November Update.

Wow, I cannot believe that it's been so long since I posted.  I understand it as not much has happened out in my backyard, or anywhere else for that matter.  There has been nothing to record, I haven't posted because I didn't want anyone to see how slack I have been.   How sad is that!  Like the husband says...get a life, as if anyone cares. haha.

I do know that I have been far too slack and am now paying for it.  I want to start having Green Smoothies on a regular basis.  I think it will be an easy way to get more veg into me when I am too slack busy to cook them but when I was out looking for green stuff to put in them they were in very short supply.  I may have to go and buy some!  I know, how insane would that be.  Not good but all my own fault and I am kicking myself for it but too late now.  All I can do now is buy some seedlings, bung 'em in and wait for them to grow.  At least the gardens are ready for them, that's something.

It is the end if Spring here and at the moment we are in the middle of a storm.  Trees are bending over with the weight of the wind, branches are coming down.  The trampoline looks like it could go again even though we have taken off the broken poles and netting that was destroyed in the last 2 storms.   There is nothing to tie it down too and it is too big for me to turn over so I am hoping it doesn't get destroyed, we have only recently got it so we can use it again.

So, what has been happening?

Bakers Dozen
About 5 weeks ago 2 chooks hatched out 9 chickens and I decided that I didn't want any more so said to the husband that if he wanted to then the big rooster could go.   Well within a week the last 2 roosters were gone.  Not long after that I noticed a chook sitting in a nesting box in the pen where the roosters and some chooks used to be.  I thought she was laying so left her there.  A few days later she was still *laying*.  I pushed her off the nest to see that she had 4 eggs, not hers, and thought I'd better get her out and in with the other chooks.  After all, the roosters were gone so these eggs couldn't be fertile...the sooner the better...weeks later I remembered but something else happened and I forgot again...until one day I heard cheeping and saw her out in the yard with 3 new chickens.  There was 1 egg left on the nest, it was cold but for some reason I picked it up and listened to it.  There was a faint clicking sound.  Bugger, it was still alive, now what.  I wondered if I could put it under a light or in a frypan.  Husband said it was going to die anyway, why not try so I carried it inside, put it in a box while I went looking for a light or frypan, remembered that I had a clucky chook in the main pen so ran inside and got the egg to put under her.  The next day there was a chicken!  I put this new mum and the chicken in the chicken pen where the mum and 3 chicks were but the new mum got up and left the baby and wouldn't go back to it.  So I needed the light afterall.  Then another thought, I picked the chicken up and pushed it towards the mum with the 3, She wasn't keen and walked away.  I herded her back into the small area with hay and she settled with her 3 so I pushed the new 1 towards her.  The poor little thing was cheeping away and eventually made it's way up to and half under the mum of 3.  An hour or so later when I went out to check on them the lone baby was by itself out in the open, cheeping away while the mother and 3 were sitting in the hay.  I picked it up and put it in with the mother again and it made it's way under her.  I checked on them throughout the day and it stayed with them.  A week later and they are all like they hatched together.  So add the 4 to the 9...I have a bakers dozen.


Rats!
These things are an ongoing problem and over the last month we have caught 6 or 7.  We are using humane traps that catch the rat live...trouble then is, what to do with a live rat in a small cage.  I usually tell husband that there is a rat and then go off and mow, or go for a ride or go to work.  I come back and the empty traps are ready to be set up again.  Sometimes I forget to unset the trap before he leaves and I am alone here when I find one.  So, me alone with a live rat in a small cage.  Not good.  So very not good.  They are scared and jump and move and I squeal and cry...'cause what the frig am I supposed to do now.  A few times I have put the cage with rat in a box and taken the flippin' things for a ride and released them up the road.  Husband doesn't like me doing this, says they are vermin and I am putting my responsibility onto someone else. Says they will be going to someone elses place...maybe he is right, I don't know.  There was another one a couple of days ago.  The poor thing was so scared that every time I went near the cage it started running around the small space and we were both really scared of each other.  Eventually I *sucked it up* and took it over the road and let it out.   It will probably be back here real soon.  The traps won't be set up again until the husband is home.

The Gardens.
I haven't much planted ready for Summer eating but am thinking if I can get seedlings bought and in within the next couple of weeks we might be eating OK. 
At the moment we have potato, sweet potato, capsicum, silverbeet, onions, a few carrots.  Oranges, Strawberries.  Pepinos are just about ripe and I had the first apricot this morning.  That was a treat!  There aren't as many on the tree this year and less now after this wind but we will still get enough.
I have planted a few lots of seeds but not many have come up.  Corn has been planted three times now and not one lot has germinated.   I need to get back into it all, I hate the thought of having to buy vegetables but don't much like the thought of not eating them either.  The only answer to that is to get out there and get the food growing again.
  
Out and About
Not enough for me, too much for him.  How can that be?
I am quite capable of going anywhere by myself, I have a car, I drive, we have the money...so why is it that I don't.  Why is it that I whinge and whine about him never taking me anywhere?    I am even putting it all down in writing for all to see so I can get people on my side. wink
Next year will be different.  Next year I am going to get out and about more and if I have to do it by myself then so be it.  It might not be as much fun as doing it with friends or the husband but seeing as I have no friends and the husband doesn't give a rats...so, it will be done. by. my. self!

What else?  Nothing.  I am still blogging over at my 2 other blogs but they don't have that much to say either.  Stay tuned though please as things will be changing.  There will be things to read. I will *get a life* and you *lucky* people will be the first to read about it.