More patch tales

What a busy couple of weeks in the patch and kitchen.  

We've had lettuce go to the poop because we couldn't eat it quick enough, I've picked more corn cobs than I can poke a stick at, eaten more than I thought we would and made a few jars of corn relish. The onions were made into pickles with a few left over. There's a few different jars of salad dressing , there are chilli's hanging off the ladder (next to a rose one of the girls picked for me).

We've planted more carrots but they haven't sprouted. Neither have the chilli. Nor the onions. The Bok Choy are growing well, same with the kale, and those other green leafy things out there - I'm yet to figure out how to remind myself (or Nathan) that we need to label the beds. 

Today I picked another basket of purple beans, 7 tomatoes (I wonder how many of these will be rotten on the inside??) and 4 butternut pumpkins (I picked 1 a few days ago). 

The 2 apple trees that I've been growing from seed would have to be 30 inches tall by now! I'm so impressed that they've grown, let alone got that tall!!

There's also the recipe I found for 'Whole Spiced Oranges'....but I didn't have a jar wide enough for a whole entire orange to fit into so I thought sliced oranges would be good.....but then I saw the rum in the cupboard so I added a good splash of that to the mix of salty water I had them soaking in for 24hrs. 

I've been searching for months for a good Australian website that details what to plant and when. Well I found one. So for January I plan on planting:

lettuce

swedes

beetroot

rosella

oregano

not a big list huh! But thats only because everything is already happening: zucchini, turnip, corn, parsley, egg plant, cucumber, carrots, and asparagus (is that the same as asparagus pea?? Does anyone know what amaranth is and/or what its used for?? I've heard of the name but thats about it.

So here is the list of all things January:

PLANT                            WHERE                                                                     HARVEST

Amaranth (also Love-lies-bleeding)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Asparagus Pea (also Winged bean)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Beetroot (also Beets)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Burdock (also Gobo (Japanese Burdock))	Plant in garden.	Harvest from June
Carrot	Plant in garden.	Harvest from May
Chives (also Garden chives)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Climbing beans (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Cucumber	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Dwarf beans (also French beans, Bush beans)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Eggplant (also Aubergine)	Plant out (transplant) seedlings.	Harvest from May
Kohlrabi	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Lettuce	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Marrow	Plant in garden.	Harvest from May
Mustard greens (also gai choy)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from March
Okra (also Ladyfinger, gumbo)	Plant out (transplant) seedlings.	Harvest from May
Oregano (also Pot Marjoram)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from March
Parsley (also curly leaf parsley or flat leaf (Italian) parsley)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Radish	Plant in garden.	Harvest from March
Rosella (also Queensland Jam Plant, Roselle)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from July
Salsify (also Vegetable oyster)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from May
Silverbeet (also Swiss Chard or Mangold)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Sunflower	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Swedes (also Rutabagas)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from April
Sweet corn (also maize)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from May
Turnip	Plant in garden.	Harvest from March
Zucchini (also Courgette/Marrow, Summer squash)	Plant in garden.	Harvest from March

(http://www.gardenate.com)

There are plenty of other stories from my kitchen, but thats next blog (if I remember!).....raw food recipes, burnt cooked food, dinners from the patch and paddock.

Around the gardens today

A storm brewing to the east

I love our gardens - there are random items!

Red

Silky

Chris (aka Christmas)

I watered these yesturday! I am very surprised that, after my hacking in winter, that they have come back.

The scent on these gorgeous pink roses is delightful

The only rose bush that hasn't grown much after I hacked them back in winter. This is a peach rose and the tag is still on it, but I can never remember what it reads.

Charcoal chicken. I have no idea what she was doing in the tyre!

Ginger which should produce about 5kg

Zucchinis and lots of them growing too

Soooo much lettuce!

Purple beans

Brody not impressed about the storm coming. He quickly turned around and took off once I took this pic. When I called the chickens so they could be locked up, he came cantering up behind them: he loves his tucker! the girls and I struggled to get Silky in his pen but Brody was 'helping'. As soon as I called 'C'mon git up' Brody was right there trying to chase him into the pen :)

Me and the storm right behind me.

Animal warfare! Turkey feathers from 2 days ago. I found some in the garden shed today too. Poor Mary must have copped a serious ordeal!

Underneath Kasey's bedroom window

5kw solar power system has pumped out 31.6kw. 27kw went back into the grid.

Whitey, our 10wk old chick with Dora and Crinkled-Neck the 3wk old turkey poults

Dora the turkey

Our first ever black chick

Blondey

1 day old chick next to a 3wk old turkey poult. Major size difference!

The storm went through Crows Nest this afternoon and missed us by the look of it - no rain for us this time :(

Written as the day goes by

7am: The phone rings. Kasey answers has a quick chat for all of 10 seconds as she walks towards me. She tosses the phone to me, it's Daddy, and then bolts out the door before I could get the phone to my ear. "I think Mary is dead.......".

Kasey had beat me to the pen. The eggs she had under her would be dead because she isn't really sitting on them - more like squatting over them. I get the wire cutters because I had done a seriously good job at locking the gate to keep the dogs out. She's not dead, just very sore and sorry for herself. Phew!!!!!! But the psychologist in me kicks in - knowing full well those eggs will be dead I leave them there - she needs a purpose to survive, if I take them off her she will have nothing.

I've had a cuppa on my deck this morning, it was so lovely!! There isn't a cloud in the sky today, the breeze is blowing ever so gently, the grass and weeds are looking ever so green and lush......poop....I can hear the bin truck....!! There goes that train of thought.

I've been in the kitchen for a fair few hours, on and off anyway, while I cook gingerbread men with Bridie. Every now and then I hear a chirping noise. Na, cann't be the eggs yet. Oh **** its the 21st!!! The eggs are due any day.....I look in our very full incubator and what do I see?? A chicken egg that has started to open up. Hooray!! For once we have life occurring, not death! That makes for a happy Mummy :) We have 20 chicken eggs, 9 turkey eggs and 15 guinea fowl eggs in the incubator. 

.....its now 5.18pm. In the last 2 hours I have chased the flaming pony (Brody) around Goombungee. I had 3 people walking try to round him up for me and a guy on a motorbike too. He had to wear himself out before I could get to him. He is now safe and sound in the house yard having a rest. Then I found Mary - our injured turkey - dead! FAR OUT! Oh boy did I crack the shits over that!! Bridie, Jonty and Amy were there when I buried her in the paddock....its not bin day for another week - wasn't going to put her in there and rot for a week!! Eeeeeeew!! But then, as nature has it and God intended life to be, a chick hatched in my hand!! Just because death happens doesn't mean good things stop occurring :)

What a day. I'm pooped :) 

If I didnt love my dogs.....!

The dogs have gone on a hunting spree / killing spree over the last 3 weeks, killing 2  of our 7 week old chicks, injuring another 2, 2 silky chooks and today they attacked our female turkey. I've kind of got this hospital thing going on at the moment, the 2 injured chicks are in the shed with the turkey poults who are 3 weeks old. The other chooks have been buried or tossed into the bin. The buried ones have been dug up again though!

Mary - our female turkey - had been sitting on her eggs in the cactus for the past week.  She knew the dogs couldn't get her or her eggs there because its past 'The Fence' (one of those hidden fence things that signals the collar to give the dog a zap if it gets too close). But the dogs have waited til she was super hungry to get her. She has a bit of a ripped chest thing happening under her right wing and feathers missing from her head and neck, but physically she is ok. I doused her in betadine so that maggots don’t form and to clean the wound.

The chicks are a different story in how they were injured / killed. They have been kept together in the same pen with the silky hen and rooster that Neil brought down for us, locked up and were only allowed out in their little yard just less than a week before they were killed off. The dogs were jumping the fence into their yard and then knocking the poles we use to jam the doors shut down to get into them. They have done this plenty of times to get to the eggs too. Now the chickens have learnt - lay in the garden shed behind the saddles and lucine or in the wood box.

So not only do I have a hospital happening, but everyone must think we have a sign out the front "Don’t like your current owner? Then come live here! Animals of all shapes and sizes welcome. Including cats".

Someone has tried to palm off a staffy to us, our cat rocked up one night and never left, Neil from up the road gave us his beloved silky hen and rooster (the ones that got killed – that’s another story!!), then he brought down his guinea fowl. THEN, last Friday night when Nathan got home from work he was greeted by all the animals as usual, except there were 4 adult chicken hens and not 5. So he called out to her....but instead of just 1 hen coming, 2 came!! WT-!! Since when did we have 6 chooks again?? He was so convinced that I had gone and bought another hen and still now, 4 days later I don't think he believes me.

Remember 'Old Girl'? The one we got with 'Silky' from that empty rental place? ..... Well, this chook is like her.....seriously!! Its a spitting image of her, just not as fat!!! She is laying in the garden shed, walks around with the others, knows where to get water during the day, comes when called......everything the others do. We, ok I, have no idea where she has come from. All our original chooks are either still here (2 of them), dead and buried or eaten by the dogs. It is soooooo weird!!!!!!!

Then Im constantly playing security guard for 'Silky' (the one we got with Old Girl) - our big old silky rooster. He is always being attacked by Dodgy Rodgy (aka Roger) our other rooster (for our layers). Poor Silky spends the day out the front on the driveway so Roger doesn't get him. He has a fair few feathers missing from his head but no actual wounds yet. We need to get rid of him, he has no purpose here and so we are feeding him for the fun of it. Why cann't the dogs have gone for him this morning instead of Mary???

I wonder what dead or injured chook I will find tomorrow??

 One of our first chicks to hatch.