A difficult week

May 28 2016

At last we have sunshine again.  All week it has poured with rain and been really cold.  Last night I lit the main fire as well as the wood stove, so at least the house keeps warm.  This week has been pretty full on.  I started the farm work as early as possible and then left home between 9 and 9.30 am to drive into Melbourne.  The traffic varied every day, but I quickly learnt to leave Edd after lunch so that I could escape before rush hour and get home in the light.  This way I could get back to do the animals every evening and Josh helped by bringing the dogs in at night and giving a last feed to the calf.

The calf, Josie, has grown fast and this week we have fed her the spare milk to avoid any wastage.  We dehorned her with help from Josh but it is too soon to see if this was effective.  I hope so, because one day she could make someone a lovely house cow.  The goats stayed inside the shed for most of the week because of the weather.  I have used up two bales of straw for their bedding but at least they are converting it into good fertilizer so it is not wasted.

I have eaten the first of the broccoli from the garden.  Everything is shooting up there and I have been out so much this week that I have barley eaten at home. Bo has looked after Josh and I, so we have actually been a bit spoilt.  Indi has been sick all week, but even she dragged herself out of bed and made sure the horses got their hay.   Once again I am so lucky having such a supportive family.  All the kids have visited Edd, with Bo, Josh and I visiting every day.  Wayne saw him last night and today just Bo went in because I needed time to do all the neglected tasks here.

The hospital says that he will be allowed home tomorrow or Monday.  He still has a lot of swelling above his knee but they say it will clear up as fast at home as in hospital.   It will be easier when he is home because the 3 to 4 hours driving I do to get to town have made for long tiring days. 3-4 hours on the road, 3 hours farm work and 3 hours with Edd pretty much uses up most of the day!

Edd tells me that he has now been using his crutches and can get himself to the shower. He has to achieve certain targets to be allowed out and he is getting fed up with being shut in one room, despite all the attention. It will be weeks before he can drive or do much even at home so I expect he will get cabin fever here too.

I got paint for the shower but the instructions say leave the render to dry for 28 days and this means it is a week before I can start.  At least I could work on the areas around the drain holes today.   They were a bit rough when I moved the masking tape and I need a smooth surface for the waterproofing.  A small amount of progress is all I can do in the short term.

Hospital day

May 24 2016

Yesterday was a huge exercise in logistics.  Josh had to get up at about 5am because he had a conference in Melbourne that started really early.  I met him at Melbourne airport when he arrived on Saturday and he spent the weekend helping Edd complete various jobs.  I got up with Josh and started doing the animals at first light, which turned out to be about 7 am.  Edd got his stuff organised and then we drove down to the hospital in Melbourne and arrived miraculously at the exact right time of 10.30am!

I spent the first hour in hospital with Edd as the process of his treatment began. Then I left him and drove back to the farm for a late lunch.  Edd was not due to go into surgery until late afternoon and I had promised him I would be there when he came out of theatre if possible.  Bo came at teatime and helped me do the evening rounds with the animals.  Indi was scheduled to help but she was taken ill and Bo had already had to take her to the Dr in Lilydale, so she was out of action.

Bo and I drove back to her house and Al and Pip picked me up from there and we all drove back into Melbourne and met Josh who was sleeping in Edd’s hospital room, Edd having been taken down for his knee surgery.  He was not due back for nearly 2 hours so we left Josh to sleep and went out for some food.  Pip’s favourite Japanese restaurant was very close so we went there.  I am not a fan of sushi but even I had to admit the food was really excellent and not expensive.

The hospital doors were locked when we got back there but we had thought to enquire about this before we left so we got in easily.  Edd was still not back so we waited until he arrived. He was remarkably lively and we all talked and laughed for a while before coming home.  Al dropped Josh and I off at Lilydale station where Josh had left Edd’s ute and we drove to Yarra Glen where I had left my car.  Al could go from Lilydale to Yarra Junction where Pip had left her car so if that went to plan all the people and cars should be back in the right places again today.  It is 6.30 am now and Josh has already left again for his audiology conference.  I will drive back to see Edd when I have done the farm work.  It is still too dark to start.

Edd says that he has had an epidural to prevent any pain so he could not feel his knee at all last night. His main worry was that he was starving and he was not allowed food until the epidural wore off.  The nurse said he would be in hospital 4 to five days according to how well he does.  Bo says she will do the evening run of animals so that I can visit him every day. I am doing the milking by hand and giving much of the milk straight to the calf so work is now at a winter minimum. It even rained yesterday so no watering was needed.  It is all a good start and it has been wonderful having all, the family rally round to help. We are so lucky having such wonderful kids and kids’ partners.

Family and farm

 My wacky kids this weekend!    Bo promoting good beer week

Al promoting recyclable bags

May 19 2016

Edd goes into hospital for a knee replacement on Monday and we have spent the week getting organised so that I can run the farm single-handed for as long as needed.  Poor Edd has had to stop taking his anti-inflammatory medication, so he has had a painful time, but he pushes himself to keep working.  We have almost completed the fencing behind the dairy where the old plastic tape had worn out.  It looks much better with proper wire and netting.  Edd has carefully used up some of the old rolls of fencing, so it has taken longer than it would if we had brought new stuff.

It is now the time to harvest the olives and I have earthenware crocks full of them in the kitchen.  The vegetable garden is amazing. We planted two types of snow peas, the organic seeds, and the seedlings from Bunnings. The latter are giving us a marvellous crop despite going in a week later, but the organic seeds rushed up the poles and have produced very little edible yet.  It is disappointing, but we have plenty to eat from the Bunnings mob.

The beetroots are ready too, and I roasted some this week.   Even the broccoli are developing heads so I will probably put in a second crop in for later.   The only vegetables I buy regularly are onions (we eat a lot) and potatoes.    I have harvested the big pumpkins but there are still some stripy ones growing.   One pumpkin has self-seeded by the chook run and has dark green and cream coloured fruit.  I have never seen cream coloured pumpkins before but they may change colour if they survive to get a bit older.  So far the sheep have left them alone.

The render in the shower and bath has now dried and I am longing to get going with paint and waterproofing.  I have chosen some small mosaic tiles in a pale, beach, and sand colour for the bath and shower base.  I can do the walls with broken tiles but they would have sharp edges, which would be bad to sit on.  Al tells me that Gaudi knew this too, but decided to ignore practicality and concentrate on aesthetics!  I am obviously much to practical to be a great artist.

A couple of weeks ago we thought we were loosing my mother but much to everyone’s surprise she has rallied again and is now able to talk to me on the phone again every even, though she does tire very fast now.  I wonder if she will last until Al and Pip get to the UK.    They have booked flights so that they can see her on the way to a conference where Al is working.  It would be good if someone in the family could get to see her again.  This year we have set the target of going through Edd’s surgery so we have no plans to travel anywhere.

Entering the mud season

May 8 2016

Our long, dry, summer seems to have come to an abrupt end.   Gale force winds and mega showers have hit Victoria and returned our farm to mud season.    At least I do not have to water the vegetables as often.   It is dark too, by 6pm, and we need to have to get all the animals fed and in their right homes before dark so that we can check none of them are missing or in difficulties. 

It is too hard to find them once it is dark.   Last week a sheep was missing and I found her cast on her back down the paddock.   Sheep get stuck like this and can die if they are not rescued soon enough.   I start the evening chores at 4pm and I can be back in the house by six to phone my mum, light the fire for hot water and cook the evening meal.

There are lots of things we miss about summer living but winter has advantages as well.  We have lots of pumpkins and preserved tomatoes for delicious warming soups and the extra time in the house lends itself to craft work and other activities. 

Last weekend we made real progress.  Al, Ti and Pip came over and helped us do a topcoat of render in the shower.    Ti fetched firewood and stacked it in the house entrance too.    All this was part of a fabulous mother’s day gift and very much appreciated.  The wet room walls now look fabulous and smooth despite all the curves.  (If that makes any sense). 

Edd made me up another barrow of render and I did a final shaping to the bath and shower.  I used large marbles to try and work out the levels for water flow, because I could not get my head in a useful position to read a spirit level.   I just hope it works out right.   We will have to wait until the render dries and then we can do a waterproof membrane and the tiling on the bath and lower parts of the walls.  We have obviously built the most difficult wet room ever but it is liberating to be eccentric sometimes.

Today I roasted grains, nuts and seeds to make up the months muesli.  The hard part is staying focussed long enough to avoid over cooking a tray load.  I was doing some knitting next to the stove so that I could small what was going on.  We are only getting a very few raspberries and strawberries now to eat with our muesli but I can’t complain because the bushes have worked hard for months. 

Edd has grown seedling for winter vegetables and has a whole lot of swedes growing for making pasties.   I have some watercress seedlings sprouting above the fish tank in my hydroponics experiment.   They are very skinny and tiny but they look like they might survive.  The book said we needed five inches of fish and the two gold fish are probably more than this (it is impossible to measure), but can two gold fish provide enough nutrients for plants?   We will see.

Josie the jersey x calf