Plans!

So the AP system is crankinging along nicely, the wood oven is started, the chickens are laying away and hatching, the fruit trees are budding and spurring well, berries are in, wicking beds are slowly coming online...out backyard farm is progressing nicely. It is great to be able to pove to myself that on a small scale, this can be done. Not completely sustainable I know, but with the space we have I think we are doing pretty well. Hopefully this year we will be able to preserve more produce and space out our growing to allow for a prolonged harvest of a variety of produce. We have summer seeds in now and although it is way too early, when spring hits, we will put them out to get an early harvest, normal harvest and a late harvest (mainly looking at tomatoes). If I can find more varieties of apples then I will put them in to once again polong ou apple season. Many of the heritage apples have early, mid and late bearing. May even try and graft a 3 in 1.

So now to the future plans! Keep doing what we are doing here, add onto our sustainable suburban block, while looking for more land further afield. Ideally 20 acres, which would be enough for some livestock such as sheep and goats and possibly a couple of pigs, plenty of chickens, including egg layers and meat fowl, ducks (we love ducks), an extensive orchard of apples, pears, stone fruits, cherry trees, extensive vegie garden and of course one big mumma of an AP system! Ideally we would poduce enough for ourselves as well as farmers markets and local foodies. Would love to get bio-dynamic certification as well as organic certification. Build a strawbale house and have a couple of strawbale cottages as B&Bs as well as set up a school education program (can't get away from that teaching profession!).

Sounds all pie in the sky, but we will make it happen. It has been a dream for so long, we have proven that it can be done on a small scale (albeit very limited), it is what we love and is our passion, so "stop talking about it and do it!"

Great family, great friends, great food, great wine!

Great family, great friends, great family and great wine! What more can I ask for! The trout was seasoned with salt, had thyme and butter in their cavity and baked at 190deg fo 25mins. Perfect! We have been going to Trentham Maket every month for a while to stock up on what we can't grow at home and usually pick up 15kgs of apples for $25. Certified organic and all!Anyway, made a beautiful apple pie fo dessert. The shortcrust was amazing, melt in mouth stuff and the apple was perfect. Damn Life is good! Got the camera out in time before I forgot!

Harvest

Here are some pics of the harvest. The biggest was a brown at 225g and the smallest was a rainbow at 189g. Total weight 1.65kgs for 8 fish.

Friends for dinner!

Having some friends over fo dinner so planning on harvesting 7 trout - should weigh in at about 200-250g each. Lemon, thyme, butter and well seasoned with salt, wrap in foil and then chuck in oven at 190deg c for 20-25mins. Will post pics as I go!

Silver Perch Fingerlings

The silver fingelings are still feeding. They don't smash the feed like in the summer but they are still chasing it down and getting in a couple of pellets each a day. This is a good sign as the wate temp is down to 9 deg celcius these days and doesn't get much higher through the day. The bass still feed like the silvers and the catfish, well don't see them too often but they are still there. The cod have slowed right down but I do see them occassionally pick up a few pellets every three or four days. Hopefully they all make it through the winter!

pH Stabilised

pH has now stabilised at 6.5. I am happy with this. Put in 20 red gauntlets and 20 lowans as well as 10 hokowase strawberries in a different bed to last time. Hopefully the aphids keep off this time!

I have changed back to Lauke barra feed as I think the low pH was caused by the growbest feed I was giving the trout. Now there seems to be more noticable growth on the fish (more than before - which was pretty quick anyway) and nitrate readings gone from 10 to 40 plus in a week.

Winter

Everything grows so slow in winter!

pH steady

A steady pH now of 6.4. Will have a look again tomorow and maybe give it another dose to get to 6.8. Damn cold weather means there is a lot of very slow growing in the AP system. Brocoli is the only exception, with the peas wanting to grow fast but not quite there. Days are getting longer now, and even smelt a hint of warmth in the air yesterday. I think I may need to look at building pvc pipe green houses for next winter to see if that improves growth.

pH

Just did a test, pH at 6.4. I will leave it for a day and re-test. I am aiming for 6.8. Lets see what happens.

pH too low.

My pH has been sitting at 6 or lower (could be lower because that is as low as my test solution goes) for awhile. Plants and fish seem fine but I thought I might try to raise it a little. Did a 1/4 water change - no movement, so must be a fair bit below 6. Thought my test solution might be dodgey, so did a neutral test with tap water, and it was reading 7. So got some hydrated lime today as per Milne's advise and will put in 1/4 cup into the sump and re-test. Will post results this evening after the solution has had time to mix and react.