20 May 2018
Its officially cold enough to have the fireplace going - and oh my god its fantastic. So snuggled up in my favourite armchair with hot chocolate on my lap, dog snoring at feet and fire blazing...we watched the Royal Wedding. Now that's over will we all get back to our daily lives until the baby arrives.
And speaking of daily lives, as this blog is a weekly update of life on the farm, its animals and workers, the latest news is the FAMILY have arrived. Yes I finally have live-in help onsite, to be with me for the next three months, and then some more. What a relief this is. Finally we can get truly stuck into the harvesting, processing and delivering. And as I gaze upon my annual work schedule, printed out on wall above computer - sigh - I realise how grateful I am to have this family here now. WE have a shit load of work to do this year.
So the escape artists began their exit off the farm. They being the goats. I was busy in the top orchard with one of my workers, to suddenly see a minivan pull up on the road. Out popped a lady who announced she had some visitors in her front garden....oh shit....
Off I went in the ute, cross country to the next door neighbours front yard. As soon as I arrived and got out of the ute they came running up to me! Meeeeeeehe MEEEEEHHHE (ok, ok I heard you both).
And then they took off!!! Yes I spent the next 20 minutes chasing them around the front yard of my neighbours garden, watching them eat tasty morsels of established garden on their way through. But of course it only took one of them to be caught to enable them both to be put back into the ute and transported home again. You see they hate being separated from each other, so once one was back on the lead, the other one followed....like puppies they are. They are getting so good at consuming extra grass I've had to move them about to newer locations, still tethered to large trees of course. No free roaming for these two.
And of course the animal antics don't stop there...what about the chickens ?????
Well the original five chicks I purchased for my broody white hen to raise last year, have finally started to lay. (One got strangled by a snake - remember?) I was down at the coop letting them out on Friday morning to see them race off to a pile of rubbish I had stacked ready to go the tip. What was going on??? So I quietly followed them....and sure enough the four new hens were merrily dropping their loads in a secret stash! Eight eggs were already there and another four followed within 5 minutes. So I managed to pick up one hen before she dropped and carry her back to their Taj Mahal Coop. Placing her into a nesting box to hear a "dplop...(is there such a sound?). Clever little girls. So now we get 6 fresh eggs a day. Awesome. You just gotta teach them what to do, and where to do it!
I smell crème caramels a coming!
But life on the farm wouldn't be complete without some good farm food. So last night we had a traditional Australian roast dinner (no not goat) Lamb....a beautiful leg of roast lamb rubbed in preserved lemon, rosemary, salt and garlic...accompanied by roast potatoes and pumpkin. And that with a few beers in my belly set up the evening in front of the fire very nicely. But today we are getting stuck into making some sour dough starter culture, some pumpkin scones and fresh orange marmalade. Its a start to what will become hopefully a regular routine here in the farmhouse kitchen.
Because we have to get the new garden beds measured out next month as well in order to plant the spring crops that are planned (looking at that schedule on wall again - arggghhhh).
Anyways, next week I have a mega delivery planned to the main factory, and at only 2 tonne this will be our biggest one to date. Its difficult to take more as my trailer can only carry 1 tonne at a time but its very satisfying to see the nuts on the ground ready to be harvested. Yes I know should get to work. Time to do just that.
Its officially cold enough to have the fireplace going - and oh my god its fantastic. So snuggled up in my favourite armchair with hot chocolate on my lap, dog snoring at feet and fire blazing...we watched the Royal Wedding. Now that's over will we all get back to our daily lives until the baby arrives.
And speaking of daily lives, as this blog is a weekly update of life on the farm, its animals and workers, the latest news is the FAMILY have arrived. Yes I finally have live-in help onsite, to be with me for the next three months, and then some more. What a relief this is. Finally we can get truly stuck into the harvesting, processing and delivering. And as I gaze upon my annual work schedule, printed out on wall above computer - sigh - I realise how grateful I am to have this family here now. WE have a shit load of work to do this year.
So the escape artists began their exit off the farm. They being the goats. I was busy in the top orchard with one of my workers, to suddenly see a minivan pull up on the road. Out popped a lady who announced she had some visitors in her front garden....oh shit....
Off I went in the ute, cross country to the next door neighbours front yard. As soon as I arrived and got out of the ute they came running up to me! Meeeeeeehe MEEEEEHHHE (ok, ok I heard you both).
And then they took off!!! Yes I spent the next 20 minutes chasing them around the front yard of my neighbours garden, watching them eat tasty morsels of established garden on their way through. But of course it only took one of them to be caught to enable them both to be put back into the ute and transported home again. You see they hate being separated from each other, so once one was back on the lead, the other one followed....like puppies they are. They are getting so good at consuming extra grass I've had to move them about to newer locations, still tethered to large trees of course. No free roaming for these two.
And of course the animal antics don't stop there...what about the chickens ?????
Well the original five chicks I purchased for my broody white hen to raise last year, have finally started to lay. (One got strangled by a snake - remember?) I was down at the coop letting them out on Friday morning to see them race off to a pile of rubbish I had stacked ready to go the tip. What was going on??? So I quietly followed them....and sure enough the four new hens were merrily dropping their loads in a secret stash! Eight eggs were already there and another four followed within 5 minutes. So I managed to pick up one hen before she dropped and carry her back to their Taj Mahal Coop. Placing her into a nesting box to hear a "dplop...(is there such a sound?). Clever little girls. So now we get 6 fresh eggs a day. Awesome. You just gotta teach them what to do, and where to do it!
I smell crème caramels a coming!
But life on the farm wouldn't be complete without some good farm food. So last night we had a traditional Australian roast dinner (no not goat) Lamb....a beautiful leg of roast lamb rubbed in preserved lemon, rosemary, salt and garlic...accompanied by roast potatoes and pumpkin. And that with a few beers in my belly set up the evening in front of the fire very nicely. But today we are getting stuck into making some sour dough starter culture, some pumpkin scones and fresh orange marmalade. Its a start to what will become hopefully a regular routine here in the farmhouse kitchen.
Because we have to get the new garden beds measured out next month as well in order to plant the spring crops that are planned (looking at that schedule on wall again - arggghhhh).
Anyways, next week I have a mega delivery planned to the main factory, and at only 2 tonne this will be our biggest one to date. Its difficult to take more as my trailer can only carry 1 tonne at a time but its very satisfying to see the nuts on the ground ready to be harvested. Yes I know should get to work. Time to do just that.
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