All the sun we've been having has softened me up, been very cold for the last few days. I wouldn't mind at all if we'd gotten more rain with it but have had very little. At least its slowed the weeds down a bit.
Damn sheep pushed through the vege garden fence and ate all my early peas off, they may recover if I'm lucky. Moved all those guilty into other paddocks, need to put a hot wire around the vege garden to keep out marauders, domestic and wild (we've seen a few wild rabbits in the last couple of days). Love pen clean out days, all that future compost and the look of fresh clean straw for everyone to sleep on or in is great. Put a large shelter in the big pig pen today, they love it. Stuffed it with straw, happy piggies. They were treating the smaller huts like toys and would move them all over the place. Ashcott, our Wessex boar, has his own pen now, everybody was picking on him too much, he just wasn't getting the trough time he needs. He's much happier now, eats his fill and can relax in the sun without being moved on all the time. Mike has created a little parking spot up behind the workshop for the trailers and farm machinery, really helping to tidy the place up. I cleaned up a spot near the little barn to put in another dog kennel, it's really satisfying to clean up an area like that. We are going to have to put some hot wires up so we can graze the cows in spots we can't mow, the grass is going to get out of hand otherwise. Bottle feeding a lamb at the moment, she was born on the 5th and the ewe just never produced any milk. She had a few days with mum so hopefully she got some colostrum. She's doing well now, putting on weight. Luckily I'm milking one of my daughters goats at the moment, so have fresh milk for her. Mike had a look at the new berry plantation today, he counted 6 still without shoots, not too bad out of 60, and they may still shoot in the next few days. The small berry plot in the vege garden is doing amazing things, should really be productive this summer. Strawberries are flowering, both the older beds and the ones I put in this week, will give them a deep straw mulch in a few days, keeps the weeds under control and the soil cool and moist. Time to milk a goat. PZ.
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I can't believe that nine days ago I said there were few weeds in the vege garden, a lot can change in a week! The big centre bed is completely covered, I should take a soil temperature reading, whatever it is it's idea for germination of heaps of our worst annual weeds. I'll rotary hoe this bed in the next week or so, I want to begin the main spring crops on the northern end and plant the southern half with mangelwurzels to see how they go as pig food.
Charlie the horse is looking so much better after the pour on, we're going to have to watch for lice over the winter months every year, easy to fix on the broken horses not so easy on the brood mares and Charlie. Put in two more strawberry beds yesterday and heeled in a hundred or so to be moved into the vineyard when we have it ready. The berries are looking amazing, should get a decent harvest in early summer. Seedlings in the poly house are doing well, mice are still a problem though, Mike set a heap of traps yesterday. All the winter planted vegies are doing well, should start picking lettuces again in a fortnight, the spinach, carrots and peas won't be far behind. PZ. I've been dreading getting some pour-on onto the horses, but it was no where near as difficult or dangerous as I thought it would be. Hope we get good results, Charlie really needs to be rid of those lice, damn things. New poultry pens in the northern paddock thanks to Jess and Chris yesterday, with the pigs and geese that paddock should renovate well.
Good results in the polyhouse, even after the mess the mice made. Lots of tomatoes up and plenty of lettuces, herbs and brassicas, not as many as I was hoping but enough anyway. Weeds are really taking off in the vege garden, I'll need to keep on top of them through all this warm weather. Mike fixed the handle of the new/old plough we bought, works a treat and has minimal impact on my back. Have been very slack in the kitchen, too much nice weather, I really don't want to be inside. I must do some serious freezer cooking and try big batch bread recipes. Doubled my Anzac biscuit recipe with great results, really need to triple it to fill the new oven though, Mike will be pleased. The recipe below is the doubled one, halve everything for a smaller batch. ANZAC BISCUITS (BIG BATCH) 2 Cups rolled oats 1 1/2 cup coconut 2 cups plain flour 3 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda 4 tablespoons boiling water 2 cups sugar (I use raw sugar) 1 cup butter 2 tablespoons golden syrup Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together. Melt butter and golden syrup together. Mix soda with boiling water and add to butter and syrup mix. Add this to dry ingredients, mix well. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture on greased tray. Bake in slow oven 20 minutes, standard oven. (In my commercial fan forced oven I bake at 160 C for 15 minutes, this gives me a well browned slightly chewy biscuit) This mix is quite dry and crumbly, the biscuits will bond together during baking. Enjoy, PZ. |
AuthorPatricia... tinkerer, tailor, survivalist. Archives
February 2014
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