First signs of autumn

11.2.2013

My grand daughter, India, seems determined to fight a fire, so we have all stepped back and let her get on with it. There has been another week of fires through the Gippsland mountains and India and her fellow workers returned after a week away to their camp just the day before the fires started to move again. Luckily the camp had lots of support from the CFA in the form of water bombing planes and fire trucks and the cabin was saved. I am just relieved that it is now in the black and altogether a safer place to be. India has told Al that dead trees falling poses a problem stopping the school children hiking up some trails but they are not coming back for a while. India was quite determined to be in the fire fighting action but this time the fire was burning slowly so we did not worry so much.

The weather is staying hot and dry but now the nights are cooler and there are many signs that the season is changing. We are now turning our minds to preparations for winter. John brought his equipment here last Friday and made footings for the animal shed walls. This only took him half a day so he mucked out the goat shed too and we now have mountains of deep litter in the paddock below the house. We hope that Beni’s son is coming to build the block walls this week and then if we can find Stevo we can put up the rest of the walls with corrugated iron. Once that is done we will have a dry place to store firewood and the goats and hay will be better protected from the elements.

In the garden we still have a glut of zucchinis but finally the tomatoes are ripening and we have plenty of cucumbers, eggplants and silver beet to add variety. I am enjoying the wonderful aroma of fresh basil and garlic in the pesto and there are still lots of strawberries to fill up on. Sadly the hot dry conditions have impacted on the fruit trees and for the first time ever there are no apples or plums. We have a few pears and nashi pears on the new trees I planted beside the fence and the blackberries have survived in the gullies.

The agapanthus and red-hot pokers are starting to fade but the autumn glory sedum are staring to colour up. Now that I have a new supply of shed compost I can get working on the garden and revive things a bit. I have to water everything every evening if I want any garden at all. Fortunately my rock garden by the new house is much less demanding.

Edd is into his third week at his new job. He was due to have his other leg tested at the hospital yesterday but they cancelled the appointment so he is still suffering with very painful legs. He actually felt better after working last week because he spent less time walking around the farm. When he is here he uses the ride on mower as transport. It will fit over the moat bridge and drive right into the house entrance if needed. We allowed for this in the design but we did not think it would be needed so soon!