Stone pines planted

September 18 2014

Only three goats left to kid now. Nola had twins last night and Angie had one buck the day before.  The goats have given less milk because we have had wet weather, but I have still had enough to make feta and cream cheese. It is actually a good thing we are having this rain because we have now planted about 100 trees and they will enjoy the water.

Between us, and our new neighbour, we have planted a dense strip of native trees and then the rest of the triangular paddock has a neat grid of stone pines, planted at 10 metre intervals. They will need all this space in future years but possibly not in my life time, so we might plant smaller trees at between them in the rows.  Eventually they will produce edible pine nuts and then the task will be to keep the cockies away from them. We do not have to worry about this for seven years at least.

 The stone pines are a very long-term venture, and the plantation might be wiped out by fire before it matures. On the other hand these trees are very hardy and cope with drought, heat and frost. They will give us back privacy in about four years, and can be grazed around by animals, as they are not palatable to most life-stock. They look nice too, and will make a nice introduction to our property.

With all this in mind I am tolerating the rain. Edd has been very active germinating vegetable seedlings and lots waiting to be planted next month when we stop worrying about a late frost. Indi arrived here early this morning and had the horses and pony all lined up waiting for the farrier to trim their hooves. They are starting to get fat on spring grass already! Indi also moved all her belongings out of the donga so that it is ready for wwoofers to live in. I could do with help now that we have all these goat kids.