Oops, yet another week has gone by and no updates! Last weekend began with selling our sausages at Mudfest (a local small film festival at one of the wineries) AND selling some to a local chef who used it for a grape stomping lunch at yet another winery. It was our first time selling in Mudgee and once again the response was great - all sausages sold and Mudgee free range pork got a mention in the local paper too... The pigs got a reprieve this week as we step back and have a think about how exactly this is all going to run - of course we have pondered endlessly but come up with nothing so are going back to plan A - just keep putting it out there whenever we can. We are aiming for the next Mudgee farmers market to actually start the Ormiston stall so are in the process of finding out about licencing and all the other fun things that go with selling food to the public.The Good Life continued with our first almost completely self-sufficient meal - roast pork, potatoes, beans, a small sad piece of brocolli and cabbage. The last pigs were almost used up but had the legs left over so we are awaiting a ham and have a freezer full of spare ribs and leg roasts - they join the duck with the little feathers that we can't get rid of and sadly very soon the little buck goat. I am once again wrestling with my concience that is yelling "keep him as a pet" - however I am trying to reassure myself we are doing the responsible thing by having it all done here and not putting him through the trauma of going to market. I will of course be as far away as possible with the kids, while a helpful local is coming up to do the deed. It is a steep learning curve this farm thing. The children of course think he is going to a lovely farm where he will live happily ever after and are comforted by Gracey, the little kid, who would usually have been weaned many weeks ago. I feel she will probably have a bottle a day for the rest of her life because Emi and Felix (and okay...me) find it so rewarding.
After a long wait it is finally starting to become obvious which of our chickens are hens and roosters. Coming up to the feeding shed I was very excited to hear some lusty crowing and ran around the corner eager to see who our first rooster was. Angelina posed proudly on the gatepost and continued to show me her cockadoodledoo for about 15 minutes. She has now been renamed Brad and seems quite unfazed by the fact that he is half the size of the larger ladies - he flaps about importantly and I am told the Isa Browns are quite partial to his charms. I am awaiting the arrival of some more blue egg layers who are actually laying so that I don't make the same mistake twice.
Easter is of course eagerly awaited with great excitement and the counting down of sleeps by Emi and Felix... they will no doubt spend the weekend high as kites on sugar after consuming as much chocolate as humanly possible before 9am tomorrow morning.
We wanted to drop Maggie the new goat off with Elvis the billy for a naughty weekend and hopefully a pregnant outcome, however I forgot the trailer was full of whey and out of action for another week. There had been much excitement around this trip as Elvis' owners have a herd of Shetlands and Minature ponies and pony rides had been mentioned. We went out minus the goat with much anticipation. They both had a lovely time on Ruthie the pregnant Shetland - unlike most of her breed (especially the ones that I remember) she was absolutely delightful. I am holding back hard on the horse thing, however the offer of letting Ruthie come and stay with us for holidays so the kids can have a ride around on her might be the compromise we have been looking for. Felix just wanted to go 'faster, faster' and Emily endlessly sang a tuneless song that seemed to comprise of "I'm riding a horsie, I'm riding a horsie" the whole time....nobody fell off.
Not content with the growing list of work that needs to be done on the place, James has decided that we need both a cellar and an outdoor woodfired oven (legal in a total fire ban or not is the question of the week). I am in the midst of registering Coco's pedigree in Australia and have had to become an official dog breeder in order to register any puppies that she has - Ormiston Woody continues to be both a huge pain and a delight at the same time. He and James have formed a blokey partnership and if not together he can usually be found destroying my garden and barking at anything he can possibly convince himself we need to be protected from.