Ok people, time to commit. I have an offer in for a little herd of Jersey cows, one is milking now, but I need to semi commit to them by Monday night.
The lady selling them want to sell them as a group, she has heaps of offers for the individuals but none for the group so please leave me feedback so I can contact you if you are keen to get involved. Raw milk, raw milk cheese, butter, cream, milk, meat.
I'm hungry already.
-- Post From My iPhone
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 micro four thirds camera.
I bought a new camera a few weeks ago. This is my or the households third digital, the last two being small compacts which The Wife loves because they can be tucked into a pocket or purse and grabbed at any occasion and snap away. And that's cool but I'm not really keen on "framed" smiling party pics and I was keen for a little more.
The trouble is that I also need a better camera to take pictures of stuff that we trial for work, that can make me extend a bit as a photographer, that can document the progress of Lantanaland in way that I can archive seriously but I don't want to lug around a DSLR all the time, too bulky, too expensive, too much.
The answer is a new format that Panasonic, Lecia and Olympus came up with to differentiate themselves from the big boys. It's called micro four thirds. Without geeking out too much a small compact camera has a small sensor and a cheap lens in a small body. A DSLR has a large body to accomodate the mirror that let's you look through the lens to frame the photo and a large sensor and interchangeable lenses. A micro 4/3rd camera has no mirror and a slightly smaller sensor which allows a much smaller and lighter body. You still have interchangeable lenses, but they are also better engineered to be more compact as well. The result is a camera you can quite easily hang round your neck and carry around. It's too big to fit in a jeans pocket and if you are used to looking through a veiwfinder you'll hate the LCD only way of taking pictures but I'm so used to digital now I can't remember the last time I framed a picture that way.
I love this camera. After two weeks of playing round with it, only using the small 20mm lens with no zoom I've taken a few great pics.
I took this one at Brunswick going for a walk to test the camera out the morning after I got it. I'd grabbed a coffee and was just playing round with depth of feild when this bloke rode past, adding interest to the out of focus background.
This was out of the window of the car going at 100km/h on the way to brunswick.
A bit of fishing at Ocean Shores. Took this with the burst mode on and got that great rod bend.
The Wife and her bro at their dads 60th. This was taken, no flash, in a dimly lit resteraunt.
A mate of ours neice. I was demonstrating apperature to her and her brother and took this great pic of her. She likes acting up for the camera so was surprised at the softer expression on her face. In fact this is an awesome camera for taking pics of people. The big LCD let's you hold the camera low and not get in peoples faces. I then gve her the camera and she took this one of me.
The less said the better.
This one I took of The Wifes dad while we were having coffee. I was just snapping away from the hip and got this great unguarded picture. My favourite with the new camera so far.
My mad mate Andy.
This camera retails in Oz at $1300-$1500 au at all good camera stores. Those good camera stores or Panasonic Australia need to have a good hard look at themselves though, because I bought a grey market one for under a grand, same one year warrentee, shipped in three days instead of two weeks.
Lantanaland from the iPhone
The trouble is that I also need a better camera to take pictures of stuff that we trial for work, that can make me extend a bit as a photographer, that can document the progress of Lantanaland in way that I can archive seriously but I don't want to lug around a DSLR all the time, too bulky, too expensive, too much.
The answer is a new format that Panasonic, Lecia and Olympus came up with to differentiate themselves from the big boys. It's called micro four thirds. Without geeking out too much a small compact camera has a small sensor and a cheap lens in a small body. A DSLR has a large body to accomodate the mirror that let's you look through the lens to frame the photo and a large sensor and interchangeable lenses. A micro 4/3rd camera has no mirror and a slightly smaller sensor which allows a much smaller and lighter body. You still have interchangeable lenses, but they are also better engineered to be more compact as well. The result is a camera you can quite easily hang round your neck and carry around. It's too big to fit in a jeans pocket and if you are used to looking through a veiwfinder you'll hate the LCD only way of taking pictures but I'm so used to digital now I can't remember the last time I framed a picture that way.
I love this camera. After two weeks of playing round with it, only using the small 20mm lens with no zoom I've taken a few great pics.
I took this one at Brunswick going for a walk to test the camera out the morning after I got it. I'd grabbed a coffee and was just playing round with depth of feild when this bloke rode past, adding interest to the out of focus background.
This was out of the window of the car going at 100km/h on the way to brunswick.
A bit of fishing at Ocean Shores. Took this with the burst mode on and got that great rod bend.
The Wife and her bro at their dads 60th. This was taken, no flash, in a dimly lit resteraunt.
A mate of ours neice. I was demonstrating apperature to her and her brother and took this great pic of her. She likes acting up for the camera so was surprised at the softer expression on her face. In fact this is an awesome camera for taking pics of people. The big LCD let's you hold the camera low and not get in peoples faces. I then gve her the camera and she took this one of me.
The less said the better.
This one I took of The Wifes dad while we were having coffee. I was just snapping away from the hip and got this great unguarded picture. My favourite with the new camera so far.
My mad mate Andy.
This camera retails in Oz at $1300-$1500 au at all good camera stores. Those good camera stores or Panasonic Australia need to have a good hard look at themselves though, because I bought a grey market one for under a grand, same one year warrentee, shipped in three days instead of two weeks.
Lantanaland from the iPhone
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Afternoon Swarm
Had a great weekend. The Wife organized a surprise dinner for her dads 60th birthday. He's the fifth boy in a group of six rowdy siblings so it was a great night. Neil had said he didn't really want to do much except hang out with close family for his birthday but you could see he was genuinely touched to have a big group of friends and family to help him celebrate.
Brunswick Heads is a great little township for a weekend like that. We had swims, coffee, caught some worms and whiting, I did a few photo walks (more on this later in the week) and the actual birthday dinner was a great feed. I'll put up a post on dinner at Mother Foccacia toomorrow.
So it was good to get home and just chill out. I have given up with my escaping chickens. They are now going to get a highrise, hopefully fox proof chookhouse and they'll just have to take their chances with the snakes. I rarely lose a full grown chicken to a snake anyway. Then I'll fence my veg garden in. I like having the chooks running round anyway. I'll build a smaller everything proof small pen that will be used as a breeding pen and nursery. There is always something to do on a smallholding, as I was about to find out.
I was handmowing around some newly planted fruit trees near the bees as a bit of easy exercise on a lazy Sunday arvo when the bloody bees swarmed. I quickly grabbed The Wife to keep an eye on where they went while I kitted up and grabbed the spare box. Of course the little bastards went right to the top of the fig tree, so it was off to Eric, the magical builder neighbour who has everything, most of which is in, on or around his two shipping containers (lucky bastard). He quickly rigged be up a makeshift pole with a bucket gaffed to the end and I was off.
I managed to tap a few of them into the bucket first go, but the tipped them out on to the ground as the pole was quite a bit bendier than I'd anticipated. Next go more bees and into the empty box. There were bees at the entrance and none on the tree when I went up to check later so I might have a new hive! I hope so or I've lost all those bees.
A bit more exciting end to the day than I thought. Oh well all I have to do now is research herd share agreements, write up dinner at Fat Belly Kat, do a new section for the goats, rebuild the deck..………
Lantanaland from the iPhone
Thursday, March 25, 2010
I'm gonna buy a cow.
I'm going to buy a cow. I've been saying it from the moment we signed the contract to buy Lantanaland, but only now is it anywhere near close to reality. Getting the goats has forced my into purchasing some infrastructure, so now i have the means to contain them. If the fence will hold the goats it'll frighten the cows.
I have always been keen on Dexters, a smaller breed much beloved by smallholders, because they have good beef and good milk. Being smaller, you don't have to deal with as much meat at one time, which is much better for home use. What I'd really like is a small herd of three or four, but one is probably all I can afford. That was until I was at dinner with some mates and the suggested buying a few lambs and running them on my place until they were ready to eat and I slapped myself. Herdshare!
Surely there are a few of you out there who are interested in owning your own cow for some beef or butter or cream or cheese? Keeping them with me has a few advantages. I know a whole heap of butchers to help with the slaughter and breaking of a beast. I make awesome sausages, the likes of which you'd be hard pressed to buy in a shop. I know nothing about making cheese, but do know that if you get a group together it is much cheaper to do Graham Redheads excellent cheese course, which you could do with your own milk!
Now i could have completely misread this and you might all think that I am insane, in which case I'll be just buying the one cow as planned, but who knows? If only two more people are interested, i'll have a herd not a cow, to share!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Courier Mail and the greatest hits
I had a small piece in the Taste section of The Courier Mail today and they were kind enough to put a link back to here. If by some strange reason you've typed it into a browser and you want to know a bit more about Lantanaland, well i'd start with last weeks State of the Union.
Then check out the cold smoker and the bacon that comes out of it.
Then there are the bees and shipping containers and mates helping out and a few small things.
Not to mention using Lantanaland for your holidays.
Also, I love food so much that there is a whole separate food blog where a whole bunch of degenerates help me write about food. Some of them are much better cooks than me .
Then check out the cold smoker and the bacon that comes out of it.
Then there are the bees and shipping containers and mates helping out and a few small things.
Not to mention using Lantanaland for your holidays.
Also, I love food so much that there is a whole separate food blog where a whole bunch of degenerates help me write about food. Some of them are much better cooks than me .
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Trip to Lismore
As anyone who knows me will know, I love my jesus phone. Well i was playing around with it during a trip to Lismore for an engagement party and came up with this
Enjoy!
Bloody blogger won't let me post this in a suitable format, hence the link.
Enjoy!
Bloody blogger won't let me post this in a suitable format, hence the link.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
State of the Union (call for help)
We've been living here on Lantanaland for about two and a half years. I always said that I wanted to just sit back for a few years to gauge the mood of the land, not to do any major works of infrastructure until we had an idea of where we would like the place to end up. I feel that I have a good feel for the land now. I know I have to cope and plan for snakes and goannas in my chook and duck pens. I know what sort of fence I need to keep in goats ( bloody decent ones) and I have a rough idea of how we can start shaping the land.
The first part came when my fantastic parents and grandmother gifted me a ride on lawnmower for birthday/Xmas. It let's me keep the house and surrounds neat when I'm busy. Last year we were away in February and the lawn got away from me. I can put in the big weekends knocking it back with brushcutter and push mower, but the big ride on allows me to keep it under control. Think of it like an old fasioned war or a zombie movie. I've establised my defensive zone but the grass is always trying to breach my perimiter. Now I am secure enough to start sending out sorties armed with cricket bats and shotguns to drive back the undead, I mean lantana.
The way that I think I will do this is to split the place up into smaller zones, fence them off and let the animals clear them out a bit. I can then get to bits of lantana, plant some trees and plan for each bit while the animals clear the next patch. Another key to this will be a winding path on an easy gradient down to the dam that I can quickly mow. This will be the core access to the rest of the property, I can keep it clear and work off it.
This probably means I will need some more animals, two cows and some milking goats. Maybe a few geese for a particular feast i have in mind. Goats, if you can keep the little bastards fenced, are great value. Should be tasty too. It all goes back to making my grass give me a valuable product, rather than just growing, get slashed, grow get slashed.
The other big consideration is whether to build a new house or add to this one for a future family. Eventually I want to run a cooking school that embraces paddock/garden to plate and the current house we are in would be a great little venue for such an enterprise, with a bit of work. A new house might allow us to put in things like a decent kitchen, a walking in insulated pantry and a secret library with a revolving bookcase door from which I CAN RULE THE WORLD, MWHAHAHAH.
Sorry.
Anyway the point is I would like to have a working bee day sometime in the middle of winter where I have a go at the first major project that will set Lantanaland on the path to perhaps one day being the cooking school that I want it to be. I'm not just asking for free graft either, for anyone who comes and helps, even if it's just for half an hour, I'll be offering food, food that you just won't get at a woolies or IGA. The centrepiece will be spitroasted chickens and duck, for sure and maybe some guinea fowl and geese. But these will be MY birds, raised here on my scraps and grain and grass. There will be pancakes made with my eggs and maybe milk and cream and butter. There will be homemade sausages for lunch, there will be smoked salmon and bacon from my cold smoker, veges and fruit from the garden.
What I'd like from you guys and girls who read this blogs is ideas, or send it to people who have ideas. I want as many suggestions for how I could do things or the way that you have done things or seen things done. I'd love for people to come help me too, but I'll put that call out when we get closer to the time, which is when those tasty, tasty chickens are ready to go into the oven.
Lantanaland from the iPhone
The first part came when my fantastic parents and grandmother gifted me a ride on lawnmower for birthday/Xmas. It let's me keep the house and surrounds neat when I'm busy. Last year we were away in February and the lawn got away from me. I can put in the big weekends knocking it back with brushcutter and push mower, but the big ride on allows me to keep it under control. Think of it like an old fasioned war or a zombie movie. I've establised my defensive zone but the grass is always trying to breach my perimiter. Now I am secure enough to start sending out sorties armed with cricket bats and shotguns to drive back the undead, I mean lantana.
The way that I think I will do this is to split the place up into smaller zones, fence them off and let the animals clear them out a bit. I can then get to bits of lantana, plant some trees and plan for each bit while the animals clear the next patch. Another key to this will be a winding path on an easy gradient down to the dam that I can quickly mow. This will be the core access to the rest of the property, I can keep it clear and work off it.
This probably means I will need some more animals, two cows and some milking goats. Maybe a few geese for a particular feast i have in mind. Goats, if you can keep the little bastards fenced, are great value. Should be tasty too. It all goes back to making my grass give me a valuable product, rather than just growing, get slashed, grow get slashed.
The other big consideration is whether to build a new house or add to this one for a future family. Eventually I want to run a cooking school that embraces paddock/garden to plate and the current house we are in would be a great little venue for such an enterprise, with a bit of work. A new house might allow us to put in things like a decent kitchen, a walking in insulated pantry and a secret library with a revolving bookcase door from which I CAN RULE THE WORLD, MWHAHAHAH.
Sorry.
Anyway the point is I would like to have a working bee day sometime in the middle of winter where I have a go at the first major project that will set Lantanaland on the path to perhaps one day being the cooking school that I want it to be. I'm not just asking for free graft either, for anyone who comes and helps, even if it's just for half an hour, I'll be offering food, food that you just won't get at a woolies or IGA. The centrepiece will be spitroasted chickens and duck, for sure and maybe some guinea fowl and geese. But these will be MY birds, raised here on my scraps and grain and grass. There will be pancakes made with my eggs and maybe milk and cream and butter. There will be homemade sausages for lunch, there will be smoked salmon and bacon from my cold smoker, veges and fruit from the garden.
What I'd like from you guys and girls who read this blogs is ideas, or send it to people who have ideas. I want as many suggestions for how I could do things or the way that you have done things or seen things done. I'd love for people to come help me too, but I'll put that call out when we get closer to the time, which is when those tasty, tasty chickens are ready to go into the oven.
Lantanaland from the iPhone
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