Still waiting....

Today marks the 11th day of Bertha's long incubation of her eggs. It seems so much longer since we set the eggs under her, but I have checked and double checked the date we set her, and it is definitely day 11. I am tempted to candle the eggs, but as I wouldn't even know what I am looking at, I have refrained from doing so. What will be, will be. I just hope they're progressing and we will end up with chicks out of all this.

I went up to the coops today with some kangaroo mince which I fed to the other three girls, and when Bertha smelled it and heard the special "Ohhhh we have goodies!" call of the other hens, she decided to get off her nest. I gave her some of the mince, which she gobbled down happily, along with some grains and then she proceeded to have a drink, and a leisurely dustbath. She is looking quite scruffy because she has pulled out a lot of her feathers to line her nest. I was going to snap a photo to show everyone, but by the time I went back up there with the camera she was just settling back on her eggs and I didn't want to disturb her again. She looks well and happy otherwise, so I think she is going to see this through.

In the meantime, we have been busy in our garden again and spent yesterday planting seeds and seedlings. We finally got our seed potatoes into the ground, along with planting out the pumpkin seedlings I have been nurturing. We also planted rockmelons, watermelon, beans, zucchini and button squash.

Seed Potatoes.

Yes, there really are little pumpkin plants here!

The chooks were busy, too! (A couple of these were from the day before)

They really enjoy their summer coop!

A well deserved lunch after the hard work.

And this is what Solly, my cat, thinks of hard work!

 It was good to get the planting done, and relax in front of the telly with our special "Grand Finals" cheese and vege platters for lunch!

Food for Thought

Yesterday, Sandra and I attended the Sunshine Coast Real Food Festival. This kind of thing is one of the reasons that I really love living on the Sunshine Coast! A lot of people in the region are very much into sustainability, self-sufficiency and alternative therapies, health and all of that sort of thing. Since living here, I have become increasingly aware of the environment and carbon footprints and such. I've been doing my best of late to reduce, reuse and recycle as well as to lead a more self-sufficient lifestyle, so this festival was right up my alley!

We went to three different presentations on nutrition and health, and gleaned a lot from them. Some of the stuff that people said was contradictory, but that was because one of them was into whole food, which also allows for cooked foods, while another was into raw foods, so it is necessary to sort out what works for us from those opposing views and go with that. There was so much to see and do, we spent hours just browsing around, looking at exhibits, flicking through books, chatting to exhibitors, watching demonstrations, and of course, sampling some of the fine food and produce on offer!

As always, I carried my trusty iPhone with it's camera with me, and snapped a few pics.

A litter of cute little piglets. They had just had some sunblock put on as they were getting a little bit sunburned.

A leghorn hen with her beautiful, fashionable hat. Just the thing for a sunny outing in the country!

This is an Australorp hen. My favourite breed! There is something about the eyes of these chickens that I find intriguing. I call them 'Spanish eyes' Don't know why they strike me as particularly Spanish, though.

The delicious woodfired pizza we had for lunch!

It was a wonderful day, and we brought home lots of new ideas, and information about food, nutrition and health.