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Monday, December 28, 2009

Rain At Last

After recent hot weather the soaking rain that we have had for the last few days is such a relief. The tanks are full and the creek has a healthy flow.The picture above is of the torrent flowing through what is left of my herb garden.The garden bed to the right of the picture will have to be replanted once the grasshoppers are finally finished.All they have left there are brown skeletons of what used to be lush green herbs.

The girls have some fun splashing in the puddles.

I have some quiet time listening to the cricket and cross stitching.The only drawback is that I have had to turn the electricity on to the solar hot water system that we had installed in November to bump up the temperature.It is the first time since it was installed that the temperature has been low enough to require some additional heat.I probably wouldn't have bothered but those girls playing in puddles will want to have a bath when they finally come inside.
Happy Days
Tracy

Sunday, December 27, 2009

It started so well

The growing season got off to a flying start this year. We had a mild winter and an early spring which sometimes felt more like summer. A couple of kilos of strawberries and mulberries too and enough flowers to make some elderflower cordial. My youngest is a River Cottage fan (so am I)so we made elderflower cordial as part of our home school activities. It was a little too sweet for my liking but no one else complained.
Things however took a turn for the worse in the garden. We have had a plague of grasshoppers.They have stripped most of the vegetable garden and are now at the stage of eating the bark off the 13 newly planted heritage apple trees.I'm not sure if they will survive. It is very disheartening. I think the mild winter may have upset the balance between some grasshoppers and too many.

Most information regarding the eradication of grasshoppers/locusts involves chemicals which could be fatal to our bees and propbably not too good for us either. Organic and permaculture methods of barrier plantings etc had no effect as they were in such large numbers so we had to resort to a spray. The spray is organic approved and developed by the CSIRO. It has the potential to harm bees but most research indicates that it is safe when used appropriately.I am hoping and praying that our vegetables,herbs,fruits and ornamentals will be back on track and the casualty list isn't too high.

Best wishes,
Tracy

Monday, November 2, 2009

New chicks

We have had baby turkeys before and this batch hatched over the weekend. Mother turkey whose name is Vickie, hatched out nine eggs. She started laying this year on September 1, the first day of spring and like clockwork, after a month of laying decided that it was time to go broody. I slipped a couple of duck eggs under her as both duck and turkey eggs have the same incubation of 27 days and we now have a duckling which thinks it is a turkey chick.
It beats the turkey chicks in the cuteness stakes and hopefully it will have some baby ducks to play with soon as mother duck, Camilla is sitting on a clutch of eggs now too.
Tracy

Monday, October 26, 2009

I will re-introduce myself

Welcome,my name is Tracy and I live in rural New South Wales, Australia. I am about 50km from the nearest large town and have a small farm where we breed suffolk sheep. We also have Indian runner ducks, turkeys, Pekin bantams, sebrights and some laying hens as well.

Lambing season has just finished for us but the antics of the young lambs just enjoying life are still fun to watch.

This year was the first since we have breeding sheep that we had a lamb taken by a fox. We house our young lambs overnight in a shed but on their first night out, one was taken. Needless to say, they were back in the shed for a while lonhger after that.

Hopefully readers of my blog that was deleted will find their way here and there will be some new friends made too.

I will show you some more residents of Sunny Corner Farm next time.

Tracy

Friday, October 23, 2009

A 'New' Blog

During a fit of despondency I deleted my blog back in August. I have tried a couple of times to have it reinstated by blogger but I guess I did a good job deleting it and it has not been reinstated. So, I am back with a new blog about what happens here at Sunny Corner Farm. If perchance I can recover my old blog and old links that would be great but if not, I will make do.make new links and hopefully pick up where I left off.
Tracy