Our Old Miners Cottage

Chicken New Year!

2012-01-30T16:21:00.001+11:00

For my first post of the year, I'd like to introduce you to the new loves of my life..

Here's one..

..and here's the rest!

There are 8 little fluff balls all up, our best incubation result ever (of the 14 eggs I put in the incubator, 8 were fertile. Since all 8 hatched, we couldn't be happier!)

We were intending to hand their care over to a broody hen, who was sitting on some golf balls. She decided at the last minute that chicks weren't such a good idea after all, which meant we had to come up with a solution for their housing pretty fast.

Marty and I work best under pressure.. so we came up with a quick plan.

Yes, well.. technical drawings complete, we got down to work.

Aaah 12mm ply board. What can't it do?

We changed the design as we went along, so the end result doesn't look much like the technical drawings - a good thing!!

The 8 little dorking chicks have a lot more room now! The top door is open to let some heat out.. only until the thermostat I ordered arrives in the mail. It will turn the light off once the temperature is perfect, and turn it on again if it strays. It should save some electricity and a little worry.

I have some chick-watching to do..
Until next time!

Who left the tap on?

2011-12-18T19:52:00.000+11:00

It wasn't us! I swear! What looked like this in 2009 for example (and that was mid winter, and we thought it was a lot of water!!) looked like this a few minutes ago..

We had a little rain, yep. 74.4mm (or 2.92 inches) in about 4 hours. That's more than double our average December rainfall in just a few hours! We took the pictures a little after we'd made sure the chooks were safe and dry, and we helped the water get through their pen as quickly as possible.

The area behind our land is a council owned drain, and while it was generally working, it was over-full and overwhelmed.

You can see the chip-bark had been washed away by the force of the water earlier. Thankfully the chooks were smart enough to stay inside their house until the worst was over.

Staying dry

The water pushed everything aside, but thankfully the concrete slab was slightly higher than the water level up here. The water was in a hurry to get past anyway.

After the worst had passed

Thankfully it didn't take too long after the rain settled down for the water to drain away. It was almost like someone opened up a flood gate downstream somewhere.

So that was our excitement for the day. No.. make that for the year. :)

They grow up so fast

2011-12-01T16:49:00.001+11:00


Andrew Jackson and a barnevelder buddy

They've moved into a larger box in the loungeroom, and they're growing up fast. Feathers are already on the wings and growing on the tails. Andrew Jackson has a bald patch on the top of his head where fluff is being replaced.

I just love his punk rock eye-liner. :)

The Barnevelder is 4 weeks old, and Andrew Jackson (a Houdan) is 3 weeks old. Given the hot and cold weather we're experiencing lately, I thought we'd give them at least another week indoors, but without a heat lamp because it's quite steady in here.

The other Barnevelder chicks are outside, but they have a big warm broody chook to keep them warm still.

Until next time!

Catching up

2011-11-22T18:58:00.001+11:00

It's all about the chooks lately. They seem happy and healthy, but all seem determined to go broody. That means they stop laying eggs, take up residence in the nest boxes and stop going outside and acting like chooks should. Times that by 4 or 5, and we have ALL the nest boxes taken up with broody hens, which causes the non-broody girls upset when they want to lay, and they let everyone in the neighbourhood know about it!

It's all about broody management right now. So we've made a small "sin-bin".

It may not look like much, but it'll be "home" to these two girls for the next few days. There are no comforts, just food and water and shelter from the rain. It's sad, but it's better than them staying broody forever and not eating, loosing condition and generally not enjoying life. In a day or two, these girls will be happy chooks once again. Then we'll put another two broody girls in there. We have no shortage!

I meant to take a picture of the chicks, but I left it a little late today, and the flash on the camera is a little too scary. Next time!

Also, last time I mentioned the new bedroom door, and now here's the picture.

We still need to put the door handle in, fix the walls, add skirting boards, architraves, etc.. lots of work left to do!

Until next time!

It's Spring already?

2011-11-08T21:49:00.002+11:00

Things are busy lately, and I've been slack about letting you know what's happening! We had the builder around who put up a wall and door. It's between the bedroom and loungeroom. I havn't had a chance to take a picture as yet, but I will! (Especially once it's finished and looking nice. Right now it's just plasterboard.)

We've halted renovations for a bit because we've been concentrating on new arrivals!

There are 6 little barnevelder chicks just out of the incubator. :)

They're all happy living with a broody chook outside in the A frame. She's been great with them and looking after them carefully.

Since we have more eggs hatching as I type, we've been working hard getting a new brooder box set up for another broody to look after these next chicks too! We finally finished it today..

It's made almost entirely of scrap materials, and we're really happy with the outcome.

The most expensive item was the mouse mesh we used for the bottom, which was (I think) $50 for the roll. Otherwise, everything else came to around $25 plus screws and the value of the scrap wood and second hand chook wire.
I'm not counting the purchase of the staple gun. :) That was obviously a necessity and will be used for other projects! It did make putting the wire on less of a (painful) chore!

We'll be enjoying a couple of days off now watching houdan chicks hatch and putting another broody hen to work. This time it's Funky's turn. There are also 4 other broody hens that need to be convinced that motherhood isn't for them this time around. Did I say days off? ha!

Until next time.

No news is chook news

2011-10-16T20:23:00.001+11:00

I really only have chook news to update you on today. There really hasn't been much else going on.

When I let the chooks into "our" yard, they almost always head straight for the pear tree. That can only be a good thing!

The last two weekends we've been at poultry auctions. Last weekend we came home with some Barnevelder eggs from our nice neighbour a couple of doors down. They're in the incubator as I type.

This weekend we came home with some Houdan eggs and a new member of the chooky family!

He's a beautiful looking Dorking rooster.

This evening he "flew the coop" so to speak, and perched on the handle of a bike in the shed. Thank goodness he didn't try and get up one of the big trees we have, or we'd be climbing up with him! We waited until dark before getting him, giving his flight feathers a quick trim and putting him in the chook pen with the girls. Hopefully he settles in and is a happy chap with all those girls to look after.

So, the Houdan eggs will go in the incubator on Tuesday when I candle the Barnevelder eggs for the first time, and who knows.. in 3 or 4 more weeks.. things could be pretty hectic around here!

We were thinking about this on the way home from the auction, and I said "Perhaps we'll get another broody hen by then.." and tonight it seems we have three. I really should be more careful what I wish for! :)

Until next time!

PS: I forgot to mention the snake!!

Yep, I did say snake. It's the very first time I've encountered a snake in a backyard before, and it was a beauty. I was hanging out the laundry (or bringing it in.. I can't remember), and I heard the chooks make their soft-alert noise. It's a gentle cluck that says "Something's not right here!". Usually this means a blue-tongue lizard has been spotted, so I went over and had a look.

Fully expecting to see a lovely lizard, I was shocked into squealing when I saw the snake. It was quite long, perhaps 2 meters (78in.) (maybe? we're still debating this), a copper brown colour and quite fast. I ran inside and told Marty. The chooks stood deadly still and just clucked their alert.

It headed up towards the house a little, but thankfully felt out of place in the short grass (I'm so glad I've been keeping on top of the mowing lately!), and headed back into chook territory.

It spooked us and the chooks for the rest of the afternoon, but it had gone for good and thankfully we havn't seen it since.

The ghost..

2011-09-10T18:41:00.002+10:00

Ok, I'll try my best to explain the ghost situation..

I could just say there's a "feeling" in the old section of the cottage, but that's not really going to cover it! There has been a few odd things happen around here.

Firstly, I guess it's the clock. Clocks actually. I'll explain. We got a nice big decorative clock for above the fireplace in the loungeroom. We got it new, it's large and we really like it. Only problem is, it never really worked. I suppose there's nothing too unusual about that. It just never kept time. I don't sleep well with the ticking sound anyway, so we replaced the mechanism inside with a silent one. The mechanism was brand new, never used, but once again, the clock never kept accurate time. We put expensive batteries in it, we tried cheap ones. We went through whole packs. Eventually we gave up and just left the clock to it's own devices.

A while back Marty found a cheap plastic alarm clock at an op-shop he liked. He brought it home and it worked perfectly with the old battery in it. We kept it in the kitchen, but as we already have a clock in there, we moved it into the loungeroom. Oddly, soon after it was in the loungeroom (just below the big fancy clock, on the mantle) it stopped keeping correct time. We re-set it, but it back in the kitchen, and it's fine again!

Clocks don't like our front room. That's ok. We lived with that knowledge for.. well, it's been over a year.

Something else.. one night at around midnight, I was in the kitchen doing some dishes while Marty was asleep in the bedroom. He had an early start, and I figured I'd clean up a bit to make it easier for him in the morning. I suddenly heard the TV come on, very loud. Thinking that was odd, I walked into the loungeroom saying "Marty? Are you ok?" and when I got in there, Marty wasn't in there. He was still snoring in the bedroom! Not wanting Marty to be woken up, I grabbed the remote control to turn it off. Only, the remote wouldn't work. I pressed harder, still nothing.. figured the batteries must have died. So I went to the TV to hit the power button there. Still wouldn't work. By this stage I was starting to feel really creeped out, so I woke Marty and he tried the remote and TV power button as well. No luck.

Finally, I moved the cabinet a bit and reached down and turned the power off at the wall. That worked!

The next day, I used the remote to turn on and off the TV, and it worked just fine. Infact, we still havn't needed to change the batteries.

So, back to the clocks.. this is the really weird part. Thursday, the day the floor was finished, the little clock Marty bought finally needed it's battery replacing. So, after replacing it and resetting the time, I put it in the bedroom. Remembering I don't like the sound of clocks ticking while I sleep, I decided to try the mantle in the loungeroom again. As I turned around and looked up at the big clock I realised they had the same time on them. I thought, 'Wow, that's a coincidence!'

The next day, I noticed they both still showed the right time and it was then that Marty noticed it for the first time. He said it must be a coincidence. I just smiled. This morning when I woke, I heard Marty in the loungeroom saying "That's just creepy!". Yes, they're still showing the correct time.

So that's why I think the ghost is happy with the new floor. :)

Chook Buffet - now open

2011-09-10T11:41:00.000+10:00

I mentioned before that we needed shelter for the two treadle feeders for the chooks. Well, we did manage to do just that! We had an old water tank out the back we were given by some friends to make raised garden beds. Well.. I thought it'd make a fine chook feeder house.It works quite well! The only thing is.. what to do with the bit we cut out? And besides that, there are a few supplementary items the chooks get.. like shell grit, calcium from crushed egg shells and cuttlefish, Livamol and Molodri (which is diatomaceous earth). They could use an outdoor home too.. So, the solution..An old table we had lying around provided the structure for the new house. Hooks hold the goodies at chook height, and the chooks are happy they can see what they're eating now. :)Aside from the goodies and the chook food, we've been giving them mash made from carrots and garlic and a little wormwood for 4 days before the full moon to help control internal parasites. We're trying to avoid chemicals at all costs, and so far it appears to be working. The chooks are healthy and laying well.

New Floor!

2011-09-10T10:48:00.000+10:00

Wednesday - Everyone was around to help! Our builder, Gary and a friend of ours, Leigh. We made significant progress on the floor.

A good time was had by all. :)

Until someone decided to get lost in the Grampians, and everyone downed tools to help go look for them. (SES call-out)

Thursday - It was finished!!

Since the floor is nice and level now, we've had to put in a step down into the kitchen area. I got Marty to demonstrate this morning..

We'll have it covered soon enough, but it does show off the insulation and underfloor.

I put the heater on in the kitchen last night (we had a little cold-snap) and it's already much nicer. It's only going to get better!

PS: Our ghost is happy with the new floor, too.

Making a floor!

2011-09-05T21:02:00.000+10:00

We were ready for him this time! We woke up early and our builder arrived shortly after breakfast. We worked hard most of the day, only being held up by the local hardware store deliverie times and their mistakes. Oh well.. the end result is..

Almost a floor!

The green stuff is insulation. It's almost unbelievable that it's taken such a short amount of time to get this far. Plus, I knew it would happen.. but we're both saying to ourselves "See, it wasn't really that hard after all!" and "Why did it take us so long..?"

Infact.. we're even considering doing the same thing in the front two rooms once these two are finished. (But, I really do mean finished. Totally. Absolutely. Finished!) And it really shouldn't take us.. uhh.. oh dear..

More than 2 years and 8 months!!

Well.. That's truly embarrassing!

On the plus side.. the builder is returning again tomorrow. Walking in those two rooms may be possible by the time I next update you! :)

Not 'just another day' at the Old Miner's Cottage

2011-08-30T18:01:00.000+10:00

It all started at 8am this morning when we were woken by a knock at the front door. Marty leaped out of bed to let our friendly builder in. Hooray!

From then on, it was all go! Marty jumped in the ute and grabbed the stumps and concrete making supplies. It wasn't long before the first stump was in.

After a few hours of solid work, things are looking promising.

Yes, I'm very glad to report that all the stumps are in the ground. That alone would have made for a happy blog post, but our friendly cabinet maker came over today as well. The end result looks fantastic!

He's done a great job. He even used the old doors when creating the new ones, so they match perfectly.

The builder will be around again early next week, and I'll have further floor progress shots to show you then!

Finally, a successful feeder!

2011-08-26T20:14:00.000+10:00

Oh, I wish I had a picture of what Marty and I saw today!

The chooks have been using the treadle feeder for a while now.. and they have the hang of it just fine. They jump on the treadle, see the food and eat like there's nothing more natural in the world. Even Chicken, at the bottom of the pecking order, proudly shows off her treadle expertise now days. Infact, lazier chooks wait for her to open it up for them!

Anyway, today Marty and I spied a pidgen in the chook yard. It was unusual only because most of the birds have given up by now. We watched it for a little bit as it pecked around the treadle feeder. I thought "No way, it can't be that smart." and sure enough, it hopped on the treadle!

Thankfully it wasn't nearly heavy enough to open the lid, and it was soon gone again.

The chooks no longer have to put up with mice scuttling around the roof in the evenings.. they're all but gone! Little european finches aren't hanging around in flocks eating the feed (making a mess and giving chooks lice). As an added bonus (as if saving money and sanity wasn't enough), the treadle feeders hold plenty of food, so the chooks never run out or carry-on at me in the mornings for their breakfast.

Makes for a healthier, happier chook pen all round.

Those pictures I promised you..

2011-08-23T20:18:00.000+10:00

First up is what I think is an old belt buckle that we found in the sand of the bedroom floor.

..and here is the pictures of the new dishwasher.

It's actually only a dish drawer which uses 6.7 litres per wash. So far it's working great (after fixing the plumbing). Speaking of which..

It's not leaking anymore! I'm not sure if we've mentioned it yet, I wanted to assure you, it takes *at least* three tries for us to get plumbing right. No matter what or where, it always leaks the first few times. :)

We're still nice and busy. We have put the red bark chips in the chook pen, which should help with the mud - but since we havn't had any rain in a few days, everything is nice and dry again anyway. Oh well! The ute came in handy bringing it home, and I also fit 11 strawbales in the tray today! There's a farm out of town who sells straw at only $2 a bale, so we usually stock up every now and then.

We also planted another passionfruit today, since the last one didn't make it (the root stock took over). So we pulled out the old one, planted it on the chook pen fence, and put a new passionfruit in it's place. We'll have to put some temporary shade cloth near it so it has a chance to establish before the summer kills it off again.

No word from our friendly builder yet.. crossing fingers he hasn't, after having a chance to think about what he's getting into, ran for the hills. ;)

(More..) Diggin' holes

2011-08-20T23:07:00.000+10:00

Just a quick one before I fall into bed and sleep-in tomorrow because we're both exhausted!

Well, the ute got the roadworthy just fine, I picked it up on Monday and got an appointment for the registration on Tuesday. That went very smoothly and it's all legal now! I took it to Horsham to get the transmission looked at and unfortunately they think it's worse than we thought. Marty is considering doing some work to it himself, but I'm not sure he has the time, to be honest!

We've finished the digging in the loungeroom and bedroom. All the stump holes are done! Some of the ground was pretty sandy so we dug out about a wheelbarrow worth of sand so we could get to solid ground for one of the stump holes. We found what looks like a belt buckle? It's green and has a flower pattern on it.. I'll have to post a picture next time!

I didn't mention before, but we have bought a new dishwasher and have spent the day installing it in the kitchen! It probably shouldn't take two whole days and most of tonight to install, but there was a bit of creative plumbing required. I'll show you what I mean via pictures really soon. We're waiting to see if the one tiny drip has stopped before calling it finished just yet though. The cupboard it's installed in will be finished off by our friendly local cabinet maker, so it should end up looking all-right. :)

Otherwise, there's been some gardening done - the pear tree got a little prune and some cuttings have been potted-up in hopes they'll become more pear trees. There's plenty of compost to go around the garden, and everything is just starting to spring into action.

Not me though. I'm going to bed! :)

Diggin' holes

2011-08-15T18:51:00.000+10:00

We have progress! We have done half the hole digging in the loungeroom and bedroom.

The ute is ready to be picked up tomorrow morning (delayed due to busy schedules), and hopefully getting registered this week. Cross fingers, because we have booked it in to get the transmission looked at on Thursday in Horsham (which is about 45 minutes away), and we might have to cancel if we aren't legal by then.

The weather has alternated between lovely warm days and wet cold ones. Checking on the chooks this evening, they were all wet on the perches.. even so, I collected 8 eggs!

This isn't a ratchet!

2011-08-10T21:15:00.000+10:00

We went out to get a ½ inch ratchet this afternoon and came home with this..

..and we didn't even get the ratchet!

Chooks and Utes!

2011-08-10T12:08:00.000+10:00

Well, I've finished the second feeder for the chooks! (I did get some help from Marty in the end - it was either that, or walk away in frustration a few more times.) Haha. It's a new improved version of the last, and boy am I glad it's done.

The chooks are using it just fine, although they still need the lid to be opened a just a little to remind them of what's in there (and that it's worth the effort of standing on the treadle). Infact, even Chicken (the araucana) is using it! She's the smallest chook in the pen, and quite flighty.

I made a new set of nest boxes so there is room enough to put the feeder inside the house. I just couldn't bear to leave it outside like the other one. We need to make a little under-cover area just for the feeders.. but that might be a little way off. The chooks like their new nest boxes at least! See?

There's an odd egg in that bunch. Laid by a Dorking by the looks of it. Ouch!

In the meantime the Ute is coming along fine! We have replaced the aerial, put in a battery tray and holder.. we've replaced a gasket, fixed and painted a little rust, replaced a burnt out bulb, fixed the horn (that was a tricky one!!).. and the bench seat is at the upholsters getting repaired as I type. I have to get some shock absorbers today and hopefully everything will come together for a grand finale with Friday's final roadworthy. Well, here's hoping! The Ute still needs tyres, and the steering wheel needs a little fixing too.

The first job the Ute will be employed for is getting some redbark chips for the chook pen. I hear that woodchips help to keep down the mud. We've been having so much rain lately that the chooks have nowhere dry left to sit - so they end up all muddy. Yuck!

Looking up!

2011-08-05T20:12:00.001+10:00

Marty and I have been feeling overwhelmed with the lack of progress on the renovations lately. The stress was starting to take it's toll, so we kicked ourselves into action and finished the last of the mortar on the foundation. It only took a day and it made us feel a little better about everything once again. After all, there are no excuses to not get a floor in now!

Even better, Marty contacted a builder who came over and took a look and told us what to do next! We now have a note with measurements for putting in stumps and a 2 weeks to get the holes dug. When the builder returns from holiday, he's going to help us put the floor in!!

It's a HUGE relief knowing things are (finally) happening. We both feel like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders.

Added to that, we've taken the Ute to start the process of roadworthy. Turns out there are only a few issues that need addressing, so hopefully by next week, we'll have it on the road! Also, I've been working on getting another treadle feeder made for the chooks. It's only taken 2 days (rather than 2 weeks!) to get the feeder almost finished, and it's already much better than the first. I'm really happy with it! Oh, and I got some new needles for the new 328P sewing machine, and it runs smoothly without skipping any stitches. It's quiet and so very neat to pack away into it's cabinet once I'm done sewing. I absolutely LOVE that machine!! :) It sure feels like everything is looking up!

I'll be sure to take pictures soon and keep you updated!

A small collection of sewing machines

2011-07-30T19:53:00.000+10:00

Way back in 2008, I wrote a little about my 319K Singer sewing machine. I don't sew a lot, but it did everything I asked of it.. until it stopped. I am embarrassed to admit, despite knowing the machine took special needles, I didn't check that the needle IN the machine was the right one! So eventually the lovely machine seized-up and I took her in for a service. It cost over $100 to find out that yes, the needle was wrong, so I got a few of the correct ones and a new bobbin case. Checking the ones I knew to be right with the spare ones that came with the machine, can you believe that ALL of the spare ones were the right size? It was just the one needle that was in the machine that was wrong!! Perhaps that's why it was given to the opportunity shop in the first place? Sewing with the correct needle is so smooth in comparison, and I'm very glad to have the machine back and working so beautifully.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, I won an old Singer sewing machine on eBay for a very cheap $30. The reason I wanted it was to use the treadle for my beloved 319K. I picked it up on Tuesday and Marty and I rearranged the loungeroom to fit it. I didn't really look at it again until today, when I researched the model number. It's a 201P, made in Penrith, NSW here in Australia and it's said to be one of the best sewing machines of it's day. Although I wasn't planning on keeping it - I've found myself too fond of it to throw it away!

One more! Yesterday Marty and I went to a clearing auction. It was a funny day because we had decided the day before not to go. I was starting to feel ill, and we thought we'd give it a miss. Well, that morning I woke bright and early feeling fine, so we got in the car and took a drive up to Warracknabeal. We looked through everything on offer, and bid on a few items. There were 3 sewing machines available. One was very fancy, lovely treadle table, old machine.. it sold for over $100. Another had a lovely old machine, but a rather dull treadle table. I think it sold for $60-ish because of the decoration on the machine itself. The final one I saw was just perfect! A lovely 328P "Style-O-Matic" - it had a funky cabinet (not a treadle) with a matching chair. It called out to me! Clearly (and thankfully) it didn't call out to anyone else, because I won it for a meagre $25! When we went to put it in the car (along with far too many other items) we found that it came with a full set of fashion disks and just about everything else you could imagine. I think I have a lifetime supply of needles, pins and thread. :)

So, I've become a minor collector of vintage Singer sewing machines. I seem to be drawn to machines from the late 50's to the late 60's. Perhaps I owned some in a former life!

More eggs!

2011-07-25T21:09:00.000+10:00

So many eggs! I've given away one dozen to the neighbour, and we'll give another dozen to some friends tomorrow.. and there are another two dozen spare in the fridge. Notice the green eggs?? One of the araucana pullets has started laying, we call her Funky. Perhaps you'll see why in the next picture?

Funky is the black chook. :)

The feeder in the picture is something Marty and I made over a couple of weeks. It's designed to open only when the chooks stand on the platform. Hopefully, once the chooks get use to it, it'll help keep the mice and wild birds from eating all their food!

Otherwise, life has been quiet here. This winter had been fairly dry up until a couple of days ago. The Baker's Oven has been keeping us warm on the few nights that we've really needed it. Believe it or not, we've actually been camping a couple of times and didn't freeze to death!

Until next time!

Plodding along..

2011-06-14T21:41:00.000+10:00

Can you spot the commercial egg?

We've started getting a few eggs from the girls. The little ones are the first ones from a dorking pullet who has started laying far earlier than the others! These last few days both the australorp / black chooks have started laying again, too. They're very reliable layers, laying almost every day, where the dorkings usually lay every other day.

Just for something different, we received an electricity bill in the mail! I'm serious, we havn't really had a real bill since we had the solar system installed. It's winter, so it's expected that the system won't produce as much power as usual.. but I think we can handle this bill. How much, you ask?

$1.44

Yep, they don't even want us to pay. :) I couldn't be happier.

Otherwise, everything is plodding along as usual. Looking forward to longer days and Spring just around the corner. :)

Pictures as promised.

2011-05-30T18:11:00.000+10:00

I took the camera to the chook pen tonight while the girls were getting ready for bed. :)

There are leaves on the floor because (shamefully) we've ran out of straw! Once the youngest members of the flock roost in the main house, I'll be able to dismantle their temporary strawbale house and we'll have those 8 bales available again. We're hoping to do that starting tomorrow or Wednesday.

The nesting box is under the window, but not being used as yet. Our one laying lady didn't quite figure it out today, so I put some golf balls in there to give her a hint. :)

It's getting hard to tell the dorking pullets from the older girls at first glance, so we put identifying rings on the older 3. Since the rooster and the pullets are brother and sisters, we don't want to make any mistakes with breeding. I'm getting excited, it feels like that time of year is coming up fast already. We're just grateful that the neighbours havn't complained about the crowing as yet. Fingers crossed our luck holds out!

Until next time!

Eggs!

2011-05-29T19:27:00.000+10:00

She was hiding them on me!

They were behind the nesting boxes. I only really noticed because she was trying to get back there to lay when I was in the chook house the other day. Funny girl!

Today we did a big renovate in the chook house (again). We took out the table, which worked great while there was only a few chooks, but isn't working so well now. We've put the roosts up by themselves and moved the nest boxes under the window.

I'll have to show you a picture tomorrow. I think it should make cleaning them out a little easier, since we'll be introducing the 3 araucana girls and 1 isa cross girl into the pen soon. They're 17 weeks old already! So that will make 13 chooks sharing sleeping quarters, and they certainly make a lot of fertiliser! I don't mind, but anything to make cleaning easier is more than welcome.

No news!

2011-05-26T20:33:00.000+10:00

There isn't a lot happening here at the old miners cottage, but I thought I'd share an everyday event with you.

The chooks love being let out to free range. The Dorking rooster even shows off his crowing skills for the camera!

We have done a little more plastering since last time, too.

We've done one coat around the whole bottom of the loungeroom now. We have a little more digging and pointing/fixing to do around the window in the bedroom, then we really have no more excuses - it'll be time to start buying stumps and things!

There hasn't been a shortage of pumpkin either. :) We've been eating a little of the blue hubbard. They're HUGE. This one was 7.6kg (16.75 pounds). It tastes best roasted.

There is far more here than we can possibly eat in one sitting!

There are also lots of butternut pumpkins to choose from. We harvested most of them (although there are still at least a few more on the vine), and they're being stored in the trailer outside. :)

So, no eggs, but lots of pumpkin! I planted a few beetroot and broccoli for the winter just recently, so hopefully they'll grow big and strong. The compost is very rich with chook manure, so hopefully I didn't over-do it.

Otherwise, we've been trying to reduce the local mouse population lately. There's been quite a lot of them around (so much so, we see them during the day, crossing the roads, and making holes in the chook food bag - grrr), so we're trying every trick we can besides using chemicals and baits. The chooks even catch and dispatch them with skill now!

Until next time!

Lazy!

2011-05-09T15:20:00.000+10:00

The weather is getting cooler, and the Baker's Oven is cooking a roast lamb as I type. Where did the time go? Marty has been busy working, I've been keeping things together around here. We did a little renovating!

The stone supporting wall needed a few gaps filling as the mortar had turned to sand long ago. Some of the stones needed replacing, too, because they just fell apart in our hands. Luckily we have a ready supply of those stones in the backyard. I know that sounds crazy, but that's how things were done back in the day. Local materials were used!

A batch of mortar mix was made for the job. It's made by mixing 1 part lime to 3 parts sand. Mixing is done in the cement mixer and we use some old mill balls from the gold mine to help squish the lime into the sand. The mixing can take an hour, but it's a lot easier than doing it by hand!

I repointed the bricks with my new pointing trowel (which is a thin trowel to force the lime inbetween the bricks easier), and filled all the little holes. It still took me around 2 hours to do this one section of wall!

The next day Marty was home and we made a plaster mix. (1 part lime to 2 parts sand.) It took us only an hour together to plaster this section of wall - you can see it's darker in colour because it's still wet. Much faster and more satisfying work. :) The hole you might be able to see, is where the ventilation grate is. It's not quite letting air through yet, but we know where it is now, so we can work on making it open again over time.

Other news here at the Old Miner's Cottage is we've gone and bought ourselves a ute.

It needs a little work, a roadworthy certificate, and registration - but it's all ours! :)

Otherwise, it's been pretty relaxed around here..

The chooks are all doing well - we had one dorking pullet hurt her beak somehow, but it's repairing nicely. I can't imagine how she did it, but I'm glad she's ok! The dorking who brought-up the aracuana chicks has decided she wants to do it again already! I'm not keen to start hatching quite yet. Perhaps after winter! At the moment we have 15 chooks, and we get 0 eggs per day. Can't get much more relaxed than that, can we? :)

We've also been casually looking into property. Don't fret though! Nothing's happening yet - we're still well in the dreaming stage of getting more land for even more chookies. :)

Until next time!

Chook auction

2011-04-18T06:51:00.000+10:00

I have mentioned before that we do have a lot of chooks at the moment. At last count, it was something like 24. The dorking chicks aren't chicks any longer and are ready for the main pen, so we made the decision to sell some of our chooks at auction.

That auction was yesterday.

Our birds are on the bottom row, 6 cages with information cards on them and food and water in cups. :) We had the three wyandottes, the three isa brown crosses, two isa cross cockerels and an araucana cockerel. The chooks around us were mostly silkies and australorps.

It was very well attended, lots of people having a good time. Some just looking, others buying up big.

The bidding was in a different room with a small telly showing what bird was being auctioned.

All of ours except the aracuana cockerel sold, so we took him home again. Thankfully we didn't win anything else! The chooks at home would have been quite upset with me! haha.

So our chook numbers are at a more comfortable level again - 16 chooks, and around 2 eggs a day. :)

Until next time!

Autumn garden

2011-04-12T20:58:00.001+10:00

We've been busy lately, doing garden things mostly, and Marty has been working long hours. A classic autumn sign is pumpkins drying in the sun.. so here is our harvest of blue hubbard pumpkins. (They're winter squash actually!)

I can't tell you how heavy they are. There was one more smaller one, but I gave it to the neighbour already. They've done great considering the lack of care and attention I gave them over the summer!

The choko is still doing well - we havn't had any frosts yet, so hopefully it will have time to fruit before they arrive. It's flowering little green flowers, so crossing fingers!

It makes the dead almond tree look almost nice again. :)

We have so many chooks at the moment, all growing fast, and I wanted to give them more free-ranging space. I replaced the old fence by the water tanks and put in a small gate for access. It was hard work, but great fun! I surprised Marty when he got home from work!

The chooks can fly over it, but they're generally happy over their side of the fence!

It's an old "rising sun" gate that we got from the tip-shop quite some time ago just because I liked it. :) I'm so glad it's being used now!

Other than that, we've decided to take out the veggies from two of the garden beds in the front yard. We transplanted Sparty (Spartagus the Asparagus), and the comfrey went out the back where the chooks can access it readily. We've put native plants in, since they look so good even in the hottest of weather - and need so very little water!

It's not all boring though! One plant has begun flowering already - very beautiful.

One more photo - our little parrot has a new larger cage! She can fly from one side to the other now, and around in circles. She likes the new space, but it was a little scary to begin with.

(It's taller than this pic shows!)

Until next time!

Growing fast and lots of eating!

2011-03-30T12:34:00.000+11:00

It's been getting cold here, with some nice warm days mixed in. The chicks have been growing up fast, and as you can see, so has the grass. :)

As is our beautiful dorking cockerel. We're keeping him for a while, so I'm open to suggestions for names! He still has some brown in his wings, I'm hoping that will disappear as he gets older.

We had a brain-storm yesterday while searching the tip-shop for inspiration for the chook feeder. We already had a chook feeder that we'd all but given up on, because the chooks would make a mess all over the floor. This is what happened after bringing home this garbage bin lid.

I had to see if it'd work, so I asked the chooks what they thought..

Happy with that response, I hung it up in the house.

Really hoping this helps keep the food in, meaning less for the mice. (Although the chooks enjoy snacking on a mouse now and then, catching the live ones seems quite the challenge!)

Otherwise, we've been keeping busy, mostly with chook-related things! I'll give up saying "I hope we have something house-related to talk about soon!" and just say..

Until next time! :)

Renovations?

2011-03-21T13:48:00.003+11:00

Firstly, a picture of the sweet bird. :)

Yes, she's as lovely and cheeky as she looks!

So.. renovations. Well.. we DID do renovations.. just not to the house. I present, the roost extension! haha.

We always intended to have two roosts up on that table, but Marty made it happen this weekend. The nesting boxes have changed, too.. I tacked those together a couple of weeks ago now, I think. There is 3 nests, partitioned off, and made more private with the hessian (burlap). Marty put down some squares of linoleum for the bottoms, so if when an egg breaks, it's now much easier to clean it up.

We're also working on a new feeder idea. Something that will help reduce the waste that happens when certain chooks scrape away the boring stuff looking for the sunflower seeds! It'll also help keep mice away from the pen. We're still in prototype stage at the moment. The drinker on the left is a cup that holds a little water, and the chooks press on a tongue inside when they drink. More water comes out and everyone has a good supply of clean water. I'm very happy with those. We put one on this bucket, but they can be used in nearly any container. (There's a much bigger one with two cups attached just outside their house.)

So, in a nutshell, we spent another weekend doing chooky things. Sadly we didn't get a happy ending, as one of the Dorking chicks (they're 12 weeks old now) took ill and died on Sunday. It was surprising and very fast - she only showed symptoms of something wrong about 2pm. We took her from the pen and did everything we could. Being novices, we asked a chooky-minded neighbour for his help, and even so, we lost her around 10:30 last night.

We're hoping it was a one-off incident, but keeping a close eye on the other chooks, just to be sure.

Until next time.

Catch up!

2011-03-11T22:21:00.000+11:00

So, what on earth have we been doing over the last MONTH!?

Sadly, the answer is, Not much!

We were full of good intentions of course. During the warm weather, the middle two rooms were sprayed down, cleaned out and ready for renovations again. We got a long drill bit and made a couple of holes in the wall where the air vent is. It had been covered over, but since wood floors will be put back in, we need the additional air flow once again.

..and that's where the renovations stopped. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, and every weekend saw either Marty or me sick or injured! Nothing major, (we're all better now) but enough to stop any good intentions in their tracks.

Except one weekend where we went to a chook auction! :)

We took home two lovely black chooks and they started laying right away. It's great to finally have some eggs! You'd think with 24 other chooks, we'd be getting eggs, but most are far too young to lay.

All the chooks are doing well. We put the Wyandottes in the main pen tonight and hopefully they'll all get along nicely in the morning! So there are 11 chooks in the main pen, 6 Dorkings growing up very fast in a temporary pen, and our broody Dorking is doing a fantastic job raising the 6 chicks she was given almost 6 weeks ago now! It's far too many chooks, and we're looking at ways of reducing their numbers quite soon, because we really want to be sure they all get enough attention and room to be happy.

Only one other bit of news really.. and that is we have a new friend here at the old cottage.. a little bird who flew into our yard and looked quite lost and lonely. We want to be sure she doesn't belong to anyone before we announce her too loudly, but she really is lovely! :)

We're really looking forward to this weekend, and finally, neither of us are sick, there are no chook auctions, and no excuses why we can't get at least some of the renovations started again!! Wish us luck! :)

A green February

2011-02-11T21:50:00.000+11:00

The weather has sure been all over the place. It's feeling more like Queensland's hot humid weather than inland Victoria's typically dry summer heat.

First, an update of the chicks! They're all out with broody Dorking and loving life in the A frame chook tractor.

Remember how I said the heat wave killed the corn? Well, it doesn't mean the area isn't still productive! The beans are using the corn as poles, and the winter squash is starting to take over them all. There are a few volunteer plants as well, such as blackberry nightshade and sunflowers. So, not all is lost!

This is the winter squash I was talking about. Here in a different garden bed, it's fruit is growing nicely!

So, even despite the heat, most things are green and healthy because of the extra rain we've had. These are butternut pumpkin, there are lettuce in the freezer-bed, and the tomatoes are self-sown yellow pear.

Even the choko, normally grown further north, is starting to take over the chook pen fence. It'll be wonderful if the weather holds out long enough to get any choko fruit to grow!

The chooks have coped well with the heat, and we get around 4 eggs a day from the 6 girls left in the main pen. (One of the Dorking's is looking after chicks and won't lay during this time, one is a big rooster, and all the other chooks are too young still!)

So we're getting a few eggs, a few beans and as many herbs as we like.. but also this year we're lucky enough to get some of these..

The tree was so weighed down by apples, we lost a limb in the wind. You never know, perhaps next year we'll have pears as well? :)

They're here!

2011-01-30T19:07:00.000+11:00

Today is day 20, and it looks like the chicks are ready to come into the world early! It all started at 12:30am, when the first chick hatched.. and it's continued all day. They're ever so cute!!

At the moment there is 9 of them in there! I'm going to attempt to give them all to our broody Dorking in the morning. I'll be able to tell you if she hatched any of the eggs we gave her, then!

Chook mayhem

2011-01-24T20:22:00.000+11:00

It's chook mayhem around here at the moment. The 6 Dorking chicks are around 4 weeks old, almost fully feathered, and ready to go outside. We have 16 eggs left in the incubator, and in only one week, hopefully there'll be some hatching! A Dorking hen has decided she'd like to be clucky.. and we'd love to give her some chicks, but the three Wyandotte chicks are in the A frame chook pen.

So, we needed another few chook pens. The A frame chook pen might look nice, but it took far too long to make (plus, we don't have any wall panels left on the walls in the loungeroom)! haha. So, it's all about using what we have and making it as secure and comfortable as possible.

First came this:

It only took a couple of afternoons to make, and I mostly did it myself. :) It's the Wyandottes new home. You can just make out their tail ends here.

Being the weekend, Marty helped me out with this next one.

It's a bit more sturdy, but very heavy. It's made of old supermarket shelves, zip-tied together and some old tin for the house. Very basic, but it works! It means we have some happy Dorking chicks running around now.

So, clucky Dorking is now housed in the A frame, and everyone is happy. (Marty and me included!) Looking forward to next week's hatch, and some much needed rest between times!

The wet continues..

2011-01-13T17:01:00.000+11:00

While we're not experiencing anything like the terrible Queensland floods here, we are getting a little wet. Some towns around us (Halls Gap and Horsham) are getting some flooding and the rain continues to fall.

Much more locally, our little dam is higher than we've ever seen it, even counting the winter! The back garden where the Wyandottes A frame chook tractor is just a bit too wet, so I brought them inside for the time being. This box is a bit small for them, but it beats being wet!

The older chooks are in no danger, being on the highest part of the backyard, but their run is looking very muddy. Fluffy (far left) is looking very wet - but I suppose that's natural when your feathers aren't waterproof!

Stay dry everyone.

Chooks, chooks and more chooks!

2011-01-12T18:39:00.000+11:00

Over the last week we've been plugging away at the A frame chook tractor.. getting the walls up and taking down some more of the loungeroom walls to provide the materials! :)

This pic was taken using the mobile phone, so the quality isn't great, but you get an idea of the size. (I was clipping the wire on the floor together.)

It certainly got heavy quickly! We'll need some handles sometime soon, and another coat of paint. But we really wanted to get the Wyandotte chicks out there enjoying the sunshine as soon as possible, so those things can wait.

We've had a fair amount of rain since the chicks went in.. so thankfully it's stayed fairly dry inside the house part. They've also showed us how clever they are, by staying in there when it's too wet to be outside. They also put themselves away at night already. They're only 5 weeks old!

They're at that half-feathered, kinda ugly stage.. but they're personalities are lovely and they've so much running around, pecking and cheeping to do!

But if you think that the Wyandottes being outside now will give us a little quiet in the house, think again!

We brought home 6 Dorking chicks on the weekend from yet another well-known and respected breeder. How lucky am I? I'm hoping for a few lovely boys to choose from this time. They're 2 weeks old, and already very feathered.

So, counting every bird we have brings us to a total of 17. Today we collected a grand total of 4 eggs, which is our best day so far! :)

And just when you think we couldn't possibly need any more chooks.. We got a couple of dozen fertile eggs from a poultry auction last weekend too. Yes! They're in the incubator as I type! These eggs were cheap, and we weren't fussy about the breed. (They're Isa Browns and Araucanas, they're the ones who lay blue eggs!) We got them so we can once more try out the incubator, testing out everything I learned from last time. So, if we get any chicks at all, I'll be happy..

So the eggs are at day 3 today, and there are 23 of them (one Isa Brown egg was broken, so I didn't set it). It's a whole different ball game this time. I set-up the incubator to the correct temperature, then a day or so later, popped the eggs in. I'll keep an eye on the water, but otherwise, I'll leave it alone until candling day on Sunday. Much more relaxed this time. :)

I'll be sure to keep you updated!

The tractor continues..

2011-01-03T18:59:00.000+11:00

Well, we're both exhausted. It's surprising how much work it has taken to get the chook tractor to this stage..

It's completely made out of second hand material, nothing was bought for the job - except a packet of screws and a new drill bit since I broke it! :) We even took apart a little more of the wall in the loungeroom for materials!

We're hoping to get it done very soon, although we did take the chicks outside for the first time yesterday. The chicks saw grass and sunlight for the first time, enjoyed both for a little while, but they've since decided that being in the brooder box isn't so bad after all. It's certainly less windy in there! haha.

Until next time!

Mostly chooks

2011-01-01T11:25:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year!

It's been a little while, so I thought I would catch you up.

Left to right; Light girl, Fluffy, Little girl, Grey girl, Old girl. Lovely names, haha! Old girl is the ex-Green Eggs free-range farm girl. She's not that old really! As you can see, they all get along great now.

Only, Little girl turned into this;

Yep, growing into a big boy by the looks of things. Oh dear. And who is behind him?

Three beautiful Dorkings! I picked them up last week Thursday. Absolutely lovely chooks. They're large and docile and there hasn't been any problems with them joining the flock at all.

Fluffy and Old girl are in the background. The Dorkings are still a little wary of me, but they'll come around. :)

As for the eggs..

The little white one on the left is the Dorking egg, the large one on the right is Old girl's egg, and the top one is a shop bought large egg (from the 700g box). We're getting around 3 eggs a day at the moment, and the youngest of the chooks should start laying soon. We think Grey girl laid her first egg on Christmas Day.

In other news.. the chicks are growing fast. They're 3.5 weeks old now and with the hot weather, havn't needed the heat-lamp for a few days now at least! We're in the process of making them a new home.

Well, mostly Marty is!

..and I've done the painting!

Hopefully we'll finish it off this weekend.. because the Wyandottes are more than ready to explore the great unknown world outside their box in the loungeroom!

Of course, we'll keep them in the shade on days like yesterday (or even bring them inside). It got to 40°C (104°F) yesterday with a very strong hot Northerly wind that sadly destroyed the corn and comfrey in the front garden bed. :(

We're not looking forward to this summer's heat. Thankfully all the chooks are fine - the corn can always be re-planted. :)

Until next time!

Chick update!

2010-12-18T19:57:00.000+11:00

The chicks are doing well. They're a week and a half old, and growing fast.

The gold wyandotte who hatched first is the tallest and bravest. She (we hope!) loves to try and climb up everything. The second hatched is blue, and she sticks by gold like glue. The last hatched is "Seven" who has two toes joined together. You may be able to see it in the picture (Seven is the middle chick below). She is quieter and slightly smaller than the other two. They all appear healthy and happy though.

The tips of the wings are growing feathers already. We'll need to start making a new home for them soon enough.

I've decided to try and get some more fertile eggs after Christmas and try again with the incubator. We've learned a lot and I think we can make the next hatch much more successful. :)

Until next time!

Hatching results

2010-12-11T10:48:00.000+11:00

I apologise for not updating you sooner! The results for the hatch were 3 very cute and fluffy Wyandotte chicks.

Sadly, none of the Dorking eggs made it, and one Wyandotte chick was too weak, and passed away this morning. It's been a huge learning curve, and as a result, we'll be selling our incubator and getting one that is more automatic. Marty and I really didn't enjoy the stress that came with incubating, and the terrible hatch-rate was heartbreaking for both of us.

But, you just have to look in the brooder box and see the little chicks running around, pecking, eating and flapping those cute fluffy wings, to cheer up no end. :) See?

Until next time.

Hatch day

2010-12-08T08:51:00.001+11:00

So, the two Wyandottes that hatched yesterday are in the brooder box, and one more is pipping in the incubator as I type. The older two have discovered water and food. The pebbles in the water are to help stop drowning, but they're also a big hit! Being shiny, the chicks pecked at them until they discovered what the water was all about and started drinking. :)

It's been day 21 since about 10pm last night, so this is the official hatch day. Since I kept the temperature a tiny bit on the low side, (more issues are caused from higher temps than lower ones, or so I read!) then we could expect the chicks to hatch later than usual. So, if not much happens today, I won't be too disappointed just yet.

I'll not bombard you with updates today though! Just one more of the chicks tonight when hopefully there is more to report. :)

Until then!

Two little Wyandottes

2010-12-07T21:55:00.001+11:00

Apologies for the dark picture!

Now, we'll try and sleep and hopefully there'll be some more action by tomorrow morning! We will put these two into the brooder box then, too. It's set-up with a 60 watt ceramic heat lamp, food, water with a little vitamins added.. it's ready! Bring on the chicks! :)

Nearly 12 hours later..

2010-12-07T18:53:00.000+11:00

Oh the poor little chick that popped out first is so lonely! But hopefully not for too much longer. It has gone over to the egg that is pipping next. It's so sweet!

I wonder if either of us will get to sleep tonight. :)

Counting one little wyandotte!

2010-12-07T09:06:00.000+11:00

Somewhere between 7am and 9am, this little Wyandotte burst its way out of the shell and said "peep peep" to the world. :)

It's quite tired and wet, but already it's moved quite a distance. Another quieter little "Peep peep" is to be heard now too.

The pictures are terrible, of course, but I'm not opening the lid of the incubator! Better pics should be available once the little one/s are in the brooder, all dry and fluffy. :)

Until then!

Locusts have arrived

2010-12-06T13:58:00.001+11:00

We've been hearing a lot about the very bad locust season we're expecting. Urged by government to report any locust sightings and keep our properties clear of them. Well, the chance to control them is over! They've started flying and arrived here in Stawell yesterday afternoon.

What's the quickest way from A to B? By rail of course!

I didn't bother calling the Locust hotline. :) I can't imagine the calls they are getting from towns in worse effected areas than ours!

I feel sorry for the farmers, and the sporting clubs that have to cancel their games. I'm hoping they ignore my corn and beans and head straight into the chook pen where they will be gobbled-up! Perhaps it's time to let the chooks free-range for a while. :)

Doesn't this look yummy? Well, to a chook it does. I just got this shot from the front yard. Although, he's not as alone as he looks.

Until next time! (Hopefully a chick update, because the waiting is driving me crazy!)

Three sisters

2010-12-05T10:41:00.001+11:00

They're finally reunited! Some of the winter squash have been transplanted into the corn and beans in the front garden. A little late, but hopefully they'll all benefit soon! It looks like a mass of green out there right now.

Which is a nice change. Despite the warm weather and the frequent rain, most of the area is looking very dry already. Grasses have been cut short to avoid council fines, and they're not coping with the harsh treatment. Never mind, back to the greenery!

The corn plants have reached about fence-height, and I think that's where it'll stay. Already we have one corn cob growing. You might be able to just see the red corn silk in the picture, which is a really good sign that the earwigs havn't yet invaded! I've been keeping the earwigs at bay in a few ways. Starting the corn early helped, because there was no need for mulch - earwigs love to hide in mulch. I've had the margarine containers filled with oil out since I planted the corn seeds into the ground. They've not caught many earwigs, thankfully. I've also got the black hose out in sections around the corn. Every day I tap these into a bucket of water and any earwigs that have used the hose as a hiding place from the daylight hours suddenly regret their decision. The chooks get a feed of earwigs and the plants are given a break. Everyone wins!

The earwig control measures around the garden have really helped this year. We are still having trouble with some of the potatoes being eaten, but most of the other plants are left alone. With luck, we should get some good produce from the garden this summer!

Until next time!

Candling - Day 17

2010-12-03T22:47:00.000+11:00

Had a quick look at all the eggs tonight. I'm feeling so nervous, as the time to hatch nears. Sadly, we had to take another two eggs from the incubator as they havn't developed since the last time we looked. So, now the count is 8 Dorking eggs and 8 Wyandotte eggs still developing. (I think! The Wyandotte eggs shells are darker than the Dorking egg shells, and harder to see through.)

Sunday night we'll take the eggs off the auto-turner and fill both water troughs to increase the humidity. Then it'll be a nail-biting 3 day wait!

As for the brooder, we've got a big cardboard box ready, and surprisingly the local pet supplies store has the ceramic light globe and holder we want, as well as the usual supply of suitable water and feed containers. That's a relief!

I'll keep you posted!

Candling - Day 10

2010-11-29T07:49:00.000+11:00

I candled all the eggs again at day 10 (Friday night) and it was lovely to see the little chicks moving around. I didn't get any good pictures, but the best way to see for yourself is to look at the day 10 candling videos on YouTube.

Thankfully, it looks like we have only lost 3 out of the 21 eggs so far! The other 18 are developing nicely. Yesterday we checked the 3 bad ones again, just to be sure, and removed them and the infertile (shop-bought) eggs at the same time.

So, we could be in for a good hatch! It's getting closer - only 6 more days until we take the eggs off the auto-turner and increase the humidity levels in the incubator. We're looking into brooder boxes and heating solutions now. Oh, and we need special food, and some little dishes, and bedding and, of course, a fully charged camera battery! :)

Candling - Day 7

2010-11-24T00:06:00.000+11:00

We quickly candled the eggs just now, and although we're beginners at it, I think 8 of the Wyandotte eggs are developing, and 9 Dorking eggs seem to be developing too. We'll leave the odd ones in there for a bit longer, just in case we got it wrong, but we've made an X on them so we know which ones they were.

So, not bad so far! Only 2 more weeks to go!

Preparing for summer

2010-11-23T12:12:00.001+11:00

Good news! We got the new scythe, and it's absolutely wonderful! I'm so impressed by it, Marty doesn't even get a chance to use it. :)

I showed a picture of the nasturtiums around the lemon tree a few weeks ago, and the surrounding area was looking a bit long. Well, here it is today after this morning's scything.

As you can see, I'm more than happy with the new scythe! :)

Of course, it's not quite as neat as a lawnmower, but it doesn't really matter. Especially since the grass dies over the summer anyway.

We also added a bit extra shade for the chooks, who are looking a bit warm as the weather is heating up. This should help a little.

Finally, we may have some squash for the three sisters after all! These are the last of the seeds, so hopefully they'll grow like mad through the corn and beans in the front garden.

As for the eggs.. it's been 7 days since they were put in, and I'm looking forward to the first candling which can be done tonight. I'll try and get some pictures if there's anything going on in those little eggies! All fingers crossed!

Last weekend at the poultry auction

2010-11-16T21:40:00.000+11:00

The poultry auction was a 4 hour drive, and we left bright and early. I have to admit, I've never seen a real live Dorking before, so was hoping to see some as advertised.

The shed was hot and full of crowing and clucking. We wandered the isles looking for the three Dorkings that were suppose to be in pen 26, but instead there was a single white chook in there. We kept looking and found a couple of possible Dorkings in a different pen. Sadly they only had 4 toes and some of their markings were a bit odd.

Never mind, we followed the crowd of people around the pens as the auctioneer sold them off one by one. It was a strange way to buy an animal! Some of the chooks were lovely, obviously good examples of their breed. Others were not-so-good, with feathers missing, crooked toes or obvious health issues.

When it came to selling the Dorkings, there was little interest. Although they went for more than we wanted to pay for them, we weren't disappointed that we missed out. We didn't walk away completely empty-handed however!

Dorking eggs! (The dozen at the bottom of the picture - white)

We got them for a bargain at only $20. No-one seemed to want them as badly as we did! :) Even better, we met the owner of the eggs after the auction and he told us a little about them. That made my day, as he was obviously very proud of his Dorkings.

So, we drove 4 hours home again - carefully - wondering how we are going to incubate these eggs!

Monday I did lots of research, scoured the internet, and eventually posted a "Wanted" add in the Backyard Poultry website. Thankfully I got a response right away from a nice couple who had an incubator for sale. I drove down there that very afternoon and came home with this.. and some of their Wyandotte eggs that they kindly gave me!

(Well, the temp gauge is our old fridge thermometer from the campervan days!)

So, I set it up and turned it on when I got home, and left it on overnight and all today - to be sure the temperature is just right. Tonight is the big night when we'll put the eggs in! Hopefully the end result will be some Dorkings and Wyandottes of our very own!

Of course, being our first try at incubating, we're not likely to get 21 chickens at the end, but we'll be trying our very best to get as many as we can!

Oh, the temp is low in the picture because we put in some supermarket eggs that had been in the fridge. We're waiting until they're warm before we put the fertile eggs in. As I've written this, the temp has risen back up to 36.4, so not long to go now! Once it's back up to 37.7, we'll pop in the fertile eggs and start the long 21 day wait. :)

Expect updates! :)

..and everything else!

2010-11-12T13:42:00.000+11:00

So, what else has been happening around the Old Miners Cottage?

As you can see, everything is flowering and looking lovely. We've got some corn growing, and beans to grow up the corn. I had planted squash seeds, but they didn't germinate. (I'm attempting to grow some more and I'll transplant them in between the corn if they germinate.)
Spartagus the Asparagus is very tall this year and seems happy!
We grew some purple broccoli next to Spartagus, and it was just lovely. I'm letting it go to seed and we'll be growing more of that again next season, for sure!

We were shocked to see the comfrey come alive again and now it's even flowering. Lovely little purple flowers.

Also out the front is this little fig tree. We planted it bare-root this last Winter, and it's showing off some lovely leaves now. A rogue potato is growing next to it. :)

Out the back I've gone crazy with the seed planting (trying to catch up before the summer really hits - I've been a little late this year). They're right next to the water tanks, and I'm determined not to let them dry out this time. :)

Over on the chook yard fence, we've planted a choko vine in a pot with the bottom removed. Hopefully this little thing goes crazy and provides lots of shade and chokos!

Speaking of shade.. We made some adjustments to the lid of the worm farm, giving them a little more air flow. Crossing fingers they survive this summer's heat.

I've left one variety of carrots to flower and go to seed. They're such a lovely carrot, I really want to plant some more! It's a rare yellow rooted carrot, and very tasty.

The fruit trees in the back yard have flowered already, have lovely leaves, and even some maybe-apples:

And this maybe-pear:

Even the lemon tree has quite a few little lemons and a few flowers. The nasturtiums are the real show though! They're doing a great job of covering the ground and keeping the grass away from the lemon tree. Funny though, these nasturtiums were suppose to be non-trailing, bushy types! I was disappointed when I found out, but they're trailing all over the place in their second season. Yay!

As for the chooks, we had no luck last weekend (our contact got cold feet I think!), but this weekend we're attending a poultry auction that has many interesting breeds available. There should be Dorking chooks and fertile eggs available as well, and all kinds of other poultry equipment. It should be a good experience! We're really looking forward to it.

Until next time!

Lawn mowing

2010-11-12T12:58:00.000+11:00

It's time! The grass is long, it's provided a lovely home for the little birds and lizards all spring long, but we've got a letter from the council saying it's time to cut the grass. So, without further ado, it's slashing time.

Not bad for an old scythe huh?

Although, we're excited to announce that we purchased a NEW scythe from Scythes Australia! Hopefully it'll arrive early next week and we can make a nice neat job of the nature strip and around the house.

I've put some of the hay that has dried from yesterday into the chook yard. It's lovely stuff! I hope they enjoy it!

When they come out of the chook house, that is. It's only 26°C (78.8°F) but it's very humid and they've all decided that the coolest place to be is indoors. I guess it's a good sign we made the chook house pretty well, huh? :)

More to follow..

New arrivals!

2010-11-03T17:50:00.000+11:00

Nothing much going on right now, but we have some chook updates!

Yesterday we extended the yard a little..

..because last weekend I couldn't help myself and got a few more chooks to add to the collection. They're Isa Brown crosses. These two have paired up and are friends.

These two we call Fluffy and Little One. They're paired up together. Little one is fast and brave, and Fluffy can be a bit slow to catch on.

Today we made a longer roost for the chooks, as well as swapped the ramp for a ladder. Hopefully they like it better!

The older chooks settled in just fine, but we are down two. We have 6 in total at the moment, and only one of them is laying! The four new ones won't be laying for another month or so yet.

More exciting news is we may have found our Dorkings. We're taking a drive this weekend to go see them and hopefully bring a few home! I'm very much looking forward to getting some Dorkings and possibly breeding them in the near future too! Should be some exciting times to come. :)

Until next time!

Chook watch - update!

2010-10-18T15:42:00.000+11:00

The chooks are settling in well. They've taken to the new feed, enjoyed scratching in the dirt, and eating the long grass that has gone to seed. They're not use to perching on the roost at night yet, however. One has started sleeping on the table, so perhaps they'll get the hang of that eventually, too.

As for the eggs, we've been given between one and two each day. Fortunately we're being given free eggs from friends who have 4 chooks and no appetite for eggs (apparently)!

Until next time.

Chook watch!

2010-10-12T19:53:00.000+11:00

Thanks for all the comments!

The chooks spent today settling in. At first, only one was brave enough to explore outside, but by the end of the day, all the chooks were outside scratching around. This was taken this morning..

and this is the brave chook!

No eggs yet, not surprisingly! It's dusk now, and their considering heading to bed. It'll be interesting to see if they roost tonight.

Until next time.

Guess what??

2010-10-11T20:05:00.000+11:00

I'm sure this will come as a shock, so I'll type it slowly. :)

We've finished the chook pen!

What do you think?

The golf ball will do until real eggs arrive.

Complete with chalk board and curtains.

There are a few finishing touches required still, such as a door latch, but otherwise, quite habitable.

There are quite a few blisters on our fingers now, but we were working towards a timeline. You see, today is the day the local free-range egg company was selling some of their older chooks to the public. It might sound a little odd, but we got them as practice chooks. They'll let us know if the pen is up-to-scratch, so to speak, and then, assuming all is well, we'll get some Dorkings to add to the family. It also gives us some time to find Dorkings, too, since they're quite rare.

So, yes, we have 4 brown little hens in the pen tonight. One of them looks a little stressed still, while the other 3 are settling in quite well. We'll see how they are in the morning.. perhaps I can get close enough for a picture or two!

Until next time!

Lovely Spring Weather

2010-09-27T07:41:00.000+10:00

It's been lovely gardening weather lately, but before I show off the garden, I wanted to show you a picture of the inside of the chook pen as it is right now.

We knocked-up the ramp and platform pretty quickly from spare bed slats. The roosting table has pipes covering the sharp edges, and the front pipe comes off easily after removing the pins. The blackboard and poster still need to be hung on the walls. :)

Marty and I have spent most days out in the garden, weeding and planting seeds.

The front garden this winter has not been used much at all. The only area with any real activity has been this:

On the left, snowpeas. I meant to plant peas, but I think I got my seeds mixed up! Oh well. In the middle is the purple sprouting broccoli. Very interesting plant! I plucked a few caterpillars from it every now and then, but for the most part it looks like the white cabbage moth doesn't seem too interested in it. Under the broccoli is pyrethrum and nasturtium flowers and to the right of all that is Spartigus the Asparagus. He's done very nicely this spring and we've eaten a little asparagus already.

Also out in the front garden, the comfrey has made a comeback. It died back completely last year in the heat and this spring it surprised us by coming back to life again.

In an unused part of the garden, we've got some nettles growing happily. This is their second year, and although usually considered a weed, we like to keep some around just for the butterflies. The nettles are being eaten by caterpillars at the moment, and in return hopefully we'll see some Admiral butterflies.

Lastly, this is the sleeper bed in the back. (Made of railway sleepers.) Growing in here is some celery with the most wonderful flavour, the last beetroot (although I've planted more seeds), and a blackcurrant that is just starting to wake up. There are also carrots and broccoli and a flowering bok-choy that are not in the photo. The carrots are very small since this bed doesn't get much light over the winter months, and the bok-choy is huge and old but I can't get rid of it - the bees are still enjoying it!

You can also see behind everything the overgrown mass of weeds. It's the boggy area and the frogs are going crazy.. so I can't bring myself to scythe the whole lot down just yet. It'll be easier when the pond has dried up for the season anyway. Well, that's my excuse! I have a short video of the sounds the frogs are making (with a few ravens thrown in for good measure). In it, I'm sitting right on the edge of the sleeper bed. I recorded it for the sound, so forgive the very boring vision. :)

Until next time!

More chook pen..

2010-09-20T19:29:00.000+10:00

We've completed the insulation on the inside of the chook pen! We used the leftover bits to finish this wall, so it took a very long time to finish.

At the moment, the chook pen is only home to my tomato seedlings. :)

This is the table I was telling you about before.. and a couple of nest boxes sit below.

Marty demonstrates where the perch will be located. The idea is to make cleaning easier, since the majority of chook poo will land on the table as they roost at night, I can clean it off more frequently without having to do the entire chook pen each time. (Well, that's the plan, anyway!)

Aside from the chook pen, the garden is going well. The water is still in our pond, and can you believe these ducks?

They weren't allowed to stick around long though - a family of ravens scared them off. Oh well!

We've already made more progress than this, so I'll update more very soon!

It's all about the chook pen lately

2010-09-17T19:33:00.000+10:00

Last weekend Marty and I worked on the interior wall of the pen, and made a table too. I'll have to show that in some detail once the interior is closer to being done. During the week while Marty was busy at his paid employment, I made progress on painting the outside of the pen and setting up a little garden bed. While the flashing still needs a lick of paint, I wanted to show off anyway!

In the garden bed I have planted a choko to (hopefully!) grow up the wall and help provide shade in the summer. There are also herbs especially for chooks; tansy, rue and wormwood. If everything germinates, it'll be a full little garden bed!

As you can see, I painted the east and north walls green.

Inbetween all that, we're keeping the spring weeds down with the scythe. The weeds were getting so tall, they were shading out some of the trees we've planted. The scythe takes them down pretty well, but it is a workout!

This weekend we're planning on doing yet MORE chook pen work, but we're determined to get it finished soon! We'd REALLY like eggs ASAP. :)

Until next time!

Chooks on the horizon

2010-09-05T17:22:00.000+10:00

We took the attitude of "throw it up and see what happens" with the chook pen door today. Neither of us have done doors before, but so far, so good!

It still has a little adjusting to do, because it opens only enough to squeeze through so far. It was made using scrap iron and timber slats from an old bed. Even the hinges were found!

Sandwiched between the iron sheets is some insulation.. We're still planning on insulating the rest of the walls too.

There has been a great amount of rain throughout Victoria, starting on Thursday night and continuing until early this morning we got a total of 49.2mm (1.9 inches). There have been flood warnings and sand-bagging, but nothing to worry about in Stawell itself. Our pond is back, however, bigger than ever!

The plants are loving it, as are the weeds. I only recently planted some carrot seeds in the "sleeper bed", so hopefully they're still ok after that soaking!

This year I'm trying to do more mulching, to keep down the weeds and to keep the moisture in the soil. This is the new garden bed on the north side of the garden shed. We planted a passionfruit vine and hopefully it'll cover that area soon!

Hopefully we'll be hearing the cluck of chooks in the backyard soon!

Until next time!

Riveting weekend

2010-08-08T19:16:00.000+10:00

This weekend's project was continuing work on the chook pen. This time we got the flashing done, so it's water tight! It's the first time either of us has done flashing before, so I'm very proud of our efforts. :)

The flashing is second-hand from a friend who's roof was replaced almost a year ago now. We've been storing it ever since and knew it'd come in handy for the pen.

We used a lot of rivets to hold it all securely, and we even had to get a new drill as the old one called it quits early yesterday. I think Marty will be glad to get back to work tomorrow - he needs the break. :)

Until next time!

Renovation hopping: Kitchen!

2010-08-01T10:27:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Marty and I put in a replacement rangehood in the kitchen. The old one simply didn't work, and as we removed it from the wall, we soon saw why. It didn't vent anywhere! It wasn't recirculating either - it just made a lot of noise. :)

We soon fixed the venting issue:

A nice big hole in the wall will do the job!

Marty did some adjustments to the design of the rangehood so it had holes where the studs in our walls are, and made sure it was going to stay on the wall with very large bolts.

The Christmas-themed plastic tablecloth came in handy after all! It did get quite messy cutting the wall and drilling holes.

In the end, it looks lovely:

It may be very difficult to see in those pictures, but we've started painting the kitchen a pale yellow. Right now the paint is on the rangehood's wall as a test spot from the sample-pot. We like the colour already, so I think we'll get a bigger can (it's called Cheese Stick) and continue to brighten up the kitchen.

On that note, I just wanted to mention to anyone else renovating their old house, PLEASE test to see if the paint is lead paint by getting a cheap test kit from the hardware store. (We got ours from Bunnings.) We were very close to saying "She'll be right", but a last minute decision to test means we now know for sure.

We have some lead paint in the house, and thankfully it's the green colour underneath the current colour. It's in good condition still, and we're going to paint over it to keep it from being a risk. Knowing that it's there means we know not to sand it down!

I hope to show off some pictures of the new paint-job soon! :)

Happy anniversary!

2010-08-01T10:06:00.000+10:00

Today is the 2nd anniversary of us living in Our Old Cottage! It's difficult to believe 2 years have passed so quickly, and even though it feels (to us) like we havn't done everything we wanted to yet, I look back on the blog post the month before we moved in and remind myself that we're really not too far off.

We wanted to:

* Create a permaculture garden
* Grow as much of our own food as we can
* Keep chooks
* Collect rainwater
* Produce some electricity

I am proud to say that we produce electricity (although not much in the winter!), collect rainwater (3 x 5,000 litre (1,320.8 gallon) tanks), and have food growing in the garden. Permaculture is a more on-going process.. and the chook pen has a dry floor now (see previous post).

I'm so glad to have shared the journey online, and will continue to while there is still stuff going on! :)

Not quite lock-up stage yet

2010-07-25T17:24:00.000+10:00

..but the chook pen got a large chunk of today devoted to it. I'm happy to report the following progress pics!

All walls are up as of this afternoon, and it feels lovely inside the pen itself. We've got a little flashing to do, and we're still keen on putting up inside walls with insulation in between the iron. A bit over-the-top I know! :) A door is still required, and a fenced yard of course.

Elsewhere in the Old Miners Cottage, we've been getting a little frustrated with the lack of storage and work benches in the kitchen. Solving this problem is "Stenstorp"! An island bench from Ikea. It fits in perfectly and we can still sit on stools on one side, while the other side is all storage shelves. We're both breathing a sigh of relief - YAY!

Until next time.

The chook pen's coming along.

2010-07-13T16:43:00.000+10:00

It's been a while, so what have we been up to lately?

We've planted a few trees. A couple more native trees for the backyard, and a fig tree in the front yard. We've made another garden bed on the north wall of the shed and planted a pear tree in it. None of the trees are much to look at right now though.

What I can show off are pictures of the chook pen! Another coat of mud has been slopped on the inside strawbale wall, a couple of sheets of iron have adorned the west wall, and the north wall has a window, but no walls as yet.

Check these out!

The weather has turned wet and rainy, so construction has halted for now. I'm researching as much information as I can about chooks. Since we're keen on keeping a heritage breed, we've decided on Dorkings. Here are some links with info:

Rare Breeds Trust of Australia - The Silver-Grey Dorking
Dorking Breeders Group of Australia

In the meantime, we're keeping warm with the Bakers Oven in the kitchen.

Until next time!

Gap filling!

2010-06-02T19:04:00.000+10:00

Today we filled a large gap in the corner of the loungeroom wall. I'd done the lower section earlier in the week, but today we got a new ladder and were able to reach the roof.

Here's a closer look at the corner - the lime goes white when its dry - the grey lime in the corner is the part we did today.

Until next time!

Front loungeroom wall

2010-05-19T16:32:00.000+10:00

I did a little plastering today and thought I'd share some of the process.

The lime is very alkaline and gloves are a good option unless you don't like fingerprints (or worse the longer the lime is on you!). The balls on the table are very very heavy and work well to help mix up the lime and sand.

This old cement mixer is great. The paddles on the sides don't go all the way to the back. It gives the balls plenty of room to do their thing.

This is the loungeroom wall that we took apart a long while ago now. We spend a lot of time here, and we would like to make a start on getting it looking nicer. The bricks look a little darker because I had wet the wall down ready for today's work.

Now it's one layer closer to being all plastered up again!

I'll wet the new plaster down a couple of times a day for the next few days (I hope I remember!) and give it plenty of time to set without cracking. After a week or two, it should be ready for the second coat.

Old techniques aren't fast, that's for sure. :)

Just showing off!

2010-05-17T15:06:00.001+10:00

I can't believe we got a sweet potato out of our patch, and what's more, it's HUGE! :)

I have my hand on a white bush marrow from the garden. I think it's time for some more sweet potato and pumpkin soup. Yum!

Progress again!

2010-05-10T16:35:00.000+10:00

Similar to last time, the loungeroom and bedroom got another double mix of lime mortar. The bedroom needed a little in the foundation stones..

The loungeroom got a little plastering on the part I showed you previously.

It looked nicer before I "keyed" it, but it had to be done to make the second layer of plaster easier to stick to that first layer.

Remember the strawbale course we took early last year? It turns out the plastering we did then with mud was really quite similar to plastering lime render. A couple of things we learned at the course was: don't bother with wooden trowels and, it takes a lot of strength to plaster. So far, both bits of information have come in handy. :) I'm quite worn out after only that little bit!

Until next time!

Warm Autumn afternoon

2010-05-09T02:02:00.000+10:00

Not much happening, but I thought I'd share the warmth of this afternoon. :)

Loungeroom progress

2010-05-03T15:46:00.004+10:00

Hooray! A little update on the house repairs!

Having borrowed a hardy cement mixer, combined with the heavy metal balls from the mill (near where Marty is working), we can now make some lovely lime mortar. I'm finding a mixture of 1:1.5 (lime:sand) is making the best mix so far. It's so easy, I can make mortar all on my own! :)

I've been able to fix a few holes in the walls and even gave a little render a go. Today's effort was patching up a very bad spot. The wall literally moves when pressed and when I cleaned the area, bricks pretty much fell out! I took them out carefully and vacuumed out the mess.

The whole thing made me feel quite nervous! So, you can see how relieved I was when I finally finished, and it looks pretty good.

There was a smaller "hole" on the other side of the fireplace that we'd repaired earlier in the week. It's starting to look a little like a loungeroom!

Plenty more work to be done yet, I know, but the cold is being kept out a bit more, and we're a few steps closer to getting a floor in. I'll keep you updated!

Catching up

2010-04-16T15:52:00.001+10:00

We've had such a lovely day today after a few weeks of quite chilly weather. I was wondering if I've shown off my small area of flowers around the raised garden bed? It's slowly becoming what I had imagined when we first made it. It's lovely to see colour in the garden after a difficult Summer season!

The pumpkin vine I showed off earlier, too, has grown! It's starting to get a touch of powdery mildew as the weather has become wetter.

There are 4 really large butternut pumpkins hiding in there!

Free pumpkin! Yay! :)

Lastly I picked this today - it's an Egyption beetroot, slightly flatter on the bottom, and not really red inside. Quite tasty, but not as sweet as the Detroit variety.

(Edited to add pic of the inside of the Egyption beetroot)

Otherwise, I planted out some spinach today for the winter. Two varieties this year: Winter Giant and American Curled. Looking forward to plenty of baby spinach over the winter.

Until next time!

Mortar and Marrow

2010-03-16T20:25:00.002+11:00

Well, we did it. We tried the cement mixer to make lime mortar. Not great results to begin with, but we're aiming to improve our technique (as well as our sand to lime ratio!) I've started to fill some of the gaps in the wall, but I don't have any pictures as yet. Besides that, they wouldn't be much to look at yet. :)

In the garden, we've been seeing a few Redback spiders recently. This is one of the biggest we've ever seen!

Speaking of big, this marrow is over 2kg (4.47 pounds)! It was too big to weigh on my little kitchen scales, so I used the Thermomix. The Thermomix soon turned it (well, some of it anyway) into soup. One thing I found out about marrow however - you would want to peel it. I'll note that for next time! :)

So in the meantime we'll be doing more work in the loungeroom. With luck, I'll have the holes all filled soon and we can start wondering how to put floors back in there!

Until next time!

Goodbye Summer

2010-03-04T18:42:00.000+11:00

The wind has calmed down, the weather has cooled off, and it looks as though we're about to finally get some rain! This summer has been quite harsh, and the garden is looking very much worse for wear. But, it's not all bad news. :) Even though the bok choy is looking very unhappy, it's providing a meal for others..

It's covered in ladybugs and meat ants!

The meat ants are eating all the white cabbage moth larvae. They're having a feast. :)

The self-sown pumpkin seems to be doing well. I assume it's a pumpkin anyway! What do you think?

And finally, I left this white bush marrow on the bush until the bush died - I'm hoping to collect seeds from this. It was a great bush - producing 3 large marrow this season. The other bushes didn't produce anything much at all, although there may still be some time left.

Although, I'm still not really sure how to eat these (so far we've tried them steamed with some success), I'll be only happy to have a bumper crop next season and we can experiment to our hearts content. :)

Until next time!

Preparing for winter

2010-02-28T19:34:00.000+11:00

The weather has suddenly turned all wild and wooly, so we thought we'd spend the day filling in some holes in the kitchen that are letting the wind through. There's a gap filling product that is like expanding foam, and it did an interesting job of filling a couple of holes before we ran out. Looks like we'll be getting another can tomorrow too! Only one more hole to cover and the holes in the bathroom cabinet to fill with the foam.

So this winter, when we do fire up the Bakers Oven, it should be a little warmer in the kitchen than last year! Mind you, we're almost keen to fire it up tonight at this rate! Brr.

Other than that, things around the Miners Cottage have been slow. Marty continues to work hard at his job, and I try and keep things running around the house. Somehow there seems little time for big projects lately.

We have been given a lend of a cement mixer, and I am keen on trying it out on the lime mortar mix soon. There is a small area of stone in the loungeroom that I have cleared away the dust and dirt, and I would like to use the mortar mix and fill in a few spots that need repair. If that works out well, I will use the same mix for repointing the brick in there. I'm not sure when all this will happen, but I'm ready to give it a try! (Wish me luck!!)

Until next time!

Potatoes and Plums in Pictures

2010-02-16T17:19:00.000+11:00

The Russet Burbank potatoes have all died back, and we harvested the results today. Umm..

6 pretty good sized potatoes is better than last year at least! I put the small ones and the ones which were growing back into the raised garden bed. I hope they're happy this autumn/winter. The soil that we pulled out of the garden bed was lovely, filled with worms and rich. I started with a little of that - popped the potatoes on top, and then a layer of straw and sheep manure.

The purple Saphire potatoes are still going. Once they die off, I'll do the same with those.

I put all that lovely soil into a garden bed. You can see from this pic the tomatoes there are doing well. (The ones in the front garden have had it! hehe)

As I said before, most of the garden is suffering. This is the railway sleeper garden bed in the back garden behind the water tanks. I've used shadecloth to help protect the plants from the worst of the sun. I've planted carrots, bok choy, beetroot, and spinach in there - but there seems to also be pumpkin that's popped up too. I didn't plant it, and I've no idea if it could really produce any pumpkins, but it does look pretty! hehe.

We have a surplus of plums at the moment. We don't eat plums, so Marty has picked some of them and will try and offload them at work. Anyone for a plum? The tree is overloaded!

Lastly - Here's a sight for sore eyes. No, it's not earwig season anymore, so imagine our surprise when this guy came into the loungeroom one night! He's actually a native earwig. Not one that will eat our plants. We popped him back outside where he belongs - but it's certainly distinctive.

Until next time!

Finally!

2010-02-09T18:41:00.000+11:00

The heat has done nothing for our motivation to do anything gardening or renovating lately. I apologise for not keeping you updated anyway!

The garden is fighting every day to keep alive. The plants look dead by evening, I water them and they look better by the morning. By evening they're nearly dead again. I'm very much looking forward to the end of summer! Planting has slowed down - there's a few new beetroot under shade-cloth, but even they're having a difficult time of it.

We did get a marrow to eat, though! It tastes like a mild squash. We tried it steamed with a little margarine, and it was nice. There is another on the bush, and I will have to try and keep some seeds for planting next year, as these are rare - and I used all the seeds this season!

On a fun note, Marty organised last weekend for us to go away to Port Fairy for my Birthday! The weather is much cooler by the water - as you can see from the pic!

From Manda's Birthday Weekend

I've uploaded some of the better pictures to that album, so if you're interested in what we got up to, feel free to take a look. Otherwise, I will update soon with some kind of progress on the Old Miners Cottage. :)

Until next time!

Coping in the heat

2010-01-07T13:43:00.000+11:00

There are a few things in the garden that seem to be coping well this summer. The tomatoes that are not in full sun are doing wonderful. The ones that are in full sun are burning and looking a bit sad. Still, the fruit seems ok so far! Looking forward to them ripening!

The white bush marrow is doing pretty well, but does like a regular water. We've never grown or eaten marrow before and it's starting to flower! (I assume it looks like pumpkins, since they're members of the same family.)

There are two marrow planted in this garden bed and another two in the first bed (the ex-linseed bed).

This sweet potato is very tough! I'm thrilled that they're doing so well! I wonder if the season will be long enough to get tubers from them?

Not that I'm looking forward to the weather to come. Almost everything else in the garden is looking very sad, and the next few days will probably see the end to quite a few plants. Crossing fingers for the worms! I'll be sure to give them extra water.

The expected weather over the next four days:

Friday 38°C / 100.4°F
Saturday 39°C / 102.2°F
Sunday 39°C / 102.2°F
Monday 42°C / 107.6°F

So, if you don't hear from me, I'll be hiding! :)
Ouch!

Christmas chicken - pen!

2009-12-29T15:32:00.000+11:00

What a relaxing Christmas break. I hope everyone else can say the same thing! :)

My brother Ross came over and we all got stuck into the chook pen wall. It looks so great, I just have to show you all!

Finished! The last layer of the outside wall!

We changed the ratio to 6 sand and 4 clay and it seems to have done the trick, and not cracked very much at all.

The next day we worked on the first layer of the inside wall. It's the hardest layer because it requires the most amount of clay. The clay needs to be sifted (wet) through a screen to get out the many rocks. The end result is well worth it though! Just two more layers to go, but thankfully they're easier to do!

It's a messy but satisfying process!

Not too long to wait until we get chooks living there! I hope they appreciate all the effort! hehe. Well, I just hope they like their home and it stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter for them. :)

Until next time!

Old Miners Cottage Floors, explained!

2009-12-18T15:18:00.000+11:00

I thought I'd share some info with you about our floors! It's rather complicated to explain without a diagram - thankfully the booklet from Heritage Victoria "Salt attack and rising damp - A guide to salt damp in historic and older buildings" has just the diagram and information we need.

Copyright © 2008 Heritage Council of NSW; Heritage Victoria, Department of Planning and Community Development; South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage; Adelaide City Council; and David Young.

This is a great example of what our old cottage should look like - minus the rising damp! The DPC (damp proof course) in our case is the stone itself. They don't let moisture up as easily as brick would, for example. The thinner brick is the shelf that the floor joists would have sat on at one stage in the past, but we won't be relying on them for that function in this area due to the damage.

The two rooms which were built first are in much better condition than this wall is. It is our hope that once we have re-pointed (put a lime mortar back between the bricks) and plastered the wall, we will put in a traditional wood floor with concrete stumps to hold it up (rather than rely on the steps on the wall).

The booklet I mentioned above also explains why concrete floors create rising damp. Basically, the fill used below the concrete (and the concrete itself) stops airflow and natural evaporation of the moisture. It also bypasses the DPC (in our case, the stones) which is there to prevent moisture wicking up the bricks. Here's one more helpful diagram from the booklet so it can explain what I mean!

Copyright © 2008 Heritage Council of NSW; Heritage Victoria, Department of Planning and Community Development; South Australian Department for Environment and Heritage; Adelaide City Council; and David Young.

No, we didn't know about any of this before we bought our old miners cottage, but now we do, we just have to do something about it. :)

Those rooms!

2009-12-14T00:52:00.000+11:00

Marty and I did some more digging today. It's become so deep that we've had to find a new plank to cross through! This one spans the whole area. It's a bit spooky to stand on, but hopefully it won't be for much longer. We're really getting back into it!

We dug out around the edges of the walls (the foundation rocks) and eventually hit dirt. We moved in to the middle of the rooms and found there were holes with buried treasure in them! Ok, mostly rubble, but the occasional treasure. 2 more coins were found - a 1900 penny and a 1900 half penny.. and this amazing bottle!

It says "W & J. Waters" on one side and "Stawell" on the other! A local bottle! I'm really surprised I didn't break it with the shovel when I was digging it out. :)

It's good to be doing something with "those rooms" again.

Until next time.

Quick garden one, then onto the house!

2009-12-14T00:42:00.000+11:00

Hi, I can't help myself. :)

We saw this yesterday and have no idea what it is! It's a lovely colour though.

The sunflower seeds I threw into the "pond area" once it dried up.. they germinated and seem to be doing rather well considering we give them almost no attention!

And the lizard population in the compost heap was at an all time high, with 2 blue tongues and a skink! I guess there's enough earwigs and critters for them to feast on without fighting over them all. :)

Ok, onto the house!

In the news!

2009-12-08T12:17:00.000+11:00

So, we had a few people over the other day.. :)

Well, that's one way to put it! The Stawell Climate Action Group organised a Sustainable Homes tour, and our old miners cottage was one of the three homes shown! We were both very nervous as around 30 people came through our front gate.

We showed off our veggie garden, water tanks, solar hot water and solar system, the worm farm and compost bays, as well as the partially completed chook house. I think it went pretty well, considering we've never done anything like it before!

So, we've made it into the local paper. Unfortunately the Stawell Times News misunderstood "worm farm" and called it a "warm farm" throughout the article. Oops. Never mind!

I scanned the article if anyone would like to read it! The other houses on the tour were designed and built to be sustainable, and boy they were lovely! We were both very jealous. ;)

So, here's the picture of Marty and me in the newspaper!

.. and for the full article, click the thumbnail below.

Until next time!

Overwhelmed

2009-12-05T17:00:00.000+11:00

Being honest, I don't like Marty working!! I'd rather have him home. Not only do I miss him, but progress on any kind of house project has slowed to a near halt. But plants keep growing...

These are indeed two little plants growing in what is suppose to be our bedroom. I can't believe they're growing in the rubble!! Amazing how strong nature is.

We have to start a list, perhaps? There are so many things to be done! We need to finish digging the floor in the lounge and bedrooms, re-point / re-mortar the bricks, plaster the wall, and somehow get a new wooden floor down..

I will just have to stop gardening and start renovating. ;)

My new garden bed! I did this in only 2 evenings. The railway sleepers? Lets just say that's "payment" for the constant noise of the machines that replaced them behind our house over the last 2 weeks. :p

(Yes, we snatched them. *blush* )

So, hopefully there will be more "home updates" than "garden updates" in the near future. I just have to get motivated.

Marty and the Bluetongue

2009-11-27T20:20:00.003+11:00

No Bluetongues or Martys were harmed in the making of this post! ;)

Sweet potato

2009-11-27T06:55:00.000+11:00

Sweet potato seems to sprout pretty easily in our dark room. We use the dark room for bulk food storage - since we have no pantry! We've had these two sweet potato in the dark room for around 6 or more months now. We've pulled most of the shoots off these two, and they're starting to re-shoot again already.

We planted the shoots into the ground horizontally, then covered them with a juice container with the bottom cut out. Hopefully the earwigs stay away from these!

Last night, one of the sweet potato finally made an appearance! Hooray!

Sweet potato generally grows in tropical or sub-tropical areas, so being in a temperate area, we're not expecting to harvest much at all - if any. It's really an experiment at this stage. :)

I'll let you know how it goes, of course!

Hooray for rain!

2009-11-22T12:09:00.000+11:00

I'm not complaining about the rain - even though it found its way in through the roof this morning and we had buckets in a few different locations in the kitchen. I'm happy because the garden was desperate for the drink, and the water tanks are once again full to overflowing. :)
We had 32.4mm (1.27") of rain overnight! Most of it fell this morning, thankfully for the stove and floor! :)

Yesterday Marty and I set up the greywater system for the bathroom. Last year we used the shower water by plugging the bath while we showered (we have a shower over bath arrangement), and bucketed the water out to the trees. It was hard work and the water splashed as we carted it through the kitchen.

This year should be a lot easier! Funny thing though, when we purchased the plumbing parts, the sales person said "You know we're on Stage 1, right?".. that means we can use town water for watering plants and so-on. Yes, we're lucky to have had the water restrictions eased, but I know it won't stay like that for long! Besides that, it just feels like a waste of perfectly good shower water going down the drain.

I think we're getting quite good at plumbing! We're getting a lot of experience, anyway! ;) The water comes from the bath on the right of the picture and heads down to the drain.. but there is a gate valve that can be closed so that the water is then forced into the purple tubes going towards the apple tree. We plumbed in the bathroom sink, too, which made the whole thing a lot neater than it use to be anyway. Bonus! :)

(The hole in the wall has been like that since we moved in - we'll fix that someday!)

The apple tree is getting the benefit of the excess water at the moment, but we still have to shorten the purple pipe - as it's taking the scenic route around the yard before it gets there! Since Marty and I aren't feeling 100% today, it'll be a job for another day.

We weren't expecting any apples this year because we only have one planted, but it turns out we have a neighbour with an apple tree! Being it's first year in the ground, we'll be happy if just this one becomes ripe.

I have been umm-ing and ahh-ing about when to plant out the tomatoes, and I decided that Thursday was the big day, since we were expecting some rain Friday and this weekend. They're looking happy this morning! They're planted in the front garden next to Spartagus the Asparagus.

I pulled out the old peas and snow peas and cleared the area of pea-straw. The earwigs ran in every direction! Yuck! I'll leave the mulch off for a while and see if I can discourage them from that area while the beans and sweet potato are trying to get a start. Wish them luck!!

The corn is looking healthy, and the two surviving bean plants are happy as well. There are 3 earwig traps by the beans and 2 by the corn. It's making a difference!

This is how the earwig traps are done! No, it's not an advert for Nuttelex, haha. The holes are cut all around like this, and oil is filled till the bottom of the holes. The earwigs go inside (they love used cooking oil!) and drown. They seem to drown faster in oil than in water.. although the one drowned on the top of the container there probably wouldn't agree!

The potatoes are doing really well. The Saphire potatoes are very healthy - we're hoping for a good crop this year! The Russet Burbank potatoes have finally stopped being eaten by earwigs long enough to recover. I think they'll be ok after all!

Oh, that's the feijoa in the picture there, too. It's happy and growing. We hardly take any notice of it, because it just doesn't seem to need much attention. It seems a hardy and happy little tree so far - but I still try and keep it that way with a good layer of compost.

The lemon tree nearby is looking lush and healthy, thankful for the plumbing we did last year to get our sink rinse-water to it. No lemons as yet, although there was one flower, it fell off in the strong winds. :( Hopefully next year!

Down the back in our "pond", we lost two of the three plants back there, and I mentioned that I threw in some sunflower seeds as a desperate measure.. Well, the sunflowers have germinated! We don't really water them, either. It'll be interesting to see what happens, and especially if they all get to flower, it will be a show and a half!

Until next time!

Harvesting flax seeds (linseed)

2009-11-15T12:46:00.000+11:00

With the very hot weather, we've only been able to work in short bursts, but we're getting through the harvesting of the flax / linseed.

Initially, I was cutting the tops off the plant, but found the extra work involved with taking the bolls off the stems afterwards was not worth it. So, we're stripping the bolls directly from the plant into a bin.

From there, the bolls are put into a food processor, which breaks them up into a powder - but doesn't seem to harm the seeds. Then we can either sift or blow off the light stuff and leave the heavier seeds behind.

Any suggestions that might improve the process are gratefully received, though! :)

Until next time.

Solar power installed

2009-11-10T12:25:00.000+11:00

It was a very warm day yesterday of 34.6°C (94°F). The temperature in the evacuated tubes (solar hot water) is in Celsius, yes! That's 275 degrees Fahrenheit!

It's useful to note here that the water in the tank is 70°C (158°F) and the pump will not run once the water has hit 70°C.. so there is no risk of getting 135° water through the taps inside. :)

That's when Cathy called to say she would come and finish the solar panels. Everyone worked so hard in the heat, they're all so tough!

The end result is quite minimal! I am surprised that they look so small sitting up there on our shed roof.

The system was tested to see if everything worked, but it is currently turned off until a safety inspection is completed.. and after that the electricity company needs to upgrade our meter. So we're almost ready to start making our own electricity! Hooray!

Speaking of blue tongues!

2009-11-07T19:49:00.000+11:00

Marty and I made a new compost pile in the compost bays today, and we disturbed a lovely little blue tongue lizard. He scooted off and we continued to layer our compost with horse manure, garden clippings and cardboard. We both went into the house for a little rest because it's nice and cool inside the old brick part of the cottage. Sitting on the couch, we were shocked to look over and find a blue tongue lizard climbed partially up the flyscreen door! Thankfully no-one screamed. :)

We really would have liked to get a picture but the camera was out by the compost heap.. (Not very handy!) and I was much more interested in opening the door and getting him outside! The blue tongue was quite scared of us, and hid behind the couch. After a short time scooting him from behind the couch, under the television stand and hissing at Marty, we finally got him near the front door, but he decided he would rather run towards the bedroom! Ooooh no way. Marty grabbed him and took him outside, while trying not to get scratched by the little (but sharp!) claws.

It appears to have got in through the loungeroom that is still being dug-out! There are are few holes that lead under the kitchen part of the house, and not surprisingly, they have a few scratchy marks in the dirt nearby.

So, if that's not an indication that we need to get a move-on with the renovations, I don't know what is!

Until next time!

Scat!

2009-11-06T12:01:00.000+11:00

A little present has been left on our new path. :)

2cm = 0.78 inches

I've seen the odd scat around the old cottage before - this one is more dried out than the others have been - it's been a few days since I first noticed it.

Marty and I have noticed the bits of black beetles in them before, too. This one's bugs are a little more digested than the others.

But you still get the idea...

We're guessing its one of the local blue-tongue lizards that is leaving these little presents around. I hope they have a good appetite, as the earwig population is quite high! Not nearly as bad as last year, but certainly catching a lot with the traps. Hmm, I hope they like earwig!

Until next time!

Solar power is on it's way!

2009-11-03T10:39:00.000+11:00

This is about all there is to see of the solar system so far! Bright and early this morning Cathy and her crew of 3 came and installed as much as they could of the solar system. The panels should arrive before the end of next week - so there is much excitement around the old miners cottage!

The picture shows the big yellow inverter and, I think, a fuse box or two. I'm sure we'll get a better idea of what is going on once it's all installed and switched on. :)

Until next time!

Paths and Potatoes

2009-11-02T09:53:00.000+11:00

We didn't think the rock we brought on the weekend would be enough to finish the path, but it was! It only took one day after the rocks were delivered before the earwigs called it their home, though.. Anyway, happily, the path is now finished and should help keep the water away from the side of the old miners cottage!

From the front of the house:

Looking down to the backyard:

Looking to the front yard:

Hmm, I think the house needs a coat of whitewash. :)

The potatoes popped up! The Saphire potatoes are doing really well. I've topped them up with compost to keep their stems from seeing too much light - and increase our potato yield. (With luck!)

No earwigs in the traps of the Saphire potatoes. Phew.

Unfortunately the Russet Burbank are having a slightly harder time of it. I suspect the bottom of their water-tank has more holes in it than the Saphire potatoes water-tank does. The new growth is being eaten by earwigs and the traps have earwigs in them, too.

We've officially ran out of Nuttelex (margarine) containers to use as traps, so either we're going to have to eat a whole lot more Nuttelex, or I might just ask around and see if anyone else has some containers spare! :)

Until next time!

Wildflowers of Stawell

2009-11-01T17:16:00.000+11:00

We are very lucky to have such a beautiful variety of flowers that grow wild on our nature-strips (the verge) without any intervention from us at all. Almost everyone (who doesn't spray their nature-strips with poisons) has these lovely flowers popping up at the moment - they even survive the lawn mowers!

I just have to show them off!

They're so tough, the neighbour pulled some out of her nature-strip and threw them into her trailer.. we rescued them and planted them in the backyard. ALL of them still have some green left, despite having very little root system left, and VERY little water thrown at them. :) I think they just might make it - but we'll see how they are after this long hot summer. Crossing fingers!

Heating up

2009-11-01T17:00:00.002+11:00

The old miners cottage is as set up for summer as we can make it!

The weather certainly heated up quickly. About 32°C (89.6°F) yesterday and nearly 30°C again today. It's also been quite humid, which is unusual.

Yesterday we started the path along the side of the house again - ripped out the weeds and carved out a nice slope (away from the house).

Then put some stones over the top to level it out and make somewhere to walk. Finally, it's starting to take shape!

The idea was taken from Heritage Victoria, who suggest using stones as a path to keep the moisture away from the old bricks. It should also avoid some of the splash effect that stones or bricks would cause when it rains. It sounded good to us, so we're willing to give it a try!

As for the rest of the garden, there are hoverflies everywhere! They're lovely little things!

They're helping pollinate the broccoli. These two will hopefully provide seeds for next seasons crop.

Summer certainly came along quickly! Where does the time go?

Until next time!

Morning garden

2009-10-24T14:05:00.000+11:00

There's one nice thing about getting up early - especially now as the weather is starting to heat up - and that's the nice crisp smell as the sun rises in the morning.

The lettuce and carrot bed is being watered twice a day (at least until the carrots sprout), and the lettuce are sitting upright now, so I think they'll be ok after the transplanting.

The pond has gone, and all the grass that use to be there is long dead. It's a very difficult area with the heavy clay. We've planted 3 different plants there in hopes that something will take - but at least one of them is dead already, and another is well on the way.

In desperation, I threw down some sunflower seeds...

Wish them luck, they'll need it! :)

In the front garden bed, I planted out some corn the other day, as well as some beans. The beans have already been eaten by what are probably earwigs.. *sigh* So, if you see a heap of Nuttelex containers around, they're earwig traps. They work quite well, too!

We just cut holes in the sides, fill the container up with used cooking oil, pop the lid back on and put them into the garden. Nothing seems to enjoy used cooking oil like an earwig or few. ;)

This is my favourite garden bed at the moment. There are peas, snow peas, cabbage, rosemary, corn and beans too. The beetroot are flowering!

The biggest cabbage! The variety is called Sugarloaf, and I'm so looking forward to trying it! All the cabbage at the greengrocer and supermarkets are looking very sad lately.

The apple tree is looking lovely! I planted out some nasturtiums around the base. Unfortunately we don't have a second apple tree, so no apples for us this year!

Same goes for the pear tree. Still, it's looking healthier than last year, and (hopefully) next year we'll have another pear for it to pollinate with.

Lastly, I spent today cleaning a couple of old Kenwood Chef mixers that I picked up yesterday. The second one was "thrown in" to the deal, which was fantastic value at only $45! They should make light work of the bread mixing, now that we're baking at least twice a week.

Until next time!

YMD (Yet More Digging!)

2009-10-19T20:32:00.000+11:00

A large pile of sand outside can only mean one thing...

Yep, we've been digging again!

Thanks to Mum and Michael for giving us a huge hand today. Sometimes the job seems so daunting that we don't quite know how to start.

Mum came up with the neat idea to put the trailer below the window instead of using the wheelbarrow. It worked a treat, and meant all 4 of us could shovel the dirt together.

The only downside is the new "planks" to get across the floor are quite a bit steeper now!

Hopefully not for long. The renovating bug has bitten us again and with any luck (and a bit more hard work) we'll have something like a floor in those two rooms someday soon!

Until next time!

Catch up from Saturday

2009-10-19T20:21:00.000+11:00

Marty cut the water tank in 3, and we made use of the new garden beds. These two have potatoes in them. They were really overgrown in the bags, and were desperate to get out! The variety closest to the camera are Saphire. We grew them last year, although not very successfully thanks to the earwigs. The one further away in this picture are Russet Burbank. We havn't grown these before, but the description says "An American cultivar released in 1908, Russet Burbank is a multi-purpose potato suitable for baking and chips. It's a late maturing type with highly russetted tubers." Sounds interesting!

These are a bit of an experiment this year, as we used our compost which is a little (a lot!) too alkaline. To counter this, we've layered the compost with large amounts of pine needles, which are quite acidic. Potatoes prefer a slightly acidic soil, so hopefully things will work out in their favour. Good luck little taters!

The third one is the not-painted tank on the back-right in the picture below. Inside is growing lettuce and carrots. The carrots are only seeds at this stage, but the lettuce have been growing well in the cold frame, and we transplanted them to their new home on Saturday as well.

Again, we used a mixture of compost, horse manure and pine needles. The top layer is basic potting mix, purchased from the local nursery.

The garden bed at the front has lettuce and spring onions, and the one on the left has beetroot.

Otherwise, the garden is looking very weedy! The rain has settled down and everything is growing crazy. The bok choy here is about ready to harvest the seeds from, but even so, the celery is still in there, growing happily.

And next to the freezer is some broccoli that I threw in because I had nowhere else to put them. I honestly wasn't expecting them to survive, as the bed had pretty fresh horse manure in it at the time.

Oh, can you see them between all those weeds? Never mind!!

Last but not least, we havn't accomplished much with the chook pen lately - except we found a window for it! It's second hand, cheap and very dirty. I think it'll clean up well though!

Next post: an update on the house, finally!

Wild and wooly

2009-10-13T18:26:00.000+11:00

The weather has taken a turn for the worst. Strong winds, rain.. the linseed / flax don't look altogether happy.

We really don't know when it's time to harvest it! The flowers have just about all finished, and it was looking really good only yesterday!

It's not all bad, though! There is always someone who'll enjoy the extra water. :)

I couldn't count them all! So cute! I imagine they're eating the wrigglers (mosquito larvae) that have overpopulated the pond. Lets hope so, anyway!

Until next time!

AAAAAGH!!!

2009-10-11T13:45:00.000+11:00

I have a confession - I have one of those shrill "I've just found a murdered body" kind of screams that you only hear on television. It's embarrassing, but true! So thankfully no neighbours came running over to see where the so-called body was just now! See, I was in the middle of rescuing some water loving plants from a warm day..

I was just in the shade behind my little propagation area here..

.. and when I looked down and saw something like this!

It looked almost as scared as I sounded!

I got my wits about me and grabbed the camera for a close-up or two.

It's LOVELY but my hands are still shaking! Come to think of it, this could be what Marty heard in the corrugated iron sheets the other day.. He was very concerned, and our thoughts immediately went to mice, rats and snakes.. but this fits the bill, and a lot more friendly to have in the garden, too!

- Phew! I'm feeling a little better now.