Annex progress & pastured chicks

Well gosh, time sure does fly by! Marty and I have been working on the annex to the shade house and the shade house itself is now covered in shade cloth and is keeping seedlings out of the frost and cold winds. We have native seedlings for planting around the farm, wattles mostly. There are tagasaste sprouting and cuttings from forage plants taking root. I intend on planting plenty of sunflowers for the poultry this season, too!

Last piece of tin for the roof!

Inspecting after a rain.

The potting bench was made last weekend from scrap and reclaimed ply-board. I painted it in a "subtle nightsky" colour, leftover from renovating the Old Miner's Cottage in Stawell. I honestly can't remember where we used that colour though!

We welded up a stand for an old laundry tub we got from a clearing sale years ago now, and it's ready for plumbing in. There's a trench cut beside the path ready for the water line, which hopefully I'll get done this week. Eventually the outside tin and roof will be painted, we tinted the paint "fairy wings" quarter, so it'll be a light pink colour!

There's still three doors to be made, a bit more shadecloth for the east side of the hoop house, and shelves to put up inside the annex, but it's all coming along. The chicken food is now stored all in one location in lockers to the south of the annex, so feeding and moving chickens is so much easier now.

The old aviary has been excellent for raising chicks. They have a little nest box where they sleep with the broody at night, and a new area to scratch up every day. I put dolomite lime down on the previous day's ground to help keep the flies away from the manure, which is also remineralising the ground as well as helping break down the old grasses.

We kept the chicks like this for just over 18 weeks, now that they're "point of lay" we popped the pullets in with the adult hens and the cockerel will soon become the best quality roast money just can't buy. :)

I really enjoyed raising the chicks like this, and will definitely do it again when one of the adult hens wants to become a mother again. The last broody happily stayed with the chicks for over 10 weeks, which is a testament to the system. Usually our hens will get sick of the chicks and smaller pen size in around 4 or 5 weeks.

So there's plenty to do, and we're working on the logistics of getting sheep so we can rotate them around the pasture as well. That won't be for a little while yet, but it's higher on the priority list now. We've measured the height of the dam wall, sized a couple of pump options and got a rough idea on what we need to get before we take the great leap forward into purchasing our first 4 legged livestock. 

Big catch up

We've had a very very long autumn here, the summer heat was gone by February and by March things were downright wet in comparison. Trees, shrubs and grass all began to green up and even flower. Fruit trees threw a few flowers out just to give the bees and bugs a little extra food before winter arrives. The drought had been so depressing, but I ordered a few more plants for the garden that are suppose to be extra tough. Mostly succulents. The rain inspired me to get into the garden again and I'm so glad I did.

Volunteer silverbeet, chard, and sunflowers among the perennials

Succulent and cacti raised garden

How green the kitchen garden looks!

The chickens then surprised me when a broody chook showed off her new chicks. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had no idea anyone was sitting. One of the chicks was hatched out a couple of days later than the others and wasn't ready to be up and about just yet.. so I took him inside and warmed him up with hot water bottles.

Hot water bottles, a Styrofoam box, a little fish tank and a lot of old towels.

Little chick just needed a bit more time and warmth.

Sometimes little chick just needed some love.

That was 4 weeks ago, and as I hoped, you can't tell which one of the little boys that chick is now! He went back outside with broody after 2 days and one (tiring) night of re-filling hot water bottles and monitoring temperatures.

This is their mobile broody pen in the pasture, it gets moved almost daily now, and they've grown up so fast. The two boys will stay in the pen, while the broody and two female chicks will be joining the main flock later on when they're ready.  The pen is actually Squeak's old aviary with round metal poles welded to the bottom of it so it can be dragged around more easily.

Broody pen on pasture.

All the rain also encouraged us to do some chimney maintenance, and we replaced the caps on the chimneys with concrete. The mud worked fine for years, but had begun to crack and let moisture in. It also made a mess of the gutters as sand and clay collected in them. Hopefully it'll be many years before we need to go climbing onto the roof again now.

Ticking more projects off the list, the tractor's breaks have been pretty bad since we got it. We'd purchased new breaks years ago now, but hadn't gotten around to doing anything about it. Originally, it took all my weight and effort to stop the tractor, which improved a little after we adjusted the breaks to as far as they could be adjusted. Recently, however, the breaks have begun working rather too well. I only need lightly press them and they stopped the tractor with a jerk. That's just not right and had me worried something odd was going on.

I had read about a deep ripper being helpful with tree planting and water penetration in compacted soils, and decided to try out our cheap second-hand clearing-sale find of a deep ripper, but noticed that the wheels of the tractor weren't behaving normally. One was spinning just moving the tractor without the implement! We decided now was the time to check out the breaks.

One of the breaks, before we fixed them.

It took some effort to get them off, since the fenders and even the ROPS (rollover protection) had to be disassembled to access them. Turns out they had nothing left on them, and one was even broken. We cleaned everything up, installed the new pads and the rubber boot to stop dirt and seeds getting in the housing again.

Marty under the A414.

Next job will be to adjust the breaks, which involves jacking up the entire rear of the tractor and running it in gear! Hopefully once that's done (this weekend) we will be able to get to the job of deep ripping some of the wood lot on contour and then planting out some more trees for this season. We lost last year's trees, but the previous years trees are all looking healthy and are taller than we are.

Finally, a little renovation inspired by a couple of less than ideal night's sleep, thanks to a tiny little micro bat invading the bedroom in the night. It somehow made it's way into the canopy of the mosquito net (clearly not effective against micro bats!), flapping about and waking me up.. we got up and opened the back door and it flew out the door without us having to do anything else. After it happened again yesterday, Marty prodded me to have a look for any gaps in the bedroom. Oh yeah, there were gaps!

West wall - before.

West wall - after.

North wall - before.

North wall - after.

The skirting board had come away completely behind the biggest cupboard we have in the bedroom, I sure hope the bats came in that way! It wasn't too difficult to re-attach the board, and I plastered the gaps with gypsum-based plaster. The room feels different now, quieter.. I noticed the temperature in the room is noticeably warmer, which is nice because haven't started the wood heater yet this season.

We're otherwise doing ok, mostly unaffected by the crazy world going on outside. The only change has been that the local pub has been forced to close, so with that, we're no longer cleaning it. Marty has been working as usual, and we don't tend to go out much otherwise. We've been shopping for the few essentials at the local IGA's (small independent supermarkets) instead of going in to Wagga Wagga and the big supermarkets there. Our butcher continues to supply us with beautiful hind-quarters of beef about monthly, and we have been enjoying kidney, liver and heart as well. I credit eating as well as we possibly can to getting over the 3 week long, but mild illness we both developed early March.

I'm hopeful we'll get many more projects complete in the near future and that the world will get back to the good old normal very soon too.

The weird and the wonderful

Lace Monitor

Lace Monitor tracks

I don't even know what to say about this. All I could say at the time was "WOW!" I heard it walking around the cottage just as I was eating lunch. Needless to say, it was a cold lunch by the time I got back to it.

It was a beautiful lace monitor. Or goanna if you like. Of course, you can click on the pictures to make them larger. Around here, goannas have a yellow band on the tail, and it seemed to be searching for something good to eat. The Noisy Miners made sure everyone around knew exactly where it was, and our rooster alerted in a hushed tone. It didn't have any problems going under the electric chook fence, but luckily that fence doesn't have anything living in there (and the fence isn't "live" either). It didn't find the main flock with the day's eggs and two broodies with the single little chick they're mothering. Either that, or it wasn't worth the trouble.

The chimney has been pointed a bit, well, the biggest holes have been filled by a lime mortar mix. I think it was only a mud mix used previously, so I guess it's an upgrade. More mud has gone on the walls to help fill some of the holes left over from the concrete plaster falling off. The incidence of blowfly getting into the kitchen has dramatically reduced as a result. Well worth the effort. There's more to do, of course, but there's always more!

Mid October 2017

Fungus on the strawbale

Calendula
with native bee and spider

After a fairly dry winter, there isn't a lot of green growth on the plants, but lots of flowers none the less. A lot of grass pollen, which is causing our hayfever, the purple flowers from the wild Salvation Jane, yellow from the Cats Ear and plenty of white flowers on the radish we grew.

Willy Wagtail egg splat!

Grapevine moth
(Phalaenoides glycinae)

An odd thing happened this morning. Two Willy Wagtail's were singing while sitting on the fairy lights under the veranda, when I heard the splat of a little egg hitting the step. There are no nests or anything above.. Nature is just weird sometimes.

The heat of the Summer

It's difficult to write a post and not mention the hellish weather we have been experiencing the last couple of days. We reached a new record under the varandah area yesterday, hitting a very uncomfortable 46°C (115°F). The house temperature rose to 34°C (93°F) and didn't drop more than 2°C degrees overnight. Grumpiness is only to be expected on these mornings!
Sadly, one of our older Dorking chickens didn't survive the hot weather even the day before.
Our brave broody hen, Toupee the naked-neck, hatched out one baby chick nearly 2 weeks ago (happened to be another 40°+ day with horrible northerly winds), so it's already a tough little chick who is accustomed to hot weather. He or she is keeping cool with no neck feathers (from Mum) and running around on 5 toes (from the Dorking Dad).

Having a bee in our bonnets again about rodents living in our walls (it's a theme continued over from living in the old miner's cottage in Stawell), we pulled down the false walls in the alcove area. The framework needs to remain in place for a little while yet.

Yes, we cleaned up nest sites and all manner of mess. There was a little render left on the walls, and the plinth over the doors are concrete painted white. The walls look in very good condition and we'll protect them with render again real soon.

Marty and I braved a clearing sale or two, brought home this neat meat-safe. It's in need of repair, but we're thinking it'd make a good fruit drying safe. Just need to figure out the best way to put racks in there..

And my favourite part, first thing in the morning, just as the sun is rising, I water the shade house. It's beautiful and green in there, probably THE best spot on the whole property. It attracts plenty of insects, to be sure, but in turn, the Willy Wagtails and more recently, the Grey Shrike Thrush have figured out that the buffet is free. We've seen frogs on the shadecloth and in saucers of water in the evenings, and the strong north winds are effectively blocked by the house and water tank. It's the ideal spot. I took a chance and planted beans directly in the soil on the south side of a row of straw bales and now we're getting a yield! The same beans planted in the kitchen garden have long since gone. Infact, the kitchen garden gets almost as much attention as the shade house does (although, I do raise seedlings in here, so they get attention twice a day), yet the kitchen garden is struggling to survive, let alone produce much food. There are plans for "Shade House Ver. 2" in the near future.. definitely before next summer!

In the meantime, we're keeping the humidity up with a wet towel in front of the fan. It's 34°C inside still, so I can't say we're keeping cool, but it's a lot more comfortable than being outside! It's easy to forget some simple measures to keep cool, so here's a link to an ABC article as a reminder!

Stay alive. :)

For the garden!

Marty and I have spent a few days working on an idea I had. Originally, it was suppose to be a simple arch made of weldmesh. Since the area we wanted covering is about 6m (19.5') long, there was nothing simple about getting weldmesh to behave! So, plan B. A custom structure, welded together using our new found welding skills (not so much skill, but perhaps blind faith and more practice).. and we did it!

The poor garden looked like a construction zone for a few days, but it's finally finished, and the grapes are planted, one for each. An early season variety closest to the house called Menindee Seedless, and a late season variety called Crimson Seedless. Since grapes seem to grow without any care here, they should do just fine with a little. The idea is that they help shade the garden just a little more during the summer, and then during winter, drop their leaves and let the light in. Anything that needs more sun than that will be planted in the garden to the north.

The broody Dorking's first time hatching was a success, with 8 cute little chicks being shown off today! Two of them appear to be from Naked Neck mothers, but the rest are full Dorkings. We're both a bit worried about how they'll fare with just the electric fence for protection - birds of prey are still a threat - but even so, considering they were only hatched yesterday they're doing fine so far. It's lovely to see them being able to do what comes naturally!

Just a short clip of extreme cute. :)

The hugle bed is growing great guns but I'm getting too attached to the green manure to chop it down now. :)

And here's a picture of Marty, being awesome and cooking up a storm! The hair and beard are both about to go, since the weather is beautiful right now! I thought you'd like to see it, in all it's glory, before the big chop. :)

Chook watching

A video version of the new arrivals.. for those like me that find it relaxing to sit and watch the chooks for a while. :)



Hope the quality isn't too bad, it was taken on my phone..

Lotsa chooks again

The nesting boxes and feeder house is complete, and just in time for some new additions to the chooky family!

The new house is heavy to move, but not impossible for both of us. It's made of wood and canvas, with a corrugated iron roof, and 3 plastic nest boxes for easy cleaning. The domed roosting house is still being used - that's where they sleep each night, and the dorkings still get excited whenever it's moved (even if it's only within their yard, they'll go in, check it out, and cluck excitedly).

The new additions! Yes, we went to a poultry auction in Wagga Wagga and picked up a lovely little dorking cockerel that we had asked to be there. His father is from Canberra, and the owner had gone there just to get him. Dorkings are hard to get, and roosters can be an extra challenge. Hopefully he'll grow up big and make lots of little ones of his own some day. We also purchased two langshans after the auction. They are beautiful girls, very shy and sweet. On the way home from the auction, we stopped in at Tootool to talk to a man about chickens we'd promised to collect. They're naked-necks, suppose to be able to cope in the heat much better than fully-feathered chooks.

They're settling in fairly well. It's been nearly two weeks since bringing them home and they're starting to mingle as one group finally. The dorkings were not happy about their little trio being invaded, but the new arrivals are all very placid, and certainly not planning a takeover!

The weather is starting to cool down here. More of an Autumn feel with the fruit trees starting to loose some leaves. There hasn't been much rain lately, but the water tank is still almost full. Since we don't use much water in the house, we're sharing it a bit with the garden, which is looking a quite sad after the summer heat.

Moved the chooks

The chooks are under the apricot tree and fig tree too. The funny thing is, we didn't know we even had an apricot tree until just this week, when the fruits started ripening and falling to the ground. YUM!

The chooks were under the eucalypt trees near the top of the property, but it wasn't a big deal to move them. Especially since we had only just flail mowed the area around the fruit trees. It was a simple case of setting up the fence, moving everything over, and by dusk we took the three (remaining) chooks and put them on the perch in their new area.

They awoke to the smell and taste of fresh apricots, and immediately started to work on cleaning them up for us. This is exactly why we got the electric fence in the first place. We direct the chooks to where they need to be. It's an excellent system.

Sadly we've lost most of our chooks to heat and/or old age. Victor, our lovely rooster, has also passed on. With only our 3 young chooks left, and no crowing, it's a little quiet out there right now. We're looking into getting some more, eventually. Thinking that Dorkings - a heavy English breed - may not be the most suited to their current environment. (I think they would have rather us all moved to Tasmania.) We will think carefully about the chooks tolerance for heat before getting any more. We'll see.

Adventures in Electronet Poultry Fencing

Protected by Kencove

We've been using the electric chook fences for the last 3 months, and we're starting to get quite proficient in their use - even if we do say so ourselves. :)

Initially, there was plenty of frustration and anger, I can tell you! Hopefully our experience can help others avoid the same frustrations.

We have quite long grass due to the lack of herbivores grazing on the green winter pastures. The electric fence requires the grass to be short or the strands of wire woven into the nylon will short out and cause the battery in our solar energizer to go flat. To solve this, the grass needs to be very short under the fence, and we use our ride-on mower to achieve this. Initially, the trouble is figuring out where to mow exactly, just the once please!

The Kencove fences we purchased were infuriating, since you could not make them square because each side was a different length. The second one we sent back (due to major manufacturing errors) and we would have returned both if not for the fact that the chooks would have been left without any protection at all without one. So, we looked at how to make the Kencove work for us.

Firstly, the fences were shipped to us with feet that were manufactured incorrectly. The supplier kindly shipped us new feet and we replaced all the mis-shapen feet with the new ones. A tedious job.

Then, Marty came up with a brilliant idea how to make the fence a square. We set the fence up straight out in one line, measured the entire distance of the fence, and divided it by the number of posts it came with, which makes an even number of sections. Moving each post into the correct position, a square is now made possible by measuring out 12.17 metres each side. Oh the mathmatical bliss. :)

Now we can make a nice square in the field, mow, set up the fence and move the chooks in and we're done. Although, the Kencove fence still needs to be pegged down with tent-pegs around the posts as it has large gaps - we think we can solve this by cutting the posts a little shorter. We will give this a try in the near future.

Wanting a second fence to make moving the chooks easier, (we really didn't want another KenCove) Premier One had recently became available in Australia, so we jumped at the chance to get one and see what the differences were and if they are any better.

We feel the Premier One is a better quality product, especially the foot design and sturdiness. It just seems a more simple and practical. Oddly enough though it too came with vastly different side lengths and making a square out of it was impossible! So again, back to setting it up in a long line and moving the post to where they should be and even taking one out because there were too many! Bonus Post!

Now we have two working fences, but the bonus of the Premiere One is that no tent pegs are required to keep it on the ground - saving us quite a bit of time and effort when setting it up.

As for the chooks - they seem to love their new lifestyle. They are moved roughly once a week at this stage, since right now there are only 8 of them. One day they will be part of a leader-follower system where the chooks will follow the cows in rotation, but until then, they're happily scratching away at the grass and weeds.