Cut fences problem

28.3.2020

Cases of Covid19 are doubling every day and just about everyone is coping with complete disruption in their lives.   Al has a worse situation than most.  His two-year-old son has chicken pox.  If the new baby arrives soon, they have a serious quarantine problem. His wife will be in danger from the virus after going to hospital and the new baby will be in danger from the chicken pox.  Bo has offered to have the sick son at her place, she has three teenagers at home who have to be supervised so she should not leave them to go and help at Al’s place.

Edd and I feel it would be worse for Pe to be in the office shut out from his parents and family home than it would be for him if he was right out of the way with cousins at Bo’s place.  Anyway, all we can do is offer but it is for Al’s family to decide.  Bo has her family cooking this weekend. They brought a sack of good flour and made pizzas last night, which they all loved.  They have been experimenting with what they can make from goat’s cheese and other farm produce. Even Ol is happy about making himself food.

I have been busy once again in the vegetable garden.  The summer crops of beans, zucchinis, cucumbers and such have come to an abrupt close.  We have lots of lettuce seedlings and the tomatoes, capsicums and egg plants are still yielding but our recent spell of glorious, sunny, warm weather has slowed the silver beat seedling down and stressed the pumpkins.  

The goats escaped again yesterday; we are not sure how.  I walked up the hill and checked the fence line and top gate this morning, but it was not obvious where they got out.  The last time they got out Edd went up the fence line and found that all seven wires in the fence had been cut by someone.  We think deer hunters might have been the culprits.  The adjoining property has just been sold and Edd talked to our new neighbours today.  They said that they have found other fences cut in the same way.  Luckily, they are wanting to preserve the natural environment and on first meeting seem to be the right sort of new neighbours.  This is a big relief.

Ben was here today and has started to move some of their off-grid settlement to the new owner’s place. They have been paid half the money as a deposit which we are all happy about. They will get a nest egg each to help them start new lives.   I am sad that they have not stayed together and built a life here but apparently that was not to be.

WE begin our life as peasants

26.3.2020

We are nearly through our first week of isolation and we are settling down to a life as peasants.  I am surprised at how busy we are.  With the goat kids weaned I am making cheese most days. Feta yesterday and lemon cheese today.  I am also harvesting the last of our summer vegetables and preserving as much as possible.

Today I made frozen pesto cubes from the basil and garlic and I have picked more parsley to dry.  It has been a glorious warm autumn day and I have now dug over the gardens where the summer crops have finished and refreshed them with compost from the goat sheds.  The beans have not quite ended the wonderful heavy yield that they have been giving us. We have eaten masses, given masses away and frozen lots too.  I am so grateful to my little bean bushes for the abundance they have given us.  It seems cruel to pull them up and throw them out.

We have still been unable to source more chooks, but I am told there may be some next week.  The number of eggs each day has dropped dramatically, and we are no longer able to supply our customers.  In contrast, I am trying to dry off the goats we sold so they can go to their new home, but they continue to produce too much milk to ignore.  Eden can be left unmilked, Angie and Zero can be milked only every second day but Dorcas is full every morning. 

The sheep we moved have eaten out the first croft and we are planning to move them to the horses’ paddock and put the horses on the hill.  As usual this is not simple, the dam in that paddock leaks and we need to set up an alternative water supply.

So far, Edd has been very good and stayed on the farm missing out on his usual afternoon trip to Yarra Glen.  I am actually surprised he has lasted this long.  I often spend a week without going anywhere so I have not had to change my habits yet.  I am just working harder than usual on keeping up the food supply.

Worrying times

Pomegranates ripening

24.3.2020

We are really worried. We have so many lovely family members and just at the moment they do not all seem to be acting sensibly.   It is difficult keeping up with all the changes as the changes keep changing. On Sunday evening we were told all non-essential businesses were to close and now we are told this is not so, but we need social distancing.  Schools are to stay open but parents in some states have been advised to keep their children at home. Here in Victoria the school holidays started today, which is a week early than it should have been.

As yet no one we know has been diagnosed with Covid19, but no-one has been tested either, so this is not totally reassuring.  We have been told to use sanitizer on our hands and house surfaces, but all supplies of sanitizer have been sold out.  It looks as if individual businesses are making up their own rules.  Morg’s work at the airport has shut down for at least four weeks. Bo’s boys are going stir crazy at home as she is trying to work out how she can do her work on-line.  And it is only day one!

Al has a problem because Pip’s baby was due today.  She is booked to go into Geelong hospital once labour starts, because she haemorrhaged so badly after the last birth.  Al tells us that the hospital will now not let anyone other than Alvyn in and that they are not allowed their own midwife.  We know that this will really upset them. The other problem is that Pip’s mother was going down to help (probably look after Pele), but Pip’s father is older and frailer, so they are in lock down and not going anywhere.  The staff member who Al employs who sometimes cares for Pele, has a partner just returned from America who is in quarantine lock down, so they should not even be at work.  We will all be much relieved when Al, Pip and the new baby are safely back at home.

Edd and I intend to self-isolate as much as possible.  We have plenty of work to do and lots of food.   It will be very hard on Edd, who is more restless than I am.  We are not forced to do this but so many other local people are just carrying on as normal and ignoring all the guidelines that it seems our most sensible course of action.

Some good news

22.3.2020

There is some good news.  Indi has sold her tiny off-grid home set up to a nice couple who want it for their place in Lilydale.  Indi has brought an old caravan so she can have a holiday and a backup home if she needs it for her and Alice.  Moving the buildings off our property is the next problem, but where there’s a will there is usually a way.  

The school camps have now all been cancelled but Duncan, a teacher from Templestowe, came up this week and gave us a hand moving around sheep and goats.  We needed to put Barak the buck in the first pen which is easy to get into and put the adult sheep with the ram.  Nick, the young buck has now gone to his new home in Dixon’s creek and 4 more of the does will follow him when we have managed to dry them off.

The chook pen on the old drive is now accessible.  (The ram stopped us getting there before he was moved.)  I was hoping that we could now get Point of lay chooks to give us autumn eggs but there has been panic buying of chooks, and there were none left to buy! There may be some next week, but we are deciding to go into lock down to try and hide from the virus. Schools, public transport and other venues are still operating, and a lot of people are carrying on life as normal.  This increases the chance of the situation getting out of control, so we will just have to do the best we can manage for ourselves.

Camps cancelled

Pumpkins taking over.

Ester is 15 years old.

14 March 2020

So, Corona virus is dictating a change in how we all live.  In Australia we begin social distancing as of Monday.  Many events are already cancelled, and when I tried to do the months shopping, I found supermarket shelves stripped bare and all sorts of products unavailable.  Toilet paper was the first product o disappear, but now rice, pasta, cleaning stuff and many other things are just gone.  The shop keepers tell me you have to be lined up ready for the fight when the stores open at 6pm if you want any of these goods. 

We have camps for the next two weeks and then the Easter holidays. There is a suggestion that schools will not reopen after the break and some are already preparing on-line home- schooling material.  I know this as Bo’s youngest child is involved.  I am lucky in that I have a large well stocked pantry and fresh milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit all growing here.  I have spent the month freezing pack after pack of round beans and now I am working on the runner beans.  I will probably have to freeze the nashi pears too because we are not eating them fast enough. 

The tomatoes are now ripening but not in the usual quantities.  Last year we got so many we were preserving them by the bucket full. The sweet corn crop was disappointing too after the rat attack. Finally, the lettuce is ready. and we have silver beet and kale, it is about time to start winter seedings, but I need space in the garden, and means to stop the cabbage white butterflies from getting at them.  The pumpkins have spread across a huge area of bank after they climbed out of the new bed we built, but the egg plants are better behaved and are propped up by a massive growth of basil.  We are eating very well at present

16.3.2020.

Victoria is now in emergency mode with heavy fines if people break quarantine rules. Already we notice a drop in air traffic over head similar to what occurred after 19.11.  yesterday the school phoned and cancelled the camps.  I was really relieved, but it was strange to wake up this morning and not have a day’s work already planned.  It is a beautiful, fresh, sunny. autumn day and at least farm work precedes as normal.  

Yesterday, we sold 5 goats to a neighbour. I hate parting with them. but we must reduce stock numbers for winter.  Ay least they are all going together so will be with friends. and our neighbour already owns two of our goats so it will be great for them.  Mating season is now in full swing and our new buck is busy earning his keep.  Our plan is to move the ram off the drive this week and get new point of lay chooks to supply winter eggs.

I just hope there are sill chooks for sale.  With so much panic buying going on getting even unusual things is growing hard.  Supermarkets are degrading into battle scenes!  Let us hope there is not a rush on chooks.  Edd and I had paid for tickets to see a dance show in Melbourne for my birthday.  We have not been to any show for years, so it was to be a rare treat.  Guess what, Its cancelled.  Just my luck!

Wet weather camping

This last week has been very tiring.  We had 21 teenagers for the week camping in tents and the heaviest, longest rain event that we have endured for years.  I have now decided that even with the fire danger I prefer drought.   Normally on camps we program for the mornings and evenings and the school has lesson plans for the afternoons.  For a multitude of reasons, no afternoon planning was done, the food planning also went off kilter.

Wet, hungry teenagers are no fun, so I ended up cooking sausages and vegetables in the house on Thursday. (I was told the smell of meat cooking was not acceptable for the vegetarians and vegans). Anyway, everyone got a good feed. Those who got wet the night before slept in the donga, and spirits were raised.  Luckily, the woman teachers swapped on Wednesday and the new arrival (who always has something well planned) not only brought a good craft activity but also collected the cooking plans and other camp information that had accidently been left in a super-market on Monday during the trip here.

The other problem was that the phones brought here were not Telstra phones and could not get reception. That meant that we had we had people in and out of the house at all hours using our phone.  As I said it was a very tiring week, but the students are lovely, and we actually got some good things done.

One group dug up garlic in the old orchard, whilst another group helped Edd get down fallen trees for firewood. The third group prepared the oldest water tank for repainting and cut back the mulberry trees that blocked the road, and the final group cleared out the drains round the ruins.  This last activity was very timely, and the flooding would have been much worse if it had not been done.

Today, when everyone has gone the sun has reappeared.  I have prepared the last of the pears for freezing and harvested most of the remaining nashi pears. Both trees have given masses of huge juicy fruit this year.  We are still getting beans too. I will appreciate them when we are stuck with winter vegetables.  We are getting tomatoes but like other people around here we are having a bad year with them.  I usually have huge buckets to store but they are only just ripening now.  

The best news of the week is that Al got the new roof on his house before the rain event. He is now putting back useful things like the kitchen and the fireplace.  Everything went well and hopefully his baby will hold on another two weeks and then it will be all back to a manageable state before the birth.

The saddest event of the week has been hearing that one of our dearest friends from the NT has passed away. She was someone very special and had lived an amazing life.  One Xmas when she stayed with us, she told us tales of her early life that beat any novel.  We met her when she was teaching with Edd in Yuendumu and have kept in contact for years. The world seems a lesser place without her.