The Gormless Farmer

38C In Hobart! and Chooks On Parole

2012-02-25T13:54:00.000+11:00

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!

2012-02-21T13:51:00.002+11:00

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

2012-02-15T10:57:00.000+11:00

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

2012-01-31T16:15:00.000+11:00

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

2012-01-21T18:13:00.000+11:00

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.

2012-01-12T15:58:00.000+11:00

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

2011-12-22T15:07:00.000+11:00

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.

Summer? What Summer? And Grubby Tradies

2011-12-07T11:12:00.000+11:00

I haven't written a new post for a while because there wasn't much to write about. The weather has just been cold and miserable.

Just another cold, rainy day

The last three markets that we attended had horrible weather. Our thanks to the hardy souls that came and bought our produce.

Today is the first warm, almost sunny, day of Summer. The chooks are sunbaking for the first time in weeks.

Happy sunbaking chooks

The past few weeks they've either been scratching around in the dry earth, under the house, or looking for worms in the mud puddles in their pen. The occasional chook would come up to the back door of the house with a "can I come in out of the weather" look in its eye.

Scratching aroud for worms

"Can we come in....please"

The good thing about all the rain is that it filled our water tanks. This is important, because its the only water supply that we have. No rain, no water. Even with full tanks, we have to be careful of how much water we use.

Water gushing into our tanks

Now for a well deserved whinge. Recently the old terracotta pipes, carrying the sewerage to our septic system, gave up the ghost and burst. This resulted in raw sewerage draining from under the house in a putrid stream across the back yard and off down the hill. Not a pretty sight...or smell. I hope you can understand why there aren't any photos.

After a few weeks of this delectable aroma, we eventually managed to get a plumber to replace the pipes. All well and good....sort of!

He replaced the pipes, but left sewerage coated, old, broken pipe, sewerage coated rubber gloves and other assorted rubbish laying aroud the yard, after he left. What a grub! This took about 2 hours to clean up. What ever happened to tradesmen that took pride in their work?

I hope he doesn't expect to get paid before Xmas! I'm also deducting $100 for the cost of cleaning up after him. I wish him a Merry Xmas....not!

A Magnificent Sunrise

2011-11-18T08:29:00.000+11:00

This morning's magnificent sunrise. What more can I say?

A Windy Day, Bald & Broody Chooks, Peaches and Other Plants

2011-11-16T10:22:00.002+11:00

Today is really windy! This isn't unusual, just annoying, as I had intended to finish cutting the grass around the house. I refuse to do this on very windy days because nasty pieces of dog poo, hidden in the grass, invariably end up in my mouth. Enough said! The chooks hate it too. Instead of being happy little scratchers, they're either hiding in their sheds or under the house, out of the wind.

Chooks hiding under the house.

Talking about chooks, we have a bald hen. She arrived as a pullet a few months ago, looking a little ratty. She's now an adult, laying beautiful eggs, with a healthy, well developed comb and normal in every respect....except her adult feathers have never developed! She doesn't seem bothered by it and the other chooks (surprisingly) don't pick on her. She just looks wierd.

Our bald chook

Another chook is broody. She sits on a nest full of other chook's eggs all day. When we try to remove them, she screams at us and pecks our hands. The only way to deal with her is to grab her by the wing, drag her off the nest and collect the eggs, while being roundly abused by her.

The broody hen

Meawhile, the warmer weather is really allowing plants to grow. Fumi planted a bed of Mitsuba seeds. These are a Japanese salad green with a delicious, mild taste. In the last two weeks the've started sprouting up. I really hope we don't get bored with them!

The peach tree is full of fruit and, barring birds and possums, we should start eating them around Xmas time. Yum! In addition to that, our Pink Eye potatoes are only a few weeks away from harvesting and should supply us with potatoes for the whole year.

Baby peaches

Other things that have just started growing are Black Jack Zucchini and Kent pumpkins. Hopefully, they should be ready to harvest in the next couple of months. Now, we are just waitng for our tomatoes to start to grow. We can't wait for fresh, organic salads this summer!

Our zucchini

The pumpkins ( from seeds that we scraped out one we bought from the supermarket)

Two More Markets, Marinated Olives and Snakey Grass

2011-11-14T17:02:00.000+11:00

We have just completed trying two more "Farmer's Markets" in our area. Two weeks ago we went to Richmond, about thirty minutes drive from our farm. Richmond is a beautiful, historic village, famous for its old convict built bridge and full of lovely old buildings.

Richmond Bridge

It was the first market of the season and was held in the local school hall. One of those over priced monstrosities that were conceived by the Rudd Govt. under the BER program. It is a very new building. So new, in fact, that the glue holding the poly-styrene ceiling panels in place hadn't dried, causing one of the panels to fall on the market stall holders underneath. Lucky it wasn't wood!

We were told that the market was going to feature only farmers and local artisans, however we were the only farmers there. All the other stalls had hobby made goods or second hand toys etc. Fortunately, the market was well attended and our eggs sold well, so we'll go again next month.

Last Sunday, we tried another "Farmers and Producers Market" at the next village up the road from Richmond called Campania. This was held in the local hall, a lovely old building.

Once again this was the first market of the season and we were the only farmers there. There was another stall selling eggs, honey and vegetables that they had bought from other people and several stalls, manned (or womanned) by some elderly ladies, selling home made cakes, jams and preserves. They did very well, with locals coming in especially to buy their goods.

We were lucky enough for a tour bus to stop and check out the market. This resulted a few good sales for us. We had also intoduced some new products that we had made. These were marinated olives. We had 3 varities...Kalamata with garlic, fennel and oregano in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Green mammoths with chilli, peppercorns and garlic in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and A combination of the kalamata and mammoths in balsamic vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil with rosemary and garlic. These were a hit!

So with our eggs, pickled eggs and olives, we made a little money. We're not certain if we'll do this market again. A lot of work for little gain.

Our pickled eggs and olives

Our stall

At the moment, the grass on the farm is about a metre high and is starting to brown off as the weather gets warmer. This creates both a haven for snakes and a potential fire hazard. We've arranged to have the grass slashed over the whole 10 acres, but we just have to wait our turn. Meanwhile, strong rubber boots are a must when walking around the paddocks.

Rain, Grass And Pickled Eggs

2011-10-28T10:00:00.002+11:00

Today is rainy. In fact, the rest of the week is forecast as showers. I don't mind this because I was able to whipper snip the grass around the house yesterday, so now it is short, neat and manageable.

Neatly cut grass in the backyard (an unusual occurence).

What I do object to, is when the Weather Bureau only get it partially right. Yesterday, they forecast rain for today and got that right, which is why I cut the grass. They also forecast 13C overnight and 20C today. So, last night I took the quilt off the bed, thinking it wouldn't be so cold....and froze! Today the only place on the farm that will even remotely approach 20C is in front of the fire, which I lit at a freezing 4.30am.

From now on, I think I'll revert to to the old tried and true method of determining the weather. It's called "The String Method" and never fails. To use this method, close your eyes and hold about 30cm of string out the window. I your hand gets warm, its sunny. If it gets wet, it's raining. If the string moves, it's windy etc. Never fails!

I hope the rain goes away in the next few days, as I have a lot of grass to cut, before snakes get on the move. Because of the (marginally) warmer weather and the rain, the grass has grown like crazy. In some parts, it's over a metre high. I'll have the paddocks professionally slashed next month, but I'll attack the acre around the house with a whipper snipper to cut the grass back to its roots. This is a big, horrible job, but easier if the grass isn't wet.

Some of the grass on the other side of the fence around the house.

The good side of all the rain is that everything is a lush green which looks very nice, particularly as it will soon be dry, brown and full of snakes as Summer approaches. You may be forming the opinion that I don't like snakes. Very astute!

Everything is green....at the moment.

As I mentioned in my last post, Fumi is making pickled eggs for the market. Yesterday, she made some with curry and spices in cider vinegar. They look great! Todays effort will be with beetroot, chilli and spices, also in cider vinegar. I can't wait until next week, to try them.

Pickled eggs in curry, spices and vinegar.

Another Day At The Market

2011-10-25T12:34:00.000+11:00

Last Sunday, we had a stall at Sorell Market. This is a much larger market than Dodges Ferry with more than 100 stalls. Most of the stalls sell secondhand junk, which attracts the majority of visitors.

I couldn't believe the number of people paying crazy money for junk that they would probably never use. Humans are wierd animals!

There are only a few stall stalls selling produce, plants, home made goods etc. So, despite the difference in size between Sorell Market and the one at Dodges Ferry, Dodges Ferry was better for us.

However, we aren't complaining because we did sell enough eggs to make it worthwhile and will make it a regular sales outlet. The weather was much better than the Sunday before. A nice, sunny 21C. We almost felt human. Probably something to do with being able to feel our fingers and toes.

To improve sales, we are going to produce pickled eggs. Fumi is going to make 2 varieties. The first one will be a beetroot and herb flavour and the second one will be a hot chilli flavour. It should be interesting to see how it works. I have no problem with the quality of the product because Fumi is an amazing cook. I just wonder how pickled eggs will be accepted by our customers. I guess we'll find out in a couple of weeks, when we try to sell them.

A Day At The Market

2011-10-17T11:51:00.002+11:00

The day before yesterday was fine and sunny. Today is fine and sunny. Yesterday was the first day, for the season, of our local market at nearby Dodges Ferry. This is a one day a month market featuring local farmers and artisans. We decided to have a stall there, selling our eggs. Of course it was cold (13C), windy (40+ Kmh winds) and often rainy with some hail. We bloody well froze!!

Fumi in her Red Riding Hood outfit, trying to stay warm.

Only about a dozen stall holders showed up because the others obviously checked the weather report and were smart enough to stay home. So, when we arrived there and saw how few stall holders there were, we thought that the day would be a waste of time.

We decided to take a heap of chook eggs (packs of a dozen, free range, organic eggs), about 3 dozen duck eggs (also free range and organic) and about a dozen packs of 4 peeled, boiled, older (but still well within their use by date) eggs as dog treats. The market was open from 10am to 2pm. We couldn't believe it when we had almost sold out by 12.30!

So, regardless of the weather, we'll be there every month, for the rest of the season. Today is a rest day, allowing the sun to warm our, still frozen, bones. I think a person must be mad to be a farmer!

Daylight Saving And Sunny Days

2011-10-03T17:30:00.001+11:00

Daylight Saving has arrived. Coming from Queensland, we're not used to it. Queenslanders know that the extra hour of daylight will fade the cutains, put the cows off milking etc, so the Qld. Govt. refuses to have Daylight Saving.

However, we don't mind it as we don't have any cows and our curtains are fade resistant.

The most important thing, as far as we're concerned, is the days are warmer and, in general, sunny. This means we can start growing things. The peas we planted a few weeks ago are producing lovely fresh peas and our Pink Eye potatoes are doing very well and should keep us in fresh potatoes from around Xmas time. Today, we planted our tomatoes. We're hoping for a bumper crop so that we can make passata for next winter.

Some of our peas.

Our Pink Eye potatoes.

The down side is that the grass is growing like crazy. Last week I trimmed the grass around the house back to its roots. Just a few days later, its about 10cm tall. I wonder what I'll be doing a couple of days a week all Spring and Summer?

The grass, 4 days after being cut.

The up side is all of the trees and bushes around the house look great! I have no idea what some of the plants are but they are gorgeous. Have a look at some of these.

Even the baby wild rabbits are enjoying the sun as are our new pullets. The older chooks just love their sunbaking in their dust baths. As for Fumi and me, we're enjoying the warm weather too....while it lasts.

A Motley Looking Bunch Of Chooks Arrive

2011-09-24T15:01:00.000+10:00

At last, our 30 new pullets have arrived! What a motley looking lot! They look like a mob of refugees from a natural (or un-natural ) disaster! Grubby, dishevelled feathers, pale and undeveloped combs and wattles. Not at all like the pure bred, heritage chooks that they will become in a month or two.

Poor little buggers crammed into 3 carry boxes

They were crammed into 3 carry boxes for the 15 minute trip to our farm. This isn't as cruel as it sounds because, while they are crammed in tight, they can't flap around in a panic and injure themselves or each other.

As soon as we arrived home, we moved the pullets into their new home, but being the silly buggers they are, they didn't want to leave the safety of their carry boxes, so I had to put them into the shed, one by one.

Once they were out of the boxes, they all huddled together at the far end of the shed. They soon settled down and were feeding and drinking as though they had been there for ever. I think I mentioned that they aren't too bright.

All huddled together, so the big, bad man couldn't get them.

I left them alone for about 30 minutes, with the shed door open to their pen. When I checked on them, they were scratching around outside the shed or laying in the sun, getting a tan. All they have to do now is start laying eggs.

The joy is that we get to do it all again in a few weeks time, when the next lot arrive!

Awaiting New Arrivals

2011-09-23T15:02:00.000+10:00

We've been waiting for 60 new White Leghorn pullets to arrive for a few months and the first 30 are due tomorrow, with the rest arriving in a few weeks. This means we have to have new accomodation for them. We can't put them in with the other chooks because the older birds will beat them up. So, for the past two days, Fumi and I have been converting an old shed into new accommodation.

The old shed.

This hasn't been much fun because the weather has been very windy. Yesterday was very warm and windy and today is cold, rainy and windy. The first thing I had to do was trim the grass along the proposed fence line for the pen. Quite an experience with a whipper snipper and metre high grass.

It took about an hour and a lot of bad language, to do it.

Then we had to clean out the shed (Fumi's job) and move the nesting boxes from the old destroyed shed in.

A clean shed with nesting boxes installed.

Next, we had to re-install the door, put fresh straw over the floor and hang the food bowl. Its important to keep the food bowl far enough off the floor to keep the mice out but not too far for the chooks to reach. If you don't do this, the bloody mice get into the bowl and crap in it, which means the food is spoiled and has to be thrown out. Organic chook food is too expensive to waste.

Finally, we had to put the fence and the gate for the pen in. This was done in gale force, freezing cold wind and took most of the morning.

By the time we had finished, we hated chooks, Tasmania, the farm and the pen, not necessarily in that order. It was a race to get back inside the house and in front of the fire. Fumi won. She said it was because she's younger and fitter. I maintain it was because I'm a gentleman and let her win (and she's younger and fitter).

So now we just wait for the new chooks to arrive tomorrow.

(H)armless On The Farm

2011-09-16T10:14:00.001+10:00

As I mentioned in my last post, Fumi went back to Japan to visit her family. Unfortunately, I had just had an injection in my left shoulder to relieve the pain of a torn tendon which, sadly, didn't work. However, I wasn't allowed to do any heavy lifting, or raise my arm above shoulder level for 2 weeks, which, of course, was when Fumi was in Japan. This left me armless for a while and made life interesting.

Filling the chooks' food bucket with one arm.

It's amazing how inventive someone can be when having to try and live a normal life, while incapacitated. Simple things like showering, pulling on a sweater, cooking and day to day tasks become new adventures in pain and discomfort. The upside is that you soon realise that all these things are possible, given a bit of forethought. Also, the peace and quiet of having Fumi in Japan was wonderful....who do I think I'm kidding? I missed her like crazy. When a couple are together 24/7, you either try to kill each other or form a very close partnership. Fortunately, we're the latter. It certainly made it worthwhile when she returned with a bottle of my favourite sake.

This is Narazake (Sake from Nara Prefecture) pronounced Mu Sho Hai. My favourite drop.

Since the chooks' shed exploded a few weeks ago, they have been sharing a pen and shed with the pullets. In the last few days, I've been letting them out to start free ranging again. The grass is quite high and they are loving being able to scratch around, eating the grass, looking for bugs and worms and sunbaking.

A really happy flock of chooks.

The Aftermath, Spring And Other Matters

2011-09-02T11:11:00.001+10:00

In my last post, I mentioned the damage to our chook shed, caused by the wild weather. Our plan was to rebuild it but the damage to the panels is just too great to attempt it. So, we're not going to use that yard as a chook pen, but turn it into a Summer veg. garden area. Imagine how fertile it will be! Its also rabbit proof, which is a bonus.

All that's left of the chook shed.

The surviving nesting box that will go into the new chook shed to be built for our, soon to arrive, new pullets.

The older chooks are now in with our pullets, quite happy together, after belting the hell out of each other while establishing a pecking order.

Spring has certainly arrived. Last night was a freezing cold, heavy frost night, but today is a beautiful, cloudless, sunny 16c. All the surrounding paddocks are green, flowers are popping open everywhere and birds are all fighting over nesting spots.

Green paddocks everywhere.

Just some of the flowers around the house.

There are Lavender plants all around the house which are just starting to bloom. How awful!

My guess is that this is Peach blossom. I hope I'm right!

This is my favourite tree. It's a Feather Fir and is very rare. In fact, it's unique to my garden. It only produces one flower per year, which closely resembles a feather. We're so luckly to be privileged enough to see it in full bloom. Sadly, this unique flower will only last until the next breeze.

Another unique event is Fumi emerging from in front of the heater to venture outside. Of course it's only to gather twigs and tinder for lighting the fire, in the unlikely event that it goes out. She likes to build a small fire in the heater, gradually adding larger tinder until the fire is burning well, filling the house with smoke so the fire alarm goes off. This is wonderful for checking the alarm, but usually happens as I'm watching a favourite TV show (and there aren't many of them) or when I'm just dozing off, after going to bed. I prefer to use half a packet of fire starters. I works every time, but doesn't test the smoke alarm.

Fumi and Gonzo collecting twigs.

An elegant Fumi sawing dry branches to use as tinder.

Next week, Fumi is off to Japan to visit her family. This means that I'll have to fend for myself for a short while. The problem is that I only have one good arm, at the moment, due to a torn tendon in my shoulder and a cortisone injection in it to reduce the swelling, resulting in light duties for a couple of weeks. I think this could be interesting and will make an excellent topic for my next post. I'm not complaining because I've already placed an order for my favourite Sake when she returns, bearing gifts.

A Horrible, Disasterous Day

2011-08-26T11:41:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was forecast to be a lovely, 18C, Spring day with light winds. And so it was....until early afternoon. Then, in the space of less than an hour, the sky clouded over and the wind increased to very strong with gale force gusts. Over Winter, we have experienced days of 90kmh winds, with lots of noise but no damage.

However, at one point yesterday, we had several gusts over 100kmh. One of these gusts destroyed our chook shed. Fortunately, most of the chooks were under our house and the pullets had all retired to their shed, which is built like Fort Knox, so none of our birds were injured.

At the time that the chook shed exploded, Fumi was in the old water tank duck shed, about 3 metres away from the chook shed, collecting duck eggs. I shudder to think what might have happened, had she been in the open chook pen a minute earlier.

Obviously, our adult chooks had nowhere to spend the night and we didn't want to leave them under the house as there was a Tasmanian devil around the night before. So, we spent from 2.30pm until 6pm in the wind and pouring rain, catching 39 freaked out chooks and tranferring them to the pullets shed. Each chook had to be caught individually. It must have looked hilarious but, at the time, we didn't see the funny side of it. Even now, Fumi is upset and depressed. I'm hoping that her visit home to Japan in a couple of weeks will brighten her up.

Now we have 78 chooks all cooped up in the one shed, where they will stay until we rebuild their new shed. This will take a week or two, so I expect to have a bunch of unhappy chooks. I can't let them out to free range because they are still very freaky and need to calm down before they can be allowed out. If I let them out now, I might never be able to catch them again, so they stay confined.

Today is a sunny, slightly windy day, so we've pulled the shed to pieces and, over the next few days, will try to resurrect it.

We certainly don't need another day like yesterday, but that's life on the farm; just lurching from one disaster to another with, hopefully, a lot of fun days in between.

Daffodils, Our First Pullet Egg And An Interesting Pic of Fumi

2011-08-16T15:33:00.001+10:00

In my last post, I mentioned that the daffodils, growing in our back yard, were starting to flower. The chooks noticed it too. As soon as the flowers started to open, the bloody chooks ate them! So, in an endeavour to outsmart the chooks, I cut the flowers before they opened and put them in water in the house. I had to be lightning fast though, because the chooks were trying to steal them out of my hand while I was cutting them.

The saved daffodils.

A couple of months ago, we bought 40 White Leghorn pullets. They were an insipid bunch of ragged looking youngsters. White, tatty feathers, white legs and almost colourless, undeveloped combs and wattles. Truly uninspiring birds!

Ratty looking pullets.

Now, a few months later, despite being attacked by stray dogs, they have matured. Now they are fat and sleek, pearl white feathers, yellow legs and bright red combs and wattles. Very regal looking chooks! Whats more, they have started to lay! Lovely pure white eggs with a bright orange yolk. In another month, we should be getting 25 - 30 eggs every day from them.

What difference 2 months make!

Our first egg from the pullets.

I've received a lot of emails asking for a photo of Fumiko. She has to be the shyest photo subject in Tasmania. So, I've snuck in a pic, taken in Japan a couple of years ago. I hope you like it as much as I do.

This is a pic, taken by me. Notice the old woman in the background, taking a photo of me, taking a photo of Fumi, taking a photo of some Wistaria. Priceless!

Spring Has Sprung ... Or Has It?

2011-08-10T10:34:00.001+10:00

There are still oficially 3 weeks of Winter left, but all the signs point to an early Spring. Icy cold, frosty mornings have given way to damp, dull, misty days. The local sheep farmers have started shearing the sheep; a sign that they think the frosts are finished. The pine trees are tipped with bright yellow/green new growth and our garden seems to be coming to life. I've included a few pics, so you can make up your own mind. I remain optimistic.

Dull, misty days.

Our fruit trees are starting to blossom.

Some daffodils, growing wild in our backyard, are about to flower.

Some of our garden bushes are showing signs of erupting into bloom.

The rosemary bush is already in full flower.

I'll give the weather a few more days to convince me that the frosts are gone, then I'll start planting our Summer vegetables. Fumi is unconvinced, so the fire still burns in our heater.

Mud, Disgraced Chooks, Paper Nests, a Crochet Lap Rug and Crappy Weather

2011-08-06T12:30:00.001+10:00

This week is fairly miserable. The rain has set in. Not a heavy driving rain like we had in Cairns, just a constant drizzling. There's not much wind but a slow, bone chilling cold that sneaks up on you when you go outside.

Where there used to be compacted dirt paths, there are now just sticky, muddy quagmires that try to suck the boots off your feet. Even the chooks are looking fairly grubby from scratching in the mud. They're quite happy, though. It's easy for them to scratch up the occasional worm, which they display to all the other chooks. This is a dumb move because all the other chooks set off in pursuit, trying to steal it away from the finder. The poor worm could change chooks six or seven times, before one of them is smart enough to swallow it. Hilarious to watch.

The two chooks pictured above are in trouble and are not happy about their punishment. They are Brown Plymouth Rocks and are strong fliers. This isn't a problem in itself but they had developed an annoying habit of flying over their pen's gate, after they'd been locked away at in the afternoon, prior to being put in their shed at night. And what was worse, they would hide under the house, refusing to come out, until we went inside. This meant that we were floundering around in the mud, just before dark, trying to get them back into the pen again. Yesterday, I'd had enough, so I caught the pair of them, after an hour long battle, and cut the flight feathers on their wings. Now they're grounded until they moult again, next April. Not happy chooks, but happy Bruce and Fumi.

The paper nests.

Speaking of Fumi, the weather is making her stir crazy. This is scary, because she starts to become creative. Recently, she decided to make newspaper nests to sell our eggs in, instead of using egg cartons. She puts a little bit of straw in the nest and a dozen eggs, and that's how she sells them. Actually, it works really well!

Another recent creative project by Fumi is her crochetted lap rug. She made this, over a few weeks, while sitting in front of the wood heater, battling for position with the dogs. Now, she can sit in her comfortable arm chair, in front of TV. Strangely, she still sits in front of the heater, battling for position with the dogs.

This strange looking object is a large, plastic barrel, placed in a garden patch, next to the house. It catches water from a small strip of guttering. We use it to provide water to our pullets. It takes about 3 buckets of water a day to keep the chooks happy. No fresh water, no eggs!

Last week, we had emptied the barrel to about 5cm of water in the bottom. This was a worry because, if the barrel had become empty, we would have had to use water from the tanks supplying our house, which had also gotten low.

So, even though I was complaining about the mud and drizzling rain, earlier in this post, some good has come out of it. The chook's water barrel is full and our water tanks are starting to fill, too.

Time to don the wet weather gear and go and collect eggs.

The Pied Piper of Carlton River

2011-08-03T10:40:00.000+10:00

Putting our chooks in the pen, prior to locking them up for the night has been a real problem. They were having too much fun free ranging and didn't wan't to come home. When they saw us coming, they would scatter, no matter how slow and unthreatening we were.So, having read a few posts in Back Yard Poultry Foum about giving the chooks treats( go to www.backyardpoultry.com then click on Other Topics and then Other Poultry Talk), I decided to try and con them into coming home.

I bought a kilo of frozen sweetcorn kernels from Woolies as a treat. Then I sat on the verandah of the house and threw a few to some of the nearby chooks. Within 10 minutes a dozen of them were eating from my hand. The next day, I had 20 fans. From that point on, where ever I went an entourage of chooks would follow. Now I understand the power trip The Pied piper of Hamelin had!

These days, I don't give them any treats during the day, but at lockup time I leave a thin trail of corn to the pen, where I will throw a couple of handfuls around their yard. This starts a feeding frenzy, then I exit quietly out the gate and shut it. This gets all but about half a dozen smart ones which, about 10 minutes later, realise they're seperated from the rest of the flock and hang around the gate, waiting to get in.

Problem solved! Just for a couple of handfuls of corn. Even Fumiko was impressed.

Recalcitrant Ducks And "Dead And Dying" Chooks

2011-07-26T12:37:00.003+10:00

Today is a beautiful, sunny, Winter's day. 10C and no wind is a very comfortable and lazy combination. With that in mind, I decided to rake over the patch of garden that I've been preparing for our potato planting. When I had finished, I noticed a heap of slugs and snails, laying in wait to gobble up any new plants.

The future potato patch...surrounded by slugs & snails.

Which is why I bought the ducks. I have two Indian Runner ducks whose sole purpose in life is to contol the aforementioned slugs and snails as well as spiders, scorpions etc. They do this very well. So, being a thinking kind of person, I thought that putting the ducks in the garden patch would solve the potential bug problem before planting the spuds. The problem is that the bloody ducks refused to be herded into the garden patch, running over most of our 10 acres to avoid it. So, tomorrow, I will have to corner them in the chook pen and chuck them over the garden patch fence. I'm sure they'll thank me for it....not!

The Recalcitrant Ducks

As I mentioned before, it is a beautiful, sunny day. When I was returning from photographing that exciting piece of dirt, called a spud patch, I noticed that the Chook Pen Central Hotel was deserted. Not a chook to be found! This is unusal, as there are usually 4 ot 5 eating or drinking at any one time.

A deserted Chook Pen Central Hotel

The ladies were all spread out around the place relaxing, sun baking or enjoying a luxurious spa at The Exclusive Dust Spa And Resort. I don't know if you have ever seen totally relaxed chooks having a dust bath or sun baking, but they look as though they are either dead or dying. A bit like the pool area at a Seniors' swimming club. Here are a few pics to show what I mean ( sorry, no seniors' club pics). Before you get upset, I'm a senior person (old, not better).

"A bit too much sun isn't good for our comlexion."

Stiff as a board

The Exclusive Dust Spa And Resort.

Enjoying the spa.

"How dare you disturb me!"

Even Gonzo knows better than to disturb them.

"How gorgeous am I, after my spa?"

Time for me to relax in the sun (no dust bath), before it starts to get cool.

Some of you have been asking for Fumiko's input. She tells me that she is too shy to write in English on the internet. For those of you who are interested, Fumi's blog (in Japanese) is at http://nanagonzo.exblog.jp/

A Rotten Start To The Day

2011-07-24T15:10:00.001+10:00

A study in innocence.

I usually go to bed quite early because I have to start work at dawn, feeding and watering chooks etc. Last night was no exception, so I set the TV recorder to copy a Clint Eastwood movie I wanted to see, let the dogs out for a pee and then went to bed.

It was bloody cold in the bedroom ( minus something stupid degrees). After shivering myself to sleep, I was woken up by the dogs, who sleep in an enclosed verandah next to the bedroom, playing. This is not ever done quietly. I couldn't yell at them to stop because I didn't want to wake Fumi, who can sleep through earthquakes in Japan. So, I got out of a nice warm bed in the freezing cold, tip toed to the verandah, naked (sorry, no pics) and quietly told the dogs to stop.

I had just gotten back into, a now cold, bed when Gonzo started barking at rabbits, real or imagined, that he could see through the window. Again I got out of bed and threatened him with death. I had just back into bed when he decided to play again.

During all of this, Fumi hadn't stirred. So I thought "bugger it, let them go", which they did, until I decided that, as sleep wasn't an option, I would get up, have a cup of coffee and watch the Clint Eastwood movie that I had recorded....at 3.15am!

Prior to the movie being shown, the Australia vs Sth. Africa rugby was being played on the same channel. The game ran overtime by about 15 minutes, which meant I missed the last 15 minutes of the movie. At dawn, I did my chores, in heavy frost, with the chook's water buckets covered in a centimtere of ice!

So started my Sunday. No wonder I went back to bed at 8.30 and didn't wake up 'til noon. By the way, my Lotto entry was crap, too.

No smokin', brave pullets and Little Red Riding Hood

2011-07-22T12:37:00.000+10:00

As I mentioned in my last post, our wood heater was doing an imitation of Ol' Smoky, not burning properly and filling the house with clouds of billowing smoke, setting off smoke alarms. We tried a product that was supposed to fix the problem when placed in the heater. Three days and $40 later, it made no difference. So, after a bit of searching, we found someone who would clean out the chimney...for $185. Out of desperation, we told him to go ahead. When he arrived, he asked to borrow a pair of gloves, which he left laying on the lawn when he left. The whole job took him about 30 minutes. Not a bad hourly rate! The upside is that we now have a warm, smoke free house and any creatures living in our roof would have died from asphixiation, due to the smoke.

Real fire, no smoke!

A few weeks ago, we purchased 40 more young pullets. They are White Leghorns which are great egg layers. However, they are very freaky. They get startled by anything...a gust of wind, a bird flying over them or the sight of any person or dog. This results in wild wing flapping and a headlong dash back to the safety of their shed. Hilarious to watch. As they have gotten a bit older, they are becoming quite brave, venturing out into high grass in their pen. They're still freaky and do the mad dash, but quickly come back to the yard. All they have to do now is start laying!

Brave pullets.

We have all heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but we never knew her name. I can now reveal her true identity. It's Fumiko! On her daily journey down to the letterbox to check the mail, she wears her rainproof jacket. Yesterday I took a photo of her, with Nana and Gonzo, returning from the letterbox. Seeing is believing!

Little Red Riding Hood.

Smokin'

2011-07-18T15:31:00.000+10:00

Here we are, in the middle of Winter and we have a problem with our wood heater. It Seems like our chimney is sooted up, so the wood doesn't burn properly. It just smolders away, creating little heat and a heap of smoke.

We've discovered a product that when placed in the firebox, will clear the smoke and the chimney. The problem is that it takes time and has to be heated by the fire before it works.

Fumi has nominated herself to be the fire warden/manager. This means that, at the most inopportune time, she will open the heater door to add some more dry tinder to the firebox, resulting in a room full of choking smoke. This usually happens when I'm watching a TV program that I particularly like (and there aren't too many of them) or after I've gone to bed and just fallen asleep, when the smoke alarm goes off.

I know she is doing her best and means well, which is why I haven't obtained divorce papers (joking!). However, if the problem isn't fixed in a week, I'm going to invest in a large, cost inefficient, electric heater.

Tonight's dinner is smoked salmon being eaten by a smoked Gormless Farmer. I love country life!

Celebration And A Crook Fumi

2011-07-14T15:06:00.000+10:00

Fumi is going back to Japan for a short holiday in September. This is good, except that her passport had expired and she had to go to Melbourne to get a new one issued. She was very happy about that because, being a woman, she enjoys shopping and Melb. has some of the best shopping in Oz. She is also a foodie, so a visit to the Queen Victoria Market was on her agenda.

Sadly, as I was home alone for the day, I had to do all the work on the farm. This was OK and I grit my teeth and told her that I was delighted she could make the trip, and not to worry about me. Scoring points is important for any husband. The sad thing about scoring points is that, no matter how many points the husband can rack up, they will all vanish the second the wife is upset....about anything. And then we have to start all over again.

Coincidently, our 15th. wedding anniversary was a few weeks ago, Fumi's birthday was last week and mine is this week. A perfect opportunity for a celebration! So, with that in mind, Fumi went to the Queen Vic. Market and came back with an assortment of goodies, which we decided to eat for lunch, yesterday.

They included an absolutely amazing baguette, tallegio and montasio cheese, duck terrine, smoked kingfish, antipasto and other delicious bits and pieces. We drove into Sorell and bought a bottle of Penfolds Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz, returned home and had the most delicious long lunch.

Unfortunately, Fumi is a wine buff who can't drink. Two glasses and she falls asleep. After lunch and half a bottle of wine later, Fumi vanished. I found her buried under a mountain of blankets, in bed, wishing the world would go away! Later that evening she emerged, looking decidedly the worse for wear. At the time, I was sipping on a glass of Shiraz (not bin 28) and offered her a sip. All my points vanished instantly! She couldn't see the joke.

Today is another day. Fumi feels better and I'm busy trying to rack up more points, starting at zero. Situation normal.

Mud and Spuds

2011-07-14T11:12:00.000+10:00

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Winter is well and truly with us. Today is the first day that the wind has stopped blowing over 60kmh for over a week. So I decided to give the strip of garden, that will be our potato patch, one more rotary hoe to embed the straw and chook poo mulch even more, ready for planting our seed potatoes. Sadly the garden is way too muddy to hoe at the moment.

The future spud garden

Our "Pink Eye" seed potatoes

Pink Eye potatoes are our favourites. They don't keep too well after being harvested, so we leave them in the groud until we need some and then dig up what we need.

We've been keeping the chook poo laden straw from the chook's shed as mulch. I don't think we will get a better natural, organic fertilizer. We dig (rotary hoe) it into the soil 3 times and then let it sit for a couple of months before we plant out crops. We're hoping for about 100kg of potatoes, this summer.

Our mulching straw.

As I said, it is muddy! Particularly the chook pen, which is a combination of mud, straw and chook poo. We have to walk very carefully because its like walking on ice. A couple of times, I haven't watched where I'm walking and have ended up on my bum in a swamp of chook pen heaven. Not a pretty sight and somewhat on the nose. Fumi tells me to get out of my chook poo covered clothes before I enter the house. Bloody cold, that!

Enter here at your own peril.

However, if you survive the walk, the reward is worth it.

I must admit that it's not all mud and chook poo. Our peas are coming along well. Nothing tastes better than freshly picked vegies.

Peas in flower

And just to finish on a high note, I noticed that one of our bottle brushes has just had its first flower. The bush is covered in buds, about to bloom. That will bring the birds around. I can't wait. C'mon Spring!

A Very Cold Week

2011-07-07T11:41:00.001+10:00

This week is very cold. Mt. Wellinton, overlooking Hobart, is covered in snow and the road to the summit is closed. The daytime temperature at Carlton River, where the farm is located, doesn't get above 9C. At night, it is below freezing and I have to break the ice on the chook's water bowls, in the morning, so they can drink.

Mt. Wellington (not my photo).

And the wind just doesn't stop. Every day blowing 30 - 40 Km/hour, directly from the mountain to the farm, rattling the windows and doors of the old farm house. Walking into the wind can sometimes take my breath away. It doesn't matter how warm I dress, it doesn't take long for the cold to seep into my bones, when I'm working outside.

The chooks spend most of their time under the house having dust baths, only venturing out during a bit of sun or a drop in the wind to eat and scratch around.

Under the house and having a dust bath.

"Can we come in? It's cold outside."

Even Nana & Gonzo prefer to do their sun baking inside.

I'm not complaining about the weather. In fact, I'm quite enjoying a real Winter after so many years of sweating every day in the humidity of the tropics. But, I must admit, the constant wind is a bit tiring and I seem to find a lot to do inside, only venturing out to do essential tasks.

Very inviting, don't you think?

Just a gentle breeze of about 30Km/hour.

Not Much Ado About Very Little

2011-07-04T13:05:00.000+10:00

Today is one of those boring Winter days, where there isn't much to do. So I grabbed a camera, during a brief sunny moment, wandered around and took few snaps, just to kill the boredom. And now I'm sharing my boredom with you. Don't they say "boredom shared is boredom halved"? If they don't, they should. I hope it works.

This is a study in affected disinterest between Gonzo and one of the chooks. I reckon it's all for my benefit. Usually, Gonzo sniffs the chook, which in turn, pecks him on the nose.

A couple of nights ago, Fumi produced her version of Nasi Goreng. An absolute masterpiece (my opinion), with fresh banana prawns, slow cooked pork belly leftovers and one of our organic, free range eggs. To hell with the diet!

As I said, just a cold (9C) Winter's day. This is a view across the creek at the back of the farm. A bit bleak, isn't it?

This is a view from the front of the farm, looking over an old, convict built, disused church. I wasn't aware that they had Colourbond roofing in those days, though. It's empty, except for rats, mice, spiders and the occasional snake.

Even chooks nag! This one is telling me to stop wasting time taking photos and get on the phone to order more fire wood!

Those little white dots are a flock of geese, across the river, about a kilometre away. They are my alarm clock! As soon as its light enough to see, they start making a hell of a racket, telling me that its time to feed the chooks and let them out of their sheds. Bloody geese!

These are some of my lawn mowers. They are very fuel efficient, low noise and carbon neutral. They also fertilize the lawn, as they mow and they produce spectacular eggs! Highly recommended. If everyone used these lawnmowers, we wouldn't have Gillard shoving a carbon tax down our throats.

Here, we have the sad saga of the rosemary bush. We like to grow our own fresh herbs, so we bought this little bush which is not growing very fast in Winter. So, we can't pick our fresh rosemary until Summer. Or so we thought! A month or so ago, while brush cutting the 1.5 metre grass out the back of the house, I found this little beauty.

It's a bit over a metre high, quite old and covered in lovely fresh rosemary. So much for checking the garden before wasting an enourmous amount of money ($3) on an immature plant.

Well, that was exciting, wasn't it? I think I'll go and collect some eggs and then settle down in my arm chair with Tom Clancy and a glass of shiraz.

Meet Gonzo The Wrecker

2011-07-01T11:07:00.000+10:00

As mentioned in previous posts, we have 2 dogs. A golden Labrador named Nana-chan (Japanese name, courtesy of Fumi) and Gonzo, a Blue Heeler (75%) Bull Terrier (25%) cross.

Meet Gonzo

He's a terrific little dog which we rescued from a dog's home when he was just a puppy. Now 18 months old, he is a great watch dog and very protective of our chooks. But he is very destructive! If something can be chewed up, it will be. We hope he'll grow out of it before he's 2, like Nana did.

His latest effort was his bed. He's managed to totally trash it, chewing one corner off and breaking one of the legs, while playing on it.

So, I decided to make a Gonzo proof bed out of some timber that I had laying around. I've made it as strong as possible. I reckon that even a horse could sleep on it without breaking it. But is it Gonzo proof? Only time will tell!

Gonzo checking out the new bed for structural flaws that he can exploit.

Gonzo & Nana testing it.

A Beautiful Winter's Day

2011-07-01T09:26:00.000+10:00

In light of the past, stressful, few days, it is really nice to be able to relax and enjoy our chooks.
I'm happy to say that the young chook that survived the mauling from the uncontrolled dogs, a couple of days ago, is doing well She is still a bit sore and sorry for herself but it looks like she will survive. That is great news!

Another of my original chooks that has experienced a difficult first moult and frostbite to her comb, has also perked up and is looking quite healthy. She was so far gone, about a week ago, that she was laying on her side in the chook pen, unable to stand. I picked her up and put her on a bed of fresh straw overnight, convinced that she would be dead by morning ( I lost another chook, the same way, about 10 days ago). Now she is eating, drinking, scratching and sun baking like all the other birds. This is good stuff!

Today was a lovely, warm day for Tasmania in Winter (15C). As I was sitting on the back verandah, one of my white chooks hopped up on to the verandah and settled down next to me. How good is that?

Then, my beautiful brown Plymouth Rock settled at my feet to sunbake. What a lovely day! Time for a glass of shiraz.

Mongrel Uncontrolled Dogs

2011-06-28T15:54:00.000+10:00

A pair of uncontrolled dogs, owned by a newly arrived interstate neighbour, got into the pen occupied by our our newly arrived pullets. They managed to kill two of our birds and badly injure another, before our blue heeler jumped the fence and bailed them up. I tried to catch the dogs but they jumped the fence and took off before I was able to visit a little justice on them with my hunting knife.

I subsequently called the police, who weren't interested and put me in touch with the local Council. Their animal management team were awesome! They were at my house within 15 minutes. Another 30 minutes later they had identified the owner, impounded the dogs to be put down and had an agreement from the dog owners to pay me compensation.

I'll accept the compensation, not to pay for the loss of my pullets, but to create a little more pain for the irresponsible owners. This doesn't ease our pain of losing our lovely birds, though.

Tomorrow, I will use my firearms licence to buy a rifle ( I only have an air rifle at the moment) to handle any other wayward dogs myself.

Not Only Gormless, Also Accident Prone.

2011-06-25T15:48:00.001+10:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you are an accident magnet? This morning, I twisted my back while stacking bags of organic chook food. Just one of those silly things that happen when you lift with your back instread of your legs. My caring, sympathetic wife said " At your age, you should know better".

A little later in the day, I was moving some fire wood and lifted a log that was quite heavy with my left arm, where I had damaged my shoulder some months ago, tearing the newly mended muscle.

Finally, as I was putting the new arrival pullets in their shed for the night, I tripped over a half buried steel wheel, which was hidden by high grass and hit the deck, face first. Fortunately, the high grass cushioned my fall, but my right knee made a rather loud "pop" as I went over. So I'll be using a walking stick for a few days.

Luckily, I have a caring wife who assisted by saying "Be careful!".

Tomorrow, I'm staying in bed....after doing my morning chores. Sometimes, life's a bitch and then.......

The Big New World

2011-06-24T10:41:00.003+10:00

Yesterday was the first time our new pullets were allowed out into the real world. Since they were born, they've been kept in safe, warm sheds for their own protection. At the hatchery, where we purchased them, they were raised in a specially designed, temperature controlled shed and then moved to another covered shed, when they grew their feathers. When we picked them up, last week, they went into our shed, where they were confined for a week. This was so we could check for unhealthy birds and to give the chooks a home that they would feel safe in.

The shed that our 40 chickens call home.

As the weather wasn't too cold, I left the shed door open for them to get out and scratch around. They were terrified!

It took about 15 minutes for the first chook to poke her head out of the door, and another few minutes before she was brave enough to venture out.

Her first peek at the world.

After she finally ventured out, a few others followed very tentatively. I had put a tray of shellgrit outside the shed and when the fiest chook found it, it started a mini exodus.

Eventually, about a dozen of them ventued out. They were so nervous, any movement or gust of wind resulted in a mad dash, back into the safety of the shed, followed by another cautious exodus. Absolutely hilarious to watch. However, these were the brave ones. The rest of the chooks stayed well to the back of the shed, frightened by the big bogeyman they knew must be lurking around outside, waitng to eat them.

Even so, the few brave ones that did venture out, never strayed more than 2 metres from the shed door.

Today, I did the same thing. About half of them came out, but still stayed within a couple of seconds mad dash for the shed. They have about 200 square metres of pen to explore. I feel this could be a long introduction to the world! Still, they have plenty of time. The pen and the shed will be their home, until they start laying, when they will be allowed to free range around the farm.

Celebration And A Loss

2011-06-22T17:14:00.000+10:00

Today is Fumi's and my 15th wedding anniversary. I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful wife, soulmate and best friend. We were planning to have a relaxing, work free day, with good food and wine.

Sadly, one of our original chooks died. We are very close to our flock of chooks and know each one's personalities, habits etc. The hen that died was always the weakling of the flock. We knew this and gave her special attention. She never recovered from her first moult and suffered frostbite on her comb which she also never recovered from. She will be sadly missed.

Our hen in her better days.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-06-20T10:27:00.003+10:00

As mentioned in previous posts, many of our friends in Cairns expressed doubts about my ability to handle Tasmania's cold Winters. I explained that I had lived in Japan for 7 years where the Autumn and Winter months are very cold and very beautiful.

So, with that in mind, I decided to post a few photos of Autumn and Winter in Japan. I hope you enjoy them.

Autumn In Kyoto

Some of the gardens at Ryoanji (Kyoto temple)

More Ryoanji (my favourite temple)

Fumi, enjoying Autumn.

Kinkakuji. The Golden Temple in Kyoto.

The famous stone Zen garden at Ryoanji. There are 15 large stones in the garden, but they are arranged in such a way that you can't see all of them at the same time from any point. Very clever!

Winter in Mie Prefecture.

I hope you enjoyed the pics, so now back to the milder Winter in Tasmania.

New Arrivals

2011-06-16T15:00:00.001+10:00

We have 40 new arrivals. Pure bred White Leghorn pullets. These chooks are still very young and probably won't start laying for another month or so. But they are worth waiting for. Leghorns are one of the best laying chooks in the world. They lay large, beautiful, white eggs with an almost orange yolk (when free ranged).

Getting to know their new home.

We picked them up this morning from a hatchery that specialises in breeding pure bred chooks about 10Km from our farm. They were crammed into 3 carry boxes (this is done so they can't thrash around and hurt themselves) a bit like a Japanese commuter train in peak hour. So, when they arrived, after a 10 minute drive, they were very freaky. They freaked out even more, when they were released in their new home. Apart from being a new shed, it is about twice as large as they were used to and the space was a bit uncomfortable for them.

They soon settled down when I filled their feeding trays. The trays were almost emptied in about 5 minutes. I was almost convinced that I had a shed full of pigs. Bearing in mind that they aren't going to lay for a month or two but will continue to eat expensive, organic food, I gave them a long lecture about the need to lay quickly. The words Chicken Soup and Karage (Japanese fried chicken) were frequently used. As I have mentioned in a previous post, chooks seem to be muti-lingual when threats are made.

However, after I cut some grass and put it in the shed, they understood that the threats were not imminent and relaxed.

While they are still so young, they look anaemic with pale pink, undeveloped combs and wattles. In a few months, the combs and wattles will be fully grown and bright red and they will look quite elegant.

One of my adult Leghorns. See the difference?

For the next week or so, the chooks will be confined to the shed. This is so they will understand that this is where their food and water is and won't roam too far when they start free ranging. After being allowed out of the shed, they will be kept in a 200 square metre pen, surrounding the shed, to get the hang of free ranging. This pen has really lush pasture with grass about 1 metre high in some parts. Chicken heaven!

Once they start laying, they will be allowed out onto the farm to free range to their hearts content.

We don't kill our chooks for food, so when the get too old to lay, they can still roam around the farm until they die naturally. There is absolutely no way Fumiko and I will kill any animal that has served us during their lifetime. I think it's a matter of respect for them.

Ice

2011-06-14T12:10:00.001+10:00

This morning was the coldest morning yet. I'm guessing minus 5C. The frost was really thick. When I let the chooks out of their shed, I had to break the ice covering their water buckets, so they could drink. I couldn't top up the buckets until after 10am becuse the water in the hose was frozen. All of the paddocks were white and it was very quiet. No bird song at all.

So, I've posted a few photos to give you some idea. I hope you like them.

The house, looking across one of the paddocks.

Our frozen dam

The ute covered in frost

Icy oregano

Sit on here for a numb bum, chum.

Even the fences were covered in ice.

The grass broke, when I walked on it.

Frosty bush

The view from our back veranda at 7am.

Having lived in the tropics for so many years, I had forgotten how beautiful Winter can be. I'm thoroughly enjoying this. Sometimes, it helps to be gormless.

Truly Gormless

2011-06-13T16:14:00.002+10:00

I often feel that a lot of the posts that I put on here are probably boring for you. So, if there's anything you want to know, please comment at the bottom of the post and I'll see what I can do.

Just another boring sunset due to the volcanic dust cloud from Peru.

Meet Some Of The Girls

2011-06-12T16:10:00.000+10:00

As you know, I'm a chook farmer. Since starting this venture, I've really started to enjoy the chooks. They all have different traits and personalities. Some of them are freaky and run away when they see me, while most of them are friendly and follow me around like pets. Now, most of them have finished moulting and look resplendent in their new clothes. However, some of them still look a bit well worn and ratty. So, I'd like to introduce you to some of the girls.

"I really have to make an appointment with the beautician"

"Sadly, I have no tail to tell"

"Love the dust bath...where's the champagne?"

"We're just back from the beauty parlour".

"I'm sorry, this seat is taken!"

"How do you like my new clothes?"

Ya just gotta love 'em!

The Day After

2011-06-10T20:04:00.000+10:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we had a very wild start to Winter. It caused a few problems on the farm. There was a bit of damage to the fences. Our driveway (500metres) was half washed away and the sunroom, off our bedroom, had the carpet soaked.

Before the rain.

The good part was that our dam, which only had a couple of metres of water in it, is now overflowing. It has about 4 metres of water. There is enough water in there to adequately provide for our house cow, when she arrives in Spring.

After the rain.

Today was such a contrast with the past 2 days. Sure, it was cold, but the wind had dropped, as had the rain and the last rays of sunshine over the hills were beautiful. I really love this lifestyle!!

Bloody Winter Has Arrived

2011-06-08T10:16:00.001+10:00

Winter has well and truly arrived overnight. There is snow on the mountains down to 500m, the wind is blowing a gale, the rain is pouring down and it is COLD!

We had planned on driving into Sorell (10km) to do our shopping, but we ditched that plan. Just walking to the car would have left us soaked and freezing. So we have decided to wuss out and spend the day indoors by the heater, fighting the dogs for prime position.

I let the chooks out, this morning, and they are all under the house or sheltering under bushes.. I don't blame them. The only good news is that the new chook shed has withstood the wind and rain. Even the mice are hibernating. Only one mouse in the world's best mousetrap, this morning.

Well, no more to write. Just some photos that I took this morning, to give you an idea.

Whoops! Latest news. While I was out collecting eggs, my wife heard, on the radio, that there are a lot of roads flooded in our area. Lucky we didn't go shopping. We probably wouldn't have been able to get home.

Chooks Under The House and The Welcome Mat

2011-06-07T13:49:00.000+10:00

At the moment,Carlton River is bloody cold. There is snow on Mt Wellington and the wind blows from there on to my farm. Obviously the chooks don't like this too much.

Most of them shelter under bushes and on the leeward side of fences, which is OK. However, about a dozen of them shelter under the house, which is about 1 metre off the ground. This is OK too...except when its time to round them up for the night and put them in the shed. Getting them out from under the house is a pain! They are warm and don't want to move.

After some trial and error, we worked out a successful system. My wife (Japanese) does a Japanese/Indian war dance (fierce but elegant) on the floor above the chooks (you have to see this to believe it). I think she's part Apache. Meanwhile, I rattle a length of poly pipe around under the house. Thank God we don't have any close neighbours! But, after a few minutes, it works. I think the chooks do it just for amusement. Theirs, not ours.

As I have previously mentioned, we have 100 more chooks arriving soon. Forty next week and about 60 a month later. So, we built a new shed and pen for them, as I explained in a previous post. Because the shed is partly very old, I'm not too confident that the door is strong enough to keep a determined Tas. Devil or Quoll out at night. It took me a few days and a few glasses of shiraz to work out a way to make the door secure. I call it my welcome mat.

It's a panel with a heap of nails protruding from it. Sort of like an Indian Fakir's mat. I'll fix this to the side of a steel cage, next to the door (the cage is an existing structure and has no other purpose other than being a fixture for the mat). The mat will be hinged, so that it can be swung up, out of the way, during the day.

At night, after locking the chooks away, I'll lower the Welcome Mat in front of the door. The theory is that the Devils and Quolls can practice dancing, after stepping on it, which should make them forget about a meal of KFC. Only time will tell, if it works or not.

The Creek and Picnic Area

2011-06-05T11:32:00.001+10:00

In my last post, I said that We had only explored about 90% of the property. This probably sounds a bit strange, considering we only live on 10 acres. However, part of the place is very steep and rocky.Veritable mountain goat country.

Along one fenceline, at the bottom of the steep area, is a permanent creek that runs into the Carlton River. We had previously had a quick look at part of the creek, but had never had a good look. So we decided to check it out.

The creek is a shallow, fast flowing waterway with some pools, covered over by Acacia trees and thorn bushes. The water is crystal clear and looks like an ideal trout habitat. Something I intend to find out when the trout fishing season opens in August. This area is quite famous for brown trout so I think there's a fair chance that our creek could be productive.

While we were exploring, we found an old table and benches that had been permanently dug into the ground. They are in need of some repair, but will be very servicable in the warmer weather. Fumi also discovered a BBQ area, near the picnic table. Both the table and the BBQ have been there for many years.

So, a project for a warmer day will be to brush cut a path down to the creek and cut back all the metre plus high grass surrounding the table and BBQ, because it looks like a perfect haven for snakes. There are only 3 kinds of snake in Tas; all poisonous. The tiger snake, the copperhead and the whip snake. And the bloody things are all protected! How crazy is that? The only good snake is a dead one!

Tiger Copperhead Whip

However, we are looking forward to some relaxing days down there in Spring and Summer.

Divining, Dam & Goldfinches

2011-06-02T14:29:00.001+10:00

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we are planning to get a Jersey house cow this Spring. The biggest problem is water. All of our water comes from our rain water tanks and we certainly don't have enough for a cow and her calf.

With this in mind, I thought of putting in a dam. One of our paddocks has a nice slope and would be ideal for a dam. So I made a couple of water divining wires out of an old coat hanger and went wandering around the paddock, looking for an underground spring.

Before you start laughing, water divining really works. It works better for some people than others. My Grandfather made a living out of water divining and showed me how to do it, when I was a kid.

I've included a photo of the wires crossing over a glass of water, so you can see how it works. The photo is NOT a fake.

After wandering around for a few minutes, I located a narrow undeground spring. I followed it for a while and it led to a small grove of trees in a part of the paddock that I hadn't been to before (I've still only explored about 90% of the property). I had never taken much notice of the trees before as they are fairly scrubby and in part of the paddock that isn't well pastured.

As I got close to the trees, I noticed that the shadow from the trees looked strange. It turned out to be an existing but long neglected dam. If I had any dancing skill, I would have danced a jig. How lucky was that (That I found the dam, not that I can't dance)? All I have to do is clean the reeds and weeds out of it and wait for the winter rain and the seeping spring, that I found, to fill it. Even now, it has a bit over 2 metres of water in it.

And just to make my day, as I was about to return to the house, a flock of beautiful Goldfinches landed on the fence, obviously waiting to drink from the dam.

Just to round things off, as I reached the house, I could smell Fumi's home made sourdough bread baking.

What a ripper of a day! Time for a glass of shiraz.

The Onset of Winter

2011-05-31T11:27:00.001+10:00

Tomorrow is the official start of Winter but the weather has already changed. Fortunately, the wind has stopped, the sky is clear and, so far, the days are sunny. The paddocks are looking green and the Carlton River is like glass. That's the good bit.

Green but cold.

The old, disused, convict built church, overlooking the Carlton River on the lower part of the farm.

I suppose I should say "now for the bad bit". But I won't because its not bad, just different. The mornings are now COLD. On our hilltop, we suddenly have frost. Serious frost! The grass doesn't bend underfoot...it breaks! Fortunately, it quickly melts in the sun.

FROST!!

Melting quickly.

At daybreak, anything made of metal is covered in a thin coating of ice. The car, the chook pen gate, the chook shed roof and our door handles. Thank God for gloves!

Every thing seems to move slower in the morning, the chooks, the ducks, the dogs, our resident family of magpies, me and especially, Fumi.

Even the magpies are slow to get to the food tray.

A welcome sight when returning from the paddocks.

From about 9am until 4pm the weather is a warm and sunny 16C. When we lived in Cairns, we would have considered that to be freezing. But its all relative. Now I think nothing of working in a Tshirt and a pair of jeans in this weather. I only put a sweater on in the late afternoon.

All in all, its much more comfortable than windy Autumn. How long this will last, I have no idea.

The chooks enjoying the Winter sun.

One of the more noticable things is the silence. Fewer cars on the road, less bird song. It's as though someone has hit the mute button on the world. Weird but nice. Now I'm off to cover the veggie patch with straw, to protect it from the frost.

A Very Short Whinge

2011-05-27T17:26:00.002+10:00

I guess, at one time or another, we all have complaints about the Telco we use. In my case its Telstra.
Almost every month I have to phone them about stuff ups they've made with my bill.

This involves a few minutes of talking to a computer, only to be connected to someone with an Indian or Philippino accent, which is often difficult to understand ( I wish they would use a Japanese accent, because I have no problem with that, because Fumi is Japanese).

So, after explaining my problem with the Indian or Philippino call centre operative, listening to about 30-40 minutes of mind numbing music, which is obviously programmed to make me hang up, I get to talk to a "Supervisor", who is usually a native English speaker. This person then solves the problem in about 5 minutes....but forgets to tell Telstra about it. So, it all comes back in my next bill, pre-empting another phone call.

This has become such a regular part of my life that I've developed a system for coping with it. I move the phone next to my armchair, pour a large glass of good shiraz, settle back and make the call, knowing that the next hour of my life is going to be mind numbing.

However, this can come back to bite you. Recently, we lost signal on our wireless ADSL. So, ensconced in my arm chair, fortified with a large glass of shiraz, I prepared to do battle for the next hour. I went through the talking to the computer bit, with smoke starting to emanate from my ears and was connected to a call centre in the Philippines. The very helpful lady there asked me to reboot my modem. With the smoke from my ears starting to bellow and with clenched teeth, I agreed.

It worked! Making me feel sheepish and not a little stupid.

The moral of the story is...try the easy solutions before you get wound up. Nah.....95% of the time, I'm going to have to waste an hour of my day.

The Worlds Best Mousetrap

2011-05-23T15:59:00.001+10:00

Below, I've included a photo of, what I consider to be, the world's best mousetrap. Sadly, its not an original invention. I found a description of it on a chook keepers forum and thought it was worth a try.

This is how it works. You take a wine bottle (empty, of course) and cover it with an old, or new, sock, except for the neck. This is to allow the mice to walk on it easily.

Into the bottle's neck you stuff a piece of bread, liberally coated with peanut butter. You then secure the bottle with a weight (a bag of chook food, maybe) so it doesn't roll around. This is all done on a bench or table.

Under the bench or table, you place a bucket, partly filled with water, directly under the neck of the bottle.

The plan is that the mice, driven crazy by the smell of the peanut butter (they're not brand concious, so any peanut butter will do), will run down the bottle to get at it. When they get to the neck of the bottle, they'll lose their grip on it and fall into the water and drown. IT WORKS!!

Disposing of the drowned mice (up to 35 at a time) is easy. I just empty the bucket into the chook pen and they girls clean them up in minutes. Not a pretty sight, so don't watch, if you have a weak stomach.

While I was writing this, just on dusk, the rain started to pour down. So, Fumi and I made a mad dash to get the chooks into their shed before they got too cold and wet.

Forty one of the chooks had the common sense to go into the shed before we got there. This left 2 stupid birds that had to be rounded up and herded into the shed. This took about 5 minutes. Just long enough for us to get soaked. Our two ducks, who aren't bothered by rain, just stood there laughing at us. Sometimes, I hate chooks and ducks!

The New Chookshed part 2 & Autumn

2011-05-23T15:34:00.000+10:00

Well, the new chookshed is finished, along with the nesting boxes that will accomodate 100 new chooks. The first 40 are due in 2 weeks and the final 60 are due 5 weeks after that. Apparently. I only need 1 nesting box per 5-6 chooks, so Fumi and I spent 3 days making the boxes last Fri., Sat. and Sunday. So, all we need to do now is get the chooks and teach them to lay. Our experience is that, if we walk around the chooks saying " Chicken Soup and Karage (Japanese deep fried chicken)", the chooks will get the message. Chooks are quite clever sometimes. They appear to understand Japanese when their futures are at stake.

The finished nesting boxes

I'm really enjoying Autumn, apart from the cold wind. A heap of plants, growing wild around the house, are starting to flower. They, and the view of the Carlton River on a cold morning are really uplifting.

Its really important to be uplifted, first thing on a cold Autumn morning, after you have just finished letting the chooks out of their shed, having fed and watered them, emptied the mousetrap (?) in the feed shed and are having trouble feeling fingers, toes and other extremeties.

Just so you can feel uplifted too, I've included photos of some of the blooms around the farmhouse.

Feeling uplifted? No. Oh well, tough luck. At least I tried.

The New Chook Shed and Beasties

2011-05-17T16:12:00.000+10:00

We have 40 new arrivals, coming soon, in the form of White Leghorn pullets. These pure bred chooks are great egg layers and don't come cheap, so they have to be protected, especially at night. Night time is when Tasmanian Devils and Quolls think that our farm is KFC. Sadly, these beasties and the daylght predator, our iconic Wedge Tailed Eagle are all protected, which means I can't shoot the bastards.

Tasmanian Devil

Quoll

Wedge Tail Eagle

However, I have found a way of disuading them at night. When I hear Gonzo, my Blue Heeler, barking, I race outside, in the freezing cold, in my underpants, waving a torch, throwing rocks and yelling ( I'm yelling because its bloody cold and the longer I'm out there, the higher pitched my voice becomes). It works really well. I'm not sure if its the sight of me in my undies or the rocks and yelling that get them running. But it doesn't matter. It works.

During the day, Gonzo chases the eagles. I refuse to run around the farm in my undies in daylight.

So, to the new chookshed. As a gormless farmer, I try to use whatever materials are at hand before buying new stuff. In this case we had a rundown old shed which was open on 2 sides. So, being the spendthrift that I am, and not being able to find any suitable stuff laying around, I bought a couple of sheets of galvanised roofing iron and enclosed one side. The othe side is enclosed in strong wire netting, with a door. That should keep the beasties out at night.

Then came the job of erecting a fence for the chook pen. This involved stringing some wire netting, enclosing about 200 square metres of pasture, around the shed for the chooks to run in, before being safely locked up for the night.

Digging in the fence posts

The routine is letting the chooks out of the shed, at day break, and leaving the chook pen gate open so they can free range during the day, feeding them their organic suppliments and giving them fresh water.

At 3pm, Fumi and I herd the chooks back into the pen then, just on dusk, we herd them into the shed and lock it up. Exciting life, hey? Maybe not, but its very relaxing. During the day, we collect eggs, replentish the chook's water and mess around in our vegie garden. It beats the hell out of a boring 9-5 job!

The Hat Maketh The Man

2011-05-14T15:16:00.003+10:00

As we visit various markets around Hobart, we are catagorised as locals, tourists or farmers by the clothes we wear. The attitudes of the various stallholders varies according to their perception of you.

For example, if they think you are a tourist, you get the quick pitch, looking for a one time sale. If they think you are a local resident, you get the unctuous "look at my wonderful produce, coz I want you back regularly" approach.

However, if they think you are a farmer, you get a suspicious, fake smile approach because you may be a potential competitor in the market. I love this paranoia, so I always wear my Akubra.

For those of you who aren't aware, Akubra is the ultimate brand of traditional Aussie hat. The Prada of rabbit fur felt as it were. Unless you are a Volvo driver, the wearer of an Akubra is probably a man or woman of the land. These wonderful hats last a lifetime. They keep the sun out of your eyes and off the back of your neck. They keep the rain from running down the back of your collar and they are bloody comfortable. So I recommend that you spend the $120-$180 and buy one. Then you can make the stallholders at a Farmers Market nervous too.

Twice Blessed

2011-05-10T16:10:00.001+10:00

Absolutely one of the best things about living in Tasmania is the food. The constant, resonably priced supply of fresh fruit and veg, fresh fish and meat products is unbelievable.

In Cairns, I ate fruit and veg. that were grown in Cairns, shipped south and then reshipped back to Cairns and sold, in some cases, as "fresh local produce". Apples that had been in cold storage for months, tomatoes that were sold as "local vine ripened" but were obviously gas ripened. By the way, I don't understand the term "vine ripened tomatoes". I've never seen a tomato vine. I always thought they grew on a bush. I know the ones I grew were.

Here, in Tasmania, we buy fruit and veg. direct from the farmer at one of the many farmer's markets. I only eat freshly caught trout, salmon, flathead, tuna, oysters etc. The white meat that I eat is locally and organically grown. Sadly the beef I eat isn't locally produced. It comes all the way from King Island, as does the cheese. Most importantly, it's all resonably priced. Tough life! The eggs are the best, produced organically from our own free range chooks.

By the way, be aware of so called "free range eggs". There are a few large egg producers who label their eggs free range and take advantage of the legal definition of free range, where a large number of chooks can forage in a barren, postage sized piece of dirt for a few hours a day and be legally be labelled free range. There are other egg producers who really free range their chooks but, sadly, their range is lacking in essential protein and vitamins. Our chooks free range over 10 acres of native grass pasture and also receive a suppliment of organic laying crumble, which makes sure that they are healthy.

Only one thing can make great food better and that's a great cook! I am truly lucky that my child bride (yes, she does have a name, Fumiko) is an amazing cook.

She only uses fresh ingredients and produces wonderful dishes, day after day. Below, are few pics of the dishes that she cooks. No wonder I'm so slim!

Fumi's special King Island Boeuf Bourguignon

Toasted Haloumi with Chorizo

Fumi's Home Made Pasta with Free Range Chicken, Gorgonzola, Cream & Rocket

Fumi's Pizza Supreme on her Home Made Crust

Fresh Steamed Rainbow Trout with Asparagus, Spring Onions in Kechup Manis, Ginger, Garlic, Soy & Vinegar Sauce

Early Winter and My Best Friend

2011-05-05T16:54:00.000+10:00

I was warned about the cold weather in Tasmania by all my friends in Cairns, before I left. My smartarse answer was "I spent 7 years in Japan and nothing is colder than those winters". I think that is true but what I didn't take into account was that it has been 8 years since I lived there, so I've spent all that time living in Tropical North Queensland and I'm 8 years older. Eight years might not sound like much but the difference between being 56 years old and almost 64 is huge.

When I was 56, I had a loving wife and a few really good friends. Now, I still have a loving wife but my best friend is my wood heater. That wonderful old contraption keeps most of the house as warm as toast. I keep it burning 24/7. The only problem is that, when I've been working outside and come inside to thaw out, I can't get close to the heater because of the child bride and the dogs camped around it. It seems that the only time I'm allowed near it is when I have to feed it more wood. Sadly, its a slow combustion heater and doesn't have to be fed so often.

Being situated on the top of a hill, the farm has always been a bit windy. At one point I thought of calling the farm "Windy Hill Farm". Then, as autumn set in, I thought about changing it to " Gale Force Farm". Now, with winter rapidly approaching, I've decided that " Bloody Freezing Cyclonic Wind Farm" is more appropriate. I wouldn't swap life here for anything, really! Except for a farm, raising camels, in central Australia, maybe.

Developing an Egg Sales Empire

2011-04-27T19:18:00.001+10:00

As I have said in previous posts we aim to sell eggs to suppliment my meagre pension. The egg empire we aim to build will have the amazing result of paying for our dog's food and maybe some organic laying suppliments for the chooks.

To this end, I put a hand written sign on the verge of the road advertising eggs for sale. In addittion I put another hand written sign on the gate, so customers new where to find the farmhouse.

Now, my child bride, Fumiko, is a graphic designer and felt quite embarrassed with my roadside sign and decide to do do something a little more professional with the few materials we had at hand. These materials consisted of a few drops of blue and brown paint that we found in one of the sheds and a child's paint brush set she bought for a few dollars at Woolies. So she set to it with a will, stinking the house out with paint fumes overnight. She did a great job. However, one of our resident magpies decided to demonstrate his disapproval on the window, while she was painting.

All in all, the sign was a great success and we are just waiting for passing motorists to be mesmerised by it.

Chook Poo and The Beast

2011-04-27T16:42:00.000+10:00

Life is interesting on the farm, unlike my previous mundane occupation which involved doing the same tasks on the same day every week. Farm work has some repetitive tasks, such as letting the dogs out for a run and ablutions, before daybreak, feeding them and giving them their morning cuddles.

Then there is letting the chooks out of their Tasmanian Devil and Quoll proof shed, feeding and watering them and then letting them out of their yard to free range. In the late afternoon, its the same in reverse.

But generally, farm work is recognising problems and rectifying them, as well as building more infrastructure, so we can keep more chooks and a cow.

However, accidents do happen. About 6 weeks ago, I was attempting to enter the original chook shed, which is an old water tank with a hole cut into it as a door. I'm a big guy, the hole in the tank is quite small. As I stepped into the tank, I caught the toe of my boot on the bottom of the opening and went face first into a stinking mass of straw and chook poo! This is not an elegant thing to do. Trust me on this! Apart from being covered in fresh chook poo, I collected the chook's perches with my left shoulder, which has been working at about 10% capacity, ever since. So, off to the doctor, if it hasn't improved by next week.

About 2 days after the accident, we bought a second hand rotary hoe that we call "The Beast". The idea was to prepare a garden bed for our winter vegie planting. Now, I don't know if you have ever used a hand operated rotary hoe, but I can pretty much guarantee Arnold Schwartzeneger used one to help build up his arms. The bloody thing has a mind of its own. If you are a guy, imagine making love to your lover and calling her by another woman's name....and hang on! The Beast is about 100 times more violent. After 45 minutes using that mongrel of a thing, I felt like I had done 10 rounds with Jeff Fenech!

The upside is that we have a vegie garden full of peas, onions, beetroot, Italian parsley, coriander and leeks, waging war with the snails and slugs. Hence the ducks.

Chooks

2011-04-23T15:17:00.001+10:00

Fortunately, the farm has a ready made chook pen. It consists of an old water tank, converted into a roost with 3 nesting boxes and 3 perches. The yard is well fenced with iron sheeting dug into the ground to keep Tasmanian Devils and Quolls out. Both of those buggers love to raid chook pens at night. Fortunately, we haven't had any casualties yet. Both of those beasties are protected, so I can't kill them, however, a well placed pellet from a high powered air rifle, up the bum, should persuade them to dine elsewhere. We have since added a shed with 10 nesting boxes and perches for 40 chooks.

So, our first 11 chooks arrived on March 10th. We bought an Aussie breed called Australorps. Supposed to lay 200 eggs per year per bird. Sadly, someone forgot to tell our chooks that. It was 4 weeks before we got an egg. This was because our chooks were halfway through their first moult and looked like refugees from a Chinese restaurant. I bought high energy, organic, laying pellets to help them along. It didn't seem to work very well, so I started saying "chicken soup, chicken soup" to them every day. I think that did the trick.

After the first egg arrived, which was a cause for celebration (any cause will do!), it became a habit, with a hand full of eggs arriving every day. Trust me (could these baby blue eyes lie?), there is nothing tastier than poached, freshly laid, organic, free range eggs on toast for breakfast. If you ever try it, you'll never buy the crap from supermarkets again.

I did mention that we received 11 chooks. However, one of them escaped while we were unloading them and spent the next 10 days hiding under the house, defying all attempts by Fumi, the dogs and I to catch it. It died about 2 weeks later of starvation. The lesson to be learnt by all chooks is "don't look a gormless farmer in the mouth lest you starve to death".

A bit of advice for all budding chook keepers is that chooks don't lay every day. The buggers only lay 3-4 times a week. They don't lay while they are moulting and they slow right down in winter. So, the daily tally of eggs is about 60% of the total number of chooks you keep. But they still eat the same amount of expensive feed. No amount of "chicken soup" threats will change that.

We subsequently purchased another 33 chooks which were also half naked, so now we get about 14 eggs a day, which should increase to about 30 eggs a day when they decide to get dressed. Another 150 chooks are planned as soon as I build another chook pen, which will be when the bloody wind stops blowing a gale.

In the mean time, I decided to get even with the chooks.

Last weeked we went to a poultry show in Hobart and bought 2 Indian Runner ducks. They are to keep the snails and slugs under control in our vegie garden. But I can't put them into the garden patch until the seedlings are more advanced. So, I chucked the ducks into the chook pen. The chooks absolutely shit themseves for about 2 days, until they became accustomed to the ducks. If anyone ever tells you that revenge isn't sweet, they're talking out of their nether regions.

By the way, my considered opinion is that chooks are the stupidest creatures on earth, which makes them an interesting challenge.

The Farm

2011-04-19T16:28:00.001+10:00

We arrived at the farm about lunch time on Sunday, 7/3/2011. Now, bear in mind, at this stage we hadn't actually seen the property. Only a bunch of photos the agent had send us.
It was a bit different than we expected. The house is a big, rambling affair with rooms tacked on willy nilly. The floors creak, some of the windows are cracked ( the ensuite window has a bullet hole in it), some rooms don't have lights and the carpets, with the exception of the bedrooms, are rags. The floors slope all over the place and there were no mirrors in the bathrooms. They are the downsides.
However, there are a lot of upsides. First of all, the house has tremendous character. It is very comfortable. The rooms are huge and airy (I'm not sure how much of an upside that will be in winter) and the views from the bedrooms, kitchen and dining room are magnificent. The farm is situated on top of a bloody windy hill, overlooking the wide expanse of the Carlton River. Can you imagine early morning with the river, full of swans, the reflection of the far shore on the water and the rolling treed hills on the far side? Bloody gorgeous!
The biggest bonus is the silence at night. No hoons doing burnouts, drunks screaming and fighting in the street or neighbours arguing. We wake up to the songs of magpies and our labrador snoring. Lovely! Our nearest neighbour is my Doctor and a top bloke. How good is that?
The farm is on 10 acres. Only 8 are useable as 2 acres are a heritage listed cemetary. Not far for the dogs to dig up bones. THAT WAS A JOKE! So, no bullshit comments please.
We have decided to keep chooks for organic, free range eggs and a house cow for fresh milk and butter. Also, in the future, we will install a wood fired oven to bake ciabatta, sourdough bread and pizza bases to sell at market, with the eggs, to suppliment my meagre pension.
We started with 10 chooks, but thats another post.

A Short Drive From Cairns To Hobart

2011-04-18T10:53:00.001+10:00

We left Cairns on Feb. 1st, 2011. Just me, the child bride (Fumiko), our two dogs and a 6×4 trailer with a cage loaded with about a tonne of gear, hooked up to our 1998 Hilux dualcab, for a short drive to Hobart in Tassie.

Our plan was to travel leisurely down the coast road and arrive in Melbourne on the 6th, in time to board the Spirit of Tasmania on a night cruise to Devonport. So we set off about 6am, stopping every 2 hours to change drivers and let the dogs have a sniff around and a pee, and drove down the coast until we reached Cardwell, near Dunk Island.
Arriving in Cardwell we found literally hundreds of trucks, cars and vans, stretching for kilometres, parked on the side of the road.Being of reasonably sound mind and having lived in Tropical North Qld for many years, we reasoned that the highway was flooded. I asked a group of truckies how long before the road was opened and they said possibly 2pm but they weren't sure which day or month. Over a cup of really filthy coffee, Fumi and I decided to backtrack to Innisfail and try the inland route.
It turned out to be a really good idea until we reached Ravenshoe on the Atherton tablelands. And then it began to rain. And rain. And rain. Until it was absolutely pissing down, as only a Monsoon storm can. The rain was so heavy, we couldn't see the road 50 metres in front. And it didn't let up until late afternoon. Just to make life more interesting, the road was only one lane which meant we had to head into the muddy verge when approached by road trains…and there were a lot of those big buggers! Lots of fun trying to maintain control of a ute, towing a tonne of trailer in those conditions.
We drove until dark when we came across a small place called Greenvale. Fortunately, there was a caravan park that allowed pets. We hired a van for the night. Interesting van. A relic from the 50s, with the softest, saggy bed I have ever tried. The amenity block was about 100 metres away, which meant a trek through the mud and rain to use the toilet and shower. So, by the time we got back to the van after showering, we were muddy up to the knees. This couldn't be helped because there was no lighting between the van and the showers, so we were walking blind. It didn't really matter because we so tired that we just crashed. The downside was that we were no further south than when we were at Cardwell. A totally wasted, exhausting day, which put us under pressure to reach Melbourne in time to catch the ferry to Tas. over 3000km away.
The next few days were a blur, driving 800-900km a day. However we do remember one overnight stay in particular. As we crossed the border into NSW we stayed in a town called Walget (renamed Bugville). We arrived about 6.30pm, only to find everything, except the pub, closed. So we couldn't buy food or fuel or find anywhere to sleep. The streets were literally filled with our indigenous friends who, we later discovered had come from all over to celebrate a funeral. And celebrate they did! Eventually, we managed to locate the owner of one of the town's two motels and persuaded them to open up for us. Lovely people who went out of their way to help us. The motel was like a fortress, with 3 metre high locking gates. The room was comfortable…except for the cricket plague. Bloody millions or crickets everywhere! It was impossible to keep them out of the room. Bloody things were crawling over us all night.
All in all, the trip was great. The weather and the roads improved. Fumi got to see kangaroos, emus, echidnas etc in the wild and the scenery was fantastic. Our thanks to the caravan park and motel owners at Greenvale, Bugville, Emerald, and Tocumwal for their help and kind service. Very much appreciated.
We arrived in Melbourne on the 6th of Feb. with 4 hours to spare, before boarding the Spirit of Tasmania for our overnight crossing. We recommend the trip from Melbourne to Devonport to everyone.
As you can imagine, we were absolutely knackered after driving over 3000Kms in 5 days. The Spirit of Tasmania is incredibly well organised. Remember, there were 2 adults, 2 dogs, a ute and a trailer in our entourage. All were loaded on board with no fuss. The dogs had kennels assigned to them and we had a cabin to ourselves, with a porthole, which is very useful when sailing at night (I think the kennels were bigger than our cabin). We dined? at the smorgasbord restaurant because the Captains Table menu had nothing for vegetarians (eg Fumi). Average tucker, but we didn't care. It was delicious after the previous 5 days. At least we arrived at Devonport refreshed, with only a leisurely 280Km drive ahead of us, until we arrived at the farm.
The farm is another story.

About Me

2011-04-18T10:06:00.001+10:00

Hi,

I'm Bruce McAlister and this blog is an ongoing chronicle of my valiant efforts to create a subsistance farming lifestyle, away from the reality of what is generally perceived to be a "normal" life.

No, I'm not a "feral" or a "hippy" (although I grew up in an era when that was popular). I don't do drugs, have dreadlocks, wear Indian peasant clothing or spend my time sitting crosslegged, humming a mantra and contemplating my navel growing closer to my nose.

I'm just a portly, sixtyish, somewhat distinguished looking (my opinion only) gent who decided to opt out of the 80 hours per week work schedule for a more relaxed lifestyle, dragging my lovely, long suffering wife along for the ride.

The reality is that I had a heart attack some years ago and my health deteriorated from that point to where I am unable to work and require a carer (my wife) to help me with a lot of day to day activities, memory loss being one of the most annoying. Hence the blog.

I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.