Farm update - October 2012

Wow, what a month! As predicted, the bounty of spring has arrived! We are getting 8-10 eggs a day and now with Bella milking again, at least 4L of milk a day, but there's not much getting to the kitchen, with too many calves to look after at the moment.

Benny the Braford was a very unhealthy looking calf that we brought home from Cheslyn Rise. We bought home another one (a heifer) a couple of weeks later, and as she looked even worse, we called the vet. It turned out that they were both suffering from paralysis tick poisoning, which gradually paralyses the animal, from the legs upwards until they can't swallow and then can't breath. It looks like we got to Benny in time, he is still very weak and seems to be unable to get to his feet without a boost from one of us, but once he's up, he's ok and very keen on lucerne. After two weeks we finally got him to take some milk, I wonder now if the problem was the milk powder just tasted wrong, and then when he got some of Bella's milk, now he loves it and finishes his two litres twice a day. The heifer calf only survived a few days after the vet came, she was drinking ok one day and dead the next, it seems to be very unpredictable. I'll write a post in more detail when I know more about how Benny goes, and I hope I can offer some advice on managing sick calves.

Benny the Braford

Romeo the freisian-cross calf is a younger tame calf that we managed to foster onto Bella after she lost her own calf shortly after or during birth (see more here). They took a week to get used to each other, and we had to be patient and let Bella decide to foster him. He is very tame and enthusiastic drinker, we were so very pleased when Bella let him drink from her, so that we don't have to milk twice a day! She is now very protective and won't let us near him, I guess she doesn't want to lose another calf.

All the other cattle are good! We had our neighbour's massive red bull in our yard a few weeks ago after tine Donald the Dexter challenged him to a fight and he broke through the fence, and it was an interesting afternoon trying to encourage him to go back home!

the first cheese of the season - a Romano

We don't have as many chickens, even after I did that stocktake last week, we decided to process some of the roosters as they were big enough and starting to fight each other and generally cause trouble. We did 6 in one day and enjoyed a very tasty roast chicken for dinner as a reward! The other day we got 12 eggs from the 19 hens, 4 from the 6 pullets, so they are doing very well this year.

In the garden, I've been trying to follow moon planting, so I only just got some seeds into seed raising pots, but the winter garden is still proving plenty of kale, broad beans, peas and carrots, so I don't want my spring seedlings to be ready too early, or I'll have some tough decisions about what to pull out (I need a bigger garden!!). I've also harvested a couple of super-sweet tiny strawberries, a nice treat from the garden :)

peas are doing well, I have plenty this year, might help that
I moved them away from the onions....

lavender is looking good and covered in bees

the remains of lettuce, beets, swedes and turnips,
soon to be the tomato garden

waiting for bok choi and broccoli seeds to set and eat all the cabbages,
and then will move in the summer root veges

Mizuna and tat soi seeds, will soon be lettuce

the herbs growing back after winter - mints, thyme, oregano and taragon

broad beans and shallots to be replaced by corn and squash

the crazy bean plant lives on.... potato bag in the background

the pullets and young rooster helping me with the scraps :)

Has anyone else noticed a theme in our animal colour scheme? You can tell we're Queenslanders with all these maroon and white animals! And we don't even have time to follow sport!

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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