Big Angry Trev's Website - articles of interest (Non-TF)

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Excerpt from Blog: We've got some whoppers of Blackberry Bushes on our land, some almost bigger than our house!* They have been very hard to get rid of for two reasons:

A: We don't like to use poisons on our property
B: Even if we did use poisons, most of the bushes are located in the middle of our shallow creek, meaning that any use of herbicides could result in them entering the water, causing major damage to other plants and the ecosystem in general.

Well, we kinda lucked out.* Mick, who I buy nearly all my second-hand pots from in order to propagate plants for our Organic Plants & Produce business, runs a family business of his own.* He and his wife Billie run Dry Creek Farm, and they specialize in bringing out herds of goats in order to decimate Blackberry Patches, leaving nothing but stems and fertilizer in their wake.

READ Permaculture: Using Goats to clear Blackberry Patches HERE

[BigTransformerTrev]

Gah, shot myself in the foot. Often during my lunch break I will do a bit of blog writing at work. Yesterday my wordpress site needed an update so I set it going. That must have set off the system at work as now my site is still accessible, but the admin side of it is blocked.

So no posting on my site for me at work anymore. Best I can do is write blogs in my lunch break, email them to my house and then upload them there, which is a pain as between the kids and the farm I am usually super busy when I get home of an arvo.

Oh, BTW, I'll be looking for some more 'Ask Trev' questions soon so if anyone has any queries they want my skewed insights on, feel free to post them here and I'll get on them

[BigTransformerTrev]

Excerpt from Blog: For years we have been growing our own fruit, vegetables and herbs and really enjoying both the fresh taste and the satisfaction of producing it ourselves. Well for the first time ever, we have been able to do the same with our poultry as well.

This being the first time we were eating our own livestock, I wanted to get the cooking exactly right. Not an easy task since I’ve never roasted a duck before. After looking through various recipies I chose bits and pieces from several I liked and produced a fantastic result! So enjoy ‘Big Angry Trev’s Roast Duck & Potatoes Recipe’.

READ Meat Recipe #12 - Roasting your own Duck HERE

[BigTransformerTrev]

Excerpt from Blog: Back in 2000 I was an Extra in the TV-Movie 'On the Beach'. During the second day of the shooting this undersea aquatic adventure I was involved with an unplanned event, and it is truly the one and only time I have been swept away so much by a mob mentality that I didn’t even really realise what I was doing.

So sit ye down me hearties while I tell ye the tale of: The Unsanctioned Food Fight!

READ Unsanctioned Food Fight on a Movie Set! HERE

[BigTransformerTrev]

Excerpt from Blog: I love fried chicken. But so few places serve it these days because it is so unhealthy. You can get crumbed chicken anywhere, but not it’s fried friend. You can always go to a KFC I guess, but whereas it was my favourite food as a teenager I can’t stand the oily filth that it is has degenerated into over the decades.

So I was pretty chuffed when I took the family out for a relaxing lunch on a surprisingly mild winters day to The Globe Hotel in Rylstone and saw on their lunch menu Southern Style Chicken Burger.

READ Burger Review #7: Southern Style Chicken Burger HERE

[BigTransformerTrev]

Excerpt from Blog: Dear Big Farmer Trev.

Firstly I would like to acknowledge and thank you for being instrumental in this city kids foray into pseudo ‘country life’. Ok I’m over stating things, into suburban hen keeping.

The little silkies did prove a complex hen to care for and I subsequently found myself down from two to one.
The bird vet said ‘they are very poor egg layers, you can’t get them wet, they’re very broody , have a myriad of health problems…’ whereby I asked him if that was his professional way of saying ‘why the fuck would anyone ever want to keep silkies?’ He laughed. A lot. Which I took for a ‘yes, yes that is what I was getting at’
In any case one of the adorable little munchkins made it but was desperate for companionship and I have managed to assimilate a new hen into my flock.

All is mostly going swimmingly.

The newest girl is a Welsummer.

She’s not just the prettiest bird I have ever brought home, she is the smartest.

She was first put in with the Silkie who was thrilled to have a new roost pal. Problem being Silkies roost low and are very poor flyers and jumpers and . . . all that other stuff the bird vet said about silkies and more.

Anyway I built a new coop, and trained the little silkie how to navigate my complex hen ladder system to get into the higher coop.

She’s done well the adorable little munchkin.

So anyway..here comes my question.

The Welsummer (Penny) is still not happy at all with the coop.

Every evening right on dusk the other two happily put themselves to bed and Penny paces about looking for (even) higher digs.

As a keeper of many birds I am hoping you can help me to understand where does she actually want to sleep?!

In a tree?

Over the neighbours fence?

Is there a coop I could get built for her that would be appropriate for her discerning specifications or is she just being a dick?

I’d love to let her freerange at dusk to see where she actually wanted to sleep but I fear she may end up over the fence.

Someone suggested clipping her wings first.

I’ve never done that to any of my hens. I am remiss to fuck with their abilities like that in case it disables them in a possible escape from a predator scenario.

Historically I have just taught them that shit is so good here they don’t need to fuck off. It’s worked so far, but Pen really really wants a higher night time roost.

Or that’s what I assume she wants when she paces about considering her options and winds up on my shoulder or on the roof of her coop.
I’d rather figure out how to accomodate her needs than fuck with her body.
Do different breeds have different innate desires or is this a quirk of Penny herself?
Have you had hens that protested their accomodation and how did you address it if they did.?
Yours in good faith,
NOT a farmer by any stretch of the imagination but semi fluent in chook.
Mads.

READ Ask Trev: Chicken Perching Problem HERE

[BigTransformerTrev]

Excerpt from Blog: For the most part I love having them around. First and foremost as they eat baby snakes. Even full grown snakes don’t like to hang around them. Ergo the more Monitors we have, the less snakes. And as a father of two young children that suits me just fine.

Monitor’s are egg enthusiasts. I’ve often found them in our compost after the egg shells and even in our own yard I’ve taken film of them scaling trees to first go after Cockatoo eggs and then Magpie eggs. Considering the amount of both we have around our place, that doesn’t bother me too much and I don’t get involved since its part of nature’s cycle.

However at least a half-dozen times over the past two years I’ve found them within a structure on our farm and have had to safely relocate them elsewhere.

READ Capturing Wild Animals: Monitor Relocation HERE

[BigTransformerTrev]

A fan challenge set by fellow Ozformer member Trent

Warning: LOTS of swearing

WATCH Video: Big Angry Trev vs Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce HERE


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[BigTransformerTrev]

Excerpt from Blog: Here in NSW we are facing an unprecedented level of Bushfire danger. A Total Fire Ban has been instituted for the entire state, a State of Emergency has been declared and some parts of the state have a danger rating of ‘catastrophic’ – a rating that has never needed to be used before!
There are plenty of official sites that can guide you through how to come up with your own emergency plans, and I heartily encourage every reader to visit the sites relevant to their state as well as download the relevant apps. What I’m going to share here is some of the evacuation precautions I and my family have taken, in the hopes it may provide you with some ideas of your own. In particular – our emergency bags.


READ Bushfire Danger: Packing Emergency Bags HERE


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[Raider]

Excerpt from Blog: Here in NSW we are facing an unprecedented level of Bushfire danger. A Total Fire Ban has been instituted for the entire state, a State of Emergency has been declared and some parts of the state have a danger rating of ‘catastrophic’ – a rating that has never needed to be used before!
There are plenty of official sites that can guide you through how to come up with your own emergency plans, and I heartily encourage every reader to visit the sites relevant to their state as well as download the relevant apps. What I’m going to share here is some of the evacuation precautions I and my family have taken, in the hopes it may provide you with some ideas of your own. In particular – our emergency bags.


READ Bushfire Danger: Packing Emergency Bags HERE


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All the best Trev. Stay safe mate and as always, if you need a place to house your collection I am happy to offer mine