Tuesday 22 July 2014

Old things and new.


A very old bottle, over one hundred years old, found by the crew putting in our new sewerage system, it makes me want to dig up our whole 2 acres and see what other treasures lay hidden beneath them. It's an aerated waters bottle from the eureka brewery in Ballarat, they also found a J. Bosisto eucalyptus oil bottle, and large chunks of bluestone, perhaps offcuts from the remnants of a bluestone miners cottage that resides under our bedroom.

You know you're in the country when, it's not a stray dog that ends up on your doorstep, but a stray horse!
This beautiful beasty gave me quite a surprise one morning, perhaps to help me get my overgrown grass under control, and to eat our sheep's hay that we kept dry under the verandah. Speaking of animals trespassing, we lost two chickens and a few were injured when our wood delivery guy brought his little jack Russell with him, our girls were free ranging in the backyard when the jack Russell spotted them, it was a very sad day, they have been buried in places I plan to plant fruit trees, But Hennypenny Chookles, and John (named for the master chief of course) will be missed. sadder for me was the decision to end their suffering, and I am grateful for having the friends we do, as I could not have been the one to do the deed, and Justin was at work when it happened.

I'm fostering this chicken for those same wonderful friends, 17yo spawn has already named her Marilyn Monfro, and she is keeping one of our injured chickens company in our hatching hutch.

We have been a little guilty of our chickens invading other peoples yards too, there are five naughty hens who for the past 3 days I've let them out of the run to roam, have gone to my neighbours property and had a ball, the rooster is too big to squeeze through the holes in the fence, so he just stands there crowing, and tempting the girls back to this side of the fence with worms, it's cute to watch, I now have to research how to clip my girls wings. I didn't ever want to do that, to give them a chance at avoiding predators by flying into trees, but if they're going to go digging in other peoples yards, it's time to to get the snip. 

With Justin working 7 days a week, things are slow to get done, he does small things when he can, like this small fence to keep chickens out of our western paddock. Note the destroyed veggie patch behind him, the new veggie patch will be in the western paddock, as soon as we hang a new gate from the adjoining back paddock, otherwise I'll be trading my chicken vandal problem for a sheepish dilemma.

He did take a rare day off to take us to sovereign hill, where we had an old family photo redone. 

This is us six years ago, it feels like a blink in time, six years should not go by that fast. 

Just look at how grown up they all are! The photographer was wonderful, helping us have it done as close to the original as she could. 

I need to go rinse the bright orange dye from my hair, it's been blue these past few months and I feel like a change. 

Here's to at least organised chaos in the next few weeks,

Bek.

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Life as we know it...




The slow life is not so slow, but it's a very different kind of fast, and I'm happy. 
It's been nearly a year since I last posted, a year of missed opportunity to write down our experiences to look back on, to compare then and now. How then to catch up without overwhelming you or future me? I wanted to create a video with all of my photos, but iMovie and I are not speaking the same language right now, here is the condensed version.

We turned this
Into this...
By way of this
The boxes we moved with were laid over the area, old bricks were used to make some of the beds, and dirt was piled in arch shapes and covered in mulch, and gravel laid everywhere in between. We were able to reuse some pallets to make the fence.

We've had some fun and exhausting times...
No one sleeping is safe from me mwahahahah!

And we have had lots of help and family cooperation...

So that we could have these...


Who laid these

And hatched these...


Thanks to a friend I shall call the chicken sage, and her husband, for the eggs that Bacon hatched, 14yo spawn named her. 

The chicken sage invited us for a swim in the dam,


And today she helped me make Jam. 



It was delicious, the chicken sage used her blood plums, her Jam was sweet and tangy.

I used the beautiful Damson plums, that 17yo spawn picked...

...until dusk with her daddy...
In our own back paddock.

It has been a wonderful first year, and I can cross a few things off my wish list.

Be happy,

Bek.