weekend in pictures

I've been having a play with my new camera lens - this one - which is a huge a proper photographers one, and the photos are amazing.  Here's our weekend in pictures, the first ones using my new lens. 

 

1. My favourite old shed, built right on the water.  I would love to live here.  It's like a giant houseboat.

2. Messy spring garden with lots of flowers, and a naughty chook that escaped from the pen.

3.  It's finally warm enough to cook outside and we gave the campfire a good work out. Here are Elsa's vegetarian "sausages" also known as grilled asparagus.  Sadly the other snags at the back cooked a bit too quickly. 

4.  I can't take enough photos of the lovely sage flowers growing by the back door, but this time I managed to capture a bee in flight! 

5. A new mobile phone for the children, they made it themselves and to be honest the coverage is pretty good for around here. 

6. Happy campers huddled around the barbie at Sunday's River's Table Event - the second in the series that was a bit of a wet and wild day but delicious nonetheless.  More photos here 

I hope your weekend was filled with good things too.  

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5 comments bees, chooks, family, friends, garden, good things

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Red and green

Today is another tomato story. The last for the season I should think. This morning, after a quick ride on my gorgeous new Mothers' Day present, we packed a picnic and headed to the coast. Our destination :: the gorgeous blueberry farm where our tomato patch was planted all those months ago. Our mission :: pick all the remaining green tomatoes.  

Despite ambitions dreams, it wasn't a great crop this year, they got off to a slow start, and there wasn't nearly enough tomatoes to preserve. We kept hoping they would ripen, but today we called it, time to call it a day for those tomato plants.  

First though, a delicious picnic that included rooster salad and rhubarb cake, sitting under the vibrant deep red blueberry bushes.  Then we stripped the sad scraggly tomato plants and filled lots of buckets, about 20 kilos was the end tally, if only they were red!  Work finished, we headed to the little beach across the road to enjoy the lingering late autumn sun.

We'll lay those hard green tomatoes out in a warm sunny spot and hope they will continue to ripen, those that don't will make green tomato jam or green tomato pickle. 

Still a little work to do, so I guess it's not really the end of the tomato story at all.

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24 comments chooks, country, friends, good things, tasmania

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In which five roosters had a bad day

It was a lucky escape for the three roosters who chose to sleep high in the wattle tree.  For the other five, asleep on the roost, it was not so lucky.

It was a job we were dreading, but eight roosters in the coop is just too many. Just ask the hens.  Or ask me for that matter, that pre-dawn chorus was getting too much. It was time for them to go.  So once the boys were asleep on Saturday night, we caught five of them and gently put them in a small pen 'til morning.

Early Sunday morning the preparations began.  We made a little camp fire and set a large pot of water to boil, grabbed a trestle table and sharpened some knives.  Then I made a batch of brownies.  Because I think it is necessary to have something sweet to counter the unpleasant task of the day.

Good friends arrived with more experience in these matters, to lend a hand and share their knowledge. And the job of the day got underway. Chopping, dunking, plucking and cleaning.

Once all five roosters were dispatched, cleaned and dressed, it was time for lunch.  We took the hearts, marinated them for a while in olive oil and garlic before cooking them over the last of the fire's coals.   They made such tasty morsels.  The livers were pan fried to make something like this pasta recipe, washed down with a very fine riesling from France. It made a fitting accompaniment to those five young roosters.

Did you know that supermarket chickens are around six to nine weeks old when they're killed?  Our roosters had a much happier and longer life of five months filled with sunshine, pasture and plenty of worms.   And one bad day.

Today is a good day.   We have a freezer full of meat that we reared and processed ourselves.  The hens look happier and can rest easy without being hassled by too many roosters.

What's left of the soft rooster feathers flutter around the garden in the gentle spring winds.  They collect in the corners of the porch, where they're promptly collected by small birds who take them away to build their nests.

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11 comments chooks, cooking, friends, garden, real food, slow

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An Easter surprise...

Look what we found in the garden this weekend, a surprise befitting the Easter Season indeed :: a very proud hen with fifteen little chicks.  FIFTEEN! This sweet little black hen has fancied a large brood ever since she started laying, and twice before we've found her sitting on large clutches of eggs in well hidden parts of the garden. But never before have they hatched.   This time she did it, cleverly laying her eggs in an unused compost bin, topped up with a few donated eggs from the other hens it seems.   She looks so very proud of herself, and rightly so. Clever girl, but really, fifteen. 

Wishing you and your family a safe and happy Easter xx
Peep! Peep!

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19 comments chooks, cute, seasons

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Hello!

Look who arrived this morning along with four little siblings!  We are very excited!

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21 comments chooks, cute

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Social network peeps

 In the four years since we've had chooks, we've never managed to hatch any chicks.  Those hens have just never been broody, at least whilst there's a rooster around.  So when a friend put out the call on Facebook that he had some chicks to give away, we took three. Two black Hamburg/Frizzle crosses and a yellow fluffy something or rather.  They are so cute, the black ones especially with their white fluffy bottoms and the children adore them. Although Spoon is taking an unhealthy interest in them too.  The chicks will live in the kitchen under a heat lamp until they're old enough to go outside. About five weeks apparently. Although on sunny days they enjoy some sunshine on the lawn in a covered, hawk proof enclosure.

That takes the current total thirteen chooks living with us.  Of course, wouldn't you know it, this week two of the big hens have gone broody with both of them sitting on a clutch of fertile eggs.  Hmmm, we may be up for a few more chicks before this spring is through.  

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9 comments chooks, cute, friends

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Chook palace

 It's all but nearly finished, this new chook palace of ours.  Taking a week to complete over a few drizzly days, it just needs a little more chicken wire and we are there.

Hugo and I made it all cosy with fresh straw and the girls have moved in already.

I'm so pleased we managed to recycle so much of the building materials for this shed, tin from a friend's roof that was recently replaced, timber from the stash, an old screen door from our former laundry, and my favourite, a nesting box made from solid timber kitchen cupboards that was found at the tip, for free.

As the girls are settling in nicely, scratching through the new straw, my next move is to organise some medicinal plants to grow around the edges for the chooks to peck. Armed with a copy of my chook bible, I've ordered wormwood, scarlet nasturtiums, tansy, comfrey and some barley through Diggers.  No hardship there - I love shopping for seeds and plants.

I also plan to give the whole house a lick of lime wash, the real stuff, made from a bag of builders lime and water, which should not only keep parasites at bay, but provide a real Mediterranean feel!

All we need now is the girls to lay some eggs, but I think we'll be waiting for their moulting to finish before they start to lay again.  In the meantime, a pair of wooden eggs sits in the nesting box, to hopefully inspire that urge to return.

Actually the girls are getting older, so I'm hoping to pick up some young new girls this weekend and our old girls can retire in style.  In their white washed Mediterranean villa.

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16 comments chooks, garden, thrifty

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Harvest Festival

Today is the Harvest Festival at Elsa's school.  Because we can't get there, we thought we'd have a harvest festival of our own in the garden.  We've been picking apples from the trees we planted four years ago, mostly giant bramleys and my favourite cox's orange pippin.  Such a delicious apple ::  a perfect balance of sweet and tart.  I think I need to plant another tree so we can have plenty more to eat. 

With only a few big bramelys, there will be enough for apple pie for dinner tonight. Bolstered perhaps with a few juicy blackberries that grow wild in the corners of the garden, which we naughtily neglect to control. Much to the neighbours disapproval I'm sure.  

In another corner of the garden, there sits an unruly collection of found, recycled, scavenged and reused timber, pallets, wires, kitchen cupboards and a wire door for the new chook house our friend Pete is building.  With a big new chook palace, I'll be off to the poultry fanciers sale in April to find some new girls to enhance our flock.  

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7 comments chooks, garden

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A shift in focus

It sounds pretty lame to admit defeat by a power point. But that's the sorry truth. Everything was going to perfectly to plan in the kitchen makeover stakes. And if I hadn't been so smug, I would have been prepared for hiccups.

You see, we had the sparkie take care of all things electrical so we could proceed without risk of electrocution. But on pulling out the remaining kitchen unit we found a forgotten powerpoint. Not on the wall but on the back cabinetry. That we're trying to pull out. Until that's gone we can't finish the tiling and install the sink.

And trying to get a sparkie out for one power point is nigh on impossible. So I've hit the wall, so to speak. Most renovators will grit their teeth and get on with it. But I dear reader, have lost my enthusiasm and can't see the finish line. So while my new kitchen sink languishes in transport somewhere, I've naturally turned my attention outside. It is spring after all.

chooks enjoying their last forage

We've had a fencing expert come and build a fancy new fence around my vegetable garden. I'm very excited. It's not possum proof. But once the gate is in, it will be rabbit, chicken and most importantly, Mabel proof. I'm sorry to say that it's my very own pets, the dog and the chooks that do the most damage to the garden. Mabel in particular loves to rip small fruit trees out entirely and carry them off for a good chew. A sign of bored dog perhaps? She buries bones in the beds or just gives them a good dig. Well, not any more my little fury friend.

Although this space looks a bit barren, it is early spring. Come summer this space will be lush and green with hopefully some fruit. There are raspberry canes, eleven apple trees, one quince, one cherry and one myer lemon. I have one bed growing garlic, one growing asparagus and one with rhubarb. The remaining three I've plans for cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes this summer.

Curiously enough by fencing in the garden, I now have more space and will be able start new beds around the perimeter and will plant flowers to attract bug eating insects. I'm thinking lavender, cosmos, zinnias, hollyhocks and of course sunflowers to name a few.

To me, this is so much more exciting to be out here in the gorgeous spring weather, dreaming, weeding and digging. And forgetting all about that cursed bloody powerpoint. For now.

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3 comments chooks, garden, home, mabel, renovation

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My new guy

Our handsome new Leghorn. Adopted from Brightside. He's a real gentleman but the girls aren't quite sure yet.

We can't settle on a name though. Bruce, Roger, Rooser, Snowy, Cocky. Any suggestions?

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19 comments chooks

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Precious

It's been a long time between eggs. Our girls went off the lay pretty much as soon as little Mabel arrived. And true to her hound instincts, she runs those dear girls ragged.

So we were very excited to see an egg this week. A precious find in the nesting box. Chooks do go off the lay in winter, but as soon as the days begin to lengthen they start up again. It amazes me how hens can know that we're past the mid winter turning point. That the sun is on it's way back.

So that's how cooked it. Sunny side up.

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8 comments chooks, seasons

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An eggspedition

It wasn't the first time the neighbour has telephoned to say there's chicken eggs in her hay shed. In fact, it's becoming an all too regular event. My girls sneaking over the fence to the dry, cosy expanse of the hay shed. To be honest, with all this rain, the conditions we provide are becoming a little damp, so I can hardly blame them for looking for a more comfortable laying spot. I'm just grateful to have such lovely neighbours who don't mind telephoning to let me know of the treasures left in the shed.

So Hugo and I set off down the lane today, climbing the locked gate into the shed to collect thirteen eggs. And we couldn't resist carefully splashing in a few puddles on the way home.

The funny thing is, I'm not really sure who is laying these eggs. As we're collecting at least four eggs a day, and I only have five hens. I've tested the eggs and they're fresh.

It's very peculiar. In fact, it's eggsstrawdinary.

Okay, I've finished with the puns. I know they're not eggsactly funny.

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9 comments chooks

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Eye spy - something beautiful in my garden

What a great theme for Cindy's game this week from Beyond Pink and Blue.  There are so many lovely things in the garden right now, but I can't go past my girls. I think chooks really make any garden beautiful.  Remember Jasmine and Mary Jane? Haven't they grown into gorgeous hens?  

And speaking of growing up, here are the other babes, who make their second appearance in Eye Spy.  Poulette and Polly.  Ten week old frizzles, aren't they darling?  

Oh dear, you will let me know if  I'm turning into a crazy old chook lady won't you?

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3 comments chooks, cute, eye spy, game

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