We are having a farm planning workshop with the NSF in a couple of weeks so we’ve started getting busy readying for this. If your reading this and interested in attending send me an email via the blog.

The aim of the workshop is to introduce people to the ideas about blending NSF with other alternates farming principles like permaculture and biodynamics. The topics we will addressing include;

1. Healthy landscape,

2. Healthy soil,

3. Sustainable production,

4. Drought proofing.

5. Food security

It’s taken me a while to discover the links between all these things, about how NSF, Permaculture, biodynamics and methods like pasture cropping are key to establishing a sustainable farming enterprise. And sustainability is the goal – in any type of season, which means all inputs have to be from on farm, non chemical and non petroleum based.

The map shows the area we will concentrate on for the project, after the workshop we will further cut it down into phases.
And why do we feel it’s important to create a sustainable farming enterprise, go here and read this - go here!

Okay - We're back and it's full steam ahead

AN INTRODUCTION TO BIODYNAMICS
Grazing, cropping & horticulture

BREDBO, NSW

Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th November, 2009 9am–5pm

SUSTAINING GENERATIONAL EQUITY – GROWING SOILS FOR THE FUTURE

You will learn how the biodynamic preparations contribute to the soil food web creating fertility and balance in your soil.
Biodynamics is a cost effective method of producing high quality plants, food and fibre with regenerative ecological outcomes.
Also applicable for garden enthusiasts.
This two day workshop will introduce you to all practical aspects needed to apply biodynamics:

• The life of the soil

• Creating fertility in your soil
• Managing your natural resources
• Practical use of the biodynamic preparations
• Using the planting calendar
• Developing risk management: Weeds, Pests, Diseases
• Meeting climate change challenges: Drought, Flood, Carbon sequestration

Books will be available for sale

BOOKINGS: 02 6655 9853 office@biodynamics2024.com.au
VENUE: Bredbo Valley View, Bredbo
LOCAL CONTACT: The Bredbo Pig Man, you can smell him coming! Use the Blogsite email.

COST: $220 pp or $330 per couple GST inc.

Morning & afternoon teas provided. Please bring lunch.
Please register by Thursday, 5th November, 2009.

Presented by
Biodynamic Educators:

John Priestley

John is a third generation ecological farmer. He has been evolving his practice and knowledge of
biodynamics for over 50 years. With his wife Dorothy he grows award winning citrus and beef
cattle at Paterson in the NSW Hunter Valley. He is a wealth of practical knowledge with a
keen eye for the small observations that can make adifference to farming.

Hamish Mackay

Hamish has been working with biodynamics for 35 years and travels Australia presenting introductory
biodynamic workshops, providing growers with clear and practical methods for adopting biodynamics as a cost effective way to produce high quality food and fibre; at the same time improving our environment.

There's a long way to go

With the Cook back everybody is happy again at home, especially me. We managed to get a couple of things done over the weekend– fixing the pigs electric fence was one and hanging a gate on the pig yards was another. All together things are ticking along.

I had to drop some paper work off at the DECC offices in Queanbeyan this afternoon and I was listening to the ABC. They ran a story about the Animal Liberation Group and a planned advertising campaign about intensive/factory chicken farming. I’m no fan of any intensive farming, and any attempt to make people more aware of hoe their food is grown has to be a good thing. Anyway the poster they had produced to hang in places like railway station and bus stops showed a family sitting at a table having a roast dinner. The caption posed a question asking how cruel the dinner was and then described the farming practices and methods used to supply the chicken in the dinner.

But apparently this dialogue was seen as being offensive to children; it may scare them or frighten them. What a load of bull. Surely a child would have to be over eight or nine to understand the language and much older to understand the concepts. People need to be aware that animals need not suffer to provide us food and they need not be farmed so horribly to provide us cheap food. No body argues with Telstra when they charge you 25c to make a phone call – then charge you line rent, then charge you installation for your modem and so on, it’s just a cost people pay. And food should be no different, if it costs a little more to produce best quality and ethically farmed produce then people should have to pay the farmer.

This opens up another array of issues, about how profits should be shared and who should be payed what. Dairy farmers, for instance, are paying higher water, feed and energy costs then ever before but are having their returns cut by milk processors. We haven’t seen any reduction in price of milk at the supermarket, there is no shortage of milk and we aren’t exporting more. So where is the money that we pay for milk going? I don’t know – I’ve searched the internet looking for a reason, but I’ve come up blank. The only thing that has gone up are the share prices of the multi nationals that extort our farmers.

One day we are all going to wake up and find out there aren’t any farmers anymore. There won’t be any fresh fruit, meat or milk. We’ll have to pay above market prices for below quality food, food that we don’t really know how it’s been produce or what has been sprayed onto it.

I was also disturbed by another issue that I discovered last night whilst watching Australian Story. I’ve never been a fan of the CSIRO either, they’ve been the lynch pin in a number of disasters over the years, remember the cane toad and more recently gene technology – I won’t blame them for DDT but they did encourage its use.

The story was about Maarten Stapper a former CSIRO Scientist who now specialises in soil biology and fertility. Biological farming has been around for years, but because it uses natural methods that are easily produced on the farm the requirement for the Agro industrial’s to supply millions of litres of chemicals is significantly reduced. So there are no grants of funds form the Agro giants or the Government for research or testing. Dr Joan Daly Head of CSIRO Agribusiness basically spelt it out; if you can’t commercialise something then it’s not the type of science that CSIRO is interested in. As a tax payer who pays her wage and foots the bill for her organisation I am dumb struck at her attitude – is she really a Scientist or just a grant chaser not really interested in the real out comes that will benefit peoples health and the environment – I question her ethics.

We're Back!!!

Well, we’re back. We all took a break over Easter after a couple of hectic weeks before. So where did we get up too? I attended the AGM of the Bee Association, at which I met the famous Mrs Duck Herder. A lovely lady, we had a chat about her bees, compost and bio dynamics, shared secrets about the location of various apple trees and the best acorn places in Canberra. It was nice to meet a fellow Blogger face to face. On the way home I nearly skittled a dozen small deer on the highway, a learner driver in front of me slowed down – I thought it was so I could over take; but in fact it was to let a herd of deer across the road.

On Good Friday I went into town to collect acorns – I manages to get a trailer load, but because everything was wet I had to feed them to the pigs almost straight away. I had a nightmare time driving into town on the Monaro Highway so I decided not to go in again over Easter. That afternoon I saw a fox dash off away from the chook pen in the half light. A quick check of the chickens revealed some missing, so he was obviously busy

The fox didn’t get the Easter Bunny. Eggs where scattered across the farm Sunday morning and the annual Easter egg hunt was conducted with the full enthusiasm of all involved – and chocolate was eaten in large quantities for breakfast – but not by me. Funny how the Easter Bunny puts eggs at either end of the far and the clues all follow the longest route. That Easter bunny sure is a sadist.

We had good rain over the weekend, 15mm one day and 20mm last night. It started raining at about 9:30pm and didn’t stop until 5:00am good solid soaking rain. Somewhere between 3:00am and 5:00am the Cook and I had a good chat about my stupid idea to put a bell around one of the goat’s necks and chains on the others. All three of the goats had decided that the spot under our window was the best place to stay out of the weather and the “ding-ding” of the bell kept us awake for hours. When the bell wasn’t ringing, the other two goats would walk along the veranda dragging their chains – I can imagine roast goat will be on the webber tonight (still no oven).

The Cook had spent a couple of very long days in the garden, mulching, composting, weeding digging and replanting. It all looks rather splendid and with the over night rain should take off. I think she was looking forward to a good nights sleep. Today she has been in the garden harvesting the rhubarb and cooking it up – mmmmm!! yummy rhubarb strudel for dinner. She spent some of Easter bottling tomatoes as well and now we have almost a winters worth of those as well.

We have another piglet schwarm. A schwarm, for those who don’t know, is a group of about ten or so piglets that run around the farm in a small group – like a swarm of mosquitoes but more devastating. Luckily they have been pretty harmless so far, I think they have nabbed a couple of duck eggs, some lose acorns and the chook scraps. They are an absolute cack to watch and take on a character all of their own. The schwarm only lasts a couple of weeks, once they are too big to escape under fence of their pen it’s all over. It’s when the pigs are truly free to range, unless they go near the garden, then they are dinner.

I think I should check the compost heap if I don’t see the goats tonight……..

Lots of stuff

I hate snakes – especially big one’s, and we’ve acquired the biggest nastiest Brown Snake you’ve ever seen in the feed shed. It’s been around all summer, the Cook came face to face with it a couple of weeks ago and it’s been seen hanging around the water trough as well. On Saturday I was organising myself to make the pig feeds for that afternoon. I had arranged the buckets in the normal order and saw a couple of mice run across the floor. I was just about to ladle the first lot of feed into a bucket when a huge snake head struck out at a mouse from between the feed bins. An instant change of pants was in the making and luckily the Cook had installed a diphibulator outside the feed shed as well. I gathered myself together and called out, in a high shrill voice, to the boys to get the camera and the big shovel, but by the time they got there it had escaped under the floor of the feed shed – which is ever so comforting. Of course now nobody wants to go into the feed shed at all – COWARDS!!! Sometimes I seriously consider taking up drinking again.

The Cook spent most of her weekend in the garden. She pulled out tonnes of weeds and built a new compost heap – which truth be known can probably be seen from space it’s that large. I finished her Moo-Poo pit and she spent a lot of time pushing our flat tyred wheel barrow around picking up cow pats. If it wasn’t for old Buzz’s cattle breaking down our fences and crapping all over our paddocks she’d have nothing to compost.

We picked a huge Moon & Stars watermelon – the only one that really grew well. It’s one of the heritage varieties that we grow; you probably wouldn’t see it in a shop. Anyway, I took it inside to weigh and it broke the kitchen scales – and NO I wasn’t holding it and standing on the scales, so we used the bathroom scales. It weighed in at 8.5kg, I have to photograph it tonight so we haven’t opened it yet – but can’t wait until we do.

There are still a lot of tomatoes in the garden and the zucchini grow regardless of what I do. A few onions remain, we picked the last beetroot and a serious number of asparagus and garlic have come up from self seeding. The Cook’s cabbages seem to have survived the wombat attack and are now growing well inside their tree guards. That’s sauerkraut for months – maybe zucchini isn’t that bad after all…

The Cook invoked the third rule and had the kids working in the garden, much to their dislike. They work pretty hard if you supervise them well, but don’t take your eye off of them. We had the usual antics, poo throwing, filling in the others hole whilst hey weren’t watching and the old favourite - worms down the back of the pants. The Cook has made a compost tea in a barrel beside the garden. I was “lucky” enough to there when she took the lid off – smelt like the septic tank from a curry house in Darwin – stinky!!!!!!!!! I suppose I should be careful, the Cook is from South Australia – and those guy’s have a reputation when it comes to Barrels…….


The dog has the best life; she spent yesterday rolling in the grass, catching grass hoppers and eating them, chasing the goats, playing with George, sleeping and taking baths. Every time I fill up the trough beside the house she thinks it’s an invitation to take a bath. She waits until it’s full and she thinks nobody is watching and then she dives in – she just sits there watching the world go by, I probably need to get her a shower cap. Her total displacement, being a fatty, is about half a bath tub. Sop she wastes a lot of water.

Now I said I’d get back to the Marketing side of things this week. There is another couple of ways to sell your pigs which I didn’t cover. Some people I know sell theirs on consignment or contract. Usually this is done to a specific order or requirement. Most people do this on a fixed price as well – which can be beneficial as you are assured of the price and can factor in all the known production costs.

And lastly are the sale yards. Regardless of the type of pigs you have you will get the sale price per kilo live weight for your pig here. From all the reports I’ve heard there is no premium for organic, free range or quality. You will occasionally get people looking for a particular pig and you may get a slightly higher price, however; that’s not something you can count on. The current price at the sales is about $3.80 for a porker and $3.50 for a baconer. Growers, the last time I looked were $200 and weaners $135.

I still want to go back to the ethics of farming at some stage. The question about where are the ethical limits in regards to both production and inputs. The increase in farm monocultures is also worrisome; we don’t even notice it these days because it has become so normal. But why do monocultures survive and thrive – I believe it’s because conformity so much easier to manage. Every body from Government to big business loves vertically integrated commodity markets – it’s easier to govern and manage, it lowers the cost input and improves the share holder return. But conversely, what does it do to the landscape, the environment and the community.

There is also the question of localisation vs Globalisation. Has the pendulum swung? I know the governments of the world are banging on about protectionism and the likes – but at the local level do we really care. Localisation is something that should be encouraged by the small producer, it’s the only leverage against people like the Woolworths and Coles that we have and the best way to bring people back to their senses about what really is ethical, fresh and value for money. I could go on – but!

Hung out to dry

I hope I made the Cook happy this weekend. Started out by erecting her Hills Hoist in the back yard at last, it’s only been two years. Unfortunately it seems I’ll have to get her a stump to stand on while she’s hanging out the washing – it’s too high. I went to the dump as well – this was a little delayed, Hugh came on the Lifestyle Channel so I just had to stop and watch.

Never mind, I also started digging her Moo Poo Pit for her biodynamic preparations. The ground was so damned hard that I broke my favourite Mattock, and cracked the shovel handle. I think I’ll have to wait until it rains to continue with that project. So what is a Moo Poo Pit? I hear you ask. From what I’m told it is a pit about a foot deep, you fill it with cow manure and compost to encourage worms to live in it. To keep the worms in you need to have boards lining the inside. Once the cow manure and compost has been attacked by the worms and digested, you remove the worm casting and mix with water. This can then be applied to your paddocks as a sol conditioner.

I finished the new paddock at the front of the property yesterday and we decided to move the young boars down there for the time being. The Cook rounded up a posse and lured them down to the paddock with a bucket of bread. At first they were happy enough to follow and eat the bread and we ended up with most of them in the paddock. After a small amount of pig drafting we weeded out the ones we wanted and locked them in the paddock. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to charge the fence energiser and the pigs discovered this in about ten minutes. I was busy fixing something when I turned around all the pigs had gone.

About five minutes later I hear the Cook bringing down the pigs again – this time they are a little less enthusiastic. They get half way down and decide to scoot back to the old pig yards. The Cook comes down to the paddock and has a look; she says to me “where have all the pigs gone?” I told her what happened, and she remarks that she was wondering where the extra male pigs had come from. Anyway, by the time I get back up to the yards there are two males left out and the Cook and Harry are trying to get them coaxed back into the paddocks; but, because it’s 7:00pm on a Sunday night they are being less co-operative. I think they ended up back in the pig yard; I need to go check because I don’t know for sure. Of course – the electric fence wasn’t working so I spent an hour looking for the problem in the dark.

There’s so much to do – now the paddock down the front is finished I need to build a shelter there. Luckily it has shade from the poplar trees so it’s a rather pleasant area for the pigs in summer. I still need to put the sides on the Boars hut and the back on the sows hut. The Cook needs the garden rabbit proofed, the little buggers have eaten all her carrots and numerous other vegetables. I’d love to start building a green house as well – but I need to get something done for the hand raised piglets and the young chicks so they can stay outside.

Sleep walking piglets

We are working up to the NSF Field Day at the moment. I have to finish the pig shelters tomorrow, get he roofs on and the sides and then have a quick cleanup. It was a pity we didn’t get time to have a pig ready for it.

The weather forecast is for hot weather the next couple of days then a cool change. The weather channel is forecasting a change from 35Deg C down to 12Deg C over a couple of days.

The Cook wasn’t totally happy with me yesterday either! She read the Blog – enough said. She did enjoy her course out at Gunning. She’s ready to give the Biodynamic Farming a go now she is a little more familiar with the practices and application of the theory. I suspect this will mean more work for me, but as long as she is happy – I get fed.

Anyway, it would appear that she has volunteered us for a Biodynamic Field Day of our own in November – so stay tuned.

Unmeasured

It did rain yesterday – but I don’t know how much, the goats knocked my rain gage off the post. I’ve never seen goats so fat, Bendy wobbles from side to side when she runs like a half full water bladder, Nudge can't run up the side of the gully and Precilla is taller laying down then standing up – maybe we all need to go on a diet.

The rain we had was good, using the “Grandees’ rain gauge of chance” I figure we had about 15mm – but I’m not so good with the maths for that particular method. I heard on the radio that Murrumbateman had 64mm – lucky buggers, Cooma only had 2mm.

I went to the NSF meeting last night, Peter Andrews visit is confirmed for the 7th of February. We are having a BBQ lunch down by the river at Valley View on the day. The Cook wants me to organise a pig for the day – I’ll see what I can do, but it is only two weeks away. Peter Andrews was on the Sky News Eco report this week as well. It was a very positive interview and a great credit to him and Sky for the manner in which it was conducted.

There was a lot of haze about this morning – it was almost like the tropical haze you’d see in Townsville. The temperature was above 18 Deg C by 6:30am and it is looking like more storms for this afternoon.

One of the mother pigs, I think it’s Myrtle, has turned up with a sore back leg. She’s lying down a lot and wont walk on the leg. She’s the second pig in the last six months to hurt herself like this. We have the kids giving her water during the day and we feed her separately. I think the uneven ground in the mothers’ yard is the cause; I need to have a bobcat come in and even out the ground.

It’s Australia Day this weekend. Which means Cancon for us, the kids are heading in to participate in the Magic card game competition. Sunday we have local visitors and Monday its Bush Heritage. Somewhere in there I need to clean up before the NSF weekend – its just one thing after another. The Cook is off to a Biodynamics workshop in a couple of weeks as well, I’ll be left behind to get the kids to school, feed all the animals and complete another list of jobs that’ll be attached to the fridge door before then.

Running of the Sheep

She’s a warm one today – it’s only lunch time and it’s reached 32Deg C already. The weather bureau has issued a storm warning, but the radar shows everything is missing our little slice of heaven. I decided last night that the sheep needed to be moved back out to their paddock. The Cook is home today and she thought she’d move them with the kids. I received a call about an hour ago “The sheep are every where! We can’t get them out of the impound paddock!” It’s forty sheep and a half acre paddock; I wonder what she’s doing?

We have had Peter Andrews’ visit confirmed, hopefully we will have some rain between now and then. There’s a Natural Sequence Farming meeting this week and I’ll find out more then. We are still having problems with the Jeep – I think it’s the Cylinder Head Gasket, I’d better order one from the US and get the whole thing fixed before its too late and somehow I think its something I’m not going to be able to do myself.

The animals all ended up drinking their apple cider vinegar as well – can you imagine the faces they would’ve pulled!!! The Cooks now brewed her famous Biodynamic animal lick ready for the sheep – apparently it fixes the lack of sulphur, which is what leads to infestations of lice.

Bean there.

I’ve a lot of catching up to do. Firstly the garden – it’s looking great, the vegetables are coming on and things are really looking good. George is fine, he’s fully recovered form his illness. The Pigs are back in their paddocks but they have destroyed all but three of our truffle trees. And lastly, the Bull is back from the river and living with his mother again – she’s really an old cow. The fly blown sheep known as Beryl is doing well, but I haven’t finished mowing the lawn.

Still no new camera! Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Old Ted, the Bin Laden look a like, from Dubbo is supposed to be coming down for a visit tomorrow – but I haven’t heard from him yet. Matthew and Fiona went to visit Maryborough – haven’t heard from them either; and the Western Australian Nomads are moving to Karratha. I can’t keep up with it all!

The Cook can’t cook at the moment because she hasn’t an oven. But, I’ll keep looking in the papers and see if I can snag another bargain. We are spending a fortune on biscuits and snacks for the kids (yes the kids, not me – the kids!) and not having a stove also means no fresh bread or duck egg pavlova’s.

On the weekend when we were out at Jerangle we had the best feed of fresh Black Angus Steaks I’ve ever had. The guys up there really have a great place and their cattle were in peak condition – better then what I can say for my pigs at he moment.

Our cow is looking good, the Cook put out one of her Biodynamic licks the other night and the cow just goes crazy over it. The sheep tucked into it as well, I suspect there could be some fine tunning to do to the recipe before it is perfectly matched to our pastures.

Speaking of the Cook, she’s over in Braidwood today at a Serrated Tussock field day, then on Friday we’re off to a Love Grass field day – she’ll be all weeded out by the weekend. Hopefully we’ll get a heads up on what the developing story is with controlling these pests – I bet they don’t discuss the organic options.

Today spic is from the garden, enjoy.

The Jeep is dead - long live the Jeep!

The Cook was looking back over the Blog on the weekend and quips “there is always something happening isn’t there!” This week end was nothing unusual. I arrived home Friday night and passed the Cook at the gate – it’s nearly dark and she’s off to work. “The bull is down on Buzz’s lucerne paddock over the back, you’ll have to go move him onto the river for the night.” Right, I don’t know Buzz’s lucerne paddock, where the gates are, or where in the paddock the bull is. So off I go on another little adventure in the darkness. I get down to the paddock and the bull is standing by the road – lucky me, I chase him around for an hour until I stumble across a gate and I move him on – ever notice how lucerne paddocks are always full of snakes! Kids are sitting down eating dinner when I get home – Harry couldn’t wait so they helped themselves.

I had to go on down to the oats paddock and do some fencing first up Saturday, by the time I’d trodden on a couple of Brown Snakes and chased a couple with the shovel I was feeling a little lonely. I fixed the fence and headed back to the house. The whole time I was there, the bull was watching me from across the river.

A fellow was supposed to be coming to look at a boar, but he never showed up. I missed the land care meeting as well, but I had a chance to catch up on a few things around the pig yards.

We evicted the piglets from the house; I don’t think they were too impressed. They keep coming up to me and pull my trouser legs for attention.

Sunday morning we were up and at it early – Murrumbateman Field Days. I was up at the crack, about 5:30am to get everything fed and watered so we could meet the Cook in town. We hurried off at about 7:00am but didn’t get far. As we came up to the gate I said to the kids “Car seems to be running a little ruff”, everything seemed OK at that point. About 2km down the road everything stopped – crap!!!! I noticed smoke coming from under the bonnet and thought – crap!!!!! I waited for the Cook to ring – I didn’t have any credit on my mobile, silly me. Our NRMA membership had run out as well.

After about half an hour I decided to try a trick I’d learnt in the Army about moving a vehicle out of danger – and to my surprise it worked. We managed to roll back into town and out the other side until we could turn across the paddock and roll down to the driveway – brilliant, the car won’t be stuck on the side of the road. We got to the house and rang the Cook and filled her in. She’d only had the Jeeps door re-attached the day before. I think this time the Jeep is well and truly dead.

So finally about 11:00am we arrived a the Field Day, had a look around, bought a book on Sheep Basics, and spoke to a guy about irrigation. We headed off home about 3:00pm to do some sheep mustering.

We needed to move the sheep up to the yards to spray them for lice and get them out into the paddock. They have de-wormed and are ready to take on the African Love Grass. The Cook and the two boys haven’t had a lot of experience with sheep, but they love getting into it and having a go. We got them into the yard no problems and the spraying went well. The Cook and Harry got bowled over a couple of times (I can laugh now they’re not here) but apart from that it went smoothly. The sheep are now out in the big paddock happily eating away.

On the way into the yards we picked up the goats, which ended up pretty handy as they led the sheep into the yards. Poor old Pricilla has lost her mate however, with Sheepy leaving the comfort of the house yard to flock with her own kind.

Once the sheep were done there was only getting all the pigs back into their own paddocks left to do. Of course when ever we go out the fence goes off and everything goes everywhere – I should have quessed.

to do's

There seems to be a big difference in the way people think about sustainability. I believe it means being able to farm with out effecting the environment or any local ecosystems. Being sustainable is harder work and probably less profitable then more industrial forms of agriculture, but at the end of the day it’s the condition of your property that you’ll be judged by. So how does a farmer judge what the balance is between sustainable and profitable? I’m still looking for an answer to this one – but it’s not lots of pigs.

I would like my pigs to live in green fields, interspersed with oak and chestnut trees, how do I get there? Over the last couple of weeks I’ve tried to stand back and reassess what it is I’m doing and how do I get there. I think reassessment or review is an important part of any enterprise and knowing when to change is important. Let’s face it, pigs are hard work, twice a day feeding, lots of water, electric fencing, housing and the list goes on. I like the pigs and they have just started to bring in a bit of money – but I’ve got to change the way we do things to make it easier.

Up until now we have been jumping from one thing to the next, we didn’t have the first pig paddock finished until the morning I picked up the pigs. The chicken pen is still only half finished. The sheep don’t even have a proper paddock yet. I haven’t finished fencing off the garden or begun on the orchard – and the Boss is going to bring trees home on Sunday. We don’t have water to everything and I have to cart buckets everywhere. The cook has to water the garden from a water can and, well, you get the picture.

So it’s time for what we used to call ‘consolidation’, I need to, in consultation with the cook, prioritise what our list of ‘to do’s’ is and get on with it. And not let anything else lead me astray. Of course I’m getting hassled about the renovations to the house as well – like I don’t have enough to do!


For got to mention on Tuesday - there is a LandCare general meeting in Bredbo this Saturday, which I am going too. It’s interesting hearing what people are doing and planning on doing. Some people are Biodynamic, some are Organic and some conventional, but ever body seems to get along and hopefully learn from each others experiences.

Today’s photo is of the Cooks garlic, one of three patches she has growing around the place.

Photo of the Week

Do I nose you?

The sheep are settling in well. The Cook has them on the Apple Vinegar Cider to clean them out before we release them to the paddock. The Apple Cider Vinegar is a Biodynamic remedy for worms and other internal parasites. We also need to give them a good spray of Neem oil incase they have any lice or external parasites.

The Cook and the kids tried to separate the young gilts out of the boars paddock yesterday with out much success, pigs 27 farmers 3, however, the Cook will get her own back. She's off to help the folks down at Ingelara to castrate their pigs today - and there's no way I'm having anything that looks like meat balls for dinner! She did mention taking the Black Rooster down with her to get the chop. He's been harassing her and the kids lately so I think they are pretty keen to get him on the plate and eaten.

BREAKING NEWS: Another six piglets born this morning - I'm not home and of course everything is a little confused - The Cook has to take the Jeep in to get the door re-attached this morning as well as going to Ingelara. The Black Rooster attacked Ben again and is currently under bag arrest awaiting the chop.