ending up 2017

New Years Eve 2017

For the last few days’ weather from the storm up in Broome has been blowing across Victoria creating muggy, overcast but hot weather with thunderstorms.  Today it has moved on and we have blue skies again after a cold night.   Josh and I got up at daybreak but he took time to look over his car with Edd before he left on the long drive back to Brisbane.  We are sad to see him go but he is going to look for a new unit to rent and needs to get organised as the next year starts.

He has been most helpful whilst he was here.  He has sorted out electrical problems and killed and boiled up all the spare roosters.  I have separated the results into stock, meat and dog food to fill up all the air space in the freezer.   It is much quieter around the donga and milking shed now there is less crowing.

The chicks we are raising are settled down in the small chook house with just a light at night.  They are growing fast and will need moving soon but at least the rooster pen under the maple tree is now vacant.   It is hard to raise them at this time of year when there is a danger that they could die of over heating, though the trees keep the houses and pens in the shade.    We need to have them now in order to get point of lay chooks at the start of winter that will keep up the egg supplies as the older chooks slow their production.

Today I put away the Xmas decorations.  The bobbles and lights fitted back into their boxes OK but it is always a battle to get my artificial tree folded and packed up.  It breaks down into three stages that need sitting on and tying up before they can be controlled.  I have got fond of this tree because we have had it for years now.  It was in the cellar and survived the fires, which gives it a sort of status in the family.   I do not really like artificial trees, but I don’t like killing trees either, and this farm has as many x Christmas trees growing as it can handle.

We all feel we can give New Year celebrations a miss.  Like Edd’s birthday it all comes too close to Xmas.  Indi has gone to work and we are completing the post party sort out ready to get back into regular work in the New Year.  When we start talking about what to do next it is quiet scary.  There is so much that needs immediate attention.  Firstly we need to get hay in and complete the accounts and then we have to get the sheep shorn. Edd is half way through fencing the gravel pit paddock and we have still not completed the milk room floor.  So it goes on.  We are unlikely to get bored.

edd gets a birthday party

Food being prepared for the party

Yesterday we had a big party for Edd’s birthday. Edd has an unfortunate birthday date and it is usually forgotten in the midst of all the other seasonal events.   He was a bit upset that his 70^th passed with out being noticed so we decided to make up for all the neglected times this year.

 All the family, this time plus Wayne’s mob gathered in the ruins with long-term friends for a massive feast.  Bo organized all the food but she used a lot of farm produce supplemented by loads of fresh fruit and other luxuries.    We put tables in a long line under the shelter shed and laid the food out as a smorcas board so everyone could suit themselves.    Danni, Wayne’s lady, did a wonderful job arranging the food onto the plates in a very stylish way.   She is amazing at this sort of thing; in fact everything she does is done perfectly with real class.

It was a very hot day and Edd and I had worked hard trying to get the ruins and gardens looking their best.   Luckily the pool is a lifesaver in these conditions.  I had a swim before the guests arrived, and the kids and some of their parents all frolicked in the water as an alternative to cool alcohol consumption.    Silkie redeemed herself after the chocolate incident by being the perfect cousin and looking after Ella in and out of the water.

Today we are partied out.  We have been washing dishes and moving what seems like a ton of empty bottles.  Some thing, probably a dog, found and ate a whole box of chocolates.    Neither of our dogs is looking at all sick so may be it was Rosa, Indi’s dog, or perhaps our dogs are genetically able to cope with chocolate.    Alternatively the chocolates may have been more sugar than chocolate, who knows?

Josh has killed some of the roosters and we are cooking them up for meat and dog food. After the Xmas feasts my freezer is really filling up.   It is a large chest freezer but does have a limit to what it can hold.    All this food will come in very handy if we manage to get in working tourists again.    The donga is now clean and set up with beds so this coming year we have room for extra’s to stay.   

 I am a little intimidated by all the changes to the working tourist systems.    Once people phoned you, talked to you and if all sounded well they arrived here with in a day or two.  Now everything is on line and planned ahead.    I am not at all sure about this but I guess it is just another thing I will have to learn.  We used to have “Wwoofers” but my friend has “Work away” people and she has offered to show me how that system works.  

Xmas eve feast

December 28      2017

This has been a very busy week.  The family gathered here for a traditional Xmas meal on Christmas Eve.   I spent most of the day cooking.   Luckily the temperature outside was only in the low 20s so I was able to cook the turkey in the wood stove and use the gas cooker for vegies and everything else.  The wood stove cooked the turkey perfectly so that it was moist and juicy but cooked evenly right through. 

I even managed to toast another month’s supply of muesli whilst all the cooking was going on.   We like to make our own muesli with lots of nuts and different grains and toast it with just a bit of coconut oil and honey so that it is not too sweet.   We have it for breakfast every morning with fresh fruit and freshly squeezed orange juice. 

Josh drove down from Brisbane and arrived at midday, and Al and Pip came up from the coast in the evening.   Indi picked up her younger brother from his mum’s house and Bo, Simon and all their kids drove in from Yarra Glen.  Wayne and his family were at his in laws and Arj is still in Germany but we still had healthy numbers present.

We all sat round a big table in the farm kitchen and enjoyed our first feast of the season.   Silkie managed to get most of the chocolates from the crackers and was most upset when she was told to share them out.  She had helped me make them earlier in the week and she had chosen the chocolates, so temptation to horde was strong.  The kids opened their gifts and we adults exchanged small home made food gifts.  Well. That is the idea.  In practice, after the oven door crisis, I decided I had the perfect excuse to buy everyone cakes instead of baking them.    Bo cheated too, and gave me a voucher for a massage, which was much too nice a surprise to quibble about.

On Xmas day we all drove up into the forest and had a BBQ lunch by the river.  The heat was building up again but it is much cooler in the forest and it was a perfect day for playing in the water.   Josh helped the younger kids move rocks around to dam half the river and create a pool.    Bo brought seafood and salad to go with the sausages and we all relaxed.    It was one of those perfect days.

Problems and sorrows

December 21      2017

The Xmas cakes did not turn out well.  They tasted OK but crumbled to bits when I tried to cut them.   Worse than this, the oven door shattered when I opened it to get the cakes out.    Apparently it was mostly glass and some how the handle came loose and then broke the rest when I used it!    This was a great worry because although Edd found a replacement oven door it was in Sydney and they could not send it down here until next year.   I had visions of having to light the wood stove to cook the Xmas meal and everyone partying outside to get away from the heat whilst I slaved over the cooking!

Luckily my family is not defeated easily, and no one wanted to forgo Xmas food.   Edd and my son-in-law arranged a private currier who got the door down south in record time.   Edd was able to pick up the door from the brewery yesterday and battle it into position.   I am now very wary of oven doors; I definitely prefer the caste iron variety over the glass ones.  The door though has not been my greatest worry because the cat had disappeared.

Officially we do not own a cat, having both agreed that they did too much damage to the local wild life.   After the fires some cats survived when their owners were burnt out, and they had to fend for themselves.   One cat visited our shed at intervals and we found kittens one year that my grand kids found homes for.  Then one evening a cat (possibly the kitten producer) turns up at the dairy with a large wound on its neck.  I gave it a dish of milk and from then on the cat stayed.

It was actually a very useful cat.    It dealt with the rat and mouse population in the shed and then started to work on young rabbits, bringing them to the dairy to show us before eating them.   All that the cat asked for was a bit of milk morning and evening and it worked tirelessly to protect the shed and vegetables from vermin.   Sometimes it attempted pet behaviour but it was a grizzled old thing and was difficult to even stroke. It would rub against my legs mewing when it wanted me to hurry with the milk often almost tripping me up.

Where ever I went the cat was there.   It was there whilst I did the milking, it followed me to the vegetable garden when I worked there and we just sort of did everything together.   The cat did not like school camps and would be off to better hunting grounds when the school groups were here.     At first when it was missing I did not worry but it got to the time when we were pretty sure something had happened.   Today when I was mowing I found a dried up body by the big water tank.   It was the cat, its grey and black striped coat all dull and lifeless.   I feel as if I have lost a best friend with out the chance to say goodbye.

This cat chose us and did enough to help us that we were glad it was around.   It looked after itself and mostly led a very independent life.   A cat like this cannot be replaced. I feel we need a notice on the gate declaring a vacancy for the farm cat position so that any passing homeless cat knows there is a job going but I will still miss this particular little animal.

Reviving the donga

Morning sun enters our valley, viewed from the house.

December 17      2017

This is the run in to Xmas.  I am pretty close to panic mode.  Today I am attempting to cook Xmas cakes, I am afraid that this sort of cooking is not where my talents lie.  I am also making a hard cheese in the dairy and I am much happier about that.  This year the vacuum packing has allowed the cheeses to mature well with out going mouldy or drying out and they are very successful.  Cakes are another thing altogether, but we have decided to give small homemade gifts between family adults and I have to try. My biscuits last year were pretty hopeless!

Food on the farm is a safer bet.  We have beans and zucchinis, and lettuce and spinach. The snow peas are coming to an end but the tomatoes are growing and the sweet corn has started to develop heads. We have parsley; chives and today I harvested the first garlic.  The young chicks have grown well but they are stinking out the house and need moving to new accommodation.  The goats love the freedom hot weather brings and swagger home every evening with bulging sides. Annie, who broke her leg, is now back as part of the herd and is coping well, with no lingering problems.

I have spent a lot of time working on the donga.  We hired a carpet cleaner from the local super market and cleaned the floors three times removing vast quantities of mud and dog hair.  We also cleaned the couch and Edd’s ute seats.  This all worked better than I expected and was well worth the effort.  We resurrected two beds from dumping spots and brought two new mattresses so the accommodation is now ready for Xmas visitors.  I have had fun choosing bed linen and towels to match.  Today I got down on my knees and scraped what I assume was bee’s wax off the kitchen floor.  The floor looks a lot better with out big black stained areas.

Edd is trying to organise a fly screen for the donga door.  The donga heats up in the evenings so we need to let the hot air out as much as possible. I have hung old curtains over the west facing windows to keep the evening sun out which helps.  We need a new tap for the sink as the existing one has collapsed and refused to function but other wise things are now not too bad. I was very, very grateful about being given the donga to live in when we had no house after the fires and I feel happy to see it cared for again. If I can get it to last another ten years it should see me out.

One day holiday

 Barwen Heads near Al's house

December1 2017

OK.   I think this valley can now say we are feeling the effects of climate change.  Last week it was really hot and now we are having a weekend of tropical type storms.   More rain has fallen in a shorter period than any I can recall.  In practice this means that all the dams and tanks are over flowing (good), the risk of bush fire is nil ( good), The water has worked its way through several rooves so that the donga has a leak  in the small bedroom soaking mattresses etc because the pan I put in overflowed in the night.(bad).

In the house the water is coming down the stove chimney.  Creosote flakes have washed down and blocked the chimney and water has collected in the stove so it smokes rather than heats water (bad), at least we now know the smoke alarm is working (good).  The big goat shed is half flooded for the first time.  The goats solved their problem by jumping out of their accommodation and raiding the feed bins (bad).   Now the shed is a total muddy mess (bad), and all the feed is gone. (bad).

On the good side the drives have stayed in tact, and the dry creek bed has taken flood water away from the house to the dam so that the house has not flooded.  The dairy and cheese room are also OK. That leaves my wood stove. Obviously it has filled with water and needs help before we can have hot showers again. 

I am being fairly philosophical about all this because I have had a holiday this week.  Al was working in the Yarra Valley on Tuesday and Thursday so I cadged a lift with home with him and spent Wednesday  down by the sea.  It was amazing!.  We had an evening meal in a restaurant on a peir over the ocean and on Wednesday I spent the day in Barwyn heads relaxing reading a book on the beach and exploring the shops. Pip and Al met me after lunch and we drove to a surf beach for a swim and enjoyed really hot sunny weather. Looking back it seems another life time ago.

I can see why Al loves his new location it is a sea side area that is not developed or over exploited yet and offers surf beached and native wetlands.  He is working on expanding their house to include an office for architecture and a clinic for Pip’s Chinese medicine.  The new extensions have got shape but no roofs yet so I hope this tropical down pour has not done too much damage.

Edd took Bo back to her surgeon this week and he has  given her he all clear to drive an automatic car.  This is a big improvement and saves us the time involved in getting her boys to and from school.  She is looking much better too but she still needs crutches.  My mum has had a 97^th birthday this week ,  which she has enjoyed. Everyone sent her flowers and she had cake and visitors.  She actually sounds really on top of things at the moment.  I am more worried about Pip’s father who is still sick after contracting thunder storm asthma.  He is an amazing man who we all love so we hope all will be well.

I have put the goat Annie back in the herd.  We needed the space in her pen because of the floods and her leg has mostly healed.  She got rather pushed around at first but seems to have coped.  Usualy I mend broken legs with poly pipe splints and cotton wool but this time I had to substitute with bamboo and sheep’s wool. At least I know this is now possible.

Heat and storms,

 our youngest grand child in summer mode

The new chicks making a stink in the mud room.

November26

Amazing weather. Hot, overcast and lots of thunderstorms.  One poor young woman was killed by lightening near here this week!  On Friday we had the last student workshop for the year.  Luckily the rain held off and everything went OK.  We even got the last of the wood piles moved before everyone cooked pizzas for lunch.  This month has been pretty full on and we are now trying to remember what we were doing before all the school camps started.

November 22 2017

A week ago we had a school camp and it rained half the time.  It rained so much that one day we all retreated into the house, made bread and marmalade, saved seeds and did craft work.   As soon as the camp left the weather cleared up and this week we have been above 30 C most days.  Tonight the valley is full of smoke fumes from fires in Gembrook, but the CFA has planes, dozers and every imaginable vehicle dealing with them and they are not worried at this stage.  Even so, it is an early and ominous start to the bush fire season.

Despite the weather the students got a lot done. A mountain of firewood was collected and processed. Star pickets were put around the stone pines and replacement trees put in where the deer had killed the old ones.  Several were fenced with high wire and are hopefully now protected from further attack.  We would have fenced the lot if the weather had not been so bad.  The first two days of camp were too hot and it was lucky that Edd was able to work a miracle on the pool and get the water blue and inviting. Another group of students worked on the new orchard and took out the weeds along the fence lines.  I started to clean out under the trees and altogether it looks a lot more cared for now.

I missed the last day of camp because I had to take Bo to hospital on Friday to have an operation on her foot that was giving her a lot of pain.  She had smashed her big toe by dropping a heavy log on it and needed a bone fused.   Wayne collected her from hospital on Friday because she was still feeling the effects of the anaesthetic but it still gave Edd and I time to go out to various chook breeding establishment and collect some more day old chicks.  The camp students had set up the heated chook box in the mud room and we already has six commercial Australorps chicks but we had to travel further to get Rhode island reds, Araucanans and black copper Marans.   Last year Edd incubated and bred chicks but he still has not dealt with the resulting rooster problem.  I have decided that from now on we by sexed day olds and avoid the issue.

One of last year’s kids, Anna, had managed to break a leg and has been isolated in a pen to heal. She had only had the splint on for four weeks before she managed to get it off but I have not replaced it because she seemed to be managing.  We are up to week five now and she is using the leg but it is still slightly week.  I normally allow six weeks but I may have to keep her penned for longer this time. The goats are all going right up the hill to graze and coming back through the gravel pit paddock. This is a long days walking and probably Anna needs to be fitter to cope.

A warmer week

                                                  Indi's new place and new horse

November 11 2017

We have had a warm sunny week with cool nights and the vegetables have thrived. The snow peas are delicious, and lettuce of all sorts abound. We have broccoli kale, rocket, spinach, and the first squash are starting to form.  Better still; berries are back on our breakfast menu, strawberries and mulberries at present, and maybe a few raspberries later. We dug out all the old raspberry canes because they got an infection and we have planted new ones in a different location, so sadly we will not get many this season.  The old bed is now growing garlic and broad beans that show no signs of ill health.

The goats are moulting but summer shiny coats are starting to emerge.  With the better weather they are now going right up bone hill to graze. I am enjoying the feta cheese as it goes really well with spelt pasta and wild rocket.  My basil is off to a slow start and being chewed by everything.  I will start a second crop in a pot by the house to make sure we do get a crop. The taste of basil is one of my summer favourites.

The grass is growing too and the signs point to an early hay season.  We had such a good lot last year and still have bales left but we will need new hay when it is cut. Hay making is always stressful and you end up with a shed full of hay just when we are at the peak of fire danger, rather a snag.   This year we have no cattle so our needs will be less, which is one thing in our favour.

On the minus side, Ben and his brothers have moved on. Indi, now living in her new place, is putting in more hours at work and spending her free time trail riding on her new horse, so we have lost all the young energy that was so helpful last year.  I miss having them all around too, but I can now clean up the donga and have a spare room for guests and a classroom for wet weather activities.  We are going to hire a cleaner to recover the carpets but I have also ordered a rug in riotous colours to jazz the place up a bit.   I can use the donga as an art studio too. There is room there to set up a Navajo loom for rug making and that sort of thing.

The next area we need to deal with is the tractor shed. It has been invaded by swallows and other birds that are making the most terrible mess.  Steve and Edd fixed the tool shed by putting in a ceiling but the rest of the shed is now worse.  I don’t think we will ever run out of work here!  I must finish the dairy floor before starting anything else but we have another camp here next week so it won’t be done then. At least the forecast is better for this camp and Edd has done miracles with the pool that he has converted from a dark mess of algae to blue and clear.

Edd is also collecting the things he needs to grow fungal food crops. He is also helping me assemble all the parts I got to try and make an olive oil extractor so we have plenty of new ventures to work on. 

a wet week for school camp

November 7 2017

Today we have a bank holiday for Melbourne cup.   We have not been invited to share this occasion with anyone, but we are rather glad of the time to be quiet.   Last week we had a school camp and keeping up with a farm full of teenagers is exhausting even though the students were absolutely wonderful. 

It was very cold and rained all week but all the set tasks were completed willingly and the students even managed to stay cheerful and enjoy themselves.   Sometimes we had to do wet weather activities instead of the morning work, but this meant that I got all the lemons harvested and the juice frozen.  Another group used the wood splitter in the shed to tackle all the logs that were too large to burn and I found some wool workers who learnt how to use the weaving looms.

For main tasks we had the old water tank painted, the cellar cleaned out and the blackberries cut down around the old woodshed and cactus garden.  One lad found an old pigeon medal that will be a good keep sake for Josh from the time we kept pigeons. The goats were thrilled because they love eating blackberry leaves but could not reach them.   The goats actually worked side by side with the students which looked amusing.

The weather was sad because it had been so nice the week before.  Edd had worked hard to get the pool clean and blue too. We had spent the week getting ready for the camp and tiling the dairy floor.  Most of the floor is made of large white tiles but we had buckets of tiles made in the sheltered workshop in Lilydale that had some how survived the fires and we have used them as well.

At the weekend we went in to Melbourne because our daughter in law’s, brother’s partner asked workers and family to a party to celebrate their work winning a Nobel peace prize.  It is the first one to go to Australia so getting it was a big thing and we felt privileged to be included.   The party was not large but very friendly.  Edd and I went in and out on the train.  Parking is so hard in the city but we only use the train occasionally because mostly we go in to buy supplies that need transport.

This week I have started to prepare for the next group of students who arrive for a week’s camp on Monday.  The forecast is for hot weather so we will get a whole new set of problems.  Edd had better get working on that pool again!  I am doing a whole new set of paper work and trying to make sure we have the right equipment and materials at hand.  

To busy to post much but loving the sun and flowers

 Pawlonia and wisteria in full bloom and below some of the new goatlings relaxing in the sunshine.

October 20. 2017

This is a very busy time of year.  Plant life is having a growth spurt and the return of hot sunny days and purple flowers are a balm for the soul.  People are on the move too. Last week we had good friends from NSW staying and had two years of news to catch up with. The goatlings are trained now and come in to the milking shed mixing with the older goats.  Learning to tell them apart was harder this year as they all looked alike. The chooks are laying well and the kids are settled into a routine.   We are hoping that the cow, Josie, will move to her new owners next week end along with Phantom, the goat with horns, who has terrorised her young herd mates.

We have had a new plastic tank for dam water delivered and are now in the process of tiling the dairy floor.  I have already tiled the walls behind the benches and completed the painting.  Edd is working hard on the floor. I tell him it is his penance for causing all the mess in the first place.

October 7. 2017

Stevo and Edd set up the new small water tank to provide water for the sink in the ruins.  We have an underground pipe from the tank over flow to the old concrete tank by the mulberry trees but it is not connected yet, still, we are half way there.  This week Edd and Stevo worked on the donga.  They built a new base for the wood stove and put corrugated iron under the eves to stop the swallows nesting above the windows and making them all shitty.  Luckily we had corrugated iron left over from building the shed in a suitable light colour that gives a good clean look.

Whilst the men worked on the donga I finished the painting work on the dairy walls and ceiling.  It was not work I enjoy but it was work I could do.  The next job in there is to lay the tiles on the floor and above the sinks and then we can move the furniture and fridges back in.

 I have also been working in the vegetable garden.  Everything has started to grow fast so there were weeds to dig up and new seedlings to plant. We are enjoying the last of the turnips and beetroot and starting to work our way through a glut of cauliflowers. Lettuce, rocket and spring onions are doing well and so far the cabbages look fine.  The snow peas have started to crop and today I put in climbing beans.  I am keeping a wary eye on the cockatoos who pulled up lots of my parsley and are waiting to do more damage. 

The goat kids are almost ready to go down to twice a day feeds.  Even the small black one is sucking well now. I have plenty of milk spare and have made the first two hard cheeses but I need to get the dairy back in action so more production can go ahead.  I have still not decided which vacuum sealer to buy. Josh found a good one but it comes from America and would be difficult to take back if it went wrong.

Today the goats and the cow went through fences and got where they were not meant to be. We have put such an effort in repairing and replacing fences that this is very frustrating. The cow made big foot marks on the good bit of grass that I have just mowed.

Football and pasties

October 1 2017

We are having a very family weekend.  Everyone gathered at the farm yesterday to watch the football finals and cook pasties.  This year I made the pastry the day before and the pasties were ready by half time.  Edd supervised vegetable preparation and assembly of all the parts with lots of help from everyone so that the tradition of pasty making is passing down to the younger generations.

The teens and girl friends disappeared into the environment and Silky kept two- year old Ella happy with the toy box. The serious sports people watched the match right through but luckily let out enough groans and whoops to let the pasty makers know when to rush to the next room and watch key moments.  To crown things off, the Tigers, whom we were barracking for, won the cup. Al and Indi have always been Tigers supporters and so has Stevo who will probably need a few days to recover.

Simon had a worse time. He had set up a screen and projector in the restaurant. All went well until the football started and then the TV system for channel 7 that he was using switched to other programs. This was totally unexpected, luckily our TV at home showed the match fine.

Al and Pip stayed here on Friday night and then Wayne, Dani and Ella stayed last night. I am baby-sitting Ella today whilst her parents go to see the Elton John concert at a local winery.  Lucky them! At the moment everything is peaceful because Ella is asleep.  It is the first time she has been left with us so I am not sure what she will think of the arrangement.

On the farm the goat kids are settling down to a routine.  They all drink from the bucket feeder but the smallest kid runs away and needs to be caught first, which is maddening.  Nola looks as if she might have her kids today and is the last pregnant goat. We have only two female kids so I hope she can reset the male/female balance.

Our neighbour has been over with his digger and levelled the edge of the camping ground where the carport and wood shed used to be. There were some big tree stumps to be dug out that were far too large to do by hand.  Now, once grass grows I can maintain the area with the ride on mower.  This gives us a good cleared space between the ruins and the gully that will form a firebreak as well as extend the camping site.

It is Silky's birthday today so we will all go to Bo’s house later this afternoon for yet another family gathering. We have a complicated plan over cars because only Wayne's car has a baby seat.  Wayne has taken my car to Yarra Glen and then swapped cars with Bo to go to the concert.  We plan to drive Wayne’s car and Ella to Bo’s house for the party. Then Bo will drive Ella in Wayne’s car to join her parents after the concert at the place they are staying and come home in her car. We will have my car at Bo’s house to come home in.  It all seems pretty obvious this morning but trying to work this out yesterday after a few glasses of wine proved impossible.

Farm life in Spring

Sept 26 2017

The weather is definitely warming up.  I feel so much more energized when the sun is shining.  This is a good thing because we have the goats kidding, kids needing training to bottle feed, serious cheese making and building programs all on the go!  Today Stevo is replacing the door on the donga with a larger door.  (The previous door and frame had to be taken out every time we moved something large in or out, fridges for example.)

Last week Stevo and Edd put up a ceiling in the tool shed. This stops swallows nesting on the beams and shitting on all the tools, which is a big improvement. There are swallows that sit above the donga windows too that we plan to relocate elsewhere.  I actually love the sparrows but they are so messy that I do not need them in places I have to keep clean.

The sheep have been in the little crofts above the goat shed eating up the capeweed before it flowers.  We wormed them going in and we have done the lambs tails this week when we got them out.  We have eight female lambs and only one male. (The goats have gone the other way with two female kids and six male).  We neglected this work last year, when Edd had his knee replacement, and ended up with three rams.  They are now baled up in the yards waiting to be sent off. It feels much better to be back in control again this year.

I am trying to decide what sort of vacuum sealer to buy for storing cheese. If I wax the cheeses they often grow mold but if I leave them un-waxed they go hard as rocks.  In effect this means that there is only a small time gap at about two months when I get a good cheese to eat. I consulted the cheese makers I buy supplies from and they suggested vacuum sealing but it is difficult to choose from the many types available when I know so little about the process.

sustainable house day and goatlings with attitude

Not so sunny today but the house is still clean and tidy!

Sept 18 2017

Yesterday was mega.  Al had organised us to have an open day as part of sustainable house day. I had spent the last week making sure the house was as presentable as possible and Edd fixed up the sign he has been working on for the front gate.  He also fixed up the last unit in the mudroom and the kitchen bench back plate.  These small jobs have been hanging around for ages with out coming to the top of the priority list so it was a real bonus to get them done.

The weather has been awful. Freezing, cold nights and sheeting rain in the day. Yesterday something completely amazing happened. The sun came out, the skies were clear blue, the wind dropped and even the mud on the roads dried out. All this made the fact that there were 170 visitors that turned up for a look possible.  Al arrived early in the morning and helped putting the signs up before he found some paint and painted the plastic down pipes.  (Another job that never made priority status).  He felt that the outside look was compromised and it obviously offended him.

Before 10am, when things were due to start, cars began arriving and just kept coming all day.  Indi greeted the guests and got them signed in and then I collected them into tour groups and Al and Barry (an architect who works with Al took groups round the house.  The guests who came were really focussed on getting information and asked lots of questions. By the end of the day Al had no voice left!  Edd took the outside tour over the roof and through the farm buildings showing everyone how the water power and light systems worked from outside. 

Indi, Barry and I also did the outside tours as Edd faded.  This went on all day and we were forced to take turns eating lunch, on display like zoo animals. On the positive side when the cars stopped arriving and at 4.30 everyone had left the house still looked squeaky-clean and lots of people had taken Al’s business cards. The weather had been perfect for showing the house at it’s best. There had been a frost over night but we had not lit the fires because I had cleaned them and wanted them pristine in the morning.  The house was 22 C when we woke and with the sun pouring in it warmed a further and staid warm even with the doors open for most of the day.  This was a very convincing demonstration of thermal mass in action. Edd and I still had the goats to milk and other animal work before we could relax, so we feel pretty exhausted today.

Three goats have kidded so we have bottle-feeding four times a day and extra milking. The machine was not working and it is only in the last two hours that Edd has got it running again.  I was threatening to go off and buy a new machine I was so worn out. We just managed to get last years goatlings trained to come into the milk room and jump up on the bale before kidding started.

This group of goatlings had attitude.  They trained to jump up all right but then they refused to leave the milk room. They could see no reason to go out into the rain and mud when they were quite happy with food in a nice clean dry room. Usually young goats shoot out and are easily hurried along by banging the brush against the bale or squirting water at them but this time Edd had to get really fierce before they learnt that rules were rules.

cold weather

August 23 2017

Silkie went back to school on Monday but collapsed on Tuesday. Bo had to take her back to emergency at the children’s hospital and because Bo had to complete her own work at the children’s in music therapy Silkie ended upon our couch.   She has missed quite a lot of school so Bo and I have put her on an education program to keep her going.  I was expecting a battle to start this off but she took to it like a duck to water. 

By the end of this week she has bounced back a bit. She is hungry again and is moving freely. Bo plans to send her to school camp next week.  She obviously had a very bad reaction to a flu virus but there still seems to be some underlying condition that no one can pin down.

This week has been hard because we have had winter weather. There have been heavy frosts for the first time this year and cold days.  Two more sheep have lambed giving us a total of nine babies so far.  By my calculations we have two more pregnant sheep left to go.  After that the goats will start to kid.  The big news is that we have another potential grandchild because Al’s wife, Pip, is expecting.  It is early days so we are trying to curb our excitement.

Al now lives three hours drive away so we are not able to offer much help, which I find very hard.  We see Al every fortnight for a short time when he visits his clients in the Yarra Valley.  After all the time that we spent with him over the last few years it leaves a big hole in our lives.  His daughter, Indi, is moving out of our Donga into the new demountables that she and her partner have built. It all looks amazing but they are finding that they have far too much stuff to fit in their new space so the move is taking some time. I think there will be quite a lot of work needed to restore the donga before we can use it again.

Despite the cold weather we still have vegetables. Asparagus is sprouting and there is plenty of lettuce, rocket, celery and kale.  The turnips are ready to eat too but the parsley is slow.  The point of lay chooks we brought have not been laying well and we are still relying on the older chooks for our egg supply.  Edd and Josh have been exploring the information on growing edible fungi. Josh has sent Edd down the first stage of equipment as a father’s day gift.  We get field mushrooms here naturally, but pine mushrooms have not grown here even though I have tried to put down spores.  It seems that there are many easier, faster varieties to try.

My wool work continues. I am exploring different ways to use wool to make scatter cushions.  This week I am using a hessian backing for chain stitching an aboriginal design.  I do not know if it will work but it is fun trying.

Sickness and weaving

 Amazing form almost too perfect to eat

August 23 2017

Slkie is still sick.  She spent all last week lying on our divan, feeling too nauseous to eat or drink anything much.  By Friday she was starting to perk up and I got her a small weaving loom so that she could learn to weave.  I have been pretty busy weaving myself and have experimented with simple tartan designs that look quite good.  I have even sewn up the first cushion made from homespun and woven cloth.

Over the weekend Silkie was much better and was eating and bouncing around like any other eight year old.  Wayne came up to the valley with his family and some friends and we all met up for lunch at Bo’s restaurant.  It was a sunny day, so quite packed out but Indi , Ben and others managed to fit in making a continuous stream of our mob coming by to talk to us.

This made for a very jolly time and the two small kids were surprisingly good.  After we had eaten we took them to the park to play.  It is an amazing playground with lots of things to do and after having two large glasses of wine I quite forgot I had a bad knee and was leaping from boulder to boulder with the kids.  This was not such a great idea and I was very sore on Monday but worse Silkie was also sick again.

Bo spent all night in emergency at the children’s hospital with her and was told not to give her the medicine the local doctor prescribed.  Every one knows something is wrong but no one can find out what.  It is all very worrying. She is staying at home with Bo today and I expect she will be back here tomorrow.  Edd has gone off to collect the boys from school after fetching barley from the brewery this morning so we have been fairly busy.

I have been planting more seedlings in the vegetable garden and moving the dead dogwood tree that Edd cut out of Toby’s garden yesterday.  I piled all the branches up to burn with some broken pallets that were left over from the stone we used when we were building.  Now I just have to dig the tree roots out and then everything is clear to start on the landscaping.  It has all taken quite a lot of work and the winter weather has slowed everything down.

The goats continue to get larger and bag up more. They will start kidding in a few weeks and our workload will increase.  Edd has finished the slashing the ti-tree and bracken that was starting to take over the top paddock and is now back to fencing.  Volunteers put us up boundary fences after the fires but they were plain wire and they need to have ringlock added before we can use that area for sheep.

Meanwhile the sheep are grazing in the house site and keeping the grass neat on our house roof. They do a very good job because the manicure all the edges and tricky bits.  It is nice seeing the little lambs playing around the house too.

winter's end

August 14 2017

The winter continues to retreat. This week the cherry blossom in Yarra Glen has lit up the trees like pink clouds and the buds on the oak trees have started to swell.  In doors, in my newly organised jungle the orchids are in bloom, well the first two are but the buds on the third plant have yet to open.   Orchid season is always a real joy though the plants are no use for anything but decoration.

Edd is off on the tractor slashing the dead black berry canes in the old vineyard.  The goats have done a great job on them, all the leaves and green shoots are gone and only dead canes remain.  The gulley is transformed since we started the goats in there.  The snag is that we can now see the massive extent of the erosion that has occurred since we had the big fire in 2009.  The gully is so deep that we will just have to live with it.

Today we inspected fences and checked on the red gum trees that were planted in our wilderness zone.  Much to our delight they had all survived and there were no signs of deer damage.  It is a very beautiful day, sunny warm and fresh.  It is pleasing to find that each year we are slowly putting right everything that was destroyed by fire.  The new fences look great and order is returning.  It has been nine years of huge effort but the task no longer looks endless.

I have been pruning and feeding the fruit trees and working in the vegetable garden.  We had some help last week when a group of eight, year nine kids arrived from a local high school to get volunteer experience.  They turned out to be excellent workers and one group loaded up all the old treated pine into the new trailer so that Edd could take it to the tip. It is too toxic to burn so we had just collected it all into an ugly heap. The approach to the house now looks so much better.

Another group swept up the dead leaves and cleaned up in the ruins and the last group shifted the final load of pebbles from Toby’s garden site.  I now have to remove the dogwood bush that has seeded there and then we can start construction work.  I suppose the wall extension is the first step.

The older sheep have now started to lamb and we had three new babies last week.  I am having fun spinning and weaving the wool from last years shearing. My plan is to make cushion covers but I have not actually sewn any up yet.  They need a backing with a zip and I need to get a zipper foot for the sewing machine to do this. I have been using cheap brought wool to experiment with colour and design.  The colours react in, (to me); unpredictable ways when I weave and at this stage I have no idea how a piece will look before I start. It is quite challenging.

We have spent some time helping Bo by picking up her kids from school when she is at work.  She has to drive right into the town to get to the children’s’ hospital but she has loved the work.   This week things got more complicated because Silkie got flu and has been really ill.  Bo had to take a day off work and take her to hospital on one day. Bo says she is a bit better today but still not well enough for school.