well the pork belly arrived today and i have to assume that Sweetie was a very large pig as it is very generous chunk of meat. Will track down the man who does smoking locally tomorrow and deliver it for processing. I am very excited at the prospect of having my very own bacon, even if someone else is doing the work this time. I will presumably have a chance to check out his set-up as well so I can work out what I need when I am ready to move onto doing this sort of thing myself.

Rastus was the proud father of six chickens last time Kim set some of his eggs, two male and four girls. Apparently they are nice looking chicks - I am hoping one day I will be able to get some for myself, but the girl who looked broody is now off the brood once more and anxious to rejoin the rest of them. I will move the rabbit hutch into the chicken run tomorrow so she can be reintroduced slowly. Her injuries appear clean and healing, so she should be fine. I suspect a goose took a chunk out of her (the australorps being slow-moving placid creatures, she probably failed to get out of their way when they were on a rampage).

The geese had a stroll around the garden for a bit of a feed in the hope the excitement will calm them down a bit - they have been very noisy at night of late, and never seem to sleep.

In between visitors (Kim was not the only one, but one of several - it is sometimes like Pitt Street in the rush hour around here), I managed to heave a few more shovel-fulls into the raised bed. Only another 10,000 to go and I will be ready to plant the rhubarb.