New loo cellar and a beach trip

January 20 2017

There was a thunderstorm last night and today it is raining.  I should be thrilled because the plants have really been suffering during the last few days of extreme heat. The snag is that I have a landcare group due here tomorrow afternoon and I was relying on today to clean up the ruins and around the veggie gardens so that things look good.  Bother.

The house is quite good for tidiness. Last week Edd put up more shelves in the cellar at the back of the house and I sorted through all our stored stuff and loaded it on the shelves in labelled boxes.  We brought a second hand bookcase too, so that now all the books that were accumulating in piles on every flat surface have been marshalled into order out of the way.  All this has helped restore order in the living areas of the house.

I work in the garden for about 2 hours every night whilst I do the watering.  I have hacked out weeds on the banks and pruned back plants encroaching onto plants.   Unfortunately I have not cleared away all the resulting dead matter yet. Perhaps we will have time tomorrow.   We were out a lot recently.   Edd fetched a load of straw one day and we picked up the new freezer we had ordered on another.  Then we had to get the bookcase and do the usual runs to the brewery for barley.

On the hottest day we did the animals early and drove down to Phillip Island for a day at the seaside.  We had a glorious time with a pile of kids leaping in and out of the surf and being bowled over by big waves.  I looked around, and I was the only grandmother to be seen, but I did not let that spoil my fun. I had discovered that our usual restaurant had closed down so we investigated other options and settled for an evening meal in Harry’s at Cowes.    This proved a good choice and we had a very relaxing evening.    It was a bit spoilt because we had to drive home but Indi and Ben were doing the animals so at least we avoided coming home to more work.

cleaning out the storage room

January 8 2017-01-08

Al’s house in Warburton is looking pretty flash now.  Pip and Al are determined to finish off every last detail before the tenants move in.  I have been painting the architraves and skirting boards and yesterday we brought a large chest of drawers that Al borrowed years ago back to the farm.  It only survived the fires because it was out on loan. 

Better news is that next week Al is coming to get all his office furniture that has been clogging up our storage room.  I moved all the stored stuff around and created a space so that Edd was able to put up some plank shelves to store our stuff out of the way so that we can get access to Al’s office furniture. When all this has gone we can think about getting a chest freezer and a mobile butcher to kill the male lambs.

This week we have hot dry weather, a much more normal Australian type summer.  The house continues to stay marvellously cool.  In this weather cleaning out storage areas seems like a good idea. Indi and Ben are very busy building their mobile home in our neighbour’s big shed.  They are looking after his place whilst he is away.  Ben found a big tiger snake in with their young birds but managed to get rid of it.

There was a picture in the news from one poor family that found a snake curled round their Xmas tree amongst the decorations!  I have now put all my decorations away and folded my tree back int5o it’s box.  The tree is also from before the fires and it survived because it was stored in our cellar. It is only a cheap, artificial tree but it now has survivor status, and has slipped its way into our family history and rituals.

January 3 2017

We are having unusual weather in that there has been tropical storms and other rain events that have complicated hay making and kept the grass green.  The blackberries that usually die off in the summer dry are having a field day and springing up lush and fast everywhere.  Today I have mowed the fire breaks round the old house site and the sheds. The blackberries in the fence lines need to be dealt with later.

In the garden the pumpkins grow about a metre a day! We have had a glut of zucchinis that go to the market and Bo’s restaurant, and the tomatoes that have formed a thicket. Yesterday I harvested more beans for freezing and the garlic which needs processing and freezing as ice cubes.  The physic garden is doing well and the plants are mostly looking strong.

We have been lucky with the hay. Indi and friends helped us get bales in and we dodged the un-forecasted rain.  We still have bales to pick up from the shed we put them in and we have round bales to sort out down Steels Creek road. Other people have not been so lucky and lots of hay has been ruined.  Still it is a bumper year with round bales thickly covering every paddock.

New year , new house for Al

January 2 2017

Th

We celebrated New Years Eve by having great food and wine with good friends in Kinglake.   Especially good for me because for once I was not doing the cooking. Edd even had enough energy to go to another party after we had got home and milked the goats but I was happy to sleep through the actual year change.

We had worked hard during the week. There was more hay to transport to the shed from a paddock down the road and once again rain storms to dodge. Luckily Ben and Indi have helped us so the task was not impossible. I am definitely too old for this sort of thing, but Edd persists.

After the last hay marathon we had to help Al and Pip move house.  They hired a big truck but Edd had to fetch it because he is the only one with the right license. He left it by Al’s house in the evening so that it could be loaded.  There are now some fabulous new steps leading from the walking track to the house but they are still steps and every piece of furniture had to be carried down them.

We left here at 6am next morning and drove to Warburton so that Edd could drive the truck to their new house. They had been up until 2am doing the loading but the truck took up all the walking track which is on the top of a steep bank so it was hard to get past it even on foot. A bigger problem arose when we had to get it down the track back onto the road because just by the road there was a tall pole with a pointed bit of metal sticking out that the truck could not fit under. We had to send Al up a ladder with the angel grinder to cut the obstacle off. I don’t think it had any important function!

The drive was at least 3 hours too and then as our family had shot ahead in their own car we were unable to interpret our instructions and missed a vital turn off. We rang Al once we realised we had gone astray but he must have mistaken our location because he directed us onward along an ever narrowing beach side road. Then the rain started and all the holidaymakers left the beach and set of home in cars bicycles and on foot, which mad the road really scary as well as narrow. 

It took us a long time to get out of this mess. Thank goodness for mobile phones.  Al came to meet us but the traffic was getting ever thicker with the wet beach goers now in their cars trying to escape to who knows where.  We did reunite and eventually got to the new house where a slight accident occurred with a helpers car that was in a dangerous position. Despite this it was a good thing Pip had organised helpers because we were all needed to unload everything. No slaking either, because there was a time limit to get the truck back and a long journey.

We had not calculated on a tropical storm arriving and soon there was rain reducing visibility to a few metres and the roads began to flood.  This time Al was with us so at least we had a navigated with the equipment to get road reports so we could avoid the main free way that was flooded to a point it had to be closed. Many drivers just drove on to the hard shoulder and parked up with their lights on but the drivers who kept going were mostly very sensible and we avoided the inevitable accidents.

We got the truck back two minutes before the place closed. This was very important because Al’s landrover would have been impounded in their yard if we had been late and the lady in charge said she could not wait for us if we did not make the time. Al dropped us back at the farm and then set off for his old house.  He is doing the final touches on the building so that it is ready for tenants next week!

Yesterday there was a working B there and a lot was done. Edd and helpers put up the last of the external weatherboards and Pip’s parents sanded doorframes and did the painting. My job was to clean out one of the sleep outs and render round the base of the fireplace. It now looks so good it will be hard to leave, surf or no surf.

December 25 2016

Happy Xmas to all.  Against all probability we got through Xmas eve positively.  The thunder storm here was really scary and a cypress tree along the steel creek road took a direct hit but the power stayed on and I got all the farm work done. Edd had even better luck. He joined Indi in Healesville and they worked all day carting hay bales from the paddock into hay shed.  Despite Internet predictions the storm missed them and they had only the extreme heat working against them. When they finally wore out Al and Pip drive over and got the final load to safety.

Once all this was sorted we showered and drove to Al’s house in Warburton for a final party.  Everyone brought a dish and we sat on his veranda overlooking the mountains and river and relaxed.  Today everyone is off for a beach day but Edd and I are happy to stay on the farm quietly.  The vegetables need constant watering and the house is cool so we are better off hanging around.