Normal service is resumed, Merry Christmas!

Well after my last post, as you can imagine we have just been happy to get into the farm work.  I look around the farm and see so many things to do that sometimes I wonder what we have been doing the last couple of months.  Then I put together a blog post and it all comes flooding back.  It really is a full life.  Here are some photos so you can share in that “holy dooley!!” moment.  Sorry about the lack of Coreen photos, she takes all the good ones!

A walk up to Hartz with Mike and Tig...

...produces staggering views

Mike and Tig coming down from Hartz Mountain.

The lad styling it up on the farm (note the eczema on his cheeks).

The Kingston Black grafts get jumping...

and the Frequin Rouge are also looking good!

Our new litter of piglets grow so fast.

A couple of pigs from our last litter of piglets end up in a charcuterie course run by our old WWOOFer host Mandy.

Making sausage at Mandy's.

Our salamis hanging to dry, they taste great!

All our bacon and pancetta from the course, so much fun to make.

A fine day at the Apple Shed, but Julian is unimpressed by his lack of cider.

I tell him he will get cider later, see the difference?

We put our new found skills into practice on a couple of our pigs...

...and produce a staggering array of pork!

Julian is growing almost as fast as our piglets.

Taking Mary up the paddock to join the flock.

Our shed conversion gets going in earnest...

...the slab goes down...

...the framing is up...

...and the weatherboards start to go on.

You take a change table where you find it!

We have a lot of apples, Matt showing our wonderful Japanese backpackers how to thin them out.

Look, bacon seeds!

We start bottling our own home brew...

...but probably not enough for Christmas!

Poor Julian ends up in hospital for a couple of days this week when his eczema turns nasty.

Dave and Toddy getting our Christmas lambs "undressed".

Now that's a lot of Christmas lamb!

Such a great pic.

Lots of Braeburns...

and plenty of others!  It will be a busy harvest come May.

So that is it, have a Merry Christmas!!

Shooting for Redemption

While sitting around on a wet and windy Saturday afternoon, looking forward to some time in front of the fire at Matthew and Sadie’s house, we got an email from Mandy telling us that Didier and the boys were going rabbit and wallaby shooting and to be there in half an hour if I wanted to go.  So in a flurry of activity I drove over and joined Didier, Blake and Will walking up the hills in the back of the property, braving the rain to look for rabbits and wallabies.

Now normally I wouldn’t be that fussed about shooting wallabies.  Certainly not fussed enough to go out in the rain after them.  That was the reason I was taught to shoot at a young age in the first place, and I had quite a few nights out as a teenager shooting by spotlight to stop the wallabies destroying the watermelon and pumpkin shoots on our farm.

But because of the regulations at the time, after shooting them we had to leave all the wallaby corpses to rot in the field, and this always bothered me a bit.  Not all that much at the time, but as I have grown older it has annoyed me more, as it seems like such a waste.

It was this that I was going set to rights by going shooting with Didier and Blake, because afterwards we were going to butcher the wallabies and keep the tasty cuts for us, and the not-so-tasty cuts for the dogs.  This felt like a much better approach than just shooting them down.  We respect the animal by using the meat as best we can.

No, we didn't shoot this guy.  You didn't seriously think I would show photos of it did you?

We shot 6 good-sized wallabies, and after the guys showed how to butcher them I received a leg in exchange for my help.  Cor marinated it for a week and after slow cooking it was tasty but still dry.  I think next time we will marinate it in red wine vinegar and with more salt, and cook it up with some fatty pancetta to try and put some moisture in this gamey meat.

In any case, it was a first step on the road to a type of personal redemption.  And there is plenty more “redemption” up in those hills eating grass.

Until next time, live your own "Good Life"!