Good bye our friend

Its with sadness, and relief, that we say goodbye to our goat Cookie. Initially we had him on a chain, along with our other goat Archie, to clear blackberries, but that involved me having to travel for an hour each day to make sure they were ok, and to let them have some exercise. I did this for a year, and although it was my choice to do this, after a year, I decided that I would like the goats to live in the paddock. That and the fact that I'm pregnant with our second child, and I know I wouldn't have been able to 'devote' the time required for such a task each day.


So we tried 'upgrading' the paddock fence, adding an electric wire at the bottom, making sure it was all tight etc, and putting a small yoke - a Y shaped branch on Cookie's neck to stop him getting through. Now the thing about goats is that they are far too clever.... This worked for a few weeks, and we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

But then he figured out how to get through, so we 'upgraded' the yoke, something a little bigger... Cookie ended up wearing a yoke that was almost a 1.5m top to bottom. And yet, it didn't take him too long to get out again. Soon he was out eating fruit trees as well as the Mountain Ash tree we planted for our daughter when she was born (on her placenta). Then other indigenous trees. We continued to try, but soon he was out on the road, harrassing people getting their mail. He is a 'people' goat, so he doesn't care much for the others in the paddock with him, he would much rather follow someone around... This could be a problem, depending on who he follows....

So it was back on the chain. I put an ad up locally, but I was pretty certain that Cookie would be doomed to a life on the chain. But amazingly a lady with 3 other goats (who knows what they are like, and is able to cope with that!) rang up, and well, yesterday we delivered him!

I hope he wont give her much trouble, but I think he will be very happy there, she feeds them hay and other feed in winter, and there is so much grass, we couldn't even get him to raise his head for a photo!


So its a big relief, a weight off my shoulders, I hate to keep an animal chained up, so I'm very pleased that things have worked out. Now I guess we will see how long before she rings us up because she can't cope with him!

Winter already???

Wow, what is it with our weather??? For 3/4 of March we had not a drop of rain, and a week or so of full on heat, and now... winter!!! Its turned cold and wet! I'm glad about the rain, but it would have been nice to have some mild days with rain, so that maybe the grass would grow... oh well, not much we can do but complain about it, and get over it eh?


Well, the Cookie saga (Cookie is our goat who wont stay in the paddock) continues.... We have tried added extra wires to the fence, putting on various variations of yokes around his neck, but he still gets out, harasses neighbours and their animals (he is TOO friendly, raised by people not animals - I wont ever get an animal raised by people again, they just don't bond with the herd, but want to be with you all the time), hops into people's cars (yes, literally). So I'm looking for a home for him. He is back on the tether now, and unfortunately I just can't devote my entire day to him alone (yes, I do have other things to do too...) so he has to go. We are very sad about this, as for all his vices, he is a nice boy and deserves a good life....

I've finished my Jaywalker socks, they turned out well, and I'm happy with them. Next I will have to make a pair of sock for our little one, as I'm yet to knit her a pair. Crazy, since she has the smallest feet, and toddler socks would take me very little time at all....


Brad's vest is comming along slowly.... Note to self, don't do cables on men's clothing, Man Size items should be simple and quick, they just take SO long to knit! But I am up to the armholes now, so at least the back will be done soon.


I went along to the local spinner's group the other week. It was good. I've been meaning to go along for some time, but just never got around to it. I was the youngest one there by a good 20 years or so, but it was nice to see other's spinning. They all spin such fine and even yarn, made me look a little silly with my think and loosely spun stuff, but then again, one lady said that although her spinning is really good, she wont knit it, as its just too fine! I guess I spin the yarn that I like to knit, rather than striving for perfection. Maybe one day I will aim for a perfect yarn, but now I'm more interested in doing it as a way of being self-sufficient - grow the fleeces on the farm, then spin, and knit our clothing. Better than buying some cheap factory produced jumper...

New gadget!

Since summer has decided to try and make a comeback (nearly a week's worth of high 30C temperatures...) I've decided to dry some apples. Unfortuantely they are bought apples, but they are organic, so I guess that makes up for them not being home grown....

I just recieved my apple peeler/corer/slicer gadget, and its great! Its nice and solid (not plastic!), and its all manual (no electricity required), and should last a lifetime. So I've put out 2 trays of apple rings to dry, hopefully the next few hot days should dry them out, otherwise I'll throw them into the dehydrator to finish them off. Our daughter loves dried fruits, and will probably eat all these apples in a matter of days, but I can always do some more....


Have been doing lots of pruning in the garden, mostly because the goats require so much variety in food (they are not impressed by dry grass - and I'm desperate to keep them happy - a happy goat is less likely to cause me trouble.... and yes cookie has been escaping still, he was visiting our neighbour's cattle...). So they are getting Peach prunings, roses, jerusalem artichokes, lemon balm, camelias, and some old pumpkin plants. Soon I'll prune the raspberries, and they will like that!

I've been busily knitting on Brad's vest. I'm getting really worried about running out of yarn though, fingers crossed I can finish it.... This is my first real cabled project (I've done little practice cables, and 'fake cables' on socks, but this is the most intricate), and I'm really enjoying it!


Not much else to say, just trying to survive the current heat wave, and hoping my trees will hang in there... this could be the straw to break their poor little backs....

How much does one have to do?

I'm truly at my wits' ends with our goat Cookie. He is a real sweetie, very friendly and incredibly beautiful. But why can't he just not escape from his paddock? Even wearing the Y shaped branch that we have put around his neck to stop him going through the fence, he still manages to get out. He has a nasty habit of eating trees that we care about, either fruit trees or plants with sentimental value. But I also fear for him, as he is likely to follow someone home (he is a people goat), and who knows what could happen to him. I wish there was some simple solution, but then again, that is why everyone has goats that they give away, they are a real pain in the butt sometimes....


But on to more happy things. We have been getting a bit of rain now, and it really feels like autumn is on its way. Although we are still getting warm/hot days, the nights are cool, and I can feel the plants (those that survived anyway) breathing a sigh or relief. At the farm, my only vegies that survived were my potatoes (although there is nothing on the surface now as the grasshoppers ate the plants), I harvested some today, and we had roast potatoes for dinner.


I love the taste of real fresh home grown potatoes, they actually taste of the earth. 'Our' roast potatoe recipe is just to cut them up and toss in a baking dish with olive oil, and add a mix of garlic, peppercorns and rock salt that has been 'ground' in the mortar and pestle. Lovely with a big dollop of sour cream.... yum!


I've managed to finish the chocolate brown alpaca fleece. It ended up being 720g once it was washed and spun, so that is ok although, I would have expected a little more. Unfortunately the shearer made a little bit of a mess of it, and made lots of second cuts. Stupidly, I spun this fairly thick, so that I could cheat when it came to knitting my raglan, so that I could use bigger needles and get it done faster, so now I'm not sure if there will be enough, and none of my other handspun is spun so thick, so I can't even do stripes..... damn stupid me! I am thinking I will probably make Brad a vest out of this, and keep the white fleece ( the last one of my own fleeces! YAY!) for myself.


I've also been knitting away on my jaywalker sock, which is going ok, and a version of the baby yoda jacket (I'm making a 'vest') for the bub to be. I figured I should make it something....

Apart from that its all pretty much as usual around here, nothing much happening and yet constantly busy!

sustainable living festival

Just got home from a lovely day in the city - we rarely go to the city, too far away and too busy, and we can do and get most things locally anyway. We took the train, the first time as a family, wasn't too bad, but the little one was pretty tired by the end of it all! We were in at federation square at the sustainable living festival. We had a good day, and actually caught up with a friend, and were interviewed for a TV show!! Brad got to talk to a company who convert electric cars (he is in the process of building an electric motorcycle), and we saw the solar taxi from Switzerland.


Much of the information was stuff we already knew though, so it was more a positive experience to see so many other people also interested in sustainable living. There were many stalls on solar power/solar hot water, and how to save electricity and water.

Going on the train meant that I got a little bit of knitting done. I'm currently working on the jaywalker sock, using my february Tofutsies yarn. I had to restart the pattern, as for some unknown reason I could actually do as the pattern said, and made my own assumptions up! Anyway, got it figured now, and I am pretty happy with it.


Also have been spinning the chocolate brown alpaca fleece. I'm probably about halfway through now, and have 3 skeins done weighing about 400g. Its a fairly chunky yarn, as it will be raglan sweater for me and I don't like knitting big things on small needles!


Looking forward to getting this fleece out of the way, as then I only have one more alpaca fleece, and a few odds and ends of mohair and sheeps fleece. I'm in a real stash busting mood at the moment, and want to clear up all the old fleece and yarn, to make way for new and different things. I am also looking forward to trying a few new things with my spinning, such as loopy yarn and adding beads etc. We shall see!

About goats

Even with about a week of rain on and off, and fairly mild to cool days, its still very dry around the farm. Can't say the same at home, the lawn has been growing quickly - funny how I spent the morning cutting feed for the animals, and then the afternoon mowing the lawn.... if only I could put my animals onto it, alas its not possible...


Speaking of dry grass... Most of our animals are quite content with the 'standing hay', the horses and alpacas, although would love nice lush green grass, will quite happily graze on dry grass, the goats are another matter all together! They mope and whine, and just seem downright miserable! So its off to cut willow, hawthorn, comfrey, jerusalem artichokes, and other assorted goodies for them. As well as ample acess to seaweed meal, which they eat like if it was lollies (and yes, goats probably would eat lollies!).

Currently we have 2 goats, Cookie a young Toggenberg, and Archie a not so young goat of unknown decent (he belonged to a 70 year old lady, and if you see how big - and strong - he is its quite an amazing thing!). Both are wethers. We got them to help us with the massive task of getting the blackberries under control. They have done a good job, but not without alot of work on our part, mostly because they need to be tethered to 'do' the blackberries, and that means I have to drive over and make sure they are ok everyday. Anyway, we have had these 2 goats for about a year now, and its been an interesting experience to say the least!

This is what I have learnt over this last year about our caprine friends.

• Goats are smart, too smart.
• Goats are charming, charismatic, and very smart!
• Goats with horns are not such a good idea.
• Goats love people far more than any other 'farm' animal I have ever had the experience of owning.
• Because of this, they are great when it comes to doing routine things like toe nail trimming.
• Goats like all animals, and seem to be able to integrate with other species, in our case alpacas, dogs and horses (unfortunately the horses are not so inclined...)
• Goats are playful.
• Goats are determined when food is involved - never go near goats with food you don't intend them to have, as it will be theirs... eventually.
• Don't pick blackberries with a goat.... note above point...
• Never leave your lunch bag anywhere that a goat can get to it, they will eventually open zips etc, and will eat whole bananas, tea bags, plastic bags and things you just wouldn't think to worry about.
  
• Goats can be very patient, while other animals will panic when entangled, goats will wait for you to come along and untangle them.
• They eat Ragwort, blackberries, dock, thisle flowers, and many other weeds, so keeping them in your paddock means no more weeding! YAY!
  
• Goats will break your heart if you care in the slightest about trees.... Not only do the they eat trees, they also remove the bark (much worse...). They will find the trees that matter most to you and ruin them.
  
• Some goats need very creative ways of keeping them in the paddock. Currently Cookie wears a substantial 'branch' around his neck to stop him going between the wires, although, I doubt it will be long before he learns the trick to get through... Damn, if only they were not smart...

Peaches, glorious peaches!

Well, its that time of year when my beautiful peach tree rewards me for the forsight to plant it 5-6 years ago. Money well spent I reckon! This tree is a yellow fleshed clingstone, called Golden Queen. Fantastic variety, although I am biased. I have never bought a peach from the shop since I tasted my first one off the tree (shop bought peaches are NOT what peaches taste like).


The last few years we have had really good crops, and even though the birds have gotten to much of the fruit (plus peaches seem to just want to fall off the tree green...), we have still picked well over 10kg.


I've bottled 11 bottles so far, plus eaten many, and given some away, plus the chickens have had some etc etc.

I really enjoy the bottling of the fruit, not sure why more people don't do it. Sure it takes some time, but so does working to pay for the food we buy, and I know what I'd rather do! And the end product is so much better than anything you buy in the shop. The other advantage is that I can reuse and reuse the jars (most of them are already second hand) so I know that I am doing something good for our planet too. Funny thing, I had just run out of jars and a friend of ours came round to help with some work at the farm, and brought me 2 big boxes full (all with stainless steel lids too!).

Speaking of the farm, here is said friend and Brad putting up the guttering on the shed!


We still have a few bits and pieces to finish off the outside of the shed, some flashing, and the other side guttering. Its so nice to see the shed with walls now, a great feeling of accomplishment. Anyway, soon we can start on some new project!