Parties and a funeral

Rosemary

This will be my last blog in 2015.   We have been having a very eventful time and I am slack in my reporting.   This week we have had yet another party.  This time it was for Edd’s birthday and everyone came out to the farm where I cooked roast lamb and lots of vegetables.     Our kids had all been off to the coast in various directions and all reported heavy traffic and slow tiring driving.  Edd and I were very glad that we opted for a quiet Xmas alone on the farm.   We actually got some work done when the weather cooled.

Al had helped our young UK visitors buy a car and they have set off driving north up the east coat.    They plan to get to Sydney for New Years Eve.   Josh and R had to work so they flew back to Brisbane and celebrated Xmas with their rats and fish.   What do you give a fish for Xmas?   I heard something about the rats getting sleeping bags.  

Xmas for us is a time of catching up with friends through phone calls, messages and parties.   This year, sadly, we added a new mode because our lovely friend and oldest Wwoofer, Rosemary, died and we went to her funeral.  Rosemary rang up years ago and asked if we wanted an old but very willing worker.   From that time she has been a regular at the farm.   She lived independently and took in boarders most of the time we knew her. Only for the last year she moved into a nursing home and left her lovely garden behind.

A garden is really a relationship between land and people.   When a person dies their garden also starts to decay or change.  Our friend, Judy, tells us that already Rosemary’s garden looks diminished.    We gave Judy a lift home after the funeral and I realized that even though we are both Rosemary’s friends and wwoof hosts, we have a very different outlook on life. ( Rosemary was a most amazing woman. She had many friends of all ages and has lived a full life.)

 Judy says she loves funerals because she feels good vibes.   I hate them because they mean I have lost someone I care about and they often seem done to a formula.   I think we should have farewelled Rosemary in the open air in a place she loved.   May be I should put her a special stone in the garden here the same way as I do for our relatives.  

Judy is also expecting a settlement from the bush fire class action that will solve her problems.  I prefer to think we will get a token payment.  If we do better I will then get a pleasant surprise rather than be disappointed.    We all filled in our bush fire claim but we have heard nothing back yet.   This is not a surprise, they took us weeks of work to do and they will probably take weeks to check.

We had one great party at Kinglake with four friends that we worked with in the Tanami desert.   We drank wine, had a BBQ and told funny stories about our experiences in the NT.    We have also heard from our friend, Patsy, in Alice Springs.   She tells me that they now have a dialysis machine in Yuendumu and that our other good friends have moved back there to use it.   That is very positive news.   Often the needs of the Aboriginal people are very neglected.

Heat and Fire force changes to our feast

The temperature is back in the Twenties today and we have had a sprinkling of rain over night. Not enough to do much except damp the dust a little but still an enormous relief after three days in the forties!  On Saturday we held the, mid- summer feast for our clan.   The plan had been to party in the ruins where the kids could use the pool but we woke on Saturday morning to learn that we were in the red risk category for bush fires and Al was already loading his cars to evacuate.

Ti’s mother put and embargo on allowing him to come anywhere near the Yarra Valley and her worries were not altogether unfounded because fires were starting everywhere.   We all decided that it would make people feel safer if we could move our party to Bo’s house in Yarra Glen.  She has the advantage of living a few doors away from a fire station with lots of trucks just there.

We all know that we would be safe in our new house but the drive here from Yarra Glen would be the problem.   It is surrounded by trees and the road is narrow.   In the 2009 fires it was quickly blocked and the other routes out of our place are rough steep tracks and not a good idea.

The good thing was that we had all bowed to climate change and opted to have a cold feast instead of traditional fare.  I had already cooked turkeys and had them sliced in the fridge on plates.  (I had even boiled up the bones and frozen the stock and dog food that resulted from this.)  Even the tables and chairs were easy to transport in the ute and set up on Bo’s new large veranda.  The plates, bowls and cutlery had been cleaned after Bo’s work party and were all ready in their boxes.   The napkins were boxed and ready too, so we drove it all over to Bo’s place.

Setting up should have been easy but the day before Bo’s eldest son had decided to move around all her furniture.   He had even been under the house and moved the cables for the TV so it could be in the kitchen.    The only thing left in situ was the grand piano, so there was some remedial activity needed.    Luckily Pip and Al came over and kept the kids busy making the Xmas crackers.   I had taken over all the bits, fortune cookies I had made and wrapped, bangers and balloons but they still needed to be assembled.

Josh and R arrived from Queensland, we were lucky to have them; they told us that they had to take a later flight because the machines were broken in the airport.   Wayne arrived with baby Ella and his wife and her mother and the party got underway despite the extreme temperatures.  As it got dark it cooled slightly so we were all able to sit outside and dine.   There were even a few raindrops but we all enjoyed them!

In the end we had a wonderful night with family and friends.    Josh and R came back to stay with us and Wayne and family came round next morning so we all sat round and talked again.  What a joy to see my two youngest son’s so happy with such wonderful partners.  Nothing could have been a better Christmas present.

hot and deadly dry

I have been too busy to blog for the last two weeks.    Firstly it has now got deadly dry and there is lots of extra work giving plants and trees water to try and keep them alive.    It is extremely dry for this time of year and the hay has been cut already.   At least it should have been but one paddock down at Judy’s got left because the men we asked to cut it have let us down.   Their bailer broke down and now the grass is burnt off.

I collected my cousin’s grandson and his friend from the airport and they have been staying with us, well, actually they are sharing the donga with Indi, but the eat with us.  It was useful having extra hands to help us get the first lot of hay in but we have a problem because the water is fast running out.   We spent $100 buying water for the dairy tank and we only have a tiny bit of drinking water left.  We have not had to buy water for years, so we have not really budgeted for this.

The dryness also means that the grass has stopped growing and the paddocks are turning to dust.   Luckily we sold Donna and the calf Max to some people in Gippsland where the conditions are better.    I was sad to see her go but we really have nothing left here for her to eat.   We think that we should sell the horses next.

The goats are managing OK.   They are eating their way through the blackberries in the gulleys and mopping up dead leaves.  They are still giving enormous amounts of milk and I have to make cheese most days.   Luckily the guests enjoy the cheese and are eating lots of it.  In the garden we have snow peas and lots of zucchinis.    We have strawberries and raspberries for breakfast and salad for lunch.   The runner beans are dashing up their poles and the cucumbers have flowers.