I'm Back for 2012!

It has been a while and life has been very busy since the silly season, so lets jump right in with an update.  Our Holidays in January were cut short this year.  yucky weather, 2 broken teeth (in separate people), and a general sick of being stuck in the van with 6 people took its toll so we came home about 2 weeks early.  Whilst we were away we lost our lovely goat Billy to a snake bite and then a few days after we got home we then lost our cat Pip to a snake as well.  To alleviate the extreme distress this caused PJ, we then went to choose him a new cat and of course Nish managed to con us into an early B'day pressie, so now there are 2 new kittens joining our family.  Meet Snuggles (PJ's) and Shia (Nish's).

Well onto the veggie patch and our first year in the garden is going great guns,  I have so missed having a veggie garden.  I think the pics of some of our harvest so far speak for themselves. 

 Cabbage was just so yummy in coleslaw

 We have already harvested upwards of 80 cucumbers and they are still coming and absolutely huge and tasty,  The kids are loving it

The corn is delicious and we have more than I was expecting,  I originally just planted a small crop so was expecting to get only a few meals worth but this corn had other ideas, I am getting 2-5 ears of each plant, have never seen anything like it, already had about 25 ears and we are only about 1/2 way through the harvest

 Jalapeno Chillies (green) and Hungarian Hot wax (red) they just keep coming and coming, I cant give them away lol.  I have been dehydrating them (thanks Laurel for the loan of the dehydrator) and then powdering them for storage in the herb draw.  Nice amount of heat in them (fairly hot).  But we learnt the hard way not to dehydrate chilli's in the house, the "burnyness" of them became airborne and had all our eyes and skin burning!

The tomatoes were annoying me a bit.  my first 2 rows planted back in September had grown and had lots of fruit on them but they were all green,  the plants were just so heavy with them they were starting to break their branches and escape their  staking.  We really haven't had enough sun here for them to ripen, but last weeks hot weather has kicked them into gear and so far I have preserved 12 ltrs of Passata. I still have 6 more rows of tomatoes growing that were planted later and the original 2 are not even 1/2 way through ripening,  so I foresee more preserving in my future.


The pumpkins and watermelons are climbing all over the garden with is good cause they are keeping the thistles down in their wake.  I have a huge back log of weeding to do and the thistles are taking over but the rabbits will certainly enjoy the food when the weeding is done so that will reduce the purchased animal food bill, which is always good.

When I got back from our holidays I had lots of tomato plants to tie up and as expected I knocked a lot of green tomatoes off in the process.  Rather than waste them I went on the hunt for uses.  There wasn't enough to make it worthwhile to make green tomato chutney but  I found a Green Tomato Pasta Sauce recipe on Pennys Recipes and got the OK to share it with you.

Green Tomato Pasta Sauce
Ingredients:
5-6 medium size unripe, green tomatoes, sliced
1 ripe red tomato sliced
1 dessert spoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves crushed garlic
5-6 basil leaves, torn
6-8 black olive, sliced
55g / 2 oz grated cheddar cheese
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
150g-200g / 6-7oz pasta
Directions:
    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C
    Place the sliced tomatoes in a baking dish
    Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes
    Sprinkle over the sugar
    Add the garlic and basil leaves
    Stir everything around a bit to ensure even distribution
    Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the tomatoes are just starting to char
    Meanwhile place the pasta in a large saucepan
    Cover with boiling water, bring back to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until cooked
    When tomatoes are ready stir an mush slightly
    Add the olives and cheese and stir into cooked pasta over a low heat
    Season with freshly ground black pepper
    Serve with a green salad


It was yummy and nice for a change from the standard red or creamy sauce.  Have a go.

I have also been trudging through my knitting basket trying to get my works in progress finished.  There is a skirt for either Kie or Tay, A cardigan for Nish, A bolero for me and a jumper for either Dave or PJ.  I have also got a Crochet Table cloth on the go too.  I did finish a bolero for myself already but have yet to take a pic so that will come up soon.    I also have started back as spinning group this year so there will be more squishy homespun wool around soon.

The sheep have been all swapped around and split into 2 mobs,  all but 2 of the adult girls are in with our big Border Leicester ram Honor.  The other girls are in with our new Merino Ram  Hercules.  He is in with 2 coloured sheep in the hope that I may get a coloured lamb.  He wasn't really big enough to go in with the big girls yet and I  didn't want to risk not getting lambs this year, so split the mob.  Due to paddock constraints he is also in with the the rest of the lambs from last year and even though theoretically the girls could get pregnant already we are hoping they don't. Unlike Honor at the same age, who was willing to have a go at any ewe, Hercie doesn't seem that interested.  He has had a go at one of the adult girls and got a swift kick for his efforts lol.

Well that is probably enough for now

Catchya Later

The Chaos of the silly season.

Well you are all probably well and truly into the silly season just like us.  School concerts, final assignments, reports, work do's, Christmas shopping to finish, the planning of Christmas day - Ahhhhhhh why do we do this to ourselves.  Well this year with one week (the worst chaos week at that) of school to go my lovely baby gets chicken pox.  As miserable as she is there is an upside to this - instead of racing around like a mad woman all week, I have now been forced to stay home and tend to my baby.  At 7 she is still the baby of the family and a huge drama queen, and when she is sick she just wants to sit with mummy and snuggle. So this week will now be a nice quiet week at home with my little one, so a lovely rest before Christmas is definitely to be viewed as a blessing in disguise (all be it a spotty one).

I got a lovely pressie from a lady at school today.  She knows I knit and crochet and she works at the local op shop so when this yarn came past her way she snapped it up for me to thank me for helping her out this year with some school runs i did when she was unwell.  I never expected anything in return for the helping hand but this was a lovely thought and will be turned into many loved items in the future.

The first incubated chickens

Our chickens are laying up a storm, our numbers are on the way back up as Nish bought home 3 laying Isa Browns from her school project and the little chickens have really stepped up. Also I am a bit excited because the first batch of incubated chickens look to have 4 girls and 2 boy Sussex.   I am yet to decide what is going on with the barnevelders, they all look the same. lol  I also have 4 plain white cross breeds that look like they might be girls to.  This girl heavy flock will allow me to replenish and then all the others will go for food. So as annoying as the fox attack was it wasn't a complete unfixable disaster, and it has moved Ian into sorting out my chicken coup and run.

We had friends come over for a BBQ on Saturday and that bought with it 4 extra adults and 4 extra kids.  I just love watching kids up here running around and yelling with childish delight.  There was some adult giggling when I just leaned over and picked up a lamb for the kids to pat as they are more than 1/2 my size now.  The sheep do look rather impressive bolting up the hill straight at me when I call them.

I would like to introduce you all to the newest member of our family.  Sisma.  She is my little baby and I got her from my little sis Dee. She will become our mummy cat (Ma)  get it Sis-Ma.  We thought we would let the kids experience kittens "just once".  She is lovely and very smoochy.  She has settled in extremely well and has everyone wrapped around her paws, even they other cats took straight to her.

As I was writing this the kids came to inform me that Hercules our lamb ram was stuck in a tree????  Earlier today I saw him walking around the front bush paddock, he had gotten off his tether and I thought I might just let him have a wander around,  he is such a sook and wont go out of sight of either us or Billy the goat so I figured he would be OK.  Well as usual when it comes to our animals I was wrong.  I'm not sure why but he was trying to climb up a tree, I assume the leaves must be tasty.  He had one of his back legs caught between 2 branches and was stuck.  I had to lift him down but then he was limping,  I can't see any damage and he keeps shacking it out so I am thinking maybe just pins and needles so we did a few laps around the house block to walk it off - crazy animal.

I thought today I would share our Christmas breakfast recipe with you.  It is really easy to make, you throw it together the night before and put it in the fridge,  then just put it in the oven in the morning.  We put ours in just before we start with the pressie opening and by the time we are finished breakfast is hot and ready to be served.

Christmas Breakfast
250gms shredded Cheddar cheese
 6 eggs
3 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. dry mustard
3 strips bacon, cut in half

Directions:
Trim crusts from bread. Layer bread then cheese in bottom of greased 7 1/2 x 12 inch flat baking dish. Beat eggs and milk together and stir in the salt, pepper and mustard. Pour this over bread, cheese. Lay bacon on top. Refrigerate overnight. The next morning bake, uncovered, at 180 degrees for 50-55 minutes.
Remove from oven just after guests sit down. Otherwise, it may tend to sink. Tastes just as great, but doesn't look as glamorous. Serves 6.





I hope you will give it a try, its delish and so easy.

Well that's it for this week

Catchya later

Spring Is Here Finally!

So life has been a bit busy around here. I set my incubator going with some eggs (12 ea of Barnevelders, Sussex and mixed)  we ended up with 16 chicks, not to shabby for our first run especially considering with the novelty factor I kept peaking in when I wasn't supposed to.  The chicks are now in their brooder and are about 10 days old.  The incubator has been reset with just mixed eggs.  Aren't they cute.

As with life on farmlet there is always life and death, this is a good thing for the kids to experience.  We unfortunately lost one of our sheep.  Hope was one of the first 2 Border Leicesters we bought onto the property,  she had a girl last year (Faith)and twins this year (Tramp and Lady)  she was also a great wet nurse for one of Chastity's twin girls which she rejected.  It was very sudden,  she was fine Monday afternoon and by Wednesday midday was down with an exploded udder with gang-green from mastitis and died about 6.00pm.  (warning icky photos)

We also have a new member to the family with a friend arriving tomorrow.  This is Donald and tomorrow Daisy will arrive.  They will be pets ( I know more pets lol) but further down the tract I hope to have some Indian Runner Ducks for breeding.

OK so that does the farm.  We  had a holiday over on the Yorke Peninsula with the Johnson's and we took the kids to the Minlaton Show.  The kids had a fantastic time and it was great for mum to spend some time with Aunty Dee.  The kids started back at school this week after 2 weeks of holidays (2 weeks really doesn't seem like enough).  They had swimming school for the primary school kids and My big High School girl did her first mentor teaching this week.  She as been doing so well (3 A+'s) that the home economics teachers have asked her to be a mentor teacher for this terms master classes.  She is so excited and it has given her such a confidence boost and anything that excites a child about school has to be good in my book.

My knitting and crocheting has been an absolute disgrace and we wont even talk about the spinning and dying.  I have so many projects on the go.  I have decided that I really shouldn't start anything else until I finish something in this list.  lets see I am currently knitting: A handspun jumper for Ian, a play jumper for David, a skirt for Akielah, a  cardie for Kenishia, 2 boleros for me, socks for David, and the forever ongoing Civil war Shawl for fun.  Then there is the endless dishcloths I am crocheting and I have started a table cloth too cause I am just sick of the brown one we have and I cant find another one big enough that I like.  Now the weather is finally getting to be nice I am hoping to spend some time out in the fresh air working my way through this list.

The garden is still a work in progress,  I have lots of seedlings I am hoping to plant this weekend (Lord and rain permitting).  I also have 5 more fruit trees still waiting to go in.

I also have a great new app for my phone.  Youversion is a bible and devotions app that has lots of different versions of the bible (even talking ones) and lots of devotions too, I can flag and mark verses for future reference too.  I have been trying to make this part of my daily routine and so far so good.  Even got to put some of the verses into action and use them in daily life with the kids.   The app can be pretty much used for any Internet type phone,  go have a look here, its free I highly recommend it.

I hope you like the new look.

Well that's it from me today, catch you later

Dell

Another Month went by!!!!

OK so my good intentions of weekly posts fell straight in a hole, I blinked and a month went by.

It has been very busy.  I have been setting up the garden,  From this  blank canvas, we have planted 14 fruit trees, and put in 5 garden beds (more are in the making) set up the potato area.  I still have lots of grass to kill off but the rain just wont go away.


I have also started the plants for the garden off in seedlings.  The pots I make up from this website.  I make them up every year (although every year I have to go hunting for a link on how to make them, ha ha). And thanks to Dee finding on ebay for me I have lovely little green houses for them to start in.

 Ok so do you want the list of what I have in seedlings.......

Beets	Baby
Cabbage	Cabeza red
Cabbage	Golden Acre
Capsicum	California Wonder
Capsicum	Giant Bell
Capsicum	Golden Calwonder
Capsicum	Golden Calwonder
Chilli	Hungarian Hot wax
Chilli	Jalapeno
Eggplant	Black Beauty
Leek	carentan2
Lettuce	Lolla Rossa
Lettuce	Marvel of 4 seasons
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Green
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Red
Lettuce	Gwenda White
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Green
Lettuce	Salad Bowl Red
Lettuce	Great Lakes
Lettuce	Lollo Rossa
Lettuce	Marvel of 4 seasons
Melon	Haled Best
Passion Fruit	Black
Rocket	Perenial
Rocket
Silver Beet	Colour Mix
Silver Beet	Colour Mix
Tomatillo	Purple
Tomato	Cherry Fox
Tomato	Roma
Tomato	Roma San Marzano
Tomato	Roma San Marzano
Tomato	Cherry Camp Joy
Tomato	Cherry Pear Yellow
Tomato	Cherry Pear Yellow
Tomato	Green Zebra
Tomato	St Pierre
Tomato	Grosse Lisse
Tomato	Green Zebra
Tomato	Black Krim
Tomato	Cherry Red Pear
Tomato	Black Russian
Watermelon	Sugarbaby
Watermelon	Moon & stars
potatoes	Colliban
potatoes	desiree
potatoes	pontiac
potatoes	Sebago
Bean	Bush Provider
Bean	Bush Roc D'or
Bean	Bush Strike
Bean	Climbing Blue Lake
Bean	Climbing Purple King
Corn	sweet Terrific F1
Cucumber	Burpless F1
pea	early Grop Massey
Pea	Purple Podded
Pea Snow	oregon Dwarf
peas	Greenfeast

its gonna be tasty.  anything listed exactly the same twice is because the seeds are in 2 batches on from this year and some old seed I had.

Ok so thats the Gardening, onto sheep.  we had lots of lambs this year,   from 5 ewes we got 10 lambs (yes 5 sets of twins) and not one coloured but i wasnt really expecting any.  We lost on to a fox and one to the cold and one is a little bit hmmmmm shall we say royal.

 Honesty's Babies, Fred and Wilma, They are B/L x Corridale. Fred died when he got out of the night pen and got to cold


Purity's Babies, Stitch and Lilo (boy and Girl), They are B/L x Corridale.









 Then Chastity had Betty and Veronica, B/L x Merino

Then came Hope's babies, Lady and Tramp (Girl and Boy) which are pur B/L (Border Leicester)  Hope has also been a bit of a legend as she has picked up feeding and caring for one of Chastity's girls as well.  Chastity is only dealing with one.

And last but not least is Patience's boys, Archie and Jughead who are pure Border Leicester's as well.  Unfortunately Archie got taken by a fox the first night and Jughead is a bit well special as you can see.

















We have all done the shearing or rather I should say my friend (and Dee's Hubby) Paul did it for us.  We also managed to set up the shed as well.

This is the legendary Paul with Tinkerbell!











And just to finish off I also turned 40!  I got spoilt a bit, I got all my fruit trees, a stack of Amish books, a champagne glass (just for me), some preserving equipment (for all the fruit and veggies that I will have) and an incubator so I can grow lots of chickens for eating - yum.  Im sure that will fill up more posts lol.  Well I think that is it.  Next month i must update my knitting lol

the Slacker update!

I admit it I have been extremely slack this year.  Have decided that I will make an effort to keep my blog updated from now on (anyone laying bets on howlong this will last, he he). 

OK so best I update a bit cause there has been lots going on. 

In December a fox came through and just about wiped out all our chickens and ducks, was left with only 3 of the original ilsa browns and my little baby chicks.  My adopted baby sis (who you hear lots about through out the blog), Dee came to the rescue and gave me some more Sussex, 2 girls and a boy, along with a Barnevelder Rooster for the Ilsa Browns and a set of Lanshans,  Her dad also gave me a whole lot of little english game hens that are just for cuteness really but have started giving me very cute little white eggs.

January was a lovely time in Pt Turton with Dee and her Family,  lots of fun with 10 kids, the beach and 2 caravan's.  Dee and I had the kids organised down to a fine art so we had lots of time for spinning and knitting together.  We came home to our first ever case of Flystrike and lost one of our sheep Mercy - a grey corridale.  she was fairly far gone and Im not sure if the flystrike got her or the attempts of us trying to clean it out. The whole thing was horrendous, it was the first of our animals that we lost (not counting babies that didnt make it along the way).

We also got some new sheep -  A coloured merino ram - Hercules, a black corridale ewe - Tinkerbell, a grey corridale Pebbles and a Merino ewe - Smurfette.  When we bought her home and had a good look at her she isnt quiet right, she is very small, and has bent front legs and very odd set in eyes, so that will teach me to look at my sheep properly and not just the wool.  D and a new goat named Billy.
     

I also went over to Dees in May and learnt to kill chickens with Dee, even got a couple of kids invovled, Kie didnt mind but David thought the whole thing was just a bit icky.
       

Somewhere in there we put the ram Honor in with the Patience, Hope (the B/L's) Honesty and Purity (The Corridales) and Chastity (the Merino).

I finished the Swing Top/Dress for Tycarni, A neck warmer, made from handspun wool from our merino sheep Cuttlett, for Kenishia.  Socks for Dave, and few other things.

 

I made a dress, shrug, booties and beanie for my cousin's new baby out of some handspun and some recycled yarn

Started these for myself

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/86-25-vest-in-vienna

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/113-14-bolero-in-garter-st-with-turns-in-fabel-and-border-in-crochet-squares

 ok so thats a snippett of the knitting/spinning. 

well thats about it for now, the comming posts will be all about gardening and the new garden and orchard that we have going in and babies with lambing upon us.. I will try and be good and keep it updated with all the fun stuff and some tidbits that we find helpful in our road hear at our little farm