Paddock to plate

Well, the freezer is starting to run low on pork, I just pulled out the last ham for Christmas, and we've run out of bacon..

But it is now overflowing with chicken!!!!

Dude....

Dude...

Dude!

DUDE!!!

OK, so i don't like the word dude much, but hey, sometimes there is no substitute!

Oh, and no, we didn't catch the fish... A friend of my constantly sends photos of the fish he catches on the weekend, so i told him he'd better bring some round.... Wasn't expecting ones this size!!! The rainbow smoked up an absolute treat! The salmon we pan fried and was delicious as well...

Moving Office

Reroof new office

Removing 170 year old shingles

Shiniest roof in Longford

Getting bogged unloading singles

In limbo between two offices

Trailer load of old shingles

Table Bird Progress

Well, there you go. True to form the chicks hatched early and caught me unprepared. They shouldn't have hatched until Wednesday, but yesterday (day 19) the peeping emerged from the incubator. A quick trip to Bunnings on the way home after work, and a couple hours in the shed after dinner allowed me to put the final touches on the brooder. All up the brooder cost $19, made up of a $10 entertainment unit from the tip shop laid on its back, a couple bits of old stud screwed on for legs, an old cupboard door we had laying around for the lid, and a $9 150W external light from Bunnings as the heat source. The chicks made it through the night, so it's all good! Hoping for at least a 70% success rate, so expecting another 10 to hatch today, fingers crossed. We started with 29 eggs, candled them at day ten and 5 were not fertile and 1 was not looking right, so we were left with 23 eggs, of which 5 have now hatched.

Mobile Office

I've spent a lot of time in my car lately, travelling around for work. I don't like it much (bit hard to get work done while you're driving) but little moments like this make up for it. Lunch on the St Helens wharf.

Next project = table birds

OK, so we've done the pig thing, and will again in about January.

In the mean time we've bought these:

Incubator

sussex eggs

which should hopefully give us some of these

Light sussex

and then lots of these

Roast dinners

Light sussex chickens make great table birds, and they're pretty good layers too. A trip to the local pawn shop secured the incubator. We placed an ad on a chook forum looking for some fertile sussex eggs and a lady not far from where we live responded. 2 1/2 dozen eggs were place in the incubator last night. 21 days to go! Apparently incubating eggs can be a bit hit and miss, but we'll keep you posted on how we go. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

Home again, home again bacon and ham