Back on the wagon

Hello blog. Golly. That life thing. It keeps happening. Blog - meet Louie.

Ginger Champagne is GO

OK, so Eileen and I spent Saturday afternoon inpromptuly batching up 42 liters of ginger champagne. This is GOOD STUFF. Well, it will be in 9 months time......

There is another 25 litres of Kiwi Melomel doing a secondary ferment on the bookcase in front of my desk. I am waiting for this to slow down enough to bottle....Its a delicate balance.....too much fermenting left to do after bottling means exploding bottles and popping corks.....too little and the melomel is still, just enough and we have lovely spritzy bubbles! There is no science to this with wild fermentation - just gut. Trust your gut. Wait for the planets to align and for the creative tension in one's tummy to go still and clear and say "It is time"

All through the house I can here the gentle "glub..........glub......" from 4 different airlocks.

20,000 tiny deaths in the family

OK, so I have some sad news I have been saving up.......we acknowledge the passing of Dear Queen Malina on the Front Deck and 20,000 of her best friends.

The girls didn't make it though winter.......

The forensic investigation is considering a number of possibilities.......when I checked the hive just before winter, I noticed a few strange things....there had been a massive die off of worker bees.....lots of their dried out bodies up above the queen excluder......and most of the extra honey stores I was planning on harvesting were gone.......I put this down to a wee bit of poisoning.......Mr Duck had oiled the decking around the hive, AND there had been lots of resealing of the roads in the suburb.....both of these could have set the girls back a bit.

Also, during this little peek I saw HRH Queen Malina herself! This was unexpected as I had assumed she would have been replaced by a daughter long before now.....she is a almost three years old. I was NOT expecting to see her little white dotty back at all.

So it is possible she was failing as the hive went into winter.......and that there were perhaps not enough girls in the hive or honey stores to get them through......


Anyhooo, the hive is empty and silent.

When I get around to it I will take the hive apart and check it more thoroughly, and get it ready for a new swarm in the spring.

Amen. 

Winter Greens

OK, so remember those wicking garden beds I was putting in.......well, they were great over summer and have been even better over winter. The covers are actually pretty good at keeping the frost out and the warmth in.
 

We have had cut and come again lettuce pretty much all winter.......

 And for the first year I have grown valeriana or corn salad....It is really only getting a kick along now. I think I planted it a bit too late.......

 And this is something new.....miners lettuce. It is really nice to eat and has the same cut and come again characteristics that are so valuable in winter.......
 

Baby spinach has been crisp and sweet. I have just planted some more rows of seeds in the spaces. Its not too late to get a second crop of spinach in the ONC.

 Yummi. What a great selection for my green smoothies and salads each day!



 

Enough already.

 I came across this interview with Vicki Robin of "You Money or Your Life" fame. Downloaded the book onto my magical Kindle......

Goodness. It has triggered a bit of serious soul searching and deep reflection. I know I am probably the LAST humanoid in the elegant frugality blogosphere to discover YMOYL but you know...better late than never!

Things I have discovered so far:

• I have some seriously $^@&ed up deeply held beliefs about money, work and what it is for.....ever as a free range chook. 
• I have enough. 

I REALLY do have enough stuff.

Anyhoo, I feel deeply inspired and almost giddy with anticipation. I feel like my eyes have been OPENED.





In other news, and in homage to all things wonderful and free, I started making Kiwi Vinegar today with some of the very last squishy kiwis. Its only been a few hours, but it is ALREADY smelling divine.

Recipe adapted from the pineapple skin recipe from WILD FERMENTATION by Sandor Ellix Katz.

Ingredients are:

• 1 liter rain water
• 60 gms sugar
• Squishy Kiwis
• 2 weeks.

How much does 1 liter of Boutique Organic Kiwi Vinegar cost to make?

However much 60 grams of white sugar costs.

Now that is elegant.

In other news, I am going to a Christmas in July well August celebration tomorrow night. In line with my new frugal elegance, I made 8 little jars of moisturizer to give out as presents.

Well, that's Friday and that is all.

Have decided not to spend any money this week. Given that I have ENOUGH and all. Except on food. And some unavoidable work travel expenses while I am in FNQ later this week.

Gook luck me!

Formic Acid and BAS statements

One of the down sides of being a free range chook is the requirement to produce a BAS each quarter. Here is Ziva helping me to sort my receipts out.......

In other news, ANTS discovered the Kiwi Melomel. Big long trail of ants climbing up and going in, no ants coming out, lots of ants floating on the top.

I fished as many as I could out.....and anyway it was time to get all the fruit out so I strained the whole lot into a new carboy....and capped it off with an air lock. Perhaps the judicious addition of some formic acid in the form of deceased ant carcases will only help....? who knows.

The crochet cardigan is going nicely thank you. The ducks have picked up their laying - YAY GO DUCKS.

I met the lovely Mr and Mrs Bredbo Valley View Farm at the farmers markets today. They had a little trailer fill of cute little show and tell piggies. SWOON.

Thats it for a Sunday.

Amen.

delicious

Two delicious things on this raining afternoon. Three if you count having a nap. Oh the life of a duck herding consultant!

Behold the Kiwi Melomel on day 3. The froth has gone. I think the froth was mostly pollen from the honey and a result of all the swishing and stirring to get the honey to dissolve on a mid winter day. 

And I have just ordered the yarn for a new project. How gorgeous is this crocheted cardigan! Gwynne from next door lent me the pattern. She has made the same thing but out of different wool. I fell in love with the colours as much as the pattern, so for once I am going to follow the pattern COMPLETELY and even use the SPECIFIED wool in the SPECIFIED colours! What fun to try a bit of compliance. How hard could it be?