Happiness is ....

More raspberries than you can eat

Watching little chicks

 Kids

A thriving potatoe patch

New critters

Progress...

Spring eggs

The spring equinox just passed by a few days ago.  In the northern hemisphere this coincides with easter which takes much of its symbolism from spring - eggs, baby birds and bunnies.  For us in the south, now would be the time to celebrate the joy of eggs, as at easter time they are rare! 

Our girls are laying well, and from 12 standard sized hens, 2 bantam and 4 ducks we get about 15 eggs a day.  Its nice to have some to give away and sell, as well as plenty for baking yummy cakes and custardy desserts.  We also get to partake in the daily egg hunt, as our girls like to hide their eggs from us (I wonder where the chocolate egg hunt idea came from????).

We have one clucky hen sitting on 9 eggs, so fingers crossed it all goes well and we get a nice clutch of chicks.  Its important to keep new hens coming in each year, and at about $30 per hen it becomes costly to buy and replace your stock all the time.  We have a new rooster, a Speckled Sussex who is quite nice and should bring in some new qualities to our mixed breed flock.

The garden is really growing now (and the grass) the loganberries and raspberries are just starting to flower, as are the strawberries.  Lots of little seedlings are popping up (such as silverbeet, lettuce, mustards, kale), and my precious tomatoe seedlings and cucurbits (pumpkin, zuchinni, cucumber, melons etc) are just germinating.

I'm planning to grow a ' 3 sisters' style plot for our sweet corn and popcorn.  The 3 sisters are corn, beans and squash.  The native american indians grew gardens like this before white settlement, so its a very early example of companion planting.  The corn provides poles for the climbing beans, the beans provide nitrogen to the soil and the squash provides a living mulch to keep the soil moist (which is really important for the corn).  They planted them in mounds with the plants fairly closely planted.  It will be a bit of an experiment anyhow. 

One of our goats Rosie is 'in kid' and due in November.  This means that after having her for over a year we will finally be able to start milking her!  She is looking enormous, so I'm anticipating twins (hopefully NOT triplets) so there wont be much milk to start with.  We are also investigating buying a house cow, most likely a Jersey, so that we can make bigger quantities of cheese and importantly BUTTER!  We use a bit of butter in cooking and baking so it makes sense to produce our own, and we are all pretty keen on making all our own dairy products.  Excess milk and whey will be fed to the chooks and eventually to some pigs which I'd like to get for garden tillage. 

Busy busy

The blog has been quiet this year, but that is because we have been so busy with everything!  It feels like we are getting somewhere occasionally.  Lots of work to reach our goals of self sufficiency.

This week the kids and I planted out our potatoe patch - approximately 80sqm.  I have been spending a bit of time each day turning over the soil, then chopping up the sod with a hoe and hilling up the soil into rows.  Then the fun but back-breaking job of planting out the seed potatoes and backfilling.

planting potatoes with a little help from the kids

Now I just have to mulch with the old bedding from the goat shed and I can take a quick breath before the spring vegies have to be propagated!!!

the hand dug potatoe patch - ready for mulching

Spring is most definately here now.  Hardly a drop of rain this month, which coincides with the arrival of a new water tank!!!  We thought we would add more storage to our fairly modest 22,500L tank that is our domestic, garden and stock water supply!

new tank arrives!

The chooks all think its spring too, as they have been very busy laying eggs for us, so its nice to have plenty to enjoy and use in baking.  This year I'm planning on baking a few rich fruit cakes to put away to enjoy in the winter when eggs are scarce and not available for baking cakes.  Fruit cakes keep for ages if wrapped up and kept in a dark pantry.

our 5 year old with one of the hens we raised this year

I'm about to start all our summer vegies this week, all the tomatoes, pumpkins, zuchinni, cucumbers etc.  And then the REALLY busy time begins!

An early spring

I had heard at our local plant nursery that we were in for an early spring, and after the last week of record August warmth for our region, I have to say I agree!  Although it was lovely, its a bit disconcerting to be out and about in a t-shirt in August!!! 

Again, I have to apologise for the lack of updates on the blog.  Due to the lovely weather, I have been spending very little time inside, and even less time on the computer! 

I've been slowly working away at all the jobs that need doing around the farm.  I've planted about 12 fruit trees, plus about 30-40 raspberry plants, and a dozen rhubarb crowns.  I've fenced off what will be developed into a food forest, with 4 strands of electric fencing to keep out our 2 free range goats (my next fencing project will be upgrading the paddock fencing, so that our 2 free range goats will be restricted to being 'paddock goats' instead!!).  I've spent a bit of time fencing off another garden plot to plant our potatoes in this year (its about 8m x 8m).  Now I just have to dig all that area over to plant the potatoes!!!

happy free range ducks with my simple goat proof fence in the background

 We did some burning off of cypress prunings. I'm not a big fan of burning off, I don't like wasting even sticks for an 'unproductive' fire, but we have alot prunings around the place and dry cypress burns a little too good to have it lying around all summer (especially since its predicted to be a much drier summer than the last....).

I'm getting excited about our spring/summer garden.  We are planning on planting some new crops - popcorn and luffa (to use as a more eco friendly alternative to dishwashing sponges -yes we are the only people on the planet who still wash up by hand, haha).  Plus a few different varieties of tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, beans and zuchinni.  I'm really going to push myself a bit with the garden this year and aim to produce some good crops that will cover us for the whole years consumption. 

the vegie garden, getting ready for spring

Next year we plan on starting to grow our own grains.  Probably just wheat, oats and maize (a better alternative to growing ordinary sweet corn as you can pick it 'green' for sweet corn and leave some to mature as maize for cornmeal and animal feed).  We will look at buying some pigs to employ as ploughs to help with preparing bigger plots for planting. 

The bees survived the winter and were out and about enjoying the sunshine!  That was a relief as I was unsure how much honey they had and how much they need to keep them going.  We will harvest some in late spring, just enough for our own needs and see how that goes. 

We are still reading the 'little house on the praire' series of books as a family and loving them.  We are now up to the 5th book and now have a popcorn and reading ritual going (inspired by Almanzo's family popcorn and reading nights in Farmer Boy).  We can't recommend these books highly enough - not just for kids.

Our little girl turns 5 this week!  She got an early birthday present of a trio of Rhode Island Red bantams, which she adores, and goes out to visit MANY times a day.  Hopefully the hens will be good broodies and hatch some chickens for us this year.  Speaking of chickens, summers little chicks are now all grown up and some are laying!  We are getting a few more eggs each day.  Another sign that spring is around the corner.

happy free-range kids!

Farming

"A farmer depends on himself, and the land and the weather. If you are a farmer, you raise what you eat, you raise what you wear, and you keep warm with the wood out of your own timber.  You work hard, but you work as you please, and no man can tell you to go or come.  You'll be free and independent, son, on a farm."  Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farmer Boy

We are currently reading the 'little house on the praire' series of books to our kids.  We have just finished Farmer Boy, which was fantastic.  I highly recommend them to children or adults alike.  The detail in the daily processes, from churning butter, weaving cloth, shearing sheep and hauling wood are fantasic, and give you such a sense of the tasks that had to be done.

I suppose for our family this story was pretty special, as it outlined alot of the stuff that we are doing or trying to achieve with our own patch of land.  It also is a great reminder that we can survive after peak oil and the changes that will bring with it. 

Sorry for my absence from the blog for the last few months.  I've been flat out with keeping up with the work on our little farm.  I've started planting out our fruit trees in our food forest (which is basically a less tidy version of an orchard with multiple layers and eventually edible ground covers as well), I've planted out a bed of asparagus (thanks to my friend Jo who supplied me with some of her own home grown asparagus crowns), one of rhubarb and 3 of strawberries.  I'm also preparing the garden for the spring crops and enjoying going through seed catalouges to decide what we will plant this spring.  I'm determined to improve on my vegetable garden this year and really focus on growing all that we need. 

The weather has been a bit of a mix lately, with unseasonally warm (and very spring like) weather, and now the more typical cold, wet and very windy weather.  There is talk that this summer will be drier again, and I've noticed that the wattles have started flowering, but the flowers are sparse and nothing like that of last year.  Wonder if it means anything....

Autumn

We have been blessed with some lovely autumn days (as well as lots of rain), but despite nice weather winter is just around the corner.  In our part of the world the sun sits very low in the sky and the shadows get longer.  We are now in 'power saving' mode here, with a very modest off-grid solar power system (with trees to our north!!! Probably THE worst situation - but its only temporary).  We have to be more and more careful about how much power we use, particularly the stuff that is left on over night (as in appliances on standby mode etc). 

halloween in the southern hemisphere! At the RIGHT time of year!

Autumn here has been a busy season with garden harvests, roadside harvests and lots of preserving.  I've tried to expand my collection of preserves this year, with green tomatoe relish and pickles, pickled zuchinni, tomatoe sauce and bottled apples (cooking apple variety Belle de Boskoop from a nearby organic apple orchard).  I also made the usual chutneys and jams.  I still have Apple butter and chestnut jam on my list to do before I can rest in the kitchen!

bottled apples

We have made 2 batches of wine this year - cherry plum (from the roadside trees) and apple and blackberry.  We finally got to taste our blackberry wine that we made last year and it was a sucess!

I have been doing lots of work in the garden pulling out the summer crops and preparing the soil for the winter crops and new perrenials like asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries.  I'm also planning on planting a good number of fruit trees this winter so there is plenty of preparation to do before the fruit trees become available in July (mostly fencing to keep out our free range goats!).

some action on the house too!

On a wanna be self-sufficient farm there is no 'quiet' time it seems, as there is always plenty to do (hence there has been very little activity on the blog!)

Abundance

Its been a while since I've posted on the blog.  Life has been very full, and there is just never enough hours in the day to do it all! 

We have had an amazing growing season here.  Although the weather hasn't been as typically warm as most years, we have had LOTS of rain (over 200mm in February...  2 years ago we had about 7mm!!!).  Everything has remained green, which has been lovely, and has meant no worrying about bushfires or watering the garden.  I'm enjoying it, although it has meant that we have had a dismal tomaoe harvest this year. 

We have enjoyed a very abundant zuchinni harvest however!!!  I've had to get a bit creative with using them up!  This year I've grown capsicums for the first time and I'll definately be planting them again.  They have been pretty successful.  I also planted sweetcorn which grew well, but we did have issues with pollination (I think our site is too windy). 

Currently we are getting LOTS of apples (from our own tree as well as from friends and roadside trees).  I've bottled some lovely cooking apples from a nearby organic apple orchard, and made some chutney, and cakes etc.  I've also got a batch of apple and blackberry wine on the go.  I'm still hoping to make a batch of apple butter or sauce or something and maybe some more bottled apples.  

In the next few years our fruit trees that we have been planting will start to bear fruit and we will be able to enjoy a real abundance.

I've spent a bit of my time building a duck pen to house a few ducks for eggs.  We finished it off today.  As I understand it, duck are much better winter layers than hens, so they'll offset the reduced egg production from the hens. Next up on my list is to improve my vegetable garden fencing (and expand it - its currently about 8mx8m but I think double would be ideal). 

Work on the house building has stalled, but I think work may start up again soon.  Its hard as owner builders to find the balance between working to pay for the building and doing the actual building.  Both take alot of time.  I think there will be an update on the house soon on the blog.

The waiting game

We seem to be getting lots of practice at waiting at the moment.  We recently got our permits sorted out to start building our house (which was an almost 5 month process), and now we are waiting for our excavator operator, so we can't do much, other than plan how we will get the first few stages done.  Its frustrating, but I suppose the 'up' side, is that when it comes to actually do something we will be very much ready to do it.

We have done one thing, and that is make the stirrups to hold up the posts.  These are pretty heavy duty (to comply with engineering specs).  Brad helped a local guy (another owner builder) who happens to be a boiler-maker for the day to make them.

We are also waiting on the timber - its being milled up for us by a mill that specialises in recycled, salvaged and reclaimed timber.  We are pretty excited about the timber, and we are eagerly awaiting the first delivery, so we can start cutting, drilling and preparing it to put up.

I thought I would give more detail about the house we are building, as its a bit unique, and we have done lots of research, planning and looking at houses, to come up with the design principles we have used.  The house we are building is a round strawbale house.  Some of the features are as follows:

• Strawbale external walls for insulation, and mudbrick internal walls for thermal mass (ie the evening out of the internal temperature).  The house is on a slab for thermal mass as well.
• North facing sun room (south facing for those in the northern hemisphere), which will act as a winter warmer and a summer cooler, depending on which windows are opened.
• Laundry/mud-room/bulk pantry, for washing vegetables from the garden, storing preserves, making wine/beer and some food preparation.  This is the first room you enter from the back door.  This is on the south side of the house.
• Large circular living space, with kitchen and lounge room. Bedrooms and bathroom come off this circular area.
• Composting toilet, and reedbed greywater treatment system, to reduce water used by the house.
• Combustion cooking stove, for cooking, room heating and water heating.
• Small windows (except on the north side) to reduce heat loss in winter, and heat gain in summer.

The house is built to be the right size for us, there are no spare rooms for visitors (when you live out in these parts, visitors are few and far between anyway), the bigger the house, the more it costs to heat/cool and the more cleaning there is to do!  We wont be connecting mains electricity (we are so happy with our solar power system - one of the best decisions we have made).  The main focus of the house is the central living area, thats where we spend our time together, or we are outside anyway.  We wanted a house that would stay cool in summer as we don't 'do' air conditioning. We wanted a house that would do minimal harm to the environment to build, would last a very long time and would be a pleasure to live in.  Its round because we like to be different, and according to Brad its no harder to build than a square house!!!

Meanwhile the apple blossom is out, the bees are working overtime on it.  Spring time always rekindles my desire to get a hive established here.  For quite a number of reasons, firstly to supply us with our own honey, but also as a 'conservation' hive.  There is plenty of information around about the decline of bees, and how commercial beekeeping is a possible reason for this.  I am keen to get into 'natural beekeeping' using a top-bar hive.  I'm just waiting for the right time to build one and then waiting for a swarm to 'turn up'.

Preparations

Now that winter is over, and most of the dry wood has been burnt in our wood stove, its time to start preparing for NEXT winter.  It takes time to dry out wood, and it dries out quickest when its split up ready for the stove.  We try to collect our wood in the most energy efficient way we can.  Wood is collected and cut up into 'ute' lengths using our petrol chainsaw, and brought home.  This wood is then cut up into firewood lengths using our electric chainsaw (using our own solar power - so not a job for gloomy weather).  Its then split up and stacked to dry.  'Wood' days are a whole family event, and we all get in and do it together, the kids helping with carrying the wood to the stack.

There is something satisfying about cutting, splitting and stacking firewood. You can see your hard work!  Its also a good feeling, knowing that there is already some wood ready for winter!

I have been working on a new vegie garden, where I planted about 100 seed potatoes and have prepared beds for the summer vegetables.  The fence NEEDS to keep out our furry and feathered creatures.  Wire mesh is quite expensive, so we decided to make a fence using Silver Wattle saplings that have had to be cleared off our drive way etc.  Here is my version of a 'wattle' fence!

We have had good winter rain this year, and with some nice weather the grass has really started to grow!  Time to get the scythes out and start cutting!   Its also a time to prepare for summer, tidying up ready for the fire season.

We are also making preparations to start building our house!  Things have moved along (fairly slowly mostly), and we are almost ready to start.  There will be lots of posts of the building process on the blog, once we actually start.  Its quite exciting!

Chestnuts

Its been getting colder and wetter now, and the autumn winds are sure blowing up here. We have been enjoying eating the wild mushrooms popping up on our land, they are beautiful flavoured. We are also fortunate that there are several chestnut trees growing wild along the roadsides in our area. Chestnuts are definately a food of the autumn and are something to be enjoyed on a cold evening.

The kids and I ventured out to collect a box of chestnuts on the weekends. For me chestnuts have alot of memories associated with my childhood in Switzerland, and of times spent at my great-aunts place in Chestnut growing country. I have always enjoyed getting the nuts out of their very prickly cases, and the process of peeling them.

We roasted a small amount of nuts a few nights ago, ate some and turned the rest into soup. They are great for thickening up soups or stews and add a nutty flavour. You can also add the cooked nut into stir-fries and make deserts as well.


I doubt any one else in our area collects these nuts, so I am sure we will go back and collect some more before they all rot. I think the chestnuts will be the last of our harvests before winter sets in. I've been propagating lots of winter greens and brassicas for the garden, which are going in as we speak. I suspect that unless the weather changes pretty dramatically I will be making a big batch of green tomatoe chutney, as only half a dozen tomatoes have ripened so far!!! Maybe for next spring we will have to set up a small greenhouse!

the harvest season

Its hard to believe that I am writing this post on a gloomy, foggy, rainy day, considering that in 2 days time is the one year anniversary of the worst bush fires we have seen in our area, and entire country. I think the figure is around about 200 people killed, but I think the exact figure will never be known, as the fires were so bad... I know I am not alone in my apprehension about summer, and what we might face, sales of 'fire gear' was through the roof, and many shops in early spring (when we had a mini-heat wave) had sold out of protective gear like smoke masks and goggles and fire pumps.... Summer is not over yet, but at least we can relax a bit, as we can be sure that we wont have the same conditions we had this time last year - we have had rain!! And over 20mm (not quite an inch) of it over night!!

The rain is also welcome for the garden, which has survived well, considering I can only handwater with a watering can (with a large garden and 2 kids there are only so many trips I can make). We have been enjoying beans, carrots, zuchinni and potatoes from the garden, as well as our own eggs (the hens are laying like mad) and milk. So entire meals from our land are possible! The tomatoes have only just started to set fruit, and this is a problem shared by many gardeners this year. Many have noticed a lack of bees, which is probably part of it, and most likely our 'odd' weather this past spring/summer. I wonder if its just an odd season, or is this part of a change in climate that seems to be happening. I guess we will have to wait and see.

We have a blackberry glut! I have made a few batches of blackberry and apple jam, which is beautiful, as well as apple and blackberry pies and other deserts. But at the moment I have a batch of blackberry wine on the go! This is my very first attempt at wine making (we have done beer making from the purchased kits).


It is definately fermeting, as its bubbling along fairly rapidly, and we have snuck a taste and it tastes nice. The recipe is quite simple and only required the purchase of sugar (I buy organic sugar by the 25kg bag), lemons and a small sachet of wine yeast. There are many recipes in books or online, so I wont go into the process as such, but you basically just mash the fruit, cover with water and leave it over night, then add sugar, yeast and lemon juice and put into demijohns. I believe it will ferment for a month or possibly more, and once its finished you rack (siphon) it off into bottles and cork it. Then the hard part - to leave it sit for a whole year!!! We will only know if its nice when we would need to start the next lot!


The next harvest for the area will be apples. We have one old apple tree here, which is loaded with fruit, plus a few young ones that we have planted and are yet to fruit. But we are lucky that along most of the roads up here are many wild apple trees, either grown from discarded apple cores, or spread by birds. Either way, they are a great resource, and in the next month or so we will make a few apple collecting expeditions! Can't wait. I think we will look at bottling some apple pulp for pies etc, and dry apple rings. Our horses and goats love apples, so will have a go at some more long term storage too. As they say 'a dollar saved is a dollar earned', which is pretty much our way of life here, we would rather spend our days picking apples or blackberries, than going to work to buy them!!! They don't call it the 'good life' for nothing!

Pest or not???

Around here, the blackberry is regarded as a terrible pest, to be sprayed and destroyed at all cost (the cost being the health of the sprayer and their family and the environment....). We try and do our bit to keep pests down etc, and we try and get the blackberries out of the native vegetation, as they can be a little dominating over revegetation. But to us blackberries are also a really valuable resource.

Blackberries at this time of year (mid-late summer) are in full fruit. As an example, this morning we spent maybe 30mins or so, and picked nearly 2kg of berries, and got to enjoy a nice walk while we were at it. In the supermarket blackberries sell for at least $5 per 250g punnet.... (hmm, the 2kg of blackberries simmering on the stove would make a pretty expensive jam.... we live a pretty luxurious life!)


Blackberries are fodder for stock - we keep goats and goats LOVE blackberries (horses like the fruit, alpacas the young shoots). I think that they would be happy to only eat blackberries for their entire lives! Bees love the blackberry flowers - so for bee keepers they are also important (fingers crossed the bees will happen this year).

Blackberries are medicinal. The leaves can be used to make an ezcema remedy, and the berries (eaten) are a pregnancy tonic among other things (Raspberry leaf tea is normally drunk during pregnancy - and raspberries and blackberries belong to the family Rubus). There are specific remedies that use blackberry, read up on it in one of the many herbal books around - I recommend Juliette de Bairacli Levy, who has written on herbs for both humans and animals.

Hmmm, now I present you a pest, probably far more damaging to the garden than the humble blackberry....


This young man has discovered the art of pulling up carrots! Yes, the carrot patch that I am so proud of, my very first successful carrot patch..... I think there might have to be a child proof fence put up around the bed, or else we will only be eating very very tiny carrots!!!

Summer solstice

Yesterday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It was warm and sunny, but not too hot. We spent the afternoon with some good friends and soaked up the sun and actually sat down and relaxed (doesn't happen too often around here!!) We used the opportunity to move our 'movable' chook pen while they were here!!!

The chooks are all great. The chicks are growing pretty quickly. I am fairly certain that one is a hen and one is a rooster - the third one I haven't made up my mind yet!


We de-loused one of our hens (not the mum and chicks thank goodness), she is called 'runty' because she is somewhat stunted in growth. We now know why - she was covered in some sort of lice (not the small mites I have seen before, but flea sized 'bugs' and many of her feathers had large clumps of eggs stuck to them). She has really improved since though, and although she is still small she seems to have a spark in her step now. She will need another treatment soon though, as some eggs remain. We will treat her and the whole flock probably in a weeks time. Should be fun!


The garden is growing well, zuchinnis are nearly ready to harvest, and some of the tomatoes and beans are flowering. We have harvested some potatoes, which were delicious. Nothing beats homegrown potatoes! I have many mustards and lettuces and other greens going to seed, which means that by autumn the garden should be nice and full of plants! I am also considering starting a very small and local seed/glut/jam/chutney etc swapping group. It seems like a good way to get diversity in your food and garden without extra money or time. I recently made a large batch of cherry plum jam and chutney (collected from the roadside), and its nice to swap it for something made by someone else (even if its their cherry plum jam - we all do things slightly differently, and subtle differences are nice too!)

Another use for all the plums!!!

All the best for christmas and the last bits of 2009.

Chicks!!

I think I mentioned in previous posts, that we had a hen sitting on some eggs. Well this week they hatched!!! Well, only 3 have hatched and surived (out of 8 eggs), one hatched but died, and one egg disappeared! They are all black with just a bit of lighter colour on their belly. They are Faverolles X welsummer and Faverolles X Light Sussex X Leghorn. Will be interesting to see how they turn out. One of the chicks has 5 toes (a Faverolles trait), the others have the normal 4 toes. I suspect the 5 toed chick will be a rooster and the other 2 hens. Brad reckons they will be all roosters. Will be fun to guess and see who is who!!!

Sadly the cross that I had been most interested in was the Faverolles X Auracana (both these breeds have the 'beards'), but none of these eggs hatched... Oh well, there is always next year! I feel quite addicted to this now, and really look forward to more hatchings in the future!!!

The kids are wrapped, and spend a bit of time sitting watching the chicks. It's really great for them, to see the process, see the eggs, and the chicks cracking the eggs open, and now the little fluff balls running around, and then how they change as they mature from chick to chook! You can expect lots of photos in the future to show the progress of these little guys. Its my first time at breeding poultry, so I have a lot to learn, along with mumma chook (it's her first time too), who is doing a great job!

Apart from the new life on the farm, pretty much nothing has changed, we have had some rain (what a weird old spring its been here...), and things are growing. The grass is growing too, which is our biggest 'isssue' at the moment. We are putting the neighbour's cattle into one of our paddocks, to eat it down, but we still have ALOT of grass, above knee height, and its a bit of a concern once it dries up.... The garden is growing well, the kids have been harvesting raspberries every day!! It looks like we will have a pretty big blackberry crop too!

The alpacas will be shorn in the next few weeks, depending on the weather, so that shall be fun!!

One small step for man, one giant leap for..... Horse!

A year after buying our young Clydesdale 'Cass' we have finally managed to get the halter on her! Its one big step forward. It probably wouldn't have taken us this long had we had the time to give to her, but with the renovations on the old place, building here, and moving etc etc we just couldn't do it.


In the last few months she has really settled down, probably a combination of getting a bit older (she was just 1 when we got her - never had a halter on or anything) and starting to trust us (animals seem to take a long time to really trust you - there is always a degree of mistrust for humans there I think - its the wild insticts). The last few months, Cass has stopped throwing her head up each time we touch her, and has been allowing us to pat her neck and even her front legs (mainly down to her 'knees').


We will keep just putting the halter on, until its just second nature, no stress for her. We are sort of just letting her set the pace, see how she responds. Next step will be to get her to move forward on the lead, and to pick up her feet (they desperately need trimming, but we didn't want to rush her too much for that, and risk getting her off side. In the next 1-2 years we will start training her for 'work'. She will be used to move 'stuff' around on a sled, and eventually a cart. Maybe even some very light plowing type work, but that would be in the distant future.

On another note, we got some good rain (40mm (16in) in 24hrs)! It was an unusual event, heavy rain after an unseasonal 'heatwave'. The weather patterns are truly changing and seem to be all over the place. Wonder what will come next! I planted out many of my seedlings just before the rain, to give them the best start I could. I still have lots of tomatoes to put in though, I have propagated about 40 or so plants now. The plants are a mixture of Speckled Roman, Tigerella, Reisentraube, a 3 colour Zebra mix. I have propagated them from seed (all but half a dozen or so plants that were given to us by a friend). I have also prepared a bed for drying beans, and have a pack of ying yang beans (for Brad who is a Tai Chi nut) the seeds are black and white, and remarkably similar to the ying yang symbol, as well as Borlotti beans. The potatoes are growing so well, I am really pleased with them. Only problem is I didn't plant enough - I never seem to for some reason.... eventually I will learn!

preparing for whats to come.

Its been hot and dry (historically -and not that long ago- in this part of the world, november was a quite wet month... but as is happening all over the world, the weather patterns are changing -wonder how much they will change once the north pole is gone - will soon find out in the next few years....), in neighbouring South Australia they are bracing for a very bad fire day today(its not even summer yet), and its the first year (after the terrible fires last year) that we now have a new fire ban category - 'catastrophic'... Oh boy.... Thankfully its not so bad here (yet), and today although warm isn't in that 'catastrophic' category. There is talk of good rain over the weekend, and predictions of good rain over the new year period (I am crossing everything that they are right).

Aside from the fear of summer, things are going well here. Lots of work to do, but I think when you own land, its just like that no matter how organised you are. Over the weekend, if the rain comes like they say, I am going to do a mass plant out - I have about 35 tomatoes, and many zuchinni and pumpkin seedlings to put in, more bean seed, medicinal/culinary herbs and some small shrubs (its a bit late to plant trees out now, but these will be going in the garden close by, where I can give them (some) water).

We have a hen sitting on a clutch of eggs. Its the first time I have had the opportunity to hatch some chicks so I am doing what they say not to do and 'counting my chickens before they hatch'! I know that they all wont hatch/survive, but it will be nice to get a few hens out of it. We have moved the mum-to-be to an old rabbit hutch, so she can sit in peace, and the other hens don't keep laying in her clutch (a good way to end up with lots of rotten eggs!)

I took some photos of my new barnevelders (not so new, we have had them for a few months, but they are now starting to look like they are supposed to, instead of looking like youngsters)

Here is the rooster and the largest of the pullets



She has such beautiful double lacing on the feathers, I am crossing my fingers they will also lay the chocolate coloured eggs that many (but not all) barnevelders lay.

The garden is going along well, all things considered. It takes a few years to get the soil good - unless you are blessed with good soil (unlikely in this country, as centuries of abuse is taking its toll on everything - ask the bees...). I am adding lots of manure (I use horse, alpaca and goat) compost, seaweed and whatever organic matter I can get. The more organic matter in the soil, the more water it can hold and the more 'alive' the soil is, and as much as it seems to freak some people out, the soil really does need that life (the worms, bacteria, fungi etc) to make stuff grow. Unfortunately, because we don't use chemical fertilzers on our land we are inundated with dung beetles, so collecting manure for the garden is now a difficult task, it just disappears!!! Funny, as many of the local farmers (including our neighbours) have had to 'buy' dung beetles to deal with the abundance of manure that doesn't break down.... (it really isn't so hard is it - don't poison the life out of the land and the bugs and beetles wont die out...).

I have been mulching my 'wild' garden with cut grass and alpaca fleeces and fallen leaves and anything I can find. Basically the soil needs a 'blanket' to keep out the extreme heat and keep in some moisture. Here is a photo of our daughter 'checking' the raspberries (she can't wait for them to turn red!)
The 'wild' garden is a largish garden with a wide variety of flowers, herbs, perenials (such as raspberries, strawberries, loganberries, asparagus), annuals (such as mustards, brocolli, silverbeet, lettuce, nasturtion and soon tomatoes and zuchinni) all mixed together. I am letting everything go to seed as I find that plants grown from seed in the location they choose themelves always do better than plants I raise as seedlings and transplant. I want this to become a jungle of useful plants, densely planted, every bit of soil covered, wont to be too long.

I also have a large and more formal vegetable garden (approx 4mx16m), where I am growing potatoes, carrots, staked tomatoes, beans (green and for drying), and an attempt at growing onions and garlic (normally plants I grow well, but now realise that the soil maybe too acidic for them - oh well, there is always next year). In autumn, once these crops are finished I will probably plant a green manure crop over this entire garden. Its quite shaded (an asset in summer), so doesn't grow well in the winter anyway.

Anyway, all this writing about my garden is giving me 'itchy' fingers, I want to get out there right now and plant out everything, but I really must wait for the rain (and the right time of the lunar cycle!). Might start researching rain dances, I think we might need to this year.

here it comes....

summer that is... I think I am not alone in this part of the country to be really really dreading this summer. They are predicting hotter and drier weather than last year (and therefore probably bigger and worse fires than last year - which killed about 200 people and wiped out townships).

We have had already a few days of over 30C temperatures, and we are only in mid-spring. I am crossing all my fingers and toes that we get a cold snap, and some good rain, before it really hits us early next year. Its hard for us (time and money) - you can only do so much in a few months to prepare (we ideally need more water tanks, pumps, roof catchment to catch the rain when it falls etc etc.). The garden is already drying out, and I will have to water (or not, we don't really have the water to spare...), so decisions have to be made, keep the garden alive and hope we will still get some decent rain before summer is officially here, or try my 'hardening' method, and just see what lives and what dies....


So, the garden. I have been propagating vegetable seedling, and now have 35 tomatoes almost ready to go into their (dry) beds. Pumpkins ready to go into a pile of horse manure that I just have to collect. I have been buying herbs and flowering plants (to attract the bees which hopefully I will be able to get next year) and cutting lots of long grass for mulch. Its all a slow process, made slower when you have a few 'helpers' (especially when now I have to watch my 'helpers' to make sure they don't get sunburnt or find a snake to 'play' with etc).

The hens are laying well. I am still (not so patiently) waiting for my new girls (the young Barnevelders) to start laying - can't be long now... One of our girls - a leghorn x light sussex is an amazing layer. Here is one of her very large eggs compared to a 'normal' egg.


We had a bit of a party to celebrate Brad's birthday yesterday, which was lovely, and we finally started up the trusty pizza oven. There is something simply beautiful about pizza cooked in one of these ovens, and the company was good too! We all had a wonderful time, even though it was a bit hot. Our daughter gave some family the 'guided' tour of the gardens and the chickens, and impressed her aunties and uncles on her knowledge of the plants in garden. She asked her aunty if she had chickens, and then said 'oh, so you have to buy your eggs?' LOL

So anyway, here is a picture of me and the 'kids' (human and goat!). Little Gypsy is a real sweetie, and so full of energy. The poor alpacas that share her paddock don't know what has hit them (well literally its Gypsy!). She jumps on them while they are sleeping and head butts them. Poor boys! At least there are 4 of them and only one of her!

Rain

We have been blessed with some really good rain the last few days, almost non stop, and not too heavy not too light, if you know what I mean. The water tanks are full, garden nice and wet, and plants seem happy. The chooks, horses and alpacas on the other hand look like drowned rats...

My carrots have come up! Growing carrots is 'my personal challenge', I have never managed to grow a sucessful crop. This year I did it all 'by the book'. Got the soil nice and fine, made rows with my rake handle, mixed the seed with sand, and kept the seed wet till they germinated. Which they have (finally!) after about 3 weeks. Now, as long as I can thin them without disturbing the plants too much, and keep the wildlife from munching them, we will have a crop - I have planted about 2-3sqm, so if all goes well there will be plenty (I over compensated with seed as I had low expectations). I will post some photos of the little carrots, once they are big enough to actually photograph!!!

I had to bring in my seedlings today as it was only 5C outside, and there was even talk of snow today.... Tomatoe seedlings probably don't like that too much!! A good day to have a rest and catch up on my knitting!!

More time in the garden

Things have been very busy here. I have set up a pretty serious vegy garden, hopefully not more than I can handle - about 13m x 4m wide (but I will need to extend it still). I have been digging it all over and adding assorted manures, wood ash and whatever else. I have been reading up on the requirements of the individual plants I am planting and preparing the soil specifically. I know this probably all sounds like the normal and right way to do it, but its not how I have normally do it! I have normally just thrown a few seeds in, here and there, and watched what happened.

But that was in my reckless days!!! I am taking the feeding the family task more seriously now, and want to make sure there are enough of each plant, and that they grow well. Alas, my soil is probably not ready for that responsibility yet...

So I spend some of our building days out in the garden with the kids while Brad is using the generator and sawing up timber etc etc. Then I try and help him whenever I can. Its been hard, long days, and it seems like nothing much is being achieved.... Somewhat overwhelming, as the mountain of work never seems to get less, and yet the time is flying.... All going 'well', we will be homeless in a month.... probably living in a caravan!!! One and a half people can't build a home in a month, and work to earn a living to pay for the building materials, and look after 2 young children.

It will be interesting, to say the least!!! We wont have electricity (or limited electricity), and possibily no plumbed water (we do own buckets!). Please hope and pray that we will have the combustion stove operational.... Hmmm, I guess it will be character building!!! And COLD.

Lets just hope for some good productive days in our future!!!! Fingers crossed!!

Winter garden

I have been busy working on our vegy garden, with some high hopes of growing lots of good food. I find the autumn/winter garden much more rewarding than the summer garden. The heat and the dry is such a formidable force in this part of the world. Winter has its challenges - slugs and snails... They devour so much so quickly...

So, I have been preparing a fairly large garden, 4m X 12m, but it will need expanding, as I now realize there isn't enough room for all the potatoes... ooops. I have been propagating plants which are nearly ready to plant out. Cabbages, broccoli, kale, beetroot, silverbeet (chard) are all about to go in the ground. Also, the garlic (all 80 cloves or so... ) that arrived recently from the Digger's Club. I have been preparing the beds with gypsum, wood ash from the pizza oven, and as much horse, alpaca and chook poo as I can. The soil is ok, but its not as good as the garden beds that we are leaving behind... The soil will take time to become enriched, its a long term committment, to establish a garden and help build the soil.

After the winter solistice (June 21st) I will plant out the onions. I have planted over 200 seeds, but will do another seed pack soon. I have always loved growing onions, despite them being cheap to buy, they are easy to grow, and organic onions are hard to find around here... Here are my little babies, just popping their head up.

Cute, aren't they?

Something that I have decided to do as of now, is keep a garden diary. I think it will help to refine my skills and improve our crops over the years. This is my main focus now - apart from my household duties, and taking care of the kids - to grow a large proportion of our food.

So much is happening now in the world, that I feel the urgency of this more and more. The economic crisis is starting to have an effect on Australia, despite the government assuring us that we are safe.... So many people are either out of work, or losing work. No one is employing, or spending money. We have seen many affected already, and its still early days.... It will be interesting to see how it all goes, whether 'they' can stop it, or will it keep spiraling....