Latitude 14 Eastern Australia

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by sun burn, Jun 4, 2010.

  1. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    I killed a duck!

    Nothing to be proud of. Nothing that makes me happy exactly. Well not in a deep way. But it does mean i am over the hurdle. The duck wasn't mine but i did it and now i can do it to my poor things.

    Well i must admit cutting off its head was the easy part. Plucking it and skinning (unlike with the rooster) was the hard part. I won't go on about the details. Suffice to say i have more to learn.

    And one duck a day is enough at this point in time.

    On the plus side, i got another load of mill mud to put on my vegie garden.
     
  2. Stingray

    Stingray Junior Member

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    hey sunburn :)
    congrats on getting over the hurdle :)
    that 1st ones normally the hardesT :)
    good luck with the rest :)

    posted a reply in Ducklings-your-experience-please on how the duckling experience ended :)
     
  3. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Yes, good on you.
    I have been putting off the Deed for weeks now and really do need to get new hens but that means Doing something with the old non productive ones.
    I was told to just skin them at first rather than plucking them.
     
  4. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    I've not been around much but that doesn't mean i've given up on the garden. Today i have begun putting in my boundary line irrigation system. I am so excited about this. The weather has been so dry for the last month at least and i have had to hand water all my shrubs. Besides i am going away next month and don't want my plants to die of neglect so with my fancy new irrigation going in there's really no excuse.

    I'm using sprinklers since for some reason, drippers are not so suitable for my area or garden. Maybe its because of the bore. I don't know. Anyway i don't mind. It looks like its going to be easy to set up. The sales person in the shop was really good at helping me with the design. She was, of course, at first trying to sell me the more expensive sprinklers but there's now way i can pay about $20 per sprinkler head. I'm paying $3.50 instead.

    I also opted out of the expensive high pressure hose. It's not necessary. More savings.

    In the chook house, my first chickens have hatched. I got some fertilised eggs from Joe when one of my young hens went broody. He gave me about 8 eggs but only 4 hatched. The hen suffocated or squashed one of the poor little ones but there are still three furry little chicks doing their thing. Pretty cute. Today, the second or third day, mum's got them out of the nest and they are digging for and finding grubs in the litter of the chook house floor so i'm very impressed. I mean they've found grubs on top of my concrete floor. Don't know how the grubs got there but i am glad they are. I'm keeping them all in for at least one week and then i will see if they are going to be safe to let out.

    I've got one duck sitting on eggs for over a week now and another one who's trying. You've got to keep a close eye on them to avoid losing all the eggs to baby ducks. The one who's got the nest has it wehre i can't get her off to pinch the eggs so i gave in and let her stay.

    Other news. I've picked my rosellas and my friend with the cafe just offered to buy my jam. Next year i need to plant a lot more rosellas though as the bushes don't actually yield that much.

    This same friend has been buying my lemons for her cafe so that's great. We've decided to buy a new food processor with the proceeds.

    I pulled up all the sweet potato running rampant in my vegie patch. And got another load of mill mud in preparation for this years vegie planting. I haven't start on that yet as because I am going away. I might sow some seeds in trays and get them watered by dad with all my potplants so that i have some things to plant out when i get back or if my sister wants to plant them out, she can. NOt sure yet.

    Its good now that heat has gone out of the day so that gardening is once again an option.

    I am getting a free caravan from my neighbours to live in when i have to move out of this house while my sister and her husband are here. So that is going to be excellent.
     
  5. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    catch up - permablitz, culling ducks, tomatos

    Just a quickie update to keep my record going.

    I'm home from my cycle tour of the Kimberleys. It was great of course and exhausted me and i finally got down to my desired weight. Now i've got to make sure i stay here.

    At home, things have gone to pot a bit as expected but my sprinkler systems seems to have kept most things alive with dad on the button occasionally. The weeds got a bit out of hand of course.

    I didn't get time to kill off my ducks before my trip but finally i have started the culling at home. The first one i did with dad's help and the second i did yesterday all on my own. So that is a great achievement for me. Its been such a long traumatic thing. I've spent a fortune keeping too many drakes alive and now i might be able to start saving that money. Just this week i have been through one bag of feed already. Yikes! So two drakes down, two to go.

    And i've cooked one and it was excellent. If anyone needs tips on that, i can now help. They are muscovies don't forget. I had not expected my year old drakes to be tender and so roasting it was an experiment. But it worked.

    On Sunday i went to a local permaculture event - where we all worked on one person's garden. This is what i joined the local group for and now i've done one and loved it. I can't wait for the next one. They had a demo about aquaponics and now down the track, i'd love one of those in my garden. I still don't understand the wicking bed thing. The place was a city garden and she had all piles of bought stuff sitting out on the pavement. Its easy when you've got the money to spend on having all the right stuff put down in one place at the right time. The people were nice. And one of the members and i found we had something in common and we want to start a local cycle touring group, just for short trips. So i am excited about that. Even if its only him and me that go off that would be good, even though he's an old codger, just having another person to go places with on occasion is motivating so as you like them enough. I think we may get along fine.

    So life is quite good at the moment.

    I came back from my holiday all fired up with ideas and importantly motivated to get out there and do some work. I'm a bit unsure as to whether my sister and her husband like what i've been doing though. John doens't like domestic animals i've just found out - just as i was contemplating getting a couple of goats and jane has some weird idea that i should put hte garden together her way. Ie i should have started from the middle and not the boundaries and so on. Sigh. I really want those goats too as i am tired of not being able to make successful yoghurt and i believe its due to all the processing of my cow's milk. I've asked the neighbours if i can put the goats on their place to eat as they have large open areas of grass with shady borders where as my place as small patches of open space and too many plants which they will eat.

    And at the permablitz, i met a guy who had goats. I floated the idea of trying out the idea by borrowing his goats cause he said he is thinking of getting rid of his. I think he finds them too noisy or something or they hinder the growing of his garden.

    This year vegie wise, i am going to focus on tomatos. That is the vegie that means most to me and that i most want to grow. They are not easy to grow here but iwth raised beds, i think i can beat the wilt. There are also wilt resistant plants i could get some of those in too. but i've so much to do, i will have to be focussed to get those in anytime soon.
     
  6. Stingray

    Stingray Junior Member

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    Hey Sunburn :)
    Glad to hear ya had a fun time cycling about :) (did my 1st ride since spinal surgery yesterday and sorta over did it with 18kms.. LOL)
    Nice to hear everything survived reasonably well whilst you were gone :)
    Good on ya with the ducks :} ... we still have 2 and I have been talking about roasting one .. so will have to do the deed myself in the next week or so .. :)
    Love the idea of the permaculture event .. and def look into aquaponics .. have started a trial here myself a couple weeks ago :)
    love the idea of goats ..MMMmmmm goat curry!!!!!! delish!!!!!!!
    go the toms!!! def can go wrong with them .. have 1/2 doz plants in atm .. have had to stop planting more etc as we have decided to take the plunge and move to NNSW and look for somethin rural .. try for a few acres where I (we) can expand what we are already doing in outer-suburbia! ;)
    Glad to see ya back safe .. and had fun :)
    Daz
     
  7. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Stingray, i will tell you how i cooked it so that it was delicious. I cooked it on 150 degrees for about 4 hours. next time i will turn the heat up high at the end for a little while to make the skin crispy. I didn't think of that this time but the slow cooking kept it nice and tender. My duck had a lot of fat on him so i think taht helped becaue he was much older than he should be for eating but it just goes to show, that they can be yummy. Also i nearly forgot to do this but its important. don't cook the duck straight away. Let it rest in the fridge for between 12 - 36 hours before cooking otherwise it will be tough.

    Also to keep the duck out of its fat dad suggested i sit it on a rack above the baking tray. Taht was a good idea even if i didn't do it until the end.

    There was a beautiful rich gravy juices in teh pan after. I let it chill in the fridge and then picked off all the hard fat to get at the good stuff. With that, instead of making a gravy (which you'd want if you were going to eat the duck hot), i made a delicious split pea and duck soup. With the soaked split peas i added to the pot, the duck gravy, the duck frame with whatever meat was left on it, 2 medium onions, 3 cloves of garlic. I was adapting it from a pea and ham soup of stephanie alexander. One duck is rich enough to flavour a whole bag of green split peas. Its too rich for less as I found out.

    I've been eating duck all week and still have more to eat. Its been fabulous. I also made a duck sandwich with mango chutney, duck fried rice, cold duck with french vegetable salad. Neighbours who tried my duck also thought it excellent and will probably start growing their own ducks now. lol. I know its nice in a asian style soup cause i had that before. Anyway i am a duck convert.
     
  8. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Nice to hear what been happening with you Sun Burn. I'm thinking about getting into ducks again but need to do some fencing and other work around first. Still got some in the freezer and will try your recipe thanks.

    cheers
    Annette
     
  9. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Nice to have you back Sunny!
     
  10. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    OH thanks eco. Nice to see you too.

    DAd just found a pumpkin. I was just going to comment that i like this sort. Its a trumpet variety and i didn't like the other one i grew so many of. It was the Kentish - good to look at but not so great to eat, variety.


    Last night i went to my first ever permaculture meeting. Well, i have to say its not for me. It was a nice social event and if it was down the street, i'd go every time but as i have ot drive one hour to attend, i'd want something more for the effort. I didn't really get anything out of it but i did get a lot out of hte permablitz and i have to say that's gotta be where the heart and soul of permaculture is. The melbourne groups are good at it i hear and that's where Joh got a lot of her ideas about how to manage her permablitz day. Her's was a great success. I am only sorry that there will only be one a month.

    Stupid meetings. What a waste of time and resources somewhat. It wasn't boring really. just not necessary.

    Anyway, i've found a woman who lives a couple of hours drive away who has lovely litttle miniature goats and she said she'd give me one if i could help her out one day a month or something. (i think she said it like that). Anyway that would be great because they cost $400 for a young one. That said, half hte family is not keen or interested in my goat story.

    But a little goat i should be able to keep on my section of the block and it need not bother anyone else - but i'm not hurrying. Suffice to say, we have been having a few issues on the property. My sister and her bil are home. Bil doesn't like what 'ive done along the boundary and is asserting his need for privacy to the detriment of my plans. I've jsut about gotten my head around some of his demands but i' am not ready to relinquish my boundary planting. In fact i am almsot ready to plant vegies in the gaps so its a permashrubbery if not a permaforest. I'm intending to plant eggplant, capsicum, pumpkins and cheery tomatos there. I've put down the composted chooky poo.I just have to wait for the seeds to germinate blah blah blah.
    This year in terms of vegies, i am going to focus my efforts on tomatos. I will try a few other things but its mainly tomatos i want to grow well. Oh and also watermelons and trumpet pumpkins or butternuts. I can get cheap greens from my neihgbour over the road.

    Today i did something else for my commmunity and you guys may want to think of doing something similar for yours. I started a yahoo group for our suburbs with the idea of it being use for suburban classifieds. I could even set up one for POrt Douglas so that we could bypass hte newspaper where you have to pay. I bet there would be more activity if everyone was on that. And a lot more community invovlement.

    Oh i was saying about our family issues. one sec, i need anohter glass of wine and some cheese snack....
     
  11. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    OH yeah, its been awful really. My sister and i have had arguments and so far we have had one councilling session. I hope it works because if not, she will want to sell this place and go and live somewhere else and she can do that, even though its in both our names. I yeah, i hope we can find a way forward and i hope councilling can act more quickly than usual to make the difference.

    But i'm also excited because with my new caravan (which is not new by the way) i have realised i can't get wifi at it and so i'd have to move the van to another section of my third ( we've agreed that each of us - my sister, my father and me will have a third of the block to be in charge of). This is good because i've got the power now to get DAd's dinghy moved (when the tomatoes have finished for the season) and do something proper with that end of the nursery. My idea is to put the van in the shade at the edge of the forest and then in the sunny part (where its swampy in summer) build an island out of bricks, crusher dust and sand and on it will be my kitchen - until i can build one for the long term in my forest. This will be a wonderful space for this . I envisage planting some palms around the kitchen to get some shade and to provide atmosphere for the sand. Obviously i can't have too many coconut palms but i always intended having them off to one side. Perhaps i can have another little raised island for some other sorts of things to grow like parsley and herbs though its hard to grow those here.

    Speaking of which, a pair of ducks a=have been swimming in my pond. someone knocked down the barrier and they are going there too regularly so i am shooing them out regularly. My waterlilies died while i was away but i've still got the kangkong but i don't want duck poo in my pond or duck claws tearing the plastic.


    So for the next year, garden wise, i am going to focus all my efforts on the lower third of the garden, or pretty much so anyway. Unfortunately most of this area is forest and gets swampy in the wet season and is not suitable for growing edibles.

    That's enough for now, though its not all.
     
  12. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    I forgot to say hi to annette because i was thinking it was a message from stingray. HI Annette and thanks for your message.


    ... and i forgot to give you teh link to my new biccycle touring pictures form the kimberly so hang ten while i get the link.
    ...

    click on the dates on the calendar and the thunbnals to move through the blog. Sorry for tying i am drnk now. ONly had tow glasses of wine. sorry.
     
  13. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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  14. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    This is probably a bit left of centre but from the perspective of human relations, i've taken up with buddhism more actively though i will never become a buddhist or even want to be. I found a centre where i can go regularly for meditation and motivation.

    They had a helpful little one liner for guidance which i have found really great since i am already familiar with many buddhist concepts. The oneliner - which neesd to be a bit more poetic - is behave like the buddha. I have to say that this in some ways helps iwth mindfulness than thinking of the word mindfulness. I think its wonderful.

    The other wonderful think i like about buddhism which i got reminded of the other day was that you can cherry pick. The Buddha wanted his followers to challenge and discover everything for themselves and not to swallow things whole or follow blindly. I do think i love the buddha. Pity he's no longer around.

    There's plenty that i will never be able to go with in Buddhism but if i focus on what is good and believable i think i can achieve what i want from it - which is not "englightenment per se"
     
  15. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    A Theft

    I went to a permaculture gardening day the other day. We were doing some work on a community garden. I had my wallet stolen out of my bag.

    Well who'd have thunk it.

    On my travel forum i always tell people that stuff like this happens when you get complacent. And guess what i was complacent the other day. I thought that no one in a permie group would steal a wallet. And yet it appears someone did.

    At first we thought it was one particular person who has was seated next to my bag for quite a long time that morning. But we followed up on that possibility and it seems he didn't take it. The only other candidate always sits in my mind as someone who is not 100% all there but somewhat more together than the other guy. So he sits in my head as a possibility but i don't want to accuse him. If its not him, it can only be one of not even a handful of older women who it seems to me unthinkable that it could be one of them.

    There was a guy pass through the garden but one of the other women said she saw him walk straight through. I have to ask her if she watched him the whole time.

    Anyway the moral of the story is never be complacent about your stuff even surrounded by permies.

    There is no doubt my wallet was in my bag in the first place since i had argued with myself before i got out of the car whether to leave it in the car or take it with me and because of the stupid stance we have about not leaving valuables in the car, i took it. I then also had this debate about leaving it on the bench or should i put it in the shed, but i thought oh its ok there. And then i even wondered about that guy who i first though might have took it but said to myself oh, he's one of us, it will be all right. How wrong was i. I just don't know who took it that's all.
     
  16. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    That's really sad sunburn. I too have left my bag in open view when working at the community garden thinking that they aren't the sort of people who would steal.
    My guess would be that it's an outsider who moved through the place so fast that no one even noticed their presence. My gut tells me you can trust the people you have asked directly.
     
  17. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    It is an awful thing to have an experience in a place where you think there is trust only to find someone has betrayed that trust and stolen money or whatever. One of the central tenents of buddhism is non-attachment to material things of the world. One way to see this would be to consider that maybe this was an opportunity for that. Just a thought as I have had similar experiences.
     
  18. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Annette, i have tried to take a buddhist view of it so i haven't been overly upset by it either. However losing $100 does mean that i don't have it for other things i still need. And losing my cards means i have a) to pay to replace some and b) muck about a bit to get the others back and c) not being able to contact those people in Darwin if i want so while my mood about it is generally ok, it has had practical implications of a real nature. If i had more money, the loss of money wouldn't matter so much but because i have so little its actually probalby the thing that is the worst. I don't feel parpticularly attached to those things so i don't htink its a matter of a chance for practicsing non-attachment. But i have had an occasion to practice that with our property recently which has been challenging but i think i've just about got on top of it.
     
  19. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Oh that's good. Can be annoying having to sort out all the implications of having the purse stolen. I remember when I was looking into buddhism and considering it, my mother's wedding ring went missing. It was really the only thing I had of her left in the material world. It threw me in a spin. I was bereft for weeks. Then I realised she was always in my heart and i eventually let it go. Took a great deal of work to get to that landing. Anyway a couple of months later it turned up on my duchess. Go figure.
     
  20. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Well that ended well then didn't it. It would be great if my wallet could end up on my duchess (if i had one). The car seat would be fine. ;-)
     

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