Well, firstly no photo today - I'm blogging from the Woden Centre in Canberra using one of those internet cafe's. I was in town and have a meeting tonight so I thought I'd try this out.
I came across a great blog today whilst I was sitting here - that's why I decided to post. The Blog is here http://www.livingoffgrid.org/ . I've only had a short time to examine the articles and stories - But, if you are in to anternate and sustainable living it's worth having a look at.
Any others I happen a cross I will add to the list. We have the Bush Heritage people out again on Monday and a gaggle of people over on Sunday as well.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Pleasant surprise
So this morning, the dust was settled and the pigs were content to snore through the early hours. It was another early morning for me – I took a quick picture of the sunrise for the Cook. I know how she hates the fact that she misses this every morning.
In the end it did manage to rain – about 7mm all up. Not bad, and at the moment, anything is gratefully accepted. It’s nice to walk out to the fresh smell of overnight rain, much better then the dusty smell we’ve had lately.
After yesterday’s sheep debacle, the sheep all ended up walking into the top paddock on their own – except for the two we wanted kept close and a straggler. A very good out come considering the effort that went into the failed attempted move yesterday.
I still haven’t found the Cook a new oven. Soon I won’t be able to call her ‘the Cook’; I’ll have to find another suitable pseudonym.
The garden is still providing us bounty for the table. Last night it was carrots, spinach and potatoes freshly harvested for the table. There are some very strange things growing down there – I need to photograph some for the Blog – I’ll make that tonight’s mission.
In the end it did manage to rain – about 7mm all up. Not bad, and at the moment, anything is gratefully accepted. It’s nice to walk out to the fresh smell of overnight rain, much better then the dusty smell we’ve had lately.
After yesterday’s sheep debacle, the sheep all ended up walking into the top paddock on their own – except for the two we wanted kept close and a straggler. A very good out come considering the effort that went into the failed attempted move yesterday.
I still haven’t found the Cook a new oven. Soon I won’t be able to call her ‘the Cook’; I’ll have to find another suitable pseudonym.
The garden is still providing us bounty for the table. Last night it was carrots, spinach and potatoes freshly harvested for the table. There are some very strange things growing down there – I need to photograph some for the Blog – I’ll make that tonight’s mission.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Weekend well spent
I spent Saturday morning doing a job for a mate, collecting some free steel and taking Harry shopping. Saturday afternoon we brought the sheep in to be sprayed for lice and checked over. We managed to muster the majority, however; Beryl is lurking out there somewhere with here part bred Ram friend. Mildred is still wearing her bell - I'm seriously thinking about putting more bells on the sheep, they make finding them so much easier.
We walked the sheep down to the impound paddock to give them a couple of nights of Apple Cider Vinegar treatment. The sheep don’t seem to mind it and will drink a bathtub of the stuff in an afternoon. The horse won’t touch it; they stand at the trough, push the water around with their noses and refuse to drink. The cows are little sensitive to the taste of it as well.
By Sunday, after a well deserved sleep in, it was back to real work. I had to replace the carbie on the fire pump - I’m glad that’s working again. The Cook spent a lot of the day in the garden, we built a leaky weir down in the gully close to the road and I cemented in the Cooks new Hills Hoist.
After feeding last night I went for a walk around the horse paddock, I found a number of half eaten loaves of bread, a collection of egg shells and a good amount of Fox poo – all fresh. Seems the foxes are still about, just picking different targets now.
We walked the sheep down to the impound paddock to give them a couple of nights of Apple Cider Vinegar treatment. The sheep don’t seem to mind it and will drink a bathtub of the stuff in an afternoon. The horse won’t touch it; they stand at the trough, push the water around with their noses and refuse to drink. The cows are little sensitive to the taste of it as well.
By Sunday, after a well deserved sleep in, it was back to real work. I had to replace the carbie on the fire pump - I’m glad that’s working again. The Cook spent a lot of the day in the garden, we built a leaky weir down in the gully close to the road and I cemented in the Cooks new Hills Hoist.
After feeding last night I went for a walk around the horse paddock, I found a number of half eaten loaves of bread, a collection of egg shells and a good amount of Fox poo – all fresh. Seems the foxes are still about, just picking different targets now.
I just niticed the coiunter is working again - beauty!!!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Back on line
There's a problem with the Blog, you may have noticed the counter isn't working and this morning there's been a problem putting up pictures.
I’d often heard people say “it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey” but never thought that much about it before. It makes sense – well, at least it explains why I’m always so lost.
I often sit and wonder what I’m going to do next. There are so many jobs, so many projects and so many ideas. Where do I start? I can’t ask the Cook – all I get from her is “you can do the dishes whilst I think about it”
There are always the priorities that occur naturally because of the weather or unplanned pregnancies (not mine). I’ve tried various prioritisation tools I’ve carried form my previous lives, but nothing seems to work. I know farming works around the seasons; problem is we only have one at the moment – Drought. I’ve noticed the soil is starting to change. It’s turning from clay/ alluvial to sand, particularly in the heavy stock traffic areas. At the moment it’s only in small areas like around troughs and gates, but I noticed at the neighbours the other day that their whole paddocks are changing in the same way. Of course they have many more stock than we do using their paddocks.
I really enjoy reading other peoples Blogs. I’ve discovered so many interesting Blogsites, there’s hundreds I’d love to read from start to end but just don’t have the time. And you can get so much inspiration or so many different ideas, the time I do spend reading them is always worth it. I know updating our Blog every day has change the way I look at our life here on the farm. I think it helps put everything in proportion.
I’ve noticed since moving onto the farm that lots of things have changed. The kids are growing up. The boy’s and I have started interacting differently. Harry is a lot more confident in himself and Ben is more outspoken at times and introspective at others. The dynamics between us is changing as well. Over the break I took them Bow hunting – I was surprised at how enthusiastically they participated, no complaints, no wining. I had always thought that it was going to be too ‘hard’ for them – I was happily surprised, and deep down proud of the way they performed. They are really growing up to be nice kids -
I like reading other Blogs, written by people who are doing similar things to us and see that they struggle, have their highs and lows and manage to just get on with it. I think its great therapy to sit in front of the computer and think about what it is we’ve done or achieved over the past day or so. It’s funny how when you do sit back and look at things again, they don’t seem half as bad as they first appeared. It really helps put everything into perspective.
Of course nothing can beat that dark, wry humour we Australian’s are famous for. I know I’ve found the funny side to a few things I’ve had to do that weren’t funny at all. The Cook, she has a wicked sense of humour – especially if it’s at my expense.
I don’t have a watch, I used to, I used to rely on it – it was a part of me. But I don’t see the need for it anymore – I know the Cooks always going to be late – that’s a given! I get up in the morning, I feed the pigs first up and at sunset, I have lunch when I’m hungry, I go to bed in the dark – so what’s the point.
Well – there’s more eggs in the incubator, so that means there are more roosters on the way. I bought a dozen fertile eggs into work this week for a lady and she wants me to take any roosters – that’ll be a few! I really do need to fix the chook yard – luckily changing the dogs routine has been keeping the foxes away, but I still need to get the wire to finish it off properly. Next weekend a new fence has to go in around the garden – please let it rain before then, and we have weeds to address. Of course that doesn’t include the piglets that need castrating , the sheep paddock fences or the oats paddock fences that needs fixing.
I often sit and wonder what I’m going to do next. There are so many jobs, so many projects and so many ideas. Where do I start? I can’t ask the Cook – all I get from her is “you can do the dishes whilst I think about it”
There are always the priorities that occur naturally because of the weather or unplanned pregnancies (not mine). I’ve tried various prioritisation tools I’ve carried form my previous lives, but nothing seems to work. I know farming works around the seasons; problem is we only have one at the moment – Drought. I’ve noticed the soil is starting to change. It’s turning from clay/ alluvial to sand, particularly in the heavy stock traffic areas. At the moment it’s only in small areas like around troughs and gates, but I noticed at the neighbours the other day that their whole paddocks are changing in the same way. Of course they have many more stock than we do using their paddocks.
I really enjoy reading other peoples Blogs. I’ve discovered so many interesting Blogsites, there’s hundreds I’d love to read from start to end but just don’t have the time. And you can get so much inspiration or so many different ideas, the time I do spend reading them is always worth it. I know updating our Blog every day has change the way I look at our life here on the farm. I think it helps put everything in proportion.
I’ve noticed since moving onto the farm that lots of things have changed. The kids are growing up. The boy’s and I have started interacting differently. Harry is a lot more confident in himself and Ben is more outspoken at times and introspective at others. The dynamics between us is changing as well. Over the break I took them Bow hunting – I was surprised at how enthusiastically they participated, no complaints, no wining. I had always thought that it was going to be too ‘hard’ for them – I was happily surprised, and deep down proud of the way they performed. They are really growing up to be nice kids -
I like reading other Blogs, written by people who are doing similar things to us and see that they struggle, have their highs and lows and manage to just get on with it. I think its great therapy to sit in front of the computer and think about what it is we’ve done or achieved over the past day or so. It’s funny how when you do sit back and look at things again, they don’t seem half as bad as they first appeared. It really helps put everything into perspective.
Of course nothing can beat that dark, wry humour we Australian’s are famous for. I know I’ve found the funny side to a few things I’ve had to do that weren’t funny at all. The Cook, she has a wicked sense of humour – especially if it’s at my expense.
I don’t have a watch, I used to, I used to rely on it – it was a part of me. But I don’t see the need for it anymore – I know the Cooks always going to be late – that’s a given! I get up in the morning, I feed the pigs first up and at sunset, I have lunch when I’m hungry, I go to bed in the dark – so what’s the point.
Well – there’s more eggs in the incubator, so that means there are more roosters on the way. I bought a dozen fertile eggs into work this week for a lady and she wants me to take any roosters – that’ll be a few! I really do need to fix the chook yard – luckily changing the dogs routine has been keeping the foxes away, but I still need to get the wire to finish it off properly. Next weekend a new fence has to go in around the garden – please let it rain before then, and we have weeds to address. Of course that doesn’t include the piglets that need castrating , the sheep paddock fences or the oats paddock fences that needs fixing.
Cooler at last
The Cooks sister has gone home and everything is back to normal. Everybody enjoyed the time she was able to have here with us. The Cook took her to see Menopause the Musical and apparently she could relate to more of the show then she felt comfortable with – but then again, she is getting a little long in the tooth.
The cool change came through at about 9:00pm last night – much to our delight. It’ll bring a couple of days of cooler temperatures before the next wave of over 30Deg days.
I brought home a couple of Earth Garden/ Organic Farming magazines the other day for the Cook. There’s a great article in one on aquaponics – I mentioned this to the Cook and received a stinging rebuke about starting another project (I had to ran and hide!). I wonder if this is how the River Cottage managed creative thinking?
The cool change came through at about 9:00pm last night – much to our delight. It’ll bring a couple of days of cooler temperatures before the next wave of over 30Deg days.
I brought home a couple of Earth Garden/ Organic Farming magazines the other day for the Cook. There’s a great article in one on aquaponics – I mentioned this to the Cook and received a stinging rebuke about starting another project (I had to ran and hide!). I wonder if this is how the River Cottage managed creative thinking?
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