I am so sad

Permaculture meeting in the ruins.

April 28, 2019

I feel so incredibly sad. I am worried that there are now issues in politics and family politics that are causing massive splits and disruptions where everyone will end up suffering.   Our poor earth is being ripped apart by greed and fear and today our family seems to be going the same way.  I just pray that there is enough wisdom left to eventually restore some sort of balance.

The weather has changed. The temperature has dropped enough to make me light the wood stove and today continual drizzle is giving the parched land some relief.  We have 20 students due here on a school camp tomorrow morning and getting things ready is tough in these conditions.   Luckily our mate ,John , came yesterday and moved all the deep litter from the goat shed down into the paddock to mature.  The goats are now closer to the ground and can benefit from the wind break provided by the corrugated bases of the walls. There was just enough straw left to make them comfortable.

Al and Pip brought some rocks up from Ocean Grove that they do not want in their garden and stayed on Friday night.  Little Pele is almost walking now and took a great interest in using my big bowls and pans as percussion instruments.  Indi is actually due to give birth today but there is very little happening yet.   We are trying to make sure she is given much support as possible, and is not left on her own too long.  I think Arden is still working on a car that he and Ti organised.

Dani is due next week end so all in all this could be a very difficult week, but once we get through it Edd and I can relax into winter mode.    We are drying off all the goats possible and now we are getting plenty of vegetables without spending hours watering.   I have beans to freeze from today’s harvest and a large beetroot to cook.  There are plenty of pumpkins I roasted one for the family meal on Friday , which was good. We have salad green again too. They did not do at all well during the long hot summer, but they are making up for lost time now.

Surprise visitors

April 19, 2019

Our plan was to have a quiet week before Easter, but as usual circumstances changed. On Saturday some good friends turned up who we had not expected.     We were ,of course , really happy to see them and we all shared a fun filled evening meal with lots of news to catch up on.     On Wednesday we had an even greater surprise.    Indi drove up as we were eating breakfast and we saw that she had someone else with her who was not as tall as Ben. They came into the house and it was only then that we realised that Indi had her brother with her who we thought was in Germany.

It turned out that Arden booked a ticket to Australia when he heard that Indi was expecting but mostly he kept it a secret.  He certainly gave us a huge surprise.  Luckily Dan had left the donga spotless, so he could move straight in there.  We had planned to let Indi’s friends use the donga over the time round the birth, but we had not expected any one to turn up so soon.    Indi is thrilled to have the company and I am most relieved that she will have extra support.    Her plan is to have a home birth which worries us a bit.

Bo and Sylkie , Indi ,Ben and Arden all joined us for an evening meal to welcome Arden home.  Luckily, we had enough food stocks in to cope but the following day I went shopping again as stocks were getting low . I had no butter, flour or sugar left  so we were not even able to cook a crumble for desert.    Bo brought plums and ice cream so that had to do.

On Tuesday we borrowed Indi’s car ( Edd’s ute is not strong enough) and drove up to Ballarat where we picked up two tons of oats.  The farmer we buy from is semi-retired and is only down from Queensland a short time , so it had to be Tuesday.  With the weather so dry we were relieved to get another few months, supply of oats. We just hope enough rain comes so that they can plant again this year, but things are looking grim.

Fortunately, we have water in the big dam because I need to water the vegetables every day to keep them alive. The nights are a bit cooler now but not as cool as we expect at this time of year.  The tomatoes are starting to die back but the pumpkins are still growing. The new beans I planted are cropping well and we are eating our way through the beetroots and snow peas.  The school kids planted lots of seedlings like cauliflowers , rocket and broccoli so winter vegetables are started.  We can’t plant any more until the pumpkins and tomatoes are pulled out and we get extra bed space.

Now we are into Easter and the grouping of holidays gives everyone almost two weeks off. Except for us farmers, that is.  We just keep working because goats need milking and plants need watering whatever the event.  Perhaps we will get our quiet week over Easter when everyone else is away.

using up a dry autumn

April 14, 2019

The hour has changed, and it is now dark at 6.30pm.  Most of the goats we planned to get pregnant have now been mated and we are preparing for winter.  We still have one more school camp at the end of April, but we have now done most of the events we agreed to do. This weekend a lovely lady volunteered her time to give a talk on her environmental studies for our local Landcare and permaculture groups. We hosted the event in the ruins and for once I was glad it was dry.  The weather was actually perfect. One of those clear blue days in that start off misty and end up in the mid- twenties.

The talk was about the intricate relations ships between species of plants and animals in our bushland and how development has interrupted complicated life cycles.  She was advocating that land owners should consider the environment when they make changes on their properties and try not to break wildlife corridors.  Mostly it was a philosophical discussion on the ethics of land owning post colonisation. People brought food for a shared lunch and we provided tea and coffee with a plate of goats’ cheese and homemade biscuits. All the people who came were lovely and contributed their experiences and ideas so that it was a very special day.

We had another lovely day the previous weekend when we went into the community garden at Ceres in Melbourne to meet up with family for grandson P’s first birthday.   Al and Pip rented a room and private garden and cooked lots of finger food so all we had to do was get there in time.  We managed this by milking the goats the evening before and leaving Dan to feed everything in the morning.

Once again it was a sunny dry day and a peaceful friendly occasion. Wayne was there with Ella and his partner who is due in early May and Indi and Ben came too. Indi is due at the end of April but her younger brother came with his partner who is also expecting, but later in the year.  It was a great time for them to all meet up. We also got to meet Pip’s nephew who is only a few weeks old. He was there with his parents who have just collected him from his surrogate mother in America!

We will have to get used to our new position as great grandparents. We were the only ones of our generation who were able to come to the party but with Bo and all her kids there it felt as if we belonged. It was amazing to think that in a few months, time the family will be increased by so many new members.  I have totally lost count of birthdays and ages and will have to update my family data base urgently.

Today I took Dan to the station so that he could move on to his next host.  He has been with us a long time and has done a great deal to help us. One of the last thing we did was plant out  the fern garden in the old sand pit.  I have included food plants like water cress and native pepper and of course the fern trees were a food for Aboriginal people too. It will be an interesting new feature.