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Farm update - July 2014

June has been a big month.  We had fairly warm weather up until the last week, and then the frost finally came.  Three frosty mornings in a row were enough to finish the choko, tromboncino and remaining tomatoes in the garden.  Most of the grass is still green but that won't last long.  We had a few storms with a bit of rain, but nothing significant.

The big news is that my eBook "Our Experience with House Cows" is available from my house cow eBook blog.

photo shoot with Molly cow


And we finally got council approval for our house at Cheslyn Rise.  This means that the council thinks we have done enough work so that it doesn't blow away or burn down.  We could live there if we had to, but we'd rather start painting the inside and fixing up the kitchen before we move in, so for now we are staying at Nanango/Eight Acres.  Read more about our house here.


Taz got spayed, microchipped, vacinated and registered, but she seems to have recovered and back to her energetic self already.  I couldn't choose just one photo of her as she ran around the yard playing with her toy.  Cheryl was watching calmly, she puts up with a lot of crazy puppy antics, including being jumped on and having her bones stolen.



I'll have more about the garden next Monday.  Here's what we're harvesting.  Notice the first tiny eggs from our new laying hens  we bought 3 black ones and a red one, point of lay, as I can't keep up with my customers!  We also culled a few old hens (some suggestions ming up in a post), and moved all the birds around, so now the crazy guineas are all in together.  We also let the young chickens out to free-range for the first time, its pretty funny watching them poking their heads out the door and deciding who is brave enough to step outside. 

harvest basket
new laying hens
so many guineas...
first time out for the little pullets

We've had the woodstove going and been chopping firewood (Pete chops and I stack, good stack aye!)


In the kitchen, I made dahl from red lentils, following the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, that's the first time I've made dahl, so I don't know if it was right, but it tasted nice. 

lentil dahl (Nourishing Traditions recipe)

some light reading, love visiting the library! (some of these are for Pete)

knitting progress, nearly finished the first ball

Here's a few blogs you might like:

Little Farm in the Big City

Tropical Permaculture


Finally, 'm looking forward to Plastic Free July!  First post is on Friday and I have some giveaways to share, so come back and check it out....

How was your June?  What are you planning for July?


Comments

  1. Cute photo with Molly. Taz looks like she would give Jessie a good run for her money. Good wood stack, we are going through a bit of wood at the moment with these cold mornings. Hope you are keeping warm at your place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Fee, I think they would be great friends :)

      Delete
  2. Lovely pics ... best of luck with that book! I would certainly buy one if we were a house cow family, but we only own 2 rather plump sheep. :)

    ReplyDelete

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