December 15 2016
Only one day to go now
before our solstice Xmas celebration.
I have been working on this for weeks but I am not confident I am really
ready. The weather forecast has
changed several times making organisation harder. Last year we had to relocate our feast to Bo’s house at the
last minute because it was a high fire danger day but now the latest forecast
is for 19 degrees, which is actually quite cold.
I am now planning to
have the party around the house rather than in the ruins, and to serve the
turkeys hot rather than cold. I
have made up all the Xmas crackers and this year they contain a lottery ticket
that relates to a gift under the tree.
The tree is the same artificial one that we had years ago before the
fires. It survived because it was stored in the cellar and has become rather a
symbol of survival. This year it
is in my tropical jungle surrounded by bamboo and bromeliads. I have re -arranged
out sunroom for the summer and it all goes together quite well, at least I like
it.
All together we have
invited over 30 people to our feast but usually there are dropouts at the last
minute so 20-25 is about what we get. Once we have done this I feel that coping
with the rest of Xmas is plain sailing.
We can concentrate on getting in the years hay supply and working out
how to shear the sheep.
The family have big
changes coming up in 2017. Al and Pip have brought a house in a place called
Ocean Grove which, as the name indicates, is by the sea West of Melbourne. There is a surfing beach with in
walking distance that is a big attraction for them. Tilba plans to move with
them and is enrolled at school down there for the next year. It is a about 3 hours journey from the
farm so we will no longer be able to drop in on them for a day but I think
getting away from the past is pretty important for them at this stage.
Bo also has changes in
her family. Her second son starts secondary school with his brother at
Templestowe College. (The school that has a camp here) and he is very excited
at the prospect. Bo, herself, has been accepted into the training for music
therapy at Melbourne Uni. She had to pass strict audition tests and have a huge
range of qualifications to get a place so we are all relieved that she has made
it.
Josh also starts a new
job on an Island near Brisbane. It looks as if there is a bridge to drive across
like Philip Island but I had never heard of the place. Bobby has another year
of work ahead on her PhD before they can consider a move away from
Brisbane. So everyone has changes
coming up. 2017 looks as if it is going to be an interesting year.
November 30 2016
All the goats due have
now kidded. Erin and Ester were
the last. Sadly Erin kidded in the
night and a huge buck kid was born dead leaving Erin sore and miserable. Next day her sister, Ester, went
into labour but this time both Erin and I were on hand to help out and she
delivered two healthy doe kids.
Erin helped clean off the kids and began sharing child-rearing duties
with her sister. Soon her grief over her dead kid was forgotten and she is
taking her duties co-parenting very conscientiously.
We have now got 14
kids in the shed. I plan to rear
the 7 females and possibly one male but the other males will have to be
sold. The big goats are now
producing prodigious amounts of milk and I am making cheese everyday as well as
feeding the kids. I am still not
happy with the hard cheese we make.
I keep on trying to make a basic hard cheese that we can use for
everything but I have not got a consistent way of getting a good result. I am almost at the stage of giving up.
Making feta and cream
cheese is now so routine it is easy but it would be nice to have a good hard
cheese as well. They come out at
about a kilo and a half in weight so really we need under 18 a year. If I could get it right this would only
be 18 days work which would be very do-
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