Pies for Dinner

These were really delicious - wagyu mince, onion, carrot, tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce and some gravy powder.

PC Update

The root veges are flying as are the cherry tomato plants. The fruiting veges (those that you eat the fruit of ie cauli, broccoli, cabbage) etc are too.

Mint and coriander.

I won't know which are cauli, broccoli and cabbage until someone grows a head; they're all planted in together.

Zucchini

Station 1 from above

I'm letting the wild sunflowers grow to head so I can pick them for the chooks.

Artichokes

I think I have blossom end rot - well not me exactly - the tomatoes. That's what an internet search suggests. In my garden it is most likely caused by a combination of lack of calcium, too much nitrogen and inconsistent watering. I removed all the affected fruit and left the 20 - 30 unaffected fruit on the plants.

I'm still not sure about the Barnies as my PC cultivators. I'm tending towards something smaller, maybe bantam wyandottes or OEG's. Gibbo is thinking of getting out of his Crele wyandottes - which are the ones I like the most. There could be an opportunity there :)

I'm Back on My Bike

I've been feeling the need to clear some cobwebs in my head so went riding on Monday - first time out in six months and it was fantastic. I just rambled and wandered, not trying to race anybody or keep up with anyone. Thankfully my on board computer has died so I'm not consumed by numbers, how fast, how slow, cadence, average speed etc. It felt so good. I rode around 20km - across two highways and down to the 11th telephone pole on the left! We've measured the distance before so I knew roughly how far I went. I'd pedal for a minute then coast; pedal and coast; it was very refreshing and relaxing and enjoyable.

Tuesday I rode 10km - down to the yellow 'school bus turning' sign and back.

I'm slowly starting to smile again :)

This is NOT what you want to see...............

in the garden when you walk out in the morning. There's another 231 of these little suckers wandering in the buffel paddock which is the paddock surrounding the house (well there was; the stockies have moved them on). A gate absentmindedly left open; the lure of green grass and interesting plants; the temptation was too great for three or four of them. They went out the way they came in - except for this one who decided he'd hurdle the fence further up in the corner.

The next day - they tried it again, this time knocking down the most vulnerable railing in the fence; chased out again. Then the stockies came and all is well again.

My blood pressure rises VERY quickly when I see something like this. I once had 30 or so angus in here, fertilising and aerating the lawn naturally. It was difficult to explain the cow manure on the tennis court......

Random Things

I haven't posted food photos for, oh, at least a few days.......Meg has been cooking again (still). We had chicken pad thai (a specialty of hers and Chris') -

 olive bread -

olive bread pizza -

and beautiful fresh bread -

Had a crappy week at work last week; some people are just plain stoopid.

The Easter break flew by in the flick of an eye. Drew has continued to work Saturdays and is earning huge dollars for a 16 year old. We all think we'll give up what we do now and go work in a bottleshop. He'll have his Schoolies money saved in a matter of weeks and he wants to go to Brazil in December to visit a friend. At this rate he'll be able to pay for his own airfare.

I had hoped to laze around and do lots of reading over the four days but that didn't happen - but I don't really know what I did. It was just over!

These are some flowers that the Armidale girls picked with Megan when they were here. It's amazing just what you can find when you walk around the garden.

The D's came to stay last night, just A and the kids; R is off in Brisbane doing her  training for her new career. I gave the kids a silkie each - one black, one partridge and one white. They were excited. Their cavoodle also came to stay. Coco was NOT excited to have another dog around. As far as she's concerned it's just her and Woofy and no-one else.

This is what happens when Megan collects the eggs :) The bottom left one says "please don't eat me".....

Andrew has been back and forward to Charleville, finishing off the renovations to the G's shop. He knows every dip in the road. Ran into Peter at Betros'. Mate has been to the block to check on things. Mum has been to the doctor and had a good report.

Permaculture Update

My Dad delivered me some jerusalem artichokes Friday a week ago. We grew them in the chook pens as kids and Mum would often boil a pot full to have with dinner. We loved them. In the ensuing years, Mate had often looked for them in the supermarket - he'd make a beeline for what he thought was a robust looking artichoke but was, on closer inspection (with his glasses on), nobs of ginger. I finally tracked some down for him a few years ago and had them sent over from Western Australia and he's become the artichoke king. He and Andrew and I had a little competition to see who could grow the best ones - and he won by a country mile. He has a thumb that is decidely greener than mine - in fact, his artichoke plants grew to be taller than him and Peter and they're 6ft 3 and 6ft 4!! There's a photo of them standing amongst the plants, showing off of course, and you can barely see them!! Here are the ones he brought me, planted into the outer edge of the round garden. They're going well so far and have fresh green tips.

The self seeded cucumbers look healthy and will survive for as long as the frosts hold off.

It was root vege day on Thursday - Drew and I went to the nursery and chose orange carrots, purple carrots, beetroot and three types of onions - spring, brown and eschallot.

The lettuce that I sewed last week are doing fine but something has almost completely destroyed the new spinach seedlings.

The zucchini's look really fresh and healthly and are a lovely colour - planted directly into old feedlot manure and spoiled lucerne biscuits.

These are what I'm most excited about - roma tomatoes. The first one to ripen will be all mine - I'll share the rest from then on. They look so beautiful on the vine; how much better will they look when they're a glossy juicy red colour?

The seed veges (broccoli, cauli and cabbage) we planted last week have really taken off - this photo was taken a few days ago and already the plants are much bigger.

The peas look a bit thirsty though.

This is the first sign of trouble - a very hungry caterpillar in the mature spinach plants. I suspect it's him and his mates who have been feasting on the new spinach plants as well as the cucumber leaves.

I'm almost (not quite) embarrassed to post this photo - Megan was desperate to pick some carrots, just to see how they were going - not very well obviously!!! Well, they are supposed to be BABY carrots!

This doesn't look too good either - the first flush of tomatoes, those on the bottom of the plants, are doing very well but as the newer fruit has developed at tier two and three they have developed a dark brown spot at their base and look like this. I don't know if it's a bug that's causing it or maybe irregular watering ie too much one time, not enough the next. I need a tomato expert.

The silkes continue to lay their lovely little eggs but I've now got seven clucky hens; three of them try (and succeed) to cram themselves into the nest boxes (it must get awfully hot in there) while another couple sit outside. Any egg that is laid is quickly snavelled by one of the magnificent seven and is sat on for a few hours until I come along and steal it from under them.

We're taking a posse to the Maleny chook show this weekend; I'm taking two white hens, two black hens and a black rooster. I'll have to wash the white hens on Thursday; they look a bit too dirty for an outing.

Off to The Bunyas

We took a trip to The Bunya Mountains on Sunday for a family picnic; we packed chicken and salad rolls; mini quiches and home made bickies. We found a nice patch of grass in amongst the thousand other people who also thought it would be nice if their families spent a relaxing few hours in the mountains!

He's getting a haircut on Friday - not before time hey?