Goodbye

Yep, we're out of here.

The cold and isolation is too much for Fumi and the slow recovery of my shoulder operation, plus a broken hand has left me with little interest to continue.

So, we've got our chooks up for sale (a couple of dozen gone already) and we are off to Melbourne, as soon as they are all sold. This weekend, we'll have a market stall, selling our unwanted goods, trailer, rotary hoe etc.

It's been 18 months of discovery. I've discovered that I like the subsistance life style but I also crave the attractions of living in a large vibrant city. Fumi is a city girl, growing up in a wildly chaotic and exciting city of 8 million people in Japan, and she misses the cafes, restaurants and cultural diversions.

What will we do in Melbourne? Well, we enjoy the markets, so we'll probably seek out some markets we like and sell our home made deli goods, such as marinated olives, marinated fetta, aioli, tapenade, preserved lemons, harissa etc.

Would I do subsistance farming again? In a heartbeat, but only in Japan and that isn't ever likely to happen.

I certainly won't miss getting up at 4am, 7 days a week, to feed and water the chooks before letting them out to free range during the day. I'm also happy to not have to round the chooks up in gale force winds and freezing rain, to put them away at night.

Finally, I'd like to thank the thousands of people who have read this blog over the past year and a half, and I've appreciated your comments and emails. We hope to leave before the end of June, when I'll remove this blog.
I can be contacted on twitter @bkm47

Hunting With a Blowpipe

We're now heading into winter, so it's cold all day, windy and a bit wet. This is the time of year when things slow down, days become boring and it's time for new hobbies.

It's also time for curries, slow cooked meat, stews and hearty soups. One of my favourite winter dishes is rabbit stew. Not much tastes better than freshly caught rabbit.

On the farm, we have rabbits everywhere. They're in the garden, around and under the house and in every paddock. So, it makes sense to kill some to eat. I don't like the idea of rifle shooting on the farm, unless it's necessary. The sound of shooting worries the neighbours and stray bullets or ricochets can be lethal. We have a bullet hole in our bathroom window from an unknown shooter, so we know the problems that can accidently happen.

The bullet hole in our bathroom window.

Many years ago, as a child, my mates and I used to go hunting along the local river for ducks. Our home made bows and arrows were wildly inaccurate over any distance, so we rarely caught anything. Then one of my mates discovered how to make blowpipes. These were so good, we were able to get one or two ducks a day. Our mothers were very happy and so were we, because duck is delicious.

So, while contemplating fresh rabbit stew, I decided to learn from the lessons of my childhood and make a blow pipe.

It's very simple to do. All you need is about 1 metre of pipe, about 1 cm in diameter, some paper, a few 40mm nails and some sticky tape. This is how I did it.

First, cut a sheet of A4 paper into 4. Take one piece, roll it into a cone and tape it.

The paper rolled and taped.

Next, inset the cone into the pipe, mark it to the tight size for a tight fit and cut it off.

Then, insert the nail into the cone, push it down, until about 2cm is exposed and roll it with tape to form a tight fit to the cone. Now you're finished. Do this as many times as you want. So simple.

Ready to go.



Here is a VERY IMPORTANT warning. This is NOT a toy! Don't let your kids do this, unless closely supervised.The dart, if blown properly can travel well over 50 metres and could be lethal up to about 30 metres. The photo below shows a dart that I blew from about 15 metres into a wooden post. It penetrated too far to remove with my fingers. I had to use pliers to get it out. The thing to remember is not to blow with a mouth full of air. Take a deep breath and blow from your lungs.

THIS IS NOT A TOY!

All I have to do now, is get a couple of rabbits for dinner. I won't waste any of the rabbit. I will keep the backstrap and hind legs for dinner, the chooks will get the guts, the dogs will share the rest and I will cure the skin to make winter gloves and slippers.

My only concern with this post is that it may offend some animal lovers. I remind these people that this is a farm. We keep chooks for eggs and grow our own fruit and vegetables. Other creatures on the farm, such as rabbits and wallabys can be used as meat as required. I don't believe in killing with traps and snares, which cause a long, slow death.

 I do respect other people's opinions but remind people that opinions are like arseholes...we all have one and they are best kept to ourselves.



I Have A Dream

I guess we all have a dream and this is mine.

Fumiko is Japanese, her family live in Japan and they are lovely people. My family consists of one sister, who I'm close to.. There are others, but we haven't contacted each other for years. So, it makes sense to me that we should move to Japan.

Having lived there for seven years, I have a pretty good idea of what its like and, I can say with all honesty, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are things that are really enjoyable about living there and, of course, there are things I found quite distasteful. But the same can be said for living in any country, including Australia.

Having just gotten used to farm life here in Tasmania, I think that it is a lifestyle that I would enjoy in Japan. And, currently, farms in Japan can be very cheap. Yep, you read that correctly, I wrote CHEAP! As in many countries, including Australia, farmers are getting old. Their children, in many cases, have been educated in the cities and have established careers there, as have their children. And they don't want to give all that up to return to the farm. So, the retiring farmers are selling their properties very cheaply. For example, an average size farm is only one or two acres, often with an older, traditional Japanese style house. These houses are gorgeous!

A typical farm house in Japan. This one is in Hiroshima Prefecture about 1 hour by train to the city.

Generally, the buyers of these farms are retiring city dwellers, looking for a quiet life in retirement, not to farm. Due to the size of the farm, it would be hard work to turn it into a profitable entreprise, although it could be done. However, it would be perfect for a comfortable, subsistance lifestyle.

This is one of the traditional, ground floor rooms.

This is one of the more modern, upstairs rooms.

As I mentioned earlier, There isn't a lot of land, compared to Australian farms, but it is very fertile and there is plenty of water. Also, rural Japan can be very beautiful. Always green and often with pristine mountain streams, which have lots of fish, including rainbow trout. I really enjoyed fly fishing for trout in Japan.

This is the farmland that the house is on.

How much is this property? Would you believe a bit less than AUD$100,000?

As I said, this is my dream. All I have to do now, is find the purchase price and the removal and setup costs. At my age, sadly, that's probably not going to happen. Unless I can find a media company willing to document the story of such a move, and pay for it! Ah, that's another dream.

Oh well, back to reality. It's time to round up the chooks and put them away for the night.

Gonzo The Great (Rabbit and Blowfly Hunter)

Gonzo is our Blue Heeler Cross and a source of constant amusement. He's quite intelligent, with just enough puppy stupidity to keep us on our toes.

A fearless watchdog, leaving visitors quaking in terror as he attempts to lick them to death. Fortunately, our labrador, Nana-chan, is a real watchdog.

Gonzo's forte is catching blowfies and chasing rabbits. I say chasing rabbits, because he is yet to catch one, but he does manage to scare the hell out of them.

Gonzo on blowfly and rabbit alert.

Although he can't catch rabbits, Gonzo is dynamite on blowflies. I've often seen him snatch them out of mid air, while the chooks look on in amazement. This is interesting, because, at the moment we have more rabbits around the house than blowflies. This is obviously a tribute to Gonzo's success. They are everywhere! Its not unusual to see two or three hopping aroud the garden, at any time.

Checking through the window for those wascally wabbits.

Being the great rabbit hunter that he is, Gonzo spends a large part of his day patroling the yard for a nice furry bunny to chase. He knows all of their favourite spots and checks them constantly.

On patrol.

Checking for suspected cotton tailed intruders.

Found one ! In hot pursuit.

Even the chooks are smart enough to get out of the way, when Gonzo's at full speed. They scatter, abusing him roundly, as he thunders past. I get the impession that he thinks the chooks are in collusion with the rabbits, because they won't corner them for him.

At the end of a busy day, licking visitors to death, catching blowflies and chasing rabbits, Gonzo likes nothing better than to find a nice shady spot and gnaw on an old bone...with a stupid grin all over his face as he contemplates a day's work, well done.

Autumn, Vegies, Moulting Chooks and Ducks

Autumn has set in on cue. Night and early morning are icy cold, but the days are still comfortable.The leaves are changing colour, Golden Wattle is starting to bloom and the vegie patch is giving up the ghost.
Our pea plants are dead, the zucchini is only producing a few tiny fruit and whats left of the tomatoes isn't worth worrying about. However, we have kilograms of lovely red tomatoes in the fridge that Fumi is going to turn into tomato jam. Delicious!

This used to be a high producing patch of lovely peas.

Sad looking zucchinis

These plants provided many kilograms of delicious tomatoes.

The last few tomatoes ripening on the windowsill.

Its time for the winter crops to be planted. This means ctting all the weeds out of the garden bed in the duck's pen, rotatry hoeing the ground and planting seedlings. We'll plant cabbages, silver beet, onions, leeks, beans etc. The reason we plant in the duck's pen is that they eat all the snails, slugs and other bugs that destroy crops.

The overgrown duck's pen.

Fumi has grown a Japanese herb, called Mitsuba. This has a lovely fresh taste with a bit of a bite. If you see it in a vegie shop, I recommend you try it.

Mitsuba

This is also the time of years that the chooks moult. They lose all their old feathers and grow new ones. Some chooks don't survive the moult (we lost 3) and egg production drops dramatically. We are currently only getting about 60% of what we were getting 2 months ago. Not enough to sell at the markets, after we have supplied our regular customers, who buy at the farm.

One of our chooks, that we featured in a previous post, had a really bad moult, last year, and has spent the whole year almost bald. We never considered killing her, as she always looked healthy with a large, bright red comb and she laid beautiful eggs. I'm pleased to say that, this year, she seems to be growing a good coat of new feathers, although she looks like a pin cushion at the moment.

She actually lost all her feathers except for a few on each wing.

This is her new pin cushion look, but she'll look great in a few weeks.

Here is one of our Australorps with her new coat. Gorgeous!

We have a small dam about 200 metres from the house. Our ducks have never discovered it, preferring to swim and poo in the chook's water, resulting in them being confined to their own yard. Today, I herded them down to the dam. Strangely, they took to it like ducks to water! I hope they come back to their yard tonight and remember where the dam is, tomorrow.

You may be asking yourself why it took so long to herd the ducks down to the dam. If you have ever tried to herd ducks into an area that they're not familiar with, you'll know the answer. They will run everywhere, except where they're supposed to go! The last two times I tried it, it took over an hour and I still got nowhere near the dam, so I gave up. The bloody things came very close to being my dinner on those occasions.

The damn ducks in the dam.

38C In Hobart! and Chooks On Parole

Today is 38C! That is bloody HOT! Because of the heat, we dcided not attend our usual market in Hobart. It doesn't matter how fresh our eggs are, having them sitting on a table in that heat is not a good idea. Not if we don't want our customers to get sick!

Its also too hot to keep the chooks locked up in a pen with only a little natural shade, apart from their sheds, which would also be very hot. So, we decided to let them out of the pens to roam around the farm, where there is plenty of natural shade. They will be kept out of the pens, on parole, for the next couple of days (tomorrow is forecast to be hot, too). If they lay their eggs in the nesting boxes, while on parole, they will be allowed to stay out. If not, its back into the pens again, as soon as it cools down.

A very empty pen, with only one chook visible, in the shade of a bush, on the other side of the pen.

You can't belive how happy the chooks were, to be able to free range again. I've never seen so many chooks vanish so quickly, into the surrounding undergrowth. Within seconds, you couldn't see one, just hear very contented clucking sounds. Even the ducks ran out of their pen to find a cool bush to rest under. And this was all at 6.30 this morning!

Their favouite spot is the water buckets. A social area, just like the water cooler or coffee machine in an office.

This afternoon, with their crops full of native seeds, grass and bugs, the chooks can be found either, resting in the shade, having a dustbath or sunbaking. Absolutely enjoying themselves.

Happy chooks

Meanwhile, Fumi and I are hoping that the next few hot days will encourage our tomato plants, that are covered in large, green tomatoes, to let them ripen. Its becoming very boring, having to pick them while green and leaving them on a windowsill to turn red!

Incarcerated Chooks!

The chooks are in prison! Yep, the sneaky little buggers have recently decided to make secret nests in the long grass in the paddocks to lay their eggs in. The only way to find them was to let our blue heeler, Gonzo, sniff them out. That was OK, but cost us a couple of eggs, each time he found a nest. That dog really loves fresh eggs! Over the past few weeks, we noticed that we were getting about 10 less eggs a day than usual. Our rules are fairly simple. We provide shelter, clean water, organic suppliments (when needed) and 10 acres of pasture to free range in. In return, we expect...no, DEMAND eggs!

The chooks behind wire!  Not happy!

To teach them that we require them to lay in the nesting boxes that we provide, we place their drinking water in the sheds where the nesting boxes are. Until recently, this has worked very well.

However, since they started playing hide and seek with their nests in the grass, we think its time to retrain them. This means keeping them locked in their pens for the next few weeks, so they will have no choice where to lay their eggs.

The problem with that was that they could fly over the pen's fences. Simple solution... cut the feathers on one of their wings! So now we have a flock of lop sided chooks that can only flutter around in ever decreasing circles. Don't let anyone one tell you that chooks don't complain. Ours have been screaming abuse at us, ever since we cut their wings and imprisoned them. Such foul, fowl language! Worse than Kevin Rudd.

The chooks rediscovering their nesting boxes.

Yesterday, egg numbers were back to normal. So, now we leave the chooks in the pens for a few weeks, until they become used to the nesting boxes again, before we let them out. If it works, thats good. If it doesn't, its back to prison again for few more weeks.

By the way, it makes it much easier for us to lock them away for the night.

Sunrise, Green Tomatoes and The Dud Shoulder Exposed

I fear that the warm weather is about to come to an end, here in Tasmania. The days are still in the low 20Cs, but the nights are getting cooler. It used to be light enough to start working at 5am, but now I can't start until around 6am. The biggest indicator is that the tomatoes are not getting ripe on the bushes. I have to pick them while they're green and ripen them inside, on the window sill or in the sunroom. I must admit that I'm not looking forward to Autumn and Winter.

Tomatoes on the window sill.

...and ripening in the sunroom.

As the weather cools, so do the sunrises. The clouds look cold and the sun struggles to peek through. Morning fogs are now becoming common. I don't mind them because I enjoy the stillness and absolute quiet, on foggy mornings.

A typical sunrise at the moment

It's moulting season for the chooks. They are losing all their old feathers and are growing new ones. Apart from their egg laying slowing down, while they're moulting, they look really awful and quite comical. Hopefully, they'll all look great in their new clothes in about a month.

A really scruffy chook in mid moult. Not even a little bit attractive.

It's been a month, since I had my shoulder surgery. The staples have been removed and a long period of physiotherapy has begun. I call this "New Adventures in Pain". The movement in my arm and shoulder seems to improve very minutely, day by day. The best thing is that my arm is now out of the sling. I even had to sleep with the bloody thing on! I think I'll hold a ceremonial burning of it!

Meanwhile, poor Fumi still has to do the heavy work. I try to help where I can, but unfortunately my help is quite limited. Only another 8 weeks before I can start normal heavy lifting. I think I'm very lucky to have a wife like Fumi. She is a champion!

I've posted a pic of the beaut little scar that will be the souvenir of my surgery. Don't look at it, if you have a weak stomach. You can't say you haven't been warned.

Cheaper than a tatoo

The King Of All Zucchini And Other Stuff

My dud arm is still dud and will remain so for a month or two. To take some of the pressure off Fumi, I get up at 4.30am, sneak out to the feed shed and fill the chook's feed bucket. Then I feed, water and let the ducks out of their yard. Then I fill the water buckets for the chooks and let them out to free range....and the rest is up to Fumi, when she gets up.

Meanwhile, our vegetable garden is going crazy. We have just harvested the King of all zucchini! It weighed in at 1.8kg on our Masterchef scale, which means the weight must be correct (our other certified scales verified it).

1.8kg on our Masterchef scales

The "King" with our normal zucchini

As well as zucchini, we grow 4 varieties of tomatoes and peas. Early last year I planted a few peas, with average results, This time, I planted 7 peas from a forgotten pod from last year and the results have been amazing! So far, I have harvested 1,5kg of peas, with anothe 1kg ready to harvest next week...and the plants are starting to flower again. There is nothing nicer than freshly picked peas!

Another kilo ready for picking, next week.

We also grow 4 kinds of tomatoes. They are Beefsteak, Oxheart, Grosse Lisce and Tommy Toe. The first three are grown outside, in the garden. These won't ripen for another month, due to Tasmania's cooler climate, so I cut them at near full size and ripen then on the widowsill, inside.

Beefsteak ripening on the windowsill.

The Tommy Toes are a mini varity and I have them growing on a shelf in the sun room. They should be ready to harvest in about 2 weeks.

Our Tommy Toes.

A Fairly 'Armless Farmer

A not so smiling 'Armless Farmer"

Last Wednesday was "Operation 'Armless" day, when I voluntarily allowed myself to be admitted to Calvary Hospital in Hobart to have my shoulder repaired. This required the removal of two largish bone spurs, a 5cm repair of a torn shoulder ligament and the reattachment of the ligament to the bone with metal clips. All this carried out through an 8 cm incision in my shoulder.

It sounds a bit complicated but apparently a fairly simple operation. Simple for the surgeon, anyway.

I'd like to compliment my surgeon, Dr. P. Scott Mackie for his professionalism, from explaining the procedure, prior to the operation, the trouble free operation itself and the follow up consultation. The only thing I wasn't aware of was the unbelievable agony that suddenly occurred when the local anesthetic that had been applied to the wound, during the operation, while I was under a general anasthetic, wore off, several hours later. He forgot to tell me that bit. I did my best impression of being a sook to the nursing staff when that happened.

I'd also like to express my appreciation to the Calvary Hospital staff who, from the admissions staff to the nursing staff, were simply amazing.

So, now I'm back on the farm, supervising Fumi, who has to do all the work for the next few weeks, while my arm is in a sling. I do what work I can, but its not much. The chooks don't care who feeds and waters them, so they're OK. The dogs are a bit miffed because they can't get the cuddles that they're used to. Fumi isn't too unhappy about it all, since she found out that she doesn't have to help me on and off the toilet, and she's looking forward to the time when I'm not constantly whinging about my sore shoulder.

Water and Out Of Action.

In my last post, I mentioned that we lost almost all of our water. Of course it was impossible to get any over the Xmas/New Year break. This meant that showers were brief and the toilets were only used for essential services. The bushes outside were a good substitute, but a bit of a worry with all the snakes about.

With about one or two day's supply of water left, we finally managed to get a water truck to deliver 10,000 litres. This filled 2 of our tanks to about 80%. I can't tell you how nice it was to have a long, hot shower again! Hopefully that should tide us over until we get some good rain to finish the job.

Me supervising the tank filling (just watching, really).

Next week I'm off to spend a couple of days in hospital, having a shoulder reconstruction. I did some serious damage to it, some months ago, and its been steadily getting worse ever since. I now only have about 30% use of my left arm, so its time to get it fixed.

This poses a bit of a problem because I wont be able to lift anything for about 6-8 weeks. Poor Fumi will have to do all my work as well as her own, during this time. There's not much of her, so the heavy lifting worries me a bit. I'll have to think of something to make it up to her. Oh well, that'll give me something to do.

Need Rain!!, Favourite Markets and Xmas

Its amazing how quickly things change! Last post, I whinged about the weather and too much rain. Last Tuesday, a contractor came to slash all the high grass on the property.Not only did he only half do the job, he managed to cut a pipe that carried water from one of our water tanks to the house and didn't bother to tell us.

A lousy slashing job!

When I got up on Wednesday morning, our pressure pump was cavitating like crazy and, of our three water tanks that supply ALL our domestic water, only one was still quarter full. The other two had drained during the night and were bone dry! Just 4 days ago, they were overflowing. I have taken 2 steps to remedy this problem. The first one is that I will pay the contractor when he finishes the job to my satisfaction, and I intend to be VERY fussy, less the cost of getting my tanks refilled by a water contractor. Secondly, I will do a rain dance. However, successful rain dances really depend on timing for success! 

We have settled into a regular routine of weekend markets to sell our olives and eggs. Fortunately, we have found 4 lovely markets that we really enjoy attending. On the first Sunday of the month, we go to Richmond market. This is a lovely historic town with friendly residents. They love our products and we manage to sell very well there. The second Sunday of the month sees us at Campania, a country town, famous for its fresh produce and wine, not far from Richmond, where we have been accepted and well patronised by the locals.

The third Sunday of the month will find us at out local Artisans and Growers Market at Dodges Ferry, about a 10 minute drive from home. This is a beautiful area, right on the water and the market is next to the boat ramp, in a park with a childrens playground. We do well there and always sell out!

Dodges Ferry Market

Fumi, just after setting up, waiting for our first customers.

On the fourth Saturday of the month, we are in South Hobart at All Saints Church. This is a small market, incredibly well patronised by the local residents and parishoners. An amazing, lovely group of people, including customers, stall holders and management. The market is held in the grounds of beautifull, historic All Saints Chuch. The gardens are small but magnificent. Can you imagine being surrounded be manicured, gorgeous gardens in the lee of a lovely old church, selling to really lovely people? Who needs to die to go to Heaven? By the way, we always sell out here. Oh, I forgot to mention, entertainment is provided by a professional musican playing the harp beautifully. Seriously!

Our stall, the gardens and the church.

Some of the other stalls.

Another pic of our stall. How gorgeous are the surroundings, except for the car?

We are about to take the markets by storm, when the weather turns cold (maybe tomorrow?),we are going to sell Hand Warmers. These are really common in Japan. They are a small, mobile phone sized, paper packet that, when you crunch it up in your hands, heats up to about 50C for up to 10 hours. You just keep it in your pocket, and when your hands get cold, you hold it, instead of wearing cumbersome gloves. When you've finished with it, you just tear it open and pour the contents onto your garden. They are a natural fertilizer. How good is that? They come in packs of 2 and we sell them for $5 per pack. We hope they will be successful.

Finally, Fumi and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May you and all of your family and friends be healthy, happy and prosper in 2012. We look forward to you enjoying our blog in 2012.