Fig jam

I'm lucky to live in an area where I can buy my produce direct from the grower. At the orange food week markets on cook park yesterday I bought a tray of figs. I put plenty aside for eating fresh but also managed to have enough for a batch of fig jam. My husband loves fig jam. I don't think it will last long in this household!

If you are interested in making some fig jam, I used my general recipe of equal potions fruit to sugar, half a lemon for each 500g of fruit and I forgot the grated apple I would normally add for additional pectin. Oops!

I had it at a rolling boil for about 15mins but pulled it off a little early as I was worried about burning it (a little bit had got stuck to the bottom and was starting to give a burning smell. So it's a little more runny than I'd like but still very tasty and will disappear fast!

Fog rolling in

I initially thought that the fog was lifting but was very intrigued to watch this morning that as it became light the fog was actually rolling in! So still and beautiful! Autumn is simply stunning.

Spring creek reservoir

Spring creek reservoir, the view out my kitchen window, was especially beautiful tonight! Unfortunately they can be seen in the photo but on the far shore was a flock of pelicans! They must be really lost to be this far west!

Novelty duck potato

We gave some potatoes from our garden to some good friends and their son found this potato in the shape of a duck! The photo was taken by my sister-in-law. We can't believe how much it looks like a rubber duckie!

He loves them!

I managed to finish a few last night, success! He loves them. Stacking and rearranging...

Fabric memory game

I've had this project in my head for a while now... My boy loves spotting animals on pages of books, we live on a small farm so he watches the animals everywhere and he adores the animal finger puppets his Nanny (grandmother) made him so I wanted to have a version of a memory game for him. He is a bit young yet for the memory bit but I think he will love matching them up! He is also a bit young for cards, I think he would just eat them!!! So I've decided to make the cards out of fabric using a "cheat" fabric panel. I couldn't believe the trouble I had finding suitable fabric! In the end I settled on the At the farm range by Lesley Grainger and I love it! The squares are a bit bigger than I envisioned but that has advantages too! The fabric turned up and I was estatic, it's just what I needed and the boy already loves it! he took one look at it and started pointing at the animals! I cut some fabric squares and he sat on the floor looking at each one, handing them to me to make the animal sound then taking it back and looking at then again! Here's hoping he will like them even more when they are done! I went through my stash and have decided to back them in the purple corduroy... Hopefully the brightness will work!

Cockadoodledoo!

We seem to have a new member on our farm! My neighbour and I have been watching the progress of this rooster along our road wondering if he will survive and if he will take up residence somewhere. Last night he decided that our front yard was the place to be and has been hanging around all day making very sad sounding cockadoodledoo sounds.

First tomatoes of the season!

Love home grown tomatoes, so much flavour! Was very excited this morning when I found our first tomatoes of the season and they didn't disappoint!

Treats for the steers

I can't believe how dry our paddocks are. We are right on the edge of a dam so we very rarely are dry. Last year we slashed our paddocks twice because our stock couldn't keep up with the growth of the grass, this year we don't have enough feed. So we have sourced some more feed for our stock. The steers thought it was such a treat! Even rolled in it! little bit worried that they are going to stuff themselves but we don't really have any other way to leave the food out for them. Please please please rain!

I love my alpacas

I love my alpacas, they have so much character! I have been making a special effort to encourage them to be comfortable around me, feeding them most days and gradually they have been responding. Especially since feed in our paddocks is low this year. (What a change from last year! Can't believe it!) They are nearly all eating from my hands and they all now come running when I call. (for food anyway!)
So this evening when we needed to move them to a different paddock I called them in for food and they came running. Once I'd shut them in the laneway and my husband had rearranged the gates  I collected some more food and started walking! To my delight and surprise they followed! With a small hiccough along the way (at the entrance to the next paddock they baulked and took off down the driveway... but with minimal encouragement they turned and sprinted towards the right paddock) they took off into the new paddock. One alpaca, Gedalyn, was so excited that she started to prance like a deer! So cute!