Ploughing the Field

Ploughing the Field with a horse
Originally uploaded by Philip More

The neighbour has planted our field with corn and it needs weeded. So he and someone with a horse and plough have dug it. However it also needs the weeds dug out and then the soil piled up around the corn. So still a lot of work to do.

Goose egg

As a kind of payment for using our land, the neighbours bought around a breeding pair of geese for us. We put them in the pig sty and the seemed to be happy enough. I thought we would be waiting ages before getting any eggs but this morning Johanna came in to say we had an egg.

Not sure what we will do with it, perhaps wait for another one and then make scrambled eggs.

Spring and the garden is overrun

We are finally back at our house and the courtyard is full of grass though probably taller than what we really want. The fruit trees are doing well, in particular we look like we will get a great crop of apricots.

The grass has been cut in the hope that one day we will have something like a lawn here, It is also full of bind weed, nettles and other such weeds, hopefully the grass will over grow all this.






We also have some flowers which brighten the place up. I have no idea what these are so if anyone knows please let us know. We have three of these bushes. The idea is to have a flower garden under the apricot tree as I can't imagine we are going to get a decent amount of grass to grow under there.





It would of course be useful if we could get the pump working but it needs a new seal which we have not managed to get going again. Just yet another of one of those things that needs done.

Spicy relish

Well, since it's tomato season, and there are heaps and heaps of tomatos (the neighbour has said we can help ourself to his he has so many) and the apples are ripened too, we decided to make some relish. It's such a simple, wonderful thing to do with tomato surplus. Here's my recipe:

Spare Oom spicy apple and tomato relish

Ingredients

1.5kg of Tomato (chopped)
4 large onions (chopped)
4-5 tart apples (peeled cored and chopped)
1 small Chilli (finely chopped)
400ml vinegar (of your own choice)
400 g Sugar
1 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Curry powder
3 tbsp Flour

Directions

Put chilli, onion, tomato and apple in a large pot with vinegar and sugar. Bring to the boil stirring often. Reduce to a simmer for about 40 mins, stirring often, till mixture has reduced and thickened.

In the meantime, mix in a bowl flour, salt and curry powder together. Add water or fluid from the pot to make a smooth paste, mix paste thouroughly with the reduced mixture.

Pour relish into sterilised jars and seal. Put jars into a boiling water bath for 10 mins, remove and allow to cool. Store in a cool dark place.


We made 2 batches, milder and 'extra spicy'. The we topped them off with our homemade lables. Lolly (she's 7) helped me by adding the 'extra spicy'

Quacks and Honks

Well, these are our ducks and geese.















They are all up against the cage to greet the camera which they hoped was a form of food. They do have a good deal of space and they are in a mobile cage so that we can move them up and down the garden for the greenery (ducks and geese love grass and weeds)















The geese are grey french geese. They get up to a good weight and they are much less aggressive than the english white geese. The ducks are all mixed. We have 3 geese and 9 ducks. Though, we felt the ducks were big enough now, so we have one alone in a pen, fattening up for the oven in a couple of weeks time. We can hardly wait.

The temporary coop

The chickens are in temporary housing at the moment, until we move out to the Spare Oom. They were in a little box while they were getting up their weight, as it kept them a little better protected. However, they outgrew it and so we had to knock up a better living for them.


































As you can see, they were very happy clucking around in their new space....





























There are 13 chickens, they arn't mature yet, so none for the pot as yet. Though, we have put a duck aside to eat in a couple of weeks.

Woods Great Peppermint Cure

I've lost four toes in the arctic snows,
An eye in the Timor sea.
A hand and a jaw in a circular saw,
And a leg by a falling tree
But I never feel ill with a cold or a chill
My health I aye ensure
By wetting my throttle
In time with a bottle of Woods Great Peppermint cure