Ordering more Meat Chickens ...

Well bugger me, it worked. I got orders for chooks, and more egg customers. So it looks like I might be in business. Remember those pretty little yellow chooks I posted about a while ago. Well tomorrow I am placing an order for 40 more. I have orders for 24 dressed birds atm, and am expecting a few extras. Some will fill my freezer and some will be given away to friends (they might place an order for farm fresh chook)

This time I will be raising them in our Winter but it does not snow here so it should not be a major problem. A good sized shed with a concrete floor covered with wood shavings, should keep them warm. A tank with a watering system connected to have running water or more a slow drip system into their water troughs. 3 large plastic feeders to start off with. Although it will get too crowded as they get bigger.

But first they will go into a smaller pen for a week or two. A big thank you to Annie for all her great How to's, I am paying attention!

My Goals for 2011 ...

Yeah a little late I know, but having had to work fulltime the last year and a bit, there just was no time to do it all. Atm I planning what I going to do with myself for the next few months cause the "Boss" has given me early retirement, to do anything I had no time for before. So in a month or less I will be a lady of leisure again.

Do you really believe that, No I will still be working only at home, in the veggie patch, raising meat chooks, selling eggs and the normal home duties. Yep no getting away from that one is there!

So what am I planning to do with all this spare time:
Skills ...
Cheese making
Now it all depends on Miss Daisy and The Billy goat up the road, how much cheese making is going to happen here. But Feta cheese is on my list for sure.

Candle making
Candle making found a good supplier for supplies and still working on the bee lady to get raw beeswax from her. Sure hope It is useable!

Soap making
That's maybe a good skill to get, selling soap at markets. or just for pressies.

And finish a few of those UFO'S in my craft baskets
Watch this space ... I'll be back!

Gardening and baking a little tasty Italian bread ... And a few pics of Miss Daisy

Another fine day here in Sydney, been doing a little gardening this morning. Replanted the leggy red pepper seedling out and gave them a good drink of water. Next tied up the Lebanese cucumbers onto the stakes, found a few baby cucumbers and lots of little yellow flowers and lots of bees to pollinate the flowers. Planted some globe artichokes seeds into a half barrel drum, then I'll pot them on into some pots when they a touch bigger and plant them at the farm in a permanent spot. I remember seeing them at the Hobart Botanical Garden (Pete's patch) they were huge.



Below a little basil with heaps of nice flowers, can you spot the little bee?



Pina, where's my labels?? :-( I know your busy, how was the jam? see ya and have a great day.



Hmmm yummmy Tasty Italian bread, in the bread maker, can you smell it. a few olives chopped, mushroom chopped, a little olive oil and a few sun dried tomatoes chopped and a sprinkle of dried oregano, can't wait.



If it weren't for her ears moving you'd think she's dead. She's a big girl now ready to be mated with the billy up the road.



Daisys having a nap on the lawn.



Mum you startled me!

In the Sick Bay ...

It's not going real well here atm, we got another injured patients The terrible twins Rowan and Sally. My grandsons named them, so we have to stick to that. Comparing the two sheep you can see just how sick Sally is, by looking at her stomach. She looks real thin atm.



Rowan joined his sister cause of this injury, ripped open and hammered into a fence by the landlord's ram. Tanya came to his rescue when she went to check on Sally. While she was trying to drag him to safety, the ram was lining her up, missing her by inches. But if I know her she would have just got mad and would have belted him with a stick. As it is she going to shoot him if Fernando doesn't do something soon. Only she's still recovering from a ruptured appendix so did not need to deal with this sort of thing atm.

Got the call at 12am, rushed home, took one look at Rowan , loaded in and off to Camden's livestock department. It a teaching facility for Vets. We take all our animals there. He got a injection to knock him out a little, and proceeded to shave him and clean the wound, a local anesthetic, lucky no muscle damage, put a drain in and stitched him up. I got to watch and learn few thing, like stitching, putting the drain in and just general tiding up of the wound. Atleast I did not pass out!

I got a wee story to tell ....

Standing at work yesterday, a little bored, i thought of a little something for my other blog. I do that all the time and unless I write it down right there it just comes and goes without putting pen to paper. so pop on over and read The Hitch hiker ... there for a look

See ya all and have a great day
Rina

Complications on the homefront ... Blue Monday ... Update

You'd think it visiting time but no they waiting for their dinner.

Sometimes ya just don't wanna know but then ya have too...
The blond one's had to go back to hospital's emergency department, lucky they did not keep her, only gave her more medication. Her surgeon could only see her on Thursday, so they sent her there. With ruptured appendix there could be complications such as an absese. Otherwise she doing alright.

And our little sick lamb, is still not so well either, she has recovered enough to start eating and drinking. Her little face and neck were still swollen but there was an improvement. I think with the swelling and temperature she has developed another problem, it looks like an absese on either side of her cheeks,one hard scally piece has rubbed off and is now exposed. The shearer recommended an anitseptic pink spray but atleast the angry puss is draining. He's due to stop in sometime today otherwise it's straight to the livestock department at Camden University ... Might take her there anyway.

Atleast work was a good day yesterday and I managed to put in 8hrs. That leave me with 21hr so far for the week, so I have to go in tomorrow. And I wanted to have good hrs this week ... got bills to pay.

UPDATE: Tuesday
Don's been and gone, poor man he was faced with a bad case of flyblown, maybe I better not explain that one to you, you need a very strong stomack for that. He thinks it was an absese that burst open and you don't wanna know .... anyway he removed what skin had to be removed and cleaned it. He gave us some stinky spray to spray on the wound. She'll be going on a cource of antibiotic, sprays and creams until a scab forms and the new skin grows back. It's going to take awhile cause it's about the size of a saucer. She will recover and go on to have lots of babies one day. I really hope we made the right decision but she is a fighter and pulled through with the barbers pole and that says a lot. I did take a few pics but just can't put them on here, sorry.

Have a lovely week
see ya
Rina

More jam making, and a wander around my garden and where to find the best How to's...

A pot of peach jam bubbling away, queen peaches probably the last of the season.



I was hoping for more jam and might have to see if these's anymore left at the veggie shop, cause I sure a few South African friends would love a bottle to taste test. Labels I need labels, My Japanese friend Pina promised to design me some nice ones this afternoon, thanks Pina. Enjoy you Jam.

Just want to let you know the best tuturoial I have found for processing Meat Birds is over at Annie's Blog Tomorrow I have an appointment with 9 chooks and expecting the average weight too be 2,800grams per bird. So wish me luck, it's going to be an early start for sure.

Now for a little walk around my veggie patch "late summer planting"



Planted 8 climbing beans in the half barrels drums, even that is going to be very crowded when they start bearing. There's 3 drums here, and another row with 9 plants which are all starting to flower.



More climbing beans ...and then another large row of climbing beans are just popping their heads out of the ground right now and just behind them I planted some lima beans which are going to be dried out and stored.



A new variety of Vilmorin red capsiums/peppers, first time planting these, tomorrow I want to transplant them and stack them for a little extra support.Hmmm maybe I should have taken the pic before watering them.



Two self seeded red mustard plants, these I am going to look after cause I need to save the seeds. I hunted everywhere for seeds or seedling this year but nobody had any.


A large pot of lemon balm, got to check somethings munching on the leaves.



Last year I scattered a lot of chilli seeds directly into the soil after adding a lot of sheep compost to their old pot, they came up in the thousands and grow like weeds. Later I removed a heap of strong seedlings and worked the soil over and replanted them. Reward was a few strong chilli plants and heaps of long red chillies.

The lebanese cucumbers are ready to be tied up and helped on their way upwards, little yellow flowers are starting to appear, can't wait. The potatoes planted between the row of beans, are starting to pop their heads out of the ground too, with promises of nice fresh potatoes for a winter stew.
That's it from me, have a great weekend
Rina

Bread maker and my first loaf & update

Yesterday I took the day off to watch over the little sick ewe, who is doing heaps better, she up and trying to eat from a tray. I picked up worm farms from council clean ups/side of the road/verge and use the black round colander trays to feed the sheep, great when it rains it just washes away.We still supplementing their feed with lucerne/oaten chaff, stud mix and sheep pellets, cost a fortune but there really is not enough grazing for them. The rains just keep going over Mulgoa, must be something the people of Mulgoa did, and now they getting punished for it lol. Anyway I named her Sally is doing heaps better, even escaped the sheep shed to join her mum (Bella's Mum) under the tree, while I raked out the old bedding and put some fresh hay down. Only I had to catch her by the hind leg and then managed to pick her up and carry her back. The swelling around her little face has gone down a little. And she's drink by herself now.

Anyway after paying the rent I popped in at the Salvo's in Penrith, and picked up a breadmaker for $35.00, cheap as. (Panasonic)complete with booklet. Well yeah you guessed it I needed to try it out asap. and baked a basic white bread this evening.It came out great, and is now cooling under a tea towel, just waiting to be cut into slices for tomorrows lunch.

It past my bed time so goodnight to all, and a wonderful day to everyone else.
see ya soon
rina

Always something on the go ...

We got sick sheep, barbers pole, what alerted me was "the head count"Friday morning doing the feed at 5am in the dark. I always head count at feeding times, and when they coming in from grazing ... only needed to count to 11 ... but there was only 10 so went looking for no 11. One of this seasons twins, an ewe the best one of the season too was down, face as hard as a rock and ears warm to the touch, she managed to get up. All this while George is running the engine, ready to go to work, just waiting for me. Nothing I could do ATM so left her.

First thing at work I called the shearer, who promised to pop in after his full day of appointments. He arrived just as we got back from work at 4.30pm, being Friday it's a short day for us. On the back of his Ute, was his 3 working kelpies dogs, all excited to round the sheep up. He gave the little one less than 40% chance of pulling through she was that bad. That's the problem of feeding in the dark, you don't notice problems until it's nearly to late. Anyway he gave them all a dose and vaccinated them again. (Only just done early January)

This weekend was spent literally nursing the little one, holding a small bowl of water and holding her head up to drink a few sips of water, her face and throat swollen ears hot to the touch, unable to stand. But she's still hanging in there, even managed to stand on wobbly legs yesterday. There was no way she could even eat anything. This morning she a little better. Barbers pole is a parasite/worm that has killed so many sheep this season, including 3 belonging to our landlord in one week.

Saturday evening We went to see "Kings cross after Dark" at the South Sydney Juniors League Club, T's friend now lives in LA in USA, was one of the stars in the show, while she was back home to visit with her parents in Sydney. She returns to LA today.
Dinner was just lovely at one of the restaurants ... Barramandi with greek salad ... show was good too. I scrubbed up not to badly if I must say myself lol.

Then Sunday morning I got back into my work clothes, and promptly started slaughtering and plucking 5 chooks, What a big job still got 9 to go ... and in between everything I kept nursing the little ewe through so far so good, the longer she keeps breathing the better chance she has of making it.

Hope your weekend was way more exciting than mine.