Life lately has felt a bit like a snow ball. Ideas, goals, plans, all starting off small and then beginning to tumble out of control. I love this feeling, learning, getting things done and setting up our house for winter!
-We’ve been baking up a bread storm in our kitchen, J even made his first loaves.
-We continued with our #2013AdventureResolution, slowly we’re ticking things off our adventurous list. We both visited friends in Mount Beauty and went on a motorbike adventure over Easter weekend.
-Our chickens are continuing to lay, having now given us about 3 dozen eggs, I’m so grateful to have them in our backyard.
-Autumn planting has begun and more will happen this morning.
-I’ve found the first pumpkin that I have ever had the pleasure of growing on our plant the other day. I just hope it continues to grow and not get eaten like the others.
-I finally found some local figs and made my first ever frangipane tart and put the figs on top. So delicious!
-We had a date night, courtesy of my little brother and sister. For Christmas they gave us gift certificate to the Rooftop Cinema and with the deadline looming, we went and watched The Devil Wears Prada.
-Our food costs have plummeted right down. We cooked a mussel meal, which cost us approximately 50cents and it was divine! Foraged mussels in homemade passata sauce, served with homemade sourdough! Yum!
Do you ever feel like your life is like a snowball?
I LOVE that picture of you and the chook! You look like you genuinely love your chicken buddy 🙂 And the chook looks pretty happy too.
I do really love them, although I’m not too sure how happy she was, we’d just clipped their wings.
Love the sound of your foraged and home grown meal. Hope your pumpkin makes it to the table.
Thanks Liz, I am so enjoying finding ways around visiting the supermarket. And also putting delicious, nutritious meals on the table.
Clare you guys are amazing! What a transformation you’ve made in just a few months. Can we have a pic of some of your eggs please?
I was just thinking yesterday… how are the mushrooms going?
Thanks so much Claire, honestly such an honour to hear that from you! I think I’ll definitely have to do a further chicken update. We’ve had about 3 dozen eggs now! The mushrooms… well their compost is being used in the garden to help grow the beets… They didn’t work, so we tipped them out. Maybe now we’ll get mushrooms growing in the garden.
Yes please I want to hear more about the chickens! Well I guess I won’t be investing in a mushroom growing kit. That would be good if they started sprouting in your garden though!
There will be a new chicken post soon. Promise.
But it sounds like your snowball is a lot of fun too. Your chooks take me back to my childhood on the farm. How about a photo of your backyard?
The snowball has been so much fun! Thanks for the request Suzanne, there is now a backyard post on the way.
Snap. I have my first ever pumpkins too. I have 3 at the moment. After much hand pollination a couple finally took. I’ve been wondering about the mushrooms as well. How are they going?
The mushrooms are no longer growing, it was always an experiment for us. We tipped the mushroom compost onto our garden to help the beets grow, so not a complete waste. One of our pumpkin plants had a funny scale on it, so I pulled it out, turned out it was the sole plant, I put it back in the ground and am keeping my fingers crossed that I didn’t kill it.
I’m envying your healthy and sustainable lifestyle! Were those Portarlington mussels? I’ve only ever had oysters but I’m guessing they’re similar! And some photos of the motorbike trip please!! x
Sophie, they were Portarlington Mussels! I think oysters and mussels are pretty different, but mainly because I usually have oysters raw and mussels cooked. Sadly from the motorbike trip, I took 3 photos. It’s tough taking photos from the back of the bike.
Lovely post! I especially love all the bread – but hey, you knew that. 🙂 Nice to know it’s having a noticeable impact on your food costs!
I’m loving all the bread, however I was saying to a friend yesterday, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much bread!
Awesome! I love the photo of you and the chicken. I am still waiting for mine to get that big. Though my guinea fowl are now that size. How good is it to cut your costs on food.
Hope you had a fun date night. Me and my hubby will be having a few nights away soon just us, I can’t wait. Its nice to get away.
Keep gardening and eating.
Our chickens are about 20 weeks now, maybe more. How old are yours? Do guinea lay? I don’t know much about them. What’s the benefits of keeping them? It’s so nice to get away, especially at the moment, because, as you well know, I love being home but there is always something to do!
Your bread looks so good!
The bread is so good!
Snowball? Avalanche! And what else can you d but grab some skis or a snowboard and ride that sucker til it comes to rest. THEN you get to look back and marvel at the achievements and the journey and the lessons learned and all of it. I feel like my eyes are wide open saucers and the mouse-wheel called my brain has just received a new and updated mouse in it who is all hyped up on speed! Runaway train, rollercoaster, snowball, avalanche, tidal wave, the whole lot all in one. NEVER felt this alive in all my 34 years! 😀 😀 😀
I seem to have grabbed that snowboard and I’m riding the ups and downs! And loving (almost) every minute of it!