Moved Chickens

Have moved Cleo, Ebony and Victoria out back now on Stage 6 veggie garden

They are in here some where. They going to have fun attacking these plants.

Ebony nesting. Yay more eggs.

Before moving the girls we clipped their wings, and let them free range. But had to keep an eye on them around our veggie garden. Thankfully only Victoria made it into the garden. But now they have their own garden to be busy in.

So we are at the end of our long veggie garden. DH had just added some of our compost onto stage 5. Then we will get some vegetable soil to add on top. Then it's planting time. I have some tomato plants waiting to go in.

Here's the other girls. Caramel, Milkshake and Babe. They are bigger then our other chickens now. We moved their chicken coop to some fresh grass. But the bread came first.

Momma Hen is no more, so we have only 6 chickens (all that we are aloud to have). Momma had started to crow at 5am in the morn for an hour. Not very neighbour friendly. Only way to stop her was cover her cage. But she would start again after you uncovered her. So she is missed....abit.
After a good cleaning out of her cage we have Shadow the bunny back in it. And as long as he can see the others, he is happy.

Time For Our Christmas Boxes

Today brought the Christmas Boxes out of storage.

We have 3 boxes that have traveled with us for over 10 years.

Lots of memories and Christmas treasures in there.

We have decorations, dvds, books, cards, craft items, music..... alot of helpful items to make this coming season fun. Always good when you have children home with school holidays.
Looking forward to going through the boxes with my children. Or should I say my 2 youngest. DS14 and DS13 (both November birthdays) are typical teens who enjoy from a distance.
I'm making plans for Christmas presents. Will be a simple homemade Christmas this year.

I'm Doing the Daniel Fast

And finding it really good. It's like going vegan for 3 weeks, as well as a spiritual journey with my Lord.
More info here http://www.daniel-fast.com/
I'm eating only fruit, vegetables, nuts and grains. Drinking only filtered water. And spending more time in prayer and reading my Bible.
I'm actually eating more then I did before, because often I would forget to have lunch. As well as where I would have one cupcake or a couple of biscuits for afternoon tea. Now its a handful of raw nuts, and some fruit and veggies.
I was expecting to have bad headaches with no coffee, but they have been mild. Must be all the water I'm drinking.
I finish on the 17th Dec just before the school holidays.
Sure does make me very thankful for our veggie garden. Have been adding more plants to it. Some just companion flowers. But also some peas, beans, kale.
Can't wait will be moving the chickens at the end of the week and finish off our long veggie garden.
Oh and with the Daniel Fast I'm not having any eggs, so more for the rest of the family.

Garden Moving Along

Our radishes great sliced in salads or sandwiches. And so easy to grow.

Section One of our vegetable garden has really grown. We will be having cucumbers.

Section Two not far behind. We will soon be having celery in our salads again.

Section Three has some lettuce ready for picking leaves already.

Section Four just planted. I found some Kale and can't wait to try.

Chickens at work on Section Five. Will move them next weekend to Section Six.

This is our Section Six. Our raised garden behind our garage. The Swiss Chard has gone to seed. I'm sure our chickens are going to love working on this Section.

Now if we could just get our fence fixed, we could have a Section Seven with another raised garden bed. It's just our new fence panels are heavy so need some extra help to get them up. Holidays are coming hee hee.

Had a Wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner

Simple table setting. DD11 picked the flowers for the table.

Roast lamb with roast veggies and our courgettes. Was a yummy dinner with alot of fun and talking with my family.

Dessert, simple but was very good :) Can't bet fresh strawberries and fresh cream mmmmm

Very blessed with my dear family :)

Had to add a photo of our 1st courgettes from our garden. Love the colour green :)

We will be having leftover lamb for dinner tonight with a salad fresh from our garden. Lettuce, radish and basil ready to be picked. Will just add tomatoes and carrots which we brought (hope don't have to buy to much more). I'm working on our 4th section of the vegetable garden today, while our dear chickens work on the 5th section. It's cute to have them watch me garden :)

Today is Our Families Thanksgiving Dinner

It a good reason to make sure the dinning table is clean and ready for a yummy dinner. We having a leg of lamb roast with roast veggies and gravy. And some courgettes from our garden, 4 of them! With a dessert of yummy mini Pavlova's with cream and strawberries. It's our families way :)
Can't wait to hear what everyone is thankful for, as well as thanking the Lord we are together as a family safe and blessed.

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Colossians 2:6+7

Preparing for Summer

Organising Craft items into boxes and up out of the way in my wardrobe.

 Hope having the craft items out of the way will help not have the children make a mess anytime. But have to ask if they can. Helps me to know when there is going to be a craft mess then have a surprise mess on the floor. The colourful boxes are the kids boxes for school reports, certificates etc.

Vac packing the winter sheets away.

 Now is the time to get summer sheets on the beds. I vac pack the winter sheets and blankets as I find they store better and save on space. Have also been making sure I have one bag to go to clothing bin or rubbish bin each day. When the bag is full out it goes. Feel like making progress with having the house more clean and organised for the coming Summer Holidays.

Had to share my little $3 find. Have it over my veggie garden. As the veggies are a blessing to us.

See how well they are growing. With some more to plant out soon. Will be moving the chicken run one more time on this veggie garden. Then they will go to our other raised garden bed, and prepare that for more plants.

 Our dear neighbour gave us lots of tomato plants I have a couple in big pots, and some waiting to go into the rest of our veggie garden. Looking at the price of tomatoes, I'm so thankful for growing our own. Same with courgettes, we can't afford to buy them in the shops.

Look how well my green courgette plant is growing. I grew this one from seed. See how big the leaves are. This one leaf is 38cm across. Some of the courgettes are going to be ready soon to pick. Can't wait :)

Better go and get another load on in the washing machine :)

Progress in the Vegetable Garden

Moved the chickens along and now starting to plant seedlings into the 3rd stage.

1st Stage of vegetable garden

2nd Stage of vegetable garden

And now at 3rd Stage of vegetable garden. Loving this garden

Our vegetable guard - But really our cat Mischief caught before causing mischief.

We are able to grow a range of different vegetables, and growing at different paces. At the moment we have

• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Squash
• Eggplant
• Lettuce
• Radish
• Basil
• Sunflowers
• Celery
• Carrots
• Spring Onions
• Zucchini
• Beetroot

We also have potatoes and swiss chard growing in other areas. So yummy salads and BBQ dinners to look forward to this summer.