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!

2012

2012 has been a very busy year for us here.  Its been a very quiet year for the blog, mostly because we have been busy!

This year we have expanded our intensive vegetable garden, with the addition of another 9mx9m potatoe patch, and a garden for the kids which is actually quite big at 9mx2m (or thereabouts) (they have planted tomatoes, basil, peas, beans, sweet corn, sunflowers, capsicum, eggplants, cucumbers and salad greens).  I've been flat out getting the spring/summer garden planted, with some sucesses and failures.  My biggest failure was raising my tomatoe seedlings - many succumbed to the damping off fungus.  I think a green house would help alot in this department, and its been on the to-do list for years already, but once we have our polytunnel set up, we will be able to have reliable plant propagation. 

Our potatoe patch is growing great, and I think this year all being well we should be able to produce a year's worth.  Its hard to go back to buying potatoes, and having to think about how much one needs in a fortnight.

 We are ready to harvest the garlic, definately should be enough of it for a year, plus hopefully enough to replant as well.

We are getting plenty of eggs, which is a nice change to winter, when the eggs are few and far between.  One hen has hatched a clutch of chicks which are very cute and already about 5 weeks old.  Looking at them, I am feeling confident that we don't have too many roosters this time. 

 All the fruit trees I planted over winter are putting on good growth, and I am looking forward to the years to come the abundance of fruit they will provide.  At this stage there are about 20 large trees, plus smaller varieties like blueberries and currants.  I think this winter will be the last year I need to plant and we should have our food forest planted.  Then the main work will be underplanting with 'good bug' attracting plants to complement the fruit trees. 

We are harvesting loads of strawberries, and the raspberries and loganberries are starting to ripen too.  Time to pull out the jam pot and start preserving! Although there is nothing quite so nice as sitting down to a big bowl of fresh organic strawberries for dessert!  The plan is to expand these berrie patches more, so there will be even MORE next year, YUM!

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...

New life

Over the last few weeks there has been a flush of new life here on the farm.  Five chickens have hatched and doing really well.  I had planned to write about the amazing animal instincts, that a hen knows how long to sit on her eggs, to turn them (up to 100 times per day), and then how to care for her young.  Not bad for an animal regarded as stupid.  The ability of the mother hen never ceases to amaze me, its mother nature at her best.

Our daughter just loves the chicks

Mother hen teaching the chicks how to forage

Sadly, not all animals on the farm are quite so amazing!  Our goat Rosie had twin boys on friday evening.  All went well with the birth, however it became apparent that the following day she didn't particularly want them.  Or I think more correctly she doesn't know what to do with them. She likes them when we are there with her, but she abandons them to follow us, rather than stay with them.  She screams at our window for us, leaving her own kids in the paddock.  Luckily our other goat Dorka was more than happy to adopt the two.  A true 'nanny' goat!

The kids at about 2-3 days old

 We are now getting 3-4L of milk per day, which means we can make more cheese.  We haven't yet decided what to do with our two little boys, one has horn buds, while the other appears to be polled (we will have to have a better look though).  We had hoped for at least one girl, to keep as a milker... 

The kids!