Truck Farm Episode 3

Well, 10 months later the truck farm boys are at it again. Yippee for truck farm.

duckherder inc

The girls, having a sunny dust bath, in celebration of the new red chook PM. They think Julia is GREAT.

It's been a quieter week this one. My BIG project finishes at the end of the year, and folks are starting to approach me about little projects and smaller pieces of consulting work. I spoke to my accountant on Wednesday about setting up as either a sole trader or company. There are pros and cons for both. By the time I got home he had emailed me with my new ABN and I must say it seems a fine number from an aesthetics perspective.

Anyway, I think sole tradering might be the way to go while I test out this new unhinged unattached flapping in the breeze thing. I must admit I am LOVING this working from home thing and after 3 years suspect I am now ruined and incapable of working in an office with humans and set hours.

It is winter and I get to see the duckies and chookies during the day instead of letting them out at dawn and only seeing them after they have gone to bed.

I love being able to work in my jammies, and to take off in the middle of the day for a run or a ride or a jog down to the community garden to pick rocket and parsley for a salad.

I like being able to have a proper lunch. I like being able to do the washing while being on the phone.

Bring it on I say.

Mr Bacon Avocado reins supreme!

So we had a couple of -5 nights here last weekend. Not that we'd know. Mr Duck Herder and I were languishing on a beach up at Port Douglas for a week. For those of you who are unAustralian, think climate of Tahiti. No complaints there I can tell you.

Anyhoo, Mr Bacon has really hit his stride this autumn, putting on a spurt of growth 'n all. As you can see, he is feeling PRETTY SMUG about his wintering capabilities so far. (so far so good)

This will be his SECOND winter here in the ONC and who knows, another few and we might even get some fruit one day.

I like to defy the odds.

Notes from a winter duck palace.

I never have much luck with strawberries. So this year I am trying something new. That's $60 worth of new strawberry runners (30 plants) from Diggers in $40 worth of hanging pots! Now, if a punnet of strawberries costs $5 (organic) then these little babies need to produce 20 punnets before I break even. Thats 2/3rds of a punnet per plant, so it really is quite possible. They are ugly, but I hope they are productive!

After the girls had a little moult in autumn we noticed the shells on their eggs getting a bit thin and brittle. Normally I would whack some dolomite into their feed but was inspired to try the "breakfast bar" approach to providing supplements to animals who are clever enough to know what they need. The idea is based on Pat Colbey's stock lick, but instead of mixing everything up together, the ingredients are kept separate.

For cows, you might use 20 litre drums cut in half but for chookies, an old ice cube tray works a treat. Sure enough, the next day one of the chooks laid a super wrinkly thick strong egg, and then after that they were all normal but very strong and thick. The ingredients are dolomite, seaweed meal, copper and sulphur. Sometimes there are little peck marks in the dolomite especially where a little girl had as a little beak full!

I haven't worked out how to set something up for the bastard ducks they they can't fill with water.....but I'm working on it!

In other news, here are some leek and onion seedlings from the glass house.

Kiwis finally ready!

that is all.