Farm update - July 2014

June has been a big month. We had fairly warm weather up until the last week, and then the frost finally came. Three frosty mornings in a row were enough to finish the choko, tromboncino and remaining tomatoes in the garden. Most of the grass is still green but that won't last long. We had a few storms with a bit of rain, but nothing significant.

The big news is that my eBook "Our Experience with House Cows" is available from my house cow eBook blog.

photo shoot with Molly cow

And we finally got council approval for our house at Cheslyn Rise. This means that the council thinks we have done enough work so that it doesn't blow away or burn down. We could live there if we had to, but we'd rather start painting the inside and fixing up the kitchen before we move in, so for now we are staying at Nanango/Eight Acres. Read more about our house here.

Taz got spayed, microchipped, vacinated and registered, but she seems to have recovered and back to her energetic self already. I couldn't choose just one photo of her as she ran around the yard playing with her toy. Cheryl was watching calmly, she puts up with a lot of crazy puppy antics, including being jumped on and having her bones stolen.

I'll have more about the garden next Monday. Here's what we're harvesting. Notice the first tiny eggs from our new laying hens we bought 3 black ones and a red one, point of lay, as I can't keep up with my customers! We also culled a few old hens (some suggestions ming up in a post), and moved all the birds around, so now the crazy guineas are all in together. We also let the young chickens out to free-range for the first time, its pretty funny watching them poking their heads out the door and deciding who is brave enough to step outside.

harvest basket

new laying hens

so many guineas...

first time out for the little pullets

We've had the woodstove going and been chopping firewood (Pete chops and I stack, good stack aye!)

In the kitchen, I made dahl from red lentils, following the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, that's the first time I've made dahl, so I don't know if it was right, but it tasted nice.

lentil dahl (Nourishing Traditions recipe)

some light reading, love visiting the library! (some of these are for Pete)

knitting progress, nearly finished the first ball

Here's a few blogs you might like:

Little Farm in the Big City

Tropical Permaculture

Finally, 'm looking forward to Plastic Free July! First post is on Friday and I have some giveaways to share, so come back and check it out....

How was your June? What are you planning for July?

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night. Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things. Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away. Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now. My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together. Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market. Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle). We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...

Cooking and eating beans

When I was growing up, my family never ate many dried beans, they just weren't something that was used much in NZ cuisine. If I did eat beans, it was always from a can (and most likely baked beans). And until recently I was still using beans from a can, but it can be difficult to get organic beans, and to find cans not lined with BPA. Then I had an opportunity to buy some organic dry goods in bulk, so I bought 5kg of kidney beans, 5kg of adzuki beans and 5kg of chickpea (garbanzo beans). I know, that is a lot of beans. And then I didn't really know what to do with them! Not just what dishes to put them in, but how to prepare them, I just didn't know what method to use. So I decided it was time to learn how to use all these beans that I bought, here's what I found out. I started with an excellent ebook called The Everything Beans Book , from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship, which has lots of bean recipes, but more importantly, an explanation of h...

Guest post: Is there a place for power tools in the garden?

One of my regular readers and commenters offered to write a guest post about a horticulture course, its quite a funny read, with some serious insights into our technology obsession. If you'd like to submit a guest post, email me at eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com. While I am always happy to share links back to your blog or website, this contributor preferred to remain anonymous. I hope you enjoy their story.... -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- -**- Just a few days ago our daily horticulture classes were interrupted by an invitation to review some new gardening gadgets. The idea was to open half a dozen of electric hand trimmers , test them and fill in some review about their goods and bads. As nothing is more dear to a student – even a “hort “ one - to escape routine and mess around till lunchtime, we opened the boxes and got down to business. What did we...

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