Back to the farm, the animals and ordinary old gardening and housework.
Why is it that a drill always appears on the table when I am gone. Boo will not let me out of his sight now that I am home. He has picked up a few bad habits while you and I were not watching and spent most of yesterday on a leash re-training. We will train three times a day for a while yet.
I cannot find two of the cats. Both Thing Two and Author seem to have gone walkabout, in fact were not seen the whole time I was away. Farm cats who hunt in the long grass have a perilous existence though they often turn up after a few days. Both Lulu and a limping Scrapper are sitting on the verandah waiting for breakfast. Pania and Tui the Peahens were present for roll call. No hatched eggs. I guess they will try again next year.
TonTon showing how he is the bestest of the farm dogs. 
All the piglets are hale and healthy and playing hide and seek in their vege garden.
Though Charlotte unapologetically broke The Hug a Pig Door right in half the day after I left and in my absence no-one was able to get in there to fix it. Rainy day huts pig style. We will sort that today.
Daisy and Queenie will be having their blood tests soon to see if they are pregnant. They have been very quiet while you and I were away just munching down the back of Daisy’s paddock. Daisy the milk cow has dried up without any dramas which is nice. Though the thought of another eight months without milk is a bit sad.
Some things never change.
The garden path has grown out of control in the seven days I was gone! There is a lot of gardening to do.
The sweetcorn is tasseling which is pretty exciting. Yesterday I cut plenty of side shoots and fed them to the animals. No-one turns down the fresh corn leaves.
I also gathered a bucket of fallen apples, they are not quite ripe but the sheep and pigs and chickens love them. The GM free corn (the leaves and stalks) and the apples will become a daily part of everyones diet from now on.
Today I will put up an electric fence in the Dairy Mistress paddock and start the cows in there this evening when it is dry. It is full of lovely forage.
So here we are back home on the farmy. Back where you and I belong after our great adventure up in the mountains. Yesterday I wore my Made in Calgary cowboy hat all day long even when weeding the garden. It is just perfect for a days work in the sun. Our John is pleased to have me home, he is just “All wore out!” And Molly and Margy did a wonderful job covering for me in the mornings.
Good morning. Last night we began the first of many lazy simple summer dinners entirely from the farm. I dug a few potatoes which is naughty but I could not wait any longer. We even found a red tomato. This is why we farm, to eat. Eating clean fresh food is so good. The tastes are so different straight from the garden. I love to be away and I love to come home. And I LOVE growing food. It is a minefield eating out there in the world.
OK. Hi Ho! Hi Ho! Off to work we go!
Your friend, celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
73 responses to “Home again, Home again, Jiggedy Jig”
Welcome home! Such a shame there are no pea chicks and I hope the kitties show up again soon…
Morning tanya, I had to take the eggs out from under Tui.. they are quite rotton now.. poor old girl, she has been sitting on them for almost 6 weeks now.. not going to happen! So I assume this means that the girls are old enough but not Kupa. Maybe next year. c
If they lay any more eggs, could you eat them?
Glad you’re back safe and sound. I bet everyone at the farmy missed you like billy-o.
it will be interesting to see if she does lay again, Pania has her nest where i cannot find it so I am not sure what to do for her, maybe she will hatch some though i think she is over time too.. c
Or maybe they witheld their favours….?!
A coy pea hen? Now that’s a thought.
A lovely post today bringing us all up to date with life on the farm.
I love that you dug potatoes and found a tomato for your dinner plate. I do the same over at the allotment. I do enjoy reading my beautifully illustrated cookery books, but the truth is that what I pick that day, that is what I eat.
Morning jean, yes we are the same, whatever comes up from the gardens (and often it is the same stuff each day determines our breakfast lunch and dinner..) what a wonderful way to live! c
Glad that you’re back, it’s been strange not having any news from the farmy! Blue looks as though he’s saying, ” Will you show mw how to do that Ton?” I’m sure that all the animals are pleased to see you – sorry about your lack of chick-peas though.
Welcome back,
Christine
yes it is a shame, no wee chicks, maybe next year.. c
Glad you’re home, safe and sound, C! Lovely photos this morning! 🙂
Welcome back … those piggies are huge! Good luck with all the gardening 🙂 Laura
Most of the weeds are that bad thistle which has to be burnt, every tiny bit ..so it is a gumboots and heavy gloves job! (and cowboy hat!!) c
Welcome home adventure girl! It’s nice to see the farmy still standing and basically just fine, (even if the odd drill materializes on a table, pigs break gates, dogs run amok and cats do a walkabout). Wan’t it fun to get away to the mountains though? I always love it. By the way, Robert has forbidden me to bring my “Made in Calgary” cowboy hat to England 😦 He likes me in lovely summer hats. Oh well, it’ll still be waiting for me in Vancouver when I get back. 🙂 Hope you’re having a lovely day and everyone starts to behave again.
I love big english ladies gardening hats too but here they blow right off my head, so far the weight of this cowboy hat is working out well.. I did love the mountains, the scents up there are so crisp and cool.. separated almost.. whereas here the scents are more blended, the humidity I suppose.. c
welcome home! i am so glad you got there and are now back! could the piglets be any cuter? my corn has tassled and i am sitting here looking at huge bowl of tomatoes, some [peppers and a couple cukes! i love gardening!
Oh you have tomatoes already and you had to wait so much longer for your summer.. ours will be along soon i hope! c
oh YAY!!!! you’re home!!!! The world is right side up again!!!!!
Welcome Home…you have been sorely missed! I know exactly what you mean about overgrown gardens. When we left here 5 June it was immaculate…came back 21 days later and it was horrendous. The back garden is now back to normal and on Tuesday we are starting the front garden..it is packed with weeds 4 feet high
lovely to be home eh!
It will be like a treasure hunt when you get into that front garden!! c
Welcome back, and my goodness, look at TonTon flying! Wonder dog! xx
It’s lovely to be home! It was a wonderful trip full of new country and experiences, but it is so good to be home, even with a drill on the table and some piggy remodeling . I understand about the drill on the table thing, by the way.
Boo grew like the weeds! And the piglets too!
Happy gardening and repairing.
Everyone and everything is getting that lanky summery look! c
Welcome home Celi! I know it must be wonderful to get home to the farmy. And I know every being on the farm missed you like crazy!!! xo
Hi Celi,
Damn those piglets are cute, an so clean! I have been reading your piglet stuff with great interest. I am thinking I will leave Baby’s pen as it is (no escape rail) and add a big plastic dog kennel that I have for the piglets to escape to. I will fill it with straw and make sure that Baby does not have so much straw that the piglets get lost in it. Does this sound like a plan? Also at what age can I stop worrying about them getting trodden on or laid on (their age not mine!)? Loving the armful of turquoise bangles in your holiday snaps.
Cheers Sal
The bracelets are all beads, collected on my travels, i call them my holiday bracelets. Um piglet number 8 was trod on when he was 10 days old.. If you make them a creep, the only ‘room’ with straw, they will all hang out in there and be safer. I did not do this until too late. If you start this room straight away (and the dog kennel is a good beginning, until they are about a week old) then take it away and reveal the room – your guys will probably do better. Make sure the dog kennel is outside Baby’s enclosure with a little hole for the piglets to go to and fro. My NZ builder told me a story of visiting a pig place and the sows had back doors in their pens that all opened (with miniature gates) into a long corridor. This corridor was filled with straw, and as they stood watching all of a suddenpiles of little piglet heads started popping up out of the straw and the piglets yawned and tottered back into their own mothers room for a visit.. So next year if I breed both this is what i shall do.. For the record the back wall of my piglet creep is hay bales! So far it has been fine, they all go outside to the toilet! I hope this helps.. c
Welcome back! I love the way you invite us into your farm life, it’s practically a virtual holiday. it seems like a life of hard but gratifying work.
It must feel very different to eat “out”… this is thee life, providing your family with the purest ingredients that can ever be.
Thanks for sharing the freshness of nature with all of us 🙂
Thank you! I am not good at eating out, staying chemical free then is quite difficult.. c
Oh it’s so good to have you back – seems like you were gone a long time LOL.
I know what you mean about the garden being out of control. Mine is and I haven’t been away – but busy non the less on other things. Plus the rain hasn’t stopped for 2 weeks (not all day, but heavy when it does) and I can’t get my mower to cope with the wet long grass. My tomatoes won’t ripen and my peppers are a joke. The peas gave up and the beans were full of bugs (luckily I have been picking and freezing like crazy) so everything is getting pulled out and put on the compost and the gardens opened for the chickens to forage for bugs. Hope your garden comes under control soon and you get time to put your feet up and enjoy being home again.
Oh what a bugger.. What is it with that rain?! I hate to think of you giving up, but in a month or so you can plant your autum garden? Maybe it will do better.. c
Have already started my winter veg in GH – Broccoli, Brussels, Cabbage and Kale
Welcome home Celi. Amazing what can happen in a week while being away. I do hope our kitties come home soon.
Have a beautiful week ahead.
🙂 Mandy xo