Chooks Galore Plus More.

                                  I have chickens. Cute little black and white AussieRock* babies.

Not sure what they will look like when they are bigger as they are not pure. 
The parents are either Australorp dad or a Plymouth Rock dad and the mothers are the same breed.  There are 3 Australorp hens and 1 PR hen.  These chooks are all in together so the babies will be a mix.  But they are so cute.  I put 8 eggs under this one when she went clucky a few weeks back.

I have given some of the eggs from these chooks to the daughter L to hatch for me too.

Well... not so much her but one of her chooks...They might be ready next weekend.

Of this lot of eggs 4 were pushed out of the nest duing the last week but I haven't cracked them to see if they were fertile or not yet.  Not sure if I will yet..  I think it's good to know if they were not fertile as it gives me an idea on how good the roosters are but it's not nice if they were and you find that the chicken died for some reason.

* AussieRocks are what I call my chooks that I raised from "pure" Australorp eggs.  It turned out that the lady had a PR rooster running with her hens just before she sold me the eggs...

I have a few more clucky chooks in the Mixed Breed pen and I will put AussieRock eggs under them this weekend.  I am in the process of rearranging their pen so they can be blocked off from the other chooks that keep laying in their nests

More cute little AussieRock babies   Yay!!

Then I can get start getting rid of the HyLines...Yay!!.

Garden Cleanout.

After being sore and tired all week and arms being next to useless yesterday I woke up this morning feeling OK  so I have been out pulling up plants that I no longer want.

All the red cabbages are gone, I have 3 nice ones inside to do something with.  I don't think I'll plant these again as we prefer the green ones.  The red ones did seem to survive the slaters and cows better though...There are still 3 out there growing so will think on it.

Some of the *nearly past it* Caulies. and a few cabbages.

 

I pulled up all the peas that I couldn't eat *skin and all*. Some were just too tough so they are gone but there are still a few plants left that have nice peas growing on them.  I still need to pick and freeze the peas.
I pulled out most of the Caulies. They were starting to open too much, not getting a decent size, so there are 6 of them waiting to be cooked or pickled.  Still have 4 OK looking ones out there.
There are 2 big green cabbages.  One of those will become coleslaw, not sure about the other.  Probably sliced and frozen for later.

So I now have heaps of garden space that needs to be worked on.  Later when it is cooler I will add more dirt from the chookpens, add manures and top with mulch.  It will then be ready for whatever I need to put in.

The Brocolli that the cow ate the tops from a few weeks back regrew but  because I wasn't quick enough in picking the smaller heads it  all went to seed so out it came.  I have kept one to collect seeds from.




I have used the excuse of being sore all week for not getting out there before now and unfortunately I haven't planted anything at all this month so I will need to step that up over the next week or so.

None of the watermelon or rockmelon seeds that were planted during September survived so once again I will not get those growing as early as I wanted to.   We have 8 tomato plants flowering but I want to get more going.   The cucumbers aren't doing much. 

I think most of the seeds that went in the ground were eaten by the slaters.  There seems to be millions of the little buggers and after this years challenge of growing all our vegetable is up I will get the chooks out there to try and clean them up. In the meantime I used the *boiling water* method again.




In the meantime they, the chooks,
have an overflowing barrow load
of leaves and stuff to get through.

        

Really Really Free Markets. Waroona.

I wrote about going up to Perth to the Really Really Free Markets and guess what?  Look what someone sent me.  And it's in my town.  How cool is that?

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Basic info:
1pm-4pm Saturday 16th October
Centennial Park, Southwestern Highway (at the south end of town)
Waroona

Their website is:
www.rrfmwaroona.wordpress.com
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I plan on going down for a bit and will take some stuff down with me.
If you are within driving distance why not come down as well.  Bring some stuff you want to get rid of and maybe pick something up.
Waroona is 20 minutes drive south of Pinjarra.
Bring a picnic, this park has toilets and a playground, shady areas to sit and meet up with friends. 
You could get to meet me!!  Now come on...you know that would be the coolest thing since sliced bread...
Or not. lol.

People To Lunch.

I had some lovely people come visit me yesterday.  They are both members of the Simple Savings website which is where I *met* them and it was really nice to have them come down from Perth and to meet them in real life.

Thankyou B and T and children for coming all that way.  B, your children were really well mannered, A great credit to you.  I hope I get to meet up with you both again some day but if you are ever in the area, call in.

Daughter T came out with her little girl and we have decided to asked a couple of her friends over for a visit soon.  I might even invite some people that I used to be friends with...

It was nice to have the yard looking better than it has in years and as it will be kept that way from now on, YES, it will be!!, it will be easier to ask people to visit. 

P.S.E.D. Challenge. 26th to 30th Sept.

Day 26.****  Hmmm. I was home and outside but nothing...Mustn't let that happen again.
       27. Beetroot, seeds. Driveway drums.
             Giant Garlic?  From L.
             Pumpkin seeds, Kent.
       28. ****  Home again, not sure what I was doing.   Not planting though!
       29. ****
       30. ****
September is finished and I managed to get 39 things planted.  More than if I hadn't of set myself the challenge to plant something every day and even though I didn't plant something *every* day I planted more things than the amount of days.  So challenge accepted and accomplished.  Go me!!
Didn't get to the 50 but you get that.

Did you all get stuff planted too?  Leave a comment and let me know what you have planted.
Why not join me in the same challenge for October?

Don't Buy Veg Challenge.

Another month finished and another month of not buying any vegetables. 
Nine months of eating what we grow and not going to the shop to buy any veg.
I think that's pretty cool.
Three months to go and the 'Don't Buy Veg In 2010" challenge is still looking doable despite the cows attempt at sabotage.

This month we've been eating assorted lettuce, carrots, asparagus, peas, capsicum, sweet potato, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli,  the occasional tomato, onion...
.
I still seem to pick and eat the same old stuff and there is stuff growing that we don't eat.  We have celery and broad beans but as I don't like them much I tend to use them  more for giveaways.
I lost the spinach under some nasturtiums...

We are still getting oranges, some strawberries, pepinos.   Lemons are falling from the tree and need to be picked up.

We have been eating beetroot and bread and butter pickle from last season.

I have a fridge full of eggs. 
Heaps of bananas that Son brought out as "pig food" but they didn't get them when they were here so they aren't going to get them when they're not!  Most will need to be put in the freezer.
More roosters need culling and we still have a couple of rooster meals in the freezer.

I have a fridge full of food and nothing to eat.  Well, nothing to just grab and snack on, it all need preparing in some way first.  'Cept the bananas...I might go have one of them.

The RAC and a FUD.

I needed both today, only had one of them though but it was the one that got the car fixed so I could get home so that was good.
I have been a member of the RAC for many years and been thankful for that quite a few times.  I think it is well worth the money for the membership. 
This afternoon I was driving merrily along, checked the guage to see if I needed petrol and noticed the temp guage way up. I pulled over and lifted the bonnet and the first thing I noticed was no heat coming from under there.  It usually has a bit of heat coming from under there after driving that amount of time so I thought that was strange.  I couldn't feel any heat coming from over the radiator but I was still wary about taking the cap off and checking the water/coolant.  Got brave, grabbed a jacket and removed it.  No steam or anything and definately no coolant and after discovering my car water bottle gone from the boot I called the RAC to come rescue me.
I was on the side of the road for nearly and hour and one car with a couple of blokes turned around and came back to see if I was alright or if they could help.  Thanks Guys, you will not see this but your concern was much appreciated.

So I don't know if there's something wrong with my car or if I just haven't checked things for awhile. Mmmm, the more I think about it the more I think that could be it.   RAC guy said to check the level over the next few days and if it goes down then get it looked at, otherwise just get some more coolant for it.

Having a FUD would have been handy as I needed to pee when I stopped and after waiting around so long things weren't getting better but I was thinking about it and probably wouldn't have used it even if I had one. If I was stuck there for much longer though, who knows.  It would have been awkward, what with being on the side of a busy highway and all but better than the alternative.

So I am thankful for the RAC and still planning on getting a FUD.

Have you ever been thankful for either?

DO NOT Eat Lunch While Reading.

I came in and made a bowl of salad for lunch.  Just picked lettuce and mixed leaves, grated carrot, peas, added grated cheese, a boiled egg.  Ate it while reading. Then finished the page and looked at the nearly empty bowl...and there was a slug squirming around!!  It looked whole so that was something but I don't know if I ate any others.
If I did, they weren't yukky. lol.

Lawns Are Done!!

I have come in from mowing and I must say, this is the first time in a LONG time that my edges and grass have been done and look good at the same time.

Yesterday daughter L and her husband M came out and spend a couple of hours out there with me and because they did the same last week and daughter T mowed a bit for me and Hubby mowed a bit for me, I managed to get it finished.  Thankyou all.  It looks good.  Yay to all of us

Now there are still some messy *areas* that I will work on this week and gardens still need mulching but I'm company ready.  If we stay outside and no-one opens the door to inside...Maybe I should do a bit in here too...

I need to work on cleaning up after myself and mowing regularly to keep it looking good. 

My problem is that I do stuff, mow, weed, mulch, until I can't but then nothing gets picked up and put away and when I can do stuff again I want to get it done while I can, not waste time putting things away...But it would be easier doing things if the place was tidied up to start with. 
This is something that I really need to work on. 
Because it does look good!

I'm off out there for morning tea...just need to bring in the mug and plate from yesterday...

Thinking and Thoughts.

We had a nice day out yesterday, lunch with family to celebrate a sisters 50th.
It was lovely to see everyone but it kind of made me sad.

I saw all these people, my family and their friends, that get on so well together and see each other all the time and because I don't have any friends to visit or that I do stuff with, go places with, etc. I kinda felt alone and lonely and I shouldn't have as I love my life, enjoying the simple things and being able to do what I want when I want. 
But I did kinda envy them all, a little too much for my own good.  It is me that is the problem though.  Because we don't see people very often and our lives are so different to other peoples I have no idea what to talk about with any of them so tend to mainly sit back and keep to myself.

Talked to Hubby about it on the way home, about me needing friends and *a life* 

Did I have no friends because a wasn't a nice person?  Was I boring?  Was I a nasty bitch that no-one wanted anything to do with?  What was/is it about me that discourages people from wanting to get to know me better and then liking what they find enough to want to do stuff with me?

What could I do to meet more people?
**I could join some clubs... I'm not that interested in anything though.
**I could invite people over for lunch.  Been there done that, nearly a dozen times over 2 years, and though they said they enjoyed it and "we should do this more often" and they talked about doing  it at their house next time I was never invited anywhere.  I see them down the shop and they say "great to see you, we must catch up" then they go off and I never hear from them so obviously they didn't mean it too much.
**I could play a sport of some kind and meet people there.  Yeah, don't laugh too much at that one!

It came up that to meet people like me will be hard as like minded people are probably at home working in their gardens, not going out, they are trying to cut their carbon footprint by staying home and living *simply*

So I need to accept that some people need to like themselves and enjoy their own company, which luckily I do, and get on with things.  Some real friends would be nice but my life is good as it is. 

I need to "Suck it up", "Get over it"  and all those other great sayings that I love to use and get out there and plant a tree...so next time I feel lonely I will have something to hug!