Toffee Apples!

How exciting! Today we made toffee apples. They smell so good and the kids are really looking forward to eating them a bit later on. I forgot to take photos of the process (!) so I only have shots of their drooling faces.
The kids measured, poured, stirred, timed, and swirled our skewered apples in the hot toffee.  We had to be really quick with swirling the toffee because the toffee was going hard so quickly!
I thought the clean up was going to be disastrous and take forever, especially when some toffee got dripped on the floor but hot water was all we needed :)
As you can see from these photos, the kids are delighted...

Crazy Kids making these funny faces at the Toffee Apples.

What a lot of fun we had. I wonder what we will cook next time?...The kids would like to make Rocky Road... sounds delicious :)

Enriching our Soil

Today we got some nutrients into our soil in our Veggie Patch.  We had purchased fertiliser and soil wetting agent last week but have been so busy that today was our first chance to get down there.
The funniest part of this adventure was Jemma exclaiming "I love the smell of chook poo in the morning!" What a character :)
We took the Dynamic Lifter and the WettaSoil down to our dry, water-resistant earth and started the process of making it suitable for plants.
The boys picked up all the big sticks and scattered the Dynamic Lifter first.  They used hoes to spread it out and dig the fertiliser into the ground:

 

 Once that was added we decided to water it in a bit.  We turned the hose on and got only the smallest dribble out of it.  Aaron was determined to find out what was wrong. Benson suggested there could be a knot in the hose. We followed the hose and discovered there were a few issues with the joins between hoses. 

 

Water sprayed everywhere when we turned the hose on and, as we added pressure by putting our fingers over the hose end, the joins popped apart.  Even the join at the tap exploded off and left water pouring out. Once we got the hoses sorted we were ready to water.

We watered the soil so that it was damp all over, then we added the WettaSoil jug to the hose end.  This product is supposed to help soils retain moisture.  Hopefully this will work otherwise we'll have to look at some other options. 

It's times like this I wish we hadn't had to leave all our beautiful compost at our old house. It would have come in handy right now. We will see what happens.  As our worm farm starts producing more waste we will be able to add those great nutrients to our garden too, but it is still in its baby stages.  When we finally get our chooks, we'll have instant fertiliser all the time :)

Stage 3 of this grand adventure is well underway... I can't say complete because it relies on the soil improving... watch this space!

Art Gallery Fun

We haven't sat down at the computer for a few days because we have been so busy with activities and other school related things.  Today, we adventured out to Campbelltown as Aaron had an Orthodontic appointment. His braces came off today, how very exciting! Toffee Apples will be made this week :)
While in Campbelltown we visited Nanna at the Embroiderer's Guild based at the Campbelltown Art Gallery.  A great opportunity to walk around these beautiful gardens and check out some of the exhibits.  The kids loved the sculpture garden.

Here are some of the photos of our adventure.

The Koi in the Art Gallery Garden pond.

Benson's photograph of the Waterfall into the Art Gallery Garden pond.

Benson snaps Aaron and Jemma.

Aaron captures Jemma trying to give Benson a kiss.

Aaron and Jemma crouch into shot as Benson tests out his photographic skills.

Jemma takes an "Arty" photograph of her brothers.

Aaron's Blog:
I thought the Art Gallery had a very nice feel to it. You know that joyful feeling and sense of peace that you get when everything feels right. My favourite sculpture was "The Wind Tells a Tale". I loved that you could put your ear up to some wood and metal and hear the vibrations of the wind. It was cool. We saw some of the work of the ladies in the Embroiderer's Guild, there was one about the Camden Fair, it was awesome.  It showed our town's character and was a very joyful artwork.  The lady who made it must really love our town, it shows in her work.


Benson's Blog:
I thought the Art Gallery was awesome. I loved the drawing of the pattern in the rocks. I liked it because it shows the patterns were made out of tools that were next to it.  You could see how they scraped the tools over all the small rocks to make the patterns.  It was the coolest thing I've ever seen.



Jemma's Blog:
I liked Benson taking a picture of Aaron and me. I also liked Aaron taking a picture of Benson and Me.