Our busy but wonderful life. !!

We seem to have done so much since I last last down to write. I used to try and "theme" my posts but  over the last few months I just seem to play catch up  with what we have been doing since  the last entry.
When I last wrote we had just had our second lamb, I am pleased to report that we have now had 13 lambs. Sadly we lost one tiny little frail one, that we think was just born too early despite all mums good efforts to  keep him( he lasted about 2 weeks.

It has been good that we have been able to put them on  and off the small feed areas that Brian grew for them.

I love how every morning and afternoon  they chase each other round like crazy, they are just so beautiful to watch.

The lambs are all now doing well and growing rapidly.
i was lucky enough to be given a pile of old Fowlers Vacola preserving jars from a neighbour and old friend who has sold their farm and are moving and they thought I may like to have his mothers preserving jars.

I have started to wash some of them, but so far have only done the smaller jars as I just haven't had time to do more.

These are a great size for preserving  our tomatoes in, so they will be well used.

Also in the box was this old Fowlers Vacola jam jar sealer, something that is no longer used these days, but a great collectors item to have.
i made another batch of soap, this time colored with safron and scented with 100% lemon oil.

It was quite a soft soap, I used castor oil in this batch, not sure if that was the reason , but it is now a week old and starting to  harden up  fairly well.I think the saffron wasn't a great choice and would not use it again.
We then traveled to Wollongong to celebrate the  1st birthday of our gorgeous grandson, we spent two nights at our younger daughter's home and two nights in a beachfront cabin which was wonderful.

The view from the deck was  stunning and it just had a lovely feel about it, and I loved hearing the ocean through the night.
The oldest two gran daughters had a sleepover with us  and the next morning we were woken and entertained by the gorgeous rainbow Lorikeets and Sulphur crested Cockatoos.

While at  our daughters house we also saw  many beautiful Crimson Rosellas, I think the neighbours were feeding them as they were very friendly and hung around a long time.

On our return home from Wollongong we found that our Turkey hens  had began laying, so Brian  used  the frame of an old laundry wash tub to  make a covered  nest for her. One has also been laying up in the chicken coop .

I love the speckles on Turkey eggs. We are not sure if these are fertile or not yet as we haven't seen our Gobbler "doing the deed".
As I told you in  my last post we set the incubator going with a load of eggs,they are due to hatch around Friday. We know there are some  non viable eggs ( we  didn't candle them as we were away) as   we can smell them. Hopefully we will still  manage to hatch a decent amount of chickens on this maiden run.
We purchased a  chicken brooder to keep the young chickens in once they hatch, and  our Miss 2 granddaughter helped her pop to build it.

This brooder is heated and has a light to attract the  chicks up to the heated end and will hold up to 100 chicks. The water and feed trays are on the outside, and it has small  meshing on the base to allow waste to drop though onto a slide out tray  for ease of cleaning.
We also did a trip to our eldest daughters home about 3 hours from here so that we could mind our granddaughters ( 2 and 11 weeks) while they went to a wedding.
The view from the street our daughter lives in is stunning, you can see for miles out over the countryside.

All around   the neighborhood the council have planted gorgeous flowering plum trees and as it is now spring, they all look  so beautiful.

On the trip back home I took a few photographs of all the canola fields, they are just glorious at the moment, just vast seas of yellow.

We brought Miss 2 back here to the farm with us to give Mum a break, she has been very busy helping her poppy,

Not sure if he always wants the help, but  accepts it anyway. I love watching them together, she adores helping him and I quietly think he loves the attention from her  as well.
Our daughter in Wollongong gave me a great recipe for some healthier fruit balls for snacks, I think they were called Bliss Balls, they were made from ground nuts,chia seeds,apricots, Linseed, dates, coconut and honey, they were really moorish.

I have now made a couple of batches and they seem to disappear very quickly.
Our  small wild garden area at the back of our house has begun it's spring flowering, it is a mass of Gazanias and Pigface... good hardy plants that seem to survive  anything Mother Nature throws at them over and over again. We spend quite a bit of time out this side of the house now the weather is improving for the better. Soon it will be too hot out this side as Summer kicks in.

I hope you all have had a lovely few weeks, and will continue to do so until we meet again further down the track.
So Take care everyone,
Cheers,
Jane. :-)  :-)

New projects and other things we have been up to.

We have had a fairly hectic schedule of late, but we are slowly ticking jobs off that giant list we have drawn up and are constantly adding to.
One of the major projects hubby wanted to do was to erect a tall fence around our newly established orchard and cover it completely to protect the fruit from the parrots and to also incorporate a second chicken coop within.

The first job was too remove a rusted  metal water tank out of the area before the fence went up. The new chicken coop will be placed there. We had thought( and silly us did not check) that the tank was empty, only to find after moving it  that it still held a panel of water. at least  that  small area of paddock got a good watering.
Next he collected some tall wooden posts from up on our hill and then combined with some recycled metal posts we already had  ,dug the holes and started the tall enclosure.

He then  used a recycled screen door for the gate, and has  put one section of  netting around at a metre high.

We  also purchased some new fruit trees, as a couple of the ones  that we bought last year failed to  grow. we bought a new peach, apricot, pear and nectarine, all ones selected specifically for their taste and  suitability for canning or preserving.

We  were offered the use of a neighbours spray unit on the back of his truck, so we decided to mix molasses, seasol, seaweed, and worm pee into the 1000 litre drum and spray our small feed crop which has been growing really well.We are hoping this natural fertilizer will work a treat and boost the growth, and we are expecting rain in the next couple of days.

The sheep love it when hubby puts them in afternoon for an hour or so, they sit at the gate waiting for him to open it up for them (who says sheep are silly) .
Our seed potatoes  that we had purchased (Nicola Variety) need planting, so hubby used the old rotary hoe and ploughed up trenches between the fruit tress in the orchard and  planted them. I think he said he ended up with about 50 something  seeds after cutting a few that had multiple shoots.

We  have had a lovely visit last weekend  from our older daughter and  our two little granddaughters  one aged 2 and the other 8 weeks. .Miss 8 weeks is such an adorable baby, and  this nanny just wanted lot's of cuddles.
The  2 year old was just such an amazing help to her poppy( who she funnily enough  calls Pierre  for some unknown reason.)

They  watered the garden every morning with  their yellow watering cans,

She helped him build a new small seed raising  greenhouse,

We have planted  a few starter seeds, just to see how we go, and she helped poppy water them in as well, I love the concentration on the job.
We attended a  local agricultural field day at Gunnedah , we have wanted to attend for many years but have never been able to.
It was a huge day, lot's of walking as the  exhibition was spread over 26 hectares.
We saw everything from gigantic  air seeders,

to sweet little seeders that would be hubby's dream to own  for our little acreage.

And then there were the  massive tractors on tracks,

 And the  display of beautiful old girls

  that we fell in love with. There was a great display by the Gunnedah  vintage farming group that had stationery engines working  in weird and  funny  ways.

Hubby and I were lucky enough to be given tickets for our birthdays to an Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison tribute concert show, and we had a night in Dubbo with dinner out, the show and a nice motel for the night.

We bought a new safety screen for the fire, so that there were no worries when the  grandchildren  are here. It is great, has a locking bar across the back( not in photo) so it can move forward to far or fall over, and you can access the firebox through the front door that is hinged to open, but we are unable to use the oven when the screen is in use. We will fold it up and pack away when not in use.

I have been baking a little in the oven, we made a lovely salmon quiche  the other night which  cooked beautifully and was very tasty.

Another project that began yesterday was  our first attempt at hatching chickens out in an incubator.
Our  kids had given their father the  incubator for his 60th birthday, and we have only now  been able to set it up and use it. A neighbour had borrowed it and has  had 2 batches of chickens  hatch out with success.

So the neighbour brought down 2 dozen fertile Isa Brown chicken eggs and we supplied  nearly 2 dozen hopefully fertile  Light Sussex eggs and we loaded it up for our maiden  incubation trial.hopefully we will hatch out some  cute little chickens in about 21 days.
Wish us luck.  :-)  :-)

I went for a drive the other day to a nearby town for some appointments, and when driving down near the park near the river I had to stop to let these gorgeous geese cross the road,

I was so entranced by them , that I suddenly realized I was going the wrong way in a one way street.
we have also had a daily visit from this pretty Rosella  and it's mate ,  the pair have been looking for their nesting box that hubby  temporarily removed during renovations, and he has now replaced.

We had our second baby lamb for the season  two days ago, I love the Dorper breed with their black heads. This one was born exactly one month to the day after the first one also in the photo on the  right.

I am FINALLY  able to report that the   three areas ( lounge/dining/study  that we have been tiling are   completed , the tiler grouted the last of it this morning and he will return in a few months to complete the kitchen area after we have  removed the kitchen and fireplace, and we have replaced the window and a new glass  back door where the existing fireplace chimney  is.
Although it has been a painfully slow process due to his age and health, we are extremely happy with the finished job and will be happy to have him back again or recommend him to others.

It will be lovely to have our house to ourselves for a little while, I feel like our three  tradesmen have been wandering around for 6 months now, so we will have a little break, I will paint  the  newly renovated areas  before we move on, although we will get the builder out next week to measure it all so we can begin the ordering process for all the needed materials so they will be on hand for when we are ready to continue.
So until we all meet again down the track,
take care of you and your loved ones,
All the best,
Cheers,
Jane.