Local Agricutlural Show

Saturday week is the local agricultural show, yesterday Lisa and I spent the day going through what we were going to enter. We ended up planning to enter 25 different classes, including some of the following

Potatoes
Rhubarb
Zucchinis
Novelty Veg
Plum Jam
Lemon Butter(Curd)
Chutney
Scones
Date Scones
Baked Slices
Apple Pie  - the big one! $100 prize money for the best pie
Chocolate Cake
The boys are also doing a few including
Lego
Edible necklaces
Chocolate Crackles
Decorated Eggs

I'll post an update with some photos after the show, hopefully with some prizes!

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.