Harvest Home

January 7 2019

We are very relieved, we have got the first paddock of hay bales stacked in the shed without too much stress.   It was cut and baled on Thursday and we got enough help to cart it from Healesville to our shed.  I drove the ute to pick up the first load and Indi drove for the last one which included the hay she needed for her horses. Edd, Graeme and his helper managed the rest with some very welcome help from my friend's son and a back pack worker.

On Friday the temperature soared into the high 40’s. None of us could have worked hay in that heat so we were very glad the job was done.  The plants suffered but as the temperature cooled next day most survived. The big, and very unexpected loss was the cat.  He was fine in the morning, but he staggered down to the house in the evening, collapsed and then died.  There was no time to even think about getting him to a vet.  We can only assume that he must have been bitten by a snake. 

January17

We have been very busy. A week ago, we hosted a Montessori International conference that  wanted the participants to understand what their students did on farms.  We were asked to organize a program to do this. Over 30 people where directly involved plus there was a Chinese interpreter, and staff . We had also asked for some of the camp students to help. Indi took a group to do horses and Lyn took round an observation group, so that everyone could see everything. At least that was the idea.

Edd took people down the paddock with the tractor and trailer to fetch fire wood, and we gave Steve all he needed to run an art activity painting designs on the wall by the pool.  The camp students and I did the milking and other animals with our group and the other teacher Steve had brought along took a gardening group.  I prepared activity sheets , so everyone had written instructions and the morning passed very quickly.  The final group had the job of preparing lunch and lit the pizza oven to cook in.  We had not expected them to do this and they showed great  initiative in  finding  wood and getting it going in time!

I think the painting group had most fun because it was difficult to get them to stop. One young lady who did the horses said it was an amazing experience because she had only seen horses in books and had no idea of the scale or what it would be like to touch one. I got the impression that the people from China and Taiwan had never been anywhere near a farm before.   Luckily the weather was perfect , not too hot but sunny and by the end of the day everyone was relaxed and looked as if they had enjoyed themselves.

We were very lucky. After this the weather has heated up and work outside during the day has got impossible. We have some “workaway” travellers staying, and they have helped get the rest of the hay in. The shed is now very full. Al came last week and passed a nasty bug to me, so I have been sick for three days. I am nearly better but one of our travellers is now sick. At least Edd has had help when I have been out of action.

Let then year begin

January 3

We are waiting to hear if the hay has been baled and getting increasingly worried. The temperature is forecast to be above 40C tomorrow ,followed by rain next day!  I have been trying to get help from travellers through the workaway scheme, but they  will arrive too late.  The good thing is that this has all helped us forget about the other big problem. Namely, the water in the main house has somehow got polluted!  It all started after a big rain a few weeks ago but since then we have changed things so that the water is supplied to the house from the same tank as the dairy and the donga , where the water is OK. Mysteriously this has not helped, and we still get very dirty looking water out of our taps at intervals.

I have put an extra filter on in the dairy and we can fill milk bottles with clean water to use for drinking and cooking. The water is good enough to shower with and flush toilets, so it is a problem we can manage for now.  We lived with polluted water in the Northern Territory desert for several years, so I have experience with this sort of thing.

Today I am cleaning up the donga for the workaway people.  I think I have two blokes coming in the next few days.  We have plenty of work for them even if the hay is done.  Last year Lyn helped us one day a week , which was good but was not enough to get things done in a way that we were progressing with farm re-establishment.  Jobs have been on the go for over a year and I can see that Edd and I have far more to do than we are capable of. Years ago, we managed by having travellers called wwoofers who did farm work in exchange for board, so I am going to try this again this year.

January 1. 2019

The new year has begun but we did not party to welcome it in. We are very much in the back to work mode already.  It seems that our hay will be cut this week and we are very short of able bodied workers to cart it into the shed.  Ben is away, and Indi is far to pregnant fort heavy work.  Simon has gallantly offered some help and I can drive the ute and trailer, but it is not an event I am looking forward to.

I have also begun the preparation work for the Montessori conference day we are hosting in just over a week.  Yesterday I concentrated on the work sheets and have most of that done but there is a lot of cleaning up to do everywhere.  It is a strange year with green grass still growing where usually everything is burnt  into inaction. I have had to mow everywhere round the house and ruins and Edd has mowed the old hay paddock and moved the sheep below the big dam.

The pumpkins have gone berserk and taken over most of the vegetable gardens, but the lettuces are struggling with the heat.  The tomatoes are ripening ,the basil has grown well, and the cucumbers are nearly large enough to pick.  We have mizuna , wild rocket , cabbages and beans of various types.  I am freezing lots of the beans for eating later in the year when we are sick of swiss chards.