Rain Glorious Rain

 We have had 30mls of rain since yesterday..its fabulous..our long hot summer we only got 30mls for an entire 6months.

So I wandered round the garden this morn.

 

 

Run Rabbit Run Rabbit Run Run Run

 

We went rabbiting today and caught NOTHING..and that's the end of our story

this week in the dehydrator

Pears,Dried Apricots,Grapes,Mandarins,Kiwifruit

You can see some of my dehydrated foods in jars with oxygen absorbers  for freshness

 

 

Stuff dehydrated but not shown is tomatos,mushrooms & potatoes

Almost all of this food would have ended up going to the chickens if I didn't get to it and dehydrate it all.I ordered a second dehydrator to keep up with all my plans..Loving it..Is anyone joining me??

 



Updated with a movie:::Before/After garden Pic/Couch Grass Update

when we first arrived here sept 2008

We all got stuck into the vege plot again today and finish turning it over before we get the rotary hoe into it..we laid out the black plastic for another large plot for next year..I would like to plant out a big lot of the plot into potatoes this year..some parsnips,more carrots,beetroot,more garlic and some more peas.

What are you planting or planning to plant out ?

 

 

Couch Grass Update

So I thought I would update you about the horrible couch grass..boring I know but when I looked on google for how to kill it I couldn't find much for killing it without chemicals.So someone might stumble upon this in there search..

 

this is the  grass after a year under the plastic-the roots where black

So in my research I found that in summertime it takes 4 to 6 weeks to kill off weed seeds and in winter 8 to 12 weeks

But I knew I wouldn't be ready to dig this plot for at least 7 to 9 months so I just left it covered up for a whole 9 months..the roots under ground where black and there has been absolutely no sign of life since we have dug up the first section of this plot(which was 3 weeks ago)So ..SO far so good..and not a chemical in sight.

Busy day in the Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They worked like champs in the garden for me..we planted out more strawberry plants ..moved in some extra garden boxes(some need repairing)..

The big vege plot is getting dug over(in the back ground) everything was just go go go..we have had some rain which has been wonderful..everything is dry and parched out these ways.

I am totally dehydrated and its fabulous

I have had stockpiling on my mind for sometime now..I have looked at some awesome places you can buy items from,but gosh they are costly
for a family of 8 for a 1 yrs supply its 15 grand, well you and I both know that is not going to happen,even if I did win the lotto(which I almost never take anyways LOL)..
So I was chatting with God as ya do...I was asking if the Lord had any ideas for a simple, cheap way to store food for short(1 to 2 yrs) and for long term ( 8 to 10yrs)...and during my morning
look around the net one morning I stumbled(or the Lord led me to--I prefered to believe i was led) to a forum that was chatting about dehydrating foods...there was a link  to this chicks Youtube Channelhttp://www.youtube.com/user/Dehydrate2store/videos?view=0 that is totally awesome..it has taken me a week to download the 10 basics shows(due to me using up all my data allowance..its been painful to wait but worth it once you have them downloaded)...Go watch and get yourself HOOKED on dehydrating like I am

 

So over the last few days I have been popping in all sorts of stuff into the dehydrator

strawberries

A yummy strawberry fruit leather

bananas..not one person liked them

apples

Celery Tops and the Little stalks that can often get wasted

Other things I done are Peas and Pears( I ate them pears so fast they where my favourite thing of everything..like addictive lolly delishous)

So expect LOADS of Dehydrating posts over the next few months..hopefully you will get addicted like me and we can share ideas.

 

Happy Mothers Day

Crysathamums hand picked from our garden

I have always thought Mother's Day must an awfully hard day for some women..world wide all these mothers are being honoured ..but what if your childless? Or you have lost your child? Must be a hard day

So to all the women out there struggling to become mothers or mothers that have lost their children..Happy Mothers Day to you xxx

My boy turned 13

 

We played games, had prizes, made the biggest burgers you ever did see, and ate ice cream sundaes.all to celebrate my boy turning 13.

Homeschool-Anzacs

A peek into Our homeschool class over the last few weeks

We put up photos of family that has fought in the different wars

Family who fought in the different wars

GGreat Uncle John Geary died in gallipoli WW1

My Grandfather 28th machine gun  Batallion WW2

Great Uncle Maori Batallion

My Brother Afgan war 2008

 

 

Books we read

of all the dvd's we watched this was the most informative, and helped us see how things might have been on our farm during world war 2 had we lived in britain, we spoke with some of the older members of our community who where children during ww2 and asked about rationing, they said if it was here they never felt the effects of it in the country,From what we read in cities and towns it was much different.

War Rations

it made us look at the food we eat today and  every day we talked about what we would have had to do to eat...number one we would have do have a large Victory garden.. we would have to go rabbiting often... we would have had to eat things like offal more often(luckly my lot enjoy liver)..we would have needed a cow or goat for milking(althou in britian most animals where done away with and more crops where planted)

Clothing rations: we would have to sew clothes out of other older clthing ..make do and mend..

We would have had children billeted to us here..it made us sad to think how many children were seperated from there parents.

Britian War time Ration

 

BACON and HAM ……… 4ozs ( 100g )
MEAT …………………… to the value of 1s.2d ( 6p today ). Sausages were not rationed but difficult to obtain : offal was originally unrationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.
BUTTER ………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
CHEESE ………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
MARGARINE ……………… 4ozs ( 100g )
COOKING FAT …………… 4ozs ( 100g ) often dropping to 2ozs ( 50g )
MILK …………………… 3 pints ( 1800ml ) sometimes dropping to 2 pints ( 1200ml ). Household ( skimmed, dried ) milk was available. This was I packet each 4 weeks.
SUGAR …………………… 8ozs ( 225g )
PRESERVES ……………… 1lb ( 450g ) every 2 months
TEA ……………………… 2ozs ( 50g )
EGGS …………………… 1 shell egg a week if available but at times dropping to 1 every two weeks. Dried eggs ----- 1 packet each 4 weeks.
SWEETS …………………… 12 ozs ( 350g ) each 4 weeks.

 

Australian War time Ration

Australian War time Rations

Australians were lightly rationed compared to other combatants.

rationing per adult.

Clothing - 12 June 1942 to 24 June 1948 - 112 coupons per year
Tea - 6 July 1942 to July 1950 - 1 lb per 5 weeks
Sugar - 29 August 1942 to 3 July 1947 - 2 lb per fortnight
Butter - 7 June 1943 to June 1950 - 1 lb per fortnight
Meat - 14 January 1944 to 24 June 1948 - 2 lbs per week

Petrol - enough to drive you 26kms

NB This table reflects initial quantities. Many items were adjusted and rations reduced at a later date. Taken from Departmental history of rationing of clothing and food, 1942–1950 (Melbourne: Commonwealth Rationing Commission, 1950).

 

 

Dvd's we watched

Black Hawk Down

Saving Private Ryan

Land Girls seris

we watched the whole seris over a week and although I had watched it before noone else had and they all enjoyed it and we felt it gave a very good representation of life during the war

 

Foods we made

Anzac Biscuits

Anzac biscuits where sent to men at war as treats from family and friends

1 cup flour
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups rolled oats
125g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp boiling water

1. Heat oven to 180C (160C fan bake). Line two baking trays with nonstick baking paper. Place flour, caster sugar, coconut and oats in a bowl and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre.
2. Place butter and golden syrup in a saucepan to melt, or microwave in a bowl to melt. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Add melted ingredients and dissolved baking soda to dry ingredients and mix to combine.
3. Roll spoonfuls into balls and press onto prepared baking trays, allowing space for biscuits to spread while cooking.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm and golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool, and enjoy!

http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/food/recipes/anzac-biscuits/

 

Plum Duff

from wartime farm

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

150grams grated butter

1/4 cup sugar

2/3cup sultanas

2/3 cup water

sift dry ingredients
add in the rest mix well and pop into a pudding bowl cover the top with baking paper secure with a rubber band
put this bowl into a larger pot add boiling water 3/4's of the way up the boil over pot and boil for 1 hour..serve with custard

 

 

 

Homebrewing

Making ginger beer with a kit is easy peasy,we made non alcholic for the children so you can do it all in a day

So to start you  boil up  2 litres of water and add it to your sterlized fermenter.Then add another 17litres of cold water.Add in the tin of gingerbeer brew stir add the yeast packet and let it sit for 3 hours...Meanwhile wash and sterilize your bottles..I used tallies(long necks)..3 hours later you bottle add a little suagr and cap ..it says drink in 3 weeks but we are leaving it till summer.

I used this kit but there are others you can try.



Planting Garlic in my New Garden

chrysanthemums grown from a cutting totally LOVE the color

I found  a whole heaps more garlic in the shed I thought maybe I might grow a heap more in my newly dug over garden .

Gardens

Remember AGES ago I showed you my boring black plastic that I lay in my back yard..So its time to go sort out what we are up to back there.. we have nasty horrible couch grass,it is pure evil in regard to a vegetable garden(So I wanted to kill it off naturally with out chemicals.... all the locals said use round up..I was like dude thats monsanto they are more evil that couch grass...they couldn't hear me over their huge chemical bills thou)..So I read up on how to get rid of it...I read that you need to smother it and kill off all signs of life and you need lack plastic ,heat and time..it has been sitting for a year now it has gone thru all the seasons ..we are going to do it bit by bit..I really need a bigger garden area to use if I want to work toward growing ALL our vege needs...The hubster rotary hoes it for me

And number 1 son and I started pulling all the dead as door knob roots..I will never get all of it out but I wanted to remove all the big bits...there is no signs of life in it at all..most of the root is dry hard and black..so...I am praying it doesn't shoot in anyway..we are getting ready to plant out more garlic

Sheep Shearing

I know what ya thinkin ,but no we did not try it again,we got in a couple of local fellas they where done in a bit over and hour

 

 

 

 

 

The Wood Stack

The Stack is growing..and someone is a little obsessed with its size....he has another stack out the front under cover that he still has to split

 

we lit our first fire for the year 2 nights ago



Pav Roll

She has been watching MKR -Recipe found here

Garlic is PLANTED

Everything seems to be on this go slow,but thanks to Miss 11 we got the garlic planted today

Planted in the Ground Today

 

 

Today I planted seeds of Brussel Sprouts(Evesham n Red Rib) n Carrots(Atomic Red & Purple Dragon)

27 yrs of Happiness

3days                                  27yrs

 

 

Its hard to get my head around the fact that I have a 27yr old son

Our Week

 

 

I have been wanting a recliner for sometime,they cost alot of money thou close to $1000 and some even more..we where op shopping  this week and I found this one for $60...yahoo!
 

A friend gave me an old desk she had laying round in her barn ,I restained it and put it up my hallway for my sewing stuff ..

I made a photo board to sit over the desk..I added some old family photos that I love...
 

We have been chop chop chopping wood to get our supplies up for winter,the boys love riding in the back of the ute.



We have been super busy in the garden this week..we are making some big changes ,plus getting ready for the new growing season..

 

And the very last of our tomytoes got turned into some pasta sauce.

 

And we are now into eating our pumpkins..particularly yummy roasted.

Happy Easter



Happy Easter Everyone

we have had a great day..some locals popped in and the children (and maybe me) have eaten much chocolate...

 

this week in our homeschool we have had heaps of fun recreating scenes from the week of easter.

Hope your all having a wonderful time.