The weather is warming although we still have the doona on the bed. A bit early by my reckoning but the plants have all decided to get a go on so what would I know?
The peaches have all had a good winter and were thick with blossom for a week. Now they are covered with small green peaches. Each year we enter into a contest with the king parrots to see who gets the most fruit. Last year we were soundly beaten. One day I will investigate netting tents for the trees.
Bonnie, our soon to be cow, is heavily pregnant. She is in training getting ready for milking. I have always found that a first time milker is becomes easier to handle with good training *before* she calves. Bonnie has a very impatient nature. Here she is craning her neck over the fence and around the corner of the feed shed to see how her feed bucket is coming along.
I fired up the incubator a while back in an effort to increase our flock of Rhode island reds. Normally I prefer to let a broody hen do the job but unfortunately none of the girls were in the mood. Egg fertility remains an issue with a very poor hatching rate of about one in ten. I may have to give the girls a cosmetic clipping in certain areas so the rooster has a better chance of hitting the target- if you get my drift. Makes for an undignified looking flock I must say.
The next big project we are working on is the dreaded hothouse. A project that has been put aside for a year or so for various reasons, now back in the queue. I had the veggie garden shelved off a couple of years back. It has now been left fallow this season so I can begin getting the uprights in. Above you can see my survey pegs all measured out correctly, half a days work for two people. The end structure will consist of two fifteen meter tunnels side by side. Each tunnel is six meters wide and about four high or so. It will be quite a project.
The pigeons are out and about. They are breeding well and appear to be quite confident fliers. So far no attacks by raptors or egg thieving by crows. The child bride has hung two CDs outside the entrance to the loft where they flicker and turn in the wind. It appears to be working, could it really be this simple?
My ever present doggie companion. Woof.
A hot house in the tropics?
ReplyDeleteI guess your highland seasons can be pretty cool though.
Will you be including an area to control excessive rainfall during the wet season?
I have been wondering about your figs. Mine got frosted yesterday from a late -2C frost. Burnt all the new season leaves and some breba figs. Some of the grapes were also burnt. Not sure how our fruit production will be this year now.