Menagerie

A little of our home/farm life.

A rabbit that appears in our household from time to time! This picture shows the rabbit at line dancing classes! A few weeks back the rabbit ran into Landmark (rural supplies store) and gave lunch to one of our friends working there, this was at 8am in the morning and the staff couldn't stop laughing, it really made their day to have the bunny visit!

My son, Mr Z, breeds rabbits for pets and to eat; but we won't be eating this one!

These are geese that potter about, usually making loud noises when they see me on the telephone! Theylay lovely BIG eggs around Oct-Nov, one egg fills the fry pan!

Our two ducks, Henry and Jemima. We also have some younger ones about 2 months old, they grow really quickly adn the younger ones are almost identical to the older ones now! These are Peking ducks and we are breeding these to produce eggs and meat - I love duck in plum sauce! We also have a number of chooks too.

 

 The pigs have names like Pork Chop, Nibbles, Roast, Bacon and Crackling.

We have kept two sows and a boar to breed from; can't wait till we have piglets again they are lots of fun!

Miss Busy is gluten and dairy intolerant, to the point that it has had a terrible effect on her health. She is 8 yrs old but is the size of 4-5 yr old. Over the years we have visited many Dr's and had many tests done, showing up nothing. Late last year we visited a nautropath who picked up a multitude of problems with Miss Busy. The first thing was to cut dairy and gluten from her diet and supplement her with priobiotics and enzymes to aid her digestion. Six weeks later ALL of her problems cleared up, everything was caused by her body trying to cope with the gluten and dairy. Miss Busy is growing at a fast rate now, isn't lethargic, sleeps less, has a more cheerful/happier disposition, is having less memory problems and generally looks allot healthier.

She was drinking rice milk but when I found out she could have goats milk we bought a pair of milking goats. We have milked house cows here for about 8 years so adding a goat wasn't that big a deal, it made sense. I never thought I would have goats or milk them but they are fantastic pets, rather like dogs in temperament. Milking them is quicker and easier than milking a cow, currently in their low milk production time we are getting approx 1.7L a day, in two milkings from one goat (the other one hasn't had a kid yet). They don't consume alot and if you make sure they have copper sulfate in their diet your trees should be safe from being ring barked.

Dolly is on the left and Katy is on the right.

Around the time we bought the milking goats we also bought two new house cows, Jersey's this time; we already have two Friesans. This is one of the calves, gorgeous!

This is Doris, one of the Jersey cows. While they had alot of milk we had to milk daily with the calves on them 24/7, but now that the calves are a few months old we have to separate the cows from the calves  overnight or during the day to be able to milk anything. Between the thre cows we are currently milking we are getting approx 20L a milking.

A few months back I did a cheesemaking course and loved it!

The Cheesemaking Workshop

At the course I learnt how to make; greek yoghurt, fetta, camembert, ricotta, marscapone, quarg (cream cheese), blue vein, havarti, haloumi and cheddar.

This is some of the yoghurt that I have made withJersey milk that wasn't separated, you can see the rich creamy layer on top, yum yum! We add honey to sweeten it a little and often add stewed berries. I also make yoghurt from the goats milk.

Our 10kwh grid connect solar system that is on our shed.

That isn't all of our menagerie, by a long shot, but a little glimpse of what keeps us company (and busy) here.

(don't ask about the garden)