I am working through my list, getting the last things ticked off before I leave for the antipodes in a couple of weeks.
The winter wall has gone up for the hens.
This is an old ping pong table we found that fits almost completely across the lower front of the chook house.
It took a bit of maneuvering and Rhonda and her trusty tool box got it all fastened in but with an eye to taking it back off in the summer.
This will warm up the hens and also protect them from critters getting through the (now) fragile netting across the front.
They still get plenty of sun from the open top half which we have shored up.
The big pigs are shifted into the enclosure closer to the house for ease of feeding and watering. Just in time, as it snowed last night with a bit more to come. Not much. But lots of wind.
Their trailer home is stuffed full of straw and they are such nice chaps we can deliver more bedding anytime.
Rhonda has scored a brilliant (and we hope frequent) food exchange. We have been picking up not quite expired bread products from a local bread delivery man; keeping some for our livestock and Rhonda delivers the rest to food pantries. We have no need of fattening food for pigs anymore so they have been donating extra big loads of bread to the food pantry. And the other day the food pantry donated old vegetables to us.
We literally swapped bread products (that I don’t like to feed to the pets or the PopPops – there is little viable natural nutrition in this sweet junk food dressed up as bread plus – you know – the fat factor – and the chickens go off the lay if they eat too much of it) we swap all that for vegetables that I am happy to feed to the animals.
Win. Win.
So the pigs and cows had cucumbers and radishes and kale and pumpkins and beans for dinner yesterday!
Keeping food out of dumpsters!
It is a mission all in itself.
Good morning.
All these systems are now being managed by Rhonda so I can go help my daughter shift house in Melbourne and I know the animals will be well looked after by John and Rhonda. And Rhonda’s helpers. She has a lot of helpers!
For this first trip I will be gone a month.
But not yet! I have two more weeks here in Illinois.
Have a lovely day.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
17 responses to “Keeping Food out of Dumpsters”
That is a BRILLIANT food swap system. An all round winner. What a wonderful worker Rhonda is. Such capable hands(together with John)! to leave the farmy with. Not long now😊
Yes! I am feeling more confident than usual this time!
Getting all the ducks (and other animals) in a row…as they say!
Yes! And they do all walk in a row!
That is such an amazing food swap and save. This just made my day so much brighter! We need more of this in the world!
Years ago I used to get veges from a food pantry – I knew a lady who volunteered with them – boxes and boxes of veges that no one wanted. The supermarkets (and pack houses) actually get a tax write off when they donate to the food pantries. But the pantries find it hard to shift a pallet load of something before it spoils. Plus many people just don’t eat fresh veg anymore. But my pigs do! And the cows too – so I hope this keeps going!
We had snow in Corwall today (and it never snows here). I was outside blackening red peppers on the barbecue to make empanadas for the Sisietrs.
Kind of a romantic image – outside turning peppers over the flames in the snow.
Ha ha – the dog thought it was fun!
wow, a well-tuned machine!
I’m thinking you might already be counting your sleeps til you see your daughter 💜
Yes I am!!
Travel to antipodes has an interesting solution, though only theoretical. Drill a tunnel through the center of the Earth to the other side. Mount a frictionless carriage in the tunnel. Jump in and start falling. You pick up speed until you pass through the center where you begin to slow down. You stop at the surface on the other side, the antipode. Total trip time is a bit more than 42 minutes. Much quicker than flying.
Ha!!! 😂 how I wish this were doable. Imagine the time I would save with my frequent travels that way! Then imagine the collisions with less experienced jumpers!
What a lovely photo of the tree and landscape. Sounds like a great plan/swap with the food pantry! Patti
It is awesome! We cannot have enough veges!!
I used to get scraps for the chooks from lovely Belinda at the local café, but then she had to shut up shop because she couldn’t get staff who’d stick at the job. They get all our food scraps except for onion and citrus, the doggos get the meat scraps and the stockpot gets bones. And our chook-sitters over the back fence give us scraps too. We have a great symbiotic relationship. They care for the chooks when we go away and we give them half a dozen eggs once a week.