 30 days. I've already learnt a lot today by browsing through the other's learning.

The other challenge is from a book I discovered online about building a better blog in 31 steps. To tell the truth, I found that the first challenge of blogging every day was a little much, so for this challenge I'm going to take a little longer than the recommended one per day and instead do 2 per week. This way I can alternate with my blogging with this challenge and hopefully keep up with everything.

The first step in building a better blog is to write an elevator pitch for my blog. This way you know what your blog is about and you can focus your posts. I've decided to make this challenge about improving my business blog, which I'm in the process of setting up and starting.

So: the objective of my business blog is to make website owners aware of the mistakes others make and how to avoid them. I figured this is the best place to start!

Homemade Pizza

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:36:06 -0500

I was making homemade pizza yesterday, and thought I would share the recipe with you. It's such an easy one and you'll get your 5+ a day in veges in one sitting!

To start with, sometimes I'm lazy, and sometimes I'm not. When I'm not feeling lazy I make my own shortcrust pastry for the base. When I am, I buy a packet of puff pastry and just roll it out. If you wanted you could even make your own pizza base (but I reckon pastry tastes so much better).

So: Short Crust Pastry

You will need:

200gms butter
400gms flour
pinch of salt
just under 100mls of water

The key is to have the bowl and butter really cold and to follow the ingredients exactly. Put your butter, flour and salt in a food processor. Process for 15-20 seconds until you have a soft fine breadcrumb texture. This can be done with your hands, but it tends to warm the pastry and melt the butter, changing the texture of the finished pastry. Pour into your cold bowl. Make a well in the middle and add 2/3 of the water. Use your hands to 'twist' the flour, like you're trying to mop up the butter and flour together. When combined, add remainder of your water and twist in.

Lightly flour your board, and transfer the dough. Push the pastry together and gently knead the pastry to form a ball. Don't overhandle. Once you have a soft smooth texture, put the pastry back into your cold bowl. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge to relax for 20 or so minutes.

To roll the pastry: flour board and rolling pin. The key is not to overwork the pastry. Press down on the pastry to flatten, turn 90 degrees and flatten again. Roll the pastry a little, and when the edges start to crack, turn the pastry 90 degrees, push the edges back together, and roll again. Continue until you have the pastry about 2-3mm thick. It's now ready to use. I find this recipe makes enough dough for 2 big pizzas.

Pizza Prep

To make sure everything cooks evenly, I roast the vegetables and cook the meat before putting it on the pizza base. Vegetables you can use anything your heart desires, I generally use the following and dice them all to bite-sized pieces:

3-4 potatoes
1 large kumara (sweet potato)
1/4 crown pumpkin
2 carrots
1 large brown onion
handful of mushrooms, quartered
1-2 bell peppers
1 fresh chilli, seeds removed.

I usually leave the mushrooms, peppers and chilli out until the last half hour of cooking, otherwise they overcook and shrivel to nothing. To prep the chilli, slice in half and remove the seeds, then roast. Once it's done I chop into small pieces and sprinkle over the pizza. The chilli is entirely optional - I think I got a little carried away yesterday - the boys loved it, my mouth burned all afternoon!

When cooking the veges, sprinkle olive oil in the bottom of your roasting dish, add the veges, sprinkle with mixed herbs, salt and pepper, then drizzle with a little more olive oil. Toss around a little in the pan and bake for a couple of hours at 160 degrees celcius. Don't worry about making leftovers, mix them with some salad leaves and feta cheese for a quick salad tomorrow!

The meat on your pizza can basically be anything as well. Yesterday I used homemade pork and apple sausages, cooked and sliced, as well as some pancetta bacon. But you can also use ham, salami, beef, chicken etc etc etc.

Making the pizza

Roll out your pastry or dough and line the bottom of your pizza dish. I'm lucky enough to have a large pyrex glass one - highly recommend getting one if you can because it cooks the pizza very evenly and holds the heat in while you're cutting up the pizza as well (but check it will fit in your oven first - they are quite big). Press the dough in around the edges and trim off your extra pastry.

Spread your pizza base with a sauce. If I have it, I like to use cream cheese because it goes very well with the vegetables, but yesterday I used good old tomato sauce. You could also use BBQ sauce or pizza sauce. Just make sure it's something that doesn't go 'weird' when you cook it.

Spoon over your vegetables. Make sure they are well mixed, I stack mine about 3-4cm high. Add your meat, distributing it evenly over the pizza, the sprinkle with cheese. I use an edam cheese, but also sprinkle with romano or parmesan (finely grated) to boost the cheese flavour without drowning the pizza in it. Season the pizza with salt and pepper, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 180 degrees. When the pastry turns a nice golden brown, your pizza is ready to be cut and served. Enjoy!

Remember your extra pastry? If you're lazy and have used puff pastry, cut it into finger stripes and place on a tray sprayed with oil. Put it in the oven with your pizza and in about 10 minutes you will have a quick easy snack to enjoy while waiting for the pizza to cook. You can also sprinkle these with cheese.

So here is the finished result - it went down a treat with all:

Falling off the wagon

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:48:29 -0500

It would appear that it's quite easy to fall off the wagon even after doing something consistently for 30 days.

The whole point of the 30 day blogging challenge was to set myself up to be a consistent blogger, and to continue blogging 4 or 5 times a week once the challenge was over. Monday, Wednesday and Friday were definite days, Saturday if something interesting happened that day and Thursday is to be my business blog day which I'm still in the process of setting up.

Well it's Thursday. I did my post on Monday, which was day 31 for me, and somehow Wednesday came around really fast and the post got missed. If blogging for 30 days straight isn't going to ensure that I keep blogging, what is? At least I have the blogging challenge group on facebook to insure some accountability which is why today is a catchup blog, and tomorrow I better have something interesting to write about otherwise I'm going to have to get my mum to kick my butt!

Funny how the day just slips away

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:49:35 -0500

No matter how many times it happens, I'm always surprised at how fast a day can slip away from you. And once that's happened a few times, you realise the whole week came and went and you don't really know what happened to it. I think I need to put my web designing job on hold for a while and work out a way to slow time down.

I was reflecting this morning that my 30 blogging challenge has run it's course, and I've blogged consistently for 30 days in a row. It's been great but is it really over already?

I had a bunch of work that I wanted done by the end of the month (which is today) and a lot of it has been shoved into February, which means I have to try and work twice as hard to get through it so I don't end up at the end of Feb and have another list to push into the next month.

But it's not just the monthly stuff that gets away. Like today, I had hardly started on my work for the day and it was 11 o'clock already. Oh I've tried making lists, I even use WorkflowMax which is an online job management system to give me deadlines but I just can't get through all the work I need to. Maybe I should try scheduling a bit less to be completed each day.

Ok, 'out of time' rant over, now just get back to work - I've still got about 6 hours of work to complete today and it's 9pm already. Yes, I'm quite aware that I'm basically pushing s**t uphill.

No more blogging on Sunday

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:51:22 -0500

I've got to the end of my 30 day blogging challenge and have decided that I will continue blogging, but it won't be every day! I seem to have the most trouble writing on a Sunday.

Like today, I'm trying to think about what I've done that's interesting enough to write about. I slept in (who doesn't on a Sunday), mucked around the house doing some housework and general cleaning, cooked dinner, had a visit from my inlaws (hence the cleaning), and continued doing the updates to my business website once all that was done.

But I did learn a lot over the last 30 days. The main one being that the more often you write, the better and faster you get at it. When I first started writing, it took me over an hour to do a post, often close to 2 hours by the time I'd organised the photo. Now I can get one out in 30 minutes if I'm not distracted.

Cricket also asked us what we had learnt during the challenge. Some of the comments by others really hit home.

The first was about having a backup blog in case you ran out of time. This was something that I really wish I did, as I was often up late at night, churning out my blog post. Having a back up post probably wouldn't have helped me most of the time, but it would have meant a couple less late nights!

A lot of people learnt that if they want to find the time to do something, they can fit it into their busy schedules. I would definitely agree. Before this challenge, I'd been telling myself for at least 2 years that I needed to start blogging, but just never 'found the time' to fit it in. But now that I've started, I can see the benefits of putting something new on a website more often than I had been.

Last but not least: done is better than perfect.

Hedgehog Mischief

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 22:53:52 -0500

It turns out that my hubby accidently created a hedgehog trap when he was digging a hole to fix some pipes. We left it unfilled to check the new join didn't leak, and tonight I found this poor little guy stuck in the hole.

I managed to get him out of the hole without pricking myself. He lay there in the grass for a little while, all curled up in a ball.

Hedgehogs move surprisingly fast. It took him about 4 goes to get off his back, which gave me plently of time to get photos, but every single one of them a moving blur - this one was the best of the lot!

Once he got up, his only thought was to get as far away from the camera lady as possible, so off he went, with me following, clicking away.

At least I got a good closeup (ignore that bit of grass please)

Playing with Adobe Lightroom

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:00:06 -0500

I took a photo looking out my office window today, the clouds looked mean and the photo is a little dark, but I thought it would be perfect to have a play around with in Adobe Lightroom.

I downloaded their 30 day trial to see what the program was like, and while I was waiting, found a whole bunch of presets for it as well. Instead of working for the last 3 hours, I installed Lightroom and all the presets, then proceeded to see what each one (of over 700) looked like on my photo.

Here's a small selection of the ones I saved - there were 40 of them that I liked, which I narrowed down to 16, and finally got it down to 7 that I want to share with you all.

And this is my favourite of the lot:

Turkeys and Eggs

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:06:03 -0500

I was so pleased when one of our turkeys decided to start laying. Finally at least one of them was earning their keep and not destined for the roasting pan. Now I've just got to work out which one it is that is laying.

Actually 2 of the 3 turkey hens we have are laying now, but we don't always get 2 eggs per day.

Turkey eggs taste pretty much like chicken eggs, they're just bigger. Ours have pale yolks and the membrane under the shell is quite tough to get into, but all in all taste good. We don't eat too many eggs, so 1-2 eggs per day is enough to mean we don't have to buy them at the supermarket anymore and when I eventually get chickens as well I'm going to have to come up with some more recipes that use eggs!

This is a photo of my royal palm tom, he's a big boy which we inherited with the other turkeys. You can just see one of the hens in the background, and either another hen or the white tom. He's all puffed up, showing off for another hen and struting his stuff. They actually look about half this size when they're not puffed up and the long red bit over his nose retracts in as well, which is still something that seems very odd to me because it points up in the air when it's not dangling down his face. It's quite amusing when they try to eat it while it's retracting back in.

My turkey conclusion is that they are really dumb animals. They will stand out in the rain, wet and cold, instead of walking a couple of metres into their coop where it is dry with a nice covering of hay on the floor. At least the hens lay inside now.

The hens are not that smart with their chicks, leaving them out in the cold or just abandoning them completely, so before I start letting the hens get broody, I need to set up a brooder box where I can put them to keep them warm and safe.

The funniest thing about these turkeys is the toms gobble at any noise. They are right next to the duck pen, where the ducks quack at any noise. So they get themselves on the roll, where you'll go outside to hear 'gobble gobble gobble, quack quack quack, gobble gobble gobble, quack quack quack' When the calves were down this end of the property we could add in 'moooooooooooooo' It's just a regular little farm here! Wait until I have a rooster doing his thing.

Our next step for the turkeys is to let them be free range. At the moment, they have a modified hen coop with a 4 metre by 4 metre run. We want to let them out into the duck pen which is quite a bit bigger area with a pond about the size of their current run. The only issue is the turkey hens can fly quite well, so unlike the ducks who can't, would probably hop straight over the standard height fence. Once we get some time to extend the fence up about another foot or so we will be able to let them out.

Lets just add it to the list of never ending work that you get out here!

Seafood Dinner

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:16:00 -0500

Yesterday at the supermarket, I managed to get my hands on some whole squid for a really good price, as well as a whole baby salmon and fresh prawns. This called for seafood dinner.

Now I have to admit, I am a pretty good cook, but I had never prepared a whole squid before. But how hard could it be really? I had decided to try a recipe from a close friend - John De Giuseppe who is a wonderful italian cook. So I made his stuffed squid, and with it I was making garlic butter prawns, baby lemon dill salmon steaks and a green salad with romano cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette.

The first step was to remove the legs and head, then remove the insides from the body. 'Just pull the head out and scoop the rest away' was my advice from a friend 'and make sure you remove the cartilage that runs down the inside' Well that sounded easy enough, and I'm game to try anything once. So I started pulling on the head/legs. Ewwww! Finger in squid eyeball was so gross. But not anywhere as gross as once I'd got the head off. My friend didn't mention the gooy snotty yellow pus like stuff that was inside there!! It was enough to put me off preparing my own squid ever again. It was almost enough to put me off my dinner too. That was NASTY. And I had 2 of them to do.

I carried on and got them both done while mum was making the stuffing for them. 'Mum look at this - it's so gross' She promptly turned her back to me and refused to look. Normally I would have picked up whatever it was and shown it to her anyway, but this squid guts was so bad that I wasn't touching it more that I needed to. I thought you would enjoy this photo - it's the 'leftovers' from the squid. Yummy.

The first step of stuffing the squid was to sew together the small end so your stuffing didn't fall out. As my mum is quite excellent at sewing (see her website here and you'll understand) I got her to do this part while I took photos. Once the bottom was sewn together, we proceeded to stuff the squid.

The stuffing was a simple one - for the 2 squid casings I had I used 6 slices of toast, 1 medium onion (diced), 1 teaspoon of dill, half a teaspoon of black pepper, salt to taste, 2 tablesppons of melted butter and a teaspoon of paprika. Mix it all together. It should be pasty, if too dry, add some olive oil until you get the right consistancy.

The final step was the sew together the other end.

Once you've finished sewing the squid, rub the finished cases with olive oil and bake in the oven at 150 degrees for 30 minutes. It was at this part of the recipe that my friend also told me that you can eat the head and legs of the squid - just rub them in olive oil and bake at the same time. I couldn't handle the eyes, so I cut the head off and just did the legs.

Now that the squid was in the oven, I could prepare the salmon. Because it was a baby salmon, I simply cut it into baby steaks, removed the fins, seasoned with lemon and dill, salt and pepper and fried in a pan for 4-5 minutes on each side in a little olive oil. Make sure you rest the salmon when it's cooked, and I think it's better to eat just warmed instead of piping hot, so we left it to cool while the squid was cooking.

Next up the the prawns. I had bought whole prawns (so heads, eyes and all), which we de-headed, pealed and removed the 'poo string'. I put them aside until everthing else was ready as they only take a minute to cook.

Finally I made the salad. With all this seafood, it's best to keep the salad simple but tasty. This is a Gordon Ramsey recipe - in the bottom of your salad bowl, whisk together 1 tablespoon of vinegar (I used balsamic) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil (extra virgin is best) with salt and pepper to taste. Cross your salad servers in the bowl, and put your lettuce on top. This prevents the lettuce from wilting in the dressing while you're getting everything else ready. Top the lettuce with shaved romano cheese. If you don't have romano you can use parmesan which has a milder taste. Your salad is done. Just before eating, remove your salad servers and toss the lettuce through the dressing until well coated and serve immediately.

By now our squid was done, so I removed it from the oven and rested for a minute before slicing. Slice it the same way as you would for squid rings. The legs were chopped into pieces ready to be mixed with the salad.

Finally, cook the prawns. These were being done in a butter garlic sauce - for 20 prawns, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add 4 teaspoons crushed garlic, and fry until the garlic starts to turn brown. Add the prawns and cook until they turn pink - they only take about a minute. Serve immediately - these are best hot.

It sure was a lot of work, and the squid prep was gross, but oh so worth the effort in the end. Enjoy with a cold crisp white wine! Nom nom nom nom nom.

Whenever I need a good laugh...

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:27:13 -0500

Sometimes you're just in the mood for a great laugh. My sister showed me this website last month, and reminded me about it again tonight. I was feeling the need for a pick-me-up, so loaded it up and laughed away.

The site is called Damn You Auto Correct. This is my favourite so far:

Busted ...

Why I love CSS

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:32:57 -0500

Ever since I was introduced to CSS to create my websites about 6 years ago, I have loved it. I love being able to make items on your website go wherever you want to put them, and the challenge of getting a page to look exactly like it did in your design. I would spend all day coding CSS if I could get away with it.

I remember when I did my first websites, before I was introduced to CSS and PHP, mostly they were dummy websites for class projects, but I was so proud of them. And when I look back at them today, all I think is 'Boy did I have a lot to learn' They were so ugly!

Discovery of PHP made making changes to sites a lot easier - set up a file for your menu and include it in every page. That way, when you wanted to add an extra page in, you only had to make changes in one place. Then to go on and discover how to make the most out of CSS was awesome. No more clogged up code - all that styling info was pulled out of my files and put into 1 place which updated the entire website.

And even today I'm still learning more CSS. Version 3 has been around for a while now, but I haven't had to use it yet - most of my design work can be put together with images and the CSS that I already knew.

But today I was putting together a site that had faded out menu buttons when they were highlighted. In the 'days of old' I would have created 2 images for each button - one for normal state, one for the hover. I was thinking to myself, there must be a better way to do this because I now do sites that are CMS based and the menus are automatically generated, which makes lining the images up with the right menu item complicated because the client can change the names of them at any time.

So I started looking up CSS image map menus, which didn't get me very far and weren't really the answer I was looking for. With a little further searching, I found a tutorial about using opacity's, so I continued looking to see how compatible it is across browsers - I use Firefox and Crome mainly, but need to check in IE even if I can't stand it because so many other people use it.

The two lines of code that I used were so simple, the first makes the opacity work in Firefox, Crome etc and the second line is for IE:

opacity:0.7;
filter:alpha(opacity=70)

I added these into the menu hover and menu selected states, and here is the results:

Main Menu with about page selelcted

Main Menu - hovering over Home page

So quick and simple, and it even works in IE! I'll post a link to the actual site when it's up on the server.

Working on my Business Website

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 22:39:48 -0500

I've been making some big changes to my website to get ready for the start of my business blog, and to fit in all the other things that I need to put in it. It's proving to be a bit of a challenge, but it always is when you're working on your own stuff.

I do a lot of design work - which is to be expected of a website and graphic designer. Like all design work, some of it comes easy, and some not so. The most frustrating is when a design has taken a bit longer than normal, but you're really chuffed with it, so present it to the client only to have them say 'no that's not what I want' even though the reason it took longer than normal was because you were trying to create a design that matched the brief that was given.

The problem with designing your own website and other marketing material, is you're never quite happy with it. At least I'm not. I'm continually tweaking stuff when I get a chance, so much that my hubby told me off yesterday. Apparently I have enough other work to do not to be redesigning my website yet again. How do you explain that 'tweaking' what the page looks like isn't a redesign, it's just adjusting bits that you weren't entirely happy with in the first place. I mean I only totally redesigned it Feb last year so I've held onto this one for a while now, which is pretty good going for me.

Yesterday I logged 6 hours in my job management program making changes to my website (minus 45 minutes to write yesterdays blog) so have updated the website platform to be the latest version, updated all of the modules to the latest versions, installed the blog module and styled it to look good, discovered some interesting Silverstripe features and started redesigning the homepage to fit on all the bits that need to go on it now.

I also looked through the photos that I have for my website - you would not believe how hard it is to get suitable photos for a web design business that aren't computers or hosting servers or abstract bits of 'webiness' floating through space.

I've just got to upload it all to the server now so that you can all see what I've done. I do a lot of my development work locally on my computer, then upload it once I'm done, because it cuts out all that 'edit the file, save the changes, upload, check the change, see it's wrong, make another change, upload again' routine. It's easier just to edit, save, refresh.

Perhaps I overdid it for a Saturday because I spent most of today with a wicked headache, so got out of the house for a bit to look at the tractor we're buying. Fun.

Garden update

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:41:18 -0500

In amongst all the website updates I was working my way through today, I managed to take a break and get out in the garden for a short while to plant some more veges and check out what else was happening out there.

When I visited the vegetable shop earlier this week, they had a seedling specials on - 4 pots for $10, so I picked up some a pottle of leeks, 2 rhubarb plants, a pottle of watercress and finally got around to planting them today.

General rule of thumb with seedling pots here seems to be 6 plants to a rectangle pottle, or 1 plant to a round pot. 100 leek plants later, I'd finally separated them out and planted them in the garden. They were very root bound, so hopefully I didn't kill too many in the process and they should take off now that they have some space again.

My rhubarb is at one end of the garden, where it has room to spread out and grow. I got 2 plants and will pick up another couple if they still have them for sale next week. Along from the rhubarb, I've put in some silverbeet seeds which expired in 2004. Most of the seeds that I'm planting are old ones that I found while moving and because it's late in the season for planting. I'm seeing anything that comes up as bonus veges and will plant the garden with fresh seeds in the spring.

Turns out my peas won't be bonus veges this year. I wasn't holding out much hope for them, as they expired in 2003 and the seeds didn't look too healthy when I put them in the ground 3 weeks ago. Nothing has come up as yet.

I have the irrigation race running along the back side of the garden, so have put my watercress into pots which sit on the edge of the race in the shallow water. We'll see how they get on.

My potatoes are growing well and should hopefully be flowering soon, which means late season new potatoes - yum. My corn on the other hand is very stumpy. I had planted it into pots before we moved, but with all the hassles of moving being delayed by a week and too many other things to sort out, they spent a bit long in the pots, which has resulted in corn stalks that are only 1 metre tall (at the most). Lucky I planted some more seeds in the garden when I transplanted the stumpies, so hopefully they will actually grow to the height they should.

I've got flowers on one of my pumpkin plants, and the others are taking off across the garden, but not as fast as the blackberry that's on the other side working it's way towards the sprinkler in the middle. It will be moved out of the garden once the berries are ripe.

And finally I have some lettuces and tomatoes coming up in some pots I put at the edge of the garden. The lettuces is going to be a bit of hit and miss because there also seems to be a lot of weeds coming up as well, and I didn't plant rows which makes it's interesting to work out what is what. The tomato pot seems to be weed free at the moment and I have 4 plants on their way up.

The last thing I planted today was some scarlet runner beans next to the netting fence in the middle of the garden so they should grow up and over that quite nicely. I've only planted one side of the fence, when spring comes around I will do the other side.

I've still got a few things that I want to plant, and some pots of something to transplant (they're either savoy cabbages or broccoli but I can't remember which pot I put which in), but they will need to wait until another day when I have more time. Hmmm, I thought weekends were supposed to be when you had lots of time - yeah right!

Making the move to business blogging

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:42:27 -0500

I've been so inspired with the 30 day challenge that I've been planning how to start blogging for the business - so inspired in fact that I've planned a blog post a week right through until October.

I run my business in 3 main areas - website design, graphic design and working on email marketing which something I should do more of but haven't had the proper plans in place to make it happen. Marketing plans are awesome as they give you clarity and direction. Sticking to it throughout the year is my challenge.

I've starting by making a calendar, and each month I will focus solely on one of my 3 key areas. Once I worked out how many weeks there are in each month, I could work out how many blogs I would be doing. My starting point is 1 blog per week, and we'll go from there.

The best part about blogging for the business is I will actually have interesting information to put out in my email newsletters - which is another thing I'm starting this year. I've always put it off because I've been stuck on what to put in them. At least I know I will have 4-5 articles to choose from.

The first step is to install a blog on my business website, so that I have somewhere to put all these planned blog posts. This website is mostly for my personal blog, so I'm keeping them seperated. My first post will be about having a good logo and brand, so keep an eye out for it!

Growing Grapes

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:43:22 -0500

We inherited some very well established grape vines when we moved to the farm, they are growing well and we'll be eating them when they are ready, hopefully before the million birds around here get to them.

New Zealand has a wide variety of grapes, used for wine making and also eating. I'm not sure what variety we have, but the people here before us had a great habit of leaving the tags on all the rose bushes, so with a little luck I might be able to get under the vines and find something once this seasons grapes are done - there's way too many leaves, vines and grapes to try and get under there at the moment.

According to www.garden-nz.co.nz, you don't get a proper crop from your grapes until the 3rd year, so these vines must be at least that old. There are so many bunches of grapes hidden under the leaves so I hope they don't fall off their support when they ripen. The vines are going to be well in need of a prune once the leaves start to die.

I'm looking forward to when they are ready - there's nothing quite like eating food that you have grown yourself and I think that is the best bit about being out on our farm. We can grow our own fruit and vegetables and raise various animals for the freezer (sorry but it's true).

All going well, all these grapes will be ready for picking in Autumn, which is only a couple of months away now. The easiest way to tell is when the birds start eating them, so I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't eat them all before we get there! Investing in some grape netting to keep them off might be a wise idea.

Blogging my brains out

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:44:52 -0500

I had a friend ask me for some advice about setting their own blog up because I was suddenly "blogging my brains out". It made me smile and tell him about Cricket's 30 Day challenge where I have to blog every day for 30 days. Now he probably thinks I'm crazy (if he didn't already). But it also made me think about how I nearly threw it all in earlier this week.

I got behind a bit on the weekend, busy with the new farm, this, that and the next thing and suddenly Saturday was over before I realised. I hate how the weekends always speed up - it sucks. Not to worry I told myself, I'll do 2 posts tomorrow because it was already 1am and I needed sleep.

Sunday sort of came and went like Saturday, and as I sat down at about 11.30pm that night to write a blog, my brain just wouldn't do it. A little frustrated I thought bugger this and went to bed an hour later, having not written anything.

On Monday I told my mum (who is also doing the challenge), I don't think I'm going to get through this. I can't think of anything to write. "WHAT???" She couldn't believe her ears. I pushed it aside and carried on with the work that I had to get finished that day. At the end of the day, I was sitting at my desk and annoyed. I wasn't going to give up after 17 days of blogging. It was something that I've been telling myself I need to do for over 2 years. I wasn't going to bed until I'd churned out the day's post.

So I sat at the computer and wrote about my writers block, which was actually quite easy to write. I also surprised myself by not only getting that day's post out, but also the two I'd missed over the weekend. It felt really good to be caught up again and to know that I hadn't let myself chuck in the towel.

I'm still going strong and just have to tell myself each day that I will continue to "blog my brains out" cause it makes me smile each time I say it.

Rainy Day

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:46:57 -0500

Today was great - it rained. The ground was so dry that this downpour of rain was much needed to make the grass grow. Or at least start to recover from the big dry spell that we've been having.

I'm not entirely sure how much rain we had, but it was enough to leave my car sitting in a huge puddle.

It was also enough to flood the entire pig pen in about 3 inches of water! The little guys loved digging around in the mud so much today that they managed to dig out the side of the water race. Because it was raining so much, the race was full and completely overflowed out into their pen. So they probably had a great time. We've fixed it up so hopefully their pen will drain again, and in the meantime, they have their shelter filled with hay to snuggle up in.

The rain seems to be easing off now, but it's dark out so I'm not going out to check. But hopefully it's still raining in the morning - believe me we need it.