Growth

It's been a busy few weeks on our little home farm.

Vitually everything here seems to be in the midst of a growth spurt - we're already picking leafy greens from the new veggie garden, the lambs that were so tiny a few weeks ago are stocky and strong now, and the chicks have developed feathers that are protecting them from the occassional chilly evening.

We've had a community garage sale in our apple picking shed - successful in that I sold a few items cluttering our space - not so successful as I ended up bringing a few boxes of other people's 'stuff' they had decided to part with into our house. Ah well.... it was a fun day - lots of cups of tea, and catching up.

The house has been smelling great - mainly due to the scent of baking muffins, breads, biscuits, BBQ's and roasts. It's resulted in an increase in our power usage which we had been averaging at about 6kwH per day. I'll have to rethink how we use the oven during the challenge - and utilise the time and space better.

Some of our animals have gone to new homes - chooks and rabbits... all the people who collected them have seemed really great - committed to providing a good quality of life for the animals. We've also gained a lot more baby chicks - Barnevelders, Buff Columbian Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and some cross breeds from some chooks I was given which I've been told are called 'Tasmanian Giants'.

Tasmanian Giant?

I really like the look of these birds - especially their large brown eyes, and their dramatic colouring - the photos don't really do them justice at all - they're beautiful. They have feathered legs - and I originally thought they may be from Gold Partridge brahmas - but apparently they've been bred by someone locally and people (much more knowledgable than me!) have suggested they may be a cross of cochin, barnevelder, and something else.

Look at those beautiful brown eyes