Seaonal festivities and hay

 26 12 2020

 

Xmas has been well celebrated. We had a big party in our ruins on the 19^th to celebrate our golden wedding anniversary and the coming solstice. For once the weather gods were on our side and we had a mild sunny day, perfect for alfresco dining.  Bo prepared a feast for about 50 people based on Jerusalem style food.  We had a grazing table and Simon did a spit roast of lamb and some chicken to go with all the different salads.  Bo even made my favourite style of cake with méringue layers between rich chocolate filling. That did not last long!

 

It was a lovely afternoon with family and friends. In the evening it was the children’s turn with present giving in the house and a secret Santa game for adults.  We have 6 very young kids with Al’s two boys, Our grandkids daughters and Wayne’s two girls.  Our latest great grandchild had only just been born. He weighed in at 5.2 Kilo and was still resting with his mother.  Ti brought his first daughter over for the day and impressed us all with his parenting skills.

 

Yesterday Edd and I went to Bo’s house and joined her family and in-laws for Xmas lunch. Once again food was in feast proportions, but it was a much quieter party.  I am  lucky having a daughter who puts in so much effort to get everything running.  We had enough  work here to prepare the gardens and the ruins and I would never have managed the food as well.  

 

I rescued the four triangular ends of a swing seat system from our dumping place and Edd joined pairs together, so we had support for fly screens over the food.  Then we turned an old tabletop upside down and filled it with ice that got hidden by a tablecloth. This meant we had a chilled area for the grazing table.  I am so glad I did not send these broken things to the tip. Up cycling waste is a farm privilege. 

 

We got the gardens pretty neat for the party  and Edd got the pool blue and sparkling. We now have loads of zucchinis, the first beans and the last of the cauliflowers to eat.  The sweet corn is nearly a foot high and the tomatoes have green fruit.  The basil is ready, and I have harvested the garlic, so it is possible to make pesto again.  I froze some last year which worked well. 

 

The biggest gain is that we have got most of the hay in.  Ollie found two friends who helped Edd do half of the carting, and we paid someone else to do the rest.  We are getting too old to do it all ourselves and so is Graeme who we work with.  The big job now is to sort out and sell the sheep.  The shearer said he would be here before Xmas, but it was a lie!

 

The market says it is opening in the new year which will help.  Once the sheep are sold, we can work on the fences and soil improvement.  Our aim is to grow the hay we need here but it will take effort to get to this stage. The car port walls are up, and we next need a roof. Stevo rendered the end walls to the west of the house but we have to waterproof the car port walls before we do anything to them.

 

NSW has more virus case but so far, they have not spread down here thank goodness.

2020 ends better than it began

Goats begin to shine after shedding winter coats

Bo's house all tidied up for viewing

 

30 11 2020

 

The big news is that Bo and Simon sold their house this weekend and have paid the deposit on their new place.  I am really thrilled that they are staying in Yarra Glen because our two families work together and help each other all the time.  You can only really have this sort of relationship if you live close.  I don’t know when we will even see Josh again. Perth is so very far away.  We would have flown their last winter, but the virus made this impossible. It is even difficult to keep in touch with Al. His house is a three-hour drive from us so to visit him means 6 hours driving and we are finding that a bit too much.

 

Wayne brought his two lovely daughters up to visit us which was great.  Maya looks so cute but when I picked her up, she was surprisingly solid and very heavy.  I felt as if I was carrying a wombat!  Indi and Alice came over today to get fencing materials.  Alice loves collecting eggs when she visits us, so Indi has brought her a house and some chooks for Xmas.  Today they wanted to fence the chooks into a section of their garden. 

 

Victoria has gone four weeks with no new virus cases, and we have been released from all the travel restrictions.  Shops have opened and I have been able to buy a pile of second-hand books from the op-shops.  I am so enjoying being able to read novels that I haven’t read before.  I have also been able to go Xmas shopping.  For the first hour it was quite fun after not going near shops for most of the year, but the feeling did not last. Shopping is not really my thing.

 

Most people are very grateful that we had the lockdown and even now people are standing in queues at a distance and wearing masks.  The roads are very busy.  Edd and I wanted to go to Bunnings at the weekend but when we got to Yarra Glen the traffic was so bad, we turned round and went home.

 

 

The weather has warmed up lots and we are getting some challengingly hot days already. One of the sugar maple trees on the drive is looking pretty sick after the sudden change from swamp to dust around its feet.  I am watering the vegetables and also getting in all the summer crops. Already we have eaten our first zucchinis of the year and the tomatoes have flowers. The garlic is ready to be dug out and we are eating our way through the last of the broccoli.  

 

The goats are losing their soft winter under-coats, and some are already sleek and shiny, but others look quite mangy because their undercoats are much paler than their summer coats. Their kids are bouncing around outside and getting heavier by the day.    We are getting about the right amount of milk to feed the kids we have kept and make the cheese.  It is always a juggle to get this balance right.

Things look brighter

 10 11 2020

 

Sense and science have fortunately prevailed.  This is the tenth day in Victoria where there have been no new virus cases and no deaths. In fact, there is no-one left in hospital with the disease and elective surgery has started up again.  On top of this the USA has a new president who believes in science and is aware of climate change.  We all breath a bit easier.

 

Bit by bit the weather is warming up too, but everything is still very green.  We have nearly finished the new buck pen fence and Jeff has got most of the blockwork done on the car port.  We are going well but now Xmas is fast approaching, so it is time to change gear and plan for a party.  I was not sure if we could have friends over but now at least outdoors will be OK.  Edd and I have been married 50 years this December so we will roll that celebration into our normal solstice do.

 

Today we sorted the pump out on the pool.  I brought a new net and scooped most of the leaves and bottom junk last week, but we need the filter running for the next step.  The new house Bo is buying has an inground pool and a spa, but they are not able to move till next year, so we will have to have the party here, on the farm.  On Friday Bo and I did a marathon job preparing her house for the real estate agents to photograph. Bo painted the window frames and I painted under the eaves. 

 

 Then we rearranged the kids’ rooms and put new covers on the beds. The agents wanted more pictures and fortunately Bo has spent her free time this winter painting, so we had lots of mounted canvasses to choose from. Amazingly we found a picture to suit every blank wall.  We worked hard until 3pm when the first of the agents arrived and mostly things looked really good.  We just hope she sells quickly and at the right price.  It will go on the market this week.

 

More and more wood ducks have taken up life around our house.  They all have families at the moment and when we go outside they have to round up their babies and escort them down to the safety of the dam.  This takes time because the babies walk rather than fly.  Today one father duck tried the broken wing act to give his family more time.  He did a great acting job, but it was rather wasted as they were in no danger from me. They are really a type of goose and eat the grass whilst leaving a shitty mess, but they are amusing to watch.

 

Reptiles are on the move too.  I found a long neck tortoise waddling toward the dam, and Morg found a red bellied black snake in the garden.  Our tenant, CB. Is worried about snakes. It is her first summer of country living and she is not sure how she will cope with the threat of bush fires as well as the wildlife.  My plan is to clear up everywhere so there is no where that snakes can hide and nothing to burn.  The new storage shed will help a lot this year.

 

Things improve

 

 

I am thrilled.  The TV unit I ordered arrived in just a few days and is better than I expected!  It is an exact match for our coffee table and fits into the space nicely.   Even better when I removed the pile of cablers under the old plank system the cable end of the wire that connected the tv to the HD box broke.  The box was very wonky and caused the Tv to keep cutting out or getting lines across the screen.  Our neighbour came in with a new cable and took the box home to examine but much to my surprise the tv works much better without it!  Wd were thinking we would have to buy a new tv, but the urgency is off now.  Edd and I do watch TV in the evening because we are too tired to do much else and the charity shops where I buy books are still closed.

 

On the Corvid 19 front things are going well.  Cases over the last week dropped dramatically and one day was even 0.  Some restrictions came off last weekend but none that helped us.  We are now allowed to travel 25 km from home or work but that still means we can not see most of our grandchildren.  Still, the lock down seems to have worked well and curbed the upward trend, so we are very grateful our PM followed scientific advice.

 

The new shed is complete, and we have started to move all the stuff out of the big shed. The shelving system we were given after the fires is perfect for storing things, so we are gradually dismantling it and moving it over.  Everything is filthy.  Dust and dirt make this an unpleasant job.  My motivation to keep working on this is to get the upper space in the shed as a new clean area.  Edd wants the lower level as a garage space where he can work on vehicles so we both have different things to spur us on.

 

I also went over to help Bo work on her house and get it ready for real estate viewing.  She and her family have found a bigger house in Yarra Glen that they would like to buy so Bo’s house maintenance efforts became urgent.  She has done so much work on her place but with 7 or so people living there it is hard to keep on top of things.  Bo has also been working from home and the kids have been doing home schooling but at least the latter has ended and her two youngest are back in normal education.

 

Food is flowing here.  We have good crops of snow peas and broad beans and some old seed I sowed has produced a lush crop of mizuna to add to our salads.  I am fighting slugs to try and preserve the pumpkin and zucchini seedlings, but my cucumber seedlings died. The first of the Portuguese millipedes are arriving too, which is an ominous sign.

living between times

 11.10.2020

 

I can’t believe it is so long since I posted anything.   I think we have just been very busy.  Edd’s new shed is now nearly complete, and we have sold the bottle-fed lambs and buck kids.  They all went to good homes as pets.  I was actually surprised at how fast they sold. The price of a pet has shot up considerably, dogs cost thousands now that almost every pet is neutered.  It is not a totally good move because mongrels are often the healthiest best dogs and breeders can be breeding for looks rather than health or temperament.  Perhaps a goat is a dog substitute, and a lot less work.

 

Spring has really started. Flowers everywhere and the grass lush and green.  The weather is still swinging with some days hot and sunny and then a sudden return to frost at night. Over all things are improving but we have been warned that the Nina system will bring more rain than usual.  

 

We are still under heavy lockdown and cases of the virus are below 15 a day but not dropping fast.  We notice that more and more people are just ignoring the rules.  Yesterday an acquaintance entered our house, uninvited and sat down at our table without even a mask on and we felt very uncomfortable.  We did not expect anyone to do this so had no coping strategy planned.  Mostly everyone is trying hard to look after others but if the rules relax, we will have to set our own boundaries.

 

Our tenant CB in the donger is very respectful of our space.  We never enter each other’s houses and observe social distancing when talking outside.  I can see that we are in a sort of limbic situation where the old way of living is over and the new normal brought on by covid and climate change has still yet not started.   We really face so many uncertainties that it is not possible to plan for the future in the long or short term.  I have come to the conclusion that I actually feel quite at home in these sort of times, because I can just be in the now and excuse myself from any worrying about what I should be doing to get ready for what is going to happen.

 

Working on the farm is enough to give our daily life structure and meaning.  Basically, we produce food. I get up early every morning to milk the goats and clean up the dairy. With the lambs and some kids sold we now have milk to male cheese again.  In the garden we have started to harvest the broad beans and snow peas and we are trying to get the pumpkins and zucchini established.  The tomato seedlings germinated, and I have pricked them out into separate pots. But the cucumbers don’t seem to be sprouting. Perhaps the seed was too old.

 

My biggest issue is that with the charity shops all closed I have run out of novels to read.  I have lots that I am rereading but it is not quite the same. I have ordered a small unit to sit the TV on.  At present it is balanced on a plank held up by two other loose bits of wood.  Each week it is a nightmare to dust as the wood is rough.  We decided anything will be better. I am never sure when buying stuff like this online but what’s life wit out a few risks?

 

 

A lockdown Spring

  

Last week was amazing.  Warm sunny weather got us working outside all day and we got a lot done.  Edd worked with john and his sons to pour the concrete base for the car port and I Painted the wood in the vegetable garden and worked on clearing up the old kitchen patio in the ruins.  This job is traditionally one of the first spring jobs and I have been doing it at this time for years and years.  CB whipper snipped the grass around the vegetable beds’, and I planted out the first pumpkin seedlings that germinated.  

 

I now have zucchini seedings coming up and I have planted Queensland blue pumpkin seeds.  Often, I cheat and buy seedlings from Bunnings but with everything closed down for covid19 this is not an option.  I did check, just in case they would deliver seedlings to me but there was no luck there, so it was back to saved seeds from last year.  The snow peas and broad beans are producing their first pods and the cabbages are nearly ready.  Just in time too.  The freezer that was full to the brim with last year’s produce is nearly empty and ready for a spring cleaning.

 

The grass is growing fast and the sheep are cleaning up on the roof and in our house site/ fire reserve. It has been very hard keeping them going over winter because we were unable to sell the lambs when the market closed.  In this strict lock down we can’t even have people coming to the farm to buy stock, so we have been forced into a situation where we are over stocked.  Luckily, I had sold the spare goats earlier but now we have kids and all the males are ready for new homes.   

 

They are all looking cute and come rushing up for their milk.  All except Tom who Hangs back and is still very shy.  I have no idea why he has this attitude; we have never had another kid like this. Edd says he is sensitive! I think he is just being difficult.  He drinks well but has to be persuaded every time, making the job of feeding much harder than it needs to be.  I do hope someone else really wants a sensitive goat!

 

The kids now drink all the available milk, so I am having a break from cheese making. We have a fridge full of cheese, so this is fine with me.  I get extra time to work in the garden and learn about regenerative agriculture.  I am afraid I have given up in the sourdough bread.  Our friends make much nicer bread than I can make so we are buying bread from them.  Indi can make the great bread and the honey she got from her bees is the best I have ever tasted. It is really nice to eat honey from our own land and watch the bees feeding as they work in the garden.

 

Starting to get things done

8.9.2020

 

He weather has been much, much nicer.  Clear blue skies and warm dry days. At last we can start to get things done on the farm.  Yesterday Andrew, and his off sider, poured the concrete slab for Edd’s new shed.  The truck that brought the concrete here was huge, but it got to the right place and the only problem was that the sun and wind made the concrete go off so fast it was hard to work.

 

Whilst the men struggled with that, I have been working in the vegetable garden digging the mud and grass of the brick paths where it had accumulated during our long muddy winter. Some of the seeds I have planted have germinated, but not the zucchini, and I really want to get them going first. Not that I am short of zucchinis this week. A neighbour dropped off a large box full for us along with a sack of onions, apples and potatoes.  I will have to send some to Bo, it is far too much for us to use.

 

Our stage 4 lock down is to last another 2 weeks.  Numbers off new cases are still dropping but the modelling shows that there are still too many to get on top of contact tracing.  We agree with the policy, but the list of things I am managing without gets longer week by week.  Some things have arrived by post. Having a parcel arrive is quite fun, but I miss the freedom of just being able to drive out and get things when I need them.

 

The last of the kids have been born and are being weaned today.  By next week we should have them all drinking from the feeder and life will be easier.  I start the morning at 7am with the milking and first bottle feeds.  Then I do garden work and do a lunch time bottle feed at 1pm. There is yet another feed after the evening milking at 6pm and then I cook the evening meal and eat it at 7pm.  Edd does the night feed because I refuse to work more than 12 hours a day.  He is Ok because he can have a lie in whilst I do the morning session.

 

Luckily this regime does not go on for long.  The kids can drop back to 2 feeds a day after the milking when they are big enough to drink a litre each at a time.  The biggest problem is that we usually sell all the male kids at an early stage and we need people to be able to come out here for that to happen.  The other problem is that Iris has worked out how to feed her kids through the pen rails which is interfering with our weaning process.  She may have to be shut up in a separate pen away from them every night.

 

The lambs have survived the dreadful weather and are growing quite well.  We need to fix the bottom fence so that we can let the sheep into the hay paddock where the grass is growing. The capeweed is starting to flower but luckily it was dry enough yesterday for me to mow the crofts and cut it all down.  This stops the flowers forming and allows the grass enough light to grow and take over.  We have not finished the redesigned buck pen yet because we stopped working on it to do the shed slab.  We did get a row of posts in. Edd dug the holes by hand which was possible with the ground so wet.  There is an awful lot to do now the weather has improved.

  

Improving

Letting the sheep in for a feed

CB's home in our doing

The site prepared for Edd's new shed

Last week was a definite improvement in all directions.  The virus new case numbers are falling, and the sun and wind have dealt with lots of the mud.  The lambs are thriving, and we have the first goat kids all taking milk from the feeder and their mothers are milking well. The warm weather this weekend gave me the opportunity to work in the garden.  I have planted out seedlings, sorted out the strawberries and weeded the medicinal garden.

 

Yarra glen was surrounded by flood water as it all drained down away from our place down the valley. It did not get into any houses as far as I know but there was a terrific storm that knocked power out for many people and let untreated water down the line, so everyone was advised to boil their water.  For once, we were OK. The power stayed on and we do not have any mains water to worry about.  Three people died after being hit by falling trees, but we were pretty much alright there too, and the trees stayed upright.

 

Things are not improving as climate change increases in pressure year by year.  People are starting to worry about the fire season and the NT has had a week of catastrophic conditions and many fires to fight. We have been feeling sympathy for the people in America affected by the hurricane when they are already having a virus catastrophe.   

 

Despite all this, when the sun shines it is just lovely staying at home and working on the farm.  We are extending the buck pen so that we can do the feed and water without having to climb a steep muddy bank.  So far, we have moved the old fence and brought some extra fence posts. The area looks better already.

 

The chooks are sure Spring has arrived and are laying large numbers of eggs.  The trees are all starting to grow leaves and the broccoli are now ready to start eating.  The swedes and turnips are just about large enough too and the snow peas are climbing up their frame.  I am looking forward to having tomatoes and zucchini again and am working out where everything needs to be planted to keep a crop rotation going.

 

The course I have been studying on regenerative Agriculture is interesting and gives me a different way to look at what I am doing.  I have worked more on soil health and photosynthesising ground cover.  The idea is to capture carbon in the soils as you increase the biological activity.  Apparently, most of the plants bulk comes from photosynthesis and only 5-9% from the soil, but the soil provides the micro-nutrients that are also needed.  The big drive is for direct drilling rather than tilling and also for using cover crops. Species grown to attract insects and birds help with pest control and biodiversity is good. Now all I have to do is put this in action!

 

Hard times

 23.8.2020

 

It is going to be hard to write a cheerful diary this week.  The none stop rain has continued and it has become really cold.  The sheep and lambs are having a terrible time.  I have had to rescue two that were near deaths door and put them in the shed for bottle feeding.  We have moved the sheep into the crofts by the shed and made an indoor space available for them to shelter in.  Not every sheep wants to go inside, and several lambs are sleeping rough outside with their mothers.  We have only lost one so far, but it will be more if these conditions continue.

 

Simon gave us two huge plastic bins from the brewery, and we have set them up to provide the lambs with a shelter and windbreak if they can work out how to use them.  Three goats have kidded so we now have five kids also in the shed. They are still with their mothers at night, so they are doing OK.  There will be more kids in a week or so, but we are hoping that the weather will change by next Wednesday.

 

Spring is coming too.  The large oak tree by the dairy has started to break bud and my one of my orchids has three flowering shoots.  The paddocks are too wet and cold top grow. They are flooded even though they slope downhill as the ground id like a wet sponge.  Everywhere the animals or people put down a foot a new puddle forms.  Our driveways have become creeks with gurgling water eroding them and the usually dry creeks in the gullies are raging torrents.  It is altogether nicer indoors.  No one in our valley remembers a time quite like it!

 

Being in stage four lock down is not helping.  My gumboots leak, the iron has broken, and I accidently boiled the kettle to death.  We are not allowed to travel more than 5k from home or, in our case to the nearest shop, so replacing stuff is hard.   Ordering on-line is difficult because it is hard to gauge the quality of stuff you do not usually get.    I am getting pretty sick of my own cooking too.  Luckily both Simon and our tenant CB, have delivered cooked food to us today so I. will get a bit of a change and have more time in the evening to concentrate on animal care.

 

Bo dropped some of her fruit and vegetables off yesterday and I have spoken to Al and his kids with face time this morning.  Al has had an even worse time because a scammer hacked into his systems and got all his money out of his bank.  They have all his details, so he now has to change everything and try and reclaim his identity.  He looked surprisingly happy despite this.  He says the house is cold because there are still some windows that need putting in but hopefully Stevo will do that next week.

 

Wayne sounds the happiest.  His work has stopped so he is home helping with the kids whilst his wife works.  He sounds as if he is enjoying the break and the chance to sort out the garden for his new house.  They have so much indoor space now. It is a miracle that they managed to move in between the two lock down periods.

 

Indi and Alice

Life during the pandemic

Grand daughter Maya enjoying her new house

12.8.2020

 

Monday and Tuesday were dry, and I got the washing done whilst Edd and Stevo did the lay out for the concrete base for the new shed.  Then it rained hard again over night and the outdoor work became miserable again.  This is the first winter we have had enough milk to make cheese every second day.  Luckily the hard cheese is actually very nice and keeps well. I have also started marinating the feta, but I have not tested it yet.

 

Soon everything will change when the goats stat kidding in just over a week.  We managed to get the milking machine reconditioned and Edd has brought two new small gates for the kidding pens.  We had gates for them last year but have used them up elsewhere.  In the dry weather we moved the gate on the old drive so that we can put the ram in there again.  The original gate position was before the chook pen gate, and neither Edd nor I were happy to walk past the ram with a bucket of food for the chooks every day.  I doubt we would have made it to the pen.  Now we can get to the chooks without danger and the ram can keep the weeds and grass under control along the rest of the old drive.

 

The next move is to get the concrete truck down the old drive to pour the shed floor. After that we can move the ram.  Then we can redo the buck pen. This will allow us to move the buck out of the stock yards and then we can get the sheep in for crutching and prepare them for sale.  The market is still closed but we might be able to sell them privately once the lock down is over.  Our aim is to be ready if an opportunity arrives.

 

This assumes that the lock down will be over and there is no real evidence that this will be possible yet.  It has been months now and life as we used to live it seems a far, off dream. The death toll in Victoria continues to rise with nursing homes having the heaviest losses.

 I am expecting a food delivery today, but the supermarket has just sent a note to say that about half my order is unavailable.  It hardly seems worth the effort for them to drive out this far.  Getting anything done needs a lot of patience.

 

My mail order of masks has arrived so we have an alternative to adapted socks for when we can get out further afield again.  I have not gone anywhere for ages, so I have not had to wear a mask myself yet.  Edd gets cabin fever if he is stuck on the farm so he is doing all the essential things like collecting mail and animal food.  The bottling machine at the brewery is waiting for a new part from America so there is no barley available for us to pick up this week.

 

We have moved the horses back to the old vineyard paddock where there is more grass and let the goats back down the gulley. The goats can deal with any remaining blackberries and eat up fallen leaves. We just have to try and keep the animals looked after as best we can until the spring growth starts. 

Some luck and some problems

 

We started stage 4 lock downs this week. Almost everything is shut down and there is a night-time curfew after 8pm.  This is aimed at the young adult group who tend to ignore all the directives and rules designed to curb this virus.  We have a new case rate of 400 to over 700 new cases a day and the chance of overwhelming our hospital system was getting very real.  We all hope that if we do the right actions this will start to change in a week’s time.

 

We are allowed out for one hour a day to exercise and to buy food.  The supermarkets have been stripped again and the slaughterhouses are going slow with fewer staff which is not helping.  Mostly we have enough to manage here.  Today I am making feta cheese and sourdough bread.  Edd managed to get our eggs and grapefruit to the local organic market, and our biggest worry is over the supply of food for our stock.  The guy we buy bulk oats from is stuck in Queensland and Simon has a problem with the bottling plant in the brewery which could affect our supplies of brewer’s grain.

 

The weather has not improved much.  We actually had a snowstorm this week though it did not settle on the ground here.  We have been very lucky. Last week we had several dry days and PW was able to come with his machinery and prepare a site for the new shed.  This involved putting in new drains and laying crushed rocks as a base for the floor. Then, luckier still the kit for the new shed was delivered the day before things shut down.  All we need now is Andrew to come and do the cement work. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

I have not been off our land for weeks, but I have plenty to keep me busy. Last week I harvested the potatoes when it was fine and when it is not, I am studying regenerative agriculture on-line.  We obviously have to use our land to help fight climate-change, so I need to learn the best way to do this.  

 

Spring is not so far off. The wattles and Lucerne trees are blooming and buzzing with bees, and some trees are breaking bud.  The daffodils are in flower as is the quince tree. We are getting a good harvest of citrus fruit, but I have not eaten all last year's marmalade, so we are selling the grapefruit.  Everything will be better when the weather improves.  If the lock down lifts, I can get my granddaughter over and she can help me improve my sour dough bread.  She is a much better baker than I am!

Cornish food week

22.7.20

Things have not improved much.  The weather continues to be miserable and wet and Victoria is now in the second wave of 1Covid 19.   We are on an up graded stage 3 restrictions, which is much the same as the last lockdown, except everyone now has to wear masks when out of their homes.  Nursing homes and now the prisons are proving to be hot spots, but it is more dangerous than last time because the virus is spreading from through the community rather than from single source hot spots.

So far, our family has remained virus free.  Al got tested twice and had to spend a night in hospital but as far as the tests went, he had a different virus. This week it is Wayne and his family who are in quarantine because they had wood delivered from a man who was positive, and they are known contacts. Edd and I are staying on the farm and keeping away from people as much as possible.  We have made masks from socks while we wait for a delivery of something better. I started to try and make cloth masks, but they were not very successful.

Luckily, we have a lot to do here, especially when the rain stops.  I have now sorted out all the old corrugated sheets that were stored in the chook pen.  The good ones can be used to make the vegetable garden fence.  I have cut away all the low branches where the fence has to go and laid out a string line for the fence to follow.  Edd is still working in the water tank mending cracks but we worked together to clear a space for the new shed.  I hacked all the stored fence wire free from the grass that entangled it and Edd moved the farm machinery that was stored there. We then took down the buck paddock fence and put pegs in where the shed has to go.  Now we are waiting for the earth moving people to dig in drainage and prepare the site for a concrete slab.

The goats are starting to look pregnant and some of the sheep are heavy in lamb.  The chooks are now laying well and I still get enough milk to make cheese several times in the week.  I have also frozen some milk so that it can be used for the kids when they arrive if their mothers are unable to give them what they need. The war against slugs continues in the vegetable garden but we now have enough silver beet, kale, rocket, lettuce and snow peas to feed ourselves.

The broad beans are in flower and the asparagus is sending up shoots so we will soon have a change of diet.  The cauliflowers Graeme gave us turned out to be sprouting broccoli, so we are eating that too. The fruit and vegetables I froze last summer are a great addition to our diet. The sweet corn, beans and tomatoes are very welcome.  We still have several pumpkins and I have eventually discovered that if I attack them with the hatchet, I use to prepare kindling I save myself all the stress of trying to get into them with a knife.

This week we have had Cornish food.  We made Cornish pasties one night and then Edd used a complicated recipe and made saffron cake.  I have been studying regenerative agriculture on the internet whilst. I spin the wool and mostly we are keeping ourselves entertained.

Things get worse

7.9.2020

Things are not good.  We had a small amount of time when life became more normal but now all the area around Melbourne is in lock down again.  We are actually living just on the border, but our shire stretches south towards the city, so we are counted in with those places.  This is probably right because anyone living here would go to Lilydale quite regularly.

I was pretty sure that restrictions would be on again soon, so we took the chance to visit Wayne and family in their new house.  They had not unpacked but we got a feel for how the place would be to live in.  It is very spacious and light, with areas for everything.  They were very happy, and I think they will be even happier now they know that they got the move in before they were put into lock down again.

The wet weather and grey skies have continued.  No one can remember a year like this. We have had years when there have been floods but they come and then go.  This time the ground has stayed saturated with continuous drizzle.  Everywhere we walk there is a sea of squelchy, mud.  Thank goodness we get a day or two of sunshine most weeks. I rush out and work in the garden and get the laundry done.

Edd has been at war with an army of slugs who have night-time raids in the vegetable garden.  We have beer traps made out of milk bottle bases and Edd does a late-night patrol. I am not sure, but I think the slugs are still winning!  We also have a bigger something that also raids the garden.  It ate all my rocket and lettuce plants that were just reaching the stage we could eat them, (the vegetable not the slugs).  

Our family is suffering.  Simon had beer in kegs all ready to supply the pubs that had re-opened. They have now  shut down again, so he is now trying to get the beer into cans.  Morg’s work at the airport has stopped, no one is flying, and the grass runway is flooded. Schools will close again at the end of the holidays, and our family in WA has had salary cuts.  Al is still very sick.  His first test for covid19 came back negative but he has now been retested. 

The saddest thing is that people are trying to find someone to blame. This seems very counter productive to me.  This time the lockdown will be harder to recover from so of course people are upset and afraid, but we should all work together to manage.  The border Victoria has with other states is now closed so there is no escape. This will not make much difference to us, but it has wrecked lots of families’ holiday plans. 

more to worry about

29.6.20

The news is not good this week. There has been a surge in virus case numbers here in Victoria whereas other states are OK.  We are waiting for test results for Silkie and Al who both have flu symptoms.  This means that for now at least Al’s Bo’s and our households should be in self isolation.  Our friend Benie and our tenant Citybeth are also in lock down as they have both been in hotspots where cases are concentrated.

All hope of us getting a winter holiday are now gone so we have ordered Edd a new shed instead. His machinery shed is so full of stuff he can ‘t get vehicles in to work on them. The idea is to move all the stuff into the new shed and then put a top floor in the old shed to make a usable loft and keep the birds out.  The birds come in and make a terrible mess which makers keeping the place tidy an impossibility.

It has actually stopped raining for the last two days, but the land is still saturated and impossible to work on.  Edd and I took a large round bale down to the horses today and the tractor left deep muddy grooves in the paddock.  The goats are not even attempting to go off and just hang around by the shed for most of the day.

We have moved the sheep into the house site because the neighbour’s dog was chasing them, and they are pregnant.  They are keeping all the grass down for us whilst it is too wet to mow.  The sheep markets are still closed so if new lambs start to arrive, we will have a big problem with numbers.  We give them barley every night, but they could do with more grass.

The good thing about the bad weather is that I have been able to stay indoors and work on the accounts.  I always feel a lot happier about life when I have dealt with all the receipts and other scraps of paper and organised them into a form I can deal with.  It is not even the end of the financial year yet, but I am well ahead.

We were looking forward to visiting Wayne and family when they moved into their new house, but it looks as if we won’t be going anywhere.  I am so glad we have the internet and we can see pictures of the grand kids.  They are all growing up so fast and we are missing the early stages of their lives.

winter solstice

22.6.2020

We celebrated the shortest day at Bo’s house last night.  Simon cooked a fabulous meal and the wine flowed.  Today we are all back in lockdown regulations as the cases of coVid 19 in Victoria continue to grow.  We are told that large family gatherings have caused the main problem but over 1000 contacts have been traced so things look bad.

I am glad we were able to get out and do the things we needed to whilst restrictions were reduced.  Last week we had some lovely days that were actually hot and sunny.  However, we are back to rain and mud today.  I have lit the first day time fire of the winter and have been sitting by it doing accounts.

Edd is busy trying to mend the cracks in the old water tank. He borrowed a pressure sprayer from Simon and cleaned it out so that he could see the damage. The next step is getting it to dry out.  Edd has also made beer traps for the vegetable garden and we are now catching loads of the slugs who took over from the rabbits to destroy our crops.

When the sun shines, I work in the garden.  I have weeded under the raspberries and move logs of wood and fallen timber into piles where they can be dealt with.  I even managed to get the grass mowed between rainfalls.  The ground is so saturated that it takes days to dry out enough to do anything.

The goats are still giving a lot of milk, so I am making cheese about three times a week this winter. We have never done this before. Luckily, I can store the hard cheese a long time now that we use the vacuum packer.  

Indi came last week in a borrowed bee suit and sorted out the beehives. Rather to our surprise they are doing very well, and she had to move several frames. She got stung through the suit a few times, but this does not seem to bother her too much.  She and Bo have been into town and brought gear so that they can go hiking together. They planned a 15 k walk at Kinglake for Sunday, but the weather was too bad, so they cleaned up after the honey mess instead. Nothing is worse than spilled raw honey on the floors. I had to deal with them in the donga a bit ago, so I know from experience.

We have a new tenant in the donga now as cityB has stayed on.  It felt a bit empty here when Ben and Indi left, so I am happy to have her here. She plays Irish music with her friend too, which is nice.  

winter solstice

Yarra Glen winter photos by Bo

22.6.2020

We celebrated the shortest day at Bo’s house last night.  Simon cooked a fabulous meal and the wine flowed. It is no good trying to have our usual mid winter feast this year because of restrictions.  Today we are all back in lockdown regulations as the cases of coVid 19 in Victoria continue to grow.  We are told that large family gatherings have caused the main problem but over 1000 contacts have been traced so things look bad.

I am glad we were able to get out and do the things we needed to whilst restrictions were reduced.  Last week we had some lovely days that were actually hot and sunny.  However, we are back to rain and mud today.  I have lit the first day time fire of the winter and have been sitting by it doing accounts.

Edd is busy trying to mend the cracks in the old water tank. He borrowed a pressure sprayer from Simon and cleaned it out so that he could see the damage. The next step is getting it to dry out.  Edd has also made beer traps for the vegetable garden and we are now catching loads of the slugs who took over from the rabbits to destroy our crops.

When the sun shines, I work in the garden.  I have weeded under the raspberries and move logs of wood and fallen timber into piles where they can be dealt with.  I even managed to get the grass mowed between rainfalls.  The ground is so saturated that it takes days to dry out enough to do anything.

The goats are still giving a lot of milk, so I am making cheese about three times a week this winter. We have never done this before. Luckily, I can store the hard cheese a long time now that we use the vacuum packer.  

Indi came last week in a borrowed bee suit and sorted out the beehives. Rather to our surprise they are doing very well, and she had to move several frames. She got stung through the suit a few times, but this does not seem to bother her too much.  She and Bo have been into town and brought gear so that they can go hiking together. They planned a 15 k walk at Kinglake for Sunday, but the weather was too bad, so they cleaned up after the honey mess instead. Nothing is worse than spilled raw honey on the floors. I had to deal with them in the donga a bit ago, so I know from experience.

We have a new tenant in the donga now as cityB has stayed on.  It felt a bit empty here when Ben and Indi left, so I am happy to have her here. She plays Irish music with her friend too, which is nice.  

moving house

6.6.2020

Another week has passed really quickly as we work our way through winter. This week we have been able to get off on errands that involved driving. We picked up the milking machine that was being serviced and went into the city to get material to mend the water tank and seedlings from Ceres community garden. (They have a very good range of plants there that are superior to the average garden store).

Due to the rabbit raiders we have a gap in our vegetable supplies, and I have actually had to buy some from a shop!  Now that Edd and Steve have raised the walls on the beds we seem a lot safer and I have been replanting everything. Now all we need is time for things to grow. At least we have a good collection of pumpkins, lettuce, some silver beat and frozen beans and sweet corn, but I do like more variety.

On Friday Ben and workers arrived to move the cabins that Ben and Indi lived in. Ben had employed a crane to lift them to the hard part of the drive and then they had to be transported on a low loader to their new home.  This all sounds straight forward, but we have had lots and lots of rain and the clay under the thin topsoil is hydrated and slimy.  Even walking round the vegetable bed is a treacherous venture so moving very large heavy cabins was never going to be easy.

They eventually got one cabin on the way, but this involved taking out both gate posts and one was straining up our fence. Luckily, we found this out before we let the goats out to graze, or we would have had them all out on the road.   Ben had to cut down all the over- head branches down our road as they drove out and the truck driver who had arrived in a bad temper got more and more angry.

Even when he got to the highway his troubles were not over. A log truck had tipped and lost its load, so the main road was closed for the day with traffic sent on long detours. I am also told they got bogged where they had to unload too. I am glad I missed this bit; I think furious truck drivers are best avoided. They are planning to come back for the second cabin next week, if the truck driver co-operates.  It is sad to see all the hopes Indi had of a happy family life in the country being sold off but at least we can now move on.

Bo’s eldest son has now got his driving licence and the four-wheel drive he rebuilt registered and on the road. We have all been transporting him to and from his work at the airport, so we are very happy about this, especially Bo who had to get him to work by 6am every morning. Her other kids are back in school and can travel on the bus all of which makes Bo’s life less stressful.  She is such a wonderful support person for everyone. She did all our shopping for us during the lockdown period.  I have now organised to get monthly supplies delivered so I can still avoid shopping centres.   I think it wise at the moment.

This week protests are organised for “Black Lives matter”. Virus laws do not allow for mass protests, but we all feel that we should support this cause.  Basically, I think all lives matter so we will not be part of the mass protest, but I feel we should be. Looking at a list of sixty deaths in custody I found the name of a friend and a friend’s grandson, so sad.

Time for changes

      

Baby Y.                                                            Baby P

       

Maya.                                                                       Ella

16.5.2020

The sun is shining, the ground is waterlogged and everything else is gradually getting back to normal. The schools are starting back but the school we work with has decided that there will be no camps for anyone this year. The teacher who runs the Montessori section is also getting close to retiring age. He came up for lunch yesterday and we began discussing how we all transition from the present staff and arrangements into a new system. The school will start looking for another farm to take our place and to new staff to take over the program.

This year we may be having daytime visits if the virus does not come back after the winter. It will mean a lot of changes for us as we had very much focussed on setting up to meet the schools needs.  I am sad but I was aware that we would be too old to keep up this level of work for much longer anyway.  I will miss the kids, but I expect new people will move into our lives.

We already have one new person staying in the donga. Citybeth has moved out of her share house which became impossible during the shutdown. She initially came for a two-week respite but is now staying longer. Her big love is Irish music. Edd heard her playing with her friends last night and says they are very good. The lucky goats were able to listen into the whole performance.

The good thing is that Citybeth is happy to help with the evening animal feeds so Edd and I were able to do the long drive down to visit Al and family and meet our new grandson. Als house is transformed since our last visit. The kitchen lounge and dining area are now one big space with the ceiling raised and neutral colours on the floor and wall. (The colour scheme they inherited involved a lot of strong colours that did not compliment each other). The babies were very well behaved and seem to be developing well. It was really wet and cold, so we just talked indoors and were not tempted to a beach walk.  The restaurants are all closed too but we did find some nice take away food, so no one needed to cook.

Luckily the weather was a bit better on Sunday. Stevo and several friends all came up and helped chop dead trees for firewood. We all got plenty, including Citybeth who had friends visit who knew Stevo.  We had plates of goat’s cheese for starters and I made a big bowl of lentil and tomato soup. Stevo brought bread rolls, and we all had a very happy lunch together.   I really enjoyed meeting new people and getting time again with old friends. 

With the dryer weather today Edd is back working in the old water tank.  We have now syphoned out the last of the water and he has begun work repairing cracks where tree roots have squeezed in.  There is no point even trying to do work on the car port until the weather dries up a bit. Ben has a crane driver coming today to see if they can lift their tiny houses onto a truck. Even that will be a challenge, Edd could hardly get the tractor to pull the trailer load of wood out of the paddock because the wet ground was so skiddy.