Everything is on HOLD but the chickens!

The work shop is at a stand still at the moment, the guys have been busy working at the Church
and now with day-light savings finishing there is no night work. I love it when work is going on in the shed and lovely pieces of furniture are been made plus the smell of all the different timbers and stains, it is wonderful.

This lovely chest of drawers just needs a few finishing touches then it is on its way. I think it will be another 6 weeks before full time production starts up again in our little shed, I really hope so!

With being away on and off for most of the year my chickens have been roaming free and producing babies, if you look closer there are two little ones being protected by these mums. I couldn't tell you off hand how many chickens I have at the moment (isn't that terrible) but they are all happy. One thing I do know is that I have 3 too many roosters and the time is drawing nearly near to deal with this matter :(

My roosters are lovely but two are already starting to have biffs. The one on the right is the big daddy and he has a son that is much like him in colour, the other two on the left are his also.

My Camellia tree is flowering and looking beautiful near our front door, I didn't want to show you a picture of the front door because the whole house is under construction and it is looking a mess. Is there anybody else out there who is doing renovations and feeling a little frustrated, I need a little pep talk!

My Pantry

Don't be horrified by this chaos, I do intend to get in there to clean and sort my pantry and it is on my To-Do List. With such a big pantry I still seem to fill it up, the box on the floor contains my empty preserving jars. I do have a system but it needs re-organizing as things have gotten a little out of hand. After last harvest season I was looking for more space for my jars of jams, pickles and preserves etc. My stockpile is very low at the moment so I need to clean it out and restock. I was hoping to start making more whole grain breads because I usually just make white and I think it is about time my family started eating more grains. I also like to start using more pulses and more herbs and spices, the family have been playing it safe but I think it is about time I introduce a bit more substances and flavour.

These are the pantry doors Dave made for me, they have mesh on the inserts and a rubber seal to prevent any crawlies or moths from getting in.

This is how they looked closed, we still have to put on the architrave and skirting plus handles.

I am really happy with the look! In the picture you can see that we haven't painted yet that is because we still haven't finished gyprocking, but in time it will all come together and look fantastic.

The little brown hen standing behind the rooster is the one we were given by one of Jess's friends. She seems to be settling in ok, I was going to let her gradually get to know the other hens to make sure she fitted in but because I wasn't home at the time Dave just put her straight in with the rest of them and hoped for the best, thank goodness they are all getting along.

How far can you stretch yourself!

I had a chaotic morning on the farm today but things have been sorted and I have a mental list in my head on what I have to do. The problem is I have many other things on my To Do List and the more I am stretching myself the more I am getting frazzled.

I need to get myself back in order and start prioritized things. This morning as I was doing my chores I went and checked on the sheep because on Saturday I organized the sheep to be sheared, they were way over due and the fly season had started and we already had one sheep down with fly strike. After they had been shawn we left them in the yard for a day and a neighbour found some of our sheep in his paddock so we penned them and this morning one of the ewes who had not long had twins had her foot well and truly stuck in a wire grate and was dragging this grate around. I went and got Dave and we pinned her down to try and free her foot which was now bleeding and she was in considerable pain but we eventually got her foot out by cutting through the grate. Over in the chicken pen there was something going on, I went over there and notice one of the eggs had hatched. The hens were confined to there pen because we had to use part of there fencing for the sheep yard and plus there was a new hen in there which Dave bought home on the weekend because for some strange reason one of Jess's friends in town had it running around his house and he didn't know how it got there, so with this strange hen in the confine pen there was a lot of chasing and pecking going on. We re-erected there extended yard and made a closure for the hen, chick and the rest of the eggs. After all this drama and the occasional dog getting out and the rooster chasing the cat all seemed to settle down. We cleaned up the sheep yard so they couldn't get up to anymore dangerous situations and filled up water troughs and now I think I will clean out a few other areas that have been neglected and the feed shed as well as the chook yard and not to mention the veggie patch.

Well now that I have gotten all this off my chest I plan to get up earlier now that it is getting a bit warmer and get stuck into the yard and animal duties. There is one issue still not sorted and that is the dog that I rescued from being road kill last week, she is still at the pound and has to about Wednesday to find a home or she will be put down. I have told the ranger that I will consider keeping her but with five dogs and at the moment I have two little ones trying to sort there pecking order out, things are a little difficult.

Chook! Chook! Chook!

This is Abbey, she loves to watch the chooks especially the rooster. They have this game of staring each other down and waiting to see who moves first. My chook pen must have been built about thirty years ago and is just hanging in there, as you can see I have put a wire shelf across the door frame so little watchers can't get their paws in there.
They have been good chooks and have been waiting patiently for their new coop, which will hopefully be built this spring. Dave has been going flat out building furniture for customers and the last thing on his mind is a new chicken coop, but! he is yearning for a break so I can see a new chicken coop happening. If he gives me a hand with the uprights I can probably do the rest (maybe)
I don't have names for my chooks like Lisa from Laughing Orca Ranch but after reading her blog I have definitely been thinking about it. I haven't spent a lot of time with them and they sort of look all the same " black " They are presently sitting on eggs... well two of them are sitting in the same box. The rooster is very good looking and he is very friendly. I call him chook chook chook as well and he comes running with the others. When my coop is finish I'll have to get some different breed chooks so to add colour in there hehehehe! You never know I might even give them names.