Permaculture students

 3.21.2021

 

It was the equinox this weekend, but Autumn has already started. The Virginia creeper has covered the ruins with trailing banners of scarlet leaves and the zucchinis have begun to get mildew.  For the first time we have had a good crop of apples from the trees in the new orchard and the pears and nashi pears in the ruins garden also cropped heavily.  Now it is the turn of the fig tree and we are giving them away by the bucket load to friends. 

 

For the last two Saturdays we have had Permaculture students for site visits.  Yesterday it was a group from Ceres in Melbourne.  They were all interesting and very varied people from a large age range and asked lots of questions. Edd and I were exhausted after they left. We have to get up early to have all the animals fed and milked and morning tea and cheese tasting prepared for when they arrive at 9.30, and it is full on after that. It is so good to have new people coming again after last year’s shut down.

 

Whilst we were showing the group of students around Morg arrived with his friends to continue work on his boat. He has moved his cars off our property but has replaced them with a boat that he is fixing up.  Ollie was also here but is very tired after getting up early in his new role as a roof plumbing apprentice.  It seems a big step to go from being a child at school to a working an adult job. I think that a few years in tertiary education makes the transition more fun.

 

Today Stevo is back fixing the unfinished edges in the back passage.  Edd has been working on the car port and has filled in all the rough edges on the outside of the walls ready for water proofing. We have tried to find someone with a machine that can dig a drain round the back but have had no luck so far. This is a problem because with every heavy session of rain more earth falls down where we need to dig, and the job gets harder.  The East coast has had terrific storms and around Sydney many have had to evacuate due to extreme flooding, but the storms have not reached us, yet!

 

My work has been to do with food.  I have been harvesting the summer crops and when I can plant out new vegetables for winter.  My first silver beat are doing well but so far, no parsley seedlings have come up.  Beetroots are the next things to go in when I get a space.

Today I have blanched and frozen sweet corn and tomatoes. It is a good thing we have a mega sized freezer as it is rapidly filling up!

 

The goats have started to cycle, and we mated Rita to Barrack last week.  She has not been kidded for several years because her milk production just kept coming but I think it is wrong to leave them too long.  We have no ram so we will not have to worry about lambs this year. That will be a big relief and give us time to work on the paddocks and fences.  There is a lot that needs doing, but then there always is.