Teeth, twigs, and time ticking away!

My Mother in law's bluebells - FLOWERING! <3

Just when I thought summer was here... Today is freezing again! yesterday afternoon I had to walk my horse down to the neighbour's place to have him seen to by the Equine Dentist through gale force winds and icy rain! I felt completly mad! But today is the old boy's 18th birthday, so its nice to know he'll be able to crunch comfortably on his birthday carrots!

 

Cant believe I've had him 13 years now! Gee it seems like a long time! And it also means I've been riding horses for 24 years! I started riding at 8, but I think the horsey-bug has started to bite Katie a little earlier...

I also went to a Home Harvest seminar night last Wednesday where I think I was about the youngest there by 20 years... but I did get some good ideas and affirmation about what we're doing. Here's Ben's great custom 'glass house' over our pea seeds in our bale garden...

Re-purposed windows from a demolition!: Genius.

And here's my silver beet seedlings that I swapped for some citrus (score!) but that I am taking NO CHANCES with! As you can see I have surrounded them with twigs (blackbird deterrent!), coffee grounds (slugs!) AND crushed egg shells (snails!). Hopefully Ive been cautious/paranoid enough for something to survive for once!

And here you see my custom Lady Bug hotel! I'm trying to encourage GOOD pests to my garden! (Wanna know more about Bug Hotels? Try here.)

Still no sign of the beans yet...

But plenty of these.

Still, there is one cute furry critter round the place-

Naaaw, Tufty!

What critters help your garden? 
Do you put any sustainable practices into place at your place?

Keep your coffee grounds!
xx 

Snippets, sunscreen, seeds, soil and sunshine.

Im gonna use a prompt from Kate over at Foxslane (I blog I adore - check it out!) and do a snippets post today. Maybe you can do one too? I'd love to check out yours...

enjoying
GLORIOUS spring Melbourne days. Today is a clear, sunny 26 degrees celcius.

playing
Nothing at the moment. The sound of the rainforest birds here, with the occasional neigh, "Mum!", or cock-a-doodle-doo is all the sound track I need :)

smelling
My coffee here at my desk. Hazelnut! Yum!

wearing
Summer clothes and sunscreen! Already! Plus if I'm in the garden, my trusty Akubra, always. If you don't know what an Akubra is, here you go. If you're an Aussie and you don't know what an Akubra is: SHAME ON YOU ;)



reading
Jackie French's 'Backyard Self-sufficiency'. The beans and peas are in in our new bale garden. Now FINGERSCROSSED they grow! (pleasepleaseplease) Gardening seems simple - plant a seed, good soil, water, sun. But my track record isnt great. I wish I knew why I have such bad luck with vegetables! Hopefully my luck will start to change! And soon!



crocheting
Ive been meaning to start a coffee-plunger cosy for my Stepdad... but... *sigh* Tonight! I swear!

flicking to
Not sure what this means (?) but im always flicking over to watch Dance Moms on You Channel. It's my guilty pleasure *blush*

enjoying
Days outside in the sun NOT unpacking the few last boxes I should be getting around to... It's just too nice out! I'm sure there'll be more grey days like the one pictured below I can get around to those boxes.



not loving
Washing up. Does it ever end?!?!

knowing
I've got a horsey-girl on my hands. It's only a matter of time before she asks me for a pony, I just know it. I've always said the girls can choose their own interests, and I will happily drive them to karate/soccer/art/dance/chess-WHATEVER. I am quite happy for neither of them to be horse-mad like Mummy. But I can see Katie's interest in the horses already, and she's always keen to hop on Will anytime I'm off for a ride. Daddy: just giving you an early head's up... ;)

 

wondering
What the HECK Henry is barking at in the blackberry thicket!!! He keeps going up there and he just stares into the brambles and barks, and barks and barks!

dreaming
Of getting my sewing machine set up and my sewing table set up and making some new summer dresses for the girls! (And maybe me!) But that means getting in amongst THOSE AFORE-MENTIONED BOXES...so...

hoping
To adopt some ex-battery hens at the end of September, and give them a new life in free-range chook heaven! With this handsome devil-

Lennon

knitting
Last thing I did was a beanie for Ben. Actually, i did 2, because the first one turned out ridiculously small. It looked like a Jewish Kippah. We both nearly wet ourselves laughing and I gave that one to a friend's little boy, and made another!

laughing at
Black Books. We've just watched the whole series again!

casting on
Hmm, what's next? Im thinking of starting a school cardigan for Katie's first year of school next year. The uniform is Red, Green and White, some I'm thinking a red one...

grateful for
This new childhood I can now provide my kids with! They are always outside now: Climbing, creating, exploring. The TV is hardly ever on during the day now. I love that they've got the run of this whole farm 'playground', and they absolutely love it!



adoring
Tara's first pigtails!!!

 

smiling at
Kate's antics on her trampoline, andhearing her talking to herself as she plays some involved imaginary game.
"...hey sister, we need to go to our house! No you cant until the fires have gone. We have to stay in Queensland..."

Your turn! What are you enjoying, playing, smelling, listening, wearing, reading crocheting, flicking to, enjoying, not loving, knowing, wondering, dreaming, hoping, knitting, laughing at, casting on, grateful for, adoring, smiling at?

Have a beautiful week. But, blog it later - get out an enjoy this gorgeous weather while it lasts!
xx

Parasites, productivity and ponies!

Ugh. After the death of 2 of our lovely chooks, we found the beginnings of a lice infestation! Seriously?! Come ON! So hopefully a dusting with Pestine (on the girls and round their home), a thorough worming (chooks, dog, horse, and us!) and a little prayer, that will be the end of this particular run of unfortunate luck! Grr.

Hubby did get productive last weekend: Mowing the back lawn, collecting some bales and putting them around our garden beds, and putting up Katie's swing! She's a bit chuffed about that :)

So now she spends most of her time either on the swing, on the trampoline, on my hay bales, or in one of her many farm castles/hidey-holes...

The weather's a bit wet today, so the girls and I went and joined our local library (ESSENTIAL) and now Tara's having her afternoon nap, so I've ducked round and taken a few pics to introduce you to some of our equine residents...

Shy showpony 'Electra'

Bigger on the inside 'Tufty'

(Who could resist a face like this?!)

Fresian horse that looks like he belongs to the Black Knight 'Randolf'

Sweet girl 'Lily'

And of course the man in my life 'Will' (and the other man in my life, 'Henry')

I hope you're having a lovely week. GO JOIN YOUR LIBRARY!!!
x

Disappointments, drownings, damage, and darned good recipes!

Oh dear...

Well, I have prooved my point about not being able to grow a thing and having no green thumbs to speak of.... Of our 5 little herb seedlings we planted last weekend: Not one survived.

Partially - in our defense! - this was because 2 days after we planted the little babies, we had a freak hailstorm (hail the size of marbles!) and there was a bit of damage to their delicate little fronds.

The rest has been eaten by... Something.

Damn.

So far, our food growing/homesteading/'feed our whole family from the garden' dream is looking pretty grim. 0/5. Not only was I feeling particularly glum about this failure, but then found that one of our poor hens had fallen into a horse water trough while we'd been out, and drowned. And another is looking like she's not long for this world (although I suspect that's more to do with her age, than bad luck).

It's hard not to feel disheartened. How do we combat a pest in our veggie patch when we're not even sure what it is?! Rabbits? Slugs? Birds? Will this be our fate?: Working hard and spending a fortune to feed the wildlife?!

Something that is still feeding us, however is the citrus - THANK GOODNESS FOR THE CITRUS! It has served to keep my faith that we can grow food here! Oh sure, the cockatoos take a share of the oranges, but we can afford to share! There's plenty to go round!

Katie's latest favourite activity is to pick a bucket of oranges off the tree, juice them all like crazy, and make orange icypoles! It's wonderful knowing she's learning about where food comes from, but also making a preservative/refined sugar free snack, and she can do it all by herself!

 

And I found a wonderful EASY MICROWAVE LEMON CURD recipe which I have been making use of to use up all those lemons!

Now Im including this without permission from the author - but only because I dont know how to contact her to ask her! But it's just too good not to include, and full credit goes to Nancy Johnson of Speers Court - Nancy, I hope you dont mind! x

Easy Microwave Lemon Curd 

(Makes about 600mls-ish.)

180ml lemon juice

zest of all the juiced lemons (I only actually used zest of 2 lemons)

4 egg yolks

3 eggs extra

3/4 cup caster sugar

125g unsalted butter

Place all ingredients into a microwave proof bowl and microwave on medium for 6-8 min stopping to whisk every minute. (You know it's done when it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon)

I strained the zest out of mine before I chilled it, but you certainly dont have to!

SO SO SO YUMMY!



How do you keep pests out of your garden?
What do your kids/grandkids love to cook?

Just heading out to put some wire over that water trough: Chooks cant swim well. Apparently.
RIP little chookie x

Storm warnings, gale force winds, big trees and fences don't mix.

Kate and I have just trudged round every fence line after our first really windy night at Hill Shadow. The weather here under the mountain is truly wild, and though I LOVE a good storm, the wild winds do make a bit of a mess of the place!



Especially when you need good solid, safe electric fences for our horsey-charges! We always do a fence/tree/pony check after a windy night, just to make sure everyone's still got a fence and 4 legs!



Fortunately everyone is fine and fences are still standing! Just one medium sized tree down, but in the creek, away from any fences and buildings. Phew!

Someone who definitely wasn't affected by the weather (in a negative way) was Henry the orange mongrel, who spent all night in sleeping infront of the fire.



And so, to finish off this post - here's a joke:


Why did the chicken cross the road? ;D

Proof the Hill Shadow Farm hens have nothing to fear! Our hens have free rein of the property all day, so they often pop up in the yard or at the window to visit us during the day. They have absolutely no fear of people, our dogs, or our children! Why would they?!



Peg Sorting: Tara's favourite activity at present. I do wish she wouldn't post them all down the holes in the brickwork though! Fun for her, but annoying for me to retrieve for the washing! X(



Any Spring 'storm-age' in your area?
Storms: Love em or hate em?
Do your animals make themselves at home like ours do?



Check your fences!
x

Father's Day, Farmers Markets, and Baking Fails.

I've grabbed a quick 10 min with a cup of coffee to post this! Tara's napping, and I've still gotta wash up and get firewood, and bring in the bins and put the washing out, and empty the compost and go for a run, and... and...

 

...hmm.

 

A farm girl's work is never done!

 

 

So there'll be no curling up in my favourite sunny reading spot for me today. Well, yet.

 

But Lenin and the girls love our sunny front door step. So much so, that they are reluctant to move, and I often have to swipe them aside/kick them outta the way/trip over them coming out the front door! Originally, he was named 'Lenin' after 'The Good Life' tv series' rooster. But that rooster was named after a tyrannical dictator. And there's just nothing tyrannical about our Lenin. He is the most laid-back, peaceful, lovely bird I've ever met! So, I think maybe 'Lennon' is a more appropriate name for him, no? And he does like beetles... ;)

 

 

Hay.

 

It's been all about hay, here. We agist several horses - including Will my older ex-galloper gentleman - but in bushy, scrubby paddocks. So feed has to be brought in most of the time for our four-legged clients. Unfortunately it does this to my arms unless I cover them up while lugging it round.

 

 

 

And I sneeze, and I itch and I wheeze.... Luckily Katie doesn't because I quite often find her like this in our hayshed.

 







 

The weekend hay delivery, aka Kate's Stage Coach.

 



AND I made my first Hill Shadow Lemon Meringue Pie on Sunday, for father's day afternoon tea (We love you Ben/Daddy!)

The curd was TO DIE FOR! (that'll be those Hill Shadow Farm lemons and fresh Hill Shadow free range eggs! ;) Of course!)

 

But unfortunately even though it came together beautifully and tasted heavenly, something funny happened to the egg whites and I ended up with quite a bit of liquid white after I baked it and put it in the fridge. Perhaps I shouldn't have put it in the fridge?!

 

And finally here's a pic of Tara at the Lilydale Farmers Market - she loved those ducklings! We came home with some yummy local pink lady apples, and some seedlings: Spearmint, Chamomile, Parsley, Coriander and Basil. We've planted those into a space in our new garden beds - next are the veggies! Katie bought a lemon soap and an orange ice block with her pocket money. Who knows? Next time we may be there as stallholders?

 

How did you enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend?

Ever had a baking disaster?

What do you love at your farmers market?

 

Ooh?! Is that the baby...?

Go and get outside!

xx