200 Eggs!

Barely a fortnight after their arrival at Hamby Home(in)stead, our chookies laid two extreme eggs.  They have since gone on to gift many 70-75 gram eggs but excelled themselves this week - on three counts. 

Yesterday marked the occasion of their 200th egg!  It was also the day we received their first-ever 80 gram effort (definitely a record for the girls) and then today, possibly worn-out from yesterday's exertions, Vaughan collected the smallest egg we'd ever seen. 

Today's mini-egg weighs somewhere between 15 and 20 grams, so is significantly smaller than their previous smallest which was just 30 grams!

The girls laid their 100th egg back at the beginning of May.  At that stage we were receiving around 14 eggs a week, which was slightly less than what we had been given soon after their arrival.  The weekly egg tallies dropped further, getting as low as 5 eggs only a few weeks back.  We've been expecting the girls to cease laying, particularly as there have been a couple of days when the nests were empty.  They surprised us last week though, giving us three eggs on three days and scoring 16 eggs in total for the week! 

"That's not very fox-proof!"

The wind was pretty wild last night at Hamby Home(in)stead.  I was woken at 1am by all the noise and we half-expected Erin to evacuate her caravan for the security of brick walls. 

She was very brave and toughed it out - or rather felt that the door might be ripped off it's hinges if she ventured outside!  The chookies had no choice but to sit tight, which was probably a good thing.


On inspection this morning there had been some damage to the undercover area near our front door, where the battened shade cloth (and batten) had ripped from the beams.  More surprisingly, part of the Fox-proof Fowl Fort had fallen! 

Erin muttered "that's not very fox-proof" when she saw the breach.  Quite true.  Although the girls didn't seem overly phased by their larger gateway - and were pleased of a free-range early-mark - it was clear we would need to repair the fence before night-fall.  After purchasing more cable ties, we took the opportunity to relocate the fort onto new pasture. 

(I use the expression "we" with much artistic license as it was really Nick who did all the hard work.  Vaughan assisted a little with some lifting and I helped thread cable ties through the panels)!

After everything has bolted?!

It is fair to say that the fences at Hamby Home(in)stead are a bit (or a lot) wonky.

Some of the gates and their latching mechanisms are somewhat "how ya goin'" also.

I had a huge chortle this morning when I tried, for the first time since our arrival, to shut the boundary gate to our section.

Such was my amusement that when Nick woke later (after a long night-shift), I insisted he walk down the driveway to appreciate the "iron-y" of the situation!  

Owl's that?!

It was a little after 6:00pm when we started driving into town.  We hadn't long turned out of our driveway when we spotted a bird hovering just near the fenceline. 

As no other cars were around, I pulled over to the wrong side of the road, so as to view and photograph this Barn Owl.

About a month ago a Barking Owl visited a tree beside our storage container and tonight's tyto was on the boundary of the paddock that runs behind our house.  Nice neighbours!

Definitely a highlight of the day/night!

Can't stand the mess?!

We've had a few days of sunshine but the mornings have still been cold and wet, with frost.  Our gumboots are certainly getting well-used! 

The problem is that the boots get mucky so are kicked off at the doorstep, which is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. 

I've been pondering a solution and had thought to google "boot rack".  Nick looked at some of the pics and said he could make something. 

I was up at the woodpile though this morning and found a piece of pallet - so got Nick to cut it into two halves, which have been placed on end beside the doorway.  It isn't perfect but it is serviceable - and it will be interesting to see if stands up to frequent use!

Shopping for spuds!

Since moving into Hamby Home(in)stead we've been buying our potatoes direct from the grower at stall about 25km "up the road" from us.  A $10/10kg bag lasts us ages but if we were really keen, we could buy 50kg for $30!

The small shed is usually deserted so we help themselves to our bag of choice, slotting payment into a locked cash box. There is an exercise book and pen but I'm not sure whether we are sposed to record what we bought as I've only encountered the farmer on my first visit.

Historically, the Romsey area "was rich farming land and provided a "food basket" for travelers to the gold fields in the mid-to-late 1800s. Potatoes were grown for many years, until WW2 caused farming to change to sheep and cattle."

Every last drop!

Tea was fairly quick to accomplish drinking her milk from a bucket.  (We just assumed she would learn how to do it but seemingly some calves never progress further than using a bottle).

In the early days though, it was a messy operation and she couldn't quite manage to get the last few cups of milk from the bottom of the bucket.

That small amount was decanted into her bottle to ensure she drank every last drop - which she did!