Videos on my activism, anarchy planting food not lawns, Cool people, Living the Good Life With RushkaSometimes its easier to see things when they are live...Here is my you tube and google plus page..Videos on whats happening in the garden ,,, environmental activism, cool people that I meet along the way... 

Video - Why am I doing this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI5_Y8EP-u8
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/106683178451665238695/+HomegrownorganicvegBlogspotlivingthegoodlife/posts

Porcupines are cute but NOT when they Demolish the sweet potatoes !

The porcupines are eating my sweet potatoes !!!!
Eeekkkk...
A beautiful patch planted, growing ready to munch - Next day - CHAOS... It looks as though an earthquake hit the place... mountains of soil and remnants of sweet potatoes all over the place.

whoever would have thought that such small cute creatures could create so much havoc..

And I just KNOW that once they are done with those, they'll be heading for the carrots...

I do love having small creatures share my space with me BUT - something has to be done..
either catch the criters and release in a reserve -
Make a hardcore fence... (don't like fences much)
OR  , my mom suggested putting pepper or chilli powder all over the place and letting them snuffle it up their noses for a fright..
Ill let you know which one works.
OFF to catch me a porcupine.. heheh

I have started a you tube channel

I have started a youtube channel.
Well Why not... Sometimes its easier to see things happening to grasp how it's done.
The people that are put in my path are amazing, the things that I am learning, even more so.
I need to share it.
So.. Its about, my life, how we are working this beautiful space.. Growing healthy, happy delicious food and strong, healthy, happy, delicious children.

From ... Why I don't like Monsanto's GM seed that goes hand in hand with Monsanto's carcinogenic herbicide Roundup..... to chickens and snails..... how to make chilli sauce.... weeds,... people... standing up for our food security and whatever else takes my fancy along the way...

Subscribe to my channel and share so that we can all be inspired and share the organic love...
(Speaking about subscribing.. I haven't really grasped why it's important to have people subscribe to channels... My take is ,, either they want updates or not. and if not.. who cares... There must be something that I'm missing...) AHA !! another thing to learn about..
Here it is.. an intro to my Channel... Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI5_Y8EP-u8

My fruit trees are happy

My fruit trees are happy!

A few months ago I planted 30 sticks.... Today... LOOOK... How beautiful is this peach/plum tree..

Don't laugh... I think its peach but it could very well be plum... You see.. when  I got the trees, they had been blown about on a truck and had no tags and NO LEAVES.... so I couldnt Identify them.... Now, Im truly not the expert on trees.... maybe a few, like citrus... (but I'm sure that everyone is, you cant mistake that beeautiful smell)

I wonderful tried and tested trick for making citrus trees (and most others) grow beautifully is to put Epsom salts around the bass every now and again... I bought a big bag from a gardening shop and use it with relish.... 

My fig tree has 4 whole figs... (I bet that the blue cranes, geese and ducks that we share the garden with will be happy to see those... Im going to cover them in some netting just incase... (recycle some from an orange bag and put around the bunch of figs)..

Fig Tree Before.... 

banana tree before.. shame...                                                                      and now.. with some TLC

We have our first set of chickens

Waiting... by now you must know how I hate WAITING !! aaarrrrgggg..
Our friend had some chickens, healthy, beautiful and ready to make their home with us...


But... The coup wasnt ready and it looked as though it wasnt going to be for a while..
I asked around for a chicken house which I have hopefully found, (recycle and reuse),, (holding thumbs for it).... 
We have a doggy who finds fresh chickens very delicious so I cant just let them run around which would of course be ideal.. They DO however need a big enough space to be in so, some chicken wire is needed... LOTS of it, to make a fence... 


The darn stuff costs a fortune and I haven't been lucky enough to find some that wants a home.. YET.. SO, while we are waiting to build them their fancy pansy chicken home with gardens... We decided to use the bird avery..

 We found another home for the white doves which we inherited with the house.. 


Very sweet but none of us have a passion for doves so they were wasted on us.. (and we are vegetarian so we couldnt even make dove pie)..
(don't worry animal lovers, we found a good home for them and that ddoesn'tinclude being underneath a pie crust).

Good old Elvis and Jo transforming the dove avery into a chicken home..

We have a lovely field filled with grass which we are mowing and using as mulch for the garden and bedding for the chickens.

The idea is to throw compost in for them to eat... and after a few weeks take out all of the chicken poo, grass and leftover compost and use it to feed the veggies...

Wonderful fertilizer.. 

Not sure if I mentioned yet that wonderful Elvis DID return and he is absolutely FANTASTIC..

He lives on the farm and the plants literally flower when they see him.. He knows so much about veggies, plants, chickens, farming and is super strong.. definitely Joeys hero.

Time to release them

Ta DAAAA.. we now have a home for them while they are waiting....

1. 

One of them escaped and is happily prancing around the secret garden.. Yes the chicken hungry dog is still around but so far she can't even come close... there are far too many thorny hidy holes.. We do prick our ears for a shout from her every now and then though, just in case...

We have had an egg every day since.. (there are only 4 chickens so far, 2 of them a bit too young for laying).. This is wonderful news.. Being vegetarians, we need eggs.... 3 strapping growing veggy kids eat MANY eggs...

Most chickens are fed mielies (which are sadly Genetically modified).. I am a GMO activist... (didnt I tell you that part !!).... completely and utterly against GMO food and will do anything to avoid feeding it to my family..... NOW do you see how important our own eggs are?

Our chooks eat, sunflower seeds, plenty of compost and every now and then rice.... Looking forward to a few more to add to the family and to help it grow healthy and strong..

We found a Hare

Joey boy found a tiny baby hare under one of spinach bushes. How SWEEEETTT !!

He came running in with the little bundle..

Her leg looked strange and stiff so we took her straight to the vet..

(the vet lives next door but we still drive to his office which is just in town)..

He looked at every tiny inch of her and couldn't find anything wrong..
He even took her temperate with the thermometer in her behind... to the utter shock and horror of little Ruthi !! he he.. 

As soon as we got home.. Breeze (15 year old daughter) swooped in and took over.. She made a little house for her from a soft fluffy hat and a cardboard box, Even blended up carrots and spinach and fed her with a homemade plastic bag bottle..

Of course knowing absolutely nothing about hares she did a bit of online perusing to see how to go about looking after her..
We had no idea how old she was which didn't help things at all..
Sweetest thing !!.. I wouldn't mind her eating all of the lettuce in the garden !! Well maybe not ALL !

After 2 days of hardly eating or drinking we started to worry..

I found her out of her box yesterday morning looking very cold and stiff, on touching her she fell over into a little spasm of sorts....
It almost looked as though her back or neck was broken.. How awefull... Breeze was out so I whisked her off to hubby who is known as the household hot water bottle because his body heat is boiling (like one of the wolves from twilight!)..... He sat with her for about 4 hours while I searched online to try and determine her age..(Gosh I love the internet )..

After looking at some pics we discovered that she was much younger than we had thought.. Well at least it seemed so.... maybe 1 week to 10 days..


A syringe and puppy formula was in order.. AND some rehydrate (pinch of sugar and salt in warm water).

We kept her close for the entire day.. body heat and food and water as often as possible..

It was like having a baby again.. he he..

A bit of kangaroo care for tiny little Poopsi (her name)

It all worked beautifully.. warm and fed, she had enough energy to hop about.. SO
oo cute....




Everything was going so well, We were shocked when she had another spasm in the evening.
It was a big one that lasted about 30 minutes.. Justin (husband), held her again and watched her struggle with her life..
Sadly she died...
I would have held her if he wasn't there but it was too emotional at the time and I'm afraid that Im a wimp when it comes to someone else's suffering.. It's too much to handle..

If there isnt a brave soul about to give them comfort, Ill be there like a fierce lion to hold and protect. The responsibility of holding her and watching her die was just too much..

Little Joey was terribly sad in the morning when we told him and slightly confused because she looked so healthy before he went to bed..

We put her into a little box and wrapped her up in some cloth.


Next morning I caught a glimpse of Breeze marching into the secret garden with a box and a spade and watched her digging a hole that was VERY deep... 
Poopsie was buried wrapped in a soft blanky and a ceremony was held in due respect with friends and family...

       

                                                                     

Sweet thing.... I just love the way kids make things so special.... Ruthi and her Friend Emma created a song, procession, a bunny reading, (which was wrapped in plastic and put onto the grave afterwards),  flowers, glitter and  WITH after funeral smoothies!

At this point I think we need a design of sorts

I sound very spontaneous and go with the flow kinda person..
But in actual fact I like to plan things in my head..
With at least one or two or five backup plans just in case.

It's not the traditional way of planning I suppose (unlike my daughter who writes very detailed lists which she actually sticks to!)...
I dont even think that its traditional THINGS that I plan.. More like the end result which I visualize ,, without all of the details of how to get there.... difficult to explain but none the less, planning of sorts...

ANYWAY... here is a drawing of the swales in our garden and where some of the trees are..
I also put in our gazebo (which we have started already (planted the poles and 3 grape plants, all different kinds... lets see how they do)...
the size of the property isnt too big.. 1.8 hectares but just right to handle (actually its quite a job to handle but at least I can almost see where it ends) AND I do have helping hands.. (thank goodness)

Yes I know.... I do realize that the top poles of the gazebo arent on yet... and I do know that my father in law is going to cringe when he sees it because they are probably going to have to come down to drill the holes  BUT  all of this I have planned for in my HEAD you see.... I also have an overwhelming tendency to do things VERY fast just so that there is something to work with...
Fixing is easier then waiting!

P.s. He, (my father in law that is), is coming to stay next week.. EEEEEkk.. no really.. Im glad,, Im going to use his wonderful building brain and skills and pick his mind for ideas... (I'm going to have to hold him down though because he can't just advise, he has to DO stuff, crazy difficult things that are humanly impossible for 1 man to do)..

My hopes are to fill the pathway bit with woodchips (or whatever I can find)... and the sitting part with cement slabs...

Just imagine.. lounging about on a hot summers day in the midst of the food forrest and just having to reach up and grab juicy bunch grapes. (end result planned in my head)..
or we could use the poles to swing on like monkey bars (back up number one)... or we could take the poles out and use them as swords during an alien invasion (back up plan number two).. or........

2nd step of plan.. Get some trees.. There are already about 15 fruit trees planted very close together in rows... Best thing to do is to mulch them like crazy, get rid of the grass covering them and give them a pole for the wind..

We put soaking wet cardboard around the base of the existing trees (over the weeds), covered it with compost (dont have too much of my own ready so I ordered a huge bucky load of horse manure and black soil mix).. and then covered that with old sticks (Old Kale stems chopped up that were lying around and mowed grass, anything and everything... (no point in moving the trees when they are planted already)...
 Have to say that it worked... Some had no leaves and were smothered in black mouldy bugs from head to toe.. Looking very sad... In about 2 weeks they were flourising !!

I ordered about 35 trees (so far) (the biggest that they had) from a wholes sale nursery.. All of our favourite fruits..  (I'ts far cheaper ordering wholesale, remember to do that)..

Narchi, lemon, litchi, mango, macadamia, banana, apricot, all the berries that you can think of, apples... ... just everything on the list... Some knowledgeable people have stifled giggles when they heard my list because some of the trees that I have planted aren't perfectly suited to this climate.. (like the macadamia for instance, which likes VERY cold winters) - nothing that watering in winter with icy water cant solve.. he he... I'll let you know if it works.

This tree grew leaves in 2 weeks after planting.. there is something about this area and soil that is magical.. I just know it !!