GETTING READY...........

Things have been a little crazy in the last 2 years getting my business up and going and the last 12months moving it closer to the house.

Because I love what I do it doesn't seem like work at all.

I have noticed though I am not as prepared as I used to be. Prepared for what you ask?

Life and all it throws at you.

In 2011 we had the most devastating floods where people were killed, here stranded at our house was 16 people and we had plenty of food and produce to feed them.

If that same thing happened now and only 3 of us living here we would run out of food in 24 hours.

Yes I got off track for a while but am back on the path of being more sustainable and self sufficient.

Around 3 months ago we invested in 9 geese and 10 ducks...

The reason being was I couldn't keep up with the mowing and the grass in the food forest was knee high. Well they had that grass down within 2 weeks and I have not had to mow since...

We have a acre yard and no mowing...

 They are the quietest geese and will feed from my hand I am totally in love with these beautiful animals. They have the run of the farm but if I'm not on the veranda by 8am they are waiting at the bottom of the steps for their breakfast all 19 of them hahaha.

We now have 7 sheep both Bridget and Brenda had twins this year. We still have a little meat left in the freezer from last year. We will put 3 in the freezer and 1 is going to Cassie.

The piggies are growing and are doing a great job of cleaning the land for us.

They are both bound for the freezer as well. They are electric fence savvy and this way we move them to land we want cleaned up.

The glass house has been great for keeping plants in over winter and I love this room...

Sometimes on cold days I will go out there just to get warm and potter about.

We have bananas all year round now with the 6 different varieties we have.

The fruit trees are also doing well and keeping as in fruit we really only have to buy apples.

I have been a bit slack in the vege garden. Not much going on but herbs, plenty of herbs.

This is mainly because our daughter and hubby have a farm and they keep us in all the veges we need. I am getting ready to plant summer crops. Over winter we had kale, tomatoes and lettuce self seeding every where so were never with the basics.

With all the cabbages we get I have been making sauerkraut lots of it as we love it.

 Also making lots of pickles and relishes with all the gifted produce.

Back into bread making as well, I have started a sour dough and am 

making the first sourdough loaf today. 

We have our wood stove in and Bruce just needs to hook it all up and I will be able to bake my bread in it.....

As you can see we are getting there. I also did a big grocery shop this week and the shelves are full.

My main hindrance is I hate going to the supermarket, so getting self sufficient again will cut down on the times I need to go.

Do you stockpile? What measures do you take for natural disasters or just the fact that you are house bound and can't get out...

Enjoy your week

Mandy

Lazy Days.....

School is back on and our 2 weeks of Lazy days are over.

Spending time with William in the garden and just slowing down has been nice.

I love the light of Autumn and how it shines in through the door and warms the now cool mornings. I do love Autumn, I start to feel the need to sew and crochet and just make....

I am going to do some more sewing for the grand babies, Charlie has his first birthday coming up and the theme for his party is Indians so I am going to make him a out fit...

Also a dress for Sieanna and some little pants for Henry to start with..

I have also been experimenting with soap...

Below is Himalayan salt soap. Great for exfoliating your skin and help with healing blemishes.

Experimenting with soap making is so much fun and you are only limited by your imagination.

I am still doing 2 markets a month and enjoying them, but that is going to change soon as I start doing a weekly market.

Last Thursday I went with my friend to help her at the weekly Farmers market here in Toowoomba.

Bronwyn sells eggs and chickens all pasture raised. Well she got talking to the lady that is running the markets about my soap, and I was invited to have a stall. Very exciting.....We will share a stall for now  and I will see how things go..

One advantage of your best friend owning a chicken farm is I have stopped doing my own chickens and just get them straight from Bronwym....Having a brother move in that is also a poultry butcher helps in the piecing of the birds as well...

I still do something though.......the cooking,

 nothing like a nice chicken pie for dinner...

Today I am looking after this little princess for a couple of hours which has been lovely.

 I hope you all enjoy your week and in Australia the long week end coming up.

Blessings 

Mandy

Around the Farm.

                     This week I have been laid up at home after my procedure on my

leg...The good news is I got the all clear on my nose

so there will be no botox....which is just as well as I hate needles.

So I have been doing some cooking and fluffing around the house, funny

thing is when your told to stay still for a few days all I want to do is get up and do things.

These are super easy biscuits to make

2 cups almond meal

1 cup rapidura sugar 

2 eggs

bind all together and roll in wet hands so the mixture doesn't stick and

cook in a mod oven for 10-15 mins...

WARNING do eat the mixture before cooked as it tastes soooooo

good there will be none left....

Almond meal is quiet expensive so I buy the almonds and grind them up

in my thermomix.

I also use this mixture as a tart base with apples laid on top sprinkled with

cinnamon and sugar. yummo 

I got these recipes from Tania Hubbards book Gluten free Grain free. 

http://www.glutenfreegrainfree.com.au/gluten-free-blog/

Her recipes are so quick and easy go and check her site out.
I have turned these into jam drops, tarts, choc chip bics, ginger snaps what ever you want.

News Around the Farm.

Chooks

I have 3 new Araucana chooks, these little sweeties lay blue eggs.

Below you can see the difference in the eggs,brown, white and blue, they are a true blue colour aren't they pretty? and yes they taste the same and no the egg is not blue....True I have been asked that!!!

I have found that these girls a very flighty so I have had to keep them in a smaller

pen for now, I'm not sure if it is there nature or they need taming a little more.

My other exciting news is we have had our first lambs slaughtered...

Our first farm fresh meat.

We got both lambs done, there is a lot of roasts and chops some stewing meat as well.

Molly was on hand to help, she sat there the whole time watching me pack the meat up.

The only time she moved was when I put it into the baskets to take down to the freezer..

Other exciting news is next Tuesday I am flying to Melbourne for a few

days with my Mum and Alanah for a girly time.

I have never been to Melbourne so am so excited and looking forward to it.

Now if any one has any tips for where to go while we are there let me know.

 Have a great week end

Mandy

Week end...

How is your weekend going so far?

Friday saw William home from school with a tummy bug when I rang the school there where a few away so something was going around.

As I had made chicken pie for Tea Thursday night I had a nice chicken stock sitting in the fridge.

I made William a nice batch of chicken soup and he liked it!!!

 Meanwhile the chicken pie was left in the oven a little to long.....

Still tasted good though.

Saturday saw me blending up a lot off tomatoes. I decided to try something different this time. As I still have a good stockpile of tomato sauce and pasta sauces in the pantry I thought I would try freezing tomato sauce. All I did was blend up the uncooked tomatoes, basil, oregano and garlic in the thermomix and then put the sauce into stackable containers. My plan is I can then use the mix as base for soup or pasta sauce. At the moment I have plenty of freezer space so this works well.

Saturday evening we lit up the big pile of palm tree waste and had our selves a good ole fashioned bon fire. We had a great night with family and friends.

This morning it was all looking much cleaner.

In this photo below you can see to the right how big the pile was. It was a real eye sore and needed to be cleaned up.

Today I am having a day of nothing which includes a little reading, a little knitting may also be fitted in.

Enjoy your Sunday

Mandy

Bread and gardening.......

Hi All

I have been experimenting with bread. I have been making different types of sweet bread for the boys for afternoon tea. Below is some scrolls I made, on the inside I sprinkled cocoa and sugar. I have also put dried fruit in some and then iced them. Today I put Lemonade butter into the middle....can't wait for them to cook.

I made some lemonade butter this week, it is sweeter than lemon butter. Next batch 

I won't put as much sugar into it. I made it up in my thermomix, so easy I just put all the ingredients in and walked away while it did the cooking. Love my thermomix.

Yesterday I got some kale seedlings that I will plant out today. I love kale I put it

into every thing(do not tell William he thinks it's lettuce). I also make kale chips in the barby, which William will eat, go figure....

My stone fruit trees are losing all their leaves, I will need to get in and prune them soon.

I am hoping for a good crop from them this year..

The roses have just finished their last

flush of flowers and will also need pruning in the next month or so. I think the

garden is so confused as we had some cold weather a month ago

and since then it has been very mild.

All of my bulbs are out off the ground, so they will properly flower in the middle 

of winter.

All this warm weather is not helping my argument to have the wood

stove put back in the house, so I'm hoping for some cold weather soon.

Have a great day

I am going to make a cuppa and catch up in blog land.

Mandy

Grape fruits......what to do with them..

I am so enjoying the weather I love Autumn

cool nights, crisp mornings and sunny days.

With all this great weather my citrus is ripening every day. All the grape fruit is 

starting to bend the branches so I am having to pick them before they break.

Cassie loves grape fruit and is happy to eat them, the boys not so much.

I made a grape fruit cake today, it is normally orange cake so instead I used grape fruits. 

I will ice it with Philli cheese and honey,,,yummoooo

  I then put the skins to work in a bottle of vinegar to make my 

cleaning spray. I leave this jar on the kitchen bench and every one knows to 

put there citrus peels in there. I leave this to steep about 2 weeks and then pop it into a spray 

bottle. I use this spray for all my cleaning.

As you can see below the fruit trees have grown, next week I will have Lemonades ready...

The oranges and mandarins don't even make it into the house the boys just pick them and eat....

Now that's fast food.

Grape fruit and coconut cake.

1 cup coconut flour

5 eggs                   

1 cup yoghurt   

pinch salt

2/3 cup grapefruit juice

zest from grapefruit

1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil

1 teaspoon bi carb

1 teaspoon creme tarter

1 cup sugar(your choice of sugar)

*Beat together eggs, yoghurt, salt, fruit juice and zest.

*Add melted butter or oil in a slow steady stream mixing all the time.

*Fold in flour, bicarb, creme tarter and sugar mix till well combined.

* Bake for 35-40 mins in 180C oven.

* Let cake cool 10min before turning to cake rack.

* when cool mix 1/2 cup cream cheese and 1 tablespoon honey

pour over the top and enjoy....

Have a great week

Mandy

A Busy Kitchen....

Hello to all in Blog land...

I have been a little quiet here on these pages lately...

We have been getting some much needed rain this week...

220mls so far

The tanks are full and so are the dams.....In wet weather like this I have been 

making supplies as you can see below, the real kitchen and how it really looks :)

I have been experimenting with my soap, and I made this one

Honey, Oatmeal, Lanolin and Pumice Stone Garden Soap.

I also used my new mold that I have been waiting for, doesn't it look good with the bee on them.

I also made

Double Choc Fudge..

Seriously this smelled so good Robbie wanted to lick the bowl out hahaha should have let him....

For both of these I used my basic Soap method and then added brown colour and chocolate scented oil...For the Garden soap I also used basic soap and added. 2tbles Oats, 1teaps Honey, 30g ground pumice stone and 1 tbls Lanolin.

I am really enjoying experimenting with the soap....

Below is the last of the Goats Milk Soap, I am waiting for the latest batch to finish curing..

I have also been busy knitting dish clothes and washers. I do have a nice stack starting to happen..

I also made a Double Choc Fudge soy candle, my thinking here laying in the bath with chocy candle burning

whilst bathing with chocy soap....Chocolate fix done, calories NONE....

I know I'm either a genius or stark raving mad (going with the last one)

I then got in and made a batch of Washing Liquid, I put some Lemon Myrtle oil in this batch and it smells so fresh....Enough here for 2 months...

Before I new every one was wanting dinner with chocolate dessert hmmmm

Wasn't the most popular Mum around when they realized I hadn't been baking...

And tea well......

It was all leftovers from the fridge, they didn't know that though I told them it was

Curried mince and veges...BUT there clothes are gonna smell good and so will they....

Last weekend

My Mum, Chloe, Harrison and I took a road trip out to see my eldest daughter for her birthday and also my youngest grand daughter turned one.

 Here is Abby with her Great grandma opening her bear that GGmar made her.

There was lots of help on hand for Abby.

We also went into Roma for Jess"s birthday and had a wonderful day out..

Now I should really go and bake for my family

or

I could stay here and catch up on blogs.....

Blessings

Mandy