August, We Bought...

I bought carrots this month.  A 5kg bag for $1.99.  I like carrots with my salads but as I cannot grow them and I was over at Spud Shed getting stuff for the daughter and I saw these...They are quite nice too, small and sweet.
No other vegetables were bought during August.

I did buy some bananas while I was there but no other fruit. 
We are still getting Oranges so they were our fruit of choice this month.  Those and the Passionfruit and we had a few Indian Guava ready to eat as well.

We are getting plenty of eggs and once again the son has brought out a few feeds of meat.  He is a butcher at the local supermarket and sometimes brings out stuff that is too near to its use by date to sell.
This month we scored some lamb chops, a pork roast, sausages and 2 lots of mince. 
He used to take it home and feed it to his dogs but a quick clip under his ear soon stopped that! 
We do buy some meat, I usually get some liver and  twin packs of chicken when we don't have any roosters.  Sausages if they are on special.  I would like to not have to buy any meat and some months I don't but I need the Liver for Iron and we like chicken...
I'm happy with the tiny amount of food that we need to buy but will keep trying to grow all of what we eat.

Baby Update.

The little black chicken is doing fine but the mother chook is very protective and huffs up whenever I go out there and shoos her baby away so I can't get near it.   She has had a go at me a couple of times when I have put food down for them.  Silly thing! 
The other chook is still sitting but I haven't seen any chickens and I am thinking that there won't be any now and I plan to clean out her nest and put her in the other pen this weekend.
I have had another chook, a Plymouth Rock coloured one go clucky so have put some fertile eggs under her.
I will need to wait 3 weeks to see how she goes.

The calf is frollicking around everywhere.  The mother cow is looking fine.   I am giving her extra hay.
The brown cow is still fat but no sign of a calf.  I think she is just big and fat.

A few dramas with them all though as the black and white cow/calf got into the padock with the back neighbours animals.  I'm pretty sure there is a bull or 2 in there...The next day all our cows were in there.  The fence between the neighbours to our north and his back neighbough must be dodgy so when Hubby gets home I will get him to fix the gate between us and northside to keep our cows on our property.

Animals!  Sometimes they are  more work than they are worth.

What To Plant. What Will Grow.

Over the last few weeks I have been thinking about what I will be growing over the warmer months.  The 4 year old grandaughter wanted to help so, with help from her mum, she brought out some seeds and some seed trays so she could "plant seeds with Nanny" and a couple of weeks ago when L, T and J were out here they made a start.  They filled and planted the 3 trays, they filled some jiffy pot things for daughter L to take home and they got me motivated to keep planting over the next week.

The seed trays were put on a table and left on the front verandah.  I found an old spray bottle with the idea of giving them a spray when needed but after a couple of days I put each tray into a plastic shopping bag and tied it shut.  Within a few days the seeds were up with no extra mucking around from me and I removed them from the bags.  I now give them a squirt with the hose every couple of days but some of them need to be put out in the ground.  A job for this week.

Going through all my seeds I just pick out things that can be planted now, I never have a plan as such, I just plant what I have and hope enough grows so I don't have to buy anything.  So far that has worked but really, I don't try and do anything too hard.  Apart from the bleedin' carrots.  I'm a pretty SlackA*** gardener and if something doesn't grow I just try again or plant something else.

I've also put other seeds into the bottom half of coke bottles with the lid as a top and more seeds in jiffy pots in a cardboard box with a sheet of glass over it.  One bottle has Rosemary cuttings.







More seeds in this container.  Hubby bought a salad roll while away at work one day and I rescued this from the bin.  He will growl but hey, if it works it will be worth it.

These bottle have cuttings in them.  After a month the Mulberry cuttings are starting to bud up but the Bougainvillea look like they are dead which is a shame as they have come from Doolgunna Station and were a really nice colour but I wanted them as a remembrance thing.




I am trying again with Carrots but not going to hold my breath.  I hardly ever get these up and growing.  I think I have managed to get 2 lots good enough to eat but have had 5 or 6 attempts.  I have read that they need to be kept moist, so they are covered with newspaper.  That will be removed if when the carrots come up..  If When they come up then they should make it to a decent size so here's hoping.

I have put peas in this end as well and it shouldn't be long before they are up.  I put bottles over them as a bit of an experiment.  Any other time that I plant peas I don't worry about covering them but I am hoping this will get them up quicker.

I'm not sure what the girls planted though we did write it on sticks and shoved it in with the seeds. 
I should probably write it all down so I know but I'm not too fussed.  I'll know soon enough when they start producing!
I think I've made a decent start but come September I will need to get a lot more stuff in.

Lucky for One.

But sad for too many others and I cried.

About 5 weeks ago one of the young AussieRocks went and sat on some eggs.  She sat all that day and was still sitting that night and the next day she was still sitting.  My briliant brain and pecked at finger told me that she was probably clucky.  Waste of the eggs she was sitting on though as there is no rooster in with this lot.

I go out the back where there is a rooster with a few hens and over the week I collect 8 or 9 fertile eggs.  I make up a nest in another box, put it in the chicken pen and add the fertile eggs.  I wait until night when all good chooks should be asleep and creep in and slowly get up enough courage to pick her up.  She only tries to peck me a few times while I am carrying her to her new nest.  I shove place her gently in and stand a board up in front so she can't escape.   A day or so later I take the board away so she can come out and eat and poop hoping she'll know to go back and sit.  She didn't so I had to chase her around the pen, finally catch her, get pecked at again, shove her not too gently back in her box and put the board back.  The next day I wire off a little area for her so she can't go awandering.  Over the next 2 weeks she gets out twice and is off the eggs for a few hours before I notice and she is herded back in.  They were due to hatch last Sunday.  The weekend when it rained, and rained, and rained...  On monday I go out to check on her and find her nest under water.  The area she is in is flooded and there is water in the box, where the due to hatch eggs are...
We find 3 dead nearly hatched chickens.   I cried.  I know that the other eggs are probably dead but we empty the nest, put in dry hay, Hubby puts a platform in to lift the box out of the water if it rains again and the chook gets back on the 5 wet and cold eggs we put back in.   I go out on Wed and find and remove a dead hatched chicken.  Not home on Thursday so go out this morning thinking to remove her and clean out the area and put her back in with the other chooks.

She's not there.  There are 3 cold eggs in the nest.  So no chickens from that lot.
I look, find her sitting in a different pen.  Has she or hasn't she a baby under there...

There is one little chicken that survived all the trauma.  It is so cute.   I bet it's a rooster!



A week after the black chook went clucky I put a batch of eggs under one of the Mixed Breed chooks. 
Last weekend they too were under water.  They too were put on dry hay and up out of the water.  The MB chook is still sitting on them.  They are due to hatch this weekend.

I have put a boad on the pallet under her nest and hay around her with a brick in front so if there is a successful hatch the chickens can get in and out of the nest easily.  Now I need to wait and see.

I felt so bad about the dead chickens because I put the nests there. I didn't even think that the chooks had been scratching the area and that it was lower than the rest of the pen. 
Once these chooks are finished with this area Hubby is going to build it up and make a sloping cement platform so it won't happen again.  But bugger!  'Twas a sad day.

I now need to get the black chook and her lone baby back into where she was in the chicken pen.  It is a pen that is netted to keep the crows out whereas the pen she is in now isn't so it's not safe enough for her chicken.  That will be this afternoons job.  I have cleaned out the area and nest so it will be nice and clean for her.

Wet Weather.

Husband spent most of the day pumping water away and though most of the puddles are gone the ground is still very soggy.  It is supposed to be fine tomorrow so that will give it a bit of a chance to dry out but more rain is forecast for later in the week.  

This is me standing in front of my car.  The water is now gone but it is soggy and slippery.







To boot or not to boot.

The shed the HyLines use has water in it.  I  put dry hay in there for them, to keep them dry.



More than half of this pen was under water.

The water was being pumped out of these 2 hoses for most of the day.  We had a pump in the old duck pond and another in the hole we have dug for the wishing well.  The ground is so wet that the holes would refill as soon as the water was pumped out.

This is the old duck pond, it is around 6foot x 10foot and 2 foot deep.  Because it is the lowest part of the yard it acts as a sump and the ground water seeps into it.  Today it has filled and been emptied a few times.

Our area did receive a lot of rain, more than 43mm overnight, but we still need heaps more to get the dams up and able to cope with the Summer demand. 

Under Water.

It rained last night, most of the night I think.  I knew it was wet outside this morning when the trough in the bathroom gurgled at me.  Not a cute little baby gurgle but a *everything is under water and the septic and leachdrain is full* gurgle.  Went out to let the chooks out and yep!  Had to walk through the gulf of Barbs Backyard to get there.

The wishing well hole is overflowing, the duckpond sump hole is overflowing, the driveway is under water as it everywhere else.  And it's still raining!

Luckily Hubby is home today so he may be able to get the bigger pump going and get some of it diverted  out into the old irrigation drain out the back

We have already pumped away more water than some people use all year and it was bothering me that we weren't keeping the water on our land but I am thinking differently this morning.  I want it all pumped away and I want it all pumped away NOW!!

I m not sure if that will even be possible but if we don't get rid of some of it I don't fancy the chances of  me getting my car out tomorrow.  And toilet flushing will be a no goer...showering tonight...nowhere for that water to go either...Bugger!  No point in doing all of yesterdays dishes now,  Hmmm, maybe there is some good to it all

Sunday Mornin' All.

A big thankyou to all the well wishers yesterday.  I appreciate the thoughts.  I am feeling heaps better this morning, had an earlyish night and didn't get up until 4.45 this morning. 

The markets went well, I scored a few things but if I had little kids I could have furnished a big cubby house for them.  There was so much kids stuff!  The kids that were there all went home with armloads and big smiles. 
I ended up with some more net curtaining, this time for the *sunroom*/ front verandah, a couple of cool looking bicky/lolly tins that I will use for something, a small cooler bag for summer lunches away.  I think that's all. 

We have decided to let my painting job of the verandah ceiling and walls wait until the weather warms up or I know that I'll have 3 days of nothing else to do.  Husband says he will help me with it but I will need to wait until after Spring .  They are real busy during Spring with work so if I can't get it done I know there is help coming.  All good. 

The chook sheds should be done today, all the nesting boxes were cleaned and refreshed with new hay yesterday so less work for today now.

Main things for today will be:
Chook sheds, raked out and new hay put in.  Husband did for me.
Sweet talk Hubby into moving some sleepers into chook yard so I can contain the old stuff better until it's neded.  Done.
More seeds put in. 
Lounge from front verandah, cleaned and covers washed and replaced.  Put in position.  Done.
Put away everything that was taken off the verandah when it was painted.  Big job!!   Half done.


Plus the day to day stuff of course and anything else will be a bonus but I think I'll be lucky if the list gets finished.  It's forecast to rain...and I have a book to read...

Mornin' All.

Good morning People.  It is 4.30 AM here in WesternAustralia.  I am awake, tired but  hurting too much to sleep so I  decided to get up and have a coffee, maybe try again in a couple of hours if I want to.  It's dark, there is a bird chortling away out the front, the fire is going so it is nice and warm inside...

Hubby is still asleep so there is nothing for me to do except spend some time mucking around on here.

Really Really Free Markets are on this afternoon, I have more painting to do on the front verandah, chooks shed needs cleaning out...More seeds to be planted.  Heaps to do today but I have doubts that much will be done... I hurt too much, been having a lousy week with pain and have resorted to taking tablets!  They help but I hate having to take them. 

Off to see who Blogger will let me talk to.

Hope you all have a nice day.

No Comment.

I have been reading a few blogs over the last week or so and wanting to leave a comment on a couple but Blogger wont let me.  It is annoying.

I was reading http://thelifeandtimesofanordinarygirl.blogspot.com/  and really wanted to wish her the best luck but can't. 


The question on boobs or travel from  http://www.savvymumma.com/2011/08/boobs-or-travel.html#comment-form   Nah, no comment from me allowed so she doesn't get to read my wisdom. 

There have been others.  Many others. 

I'm sure it will fix inself in time but it annoys me. 

Coffee and *get a life* time.

Is Brown Cow Pregnant?

This is our second cow.  She was in the paddock last September when a bull got to our black cow and was in the paddock around 9 months ago when a bull got in and got to the black cow again and to the neighbours cow,  I supose if there is no calf from her within the next week or so she won't be having one again.
She is a big cow, bigger than the black one but younger.  Another wait and see thing.

If the new calf survives we will have 4 cows, if the brown cow becomes a mum there will be 5 out there.  Too many.  But we can't keep the bulls out so there is not much we can do about it.  We need a couple of cows to keep the grass down and we do eat them so doing one next winter will get the numbers down a bit.
It is just a worry sometimes.  Like the neighbours cow...She died because her calf got stuck.  Really she should not have even been pregnant.  I complain about our cows but really it is the back neighbours bulls that need to be complained about.  And we have...He doesn't care much though.

And I don't complain when I am eating the cows so I supose I can't have it both ways.  HoHum...