autumn days

We kind of missed summer this year, which is just fine with me!!  While I do enjoy the warm weather (not hot) summer is a lot of work.  Watering the garden, keeping water up to the animals (and feed as the grass dies), worrying about the water tanks running out and the constant fear of bushfire...  

beautiful autumn sky

Mind you without summer weather you don't get all those wonderful summer crops and sadly this year some things just haven't made it to ripen before the colder weather (the nights have gotten pretty chilly now).  I have some lovely green chillies that would have been a great crop for sweet chilli sauce (probably enough to last all year), had they gotten another month of warm weather...

picking green tomatoes for pickles

Autumn means a lot of pulling out finished (or at least unlikely to finish) crops and preparing the ground for new plantings.  So that's what we have been doing.  Dug up one block of beds and in the process of planting.  Lots of peas (part crop part green manure to improve the beds for spring), and brassicas, onions and root crops like carrots.  I am having trouble with rabbits, so that is something I need to work out still.

tilling the beds with the walking tractor

raking the ground into beds

I have also put in our garlic, which is such a great crop to grow.  It grows well, stores and is harvested before the worst of the dry weather sets in (here we harvest Nov/Dec).  I plant early, as we are pretty cold here, and I like them to get a good start before it gets cold (and light levels drop too much).  I add a lot of lime to the soil (we are very acidic here) and other 'goodies' - coffee grounds, charcoal I pulverise and add liquid fertilizer to, and seaweed meal.  This is my own concoction, but it seems to be helping my poor tired soil.

garlic planting - yay!

autumn is pizza oven time - yum!

Our polytunnel

For some time we have been wanting to put up a polytunnel.  We have had the hoops (they were given to us - thank you!) for years, and a need for a decent propagation area gave us the incentive to get this up.

The polytunnel will serve three distinctly different purposes (seed raising/propagation, hot climate vegetable growing/season extention and a place to grow warmer climate plants like bananas, coffee and some citrus) - and initially I had imagined three separate greenhouses, but as we had lots of hoops we decided to make one big tunnel and that is it.

the frame

We built the structure over several weekends a few hours here and there in between other things.  The plastic had to be done in one hit and we knew we had to do it soon as its autumn and its not ideal to put up the plastic in cold weather as it stretches out better when its warm.  We decided on a day (today) and I hoped that it wouldn't been too windy (it was a perfectly still day!).  I still can't quite believe our luck with the weather!!!

it was harder than it looks!

It was just the two of us doing it and I was a little apprehensive about it as I have heard of others needing quite a few people to help.  And when we first started to pull the plastic over I did really think that it might not work out so well just us, but eventually after alot of sweat (no tears luckily!) we did it!  It was surprising how much the plastic 'stuck' to the hoops - although it was mostly due to the weight of the plastic that was on the ground (it got really easy once it was mostly up off the ground).  The polytunnel is quite big - 20m long.

nearly there!

the kids helping out!

attaching the plastic

Very happy with how it has turned out!

polytunnel building team!

Still alot of work to do on it though.  As you can see the sides are open - they will need to be filled in.  Still deciding how we will do it.  We need to build benches for seedling trays and we plan on having some ponds in the middle - they will help in humidifying the polytunnel and may form part of an aquaponics type watering setup - still thinking about this (I hope we can keep goldfish and waterlillies in there).  Looking forward to designing the inside layout and then planting!  Yay!

PS. thanks to the kids for taking all the photos!

Hello there!

Its been a whole year since I last posted (is it just me or is time going quicker these days???).  Doesn't seem so long ago to me! No, there is no great excuse for my absence, although I HAVE been busy!!!

My last post showed our chookshaw.  A brand new thing for us.  Well, its now over a year in operation, and still working beautifully!  There have been some mishaps of course, like the time that the door opened (it wasn't shut properly) while Brad was moving it and all the chooks jumped out and refused to move into the new area no matter how much we tried to herd them (chooks don't herd!).  We now know that once let out, the chooks kind of imprint on that spot and even at night they stayed there (but luckily we managed to get them all before the foxes came) - if it ever happens again we will not bother moving them, just reset up the fence wherever they happen to get out.  We are really happy with this set up, the chooks have been in great health.

moving the chookshaw

The set up has also resisted fox attacks, as I had a few chooks in other pens (spare roosters and a few bantams in the orchard) and those were all taken one day when we were out (during the day - at night I turn on an electric fence).  I have also seen the fox nearby but no chook was taken from the electric netting (touch wood!)

Checking for eggs never gets old

Speaking of chooks, I've re-started to sprout the grain for their feed.  I did this a while back, but over summer found the grain was getting a bit of mould on it.  This time I'm only keeping if for 3 days.  It creates a greater volume, and is sort of semi-fermented - maybe I could call it grainkraut!  They are doing really well on this.  At this point I am using the following grains - wheat, barley, triticale, maize and sunflower seeds.  I also feed the same grain to the goats.

So, now onto the goats.  I think last I posted we had lost my beloved Dorka goat - our first milking goat.  We had had all manner of issues with getting our milk supply back.  Well, Rosie kidded in November and gave us 2 boys (yes 2 boys AGAIN).  It was great having our milk back but then Rosie's health went down hill and we really thought we would lose her.  It has taken me until now to bring her back up to health, with lunch feedings, lots of mineral and vitamin supplements, and much worrying on my part.  We have now added to the menagerie another milker Marigold.

So cute!

Our cow Buttercup spent last winter at the neighbour's place (they have a bull), but it appears she may not be in calf.  Not sure what we will do with her.

As for me, I've been doing a little spinning and knitting, and dabbling into sewing (mostly just for the kids).  And I've just finished off making all our tomatoe sauce for the year (hooray!).  We had a really great year for blackberries and I've made a few different things out of those, plus lots to eat.

The garden has been going ok, especially considering we don't have a watering system set up and a pretty low pH (I'm working on getting that right though!).  We bought a Pasquali 'walking tractor' which has made garden prep much easier (for me!). We have harvested the potatoes, garlic, too many beans (wont be sad to see the back of them...), cabbages, broccoli, swedes, carrots, corn and many others.  I've grown a plot of flax, which I hope to prepare and make linen.  If I do manage it, I'll post about that on the blog.

Our walking tractor at work - so much easier than ME doing the digging!!!

a small bunch of homegrown flax, might be enough to make a face washer!

Till next time!

All aboard!

Over the years we have tried all sorts of ways of keeping our chooks (fowls for the non-aussies) in a healthy manner.  Our first attempt at a moveable pen was ok, but it was too heavy to move easily, so it didn't get moved enough, and the timber A-frame house was dark and dingy and hard to clean so pests built up.  We built a great little moveable 'chook tractor' which I still use (mostly for mother hens with young chickens), which we built of corflute and protect the occupants with a couple of electric wires.  Its down side is that it can only fit 3-4 full size hens...

Our next attempt was a great big run probably about 1/8 acre with a 'raw' strawbale house.  The house solved a few problems - it was roomy and well insulated but rats also found it comfortable and since it was close to my vegetable garden it has caused me alot of grief with rats eating all my garden....  The yard was supposed to be divided into 4 sections so we could rotate the chooks, but it never quite got finished... Then the crows found the house and well that was the end of the eggs!

Well, it probably sounds like this is going to be another doom and gloom post about things going wrong, but its not (fingers crossed)!  We think we may have now found the ideal way to keep a decent size flock that doesn't harm the soil and keeps the chooks healthy and safe.

The chookshaw!

Just because its practical, doesn't mean it can't be pretty!

We have called it the 'chookshaw' because its essentially just like a rickshaw those Asian people powered vehicles.  The chookshaw is the 'nighthouse' where the hens hop in to sleep and lay their eggs.  During the day they come out into an electric netting enclosure that we move about the paddocks every two or so days (right now we have very little grass after a hot dry summer).  We hope that this method will achieve two goals, giving our chooks a great life (and thus making their eggs great food - nutrient dense - to use the current buzz word) and also as a way of fertilizing our pasture.

Letting out the flock onto new pasture

Anyway, probably the main drawback (and perhaps its not a drawback as such) is that it HAS to be moved every two days.  Rain, hail or shine.  To leave them too long in one place means the paddocks will turn to desert and we just can't afford to do that.  I suppose its good in that it forces us to do it, even if we don't feel like it where as all other systems tend to allow you to be lazy and 'do it tomorrow', now that is not an option.  This is not a new idea (or anything we have come up with) many small farmers are keeping their chooks this way, in fact there is a great book that covers the ins and outs of this and other great chook related stuff, you can read about it here.

The electric net, the horizontal wires are 'live' and serve to protect the flock from foxy.

If you search the internet for electric netting and poultry you will find loads of info and there are sellers of electric netting in Australia too, although our selection is limited compared to what people have access to in the US (I got the 'starternet' by Kencove from Allsun, and we are happy with the quality of the net, although I've never seen the Premier net that everyone raves about).  I want to experiment with using the net for other animals in the future - goats and sheep maybe?  At least kids (goat, that is!) or even calves, who knows?

Flockster in the making?

Goodbye 2013 and hello 2014

I'd like to say that 2013 had been a great year for us, but while not we didn't suffer from terrible events and we are alive and well, its hard to say that our little farm had a great year.  I don't like to complain, everyday I remind myself how lucky we are, we are doing something we love and we live in a beautiful place and quite frankly there are people out there who are doing it really tough, so in the grand scheme of things we can't complain.

However, 2013 just wasn't our year...  We had a terrible summer, so hot and dry, broke many records etc etc.  It caused our goats to dry themselves off.  That in itself wasn't the end of the world as such, as we could have done more to prevent it, but you get comfortable in your situation, and you just assume its all going to keep on going as it was.  Hmmm....  So we contemplated our farm goals, what we wanted to do and we decided that we would buy a Jersey cow close to calving so we would be without milk for only a little while....  I have posted pictures of Buttercup the cow and I was looking forward to posting photos of her little calf, but it seems we were cheated and our cow wasn't in calf.  Which was very disappointing, not to mention a costly mistake.

So we decided we still had time to get the goats in-kid, but due to two diseases CAE and JD we needed bloodtests and the breeding season was nearly over by then, so I bought a buck, Chip.  He is lovely and I'm happy with him.

Chip - he is 3/4 Toggenburg (from really good bloodlines).

But then of all the things that could go wrong and all the assumptions I could make, I just wasn't prepared to lose my beautiful Dorka goat.  Our first doe, the one that changed our world, helped us to provide more of our needs than almost any other animal on our farm, the inspiration for the blog (there is a pic of her on the 'about this blog' tab).  She died, and I miss her so much.  Its been two months since she died, and the farm is empty without her, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her.  I think of all the animals here, Dorka for me symbolised all that we were working towards, our journey to self sufficiency.

Dorka the day we brought her home 4 years ago.  She wasn't friendly when we got her, but she settled into her routine (a little too much you could say) and we know she had a good life here.

And so there you go, we could rename 2013 as the year of no milk.  Hopefully 2014 will be the year of lots of milk as it just doesn't feel good having to buy it all the time.  There was a real sense of achievement in milking the goats everyday, and I really miss it.

I will also apologize for not updating this blog as much as I should.  Looking after a farm and a family is a pretty time consuming thing, and combined with our painfully slow internet connection (hence I haven't been posting many photos), it just doesn't seem to happen as much as I'd like to.  I like to think that I may do better this year, but who knows!!!

So best of luck for 2014, hope that whatever life throws at you, you can still make the most of it all and remain positive and keep trying for the future.  That's all we can do really.

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:

time flies!

I have to admit that I am a terrible blogger.  I am more of a gardener and farmer, and enjoy my outside work far too much! So, its been about 6 months since I last updated this blog.  It was december then, just the beginning of what turned out to be a terrible summer.  The authorities called it the 'angry summer', and I think its a good description!  We broke all manner of records in Australia that summer/autumn, including the most consecutive days abover 30C (9 days in March!!!!).  We are very careful with our water use, and we came pretty close to running out, many did run out of water.  There was something different about this summer.  While the temperatures weren't extreemly hot as such, the sun had a fire to it.  Old trees have died all over our area, and it was next to impossible to keep up the water to the garden.  I am thankful that I managed to keep my young orchard trees alive (with only a few buckets of washing machine water).  I had to give up on most of the vegetables, as even with heavy mulching they couldn't cope.  Next summer I will use shade covers, if I can get it set up in time....

So, we are almost halfway through 2013 now, and thankfully the weather has cooled off and we have had SOME rain (much lower than what we would normally expect...).  So here is a little rundown of what has been happening here.

We have a new addition to the farm, her name is Buttercup, a Jersey cow.  She is due to calve in August, and we are very much looking forward to homemade butter!

I grew about 3kg of garlic, which we are still eating now, and hopefully (fingers crossed) will last us till the next crop is ready (november or december).

We are still eating our own home grown potatoes, and hopefully those will last us till the next crop (although we did suffer some losses this time due to rats).

After doing lots of reading, I'm converting my garden to be more of a polyculture, rather than distinct beds of this or that.  I have had a few pest issues (rats) and it seems to me that the safest way to grow food is to spread out things like peas, potatoes and tomatoes around the garden, rather than concentrating it all in one place so a pest can eat the lot.  Its early days and most of my attempts have been thwarted by the birds (at least my soil is improving as they dig up everything for the worms) and slugs...

I will try to update this blog again soon!  Hopefully before 2013 is over!