The thing about clearing out a pantry – apart from how long it takes – is that your lucky chickens start getting real variety in their scraps.
Take for instance today – the above ‘chicken smash’ contained unmanageable potatoes (ie small, weird or old) half a box of out of date raisins, an opened packet of rice noodles, a teriyaki packet recipe base (long out of date) a few biscuits that had been hiding and had gone stale and the remains of some cereal that had also been there too long.
The girls were very eager
There was a lot of snatching and running
Anyway – I started with this:
And so far have gotten to this point:
Surprisingly little out of date stuff that had to be thrown away/composted or chickenified. I still have the top shelf to go and I have to sort all my containers into order!
Mostly its getting things back into their proper places. My mother totally didn’t give me her tidy & organised gene. Sigh. Aesthetically Relaxed is all very well… right up to the point you can’t access a walkway into your pantry. Then things have to get Serious. 😀 (like I am serious!!!) ha!
Whatever – I am sure by the time I am finished, it will totally stop that twitch that Jeff has developed every time he goes into the kitchen. Snicker
Evenings are lovely by the fire. I am back to the knitting as its hard to know where to stop with the crocheted rugs. I want to get a few of these face washers completed, as they will be part of Christmas & birthday presents – and cotton on small needles takes me an eon to finish.
Hope your weekends have been fantastic and your week starts brilliantly! (Well… as good as a Monday can be anyway)
Stickybeak chooks looking for more foodPip doesn’t actually like the wheel barrow.
Well… winter started today and it was a good one. Sun was out & I was working in the garden in a t-shirt again!
Warm(ish) day
Since it just turned into June, I thought I should start to prepare my garlic patch. The rogue dahlias had finished so I could pull them up plus any spare potatoes that had started growing
Time to do some proper work!
Since garlic likes a more alkaline soil, I gave it a reasonable dusting of lime
Looks like icing sugar
Time to dig it all in
Nice! In a few days I will add blood and bone – then plant my garlic cloves
What fascinates me is the fact this plot has been dug over several times since digging up our potatoes. Not to mention wallowing about in the dirt sifting it through my fingers! How the hell did I miss these?
Potatoes are good at hiding. I have also transplanted three that had grown rather well… who knows what they will do? Produce winter potatoes?
I have a good lot of dahlia tubers to relocate
My self seeded lettuce are half-heartedly growing!
Lots of teeny-tiny weeds to get back to
I figured it was time to replant the broccoli that a certain chicken made a salad bar out of…
Look at them all milling about eyeing off the greens!!
Stakes in with high-tech pot barriers so the netting doesn’t slip through
And no – the end result is not pretty. But I think it will do as a chook-deterrent until they can get established.
Safety net!
Picked what broccoli/broccolini I could see that was ready
several small pieces – not nearly as impressive as Ruby’s!
Next task was the coop! I found half a bag of chopped hay, so I was able to half clean the coop. Scraping off all the poo and putting new hay in nesting boxes
The finishing touches – herbs!
Since I have plenty of herbs around the place, it doesn’t hurt to pick a bundle and chuck a bit in the nesting boxes and around the coop. Have no idea if its especially beneficial, but it makes the whole place smell a bit nicer – and I am sure the chickens appreciate the lengths I am willing to go to, to keep them happy!
As you have probably gathered – our chickens are slightly spoiled.
I had been promising them to make them a cake for a while, but not quite gotten there.
So I whipped one up yesterday. No recipe… just a vague idea and also include any dodgy leftovers that are lurking in the fridge.
I usually put a big cupful of half wheat, half pellets in, some of the cheap rolled oats and one of their eggs – crushed shell and all.
A loaf tin is the easiest one to use
I also had a tin of unwanted tuna – I had accidentally bought lemon & cracked pepper instead of in oil (same-ish yellow label) and Jeff dutifully tried it and hated it, so that went in. Also some herbs and garlic, half a cup of flour, then water to get it to the right consistency.
I didn’t bother greasing the tin – just some butter paper under it and it stuck a little
It sliced up reasonably well without completely falling apart
Last step was a warning note to husband, who was sleeping off a nightshift. I think he may have been a bit disappointed in the taste. (20 good housewife points right there!) 😀
I left Pip basking in a little of the sun and went to test it on the girls
Do Siamese need vitamin D?
Pretty much was an all in brawl
Approval
The two youngest of the new chickens I have called “The Road Runners” because they are so shy, and streak off if you make any sudden moves. They are getting bolder… even getting in there and snatching their share before bolting off with it!
Running off with her prize
A lot of our chooks will happily pinch the food out of your hands
I also made a fresh loaf of garlic herb bread for us… there are still good pickings in the herb garden
Oregano & Parsley still doing especially well
Crunchy fresh parsley???
Found this little fellow oozing about my parsley!
Once I had made sure there was no extra protein in my herbs I cut them all up, along with a fair bit of garlic and set some bread to bake
Love fresh herbs
It was really good! We ate it still warm with butter alongside some homemade potato, onion & bacon soup
I decided the few roses I found clinging to the bush were probably happier inside.
Hello & Happy Weekend to you all!
The last couple of days here have been reasonably nice (you know – the wind stopped as well as the rain! Bonus!)
Jeff got out and made our yard look a lot less scruffy – its amazing how quickly the grass (and weeds) are growing right now
Tidying up the edges
Having all the gates open during this process means that the girls get to go a little further afield around the property and they love a day out.
I had to chase Squirt out of the strawberry patch several timesShe is waiting for me to turn my back
Amazingly I have just noticed these –
I really hope they ripen!
I don’t know if they will ripen, so I covered them in a clear plastic container to hopefully give them some shelter from the cold. We didn’t get so many strawberries last season, because “The Chickenator” got in and pretty much spent a happy hour or two digging them up and they never recovered in time for the season.
Then there are some tragic things in the garden… like the death of my tomatoes-
Time to pull this garden up I think!
And moulting chickens
Screecher is looking so manky. Her feathers are slowly growing back.
Pip doing a boundary inspection
Pip also happy to be outside
Mostly the cat and chickens pretend to ignore each other
**********
Hands Across The Sand
Today, worldwide, people joined hands on beaches in a bid to say we want cleaner greener energy.
Sisters Beach – saying no to drilling for oil in the Strait
BP want to drill for oil in the Bass Strait – the body of water that separates mainland Australia from Tasmania.
They are still cleaning up their appalling mess made in the Gulf of Mexico six years ago! Billions of dollars!!
Those beautiful beach photos that I share here with you? If there was an oil spill in the Bass Strait it would be devastating for us, marine life and bird life. We have so many more options these days – we don’t need to risk it.
Nice to be part of something that is worldwide.
My cousin and I debated the ethics of souveniring this placard… but of course did the right thing at the end of the day and returned it. (We were both thinking how great it would look in the back window of the car! 😀 ) (Mind you the Wilderness Society did give us some great stickers, so we were content with those)
Fiona being green
Fiona continued being an awesome cousin by shouting me a cup of hot chocolate down at Boat Harbour Beach. Bliss.
I had a lovely afternoon catching up with a friend – also a ‘down the road- across a couple of paddocks-neighbour’.
I got a message that a tray of brownies had just come out of the oven, so I really put my skates on to get down there ASAP!!
A fancy coffee and a still warm brownie!!!
“Have another one” “Noooo – I am trying to walk off some of my excess muffin top you know?” “Oh go on” “A small piece…” “Sure” “mmm… maybe the middle sized piece!”
Cindy and her family are planning on heading off on a Grand Adventure at the end of the year! They bought a whacking great bus and are refitting it into being a motor home & spending a year travelling around Australia!
A beauty of a beast!
I hadn’t been introduced to the bus yet or seen the progress so it was pretty impressive to go in and check it all out!
I think I was drunk on brownies by the time I took this wonky photo
The roof of the bus has been raised and it really feels incredibly spacey inside. The little kitchen seems very workable despite being compact – well… it seemed bigger than I expected to find in a bus with full sized stove and good sized fridge!
Kid space
The kids bedrooms have good space for their things, privacy curtains and are separated from the main bedroom by the bathroom and shower – small but impressive spaces.
Two large drawers will be under each bed
I must say I am a little envious about the disappearing pantries!!
Two hidden pull out pantries! Divine!Testing out the front seats of the bus!
Such an upcoming adventure for them – will look forward to following their progress around the country!
In Other News.
Its still Raining.
And Blowing a Gale!
But the last two mornings we have started out with the sun throwing colourful sparkles from the chandelier in the hallway
Cheerful start to the day
Today in a fit of extreme optimism I put a load of washing on… Then as it got closer to finishing, the clouds also got closer… so I chickened out (rightly so) and hung them under cover on the veranda.
Maybe when the rain stops for more than 30 minutes I’ll give the back a clean up.
Its actually amazing how far along dry you can get the clothes even on a wet day. They didn’t take long to finish off in front of the fire this evening. (We don’t have a drier so there is no choice about just shoving them in one to do the job.)
I also made the chickens a pot of mashed potato – mixed with a bit of milk and some other leftovers
The purple potato is a pretty addition
Pip decided he needed a taste of course
Weird cat
The chickens scarfed it down like no-ones business! The new girls are yet to get into the swing of things when it comes to gobbling up scraps, but I am sure they will get the hang of it soon
Warm Mash – Happy Chooks
Our girls lay fairly consistently – even through winter. Granted, we don’t get three foot of snow (Actually we get no snow) but even other local chickens don’t do as well as ours I hear… might be something to do with the warm food and general spoiling? Or maybe we have just been lucky.
Never short of eggs!
I sold three dozen yesterday.
I sell ours to family/friends at $4 per doz. which I think is a really good price. Supermarket ‘free range’ (FR eggs are often not exactly that free range either) can be up around $7-8 per dozen.
What do people pay for free range eggs around your end of the world?
Time for me to snuggle down in bed – going to grab a Terry Pratchett book and read while listening to the wind and rain howl outside.
The occasional extras can be seen on my facebook page
Cheers
PS Pip was so happy I got out the clothes horse again – his sleeping place of choice in the cooler months – on the top rack of the apparatus, right in front of the fire! I got loud purrs, kneading paws and several concussing level head-butts!! 🙂
Well… just to let you know, its not all Beaches & Sunshine around Norwich House. Behind the scenes I am getting on with a few tasks as well as acting Chicken Wrangler – gently introducing the new girls to the old.
I finally got around to making some pickled beetroot
Beetroot grow really easily around here
I had some vague instructions from Ruby, so I just went for it
I adore the colour of beetroot
To be perfectly honest, it tastes bloody awful, so I put the whole thing, pot and all, in the fridge and thought I had better ask Margie for a proper written recipe. The lovely lady handed that over today, so I will be able to hopefully rescue it in the next day or two.
I picked and roasted the rest of my beetroot to make chutney
I had to cut the biggest in half to roast
I’ll add the recipe for this at the end of the post, for those that are interested.
The recipe calls for three Granny Smith apples, but there is no way I was going to especially buy apples when I am still snowed under with our own!!
I did forget about getting some orange juice… happily I remembered I made some orange juice icy poles a while back, so I saved myself a few bucks there!
Handy icy poles!
I had to scrape together a hodgepodge of jars and lids to finish the job as the order I made a couple of weeks ago seemed to have been lost in the ether…
Beetroot relish – a delight mixed in cream cheese as a dip
Naturally five minutes later I find a bunch of boxes on the back porch full of jars, bottles and lids!!
I like the fat long chillies as they are less fiddly to cut, so I saved a bunch of seeds to hopefully restart next season
Preparing for next season
The rest of the scraps I put in one of the Origami bins as they can wrap and compost easily, with less chances of the chickens getting into them. I am not sure if they are bad for chooks, but I can only imagine laying an egg is tough enough without the burning sensation of overdoing it on chillies!
Handy box
I managed to get 9 bottles out of this batch, Mana is getting one to take to Melbourne with her as apparently it “is the best tasting sauce in the whole world” (I am not sure I embellished much 🙂 )
So here we are at 10.30pm finishing up making sauce!
I had to open a window! This was eye-watering!Done!
Chickens
Not too many arguments yet
I’ve been slowly introducing the new girls into the old girls company. So far so good… the biggest of our new girls doesn’t take any guff from anyone, so that’s good. The three younger ones are a bit more timid, but they can hang out together. Tonight I transported them all into the main coop – they are sharing two to a nest. (They look cute cuddled up together)
These girls are silky soft to cuddle – altho I had to wait until they were asleep to pick them up
Tomorrow I will pop them up on the roost so they get used to that. Some wing clipping will be in order too… they fly up and over fences too easily and I am not keen to go racing about the paddocks with the cows and electric fences to get them back! (the last time I went near an electric fence I got zapped on the backside – VERY undignified!)
We also have a crook chook – she has had a bad leg for a while. At the moment she is pretty listless with not much appetite. We have her inside at night in the cat carrier and in the hothouse by day where she is warm and sheltered but not too cooped up.
Hothouse chook
Dunno if she will survive, but she will get every chance.
Pretty scraps
I am also attempting at the moment to make some cider vinegar
Tonight for the first time I got it out of the cupboard to stir it up
Fizzing up!
I was quite pleased how it fizzed up. That’s a good sign right???
Its back in the cupboard, but it smells pretty good. I’ll have to find the recipe again to check what I have to do and when. Since its only scrap apple, water and a bit of sugar, its not much of an investment if I get it wrong.
Of course I am still putting apples through the dehydrator. I suspect Jeff is eating them almost as fast as I make them!!
Yet another batch of apple
Despite the rain and cold weather there are still a few pretties in the garden – photographed a few in between rainfalls
Since Mana is catching a plane tomorrow, we dropped in to say goodbye to Margie & Ruby. (Not least Macca!) Of course there was cake. (A sponge from Margie!! Yummo)
Until next time…
I am now going to sit for a few minutes with my rediscovered crochet skills before bed!
Cheers!
I had been knitting so much I had forgotten how to crochet.. Went to see Margie for a refresher course! 🙂
Beetroot Chutney
INGREDIENTS
5 beetroots
3 brown onions
3 granny smith apples (or whatever you have)
500ml balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup orange juice
2&1/2 cups raw sugar
½ teaspoon ground cloves
METHOD
Bake beetroot (Approx 2 hours) then dice
chop apples and onion
Put all ingredients in pot and simmer 1 hour
I love this on top of cheese & biscuits (crackers). Also mixed into some cream cheese with a squidge of lemon juice makes a wonderful dip!
I failed to capture the seriousness of the wind today!Debris
Oh it was a feral day out there!! The wind was dislodging all kinds of gum tree bits that bounced off the roof all day!
The rain didn’t fall either, it hurled itself down with such vigour that it created an upward spray off the shed roof!!
Would have been soooooo easy to not go for a walk. But it was the first day of my new years resolution in May and I felt like such a slacker woosing out first up because of a bit of weather!! So I put on the walking gear, said see ya to Jeff and Mana – who both suddenly decided to join me in my madness. (Actually Jeff said I wasn’t allowed to hog all the idiot points) 😀
I was all prepared to take a selfie when we got home of me totally soaking wet and cold and miserable (and another 8kms skinnier) when, Tasmania, being Tasmania, the sun came out and shined for the whole hour and ten minutes!!
Pretty new bird!
We took delivery of four gorgeous new hens this morning!! I will have to ask the lady when I see her next what they are again. (I’ll write it down)
We put them in the smaller portable chook run (that we borrowed off cousins ages ago and haven’t got it back to them quite yet!)(Its ok… apparently they don’t need it at the moment)
Stacks on in the hen house!
We fished them out late in the afternoon for a run about in the yard
Checking out their new homeI love their collars
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence… I have started making warm mash late in the afternoon for the girls. Happy chooks, warm bellies, more eggs.
You should add a garnish of parsley. That way your chickens know you truly care.
Within seconds I have to step back as a LOT of this gets flicked all over the place during their enthusiastic scoffing.
All in!
I had to pick up another bucket of windfall apples of course, fetch more wood and a few other outdoorsy things. It was so great coming back into the house – enveloped in a cocoon of warm. So nice I went outside several times to get cold so I could enjoy walking back inside to the fire. (yeah probably weird but little things like that make me happy)
Kept dinner simple tonight – roasted some pumpkins to make up some soup…
So far my few pumpkins have all been delicious
And I also baked a loaf of garlic/herb bread – most of which is now gone….
Fresh herbs, fresh garlic, toasty warm bread!!
Nice to finish the day in front of the fire, a movie and getting my Knitting Nanna persona happening!
Nearly doneHalf way though a yellow pair – should match my minion beanie nicely!!!
Enjoy what is left of your weekend.
Cheers
PS you can see what we get at the end of our rainbows via Facebook
The baker at our local supermarket is totally awesome. If I drop in and ask, he will save whatever bread that is destined for the bin the next day for me to collect and give to our chickens. What a great haul today!! I will have to freeze some of that!
I took the buns down – there was great anticipation –
They KNOW a treat is forthcoming
Then there was snatching –
Greedy…
And then there was the running and chasing –
Bread-tag. The best backyard game.
Chickens are so funny to watch (or maybe I am just easily amused!)
Anyway, the last few days we have been doing a little path tidying/weeding & re-woodchipping. The main path to the house was looking a bit scruffy and tired.
Path weeded, ready for woodchips
So we weeded it and got a load of woodchips to cover it up again.
Easy to get trailer loads of garden goods from the local nursery
A trailer load didn’t quite finish the job
Not quite done… so Jeff moved on to weeding the lawn
But today we managed to finish it off – now the grass just needs a mow and it will look reasonably spiffy
A much nicer view when I look out the kitchen window
The path in front of the hothouse has been an eyesore for ages and I have just ignored it…
So I got my favourite weed-digging tool (Thanks to my Mum for sharing this tip)
Old files are great weeders
An old file without the handle is a brilliant weed digger. Easy to find these at markets/bricabrac shops etc. They are so strong and the point digs in deep. Really handy for those weeds with the tap roots that hang on.
The messiest end done!
The water pipes run under this path – we learned that the hard way 🙁
We ended up with about 100 feet of pulverised rock from when we had a bore dug at the end of last year. We have been using it as fill here and there. Being rock it has no nutritional value, but useful around the place. So we put down a layer of it first before the woodchip. (My theory is to help smother the weeds)
Looking a little better
And finally, the fun part – the woodchip and whatever paving stones we could scrounge up (again – just stuff that had been left on the property when we bought it that we have found uses for)
I just feel better about this now!
I am thinking a vast improvement and come winter I won’t be sloshing about in mud! Excellent!
Someone needs to move these out of my reach for a while.
It doesn’t matter that I am starting to feel a little funny, I can’t stop eating them!!!
We dived into “Egg Money” to treat ourselves to a packet (each) (That saves the husband – wife squabbles because someone may have eaten more than his fair share)
So – what are people doing over this long weekend? Celebrating Easter? Taking a well earned breather? Work as normal?
I think one of our chooks is taking a well earned breather, as she laid a marble this morning!! I mean really! It wasn’t worth her effort!!
Probably the reason I had those Cadbury chocolate eggs on my mind! Clever chook!
One of the fun things about living around here is randomness. I was sitting inside avoiding some housework today when I heard someone walking around the house. I saw a lady looking lost, so I went out to say hi and see what she wanted.
Turns out she and her husband dropped in because they had seen my sign and wanted vegetables – even though the tables weren’t out!
Fabulous! Here – grab a box and follow me! What do you want?
So I dragged them all over the yard and let them pick and dig what they fancied, including cherry tomatoes –
Who can resist these?
Beans, parsley, carrots, apples and beetroot
Beetroot (& crocs)
I threw in a few seedlings and seeds as they are just preparing a garden, then we got down to the business end of the deal.
“How much?”
“Um… more than $5, less than $10?” (you can tell I am totally prepared and businesslike for all of this)
They laughed, handed me $10 and promised to return!
River Afternoon
Since Jeff has a nice stretch off from work and the day was warm, we decided to take advantage of the autumn sunshine and take the kayaks out for a paddle.
Perfect kitchen escape
We only recently invested in kayaks. I had been putting little bits of money aside for about a year – the five year plan was to head to Ireland – but Jeff got a bit keen when he heard how much I had squirrelled away and suggested we get the kayaks.
We had often seen people kayaking on a lot of the local tidal rivers and it looked a wonderful way to spend a few hours.
Mine is the Kitty-Cat-Kayak
I found the coolest sticker ever at a market – perfect for my kayak
We usually like to put the kayaks in the water about an hour before high tide. The theory is that it will be easier going upriver and a doddle coming back!
Battling a headwind today!
Its lovely on the river. You see the occasional other paddler, birdlife and if you are lucky, a pademelon. (Imagine a kangaroo that is not as tall as up to your knee and is as fat as a basketball and you have a pademelon)
Grey skies
We got rained on going upriver and sunburnt coming back.
But that’s kinda normal for Tassie weather.
Beautiful warm afternoon
It was lovely floating along coming back and watching the gum trees as we glided by
Eucalyptus trees along the river banks
Lunch tomorrow at Ruby’s! She is roasting up a turkey!
