Sad news.

Lost our beautiful little mate Henry today. He was 11 and my constant companion, child minder, protector. There's a huge hole in my heart that he has left. 

RIP Little Buddy.

"Good boy."

Bees, Battery hens, and Baking Bread.

We did it! We started our sour dough culture! Here's a picture of it on day 2.

The idea is to use naturally occurring yeasts in the air, keep them cultivated in a 'starter', and take from it to bake your loaves. In that way, this is our first fully-fledged "Hill Shadow Loaf" with yeasts from the air of Mt Dandenong!

Ben did it. And I was AMAZED how light and fluffy it was!

 

Not at all like any dense, large-holed, peasant-bread-style sour dough I'd ever had before..!? Then he finally admitted that he added packet yeast. He CHICKENED OUT! Bahahaha. So as I type this, the first REAL Hill Shadow Sour Dough Loaf is proofing on the window sill! NO ADDED YEAST. Just spelt flour, wheat flour, water, a little salt, and our homemade starter.

If you want to give it a go too, here's where we got our information.

The next exciting thing that happened this week is that the fabled "Hill Shadow Ferals" proved themselves to be real! We were told there was a perennial swarm of bees that returned each year to the barn wall, un-deterred by sprays or people, although the previous tennant was unsure if they were bees or wasps. Oh-oh.

Then this week!:

They are indeed bees!!! Too big to be natives, but i know NEXT TO NOTHING about bees. But I want to know! What an amazing natural resource we might have stumbled upon! Now I just have to work out what to do next...

We were also inspired by the kitchen garden at Heide Museum of Modern Art. And we put in some tom thumb tomatoes, oregano, and capsicum seedlings. Hopefully they wont go the way of the beans: Only one of them is unscathed by slugs.

 






And finally, we picked up our 12 new Isa Brown hens, rescued from a battery farm by Crystals Barnyard.

Poor girls are in pretty good feather condition, considering. It was heart warming to watch them on their first free-range day: They couldn't believe they were free. Some were reluctant to leave the henhouse. Others luxuriated in the dust and afternoon sun.

It's lovely to know that this will be their life from now on.

Right, now Im off to pick Katie up from Kinder, put my sour dough in the oven, and decide what to do with thses GORGEOUS strawberries I got from the produce market this morning...

Have a go at starting a sour dough from yeast at your place! (You dont need a farm!)
xx

Brownies, baking, and balloon-legs.

Poor old Will has a fat leg! Im not sure how, but he's cut it somewhere in his paddock, and its puffed up like a balloon! I've hosed it out & sprayed the wound with tea tree, and added some garlic and tumeric to his feed for anti-inflamatory effects, and we'll see how he goes. Other than that, he'll be resting.

Which you know he hates.

OHH THE HUMANITY!!!

Today Katie and I cooked up a batch of brownies while Tara had her morning nap. These were using coconut flour, and let me just state from the outset that I haven't had alot of success with coconut flour recipes. And by that I mean, no success. everything Ive cooked has turned out rubbery, tasteless, or dry.

But at last! SUCCESS!!! These brownies are BEAUTIFUL! AND refined sugar and grain-free, which is a bonus! Even the kids wanted seconds!

So of course I will share the recipe! I got it from Pinterest, but I gather the original is from www.naturalnews.com .

PALEO BROWNIES (No refined sugar, dairy, grain)

1/2 c coconut flour
1/2 c cacao powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda

Combine these dry ingredients in one bowl.

1/2 c honey (Raw if you have it. Pretty sure you could use maple syrup too)
1/3 c coconut oil
5 free range eggs
2 T water

Combine these wet ingredients in another bowl.

Slowly add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, stirring well. pour mix into a well-greased 8x8 brownie pan and smooth top. The original recipe says 'bake at 350 deg F for 30 minutes' which I think is about 170 deg C, BUT my oven is hot and fan-forced, so i only baked for 27min at 150 deg C. You know your oven: Just keep an eye on them. If the top is 'dry' and it is 'springy' in the middle, I reckon you're done.
Let cool before slicing.

Om nom nom.

 

Got any other proven yummy coconut flour recipes you can share?

Now excuse me, Katie and I have some important bowl-licking to do...

xx

  

 

Teeth, twigs, and time ticking away!

My Mother in law's bluebells - FLOWERING! <3

Just when I thought summer was here... Today is freezing again! yesterday afternoon I had to walk my horse down to the neighbour's place to have him seen to by the Equine Dentist through gale force winds and icy rain! I felt completly mad! But today is the old boy's 18th birthday, so its nice to know he'll be able to crunch comfortably on his birthday carrots!

 

Cant believe I've had him 13 years now! Gee it seems like a long time! And it also means I've been riding horses for 24 years! I started riding at 8, but I think the horsey-bug has started to bite Katie a little earlier...

I also went to a Home Harvest seminar night last Wednesday where I think I was about the youngest there by 20 years... but I did get some good ideas and affirmation about what we're doing. Here's Ben's great custom 'glass house' over our pea seeds in our bale garden...

Re-purposed windows from a demolition!: Genius.

And here's my silver beet seedlings that I swapped for some citrus (score!) but that I am taking NO CHANCES with! As you can see I have surrounded them with twigs (blackbird deterrent!), coffee grounds (slugs!) AND crushed egg shells (snails!). Hopefully Ive been cautious/paranoid enough for something to survive for once!

And here you see my custom Lady Bug hotel! I'm trying to encourage GOOD pests to my garden! (Wanna know more about Bug Hotels? Try here.)

Still no sign of the beans yet...

But plenty of these.

Still, there is one cute furry critter round the place-

Naaaw, Tufty!

What critters help your garden? 
Do you put any sustainable practices into place at your place?

Keep your coffee grounds!
xx 

Snippets, sunscreen, seeds, soil and sunshine.

Im gonna use a prompt from Kate over at Foxslane (I blog I adore - check it out!) and do a snippets post today. Maybe you can do one too? I'd love to check out yours...

enjoying
GLORIOUS spring Melbourne days. Today is a clear, sunny 26 degrees celcius.

playing
Nothing at the moment. The sound of the rainforest birds here, with the occasional neigh, "Mum!", or cock-a-doodle-doo is all the sound track I need :)

smelling
My coffee here at my desk. Hazelnut! Yum!

wearing
Summer clothes and sunscreen! Already! Plus if I'm in the garden, my trusty Akubra, always. If you don't know what an Akubra is, here you go. If you're an Aussie and you don't know what an Akubra is: SHAME ON YOU ;)



reading
Jackie French's 'Backyard Self-sufficiency'. The beans and peas are in in our new bale garden. Now FINGERSCROSSED they grow! (pleasepleaseplease) Gardening seems simple - plant a seed, good soil, water, sun. But my track record isnt great. I wish I knew why I have such bad luck with vegetables! Hopefully my luck will start to change! And soon!



crocheting
Ive been meaning to start a coffee-plunger cosy for my Stepdad... but... *sigh* Tonight! I swear!

flicking to
Not sure what this means (?) but im always flicking over to watch Dance Moms on You Channel. It's my guilty pleasure *blush*

enjoying
Days outside in the sun NOT unpacking the few last boxes I should be getting around to... It's just too nice out! I'm sure there'll be more grey days like the one pictured below I can get around to those boxes.



not loving
Washing up. Does it ever end?!?!

knowing
I've got a horsey-girl on my hands. It's only a matter of time before she asks me for a pony, I just know it. I've always said the girls can choose their own interests, and I will happily drive them to karate/soccer/art/dance/chess-WHATEVER. I am quite happy for neither of them to be horse-mad like Mummy. But I can see Katie's interest in the horses already, and she's always keen to hop on Will anytime I'm off for a ride. Daddy: just giving you an early head's up... ;)

 

wondering
What the HECK Henry is barking at in the blackberry thicket!!! He keeps going up there and he just stares into the brambles and barks, and barks and barks!

dreaming
Of getting my sewing machine set up and my sewing table set up and making some new summer dresses for the girls! (And maybe me!) But that means getting in amongst THOSE AFORE-MENTIONED BOXES...so...

hoping
To adopt some ex-battery hens at the end of September, and give them a new life in free-range chook heaven! With this handsome devil-

Lennon

knitting
Last thing I did was a beanie for Ben. Actually, i did 2, because the first one turned out ridiculously small. It looked like a Jewish Kippah. We both nearly wet ourselves laughing and I gave that one to a friend's little boy, and made another!

laughing at
Black Books. We've just watched the whole series again!

casting on
Hmm, what's next? Im thinking of starting a school cardigan for Katie's first year of school next year. The uniform is Red, Green and White, some I'm thinking a red one...

grateful for
This new childhood I can now provide my kids with! They are always outside now: Climbing, creating, exploring. The TV is hardly ever on during the day now. I love that they've got the run of this whole farm 'playground', and they absolutely love it!



adoring
Tara's first pigtails!!!

 

smiling at
Kate's antics on her trampoline, andhearing her talking to herself as she plays some involved imaginary game.
"...hey sister, we need to go to our house! No you cant until the fires have gone. We have to stay in Queensland..."

Your turn! What are you enjoying, playing, smelling, listening, wearing, reading crocheting, flicking to, enjoying, not loving, knowing, wondering, dreaming, hoping, knitting, laughing at, casting on, grateful for, adoring, smiling at?

Have a beautiful week. But, blog it later - get out an enjoy this gorgeous weather while it lasts!
xx

Parasites, productivity and ponies!

Ugh. After the death of 2 of our lovely chooks, we found the beginnings of a lice infestation! Seriously?! Come ON! So hopefully a dusting with Pestine (on the girls and round their home), a thorough worming (chooks, dog, horse, and us!) and a little prayer, that will be the end of this particular run of unfortunate luck! Grr.

Hubby did get productive last weekend: Mowing the back lawn, collecting some bales and putting them around our garden beds, and putting up Katie's swing! She's a bit chuffed about that :)

So now she spends most of her time either on the swing, on the trampoline, on my hay bales, or in one of her many farm castles/hidey-holes...

The weather's a bit wet today, so the girls and I went and joined our local library (ESSENTIAL) and now Tara's having her afternoon nap, so I've ducked round and taken a few pics to introduce you to some of our equine residents...

Shy showpony 'Electra'

Bigger on the inside 'Tufty'

(Who could resist a face like this?!)

Fresian horse that looks like he belongs to the Black Knight 'Randolf'

Sweet girl 'Lily'

And of course the man in my life 'Will' (and the other man in my life, 'Henry')

I hope you're having a lovely week. GO JOIN YOUR LIBRARY!!!
x