The Home Garden & Kitchen

New plantings

2010-08-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

'Spring is about to sprout,' as my 4-year-old daughter Ivy said to me yesterday while we were working in the garden together.

We have planted two new fruit trees, a lychee - not sure how it will go with the frost - and a new variety low-chill apple tree.

I have put the lychee right up against the polly water tank, in hope that the tank will keep the surrounding temperature above zero. The theory is that the water in the tank will never drop below freezing point, so the air around is 'might' also stay above freezing point when the frosts hit, although, we had no serious frosts this winter anyway. I will also cover the tree during frost session for the first couple of years and see if I can mollycoddle it along. The children love lychees and so do I. We shouldn't expect to see any fruit for the first three years, I am told.

Now to the apple tree. I don't know anyone who has experimented with low-chill varieties, but when I saw them in Daleys' catalogue (www.daleysfruit.com.au) I couldn't resist. They need a another tree for cross pollination. The tree I bought was a malus domestica, which needs to be crossed with a Golden Dorset or an Einshimer - neither were in stock. I have put it on the crest of the gully to see how it goes, although in the gully probably would have been better in terms of better exposure to frost. I am not sure how many frost hours it will require, but I have an old pear tree here which is a prolific bearer.

I have three weeks of holidays from my job and plan to use a lot of it in the garden.

Bushfood- bunya nuts

2010-01-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

After spending this morning thinking about what to do with the bunya nut my neighbor gave me, I decided to invent bunya nut hash browns.

I was pretty excited about the idea of cooking with a bush food, especially locally grown.

Bunya nuts are currently in season and where I live in Northern NSW people load them into a wheel barrow and sell them out the front of their homes for as little as 50 cents.

They bunya nut is a traditional Aboriginal food and grows predominately in South Eastern Queensland and Northern NSW around the great dividing range. Most bunya trees were lost due to land clearing but some early settlers planted the tree around their homes and this is where most of the supply of the nut comes from.

They are an ancient food dating back to the Jurassic era 180 million years ago. The nuts are contained in the conifer which needs to be broken apart. It is surprisingly easy to pull the cone apart and break open its segments to get at the nuts.

Once this is done, boil the nuts in salty water for 30 to 40 minutes. This should cook them through and also crack open the nut-shell a little. Once cooked and cooled the nuts need to be shelled, which is a little laborious. The nuts taste a bit like a cross between potato, brown rice and a nut.

Here is what you need to make the hash browns

20 shelled bunya nuts

3 free-range organic eggs

1 onion

salt and pepper

Grate the bunya nuts and the onion and then mix them with the eggs. Grind in some salt and pepper. Heat a cast iron skillet and coat with olive oil. Scoop some ingredients onto the skillet and press down with an egg lift. You want it to be thin, like a pancake. Cook till crispy, then flip.

You can serve them with some aioli or use them as a base on which to serve lamb or moussaka.

The nuts can also be used as you would eggplant or zucchini as a filler in casserole as they absorb flavours well.

WWOOFERS

2009-12-28T13:16:00.000-08:00

WE HAVE just said goodbye to two wwoofers, willing workers on organic farms, after a two week stay with us. We undertook it as a bit of a trial and it went pretty well, so I think we will do it again.

Chris, 19, and Aysha, 18, were from the UK and had very little gardening-farming experience, but they were willing to get in and have a go. I made a list of jobs so they could have some choice and also gave them the choice of having two work periods of two hours each day or one four hour work period. Due to the heat they decided to work a couple of hours in the early morning and a couple of hours in the late afternoon. We only asked they work five days out of seven, in future I would probably make this six out of seven. They worked mostly on three jobs, hand-weeding the bottom paddock, re-digging the veggie patch and scrapping the paint off our house in preparation for it being painted- the job they enjoyed the least.

If you don't have separate accommodation, then hosting wwoofers is like having a house-guest. Ours stayed in our camper-trailer but lived in the house with us. We let them have as much access to the internet as they wanted, due to the fact they were pretty isolated during their stay with us because they did not have a car. They were great with the children so it made it all pretty easy. The children really loved having them with us. What they lacked in gardening experience they certainly made up for with the amount of attention they gave the children. They were very patient with them, but were able to dish some boundaries too. I was pretty impressed with this.

I learned that hosting wwwoofers is a lot of work. I spent a lot of time cooking and keeping up the supply of food. This all became a bit less formal in the second week when they helped themselves a bit more to food and I slacked off a bit with the cooking.

In terms of the work we achieved by having them here, I am really pleased with what got done. Because they came in school holidays our plans to work alongside them didn't work out. Bill had to supervise the children and I spent most of my time in the kitchen, when I wasn't at work.

A lot of people have asked me was it worth it in terms of the cost of having them here, with the amount of work which got done. I really have not done the calculations for this, it is probably break even, but we did not do it for cheap labor. We did it because we thought it would a fun and interesting thing to do.

We have invited them to come back and wwoof with us again.

Buttercup

2009-12-16T03:39:00.000-08:00

ABOUT two weeks ago I bought a new jersey cow, Buttercup. She came with a heifer calf which the children have named Midnight. I shipped out Brandy, Rosie and Charlie to a friends property. Brandy was not producing enough milk due to the mastitis she developed immediately after birthing. Left with only two teats working and producing about 1.5 litres of milk, it was hardly worth the effort.

I saw an add in the paper for Buttercup and went to check her out. She was amazingly calm, full of milk and going dirt cheap. I bought her and my friend Erin took another milker called Cupcake.

Buttercup was in very poor condition as she was fostering four calves, but amazingly she has been producing up to five lites of milk each day. It has been bliss. She is also gaining weight. It is a really good time to buy due to the drought. Lots of farmers are destocking. Erin and I are about to buy some calves for meat which we will raise up.

I have been milking Buttercup twice a day most days, which involves getting up at about 5.3o am to milk on the days I have to go to work. Still, it is incredibly satisfying and her milk is amazing, although Bill won't drink it because he knows the cow from which it came- I could understand this if he was talking about meat, but milk!

Anyway it is a lot of work, but worth it. I have to start training her to milk in the bale, as she requires a lot of food to keep her in the one spot during milking.

Milk, at last

2009-11-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

Last night I put the calf in the house block and Brandy in the paddock next to it. We did this so the calf would not be able to drink off her overnight, which would mean there would be plenty of milk on her when I milked her out in the morning. Bill and I woke this morning shortly after sunrise to the sounds of Brandy bellowing, very loudly. The calf was gone from the house block.

We scouted around for him and found him in the big paddock with Rosie, our other cow. So, I got my milking stuff together and went out to the paddock to milk Brandy. She was full of milk, poor thing. I gave her some chaff with some dairy meal, for milk production, mixed into a bucket. While she ate that I milked out one of her good teats. There was plenty of milk there.

As soon as she finished the food, and before I had finished milking her, she marched out of the paddock, right through the barbed wire fence and straight to her calf. The calf was trying desperately, at the time, to drink from Rosie, who of course had nothing for her. The calf latched straight on.

So the good news is there is plenty of milk there. I got about a litre, it's hard to know how much more was there, but I suspect a fair bit. I didn't get to the back teat, from which milk was spurting out of while I milked the front one. We need about two litres a day for our family.

She is a pretty slow milker, with only one large teat really suitable for milking, and only two teats working. The other thing is , I can't milk for very long before my arms begin to ache. I guess this will improve.

Yesterday was the first day we were able to drink her milk after the withholding period from the antibiotics had finished. I was only able to get 500ml from her when I milked because the calf had been drinking from her all day. The children all tried her milk, except Jude, who thought the idea of drinking Brandy's milk was gross. It was pretty creamy and tasted a lot different to milk from the shop.

The milk needs to be strained through a cloth, but apart from that, it can be drunk fresh from her udder.

Brandy probably needs to be milked in a stall, and there is talk of all the neighbors pitching in to build one. We have to work out a milking roster for the cow as well. We have two neighbors who have helped us a lot with the cows and we would like to be able to share the milk with them, and they are keen to milk her. I don't think there will be any surplus milk, which is a shame because I was hoping to sell it to pay for the cost of our agistment, feeds and dairy meal.

WWOOFERS

2009-11-18T23:04:00.000-08:00

We have decided to try hosting some WWOOFers- willing workers on organic farms. I thought we would need to have a cabin built before we did something like this, but then I discovered some hosts put their WWOOFers up in tents. We plan to use our trusty camper-trailer for accommodation. It is comfortable and it doesn't leak, and as we will only be hosting people for short stays, it should be fine.

We have made a loose arrangement with a young English woman, Aysha, and her travelling companion, Chris. They arrive in Sydney from England on November 25 and will make their way North. We have asked they give us four day's notice before their arrival.

In exchange for four hours work each day, we will provide all their meals and accommodation. I am now making a plan for what needs doing. It should really help us move the place along a bit, but I am also excited about the cultural exchange. I haven't told the children yet, in case it falls through, but they love it when people come to stay.

Turkish lemonade

2009-11-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

The last of the citrus is maturing with about two dozen lemons left on the tree, still too green to pick. We still have a few week's supply of oranges and tangerines on the trees. The lime tree I planted two years ago has still not produced any fruit.

I have been trying to think of home made treats for the children so we can stop the buying them food from shops when we go out. It is easy to fall into the habit of always getting them a little something, especially when they wear me down with pestering. Our children have come to expect that every time they get in the car there will be a treat. About three weeks ago, they went cold turkey.

One of the things I have come up with as a substitute for expensive juices from the shop is Turkish lemonade; the children love it. Here is the recipe:

6 lemons juiced

1/2 cup of caster sugar

1 small splash of rose water

Heat all the ingredients over a low flame until caster sugar is totally dissolved, then leave it to cool. To drink it, mix it with water, about 1 part lemonade to 6 parts water. It keeps in the fridge for ages.

The food garden

2009-11-06T12:08:00.000-08:00

It is such a good feeling to be growing food again. Last night Ivy helped me transplant the corn from the seedling pots to the garden bed. She was amazed to hear the seedlings would be producing corn in about 10 to 12 weeks.

There are lots of seedlings coming up in the green house. I have tried to stick with planting the veggies and fruit we actually eat, rather than the things I think we should be eating. So there is watermelon, rock melon, lettuce, butternut pumpkin, cucumber, tom tomatoes, loads of basil, capsicum, egg plant. I am also giving some ALL YEAR broccoli and spinach a go. Plus a few herbs.

Both the orchards are full of fruit and I am still not sure what to do to protect the fruit. The only thing I seem able to look after properly is the figs. We lost all the peaches, I netted them, but the worms got to the fruit, and the fruit was very small. The tree probably needs to be pruned properly. The pear tree is full of fruit and again, I am at a loss about what to do with them. There is also plums and some other variety of stone fruit, which I am unsure of.

It was an amazing mulberry season, every tree in the region was dripping with fruit.

The last flush of lemons are maturing and there are still some oranges and mandarins on the trees. Citrus is easy, although the oranges and mandarins have a rust on them, though it doesn't seem to affect the taste of the fruit.

There are not many nuts on the macadamia tree this year, which is strange as the local commercial industry was predicating a bumper year.

Xavier is also keen to grow some flowers again this year, I will put in the usual marigolds and sunflowers, but I am also interested in finding out more about using flowers for companion planting.

Cow nurse

2009-11-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

Brandy is on the mend, but two udders are still stuffed. I have been nursing her for the past few days, massaging her udder, milking out the two udders which are working and giving her injections of antibiotics. The vet came and gave her some anti-inflammatory, a diuretic and some more antibiotics. He said she didn't have a fever which he found amazing. Also, he said the calf was doing fine.

I now know I should have got in and milked her within 12 hours of her giving birth, especially because the calf was not latching on properly. The vet said she was over-sprung- meaning, she produced a massive amount of milk quickly. She was bunged up with milk within 24 hours of giving birth.

I have Brandy and the calf in a paddock next to the house block. Rosie is missing her and keeps bellowing out. Despite the abysmal failure of the house cow, I have not given up on the dream of one day milking our own cow, making cheeses and developing milk-maid arms. I now plan to double my chances. I will have Rosie, now 18 months, and Brandy artificially inseminated in about 5-6 weeks time. Brandy will be at her most fertile 30 to 60 days after giving birth.

There is some chance we will get milk from this cycle. Once the withholding period from the antibiotics is over in two weeks, I will take the calf off over night to see what I can get from a morning milk. Also, my neighbor, Hairy, said they had a cow that dried up from mastitis, but came back on with milk after it was cleared up and the calf was put back on.

The problem with cows

2009-11-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

Brandy has mastitis and is only giving milk from two quarters. The other two are tight as drums and the fourth quarter looks a bit red and is dripping a little puss. Thank god for my neighbors who have been helping with her. I went to the vet yesterday and got some drugs which needed to be injected, but the drugs are not really working. So it seems I will have to get Joe the vet out this morning which will cost a lot. The bad news is Brandy will not give milk from the two affected quarters during this cycle, they will have to dry up. The mastitis must be affecting the let down in the other two quarters, the calf is not getting enough milk.

Unfortunately this has furthered the resolve of Bill who thinks the cows are a waste of money and a pain in the arse.

A cow is born

2009-11-01T01:53:00.001-07:00

Some time today Brandy went quietly to the top of the paddock and gave birth to a bull calf. All the children and the neighbours trekked to the top of the paddock to meet the calf and congratulate Brandy.

The calf was having trouble latching on and Gilbert, our neighbor, got the teat and stuck it in his mouth. He was still having trouble when we all walked back down the hill, but Gilbert, who grew up on a farm, said he looked pretty healthy and thought he would eventually work it all out. Brandy was being very patient and protective. It is interesting that she chose to birth in the corner of the paddock furthermost from our house .

I must say, I was a bit disappointed to see it was a bull, knowing a bull would be destined for the dinner plate. Nobody wants a half dairy, half beef cow. The children are already begging to keep the calf, and we will for a while, but he will have to go eventually. Bill wants to sell him for beef, but I want to have him slaughtered for our own meat, which Bill will not hear of.

"I can't eat a pet, " he says.

To me it is ridiculous to sell him to the abattoir for very little money, when we could have him slaughtered for a very reasonable fee, for our own table. My final words to Bill were: "When he is fully grown and charging you in the paddock maybe you will change your mind."
"Maybe," he said.

Having said all that, I imagine when the time comes I may not be able to go through with it.

I have been told to wait until the calf does its first poo before milking. Brandy's teats were dripping with milk this afternoon.

BLISS - sourdough

2009-10-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Things are moving ahead in the garden slowly. I now have a lot of seeds in pots, but still have to solve the problem of making the garden totally chook proof. I will transplant the seedlings when they are quite mature, that way any chook which manages to get in will be less likely to dig up the plants.

The real success of the last week was perfecting my sourdough bread. It is a hit with the children too. Ivy said: 'Mum I love your hard stale bread.'

After much indecision about making a starter, I decided to go with a yogurt based one. Here it is:

1 cup of yogurt (with all the good stuff in it)

1 cup of stone ground organic wholemeal flour

1 cup of rainwater

I use homemade yogurt which was originally started with a culture from the Paris Bio dynamic brand of natural yogurt- any yogurt with a live culture will work. Mix ingredients and leave in a bowl covered for three to five days, stirring every day to stop the flour sinking to the bottom. Once it appears frothy and bubbly on top, it is ready to use - mine took three days, but it takes longer in winter.

To bake the bread, remove half the mixture and put it in a mixing bowl. Replenish your starter with 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water- mix in and put in the fridge in a container with a lid. It will keep for six weeks, if you are using it every day you do not need to refrigerate.

Add to the mixture 1 cup of flour, three tea spoons of salt and 1/2 cup of water. Kneed for about five minutes. Add more water to a dry mixture or more flour to a wet mixture, but keep the dough slightly on the wet side. Form into the shape of a loaf and put into a bread tin greased with olive oil. Cut two lines across the top to stop loaf from splitting when it rises. Leave it to rise for half a day, the longer it sits the more sour it will taste. Leaving it overnight is fine too, but will have a stronger taste, which you may prefer. It should double in size. You will know it is done if you press the loaf and it resumes its shape.

Bake slowly in a moderate oven. I have a large fan forced oven. I cook it for about 55 minutes on 160 degrees. If your loaf is soggy in the middle it has been cooked too quickly or in an oven which is too hot, or the size of the loaf was too big. Sourdough is a dense bread and there are limits to what can be achieved without resorting to all those bits and pieces you find in commercially made breads. Once the loaf is baked, wrap it in a tea towel so it does not loose too much moisture from steam.

And on the cow front, we are still awaiting the birth of our new calf. If it is a girl the children want to call it Buttercup, if it is a bull I have suggested Beef.

Brandy, the mother, is being very affectionate and calm. The mucus has increased a lot over the past few days, so I think it must be close. Her udder is full and I have been able to easily milk colostrum from her. Her teats are on the small side, but they work fine. The children are still excited, but are getting a little impatient.

Almost forgot to mention, it rained this week after months of dry. The heavens opened at precisely the same moment the water carter was filling our bone dry tank.

Now the chooks are destroying the garden

2008-11-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

Last year it was the cats, now it's the chooks. I have planted out the veggie patch three times and on each occasion the chooks have got in and obliterated everything.

I managed to raise everything from seed this year - last year the cats kept laying in the seed trays and I couldn't figure out why nothing would come up. So, all went well on that front, but when it came time to plant out, the chooks got in and un-planted the lot. The first time it happened I almost cried. The seond time it happened I did cry. The third time I simply went nuts and had a chook been at hand I would have happily trialed my friend, Kirrily's, neck-wringing method. Keeping them out has proved almost impossible.

Bill and I clipped their wings which was quiet a task. We had to catch them and hold them still while all three children screamed,"Don't cut their wings off, please Mummy, don't do it." Anyway, even with clipped wings they can still manage enough lopsided flight to get into the veggie patch.

Bill is now erecting new posts so that we can increase the height of our chicken wire fence. Fingers crossed this will be the solution.

The veggie patch is full of weeds and it has been a bit heartbreaking to see it so over-grown, but I have refused to do anything in there until the chook issue is solved.

I have been working full-time for the past three months. So, it has been a bit difficult to achieve anything. Things are kind of back to normal, although I am still putting in full-time hours at the moment. I am working on our local daily newspaper as a journalist which brings with it very long hours.

The other thing that has happened around here is spring chickens were born a week ago. Nine gorgeous little fluff balls. The children have really enjoyed watching it all. A few eggs were abandoned by the mother hen and inside two of them were almost fully-grown chicks who were trying to peck their way out. We helped them out, but they died.

Bill is feeling a bit overwhelmed by being a full-time house-dad and the amount of work that needs doing around this place. The pressure of me being at work is taking its toll too. I think he would be happy if we sold-up and moved into suburban house with a concrete backyard.

Spring

2008-09-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

I am determined to grow most of my produce from seed this year. Last year's efforts were sabotaged by my cats who kept laying in my seed trays. It took me quiet a while to figure out what was happening.
So far so good. Lots of spinach is coming up.
I have a pretty sizable supply of compost too.
I have started a second worm colony. My friend Anna said that the worms get stripes on them when they are breeding up...mine don't. Mind you, at Anna's suggestion I added a layer of wet newspaper to the top of the worm farm, and the worms seem a lot happier. I will keep looking for the stripes.
Keeping the chooks out of the veggie patch is still proving to be difficult..
Looking forward to a good growing season ahead.

नेवर वर्क विथ अनिमल्स और चिल्ड्रेन

2008-08-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why the title of this blog is in Hindi-

Today I am being driven mad by animals and children. Brandy has been bellowing in her paddock since sun rise, and it really begins to get on your nerves after four to five house. The problem seems to be she is on heat again.

Somehow the children picked up on the cow-vibe and have all been doing their own versions of the cow-bellow, that is: the tantrum. The chooks won't stay out of the house or the veggie patch, the cats keep lying on top of my seedling trays and squashing the seedlings. I just found a chook laying an egg our bed. The only animals that are doing what they are supposed to are the worms.

Trying to be semi-self-sufficient is mostly satisfying, but some days it is a real pain in the arse.

Sharing produce

2008-08-07T15:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I met with some of our friends down at Peace Park in Nimbin to swap our surplus produce.

The idea was that we would all share what we have too much of, but that in coming together to barter we will create the inspiration to start becoming more self sufficient - and it seems to have worked.

The first swap went well, apart from the fact that half the people went to one park and the other half went to another- we eventually found one another. I took pumpkins, eggs and oranges- I came home with mandarins, bok choy, a loaf of Swedish rye bread and avocados. The next swap is happening next weekend at Hanging Rock Hall.

Everyone who went said it has inspired them to get into their garden.

The weather has warmed up a lot, and I have started summer plantings - we will still get a bit more frost, but within the next few weeks I should be able to get in a lot more stuff. I am still having great trouble getting seeds up - so this year I really want to work on getting that happening.

I've got an avocado tree to go in as soon as the frost is finished. I have also planted a custard apple, a lime tree, a bay tree. Already here was Guava, mulberry, oranges, lemons, mandarins, pears,plums, peaches, figs, mulberry, macadamia, pecan and an olive tree which is not baring any olives- apparently it has been too wet this year.

It is probably time to think about planting new citrus as the old stuff is very old and infected with rust mite- and I have tried white oil to control it with no luck.

The worms are doing really well living on cow poo. I am composting like mad for spring.

We harvested our potatoes, many of them were small. But we a lot of big ones too. I think I left it just a little too late to plant them. I will be replanting in the next few days, using the little ones as seeds.

The cows have been in the veggie patch a number of times later, it is amazing how much damage then can do in a few seconds. Brandy bit the heads off all my lettuces and the stems off the garlic- and her big hoofs trampled over the top of everything. The chooks are also proving to be opportunists, waiting for one of the children to leave the gate to the vegie patch open.

Worm Farm

2008-07-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

I took custody of 1000 worms two days ago. I bought them from a local worm farmer for $33.oo.

They were delivered to work in a Styrofoam box and were covered in peat moss, which when pulled back revealed this squirming mass of tiny worms. They are a mix of three types of compost worm, the names of which I can't remember, and look just like earth worms you find in your garden, only smaller. However, compost worms won't survive in the garden- they live on compost, I've been told.

I have bought them for their castings, which I intend to use for a seedling mixture. I had thought they would make good chook food, but already I am too attached to them to feed them to the chooks.

I have two little black plastic worm farms that I have picked up at garage sales, which are essentially multi-layered boxes that pull apart. The worms can move freely between all the levels. The bottom level has a tap on it so you can drain off any liquid fertilizer the worms produce.

I have read a little bit about worm farming, but things in the book never really make sense until you try them out. So I am not really sure how it all works yet.

The worm dude told me to put food scraps into the blender with water and make a mush, or throw food scraps onto the lawn and run over them with the lawn mower or feed them cow shit...I am going for the cow shit option because it sounds easiest, and I have lots of it...plus the chooks eat the food scraps.

You just put the food in the top layer of the worm farm and top it up as required. I will have to look it up in my book as to whether I need to add water. Which I better do soonish....

The children were very excited about the worms...they really love having all the animals This morning they delighted in watching one of the new chooks lay an egg on Bill's grandmother's antique chaise lounge.

Pumpkin soup

2008-07-05T00:40:00.000-07:00

We grew around 100 pumpkins this year, straight out of the compost. So, pumpkin soup has been on the menu a lot lately and this has given me the chance to try and perfect my recipe.

This recipe is based on home-made chicken stock. See below for info on how to make your own chicken stock- it's really easy.

Ingredients
Ground pepper 1/2 teaspoon
salt 2 pinches
shredded garlic 4-6 bulbs
onions 2 medium
butter 2- 3 tablespoons
2 litres of chicken stock
1 large Jap pumpkin peeled and chopped

What to do:
Use large heavy based pot.
Soften onion slowly in butter on a low heat with the shredded garlic mixed in.
Add chicken stock and bring to a gentle boil.
Add pumpkin with salt and ground pepper.
Add water but do not fully cover pumpkin it should still be protruding by and inch or two.
Gently boil until soft.
Put mixture through blender than return to pot.
Stir on low and add 300mls of cream.

Should feed about 6 people

Chicken stock:
Take the carcass,bones and fat left over after a baked chicken diner, put it all in a pot with about 3 -4 litres of water and boil gently for 3 hours. Drain off the liquid and store in the fridge for up to five days.

Milling flour

2008-07-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

Today I milled my own wheat and made muffins for the children. It was a surprisingly rewarding experience to take the food from such a raw unprocessed state to a baked product. The children were fascinated and all wanted to have a turn cranking the hand mill which I borrowed from our neighbors. It was a lot of work for six tiny muffins.

It took about 10 minutes to grind about 1 to 2 cups of flour. I put it on a coarse setting. I made the muffins with yeast and was doubtful they would it would react, but sure enough it did. The children really loved them and didn't seem to mind the texture.

It was interesting to see the amount of manual energy required to produce such a small amount of food.

Whole food experience.

2008-06-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Three days ago, inspired by Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food," my partner and I decided to adopt a more rigorous whole food diet for our family.
The main changes so far have been switching from Basmati rice to brown rice and from white pasta to wholegrain. The pasta has been no problem so far with the children. We have not tried the rice yet.
We have always eaten wholegrain bread so that is not an issue.
The other thing we are altering is the balance of grains to vegetables. The children love grains and so do we. I think we eat too many of them. I know I definitely do (but I eat too much of everything:) ).
So the trick will be to eat more leafy vegetables and salads. The children already eat a lot of fruit, so we don't need to make any changes there.
We have long used butter and whole fat milk, often fresh from our neighbors cow. So there are no changes required there.
Michael Pollan talks about the symbiotic relationship between people and food, and by growing food we are putting ourselves back into the food chain. The ideas in the book are not really new to me, but the way he has woven it all together as a philosophy of food, was inspiring.
We have good reasons to try and introduce this way of eating into our family.I am overweight and I suspect highly sensitive to refined grains. Diabetes runs in my family- my mother has mature age onset. Although it is not in my partners family, our children are still at risk. But of course, this risk can be reduced by diet and exercise.
I have been working in the garden a lot, the garlic, leeks and onions are thriving. I have made a greenhouse out of an old swing set and some shade cloth and I am raising seeds in it. Really looking forward to spring planting.

Cell grazing

2008-04-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

Our next-door-neighbor's dad came over for a drink the other night. He told me all about cell grazing. And we are going to try and adapt it to our property. Although we only have 1.5 acres, we also have the use of Gilbert's land next door, which is probably another acre. And we could also probably use some of Harry's 100 acre block across the road.

From what I can gather the key principle is constant rotation of stock through small paddocks.
It's based on the idea that livestock will eat the best pasture first. And they will eat it right back- this destroys hummus in the soil.

By keeping the livestock on the move, their impact on the environment is reduced because they graze more evenly across all paddocks.

It also reduces parasites because the host is removed before parasites have a chance to hatch- oh, and the other thing is you don't just go from one paddock to the next. You must move several paddocks away- to reduce the possibility of parasites finding the host.

In big properties the cells are set out like a wagon wheel, with the water supply in the middle.

The livestock are moved ever day.

Here we will only have three paddocks and I will move them weekly.

And now to the vegetable patch, we have around 60 pumpkins. The children have made a little stall in the cream shed selling our 'sun-cured chemical free' pumpkins for $2 each! So far we have made six dollars.

Chook update

2008-04-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

The chook survived the dog attack and she has started laying again.

The dynamics in the chook shed has really changed since we lost two of the girls. The two chooks killed in the dog attack were the new ones that arrived with the rooster. Now that they have passed (as John Edwards would say) the other chooks have accepted the rooster.

The rooster hasn't started to crow yet.

The cows are doing well. Now that we have two, does that mean we have cattle?

As for the vegie patch- it is a little neglected. I picked the last cucumber last week and apart from that, the only thing coming out of there at the moment is marigolds.

I made some yogurt last night, but haven't baked a loaf of bread for weeks. I have been pretty busy with my job and business. I am also doing some post-grad study- I so wish I had not thrown myself into that- thank god for my house-dad.

Dogs Kill Chooks

2008-04-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we got home late, after sunset. The chooks had not been locked up. Two dogs came onto our property and killed two of the m.

A third chook has been seriously injured. She has spent the past few days just sitting in the chook shed. Yesterday she ventured out, but is just sitting down next to out water tank. The rooster is cuddling up to her - poor thing.

The two dogs traveled from the valley next to us, about 7kms.

The children were pretty upset about it- but at the same time they are learning valuable lessons about the life cycle.

Bill felt very guilty that he had not locked them up for the night- it was the very first time we had left the chook shed open after dark.

Mayhem in the chookshed

2008-04-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

The old chooks don't like the new chooks; the rooster is terrified and one of the new chooks is dead.

I didn't really understand, fully, what 'the pecking order' meant - but now I am witnessing it in my own chook shed. Since bringing home three new chooks and a rooster our old chooks have been very mean and are actually pecking the new chooks.

Hopefully it will sort itself out soon.

THE ROOSTER

2008-03-21T23:55:00.001-07:00

I bought three new chooks today and a rooster. I was planning on not mentioning to Bill that I had got a rooster, because he doesn't want one. But he noticed. He said, "Did you buy a rooster?"
So, I confessed. He seemed okay about it.
The chooks are kind of mongrels. I'm not sure what the breeds are.
The vegie patch is full of weeds. I have fallen behind because I have been so busy with work. I got in a did a fair bit of weed-pulling this afternoon. I need to get in and recover areas with cardboard and really get a propogation area happening.I am looking forward to winter so I can have a bit of a break from it. I put more potatoes in today.
Rosie is doing really well.

DUNG BEATLE vs Buffalo Fly

2008-03-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

Rosie is settling and feeding well. Brandy alternates between being motherly and jealous. Yesterday when I took a bucket of milk out for Rosie and forgot to bring some pellets for Brandy she head-butted Rosie and then overturned her bucket (what a bitch).

I woke up this morning before sunrise and as soon as Brandy saw the light go on she began her moo-song. They were both waiting at the gate to be fed.

I ran into a friend, Tara, yesterday who had just been to a workshop on dung beatles. She told me they prevent buffalo fly. I mentioned this too my husband and he said- yes we have dung beatles, I see them in the poos the children do on the lawn :)- I will never reprimand them for not usung the potty again!

Tara said the idea is to increase dung beatle populations by importing them- they turn the manure to compost quikly and the buffalo fly has nowhere to lay eggs. You can order them and just put them on poo in your paddock. I think I will give it a go.

BUFFALO FLY- natural recipe

2008-03-18T20:11:00.002-07:00

Brandy has been suffering from a buffalo fly infestation since her last holiday with the beef-cattle up the road. Her eyes were crusty and bloody. I had to use antibiotics from the vet.

For the treatment of the actual fly I ordered some organic stuff off the web. It was essentially a canola oil base with essential oils mixed in, but did not list which oils on the bottle. It was expensive at $29 per litre, plus another nine postage. One application is around 500mls. I have found I need to reapply it about every 4-7 days. So, I decided to have a crack at making my own.

We had a dinner party a few nights later and passed the bottle of organic buffalo fly stuff around the table. I got everyone to have a sniff and write down what they thought was in it- one of our guests was a winemaker- so he was very helpful.

Here is the list we came up with: eucyliptus, pine, orange, lavender and lemon myrtle.

So, I made my own concoction and added some neem oil for good measure. It works just as well as the bought stuff for just a fraction of the price. Essentially, it is a deodorant and can be used on backscratchers or just sprayed directly on- this is how I do it.

If it rains it needs to be reapplied. Otherwise just use when you notice more than 100 buffalo flies on your cow.

NEW CALF

2008-03-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have blogged, so here is the update. Brandy has now escaped many times- she seems to want to hangout with our neighbor's beef-cattle. So on Sunday we adopted her a baby calf. She is about 12 days old now and very cute.

The children have named her Rosie.

Rosie is an A2 jersey cow. We got her from a local A2 dairy. Here is a link to a website all about the benefits of A2 milk: www.a2milk.com

We were given some of her mother's milk and have been mixing it in with formula. The first day we forgot to heat it and couldn't work out why she wouldn't drink it. Anyway, heat it up, just like mamma's udder, and she is into it.

Brandy has taken her in well, licking her and mothering her. But when Rosie tries to suck on Brandy's udder, well, she gives her a kick.

Our thinking is that now Brandy has a friend she wont run away anymore???I feel like the woman who swallowed a spider to catch the fly. I don't know why?

We bought her home in the back of the VW and she was very calm all the way home. We put newspaper and hay on the floor.

We have now run out of her mother's milk. We used it to mix in with the formula to get her used to it. So, as off tomorrow she is just on formula. We bought a big bag of it for $75 and it should last 6-8 weeks. She is also having a little pick at the calf pellets we feed Brandy, but she is not very interested in them.

We are feeding her from a bucket twice a day. So far so good.

The veggie patch is slowing down now that it is getting cooler. I have done a some winter planting and have some potatoes to harvest soon. I haven't had nearly as much time for the garden as I would like. All the marigolds are in bloom but the sunflowers are dying back. The children love running around the little pathways I have made through the garden.

All four chooks are now laying- did I mention chook number five got bitten by a snake- she died. She was the head-chook and after her death it took the other chooks weeks to figure out how to get back in the chook shed. Bill had to run around every night at sunset and carry each one into the shed. It was hilarious. We are going to invest in some more chooks.

EXTENDING THE VEGETABLE PATCH

2007-12-20T15:08:00.000-08:00

I have just begun extending the vegetable patch so that it is four times its former size. The problem with our little vegetable patch was that it was not big enough to keep us in food all the time.

We would have 20 lettuces come on all at once, then 30 cobs of corn then 400 tomatoes. The new approach is to grow multiple lots of the foods we eat, but at different stages.

This will require a lot more space and involves developing a plan, being organised and keeping records.

One of the weaknesses in my garden is that I don't have a proper area for propagating seedlings, so it is a task I am always putting off or avoiding. The propagation area is like the furnace room of the garden, so I really need to address this issue. I am going to propagate under our big locut tree at the edge of the veggie patch and I need to get it set up so that it is an easy space to work in.

The foods that are popular in our house, at least with the children, are : corn, cucumber and carrot. So I am aiming to be totally self sufficient with these. I should also be able to be self sufficient for much of the year with potatoes, pumpkin, onion, garlic, lettuce, tomato and a few culinary herbs, which are other foods we consume a lot of.

There are probably lots more, but the though of trying to achieve everything all at once is overwhelming...

I have planted sunflowers and marigolds to attract birds and repeal insects, plus I love both these flowers.

I am digging circular plots and covering the pathways in between them with cardboard to try and kill the Kikuyu grass. Eventually I will dig out the pathways and fill them with sawdust- free from the local mill. Sawdust takes a lot longer than cardboard to break down.

Around the border of the veggie patch I have planted comfrey, which is an excellent competitor for Kikuyu and a great fertiliser for composting. I am also planting lemon grass to try and compete with the Kikuyu.

The theory goes: comfrey and lemon grass will not overtake the Kikuyu but will hold their own. So to increase coverage you need to keep dividing and replanting in the areas you want them to grow. In our new huge veggie patch this will take a while to achieve.

THE CHOOKS

2007-12-15T03:08:00.001-08:00

Bill finally finished renovating the chook shed. We decided to renovate the old chook shed rather than build a chook dome (which would have been more practical for our gardening requirements, but means the chooks can never roam free) because it had so much character abd I really love the idea of restoring it.

Last weekend we took the children to get some chooks. It was a bit of an anti-climax actually. The guy we bought them off just picked five out a pen and roughly threw them into our cage.

I said to Bill on the way home, "These chooks are going to be so much happier with us."

We bought Isa Brown pullets. Pullets are young females.

Isa Browns are renowned for their 'prolific laying abilities,' according to the guy we bought them from. Our girls are a couple of weeks off the point-of-lay. So all going well they will begin producing eggs soon.

We have bought organic laying pellets as feed. There wasn't any organic laying mash available and nutritionally they are identical. Less food is wasted with pellets than with the loose mash. We are also giving them a selection of food scraps.

As a roost we are using an old low-boy wardrobe with straw in the bottom of it. They seem to like it in there. We have also placed a couple of perches up high near the roof so they at least stand a chance should a fox or snake get into their internal cage, in which they are locked in at night.

Bill is in charge of the chooks and the cats are fascinated by them.

MINDFULLNESS and the house cow

2007-12-15T02:50:00.000-08:00

I have a new approach to my morning ticking session with Brandy. Instead of trying to intimidate her into thinking that I am boss, I am trying to be 'one with her.'

The past few mornings while I was ticking, during her her morning bucket, I have gone very slowly over her body with my hands using the Buddhist technique of mindfulness. I try to remain aware and focused on what I am doing to her and what part of her I am touching.

She is a very anxious animal, and I am also anxious about her horns/poles, with which she is constanlty trying to stab me. The idea is if I am more calm, she will be more calm?

Home Baked Bread Recipe

2007-12-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

We make our own bread most days. It is easy, it doesn't take very long and has chopped our bread bill down by a quarter.

You can buy 25 kilo bags of organic wholemeal flour for around $45. This works out to be $1.35 per loaf. We pay up to $5 per loaf for organic bread in the shops. So it is definitely worthwhile.
Spelt costs about $75 per 25 kilo bag, so again it is still worth baking your own.

People are always so impressed when you mention that you bake your own bread (So I'm always mentioning it). Here is a easy bread making recipe that will make your friends and neighbours think you are the ultimate earth mother (or father) :

3 cups of organic wholemeal or stone ground or spelt or rye flour
(for a fail-safe recipe use 50% plain flour and 50% wholemeal)
1.5 cups of warm-hot-ish water'
4 teaspoons of yeast
1 Teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
You can substitute .5 of a cup of water for yogurt, which is what I do.

Mix the yeast into one cup of warm to hot-ish water. Let it sit for maybe two minutes, it will froth a little which just shows the yeast is active.

Mix all the ingredients in together, holding back .5 of a cup of water which you will mix in as needed.

Kneed the mixture into a firm dough. It should not be too dry of too wet. If it is sticky it is too wet and if it is crumbly it is too dry.

Don't kneed too much. Roll the dough into a ball and leave to sit, covered, for about an hour.

After an hour the dough will have risen. Grease an oblong baking dish and stretch the dough-ball longways to fit into the baking dish. Leave for another 15 minutes to recover its spring, then bake on 160 degrees Celsius for 20-30 minutes in an oven.

Remove when golden brown.

For a soft loaf, wrap in a towel or cloth nappy (preferably clean) this stops the moisture escaping as steam. For a crunchy loaf leave to cool in the open.

Yummmmmmmmm!

Homemade Yogurt Recipe

2007-12-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

We have been making our own yogurt for a little while now with consistently good results.

Here is the recipe I use, the children really love it with a teaspoon of honey swirled though it.

I use the Paris Creek bio-dynamic organic yogurt as a starter because it is the only commercial yogurt I have found that does not have any thickeners in it, it's just milk and cultures.

You can also get starter sachets from the supermarket, but I don't know how to do it that way.

We use raw milk from our neighbours jersey cow. I skim a cup of cream off and then use three cups of un-skimmed milk mixed in with the cream. In the city you could try the Parmalat organic milk, it is really creamy.

I make the yogurt in a kefir pot (a ceramic jar with a lid), this is what they use in India, but you can use anything.

For incubation I use a little Kenwood yogurt incubator to put the pot on, it is a little platform that heats up to the exact temperature required to make yogurt.

But you can also use a hot water system, a sunny window, a thermos, or the pilot light in your gas oven for incubation. It is also possible to use an electric oven by turning it on full boar for 5 minutes and then turning it off- I haven't done it this way, but it may be worth a shot if you are really keen and don' have any other alternatives.

So, here is what you need to do:

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A FOOD THERMOMETER: heat your creamy milk in a thick bottomed pan, or a double boiler, on the stove to the point just before boiling. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool down to the point where it is between hot and warm.I call this "high fever" point, because it is the point just above a normal body temp (36-37 degrees) - between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius.

IF YOU DO HAVE A FOOD THERMOMETER: heat your milk in a thick bottomed pan, or a double boiler, to the point just before boiling. Allow it to cool to between 39 and 41 degrees Celsius.

Add .5 of a cup of culture ,stirring gently. Now the yogurt needs to be incubated. It must not fall bellow 38 degrees. The longer you incubate it the tarter the taste. I wrap the kafer pot in two or three old cloth nappies and put it on the incubator. It takes about 4 hours.

Once it is done immediatley put the yogurt in the fridge.

Homemade yogurt is runny compared to commercial yogurt, and it has lumps in it. If you really want thick yogurt you can use gelatine, just disolve it in at the heating stage. You can also add powdered skim milk which is what they do in a lot of commerically made yogurts.

For creamier yogurt you can add pure cream.

You can add honey at the heating stage too.

I use use this yogurt in bread making as well.

Save .5 of a cup of yogurt as starter for your next batch.

It may to a little while to perfect but it is worth it for delicious home made yogurt. Good luck!

HOUSE COW bloated

2007-11-23T04:15:00.000-08:00

Well, Brandy is doing well but I am worried about her being bloated. On her right side she is a little bloated. I cut back her food and it has gone down a little bit but not entirely, so I am wondering what is going on.

I lent my very detailed cow book to a neighbour- ug. And the same neighbour told me that one of his beef cattle was killed last night by four dingos. He said he has lost three cows to the dingos and he is going to put bait out for them.

Brandy is still wanting to play/ kill me with her horns, so I have taken to walking around the yard with a big stick so that when she charges me I can makes noises and wave the stick at her, which seems to work. Hairy says I need to clip the tips of her horns off with bolt cutters so she can't do too much damage- the thought of it makes me want to puke!

Hairy also says they settle down after they calf- I hope so.

Karina, my freind who milks, told me about getting charged at, while heavily pregnant, by one of her calves with sharp horns . She said, "you just can't trust them."

HOUSE COW breaks into veggie patch.

2007-11-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

Brandy broke into the veggie patch today. She just walked right through the chicken wire fence and started eating. I had fed her some carrots from the garden that had gone to seed, which must have alerted her to the possibilities of the veggie patch.

It was really hard to chase her out, she kept trying to hide behind the corn.

Apart from that, she is doing really well and I feel like she is starting to understand that I am the boss. She hasn't tried to headbutt me for a few days.

We have started buying raw milk from our neighbours which has really got us looking forward to when Brandy starts producing milk.

She is a rather small jersey and we have been advised by our neighbour Hairy to get her artificially inseminated the first few times so that we can select a small breeding line. Otherwise he thinks she will have trouble birthing.

Hairy also said I shouldn't be giving her mollasses everyday because it is sugar and will make her hyperactive- I guess that makes sense.

I'm really loving having her here. She is always hanging around the veggie patch when i am in it.

HOUSE COW is wormed with garlic

2007-11-14T18:12:00.000-08:00

In the book The Healthy House Cow, cow-guru Marja says cows can be wormed for intestinal parasites using two full bulbs of garlic, once per month. She suggested crushing them with the skins on.

So, I just broke up two large bulbs of garlic into a couple of dozen small bulbs and smashed them up with the hammer. I mixed in some molasses and mulberry leave.

Brandy was very interested in the licking the molasses and eating the mulberry leaves and was trying to avoid actually eating any garlic.

I think I will have to mince it up smaller and try again.

Cow-guru also says the mulberry leaves are good for worms too. Brandy has striped the bottom branches of our mulberry bush. I have been going out into the yard and bending down the branches so she can reach the leaves. I think she loves me all the more for it.

I have also begun to feel a little less intimidated by her.

And I have been checking under her tail every morning for ticks. She doesnt really like me doing it, so I feel a little anxious about it. Im also trying to spend more time around her backside in general (sounds great doesn't it) and coming in to touch her udder from behind rather than just the side. I am trying to get he used to me touching her everywhere so that she is co-operative when it comes time for hand-milking.

Bill and I have been pulling ticks off her every morning.

I found this information about ticks on a government website:

usually affects cattle 18–36 months old;
very high risk with rain after drought — tick numbers are very low after long droughts and cattle growing up without being exposed are likely to be highly susceptible;
stress and pregnancy increase susceptibility; and
bulls are more susceptible than other cattle.

HOUSE COW covered in ticks

2007-11-13T02:45:00.000-08:00

This afternoon Xavier discovered a tick on Brandy's eye. I had no idea how I was going to get it off.

Bill suggested we drown the tick in butter....??? So he put a glob of butter half on the eye and over the tick. It didn't work.

Then I tried to get the halter on her so that I could try and keep her head still while I tried to get at the tick, and I couldn't figure out how the thing went on.

I called out to our neighbour Paul who grew up on a cattle property. He came over and got her straight in the headlock and pulled the tick right out. The he gave her a good going over and pulled off all these ticks I had missed, including ones from inside her ear.

But the worse part was herbum-hole and labia were covered in ticks, so I helped him pull them off too.

He has offered to come over and help me tick her ever few days. But I really have to get over my fear that she is going to kick me or stab me with her horn.

He was able to lift up each of her hooves and showed me a few handling techniques, and he figured out how to get the halter on too.

I am beginning to understand what people mean when they say that a house-cow is a lot of work.

I rang Brandy's former mum today to ask if she thought Brandy was just playing when she tries to horn me or if she is actually challenging me. She said:both. She said you have to train her like a dog. If she tries to horn you put the lead on and tie her up. If you have the lead on and she tries it again pull her head down so she can't do it.

Animal pyscology has never been my strong point. And I am beginning to wonder if I am mad for trying to do this organically in the world's tick capital!

House Cow Turns Mean

2007-11-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Brandy tried to give me the horn this morning while I was giving her, her morning bucket. She seemed a bit jittery and wasn't happy with me ticking her. All this made me feel nervous that I was going to really cop a horn in the back or groin. So I didn't tick her and backed off. Which I think has made matters worse. I put the halter on her and lead her around to the front gate and tied her up to the fence. She wouldn't walk on the lead with me beside her, so I had to let her follow me- which she does anyway without a lead

I will leave her tied up for an hour or so to continue getting her used to it. I called my neighbour Hairy to come over and give me some pointers on handling her. He has a few milking cows and has knows how to show then who is boss.

I sense I am at an important junction in my relationship with Brandy. I think she is testing me to see who is boss, and this morning it was definately her. She is only 12 months, but already her size is so intimidating.

HOUSE COW's Morning Routine

2007-11-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

This morning I went and bought a grooming brush for Brandy while Bill fixed the fence. My friend Karina who lives up the road has a house cow and she suggested I have a morning routine with Brandy. Feeding and grooming her at the same time every day- at the time that in future I will be milking her.
So this morning I chopped up some lucerine, calf muesli and this other pellet type thing, that Bill got at the rural supplies store, put it in a bucket and went out to the paddock and while she ate I groomed her. When she was finished she followed me back to the house and licked my hand. This is the first time Brandy has initiated physical contact with me, agh, it was a truly beautiful moment.
And the other amazing thing that happened today was I discovered potatoes in our veggie patch. Bill had chucked a few old rotten potatoes onto a garden bed. I saw something growing there and thought the leaves looked like potato. I noticed today that the leaves were dying back to I decided to have a dig around and pulled out six new potatoes- we will be having baked potatoes for with dinner tonight.

HOUSE COW Does A Runner

2007-11-04T22:21:00.000-08:00

One of the things Bill said in our 'discussion' about getting a house cow was: You will spend half your life trying to find her when she gets out.

Today Brandy did a runner~ Our neighbour's cows came down to the bottom paddock and Brandy started mooing at them and they started mooing back at her. And I did wonder if she might try and get out, but then forgot about it.

It was when I was about to go out that I discovered her gone. She got through our fence and the neighbours and was hanging out with a heard of beef cattle.

I mistakenly thought one was a bull so I was too scared to go in and try and get her. And I had no idea how to separate her from her new found friends.

Thankfully my neighbour Paul offered to help. We drove round the back and up to the top of the paddock and some home he managed to corner her and get her away from the rest of the heard. We then got her through the gate and back into our place.

I didn't realise cows were so social. Another neighbour who came around today said, "she is going to give you so much trouble unless you get her a companion." I don't think I can convince Bill that two cows will be easier than one.

When we got her back she was covered in ticks- which is disappointing because I back lined her with essential oils yesterday for ticks.

The vegie patch is doing well.

House Cow

2007-11-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

We bought our "renovators dream" about two years ago when I was about 8 months pregnant with our third child. We had BIG plans. Two years later we have done nothing and I'm a bit fed up with it.
At the beginning of spring we dug up some garden beds and created a veggie patch . I've enjoyed growing vegetables so much that I have decided I am really going to get into this rural thing.
Actually, we live in a rural area but we only have a couple of acres with a decrepit old farmhouse on it. Still it is enough to try and be semi-self sufficient.
My partner doesn't share my enthusiasm for a house cow and chooks. But after much pestering he has commenced work on resurrecting the old chook house. And after days of , let's say lively discussion, he agreed on a house cow.
Our house cow, Brandy, arrived today. She is a 12 month old jersey cow. I had a look around at a few cows before I decided on her. A neighbour had some friesians that were in calf, but I wanted the jersey because they eat less and we only have about 3 acres of grass for her to graze on, and because the cream content in the jersey cow is higher. This is better for making cheese- which I also want to learn how to do.
I went and saw a farmer who had some jersey cows for sale. He got one into the yard for me to look at but as I tried to approach it, it ran away. I hadn't realised that cows need to be broken in.
Last week I saw and add in the paper for a 12 month old jersey who "will lead." This means she is used to having a halter on. So we went to look at her and were able to approach her with the owner and pat her. It was basically love at first sight.
She was delivered today. She cost $400 and it was $150 to have her delivered. Brandy is more used to people than she is other animals, so obviously we don't have to break her in.
Her previous owner bottle fed her from three days old and has been pulling her teats regularly to get her used to being handled, so that milking will be easier.
We have got her in the house-block at the moment and she is letting my partner, Bill, and I hand feed her, but when the kids approach she backs off.
We have bought a bag of calf muesli, $20, and a bale of hay,$15. The guy at the rural supplies store told Bill that is all we need to give her, if we have plenty of grass, and it will last about three weeks. So that's about $11.66 per week.
Our neighbour Sophie has given me a recipe for a natural tick repellent which is:
1 tbsp tea tree oil
1 tbsp eucalyptus oil
1 tbsp citronella
250 ml water
50 ml of cooking oil
Put it all in a spray pack and spray it down down the back and around the udder. She suggested I tie her to the fence while I am doing it because she probably wont like it.