Bit by bit the routines and activities that make a house a home are beginning to emerge. As they do my contentment here grows.
We killed our first rooster yesterday and he has been put in the slow cooker with herbs from the garden, carrot, celery, onion and garlic to simmer away to make broth. Grant is run down at the moment so chicken soup is on the menu for dinner tonight. Grant is very experienced at dispatching animals given his farming and agricultural background but not so good at butchering it so it looks pretty. We need to invest in some good knives for him. But no doubt with practice he will get better.
I would like to say I'm tough and am totally fine with eating and butchering our own meat, but I'm going to be real, it kinda grosses me out. I mean ethically I completely understand it is ideal, the animals are grown, and butchered in their own environment, their lives are of a high quality with lots of room to roam, good food and a nice natural environment to scratch and carry out chook behaviors....intellectually I completely agree with it, but none the less it makes a little bit inside of me squirm. Its going to take a little getting used too.
We are getting some new chooks today from friends who are moving interstate. (these ones wont be butchered.) We are going to need to increase our egg intake! I wish the boys liked hard boiled eggs, such a great, easy lunch time snack. I wonder if I bombard them with them if they will change their mind? We will be getting a friendly rooster which is great. I look forward to being able to go in the chook yard again, as do the boys.
The little cottage is going to be full of new little family members soon. We went to buy mite treatment for the new chooks. The owners treated them organically but they think they may still have some so we will treat them medically just to make sure. And as well as the treatment we walked out with these guys.....sooo sweet! A great holiday job of feeding, taming and looking after them, they are very young and just getting their tail feathers. We will search for a large cage on gumtree in a few weeks. While we work on taming them we will leave them in a small cage and they can stretch their wings when they are out with us, which will be several times a day.
Gelati was also on the menu today as I was given a bunch of fruit from the a wedding I was in on the weekend which I cut up and froze to make fresh, cold gelato in the thermie. It was a delicious treat! A good way to jam fruit into everyone also. I was also prepping some ham for a quick and easy pasta.
The boys enjoying the gelato. Icecream headaches all round!!
The wedding was a beautiful, but huge day. Im still feeling tired from the last few days of events! hospitals, weddings, family stuff. But it was just lovely and great fun to catch up with so many friends and celebrate the beautiful couple. I think it is the last "big event" on our calendar for a little while.
If your wondering why Angus has a bandage on his head in the photo of the boys eating gelato it's because he had an accident in the backyard. He split his head open on a star dropper on the fence we are about to rip up and replace for that exact reason. It required a trip to hospital and a few stitches. He doesn't need the bandage now, but he feels secure with it on, so it stays. Though today I need to wash it and replace it.
Anyway the washing machine is beeping at me and I have a mountain of washing to get through after the last few days of busyness! I think tomorrow afternoon when Grant knocks off work a trip to the beach might be in order. So getting the jobs done today, between naps, bird cuddling, puzzles, books and cuppas is on the cards.
Much love,
Emma
xx
We killed our first rooster yesterday and he has been put in the slow cooker with herbs from the garden, carrot, celery, onion and garlic to simmer away to make broth. Grant is run down at the moment so chicken soup is on the menu for dinner tonight. Grant is very experienced at dispatching animals given his farming and agricultural background but not so good at butchering it so it looks pretty. We need to invest in some good knives for him. But no doubt with practice he will get better.
I would like to say I'm tough and am totally fine with eating and butchering our own meat, but I'm going to be real, it kinda grosses me out. I mean ethically I completely understand it is ideal, the animals are grown, and butchered in their own environment, their lives are of a high quality with lots of room to roam, good food and a nice natural environment to scratch and carry out chook behaviors....intellectually I completely agree with it, but none the less it makes a little bit inside of me squirm. Its going to take a little getting used too.
We are getting some new chooks today from friends who are moving interstate. (these ones wont be butchered.) We are going to need to increase our egg intake! I wish the boys liked hard boiled eggs, such a great, easy lunch time snack. I wonder if I bombard them with them if they will change their mind? We will be getting a friendly rooster which is great. I look forward to being able to go in the chook yard again, as do the boys.
The little cottage is going to be full of new little family members soon. We went to buy mite treatment for the new chooks. The owners treated them organically but they think they may still have some so we will treat them medically just to make sure. And as well as the treatment we walked out with these guys.....sooo sweet! A great holiday job of feeding, taming and looking after them, they are very young and just getting their tail feathers. We will search for a large cage on gumtree in a few weeks. While we work on taming them we will leave them in a small cage and they can stretch their wings when they are out with us, which will be several times a day.
Gelati was also on the menu today as I was given a bunch of fruit from the a wedding I was in on the weekend which I cut up and froze to make fresh, cold gelato in the thermie. It was a delicious treat! A good way to jam fruit into everyone also. I was also prepping some ham for a quick and easy pasta.
The wedding was a beautiful, but huge day. Im still feeling tired from the last few days of events! hospitals, weddings, family stuff. But it was just lovely and great fun to catch up with so many friends and celebrate the beautiful couple. I think it is the last "big event" on our calendar for a little while.
If your wondering why Angus has a bandage on his head in the photo of the boys eating gelato it's because he had an accident in the backyard. He split his head open on a star dropper on the fence we are about to rip up and replace for that exact reason. It required a trip to hospital and a few stitches. He doesn't need the bandage now, but he feels secure with it on, so it stays. Though today I need to wash it and replace it.
Anyway the washing machine is beeping at me and I have a mountain of washing to get through after the last few days of busyness! I think tomorrow afternoon when Grant knocks off work a trip to the beach might be in order. So getting the jobs done today, between naps, bird cuddling, puzzles, books and cuppas is on the cards.
Much love,
Emma
xx
