Hobbs Family
Another One Bites The Dust
For the past few weeks we have been catching several large ferrets in our ferret trap.
Some big, some small but yesterday we were greeted with something different.
A white ferret!!!!!
That’s right, a snow white ferret!
Don’t think for a minute though just because its all cute and white and fluffy that it isn’t a marauding killer!
We caught it just outside the chook house door so if we hadn’t had the trap set we very likely would have a repeat of the last ferret related incident.
As you can imagine we have reset the trap just in case more ferrets decide they want some chicken to go.
Rain Rain
Yep, you guessed it.
It’s raining!!
In fact it has rained for the past 7 hours without a break for a biscuit or a cup of tea.
I don’t really mind the rain at this time of year though.
The Apples don’t get affected by it and it’s good to have a nice amount of moisture in the soil before the ground freezes in winter.
It would be nice though if it didn’t decide to pour down when I’m in middle of my garden with an armful of dried bean plants.
Why??
Because trying to run across a freshly cultivated garden while attempting to keep an armful of bean plants dry from the torrential rain is not really on my list of things I enjoy to do.
It’s all fun and games until you trip over a cabbage.
Cold
Yep it is definitely Autumn!
The days are cooler, the nights are cooler and the days are getting shorter than a Pygmy with a hunched back.
Thankfully there is a wonderful invention commonly referred to as a fireplace.
These are marvellous things which allow you to light a fire inside the house thus warming it up!!!
Brilliant! 😉
In other news:
We have Royal Gala Apples and Coxes Orange Apples available for $5 for 5kg or $10 for 10kg.
We hope to have Golden Delicious sometime in the next week or so.
Apples
We are well into the swing of things with our Royal Gala Apples.
We sell them in 5kg bags for $5 or 10kg bags for $10.
The Royal Gala are our most popular eating Apple due to their sweet flavour and crispness.
They are great for school lunches and are also good keepers.
We also started our Coxes Orange Apples last week.
At this stage they still have a tarty taste but they will definately sweeten as time goes on.
They are being sold in 5kg bags for $5 or 10kg for $10.
The Coxes Orange are also very popular amongst our customers.
They have a crisp texture with a very distinctive flavour that is balanced between sweet and acidic/tarty.
Their sharp taste (early in the season) appeals to many although some prefer to wait until the sharpness is counterbalanced by sweetness.
Our Omegas Have Been Wiped Out
All our Omega plums have been wiped out!!!!!
We had massive winds come in last night and this morning when we went out to check the plums we saw that every single one had been blown off the trees!!
As you can imagine we are not very happy right now and we apologise to all the customers who have missed out.
Mom didn’t even get a chance to bottle any!!!!!
Wind
Oh yeah wind is such a joy.
Yesterday we had gale force winds hit us like a ton of bricks.
We’ve lost quite a lot of Omegas but by some miracle there are still some on the trees!
Only downside is that all the “survivors” are 2nds hence only 2nds are available on the Stall at $2.00/kg.
Just a Small Job
Yesterday Mum and I decided to tidy up the garden in front of the Fruit Stall.
We thought it would be a 45 minute job tops.
5 1/2 hours later at 8:30pm we finally finished and managed to stagger back inside.
Yes I think it is safe to say that we underestimated the size of the job but once we started we got so into it that we couldn’t stop.
No point doing a half by job!
Anyway, the garden in front of the Stall now looks amazing.
In other news, the ferret that murdered 4 of our chickens the other day got caught in the ferret trap last night.
That’ll teach him for killing our chickens!!!!!!!
Windy Times
We’ve got some really strong winds blasting through orchard at the moment.
Not what we needed as Omega Plums have a tendency to fall off the tree under such conditions!!!
Once it is light enough I’ll be heading out to survey the damage.
Lets hope there aren’t too many on the ground!!
Ferret Attack!!!!!
While Mum was on her way to the shower this morning at 4am she heard a commotion coming from the chook house.
Clad in her pyjamas, she quickly raced out the door to investigate.
As she approached the chicken house, torch in hand, she saw a ferret shoot out from a small gap in the door!!!!
Thinking fast she grabbed a nearby spade and proceeded to calmly hurl it in the direction of the fleeing ferret.
She then realized that the ferret could have re-enforcements hiding nearby so she decided to retreat to the house and wake me up.
I then went out and surveyed the damage.
4 chickens were killed by the ferret and now only 2 (rather traumatized) chickens remain.
I’ve set our ferret traps around the chicken house so now it is just a waiting game.
One thing is for sure though, this ferret is going down!!!!!
The battle of the Garden
Yep, it’s war.
Last night I found 2 large rabbits eating my cabbages.
It was the straw that broke the camels back.
After launching some strategic volley fire of Apples (which caused the rabbits to disperse), I then proceeded to organize my defensive action plan.
But after waiting another 3 hours for them to return, I gave up and went back inside.
This morning when I went out to check the garden I found MORE plants had been eaten and some holes had been dug through the broccoli patch!!!!!
AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Little bastards!!
Time to another plan!
Stay tuned for more updates.