Update, beginning of August

Time is ticking along and I have been a bit slack about posting of late..

Actually I have a reasonably good excuse, since I have started working again and am now doing a couple of nights nursing. It has been nearly 4 years since I last had a job... and many more years since I did any nursing, so it's a bit of a shock to the system, but I'm finding it quite rewarding (plus there's the pay - hooray!). So a bit of a change in routines here on Cabbage Tree Farm, and a bit of downtime while I try to catch up on my sleep!

Anyhoo.. down on the farm the cows are still with us. Here they are keen to be moved on to 'pastures new', which happened just after this photo was taken! They let us know they want to be moved by herding and making a lot of noise, it's quite funny!
They are doing a great job of munching the grass for us (even if the ground is getting a bit pugged up in the process, oh well, if we get the farmers sheep in that will help flatten it out!). They are fine looking cattle, and very good natured. I shall miss them when they're gone. But we are looking forward to a bit of beef in the freezer in a couple of months' time....

The pigs are growing fast. We're giving them colostrum, vege scraps (which I cook up with potatoes/kumara and pumpkin), plus the odd handful of pug nuts. They are really turning over the ground well, and with all the recent rains, have lots of lovely mud to wallow in! What more could a piggie want? Here they are in a feeding frenzy!:

And a little less frenzied enjoying the milk:

We have eggs at last! Both our Araucana hens are laying now, plus we're getting x2 Brown Shaver eggs a day (not sure if only 2 laying or what..) No eggs from my old Indian Game hen 'Clucky', I'm not sure she will start laying again, but she's a very good mother if we wanted to hatch out some more chicks. Mr Roo the rooster isn't looking too happy of late, I fear he might be on his last legs.He's getting on a bit now, we inherited him from a friend about 3 years ago and he must have been a couple of years old already.

Here are some of my dwarf sweet peas coming into flower. I love sweet peas, will soon be planting more in the garden.

Our collection of jade plants just got a lot bigger! These are just some of the ones we've inherited from G's late uncle. Most of the pots are still in good condition, a couple have cracked. Not quite sure what we're going to do with them all! However won't be any problem just leaving them for a while as they don't require much attention other than the odd bit of weeding. Some of the bigger ones are quite top heavy, so we might need to invest in some bigger pots at some stage. But at least if they're grouped together like this they can support each other to some degree.