Garden Update ...

Any bees would love to pollinate these beautiful pumpkin flowers. These two golden nuggets hiding behind the flowers.



Stuffed zucinnis tomorrow and cherry tomatoes for our salad tonight. We having a ltlle trouble with a little fly szapping the roma tomatoes, so I did it "Tomatoe Dust" I don't like poisons and try not use any if possible. It's not that my garden is totally organic but I do try.



These are Lebanese Zucchinis, last year I grew a few monsters which we cut in half lenghwise and stuffed with mince and cheese and baked in the oven. It's just about a meal by itself. very yummy. I gave 3 to our landlord and I got 4 for tomorrow. And there's heaps more to pick.



another squash



Gem Squash Des you do have green fingers, this I took specially to show you, the seeds are still good. I going to save these seeds for next year. Hope there is going to be heaps of them, then I post you a gemmie too.



Cucumbers They doing great too, I will have to make some pickles with them.



And look at those heads of Sweet corn, Mate they just starting to fill out, soon we be eating fresh corn with butter. Nothing like fresh corn Mate.

Mining Disaster in NZ ...

The church bells rang 29 times so we knew it was final and the end of the line. Now 29 miners are at heavens gate with coal silt dirty faces asking is it 2 late? When god replies with half a grin no my children come on in. They place their mining lights gently on heavens floor when ......god said "job well done" leave ......your boots at the door. Repost in memory of the 29 miners that died at Pike River Mine.


My candle is lighted, my heart heavy. We held such great hope for recovery and now, we pray for the souls and the families of the 29 miners lost forever, may they rest in peace and the families find strength. God bless you all.

Meat Chookies ...

I finally did it got myself 24 little yellow meat chooks, the man at the hatchery gave me an extra 4 for good luck. They are chirping happily inside a big wooden crate with saw dust on the floor, a water dispenser hanging just out of reach to stop them making to much of a mess with the saw dust. A flower pot saucer and a little clip on food holder full of chick starter. They having a great time doing what little chookies normally do.



This is my first time raising meat chooks, thats not counting my other chooks where mum chooks do all the work for me. But then I still think babies raised by their mums are way more social chooks. The hens are starting to lay eggs again and soon I can start selling eggs again, dropped the price to $3.50 and have one regular customer.



More later
Rina

The Russian's have landed (spam) and the Pink Panther on the prowl.

Ok let me explain, I been blog hopping and noticed there are a few 'Russian' Men signing in as followers, they never comment as far as I know, but what the hell do they want. You got 3 Krissy go look! see them ... I have had 5 over the last few months and everytime there's a new follower I go check out who they are and if I don't like what I see then I just block them. Am I being nasty or just over sensitive, it's my life I sharing with you, and trust me it is very ordinary and sometimes rather boring. .

In no3's case He seems to follow single women and no theme, what is he interested in, has'ent even got a blogNow I do have a crazy idea just maybe he is a stalker after your money or your body or maybe he is a journalist/writer stealing our pics and articles for publication in Russia or where ever. So what ya think ...it late and I better be getting to bed night and see ya soon
Rina

Weekend ....

Saturday, we had lunch at the Salty Dog at Coolongolook, a small villiage on the Princess Highway, normally we just drive straight past eager to reach our destination. It does't look like much from the street front but go around the back and you would be pleasantly supprised. Do you do it too, check out what other people have ordered as the waiter walks past. Theirs looked better than what you ordered, we had fish and chip yummy.


Loved the way the sunlight came through the coloured glass.


Rusty tricycle againt the corrogated fence


Rusty corrogate ducks hang above the fire place.



View from the back garden. On the left is the wood recycle furniture shop. here's a quick peep ...

From there we travel down the highway to, here you can hire boat houses and cruise the river for the weekend. Would love to do just that and cast a line over the edge maybe caught some dinner...


I love this pic Don't you think it would make a great zigsaw puzzle. Did you spot the water dragon?



Well that's it for yesterday and now just a quick pic of our delicious Bunny Chows we had for lunch. Thanks Nick and Adele nice to catch up again.


Amy asked what's inside the hollowed out bread, it's a beef curry. Prefer a boneless indian curry with lots of gravy and a little sambals on the side. We had grated carrot,diced tomatoes,onion cut up red chillies with a little vinegar and oil as a dressing. It is just a little hard to buy unsliced bread here so you have to go to the bread shops for a whole loaf. or you could use hard crust rolls and hollow them out. But most of you bake your own bread so it not a problem for you.

Our last lamb born for this year ... and update

And it a boy, Well done Miss lashes and Nelson He a big boy with all the right markings except for the light colour behind the ears. He must have been born after 5 this morning that's when I checked on them. The blond one would have feed them at about 9 am and that's when she called to tell me the good news. Now we need to name him and I going to ask you all for some strong boys names, you wanna play with .... leave a comment with a name and why you chose that name.



This weekend is going to be rather busy, tomorrow Nelson heads off to his new home. We will load him early and drive to Moorland where Terry the juiceman and his ewes will be waiting. I'll take a pic of his girls then you can see what I mean by a real good gened flock of sheep.(Done) I am hoping for 2 ewes in exchange for Nelson for either Rowan or the new ram. Think Rowan is better quality and has nicer marking. It's really to soon to tell. That is going to take the whole day tomorrow. Terry has some cavendish banana suckers for me as promised.



Update: The move went rather well. Nelson announched his arrival with a big Bhur and the girls responded, his top lip lifted to smell them from afar. But first he had to deal with that bunch of wethers that think they king of this mountain. Thats them in the pic above. He was challenge by the biggest wether and did not backdown one bit, just kept coming like a steam train. They circled a few time before the wether change into reverse gear. Well done Nelson, just don't think it's over yet. Nelson then went to meet his ladies .......

And Sonday we invited for a bunny chow lunch. That's an South African Indian meal. Let me tell you it is just the nicest lunch and our host Nick really makes a nice hot curry, served in a 1/4 loaf of bread. A whole piece per serve, filled with curry and tomato and onion sambals on the side, the hollowed out bit of bread is for dunking in the gravy, Yummmmy. Suppose I need to bake them a Banana loaf or something to take with.

I so want to get some Christmas craft done this next week, been stalking all the craft blogs lately and now I got the craft bug again. Seeing I am going to have a little time on my hands for a while. Won't go into it at this stage but promise to tell you all in another post. No I wish I had won the Lotto!
I plan on making a few fabric snow men and finishing some UFO's Oh and something for a give away.


I meet Nick on the internet before he arrived in Australia and offered him accommodation for a few weeks before his wife and two kiddies followed him here. Just a roof and a meal and now we good friends. You can read all about it at my other blog Pay it Forward post. That reminds me Wendy is still waiting for her suprise gift, sorry I total forgot, Please let me have your new addy in Melbourne.
Have a great weekend
Rina

A lots going on in the garden ...

Some purple Basil, it's so pretty
Baby chilli plants are coming up by the dozen from seed I scattered in a container, they need to be potted up into smaller containers. Clean forgot about the cucumbers,parsley, dill, mexican garlic, spinash, carrots, beetroot and strawberries just to mention a few. The climbing beans have just popped their heads out of the soil so nexttime I take a pic of them and the rasberry cane I planted last year.

Lots and lots of cherry tomatoes for our salad, and they so sweet yum.


These are Roma tomatoes, they the size of a large egg and great for making sauces.


A healthy crop of beafsteak tomatoes. I am sure chaffed about the tomatoes, never had a crop bear so well. It hailed the night before so I got belted and very wet covering the patch with shade cloth saving these babies.


Could have planted more sweet corn but it's not to late for another round I think.


White button squash


Queensland Blue?


Sure hope this is a gem squash!!!


Think this could be a golden nugget?


Des planted a varity of pumpkin/squash/gems seeds so it really a guessing game at this stage. I worked some extra mushroom compost and some spent hay, into which I sowed some sunflower seeds and Milo. Have you seen milo seeds before, yes you have it in your chook food little round orange seeds the size of a coloured pin head. Anyway it grows about 3 foot high, looks like a bunch of corn plants together but with skinny leaves. Dried out you only need to run your hands over the seeds to harvest them.

RIP ....

It's not easy being a wannabe farmer, sometimes you do things because there really is no other way out. I told you about the ewe with the prolapsed uterus and her Box coming out making even peeing difficult, 2 weeks ago it was out badly and I thought she was going into labour, it kept coming out and then retracting, Sonday it looked really bad and I gave the vet a call who suggested olive oil and push it back in, bring her in. I made the decision not to spend Huge dollars on her as she was not young anymore and the lamb would have been for the plate cause it would have been a mixed breed. Before work (4.30am) I was out checking on the sheep as usual, and got George to hold her so I could push it back in again. Tom from nextdoor, has 500 sheep on his farm and another 50 here, came over to give us a hand, he stitched her up but then I asked the question what he would do if it was his, and really I knew the answer before he could answer me, so we decided he was going to shot her, cause he thought the unborn lamb was dead and there really was no way she could deliver it anyway. I had been expecting to find her dead everytime I checked on them.
Our Landlord dug the hole with his backhoe and it was over ......

Sheep news ...

The time has come for our suffolk ram Nelson to move on to greener pastures where there is some lovely ladies (ewes) waiting for his special attention hmm services. His very own harem, something men can only dream off, esp been feed one grape at a time. They waiting under the orange trees just for him. Their old man belly upped it a little while ago, leaving them without a man in charge. It's the Moorland Juice man Terry he'll have to answer to if those girls don't have nice fat babies next year. OK enough bad talk for one day Lol.



The big move is happening on saturday, Nelson 's been sheared and drenched, he's ready. Now we just have to get him into the trailer, all 120 kgs of him, (I haven't weighed him just guessing)thats going to be a mission! I only have two ewes for him and I will just have to take them there when it's needed.Our other ewes are all his daughters or the feral looking ram from nextdoor, so I might be on the look out for another nice ram for them. Rowan will still be too young, not that I want to use him, he will be swapped for another ram or some young ewes. Time will tell ...



Another little ewe was born on Saturday and guess who's the father ... not happy. The ewe with the prolasped uterus must have had a premature labour a few weeks ago, it happened again this weekend, it's weird like a small soccer ball coming out. This time I felt it, just like soft leather, and smeared olive oil all over it and pushed it back in again, as the vet advised. She had the biggest piddle after that. The opening needs to open up before she's ready to give birth. (Her udder is huge.)

Miss Lashes is still to give birth and like last year she is big, her udder is so big ... just maybe we could have twins. The above pic was taken 2 weeks ago just after the shearer was here. Not her best side sorry.

All news from the happy sheep farmer
Until I got more news and some pics it good night
Rina

We late as usual ...

Today is the day Tanya finally got her Girls Night Out ... so I thought as we get things ready I snap a few pics to share with you. Tanya is a fulltime Zumba instructor and runs 11 x 1hr classes a week (stand corrected on that one) what a work out! Even 2 classes for the little ones and 9/13 yr olds. Did you know there is a aqua zumba class ... now thats for the low impact ladies like me with bad knees and feet.
Anyway Here is the bunting I made, can't wait to hang it up.

Anyway we had less than an hr to set things up before the first girls arrived, so it had to be already to go straight on the tables.


It looks all right what ya think!


That stand was black this morning and a quick spray job added to some pink china plates see my little disco balls ... for some extra sparkle. Cup cakes needed just a little more decorating very yummy though.


Lights dimmed a little and the parties on the way. I love to show you more pics but don't want to infade the guest privacy ... sure they would not have minded but still. and yeah it rained so some girls did not show! Everybody had fun learning the art of strip tease, just bowers(no clothes were taken off) Money goes to Breast Cancer Research.

Until next time
Rina

Look what we got here ...

Mum Ginger been sitting on 1 egg for the last few weeks and finally it hatched. Yesterday she brought it out to meet the rest of the housemates.


The silkies did not seem to mind the chick, but I thought it better to move them to the rabbit hutch, Ginger was a little upset and tried to peck me in defence.



They are now settled in nicely into their new home. Ginger is a buff frizzle, the size of a pigeon. Chick will be a frizzle cross silky.


Must be something interesting to eat there! Very cute.

Get the floaties out ... it's raining

The weather man was a little out with his timing, we only had 6 drops of rain fall late Sundag afternoon. I had just finished putting the mushroom compost down and worked it into the soil with the garden fork, around the pumpkins and got the hose out to water them. Des planted the pumpkin seeds so I am not to sure what varity will do best. Lets hope the gem squashes and Queensland Blue bear well ... need to save some seeds.


Romeo Alias Smelly moved in after his owner decided it was just to much trouble to clean his litter tray and give him attention. He choose to belong to the Blond One (Tanya), when her friend bought him she warned her about the responsibilities of owning a cat but he was so cute and was a trophy that soon wore off. Last year he came so close to dying when a snake bite him but got a mouth of furr, he licked himself clean and got the poison in that way. It was touch and go for a week esp. Smelly does look a little grumpy but he is so loveable.

Atm it bucketing down, little dams of water everywhere, making driving a nightmare. The chain of ponds from up the road, through everyones properties are over flowing and the grass is so lush. George is a little annoyed that we did not mow the lawn yesterday cause it is a little long some places, now it will have to stay that way till after the next weekend. LOT OF RAIN FORCAST Our main concern is snakes really don't want to have a repeat performance of last year when we nearly lost Smelly. Jellybeans is a hunter brings home baby wild bunnies and birds of all kind and lizards ... she is the only cat of the six that hunts. She bought a present into the house and promptly killed the bunny under Tanya's bed, someone was not happy.

The trailer is loaded with wooden rails for the fence and the steel trunks/toolboxes which I thought would be great for storing stuff like feed cause mice won't be able to get into it. We really need to do a little spring cleaning in the carport. I want to load the spare washing machine as well and take that up. We leave Friday morning early even if it snows!!!!

It's late and bed time for me, so it's Good night to you all
Rina