Oh hell yes, it so is!!!! My power bill is in credit over $450 now and we haven't paid a cent to a power company since we went on line in July! Even if we don't work the system well over winter (thinking off grid mentality) it still won't cost us when we use the grid over the cloudy days with a nice credit like that waiting in the wings!
Mornings are cooler, sun rises later, sets earlier, Jemima the cow is getting hairy titties LOL.
The pups are growing so fast! Well Tai, is 16mths old in a couple of days so he's not, but he is such a gentle soul, lives to please, HATES being growled at, my gentle (but youthfully exuberant) old soul, wee Nova has just rolled over 5mths and weighs in at 35kgs, Tai is 65kgs. Vada is now 10yrs and 9mths and is wearing his claws out on a back foot dragging it, so he's back on Devils Claw fulltime, along with Turmeric and his trusty fish oil, try to loosen that back and hip joint up a bit and he's now got some booties to protect those toes! Bless my darling old man. We had Roger the oldest horse put down last weekend, he was rising 28yrs and dropped all his weight very quickly, couldn't eat his apples, even tiny ones so figured now before the bone chilling cold of winter hit him would be a good time. Charlotte from Epona Vet is wonderful, does Reiki too so has that intuitive sense with animals now and had a wee chat to Vada while she was here, she agreed he's not ready to go yet, still hanging around for me (if that's the case, he'll be hanging around for many years to come, Vada is a treasure and I'll never be ready to give him up!)
Had my nana's engagement ring and mum's eternity ring and a wee ring mum gave me when I turned 16 (and passed School Cert AND got my C+ certificate with horses) that had a little diamond and ruby in it remade into something I could wear in rose gold, the jeweler added a garnet I had as well (my birth stone) and the result is something completely different but tying 3 very special things into one that I see every day, that I love every time I see it just because it is both my nana and my mum there with me.
And we are ticking away being as self sufficient as we can be, tidying up the garden beds ready to get the autumn seedlings in (I hate that organising what needs to be planted when part LOL) been harvesting a ton of tomatoes which we don't actually eat a lot of, but we all LOVE tomato soup, so I've discovered a super simple recipe that is absolutely divine!!!! Got 4 icecream tubs in the freezer now and we've consumed about the same fresh and the tomatoes are still ripening! Then the pumpkins will come in and it'll be pumpkin soup for winter!!! Sadly we're about 4 pumpkins down on what was out there, (we won't mention the one the man decided to harvest months too early because he wanted some pumpkin for dinner and then the pig ended up getting it all!!!! He won't do that again in a hurry!) But darling Jemima has discovered she can jump! EEK!!!! We got up one morning and the bitch was in the garden munching out on the beefsteak tomatoes and the pumpkins!!!! She completely demo'd 2 of them, and mauled another 2 more so we're a few pumpkins down :( Luckily she didn't see the butternuts (which I much prefer over pumpkin for dinner!) so they will be plentiful and the pumpkins can ALL go to be soup.
Jemima also has a boyfriend now, the biggest brute in the paddock who was supposed to go when the homekill man first visited us but allowed me to touch and scratch him and cried at the gate and saved his own life, he is called Big Boy or Bubs and is the smoochiest bloody critter out!!! He and Jemima are thick as thieves and he is a joy to have around so if I don't want her jumping out to go to the steers I just keep Bubs in with her and they're as happy as larry.
Gosh I just realised I haven't really down an update since the chickens hatched or anything have I?!
So far I'm confident out of the eggs that hatched back in December that at least 2 are roosters, so you know what's going to happen to them right??? They're ready to go now, it's just convincing the man that it's time to do the killing, he knows it's his job to do, but it doesn't mean he actually wants to do it, bless him.
Lambs are growing happily, calves are gorgeous and still friendly as, the ram is out with the ewes it's all wonderful here!
I've finally figured out why my homemade yoghurt wasn't working, you need to use full cream milk, got that perfected now and at the moment altho we didn't get many peaches on the old peach tree here, we've got a dozen or so and they're falling off one at a time to get added to the yoghurt for breakfast. I've tried to make sour cream without a proper starter, don't think it worked very well, but we'll sort it out LOL. The thousands of little apples are ripe and Smokey is living the dream getting apples thrown over the fence into the paddock for him daily, bloody apple junky!!! Finally have nearly run out of dehydrated apples from about 3 or 4 yrs ago which he gets to eat off season so the solar is running the dehydrator for me now to get some more stored for him and I'm making Apple Cider Vinegar!!! Just started the 2nd lot today, first lot is 2 weeks down the track, I know I know, who cares... but it's exciting for me!!! And, no, I don't use it for anything at this point in time, but in truth it'll replace the animals using all the Himalayan Crystal Salt, so we'll keep using that (tastes much nicer!) and the animals can be using the ACV. It's so simple to make but I've never known how (or had enough apples to make it worth doing before) so I'm loving learning all these new things, finding simple recipes, playing with all the abundance we have and not wasting it (not that anything is wasted with a pig, chickens and a cow who eats more variety from the garden than the pig does!)
And lastly before I go and find some photos and try to get them in the right places, Marcus has a "proper" job at KFC on weekends and a night or 2 after school and a girlfriend!!! My little baby boy is growing up! His first girlfriend and he's only just got her hehehe, now, how to guilt him into arranging a "meet my mother" thing...... hmmmmmm.... :)
oh oh oh, and last but not least!!!!! I found a side car for the dogs!!!!! WOOTWOOT!!!! Thought I'd never find one! Will put the pics up, haven't done the adjustments needed to actually take the dogs comfortably yet, but only got it a couple of weeks ago! Exciting!!!! And the puppies have their goggles already, they're ready to go!!! LOL
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