Possibly. I can't see that she has any on her calendar for them but she may just not have booked them up that far yet. I'm serious about the house offer though. I might yet be back in Cambodia around then, but you can have a room here or I can arrange a billet for you with someone else if I'm not in the country.
Ah well, just have to start saving my pennies and see closer to the time...I would love a chance to wander through your garden!
` We have a baby rabbit living in the road side garden. I went to check on the nectarine seedling and interrupted it feeding on grass roots under one of the olive trees. One side of me thought 'how cute' the other said 'oh shit!This little bugger is going to eat my seed and seedlings'. So, another bit of a problem. I went to buy the chooks sack of wheat like I always do when I start to run out,only to find that they didnt have any.The sales rep just happened to mention that he thought the suppliers might be starting to stockpile it due to what is happening overseas with all the droughts etc...not good, that means the prices are going to sky rocket. I had to buy whole maize instead, which the guy and girls love. I was seriously considering growing maize on the roadside garden just for them and under planting with butternuts for us and family, but with yet another rodent likely to eat it all, once again, I feel stuck. I did think of catching it and finding it a mate to start our 'rabbit warren, but it was such a puny looking thing, I wasnt sure it would be worth the effort. It doesnt look like my broadcasting of barley has worked in this area, I can see what looks like barley grass starting to flower and it doesnt have the long spikey beards that the proper grain barley grows which is disappointing. I was sure I had sowed heaps so at least some would grow.I'll have to wait and see what happens. The chooks loved the barley grass that I found elsewhere and fed to them.The rooster came to check it out first and did his little croony-noise, calling the girls over for a feed, so at least I know what to do with the heads of barley grass when I find them. I finally got around to putting something up along the internal fence between the garden and hubbys' side.It was supposed to be wires for brambles to get tied to, but after thinking Imay need to put the chooks somewhere out of the garden for abit,instead, I used the old plastic mesh I found along the river bank and some that hubby found for me after I said I didnt have enough. I put his lot along the bottom, cos it was square mesh and more sturdy looking.(And also a very bright Orange), with my lot along the top- a more faded pink hexagonal mesh., with just alittle bit left over. That gives things something to climb up and will keep the chooks in once the front is blocked off.I dont think this will be a permanent fence.I dont have anything to fill it with yet. I found a Thornless bramble-probably one I planted two years ago and couldnt find again-dont know how it did that, but anyway, its now been transplanted to its new trellis.I did find another one, but will wait til a better day to transplant that one.These Are thornless, so I am quietly pleased. The northern boundary now has reinforcing mesh 'trellises' around most of it, in readiness for the shit load of climbing beans I am going to plant here.Most of this came from SIL and only one had to be cut in half so they would fit better.I have some poles at each end, sunk into the ground and the whole lot tied up with yet more baling twine. The rooster doesnt seem to be able to fit through the gaps in the mesh, which I thought was interesting.If/when at some stage, I need to replace the hens, perhaps it would be a good idea to get a bigger breed than bantams.Keeping those out would mean mesh fences and mesh gate-that little tidbit has been tucked away for future reference. We have got the middle bed edged with the old timber from the old veg garden, it just needs something around the curved bit on the end, so I might go and see if my mum is using something I gave her ages ago that will work there.Then, I'm off to find bark to fill the paths. Roosters' dad came by to drop off my farm and stable herbal, they liked it so much they have ordered one for themselves. They are on tank water and thought the size they have would be about the size we would need. I showed him 3 spots where we thought the water tank could go, but werent sure cos we didnt know what diametre it was. One was just going to be too hard to get the tank into and would have needed an extra crane to lift it over the garage, the other spot wasnt wide enough, unfortunately.I thought it would be good there cos it would act as a windbreak ( the southerlies hit the side of the house and are deflected up to the garden)...so need to find another solution to that problem. Now we just have to save some money to buy the tank.The downpipes etc are sitting waiting somewhere resonably out of the way til then. I originally didnt think you could get concrete tanks any more because all the ones I have seen have been the big green plastic ones, but it seems that these are still being made and this was what was reccommended.They dont heat the water like the plastic apparently do-this can cause algae and bacteria to grow in the water which would mean having to use additives to counteract that when/if we hooked it up to the house.(I wanted a tank for watering the garden after I heard on the grapevine that the council will be putting metres on the water connection) Finally managed to mow the lawns so one set of beds have been mulched to kill the weeds so we have a clear bed to start planting.I've choosen the hedge side lot to start with. The dome is stuck again waiting for the wheat to grow and ripen.I dont want to move it on these spots after seeing how badly the small sowing of oats got munched. The door to the dome is open and everyone goes in to roost at night.Two lay their eggs in the nestbox in there, two lay in the part of the compost bin that is aging,one lays in the ferns by the steps and one was laying in a wicker basket I had in the porch til I upset her by walking past- I havent found her new nest yet.Not sure if the other tow are laying yet or not. The rooster still comes in at our bed time,haha,my daughter stayed with us for a couple of days,I did tell her that I brought the rooster in at night and that he will probably wake her up at 4.30am. She said she did hear him-pretty hard not too seeing as he was right outside her door-but she thought 'how cool' and went back to sleep. I have a wonderful family to put up with such a crazy me.
A fermenting thought for you.... I was watching a video of a naturopath from NZ talking about how to help parents change their kids diets when they have austism or ADD type issues. She was big on using fermented food and recommended making green coconut water kefir. Which sounds really interesting, but the thought of having to break into a coconut and not chop my arm off stops me from wanting to give it a go. She also talked about making your own nut or seed milk (almond, sesame etc), then adding kefir to make a nut yoghurt, and then draining that to make nut cheese. That sounded really interesting.... Where do you buy your cultures from? I might have to stop thinking about this and actually do it. It's probably time to harvest that cabbage and make sauerkraut too...
um, I got mine from a friends' friend. I think she originally got it from https://users.sa.chariot.net.au Dont really like the taste of it in milk.I have been dosing myself every now and then because it is supposed to be good for me, but like most 'medicine',I 'forget' to take it. I wound up dehydrating alot of the sauerkraut I made cos I made so much and was the only one eating it. Our supermarket doesnt seem to have coconut in the vege section-just a little place, so there probably isnt much of a market for that here, I could check out the local fruit and vege shop. That would be an interesting taste sensation.
