some rain relief

Post date: Oct 31, 2015

Well, since last post, it rained shortly afterwards - 4 days totalling 40mm - very welcome indeed. Everything greened up and we had a break from trying to keep things alive. Got some planting done too. Some finger limes, elderberries, comfrey, perilla. Filling up empty spots and extending the food forest.

Also, cracked on with the smoker/solar dehydrator as we had some bacon brining. The old dishwasher came free from a cafe in town - not fixable apparently (down side of high labour costs). It was well used anyhow and I have salvaged many usable parts off it. After dismantling, the stainless 'box' just needed some cutting and re-fitting. Still have to finish the shelves, but it was ready enough to hang and smoke the bacon. Smoked it for about 30 mins and the bacon we had that night had the smokey flavour. Yum. This is the cold smoking method (not intended to cook the meat at all). Very happy that this worked and looking forward to many meals with as real bacon as one can get!

Completed a small consultation this week - basically going to someone's property and seeing what they are doing and want to do in the future and advising some Permaculture strategies to improve their site. See the tray of plants bonus from their small nursery. More herbs, and some hardy flowering plants. It's encouraging to know more and more people are taking a serious interest in their food.

Muscovy ducklings and goslings are now out with the Indian Runner ducks on daily forages out of their fenced areas. We got more chickens and ducks to add to the mobile netted mob. The photo shows the chickens trying to reach up to the hanging meat scraps basket. They go crazy for the maggots that drop out -> scraps to chicken protein!