Hindsight -Grrrrr

 This week started off badly with a fox taking all but 1 rooster and 1 hen of our large chickens and 4 of our little chickens.  This is the second time in 19 months I have lost my flock, which this time was getting up to a rather nice size (about 20 in total) and were supplying both the kitchen and incubator nicely with eggs I am no longer going to free range our chickens.  We do enclose them at night but during the day we were letting them have free run of the property.  Not any more.   Its a lovely idea but I am pretty sure that a chicken kept in a cage with plenty of room will be much happier than a free ranged dead one!

So this weekend we began to move the cages around.  We have a split in to cage off the side of the house that we spent a long time pulling apart and moving around the the other side of the house off the veggie patch/orchard. Once we put the cages back together we are planing to fence of a large area with hurricane fencing (really high stuff with a small mesh).  So there will actually be 3 indoor/night cages attach to a huge run.  The bright side of this is that I have been trying to get this chicken plan done since we moved here and it will have much easier access to the workshop where the incubator and brooder is.  Also the ducks will be moving to so they will stop messing all over my front porch - So I suppose I should say Yay!

The week continued with Dave's asthma going into melt down.  His asthma was pretty bad before we moved up here (multiple puffers numerous times a day and always sick with some chest infection)  but since we moved up out of the burbs into that fantastic country air, he has been really healthy.  I could count on 1 hand the times he has needed his puffer in the last 19  months.  Well   he ended up having 4 days off school, a trip to the hospital and a trip to the Doc's.  so now he is back on 2 puffers for at least 2 weeks, and then the Doc will reassess.

I did get some more seedlings done for the garden - 8 types of tomatoes, 2 types of melons and 4 types of cucumbers.  I also have been preparing more pots to plant more herbs in.  Every time I go out to the garden I get hungry just thinking about the yummy food that we will be eating in just a few months.

We have been very naughty this week and have been wolfing down 3-4 kg of cherries every 2 days.  I just love this time of year the summer fruits are just starting to creep in and remind us of all that light, healthy food.

A few months ago I gave a lovely mum at school some of my laundry powder and dishcloths to try after chatting in the car park about it one day. I thought if she liked them she would just make them herself but she just wanted to buy some.  I worked it out at about $6 Kg (just for the ingredients).  which when compared to store bought powder is not the cheapest but certainly no where near the dearest and you use about 1/4 -1/2 of what you would use per wash in the store bought stuff.  She has now ordered another Kg and 2 of my dishcloths for Chrissie pressies for the Nana's.  Its nice to see some of the old, chemical free stuff coming back into favour and I am glad to keep making it for her as long as she wants it.

Well even though there were no "major" catastrophes, I still felt a bit "yuck" this week and just when I needed it the following verse came up on my daily devotional reading - It still amazes me that just when you need it Gods word seems to be right there.

17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 

18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Well that's it for this week, I cant wait to tell you all how good this coming week will be.

Cathchya later