On Friday we ventured an hours drive up north and east, to attend a small farm expo. It’s a highlight of the year, and the traditional lunch of cheese kransky sausages cooked over a monster charcoal grill, with fried onions, extra cheese and lashings of mustard, could send a mostly vegetarian like me, into fits of ecstasy. Dessert was a vanilla ice cream, with stick of chocolate (known as a flake for those who are technically inclined) all dipped in chocolate sauce and served in a waffle cone. An exquisite treat.
Plenty of cholesterol to send readings into orbit, but who cares? We’d already walked around the expo for about three hours, so a decent lunch fortifies the constitution for viewing the yet-unvisited small farm related offerings. So many interesting things to see, and no, I did not want to pat the python slithering up the arm of a young lady who was working hard to demystify the reptiles. But the snake bite kit was a good purchase, and can make the difference between surviving, or succumbing to deadly neurotoxins – nobody wants that.
There’s always a rush to get to the expo not long after the gates have opened. A local poultry club runs a sale of birds from their own pavilion. It’s all very organised, but if the canny person wants a bargain, well, that means purchasing early, before all of the other expo attendees.
An early start, means waking up in the dark, which is a decidedly unsettling experience. Who knew the sun isn’t even above the horizon when the phone alarm blares ungodly sounds at 6am? A revolting experience, but one must endure if they want the pick pluck of the poultry! Coffee assists with making sense of the dark.
And another coffee was purchased from folks working out of a caravan once we were at the expo. My brain ordered the beverages, but the overly active imagination was wondering whether the gypsy-esque life of a carny was more exciting than having to spend time outwitting hungry rodents and possums. The excellent caffeine did not clarify the matter, that’s for sure.
Lot’s of machines are for sale, all of which would assist reducing the bank balance. The tool shops are great, and there’s always something which catches the eye, and comes back home. Sturdy farm work wear made of tough drill cotton, sat alongside dusky pink overalls emblazoned with depictions of flowers. Sandra remained unconvinced. The dozen bulk pack of leather riggers gloves though, nabbed! A few weeks ago, such thick leather saved my skin during an unfortunate interaction with a 10mm (3/8 inch) large drill bit. The glove was destroyed, the skin unharmed.
Animals of all sorts suitable for a small farm were on their best behaviour in the various stalls. Those tiny hairy cows looked great, and are probably easier to handle than the more usual full sized ones. So many temptations for the unwary. Whatever, we were on the hunt for chickens. It was troubling, and high unusual, to observe that a third of the poultry stalls were empty.
Last year, the state government shut the poultry sale down due to fears of bird flu. It wasn’t in the area at the time, and I deeply annoyed the two lovely public servants. They were doing their best to advise disappointed expo goers of the closure, when I expressed the candid opinion: So what you’re saying, is that you don’t trust people? The air sure turned icy at that moment! It’s a gift…
This year however, the poultry sale was on. Did I read that price tag correctly? $300 for 3 birds? They looked good, but were they worth it? I’ve no idea, but can state for the record, that chookflation is real. We hunted around and eventually purchased three Rhode Island Red hens for $165. The same breeder was offering another three chickens of the same variety, but for $180. Was it an ambit claim? Was there some difference which we were missing? Not sure, but if we hadn’t acted speedily with the purchase, we’d have missed the purchase, such was the competition.
They’re a good all ’round breed, and my previous experiences with Rhode Island Reds suggests that they’re hardy, and will lay an appreciable quantity of eggs. Best of all, they’re six month old hens, and know how to fight their way into the established pecking order. We’ve always purchased chickens which are around that age, except for once (cue ominous music).
With the poultry sale being closed last year, a few months later, we made the decision to obtain hens from another source. Sometimes you just get things right the first time around, and don’t know it. Such was the case here with previous purchase of more mature, six month old chickens. They’re easy to introduce to an established flock, and they know how to be a hen and get by in the world of bird.
Naively, last year we purchased two very young chicks. That was a major, major, disaster. Our hen house and attached run was not set up for very young birds. The older chickens beat the shit out of the young chooks, and then tried to eat them. At that point, I’d had enough of the mischief, and eventually killed five hens. So we’d purchased two, and lost five. This was not a winning strategy, and some of the older hens were recidivists of the darkest stripe and just would not stop. The young ‘uns as a postscript, are doing fine these days.
After that disaster last year, it was with a bit of trepidation that we purchased the new hens. Introducing the three was a nerve wracking moment, and we’ve been keeping a regular eye on the new birds. Poultry welfare checks… It’s a hard way to learn, but our systems are well adapted for the way we’ve long gone about various activities. However, if an activity changes, for any reason whatsoever, we’ve got some leeway to adjust, but who knows what the outcome will be then? Dunno. But I do know that if ever we had to breed chickens, our current hen house and enclosure is woefully inadequate for that task, despite being excellent in other ways. Fingers crossed that we can continue purchasing poultry in the future, although it has been remarked upon by Yogi Berra, that predictions are hard, especially when they’re about the future. Hmm.
Kelpies are a very common farm dog breed in Australia, and for good reason. They’re smart, hardy, want to work, and require minimal instructions. A breeder and trainer was displaying the Kelpie at work with a small flock of sheep:
There was also a bloke who runs alpine dog sled teams for tourists. Some parts of the country are quite snowy, particularly up in the high country where that business operates. It was a real pleasure to see that the two lead dogs were a Kelpie and Husky. The canine intellectual combo were using their brains to keep the other err, brawny, dogs in line. All of the dogs came from animal shelters who’d given up on the pooches due to behavioural issues – clearly the dogs just wanted to do productive work.
Just some of the other cool stuff. I’m always impressed by the chainsaw artists, and watched whilst a bloke carved a Kookaburra from an old gum tree. If you know the old song, you know!
In breaking weather news, we had out first light frost for the autumn. Hopefully that frozen air speeds up the ripening of the kiwifruit, especially before the possums and rats fill themselves up to their eyeballs.
Work on the new firewood shed continued this week. A cable for 12V electricity was run into the shed.
The cables were buried, and the area was then cleaned up with a layer of crushed rock with lime added to the soil surface. It’s difficult to see in the next photo, but water is channelled down the centre of that area, where it can run downhill and eventually flow into a garden bed.
With 12V power now available inside the shed, four LED spotlights were installed. The lights are awesome, but were difficult to install due to the wire sizes being less than 1mm (1/25th of an inch). That’s stupidly small, plus they were short, and so all of the connections were soldered, then protected by plastic caps made especially for that purpose.
The 12V power cable then needed to continue through the shed, and exit on the other side. Conduit was run through yet another trench which delivers the electricity to two powerful water pumps. They both run garden taps and bushfire sprinklers. If there is a fire, you want simple systems because they’re more likely to work.
That area was also then cleaned up, and a layer of crushed rock with lime was added to the soil surface.
The two doors for the new shed were made. The doorway faces the south west, which is exposed to some of the worst of the winter storms, so 12mm (half inch) marine grade plywood was used for the doors. It’s heavy stuff, and yet to be painted.
The shadows lengthened, that’s what a late finish on Sunday looks like. But, the two doors were completed. I like the symmetry of the design.
Whilst we’ve been moving lots of crushed rock with lime, some low lying areas had more material added to the surface. Water pools in those areas during very heavy storms, and that’s not ideal.
Water is quite important here, and in the past year I’ve modified a number of systems which weren’t working properly for one reason, or another. With the large house overflow water tank, the two inlet pipes began placing downwards pressure, and deformed the thick plastic side wall. I’d failed to previously notice this issue in time. It was easily fixed by extending the height of the inlet water pipes. The water tank may pop back into shape on a hot day, next summer, maybe.
The silverbeet plants are rapidly gaining size and will provide a lot of fresh greens during the winter months:
As will the green and red leaved mustard plants:
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 14’C (57’F). So far for this year there has been 297.6mm (11.7 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 289.6mm (11.4 inches)
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