Stuff I see...

Well, the list got smashed last weekend - and some! Only things not done are sprinkler system and plant pumpkins seeds. But I also went out and bought about 150 plants and MOTH helped me plant out the new garden. And we cleaned up the place to look brand new in preparation of our special visitors. Chooker moles also got some extra attention they really didn't want.

This weekend there's a whole lot of preserving going on. So far we have Wild Guava Chutney bottled, Chilli Jam on the stove for the next 12 hours and there's green PawPaw Chutney "resting" for booking tomorrow.

I also popped some pork ribs that had been marinated in BBQ Bourbon sauce into the wood fired oven this afternoon for several hours… LOOKING GOOD! Then MOTH is going to crank it up a few degrees for pizza night.

I popped out into the yard to see what I could see and there is a surprising amount of colour around for this time of year.

I need to get on top of these aphids on the lemon tree tomorrow...

 But it looks like I already have some help on the kaffir lime tree (I love ladybirds)

With the new garden bed almost done, it got a quick cat scan of approval from Max the Manx...

Included in the garden are our new coffee trees (below), a blueberry patch, plenty of herbs and other edible plants.

Here's a shot of the new finished shed… how did we ever live without this!

Oh, and we had the film crew from Totally Wild here yesterday to do a story on Rescued Donkeys. Guinness (aka Mr G for the kiddies) thought he was a filmstar!

Gotta say, it was fun - even the last part that I'm not too sure Ranger Stacey was prepared for…

Should be on TV in about 8 weeks time.

More comings and goings @ Clear Mountain

I was watching TV on Friday night and flicked through my Facebook account. There was a post from a friend saying that she had just witnessed a bloke pull up outside her apartment at Redcliffe and let a dog out of the car and drive away. I was horrified. My friend rushed down to the busy road to find a very scared boxer trying not to get run over. She took him back up to apartment but knew she would have to take him to the pound in the morning. He was a sweet thing, very friendly and old.

I saw the photo of him and immediately asked MOTH if we could foster him. Surprisingly he said yes. She took him to the pound and he has no microchip and they were more than happy for me to take him as they well bulging at the seams with animals.

So long story short... Meet Jeff the Boxer.

He has fit in really well with the cats, dogues, chooker moles and donkeys. You should have seen Max's face when 3 red dogs walked into the house - who knew… cats can count! We went to the vet for a checkup and we agreed he is about 8 years old. Need a few more tests on his heart tomorrow but he is otherwise in good health, albeit very skinny (won't take long to fix that).

On the goings front, SirLoin has left our farm but he didn't make it to the butcher (I had to call and cancel). One of our neighbours has seriously fallen in love with him and so I agreed to sell him. He will have a long and happy life with his new BFF, Devon.

I also did a random walk around my poorly loved garden and found a few surprises. Tomatoes ready to be eaten (I haven't planted tomatoes for about a year), a couple of cute little capsicum, lemons (a little green but someone else has been picking them - me thinks of the animal kind) and some wild guava down at the dam (makes awesome chutney).

Am off now to don the latest fashions in whipper snipper and trim the electric fence line around the paddock. No doubt my two long eared friends will be there to help.

Oh, and my friend's premmie mini foal, Dumbledore, now has his own Facebook page - www.facebook.com/dumble1.