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.