Work Finished Thursday

On my Wednesday quilting night I finished the binding on this little quilt. Yay! Now just a label, a wash, and off it can go in the post to the wee baby of a friend.

I was able to use some leftover binding I had from the last quilt I made too, I just had to add another couple of pieces from my scrap stash - very frugal.

I think I'll name it 'Sunshine and Icecreams'.

Hmmm, I really need to practice taking phtos of quilts. They are tricky things.

Now, on to the next W.I.P.

Orchard Design.

I went to a workshop at Koanga Gardens on Saturday. It was an Orchard Design Workshop. It was exciting, motivating and I've come back so enthusiastic that I was planning to rip up of some of our driveway just to plant more fruit trees!

It also made me realise that my research is paying off - I knew quite a lot of what our tutor was saying. I'd already read it/heard it/learnt it elsewhere and that really galvanised my feelings that I'm ready to actually do this, and to do it well.

Yikes, reading that you'd think I was embarking on an exploration of Mars or something. But this place is so big and is such a blank canvas, that it's very daunting for a fairly novice gardener like me.

Our land when we first bought it - a truly blank canvas.

I felt overwhelmed when I was first presented with my ready-to-dig vege garden site. But in the four months that I've had that, I've learnt that if I stuff up, it's ok. There are a few beds that I need to renovate (the edges are falling down, they are on too much of a slope for watering) but the veges don't care about things like that. Some of the plants haven't grown well, but I can move them, or plant them somewhere else next time.

The main thing I've learnt: If I don't START, I will never LEARN.

So I'm diving in, making a site plan, defining my permaculture zones, noting the features of each area and the best bit, perusing the tree catalogues!

The other thing I did on Saturday was pick up these two girlie's. They are only seven weeks so they haven't met their beau, Riley, as he might not observe proper protocol as to underage 'dating'. Unfortunately the little grey one (named Little One, by my daughter) seems to have a slight runny nose, which I didn't notice when I was picking her out. Lesson learnt. Lets hope she comes right. Her appetite is fine and she is lively so all good at the moment. The wee black one was named by my son as Fluffy.

Oh yes, and it's Monday, time for Independence Day Challenge but to be honest, I'm a little pooped. You'll just have to accept the Orchard Design Workshop synopsis as my contribution towards my food independence goals.

And this one photo of our first potatoes. It's amazing how keen he was to help wash and eat these after digging them up himself!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.

xx

Hey Chick. Wanna see my......rabbit! ;)

New Editions to WindyHill Farm.

(I'm trying out the name. I feel like we need a name. We live on a hill. And it's windy. I'm all for the literal! Let me know what you think.)

Yesterday, on my way to Quilting (no I didn't whip any WIP's completely, but I did lightly smack one's bottom).

Sorry, I keep getting distracted.

So yesterday, I picked up Riley.

Riley the Rabbit. Named becasue he is going to lead the life of. He, and I'm pretty sure he's a he, is our stud buck. And now all he needs is some lady loves to get the party started.

What do you think of his mansion? One half of the couple I bought him off happens to be a builder....how convinient!

Then we have a dozen new chicks. The two above are Silver Campines. I'll be selling these. Even though they are stunning when grown, I want to specialise in other breeds .

These are Houdans, who look like this when they grow up! (Check out the link for some really good chicken laughs!). But for all their foofy looks they are meant to be brill little layers. And they certainly hatched well. I also have an Araucana, two Faverolles and a Barnevelder.

And these are two of the three new Light Sussex Ladies, who are not only pretty but they are also leaving my some lovely eggs. (See the deep bed litter they're on?)

And then I have some more newbies coming...but, more on those later.

Work in Progress Wednesday

My best quilting budding has been whipping her WIP's lately. It's making me feel a little jealous, but kinda proud too - we've been quilting together for five years. We started together and we've continued together. She's a great mate. She was even at the births of my children...well, she IS a midwife too!

So once again it's Wednesday and I'm off to her place to quilt and chat and drink tea. And maybe even whip some WIP's butts.

We have a little challenge running. Over a month we are to make an A4 size self-portrait quilt. Any techniques go, but you must use some of the yummies we bought when we went to Whangarei Quilter's annual (or maybe bi-annual?) show.

Yummies have a habit of sitting around, being admired and then put away for 'good'.

Which is no good.

So out they come and I have free licence to play and experiment. I think I'll do some embroidery (not one of my finer skills), and try out those silk rods.

Oh, and those funny things I'm wearing on my fingers? Called Finger Gloves. I bought them from The PowerQuilter, our little local quilting store. They are the best thing I've found so far for free-motion quilting. Better than floppy old gloves where the thumb is too long (I've sewed the thumb to my quilt before). I can even thread a needle while I'm wearing them!

Happy Whipping everyone!

xx

Independence Day Challenge Update

This is my Monday update (yes, I know it's Tuesday, but Monday kinda got away on me) on what I’ve done over the last week to move towards food independence. I originally read about it on Towards Sustainability and the original idea came from Sharon Astyk – read more about it here.

PLANT SOMETHING:
Seeds of Buttercrunch lettuce, Sweet William flowers, Musselburgh leeks. Seedlings of Yellow and Blackjack courgettes, Superking brocolli, Dwarf Carpet stock and Joi Choi Pak Choi transplanted into the garden.

HARVEST SOMETHING:
I’ve been picking my green manure crop mustard to throw to the chooks and to eat in salads. I’ve also been harvesting Courgettes, Pak Choi and Basil. And I harvested more mown grass to throw into the chook pen to increase their deep bed. And I collected EGGS of course! I totally forgot about including them last week.

Olivia nibbling on the mustard, she liked it younger and sweeter!

PRESERVE SOMETHING:
I bottled six jars of tomatoes, three with skins and three without, to see if we like leaving the skins on or if it’s worth getting a mouli to get rid of them. I also boiled up some beef bones, an old onion and some carrots to make beef stock for freezing.

REDUCE WASTE/ WASTE NOT:
I made a (hopefully) sparrow and white cabbage butterfly proof enclosure to plant out my seedlings under after finding that the sparrows had eaten all the growing tips out of my dwarf beans. They won’t grow now – what a waste :(

Ugly, but hopefully very functional. (The cover, not my daughter!)

PREPARATION AND STORAGE/ WANT NOT:
I bought a rabbit (who isn’t here yet, we're waiting for his hutch) to start my plan of growing and eating my own rabbits. And I found three of the most gorgeous old sheets in an Op Shop. I think I'll keep the blue and purple one for use - it's cotton, while the others will probably get used to make things.

BUILD COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS:
I talked to the people I bought the rabbit off about the possibilities of harvesting rabbit meat. I bought three Light Sussex chickens off a lady and talked to her about sprouting her chook wheat and maize to increase their health and also told her how to break broody chooks from sitting so they could go back to laying her some eggs.

This is my young Light Sussex Rooster who got some new girlfriends.

EAT THE FOOD:
I made a courgette chocolate cake – Yum! I also ate a salad this week made entirely from my garden: courgettes, mustard, basil and pak choi. What a great feeling.

LEARN A NEW SKILL: This category will get used sometimes, but I don’t think I’ll be able to put something in here every week! But this week I’m including my sourdough culture because I’m still growing it up and learning about how to use it, hopefully next week I’ll have made some bread from it.

This is the new shelf my hubby made and put up on the weekend. You can see my sourdough starter in the muslin covered jar next to the white yoghurt maker.