The winter prune

Over winter we had around 200 fruit trees to try and prune. Needless to say we FAILED. We had 2 weeks over the winter school holidays to try and get it done. And it rained the first week. But we did succeed in getting the apples and pears completed. It was by far a huge learning curve. Neither of us have pruned fruit trees before so we were out there with the book trying to check we were cutting the right bits off.

After about 5 trees we just started hacking randomly. It was going to be far too much work being so precise. the picture above is just one row of our espaliered apples. Below is the end result of our work. I did most of this with Immali wrapped to me all snuggled and warm and sleeping. I so wish I had a photo pruning with her but I dont.

we left the other half till Spring holidays. But again it rained and we could not find the motivation to get it done.

Next year we need a new plan and a system to get the whole orchard pruned ready for fruiting.

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I just cant find any time to blog at the time

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Frog bread

I stumbled onto a recipe to make frog bread. I thought it would make the perfect lunch time surprise at preschool. So set about the enormous task of making 4 bread doughs, adding colouring to them, splitting, shaping and laying in the correct order to create the awesomeness of the picture directly below.


On our diet we can only use natural coloured food dyes. Things rose oddly and so my frog bread was far from idea. Hmmm I would like to try it again one day though.




ETA: the recipe I used no longer exists on the web so the link has been removed and a picture added instead. It was just a regular bread dough recipe so whatever you normally use just add food dye.

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Legionnaires’ disease deaths now at 8 in Portugal

"In what has been reported to be the third largest Legionnaires’ disease outbreak seen since the disease was first discovered in 1976, the outbreak in suburban Portugal has claimed the lives of more people. The death toll has climbed to eight in a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak in Portugal, while the total case count has risen to 317, according to an AFP report Nov. 16.

This is up from the 302 cases of the bacterial infection and five deaths reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) three days ago.

Portuguese health officials have said that cooling towers at a fertilizer plant were the likely source of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. Environment Minister Jorge Moreira da Silva said the cooling towers at Adubos de Portugal, a unit of Spanish company Fertiberia have been shut down in an attempt to get the growing outbreak under control.

On Thursday, the WHO called the outbreak in Vila Franca de Xira, a suburban area of Lisbon, the biggest Legionella disease outbreak detected in Portugal. UN health officials said the outbreak was “rapidly evolving” and considered it a major public health emergency.

According to reports, the current outbreak in Portugal is the third largest registered worldwide, after the 2001 outbreak in Spain (450 cases registered and 6 deaths) and the Netherlands outbreak in 1999 (over 300 infected and 32 dead).

Legionnaires’ disease gained national notoriety in 1976 when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered it during an epidemic of pneumonia among American legion members at a convention in Philadelphia."

Taken from Outbreak News Today, original article by Robert Herriman on November 17, 2014

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Today at 3 PM dont miss it!

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Birth at Mudflower

?Immalis birth is almost indescribable, there really are no words for how absolutely amazing it was. I can write about what happened, I can list the things in order but there really is no way to capture the awesomeness of her birth. I almost feel blessed to have been given the privelege of bringing her into this world. It was the most perfect birth and I find myself each day longing to go back to those moments to re-live them.

But to tell her story. It all began at around 11pm on Monday 16th May at 41 weeks pregnant. I was not utterly convinced that I was in labour for real this time and so tried to sleep, but much like the prelabour of the past 4 weeks I could not sleep through it particularly well. Close to midnight I thought I best call Lisa (my midwife) and let her know what is going on. The intention was to let her know to get some sleep, she decided for me that I was most definately in labour and she was on her way.

Since Lisa was on her way I thought I best get Damo out of bed and get him moving on the pool. Then tried to get hold of Danielle without a great deal of effort as I really was feeling no urgency. While Damoworked like a machine getting the pool ready I stayed online chatting to the beautiful Kizzah in between contractions. Funny to think I had told her I would not been online updating her when I was in labour, but there I was being wonderfully distracted in between each contraction while I sat on the gym ball. The hour flew by thanks to a wonderful friend staying up late with me.

At 1am I decided a shower might be nice, things were getting a touch more intense and thought the hot water on my back may ease the pain. It did help ease the pain but also massively intensified the contractions. I really started to struggle in the shower and was really wondering why I was coping so poorly (little did I know how close I was to birthing). I filled the base of the shower with water, the tiny tiny bath base and squished myself into the water to help ease the pain a little more. I started to completely lose track of time and everything else and went completely into myself. Id had enough of being squished in the shower and tried for what felt like forever to climb out, eventually I managed to call out for Damo to help. Somehow I got dry and dressed and went and found the ball to lean on. Strangely I decided to kneel on the incredibly cold and painful uneven slate tiles. Oh my were my knees hurting but the pool took up the entire rug. A cushion would have worked but I was beyond that sort of thinking.

Danielle turned up at what I think was around 2am, may have been earlier may have been later Ive really no idea. I remember smiling at her awkwardly after she entered slightly embarrased at how poorly I was handling things (I look back now and realise how well I was actually doing). At some point she came and rubbed and held my back which was almost bliss. I thought my back was going to split in half and the hand there reminded me it wouldnt. I will forever thankful for that hand.

Lisa turned up not long after and I think I gave her the same awkward smile then went back to trying to deal with the contractions. I heard talk of Lisa having a nap, and it was then I started thinking hmmmm Im not sure if there is time for that but hey what do I know.



I think it was around 2:30am when I demanded the pool, thankfully due to Damos massive effort it was ready. Oh my the water, the water was just wow, absolutely perfect bliss. Things were intense really intense then crap oh my there is a head wanting out. I freaked, I cried, I asked for help, I for a moment did not know what to do. When no one understood what my cries actually meant I pulled myself together and realised I could do it. It took a few incredibly painful contractions to pull myself together and realised I had to push, getting the head out was the only way the pain would stop. So out her head popped still in the caul. Panic two came then about what I should do, and took me a moment to gather myself in this time I remember feeling a little nose pointing up, didnt process what that meant at the time. Another contraction and push and out she came, the caul broke at I think roughly when her feet came out. It really was an incredible experience having that break in your hands. I lifted her up to meet a stunned room of onlookers very surprised at her sudden entrance at 3 oclock in the morning.



I checked to make sure she could breathe, checked to make sure she was in fact girl, then realised she was the most chubby baby I have ever seen in my life. She was just perfect. Next thing I know her two brothers are there to meet her. Nanuq overly excited and Igloo refusing to wake up.



I wish the birth could end here, but the placenta must be birthed apparently. It was agony and felt like it took forever. The one thing I wish I had done differently is cut the cord a little sooner, it was much too short for me to do anything but sit and I really needed to move. But I did it to a degree. The membranes thought they may stay behind and so the placenta hung for a while until we cut the cord and I stood up. It then ripped away and I spent the next week passing the remnants of membrane.





It was done, I had birthed my gorgeous girl all by myself in the caul, posterior, and weighing a whopping 4.6kg (10lb3oz), 54cm long and 36cm head. It was the first time I had touched my own babies head before they were born, this was something I could not bring myself to do with the boys, it was amazing and terrifying at the same moment. Who would have thought I would catch my own bub, not me that is for sure. Maybe Damo can be 4th time lucky and finally get to be the catcher like he has wanted since Igloo. Thats if I let him :).

Welcome to the world my precious girl, thank you for letting me birth you. I cannot wait to birth your next little brother or sister.

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