Making Marmalade

I thought, since I have a more than plentiful supply of grapefruit and lemons, I would have a go at making marmalade.  I can't say that I was filled with confidence about my chance of success but it was worth the effort I thought.

So I found this recipe that did not involve me having to peel the fruit and I was ready to go.  I did a little research to work out how to sterilise the jars in the microwave, which by the way was very easy and hot.

Anyway it is now 10.44 pm and I have just finished cleaning up the bench in the hope to avoid attracting the ant colony that seems to know when the bench is not cleaned properly.  It has taken about 4 hours from fruit recovery to having a clean bench at the end with 8 jars of marmalade on the bench.  It is too soon to tell wether it will set property (the spoon test) told me I should be right for an easy to spread marmalade.

So fingers crossed for a marmalade that can be used on toast not one that acts like a sauce.

Moving the Pool

As you may have already ready we are moving into our new home.  It is taking sometime to actually get to the stage when we will sleep there because there has been this pool right outside the ranch sliders at the house.  Four ranch sliders give access to the pool just metres away.

 Initially we thought that this fibreglass pool would need to be broken down and covered but the local digger man thought otherwise.  Naturally the intial thought remained as plan B and then this is what happened.

A little preparation first to remove some of the decking last saturday and then friday...well just take a look.  At 7.30 am the digger arrived...naturally it is a Little Yellow Digger just like in the book.  It is about to clear some of that garden and transplant the trees to provide a privacy belt.  Then a trench the depth of the pool was dug and the pool was popped and no long sucking onto the clay soil below.

The pool is still in one piece.

A ramp is made with the soil.

This is where the magic happens.  One little yellow digger and a strop haul it out of the ground, very slowly.

There we have it.  One gaping big hole the level of the water table evident and the pool out there is one piece.  It must be our very lucky day as the digger driver tells me we needed to take out a Lotto ticket.

Watch out for more photos tomorrow so you can see what the yard now looks like just two days after the earthworks have been done.

If we are really organised we might just be able to move into our house this week.