It has been such a long time since I posted an update…  Life just doesn’t seem to leave much room for blogging lately!

AT HOME: At last our 4th bedroom is complete and Abby moved in..  It’s lovely and fresh with colours, new blinds and a renovated wardrobe.

AT WORK: I haven’t been doing any writing for the past few months, but have had some work reprinted in some home education publications.  I’ve done a small amount of editing work, which I quite enjoy on a casual basis.

The Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op blog is still going strong.  We have farewelled some of the team, and welcomed some new writers.  It’s a valuable resource and I’m flattered to be involved.

Spiral Garden has been very busy over the past couple of months.  Thanks to everyone for your continued support!  I’ve been able to stock some great New Products.

ON THE FARM: Since I last wrote, the new chook run is complete and the newest garden is filled with food plants.  Both have been a team effort with WWOOFers and the family joining in to help.

The winter vegies did really well, it’s a pleasure to have homegrown broccoli and cabbage!  It’s all cleaned up and pruned back now, with summer vegies poked in where I could fit them.

We got a sample of our homegrown honey awhile ago, and look forward to getting some more soon.  The beekeeper is impressed with how fast the hives have filled.  I simply filtered the honeycomb through a sieve to collect the honey.  I melted the wax into candles.  It was messy, but fun!

Baby chicks have grown, and new ones have hatched, a few from blue eggs!  Immi is trying to incubate some guinea fowl eggs right now, any day now we should see chicks if the incubation has been successful.

I’ve posted some updates about about the cow and calf here.  We are loving having cows, and milk, and manure!

Our kitten Penny has grown and was de-sexed last month.  She is still playful and a bit mischievous!

The guinea pigs have had babies.  We lost some of the young boys, but we’re not sure what killed them.  Another lot of mothers have had their babies this past week - just one baby each so not a huge population boom!  We got two new cages through a LETS member, so hopefully the pigs will be safe and sound now, and have a break from unplanned breeding too!

We ended up with dozens of ducklings, but they were somehow escaping from their enclosure and crows picked them off one by one.  It was very frustrating.  A couple of them just died, as well.  Because we’re new to ducklings we’re not sure why.

We moved the last of the ducklings into the second greenhouse to run around on the floor (the beds are raised, so the few plants in there are safe from nibbles).  There are some of the female guinea pigs in there too.  They seem to be co-habiting nicely except that the ducklings dirty the piggies’ swimming water daily!  The guinea pigs have special duck-proof waterers to ensure that they have fresh drinking water all the time.  Abby has started to grow food for the animals in one of the empty raised beds up there.  I’m hoping that other children might like to take over other beds as they become available so I can just concentrate on the first greenhouse and open garden area for awhile.

We’ve been planting lots of trees to create living fences along the front boundary of our place as a noise and privacy barrier from the roads.  They’re a mixture of bamboo, natives and fruiting trees, with some lily bulbs, ginger and tumeric scattered amongst the plantings as well.

Our existing trees, planted last summer and the one before, are so big now!  We’ve had stone fruit from the trees this Spring, and the citrus are now flowering with promise of more than a couple of fruit each next Autumn and Winter.

We watched a Food Forest DVD and we’re thinking about how we can adapt Stage 2 of the orchard along these principles.

HOME ED.: Term Four went by so quickly!  We had fewer activities but more visitors.  Art and cooking classes and home ed group were still active until the end of the term.  We enjoyed some wonderful outings with the home ed group  - camp, Buffalo Dairy visit, Quinola Lakes (swimming and waterslides), Rosella Waters Permaculture Farm visit and Ten Pin Bowling again.

Now it’s time to do some planning for 2010, and pack  away all the work and records of 2009.  We enjoy reflecting on the year passed before making our New Year goals.

Blessings for the Festive Season and may 2010 bring you every wonderful thing you wish for.

Comments are still closed on this blog, but don’t hesitate to email me if you’d like to keep in touch.