dams full, grounds wet and more

12:53 PM No Comments

the interminable rain let up for the morning, so we managed to get outside and catch up with a few chores. Steps I had started the new stone retaining wall and steps, First rock in place to replace the rotted old wooden ones and managed to get a lot more work done but then I ran out of rocks.  Need more rocks for the walls but also some smaller, odd shaped ones to chink up stones to get them to lay flat and to use in gaps, more rock hunting when it dries out a little...

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Growing, harvesting and digging... and more !

3:19 PM No Comments

Garden Toni has been active in the garden. The rain has been insistent, with more to come apparently, it has destroyed some of her hard work but the other day she managed to harvest some of her garlic, hang it in the shed to dry then bring it in to hang in the pantry. Garlic, drying, ready for use Planting more potatoes, carrots, attending to her corn, beetroot, lettuce, picking strawberries etc keeps her very busy in there. Rock steps and wall I have been scouring old borrow...

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more lantana, Geckos and fruit trees

11:05 PM No Comments

We took the opportunity with the rain having stopped for the day, to go out and clear some more lantana, with the soft ground it was the best time to pull it.  We were adverse to using poisons so the regime we used was to clear an area by pulling it all out by hand and then come back about a month later to get the bits we had missed or the bits that might have struck again and then return about 6 months later to get any small vines that may have started to grow from seed etc.  We are aware...

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rain... rain... rain.... and snakes

10:28 PM No Comments

The rain has been fairly incessant, Toni managed to get into the garden for 1/2 a day to do some weeding but a lot of the veggies (eg Potatoes etc) have been destroyed, oh well, such is life on the land.  I had to dig a few water bars on the road to stop the driveway being eroded and have been pulling more lanata, which comes out so easily in the wet soil.  The Dam we use to water the veggies etc is full, bt the irony is the the veggies don't need watering ! The perennial creek running...

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Farm Dam stocking

2:40 PM No Comments

We have two dams on the property, one in front oft he house used for water for veggie gardns, taps outside etc and the other "over the ridge and far away" isn; tused.  For soem time we had been thinking about stockign it so I finally got off my butt grabbed a dook from the libary and orderd some Yabbies and Glass Shrimp (for yabbies to eat) The idea is to let them breed up for a year, and then stock the Dam with some Silver Perch or some Bass next year.  I think it's a good lookin' Dam,...

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more nature...

12:07 AM No Comments

One of the many reason for moving here was to enjoy nature by living in nature.   With spring still in full flight, the flowers are more gorgeous everyday, I recently grabbed the camera and took a few more happy snaps around the property, my photography in no way does justice to the beauty of nature. Walking Iris Lilly The Callestomns are incredibly vibrant along with the birds enjoying their nectar Rainbow Lorike...

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Rain, Lantana and Yabbies

4:10 PM No Comments

Rain It has been raining off and on for about three weeks now.  We have had to watch our power usage but that's okay, working with nature was one of the reasons we went "off the grid". The rain has done a fair bit of damage to the veggies etc but that's the way of things.  It doesn't seem to have put the chickens off and two more hens have gone broody and now have baby chicks, the females for laying, the males for eatin' ! Lantana We have taken the opportunity to pull a whole heap of...

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Harvesting todays food

1:03 PM No Comments

One of the marvellous things about growing your own produce is harvesting it.. of course the BEST bit is the eating. Some of todays produce for the kitchen   The photo shows produce taken from the garden, just before lunch.  We had already eaten the Mandarins we'd picked from the tree with breakfast ! Lunch is a potato and egg salad, with parsley and spring onion, all from the garden. Along with a chickpea salad, followed by fresh strawberries and Yoghurt.  The rest of the potatoes...

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Birdlife

8:37 PM No Comments

At the moment the Friar Birds are back, the poor things must rate highly as one of the ugliest birds there is and are certainly raucous, I noticed them coming back at about the same time Sprig started, they seemed to leave mid Autumn. With so many flowering natives, the honeyeaters are prolific Scarlet Honeyeater Yellow Faced Honeyeater Eastern Spinebill Blue Faced Honeyeater as well as a variety of other birds Spangled Drongo Australia King Parrot Kookaburras on the Old Gum...

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Baby Chickens are doing well, nesting boxes and Lemon Verbana & Mint Tea

7:46 PM No Comments

The ISA Brown chook who had hew three chicks a couple weeks ago (see here) has been mothering them well and they are growing so fast and in the last two days, two more chooks have gone broody.  "Elvis" an Arukuna (lays blue eggs), who is off in her own little pen, and has been there a couple days and I noticed just today one of the Cornish Game Hens has gone broody, so we'll throw a couple eggs under her as well.  We hope this doesn't start a trend or we'll have none laying and then a...

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