April 28. 2014

Less than a week to go
until the wedding! We are gradually getting the place into order but it is exhausting
work. Today Edd is moving the big round hay bales out of the way. Luckily we
had a fine day last week when the paddocks were dry and Edd co-ordinated
several families so that a truck could collect the bales from down the road and
bring them back to the farm. This happened later in the day than originally planned
so the just got dumped on the flat land outside the house where they are rather
in the way.

Anyway it was dry
enough to move them again today to a more suitable location. It was also dry
enough to for me to complete the small brick walls for the latest grow bed by
the ruins. There was a patch of rough ground that Edd was worried people might
trip on in the dark but it is now pretty much enclosed in the grow bed. I cannot
fill the bed with soil or anything until the cement is dry, but that’s a job
for later.

The weekend was very
busy with a working B here on Saturday and a large Permaculture tour here on
Sunday. Luckily Sunday was a lovely sunny day so the latter occasion went well.  The wedding arrangements progressed
too. Straw bales are now all arranged in the poly house as seating and tables,
and the boat has been stood on end to make a backdrop for the speeches. A forest
of bamboo poles has been set up ready for the prayer flags and just by luck we
discovered that my big white shade sheet fits the front pergola perfectly.

With all this nonstop
activity we have eaten a massive pile of goats cheeses, and I have totally
failed to find time for the routine jobs like sorting out laundry and even
washing my hair. I am using the evenings to try and sew a suitably warm and mud
proof outfit for the wedding. There is enough material left to make a cloak but
I have not worked out how yet.

watching grass grow

April 19. 2014

The Easter holidays
have started on a rather damp note with grey skies and drizzle. In some ways
this was good because I was able to rake grass seed into the bare earth round
the new path and where the rubbish pile was burnt. Yesterday Al drove Skiddy
and cleaned up the remains of the burnt rubbish in the turning circle by the
ruins, so I was able to spread seed there too. Our burning pile has now
returned to it’s pre fire position out of sight below the big dam.

It is so good having
Bo back with her family. We were all a bit worried about them flying round the
world after the Malaysian plane vanished. Bo has taken her daughter to the
hospital here and they say the broken leg bone is healing correctly. They have
provided her with a child sized walking frame and wheel chair, which is making
life much easier. I have not actually spoken with her yet. When I visited Bo on
the day of her return the poor child was sound asleep in a slumped position on
the sofa like a little rag doll.

We have now got the
chooks into two sheds with large grass fox-proof paddocks and they have all
settled down with this new arrangement. The faverolles rooster is with the
older chooks, and the marran rooster is with the new stock that we raised from
day olds. The bucks are still causing problems. Banjo broke his chain one night
and plunged through the electric fence to try and get to the girls. Luckily the
tall gate fence stopped him so we have no unwanted pregnancies yet.

My eldest grand son is
having the worst problems. The engine in the car he got from Josh seized so he
got it towed to the car park near Al’s place. A couple of nights ago some
vandals attacked it and destroyed it with fire along with all his schoolbooks!
To make matters worse he had borrowed his sister’s car and transferred the
insurance. Even this has been a disaster because it ran out of fuel and now has
blocked fuel lines that stop it working so I think it will be back to busses!

In the paddocks we
have a good crop of field mushrooms. We have already eaten quite a few. The
lemons are ripening, which is good because I use so many to make cream cheese.
We are still getting enough milk to make feta and cream cheese every week but
the goats are reducing their yield fast now that the wet weather is back. I
wish we could sell the young cows but we still have not replaced our stock
yards.

A house full of rainbows

April 14. 2014

It has been a heavenly
day. The sort of day that makes you feel like a king as you work around on the
land. It is so beautiful that it is hard to imagine being anywhere better. The
autumn sun now slants into our house filling it with golden light and shatters
into rainbows as it passes through the high louvered glass. The grass has grown
enough that I could mow it into an even look this afternoon, and with fire
restrictions lifted, we have been able to burn all the pile of blackberries and
other waste that the school and the wwoofers assembled into a big bonfire below
the old water tank.

We are having a blitz
on paths. Al built a new one from the road to the big polyhouse yesterday and I
cleaned off brick patio on the down hill side of the ruins this morning. I keep
wishing my friend, Rosemary, was here to see how good the garden looks but she
is no longer able to drive and has to wait for lifts everywhere if she wants to
visit. I phoned her today and was glad to hear that like me she had enjoyed the
glorious weather in her garden.

Pip and her parents
were working here yesterday too. They are transforming the polyhouse into a
wedding venue. Yesterday they raked out all the bark chippings that Edd has
loaded in there with Skiddy and when it looked level they experimented with
straw bale arrangements to get the most people possible seated. Al has worked
out a scheme where 12 to 14 people sit in a semicircle around a central bale
that has wood on the top so it can be a small table. Pip’s mother has sown
covers for the “seats” to stop the straw prickling anyone and Pip has screen-printed
white prayer flags to dramatise the entrance.

With all this help the
wedding preparations are going fine but farm issues are more problematic. The
two bucks, who we supplied with their own little houses in nice fenced mini
paddocks, rejected our efforts to make their lives better and broke right
through the fences to engage in a battle. They bashed each other until they
were exhausted and then lent up against each other to get their breathe back
with their sore heads propped up on each others necks. At this stage we were
able to drag them apart and chain them up so that future skirmishes would not
be possible.

Today the zucchinis have
started with mildew. This seems a natural event at the end of their fruiting
season. It is actually quite fortunate because at this stage they can be
replaced, without guilt, with a new crop. The amazing thing is the lack of
silver beet. It usually sprouts up everywhere but there is not one seedling to
be found. The mizuna has returned but most of the tomatoes have still not
ripened. Funny year.

Is this the end of the long dry period?

April 8. 2014

It id raining, only softly, but it has been so dry for so long that any bit helps. The campers packed up and left on Friday but they are not forgotten because they did so much work. Today Al’s eldest son is busy raking up the remains of the blackberries they cut down and taking them to the burning pile below the dam. It will now be possible to mow behind the large old water tank and fence off the gully.

We had what was probably our last summer party on Sunday. Our friends from our trail riding days came for a BBQ in the ruins. Our relations ships go back well over 30 years and sadly more people die as the years go by. To balance this some of the trail ride children brought their own children to the party. Becky has two delightful kids and she still screams with laughter all the time. Beni brought her grandson and he helped all the other kids by taking them rowing on the dam and for rides in a cart behind the mower. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves and the weather was beautiful, which was lucky as someone who shall be nameless, fell in the dam!

Next week Bo and family will be back from their overseas holiday. They have had a bit of a set back when their youngest broke her leg skiing. It has made travelling much harder and there have been hospital trips to fit in as well, so they will not be able to do everything that they planned. Josh is busy working out a move to Cairns. He and his lady are moving up there to run a clinic together. He has had a lot of moves recently and does not think he can get down for the wedding.  We are all really sad about this but we understand how difficult it is. Cairns is a really long way North.

The hour has now changed but we are back to once a day milking so the evening feeding time can happen before dark. It is mating season and after a few failed attempts we have the bucks in separate paddocks and unable to get to each other or the does unless we open gates. Some of the does are hopefully pregnant already, and all the goatlings are in with the young buck Jondy. He has injured a back leg but it not broken and is getting better.

Our chooks are now enjoying the freedom of their new paddocks and laying lots of eggs. I am getting the vegetable beds clear for winter crops and the lawn has turned green! The tomatoes have not ripened and even the capsicums are not fruiting well yet. It is odd because it has been a long hot summer. Bush rats have been eating some of the vegetables and rabbits have not helped.  My next project is a rabbit proof fence all round the garden. I started on new walls today.