Nala's revenge!

Psycho. Named so for his crazy behaviour and ability to terrorise hens, dogs and grannies alike! Granny Pat would not enter the back yard without the protection of a broom! Nala came off second best many times when this angry rooster would fly at her and smack her about till she cowered back to the gate. Our hens were starting to slack off on their egg production. So we knew it was time that he faced the chopping block. It's not a pleasant task knocking a chook on the head. But this time we knew we had to do it. We would stop the trauma in the barnyard, we'd save on feed (we culled a few roosters at the same time), we'd provide meat for the table and the hens would hopefully start producing lovely yellow yolked eggs again.

See that look! Yep, it's crazy!

Nala having the last laugh. 

Thanks Psycho.  

The cooks are more relaxed this week.  

And look! Our first new little egg from one of our chicks we hatched way back in January! We're back in the egg business.

CABIN UPDATE

We have been barrelling towards the finish line to get the cabin complete in the next week or two. The plumbing is connected, bar the completion of the vanity stand. That's another story. Frans is not impressed right now with my crazy idea for a hand made recycled stand. Nothing is ever as simple as it looks. It's almost done. He just had to undo it once or twice. But it really is going to look great! Really. Trust me Dear!

In the mean time, Stephen, favourite Son-in-law, came to connect all the electrics. So here is a sneak peak of where we're up to. 

Lounge room area above. Painting done. Floor laid, carpet laid in bedroom.  

Bedroom light. Yes, he's standing on the bed! Sun blinds are up and curtains have now been finished and are hanging. 

This is the little kitchenette area in a corner of the living area. I love the red! That's my little bit of indulgence. A small bar fridge will go inside the far left cupboard. Shelves will go up on the wall to hold glasses and cups etc. 

My next challenge is deciding on the splash back. I'm in favour of some beautiful hand painted Moroccan tiles (paper print out shows the sort of thing I'm looking at) or the alternative is something more neutral and possibly dead boring!  

A little perspective. The kitchenette will be to the side of the sliding door that opens onto the little covered deck. 

Deck. Still covered in tools! Oh, and check out the netted garlic in the background. Jayne and I did that this week. Cocatoos and galahs foiled!

Ahhh... so pretty! 

And finally, something to admire... a very full dam! A decent amount of rain and the dam is back to where we like to see it. Soon we'll be complaining about the mud and soggy paddocks, but right now, it's just right! 

Have a great week.

It's all about GARLIC!

Our first market for the year! Birregurra. Our home base. We set up our stall bright and early last Sunday, displaying all the lovely garlic plaits we've been working on for a good week or so. We've been making jams and chutneys too. There is plenty of produce ready to be turned into something tasty at the moment! Not enough hours in the day! 

One of the nicest compliments from a customer was 'this stall looks like a piece of France'. Over the Summer, you'll find us at a few regional markets. Of course we'll be at the Birregurra Sunday Market (2nd Sunday of the month), the Forrest Australia Day Market as well as the Australia Day bash out at the Tarndwarncoort Homestead. From now till the end of the season we'll also be at the Torquay Cowrie Market. Come and say 'hi'!

Our garlic comes in all shapes and sizes, and these are reflected in our plaits. No two are alike. We have around 6 varieties this year. Some are bigger favourites than others. I don't like Glenlarge. It's a miserable bulb... small, pokey little cloves popping out from the sides of the main bulb. But the Italian Purple! Love it! It has taken me two seasons to get my plaits down pat. You have to love Youtube!

Before we even got to the market, we spent many hours in the old shed cleaning and working the bulbs. Old Nala found a comfortable spot right there amongst the garlic scraps! She was quite content being smothered by the dry leaves. Funny thing was, there were no flies around her!

There were however flies everywhere else! This is the down side of Summer! Whoever the person was that invented fly nets... take a bow! Here's Jayne cleaning garlic. It's not the cleanest job. Your eyes start to burn after a couple of hours and the dust gets up your nose! 

After the cleaning, the bulbs get a once over. Do I plait them, bundle them or make them a 'loose' bulb? 

The plaits are lovely. They add a little bit of the Mediterranean to any kitchen. Aesthetics aside, they're practical to have on hand. Simply snip the bulbs off the braid as you need them. Top down please... or your lovely braid will unravel!

Sara came home after we'd harvested the garlic. Here she is with her first plait... Don't worry my dear Sara, there's always next year to keep practising! 

DAIRY VISIT @ the Troughton Farm

Farming is hard work! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

On a Saturday afternoon, when most folks were kicking back with a few wines or coldies, we visited our nearby neighbours, Paul and WendyJane. They have a lovely herd of black and white dairy cows, plus a few odd ball colours thrown in here and there. These girls get milked twice a day. No days off. Wake up for the farmers is at an ungodly hour of around 4am. Really?!! I'm still in la la land. Cows don't wait. When they're ready... they're ready!
Farmer Paul

These girls below are waiting their turn! And they're very curious too.

Attaching the cups to the teats is a practised art. WendyJane has this technique in the bag. Or bucket...

Here the cows are leaving the milking shed once they're finished being milked. Sometimes they like to hang around and see what else is happening!

Then it was Sara's turn at attaching the cups. 

Once she'd been shown by WendyJane, she gave it a go on her own. Not too difficult.

Standing between the rows of cows can be hazardous.... there are plenty of body functions taking place at the same time as the cows being milked! Best spot is dead centre of the aisle!

Boo is the farm dog. He's a clever boy. He's an excellent guard dog, and his bark is definitely worse than his bite!

After the milking session, the excess milk gets fed to the calves. Yes, think about it for a minute... To get the cows to give milk, they need to have calves. The female calves are removed from the mothers and hand reared on left over milk. The male calves don't make it. They get sent to the abattoirs for dog meat. 

No matter the species... babies are always cute!

Just like our new chicks....

We were given an incubator by our friends Mark and Viv from Brisbane. We put 16 eggs in it and counted 21 days. Each day we turned the eggs three times (well, some days we forgot, and some days they got 5 turns, but they all evened out eventually) and we took the temperature to make sure we had the dial at the right spot. Much tweaking was made. Sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold. It didn't seem to matter much, as 21 days later, the eggs started cracking and funny wet looking little chicks emerged.

We left the hatchlings in the incubator for the first 24 hours, then we moved them to their new home. A cardboard box with a bright light!

There were a few cuddles to be had, and lots of clucking....

You would think that we would have been old hands at raising day old chicks and ducklings by now.... But we still made the mistake of leaving a dish with water that was slightly too deep in the box and we lost a chick by drowning. The best method of feeding them water is to fill a dish with stones and pouring the water between the stones. That way, the chicks can climb out and not get stuck in the dish. Of the original 16 eggs, we finally ended up with 10 healthy chicks. Cross fingers that most of them are hens.... Or we'll be eating lots of chook in a few weeks!

KITCHEN ACTION

Last year for my birthday, I was given this wonderful canning pressure cooker by my good friend Michelle Steel from Brisbane. We gave it a good whirl with a big batch of apricots. We'll enjoy them with muesli and yoghurt and in crumbles. I'm hanging out for this year's apples... Lots of canning coming up.

The veggie garden is doing well. We are picking lots of herbs, spinach, beetroot, salad leaves and shallots. We're waiting for the carrots. But more importantly.. where are the tomatoes! I planted all my tomatoes on Grand Final Day. For those who have forgotten, that event is in September! I'm still to see a red tomato anywhere in the garden. Our season is very late this year. We're also just starting to pick our zucchinis, but still waiting for the eggplant and capsicums. We wait patiently...

The large white flowers in the bed above are carrot flowers. I'm letting them go to seed so I have my next supply of seeds.

The same story goes for the silver beet hanging untidily over the right bed edge and the dill flowers. Sometimes I get impatient and want to tidy up, but I know I'm compromising my seed stock if I do. Patience is definitely a game to be learned when growing food!

Nasturtiums. I love their bright colours. And they're a great addition to any salad. I throw in the flowers and the leaves. All edible and deliciously peppery.

Sadly, the peas came to an end a couple of weeks ago. We'd been enjoying them podded raw and thrown into our salads. I've collected the last few and they've gone into the freezer for a later date. A few stray broad beans made it into the mix too. Did I mention before how delicious Broad Bean soup is? I'll post a recipe next time!

Our egg supply has been a little light on for the past few weeks. Granny Pat discovered why. One of the chooks has made a nest in the centre of a Cyprus Pine near the bottom paddock gate. 

Mother chicken hops off her eggs occasionally to get a bite to eat, and then she returns for another session of 'sitting'.

We're not exactly sure when she started sitting on her eggs. We probably didn't miss her in the nightly count, and she's probably been in the tree for a while. We did have a wild thunder storm last week and we hope the eggs won't 'turn'. This can happen when there's a lot of loud thunder and lightning about. Don't ask me how.. but it's true. Exploding eggs... been there... smelt that!

We had a week of horrific temperatures. Four days straight of the mercury racing above 40 degrees. Thank goodness we have a pool. It may be old and not so pretty... but it was cold, clean and refreshing.

Poor Gus the Lab, found cool comfort in the leak beside one of our water tanks. He'd plop himself in the water puddle and stay there for a while.

If you're around the region on Australia Day, there is a great event happening at Tarndi. We'll be there with our tasty goodies!

And Andre' and Jayne will be taking our stall to the event in Forrest.

Have a wonderful long weekend. Enjoy you day wherever you may find yourself!

A new season begins

Finally, we have turned the corner from cold, wet, miserable days to ones filled with glorious Spring sunshine. It probably won't last till next week, but in the mean time if you listen carefully, you can hear the grass grow! The daffodils are still putting on a fabulous show and they're now accompanied by upright little bluebells. 

The cabin is progressing. Slowly. Now that the rains have eased, we're able to do more each week. We had a delivery of all the roofing and side cladding about 10 days ago. The truck delivered all the iron and it was placed on the sodden grass.  

After the blokes from the factory were done with the delivery, they came inside and we had tea and Anzac biscuits and chatted about quilting. (they'd seen my work in progress!)

Our young friends Michael and Adrian came for the weekend and got stuck into more hammering and drilling. It was rainy all weekend, so most of the work was inside work. The day they left the skies cleared and the rain disappeared. 

Once the boys left, I got the job of 'builder's apprentice'. I cut all the insulation for the roof. I have to admit getting distracted every now and then by the view! Nala is every present, keeping me company wherever I am. 

Below Frans is removing the old tin. I really love the look of the weathered iron. I'd love to use it for something creative. 

A view from above where the insulation has been placed into the roof 

And then I picked up our local council's latest flyer of the calendar of events for the coming year. I looked at it and noticed the picture at the bottom. It looked very familiar. 

Yep, it's our stall. Rather flattering.

Speaking of garlic... here's our garlic patch. It is looking healthy and the garlic is growing well. In about 3 months we will pick it. I'll make garlic braids again for the summer markets. These are really popular. They serve as decoration for the kitchen and an easy storage mechanism. 

The sunny days have brought the bees out! The rocket flowers were abuzz this week. I wanted to pull all the overgrown plants out and give them to the chooks, but the bees are enjoying the blooms too much. I'll leave them for a few more days. In the mean time the rosemary bushes are all starting to flower, so the bees will have plenty of food then. Arn't these rocket flowers gorgeous? Such amazing detail in a tiny little bloom.

Last summer I planted a row of geraniums along the old shed wall. I loved the red flowers against the tin. I also planted a heap of Earlicheers and Jonquils. I cut the geraniums back at the beginning of winter and the bulbs have bloomed along the tin wall. In a few weeks the bulbs will fall over and die back and the geraniums will take over again. I love the change of colour scheme. 

The camellia bush is looking wonderfully pink! The lemon tree beside it has lemons which are developing nicely. Lime cordial is making an appearance at the the Bannockburn Farmers Market this coming week, along with lime and grapefruit marmalade. Yum! 

Besides working on the cabin and in the garden, there has been one unpleasant chore that needed doing this past week. We needed to despatch three roosters. It's not a pleasant job, but we see no purpose keeping birds that won't provide us with any benefit. Even though the chickens are free range, they still need feeding. The roosters were behaving badly and the poor hens were often being chased from one end of the yard to the other. It was definitely time to send them to 'chicken heaven'! Frans does the hard part, despatching the birds, and I do the plucking.  

I've worked out the best temperature the water needs to be to make the job easy. The feathers stink. It's the one thing I do not like about this job!  

Thank goodness for rubber gloves! 

After I have plucked the birds, Frans does the final bit. Gutting. We're getting quite good at this job. In a little under 2 hours I had 3 birds cleaned and placed in the freezer. As they're free range, they are not as fat as ones bought in the supermarket. Their taste is far superior though. I will probably make a stack of chicken pies and a few pots of soup with these guys. 

I threw some kale and cabbage over the gate a few days ago. The chickens love it. So do the ducks. And for good measure, the visiting peacocks have now joined the action. Only Nala was missing.

She didn't miss out completely. The next opportunity she had, she was right there with the chooks enjoying carrot peels and other veggie scraps. Weird dog! 

I'll leave you with a picture of a recent purchase this new 'farm chic' made. My favourite shop is now the farm co-op. I needed new work boots. So I was pleased to get some as well as a pair of excellent socks. And just because they were sitting there on the counter as an impulse buy... I picked up a pack of washing pegs made by the same people who make electric fences. As you do. They were about three times the price as the usual plastic pegs available at the supermarket. I'm expecting them to last much longer though! 

Have a great week. Enjoy the first flushes of Spring!