January 25th, 2009 AndrewD
Due to a bit of a stuff up with the building of our place originally we plumb our tank water into all the pipes in the house – drinking, showers, toilets etc. And we also have a switch to cut over to town water. We have two tanks at 5000 litres each. If no rain then we can go for approx 3-4 weeks, that usually leaves 2000 litres left – at that point we usually cut over to town water.
So due to no rain since the last week December 08, and also having friends and family stay etc I had, last week cut over to the town water. Due to the massive downpour on Thursday and Friday our tanks were full again and so I had switched the house back to tank water.
Friday afternoon I notice a council vehicle dropping off something in the post boxes down our street, so I went and retrieved the paper from our letter box.
URGENT BOIL WATER NOTICE
Yes some disturbing levels of E. Coli have turned up in our section of Yass water.
As we have full tanks Yass water should have the problem fixed by mid Feburary (hopefully).
Posted in Yass | 2 Comments »
January 24th, 2009 AndrewD
During the week one of our friends here in Yass gave us a bag of peaches from their tree, what does one do with 1.5 kgs of peaches? make jam. This was our second attempt at jam, the first being a cherry jam (left over cherries from christmas) which refused to set, but eventually we got it to partly set.
So act 2, we try again, this time it has set and boy has it set, tougher than creamed honey, but it does taste fantastic. What does one do with peach jam that has set too hard? Make jam drop biscuits, the jam almost takes a lolly consistency and unlike store bought biscuits I know exactly what goes in them.
2 cups self raising flour, 2 eggs, 125 grams butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, 1 cup desiccated coconut, firmly set jam,
Set oven to 160c, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and lemon zest and mix well. Roll mixture into walnut sized balls, roll them in the coconut and place them on a greased tray. Press the top of each ball with thumb, spreading them out a bit and making an indent for the jam. Fill the indent with the jam, bake in the oven for approx 15 minutes or until golden. We make approx 18-20 with this mixture.
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January 24th, 2009 AndrewD
Well while we have had salads from the garden and other odds and bods todays frittata is almost all home produced. The salad, tomatoes, spring onion and cucumber all from the vege patch and the frittata itself the eggs are from our chickens and the all the veges (potatoes, tomato, garlic, herbs) are home grown to.
Posted in Food, Gardening | No Comments »
January 19th, 2009 AndrewD
The Deck, it is almost completed. I actually started this back in Dec, dug post holes and bought timber, of course I didn’t get around to constructing anything till Jan and most of the wood had warped a bit, so I had to go and buy some more – that will teach me.
Anyway I have the basic frame completed, all now for is the actual decking. Can’t afford that for probably two – three weeks.
The deck out back
Posted in Building | 1 Comment »
January 17th, 2009 AndrewD
Houston we have chickens
The Chickens have landed
Yes we now have three isa browns in the coop. They seem healthy and are scratching around, bought from a local breeder and are at point of lay, he did mention that they will take a week or two before they start laying. It is actually fairly exciting, it is one of those defining moments for us. The kids are interested and today we spent a good hour sitting out there watchingthem and seeing if we can pick their personalities.
The chooks have arrived
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January 17th, 2009 AndrewD
Not that I am a religous person, but we do try to eat fish once per week and more often than not it ends up being Friday night.
For the past year we had not had any fresh fish as the only available fish was through Woolworths – the unfresh people and for the longest time I was asking, where is the fish man? why has every other small town I have visited have a fish guy, that travels from town to town? Well after a year of being in Yass, Lee Ann found the fish man. he comes on Thursdays and parks his van from 11am – 1 pm, and then he is off. I guess after a year of being here some of the locals are beginning to drop some secrets.
As usually fish is not the favourite on the kids menu I have been trying to make it fun for them. So hence home made fish fingers. Alyssa likes to help . Basically cut pieces of firm white fish (approx 400g) into finger size chuncks. Have three bowls, 1 with flour, one with eggs (we use 3 eggs) and one with bread crumbs (we make our own and freeze it in cup size bags.
Dip fish in flour, then egg and then crumbs. I then shallow fry in a frypan until golden brown. We serve them with a sweet chilli mayonnaise (1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup sweet chilli, squeeze of lime) and roast veges. The kids love them and thy taste great. And don’t worry if they are not orange like the packet version!
Fish finger production line
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January 13th, 2009 AndrewD
Forgot to say this earlier, we picked our first rasperberries last week, just a few this year, but we expect a bumper crop next year. Next time there are some reday to pick I will take a photo.
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January 12th, 2009 AndrewD
So yea we did do some things during the break. The first was a chicken coop. This is a 4 sided coop, 90cm high, 3metres long and 1.2 metres wide.
The back half has a roof on a hinge that provides access to the coop itself, and there is another smaller door in the other half. There is a drawbridge style door that when raised locks the birds in their nesting area for the nite, when lowered they can roam in the rest of the enclosure. The reason for the size is that Lee Ann and I can move it and that it fits reasonably well on the vege patches.
So for construction most of it was using scrap wood from around the place and we had to buy the external ply.
The basic frame.
Here the sides are getting placed on the coop
With the main roof towards the back, and the smaller access point at the front
With the drawbridge up
The drawbridge down
The first vege bed to be hit by the chooks
Now we will be getting 3 Isa Browns for egg production and a bit of weeding. Hopefully they will arive this week and we will be getting these at point of lay (approx 20 weeks old). Lee Ann wanted one point made, that it is heavy to move, but can be done with two people.
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January 11th, 2009 AndrewD
Well a month has passed, a quick update – more pieces to come in later posts. In December I turned 40, just a quiet one, back in Newtown with some friends, some Indian food and a pub after.
Birthday in Sydney
Lynsey was still on the cruise and Alyssa was at her Nan’s place for the night. We had decided to have my birthday in Sydney as Lysney and Grandma were coming back the next day and we were picking them up from Sydney Airport . At the airport Lynsey and Lee Ann were both in tears, Lynsey had a good time, but probably 2 weeks was just a bit too long away.
Lynsey at the airport
Christmas flew past, my mum, (Grandma) was supposed to come over to our house for Christmas lunch, but came down with the flu, so Christmas lunch was really quiet. Lee Ann’s parents and one of her brothers came down for Christmas dinner and stayed the night. The kids of course had fun opening presents, dressing up animals as Santa, the sweets and chocolate money .
Pixie being dressed up
After a Christmas a few slow days, not much at all, just lazed around the house. New Years did nothing, had some wine and watched the fireworks on TV. In the new years we had a some friends (Tom and Amanda) down with their daughters (Zoe and Milly) from Sydney. They stayed a few days, filled the recycling bin the first night they were here and the following day a quiet picnic down a Wee Jasper on the river to recover. After two days they went back leaving Zoe here for the week.
Zoe will head back to Sydney on the 4.00pm XPT tomorrow (Monday 12th) with Lynsey and I. Lynsey will stay at Zoe’s house for a few days.
One thing I cannot believe is that the past three weeks have gone past so quickly. I didn’t ride enough and really did not get up before 8am most days. I will be logging into work tomorrow and physically back in the office Tuesday.
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