Dairy goes up

Progress report from the dairy. Things have started to move up a gear with the dairy building. All the doors and window frames have gone in, the electrics and some of the plumbing has been installed, and now the weatherboard is going back up. We have painted it and although it looks a bit messy (it had been sitting around for a while and got dirty), it will be cleaned off and given a second coat of paint. We kept the original small dairy doors at the back. Although they serve no purpose and can't be opened we thought they were a really sweet, original feature and that it's good to keep some history and show that the building was once a working dairy.



South side; back



The shower base has gone in and we got our 'Nature Loo' composting toilet in the mail a while ago and that too will go in as soon as we build some stairs and a platform for it.



Getting the cladding on has made the most dramatic difference to the space and we can really get a good feel of what the interior will look like. It is a very small space, but we have included lots big north facing windows to bring in the light and the veiw.



Ryan finished off the new chook house. We are leaving the goose house next door because we don't want to get geese until we have at least moved down to the dairy. I think Princess Rodericka is actualy Prince Roderick, so Roddy you might be for the pot.


So we put Roddy, Gladys and Paige in the new pen and left Johnny and Cantik in the chook tractor. Saddly a fox came a few nights ago and took Johnny and (my only egg layer), Cantik. Johnny had turned into a fine rooster, always looking out for his girls, in the cool way that roosters do. Finding a yummy morsel he would make a particular 'took' noise then stand back (maybe with a slight reverent bow) and allow his girls to gobble it up.

So Ryan has since enclosed the front of the chook house and made it predator proof and a little more weather proof as well.


Johnny and Cantik RIP. So long and thanks for all the eggs.


The slab for Ang and Ken's shed finally got poured today. After many weeks of 'it's too wet', 'there's not enough cracker dust' and just nothing at all, its finally done. So onward and upward with the shed, good stuff.

Bush lemon cordial and butter

We have a few big old 'bush lemons' on our block. I had never heard of them before moving over here. I'm not quit sure what they are or where they came from but I think they might be citrus root stock that has gone feral, that's just a guess. But they are definitely lemons even though now they have gone quit orange they still taste like lemons. The main difference is their very thick gnarley rind.






Saying that I still maneged to get a lot of juice out of them and make some delicious bush lemon cordial.



At the moment we are getting our milk unhomogenised from the local organic dairy. It really is the best milk in the world!!! I love it! From the cream I skimmed off the top I managed to make my own butter. I just put it in the food processor and like a small miracle it separated into butter and butter milk. It made me surprisingly happy.

PLAGGA

So I have two PLAGGAs to catch up on. The first was held at Chay and Pete's and involved clearing weeds, chipping cuttings, pulling down old fences and revamping wood sheds. It was also the grand occasion of Noah and Ninas joint birthday party.







The second PLAGGA was at ours (hooray) and we put every one to work making the last three no-dig beds in my veggie patch and building the new chook/goose houses and runs. PLAGGA is ALWAYS GREAT and lots of fun was had along with the sweat and mud.



This last shot is my new asparagas bed which now has 10 two year old crowns in it primed and ready to go.