abundance

November 25 2016

We have had a cool wet week. At least the weather encouraged me to stay indoors and sort out all the laundry and accounts.  We had quite a backlog of this sort of work that accumulated whilst we spent our time with the school kids. The rain has also had a profound effect on the vegetation and we have more growth in the grass than we have ever had before.  The stock are failing to keep up with the growth and we have paddocks full of long grass everywhere.

The trees are also growing fast.  We are a bit of a home for abandoned trees.  Last week we acquired four olive trees that were breaking out of their pots in the restaurant beer garden. They were in wine barrels and two totally collapsed when we tried to move them so Edd had to dig holes on the hottest day so far to get them in the ground.  The mandarin tree that the school planted is still alive and we hope the olives will survive too.

With all the lush grass the goats are giving loads of milk. We are feeding 10 kids but we still have heaps left over for making cheese.  Rosie kidded this week and had a boy and a girl that were really huge.  Her udder is huge too; it is a wonder that she can walk at all.  This is the first year that we have had this scale of production but hopefully everything will settle back after Xmas.  I have been selling goats but still have more than we need.

The last camp for the year leaves and Mellissa has kids

November 13

Once again we had a dry sunny week for the second school camp and a great deal of work was done.  These kids are totally amazing. The vegetable garden has been refilled and planted out with the new seasons vegetables and we have a physic garden that includes a new wicking bed.  The fallen trees have been moved off the fences and the last pile of dead trees left from the 2009 fires has been sorted and moved. The shelter shed has taken on a new look too with the last of the upright posts painted green and some fantastic new murals.

Edd and I were pretty tired when everyone left but three days later Edd was wishing they were all back so he could have the help!  We even found two lads who took on the weed strippers and cut down all the long grass on the slopes and other places that I cannot reach with the ride on mower.  Now I would employ those guys any time!

Even with the camps finished for the year the farm work carries on relentlessly.  On Monday Melissa, our oldest goat, kidded.  She was starting to go into labour at the morning milking time so we put her in a separate pen and gave her peace to get on with it. By the afternoon several hours had passed and she seemed to be no further on.  She was standing up and not even trying, which is a bad sign.  I managed to get a hand inside her and found a kids foot in the birth canal.  I soon located a second foot and a nose so the presentation was correct.  The only solution was to pull and ease out a very large buck kid.  Amazingly he was still alive and later she delivered a much smaller girl, so all is well.

We sold several kids and goatlings during the camp and I now have 4 more to kid and about 5 more goats to sell.  The camp took down the old barrier that separates the shed from the young goats paddock so that we can now clean up the area and then let the kids outside.  We will have to put up a temporary fence and move the buck, Turnbull, to the other side.  The wether, Abbott, has been sold as a pet.  He really did have a lovely nature so we have tried to choose him a good home. He was so friendly and nice natured that I really miss him.

Yesterday we did get some time away from the farm because we were invited to a friend’s work place at a local winery for an alfresco lunch.  A mixed bag of vineyard workers, wine makers an artist and us as cheese makers all brought our produce to share and enjoyed a long lazy lunch until we had to drag ourselves away for the evening milking.  We had been tasting some amazing and interestingly different wines and special food and learn about them.  It was like being back in France.

As soon as the camp left the rain returned and we had a very wet weekend.  We were so lucky that the camp was not this week because Monday was awful too. It is warming up again now so we will have to complete the job of cleaning out the pool and patching the worn bits.  The lining got very badly damaged in the fires and is a real patchwork but we might get another years use from it. We will try anyway.

minor miracles and school camp

 school campers relaxing

 Wayne and Dani in cup mode

 Ella getting ready for   Melbourne cup

November 3

A couple of small miracles have helped us a lot.  Amazingly, it was fine and sunny for the school camp. Two days before they were due we had a really terrible rain that was so bad that they had to cancel an important horse race in Yarra Glen that provided a good percentage of the tracks yearly income!

 I kept thinking we should cancel the camp too, but the forecast was OK so we kept our nerve and amazingly the weather was better than predicted.   The camp went well. Everyone got a lot of work done and seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We have another camp next week so I am not relaxing yet.

The other miracle was that the eggs have hatched out.  We put them on a day before the power was cut off so we just left them and the incubator heated up again when the power was restored.  Edd candled the eggs last week and saw signs of life so we let everything go on and now have lots of chicks.  This is very pleasing because some friends had given us some of their welsomer eggs and we really did not want to loose the opportunity to get some chicks of that type.

The school kids have taken the old vegetables out and replaced them with our new season crops. It all looks very organised now. At last we are getting snow peas to eat and harvesting the broad beans.  The tomatoes are growing well and zucchinis, pumpkins and other crops are in and growing.

I think that the next lot of goats are ready to kid so I have advertised goats for sale this weekend.  It has been too wet to try and sell up until now but with the grass and weeds shooting up like mad we may get some takers. We are getting loads of milk but the kids are drinking most of it.

Everyone in the family seems to be making big changes in their lives.  Al is moving down to the coast with Pip, and Ti is planning to move with them. Bo and Indi are trying to get into new careers and Indi and Ben have started building their new home. Wayne and Dani are extending their house too. We are hoping we get some money from the bush fire class action too and then we can make little changes that would help us.

We are not taking the shower for granted yet though