Out and about

The Channon Markets
Every third Sunday of the month, weather permitting, the Channon markets are held at the Channon, about 30 mins from our place along what must be the worst road in the country, seriously.  Lucky there is always something to make the trip worthwhile, like this guy lying on a bed of nails.  Yes, the volunteer from the crowd did drop the bowling ball onto his stomach.  Ouch.

There is always a band, and this drum band was excellent, very entertaining.

And of course, what kind of market would it be without food.  Read and weep, Mum.  Mmmm, waffles.....

Closer to home:
Monty & friend
We don't see Monty too often, but he appeared last week trying to cross the driveway.

And we've discovered another local, this echidna was rustling around in the garden very close to the house a couple of nights ago. 

Chicken Whisperers
The chooks are in the habit of following me around, Ian says it's because I am their meal ticket.  He's probably right.  The cats follow us around the property as well.  So when we were planting out the berry canes last week, we expected to be followed.  But we didn't expect the cats and hens to get quite so friendly.  To give the cats their due they were very well behaved, but were nevertheless watched very closely to make sure they did not help themselves to an early dinner.

New addition
This lovely little chicken is the new addition to our flock.  Isn't she lovely?

And, finally, the hens have just today achieved a record lay of 5 eggs in one day.  To celebrate we are having  bacon and egg pie for dinner.  Better go and check the oven.

Food glorious food

Although we are yet to harvest much of our own home grown produce, we have been able to start brewing and preserving type activities over the last month or so.  To date, we have made our own:

• bourbon
• rum
• gin
• stout
• lager
• rhubarb fizz (supposedly alcoholic)
• tomato sauce
• passionfruit cordial
• worcestershire sauce
• curry paste

We have also made a very yummy passionfruit curd - not shown in the photo because we ate it all.  The only thing that would improve these items, I think, is using our own home grown produce.

What we do have already growing on the property are

• tahitian limes
• lemons
• lychees
• mangoes
• mulberries
• mandarins
• walnuts
• black sapote
• native finger limes
• and lots of other bush tucker trees that we can't remember all the names of, including lemon aspen, davidson plums, some sort of cherry, lilly pillies. 

And there are a few other things that are too young to bear fruit for a few years yet (pears, oranges, apples).  The limes will be mostly put to lime marmalade (saving some for Michelle's G&T of course) and once the lemons are ripe I think, lemonade, preserved lemons and lemon curd will be next on the pantry shelves.

You might be thinking that's quite a lot of fruit trees, and combined with the vege gardens will be a fair amount of work.  But, you can never have too much of a good thing, and so we will be planting raspberries, blackberries and grapes in the near future.  In fact, we have already ordered the berry canes, and here is the site we have chosen, quite close to the house in what we call the 'Septic Paddock' because that is where the septic trenches are.

Septic Paddock looking towards house.  Grass is longer on the soakage trenches.

We've also completed the second vegetable growing area, and now need to fence / bird net the area before we can plant.

First vege beds installed are under the shade structure.

Wildlife !

In the last week or so we have come across more of the local wildlife.

There are a few flying foxes that visit trees next to the house and a rather cute unidentified marsupial that travels along the gutter.

Ian went out into the workshop the other night to check on the home brew and the girls ...only to find the cats staring up towards the roof at a 2 metre python (later named "Monty") . Monty had a pronounced " bulge" which restricted his ability to squeeze out under the roofing but eventually found a way to the outside. We haven't seen him since, but we're on the look out, and the door to the workshop is now firmly closed at all times.

We have been visiting the markets in the area, comparing and contrasting between them all.  The Channon markets are quite good, with a mix of produce, plants, and homemade / handmade items of clothing, soaps, jewellery etc.  Unfortunately they were cancelled this month due to bad weather.  Each of the markets has their own kind of atmosphere, and as you would probably imagine, are all pretty laid back and have a type of hippy / children of the earth kind of undercurrent.

The Nimbin markets are always interesting to look around, and there is always a band playing and food stalls.  This Sunday we were amused to see a local walking her pet goat along the street.  Only in Nimbin.

The girls are settling in well...

Ian always wanted to be a Lumberjack...

As the weather is getting cooler our thoughts turn to lighting the wood fire, and the need for fire wood.  In pursuit of his lumberjacking aspirations, Ian bought a chainsaw.  Fortunately one of our neighbours used to be a woodcutter and has been able to provide some invaluable tips for chainsaw use and wood cutting technique.  There are a few trees already fallen on the property, which have dried out somewhat, so we started with one of those.

View of Lumberjack and ride on mower (RHS) used to transport gear & cut wood.

The Lumberjack (note PPE, incl chaps - yeah baby !!)

If you are not familiar with Monty Python's lumberjack song, see this link:
http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/monty-python-lyrics/lumberjack-song-lyrics.html

Updates:

• Egg production has doubled !!  That's right 7 hens are producing 2 eggs per day.  I estimate the overall PF to be 3.5.  Not good but an improvement from 7.
• The vege seeds have mostly germinated.  Winter tomatoes have not come up yet.
• Sunshine.  We've had about 1 week of lovely fine weather (finally), so here are some photos of the house / shed.

Above ground pool in front of house / living area.  Hen house is behind the palm trees in the centre of the photo.

Ian is walking in front of the part of the shed that is enclosed as the house / living area. 



Note solar panels, water tanks and Spitfire under cover,(Spitty now used to drive up and collect the mail and frighten the wallabies)



Veges - what we planted

Opps, sorry, forgot to tell everyone what we actually planted !  Here's the list, in no particular order:

• broad beans (seed)
• garlic (cloves)
• onions, white & brown (seed)
• carrots (seed)
• broccoli (seedlings raised from seed by Michelle)
• cauliflower (seedlings raised from seed by Michelle)
• peas (seed)
• rainbow chard (seed)
• tomatoes (seedlings that came up wild, and were potted up for a few weeks)
• leeks (seed)
• celery (seed)

We have left room for successive sowings of cauli, broccoli, tomatoes and broad beans.  There is also 1/2 bed left for potatoes.  Seed potatoes are not available for another few weeks.

I am suspicious that the tomatoes are actually cherry tomatoes which seem to be everywhere around the property.  If my suspicions are confirmed their lives will be very short.  I have already germinated some ox heart tomatoes which are too small to plant out yet.  And I will be planting seed from winter tomato varieties called Siberia, Russian Red, Giant Tree Tomato and Stupice.  These winter tomato seeds were part of a Burke's Backyard giveaway from last year (or possibly the year before).  Hopefully the germination rate will be high.  Can't wait to make tomato sauce and passata from our own tomatoes.

Veges are sown

Ok so it has taken a little while, but the vege garden is up and running.  Here's how we went about it:

1.  buy a Toyota hilux
2.  buy a brushcutter
3.  clear area to be planted
4   have soil delivered
5.  buy mulch bales - only $4 each - bargain.
6.  buy fencing materials to keep roo's out
7.  fence vege patch
8.  spread mulch in an effort to smother grass and weeds
9.  spread soil to create vege beds
10. plant seeds and seedlings
11. survey damage caused by use of tractor

Of course, not all the above steps are necessary for the home gardener.  You may elect to omit steps 1, 2 and 11 (at your own risk).



Hilux transporting mulch bales

The bales are spread.  Spare ones were moved with the carry all on the 4wd ride on mower.

The finished article.

Oh dear.

We knew this would happen.  Initially we were waiting for the weather to clear up and the track to dry out, but we eventually realised it could be months till this area dries out (when the rain eventually stops).  So, we decided to save our backs and use the tractor.  The soil was spread in only half a day.  As for the track, we were planning to put a more stable base down anyway.

One final update, have you ever seen basil leaves this size?  The plants themselves aren't that big, but the leaves are massive (black pen incl to show scale).  The hard job will be keeping the chooks away from them.



Veges (sort of)

I'm sure you will all know of our enthusiasm for home grown veges.  So it was only a matter of time till we could install a vege patch here at Seven Springs.  You may recall mention of clay soils in an earlier post.  Well, combine that with stones and rocks and you will start to understand the considerable physical workload required to install a vege patch in virgin ground.

Not one to shirk a bit of hard work, Ian dutifully dug several test holes, and declared that digging by hand would be utterly ridiculous and injurious to us both (can't afford another neck operation you see).  So we looked into ripper and cultivator attachments for the tractor.  At approx $3,000 we decided against this option also.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much of a second hand market for these things either.

So, reminiscent of our city lives and gardens, we have imported soil.  10cum of soil.  Ian's engineering brain has estimated that this will provide us with approximately 10 times the planting area that we had in Perth.  Seedlings of winter veg have been germinated in the shade house to start things off.

Here are a few before photos.  Oh, and did I mention the weeds?  We are off to Kyogle tomorrow to buy a brushcutter.  The city life whipper snipper is struggling.

At this stage we are creating beds under the shade structure.  Additional beds may be added to the level area next to the shade structure in the future.  No 'after' photos as yet.  Maybe in a week or so.

A couple of other updates:

• Each of the girls has had first hand contact with the electric fences.  Poor things.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  They are fine, but very wary of any fences.
• Chooks have settled in well (2 weeks now) but only one of the seven is laying !!   Aahhh !!  We hope it is due to youth and that they will all start laying in the near future.
• The locals are restless.  These two were fighting right next to the driveway this morning.