We have sheep

Our journey to self sufficiency continues we have sheep. I am so crazy excited. This may sound cruel and heartless but I cannot wait to eat our first lamb. We have 4 ewes, 1 ram and 1 lamb.

We decided on getting dorpers so we will not have to shear them. Well that is the plan as two of the four ewes are only 1st cross and are likely to need some shearing. They are all pregnant which is very exciting. They run with the ram and come into heat regularly. It is anyones guess as to when we will get our first lamb.

They are already playing reasonably friendly and will come relatively close to us to get some special feed treats.

So far the names we have are Dee and Jean for the ewes, Becca lamb and Bone the ram.

The winter prune

Over winter we had around 200 fruit trees to try and prune. Needless to say we FAILED. We had 2 weeks over the winter school holidays to try and get it done. And it rained the first week. But we did succeed in getting the apples and pears completed. It was by far a huge learning curve. Neither of us have pruned fruit trees before so we were out there with the book trying to check we were cutting the right bits off.

After about 5 trees we just started hacking randomly. It was going to be far too much work being so precise. the picture above is just one row of our espaliered apples. Below is the end result of our work. I did most of this with Immali wrapped to me all snuggled and warm and sleeping. I so wish I had a photo pruning with her but I don't.

we left the other half till Spring holidays. But again it rained and we could not find the motivation to get it done.

Next year we need a new plan and a system to get the whole orchard pruned ready for fruiting.

Teepee

The kids were bugging me while I was trying to prune the trees. Kept grabbing sticks and fighting and just plain being young boys. So to redirect that energy I lashed some of the pruned branches together, threw an old sheet around it and voila teepee fun and I could finish my pruning.

Reusable snack wraps

Just wanted to share my funky new creations. Igloo will be starting preschool and to save on wastage I have made him some awesome little snack wraps and pockets. One set of just cotton, one lined with PUL.

He is going to have the best dressed food at preschool.

Burrowing frog

Not really what you expect to find as you dig the veggie garden beds. A burrowing frog decided to make our vegetable garden home. Damo accidently dug him from his slumber. I think he is rather good looking.

Ducks

We have ducks. And some have learnt to fly.

But best of all we have duck meat. It has been a learning curve for us both. Damo has had the task of learning and to slaughter and pluck a duck. Sadly the plucking is just not working out for him so they were skinned. Hopefully we can find someone who is willing to teach us how to pluck the feathers off a duck.

For me I am needing to learn how to cook duck. My first attempt was very touch. My second was so very yuck, I tried cooking it in the slow cooker in some plum chutney. I just used far too much chutney. My third attempt was a roast and it wasn't too bad.

Baby feet

This is just a very quick post to say that I absolutely adore baby feet. They are utterly amazing wonderful tiny little things.