Monday 14 September 2015

Baby Chickens and an update on our garden.

Three weeks ago we set 42  chicken eggs into our incubator ,some from a neighbour and some of our own hens  and on Thursday when I went up into the shed I could hear cheeping.
I went over to check it out and look what I found........
Our first baby chicken and a few other eggs that had also started to hatch out.
The next morning we went up to the shed, removed the top of the incubator and found all these  sweet fluffy little bundles.
We then  moved them over to the brooder that we had started  warming up  a little earlier that morning.
We ended up with 15 chickens all up, we had a couple of rotten eggs, but the rest were just infertile.
The main  eggs that hatched   were mainly our neighbours eggs,  ours  were only off young hens and roosters, so we may just have to wait until they are a little older to try again.
Our little 2 year old granddaughter has been here for the week and this morning she came running in saying" Nanny, Baby Chick" and was pulling me towards the shed and when I  got there noticed immediately two small chickens had escaped. We caught them and we then spent some quality chicken petting time with her.

 We  went on a picnic lunch with Miss 2 to the park and she was fascinated by the resident geese that live in the park and wander the streets close by.

Our daughter also came to stay a few days,  with a baby granddaughter aged 12 weeks(Miss 2's little sister) and while here did a bit of  "shopping"  in my  preserving pantry, she has a love of all things pickled, and the Habanero gold pepper jelly.
When we brought our granddaughter home we also  brought home their kelpie dog  Doug, we also then babysat our neighbours sweet little dog Lulu for a night while they went away overnight.  I took this cute photo of them all curled up in their beds.
Our garden  is starting to come along well now, both the flowers and the vegetables.
We have started off a few  seedlings in our little plastic seed raising house.

The spinach, onions and broad beans are growing well, and the spring onions are flourishing,
And the rhubarb is also thriving in it's raised beds.
the crazy flowers at the top of the steps is a mad mass of colour,
and the Gazanias in the front garden  really starting to  bush up  and add a splash of orange at the front door.
The Cliveas we transplanted from my daughters garden are  all budding up and starting to flower, we were worried that they may not do well in the winter here but it doesn't seem to have worried them at all under the jacaranda tree, they must have enough protection there.

I  have finally got my first  Lilac  bloom, I am so happy. i grew up with lilacs blooming outside my bedroom window, and they always remind me of my sweet grandmother who has long since  passed away.
We had also transplanted a whole pile of Iris's that we had in pots on the coast, hopefully by next year they will begin to bloom, i doubt if we will get any flowers this season.
Our orange pig face is also madly blooming, the King parrots unfortunately  love them and are always chewing at them and we have lost a few plants recently.
We used to have a large amount of lavender plants but   some of them were aging  and have died off, I intend to add a few more new ones  to fill the empty spaces.  The agave that I brought up from the coast is also doing quite well, and the frosts didn't seem to worry it  either, luckily it seems to be in a fairly protected spot too.
Now that we are here full time, and have sorted a lot of the water issues, the garden is finally beginning to improve, but there is still a long road ahead of us in that area, still very much to do in that area.
I hope you all are well and happy and stay that way until we meet up again.
Take care Everyone,Cheers,
Jane.

11 comments:

  1. Oh baby chicks! How cute! Do you have to give your neighbours's chicks back to them?
    Your garden is a picture! Love your Gazanias and Clivias. It is difficult to find plants that will thrive in the hot summer but then survive the cold winter. Here in Spain we have hot summers but because of our altitude the winters are very cold so we can't have the usual mediteranean plants.
    Thanks for sharing all that goodness,
    Lisca

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    1. Hi Lisca,
      We will probably give back the chicks to the neighbours when they are 4 or 5 weeks old...they will keep the hens then they return the cockerels to us for meat as they do not eat chicken.( well he doesn't) So i make soup and give some back to her. We are in exactly the same predicament with hot summers and frosts, gardens are hard to maintain.
      Thanks for calling in.
      Cheers
      Jane.

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  2. Your granddaughter with the baby chick makes a sweet picture. Thank you for the updates. You have accomplished a lot.

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    1. Thanks Judy,
      She really did love those baby chicks.
      We are trying so hard to get sorted.
      We set ourselves a rough schedule of roughly 12 months to do renovations and some farm jobs, after that we hope to be able to get away with our caravan for a few short holidays, we are really looking forward to that also.
      Cheers,
      Jane.

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  3. Hi Jane, (third time lucky with posting this comment, I hope)
    I see that the ABC is looking for people's stories about living off-grid. I immediately thought of you and your hubby. Give it a go...
    As if you don't already have enough on your plate! LOL

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    1. Third time was apparently lucky Joanne,
      Thanks for thinking of us, but we probably won't...but I certainly will check it out....you never know lol.
      Take care,
      Cheers
      Jane.

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    2. Joanne,
      Where did you see the info about ABC I have searched but cannot find it,
      Cheers,
      Jane

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  4. How wonderful - I love your variety of photos and topics in each post. I have my cuppa and am enjoying.

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  5. Found you a few monthes ago and have been slowly catching up from the beginning, what an awesome task, to set yourselves up off grid.
    When my kids were little we moved onto a rundown non productive hobby farm , we did have electricity but the water was just a few small tanks, it was all very challenging. The only things it seemed to grow well were rocks and lizards ..lol
    It is so lovely to see all your progress and settling in.

    I had a close look at the pic of the Irises and noticed that part of the corm is not exposed to the sun, I don't think they flower unless it is.....good luck, they are such beautiful flowers.

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    1. Hello Margaret,
      Thanks for calling by and looking at what we are up to.
      The reason we grow the pigface and Gazanias is because of the early years with a lack of water and the fact that we were not here enough to care for it, but us like you, grew dirt and lizards for a few years too LOL.
      Thanks for the advice regarding the iris plants, hubby said he will scrape away some soil around them to allow more light to the corm, we didn't know that fact.
      Take care Margaret,
      Cheers,
      Jane.

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