Chooks!

We have been itching to get chooks ever since we made the decision to move to our NSW property.  So, from soon after moving in, work began on modifying an existing aviary to be our chook house - the Chookery.  This turned out to be a slightly bigger job than we initially anticipated.  The partitions needed to be cut out, together with the steel mesh floor, and additional roofing installed to provide a larger covered area.  The interior was also completely overgrown with weeds. 

The 'before' photos below don't do justice to the amount of work required, but do show the scale of the new Chookery.

What used to be vege gardens outside the former aviary were also overgrown with weeds, and required forking, then hoeing to get to a reasonable state to be able to plant anything.


There were also sizeable stones throughout which suggests that the soil is from somewhere on this property - a heavy soil with reasonable clay content.  Where are Perth's lovely sandy soils?
 
There are now herbs planted in these beds, which are covered effectively with some of the wire that was cut out from the aviary.








But now the Chookery is practically complete, and we have welcomed 7 hens.






View from the Chookery

After only two nights, we have even had our first egg.  Some might say a slow start, but a start nevertheless.

 Boiled egg, anyone?
 
 



Settling in



Ian on his tractor making light work of moving steel mesh.

We are starting to settle in and now that the weather has fined up somewhat, we are tackling some jobs around the place. 









Michelle mowing


Who knew mowing the lawn could actually be fun?


I have also made a start on filling the shade house with the cuttings and pieces of plants I brought over from Perth.  I am very pleased to say that all of them survived and seem to be off to a good start.  They are the meagre line up of coloured pots to the left in the photo.



I hope the photo below shows the scale of the shade house - it is huge!  Ian has challenged me that I cannot fill it.  Ha!!  Just watch me !!  However, I am open to suggestions as to how I might tidy it up a bit.  There are weeds coming up through the shade cloth floor, which I am reluctant to use weed killer on, and equally as reluctant to weed by hand.  All suggestions welcome.

The shade house.

And last but not least, our 'girls' Didi and Gigi have also settled in well.  They arrived on Monday 4 March after 2 weeks in a boarding cattery, and have only recently fully recovered from the cat flu they arrived with.  They are now back to full health and are the bosses of the household, as usual.

That's all for now.  Hope to hear from you soon.




The locals

Now that we live in the country, we are getting to know a different kind of 'local.'

This mother and joey visit us daily (along with many other of their species).  We are yet to see the joey actually get out of the pouch as yet.  Needless to say any vege gardens will need to be well secured.

There are also the resident steers which are agisted on our property by our neighbour.  It's nice to have some company out here in the bush.

And last but not least - leeches !!  Here is a photo of one of Ian's sexy legs.  This is the first time - ever - he has had a leech on his skin.  Needless to say he took it like a man and now wears boots and trousers when traversing the lower paddocks :)

View of serenity

View across the backyard to the bottom dam.



Also looking across the backyard towards Blue Knob.



The house dam.

Here's a couple of pics of our new yard.  It rained every day for a week from the time we moved in, so there's plenty of cloud cover in these photos.

More pics to come soon.

Moving Day

Friday 1 March - the time had finally come to move in to our little piece of serenity...



View into the workshop which adjoins the 'house.'

The boxes for the kitchen seemed endless.  The packer from the removalist company said he had never seen so many jars.  I really couldn't possibly comment (especially since I had already packed several boxes of them myself !!). 

But no matter how much the removal company does for you, there is always so much work moving house. 


Ian in hammock near house dam.

We hope you will enjoy our blog !