August 23, 2009
His Lordship beckoned me to follow him into the paddock yesterday. We trotted down and there was our first born lamb being lovingly cleaned by his very grumpy looking mum, stamping her foot at us in a determined manner. The wee lamb was only just standing on his wobbly legs and looking terrifyingly fragile. But all looked fine until mum turned around and we saw a second lamb hanging out of her. It looked dead.
His Lordship dashed up to the house and quickly read the lambing chapter in John Seymour’s self sufficiency bible, rang his mum for moral support then dashed back. We waited awhile but there was no sign the lamb was going to come out so we got her into the barn and I held her on her side and His Lordship delivered the lamb. He cleared the airways and amazingly the little thing was alive.
We also had a alpaca born on the farm this winter. We weren’t home for the birth but a little black boy was happily sitting with his mum when we turned up. The main concern when the alpaca was born was the cold temperatures. We had coats ready for him and kept him and his doting mum out of the rain for the first few weeks. He’s doing very well and growing like a weed.
Winter also saw the arrival of a donkey. She was delivered via float. She’s 10 and she’s beautiful. I would have done anything for a donkey when I was a little girl. How wonderful it would be to go back in time and tell that little 5 year old that all will be OK because one day you’ll have a donkey. A spotted her eating a thistle the other day so she’s now indispensable.
Animals
December 31, 2008
Hope everyone had a festive Christmas. We enjoyed the company of Liz, Ian and Mathew for the day. Mathew is a wonderful story teller and kept us all entertained with tales of his interesting and alternative life. The Christmas pudding went down a treat but it was too much for his lordship who ate a substancial portion then fell asleep under the Christmas tree for a few hours.
We had our best Christmas tree ever, stolen of course from where all Tasmanians steal their trees and decorated beautifully by our friends six lovely children. Santa was exceptionally kind to me this year but also practical. The gifts this year really represent how much my life has changed since we moved here. My favourites were the ones people had made for me. Liz sewed an apron for me, Mathew gave me a exquisite painting and dish brushes he makes from reeds, I was also given hand made soap and a hand knitted dish cloth from our good friends.
Liz and Ian also gave me a hedge trimmer - vroom vroom - which is only going to encourage me to plant more hedges. Luckily Sharon gave me a heap of hedge plants, thanks Sharon!!! His lordship presented me with a stainless steel garden set, trowels, spade, fork etc and the least practical gift but very exciting, tickets to see my beloved Leonard Cohen. Hallelujah.
Liz and Ian stayed for a few days after Christmas. We got stuck into the garden (we also got stuck into the wine, chocolate and christmas leftovers). We all gutted the old chook shed then Ian and his lordship converted it into three compost bays. Brilliant work. I now have a very fancy compost system which is protected from the rain. This is great to stop the nutrients leaching from the heaps during heavy down pours.
Liz and I attacked the weeds and there was a lot of them. We also heaved out loads of iris plants. I decided I didn’t like them, the flowers look like dirty tissue paper and they were everywhere. After we cleared a few gardens and took out unwanted plants I was amazed how much better the garden looks. It’s such an old fashioned planting scheme here and I find most of the plantings have not taken into consideration pleasing colour combinations. Especially the roses, most of them just down right clash. I’ve decided to be ruthless. If it doesn’t work it has to go, I’m going to simplify the planting and concentrate on plants that produce food.
I’m working on the round garden in front of the house. I’ve torn out all the rhododendrons (I don’t like them either - obviously) and everything else, In fact I now have a blank canvas. I want this area to be elegant and formal. Box hedges, white roses and terracotta planters with citrus. Most of the bed is north facing with a wall behind it so the citrus should do well there and if they’re in pots I can move them if needed.
Anyhoo, there’s still a lot of weeding to do so I’m back to it. Happy New Year everyone.
Garden, General
December 9, 2008
Yes it’s that time of year again.
I’ve got my pudding boiling on the stove now as I type this. I didn’t look at the time when I put it on to cook so I’ll be up till 1.30am waiting for it - bugger.
Ingredients
375g raisins
375g sultanas
250g currants
200g dried apricots, chopped
150g pitted prunes, chopped
1 cup brandy
1/2 cup jam
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon mixed spice
4 eggs
250g butter, melted, let cool
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups gluten free plain flour
1/2 cup gluten free self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Method
Put dried fruit, brandy, jam and spices into a bowl. Mix well then cover and let sit for a day - stir it occasionally.
Grease a 10-cup capacity pudding basin with melted butter and line base with baking paper.
Whisk eggs and butter together pour into fruit mixture with sugar. Sift flours and bicarb over fruit mixture. Stir to mix then spoon into basin.
Cut a 30cm-square piece of non-stick baking paper and a 30cm-square piece of foil. Place paper on foil and fold to make a pleat in the centre. Place over basin, foil-side up. Tie a double piece of kitchen string around basin to secure
Place an upturned saucer into the base of a large, deep saucepan. Place basin onto saucer. Pour hot water into saucepan so it comes one-third of the way up the side of the basin. Cover with a tight-fitting lid. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 hours. Remove pudding from water.
You can make this recipe up to 2 months ahead. Cover the pudding in the basin with plastic wrap and foil. Store in fridge.
To reheat a pudding: Remove the plastic wrap and foil from the pudding. Place an upturned heatproof saucer in the base of a large saucepan. Lower the pudding basin onto the saucepan. Fill a third of the way up the side of the basin with hot water. Simmer, covered, over medium-low heat for 1 hour or until the pudding is heated through. Remove basin from the pan and serve.
Recipes
December 9, 2008
We’ve been thinking a lot about being self sufficient lately. Spurred on mainly by the huge jump in the cost of food. I’ve being buying the same brand of goats feta cheese for years, it’s always been just under $5. Went to buy some last week and it’s now over $7. But it’s not just that , tins of lentil and beans I always buy have gone from $1.40 to $1.80 in the last few months. I don’t actually watch prices that closely so I presume everything else has jumped too.
Anyway things are changing and we need to change too. So my thoughts turn to what can we produce ourselves. Well cheese - we’re looking at breeds of dairy goats. Anglo Nubians seem the way to go. Quality milk, interesting looking and popular as pets if we need to sell excess stock. His lordship mentioned goat curry but I doubt he’d be able to kill a chicken let alone a goat.
So what else can’t we live without - veges - no worries, got them growing nicely despite a late frost. I’ll expand the vege patch vastly as I get the hang of things. Grains, I’d like to try a small scale field of oats for both the grain and the mulch supply, probably don’t have enough space here to do much more than a token amount of grain. I don’t eat wheat but we love rice but I don’t think I could make rice paddy cropping viable 
Fruit, our fruit trees are doing well as are nut trees, we’ll plant more next year though plus a lot more berries. Eggs, my New Hampshire chicky babes are growing nicely, though I think a couple may be roosters so I’ll have to deal with them at some stage. I’ll try to re-home but if that fails I was reading how English gardener Bob Flowerdew gets his excess roosters drunk on rum then does the deed. Best way to go I suppose.
Which reminds me - wine, not essential but it sure is nice to have a glass or two after a long day milking goats and weeding vege patches. A small vineyard would look very elegant on the north facing slope with Mt Roland looming picturesquely behind.
Power, this will have to be his lordships department. I’m not good with technology but he’ll work out the most sensible way to tackle this issue, whether it be solar or wind, batteries or putting it straight into the grid. Aurora has announced power costs will soar in the next five years so it’s definitely something that will need to be well considered.
I loved watching the British TV series ”The Good Life” years ago and have watched it again recently, priceless English humour. Unlike the Goods, we have no intention of completely dropping out of the system but it would be sensible of us to set ourselves up to not be so reliant on the big grocery chains.
General
November 24, 2008
Visited an open garden at Mole Creek on the weekend. Old Wesley Dale, an 1829 Georgian home in the Meander Valley under the Western Tiers. It was utterly compelling. The garden was elegant and subtle with an english styling that complemented the house and surrounding buildings beautifully.
The walled kitchen garden was inspirational with espalier fruit, hedging and parterre vegetable and fruit garden. It functioned as an effective sun trap, keeping the garden warm and protected. Seeing how beautiful a walled garden can be has cemented my resolve to create a walled kitchen garden here.
This magnificent garden also had a quirky elephant hedge. It must make the owners smile every time they walk past. I believe they plan to have another open garden in Autumn at the same time as another intriguing Mole Creek garden, Wychwood.
General
