The Last couple of weeks catchup.

We have had a busy couple of weeks , not just here at the farm but  away visiting our daughters and  their families.
We had a short trip  to visit our oldest daughter and son in law  and our gorgeous 2 year old granddaughter and her 4 week old new baby sister.
We then traveled to   visit our youngest daughter ,son in law and 5 year old granddaughter and 11 month old  grandson.
Our daughter has returned to  full time work,  for a few months and we along with  her husbands'  family are helping out with  occasional babysitting when needed.
While there Hubby helped them and their neighbours to remove an old  asbestos  fence down their driveway  taking all the proper precautions required for such removal and disposal.

We also helped them with  a little garden tidy up and repairs ,myself helping with the children to allow my daughter to get out and  get a few jobs done that she can't manage  to do with the children underfoot .

Our old blue girl loves to travel also, as she gets to see her doggie friends as well, there is Doug the kelpie and  and there is Josie the black labrador. They are all great mates and have been buddies for years.

Our Gazania  flowers at the farm  are starting to bloom, and hopefully if we get a few more showers of rain  the display will be stunning  over spring.
The bees are already   finding them and buzzing around madly.

They are such a striking flower.
A reader on my face book page told me that in the state she lives in they have been declared a noxious weed, which is a shame as they are such a great dry climate garden plant that can survive extreme conditions  and still perform well.
Brian has started  off a few lots of seeds in starter boxes,

When I checked them today they are doing well in their mini greenhouses, hopefully they will  shoot and we will  have some  early tomatoes ,zuchinnis and squash.

A friend and neighbour had a birthday the other day, so we popped up to their place with a  birthday cake and a few drinks, a new vanilla buttercake recipe that wasn't too bad, will certainly try again.

As we had a busy day planned I had popped a frozen chicken along with a few  new potatoes and carrots into the slow cooker and set it going. It is wonderful that we can now use  a slow cooker   and not have to worry about the electricity.

It cooked beautifully and was just perfect when we were ready to eat.
A friend of ours had borrowed our egg incubator and has since hatched out a couple of batches of chickens.
Among them were   5 roosters and as he doesn't eat poultry at all, and his wife only eats it occasionally they passed the roosters to us.

We brought them home  the night before last and  this morning they decided that they were going to  take over the chook yard and were arguing and scrapping with our roosters and hens.

Brian decided that , this morning was their last so he captured them  all and tied their legs  awaiting their dispatch.

We heated up the water in our   big pot( a new  galvanized garbage bin bought for this purpose) and Brian  did the deed, and now they are resting  in our refrigerator for a few days before I decide  what to do with them. I have been thinking that it may be chicken curry, sweet and sour chicken and  maybe a nice roast dinner with one of them.

The night before last we  went next door for a bonfire and a few drinks, we are all taking advantage of the good weather when we are allowed to burn, the heat and dry will return soon enough.
At one point the flames shot up high into a big pine tree above, but extinguished itself quite quickly.

Our tiling is continuing slowly, between us being away and the tiler having commitments  of his own, progress seems to be crawling at snails pace, but yesterday and today saw him cut and lay all those fiddly edge pieces and doorways which all take time.

We have worked out, that he will probably take another 5 days before he is totally finished, I can hardly wait for it all to be finally completed . I am sure it will all look  wonderful when this is all over.
Hopefully when I post next  I will have some lovely photos of my floor to publish.
So until we meet up next down the track, I trust that you all will take care,
Cheers,
Jane.