Harvest and increase

February 11  2019

The weather is much cooler this week, hardly reaching 30C.  I have taken the opportunity to plant seedlings. I found enough silver beat for a row, but I had to buy snow peas and beet root.  We get this time in late summer when the soil is still warm, and seedlings can thrive.  It is too early for broccoli and cauliflowers with white butterflies still looking for caterpillar homes.

Last night Indi gathered the family up at Beth’s house and Tilba told us he will be a father in July! This was a surprise.  He is very young for all that responsibility, but it now looks as if we may have not one, but two great grandchildren this year! The funniest point in the evening was when Indi asked Morgen ( who has moved out of home and rents in Tilba’s house), how he was going with his washing.   His face went a complete blank and he had no idea what she was talking about. It looks as if he is on a big learning curve too.

On the farm Dan is proving as good at painting as he is at gardening, and much to my delight unfinished jobs I that have been annoying me for ages are now getting done.  The sparrows have been evicted from our house entrance, the ceiling has been painted and the walls have been washed.  This really needed doing but somehow it never got on the priority list.  I just tried to avoid looking every time I went outside.

I am picking and treating food for freezing.  Tomatoes, nectarines, sweet corn and all that sort of thing freeze well.  The zucchini just sit in piles hoping someone will need them before they get soggy.   We must have eaten zucchinis and cucumbers  every day for months now.  We are still eating strawberries for breakfast, but I should make time to pick blackberries.  We cook them with apples for winter.

We have started to wean the goat kids, starting with the boys who are the eldest.  The evening milking can now be done by hand and it looks as if we can drop it altogether by the end of the month.  Barak is walking much better on his leg that was broken and is showing a healthy interest in the females.  Mating season could arrive early this year.  The does are all looking fat and sleek in their shiny summer coats and we will soon start drying off the does who have milked for two years. It is sad, but Nola and Petra are on my selling list this year.  They are the oldest goats after the three golden oldies and if we keep them longer they will be too old to sell.  Petra was one of quads and has the habit of diving behind the bale looking for oats that the others have spilled. She is a big brown goat and we will miss her. I hope we find her a good home.