The Good Life

Ian tending market stall

We now have a market stall each Saturday morning at the local Blue Knob farmers market, selling whatever is in the garden at the time.  Current offerings are cucumbers, celery, beetroot, tomatoes, beans, eggs, finger limes and preserves.  The market is quite laid back and great fun - more like a social outing than work.  The very attractive preserves stand was made by Ian to Michelle's specifications, amid repeated comments of "I can make it bigger you know" and "I can make another one if you like" and "are you sure you don't want two?" which were all met with "if its too big it takes up too much room on the table, this one is perfect, it's exactly what I asked for, I don't want another one, this one is just right, thank you very much."

Nice apron, huh?

The already substantial vege patches now seem to be insufficient, so expansion plans are underway for additional beds in the septic paddock.  Regular blog readers may recall that the 'septic paddock' in front of the house has been planted with berries, figs, avocado and feijoa.  We have also added asparagus, rhubarb and grapes, and yet there is still room for more beds.  All the available space is both a blessing and a curse - plenty of room to do anything and everything, but gravely in danger of creating too much work for ourselves !

Perhaps surprisingly, the veges don't actually take that much work.  We wouldn't even spend two whole days per week tending them.  What does take work though is weed control - with the warm weather and a little rain they have gone berserk.  Check out these before and after photos.

Visitors would be forgiven for thinking we were farming weeds.

Foxy laying carpet as a weed suppression measure.

Much better.

The little chicks are growing incredibly rapidly, it seems every day they have changed colour or increased in size.  It's hard to believe they are already 3 weeks old.  We guess (because we really don't know) that we may have one rooster and two hens.  They were successfully moved to the completed chook tractor, and it will soon be time to set them up in the main hen house with adequate hiding spots so they can escape from the other hens and roosters should they need to.

Completed chook tractor with first residents installed.

Broody chook with chicks at 1.5 weeks old

Photo taken today, chicks 3 weeks old

Our other little residents, the calves, are quite amusing.  One day last week they cantered from the adjoining paddock, no cows in sight, like they had escaped their Mum's watchful eyes and were off to have an adventure.  It seemed they just wanted to visit with Foxy.  They stayed for about 15 mins, had a drink of water, then cantered back to where they came from.  Rosie and Nile are best mates, and go everywhere together.  We are expecting one more calf, due in a couple of weeks we think.

Rosie pushing through the gate to greet Foxy.  Nile is alongside.

Resting in the shade.

Our feathered and furry animal friends are a constant source of entertainment, we have fresh veges and eggs at our doorstep, and a social outing each Saturday, this really is the good life.

An egg is a lovely thing...

Seven Springs is pleased to announce the arrival of three new chicks.  They are absolutely adorable.  They arrived last Monday, approx. 3 days overdue.  You might remember from the last blog post that there were five fertilised eggs.  The other two eggs did not develop.  After doing some research there are apparently lots of reasons why this might be the case, including the ingress of bacteria which kills the developing chick if there is a crack in the egg.  In fact, there are lots of things that can go wrong with the 'natural' process of a hen going broody:
- the eggs may not be fertilised;
- the hen may abandon the nest part way through incubation;
- the eggs may not develop;
- the hen may attack the chicks as they are hatching;
- the hen may abandon the chicks soon after they hatch.
According to our research, there are no predictors for the calibre of mother a hen will make, she just has to have a go.  One thing does seem certain, if a hen is a bad mother once, then she will be again.  Thankfully this particular hen has turned out to be a good mum.

The chicks are now one week old and already they are noticeably bigger.  Ian is building a chook tractor which the mother and chicks will be relocated to in the next day or so.  

It's hard to get good help, fortunately Ian is a handy kinda guy.

Ian with workshop manager Foxy.

This is the first stage of integrating the new chicks into the flock, and broody chook back to the flock.  They can get close to the other hens and roosters, without being in danger.

In other news, and somewhat more mundane although picturesque, the dam pump was playing up the other day, not pumping water for some reason.  So Ian replaced the foot valve at the inlet pipe, and now all seems to be fine.  See?- handy kinda guy.

Looking approx NE towards the house from the top dam.