While I am toiling away in lovely 70/80f degree days out here in the antipodes, the farm in Illinois and its guardians is toiling away in 16f degrees with snow.
Rhonda tells me that Tima is being very naughty stealing food!
“Tima is a naughty pig. She is eating anything she can get to. She pushes any gate open she finds unlocked. As I am watering and feeding everyone else. I believe she had 3 5 course meals today!” 😆
Jude and FreeBee are being super good. R placed another bale of straw at their door and they spent the afternoon ferrying it into their bed.
The PopPops are the clean up crew helping to clear up the cows pumpkins. They are no longer torpedoes shaped – they are starting to look like black rugby balls on the run!
There is no one on the farm who is worried by the weather. They are all thick skinned and of a good age!
So all is well on the Farmy.
I have not had an egg report though I think they are laying about the same. Not too many days until the winter solstice and as the days get longer the layers will lay more eggs. I hope.
Everyone (except the chickens who get warm water twice a day) has heated water bowls now. It is cold and snowing a bit today but by the weekend the temperatures will have risen to rain and John will get the hoses out and fill everything to the top again. Until then it is buckets I am afraid.
Good morning!
I am mostly through the packing up the old flat here in Melbourne and we get the keys to the new house today. Though check-out day here is not for another four days. So we have time to tidy up the outside.
I just finished this book – recommended to me by my Illinois hairdresser. I don’t mind sitting so long in the hairdressers, a few times a year, as we talk books non stop!
Great book.
With my news still turned off – I feel quite settled in my work. I read books, instead of scrolling, on my tea breaks with TimTam. I have never been a scroller – thankfully. But we all need a break now and then.
Have a great day wherever you are. If you celebrate Christmas how are your preparations going?
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
17 responses to “meanwhile back at the farm”
Great farmy catch up today. Thank you. Two more books for ten year olds, Ronja the Robber’s Daughter and Coraline. Hope things continue to go well in Oz.
Coraline is a great one, but probably not in the public domain as Neil Gaiman is still alive. It would be wonderful read by C though.
Thank you Andy! I don’t know the Robbers Daughter I will look it up!
Why do I feel NOT surprised at Tima? She just seems to wait for you to disappear and then her antics start! Glad the farm is running along smoothly. Tim Tam has that look on his face that Boo often gets. Such a gorgeous dog.
TimTam really is a gorgeous dog!
Good point Deb. Didn’t think it through, just sent out a request to my daughters’ daughters😊
Thanks for the book recommendation. I’m amassing a list in preparation for a summer reading binge.
It’s been quite the year so extra Christmas lights were needed. Tick. And I have decided to make a terrine as my retro festive food choice this year. If Christmas day weather is coolish maybe duck breasts sauteed with cherries.
HI girl, my new email is spunkygnat@gmail.com hope you are doing well if you ever venture near Altadena, Pasadena, CA, let me know, i’ll find you if you wish to be found. blessings, esther
Relative to what Deb said, Tima thinks she owns the farmy!
Tim Tams are probably my favourite biscuits – why aren’t they a world wide sensation?
Audrey, from New Zealand tells me that her cousin is married to a Gunther in Australia (Perth) from a long line of fishermen. Probably just a coincidence, but who knows…
Thanks for the book recommendation…:)
Our weather here is also very up and down. Warm, rainy and foggy earlier in the week. Today it’s freezing cold with a bitter wind.
Christmas preparations are well in hand. Shopping done, and my daughter and I plan to do some baking on the weekend. Next week will be wrapping and grocery shopping. Our postal workers are on strike so I miss my cards!
Thanks for the book recommendation. I have added it to my list! Rhonda’s note about Tina made me laugh.
sounds like all is going well on both sides of the globe and thanks of the book rec
Moving mode! That can be stressful, but a good time to ‘let go’ of things that could find other homes elsewhere. Speaking of books, and one that relates to this topic, my niece said the book ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ by Maria Konda actually did changed her life. So I had to get it, and it’s taught me a lesson or two as well.
And so it begins! I am sure the move will go well and it is great that you have a cushion of a few days!
Naughty Tima.
I’m getting my reading lists up on my blog (https://imperator6.wordpress.com/). So far only have the first half of this year but I am going to post further back after New Year’s.
I”m not doing anything for Christmas, just quiet remembering and fixing pork chops and sauerkraut, tiny boiled potatoes with onion butter and calling it done.
Here in north central Indiana we’re cold and mostly sunny today with a breeze – I’m staying inside.
I put up my Christmas lights today. Solar is really practical here, since we have so much sunshine at this time of year. The whole street is gradually lighting itself. It started with three houses next to each other, and now there are serious displays. I’m contenting myself with simple strings of white lights. I have a little nativity, and a little white artificial tree with fibreoptic branches, and that’s it. No baubles or tinsel. Nothing that creates waste, just what puts a little light into the world. Christmas will be at J’s sister’s house, and I’m bringing dessert, as always. By demand, red velvet and white cupcakes with vanilla frosting dusted with tiny red sugar stars. And a big bowl of chopped salad.