People everywhere!

Camp kitchen in action

Edd working on camp kitchen roof

Ella aged 4 months

October 28.2015

It was the power outage that killed the Internet line. The batteries in the box went flat and some software failed. After a week someone was sent out to fix it and we finally were able to communicate again. The power did go off on Sunday too, whilst I was running the goat’s cheese making workshop, but I had got up early to heat up the boiler for pasteurising the milk and I had filled bowls and buckets with water in strategic places so we were not really too troubled by it. Right now everything is working again and we are already half way through the school camp.

On Friday night I hosted an accidental dinner party for 15. Our friends were staying from NSW and Wayne’s’ partner, Danni brought our youngest Grand daughter, Ella, for her first stay on the farm. Then all the rest of the family decided to join us for the evening meal and we asked Indi and her boy friend, because we could not leave them out. Bo’s whole family came but she also brought a fantastic roast of slow cooked beef.  Everyone brought something so there was just enough food to go around.

The following morning we had another early start getting ready for a Permaculture tour. Over 20 people came but they were all very nice and it was a pleasure having them. As soon as they left Edd and I had to dash down to the ruins and continue our work on the camp kitchen. Edd made a frame for the sink top whilst I ran the cheese workshop on Sunday and the kitchen was ready for action when the school camp arrived on Monday.

The camp focus this year is on preparing food from basic ingredients so every inch of the new kitchen has been used. The cupboard is the old fridge from the dairy that broke down and we added a 4-burner wok on a trolley to join the BBQ plate. The camp brought 4 camp stoves and boxes of cheap cooking sets and absolutely every thing has been fully used.

The kids also help with the farm work. They do the usual chores helping feed animals and milk goat and the shepherds have learnt how to crutch the sheep and mark the lambs. The chicken keepers have cleaned out the chook sheds and the gardeners have re-potted seedlings and herbs. For main tasks a group have cleaned out the large poly house and moved the plastic from under the wood chippings. We are going to plant new fruit trees there next winter.

A second group have moved the corrugated iron fences around the old chook pens and we are recycling them as walls for new grow beds in a permablitz operation on the small lawn by the ruins.  It will become an area of grow beds for vegetable production. Smaller groups are trying to locate the water pipes that ran from the old house to the big tank and if people get too hot they are catching the tadpoles that have invaded the swimming pool. In the afternoons every one goes to help clear the Northeast fence line so we can repair it to a goat proof condition. The weather has been hot so this is followed by boating activities in the dam. Last night we burnt the huge burning pile of waste timber and some people slept out by the fire.

Somewhere amongst all this we used the newly completed yards to load Donna’s large female offspring onto a borrowed trailer that Edd drove to market.  Indi’s boy friend helped us get an ear tag into this large beast and push it up the ramp. The yards are a success! One cow gone; now we have to find a home for Donna and get the neighbour’s calf back to the neighbour.