Farm roundup early December

Yikers where does the time go......? and sorry once again for slackness in posting...!

It has been hot and very windy during the day here on CTF. Not my favourite time of the year I have to say, the wind drives me nuts and is very tiring. Everything is getting very dry and I am bad at watering my plants. Still there's no point moaning!

On the plus side everything is looking very pretty with lots of flowers out now in the potager garden.

Nigella 'Love in a Mist'

Nigella self seeds freely and makes for a pretty display

'Pinks' - these have also self-seeded

Pinks

Snapdragons

Sweet peas

I'm harvesting loads of peas, we're eating them fresh and also I'm freezing them for later.

Looking forward to harvesting the garlic next month, it's doing really well, just need to give it water now!

On the pig front, we're enjoying delicious bacon and pork from our last lot of pigs. I will be cooking one of our hams for Christmas lunch.

Sadly though the little pig died - was squashed by the big pigs when they broke into his pen. We were all very upset about this. Makes us realise how very strong pigs can be to break through corrugated iron fencing!

Currently we have no pigs but are hoping to get some piglets soon. Will update on that when it happens. These piglets will be in a grassy paddock with electric fencing and rings in their noses - hopefully will avoid the 'too much mud' situation. They have a shelter and water supply hooked up ready to go, G has been very busy with getting that all ready.

The relocation of the pigs means we have freed up the last pig pen area. This will now be a fenced vege garden. At the moment we are using it to grow pumpkins (pig food mainly) but next year I'd like to have raised beds in there - it's a nice flat area and has some hedging to provide shelter from the westerly winds. The bulk of the tomato plants are in the other pig pen (where the little pig was). Anyway, the raised gardens will be a job to add to the list for next year!

That's all for now!

The flu, hail storms and bread!

Well it's been a funny week. Firstly I came down with the nastiest bug, really knocked me off my feet. I've only just started feeling human again in the last day or so, but NO ENERGY whatsoever and not the greatest appetite either (unusually for me....). Anyhow, my hubby no doubt is pleased to have me back to almost normal - I don't make the best patient - let's just say 'miserable' is what I do best when ill!

Yesterday we had hail storms, sudden freezing showers straight out of the Antartic. Here's a photo of me holding a load of hail which had just fallen:

and this is what they looked like up against the ranchslider:

and (less impressively) outside on the deck:

The shower was preceded by this spectacular double rainbow:

So as you would imagine with this weather the temperatures at the moment are not very high, with the cold winds blowing. I felt the need to bake some bread for lunch:

This bread was made with using mainly white flour, with some spelt and rye added. I generally use my breadmaker machine to knead the dough. I then prove the dough in tins before baking in the oven. These 2 loaves came out nicely with good texture and taste. Went down very nicely with my homemade curried kumara soup for lunch.

Halloween 'Fright Night'

Here's me and D dressed up for 'Fright Night' - a function run by a local sports club. There was a good turn out, lots of fun for the kids - some great costumes and make up on display. The club did a really excellent job of the 'Haunted House' walkthrough, with zombies etc jumping out of nowhere to spook us! There were games and a lolly scramble outside on the sports field. Music and dancing. Ended with supper - BYO plate of halloween themed food - there were some cute ideas - I especially liked the mummy pizzas with olives for eyes and strips of cheese for the bandages!

Hope you had a great Halloween!