Life on the farm..

If your skeamish dont look at the photo below. This is the result of the big friendly labrodor getting out of his kennel and going to meet a cross bred pit bull mongrel for a happy chat. This hole was only one of the three big wounds and several little ones that were deep into the muscle and which we thought were mere shallow puncture wounds until 12 hours later when they became really infected. Then after bathing and oidining them we finally took him to the vet (CHA CHING!!) and he was close to developing gangrene and dying. OOPS! Poor Sam. Ive been so good not letting him near our park afte a misadventure that swa him, hit by a car off the park (no injury) and then after meeting an elderly man with a dog in the park who said he knew our dog well and then let on he lived several blocks away. I walk him a couple of miles every night now in a semi rural area, but I guess the pull of the park was too strong. So much for the new bylaws prohibiting dogs on leashes only in the park!  Oh well His first vet incident in the five years weve had him..

(this was after the vet visit..he was still heavily drugged).

Told you I was sewing a raggy quilt..Im running out of jeans!

The view from the back.. Meekhoef the cat is the complimentary extra..Out of all the cats she is the one most likely to be found sleeping on half made quilts, pins and props do not deter her.

Can I just say(and I know Ill regret this in a month or so) that I am over summer. I am over the heat. It got a bit chilly there for a while and it was nice.  Now in the last few days it has een hot and a it muggy and really it should be siesta time in the day because at night it seemes suitable again to work. And..you try keeping the flies off of those wounds(above)!!

Like i said Ill regret saying that soon enough. I find these funny days a bit blar sometimes. The excitement of early summer crops has passed, the garden is however dry and a it barren looking, the pool is a bit sluggie and algaeish, because the days are a bit colder and so noone bothers too much with it. And its still too warm to curl up and quilt (but I do..just not in great cosiness).

Its Sunday night now and I do have school tomorrow, so Ill sign off for now,

happy Autumnal musings and great safety to you and your pets1
Love Cherry

Im back

...not that I was ever away as such. Georgia went to camp and took the camera then when she came back the camera became lost in the unorganisation and general clutter that is this house. But today, hurray i found it!! So what has been going on in the Good life tiny farm?  Actually nothing thrilling. Today Autumn made its presence felt with wind and rain and cold. Im glad as the chook area has the flies excited and I wanted some rain to calm it down. i have bought myself some gumbboots for the upcoming sludge that winter will bring there soon!

Happy Christmas!!

I love that the egg compartments (we have two fridges) are full. Check out monster egg at the back. Someone drew on him!! I have no idea who gave birth to this but it was oblong and bigger than monster egg #1  ! We also had golf ball egg which was a replica of the golf ball that is always in there...but GHIU ate it before I found the camera!!

We celebrated Art Deco week at 150 year old Stoney croft house. Lots of Art Deconess there. Brass bands etc. The title of the event was When the dust settles.. For those of you that dont know in 1931 Hawkes bay was struck by a huge earthquake that decimated Hastings and Napier. When the buildings where rebuilt they were built in Art Deco design. Now all these years later we always celebrate Art Deco week in Feb (the earthquakes anniversary) It gets bigger and bigger every year.

Kaimoana (seafood in Maori). This is what the ocean reward you with if you dive every now and then. Beautiful huh? Just lovely with  aoli sauce once cooked. Having a FO as dad means the girls are not scared or unsure of sea food at all!!

  ALSO I forgot to get a photo of my latest project in my world of quilting. It is a raggy quilt made from old flannel shirts and jeans. I explained this all to GHIU how it is made and how the technique works etc, but when  I completed my first row he asked why the seams were sticking up in a mess!! Guess that just proves my opoint that when I start to talk about quilting all he hears is a loud humming in his ears.. Next time i will post some pics. That means that cuurently I have started (started only!) Sheepish wallhanging, two scrappy sisiter choice quilts, raggy quilt, school house quilt oh and five pieced tops to be quilted. I REALLY need a sewing room in our next house!! One can never have enought partially completed pieces can one?!
Til next time Happy sewing\

Love Cherry

crafty cherry crafts..enough about the chooks for now!

Scrapbooking.....

Sisters Choice blocks for two Christmas presents...lap quilt sizes both of them..probably

Camp is coming up and i made the girls two bags for their cutlery then got creative and made a mickey take moke up of their school emblem. Georgia gets to use hers in tweo weeks but Alex will have to wait til next year to go to Camp.

Finally started a school house quilt. I bought the few fat quarters i have with the remainder of my gift certificate..plus $8.00 extra. Shhhh dont tell the Gorgeous Husband in uniform!! (GHIU)

I have my civil war reproduction quilt up. Id like to interchange this wall seasonally. Next will be the school house quilt ..I hope... Just one of the many unfinshed projects ive started this year (and its only Feb)

Isnt this gorgeous. This is my Nana and Granddad. It is the middle of the depression and the year is 1930. Nine months later my Mum arrived and just efore that happened the devastating 1931 earthquake happened  and heavily pregnant nana had to live in the shed while the devastation was pieced back together. My grandad died at 40 odd from our families hereditary Zolingers Syndrome cancer. He left nan the farm and six remaining child. One poor soul died of sickness a few years before. i so admire my nan what a simple ut terribly hard time to live in.  I adore this photo and had no knowledge of its exsistence until we went through Mums things recently. It needs glass but has a lovely old frame and I do love the weathering that has added such character.

Yours in craft

Crafty cherry

It has started......

Here they are and here I go..the beginning of the preserving peaches season. These are very early Golden Queens. I had forgotten (since last year) how hot it gets in our kitchen, in summer, while preserving!!!

And since it is so hot in the kitchen I have decided to try to dry my Romas the old fashioned way (also some moments in the oven after I have used it ) and maybe finished off in the dehydrator.

And what else is on the window sill..Ah yes my ever growing pile of egg shells drying away and then to be crushed and fed back to the chooks or as a snail inhiitor around my plants or fed into the soil as a sweetener.

What you cant see to the far left in my laundry is the huge pile of washing/ It is enormous and the worse thing is despite this mountain there are heaps of other piles under beds etc.

Perhaps i should go to that pile now..

Wishing you happy laundry wishes

Cherry

Big bird visits our coop..

Spot the difference...

There was much excitement today as this monster egg was found awaiting our return!!  It must be the worm teas they have een treated to each evening, or the weather, or the general love of two chook mad girls. Whatever it was youd think it must have hurt!!

The Chookaseuem

There changing guards at Pluckingham palace...

Egg news

This is the second time that all of our chooks have laid an egg for us. They are very late layers and will lay into the mid afternoon. The thing is there eggs are unpredictable and I think they are getting smaller!!! the little things today were smaller than yesterday (which werent big) and  were the size of silkies eggs. We are giving them lots of feed, lots of greenery, porridge when it rained. lots of cold fresh water, snails, worms ,love (old miss macdonald especially)

I guess they will come into there own in time....I was just interuppted in my typing by Alex who had lifted Christmas up and was carrying her around the pool. Suddenly Sam the lab (who in all truth would just love five minutes alone with the poultry), lunged and barked incredibly loud at them both ..and Christmas flew into the pool. If the occassion wasnt so urgent i would have taken a photo but I was rushing out with the net! Christmas just floated around like a duck!! It was very funny. I grabbed her with the net whereupon she gallopped off to her pen and I had to dig her out (reluctantly) to join the others in the swimming pool,area. (Now I KNOW I cant  leave them alone there)!! yes its all happening here at tom and barbara Goods block!
Hmm maybe Christmas at least will pop out an egg tomorrow!!
Happy chook keeping
Love Cherry

Have just read Living the good life y linda Cockburn...I absoulutely recommend it to everyone who has an interest in  sustainable living!