Xmas celebrations

28.12.2019

I am totally exhausted but we have survived Xmas for another year.  Edd brought a new

un- leaking tap and solved the sink problem, and everybody helped with food and cooking to make a perfect feast.  Dani, Wayne, their kids and Danni’s mother stayed with us on Friday night.    It had been a very hot day but by evening it cooled a bit and we all had a meal in the gazebo.  Wayne had put up a string of led lights around the gazebo roof and the sun set red through the smoke and dust making a quite magical settling.  

Luckily Saturday was cooler, but I still cooked the turkey in the oven in the dairy. Six hours of stove heat would not have helped in the house.  As usual it was unclear exactly how many would come but I think we fed about 40 a full xmas meal. There was not much left of an eight-kilo turkey, or anything else for that matter.  All Wayne’s mates from work and their families came, and Ben’s parents, Pia’s parents plus all our kids and grandkids and great grandkids, except Josh and Bobby.

They are busy packing up for a move to Perth where Bobby has a new job at the WA university as a lecturer.  It is a great start to the career she is after but getting there to start mid-January is another matter.  They can fly there but they have to get the car on a train and get their six rats over and into a new rat tolerant home.  We missed them but everyone understood why their focus was not in the holiday.

Al and Pip brought their own tent for Saturday night so we could all have a family breakfast in the morning.  Then we all parted, and the kids went onto the next set of parties.  Yesterday it was Edd’s birthday, so Al organised a meal out near his house.  Bo, Simon and Sylkie caught the ferry across the heads from Mornington where they were on holiday and I got up very early to do the farm work and leave to drive down at 9am.  This all worked well, and we had a great meal out at a winery with views over the sea.  We even had time for a beach walk before we had to drive home. The goats tolerated this disruption to their milking schedule but everything else was calling out for food when we got home.

It would be nice to think we could relax now but the first of our hay paddocks has been cut and the land is bone dry.  I had to water the trees this morning because they were looking very stressed.  The vegetables get watered twice most days, so they look OK.  The corn and pumpkins are larger every time I do them, they grow almost fast enough to see.  We have our first cucumber and some large strawberries, but the parrots have eaten the last of the loquats. No worry, there is still plenty of things we can eat.

19.12.2019

Water has appeared under the kitchen sink!  Why do these things always happen just as I am about to host the Xmas family gathering?  Everything was fine yesterday, but by the evening Edd noticed water on the floor and this morning everything in the under-sink cupboard is wet.  There is nothing I can do now, Edd has already left to get on a train to Melbourne where he meeting friends for their annual get together and I am picking up the turkey and other food, having my hair cut and taking the bins to the brewery to get the last barley before the holidays.

Yesterday it was over 40C, it was hot all over Australia and the fires continue to burn out of control.  The big fires started in Queensland and have worked their way down the coast. They are now in the North of Victoria and heading our way. Even our rulers now have admitted that this is climate change in action.  The hot weather means extra work to keep animals and plants alive.  We have mulched all the garden beds and water them twice a day. Growing vegetables need a lot of water.  Yesterday everything survived.

Tomorrow Danni and her mother are coming to help with the party preparations.  What a wonderful daughter in law Danni is.   She successfully runs her own business, rears to young kids and still finds time to think and do things for others.    It is predicted to be over 40C again on Friday, so I am very happy that I am getting some help.  I have worked this week cleaning everything up.  I have washed and resealed the house floors. De-cluttered the rooms and sorted out the flower beds and pots.  I have even polished up the horse brasses and copper pans because I like the place to gleam.  I really did not need a plumbing problem.

Edd has been whipper snipping down all the grass the mower can’t reach, so it looks much tidier outside too.  I am hoping he will find time to sort out the top of one of the outdoor tables that has collapsed.  I am hoping Danni’s mum will make up the Xmas crackers. Yesterday I went to the chocolatery in Yarra Glen and brought lots of delicious chocolates to go in them.   I hate the way the commercial ones have silly plastic tokens that all end up being thrown away.

Time to write at last

8.12.2019

We have been very busy, too busy to write the blog or much else that was not essential.  Now I have two weeks of relative peace before our seasonal celebrations take place.    The school camps went well, despite some difficult conditions. The students coped unexpectedly well with heat, storms and rain and remained cheerful.   Our Finnish work away couple returned for the last week of camp, so we had people everywhere.

Our shearer came with is family the next weekend and stayed in the donga with his family, we all co-operated to get the sheep shorn and drenched and we even strapped the alpaca down on a table and did him as well.   He complained bitterly throughout the procedure, but at least he did not spit at anyone.  

 The goat kids are now in small paddocks where they have grazing and space to run and jump. Only the boy, Nicky is still in the shed as it is time he separated from the girls.   He was not happy with this arrangement, but his mother Dixie stayed in the shed next to his pen when the other goats went out to feed.     This is amazing when she was separated from him when he was under a week old.     She was happy to leave him when he was relaxed with the other kids but obviously got worried when he was upset.    Luckily, he has settled down now to the new arrangement.

The Finnish couple stayed about three weeks and helped us with farm work.  They took over from us one day and let Edd and I spend a night away.  We went to the hot spa near Mornington and relaxed in their wonderful bush land setting.  You can now walk quite a way along well-made paths and dip into various different pools.  It was so nice to walk barefoot and soak in hot mineral water. We had an evening meal on their restaurant too, which was great.

Back on the farm Edd is building a new bed for vegetables. We need extra space for the pumpkins as they sprawl everywhere.  The broccoli and cauliflowers are all gone now and today I picked the last cabbage.   We still have abundant lettuce and snow peas and have started eating the zucchini. The tomatoes and beans have flowers and the cucumber have started to put on size.

The school kids harvested and froze lots of lemons and made marmalade, but we still have spare citrus Our loquats are dripping with succulent fruit and the mulberries, straw berries and raspberries are producing berries. There is even fruit on some of the young trees in the new orchard. The kids put us up a new chook shed so we have chickens at work controlling the grass under the trees.

The weather is warming up but there is still a lot of green.  We are so lucky.  Fires still rage all down the east coast and many homes have been lost.  Sydney and Brisbane have dangerous air pollution from the fires and dust storms have affected the glacial ice in New Zealand.  We had dust here and all our vehicles ended up with red spots.