Beautiful spring days!

I'm determined to get my vegetable patch up and running this year, after our house burnt down a lot of things have been neglected and the veggie patch has been one of them. We just had 70mm of rain and the ground is just right to turn it over and remove the thick grass and roots from the ground. My lovely hubby has erected a fence and gate for me to keep the dogs and goats out.

 

The rain has made my work a lot easier pulling these grass roots out. My leeks are still going strong, I usually cut my leeks just below the ground so that they will reproduce next season.

 

These are my raised beds, I still have a lot of work ahead of me to get them ready for planting. My hubby said he'll make a couple of trellises for my beans and other vines. I'm going to try and grow everything possible because I'm wanting to have enough to feed ourselves, children and grandchildren as well as bottling, preserving and maybe sell, barter and give to others in need. We have been having beautiful springs days and they have been getting longer, daylight savings is just around the corner.

 

The paddocks are alive with babies!

The paddocks are alive with babies, at the moment all my goats have kidded except one which gives me 16 kids. The sheep have done pretty well also but I will have to wait till I get them all in for shearing before I can do a tally.

 

I was so excited when this little black beauty was born, the father was a British Alpine. With having all white Saanens it was a nice change.

 

 We just had 70mm of rain after nearly 30 dry days it was a breath of fresh air and the paddocks are starting to show the green. I had to start thinking seriously about my herd of goats, I've decided to give away two of my wethers which I have  had from the beginning but I know they are going to a good home. At present I have 17 goats and 14 kids plus that sheep below which has been with the angoras since it was a week old.

I have sold one of the angoras and started advertising the little wethers. I am now milking six goats and the milk I pasteurize and feed to the babies so life is a little hectic. With having so many goats one of the problems we are having is a few of them are jumping fences and getting out, you'd think with 88 acres to roam they would be happy but no apparently the grass outside the front gate is the best. So now we are setting up electric fencing.

Oh what a pampering!

Well its that time of year again, another year wiser but oh boy do I feel pampered. My darling children gave me a day of pampering which included eyelash tints, eyebrow wax & tinted, massaged, facial, pedicure, manicure and a cut & colour it was sure a day to remember.

 

On the Farm

I love these frosty early mornings when I get up to feed the animals they all give me their own little personal greeting noises. Our little hobby farm has grown, to date we have 37 sheep, 2 horses, 16 goats, 4 cows,2 rosters, 6 chickens, 2 cats and 4 dogs and with spring around the corner we are going to have baby fever.

 

 

 

Last season wasn't very productive in the veggie patch well it really hasn't been since the house burnt down but with the family rapidly growing and with friends and family coming up to stay for days on end I need it to be booming.                                  

Hubby cut up the old water tanks from the house for me and I've filled them with compost, manures and mulch from the paddocks. If you look to the far left in the picture that metal frame is going to be my green house, I'm thinking big here now I want this garden to give me the variety, quantity, quality and more. I'm not very experienced at gardening so I'm searching the net and reading up as much as I can to make this happen.

More lovely rain!

Another day of rain and cold winds but we all achieved something during the day, I fed and check all the livestock and pulled down the wire on the old chicken pen so the little goats had another place to shelter in out of the rain. My son in-law to be went and did some fencing for me, I have sheep that have been getting out and into my neighbours property as well as feral pigs coming through so that fence needed fixing. The feral pigs have been making a mess in my paddocks and they have been getting closer and closer to the house. I've chatted with my neighbour a few times about the pigs as they have been on his property as well, he said he we will put out a large trap with some sweet corn and try and catch some.

My daughter was in a cooking mood and made bread and cooked  corned beef for dinner. My hubby spent most of the day in bed as he has been sick but spent a few hours sanding back gyprock in the new lounge room him and son in-law have been building.

For mothers day my hubby and family gave me some great books, today I was reading "The good life" by Sarah O'Neil if you haven't heard of it, google it, it is a great read. I've taken in some great ideas and inspiration one being a herb tea garden I don't know about you but I could taste those fragrant teas in my mouth already. I'll have to take photos of my raised beds tomorrow for my blog but I think I'll make one of those beds just for the tea pot.

The blessing of of rain and cuddles

 

At long last we've had a day of rainfall and we could see some more tomorrow. As I was feeding the animals this morning I notice my young filly wasn't coming upto the yard, something was holding her back, as I looked down to her legs I notice some wire was wrapped around her back leg preventing her from walking forward. I had to get my hubby out of bed because this was going to be a two man event. Bella is young and unfortunately hasn't had a lot of handling with her back legs but I was so surprised she was fairly calm. I held her and my hubby (at the other end)cut the wire off her leg, what a way to start the morning off.

 

 

Before the rain set in I was able to attend to some of my vegetable beds, I've been bagging up the manures from my paddocks in preparation of my beds for spring. It's funny how the small things can make you so happy  I looking at these bags of manure as it was gold :) I also had time to plant up some herbs and veggies.

 

As the rain started to get heavier I decided to head in for lunch, I think hot soup was called for such a cold wet day. I love setting up my laptop in the kitchen and look for recipes on the web for the ingredients I'm wanting to use, today it was going to be leek and tomato soup, yummy!

 

 

My gorgeous little granddaughter is now 7weeks old, it is such a joy to have my daughter and her family living with us at the moment to have cuddles and playtime with a 7week old and a 2year old is a blessing for any grandma.

 

 

Happy Mothers Day!

 



Happy Mothers Day to all you mums out there I hope you were treated as special as you all are. Its not easy being a mum, I think we make lots of sacrifices and give more than we receive but I think we wouldn't change it any other way. Below is my favourite recipe for Cinnamon Rolls, I made these as a special treat for myself and my daughter as well as every other person here today. This recipe is really easy and taste soooooo good but be careful not to over indulge.

 

 

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough
1 cup warm milk                                2 eggs                                  3 teaspoon dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar                                     4oz cups plain flour
1/2 cup melted butter                        1 teaspoon salt

Filling
1 cup brown sugar                2 1/2  teaspoon cinnamon                1/3 cup softened butter

Icing
8 tablespoons softened butter            1 1/2 cups icing sugar                vanilla essence

Dough- mix all ingredients together until smooth ball is formed. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down and roll until 1/2 inch thick
Filling- beat butter until creamy, add brown sugar and cinnamon. Spread over dough and roll up length wise. Cut into 1 inch slices and place onto a tray and cover with a towel for ab out 1 hour until risen.
Bake- in 190 degree oven for 10-15 mins until golden brown and ice while hot

A farming life is for me!

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Dozer the new addition to our animal family, he is about 10 weeks old now and growing inches every day. Dozer was the only surviving pup in a litter of nine, he is a pure Boarder Collie. He has been by my side everyday even when I have to go to town, I'm hoping he will be a good working dog and help me on the farm.

I've had a career change, I no longer work in retail but at home as a farmer. Since paying off our mortgage life has taken a different direction. I have more time to enjoy life and do the things I have always wanted to do. I enjoy the life style and being self sufficient has always been my dream and hopefully eventually our farm will offer farm stays for those who are like minded. I currently have 36 sheep some in lamb, 11 goats, 3 of them I am currently milking and hopefully 6 of them are in kid, as well as 5 young goats about 8mths old, three Dexter cows that are hopefully in calf and one calf as well as chickens and then the usual 2 cats and 4 dogs.

Life for me is still busy but a different kind of busy, I have my daughter, her partner and two grandchildren living with us in the cottage while we are still building our new house. Milking goats and making cheese and eventually making goats soap is a nice kind of busy for me, these are the things that  I really enjoy and hopefully down the track make money for me so that I can continue to improve the farm.

New Grandbabies!

Two new grandbabies to the family, Fraser born 17th of February and Savannah born 11th April. Life has been busy at our little homestead and so much has happen since my last post, I'm looking forward to blogging again.

Fifty & Fabulous!

The start of every year you like to start fresh and organized but you loose your memento, well this year I need to be organized so it is going to be my mission. There will be five of us and one more on the way in April. With living in each others pockets we will have to have house rules, weekly menus, schedules, rosters and so much more. My mission is huge the only thing that might put a spanner in the works is that I'm starting menopause! but I am a very patient person, considerate, kind, compassionate, forgiving, understanding, a good listener and I always forgive so it should be fine, fingers cross.   

 

This was the bathroom which had a shower, toilet and laundry tub and was attached to the kitchen. When our house burnt down we were given three demountable which we joined together live in and the kitchen one was also the bathroom. We added two bedrooms, a new bathroom and a hall way plus laundry. So we are now pulling out the old bathroom to make the kitchen larger.

 

 

 

Just outside my kitchen window is the sheep and goat yards and occasionally the horse yard.

 

For my starting fresh for the year I finally redeemed my gift voucher I received for my birthday at Bella Spa. I had a remedial massage, deep sea mineral facial, a deluxe pedicure and my eyebrows wax and tinted, talk about being 50 and fabulous, bring on 2013 :)

Too hot to handle!

It is soooo! hot here at the moment and tomorrow is going to be another 40 degrees day. I'm not a summer person I rather like Autumn or Spring.

Goodbye 2012 and Hello 2013

Good bye 2012 and Hello 2013, these are some pictures of the last 12 to 18mths of my life. Today we decided to rearrange the kitchen in our little cottage to make more bench space and food storage, with one of my daughters coming back home along with her partner and my grandson life is going to be very cosy until we finish building our new house. Did I mention both of my daughters are expecting, one in February and the other in April, this will make me grandma to six beautiful grandchildren. I will post pics of our small kitchen renovation tomorrow.