Monday ramblings

I have just sat down with a nice cup of tea and piece of carrot cake after a morning of taking Sarah to work and in the process giving her 25 minutes of driving time and then Katherine the same on the way home and picking up our friend Kurt to spend the school holidays with us. After getting home we finished setting up my wheat grinder so now we can have beautiful fresh ground flour, Another step in getting my family on a healthier diet.

After spending almost 2 years away sharefarming where both Mark and I were milking the cows and spending a lot of time trying to fix the farm where we were, I did not spend much time inside and as a result our diet went down hill, we did have yummy raw milk on tap so we had lots of yoghurt, and smoothes. And the girls all had to step up and take over lots of the household duties, all three can cook very well, and keep up with the house work, but to make life easier we had lots of packaged foods, and the house we lived in was very damp and cold, with black mold covering some walls. The water was undrinkable, the water came from a dam that was murky, the cows had access to it and the ducks spent a lot of time in it, we couldn't even see the bottom of the bath when we ran it. We seemed to get sick more often than usual, I was so tired all the time that I was often frightened to drive the 15 minutes into town, and then so I would make it home I would buy a chocolate bar or iced coffee, and Ayala was sick so often that one of the ladies she works with gave her the name of another doctor,a lady who only sees women, so after so many blood tests she felt like a pin cushion, nothing conclusive has been found. So on moving back home I determined to improve our living conditions, lots of fresh air, sunshine, and weaning ourselves of packaged foods. I brought a juicer about 2 weeks ago, so we have been having all sorts of concotions with fruit and vegetable juices, some really yummy, some have almost caused a mutiny in my kitchen. But with the juices, salads with every evening meal, the most beautiful pure clear water from our well we are all feeling better. So another step in our healthy change was to set up our wheat grinder. I had brought it about 18 years ago and did grind wheat and make bread but I was very young and was in the process of having 3 little girls in 3 years so it became too much, and my pregnancy taste buds weren't inclined to like whole wheat. So the grinder sat in the shed till now. I brought it up to the house and cleaned it up. Dan and I set it up but needed Marks electircal hanyman skills to finish it off. and true to form, as I had started the job of setting it up and not nagging him to do it, he gladly came in and finished the job off, without even being asked, although I had hinted that we needed his expertise.

Now I need to think about what I need to do for the rest of the day. The end of June is here so our tax records need finalising, I have a vege garden that I had wanted to spend an hour every day in, which does not happen very often. but hopefully now that school is out for 2 weeks, Ayala is home, and Kath does not have any more classes although she have to keep up with her Design and Tech, so my taxi driving is limited to Sarah who unlike Ayala has to work regardless of school holidays, so I should be able to get some of the things done that I want/have to get to.