Happenings this week

Ok so i put out a call to my forum buddies for eggs to be donated to our schools gardening program.
The kids are going to hatch and sell any left over chicks and use the money to buy plants for their gardens.
Im pleased to say that i was FLOODED with offers of eggs :) and im stoked.
The first lot should arrive today 2dz crossbred eggs and a doz mixed.
The kids will be very happy im sure.
The idea is for me to hatch them at home (ditching any bad egsgs) then take the chickies to the school when they are a few days old to hopefully help get past that delicate "dropped dead for no reason" stage and save tears all round.
A huge thankyou to those who donated eggs :)

Some new chickies arrived over the week.
We now have australorps,australorpx,australorpxwelsummer,australorpxsussex,light sussex(1),chinese silkie(1),pekin(1) and 2 of the cutest little jap bantams bubs in the world calling my brooder box home, plus "Ranger" the lone chickie.

I fitted a pc fan to my still air incubator and after a sleepless night getting up to make sure i wasnt burning the house down, im please to say its running like a champ! Temp is steady and im getting excited that i might actually get a decent hatch rate this time round.Its a wonder what folks can do with an old mobile phone charger and a pc fan :)

The 3 boys went camping to "Cascades" on the Tuross River and had a blast, a natural water slide forming the highlight of their weekend.
They are heading back next weekend and taking the 2 older girls, so its will be just me and Miss Lolli for the long weekend.

Not much in the way of gardening going on, my leeks are up and look wonderful and i can see cabbages poking their leaves up.
And my silverbeet in the foam box is looking good too.
More tomatoe seeds to plant.
Second raised bed will be finsihed this week in time for the tomato seedlings to go in.

School holidays are a mixed blessing with no early morning starts but as the week wears on the kids start to get bored and fight.Keeping them busy is the key and the boys love to do gardening so its a win win situation.

Count down is on

Today is day 18 for 8 of our chicken eggs in the incubator.
I have topped up the water trays and added a damp cloth to help with humidity.
The incubator now wont be opened until the last chick has emerged from the egg.

I also added 8 more eggs to the other incubator they and 9 others are due out between the 2-4th of October.
We have 12 campbell duck eggs due out on the 7th of October.

hmmmm whats happend this week??
Oh I know we got our first duck egg from our new ducks :)

We planted some heirloom tomatoes,eggplants,chilli plants and pumpkins.

I learnt how to make lemon butter YUMMO!

Bought some more tomato seeds on Ebay, going to have toms coming out our ears, oh well i will have a crack at tomato chutney :)

The quails are growing well and are almost fully feathered now.
I have 7 chicks from a friend that im growing out to see if they are Arthurs or Marthas hehehehe Arthurs will be eaten, Marthas will be kept to lay eggs.

Im trying to track down some Indian Game eggs so i can grow my own meat birds.

My first chicks of the season leave in a few weeks and my bantams arrive, we have decided that the colorbond aviary will make a wonderful Bantie Barn.
They arrive in the school holidays.