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!

Simple pleasures of summer.... or not...

I think watermelon just says summer, don't you?

This summer has been a particularly tough one climatically around here. Its been about a month or so since we had rain (although last time it rained we had over 60mm in 24 hours and lost one of our freshly shorn alpacas.... funny weather eh?). I get really edgy when we don't get rain for a while, and hand watering the garden just doesn't seem to be any consolation as far as the plants are concerned. Unfortunately this has made establishing trees up at our farm incredibly difficult and heartbreaking (not to mention expensive). Many plants just have not made it through (and we still have half of summer to go), especially the vegie garden, where I had planted many pumkins etc. Between the lack of water and the current plague of grasshoppers they just haven't survived. But on the up side we should get a good crop of potatoes, so that is something. And the peaches.... they are about to ripen up, the backyard smells of them when its hot (so pretty much all the time!). Can't wait to eat them! Oh, and preserve some too, bottled peaches are sensational.

Since its been hot alot lately, I've gotten a bit of knitting and spinning done. I've spun all the grey alpaca fleece (all 400g of it... small animal), and finished the Winterberry Socks which where a birthday present for my mum (and I managed to get them finished on time!), and have been working on a dress for our daughter in a Bamboo yarn. This was a bit of an impulse buy as I've been trying to be good and not buy yarn till I use up some of what I have, but it just felt so soft and drapey, I just couldn't resist. The dress is my own 'design', just a simple tank top style dress, should be nice for her to wear in summer. I am looking to start on a jumper/sweater for her with the grey alpaca yarn soon, I just need to buy a printer cartridge, so I can print out the pattern!

A sad loss

Unfortunately, due to a sudden change in weather just after our alpacas were shorn - actually exactly on the summer solstice, we had over 60mm of rain in 24 hours, and our little grey alpaca died (there is a photo of him on the last post). I found him still alive curled up and soaking wet, I carried him all the way down the hill (in absolutely foul weather) to the little shelter shed, dried him up and covered him with hay to keep him warm.

But by morning he was dead. He was unable to move when I found him, and being quite a shy animal, for me to be able to carry him should have been enough of a sign that he was in a bad shape, but I was optimistic... Alas, I was not able to help this little one. I feel so terrible, as he died because he was shorn, for a fleece, for my pleasure... Now I will feel terribly guilty spinning it, but it would be such a waste not to....

Keeping animals is such a joy, and yet it seems lately I'm burying alot of my animals - this year its been 2 guinea pigs, a chicken and an alpaca, plus a rabbit that has disappeared... Fingers crossed the new year will not be so full of loss.

'.... 3 bags full'. Alpaca shearing day.

We got our 3 alpacas shorn on the weekend. I was starting to get worried, as its been warming up and I was feeling sorry for these boys in their heavy coats. But its all done, one more thing off the list!!! The day went well, my mum came down to help (as we had to take the animals to a neighbour's place as we don't have power or a yard set up at the farm yet).

Alpacas are shorn differently to sheep. The legs are tied up to prevent them from getting hurt and hurting the people around them. You can't help but feel sorry for the little buggers when they are stretched out 'on the rack'. But its all over in a few minutes, and then there is literally nothing left of them!


My 3 animals are all particularly small, they may grow or maybe they are just runts, but that is ok. After a few days I managed to get the time to actually sort out the fleeces. The shearer basically just took off all the fleece in one hit, so I wasn't able to remove the leg and neck fleece, which is shorter and not really good for spinning (we are going to use it for insulation for our shed). He also made MANY second cuts, so that was extra sorting that I have had to do. I hate spinning fleeces with second cuts in it..... Our little girl 'helped' with the sorting, and hence I'm only about 1/2 done.
The grey fleece is sorted, ready for carding, the white is almost done, and I have yet to tackle the dark brown one. I will weigh them all and then decide what I will make from each one. A jumper each, and hopefully a few extra bits and pieces. Now, if only I HAD as much time as I THINK I have......

This is the way we bottle the fruit....

A friend tipped me off about some cheap cases of apricots at our local fruit and veg shop. So, temptation took hold and I bought a case, 10kg of apricots. So I set to preserving....

washing, cutting and packing the fruit into jars. Pouring in the syrup, and then into the preserving unit.

and the result is 8 lovely jars of home bottled apricots, which we will enjoy for the remainder of the year, along with other fruits such as the peaches off our own very productive tree.

I also got 7 jars of jam out of the 10kgs of fruit, plus I still had enough to give away and for eating. Not bad for a days work.

Now I just picked 1kg of raspberries off our plants, so I will probably have to set about making some raspberry jam soon..... Ahhh the joys of summer.