Where are you missy moo?

We are missing a cow at the property. There are only 15 that we have counted. Damian has ridden all over the property and can't find her at this stage. We have asked the neighbours to keep an eye out for her. Unfortunately because we don't have the crush yet we haven't been able to put coloured ear tags on our girls yet, which would make them easy to identify from the neighbours cattle, so we can only tell by the number on the smaller ear tags which is which. Hopefully she turns up soon. All of the boundary fences are in excellent condition and he couldn't see the fence pushed in anywhere, so it's a bit of a mystery at this stage. Damian also had the cattle grid installed yesterday, so now we don't need to get in and out to open a gate when driving in to the property...yay...

Things are pretty quiet around here at the moment, I have so much book work to do, and a couple of preservations to finish off...really not feeling like it at the moment, but it has to be done...so will kick myself up the bum later and get it done. I am looking at a course run through Milkwood permaculture for later in the year about market gardens, and another about mushroom cultivation, not sure if I want to drive all the way down there on my own yet, will put some more thought in to it as I think it would be worthwhile for the property. Anyway, have done the washing (better hang it out though) and the bathrooms and the floors today, so will head out to the office and try and get some things done before school pickup time.

Mud and cows

We have had quite a few cold, windy and wet days up here at the property. It's our first indication of where the track in needs to be improved to enable year round access regardless of weather. There are a few places at the beginning of the track that are black soil which is becoming quite soft. Also one other area just before an area already repaired that could do with some gravel also. The rest of the track isn't too bad other than coming in our gate. The previous owner said it was very slippery in the wet, he wasn't exaggerating!

We are now leaving the cars outside the gates, and quad biking it in and out of the property, while we wait for things to dry out a little. We are hoping to be able to get a machine in on the weekend to install a cattle grid here and have gravel either side to fix this area. If it's too wet, we will need to wait another week, and hope for no more rain between now and then. 

The cattle are now out with full access to the property, Max and Diesel went down to the small paddock and chased a few of the girls, who ran through the fence to the small paddock, which meant 10 out on the property, and 6 remaining in the smaller paddock, so we let the remaining 6 out to join them, they are now all exploring the property and finding their way around. 

These two girls were coming up to say hello, and then Max and Diesel happened...they chased them....which is a pity, so I will try again tomorrow, this time the dogs will be tied up.

There has been some very chilly nights, in the caravan it's been pretty cold through the night. I bought a hot water bottle and tried it out last night, it works brilliantly, so I will be using it again tonight. Off to cook dinner now, and after work out some more plans to put in place for around the farm.

Our mini break...

We returned from the property on Monday. We had a really relaxing time away, and didn't really want to come home. Easter was quite busy as we didn't leave until Good Friday, and we had car problems on the way, a turbo hose blew out, and we spent a bit of time on the roadside fixing it, and finished the trip with no turbo connected. 

After the Easter weekend, we headed to the property and took delivery of the tractor, and started on some slashing. We also had a dozer out to prep the pad for the shed, so that the next time we go up, we can organise to get the concrete slab prepped.

The neighbours cattle on the track on the way out of the property.

 Damian on the tractor slashing

 The dogs swimming in the dam

 Back at home, and all is starting to calm down a little. Unfortunately, Kasey's guinea pig came down unwell, and died.  Kasey is ok about it, and once we have disenfected the hutch, and left it in the sunshine to get rid of any bacteria that might have caused him to come down sick, we will look at getting her another one. This time though, only from a reputable dealer, not from the markets. I feel like I am living on the killing fields here at the moment, all I seem to do lately is bury animals. I found one of the baby chicks dead this morning, I'm really not sure what happened, they were all fine last night, I think it may have been stood on. I have since moved the chinese silkies and the guinea fowl over to the large chook house, so that mum and babies are in the chicken tractor on their own. I have another clucky hen at the moment, so I may look at getting some other day olds to pop under her, to try and build my stocks back up.  I picked our bunch of bananas from our tree, we probably lost about 2 kilos to birds, but still managed about 4 kilos of bananas, which is plenty to eat at one time, they seem to be ripening at different stages which is good, if they all start to ripen at once, I may dry some.

I also managed a small passionfruit harvest, definitely not a lot on the vines this year, but that seems to be the way it has been in general this year. 

So, I am enjoying home grown bananas and passinfruit, with home made yoghurt.

 Today I harvested some radish, and the sweet corn. The corn was really small, but the cobs were all well pollinated, and there were plenty of kernels on the small cobs, and they were really sweet and delicious.

So, lots of new plantings to go in to the vegie garden now, I should receive my garlic tomorrow, so I can get those in as well, and I will be picking up some more seedlings over the next few days to refill the empty spaces. Lots to do as usual.

Silent Nagging...

Damian and Michael have headed up to the property today... they have gone up to prep the slab for the shed, which, depending on the weather, will be poured this weekend. If the rain up there is as heavy as it has been down here, then it may have to be put off, as I'm not sure we could get trucks in! So, I did my housework this morning, and then because the day has been very heavy rain, I got a little bit crafty. I was looking at signs similar to this on ebay, and was nearly going to buy them, until I remembered my digital scrapbooking program, and decided I would make my own. This is the first one I have finished, and it has come up a treat.

I have now hung it in the loo, as silent nagging a gentle "reminder".  I have also made some up for the bathroom, laundry and kitchen, so I am hoping it reminds my darling children to bloody well clean up after themselves :) I need to find some more frames or display ideas for the rest of the signs I have made, and then I will post some photos once I have done them. Got to go and set up the sewing machine now to do some embroidery for a friend that she has been waiting on since before Xmas....

Decluttering and Baking

I have had a busy couple of days. I was so sick of trying to scrounge my way through some of the kitchen cupboards and drawers to find things, I just started on one of my big pot drawers with all of the baking trays, as I just updated my baking trays as my old ones were looking really grungy, and then it just sort of steam rolled from there...before I knew it, my car was full of kitchen appliances, old plastics, trays, etc etc, but I can actually find things in there now...so I donated it all to the charity store, and on Saturday night I completely overhauled the linen cupboard, because I was sick of chucking the towels and linen in the cupboard and quickly shutting the doors so things would stay in there...so now we only have about a dozen towels, teatowels and washers, and a few sets of sheets, etc, but still absolutely plenty of linen. Getting the cupboards re-done will be on the agenda very shortly, as they all need to be re-shelved, so I wanted to cull the contents down as much as possible, so that it's easier when I have to empty them all out to paint, before getting the new shelving put in, and the new doors on. The excess linen absolutely filled the entire back of my car to the brim....but looks so much better now. I spent the weekend using up some of the produce in the freezer, and made up 5 1/2 kilos of pasta sauce base out of the home grown tomatoes from last season

It is now all in the deep freeze. I also used up the rhubarb from last season, and made up 2 rhubarb crumbles,

These are extremely yummy, especially with some home made custard, I also made up some rhubarb muffins, but they ended up way too moist in the centre, so I gave them to the chooks, so will change the recipe a little as they would have been really yummy if a bit lighter in the middle. I also made up some banana chocolate muffins, and these got the thumbs up from Kasey

So, we will be back up at the property later in the week, Damian should be going up Tuesday to get the machines in to prep for the slab for the shed, and they are going to pour the slab next Saturday. The cattle sales will be on  the Monday, but it will depend on a few things whether we will be able to get cattle this time around, as we need to be on the property for a least a few days after we get them to keep them in the yards and feed them etc, so I am not sure whether we can manage that with school starting back tomorrow. Kasey is so excited, she went to bed nearly on time, and has her bag packed and her school clothes out already, so I am nice and inspired to make her a nice healthy, yummy lunch in the morning, and then take her and settle her in for her first day in grade 3. So, probably another busy week coming up, I have to finish a baby blanket for a friend, so I will need to pull the sewing machine back out and get that done, and a few wedding preservations to finish off to get those out the door, and then I am going to only take on very limited wedding work for the rest of the year while we are working out the new property and travelling back and forth between here and there. So, a very productive weekend, and it looks like some more rain coming our way this week, which will be great for the gardens.

More work on the farm...

Day 1:  Have arrived up back up to the property today after Xmas. The water tank was dropped off at the gully as the truck couldn't get through it, so we will pick it up tomorrow on the truck. Everything looks fine, caravan is good, we have a load of gravel coming in this avo which we will get the machine to push in the morning so the other truck can get through with the septic tank. Tomorrow the septic tank and trenches will be done, and the water tank installed and a load of water coming in.  
Day 2: The septic tank was installed today as was the water tank. It was a very hot day, about 32 degrees...we had an excavator and a bobcat here. The water truck arrived late this afternoon to fill up the tank, so we now have water.

(Digging The Trench)

 (Site Supervisor)

( Damian on the excavator)

 (Filling the septic tank with water)

 (Filling the water tank with water)

 (Damian and Max relaxing after a busy, hot day)

Day 3:  The machines finished up here this morning, doing the last bit of backfilling and boring the holes for the toilet block and some fruit trees. Damian concreted in the posts for the toilet block and I planted the few fruit trees we brought up with us. We started to put up the toilet block today. The previous owner Jimmy turned up and gave us a few papers etc relevant to the property. Rick and Marina turned up with our quad, and Rick then helped Damian finish putting up the toilet block and to sheet it. It looks fantastic. 

  Damian got up early this morning and installed the toilet. We now have a flushing toilet!!

 Ann and Dennis arrived this afternoon, and will spend New Years Eve here. It was a fairly quiet night, and we were in bed by about 11pm. 
Day 8:  We have spent the last couple of days a bit more relaxed. Today we went into Bundaberg to look at quads and tractors, and had lunch in Bargara. We stopped at the hardware on the way home and bought a push mower to mow the orchard, then called in to Gin Gin on the way home and did a load of washing. When we got back we mowed to orchard, it looks really good now.

 Tomorrow we will spray around the outer base of the trees to repel the weeds and then use the grass cuttings to mulch around the trees, to retain the moisture while we are back at home and not giving them a regular watering, and then we will head back home the following day.

Christmas 2011

Well Christmas is done and dusted in our household for another year. It was a very rushed downhill run into Christmas, and I didn't manage to get everything finished that I would have liked to, but anyway, it all worked out well. Kasey was tapping me awake at 5.30 this morning, and she was happy to watch tv for a while until we got up about 6.30. It was actually funny, as we decided this year to give Kasey more worthwhile presents, instead of lots of little things that don't get used. So we had a word with Santa, and asked him to not give Kasey so much this year, and as I walked out this morning Kasey turned to me and motioned to the smaller pile of presents from Santa and said..."that's it...that's all I got..." with a very unimpressed look on her face...however, she was actually totally fine with it, and has received more than enough from both Santa, us, her brother and sister, and her aunts, uncles and grandparents, cousins etc, and has gone off to sleep tonight tired but happy, and not overwhelmed by too many things....which has been great, as she has been so easy to get along with today, unlike previous years where she has had a meltdown as the day has worn on.
Unfortunately, the day has not been all great, when we got home I went up to check the clucky hen, who had 1 baby chick 2 days ago, and still has 10 eggs under her to hatch, to find the baby chick gone....we don't know where it has ended up, but my thought is that a rat has taken it..we have a big rat plague problem here at the moment. We pulled up some metal sheets that were on the ground, and the dogs got about another six or so rats this afternoon, but there is still lots more up there to get.....I have managed to move the clucky hen this afternoon into the protected large cage which a rat would not hopefully be able to get in to, it only has spaces about 10mm wide, so I am hoping that will protect any new hatchings from them...I don't know if we are going to get anymore to hatch or not, as there has been no more since 2 days ago when they were due...we will see what happens over the next few days, but it's not looking really good at this point, and may have been a futile exercise both for the hen and for us. Disappointing....
Damian and Kasey are both asleep, and all presents have been put away, and the washing is on and the house is tidy, all rubbish from today has been boxed up ready to go to the tip, so I will be heading to bed soon. We need to pack tomorrow as we will be heading back up to the property on Tuesday for a week or so, hopefully there hasn't been too much rain up there at the moment, so we can get the gully in the access road fixed so that delivery trucks can get in and deliver the supplies for the septic to be installed.  Damian has built a fantastic little flatpacked bathroom which will have a flushing toilet and a shower etc, to make it much easier for when we stay for extended periods, or for when we have visitors to the property. We are really looking forward to it. Michael and Toni are staying behind, and will look after things here for us, and monitor any new babies that may be born up at the chookhouse and relocate them to the chicken tractor once it is safe to do so

Our new adventure

So, it's now official. We now own 152 acres of property about 4 hours north of where we are now, near Bundaberg. We spent our first weekend on the property last weekend, and will be heading up again after boxing day for a week or 2. It's just land, no house, so a big clean slate. We already have lots of plans for when we head back up, and we are getting a big water tank and toilet and shower shed put up while we are up there next. Currently we stay in our van when there, overlooking the mountains...lovely. Lots of new adventures waiting for us...

 The property is a good mix of flat areas and undulating areas, and lots of waterholes and gullies for building more dams if we want. The view over the mountains is gorgeous. Friends camped with us on the property over the weekend and their 2 boys and Kasey went exploring and played in the trees all weekend, poor Kasey was absolutely stuffed! This was about 5 minutes after leaving the property on Monday....

There is a large amount of timber just sitting around the property which will need to be pushed up and tidied up, but we won't be short of firewood for a very long time! At this stage we are looking at building a house over the next 12 months or so, but that will all pan out as we have the time to do it.