winter sunshine

                                              DoP1 and lambs.

                                               Celie, the Keplie Indi is training

June 29 2016

We have just had two glorious days of sunshine and warmth.  It has been heaven here but Bo chose this week to take her kids and Ti on a seaside adventure holiday, and it has been perfect for them.  They have been horse riding, enjoying the local hot spa and doing coastal walks.  The boys have a skateboard and places to practice and tomorrow they plan to go on an adventure tree walk.  Al sets off for the UK next week and Bo is suggesting Edd and I take a break too.  That would be nice.

Edd went back into hospital last Friday and had another general anaesthetic so that his leg could be manipulated to break down scar tissue.  He now has a very swollen painful leg, but his knee does bend more.  It is all taking a long time to heal and so far he does not feel there is much progress.  Luckily he came out of hospital on Saturday so we were able to go to Ella’s first birthday party on the Sunday.  Wayne and Danni hired a bowling club hall as a venue and had toys for the kids and a bar for the adults.  There was even football on the TV screen for addicted dads.

We also had twin male lambs born to the first of the dorper ewes.  They are both large solid lambs and their mother is doing a good job caring for them.  Even so we still worry about fox attack and it is still risky at this stage of their development.  Their mother has a huge udder so at least they have lots of milk. I have let the sheep back in the house site so that they are on fresh pasture.  It is annoying having to open and shut gates when we drive to the front of the house but I have moved ten chooks and a rooster to the small chook shed so that I can let them out with the sheep. We will put up with the inconvenience.

There has been so much rain that the chooks under the olive trees had reduced their area to mud so I had to move lots of them, The chooks by the front gate still have good grass and seem OK, but there were too many in the other pen. They are laying quite well considering that it is mid winter. The chooks we bred last year are laying brown and khaki coloured eggs but the arakanas are having non-laying period, so no blue eggs.

I am now ready to start the tiling in the bathroom.  It is rather a daunting task. But I have no further excuses to avoid starting.  I put a third water proof layer on today so the base levels of mosaic tiles can now go straight on.  Everything is curved so it will not be possible to lay many just as sheets. I do not want to cut any tiles ion this area because I do not want any sharp edges.

solstice on the farm

June 21 2016

We have reached the time of the solstice. There is also a full moon and of course my youngest grand daughters birthday.  Wayne brought her for a farm visit last week and luckily arrived on a very mild sunny day so we were able to take her round and introduce her to all the animals.  As far as I could tell she found the experience interesting and she practiced her animal noises.  She had learnt them all from books, but the animals obliged with the real thing.

With Edd being in hospital and incapacitated I was not sure that I could manage a mid winter party this year, but the closer we got to the date the more I felt recognition was necessary.  We decided on a smaller than usual feast and just invited our kids, grand kids, a handful of friends, and immediate neighbours.  Bo and Indi brought beautiful salads and lots of grog, and we cooked chicken legs, meatballs and curry instead of the usual roast turkey.  Indi chopped up a large pumpkin and we had baked spuds and used two of our cauliflowers for a cauliflower cheese bake.

Our new neighbours on the hill brought a large apple tart and Bo baked apple crumble. Other friends brought nibbles and cheese so there was plenty of food for all.  I had put up fairy lights in the jungle of our entrance hall and arranged tables all lit with candles to create a special atmosphere.  Everyone talked so much that we had to encourage them to get food and we all felt the change in the suns direction was appropriately celebrated.  I wish I had photos but we were all too busy talking and feasting.

Today the plumber is here to fix the taps and spouts in the bathroom.  I have now got it all painted and two layers of waterproofing done but the tiling is so complicated that I want to know everything works OK and is fixed right before I start. The plumber did look a bit confronted when we showed him the room and he and Edd are now trying to remember where the water into the house turns off and that sort of thing.  It is amazing how fast one forgets!  I should write everything down in a hand over house book for future use.

The goats are still coming into season so I have put the five dry goats in the middle croft with the buck.  The first set should all be pregnant by now so they can just stay where they are in the croft by the front gate.  The dorper ewes have bagged up and I was convinced they were about to lamb but I was wrong and they continue to get fatter.   I worry about them, as everything is so wet and muddy.  I have shut them up some nights so they know they have access to the small shed in the yards if they choose.

The frost has killed the pumpkin plants but the winter vegetables are prolific and we have plenty to choose from.  I should dig over the pumpkin bed ready for spring plantings but it is far too wet at the moment.  I think we are better off working on indoor jobs like paper work and tiling.

bogs and bathrooms

June 12 2016

We have a long weekend for the Queen’s birthday, but it doesn’t make any difference on the farm.  The goats still have to be milked and the other animals fed, so work goes on as usual.  It is rather wet and muddy out side so I have spent the week working on the shower and bath area.   This has had to be waterproofed and painted. The top was tricky and involved rather precarious ladder work but the lower levels, where the waterproofing had to go, were less dangerous.

It is taking us literally years to do this bathroom.  We were seduced by pictures in glossy books of magical bathroom with very desirable curves, and launched ourselves into the unknown as far as construction work is concerned. We are now at the stage that we need the plumber back to make sure that all the tap ware fits and works and then we can do the tiling.  Tiling is the main work still needed to complete the house.  The kitchen and mudroom also need doing.

Edd is home from hospital again and working hard at exercises to get his knee bending.  He rests between exercises and is going through the old blog writing down the tasks we did for rebuilding!  The class action action lawyers have asked us how many hours we worked on rebuilding!   Wow!  I am sure that they really don’t want to know, but we reckon if we go by what is documented in the blog they can’t argue.  Just working out the tasks and how long they took is a mammoth work on it’s own.

The wild weather has mostly past and Tasmania has snow to follow the floods. Tasmania is very beautiful but I have no desire to live there.  Some luxury beachfront homes in Sydney have been undermined by king tides and Bo’s parents in law got on a cruise ship there on the night of the storm. Our own mud is pretty depressing but at least it is not very cold.  Already the sun sets in its mid winter position to the right of our little hill at just before five.  This means that soon the solstice will be reached and gradually the light will return.  I am not sure I will manage a mid winter feast this year with Edd out of action.  Perhaps a small gathering of friends would be enough.

Coping with winter problems

June 6 2016

Things did not go to plan.  Edd was discharged from hospital on Monday but his knee and leg continued to swell so he was readmitted to hospital on Saturday and is waiting for more tests today.   He was in a lot of pain most of last week but yesterday he looked a lot happier.   Indi and bo’s boys drove into town to see him via Ikea where Morgen wanted to buy a new desk.  It was miserable wet weather so Indi released the dogs from the back of the ute once we got into town and they had a cuddly trip with the boys.

The boys and the dogs were exceptionally good and Indi did a fantastic job of town driving even though her twin cab ute was far very much out of it’s own environment.  I was so relieved to not drive myself because my own knee gets very painful when I do.  The boys were good visiting Edd too and managed cheerful conversation.  Strangely the green-eyed monsters are metamorphosing into charming young men!

We eventually escaped Ikea, which was as difficult as usual.  I knew the way to Ikea but had no clue how to get from there to the hospital.  Luckily Morgen had one of the phone apps that talked us through until we reached know roads.  How different is life for people now.  No one needs a sense of direction or memory.  You just politely ask your phone a question and it tells you exactly what to do!  Personally I like having a personal feeling for direction, and I like the way a map builds up in my mind as I get to know and area.

It is a bit the same with time.  I always wake before the alarm and I usually have a good rough sense of the time of day.   How would today’s generation cope if suddenly all their phones would not work?  They do not memorise phone numbers or anything!  I am obviously a fossil.  I enjoy knowing how to produce my own food and make things even though this is not strictly necessary right now.

On the farm we are in winter mode.  Heavy frosts last week have killed off most of the pumpkin leaves and more tender plants but the rain has aided other growth and the swedes , cabbages broccoli and cauliflowers are steaming ahead.  We are also eating beetroots and celery but the snow peas have slowed right down.  The organic ones never did give a crop.

The chooks are not laying much but we did not buy new pullets this autumn so this is to be expected.  The news forecasts egg shortages this winter because everyone wants free-range eggs.  There have been huge floods everywhere. A storm has made its way down the East coast from Queensland to Tasmania and people and houses have been lost.  We have also had rather more deaths from sharks and crocodiles than usual! 

At least it is not just we. France and Germany have also been flooded but not I think where Arj lives. At least climate change has now the status of an election issue though I fear that Australia has bad attitudes about taking positive actions.