Pastie day

 3.10.2022

 

At last spring is more spring like and we have enjoyed the first sunny warm weekend we have longed for.  To celebrate the equinox, that conveniently occurs about the same time as the football finals, we had our usual pasty day.  The football match was not very interesting but we did not mind as most of the family was busy making pasties.  This year Indi took over their assembly, which she achieved with her usual neatness and skill. 

 

I do not make the pasties, but I grow the swedes, prepare the pastry and buy the onions and carrots.  All this takes long term effort so I feel OK about just sticking to the farm work on the day of the party.  This year Thursday was declared a bank holiday for the queen, so Alvyn arrived with some friends on Thursday afternoon and they all camped on the farm for the weekend.  During their stay a goat gave birth to twins and so did the second sheep. The young twin girls who were part of the camping group were thrilled to witness a birth but they also became very good helpers doing the farm work.

 

The rest of the family came on Saturday so we expanded to a group of 23. Wayne’s daughters made friends with the twins very quickly and every one had lots of exercise outdoors for once.  We were all exhausted by Sunday but had thoroughly enjoyed all getting together again.

 

From then on, the weather has continued to improve. We have wormed the sheep and checked their feet before moving them to new pasture. The goats have also been moved so that they can go down the gullies and eat out the new blackberry leaves as they emerge.

 

I have begun working on spring vegetables. We have lots of lettuce and purple sprouting broccoli but it will be so good when we can have zucchinis again. We usually get too many and quickly get sick of them but last year Bo found a great recipe for zucchini pickle that goes very well with our goat’s cheese. We definitely need more of it this year. The snow peas are slow to get going but I keep trying.

 

I also tried treated myself to a shopping day at the huge Knox shopping centre with a plan to get all the little things I have done without over covid. I was horrified to find all the shops I used 3 years ago have gone missing and even the floor tiles had been taken up so that walking between the shops that did exist was quite hazardous. I gave up and came home empty handed.

First Persian lambs are born

 17.9.2022

 

The weather is still awful.  It just keeps on and on raining.  Grey skies are not usually such a feature of life here and we are just longing for warmer times. Nature is not to be put off and spring is here, ready or not. The leaves on the oak trees are uncurling and the fruit trees are covered with blossom. We even have the first lambs. 

 

The old coloured ewe has twins, a boy and a girl.  The boy is white with black splodges and has hair like dad, but the girl has a tightly curled black coat that reminds me very much of the Persian lamb collars that great aunts had on their coats years ago!  The ewe is not a good mother so I have her and her lambs shut in the yards so that I can shut her in a shed each night. This seems to be working and the lambs are thriving.

 

We are lucky our vegie beds are raised because the grass around them is like a swamp. We have eaten all the yellow factual shaped cauliflowers and are now into the broccoli. The garlic is streaking ahead and the first set of snow peas are beginning to climb. Josh has seen brush tailed possums around the ruins but so far, they have left the vegie garden alone.

 

 The kangaroos are getting bolder since our dog has died. On occasions they are right up to my bedroom window when I wake up. The feral deer are encroaching too.  It is precarious being a plant round here at night!  The goats are in the shed most days as they hate rain.  This means we often add straw to the shed floor which is rising rapidly We will definitely need to get it cleaned out if the rain finally stops. It looks like the compost we harvest will keep every- one’s soli nourished for a few years to come.

 

Our dear friend, Benie, is seriously ill in hospital and we have a funeral for another friend from our old trail riding days next week. The Queen’s death dominated our TV and media screens most of last week. I think most people I know are sorry to lose her, but are not keen to go on attached to the UK through the monarchy.  The only problem is that it is hard to trust politicians too. 

We are following the coroner’s inquiry about the shooting of a boy in Yuendumu where we lived for several years. We found the way Aboriginal people were treated was extremely racist and evidence to show awful attitudes were common amongst the police are mounting. We all hope for change.                                  

working on the shed

 

I feel really down.  This winter seems to be duller, wetter and more miserable than any previous winters.  We are still busy. Steve and Josh have been working on Edd’s shed.  We put it up after the fires but never completed all the outside walls. Now, with some expert welding by Josh we have put up a central beam so that we can complete the upper story. Last week the flooring went in and the stair well.  I am usually really happy when we are making forward process but we have had several friends our age pass away and suddenly life seems too short.

 

I have injured my knee being stupid and dancing around with the great grand kids. It is taking time to recover and if I walk too much or twist my leg, I am back to using crutches again. This does not help my mood. Luckily, we reduced the farm work to a minimal this winter for when Edd was out of action with his hip replacement, so it is possible to do everything and Sev comes on Friday afternoons and does anything that is too hard for us. We were so lucky getting his help this year.

 

Ollie, Bo’s second son has turned 18. He had a party overnight stay in the ruins with his friends. I have no idea how they coped with the weather but they still looked amazingly bright come morning.  He is now waiting to do his driving test.  He has brought a huge 4WD vehicle at a very reasonable price and got it a road worthy so it is ready to be registered We had tea at Bo’s house yesterday and he looked very tired. He has to get up very early to go to work. I think going to uni is a much easier option after leaving school compared to being an apprentice.

 

We are so lucky that Bo lives close by.  She cooks us a meal almost every Sunday and makes sure we are managing OK.  Al has taken all his kids and their offspring up to the snow for a holiday.  I just failed to get the jumper I am knitting for Alice ready before they left, which was sad, but it is finished now. 

I did get the fruit trees pruned yesterday. The quince has already broken bud and the rest will follow soon, so it was the last chance to do them this year. 

 

We still have fruit from last year in the freezer but we have only one pack of tomato left and we have eaten the last of the stored pumpkin. We dug up the potatoes and ate them and the yellow pointy cauliflowers are ready. Next, I need to get the snow peas in.

  

Winter goes on and on

 22.8.2022

 

I feel really down.  This winter seems to be duller, wetter and more miserable than any previous winters.  We are still busy. Steve and Josh have been working on Edd’s shed.  We put it up after the fires but never completed all the outside walls. Now, with some expert welding by Josh we have put up a central beam so that we can complete the upper story. Last week the flooring went in and the stair well.  I am usually really happy when we are making forward process but we have had several friends our age pass away and suddenly life seems too short.

 

I have injured my knee being stupid and dancing around with the great grand kids. It is taking time to recover and if I walk too much or twist my leg, I am back to using crutches again. This does not help my mood. Luckily, we reduced the farm work to a minimal this winter for when Edd was out of action with his hip replacement, so it is possible to do everything and Sev comes on Friday afternoons and does anything that is too hard for us. We were so lucky getting his help this year.

 

Ollie, Bo’s second son has turned 18. He had a party overnight stay in the ruins with his friends. I have no idea how they coped with the weather but they still looked amazingly bright come morning.  He is now waiting to do his driving test.  He has brought a huge 4WD vehicle at a very reasonable price and got it a road worthy so it is ready to be registered We had tea at Bo’s house yesterday and he looked very tired. He has to get up very early to go to work. I think going to uni is a much easier option after leaving school compared to being an apprentice.

 

We are so lucky that Bo lives close by.  She cooks us a meal almost every Sunday and makes sure we are managing OK.  Al has taken all his kids and their offspring up to the snow for a holiday.  I just failed to get the jumper I am knitting for Alice ready before they left, which was sad, but it is finished now. 

I did get the fruit trees pruned yesterday. The quince has already broken bud and the rest will follow soon, so it was the last chance to do them this year. 

 

We still have fruit from last year in the freezer but we have only one pack of tomato left and we have eaten the last of the stored pumpkin. We dug up the potatoes and ate them and the yellow pointy cauliflowers are ready. Next, I need to get the snow peas in.

 

The wattle is in flower

 

Family gathering

 5.6.2022

Edd continues to recover from his hip replacement. We still have another two weeks before he is legal to drive but he can walk around fine We were managing really well until last Sunday when we had the family visit. Bo’s kids all came and helped clean up and everyone brought food. We had a blue stone hunt for the little kids. Alice, Andrew, Ruby, Pele and Yeshe and CB played her concertina. I was a bit too active and managed to damage my knee enough to find walking very painful this week!  I should have been more careful.

 

Anyway, it was lovely seeing everyone. Yeshe was a bit damaged. He had fallen off his bike and cut his head. The doctor had glued his head together but accidently the glue dripped into his eye. He is OK now but he ended up in the children’s hospital this week to complete the process of glue removal. The other kids were all fine and played happily with Sylkie. 

 

Josh got home in time to join the party. He had been Hiking with a uni friend in Queensland. They had planned to do this on Hinchinbrook Island but the weather was too bad for the ferry to get there.  Qld has had a lot of wet weather recently. It was forecast to be a wet week here too, but it has actually been dry and sunny most days.

 

The goats have finally started coming into season. They are much later than last year for unknown reasons I managed to get Ursula and Olga mated but I am not mating the rest of the herd to cut down on work.  The new point of lay chooks have also started laying, they have taken their time too.  I have more control over the vegetables. The broccoli, cauliflowers and root crops are all growing well. We are still getting strawberries and the occasional zucchini as there are no frosts yet.

 

The news is all about the up coming election. The pandemic is still going on but all restrictions are lifted so we have lost our feeling of safety.  With the horrible war in Ukraine and unpalatable party leaders it is better not to listen to the news right now.  

 

Easter celebrations and preparing for winter

                                                We have had the drives all repaired and re-stoned

 18.4.2022.

 

It is raining today after a long spell of very dry weather. It was hot and sunny yesterday and we all went to Bo’s house for Easter Sunday lunch. Bo’s parents in law had caught some trout at a trout farm and Simon prepared them with brining and light smoking which made for a delicious feed.  We ate alfresco at the long table on her roofed patio and drank beautiful wines.

 

Edd, who had a hip replacement just over a week ago felt well enough to come and join in.  He had the operation on Wednesday afternoon and left hospital on Friday morning so it was a very quick stay. His leg is still a bit swollen but he seems to be improving every day now, which is a big relief to us all. Luckily with the season changing the goats can now be milked once a day by hand. I have started making the hard cheeses that work best as we get the thicker winter milk.

 

The tomatoes have finished and I have dug them all out in order to plant more winter crops. The beans are nearly over too but the pumpkins are about ready to harvest. Lots of lettuce have sprouted from seeds the last lot left behind and we are getting cucumbers from another self-seeded plant.  The fig tree produces more fruit than we can handle and the pomegranates are all going bright red.

 

I have been pretty busy with Edd out of action but I have found time to do some sketches of gum leaves.  I am trying to learn the names of the ones we have here but it is not easy, especially as some of the leaves are too high up to even see well!   Gum trees also hybridise which makes it all hard.  I have been checking round the edges of our land and much to my joy have discovered that two of the fern trees are still alive. The big group in our north corner all died after the fires and there is no sign of any new ones growing to replace them.

 

The goats and the deer have eaten out most of the blackberries that made the gullies impenetrable.  It is now possible to walk along the dry creek bed and see what is going on.  The creek bed has developed hollows and wash outs of gravel. I have not seen any signs of gold though it has been found here. The days I have walked round everything was looking very dry so I am glad that we are having a day of rain now.

Busy week ends

 

22.3.2022

 

Autumn, such as it is, has started. The Virginia creeper and decorative grape vine are going red, but as usual our view of gum trees stays a permanent grey green colour.  The last few weeks have been very dry and the garden still needs watering every day. The pumpkins are changing colour and we have started to eat the silver beat and lettuce. My freezer is totally full, and I am having to shuffle things around to get the rest of the bean harvest in.  It is a very big chest freezer so this is quite an achievement.

 

We have used the lack of co-vid restrictions to visit family. We made the long trip down to Al’s place and the following week end we went to the city to visit Wayne’s mob.  Wayne had organised for us to have lunch at a beach near his house which was wonderful.  It was lovely weather and a perfect small bay with boats and an amazing land formation behind golden sands. We ate fish and chips on a small terrace above the water and then walked to examine the interesting looking cliff. It was a perfect way to pass a day with our two beautiful granddaughters.

 

This weekend we have been back at work with a permaculture group camping here. We had to provide a tour and meals, which kept us fully occupied. Luckily the weather was perfect and everyone seemed to have a good time.  We had to turf Josh’s cooking equipment and experiments out of the ruins kitchen and do a thorough clean up everywhere, but it feels so good when the place is all sorted.

 

One very sad thing is that my most loved goat, Dixie, suddenly went down with a sort of mastitis we have never seen before. It is actually over 20 years since we have had any mastitis so this was most unexpected. We put her in the back of my car, took her to the vet, and came back with all sorts of stuff to inject her with and squeeze up her affected teat.  She never actually looked sick, just sore.  She is still alive but will at least loose some of her udder function.

 

The young buck, Ronan, made us laugh last night. Edd and I were leaning over the gate trying to work out how to catch him and hold him to give him a worm drench when he spotted the syringe, we had the drench in, leant over the gate and sucked it down himself!  It will soon be mating season but we do not plan to mate many this year. The kids and lambs are now weaned and we are aiming to get the work down for winter.