homestead news

Summer is on its way down under and the grass is growing at lightening speed (except for all the bald patches on our 'lawn' where I poisoned all the weeds). The vegetable patch is starting to produce stuff.

Strawberries actually. Only strawberries. This is my first bowl from the garden. They're the sweetest tastiest strawberries I've ever had!

Last weekend I lay straw around the strawberry plants to stop them growing on the ground and keep them slightly above slug dining level. And Matthew and I made a frame and put up bird netting. We used scrap wood which we cut up as stakes, then tied some thin old moulding (which had been left in the yard by the previous owner) to create a cage. We used hay bale twine to tie it all together.

Very pretty. In a redneck kind of way.

Then we put flat head nails down the side of the garden box so we can hook the net down tight.

A good job I think. Today's strawberry crop was less chewed on than the odd strawberry I'd been picking lately.

This morning while I groomed, Matthew came around again to do a bit more work on the tyre wall and I got him to move the poor abused pussy willows to a better spot. Here they are at the side of the casita, to the left of the vegetable garden. Five of the seven I'd originally had.

Those poor trees have had the roughest time in their short lives. Firstly, they were just sticks I cut off the trees I had in Fentonbury before I moved here. Pussy willows will grow from sticks. I'd originally put them in the ground just below the dam.

Our dam is spring fed and it leaks. I wanted something to take up some of that water.

We put some electric fence up around them to keep the horses out and they grew for a while.

Then we had to move the electricity to another fence (you know, we play games with it, some days this fence is on, some days that one's on... it amuses us), the horses got in and gave them a haircut.

We put the fence back on and they grew again.

Then we needed to dam shored up so we dug them out and moved them to a spot on the far side of the back paddock, near the creek. Plenty of moisture there too.

We put up posts and tied electric fence wire around it to keep the horses out. They looked like they died for a while, but then they came back. The trees, not the horses.

The horses realised the fence wasn't on and they gave them another haircut.

We gave up. They were just sticks with roughly chewed ends for a long time. Then this spring they got new growth.

The other day I was thinking how I want more trees in the yard but we don't actually have anywhere to put them, and it dawned on me that I could plant trees outside the vegetable garden, outside our yard... and that I could still enjoy them there.

Best of both worlds. The trees won't stop the sun on the vegie patch, only in the late afternoon. They'll give us a bit of a screen from the road and the house opposite us way down there. And once they're grown enough they'll also provide a bit of a wind break and give the horses a bit more shelter.

So today Matthew dug them up and planted them for the third time.

Third time lucky don't they say?

We put up another fake electric fence with lots of wire and stakes and even angled posts to keep it strong.

Fingers crossed this time.

z

thanks for your inspiration pinterest

When I was looking for inspiration for a Christmassy project for work, I naturally looked at Pinterest. I wanted something easy the ladies could make ... I knew I'd find plenty of ideas on Pinterest.

Too many ideas, in fact.

I narrowed it down to these cute little sock snowmen. For this week anyway.

I already had a few white socks at home which were either worn or had lost their sole mates, so I was part of the way there. I had to buy some pretty socks for the top/clothing layer so I got the cheapest ones I could find at Shiploads. And some rice to fill them. We already had tons bits for decoration: beads, bits of felt, buttons, yarn...

Here they are. So cute all lined up like that. Each lady picked socks and decorations, helped fill the socks with rice and dress the little guys.

Here are a couple of closeups:

Darn cute even if I do say so myself.

Now I want about 9 of them for my windowsill.

Hm. Maybe not a good idea. I think the dogs will want to play with them... rice everywhere... on second thoughts, I'll just admire these guys...

z

where have you been?

No, not you. Me. I'm guessing you've been there, waiting desperately for my next post and worrying that I've been abducted by aliens or swallowed by the mud in our back paddock.

Well, I'm here and I'm fine.

Which is more than can be said for poor Clarice. I had a friend over helping me with the embankment yesterday and he left the gate open and Clarice came into the houseyard.... a death sentence for any creature. I was in the grooming room and didn't see or hear a thing.

I was so sad. I held her a while and apologised to her, then buried her out the back.

The poor rooster is beside himself. He's never been alone. We're picking up some new girls for him tomorrow, but he was so close to Clarice.

Other than that...

My dogs will ignore ducks, geese, chooks, almost anything when they're out in their paddock, but the minute one of them step into the house yard they're history.

Sigh. Here are the culprits.

Montana and Romeo. At least Romeo. He was the one with blood on his mouth.

Barney is not the culprit. I'm pretty sure he was innocent in all this. But he'll support his buddy whenever he can.

When I'm not responsible for the death of creatures, I'm planning to get some good karma by doing wildlife rescue. I did the training on Sunday and am now on the list of volunteers who get texts when there's an animal needing help. Bonorong runs a volunteer rescue service and successfully get to about 90% of emergency calls. They do an amazing job. Now I'm one of them.

Of course, you can only do what you can do, when you can. So far all the notices that have gone out are about animals too far for me to be able to help, or I've been at work. But one day my new knowledge will help me do a better job with injured or sick wildlife than I've been able to do so far.

Here are a couple of cuties at the sanctuary on Sunday. Sugar gliders. Not much chance I'll be called to rescue any of these, but possums, wallabies, birds, bandicoots are possibilities...

NOT these:

No thanks!

In fact, I'm not looking forward to possums either though we were reassured that they're easier than wallabies.

I have my doubts. I've seen the claws on those guys!

z

banana spring rolls

Yum.

Disclaimer: this is not my photo. I found this while looking for recipes online. This is from Temptasian Restaurant in British Columbia,

However, this is what the banana spring roll I had in Victoria looked like.

I am in love. Its seriously good.

So, when I found spring roll pastry in our supermarket that was it. It was on the menu.

Now, I found lots of different recipes, not just with banana, any fruit will work looks like. I did mine simply. No brown sugar in with the banana, just banana in pastry. And it worked beautifully and tasted amazing.

All I did was peel two bananas, wrap them in the pastry with difficulty (their shape doesn't lend to wrapping) and then I tried to do as suggested and use a 'little water' to stick the pastry sheet closed.

Uhuh. Didn't work for me.

Still, I managed to wrap the bananas up somehow, something similar to Christmas presents wrapped by men.

One thing I'd never come across is how fast spring roll pastry cooks! Wow. I don't have a deep fryer so I put a generous amount of vegetable oil in a small frying pan, then put the wrapped bananas in.

Zap. They were done! One side. I had to turn them and basically remove them straight away.

Not sure if I'm going it right, but doesn't deep fryer oil have to be HOT so things cook fast? This sure did.

It was delicious anyway. Even if I didn't cook it right. The pastry is really thin and very crunchy. I served it with caramel dipping sauce from Woolworths and plain vanilla ice cream.

You should try it.

Of course the problem now is that there are still 18 sheets in the packet. And they don't come with plastic between the layers so you can't just remove and defrost the amount you need... I guess I better go make some more. Wouldn't want to waste the pastry now, would we?

Think I might try making smaller parcels this time, cut the bananas up and make the parcels look more like mini spring rolls.

I wonder if they taste ok eaten cold the next day? hm...

z