Starting to feel like christmas

A bit of wash board action

Gotta love a bit of good old wash board action. Henry Wagons is opening for Seeker Lover Keeper tonight and he looks to be a lot of fun...

Homegrown....

Mmmm, broccoli, and it was delicious

Chip of the old block

Finn driving in his first screw, all by himself! He knows how to pull his weight around the place (farm)

Strange things happen in this house

OK... This is not toilet humour... Take a close look in the basket.. One of our chooks has started laying eggs in the toilet roll basket!

No Bull

This handsome fella's been bellowing in the home paddock for the last few days... 

Isn't he cute!??!

We're officially farmers!

Who are we to argue with the mail man!

Woods Lake Brownies

So i should have been preparing for a 6 hour mountain bike race, but instead went on a camping trip to Woods Lake to do some fishing. I like my style!

Greenhouse Progress

The Greenhouse

I love gumtree, the free online classified advertiser.. Over the last couple weeks i've sold our mulcher, sold a spare hot water cylinder, and today i picked up a greenhouse. We've been looking for one for a while to put on the concrete slab we uncovered next to the bakehouse vegie plot... It'll be up tomorrow!

The seller threw in a mulcher and a petrol blower vac. I'm sure the sale of the mulcher will recover half the purchase price of the greenhouse

The White House

I'm hoping Christine doesn't happen to see this.... I'll have my work cut out for the next few years....

Gastronomy

Gastronomy is the art or science of good eating.... Well, on our last fishing trip we had some scientists and artists on board!

At lunch time out came the hallowed red gas stove, a new non sick fry pan, some peppered steak, some prawns, and some great ciabatta.... The stove did the heating up thing to the pan, which in turn cooked the steak perfectly, the prawns were thrown in to cook in the pepper that had fallen of the steak, and the ciabatta was sliced and put in the pan to toast.... The result was definitely art, the process was scientific, and the result was astounding eating! To top it of, out came some Becks, the timing of which was exquisite!

Eds culinary fishing charters! Taking bookings..

Ohh yeah, we even caught some fish!

Little Miss Piggies

Its been an adventure to say the least. We set up a pig run, enclosed with an electric fence, nice comfortable lodgings, good food, reinforced the run with ring lock fencing and set about finding some pigs....

I'd noticed a free range pig farm down pateena road, about 2km's from our place, and went there to enquire about purchasing some piglets. There was no-one home so i left a note in their letter box... After a few days with no repsonse, i went to a place in lilydale where we'd noticed some piglets when visiting the goat farm. The "man of the house" wasn't home so i left a card with his daughter.. That night the phone rang and old mate was pretty keen to sell me some pigs and we made a time to collect them..

I borrowed a trailer, and headed of to Lilydale to fetch me some pigs. Just as we were driving in to lilydale old mate phoned me to say he couldn't make it. When i told him we'd just driven all the way from Longford to Lilydale, he wondered why we were in Lilydale when he was at Longford.....

We made another time to collect the pigs (from down the road this time) When i got there we had to drive through about 4 paddocks to find us some free range piggies. When we found them, we hopped out and tried to catch some.... Anyone tried catching pigs in a paddock before with fences that don't hold them in? I sprinted for a good 15 minutes but finally snavelled two.. Loaded them into the trailer and set off home...

The pigs were safely deposited into their new lodgings and we sat down for our evening meal... Our neighbour (who had already told me that the pigs would run straight through the fence) knocked on our door to alert us to the fact that there were "Pigs Everywhere!!" I grabbed my net and set of after them...After about half hour i found them, but couldn't catch them. Went back home to fetch the trailer and try again. I saw the piggies at a neighbours across the road, parked the car and bolted after them... Another mad 15 minute sprint and a desperate lunge saw me net the smallest of the pigs. I chucked him under my arm and continued chasing the bigger piggy for a good half hour, jumping about 10 fences and making a few more desperate lunges. It was getting too hard to carry the little pig and run, so i brought him to the trailer, and set of with renewed enthusiasm to catch the other...

A fairly fast jog through about 5 undulating paddocks, jumping electric fences, stalking through ditches, avoiding mad cows with little calves, dodging irrigator spray and fresh cow paddies followed. The sun had set and daylight was fading fast when i had one last mad attempt to tackle the pig. I ran after him, slowly reducing the gap. When my legs were about to give up i was close enough for one last throw of the dice. I dove at full length, managed to touch the pig on his back which made him change direction, and i slowly skidded to a halt as the pig ran away..

Dejected but at the same time happy that i had retrieved one pig, i knocked on the neighbours door and told him what had happened. He said he'd keep an eye out for the grunter. The other neighbour phoned that night and ordered me to go to his place and collect some droppers and old roofing iron and make a proper pen (in a nice way)

The following morning the phone rang early, the neighbour had spotted my pig. I rushed over to where he had seen him but there was no pig in sight... Yesterday my sister in law headed of to work and nearly run over my pig (she's a mad driver ;-) (I know you're reading this) outside our place.. By the time I'd got my shoes on he'd disappeared. Last night as we were about to sit down for dinner, and as Christine was about to take Imogen to the doctor after she cracked her nose on the trampoline, a friend knocked on the door to say the pig was on the lane directly opposite our place. We watched the piggy come closer towards us, until a truck carrying dirt turned down the lane and chased him all the way down the drive and then he bolted across the paddock, out of sight..

This morning the phone rang, and the neighbour across the road told me his dogs had rounded up a little piggy and that he was safely penned up at his place.. I've just come back from collecting her, taking her home, making her fences higher, and hopefully they'll both be there when i get home tonight.....

So their names are Parma (ham) and Streaky (bacon, or lightning streak fast)

Moscars

No, it's not the Oscars, it's better..... As part of Movember, Mo Bro's and Mo Sistas are encouraged to put up a short flick or music video for a Moscar nomination... I love this entry

It's almost got me over the line to register for Movember

Tickets booked

This promises to be good......

To Market, To Market

To sell some fresh bread and eggs

Well, we did it.... I woke from my peaceful slumber at 4.50am and got to work. Light the fire, batch up 10kg of dough, let it rise, knock it back, knead it, shape it, let it rise, bake it, and sell it.. 24 loaves, 12 white, 6 wholemeal and 6 honey oat....

We packaged a few extras, some eggs, some bread bags, and of we went. Arrived at the market a tad after 9, started selling at 9.15 and were back home at 11am, done and dusted.. It was a lot of fun, the kids loved it, we met some great people and got out in our local community to share some of what we love....

I'll go back in a fortnight, this time with some properly baked honey oat (they were a bit underdone, thankfully a few ravenous children helped us realise before we sold any). Working up to selling only sourdough, but that might be a month away..

Big Black Dog Bakery

Here's a few pics of a practice run for this Saturdays growers market... Stay tuned

Coffee and a Biscuit

Enjoying some of the spoils of Fathers Day....Hmmmm yum!

Arthurs Lake

Work saw me in Cressy yesterday lunch time. Thought i might make the most of the day and had to Brumbies for a bash but the water was pretty dirty. I bit the bullet and headed up the hill to the lakes. Being a lakes virgin i had no idea what i was doing, but decided to head to Arthurs. Took the turn of to Jonah Bay and thought i'd go past the boat ramp in the hope of missing the masses. Ended up in a likely look spot, donned the waders, put on a freshly acquired strike tiger homebrew soft plastic and waded in through the trees

Wasn't long before i broke the doughnut and snagged my first lakes brownie.

Another hour of casting saw many more follows, at one stage i had a couple brownies swirling round my legs, but they wouldn't take the plastic. Headed to the boat ramp to try my luck, but didn't do any good. Headed back to where i started and nailed another two brownies

Great afternoon, and this fishery is a little less than an hours drive from home.. Why haven't i been there before!

Grilled trout for tea it was. We're not real big fresh water fish eaters, but everyone loved the lakes trout! Happy Days

Pride and Prejudice (Ed style)

"they pursued the accustomed circuit; which brought them again, after some time, in a descent among hanging woods, to the edge of the water, in one of its narrowest parts.

They crossed it by a simple bridge, in character with the general air of the scene; it was a spot less adorned than any they had yet visited; and the valley, here contracted into a glen, allowed room only for the stream, and a narrow walk amidst the rough coppice-wood which bordered it.

Elizabeth longed to explore its windings; but when they had crossed the bridge, and perceived their distance from the house,  Mrs Gardiner who was not a great walker, could go no farther, and thought only of returning to the carriage as quickly as possible.

Her neice was, therefore, obliged to submit, and they took their way towards the house on the opposite side of the river, in the nearest direction; but their progress was slow, for Mr Gardiner, though seldom able to indulge the taste, was very fond of fishing, and was so much engaged in watching the occasional appearance of some trout in the water, and talking to the man about them, that he advanced but little...."

Now i've never read Pride and Prejudice, but this excerpt almost makes me want too.. (Almost)



trout river



Apprentice

I've got an apprentice today.. Lots of coffee drinking before we pick up tools ;-)

While mums away....

Christine went to the market last saturday, so we went and visited her and had a picnic at the beach in the rain and cold, but hey, i think the beach is almost as good, if not better, in winter...

Supersize Me....

Mmmmm, country style burgers... I'd give you the recipe, but it's pretty self explanatory ;-)

What's wrong with this picture?

oh bugger....

Burger and chips

Saturday night is our fish and chips night, but with the cold weather i haven't been out fishing much lately. So dare i say, we shifted from tradition and had burgers and chips!

When i say chips i don't mean your normal minimum of your greasy best, and when i say burgers i don't mean your quarter meat and 3 quarter additives. These are dutch cream potato chips and 100% all premium mince beef patties. i reckon this is quicker and lots cheaper than nipping down to your local take away.

Preheat the oven to about 200 degrees (we have a gas oven, with no thermostat, just one setting - flat out!) Wash the potatoes. cut into chips (About 10mmx10mm) Place in a single layer on a baking tray, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in the oven. To about 500g of premium mince add an egg, about a cup of oats, salt, pepper, paprika, oregano (i prefer dried over fresh for this) and parsley. Fry in a little butter on both sides until brown and place in the oven. The chips take about half to three quarters of an hour. Just before serving place a slice of cheese over the burger... Mmmmmm Serve with peas and corn.. All up cost - approx $12..

Asthma....

It appears as though i'm not the only that has Asthma...

My chainsaw air filter got a little clogged after cutting 40 tonnes of wood, causing it to wheez a bit....

240 minute make over

OK, so our chook run was a little open to the weather and we decided it was time for a makeover in the hope of an increase in egg production.. Here are some before shots

It was dark when i finished, so i'll put up some after shots in the near future

Ye Olde English Day

Last Friday had a bit of yesterworld charm to it. It started of with meeting Mr Darcy at his house, and continued with a round of golf in the grounds of Quamby Estate. (a farewell for my brother in law, not a regular Friday thing)

My darling wife and i had our wedding reception at Quamby, as a young boy i used to go to Quamby with my father to service tractors (when it was still a farm), and as a young man i used to go to Quamby to cull pests...

Cold is.......

A dam at Hagley still frozen over at 3.30 in the afternoon

Cold is.....,

When the water in the outhouse toilet bowl has frozen... Serious!

It's got me baffled

That's our wafer thin baffle plate out of the good old saxon. Looks like having the fire on from April to November has taken its toll... Could also have something to do with the previous tenants burning pine in the heater...

Sundays Grand Designs and Masterchef

Like a car crash, you can't look away...(Christines words, not mine)

I actually really, really, really liked the cake Sun baked and the morrocan themed build (Layered with slight overtones of sarcasm)

After visiting New york Delis famous for gargantuan sandwiches featuring masses of cured meats, Sun makes a penthouse worthy cake?? I think not..... Leaning tower of pieces of maybe??

Uninspired by the cake, we changed channels to watch grand designs. What we thought were the before pictures were actually the after pictures... Each to their own i guess (if you're own is a hotel featuring really bad moroccan themed rooms, you might like this episode)

Pateena Road History

Just happened to come across these old photos of our place. The second one isoutside our kitchen window.. Love it...