Hey everyone, welcome back to another weekly Good Morning Mondays Link Up and what a week it has been.

It started last Sunday with our trip to the Port Fairy Folk Festival. I mentioned last week that my husband was asked to join a group playing his accordion.  Our younger two children joined him, no 2 son on his harmonica and no 2 daughter on her little accordion. They had a great time and everyone was really encouraging.

I can play the accordion as well but I am not an ear player and I need music. This group goes from one song to the next, they are amazing.

Down on the farm it has been busy with one of our sows having 8 little piglets. They are so cute and it is amazing how they know what to do the minute they are born. We still have one sow to go and we will really have heaps of pigs then. I think we already have heaps!!!
Our oldest lot will be going into sausages and bacon after Easter when we have a big kill up. I know this doesn’t sound too great but it keeps us in meat for months and months. We are so blessed to be able to do this for ourselves.

The vegetable patch is going really well and I managed to get some corn done this week. I blanched it first and then I cut it off the cob. Some I dehydrated as you can see below and some I canned.I found I still have quite a few jars of corn left from last year, so that has all been brought inside to be used first. I have an outside pantry and an inside one and I tend to forget about the stuff outside. My husband is in the process of re-working a shipping container to make me a bigger storehouse for all our produce. We will be able to store potatoes and hang up our curing meat. It will be a few months before it is finished but the thought processes are working overtime at the moment.

We were also blessed with a bag of pears and I have been waiting for them to ripen. Finally they were ready on Saturday so I peeled them and cut them up and bottled them with cinnamon sticks, a little raw sugar and some red wine – I suppose my version of drunken pears. Hopefully this will give them some more flavour.

We have had some warmer weather this week and then it turned cold, wet and windy. We had a big gum tree branch fall on our bird aviary  narrowly missing our shed and hot house. What a blessing it didn’t fall on the shed, that would have been terrible. The roosters that were in there got a bit of a fright but they were not hurt.

My husband and no 2 son spent Saturday afternoon cleaning it all up. I suppose we get some firewood out of the tree for next year, which is another blessing. The only heating we have is a wood stove so firewood is very important.

I have a feeling that our warmer weather has passed and we are definitely in Autumn. Hopefully there are a few sunny days left to finish off the tomatoes. This year has been our best tomato year since we moved here nearly 6 years ago, so a new record has been set.

I didn’t achieve much school this past week, only piano, violin and processing fruit and vegetables. We have our Easter break and 2 weeks holiday coming up for school children so we will probably work through that if I can get on top of the corn this week.

I love homeschooling, there is so much children can learn and do without the confines of a school room. I understand it is not for everyone and that is okay, but it suits us really well.

We had our last piano lesson for the term on Saturday morning but I don’t think that means that we get to sleep in next week. We are off to Ballarat to a trout hatchery to get some Rainbow Trout for our aquaponics. This is an expansion for us and we are also looking forward to eating them as well.

That’s about all for me but I thought I would show you a picture of our little grandson who is about 6 months old now. He is so delightful, just like his older sisters.
Okay, into our link up…

Our top three posts this week were…An Amish Market – A Collection of Four Novellas – Review by Laura at Harvest Lane CottageBookcases Going Green for Spring by Patti at Old Things NewLeftover Mashed Potatoes into Potato Cakes by Tammy at Taylor-Made Homestead