Busy Bees

Foxy & Baron - play mates.

Well it's been a little while since our last blog post.  Sorry.  But we have been busy bees, here's what's happening.

DA Approval (finally)
You might remember the building plans shown on Ian's "mans world" blog post earlier this year.  Finally we received DA approval and works have started.  Ian is owner builder, and we have subcontracted the pool installation and building of the new extension to lock up stage.  Negotiating the contract with the builder was fun (for Michelle), and we've accepted pricing for the internal staircase and kitchen cabinets.  Procurement is well underway for other items and all trades but the plumber have been nailed down.

Concrete removal to make way for new extension.

9m fibreglass pool is walked in.

It's far too cold to swim at the moment, but it is still great to have the pool in.  It's at least a sign of progress.

Ready to swim, just a little landscaping to be done.

Baron is king of the castle, well, spoil heap.

Milking continues
We are separating Baron and milking once per day.  Foxy is always helpful - she likes pollard almost as much as China.

Can you spot Foxy in this photo??

Cheese making continues.  This is a colby cheese drying prior to waxing.  It will need to age for about 3 months before being ready to eat.

Cheese making continues.

To market, to market
The market stall continues, and we have sufficient preserves, eggs and some fresh produce to make it worth our while each week.  This have slowed down during the cooler months, which gives us a little time to plan the Spring and Summer crops and market stall items.  And there was a surprise visitor at the market a few weeks ago.  The kasundi was pretty hot apparently.  This is Genevieve's stall, her potatoes are excellent.

Yabbies !
We visited PRIMEX again this year, a great exhibition of all things primary industry / agricultural.  This year as well as a couple of milking buckets we bought yabbies and silver perch fingerlings to stock two of the dams.  Don't worry, we didn't put them in together, or the fingerlings would be yabby food.  Looking forward to a taste test of each.

Ian releases the Yabbies.

Bees
Finally, the pun was intended, we now have bees !!  This photo was taken on the day we brought them home.  They seem happy, coming and going as they should, and we can see pollen on their legs when they return to the hive.  Now that they have settled in, we need to open the hive to check on things.  Maybe next blog we'll have a photo of the inside of the hive.

Greetings earthling.