Chook coop and run

This weekend has been spent trying to build a run for the chook coop to go in, after several changes to my original idea its now half way built.

So far all the building materials have been found around the garden or in the shed, except for some wire I got from the neighbour. Star pickets and fence posts from the shed, roofing iron and some timber from under the house, wire mesh from an old sheep enclosure in the front garden.

Here is what it looks like at the moment, yes defiantly a work in progress!

Tomorrow I want to get the cross pieces up and work out what I am doing for an entry gate , then its off to the shop to buy wire. I was hoping to have it finished by next weekend so I could get the birds in, but not too sure at the moment

Things are growing... and not just the weeds!

Things are picking up in the vegie patch, today I have harvested the last of the peas, the first of the spuds, radishes, broccoli, and spring onions.

 

Tomorrow I will be making a sausage casserole, everything in it bar the sausages and a can of tomatoes will be home grown.

Spring onion, garlic, parsley, peas, broad beans, radish, potato, kale, broccoli and asparagus from the neighbour in exchange for broad beans.

The first of my red currants are coming along nicely and it looks like we will be eating lots of cabbage soon, I'm growing a variety called January King a large green cabbage. And much to my surprise it looks like I will get 6 or 7 decent size cabbage! At the old place I really struggled with brassicas as the caterpillars ate them all, but here they are growing brilliantly!

The next stage, chooks.

Well we are ready to take the net step and will be getting chooks soon!!!

I have ordered a coop, which should arrive early next week and hope to have that built and ready to house the chooks in a week or two, it depends on work as to when I can pick up the chooks.

I've been spending a lot of time recently reading about keeping chooks so am looking forward to getting them. I have decided to start small with 3 or 4 birds in a coop with small outside area, I plan to build a large coop and run but have not had the time to do it yet, I seem to be spending all my weekends cutting grass! When  I get the bigger run constructed I will use the first coop either for quail or something else.

Pictures to follow soon!!!

It's been awhile!!

Yes I know it's been awhile between posts.....

I could give several reasons for this but not sure if you really want to hear them! Main reason for not posting is we went overseas, back to the UK to visit family,

Anyway here are some of the things I've been upto  since the last post, in no particular order.

While we were away there was a big storm, 4 trees came down and a couple more lost branches, the largest was a gum that came over the back fence by the train line. The train guys cut the main trunk to clear the track but left the rest of the tree balancing on my fence and the slope down to the train line. Seven  hours of chain sawing later I managed to clear it from the fence and remove abit from the slope, to be left with a large pile of wood to be cut and stacked for firewood and an even bigger pile of small branches and foliage to be burnt. Two weekends later in between rain showers I managed to cut and store the firewood and burn off the smaller stuff,

 

The wood shed is now 3/4 quarters full, not enough for next winter but certainly a big help.

 

 







That still leaves the 2 willows that came over the front fence, a neighbour cut these as the were blocking the road and I have made several calls to the council to move the trunks from the roadside culvert but the are still there waiting to flood the road when I rains next! I need to get out there to remove the branches from the fence line but again they are on a slope and the ground is very wet around there so it might have to wait awhile.

I only discovered the fourth tree yesterday, a neighbour had told me about a tree he had down,  taking out a section of his fence, and while taking a walk with Quinn we found it over our fence! We also found a tiger snake.....  so I really need to cut that long grass.

Garden update

We now have an enclosed raised bed, eventually this will be planted out with soft fruits - raspberries, currants etc but to begin with I'm using the space for more vegies. I was going to build the enclosure myself but decided I wanted it doing properly so got a professional in! And we are very pleased with the results, thanks Aaron!


First I removed the 2 trees along the fence line, around 4 metres tall by 3 metres wide, I mulched a lot of the small branches and the rest went onto a bonfire.

 

 

The cleared area.

 

 

Several weeks later!

 

 

My two helpers assisting with moving the soil, nothing wrong with using child labour!

 



 

 

The first plantings, kale, mustard and Chinese cabbage transplanted from the other beds, peas, radish and various seeds planted on the left hand side. I have since planted some rhubarb towards the back and am waiting on raspberries, red, black and white currants all to go down the far end.

 

 

And here are the first 3 beds  I planted, most things are doing well. We've been picking radish, kale, mustard and rocket for a couple of weeks now. I have transplanted a fair few plants both to pots for the our other house and into the new plot, that's what happens when you get the little ones to plant the seed!

Busy few days

We're just had a busy few days at the new place, Lisa spent several days up there on her own painting the bathroom and the boys bedroom. I've been down there for the last couple of days planting out the next bed.

Firstly the bathroom, I thought I had some photos of what it looked like before we had any work done..  but I cant find any! Either we forgot to take any or Lisa has deleted them.

We had the old dated looking bathroom ripped out and new one installed. The old one didn't have a bath, something that we need with 2 young boys. So in went a bath, new shower and vanity, we decided to do our own painting so here is what it looked like after the builder finished.

 

 

Lisa spent several days painting and finishing the room and here is what it now looks like.

 

 

 



Fruit and Vegies

Here's a list of what we have planted so far.

Fruit-
Gooseberries
Jostaberry
Blueberries
Cherry Guava
Strawberry Guava
Strawberries
Native Lime
Seville Orange

Vegies
Potatoes
Garlic
Radish
Carrot
Turnip
Broad Beans
Peas
Cabbage, red and white
Broccoli
Kale
Rocket
Lettuce, several types
Cauliflower

Plus I bought 6 more fruit bushes/trees to be planted out this week
Fig, Quince, 2 Natal Plums and 2 Midgen Berries - a native Australian ground cover with a very sweet white berry.

I'm also looking to get some currant bushes and raspberries but I need to build a cage for these so the birds don't get them!

So far only the rocket is ready to pick, but at least its something.

Autumn Colours and Garden Statues

It's been awhile since my last update, been busy with work and a training course with the fire brigade, so here are some photos of what we have been doing around the place

Firstly some Autumn colours from the front garden

 

 

The boys have been helping tidy up the front garden, some far I have taken out 15 roses over 30 still to go!

 

 

 

While tidying up we have been finding lots of garden statues, the boys have even set up a statue shop!

 



 

 

Around the back of the house the vegies are coming along nicely, sorry no upto date photos as my camera has broke! I did finally cut down the 2 trees by the back gate, this area will be another vegie bed and maybe some soft fruits if I get around to building a cage.

 

 

 

I've mulched a lot of the smaller branches, the big stuff will be used for the wood heater and the rest will be put on a bonfire.











Big Pile of Soil

Saturday morning we had 3 cubic metres of compost delivered.

And with my trusty helper we filled the 5 raised beds I had made over the last few weeks. I decided to go for compost from the local garden supply place, the pile was still steaming when it arrived. We did find a couple of extra things in there, a local restaurant must be missing some cutlery!

 

 

Zane was a great help with his shovel and wheel barrow!

 

I ordered abit too much, so the rest was mixed in with the compost pile I built a couple of weeks ago, it was due for a turning so I just layered in some of the delivered compost with the existing pile.

 

 



Last Weekend

Down at the house again this last weekend, just for Friday and Saturday as we had to come back for a trivia night for the fire brigade I'm a member of, it was a fun night but we didnt win.

Made 2 more planter boxes, this time I had to buy the wood, one will be for the gooseberry bushes I have ordered and the other for vegies. The Boss has approved the placement of the boxes and hopefully next weekend I will get some soil delivered,

 

Also spent some time sorting out the wood shed, it is about half full but when I removed the useable planks and restacked the firewood I found a fair bit is small branches rather than larger split logs. Hopefully we will have enough for the winter, there are a couple of piles around the place that need to be cut and split if we start to run out and there is a large gum tree by the dam that has fallen but I think that will be next years firewood.

Blueberries and boxes

Another day and more jobs to do, firstly the boys wanted to plant some blueberry bushes. They are the boys current favourite fruit and if you have seen the price of them you will understand why I want to be growing them rather then buying them!
As usual I enlisted my young helpers, first we dug the bed

 

Then each of the boys planted a bush

 

As with everything at the moment Zane was saying its going to be a race to see which bush fruits first!
Next on the list of jobs was clearing the covered area of the many boxes and making up the new outdoor setting, again with my able helpers!

Surprisingly we managed to build the setting ok even with Zane wanting to tighten every screw himself.

After a walk around the back I found some planks of wood, with more usable wood from the wood shed and  nails from the shed I was able to knock together a raised bed, I even used tools that I had found lying around!
This along with 2 others I have made are going on an area I have just cleared along the carport, hopefully I will get the soil in them next weekend and be able to plant some stuff out soon.

 

Worm farm

One of our first jobs was to build a worm farm, I bought the Worm Cafe and 1200 worms from Bunnings and enlisted my 2 helpers to set the worm farm up.

It was easy to put together, just clipping in the legs and moving into place.

 

After soaking the bedding materail we placed the worms in their new home, we'll leave them to settle in then start to feed them kitchen scraps. Zane is looking forward to getting the worm wee!

We have since got another worm farm, this time from Aldi and half the price of the first one! So now the boys have a worm farm each to look after

 

 

 

The beginnning

Well the journey has began, we have bought a place in the country and this is our story about the house, the land, the boys and our move from suburbia to a small rural town.

This is the new place located in Kardella, about 5km outside of Korumburra in South Gippsland Victoria. Its a 4 bedroom weatherboard house with large veranda situated on 4 acres, 2 under title and 2 on railway lease. The property backs onto the South Gippsland Tourist Railway but don't worry the trains only run on Sundays!.

We got the keys to the place mid February and for the time being will be down there mainly at weekends with the plan to move down there permanently later in the year.

The idea behind this blog is to let family and friends see what we are doing, our projects, our successes and our failures! As we try to build our place in the country,  produce some food and raise some animals. I doubt we will ever get to be self sufficient but we will be able to reduce our footprint and produce some nice fruit and veggies!