94 years old and a tropical snow scene

December 1st. 2014

It is dry and hot again so I am back to watering vegetables and trees. The loquats are covered with fruit and neither I, nor the parrots, have made much impact yet. We are starting to get strawberries and raspberries but they disappear very quickly. The mulberries never did get any fruit. The frost hit them just at the wrong stage and they did not attempt a second try.

My mum in the UK had her 94^th  birthday. I still phone her every day but we sent flowers to mark the occasion as well. My nephew sent a lovely picture that I will share here. Mum is not enjoying this stage of her life but we still find things to laugh about most days. She tells me that she sleeps a lot now, which we both think is a good thing.

Back in Australia my eldest grandson has now done his school leaving exams and is working and partying whilst he waits for the results. He is hoping to save enough money to buy a ticket to Europe but has not earned enough yet. Eddy went over to look at the broken car and the damage may not be as bad as Arj first thought.

The big tragedy is that my computer is on the blink. It has been marvelous for 6 years but recently it has been struggling to manage all the new forms of data and it is probably not powerful enough to take the latest up grades. I am working on the little laptop Josh leant us but I have no way of dealing with my photos. The answer is to buy a new computer so we are saving towards that. Mean while things are a little bit harder than usual. We use a computer a lot because it is a long drive to get to anywhere and shopping, bills and everything else is much quicker on line.

The goats are still in full milk mode and I am busy most days making cheese. The sheep and Zulu Warrior, the alpaca need shearing and then there is the dreadful business of getting the hay in. Edd usually organizes the hay and shearing so I am busy getting everything ready for Xmas. I have done all the shopping except the food in two trips. The first one took me right into central Melbourne where I had to get cheesecloth. I stopped in at Ikea on the way back and they have achieved the impossible and made shopping one stage harder. You now cannot get your car parking ticket verified at the check out but have to take your receipt to a machine outside where there is a second queue.

The idea is to put your ticket in the top and scan your receipt at the bottom. Sadly this is difficult because of the light paper on the receipt but as everyone in the queue is trying to get out everyone helped each other. This was not the end of it. Once in the car some people ahead of me had failed on the ticket business and got stuck behind the barrier until a girl could arrive to rescue them. The whole business took ages. Luckily my shopping trip last week with Bo was much easier. For a start she drove and we stayed well clear of the city.

Now I am working on the house. I have tidied up the indoor garden and put up the Xmas tree along side the plants. Next I decorated everything in silver and white to create a snow effect. I am not sure what my tropical plants make of this. But they have benefitted from the attention.

A big scare

November 19 11 2014

We have had a great weekend with friends from NSW who stayed with us whilst they ran an art workshop. They brought wet weather with them so I got a rest from endless watering and could enjoy in depth conversations about everything. I find visitors are very important because I get to re evaluate what I am doing with my life.

I had a bit of a fright one evening. I was walking past Edd’s work shed to take stuff to the dairy when there was a sudden flash of light. I had a momentary thought that it might be a gun shot aimed my way but that thought was washed away by an enormous clash of thunder that blew me right over! Strangely there had been no storm action before this and nothing but rain, coming later, followed. I had the distinct impression that something was targeting me!

Now our friends have gone the dry has returned and I am back to watering. The grass has gone green again, though, so it did do some good. Today we ate the first zucchini, and we are still getting masses of lovely crisp snow peas. The loquats are also now edible if the parrots don’t get there first.

I have started to get organised for Xmas. Beth wants a natural colour scheme with neutrals and wood. OK. I started with a look at material to make table clothes. I assume that we can use white plates from Al’s wedding, as mine are either green or turquoise, definitely not right for the theme. It seemed awfully dull to me to put white plates on a white cloth, risky too with young kids and wine. The slightly patterned fabric was horribly expensive for any thing nice but finally I found an affordable fabric that was quite dark and definitely not about to show any unwanted stains.

Now I have a start to work with and I can go white candles and it will even take the pewter and silver coloured gear. I resisted the temptation to order fuchsia or bright orange table napkins; the fuchsia was particularly hard to resist. Chocolate will probably get more use in the long run. Now I can collect the rest of the decorations. I have some good ideas for the crackers. I hope that I have got the turkeys on order and we are trying to get adults to swap consumables, preferably home made, as gifts. At least I have made a start.

worrying dryness

Tuscan Feast

Edd finally finished making Indi's sandles

November 10 2014

The rain did not last long and the week has seen the ground dry to dust in many places. It has been hot too; so all the new trees and the vegetables have needed watering. The stone pine seeds have germinated giving us enough trees to complete the plantation but with the weather like this they might be best waiting in their pots for autumn. It is all a bit of a worry. We have not seen the land dry up at this time since the 2009 fires went through. The bush has grown back around us and the risk of fires is once again an issue.

We have started to prepare for the fire season by clearing up all the long grass and rubbish by the buildings. The sheep have grazed down most of the fire reserve so we have moved them into the old hay paddock to clear up there. I have mowed the stone pine plantation area, which looks very neat and organised. Now we need to check our pumps and hoses are in good order.

Even with all the farm work we have had time for fun. On Saturday Al and Pip invited us to their home for a Tuscan feast with other family members. The food was fantastic and amazingly everyone fitted into the kitchen /office to eat. Bo was working in her Restaurant and Indi was caring for her kids. She brought them over to see everyone and have a swim in the river. Then she took them to the heritage festival in Healesville. Here they had the time of their lives because one of Indi’s friends was in charge of a steam roller and let the kids drive it through the town blowing it’s whistle. The police turned a blind eye to the fact that little Silvy was steering a huge vehicle down the town main street!

Indi has had quite a week too. She floated the horses to Healesville and rode from Badger Weir across the mountain to Toolangi. She told us that at one point her dog got over heated so she carried him across the front of her saddle! Those horses would do anything for Indi.

Bo’s husband is in China at a beer expo so she has had a very busy week and I have not seen her. It is a busy time of year but we are all on the count down to Xmas when things start to slow down. The hay will be ready to cut early this year so we are starting to plan where we will get it from. We will also need to get the sheep shorn because if this dryness continues some will need to be sold when the grass is gone.

Montessi camp goes home

November 2 2014

It is very quiet this weekend now everyone has gone home. The weather has gone back to cold and wet, but it was really good for the camp week, so a bit of wet now is good for growing things. We enjoyed the camp and they got a lot of work done that Edd and I could never have done on our own but we are pretty tired now. The Montessori school kids were really impressive this time. They all worked well at their farm chores and set tasks and presented the findings from their science projects after dark one night using a screen set up in the old chimney and sitting around the fire to keep warm. Even the youngest kids spoke confidently in front of everyone and managed interesting presentations. The amazing thing was that they managed the whole week without mobile phones and screens and managed to entertain themselves and have lots of home made fun. I would love to see some of our family members do the same.

On the farm the vegetables are growing flat out and we are in full cheese making season. I make cheese most days and feed the rest of the milk to the goat kids we are rearing. Nothing goes to waste. The tomatoes and zucchinis have flowers. We are eating the last of the broccoli and swedes but the snow peas are as usual producing enough for a meal every day.  The latter make me think of last year when our friends were visiting from the UK. I wish they were here this year too. The broad beans have formed pods but have not reached edible size yet.

I have planted out the capsicums and eggplants but we will need to find more space for the rest of the pumpkins, the squash and the cucumbers as well as the next planting of lettuce. I probably need to make extra beds to keep things growing at this pace. I ate our first strawberry today and the blue berries are nearly ready. As I suspected the late frost decimated the mulberry crop but our new raspberries are starting to fruit.

The real problem with this time of year is the number of hours we need to be here working. The goats that kidded this year need to be milked as close to 12 hourly intervals as possible and the kids still need three times a day feeding. This period will pass soon enough, but we have to go with it.

I have not got down to my new tree plantation for a couple of weeks but the new trees planted closer are doing well except for the walnut that is not showing any signs of life. We have not had to water the trees yet but the vegetables and seedlings need constant attention. The grass needs regular mowing too but at least the sheep are doing a good job in the fire reserve around the house and in the section around the donga.

The idea is to get animals to control as much of the cleared areas as possible. The chooks do the orchards that are fenced and Bo’s pony mows the old drives. With a little bit of fencing it could probably do more because it seems to leave the trees alone. The sheep and goats will eat citrus trees and most other fruit trees so they are no good for this work.