Growing Our Own Meat..................

What a wonderful sunny week end we have been having here.

I have been doing lots of pruning and planting in the garden, but

today I thought I would show you some of the animals we have here and give you

a break from gardening posts.

These animals are for food, yes we still name them and treat them as pets but we know that

they will end up on the table. This is all new to us,  we have had our first lamb

this winter and have been enjoying it. Yes it does taste better and we know exactly what we are eating.

We have our two pigs that are growing well but get shy when ever I go to

take there photos....Bruce wants to make a smoke house and experiment with smoking

when we slaughter them. This is exciting to us and we are reading all we can about smoking, we don't know any one that has done this before so if any one out there has any tips that would be good.

It won't be long and we will be able to slaughter our first cow from those heard, meanwhile they are

doing a good job eating all the grass before summer gets here and the threat of fires.

We have our chickens that we are getting lots of eggs from each day.

Our new addition is meat chickens 21 of them....We love chicken and it is so expensive to buy free range organic chicken. We got our organic grain from Heritage seeds out at Pittsworth.

Costing will work out at $6 per chook now that is half what I pay and the chook will be twice the size.

We don't need to worry about fish as my friend

runs a fish farm 7 mins away so fresh fish is close. I do enjoy 

ocean fish and will still buy Salmon when I can.

Next on the list is turkey for Christmas, and I would like some geese to keep in the 

food forest to keep the insects down. I don't like the taste of duck so I don't think we will be getting any of them even though if I could buy some Indian Runners I would

because they are a beautiful animal.

What do you have in the way of home grown meat???

It's taken me a long time to get this far and I am enjoying our farm so much and 

all that we can grow here, knowing every thing is free of ALL chemicals and sprays and 

all feed that we supplement is organic.

Enjoy your week end

Mandy

A little rain......

Hi All how did you spend your week end?

We had rain not big rain but enough to fill the tanks which is what we needed.

All the new plants I transplanted around the pond now look good after the rain, and some 

have new shoots on them.

I thought the pond could do with a fountain so I found this old light shade in the shed and gave it

to the master plumber to see what he could do.

Not to bad..

I still need to get more rocks and cover up the black plastic, that's the next job on the list.

The grass is looking green and the house clean after the rain

I love how every thing looks so fresh after.

 The citrus are doing well still and these mandies are sweet.

These fruit trees have been in 5 years now.

Today's job is getting rid of this hedge along the fence line, it is night jasmine and looks

out of place now we have enlarged the yard yet again. 

We planted more fruit trees in this area as well on Sunday, I have planted

a Cherry tree and a native berry called Jaboticaba it has berries on the trunk of the tree, something interesting I thought. We also planted another olive tree. Out the front of the dairy we also planted 3 kiwi fruits, 2 coffee bushes 1 apple tree and a new plum. 

Photos of those later.

The mangos and avocado are still covered to keep the frost out,so far nothing has been frosted except the poor banana trees, as you can see below. Hopefully come spring they will come back and we will get some fruit.

Enjoy your week 

 and all that it brings.

Mandy

"Bellis" and Brisbane

If there was a bad blogger award I think I would win that!!!!

You know when life gets so busy in the garden there is not time for not much else, except going to Brisbane to see the open garden of ABC Gardening presenter Jerry Coleby Williams, Bellis.

It was a wonderful example of a sustainable inner city garden.

 I realized that I should put a lot more in my vege beds as I waste a lot of room.

There were so many people that there were areas of the Garden I didn't get to as it was gridlock

on the narrow paths

He had Guinea pigs to keep William and Harry busy and native bees, which is on my list

of things to get.

There was this wild spinach growing all through the garden that looks like a weed 

I am always pulling out, I will have to look into it and check.

Then it was of to South bank for a look around.

Some lunch

 I had Chili mussells yummo...O and a glass or 2 of wine Hey by this time with these 3 I needed it.

After lunch we looked through Queen Street Mall, and on the way home stopped at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre, it was a hit with the boys, I didn't get any thing but Bruce found a few bits he wanted.

Spring doesn't feel far away now what with open gardens and day trips with great weather.

I have got a lot done this winter though and will share later on.

Have a great day All.

Mandy

Sofa Love..

Hi all 

I couldn't wait to show you my new find, Thursday as I was

doing the op shops I found the perfect sofa.

She is pink, beautiful and all mine.

I am not ashamed to admit that yes I did a little jig, clapping my hands

with glee and jumping up and down when I laid eyes on her.

Those buttons and those perfect legs, and let me say she is in 

great condition.

I have been on the look out for a pink 2 seater sofa for this wall,

even green would have been good. It also had to have the velvet look about it.

What do you think?????...

O and I did get other goodies from my day out doing the thrift shops

but they pale in caparison to my 

Sofa.

Mandy

Glasshouse....

Hi All

Just a quick post to show you the finished 

Glasshouse

.

As you can see we had enough windows to get it finished.

I have a couple of shelves in here with tomato seedlings, ferns and

geraniums.

A view from the outside looking in.

This is what it looks like from the back yard.

French doors make the front wall, the wooden ones are the door way.

Inside with the sun streaming in through the dirty windows. hahaha

they looked clean until I saw this photo.

I love my recycled glasshouse and am going to get a lot of use from it.

Have a great week end All

Mandy

Frozen Wonderland....

Brrrrrrr

It has been cold today, the wind is howling through here.

Wednesday morning I woke up to my bottom garden completely frozen. The plant above is my Chinese lantern and weeds. Below is the chair with icicles hanging off it. It was a frozen wonderland down there.

I must confess that I left the sprinkler on down there over night, all that water and 0 start mornings led to the big freeze. See the branch below? it was covered in ice and so heavy it was bent to the ground. The amazing thing is that as of this afternoon nothing has been harmed, the plants don't even look like the have been frozen, I'll see what the next few days brings.

I didn't spend all day in the garden today as the wind really was horrible to be out in. Instead

I took the opportunity to clean the boys room while

they are away. 

I thought I would show you a picture as it is  very rare to see this room clean. 

Robbie and William have been at there sisters Jess for the last week having a holiday, they went out

on the bus Saturday morning. A first for them both.

They have been having a great time out there.

Tomorrow we will be going out to pick them up, we'll stay for the week end then head home Sunday as they start school Monday. It has been so quiet here with no children but boy o boy have I got some gardening done....

Have a great week end

Blessings 

Mandy

The Front Garden.....

What perfect gardening weather we have been having here,we

have spent the last 2 days in the front garden. When I say we I mean myself and a lovely 

backpacking couple from England.

Above is the garden today, I did get a little carried away pruning as you can see the same garden below in summer. hm mm a lot barer now.

The corner garden I have completely revamped, Marcus pulled out all the 

things I didn't want any more, there were lots of plants that were just getting old and not doing well so out they came. Lots of cuttings have been potted up from all the pruning.

The salvias needed cutting right back as well and they will all grow back

and flower in spring.

All the roses were all pruned back hard, fertilized and well watered.

I have planted lots of daises for lots of colour come spring.

Have you been spending time this winter in the garden getting ready for spring.

Later in the week these gardens will all be mulched with bark chippings to help keep the water

in come summer.

Blessings

Mandy