Gardening is life... But sometimes there's just other jobs to be done...

Recently I decided to have a non-gardening weekend as there was a list of little jobs I had to do that were starting to build up. So I set out to see how much I could cross off the list before the end of the weekend.

Job 1 was dealing with the mice or rats that were living in the roof again. I use a type of bait that is in packets you can easily throw into the roof cavity and they are designed so that the mice or rats chew through the packet. This means I don't have to touch poison which is always a bonus. I'd say that I have to do this every couple of years. It gets rid of them for a while, but they always come back.

The tap for the basin in the main bathroom was running so slow that it was almost unusable. Now I'm all for saving water but this was ridiculous. It had been annoying me for ages so it was time to sort it out. It was a fairly delicate operation as I didn't want to scratch the tap as I unscrewed the end so I wrapped it in a facewasher. I discovered that it had 5 little filter things in it and another thing that my brother the plumber told me was a water saver. It saved water alright. I think it was blocked. I decided that because we're fairly water conscious anyway (as in we turn the tap off while we brush, etc) it didn't really need the water save, which was more of a water stopper than a saver.

Once that was done, there were some other things that just needed tightening.

The bolts that held the lid of the couch storage were coming loose and one had completely fallen off. This seemed a bit weird and I wondered if little fingers had been in there mucking about with it. However it happened they needed to be fixed so out with the shifter.

Our dining table had become super wobbly. So it was time to tighten that up too. It consisted of eight screws that held the legs on and every one had wriggled its self loose within the 12 months that we've had the table. It also made a lot of noise. As if three small kids sitting at the table wasn't noisy enough.

The bedroom that we use as the nursery has had three babies go through it and is about to have it's fourth. So, as my wife's pregnancy hormones shift her into nesting mode, it's time to change it around and redecorate. Of course my wife in her haste to get things done just in case the baby comes 4 months early rampages in and tears things off the walls, usually along with a heap of paint and sometimes some plaster. So, time to patch up some of the damage.

I use a plaster powder from the hardware store that you mix with water and away you go. Great for filling holes and stuff. You can get it pretty neat if you're careful but it's best to give it a sand back once its completely dry and then paint over it.

This was the last job I completed for that day. I'd achieved so much and still had a full day of the weekend left. I cooked us up some awesome chicken burgers for tea. Check out the video at the end of this post for some hot, sizzling footage of those.

The next day the boys and I went to Dads Group. This is a little project that I have started to bring dads together and create a support network for dads in the town. It's time with the kids and it's great to be able to talk to dads and remind each other that we're not alone in this crazy world of parenting.

I had recently had my phone replaced and was in desperate need of a screen protector before I scratched it to pieces. I use Gadget Sheildz which are like a skin that seems to heal its self if scratched. It's super tough and feels awesome to touch. The trick with it though, is that you "float" it onto your screen. This seems very counter-intuitive to put water on your phone but it works. (They aren't paying me to say this either)

Then it was onto the next job which was a bit more of a project than just a job. My wife bought an old cupboard and wanted to turn it into an "office in a cupboard" thing that she'd seen on a DIY show, complete with fold out desk. So I got to work. You can see more detail in the second video at the end.

Then as they weekend came to an end there was a surprise job I had to do just before heading into tea. The neighbors decided to flood part of our back yard and of course they weren't going to dig the trench to run the water away.

You can check out the whole weekend in the two part video series below. As much as I missed the garden it was a great weekend of getting stuff done and while I didn't tick off every job on the list, there wasn't much left...

Part 1:

Part 2:

Happy Gardening!