I'm not really liking 2013 a lot at this point in time. Money seems to be very tight everywhere, jobs are scarce, and changes are being forced upon us whether we like it or not. Damian's paid employment finished up on Monday which leaves both of us not currently in paid employment. We have been trying to re-establish our own business again since moving here, and we will be pushing that fairly heavily now. He has a few jobs in the pipeline which should come to fruition, but I think things will be a bit tough over the next little while. The positive though is that he has so much to do here at the farm, that he may now have the time to do them, and I am well and truly over being a single parent for the last 3 years while he has been working away. I have been busy in the kitchen today so far. I still have a lot of lemons to use up, so this morning I made a batch of lemon cordial, I drink way too much coke zero, so I want to change over to something else. There is a lot of sugar in cordial though, but it is very refreshing.

I have also made up a batch of anzac style meusli bars for lunchboxes, much cheaper and better for you than the bought ones. The recipe had a lot of sugar in it, so I cut back on that by about 1/2 and they are still quite sweet, so will cut it back a bit more next time.

And I also finished off a big jar of nutella on Kasey's sandwich this morning, and I have had recipes in my files for ages on how to make it, so I finally bit the bullet and made some....oh my goodness....YUM!! I used this recipe.

It is so decadent, and just delicious. It cost about $10 to make about 1.2 kilos of nutella, but I think if I can source the hazelnuts at a better price, I could do it much cheaper, as I had to buy them in small packets at the local supa IGA. I only used home brand dark cooking chocolate, but I find if I add a tablespoon of good quality cocoa to this, that it improves the taste of the cheaper chocolate into something really yummy. I will definitely make it again. I also used home made condensed milk, I don't buy that anymore either, and I use this recipe.
I purchased a cheap little greenhouse at the Reject shop a couple of weeks back, so I am going to put that together and get some seedlings up and running and get my vegie garden going a bit more seriously to save some more money. We are heading down to Brisbane tomorrow for an 80th birthday celebration for Damian's dad on the weekend, so I am hoping to pick up some point of lay hens while I am down there, so that my egg supplies don't dwindle too much with no layers left. Damian and I have been discussing ways to ensure that a fox does not get in the pen again, so we are going to secure their current pen even more and we will look at a more professional setup for my different breeds over the coming months, once I start to get them re-established again, but that will take time.Anyway, got some work to do, so I had better go and do it.

Yeasty things and cranky chookens

This is day 2 of my sourdough starter....it appears to be doing it's yeasty thing

I fed it with a little more flour and water today, so we'll see how it looks tomorrow. I have some cranky chookens at the moment, they were all locked up today until about an hour before dark when I let them out to free range to keep them safe from the resident eagle...my plymouth rock rooster was cranky, I still have the mark on my hand where he bit and decided to hold on until I smacked him...naughty boy...
Does anyone have a surefire way to get rid of this eagle...other than a 22??

Predator birds, and farm goings on...

I lost my adolescent light sussex rooster yesterday to an eagle. The eagle was an awesome sight...I didn't realise he was even around until he came back for a 2nd hit and all of the chickens and guinea fowl were carrying on and squawking, I went out to see them all running for cover to hide, and then I spotted the eagle, and the remaining pile of feathers, this was all that was left.

The rest of the chooks obviously saw what he did to the little rooster, and now realise they have to run for cover in an eagles' presence. I am hoping that they now know the drill and that I won't lose any more. They have never encountered an eagle before, so they didn't seem to realise it was a threat, but they do now. Our new bull has started to get to work on the girls, the jersey seems to be the first that has come in to season since his arrival, he has been hanging around her all the time, and trying to mount her, she isn't quite ready yet, but I don't think it will be long.

Hopefully in about 9-10 months I will have a cow to milk. I will need to start to work with her after a few more months and try to get her tame and used to coming in to a stall etc. as she hasn't had a calf before.
I started to make a sourdough starter last night, I am hoping it starts to ferment soon.

I haven't made a true sourdough bread before, so it will be a learning experience. I finished drying the large pick of chillies that I got from the track in to our property, I got quite a large jarfull, so hopefully that will see me right for chillies for the year. I also juiced up the 50 odd lemons from the neighbours tree, I think I ended up with about 15 cups of juice, which are all now in the freezer waiting for use.

I did use up 1/2 a cup of juice today, I made this yummy lemon loaf with lemon glaze, it's very nice, I didn't cook it long enough though, it's quite difficult cooking cakes in my George Foreman benchtop oven, as the heat is so close to the items being cooked it burns the top but doesn't cook through. The skewer came out clean, but after I took it out and it cooled, I realised it wasn't completely cooked so I did lose a little of the cake out of the centre, never mind, it is delicious anyway.

 Damian will get around to connecting up my gas oven soon I hope, then I can make a decent cake again.

Lemon Loaf

INGREDIENTS

· 1 1/2 cups flour
· 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 3 eggs, room temp
· 1 cup sugar
· 2 tablespoons butter, softened
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 teaspoon lemon extract
· 1/3 cup lemon juice
· 1/2 cup oil
· zest of one lemon

Glaze:
· 1 cup powdered sugar
· 2 tablespoons whole milk
· 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract


DIRECTIONS

1 .Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
2 .In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3 .In a medium bowl, combine eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon juice with a mixer until blended.
4 .Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Add oil and lemon zest and mix well.
5 .Pour into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (It took an hour in my oven). Remove from oven and pour glaze over it, then cool in pan on a rack.
6 .Glaze - whisk to combine, pour over top of cake.

I also planted up some garlic bulbs today, I still have to do the other half, but I need to get another foam box from the local IGA and then I can finish planting them up

They are now covered in dirt and watered in, so now I just need to wait for them to start to sprout.

Everything in my little veg garden temporary setup seems to be coming along really well. I am finding this small garden quite easy to manage as I don't want to take on too much there at the moment. So, I am on the lookout for a couple of alpacas to add to the farm. I have been wanting them for a few years now, and now that I have a hungry eagle to contend with, my chooks need a guardian, and from what I understand the alpacas will do that for me...and hopefully they will keep an eye on the 2 little dogs as well, as that is worrying me with a big eagle around. I am working on finishing off doing the mulching in the garden area around the house, hopefully I can get that finished over the next few days. I have also found some lovely new little Australian farm blogs thanks to Liz over at Eight Acres, and I am enjoying having a read through those, there are some very inspiring people out there.  The newby chickens are enjoying free ranging, I have a feeling I may have lost one of the adolescent guinea fowl to the eagle as well, I can't find it, I am hoping that it turns up

They young ones are also starting to work out the feeder and large waterer as well, I place a stopper in the feeder during the day so the smaller ones can feed without risk of them being caught until they are heavy enough to lift the lid with the treadle feeder on their own,

The little wyandotte pullet is growing fast'

Newby araucana's and guinea fowl are getting bigger

And the newbies are all learning how to use the big drinker as well

It makes life easier when there is just one feeder and drinker to worry about filling up rather than different ones for different chooks. The new adult wyandotte rooster has also settled in well, no major fights now and he has his own little girl followers

And I also managed to get some little maran chickens, I have been waiting to get these for a while now, they lay very dark chocolate brown eggs

So, now that it looks like I may have lost another bird today, I think freeranging may be off the cards until I can move this eagle on :( or get some protective alpacas....we are also getting there with our little Bichon Frise Stella, she is now about 2.3 kgs, and we had to have her baby teeth surgically removed on Saturday as they weren't coming out on their own and were all going rotten and her breath was really bad. Unfortunately, not having had the proper diet at her previous home has not given her teeth the right start, but now she is getting a healthy and mixed diet hopefully her adult teeth will fare much better. Even though she is still quite small, her frame is starting to fill out now, and her bones can't be felt like they could when we first got her, she still has a way to go, but she is getting there and starting to really come out of her shell as well.

Anyway, I'm off to look for alpacas :)

2 new girls and a new fence

I spent last Wednesday building a fence to keep the chickens contained down the back part of the property, to protect them from Reggie and also the other 2 dogs, who are starting to copy Reg and get too excited around them now. So, I have put a stop to it all, and penned them in. I clipped the wings on the chickens, and on the guinea fowl, but the guinea fowl still fly out anyway, but the dogs seem to leave them alone, so not a real problem at this stage. So they don't have as big an area to roam around in now, probably only the size of a normal suburban block to roam in, but I now let them out first thing in the morning instead of later in the day, as they can't come up on to the verandahs and poop all over them, which they tended to do when out all day with full run of the yard. But, I can now get some ornamental chickens to keep as well, without having to worry about them with the dogs. Belgian D'uccles are definitely on my list!

                                      
It is so wet around here, the ground is squelching under our feet. The sun is out today though, so hopefully things will start to dry out now. I am in the process of ordering in some dwarf bamboo's to put along this new fence line, to make the fence look better, and to also hopefully solve the problem of the wet areas along there, as the bamboo should dry those areas out. We also went out on the weekend and added 2 new additions to our cattle numbers. A lovely little jersey heifer, she is 18 months old, and came in to her first season last week. We will probably wait about 6 months or so before getting her put in calf, I will look at getting her put in to a Jersey bull and see if I can get a 2nd girl to keep the milk supply going for us once we start milking.

We also picked up a lovely little Hereford heifer, we may keep her to breed from down the track.

So at the moment they are in the front paddock at home, and we will take them up to the farm over the next couple of weeks.

So, lots to do around here today, flowers to order for a wedding next month, house and cabin plans to get to the architect, and a couple of bouquet preservations to work on. Also, some school lunch baking to get done, and need to get back in to cleaning out the sheds in preparation for our re-location to the farm a little down the track.

Weekend happenings and running on empty!

I am running on empty today, I didn't get to sleep last night until 11pm, and because I am trying to not take my tablet to help me sleep, I have been awake since 3am....blah...very tired, but surprisingly productive.

I have organised a few more guinea fowl to come in tomorrow, that are the same age as the 2 I have left, so that we are back up to 6 again. I also have a clucky hen at the moment, so I have organised for a half dozen day old chicks to come up tomorrow to place under her. I have a mix of Anconas, plymouth rocks and silver spangled hamburgs coming. I should also have a few ancona pullets coming up as well. I think quite a few of the girls are ageing and their laying capacity has dwindled , as out of 8 girls we are only averaging 1 or 2 eggs a day, and that has been since spring last year..so time to start bringing some new ones in to bring the laying capacity back up.  I'm happy to let the older girls live out their lives happily as they have done a good job with the egg laying, so now they are more for fertilising and eating some bugs.

I have been also organising a few final inside touches for the reno this morning as well. The weekend was relatively quiet, I spent most of the weekend keeping my sewing machine whirring away working on my wall art for the main bedroom, and I dug out the french knitting tool for Kasey yesterday, and she spent most of the day getting the hang of that, she absolutely loves it, and is currently working on a round rug for her floor (which she has conveniently given me the job of sewing together for her)  Then I think she will start work on covering some tins for storage containers on her desk. I will look at also getting her a rectangle knitting loom which is based on the same principle, but she will be able to make scarves and things with, but I will give that to her when we go away at Easter or whenever the novelty starts wearing off with the french knitting tool first.

I also did some baking for lunches and make pikelets,

 Chocolate yogo,

 and Hodgetts slice

So, lots of variety there for snacks to take to school, and for after school. I also placed an order with Fishpond last week, and 2 of my books arrived this morning.

I am waiting on another cheesemaking book on more of the soft cheeses, yoghurts, creme fraiche etc to arrive as well as a couple of cake decorating books. I am going to pop them away and take them with me on our Easter holiday as my easter reading...I just need to be patient...not long to go, Kasey finishes school this week for the term, it has gone so fast. I have booked her in for a kids easter cupcake decorating class next week, so she can bring her creations with her to share with her friends over easter. So..that's the update for today...lots going on as usual...
**Hour a day in the Garden Update - I have done 3 hours in the garden today, as I missed the last couple of days due to other commitments, so I made up for it today, I did 1 1/2 hours of mowing, (it is still really wet though, so only could do the front area until the back dries out more) and 1 1/2 hours of planting, I planted some Qld Arrowroot and Kassava in the pool area, I am hoping the Arrowroot gives the area a tropical look without having to have palms everywhere as they can get pretty messy. I have also planted Vietnamese Mint, Lemongrass, Mushroom plant, 3 types of sweet potato - purple, clumping and orange, and I know there is something else but I can't think at this stage what it is. I still have some pennyroyal to plant, and a Davison Plum, but I think I will plant that up at the property when we go up at the end of next week.