Homemade play dough

Another part of all this social isolation is limiting going out and using what we have at home. So in that spirit, I cooked up 2 batches of play dough for digger to play with. I made the blue first, and when asked what colour I should make the second batch, I was told very decisively "Green!". I used this recipe from Domestic Superhero.

Of course the first thing he told me to make from it was a frog in each colour. Don't judge my sculpting skills, he could tell they were frogs, and that's all that matters.

This was a few weeks ago now, and the play dough is keeping perfectly in the fridge still. We get it out to play at least once a day, and is a great quick activity to entertain him while I am cooking meals or trying to get something else done.

Has anyone else found a good activity to keep little ones entertained at home?

Dixie

Seed raising

As mentioned in my first post, I did actually plant a whole heap of seeds in pots prior to setting up the garden beds. These are the first lot that I planted (having since planted many more)

As you can see I got a little excited every time a new plant sprouted, so took lots of photographic evidence.

I do most of my seed raising on top of a set of drawers against a window in the back room of the house. A lot of the seedlings end up growing a bit long before getting their true leaves, from trying to get closer to the light source, however, this set up is convenient for me (at least until I build a greenhouse).

Dixie (and Karma and Digger)

Decoy moths

Along with our lovely raised vegetable gardens, comes certain garden pests. After seeing a few white moths hanging around, and even finding one small caterpillar on a brocolli seedling, I decided to try making some decoy moths to deter them.

A bit of white plastic packaging and some wire that came around some recently purchased chicken wire was all I need to put together these simple decoys. I made and installed them about a week ago and so far they seem to be doing their job. Either that or the chickens have been eating any caterpillars they have been finding. Whichever is the reason, my vegetables seem safe for now.

Have you had luck with this sort of decoy? Or any other more effective way to deter white moths?

Dixie

Making spoons

A fairly new skill for me this year has been spoon carving. While it may not seem important to the functioning of a farm, I do enjoy it as a way of connecting more to natural materials, as well as just another form of woodwork, which relates to my teaching degree. Recently I made 2 tiny spoons from a small branch of apple wood, as well as a scoop from a piece of willow. I was trying to make a scoop for tea leaves, but the apple spoons turned out far too small.

Despite wood carving using extremely sharp, not kid friendly tools, Digger likes to help, and is very careful if I tell him I am using sharp tools. He likes to help sweep up the wood shavings and sand the finished spoons. As well as telling me to be careful.

Willow is very easy to souce locally, and is quite easy to carve too. I tried to go for a very simple scoop shape, without too bulky of a handle. Partway through, I realised I had made half an avocado instead.

After taking more out of the bowl and smoothing the whole thing a bit more, it wasn't looking as much like an avocado (but will forever in my mind).

After a good deal of sanding, it made a beautiful smooth scoop. However, I am now not sure if it is too big for a tea scoop?

Any suggestions for other hobbies or skills I could try?

Dixie

Then there were 6

While originally we only wanted a couple of chickens, the friend who I got them from offered us 6. We kept 4 and gave 2 to my grandparents, as the 2 chickens they had were no longer laying (due to age). However, while the ones living with us have been laying pretty consistently since the day after they arrives, the ones at my grandparents have only managed 2 eggs in the month or so they have been there. Worried that perhaps they were getting bullied by the other chickens, or maybe not fed as regularly as they needed, the decision was made to bring them here with their siblings now that a larger chicken run has been set up (no way would they have all fit in the coop we first had).

The 2 photos above are of Blondie and Blanch the day we delievered them to my grandparent's house. Below is Lucy and Debra hanging out with our cockatoo.

So as of yesterday Blanch and Blondie have rejoined our existing flock of Lucy, Debra, Pearl and Ruby. We only have 4 roosting boxes, but I have been assured that is fine. The girls often share, or sit underneath or on top of them anyway.

While the chicken run we set up is not huge, the girls do spend most of the day free ranging around the back yard so there is plenty of space for all of them. So far, they mostly hang out in pairs, and the 2 new girls dont venture far from the chicken run, as I think they like to be close to the grain feeder. They are still getting used to the feeding schedule, but seem to approve of porridge in the mornings. Time will tell if they will start laying now they have a hopefully less stressful environment.

Here are Blondie and Blanch today, as you can see, even with the gate open, they don't stray far from the chicken run.... Yet......

Anyone know how to make chickens less flighty? Even after being here a month, both Pearl and Ruby are still very flighty.

Dixie

Beginnings

Like so many during this pandemic, my family began to look to ways of becoming a little more self sufficient, and less reliant on grocery stores. Luckily, we already had a few of the skills needed and even experience growing veggies and chooks.

When we began this project a few months ago, my mum, Karma, had a bit of trouble sourcing chickens, as everywhere was selling out immediately and some had long wait lists. Fortunately for us, I remembered a friend had hatched quite a few chickens the November prior, and she was lovely enough to supply us with our little flock. We purchased an old coop off facebook marketplace to use until we could set up a chicken run, and sourced a quality seed/pellet mix from a local business.

While mum's focus was on chickens, I wanted to be able to set up a productive vegetable garden. I started with a raised garden bed frame that we already had, then purchased a second one the same from Bunnings. While I could potentially build these myself, or purchase from a smaller business, these particular garden beds are made by an Australian non-profit company that employs workers with disabilities, so there is a certain level of feel-good ethical-ness there. Once we decided on a location in the yard, we picked up a trailer load of quality garden soil from a local business and filled them up. These 2 beds were planted with what limited seedlings we managed to source from several locations, and included Spinach, radish, bok choy, beetroot, brocolli, cabbage, pak choy and wom bok. I also had seeds planted in pots inside which I started before having the beds set up, some of which were planted out later, with quite a few being given away to family and friends having the same trouble sourcing seedlings.

Throughout the process of filling the garden beds and planting the seedlings, I had enormous help from my 2 year old son, Digger (who has acquired that nickname since we discovered his love of digging). Even for someone so young, he actually managed to plant a few of the brocolli seedlings almost by himself, and knows most of the different vegetables we have planted. I have even caught him telling his favourite stuffed animal which plant was which, so cute! He has certainly been one of the driving forces behind our decision to start our little farm, as we are needing to come up with more ways to keep him entertained at home. He absolutely loves being outside, so this has worked really well for that, and he always helps to check for eggs or water the garden (and sometimes himself).

It seemed like a good idea to record our progress here, and perhaps share with other like minded people. I hope we can share our ideas, insiration and motivations.

Dixie (and Karma and Digger)