Thanks to everyone who commented about the unusual things which had been happening with my Evolution email program. The Linux Pimp and Vladimir suggested unselecting “Caret Mode” from the “View” menu, it worked!! Emails with embedded graphics no longer begin at the bottom of the message.

Douglas is a CFS (Country Fire Service) volunteer so we were invited to the birthday celebrations. There was also the commissioning of a new fire unit. I caught up with some old friends and met some new people too. It was a lovely afternoon.

Here are all the volunteers-

I’m very proud of Doug!!!

country fire service, volunteer firefighters

I said I would post before and after photos and I forgot to take a before photo. This photo sorta shows what the ground was like before.

This is my weed mat garden bed. I’ve planted ‘Honeypod’ peas and cherry tomato seedlings today. The peas only take 5 – 6 weeks to mature! I’d like to plant some corn but I’m not sure about the water requirements.

I’ve got more weed mat so I’ll be using it in another area of the back yard. I”m making some liquid fertiliser – chook poo and water, leave it for a week or two, water it down if it’s strong and water plants.

organic gardening, weed mat

Read some more of Jackie French’s “The Wilderness Garden” this morning. I’m following her instructions for a weed mat garden. I bought some weed mat today, it’s very cheap and some seedlings, cherry tomatoes and peas. I’ve got a trellis for the peas and can stake the tomatoes if needed. I’ll take some before and after photos and post them here.

The seeds I was raising have died before I could even plant them out in the garden 🙁 I had silver beet, celery, carrots, spring onions and parsley which have all died because of the unusually dry and hot spring. I’ve got strawberries, coriander and a small potted parsley which are surviving. I haven’t planted anything else yet I’m still making up my mind what to plant and what not to with the weather being so dry.

I love Jackie French’s gardening books and the column she writes, From Season To Season, for Earth Garden magazine. I noticed on her website she’s put a list of what to plant in October. It includes some of my favourites, so I might give some, or all, of these a try: carrots (again), lettuce, silver beet (again), corn, tomatoes, zucchini and radishes. But I’m going to have to do some serious water conservation and recycling, not that I don’t at other times but I’ll need to do even more to get a decent garden going this year.

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Jackie French, Veggie Garden, Earth Garden Magazine

This is another question I’ve been asked. This is only my view on it. I don’t know about all school subjects at all levels. Jessica is year 8 and Douglas is year 11. As we come to new subjects I learn right along with the kids. Some things Doug is teaching himself and I don’t need to be highly involved. I can give help or advice as needed or just point him in the right direction. With Jessica we mostly research and learn a new topic together. Doug helps Jessica with her Maths as it definitely isn’t my best subject, although I keep working on it 🙂

We probably won’t cover every single subject and topic which are covered in schools but I don’t see that it matters. As long as my kids can learn how to teach themselves I’m more than happy. They may go on to TAFE or uni or apprenticeships etc to learn specific skills when they’re older.

homeschooling, self taught