Category: Uncategorized
Gin & tonic anyone?
Why does lime season not coincide with gin and tonic season? It’s just not right. This is but a small sample of the tsunami of limes coming off my Tahitian lime tree at the moment. We have juiced and filled bags …
Sunday Mango Magic
I can’t believe that I once hated the funky taste and slimy texture of mangoes. Now I think they’re divine! So when we went to the Kalamunda Markets last Sunday and saw a stall selling the most ENORMOUS mangoes I’d ever …
Homesteading kids
We have always believed in “family-centric parenting”, which amongst other things translates in our house to everyone pitching in and helping out. Therefore the kids have a few daily chores, to which, as they grow older, we will continually add. Currently, …
Rebalancing
I spent today in the garden. I stoked the bonfire we’d had the night before. I weeded and fertilised the vegetable patch. I sowed every packet of flower seeds I owned, something I’ve been meaning to do for years. (They’re all so old they probably …
A glorious winter weekend
You gotta love Perth in winter. Almost balmy conditions by some people’s estimations, it was t-shirt weather this past weekend and the Thierfelder family made the most of it, gardening and playing outside. My garden bed construction guru, Brad Miles, returned recently …
How I plant a tree
I often get asked gardening questions by friends and was recently asked how to plant a tree (after the tree in question had already been planted, of course.) My friends had just moved into their new house and bought a beautiful mature Chinese …
The cost of growing your own food
Interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald aimed at urban beginner gardeners, which makes a compelling economic argument for growing your own food (if you do it right), to say nothing of the multitude of other benefits it offers. Read the full article …
Winter Wonderland
Edgefield is so beautiful this time of year. There’s something beguiling about winter in the Perth Hills: dripping trees, misty mornings, citrus trees groaning under fruit, mushrooms popping up and the last splatters of russet-coloured leaves clinging to the trees. Inside it’s …
Itching for a concrete slab
We’re back on schedule according to the builder’s program, as opposed to being ahead of it, as we were. But how can I complain about that? Progress has been slow and steady (I’m just really impatient). The brick build-up was finished …
Edgefield Design Session #3
The kids were in bed, it was a rainy Sunday afternoon and I’d been to the library earlier in the week returning with armloads of divine inspiration. So with a cup of tea (or was it a beer?) we …
House footings and an asparagus patch
We’ve started Edgefield’s new house project with a bang, I’m thrilled to report. In a week and a half, our builder and his earthmoving team, have managed to complete a massive site works program including: laying all the services (water, power, phone/broadband) …
The dulcet tones of a bulldozer starting work on our new house
First two days of work on the new house. No, I won’t be posting photos of every little thing that’s done, it’s just kinda exciting that it’s finally underway.
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Researching natural swimming pools
I’ve just started a concerted research effort into natural swimming pools and found this great article from American website Houzz. Jeff and I have decided to ditch the conventional pool we’d earmarked for the new house in favour of a chemical-free, biologically filtered …
Where food ethics meat reality: killing our own chickens
The three cockerels cock-a-doodle-dooing sealed their fate. We’d bred them from our own flock. They were handsome cross-breds out of our spunky Silver Spangled Hamburgh rooster, Dirk Diggler, and half Isa Brown half Coronation Sussex hens (I think). It was …
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RIP Sassy, my best mate
Sassafras – Sassy – Sass – DogFish, my jet black, rambunctious puppy turned grey-muzzled, arthritic old dog passed away naturally on Monday, 9 December 2013 aged 10 ½. It’s not dramatic to say it was one of the saddest days …
New fertile eggs for clucky Mona
Mona, my lovely chocolate brown Barnevelder hen, went clucky last week for the second time. So far I’ve hatched two clutches of eggs at Edgefield: four eggs by Mona – only one female survived and she is now laying (i …
Bunch ‘O Bananas!
And they taste divine I’m very happy to say.
Garlic harvest
Garlic harvest at Edgefield for 2013.
Homesteading: time-consuming but satisfying work
We’ve had a glut of lemons, oranges, grapefruit, silverbeet and leek (the last of the season) plus endless mulberries and strawberries at Edgefield of late. So I’ve been channelling Martha Stewart and doing some serious homesteading, in my spare time, of which …
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