This Week's Happenings

I am really enjoying the steady supply of eggs we've been getting I have to say. We've been getting 2 duck eggs and 3-4 chicken eggs every day which is more than we need for our use. When I get a dozen duck eggs I'm going to take them to our neighbour who is often sharing produce from their garden with us.



The girls and I did go ahead and plant some lettuce last week. We have a couple of shoots now which they are excited about. I'm also planning to get some soil, milk crates and landscape fabric and start a strawberry tower, and plant a mini herb garden in some styrofoam boxes my mom picked up for me on the weekend. There's no excuse for me not to do more to be homesteading right here and now, even if we do hope to not be here much longer.



I'm working on adjusting my attitude regarding housework - to do it more diligently and joyfully, and also to encourage Bower Bird and Chickadee to do more as well. Children are excellent imitators and at this age have such a willingness and even desire to help out and have a purpose and I really should cultivate that so they don't become as lazy as their mother learn valuable life skills and get used to the expectation that everyone be doing something to help. The way to accomplish all that I believe is to majorly decrease and declutter our possessions. A facebook friend shared this article today which served as an excellent reminder to me that children are so capable, but its on me to keep them from being overwhelmed by too much stuff.
We have begun with them putting their own clothes away in their drawers and making their beds in the morning. Their completely empty drawers since I took every article of clothing out to wash and sort, only a few articles of which are being returned to them.



Tech-Daddy's birthday is coming up on Sunday and yesterday I made beef jerky as his birthday present.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out too. I don't know why I was so intimidated by the dehydrator for so long, but now that I've had two successes with it I expect I will be using it quite a bit so stay tuned for more food preserving endeavours. And also for pie making since he prefers lemon pie to birthday cake.


Our flock is now down to ten - we sold our little drake and he was picked up on Thursday. It was a bit sad to see him go as he was very pretty and he had a good temperament, plus he was one of our own hatched ducklings. But we just don't have the space to support two drakes, and Banner is far too loved by the girls (and as friendly as any dog) for him to be the one replaced.


And lastly, unfortunately there have been no further leads on a property to rent. I'm really having a hard time regretting having turned down the other place. There was just so much to have loved about it. The house itself really was quite small though so I know turning it down was for the best as we would likely have very soon been feeling very crowded.

Garlic, Feathered Pigs,Egg Eaters and a Housing Update

Today I made garlic powder, which I'm strangely excited about haha. On Sunday I watched a tutorial on makinfg garlic powder and then on Monday low and behold at the shops there were 6 1kg bags of peeled garlic cloves heavily marked down ($4.99 from $16.99) in the back so I had to buy one. I have a dehydrator which has never been used only been used for drying Peep's umbilical cord and an emergency incubator for hatching a chick in about two years since we bought it. After finally putting it to work though and seeing how easy it is though I think I will have to start dehydrating lots of things.

Unfortunately our only outdoor outlet doesn't work so I was unable to heed the warning to do it outside. A well ventilated laundry room closed to the rest of the house mus have helped, but even after having all the windows open today and simmering cloves and cinnamon on the stove for several hours it still smells like an Italian Nonna's kitchen in here. But at least we won't have to worry about vampires. ;)

My chickens are such pigs! I don't think my ducks are getting enough to eat because the chickens are always crowding them out of the way, and our yard has much better foraging for the chickens than the ducks as well. By midafternoon the ducks are all gathered on the back porch looking quite hungry so I will take pity on them and feed them, but then my feathered piggies all come running and chase them away and I can't chase them off without chasing the ducks off too. I had been trying to let the ducks out first in the morning to have a feed before letting the chooks out, but then they just stand there waiting for the chickens to go first I guess. So tonight I put food in the duck coop at lock up time and that seemed to work so we'll see how that goes for a while.

After getting 4 eggs one day we're back to getting only 2-3 eggs a day and I'm not sure if its because they're not into peak production yet or if its because I caught Bolt in the coop eating an egg on Sunday. I don't know if she's become an egg eater or if maybe he egg had simply broken and she took advantage of the situation but I do need to get some ceramic eggs to try to put a stop to it. I hope it doesn't become an issue. I can't have an egg eater around but since she was from our first hatch and the girls love her to bits it would be so hard to get rid of her...

Speaking of eating eggs, tonight I made quiche for dinner - the first time using entirely our own eggs (and seasoned with my homemade garlic powder too) How amazing did that feel? And taste. I can't wait until more and more of our meals are made with our own food

And lastly, on the weekend we went to visit a house that I had high hopes of becoming our homestead. The land was amazing - so much more than I would have dared hope for -it even had a static chicken coop and run and what could have been perfect as a goat shelter and yard that just needed the fence repaired, a veggie garden and several fruit trees. But unfortunately the house was a lot smaller than expected, it was right ad Tech-Daddy's max distance range, and the driveway was in terrible shape and we could barely get our van up to the carport and doubted the car would fit at all. Those three cons made DH decide against it. He liked it a lot but doesn't want to live somewhere he has to talk himself into, especially since we're talking living somewhere for the next 3+ years.So we're back to the drawing board.

I am praying for patience to wait for just the right property to come up. Ideally it will have fruit trees and a chicken coop and either be 10 minutes closer to town than the last place, or have a third bedroom and a verandah. And I'd really like to be able to move within 6 weeks so I can make a good start on the garden before the end of September.

Egg Jackpot

I haven't had eggs for months. By the time Peep was born (4 1/2 months ago) it had already been a while since our last eggs. Our two adult hens have been constantly broody that our eggs from them have been pretty sporadic since we got them. Our two oldest pullets were only 22 weeks old when Peep was born, and as heritage breeds were going to take longer to start laying. Then winter came.
My hens have never been good about laying in their nesting boxes, and since they free range in our yard it was often a few days before I would find their latest nesting spot. I always went egg hunting a couple of times a week and eventually find some eggs once they started laying again. At first being heavily pregnant and then having a tiny newborn and not spending much time outside it took me quite a while to realise that months had passed without any eggs. Not even from our ducks. Well the more time that passed the more I began to worry that they had found the most epic nesting spot somewhere in our yard - most likely under the house - and we would never find it until a hundred eggs began to rot.
Then one day two eggs appeared in the nesting box which lasted around a week, which reduced to just one egg a day for another ten days or so, and then we had no eggs again for a couple more weeks. I've been spending more time outside again and have been hearing the egg song, so again began to worry they've been laying in a place I'll never find. Or possibly even worse, that I have an egg eater in my flock.
The past week we found a couple of clutches of duck eggs; a dozen under the house and six in the duck coop one day, and three duck eggs in the coop the next. (We have three mature ducks, and all of the previous days eggs passed the float test so I didn't test those three, and of course one turned out to be an egg my girls had missed the previous day. And it had been there a while. A long long while. Needless to say I will be floating EVERY egg before I use it for a long time to come...) At the same time we started getting one chicken egg a day in the nesting box as well, and for the past 3-4 days have been getting one duck egg daily. So this has been a good egg week for a change.
Today was even better as I was outside when I happened to see one of the chickens come out from under the house singing the egg song, and hit the jackpot when I discovered their nest under our Christmas tree - a spot they have used on several occasions before and one which I know I had checked at least a couple of weeks ago.

Oh happy day! Especially when they all passed the float test too. Plus two more chicken eggs and a duck egg. One new egg under the Christmas tree later in the day, and I discovered that our Bantam leghorn (who ironically is our biggest chicken) is the one who has been laying in the coop. Way to go resisting peer pressure Rocket!

Here is Chickadee with Rocket

Anyway I am happy to have eggs again and curious to find out how many of them have been laying there. Hopefully if an epic secret egg stash DOES exist they don't abandon their spot under the tree for it.

Can I Milk a Horse?

That was the question 4 year old Bowerbird asked last night at bedtime. We watched two videos this last week of milkings - one of a goat and one of a cow which must have piqued her interest enough for it to become a burning question she just had to know the answer to in order to sleep.
We ended up talking about what animals produce milk and what animals don't, but how only a few animals make enough that people can share it with their babies. She still wants to be able to milk the ducks and chickens though, and a crocodile. Though she did seem to settle for being allowed to help milk the goats we will have at some future date.

Then this morning she built a stanchion out of duplo so her toys could milk a cow. I love it. I love her little sponge brain that has already picked up so much about farm life. Like the time she found two unshelled sunflower seeds and asked to take them home to plant them. The fact that she always crows like a rooster to signify morning when playtimes. Her eagerness to overturn big rocks to look for bugs to feed to Banner. She (and her siblings) is a big part of why I want to homestead.

Today I had hoped to start a mini kitchen garden for some salad greens in a big galvanized tin washtub I was given, using compost from my own compost pile, but that just didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow. Instead today Bowerbird and Chickadee helped me bake a (non-alcoholic of course) Black Forest cake for their best friend's dad's birthday tomorrow. They did a really good job of it too. I only beat and folded in the egg whites and sliced the layers (and of course handled the oven and they did the rest. We still need to decorate it in the morning.

it.

(That jar is bone broth I put on yesterday. It's been too long since my last batch and I'm looking forward to making something yummy with )

A Cat on the Coop

This morning I had company for chicken chores. Generally Peep is a happy guy first thing in the mornings and I can leave him inside with his toys and maybe a sister or two while I quickly run outside to feed and water the chickens. Some days I even get a load of laundry hung. Today was not one of those days. Peep just would not be content laying down this morning so he got to join me in the carrier.
The first thing I saw as soon as I opened the back door was a big fat cat lounging on the roof of the chicken coop! He ran away as soon as I stepped outside and squeezed under a gap under the gate.

Fortunately Buffy had gone in the coop last nigh instead of roosting in a tree which is her preference of late. Tonight she changed her mind again, sand she and Tess are BOTH up the tree so I really hope that cat doesn't give them grief.

Meet the Family

Natalie

Hi, that's me! (Or it was 3 1/2 years ago) I'm a 30-something Christ-follower, married to Tech-Daddy and mother to three gorgeous kids. I'm a self-professed birth junkie, crafter with ADCD (attention deficit crafting disorder - I never have just one project on the go and rarely get around to finishing them all...), and a Canadian expat who now calls Australia home.

For several years now I've been yearning for the homesteading life. To eat veggies fresh from the earth that we've grown ourselves, eat eggs freshly laid by our own ducks and chickens, drink raw wholesome milk I'm not allowed to buy. I an my children to grow up outdoors, intimately aware and involved with where our food comes from. I want to go to bed at night tired from hard work, but with the satisfaction of knowing i am not merely existing.

Since the beginning of my parenting journey I have always taken the more alternative paths - I cosleep and babywear, use cloth nappies (which I make myself) and many other reusable products, I breastfeed until my children self wean (and tandem fed for a year and a half) and practice babyled weaning. I make some of my own cleaning supplies and personal hygiene products - the ones I use anyway, since I've been shampoo-free for the last three years. I have always wanted to homebirth and while my first two were born in hospital I went one step further with my son and freebirthed him. More recently I have been heading down the path of unschooling rather than homeschooling which has always been my intention. So I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that I want to have an off-grid homestead.

I've been putting off starting until we have our own land, but have recently made the realisation that I don't have to wait til I can go in whole hog but ought to start now with small changes to our current lifestyle. A year ago we moved to a house with a yard and got two chickens. We were given some ducks and let our chickens brood some fertilised eggs and now we have a mixed flock of 11. I planned to put in a garden, but pregnancy interfered with that plan. I do, however, have a lovely pile of compost which the chickens have helped with.

Our current plan is to move to a small rented acreage where I will finally put in that veggie garden, get a couple of milk goats and a few more chickens. Eventually, when we can afford our own land, I want to live off-grid in a self built-cob house and be even more self sufficient. But for now I am staring where am.

Tech Daddy

Tech-Daddy is a gamer not a farmer, but he is supportive of my hippy ways. Maybe I will make a farmer out of him, but either way he works really hard to provide for us.

Bower Bird
My eldest daughter is a free-spirited lover of nature. She loves birds and all things blue, hence her nickname bestowed upon her by her Nana.

Chickadee
Only 17 months younger than her big sister, Chickadee is a doting little copycat. The two of them are thick as thieves. She is sweet and tenderhearted, and very quick to forgive. She loves our ducks perhaps a little too much and is always carrying our friendly drake Banner all around our yard. A very amusing sight considering he is over half her size.

Peep
Still a baby, we've yet to get to know his personailty but he is such a delight. He's grown a lot since he was born 4 months ago but I just adore this photo taken mere moments after his birth by an exceedingly talented photographer friend (at Captivated Photography)