Rolling into summer

It has grown hot already and the summer is expected to be hotter still. This in turn means we will probably have a high chance of a few cyclones this year. The rain they bring is welcome but we are all still a bit gun shy after the last two direct hits (Cyclone Larry followed by cyclone Yasi) which did enormous damage.
Speaking of rain, we have had none for a long time now. Almost emptied the tanks so I spent three days taking turns with our neighbours pumping water from the creek down in the rainforest. We use an old water line that runs through their property to our tanks. It is a leftover of the days when both properties were the original dairy farm. We use their pump but provide the fuel and share service costs. It is a good arrangement and we are good neighbours in turn.
Years ago we used a Glockemann ram pump to deliver water to the house tank. It was powered by the force of the water alone and delivered about nine hundred litres of water per day with no electricity or fuel required. Unfortunately it was not very flood proof and each time we had a fresh come down (a sudden rush of water due to rain upriver) we would lose all of the drive pipes and the pump would almost be torn free of its anchoring chain.

Someone in Innisfail at the bottom of the mountain sure received a lot of very expensive drive pipe. So after losing it all for the last time I packed the lot up and sold the pump on e-bay. It ended up going to rural England of all places....I miss that ram pump.

A few days ago one morning I noticed Anna had hidden herself off under a tree in the top paddock. Sure enough she was in labour. I checked her to make sure all was fine and left her to get on with it while I fed the other livestock and watered the veggie garden. About twenty minutes later I went to see if she had made any progress yet to find it had not only been born but was already up and walking. Anna is getting very good at dropping nice healthy calves!

The young un turned out to be a strong and healthy heifer. Jersey cross Dexter. She should make someone a fine house cow someday. We have christened her Isobel. Looking forward to beginning milking Anna again soon.

The veggie garden is going at a great pace and we are eating well! The winter veg are still going although I expect the heat will finish them off over the next month and I have begun planting summer veggies.

 We are enjoying eating with the seasons. It gives you a real appreciation for the flavours of the season and the diet feels much more varied. Does that sound strange? You see, we found that when we bought food from the shop we became stuck in a rut of the same type of food each week. When everything is always available to you, you are not forced to try new things. As we are forced to eat what we can grow here we are likewise forced to learn how to cook foods that we would not have usually chosen to buy at the shop. Far from being a disadvantage we have found ourselves enjoying all sorts of new dishes. As our garden and our gardening skill grows so our diet becomes more varied. Life is good!

and now for a nice chicken dinner

The meat chooks graduated from the pen to the freezer yesterday and today. I was quite pleased with the size and quality of the carcasses. Very large and plump. Of course the little feller had to help as you can see below. 

 It was a team effort. I caught, killed, scalded and operated the plucking machine before delivering the clean carcasses to the Child bride who dressed them out (which is a polite way of saying she cut of their heads and feet off before pulling the guts out) and bagged them for the freezer.

We ended up with thirty-nine good large carcasses, a bowl of hearts and a large bowl of livers. I have a recipe from a Danish friend for the hearts. She crumbs and fries them. Apparently they are a real hit with her otherwise finicky-eater children.
The livers I will use to make a very special pate recipe given to me by my sister in law, Robyn. It is simply the best pate I have ever eaten anywhere! I will publish the recipe (provided it is with her permission) in the future.
Last night we had a large roast chook for dinner. It was rich and tender and had a much stronger, but not at all unpleasant, flavour. It is simply the flavour we have come to associate with pure organic produce. The bird was large enough to supply three meals for a small family of big eaters.

On feral pests

 

As if cane toads, rabbits, wild dogs, feral cats and mynah birds weren't enough we now have a new feral pest to deal with around here.

Peacocks.
Yes that is right, we now have feral peacocks or more correctly; peafowl. A week ago six peafowl wandered down the road and thought this looked like a good place to stay. They don't belong to any one we can locate and pretty much go where they please.

I know many people wonder why this is a problem. While I will concede they are pretty enough, peafowl bring a host of problems. For starters they are both loud and bloody noisy! In addition they will fight with our existing poultry for the food and ransack the chook shed. But mostly it is a problem because peafowl fly well and like to land on the roof - the same roof that catches all of our household water and I prefer my drinking water without a large dollop of peacock poo! 

So the peafowl must go. As efforts to drive them off have failed so far we intend to instead tame them with regular feed in one of the spare chook pens where they will eventually be trapped before being sold to some peacock fancier who lives a long, long way from here. Unlike most other livestock on the place they will not be fattened and eaten. This is because I am informed that peacock tasted marginally worse than barbequed sneakers...

Anyone want to buy a peacock, going cheap?*


*well actually going "macawww, macawww" all bloody day long as they roam about like they own the place.

Pics from around the farm

After the late season rain finally let up I managed to get a veggie garden in for the winter. The corro sides are to keep bandicoots out. I am pleased to say they work really well!

I have decided that planting on raised mounds is not a good idea- too hard to weed. This year I have gone for ground level rows and they are a breeze to keep clean by comparison. Of course, they will suffer much worse in the wet season if I don't have the hothouse up by then.

 Below are our implements for keeping the garden weed free. A his and hers matching hoe set (well *I* think it is romantic) and a wheel hoe of my own design.

Meet Mr Bastard. I may have mentioned him before. Mr Bastard is a boulder that gave me no end of trouble when building the new chook pens. I finally had a huge digger machine lift him up and carry him away. Somehow he has managed to slide down the back of the dirt pile where he was placed and has made his way into the orchard. When the man with the digger returns I will have Mr Bastard moved again. This time he will end up as a sitting rock at the end of the kitchen garden- where I can keep an eye on him!

Rufus has grown. He loves his Dad!

I caught a nice shot of Sausage having a good rub in the afternoon sun. Sausage has become a bit of a family pet and it looks like we will be keeping her as our breeding sow.

The kindness of strangers.

A few weeks ago I received a most wonderful gift from Jim who reads this blog and frequently comments with his very good advice. I had, a while back, mentioned that I was after some certain varieties of Fig trees and to my delight the package contained eight fine healthy Brown Turkey suckers.
Very gratefully received, thank you Jim.
I potted the suckers up expecting them to spend the winter dormant but they were having none of this and have immediately put out good healthy shoots. I guess they consider it a lot warmer here that where they come from. Better plant them out and soon!

Kindness to strangers goes around like good karma. You should take as you give. On Thursday I was digging a trench for the new grease trap when my wife came running in from her car.
"Quick, there has been an accident on the road to town and no one know what to do".
So we climbed into her car and sped to the scene. There we found two vehicles which had collided head on, one vehicle had rolled onto its side and the other had its front end completely staved in. Both drivers, elderly men, were trapped. The one on the side had his right foot crushed under the accelerator and the other gentleman had both legs up to the thighs securely pinned by the crumpled front end of his car. Three stunned onlookers stood by in silence.
Now my wife had raced home to get me because nobody there knew what to do. While I might be flattered by this I want to make it clear that I am no expert in these circumstances either. Nevertheless I do have a modicum of training and I am no stranger to blood or violence in my line of work -so I suppose I was the best there was going at the time.
I firstly made sure that the emergency services had already been alerted and told the full details of the situation. I then checked each victim for their response and immediate vitals and made sure any further risk was averted. I determined as best I could that the man in the vehicle on its side, while uncomfortable, was not in too bad shape. The man with both legs trapped looked in a much worse position. I set helpers to monitor and reassure the other fellow and stayed by the worse case to do what I could and possibly provide CPR should it become necessary.

I said to this gentleman "I am here for you and I will not leave. No matter what happens today I will be here until this is over and you are out of there".

Fortunately a paramedic arrived soon after and took over. He must have agreed with my own view as he was quite concerned with the same man and spent most of his time with him thereafter. Soon after another ambulance arrived, followed by fire-rescue, police and rescue helicopter with an emergency doctor on board.
I don't know about the two patients but I certainly couldn't be more relieved! It was wonderful to watch them all swing into operation and I was impressed beyond belief with the kindness and care shown.
I was also quite surprised when I was asked to stay and assist, I was expecting to hand over to the professionals and move to the sidelines. Instead I became the note taker for the first paramedic writing down all the vitals and patient details and then when the rain came down I held an umbrella to keep the patient dry and was perfectly happy to do so.
Releasing the men from their crushed vehicles took about an hour and a half. The man in the vehicle on its side appeared to not be too badly hurt (in my uneducated opinion) and possibly had a broken leg. However I was quite appalled at the extent of the other mans injuries. Both legs crushed and the bare bones of the knees exposed, both legs broken in multiple places.
Both men were taken to hospital, the worse of the two flown down to Cairns by helicopter rescue and from there I understand he was taken to Townsville intensive care.

Now understand that I know neither of the two victims at all. I will most likely never meet either of them ever again. That is fine by me, I do not expect thanks or praise, I did not do this to make the world a better place, I did not do it because one day it might be someone I care about.
I did this for no other reason than someone needed help.

Meat chooks almost there

From this

48 hours.

 to this

Six weeks.

to this

Eight weeks.

Not bad. Now I know I said I would raise them over twelve weeks or so but at this rate I don't think that will be necessary or feasible. So I reckon we will give them another week, perhaps two before putting them in the freezer. I would love to know precisely what cross these birds are but I doubt the breeder will ever give that away. Either way, they eat like kings and grow like nothing I have ever seen before. They are raised on a diet of natural high protein food with no additives as well as greens. If the cow were in milk then they would be getting some of that too.

So next week I will get the plucker out with its new and more powerful motor, boil up some water and have a family day putting the chooks in the freezer. That should be about a years supply of chicken.  

Unkilled meat. Seriously, what the ????

I just had to reproduce this here...

 

This person could actually breed and that scares the living bejabbers out of me!

 

Now I have nothing against killing animals for meat, obviously, but to consume meat or wear wool or leather while remaining ignorant of its origin is a sin. Worse still are those people who deliberately avoid facing the reality of their food yet are still willing to eat it. I am not asking everyone to actually have to slaughter the animal they wish to eat but I do believe they should be cognisant of the process whereby their food was made.

Factory farming, chemical fertilizers, battery cages, farrowing crates. Would any of these things exist if the public as a whole were forced to confront them?