We finally bought a NAS, it's living next to the router (which makes logical sense as it has to plug into the router).  I'm currently copying all the music and photos onto it and will probably delete them off my computer as part of my cleanup process (moving a bunch of Stuff off the 250Gb ssd to the 2Tb sata). 

Moving the iPhoto database was nice and easy (drag, hold down alt when opening iPhoto, selecting where the library had been moved to, delete the original file), and it kind of needed to go elsewhere as it's 53Gb and going to blow out as I'm shooting RAW.

Moving the iTunes library was a bit more of a hassle.  Dragged to new location, changed library reference is preferences, dumped original in bin, restarted to make sure all was good, it seemed to be, so I emptied the trash can.  I think I missed the consolidation step (another reason to not do this when tired) so it had a huge cry about not having a libary to use.  I "opened" the folder I'd moved and now all is well with the world.

The D5000 died on us, Josh was quite determined he was going to stick with film and never getting another digital camera as the thing had only been 2 years old when it stopped working, apparently afflicted by a known and common problem with the D5000s.  The film camera bodies he has (F3 and F4) are still going strong and they're relics from the 1980s.

I i nformed him that I needed a digital camera as I wanted to be able to blog photos shortly after taking them, not a month or so after we'd finished the roll of film and gotten around to getting it developed, and that I was going to buy one of those little point and shoot numbers that would fit in my cargo pockets.

He apparently couldn't cope with the thought, so he bought me a Nikon D70.

Nikond70front (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's a new-to-us thing and came with a Sigma lens (though I'm going to swap it out for my favourite which is an 18-55 that came with the D5000 and Josh doesn't think much of it) and a rather beat up old bag.  I'm now on a quest for a bag that will haul the camera, my laptop, wallet, phone and some miscellany, and I've also finally been able to take more photos of the aquaponics setup.

Apparently there was a bit of a kerfuffle in the moderator department, which meant I completely forgot about the moderation until the new moderator rocked up on my door towards the end of my work period.  Oops.  Fortunately I work from home and can make up hours easy, and I hadn't gone out to pick up my shiny new computer yet, though I had gotten dressed to do so.  So all she saw was that my place is a mess, which is about normal and I don't clean up for anyone!

We chatted and she seems like a nice person.  I gave her enough information to write a happy report and get us approved for another year.  She also sent me the literacy outcomes to help with the learning program which I have only just worked out that I do actually have (I'm a bit slow, I seem to do a lot of things because they make sense or because I need to do them to do other things etc and never realise they are processes that have names or that I'm implementing a program).

So what's been happening around here, we've managed to cram a bit into the couple of weeks we've been back.

Not quite intelligent enough for a coherent post, so have lots of captioned photos instead.

Homeschooling art and English: storyboarding with Mummy (who was working on AR storyboards)

A friend introduced the kids to the My Little Pony remake some time ago and with the starting of this blog post this song stuck in my brain (had no help whatsoever from the kids watching it a few times ;).

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic "Winter Wrap Up"

So I'm a bit late for "tomorrow spring is here", we're about halfway through the first month of spring as humans like to count it.  I think spring came a bit earlier than September.  As far as I'm concerned it's spring when the weather and the flowers say it's spring.

Speaking of flowers, our plum tree is looking rather pretty.

Flowers on the plum tree

Firstly, what in the hell is with the life category?!

I've been (very slowly!) importing livejournal entries so I can replace missing photos.  Very minor regret that I didn't bother skimming through my shadowshifter livejournal before I deleted it as I probably had a few progress reports for my various projects kicking around on it, but oh well.

The conclusion to the sorry chicken saga.

There was much excitement and trepidation at Wannabe when Chess, our bossy little evil Pekin bantam went broody, and amusement when the more demure Tempest decided that she, too, would also like to hatch some eggs.

We were pretty thrilled to have broodies, as one of our long term plans was to increase our flock naturally, including letting the broodies raise their chicklets, and bring in new blood every so often to prevent too much inbreeding.  This idea has since expanded to Josh planning on developing his own chicken breed.

It's the hottest driest summer ever in Australia (except in Queensland and northern WA where they're experiencing floods, and meanwhile in Europe where they're having longest coldest winters with craziest snowfall).  Here in Perth most of our rain happens in winter with drips and drabs here and there in late autumn and early spring.  We don't usually get rain in summer.  The last few days I've felt quite at home while a large number of my friends have been complaining of the oppressive, stifling, terrible humidity.

Yesterday, I noticed the humidity, which probably means it was pretty damn high, and not helped at all by the fact that there wasn't any wind worth mentioning.

Today, the radar looks like this:

Right now there is a particularly heavy cloud going over and my big kids are outside whooping excitedly about it and jumping in puddles.  The temperature is lovely and cool and very much like Christmas Island, which is making me simultaneously happy and homesick.  The rain smells lovely.

The lovely Ursula (also known as SulaMoon) over at deviantART gave me and another friend of hers pearwood a dragon for Christmas.

I think it's agonisingly cute.  Ursula is an amazing artist.