thank you to all of you that have left comments. i can't find how to reply to them so i will do it here. we still haven't moved, and still don't have another house yet. i will not give up hope and i still have faith that the right place for us is out there somewhere.
I haven't actually lived in a town for about 12 yrs now, and the last town I lived in was Pt. Lincoln. I have been far away since then and it seems that the next town i live in will be Pt. Lincoln too. It is a nice enough place, they call it a rural city.
The only thing I really miss is a craft store, there isn't one in the town, or one close enough to drive to. It does have a quilting store that I will be visiting when I have some time & money, but they tend to be on the expensive side. I havent been to this particular store, I am going on my previous experience with quilting stores. I will update when I have a chance to visit and show what I get.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
update
it has been a long time since i have even logged on here as everything has gone downhill and been very depressing.
since we have had the well redug, there was another issue with the water, the pipe going into the well had a split in it and the landlord told us to fix it ourselves, that took a few days and we were without water for that time too.
i have sold all the animals :-( and our lease has expired here. we are currently looking for a place to rent in town but that seems to be harder than it should.
we have been looking for about 3 weeks and still have only been able to have a look in one house. the agents don't seem to be too keen to let anyone have a look. you have to complete an application, including references, then they put you on a list for the houses you would like to see. when they have enough interest from other people they have an open house by invitation.
even though our application has been accepted by a few agents, there has only been one open house so far and this is starting to get depressing and stressfull all at the same time.
My days are now consumed by checking the net for new rental listings, sorting and packing our stuff, while at the same time looking after the kids. When i am too tired to do any of the above and the kids are in bed, i sit and knit.
i do have faith that the right place for us is out there, just need to wait for it.
since we have had the well redug, there was another issue with the water, the pipe going into the well had a split in it and the landlord told us to fix it ourselves, that took a few days and we were without water for that time too.
i have sold all the animals :-( and our lease has expired here. we are currently looking for a place to rent in town but that seems to be harder than it should.
we have been looking for about 3 weeks and still have only been able to have a look in one house. the agents don't seem to be too keen to let anyone have a look. you have to complete an application, including references, then they put you on a list for the houses you would like to see. when they have enough interest from other people they have an open house by invitation.
even though our application has been accepted by a few agents, there has only been one open house so far and this is starting to get depressing and stressfull all at the same time.
My days are now consumed by checking the net for new rental listings, sorting and packing our stuff, while at the same time looking after the kids. When i am too tired to do any of the above and the kids are in bed, i sit and knit.
i do have faith that the right place for us is out there, just need to wait for it.
Monday, March 14, 2011
No Water
Water seems to be a fairly big problem at this place. I'm not sure if i have mentioned it before now, but one of the things that worried me the most about moving into this house was the water. The house is run almost entirely on rain water.
Bore water is used for the toilet and washing machine.
The rain water is a single huge tank that is filled from the roof of a giant machinery shed.
We ran out of rain water. I thought it would be as easy as putting a little bore water in the tank to tide us over til it rained. But nothing ever comes that easily for us.
The connection from the tank to the pipe was broken, so that needed to be fixed first, we had no drinking water and that had to be gotten from somewhere. We had no ready money, so it all had to wait.
Mum and Dad were coming out the next day and were able to bring us some drinking water from my sisters tank. But we had to wait about 30 hours with only about 4 ltrs of water to last us. At least the toilet was on the bore water pump and we did have taps outside with water for other washing needs.
Dad looked at the connection for us and undid the parts then took them home with him to get the new ones. We picked up the new parts a couple of days later and i fixed the connection.
I put a little bore water in the tank so we had water inside. That lasted a little over a week, and still no rain. I had to put a little more in. A few days after that it did rain for about 16 hours straight, which put a fair bit in the tank, and we had drinking water again.
that would have been great if it had ended there, but it didn't. Two days after the rain, the water in the toilet was coming in blackish and a bit slimey and smelly. We didn't know what was going on and checked the bore well, it was empty, so we called the landlord. They told us to turn the bore pump off and see if the well filled any. So we had no flushing toilet and I couldn't do any laundry until it was fixed.
After 2 days there was still no water in the well so we were told they would call the backhoe in. They were going to call that night so we were looking forward to getting it done in the next day or two. No such luck....
Two days later the landlord called back to see if there was any water in the well again....? I wanted to know what happened to the back hoe? then he starts going on about how they will have to come have a look. Then his wife calls the next day saying they can probably come out two days later, on the way back from a day out to Lincoln. Then the landlord rings back saying it won't be until next monday, then complains about having to take a day off work when they are so busy.
In the meantime there are six people (three of them small children) here using and non-flushing toilet and having to tip buckets of rain water down the toilet to stop it stinking up. Not to mention the wash loads of clothes I am having to do by hand. And I was having to water the animals with rain water, and a cow drinks a LOT.
It turned out that they did come on the Friday to check it out, then we copped a lecture on our rainwater usage and how we had gone through so much water and how when they lived here through dry winters they never ran out of water (as if they never had small kids that have no idea) and they only have a family of 4 anyway.
By this time the water in the tank was getting low again so we had to buy water in. $230 to get a truck to cart 10,000 lts of water. Lucky for us we just received a big surprise cheque in the mail from the power company. We had had an extended blackout in december during widespread thunderstorms and they sent us a compensation cheque for over $300. We used this money to get the water for the tank.
In the meantime we were still waiting to get the bore well dug out. They had come out on the Friday to check the well and it was the next friday before they got someone out to dig out the well. Then another two days to let the well settle before we could use it.
We could finally flush the toilet and put through some washing a total of 2 weeks later...I WAS NOT HAPPY.
That was a week ago and I am still trying to catch up on washing.
Bore water is used for the toilet and washing machine.
The rain water is a single huge tank that is filled from the roof of a giant machinery shed.
We ran out of rain water. I thought it would be as easy as putting a little bore water in the tank to tide us over til it rained. But nothing ever comes that easily for us.
The connection from the tank to the pipe was broken, so that needed to be fixed first, we had no drinking water and that had to be gotten from somewhere. We had no ready money, so it all had to wait.
Mum and Dad were coming out the next day and were able to bring us some drinking water from my sisters tank. But we had to wait about 30 hours with only about 4 ltrs of water to last us. At least the toilet was on the bore water pump and we did have taps outside with water for other washing needs.
Dad looked at the connection for us and undid the parts then took them home with him to get the new ones. We picked up the new parts a couple of days later and i fixed the connection.
I put a little bore water in the tank so we had water inside. That lasted a little over a week, and still no rain. I had to put a little more in. A few days after that it did rain for about 16 hours straight, which put a fair bit in the tank, and we had drinking water again.
that would have been great if it had ended there, but it didn't. Two days after the rain, the water in the toilet was coming in blackish and a bit slimey and smelly. We didn't know what was going on and checked the bore well, it was empty, so we called the landlord. They told us to turn the bore pump off and see if the well filled any. So we had no flushing toilet and I couldn't do any laundry until it was fixed.
After 2 days there was still no water in the well so we were told they would call the backhoe in. They were going to call that night so we were looking forward to getting it done in the next day or two. No such luck....
Two days later the landlord called back to see if there was any water in the well again....? I wanted to know what happened to the back hoe? then he starts going on about how they will have to come have a look. Then his wife calls the next day saying they can probably come out two days later, on the way back from a day out to Lincoln. Then the landlord rings back saying it won't be until next monday, then complains about having to take a day off work when they are so busy.
In the meantime there are six people (three of them small children) here using and non-flushing toilet and having to tip buckets of rain water down the toilet to stop it stinking up. Not to mention the wash loads of clothes I am having to do by hand. And I was having to water the animals with rain water, and a cow drinks a LOT.
It turned out that they did come on the Friday to check it out, then we copped a lecture on our rainwater usage and how we had gone through so much water and how when they lived here through dry winters they never ran out of water (as if they never had small kids that have no idea) and they only have a family of 4 anyway.
By this time the water in the tank was getting low again so we had to buy water in. $230 to get a truck to cart 10,000 lts of water. Lucky for us we just received a big surprise cheque in the mail from the power company. We had had an extended blackout in december during widespread thunderstorms and they sent us a compensation cheque for over $300. We used this money to get the water for the tank.
In the meantime we were still waiting to get the bore well dug out. They had come out on the Friday to check the well and it was the next friday before they got someone out to dig out the well. Then another two days to let the well settle before we could use it.
We could finally flush the toilet and put through some washing a total of 2 weeks later...I WAS NOT HAPPY.
That was a week ago and I am still trying to catch up on washing.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
defeated at every turn
The next time I went into town I bought all the things I needed to make a veggie garden. I got seeds, seed raising mix, trays to plant them in, trays to sit the seed trays on. And all in vain.
The kids had some raddish seeds to plant so we went about planting them. I picked up the wrong end of the seed packet and half of them fell into the bag of seed raising mix. I tried to get the kids to help but too many hands in the way make for a stressful time, so I packed up til later.
I planted the seeds the next evening when all the kids were in bed, to protect the planting process, then I locked the seeds in the little shed, to protect them from the kids. BUT I didn't count on the rats or mice or whatever it was that went into every little seed hole, dug out the seeds and ate them. (hope they all got stomach ache).
A few of the seeds survived, apparently they don't like green bean seeds, or all the raddish seeds that were mixed in. These started growing tall and strong (raddishes came up everywhere in a couple of days), a few days after the beans sprouted we had 3 extremely hot days that killed off all the seedlings.
The kids had some raddish seeds to plant so we went about planting them. I picked up the wrong end of the seed packet and half of them fell into the bag of seed raising mix. I tried to get the kids to help but too many hands in the way make for a stressful time, so I packed up til later.
I planted the seeds the next evening when all the kids were in bed, to protect the planting process, then I locked the seeds in the little shed, to protect them from the kids. BUT I didn't count on the rats or mice or whatever it was that went into every little seed hole, dug out the seeds and ate them. (hope they all got stomach ache).
A few of the seeds survived, apparently they don't like green bean seeds, or all the raddish seeds that were mixed in. These started growing tall and strong (raddishes came up everywhere in a couple of days), a few days after the beans sprouted we had 3 extremely hot days that killed off all the seedlings.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Too much grass
When the land lords returned from their holidays, they complained about the long grass, and gave us 5 days to clean it up or they were kicking us out. For some unknown reason he called late at night and angry, both no nos for a landlord...
They didn't want to listen to anything about the mower not working even though we had been in contact with them about the problems we were having... They insisted that people were calling them all the time and complaining about it (including our neighbours)... On top of all that he said we couldn't start the mower for 2 or 3 days coz the grass was too wet to mow. HUH??
I was so stressed that he was using this as an excuse to get us out for some reason and that we wouldn't be able to get it done that I had a migraine headache for 3 days anyway.
He had called Friday night, we didn't go to church so we had more time to get things done, and I forgot to let anyone know. Dad called to see what was wrong, so I told him. He got my brother to come out and help. He didn't have any problems with using the mower in that forbidden time. He came out 3 days in a row and mowed everything for us. He got the little mower going and Jamie and Ashlea mowed with that in the smaller gaps that the ride-on mower wouldn't fit in. And I watched the kids and cleaned house and visited with my sister-in-law.
When Monday morning came I called the advice line for tenants and landlords and got some advice, which led to a phone call back to the landlord (not my thing, I hate confrontation). All I wanted to tell him was that he couldn't call late, or angry and he couldn't evict us over the phone. This tuned out to be about an hour long phone call in which he basically called me an idiot and a liar several times, including telling me how to reduce my power bill. I put a stop to that line of convo, and reminded him why I had called.
Let me just say that I did realise the grass had to be done, I was just trying to stress to him that there was a proper way to go about it.
He said they would be out to check the grass in a week instead of a couple of days. that was ok since it was all done besides the edges anyway. I bought a whipper snipper (edger thingy) and spent the next 2 days doing the edges (there is a huge area we had to keep done). Then they didn't show up for another 2 weeks anyway. And all was up to scratch, and we are still here.
They didn't want to listen to anything about the mower not working even though we had been in contact with them about the problems we were having... They insisted that people were calling them all the time and complaining about it (including our neighbours)... On top of all that he said we couldn't start the mower for 2 or 3 days coz the grass was too wet to mow. HUH??
I was so stressed that he was using this as an excuse to get us out for some reason and that we wouldn't be able to get it done that I had a migraine headache for 3 days anyway.
He had called Friday night, we didn't go to church so we had more time to get things done, and I forgot to let anyone know. Dad called to see what was wrong, so I told him. He got my brother to come out and help. He didn't have any problems with using the mower in that forbidden time. He came out 3 days in a row and mowed everything for us. He got the little mower going and Jamie and Ashlea mowed with that in the smaller gaps that the ride-on mower wouldn't fit in. And I watched the kids and cleaned house and visited with my sister-in-law.
When Monday morning came I called the advice line for tenants and landlords and got some advice, which led to a phone call back to the landlord (not my thing, I hate confrontation). All I wanted to tell him was that he couldn't call late, or angry and he couldn't evict us over the phone. This tuned out to be about an hour long phone call in which he basically called me an idiot and a liar several times, including telling me how to reduce my power bill. I put a stop to that line of convo, and reminded him why I had called.
Let me just say that I did realise the grass had to be done, I was just trying to stress to him that there was a proper way to go about it.
He said they would be out to check the grass in a week instead of a couple of days. that was ok since it was all done besides the edges anyway. I bought a whipper snipper (edger thingy) and spent the next 2 days doing the edges (there is a huge area we had to keep done). Then they didn't show up for another 2 weeks anyway. And all was up to scratch, and we are still here.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
getting back into it
After a bit of a holiday from blogging, I have decided to get back into it... I guess I got a bit disappointed from the constant setbacks and didn't really have any accomplishments to publish.
Spring has come and gone and I still don't have a garden in :(. The rotory hoe worked for a couple of hours then the rope pull got jammed and I couldn't start it again. I had to pull the front off and rewind the rope. I didn't get to that until a couple of weeks after it happened (I got sick the next morning) and I haven't been able to start it since then.
Next I had all my little pots laid out full of seed raising mix ready to plant seeds in and the kids tipped it all over the grass when I wasn't looking.
Next thing went wrong: the kids found my seed stash. out of about 100 packets of seeds I had been collecting to start my new garden, I only have 10 left..They planted them all through the gaps in the decking (I don't know if they expected something to grow or not)
So no garden yet, but 2 days ago I started digging in the old greenhouse area. I was going to do that anyway because it is soft enough in there to dig by hand. But the chickens found the peas I planted in there and I had to fix up the chook run so I could lock them up, I still don't know how they kept escaping but they have been in there 3 days now and are still there.
Next trip to town I will be getting seed raising mix and we will be off again. If I get some stuff planted in here, hopefully we can get the thing repaired (we have plastic, but need to replace most of the wood) and have summer veg through winter.
Spring has come and gone and I still don't have a garden in :(. The rotory hoe worked for a couple of hours then the rope pull got jammed and I couldn't start it again. I had to pull the front off and rewind the rope. I didn't get to that until a couple of weeks after it happened (I got sick the next morning) and I haven't been able to start it since then.
Next I had all my little pots laid out full of seed raising mix ready to plant seeds in and the kids tipped it all over the grass when I wasn't looking.
Next thing went wrong: the kids found my seed stash. out of about 100 packets of seeds I had been collecting to start my new garden, I only have 10 left..They planted them all through the gaps in the decking (I don't know if they expected something to grow or not)
Next trip to town I will be getting seed raising mix and we will be off again. If I get some stuff planted in here, hopefully we can get the thing repaired (we have plastic, but need to replace most of the wood) and have summer veg through winter.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Leave them alone!!
In the end we did leave the sheep alone, and they didn't come home again. But the farmer did round up his sheep and singled ours out in the yards and we picked them up a few days later.
After wintering in the paddocks with the farmers sheep they didn't look well at all. We only got 4 of our 5 sheep back, but one had a ewe lamb so we are back to where we were last year. They were skinny (not sure why, there was plenty of feed) with runny noses and sneezy. They have been home for about a week now and seem to be getting better.
Now all we need is a ram before February next year and hopefully a good season next year
After wintering in the paddocks with the farmers sheep they didn't look well at all. We only got 4 of our 5 sheep back, but one had a ewe lamb so we are back to where we were last year. They were skinny (not sure why, there was plenty of feed) with runny noses and sneezy. They have been home for about a week now and seem to be getting better.
Now all we need is a ram before February next year and hopefully a good season next year
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