The deck is going well!

Michael and a friend dug up all the grass outside the back door and started to lay the wood sleepers in preparation of putting the deck together last week. I stressed at the time I really needed the deck slats to go down as quickly as possible as the children would play in the mud otherwise.
The boys tried their hardest, but in the end it was the rain that stopped them from doing more!
And then the next day, (Friday, shopping day for the fortnight) yes, the children got into the mud while Hadassah and I were out! Poor Daddy had to clean thuck mud off of three (yes, Malachi was into it too!) children :S

He is still working on it, and I think today the slats finally go down! But there is some small question a to whether there are enough sleepers to do the whole area, but we shall see.
We have been having mouse issues.
We now have three mice. Angelina, Mr Whiskers, and Dexter. Problem is, NONE of them like each other!! So we have them all in separate cages.

Michael and I modified the large cage so that it has two separate stories now, instead of a mezanin level, and this has them apart while still tegether as you can see. Two cages, but three areas all together. Michael, with the help of Malachi and Hadassah, clean the cages every second or third day. The children hold their mice while Daddy cleans the cages with a water vinegar solution.
Drat the mice! They are really sweet, believe it or not, but they have caused more trouble that anyother animal we've had bar Gaspode.
Oh! Gaspode! He still has not returned! And he has not shown up at the pound either! I hope someone has 'pinched' him, and I say they can have him! It has been so peacful without him!
We have had to put barriers in place to prevent Eli from climbing up onto the top bunks! The cheeky monkey!

(please not the barriers are firmly tied! He can also untie bows!!)
We have also had to made sure that the bathroom door is always closer or else he'll empty the cupboard and chuck it all in the bin!! The toilet door has to be closed or else he'll play in the toilet!! AND Michael has put a removable gate into the kitchen doorway so that we can keep him out of the kitchen whilst  I am cooking or he'll turn the stove/oven off!!!!
I went out into the garden again on Monday. It has been a fortnight since I picked anything, and this is what I came inside with!

In this basket you will see purple Kale in the left, then Mizuna in the middle, and Sugarloaf Cabbage in the right, just sitting on the table.

In here you can see lettus at the back and Kohlrabi in front, and that big bag behind the basket? That is chocka's with silverbeet, which I didn't get a shot of.

These are Giant Mustard Greens.

This is dwarf Green Kale (?!)

This is Savoy Cabbage

This is Corrard Greens and Rhubarb.
This is all because we raised the beds and put some top notch Mushroom mulch in them as the soil. Expensive but worth it!


Now we have discovered our fridge and freezer IS NOT big enough!! We have the excess in a covered box underneath the breakfast table, as there isn't any room in the cupboards either!
I have frozen some of it. A simple precess of blanching the chosen green for two minutes, the draining them, patting them dry with a tea towel to remove excess moisture, and them sealing them in a bag. It was suggested you put them in zip lock bags, but I didn't have any, so I put one of those little plastic things on them that you get off the bread bags.
I also finally got a shot of Malachi and Hadassah in their Taekwondo uniforns :D

Don't they look awesome? They were there for the tests, and got to see some people get new belts, but what impressed Malachi the most was some of them broke wooden planks, and Malachi wants to do that!