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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Winter Wood, Hobbies and Fluffy Chickens

Its that time of year again. 
Time to get the log splitter out and get our wood ready for Winter.


Hubby has collected some big logs over the past few years and this saves us so much money. I think the price of a tonne of wood is $130 and you don't get much for that price!

 The wood shed is now full again.  Enough for two years burning.




Hubby has a new hobby.  He has restored this 1914 rifle back to its original glory.  He has done a fantastic job! This rifle was owned by hubby's grandfather.  He did not fight in the war, but came by this rifle later and used it on their farm. It would be very interesting to find out its full history. The original solder who this rifle belonged to would be good to know...

From this...
To this...


See our new additions?

We were gifted these two cuties.  
They were given in exchange for fertile eggs from our girls.




 Two little silkie hens. I am yet to name them, but I am thinking Chinese names would be suitable, as this is where they originate from. The white girl is very forthright and the black girl is timid in nature. 

 They have settled in nicely.  
Our other chooks give them the occasional peck, but otherwise all is well in their world.

It is wet outside again today.  
Fire is on, the house quiet so a chance for some "me" time.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.





26 comments:

  1. Now that is some nice wood. Much of the wood we cut on the weekend was partially rotten and Henry only cuts fallen wood rather than cutting anything down. Still heavy to pick up though. Do you know i could buy wood from servo? I can buy three logs for $20! As if i would. Bit of elbow grease and i get it for nothing.

    I love silkies and miss my chookies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hiya Lynda, I have seen the wood or so called wood at the servos too. What a complete rip off!

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  2. We have a stock of wood and as hubby gets the chance he splits it ready for me to use. We have naps right now but I'm sure he will get out there and split more before this winter is over. Love the silkies. How about yin and yang xx

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    Replies
    1. I love that name for the chooks Angela.

      We are later getting wood ready this year. We still had some leftover from the previous years so we had been using that. It is a job we put off until absolutely necessary, as it is time consuming.

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  3. What a fascinating lifestyle! I can almost hear your chicken yard! That fantastic about the full-again woodshed, too!

    Hugs,
    Kelley~

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    Replies
    1. Hi there Kelley,

      A noisy chicken yard it is too at the moment because we have too many roosters competing for the hens love :)

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  4. They sell wood by the pickup truck load most of the time here and not by weight, that stuff is heavy until it cures and I can see a lot of water being sold in wood. I have a rifle very similar to that one only it may be a 1913 and it is unrestored. It is made by BSA and still shoot very accurately.

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    Replies
    1. Hi there,

      You should think about restoring your rifle, they look so good when cleaned up. We took ours out and fired it for the first time the other day, it felt good to know that it still fired and barrel was okay :)

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  5. We borrowed a splitter and did a few loads a while ago. We have had the wood fire going for a month at least already - much warmer at your place!
    Love the silkies, so cute! I have never had any. I am looking forward to hatching time! I have already had two enquiries about when I will have chooks for sale this year, so that is great.

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    Replies
    1. Hello Jayne,

      We have had it cold here too, but had leftover wood to use up. We were running out fast,so had to split some more as there is freezing weather on the way.

      We were thinking about getting chooks to sell as we have people asking us regularly if we would sell some too. We sell our excess eggs and cant keep up with the demand.

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  6. Yes, when I read the post this morning, I immediately thought Yin and Yang for the silkies names! Angela pipped me!

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    Replies
    1. Ying and Yang it is then. I think it suits them!

      xTania

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  7. Wish I could have a wood fire but just can't fit one in our 60's cottage. Instead I went for the next best thing, gas heater on 45kg bottles, here on the southern edge of Sydney we get a lot of rain and have mould problems in winter so need good heating to keep inside dry.

    Good job on the .303 SMLE, I learned to shoot with a "smellie" many years ago and have always had a fondness for them, deadly accurate and an action that is as smooth as silk. I still have my original No. 4 from 1942 and have added a near mint condition No. 3 from 1945.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your comment Sgt 73rd Regt.

      Hubby has in his possession the 1914 No 1 Mk3, a 1945 No 5 Mk1, and in the process of buying a 1942 No 1 Mk 3 which has been sportorised and he wants to bring that back to original as well.

      ~Cheers

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  8. I love the silkies Tania they are really sweet. Also love a good wood pile! I like the names Yin and Yang also! xxx

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    1. Silkies are so gorgeous, they have always been a favourite of mine. At our previous house we had them, we started with two and ended up with about twenty. They are good breeders lol!

      xTania

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  9. Tania, I love a woman who appreciates a good rifle. No wonder all those guys who brought back Australian wives after WW2 bragged on them so much.

    My daughter brought some silkie chickens down here when she moved back into an apartment and couldn't keep them. I thought they were just ornamental but those little chickens lay a lot of eggs!

    The Enfield, both the MK III and the MK IV, is one of my all time favorite rifles.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Harry great to hear from you. I thought I would post a pic of hubby's rifle for you to see. He managed to get all the parts he needed mostly from USA and England. This internet is a great thing!

      He also has a 1945 No 5 Mk1, and is in the process of buying a 1942 No 1 Mk 3 which has been sportorised, so he has another project to do. Will keep you posted :)

      Hubby wants me to have a go at shooting the rifle so that could be interesting lol. We have been and tested it out and everything works fine, I was reared on a farm so rifles were always part of our growing up, although my father would never let me shoot anything other than a slug gun :)

      xTania

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  10. It's kind of amusing to read about you getting the firewood ready, as in the U.S.A. we are turning up the air conditioning and enjoying the sun and flowers, vegetable gardens, and not having to wear coats and gloves. All in due time... we will also be finding and splitting firewood. Your two year supply is admirable!

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  11. Oh Tania I wish wood was $130 a tonne here! Wayne and the boys finally installed our new wood heater over the weekend and I have a fire again! I can't believe how much warmer the house is with the wood heater going, we've only had the gas heater on first thing in the morning for about an hour, and the house is toasty warm. I don't think we'll need it tomorrow, the house seems to stay so much warmer when it's heated by the fire.

    On the downside though, because we didn't use the old fire at all last year, we didn't go collecting wood! So now we're down to half the wood box and that won't last long, so we'll be ordering wood. The quote Wayne rang through to me this afternoon was $170 for half tonne. Oh well, it's warmer and cheaper than running the ducted heating all day. And we'll be collecting wood every time we go out from now on :)

    I'm loving being able to dry the clothes in a day, heat water and at the moment I'm drying bread crusts to make breadcrumbs.

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  12. Wow Cath the price of wood over your way is expensive! And I thought our price was too dear! We are lucky living in the country as there are still ways to find wood, and we are always on the lookout for it. Phil will come home and get his chainsaw and trailer if he finds fallen trees while driving around.

    I dried some breadcrumbs the other day on top of the fire place too. I also hung some parsley and thyme around and these dried nicely. I crumbled them and put into jars, too easy.

    Thank you for dropping by :)

    xTania

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  13. Not ready to even think about winter yet (though stacking wood is a necessity that we will soon be pursuing too)...as it was a long winter here in New England.

    Your two new silkies are sweet. I think Salt and Pepper would be cute for them ;-)

    nice to visit with you.

    Kimmie
    mama to 8
    one homemade and 7 adopted

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  14. Hi Tania,What a great wood suppl, we have been trying to build up our supply too, and my hubby was indeed envious of that beautiful old rifle..He did a lovely job of the restoration.
    Your silkie girls are beautiful and will in time be wonderful mothers, our lazy girls are only just starting to lay, we have had a total of two eggs.
    Hope you are keeping warm over there, freezing in central NSW.
    Sorry I haven't checked in for a while I really love your blog, you were one of the first blogs that I ever read and inspired me
    to do my own story of our place,
    Must find the time to sit down and read and write more often,
    Hope yiu are getting plenty of rain ,
    Take it easy and keep warm Tania
    Cheers,
    Jane.

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  15. ~Dear Kimmie, what great names for our chickens. Salt and Pepper really suits them to a tee. Thank you for dropping by my blog and letting me know you were here.

    xTania

    ~Hi Jane, So great to hear from you again. Thank you for your lovely comment.

    I haven't been checking in on blogs much lately either, sometimes life has a habit of getting in the way.

    We have had rain, and it is very cold here at the moment, just like the rest of Australia.

    xTania

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  16. Tania, your silkies are so sweet. We had silkies on our farm when I was a child, and we had cute names for them all. I had a favourite whose name was Shu-Shu, and she was like a pet. Just adorable. I am envious of your wood pile. We do okay as we've been buying a ute load for $100 for many years so that keeps us going for several weeks here. I have no idea what a tonne looks like, but I bet you save heaps chopping your own. You're always an inspiration. Love, Mimi xxx

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  17. Thanks for such an interesting article here. I was searching for something like that for quite a long time and at last I have found it here.

    Rifles Guns in Australia

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Your comments really make my day. Thank you for taking the time and for being so kind.