winter on our farm

Winter has been interesting in our part of the world.  June saw the month's average rainfall come down over the course of only a few days, and then not a drop for the remainder of the month (good thing we DID get a months worth in one go!).  July was warm and mostly sunny, we had our hottest July day on record, which saw many shorts and t-shirts make their way out of the wardrobe a bit earlier than usual!!!  Two days later and almost snowed here!  I love snow, but I do feel for the animals who have to cope with a weather change of 20C in a day or two...  tough times when there is hardly any grass around.  I've seen many small farmers selling off livestock at the moment due to not having feed.  I'm thankful for those sunny days, at least the grass grew a little....

Makes us think about what animals are keepers and which ones we should get rid of.  At this point in time we have four goats, but two are wethers and we keep them because we don't have the heart to sell them (ok I'll rephrase that - I don't have the heart to sell them...), we still have last years roosters that we keep because we haven't the heart to do what needs doing. I think about the term 'hobby or lifestyle' farming - which to me is when you keep lots of pets and don't really farm your land for any food/money.  I sort of think of our place as a working farm, we are producing some of our food, and alot more is in the process of being produced, but how many 'pets' have a place on a real 'working' farm?  I don't know....  we have rescue dogs and I want to help as many animals as possible to have a happy life, but that said, where is the boundary between working to pay for 'rescues' and pet roosters etc and having a self sufficient smallholding....  Interesting questions anyway...  I've come to the conclusion that truly ethical living is not possible, we compromise one thing for another, and I don't think there is an actual right way....

So apart from pondering the details of an ethical life what else is going on here this winter on the farm?

I've bought 24 olive trees to produce our own oil in about 5-10 years time.  At the moment we buy our oil from a local grower - we buy about 30L for a year, and its nice to not have to think about how much oil one needs per week/fortnight.  I only have to write in my diary to ring the man at the right time of year.  Looking forward to another step in self sufficiency and one that doesn't require loads of work!!!  Olives are as tough as nails.

Our cow will calve soon - probably within the next month.  Hoping for a heifer calf, otherwise we are up against one of those difficult ethical living dilemmas....

The goats are having a rest this year and will have kids next year when we will dry off the cow (hahaha, 'best laid plans of mice and men'....).  One thing I've learnt is there are massive differences between cows and goats.  Aside from obvious things, cows are one tough beast, even on the most bitter days our Buttercup is out grazing (she has a nice shed to go in - and she does go in sometimes).  When it rains (even a drizzle), the goats are found like this:

Still here!

Its been about 6 months since I last updated this blog, my apologies to those who read it!  We have been very busy, but then again there isn't all that much to say!

We have been working hard on our house - you can read about that here.  Things are coming along, but as with most owner builder projects its slow.  

The farm has been keeping us busy.  All the spring babies are all grown up. The two baby goats, are now pretty much fully grown, and capable of major destruction to trees.  These will be the last goats to come here, NO MORE GOATS!  On the up side, we are now milking our two girls and have plenty of milk.  Milk production has slowed a bit now that the weather has cooled down, but will pick up with spring.  Goats (and suspect cows are the same but we are yet to try) can be milked continually, after one kidding.  Our older goat Dorka is now coming into her third year since she had her kids, and milk production only varies due to the weather and feed availability (mostly because when it rains the goats just stand under cover and don't eat!!!).

baby goats are not so little now...

 I've been working on my food forest, trying to get some ground covers and understory plants going, as well as planning out winter fruit tree planting.  I've read some very good books recently on this, which have provided me with much inspiration.  Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemmenway and The Wilderness Garden by Jackie French.  Both great books if you want to design a productive garden modelled on natural ecosystems. 

We finally updated our chook pen.  The original pen was supposed to be movable, to be moved weekly or so, but it was just too heavy for the two of us, and visitors are not so common to these parts!  The new pen is  a large paddock (between 1/8-1/4 acre in size) and has a 'raw' bale house in the middle.  Eventually the paddock will be divided up into 4 yards, and the chooks rotated between these yards.  Once the chooks are out, the yard will be planted in good things for them to eat, and will start to have some impact on our feed costs.  The chooks are happy and snug at night in their insulated house.

I'm planning lots of tree planting for our land this winter (and the next few after that).  We have lots of springs here, and with all the rain we have had, many places in our local area have suffered land slips.  Its something we don't want to happen here, and the only thing that can stop it is deep rooted trees to use up the water and to stabilise the soil.  Observation also helps, and I've noticed that blackberries grow on some of our most vulnerable spots. I reckon they are actually helping (but don't let the neighbours hear me say that, having blackberries on your land around here is worse than harboring a criminal....). 

Winter is cold up here, so I'm catching up on spinning (and some of my overdue garden projects) and dreaming of the summer season to come.  Big plans for tomatoes this year (I know now we need about 100kg of tomatoes to cover our sauce etc requirements, so that is the goal...).  I also want to have a go growing maize for animal feed, as well as the usual summer stuff.  Lots to do, and never enough time to do it all! 

All the best for 2012!

Just a quick update (not many updates on the blog in recent times I know!!!).  Our family wish all our family and other readers a very happy new year.  May it be productive, enjoyable, and a great year for all!

2011 has been a very busy year for us.  Between working on the house (the never ending timber frame!!!), setting up our farm, and the daily chores and seasonal activities, we are very busy. 

So, what did we do in 2011?
re-fenced my vegetable garden (to be goat proof).
dug 80sqm potatoe patch (which is close to harvest now!)
got ducks
got geese
hatched 17 chickens (a new one hatched just last week)
built a post and beam frame of heavy hardwood timber and put it up without a crane or machinery of any sort!
got a roof on our frame
cut and split enough firewood for the coming winter
made enough jam to survive any acopalypse that 2012 may bring
planted about a dozen fruit trees and 40 or so raspberry canes
lots of reading and planning for developing our farm into a productive property

Well, thats all I can think of!!

Happy new year!

Happiness is ....

More raspberries than you can eat

Watching little chicks

 Kids

A thriving potatoe patch

New critters

Progress...

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....

summer

Life has been good, but not particularly eventful here.  We are probably in one of the few parts of our state that has not had extraordinary rains, although still more than is typical for summer.  We have also been lucky to not have our typically hot weather - with more mild 20-35C so far this summer.  Summer usually makes me nervous, and adds a whole new dimension of work as far as watering the garden goes.  So the garden is growing well, the grass is still green (not the usual thing in mid January!). 

sweet corn

zuchinni - the best I've ever grown!

We are devoting most of our spare time to building the house, along with other urgent jobs like shearing (which we finally got around to do this week - again Brad did them using the hand shears), and pulling out Ragwort.  The Ragwort has been very prolific this year, not just in abundance, but also in the sheer size of the plants (some are as tall as us).  Personally I don't think its such a big deal, its real problem is that the most common livestock here don't eat it, so therefore its taking the place of grass.  I've been doing some reading on 'natural farming' although I use that description loosely - a book by Joel Salatin.  The book (The Sheer Ecstacy of Being a Lunatic Farmer) has 'joined the dots' on alot of things I read about and know, and the issue of Ragwort is one of them.  By consistently grazing the same animals, and getting them to graze the grass down before moving them on, you are actually encouring the growth of plants that they DON'T like!  As they eat the stuff they like and let the 'weeds' grow strongly.  Makes sense, yet that is how pretty much all 'produtive' farming is done.  Litres of chemicals poured over the land to deal with an issue that cross grazing with sheep or goats would control....



I've been inspired by Salatin's example and am currently reading more about our food system and diet (Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food).  Its definatley a topic that is close to my heart, and we are pretty passionate about producing real food, that hasn't been adulterated by the industrial food system. I'll leave it at that for the moment, but I highly recommend reading about these topics, especially about how our food system works and what you are eating.  Food is probably THE most important thing in our lives, and we should be eating the best food (even if its expensive) and in its 'natural' state - not processed.

The weather (apart from when it has been raining) has been very nice for taking photos.  Such beautiful blue skies.  Here are some snapshots of the last few weeks.

2010, 2011 and beyond

2010 was a very short year for us, well it felt short, like we could have blinked and missed it.  I think that is because of the preparation for building the house, you know how time flies if you have a deadline....  We have been pretty busy with the building stuff now, and its nice to actually be able to do something, instead of just waiting for paperwork etc.  You can read more about it here.

As far as general life on the farm 2010 was a bittersweet year.  We lost quite a few animals, our goat gyspy, an alpaca, but by far the most abundant losses were in our hens.  We started spring with 13 hens, and now we have 5 left.  But typical of the way nature works, one of the hens is sitting on a few eggs, so new life may replenish the losses. This quote pretty much sums it up, and keeps coming back to me, as it seems so 'real'.

"Earth brings us into life and nourishes us. Earth takes us back again.  Birth and death are present in every moment"

Since we left town, I feel that we have come closer to nature and the cycles of life and seasons.  Its easy in town to disconnect, it doesn't matter what the weather is like because you have the same temperature year round due to the wonders of heating/cooling systems, you don't eat seasonally as farmers will run heated hothouses to provide tomatoes year round or we import from warmer climates, so we can eat watermelon in winter.  Out here, the seasons are 'in your face', if its cold its hard to not notice it.  When you grow any vegetables, you become aware of when the naturally would grow in your area.

2011 is promising to be another full year for us, which will probably pass by far too quickly (considering we almost half way through january already - how did that happen??).  The house building will be a dominant part of our lives for the next few years.  We will also focus our efforts on establishing good infrastructure such as fencing, water pipes and additional tanks and catchments, more protection for trees and gardens and setting up yards etc for animal management.  Due to our sagas with our hens, we will also be looking at setting up a portable house that can be moved around the paddocks with a herd guardian of some sort.  We will also try and inrease our food production, and reduce our reliance on outside sources of food for us and the animals.  We will see how far we will get with that this year.

Goodbye 2009

Today is the last day of 2009. I find it a good opportunity to look back on the year that was and the achievements/milestones.

2009 was a pretty big year for us. This time last year we were still working on the old house, we still had a lot of work to do. We not only finished the renovation work, but also built us a tempoary home while we build our strawbale house. Halfway through 2009 we made the move to our land, to begin the 'dream'. It was an interesting time, we had very little in the way of the 'mod cons' we were used to. Makes you realise how little we need, but also how much we take for granted as 'westerners', compared to what so many in the world have.

We have added to the 'family' with the addition of our milking goat and more hens and roosters (which lead to our chicks! Self sufficiency in hen replacement!!). We have learnt how to cook and bake on the wood fired combustion stove, how to set up an off grid power system, and milk a goat. We have managed to somewhat tame our clydesdale horse, and can now put her halter on, and pick up her feet a bit. So much more to learn in 2010.

All that time I spent travelling up to our land every couple of days to check on animals has been spent creating and tending the garden, which is growing nicely. 2010 should see more beds dug and more manure and compost added to the established gardens.

Its been a hard year, I certanly feel tired. But its probably been one of the most rewarding years as far as our own personal achievements go. But 2009 was also an incredibly scary year. We suffered a seriously hot heat wave, temperatures beyond what we have had before, which lead to the worst fires we have had before (with unprecedented deaths). I hope that 2010 is kind to us, but as I write this its hot outside, and the grass is drying off.... Hmm, 2 months to stress and worry, till autumn comes.

So what is the plan for 2010? Hmm, hopefully some rest and relaxation. Hopefully more time spent with the animals, taking care of their needs. Fencing, gardening and weed management. We hope to have the house plans drawn up and maybe to make a start on the house, towards the end of the year.

So goodbye 2009, the new decade begins, hopefully with the 'flavour' of hope, change and compassion on a global scale.

Spring equinox

Today light and day are of equal length, but from now on the light will prevail, until the summer solstice that is.

It is a time to celebrate life and growth - eggs, flowers, and getting stuck into the food garden.


The chooks are laying ok, my flock is mixed, with some old girls that have been with us for a while, some in their 'prime' that I bought at the start of the year and some new ones (Barnevelders) that I got about a month a go. The new ones are yet to start laying, which I am looking forward to! I hope to be able to breed a few replacement chooks this year, as well as adding to the flock from local poultry breeders. I am aiming for about 12 layers.

Our solar power system is going great, not a problem. We were worried about how it would handle our biggest regular power user - the washing machine, and to our complete surprise it only took 1-2% of our battery capacity!!! So much for people saying you can't run a washing machine on an off grid solar power system!!! So far we have tested the 'bamix', drop saw and vacum cleaner, and all work fine - the vacum cleaner used the most power. It also runs our internet server and charges laptops and batteries for the drill etc. These things barely have any impact on the battery charge at all!!!

So now our 'problem' is trying to USE power, as the batteries are pretty much always 100% full!!! Winter will be different of course!

Here is a quick photo of the kids, all dressed up, and reasonably clean - just before we headed off for a long drive to visit our niece for her 3rd birthday party. Had a great time, although the drive was not so enjoyable!!!

Not much else to say, busy as always, starting to preapre for the fire season ahead...

Three

Our girl turned 3 last week. Time sure does fly. We had a small party for her here, which was really lovely, despite heavy rain (yay!).

the tree on the right was planted when she was born, its now well and truly taller than us (even after the goat ate the top off!

Spring seems to be all around us, even though its still officially winter. The silver wattles are in full flower (and unless I have forgotten what they were like last year, they seem to be much more heavily 'in flower' than in the past- maybe due to the hard summer we had - a neighbour with sheep this year had all multiple lambs - 5 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets - they have never had this before...)


The daffodils are up and their flowers seem a little light on, more just leaves.


Life is good here though. Much work being done, nothing much interesting as such, I've done a drainage trench, there has been some building, work on the vegy garden and planning of future vegy gardens. Tomorrow (hopefully) I will be picking up 2-3 hens to add to our small flock. Should be good!

winter - don't go yet...

Signs of spring are all around us. (Its too early though - go away and give us some more rain...)

The daffodils are popping up.

The wattles are flowering.

Buds are forming on decidious plants (those that still bother to drop their leaves.... anyone else notice that many don't bother dropping their leaves so much anymore.... scary)

I've seen birds with nesting materials, the lambs are all born (not ours- we don't have sheep... yet)

And we have heard of snake sightings - Brad even got to do his first snake capture - when picking up some old corrugated iron from a neighbour's place - under the last sheet was a sleepy tiger snake. The neighbours wanted to kill it with a shovel, but Brad managed to convince them to get it into a bag and relocate. Understandably the snake was pretty pleased with this!

Its been so windy - luckily for us we have this....

Its just an old generator, 200W, so not a real big one either, but it helps, for now, while we STILL wait to hear if we will get a government grant for our off grid power system.... By the time we get the power system we wont know what to use all that electricty on!!!

Lots of work to be done - we are trying to priorities jobs (many jobs need to be done before summer - lots of cleaning up before bushfire season..... ). Planning the spring garden, just recieved a big box full of seeds for the vegy garden, plus my seed potatoes - YAY!

Checked out my 'new' local town, and they have a great health food store that sells orgaic fruit and veg and has a decent range! So I am pretty pleased about that!

Don't rush

Meet Stanley. He is our slow combustion stove. Just a run of the mill Stanley Traditional, made in Ireland. You can still buy them new, just the same. We got Stanley second hand, in pieces, and had the interesting task of putting him back together. It was good as we now understand where the heat travels and can problem solve if things don't work right. But it wasn't fun, if you like your sanity intact!

So, Stanley is an amazing multitasking individual, with a perculiar sense of humour. He has replaced our kettle, toaster, hotplates, oven and microwave (we no longer have any of these in their conventional form), hot water service and he is also good at drying clothes and proving bread. I think that he replaces these better than the electric/gas versions, and we don't get bills!

The slow combustion stove is great for baking (there has been lots of scones, biscuits, bread and baked dinners around here) and slow cooking. You can leave things to cook all day without worrying about what the electricity/gas bill will be!

But there is one thing about Stanley that makes him challenging at times... You just can't rush the guy. He seems to know when you want to get the fire going quickly, say because the kids are up and whingeing that they are hungry and you need to go out in an hour. You try and put on some bigger wood too quickly, before he is ready, and its all over, you can start again! Then after you have had your lukewarm coffee and barely toasted bread you will have a roaring fire ready to go....

Slow combustion cooking is for a slower pace of life. Not really suitable if you work all day outside the home (unless you know how to keep it ticking over for 8 hours or so). But a slow pace of life is a good thing in my opinion. We are enjoying our new life here, its lovely to wake up to the chorous of birds, and go and give the horses an apple. Spending time in the garden, planning the spring crops and finding the time to do some of the things we never had time to do before. Its nice to not have a feeling of rushing, although there is a lot to do here, most of it can wait another day. When the weather is nice (which seems to be more often than not) its nice to go out and potter around. Our next project is to build a moveble pen for our chickens, so we can finally bring the girls home (and add a few more and even a rooster!).