The Girls
The girls[1] have settled in nicely to their tennis court home. I let them out of their coop early each morning and Chris generally lets them out of the tennis court sometime in the late morning so they can free range around the farm. They love getting out and about, and I dare say the eggs they lay will be better for it. But they appear to have discovered the cat flap in the laundry door…or rather the hole left by the broken cat flap. Three times there was a suspicious clucking outside the study door, and I had to chase a chicken outside. I’m not certain, but I think it was the same one each time[2].
Now they’ve had a taste of the great outdoors, it can prove quite a challenge getting them back into the tennis court before dark. I really want to do that because there are foxes around, and I have spotted them near the house just on dusk. So if the chickens are still roaming around at that time, there’s every chance they’ll go missing.
Although a slice of bread seems to work pretty well in getting them to follow me. 
Water, Water
After nearly a week of rain, the dams are all overflowing again, the tennis court is a soggy mess, and my rainwater tanks are…better than they were. I suspect I’m going to have to figure out a way of utilising my dam water or getting more rainwater catchment working. We seem to be going through much more water than we collect, and that’s a real concern, given we’ve had a couple of good years. I’ve done some research and we can probably get away with a system that will cost about $10,000 or so. For that, I should be able to get a new 20,000 litre tank, a major filtration system—including UV sterilisation—and be able to clean not only roof-caught rainwater but also tannin-laced dam water. And all the bugs and nasties will be cleaned out, including colour, taste and odour.
That amount should last a month or six weeks, and in the meantime, more water can slowly be pushed through the filtration system so the clean water tank stays topped up at all time. Now, all I need is to find $10,000… 
Potato Planting
Given it’s the last month of winter, the days are lengthening and warming, although no doubt there will be a frost or two still left for us. I’ve planted out the potatoes that I’ve had chitting in the pantry. I think they’re a mix of King Edward and Sabago varieties; both excellent eating although King Edward is better for roasting and Sabago is best for mashing. We’ll see if I have a green thumb or not; this is my first foray into the garden as an actual gardener.
Tomato Planting
I also prepared some seedling pots in a tray and planted eight tomato seeds; it’s a little early perhaps, but that’s why we have a poly tunnel; to extend our growing season. If I can get them going in the tunnel, they should have a great head start once the weather improves more. I have seeds for two varieties; Improved Apollo and Grosse Lisse. I have no idea what the difference between them is, so don’t ask. To me they’re just tomatoes; I have the seeds[3] and I want to try to sprout seedling tomatoes ahead of the regular growing season, so those are what I used.
It’s all one giant experiment out here, but at least we have plenty of free range fresh eggs to eat!
