Autumn 2013

Hi all, having some huge changes around the yard this year, as I found over Summer and goodness Summer went until April this year which I loved but for the garden it was a nightmare. I had 10 Veggie beds and really I could not keep up the water to any of them so lots died and then we ran out water and I found it such a time guzzler having to do all that watering particularly as this Summer I was kayaking up to 4 times a week always in the evenings - when I needed to be watering! Because I feel one problem was the beds were not raised enough (about 6 inches) I have reduced the number of veggie beds to only 3 and doubled the height of those 3 beds. As I have moved all beds up to the fruit tree area where there is tons of Winter sun I am going to use the old veggie garden area to plant a few more fruit trees, a Peach tree, Nashi and another Apricot. I have just moved my Rhubarb crowns to the old veggie area and my middle child made brick grass guards around them Summer we extended the chook pen its massive now and I will plant a Lemon tree and perhaps a Lime in the pen too. I like that Iv'e moved the new beds closer to my rabbitry area as the bunnies often get time out and its cute watching them run all over the place while I work out there. I am no longer breeding or showing and only have 5 left now so they all get time out with me in the paddock while I am working, have a picture of my gorgeous Siamese Sable on here. In Winter only draw back is the kids keep asking me to kick the footy with them while I am gardening and best to do that or risk ball to the head! Our little chick born last November that I swore was a girl, ended up being a boy and starting crowing right on 6 months and was rehomed today. Bummer so I am now waiting on 2 lovely Sussex chicks from a soup bus friend and cannot wait to meet those girls as I need regular eggs! Have been busy removing all the front yard plants on the eastern wall of our home to create my own little sensory garden and herb area and we are growing; Coriander, Flat leaf and Curly Parsley, Sage, Oregano, Sweet Basil, Lemon Thyme, Thyme, Aloe, Citronella and Lavender in there, have already been using the produce most I brought from the wonderful Talbot market. Today I have planted out the 3 veggie beds with Leeks, Red Onions (lots of them), Winter lettuce, Pak Choy, Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli. Each day I am moving a massive pile of gum leaves around the border of our place to supress the weeds have about 220 metres to cover I think I will still have left over leaves! Until next time....:)

Home Made Ice-cream!

As a Christmas present for the kids I brought a $25 ice cream maker and have been delighted with the results! In this house we try very hard to avoid additives, colours and preservatives in our food and although we don't generally eat a great deal of ice cream we do like something frozen to cool us on those 35 plus degree days. We started with Strawberry and used a punnet of Strawberries, 100 ml of cream and a 100gms of sugar as per the instructions, its all poured in together mixed for around 20-30 minutes by the machine and then frozen for around 8 hours. It was absolutely delicious although somewhat sweet! There was really only enough for a small scoup in a cone - there are 5 of us so we decided to make the next batch a little bigger. The next batch Raspberries were on special so we used a punnet of those 300 mls of cream this time and we reduced the ratio of sugar it was meant to be 300 gms however we only put 100 gms in, sadly this batch didn't turn out as well although I really liked it 2 of the kids found it too sweet to eat as some of the sugar had not been mixed in properly. Our third batch was a massive success, this time we chopped up a whole large Mango, again used 300 mls of cream and then added only 80 gms of sugar this time and it was a hit, it almost seemed to double in size, we let it mix for a lot longer and it was so tasty it lasted us all 2 nights this time so an added bonus! Vanilla icecream has been our biggest project as we needed Vanilla pods, egg yolks, cream, sugar,mill so a little more work cooking the pods but the taste the next day was delicious! Although not as healthy as our Mango ice cream!