Hey Steem lovelies!
Yes it's an early start for me today (about 6.30am as I start this post) as we are halfway through staycation and today @cryptoandzen and I are headed off to the big smoke for "Date Day". Date day involves playing tourist in Sydney, having a luxurious long lunch out - usually the degustation menu at Kobe Jones (Fusion Japanese) and a cocktail or glass of bubbles at one of the bars on the harbour. Plus I get to do a spot of shopping without his @cryptoandzen raising his eyebrows and saying do we really need that (I'm sure he thinks it..but in honour of date day he doesn't say it :)
Anyway more about Date Day next post. I'm sure there will be lots of instagrammable photos of food and drinks and views of the Sydney Harbour. We really are getting through the eat out more guidelines for having a great staycation.
Today is an exciting day at our place. Over Christmas during the great altcoin price spike we managed to off load a few coins and pay off the credit cards (a blessing at that time of the year!) and stash some away for a project we have not been able to afford.
You may have noticed from some photos of our place we live on 5 acres but much of it is steep embankment and hard to maintain as well as not the safest. With a little one (god willing and hereon after nicknamed Jellybean) on the way when the adoption assessments are done, we want to make the place look a bit better and a bit safer.
The plan has been to start developing the slopes into gardens. We started when we first moved in - with a veggie garden. However this ended up costing much more than we expected, pretty much all that we had put aside for any renovations. That was three years ago. We are finally in a position to do something about the other slopes.
The first garden project - three times the cost and three times as long as expected.. but we do love it!
Really this is all thanks to Steemit. Steemit was our first foray into cryptos, and it was a big learning curve! But if we hadn't taken that first step we wouldn't be where we are right now! We took a deep breath and decided to invest some money we'd saved into steem and then some other cryptos and we haven't looked back. (This is not investment advice please do your own research and be prepared and comfortable with the fact you may lose what you put in just as easily as you may make money)
Anyway, here are the before photos, over the next however long it takes our builder to finish I'll post progression photos, hopefully this goes much smoother than the last landscaping project we had!
At the top will be a friut orcahrd and the slopes have retaining walls and be mulched with beautiful natives (that dont get upset if I forget to water them)
The steps will be replaced with sandstone pavers and the rusty old handrail replaced
The slope at the front of the house will be terraced, mulched and planted with natives
Can't wait to get rid of all that bracken fern and have some nice natives
The gear is arriving - where's the builder?
The other big news going on at our place is of course The Great Keto Challenge. Only three more sleeps. I'm undecided if I post before and after shots.... pretty sure @cryptoandzen wont be in that... I'm just lucky enough he's agreed to do it with me this time. However the plan is this will help prepare us in terms of health and fitness for an active three year old.. and he's onboard with anything to do with Jellybean.
Meal plan for week one is done and Sunday will be shopping and meal prep.. meal-prep without a lovely glass of red in our hand will be a new one but I'm sure we will manage: Anyone it's pretty hot here so a nice iced tea served up in my favourite red wine glasses should go down okay... positive thinking!
So that's the randomness going on today in my head. Can't wait to get cracking on all the new beginnings happening at our place! Life is definitely shaping up to be full of opportunity in 2018, for which we are ever grateful.
PS - Our little Jack Russell likes the view from the verandah as well - he's made himself quite at home!
Til Next time - Steem on with Love and Light.
If you enjoyed this post don't forget to UPVOTE and Hit that FOLLOW Button!
Let's All Share the Steemit Love!
Don't forget to come check out the teamaustralia tag and see what exciting things we are all up to in the land of Oz! It's full of Aussies and Aussie-lovers with great stories from when we are at home or loose in the world!
Thanks to @bearone for creating my beautiful teamaustralia banner which I love sooooo much! Don't forget to check out her posts and show her some love as well.
If you are a newbie and looking for help - or you just want to help support the minnows and grow this wonderful platform of ours - please consider checking out minnowsupportproject. This is a fantastic initiative to help everyone grow together and is full of fantastic advice for anyone starting out. You can find out more about it here.
(Logo and Banner Created By @justcallmemyth - another great Steemian you should check out and support)
It's awesome that crypto helped you pay off bills. That is a huge accomplishment. Kudos. The garden is a bonus. That looks like it was done professionally. Great job.
Thank you. Can't take credit, we had a builder friend finish it for us :)
That vege garden is awesome. Can’t wait to see photos of the new garden plans.
Hopefully one day we will own our own place and be able to do something nice in our garden.
Yep love the veggie garden.. the king parrots we are keeping fed not so much though. Hit our first snag today with the new garden when the builder rang us during date day to say he wasn't having much fun... he unearthed a nest of funnel webs!!!
It definitely feels great to get your own bit of land and do something useful with it! Especially when you work so hard for it. Just keep the dream alive and you will get there!
Oh yuk, I don’t deal with spiders! Snakes yes but not bloody spiders. I bet you were glad you were not home.
We are hoping to get there one day, it’s a way of yet but we will get there eventually!
Good luck with the garden renos! You just doing a food gardeny thing around the house or eventually going to expand out to the entire 5 acres?
Hee little Jack Russell so cute XD
Isn't it awesome being able to show people what you did with your "internet play money"? XD
The food is just around the house and the orchard up the top.. though I've managed to sneak a few things here and there :) I've done a butterfly garden too and I would like heaps of natives to attract the native bees and fauna.. though we can do without the funnel webs that got unearthed this morning! We will keep the trees around most of the property as we have so much birdlife.. and (touch wood) have not seen a snake - prob because of all the birds. We also get wallabies, echidnas and lots of rabbits so I think keeping the vegetation will keep the widllife around :)
Yeah everyone thinks I'm a bit of a nut with my internet money - I'll be the one laughing one day - soon :)
your are really good at writting,keep it on
I really enjoyed your post your writing skills are on point! As a landscape architect, I really see the potential that you have with those slopes and can't wait to see how they will turn out. Your first garden project looks amazing! Every investment in garden pays off but you just have to patient and maintain plants :) Have you considered getting irrigation system? I am impressed how big is your yard, have you been interested in permaculture maybe? :)
What you have here is very inspiring! My husband and I striving to escape the rat race here in Australia and have plans to find our own little piece of land for self-sustainable, peaceful living in Victoria. We've only started investing into cryptocurrencies this month... it's very nerve wrecking! But I guess we have to start somewhere. You seem to have a lot of things to look forward to this year! Congrats!