No Buy Veg Challenge, November.

Eleven months now and we haven't bought any vegetables for us to eat.  I think that is pretty good

We are picking Tomatoes now and the Zucchini is giving me so many, I love that plant.  We only have 2 and one of those is not very big but does have a couple of flowers, the other one is huge and could feed us for the rest of the challenge if we needed it to.

So we are eating Potatoes, Onions, Tomatoes, Carrots, Sweet Potato, Lettuce, Beetroot,  Zucchini.  All fresh from our garden.  Not a great variety but it is all fresh and you can't get any more local than your own backyard..
We still have pumpkin from last season and just as well because none of mine survived.  I have some Butternut seedlings in now and they look like they should make it.  Most of the Garlic has fallen over and we have had some of that.  Small but still good.

Fruit wise we are getting Strawberries, Pepenos, Passionfruit, the occasional Orange.   Still getting Lemons.
Apricots are nearly there too but that will be December fruit.

Free food that I *stole* from the pig...Pumpkin, potatoes, apricots, apples, bananas.  Not fresh and I don't know where it was grown but it's what the people in town were buying the day before.  There was plenty left for the pig

Some people are a bit disgusted when I say I eat the pig food but it is all still good and sometimes we wonder why the shop isn't selling it.  We have had crates of Bananas that were still yellow and firm.  Apples with a couple of marks but they were still good eating.   Son says that when the new stuff comes in they just empty the shelf of the old even if it is still good.   We don't mind, the chooks don't mind and the pig doesn't mind.

Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk.

I couldn't use my hands/arms yesterday so I'm not sure why I thought they'ld be OK early this morning seeing as they still felt *wrong* so I supose it's my own fault but...

We bought a box of longlife milk a week or so ago, on special for 89cents litre.  I don't drink it but Hubby does and he put it, still in the box, up into the bookshelf where I have a sort of stockpile going.

I picked a pile of potatoes last week but as my spudbox was old and yuk I threw it out just before hand.  So I needed a new box.  This looked the right size and I did ask DD to get it down for me a couple of days ago,  She forgot, I wanted it, I tried.  Knowing that it wasn't a good idea.  End result?

 

I hope I've wiped it all up but guess what...

I was having a bowl of cereal afterwards.  The cat wanted to share, he put his paw onto the side of the bowl...Yep milk and cereal to clean up.  HoHum, maybe it's a *read all day* day today.  Again.

Chicken Chasing.

I went out earlier, more than an hour ago, to feed and water the chickens and I have just now come in from out there. I gave them their food, cleaned out their water and refilled it and while some come and eat while I am there some stand back and make their little chirpy noise.  I could hear this other noise in the background though didn't think too much off it until I had left that pen and was checking the older ones in the pen next door and could still hear the noise.  After a bit of hunting around I saw a little chick huddling under the Strawberry Guava tree.  Every time I went near it though it ran to the other side of the tree and as all the branches are hanging down, some touching the ground, I couldn't get to it.  It wouldn't go in the direction of the gate to get out and I was just scaring it.  But the silly thing had to be back with it's mum as I think it is still too little to be by it's self.
I ended up cutting some of the bottom branches off the tree so it couldn't hide under there and I manoeuvred it behind a sheet of tin learning up against the fence but it just ran up the other end and I still couldn't reach it.  I blocked off one end, went in after it and after a few misses I finally grabbed the thing.  It is now back in with it's family but didn't seem thankful at all.  It just ran for the food dish and started gobbling.  Not sure how long it had been out for, poor little silly thing.

With the trees, I like them to hang down as protection for the chooks, Hubby wants all the bottom branches cut off so it's easier to see if any snakes or skinks are in the pens. 
He has a point and now 1 tree is already half done!  I might do the trees in the chicken pens as these are netted over the top to keep the crows out but leave the ones in the pens that aren't netted.
We get crows here and they steal eggs and would take a chicken if they could get one but as I usually put the chicks in the covered pens maybe the tree pruning in them is a good idea.  I also think that the branchier trees offer better shade and make things cooler for the older chooks but I would like to see if there was a snake in there...

Yesterday evening there was a crow sitting on top of one of the the netted pens eyeing off the chickens, I had to go out and throw something at it to get it to fly off but I know it will be back.  It's a pity the nasty things are protected but I couldn't shoot them anyway.  I see them and think of the movie *The Omen* and think that they will *come and get me* if I hurt one.

Potatoes and Onions.

 I've been told that I say *onion* differently to the correct way.  Apparently I say *ung-ion.*  It don't matter though how I say the word as long as I can grow the things.  And I can.  I do sometimes leave them in the ground too long but that don't matter either. They still taste good.
I have heaps that need to be pulled up and one day soon I will get to that.
I will plant seeds from last year soon as well.  I think we will always have
*ungion* of some sort growing.


I'm still having problems with Slaters and I have had a few containers of potatoes die off, a result of being eaten by these bleedin' things, so I dug some up.  We ended up with quite a few, not very big but lovely and fresh and yum.


We dug the dirt and mulch out and replanted with some old sprouty ones that came in a crate of  food for the pig.  Sorry pig but I baggsed them first.  We had a spare empty fridge so Hubby brought that around the back and put it near the others and we planted that with spuds as well.  I now have 2 fridges and 5 half 44 gallon drums planted with potatoes.  A couple of boxes and some spots that were empty.  Some newly planted and some still growing.   I think we will always have enough potatoes as I plant any sprouted ones that I get and we always seem to have some growing somewhere.  Even in places that they are not suposed to be.  Some are white normal spuds and some are red skinned ones.  I don't know what they are called just that if they grow they are keepers.
If nothing else grows, as long as these are in the ground we will not starve


This is one of the fridges, just been replanted with red skinned potatoes.
As they grow I layer them with dirt from the chook pen and grass clippings that the chooks have scratched around in for a few weeks.  The slaters usually end up killing them by eating through the stems before they flower so we don't often get really big potatoes but we don't really mind.  The smaller ones taste good and last long enough in the cupboard.  If we run out and want some we go out and bandicoot a patch, there are always some somewhere.

I have grown potatoes in the ground, hilling them when needed but I prefer to grow them in containers and use mainly mulch type stuff as a covering.  This way they are easier for me to get to when I want them.  By the time I am ready for the potatoes the grass clippings and other mulchy stuff  has usually ended up as nice soil.

Really Really Free Markets. Waroona. November.

We have these markets on again this afternoon.  I should be out sorting what to take but I think I will just load stuff into the car before I leave.  It's a bit cooler today than it has been so it might be OK down there.
 www.rrfmwaroona.wordpress.com

I'm back...
There were a few more tables/rugs of stuff at this one and lots of people coming and going over the first couple of hours.  Twas good.
Half of the stuff I took down has gone to new homes and I scored  half a dozen books. (or 9, shh,don't tell)
I also brought home some Butternut Pumpkin and some Bolotti Bean seedling.
The yummy muffins and choc chip bickies were there again too.  Someone there is a good cook.

I heard someone say that the next one is a week before Christmas but the time may be different.  I will have to remember to check their information.  The one in Perth is sometime in December as well.  I don't know if I will go up to that one again though.

I Won! What A Lovely Welcome Home.

Sherrie, over at http://simpleliving-sherrie.blogspot.com/ makes and sells enviro bags and a week or so ago she had a competition with one of her bags as a prize.  She was asking how people cut down on using plastics.  A few people posted their different ways but I was the lucky one.  Thankyou Sherrie.  I am looking forward to receiving and using it.

Check out Sherries blog.  She has some great stuff over there  .

Busy Morning. Or So It seemed.

I've had a busy morning outside but no mowing or mulching was done.

I did pull out some more moth-eaten cabbages and I now have 6 of them soaking in salted water to try and get the caterpillars out of them.  If it doesn't get them to come out then it might kill them.  I'd rather eat a dead, salted caterpillar than a live one but maybe that's just me.  Not sure how I will use them.  More coleslaw. Maybe cook some up with onion, zuchinni and whatever else I can dig up and some rooster and freeze.  Dunno.

Raked out a bit of one chookpen.

Searched for and found the sprinklers and set them up in the chookpens to cool them down.

Most of the washing is done and dry but awaiting the fold and put away bit.

Cabbage free garden beds have had the soil loosened and wettasoiled.  I need to decide what I am putting in them and then get them manured and mulched ready for when I buy more seedlings.

Caught and crated some roosters.

Not a lot when you read it like that but it seemed to take me all morning.  I will start on the mowing this evening but in the meantime I have what looks like a good book to get stuck into.

Hubby culled 6 roosters and they are in the fridge awaiting the frypan.  That should make for quieter morniings.

Chooks and Gardens Survived Without Me. (might go away more often now)

After being away for near on 6 days we arrived home just before 5pm yesterday.  First thing I did was go check on the chickens and I am glad to say that they are all still there and looking none the worse for being fed and watered by someone other than me.  Thankyou to T&J and L for coming out and looking after things for me while I was away. 
The gardens also look like they have been well looked after and so far I can't find anything dead or missing.  Maybe I should get someone else to do the gardens more often!

The grass  must have loved my being away as it is about 8inches longer than when we left so getting that back down will be my main job for the next few days.  We are expecting some warm weather here over the next few days so I will need to get started early before it warms up too much but everything will need more mulch as well and that is also a big job for me.

So...I need to finish raking out the chookpens, mow grass and throw the fresh clippings in to the chooks, put the old clippings from pens on the gardens...All that, and updating my other blog, should keep me off the streets for awhile. 

Coffees finished so better get started.  Afterall, it's already after 5.

Wake-up Call.

We've been away and I have had the pleasure of waking up with the birds and just lying there listening to them talking to each other before getting up and on going my morning walk along the cliffs and beach.

Woke here at home this morning around the same time, 4.30am, and I am still hearing birds but it's not as nice.
The singing of the birds up in GreenHead was a lot nicer that the crowing of all the roosters here.
It's nice to be home but something has to be done about the 5 excess roosters.  And SOON!!

Seedlings Bought and Planted.

Because I haven't been having much luck with seeds germinating I gave in and yesterday I bought some seedlings from the Spud Shed.  I bought 4 punnets for $10.  Red Onions, Broccoli, Grosse Lisse tomatoes, and some mild Chillies.
Lovely day here for planting stuff so I was out there at 5.30am getting them in the ground.  From the onion punnet I seperated out and planted nearly 100 single plants.  Not bad for $2.50 aye?  Same with the chillies and tomatoes, from a punnet with 8 cells I ended up with a dozen plants of each. 
I have done my best to protect them from slugs and slaters but we are going away for a few days so I am hoping that they are still undamaged when we return.
We are off up to GreenHead, leaving this afternoon or early tomorrow so I need to see the daughter that will be out here and let her know where everything is planted.  She/They will be watering the plants and looking after the chooks and chickens for me and it will be greatly appreciated as without the help of people like this it would be hard to get away for more than a couple of nights. 
Thanks T.  And you too L if you are helping.