Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Meet the girls

Do you remember when you were small and you went to the shop with your parents and perhaps your younger sister/brother asked for a treat? Did your parent only buy one for your sibling, but instead bought for you and any other siblings too?

Well so was the decision yesterday to not only get two chickens but rather one for each child :-0

Without further ado - meet the girls:

Kiara



Quicksilver



Sam



Yoda




And where there are chickens...there will be eggs!



Today the children went on a snail hunt to feed them which the girls thoroughly enjoyed as well as the old vegggies that looked a bit sad from the fridge. Lets hope the other 3 also lay today!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Chicken Coup

I am just soooooo excited! My son and husband finished the hutch today and when we go to my daughetr's riding lesson at 4pm we will come home with the first two of our chickens.

I will post photos of them tomorrow, but for today here are 3 photos of the hutch! (Can you tell I am excited?)







We also did some calculating of the costs of keeping these chooks...eggs are R1.60 for 1 when buying grain fed free range eggs at the shop. Our eggs should be between R1 and R1.40 depending on how much we have to feed them.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Consecutive Plantings

Because it is winter here in the Southern Hemisphere there are many days that go by that we cannot work in the garden. So on some of those days I plan my consecutive plantings.

The reason you need to do this is so that you do not get an overload of things ripening or needing harvesting at the same time.

So what I did was print off some blank calendars and then noted the date of first planting and the estimated harvesting date (look on the back of your seed packet). Then I also write the date to germination which is the date that I will plant a second set and so on.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Potatoes



Our first set of potatoes are just starting to form flowers so no more banking up on them, but we have planted our second set and they have just come up...we are all so excited that the tyres have worked so well!

Weeds



As the baby veggies grow, so do the weeds. My children's job this weekend is to get all the weeds pulled...Sushi for supper tonight as a reward :-)

Chickens



Our chickens arrive on Monday! So we have been busily preparing their home.

We have designed it to fit over half of one raised bed so that we will always have that portion lying fallow as the chickens scratch and poop and do their thing. When we feel it is fertilized enough we will move it to the next one.

Hot water savings

To update - we found that the subsidy paid by Eskom is not worth the expense of putting in the solar system which will cost about R20 - 30 000 and the subsidy is only R2 - 5 000!
So we went for the next best option which is to insulate our geyser...so last weekend we climbed into the roof and covered the geyser with an insualtion blanket.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Geyser solar heating

I found out today that Eskom will subsidise people who choose to install solar powered water heating systems....woohooo...

In Cape Town you can phone the Edgemead office 021 5581150 and get the details!

We are also allowed to collect rainwater in tanks according to the muncipality...so while we are still drowning in rain we are going to get this set up...more research to do now to find the best priced tank!

100ft challenge


The Dervase family have a few challenges on the go probably to energise the :grow your own mentality.

Be sure to check their new sites out - very inspiring....http://freedomgardens.org/

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Living the Good Life

I am so enjoying a new book: Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn. She is a slightly weird, highly dedicated homesteader with a huge social/earth conscience. (I don't agree with ehr "replace yourself child policy though) :-)

While I know some of her language may not be appreciated in Christian circles, it is a delighful read which is a hilarious account of two tree-hugger types who decided to not spend any money for 6 months and live from their garden.

They dream of eating snails from their garden for a little meat - really funny - but she has some pearls of wisdom and some stunning recipes - picture this: Pumpkin flowers stuffed with homemade goats milk feta, chilies and herbs, battered and deep fried served with Salsa! YUMMY!

I am about half way through their 6 months - it is written in diary form with all laid bare.

I thought you may enjoy it if you can get it from the library. She has a blog where you can get more info on their way of life: http://www.lintrezza.blogspot.com/