OUR WEEK

On a cold rainy afternoon there is nothing better than 

a bowl of HOT rolled oats when you get home from school

In Jordan's opinion anyway!

 

 mmmmmm

 oooohhh

 arrrrrhhh

yummy!

Paul's home-made Sour Dough - it just keeps getting 

better n better

 Mr Money Bags!

Can you see all those red hotels - they belong to Jordan

and he is well on his way to another 3.

Paul & I had no chance at all

 Unlocking the car to drive Jordan to school this morning 

and what should greet me from the roof of the car .....

A few choice words came out of my mouth I can tell you!

Being the brave person I am, we went in the other car!!!

Arriving home to show Paul and although he was nowhere to be found initially,
when we did spot him he was in a better position for PAUL (not me!)
to encourage him OFF my car........
I promptly moved the car so he couldn't come back to visit or take up residence
- I know very UN-neighbourly of me!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend xx

OUR 1 LEGGED VISITOR

MOONLIGHT

Last night's amazing sky!

OUR WEEK

 A hug for Ba on his last morning with us

 2 out of the 3 veggie gardens finished, 

including netting to keep the birds away from the fruits of my produce!

I am happy to say that after all the HEAVY rain we have had in the last couple of days, they are still standing and intact - am I surprised, well yes - a little bit!

Jordan's swimming has improved so much and after only 3 group lessons with Sally he has gone up a level. 

He has gone from only just putting his head under the water to doing torpedo's and swimming on his own in just a few short months - Fantastic effort Jordan, we are so proud of you and the determination & courage you have shown to get to this point in such a short time.  Well done!

SNAKE INSIDE......

Me:  Screaming!

Paul on skype talking to Jordan:  What was that noise?

Jordan talking to Paul:  Just mummy screaming!!

and the reason for my screaming.......

(just for the record, it is not a regular occurrence for me to scream, 

in fact I can't remember the last time I did)

Why is it that these things always happen when hubby is away!!

So after the panic attack and the dancing on the spot (its what I do when I am stressed), I ran to the neighbour who suggested ringing the snake man.

Another panic attack when the Snake Man told me it would take 30mins for him to get here and I would have to watch the snake - not that I was letting it out of my sight as I definitely did not want to have a "lost" snake in the house.

Thankfully the neighbour's wife came around to keep me company and calm me down whilst waiting for the Snake Man who incidentally was nice enough to NOT laugh when he saw the size of it!!

The baby snake was indeed a Tree Snake and totally harmless,

but as the Snake Man told me if you cannot see the belly it is very hard to know if you are unfamiliar with snakes.

Apparently, baby Brown snakes can look very similar and have the same potency venom as an adult so they can kill you and are quite aggressive - nice to know but I can tell you I won't be going anywhere near a snake - baby or adult, tree snake or brown!!

So eventually Jordan got to school and I headed off to enjoy a lovely lunch with the girls.

On the way back though I dropped in at home to pick up Jordan's soccer gear and just happened to glance at the window and saw this.......

Snake No 2

An adult this time and thankfully on the outside of the house but it was determined to get to the inside - I have never seen a snake acting how this snake did.

After some more dancing around on the spot I made a call to organise Jordan being picked up and taken to Soccer then rang the Snake Man for the 2nd time today and staked out a good spot to watch Snake No 2 all the time praying it would not disappear off into the garden so the Snake Man wouldn't be able to find him.

 

This snake was checking out all the corners of the fly screens to see if it could get in.  The Snake Man told me this behaviour normally only happens when it is mating season and the male can smell the scent of a female who has gotten inside.......  please NO more snakes inside!!

So both snakes are far far away and I can relax when Jordan is outside playing and not be worried that there is a snake trying to get inside in to our territory!

In the Garden this morning .....

Hanging out the washing this morning I could hear a kind of rustling in the trees.  It didn't sound like birds and I was pretty sure I knew what it was.   I kept looking but couldn't see anything until all of a sudden I spotted "it" behind the huge catus plant.  Well what I thought "it" was, actually turned out to be "2".  Two tree snakes mating - it was fascinating to watch (hah, so much for their privacy) but I have just thought about what this actually means "baby snakes" arghhh

Sorry I couldn't get a photo but they were pretty active and not that easy to see unless I got up on the rocks and I was not getting any closer......... (I thought I was being pretty brave as it was by just staying around the general area where I could see them!!

Rain, rain and more rain

How we have been waiting to see this!

Its a photo of the water coming out of the overflow pipe on our tanks

which means that we will be going into summer with full tanks!

I only wish we could contain the extra water and send it where water is needed.

I know most people are sick of the rain and its awful for the people who have been flooded out, 

but when you are living off tank water it really is a wonderful thing.

Birdlife in our back yard

It can be so noisy at times, especially as dusk but what a delightful "noise" to listen to.

THE TICK SAGA CONTINUES.....

Again I thought we had seen the worst of it, but alas not so.........

It appears Jordan is one of the "unlucky" ones that has reacted  quite severely to his tick bite.  Now for most people tick bites are painless and in many cases they will fall off of their own accord and they will be none the wiser.  In fact most ticks are so small that you wouldn't even know they were there.  Other people have a slight  localised reaction to the tick bite which may last from 2 weeks up to a couple of months with local redness to bite area, itching and burning.  I say slight because compared to the next group it is relatively slight although I am sure to the person concerned it does not seem slight.  The next group is the people who have severe reactions and  unfortunately Jordan is in this group of people.  My understanding is that the earlier you notice the tick and correctly remove it, the lesser the reaction is likely to be.  For Jordan the 2nd tick which was removed very shortly after it had attached itself (they can take up to a couple of hours before attaching) has really cause very little in the way of a reaction (slight localised infection similar to a pimple which was treated with Essential Oils and Honey) but the 1st tick bite has had a very different reaction.  

Headaches (apparently tick related headaches are very different)

Fever

Rash
Eschar at bite site
Very sensitive to touch on skin

It appears that Jordan developed "Spotted Fever" which is a rare reaction associated with tick bites and looks a little similar to Chicken Pox.  Although the wound of the bite got quite large and nasty it is now healing very nicely and he is well and truly on the road to recovery.  His appetite is back to normal and today  he is back to jumping, running and just being an energetic little boy.  It makes me so happy to see a smile on his face again.

One of the challenges we had was to find a way to get Jordan to take Raw Garlic as it is one of the strongest antibacterial, antiviral, anifungal and antiparasite "drugs" on the planet, hence it was very important to get into him.  Jordan would not take it orally so we found this recipe for "GOOT".

GOOT GARLIC OIL TREATMENT
 

Ingredients

3 tablespoons Coconut Oil
3 tablespoons Olive Oil

3 tablespoons Raw Garlic - chopped

Warm Coconut oil over stove until melted and add the olive oil. Remove from heat and add freshly chopped garlic. Blend at slow speed, then at high speed for two minutes using a blender or stick blender.  Pour mixture through a sieve to remove chunks of garlic that the blender may have missed. Pour into a wide mouth jar and label it "GOOT." Place in a refrigerator.
Freshly made, the mixture is a milky color and runny. GOOT turns into a thick soft paste after one hour.

GOOT, rubbed into the skin, transfers raw garlic oil directly into the blood stream.

Apply on the feet of children or infants to fight infections. Rub on chest for chest colds, pneumonia or rub into nostrils for sinus infections.Place on cotton swab for ear infections. Apply directly to sores inside the mouth. Apply on rashes any place. GOOT kills parasites, bad bacteria and virus by direct application.

In addition, it treats systemic infections by absorption through the skin into the blood supply and travels throughout the body. After two weeks, make a new batch of GOOT.

Thank you to everybody for their support, advise, ideas and well wishes - it has been quite a journey which thankfully we can see the end of.