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.