Concreting the Hothouse Entrance

 

 
 
Despite having the bags of concrete mix for many months we hadn't got round to laying a small slab for the entrance to the Hothouse. This will allow for a wheelbarrow to be parked if we need to bring one in. Michelle has concreting in her background so she is assigned the finishing. The tricky part is to put in a gradual slope from one end and to one side so that the water runs off.

 

My job was to mix up the concrete in the barrow and place it wherever Michelle wanted it. Seven bags later the space was filled. There will be a small sloping part needed to complete the job to connect with the angled slab outside the door.

 

The original plan was to lay a weed mat on the rest of the path and top with gravel. Then Michelle had the cunning plan of running the guinea pigs on the paths between the raised beds. This would be a safe place for them as well as a warmer one. The deep frosts of the past few days have not been kind to the latest guinea pig babies with one succumbing to the cold. A hothouse may be just what they need.

Not for the faint-hearted or chicken!

Breeding chickens inevitably leads to excess roosters. While I was lucky enough to have only four males from eighteen chicks they joined the ranks of other five roosters I already had. So it was time to take the chook by the feet and learn how to process excess cockerels into frozen chook.

 

After twenty seven years of vegetarianism I realised that producing my own food required me to eat some of the many animals that have been living a happy life on Opportunity Farm. While reducing the food miles significantly it led to the necessity of butchering. So far I had only managed to despatch one bantam rooster. I was not confident I could repeat the process unsupervised so I called up a friend who was happy to help me in exchange for a chook to take home.

 

We calmed the birds by hanging them upside down until they settled, thanked them for what they were to become and then opted for the neck wringing option. This had worked easily on a bantam but it seemed a different prospect on a large young Light Sussex. Without going into the gory details we either needed to adopt the cone method or use a broom handle under our feet to be able to complete the hardest part in the most humane way.

 

 

That done we hung them in the shed to drip and started to pluck. We had a water boiler going but while we waited for it to reach about 70 degrees Celsius (160 F) we pulled away at the feathers. I was a bit enthusiastic and ripped the skin in a couple of places. When we did dip the birds in the water it certainly made removing the feathers very much easier, especially the large wing feathers.

 

With the feathers removed the next step was to remove the head. We found our knives not sharp enough so I resorted to the chopping block and a tomahawk. It was not so confronting to do this when the bird was featherless and the blood already drained. We then cut around the anus and pulled out the insides. I am sure that an expert can make this look easy but suffice to say the job was completed.

 

The feet were then removed with the knife. Both birds weighed in at 1.7kg. They were then bagged up. Michelle suggested that it seems an appropriate contribution to go in the haybox next weekend when we attend a bonfire party.

The new Brassica House

During the disastrous goat escape they ripped the bird netting and trashed all the brassicas and bok choi in the caged garden. So a redesign and a rebuild was required. It made sense to make this garden bigger and to protect the plants from animals by a half metre of corrugated iron around the base. This will also do some frost and wind protection. The cage is now high enough to walk around in and the structure is much more solid and as level and square as a garden which slopes two ways can be. The old screen door from the house that was a pain every time you went in or out now has a more useful home.
I searched online for some netting that would keep the birds and cabbage moths out while letting enough light in and was available in Australia. I finally found Grow Cover which is imported from Italy by a WA company Jenny's Garden. $90 for enough to cover this garden seemed a decent price.

It has arrived and so my next job is to brace up the spaces and secure the netting. Then I will need to cover all the extra spaces particularly where the cage meets a weatherboard shed. Hopefully it will prove a much better place for all the beans, peas, broccoli, caulis and lettuce.

Liming and Manuring the Gardens

With the hothouse nearing completion it is time to cover the soil with manure from the goat shed and plenty of lime. After the goats escaped and ate what winter greens were growing there was an opportunity to set the space up properly for the summer plants and seedlings. All it needs now is mulch, a plastic cover and some seeds!

 

 

The root crop bed is also getting a makeover prior to planting onions, carrots, parsnip and beets.

This year we are planting potatoes in the space between the chook pens and around the raspberry patch. Trenches were dug to a spade's depth and then well-rotted sheep manure and lime was strewn in the bottom. This will be left to seep in for a while before the potatoes are planted next month.

The old raspberry canes have been cut back and this year's have been tied together in clumps and plenty of manure and lime added.

Planting the Onion Sets

July is time for onion planting. I have never had much success growing them from seed so I buy seedlings in punnets from a nursery. The lady there reckoned there was up to 140 seedlings in each punnet so the outlay of $5 for two seems pretty fair. So one of red onions and one brown.

The garden has been prepared so that we can plant the onions in a mound so the ground drains well. Onions are not so keen on lots of nitrogen but love the effect of lime in the soil. The space between the rows helps for pathways and for ease of hoeing. Each plant is dropped into a hole poked into the mound so that all the white lower part of the plant is buried and only the green leafy part is above the surface. With more lime scattered and the plants well watered in, the onions are ready to grow.

Indoor Winter Activities

 

It's raining again and not worth heading outside. Time to try something new - soap making. The first step was to make some 'lye'. This is potassium hydroxide and it can be made from wood ash. The ash is placed in a bucket with a small nail hole about an inch from the base and blocked with the nail. The base of the bucket is covered with gravel or something similar that acts as a filter. Some recommend straw but we used part of an old fly screen. Then hot water is poured onto the ash and it is left to seep through. This liquid is poured back through a second time. To gain a suitable strength for soap making the liquid need to be boiled until it reaches a density at which a fresh egg will float about 80% under water.

The photo below shows the lye water on the stove with the egg and the glove ready. Being so caustic you don't want to touch the stuff. Once it reached the suitable concentration we added mutton fat at a ratio of 1kg to 4l of lye. By adding a tsp of salt for each kg it was meant to make the soap harden.

 

 

The bucket of ash gently dripping into the lye bucket.

 

The experiment worked to some degree but some of the soap mixture separated into harder fat and lye water. We will try again sometime with whiter ash, more care over using hot water and draining the lye and more time to mix the fat and salt together.

 

 

Michelle is proud of these socks. The wool for these was shorn from our own sheep on Australia Day.  She has then carded the fleece and spun it, plied it and made into a ball and then knitted a pair of socks. I can vouch for the fact that they are the warmest and most comfortable pair I have ever worn and as homemade as you can get.

 

Outside Winter Activities

 

Winter is the time for doing those shit jobs. All the animal sheds need the manure layer to be dug out and collected into bags or barrows. This are to be used in the gardens so that there are lots of nutrients ready for the Spring plantings. You can never have enough shit.

 

 

 

Another job is to weed around plants to give them more light and remove competitive weeds. The cleared space can be filled with manure for greater vigour. This is one of the dwarf apples planted a season ago but damaged by an escaped goat. While horses and sheep might be put off by a homemade tree guard, Curly our buck enjoys the challenge and the tasty leaves. Another lesson learnt - make all valuable trees goat proof