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.