Newbie Chicken, dolls houses and mini vegies

Well, it's happened. Our Newbie chicken, the add-on who was always a bit of an outcast, got very sick and we asked our next door neighbour, who was more experienced than us, to help us to 'dispatch' her.  The dispatchment didn't go according to plan, but I watched the whole thing and to me she didn't seem distressed or in pain and I know overall it was the best thing to do. My husband ended up doing the deed and although he was nervous, he said afterwards that he could do it again. We feel like true farmers now; we can do even the harshest of jobs!

We have had a few people talk about keeping ducks and telling us how great they are - they're good for eggs and meat, etc but personally, I couldn't kill a duck. Don't ask me why, maybe becuase I've seen them in the whild more often, and fed them as a child, etc. Chickens seem more domestic to me, and - I hate to say it - not as cute as ducks. So I'll stick to my chickens, thanks!

We won't replace Newbie. I'm happy with my three, and they have laid twice as many eggs since Newbie has gone!

I've been having fun making craft stuff - this is very out of character for me, I am not creative or crafty at all and see it as a very daggy passtime. But it's good for kids, and the pre-school programs have some crafts that my son has enjoyed (well, I make them, he enjoys playing with them). He enjoyed playing with a dolls house the other day, so I decided to make one for him. It was very quick and easy, took about 1/2 an hour, cost me nothing, and has been hours of entertainment for him. Luckily, when kids are 2 they have no expectations about neatness or authenticity - if I give him a small tupperware container and call it a bath, and he immediately puts the little people in it and gives them a wash. He spent at least an hour opening and closing the windows and making all the people and furniture go out the window, then back in the window. I used a nappy box to make the house and furniture, a container for the 'bath' and an old cloth nappy for the carpet. I'll add a picture in a minute so you can have a laugh at my creation.

There's the bath in the back left corner, a bed with a blanket in the front left, a dining table and chairs on the right, and the people are little duplo people that I had when I was little. I'll add more chairs, some pictures and other decorations later - he seems happy with it for now.

We've also been harvesting lots of vegies from our garden. We have eaten our way through about 30 leeks, some beautiful cauliflowers, some early red onions (they taste fine half-grown and I haven't found a recipe that uses a whole red onion yet so the small ones are perfect) some carrots, silverbeet, and herbs. We've just planted some potatoes, hoping they don't get frostbitten, and broad beans. We're going away in September so I'm trying to get some things planted now, and will have to wait until we get back to do the rest. Getting someone to look after vegie seedlings isn't as rewarding as looking after the chickens - who will reward them with eggs!

I've got a big pot of tomato sauce boiling away on the stove and I can just smell it now. We had left-over tomatoes at the end of summer, which we froze. Now we've run out of sauce, I'm making a new batch that we can eat with our home-grown, home-made potato chips in a few months. Yum!

I've also got a photo of some baby vegetables - sometimes our broccoli and cauliflower come out pretty small. The broccoli will grow heaps of side-shoots that will produce far more than the original head, but the cauliflower is just plain tiny! At least the ckickens enjoyed eating all the outer leaves. I'll show a photo here - don't they say baby vegies are packed full of vitamins!? That's what I'll tell myself as I eat my mini ones!

That's all for now, I'm off to inhale more of that tomato sauce. You have to strain it to get the right consistency and I'll add all the left-over chunky bits to some mince and make hamburgers tomorrow. Last time I did that with left-over stock vegetables they were the best burgers we'd ever had :)
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