Tag Archives: nesting

Extreme Nesting!

by . Posted on
15 Sep

Having got Arthur safely on the ground and on the udder, we had a crazy week turning our little house into a welcoming home for Benjamin.  (Having been so certain about a name for so long, I have to admit to being completely open-minded now about what he/she might be called.  I guess he/she will tell me when they get here . . . )

Ged spent the weekend sanding first the Baby’s room floor and then our room.  Which obviously necessitated complete removal of everything from both (as well as the dismantling of most of the rest of the house to protect everything from dust) so we were camped out sleeping on the mattress on the sitting room floor for almost a week while the subsequent layers of Tung Oil were applied and dried.  Not comfortable!  Especially when you are a Weeble and can’t get up from a lying position at the best of times!
On Tuesday Ged drove me into Port Macquarie for a fairly full on day of getting jobs done, supplies in, last treatments for both of us prior to the birth and a trip to the midwife (who now has my 4WD – just in case of floods!)  Then I had several days when work was completely abandoned as I wielded my trusty paintbrushes and rollers.  I call this ‘extreme nesting’!!  At 5pm on Friday night the upholsterer delivered the newly loose covered sofa and at 7 we had the lovely Chris and Ruth Latimore over for supper . . . and after some fairly hilarious and very stressed joint effort, we have a house that is truly and properly a home . . . at last.
Saturday was the most surreal and peaceful day – hot and airless and lazy.  Ged gave me a massage which was blissful and then I went for a walk before coming home to eat and sleep.  It felt as if I could FINALLY rest now that we had the home I had so long envisioned.  And the day had a most meditative quality, the calm before the storm . . . so when the Baby spent all day Sunday wriggling down into a full-on birthing position and the Braxton Hicks doubled me over, I was sure we were starting labour, and after eight months of talking confidently about it, the fear set in . . . .  But by late that night it had all calmed down (false alarm!) and it looks like we are back on track and I have had my little terror tantrum!
I will have to get Ged to take a picture as I am absolutely ENORMOUS now, and looking forward to being able to do up my shoes again.  Although as I said to Ged the other night, I have been pregnant for so long that I can’t remember what NOT being pregnant feels like.  Arthur is growing like a weed and it is fascinating to witness the herd mentality to Mothering – he is always baby-sat by someone, male or female, horse or cow, and all the cows are chasing Phee away from his new friend (much to Phee’s simultaneous amusement and disgust!).  Even Tinkerbell has become broody which is hilarious to see, and Baby is adamant that she is going to the stallion in a month or so when the Baby Bonus money comes in (after all, it has got her name on it!)
So here we sit, being patient now, clearing the desk and waiting to meet this little person I’ve been growing . . . as ready as we can be in body, mind, space and soul.  Another new chapter is about to begin  . . .

Ged the Builder

by . Posted on
08 Jul

Gary arrived on Monday but unfortunately doubled over with some sort of bug so after I’d cleaned the caravan for him, we just put him to bed in the hope that work proper on the office might start in the morning.  I dosed him up with homeopathics and they seem to have done the trick as he and Ged have been out there digging out the holes, mixing cement and embedding the piers in the hill.  Ged mixed and barrowed 82 loads of cement downhill from mixer to hole – Gary did two!!  And I got to see my husband the builder in all his glory – lordy those boys can eat!

Luckily the good weather has remained with us although the nights are getting really cold now and the fire is burning day and night to keep the house warm.  It feels so good to finally have progress being made on the office.  The little nesting mother is getting quite antsy about getting the office all finished and the clutter out of the house so she can prepare a sacred space for the baby . . .
We drove down to Sydney on Friday to stay with Shirley and Marcel.  We went out for great Indian food near them which was lovely and good to catch up.  They are full of excitement about their impending six week sojourn in Italy so it was good of them to have the love tribe invade for a night.  We were all up and gone early on Saturday morning, they to work and us to brave the hordes at IKEA (which seems to be mecca for mums to be, judging by the bumps traversing the aisles!)  We got the last little bits for the kitchen, a gorgeous mosquito/fly net for the baby which has given me the ‘theme’ for his room, and various other bits and pieces for the house.  And then it was off car hunting for Ged.  He has decided to change his car completely.  When he bought his ‘ute’ it was for him alone as he was still working for his brother’s firm and thus had a work truck.  And even though we fitted the ute out with metal boxes for all his tools they cannot weather the dirt roads.  Since we also need a nice family car with rear doors for easy access to bub, Ged can swap his car for a pure work wagon that really suits his business.  He has done heaps of research and has come up with a plan!  So we were scoping out the possibilities in Sydney.  Then we were late for our hair appointment in Newport (sorry, Ilia!) but it was bliss for both of us to be rid of the weight on our heads and to catch up with Ilia and Rosa.  A quick walk on the beach with Phee – it is so long since I went to the beach at Newport, I remember how much I loved my daily walks and runs there – I do miss the beach no matter how blessed I am with river and nature, there is something so primal and elemental about the ever-changing vista of the waves and their roaring and shushing on the sand.
Next stop was Ilia and Rosa’s new home that they are building to pick up a wood burning stove they have donated to us out of the old house they demolished.  It was great to walk through the frame and see the scope of the new house – huge!  Nice big block and building proceeding to schedule so hopefully they will be in by Christmas.  And then we were off again – this time to the Central Coast for a quick shower and change at our Motel and then dinner with Steve, Cherie, Aaron, Leisa and Gary – our first catch up with them since the wedding.  We went to some appalling pizza place but had a good time nonetheless – next time Ged and I will choose the venue!!  Sunday we bought jocks and socks for the lady who keeps outgrowing her clothes (me!) and then spent the day with them all and the kids which was nice.  Finally home just before the witching hour and my god it was good to breathe the crisp, fresh, peaceful air of home, looking up at the star-filled sky and revelling in the space surrounding us.  How anyone lives in cities is beyond us!!

That’s the nicest thing about going away – it’s so, so good to be home again!

White Ant invasion

by . Posted on
09 May

We have been scrubbing the Comboyne office (and there are those of you who know how much it needed it!!)  We have given away the fridge, toaster and microwave and packed up all the paraphernalia belonging to Ged’s brother and his business and are almost free and unfettered . . . we have exchanged on the sale of Ged’s 400 acre block and are now just awaiting settlement so it’s a good feeling for us both to be clearing out the detritus of his bachelor life and more fully embracing the life we have chosen together.  Needless to say, I won’t let him keep much!!

Meanwhile, down on the farm, we have discovered where the white ants went after we ejected them from my side of the shed where they were gnawing on the wooden mattress supports for one of my beds.  No, they haven’t gone up into the bush where there are thousands of felled trees they could nibble on to their little hearts’ content, they migrated instead to Ged’s shed and set up camp in the beautiful Tasmanian Oak flooring we had set aside for the office . . . they were obviously pretty bloody hungry, because there isn’t much left!
So Ged has been burning the equivalent of money as he sorts through the mess and I have been on the internet searching out sure-fire death to these pestilent perpetrators of wholesale wood massacre.  They’ve got 400 acres of wood out there – what’s so bloody tasty about my furniture???!!
Poor Shirley and Marcel have recently discovered White Ant in their Guest Annexe so both Marcel and I have been investigating options.  He is Sherlock Holmes, I am Watson.  He has gone down the pest man route, to the detriment of his bank balance.  We are still looking for solutions which go back to the nest and kill the queen, because we need an on-going long-term solution.
We are avidly watching the second series of The West Wing on DVD (which Neil and Jane lent us) and I am simultaneously reading ‘A Woman In Charge’ – Carl Bernstein’s balanced portrayal of Hillary Clinton.  Since The West Wing is based on the Clinton era I found factual events and actions on which the plots were based as I read on.  I found the book absolutely fascinating.  Highly recommended to anyone who lived through, and wondered about, the Clinton history, marriage, Whitewater and all those women . . . I’m not sure whether to be sad or relieved that she’s been sidelined by Obama.  The feminist in me wants a woman in the White House very badly.  But Hillary – I’m not so sure.
I am loving being at home more, revelling in the beauty of this idyllic spot, and most definitely nesting . . .
Return of the platypus . . .