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.