RustyRaven
@RustyRaven@aussie.zone
Interested in sewing, gardening and preserving, with a strong focus on sustainability.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🛩️ Friday 10 April 2026 1 day ago:
I am starting to seriously look at buying a house, however my enthusiasm for the process is about on a par with going to the dentist. I wish I could just pick a house out of an online catalogue and skip all of the tedious looking/inspecting/negotiating bit.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🛩️ Friday 10 April 2026 1 day ago:
An assortment of pretzels and some fruit salad, please.
- Comment on I think Melbourne is more signposted than anywhere in the world. 2 days ago:
What the place really needs is a couple of moving billboards and a board advising of upcoming roadworks that scrolls through the information so you never manage to actually read it all. There’s nothing like increasing the visual clutter on the roads to enhance safety.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪷 Wednesday 8 April 2026 2 days ago:
I’ve had a good result with beetroot and a couple of other root vegies - I have a few beetroot ready to pull up now. I need to do some more planting, I haven’t really gotten onto doing any of the leafy veg yet, but I keep intending to.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🪷 Wednesday 8 April 2026 2 days ago:
My pumpkin vine has put out a bunch of new female flowers, it must feel like it’s in with a chance for more fruit than the 10 currently ripening. The squash and zucchini are also making a late fruiting run.
The snow peas on the collapsed trellis had some dried peas so I’ve planted those on the remaining trellis and will hopefully get some new plants growing, and also harvested some fresh snow peas from one plant which decided it’s just going to keep growing on the ground. The climbing bean is also being pretty productive at the moment, so even though I didn’t get everything growing in the garden I would have liked it has been a fairly successful year.
- Comment on Discussion Thread ☕ Tuesday 7 April 2026 3 days ago:
I think I got a bit overexcited putting in my grocery order, nearly got up to $500! Normally it’s around $350-$300 for the month. It’s probably a touch of anxiety making me want to stock up, I got the stuff to make a big batch of canned chili and some canned chicken. Plus a lot of nuts and dried fruit which are always a touch expensive. Hopefully they will actually have most of the stuff, they do have a tendancy to not actually provide the meat I order and if that happens I’m going to have to hunt down some mince for the chili from elsewhere.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦕 Monday 6 April 2026 5 days ago:
A bit on the wet side today. Mr Woof did get to rock his flouro yellow raincoat on our walk, not that anyone was out to see hin anyway.
Driving down to Melbourne without all the traffic was pretty nice, cut about 40 minutes off the trip. Plus all the clouds meant I didn’t have the usual problem of the sun straight into my eyes, so I’m counting it a pretty good day.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🍎 Saturday 4 April 2026 6 days ago:
I managed to get through my to-do list. It was a bit of an overloaded day, but I did a big batch of cauliflower soup (15 serves!) a batch of yoghurt, a sandwich loaf and a cheese and herb plait, chopped veggies for snacking on, prepped all meals for the next two days, mowed the front lawn, folded the washing, assembled a small cupboard and did my exercises.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🍎 Saturday 4 April 2026 1 week ago:
Lawn is mown. Soup is simmering. Yoghurt is straining. Bread is baking. Washing is folded and put away. Vegetables chopped into snackable sticks. Why do I still have lots left to do today?
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🍎 Saturday 4 April 2026 1 week ago:
Lovely looking day out there again today. I plan to mow the front yard (back was done yesterday), make some cauliflower soup, sort out meals for the next few days at work, and lift some heavy things.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🍎 Saturday 4 April 2026 1 week ago:
Personally I find it a bit of a sad intitement of our society that we equate shops/services being closed with ‘nothing to do’. Are we really that unable to entertain ourselves?
I’ve always thought public holidays are a great thing because it gives us time to do things together - get together for a bbq or a picnic, play board games, have a movie night, whatever you like. Don’t just feed the consumerist machine.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🧼 Friday 3 April 2026 1 week ago:
My fruit & veg box has arrived for the month. I have lots of cauliflower (destined for soup) and a huge amount of grapes. The lettuce however was extremely tiny, which is probably a good thing as I still have more than expected left from last month - the change to cooler weather has slowed down my salad intake somewhat.
- Comment on Discussion Thread ✌️ Thursday 2 April 2026 1 week ago:
Pakige on board for delivery.
I think this is my new cast iron griddle pan, which will help me make bigger tortillas (amoungst other things). I also got lots of stuff yesterday, most notably a new tofu press, and also a lot of pairs of cheap sandles to wear around the house. I might have gone a touch overboard on those, so a few pairs have been put away in the cupboard for when the first lot wear out.
- Comment on Discussion Thread ✌️ Thursday 2 April 2026 1 week ago:
- 27.5 hours
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🃏 Wednesday 1 April 2026 1 week ago:
I also saw one with cows set up as mobile communication points.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🧃 Monday 30 March 2026 1 week ago:
I bought some magnets recently and can’t find them anywhere. I think I must have thrown them away with the packaging by mistake. 🙁
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🧃 Monday 30 March 2026 1 week ago:
I’ve been working on updating my budget so that I’m tracking a lot of things in my spreadsheet that I was using multiple bank accounts for previously. It will make it easy to change over to a home loan with a single offset account in future and should also make it easier to provide the bank details when I apply.
I’ve been trying to make things as automated as possible so that I don’t fall behind on tracking and can still see the balances of the different savings categories easily. I’m most of the way there, and have also been able to simplify a few areas that were getting a bit out of control - it’s amazing how chaotic a spreadsheet can get when you keep tacking new things on here and there.
It is frustrating how many places still make changing direct debits difficult. My main credit card it looks like I have to cancel the debit and start again with a new one which isn’t too bad, but BankWest still make you send in a paper form.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 😃 Sunday 29 March 2026 1 week ago:
Thankyou, that was lovely. Except for the 🫘, I smuggled them off under the table to feed to Mr Woof.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 😃 Sunday 29 March 2026 1 week ago:
I’ve just realised the actual worst aspect of this fuel crisis. Now when I fill up the van I need to actually remember my PIN.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 😃 Sunday 29 March 2026 1 week ago:
The largest and most lavish sunday you can make, plus a short macchiato please.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐈⬛ Friday 27 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
It’s a Walkingpad mx16. It doesn’t have any incline, but it does go up to 16km/h and is big enough that you can actually run.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐈⬛ Friday 27 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
I am just 1000 steps away from completing this weeks fitness goals. 💪🏃♀️
At the moment I’m still focusing mostly on just working out a baseline for what I can actually do and what timing works out best. I have definitely lost a lot of strength since the last time I was doing exercise, I’m tired out by a very low level of work at the moment.
The treadmill has been working well, being able to watch a video while I walk makes it much easier to motivate myself to get a few extra steps at the end of the day if I need to (and will definitely be much easier once winter hits). It also has a wi-fi connection to a phone app so I can create my own programs, so I’ve got a basic interval program to start with to try and up my capacity to be able to do some running as well. It does fold away really easily too, so I can also use the same space for doing my weights and it is still usable as a study. I
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🐈⬛ Friday 27 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
I ventured to the local NQR store for the first time today. I’m not sure if I like going there for the value or because they have different things to buy. I’ve stocked up on salmon, in the form of both burgers and frozen cooked chunks. I also got some turkey schnitzels and a frozen veg mix.
There was one small mess up - I thought I was buying a bottle of shampoo and two of conditioner, but it was actually two shampoos and one conditioner. As I always use the conditioner quicker this will lead to a significant imbalance.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🍇 Thursday 26 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
I was back at the doctor’s again today and had more blood taken. I’m not sure if it’s the new doctor or the magic new 50yo label, but the difference between now and a couple of years ago in terms of interest in actually doing screening tests etc. is very dramatic.
I’ve always been a bit annoyed by all of the ‘ask your doctor about X issue’ type messaging because I’ve never been to a doctor before that actually had any interest in following anything up. It’s always felt like it’s somehow supposed to be my responsibility to figure out what health tests etc. are appropriate and then to try to convince a doctor to sign off on doing it. Having a doctor that actually wants to arrange for things in a proactive manner is a bit of a novelty.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🥞 Wednesday 25 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
Today’s main activity will be making tofu. I made the soy milk for it yesterday, which involved an awful lot of mess and chaos, mostly because I used too many beans in the maker, had to divide it into multiple portions and then messed around trying different containers and methods of pressing the bag of mushed up soy goo etc. It was the complete opposite of a streamlined process. I decided to buy a press to make it easier in future.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🎩 Tuesday 24 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
My Temu return has been dropped off at the post office. They have a very weird return algorithm for their bots to follow. I also had a watch band I was going to return and had arranged to go to a parcelpoint location which is closer, but because I had to go to the post office anyway I cancelled the return so I could re-do it with an Aus Post label instead. But this time it just decided I didn’t need to return it and just refunded the money. I guess the op shops getting a watch band.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Monday 23 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
A lot of farmers are also burning off stubble at this time of year.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦉 Monday 23 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
So tired. One more hour before I can go home to bed. Can’t wait. I changed the bedding yesterday so it is going to be glorious.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🛸 Sunday 22 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
Today the new electric blanket goes on the bed. I might wait a bit longer on changing to the winter doona though, especially as thiis house stays pretty warm overnight.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🛸 Sunday 22 March 2026 2 weeks ago:
I decided to use the snoring indicator on my sleep monitoring app to find out if I do actually snore. It detected three minutes of snoring, which it recorded. The first was a loud car that hooned past. There were also a couple of audible breaths and a bit of purring. I feel confident that wasn’t actually me.