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. :-)  :-)