My sons treated my mum and I to a lovely lunch out at Two Folds Bay Brewery in Dromana. It is a gluten free brewery serving gluten free pizza's and in my case, with dairy free cheese alternative! It was delicious and I didn't have to worry about contamination as I usually would as this place won't let people in with anything containing gluten - YES!! Thanks my boys I really did enjoy my day out xxx
The day before my nice day out I decided that I needed to hold off on my building project to get a variety of ten minute (well between 5 and 30min) tasks done. If you have enough of these lining up it can take all day to get them completed so that was what I decided I must do. Amongst these tasks were things like garlic freezing (some cloves were deteriorating so will preserve in freezer), podding beans, whizzing up dried chillies and making dog food. In fact the dog food could just as well be people food but it's a little unappealing!!
I decided awhile ago that cans of dog food were heavy and costly to transport (lots of food miles) and produced waste in the form of lots of cans. I'm also concerned at what is in it (having had two dogs die of cancer!!) So I combine lots of ingredients from the farm, including veg, eggs, bone broth and chicken offal, with mince meat to whiz up and bake to make food that Ruby loves. She never did like raw food, except for bones and chicken necks, but enjoys this. I add some kelp powder for extra nutrients as well.
Out in the front garden I'm still pulling in produce. I'm hoping these green tomatoes will ripen on the kitchen window sill. Eggplant, cucumber, zucchini and red tomatoes still coming in even with winter just a few weeks away!
I did a little planting including transplanting some strawberry plants and some asparagus that I had grown from seed and were definitely in need of getting into the ground. Finally I started planting out my nature strip which I had been intending to do for some time. I managed to get in eight plants there which will hopefully create a bit more of a barrier to the road for both my chickens and vegetable garden that aren't far away.
Had a great weekend with lots done but also some self care in the form of spending time with family with an off farm trip. Always nice to get home again and tuck the critters into bed. Half the time my muscovies don't want to go into their houses at days end, but who can blame them. Staying out and watching the sun go down is so much nicer!