Working with permaculture students

 3.21.2021

 

It was the equinox this weekend, but Autumn has already started. The Virginia creeper has covered the ruins with trailing banners of scarlet leaves and the zucchinis have begun to get mildew.  For the first time we have had a good crop of apples from the trees in the new orchard and the pears and nashi pears in the ruins garden also cropped heavily.  Now it is the turn of the fig tree and we are giving them away by the bucket load to friends. 

 

For the last two Saturdays we have had Permaculture students for site visits.  Yesterday it was a group from Ceres in Melbourne.  They were all interesting and very varied people from a large age range and asked lots of questions. Edd and I were exhausted after they left. We have to get up early to have all the animals fed and milked and morning tea and cheese tasting prepared for when they arrive at 9.30, and it is full on after that. It is so good to have new people coming again after last year’s shut down.

 

Whilst we were showing the group of students around Morg arrived with his friends to continue work on his boat. He has moved his cars off our property but has replaced them with a boat that he is fixing up.  Ollie was also here but is very tired after getting up early in his new role as a roof plumbing apprentice.  It seems a big step to go from being a child at school to a working an adult job. I think that a few years in tertiary education makes the transition more fun.

 

Today Stevo is back fixing the unfinished edges in the back passage.  Edd has been working on the car port and has filled in all the rough edges on the outside of the walls ready for water proofing. We have tried to find someone with a machine that can dig a drain round the back but have had no luck so far. This is a problem because with every heavy session of rain more earth falls down where we need to dig, and the job gets harder.  The East coast has had terrific storms and around Sydney many have had to evacuate due to extreme flooding, but the storms have not reached us, yet!

 

My work has been to do with food.  I have been harvesting the summer crops and when I can plant out new vegetables for winter.  My first silver beat are doing well but so far, no parsley seedlings have come up.  Beetroots are the next things to go in when I get a space.

Today I have blanched and frozen sweet corn and tomatoes. It is a good thing we have a mega sized freezer as it is rapidly filling up!

 

The goats have started to cycle, and we mated Rita to Barrack last week.  She has not been kidded for several years because her milk production just kept coming but I think it is wrong to leave them too long.  We have no ram so we will not have to worry about lambs this year. That will be a big relief and give us time to work on the paddocks and fences.  There is a lot that needs doing, but then there always is.

 

 

getting ready for winter

                                                the second trailer loaded to go to market

                                                After

Before

 3.8.2021

 

We got a lot done in February.  We finally got the sheep shorn and then last week Edd and the shearer drove them to the nearest market which was hours of driving away.  This was such a relief. We were over stocked all winter due to virus shutdowns and the sheep were getting through fences and causing all sorts of problems. The paddocks are in a terrible mess and the fences all need replacing. We sold 31 sheep and kept four here, two because they were too old to sell and two younger ones to keep them company.  Rather to our surprise we got a good price at the sale and have actually made a profit!

 

Another good surprise was our friend, John, turning up sooner than we expected with his digger and truck to clean out the goat shed.   He does this every second year, and we all get loads of goat manure mixed with straw that helps the soil grow vegetables.   The deep litter was almost a metre deep in places so now the pen walls are again high enough to stop the goats jumping out.   Edd has collected another ton of oats and we have a good stock of hay and straw, so we are all set for winter. 

 

We are sad because Edd’s dog, Janner died last week.  He has always had a fault that made him hop rather than run with his back legs but over the last month he got much worse. He was about 12 years old but really, he has done well to last that long.  Our other dog, Flynn, is very sad. We are not sure how to help him at this stage.  We try and keep him with us a s much as possible.

 

In the garden the tomatoes are turning red, at last, and we have the best crop of juicy capsicums we have ever grown.  We grew far too many cucumbers. I was hoping to sell them but everyone else brought lots to market and ours were not early enough this year to beat the rush.  I have discovered that goats will eat the zucchinis, so we avoid wastage there. I have not tried them on cucumber yet.  The sweet corn is almost ready, and the beans have given a huge crop. I have stocked up the freezer with runner beans, round beans pears, apples and the first of the tomatoes.  

 

My storeroom is looking more organised. Bo moved her furniture out and into her new house and stevo build me some shelves where I can store glasses and tother things.  I scrubbed the floor and redid the floor surface and also painted the areas of floor and ceiling that had been hidden behind the furniture.  It feels good to get things cleaned and organised. I have brought a small dish washer to go in the kitchen. It will fit in one of the cupboard spaces.  We need it for days when the solar does not heat the water and it is too warm to light the wood stove which also supplies hot water. There is an electric booster on the tank, but we have never put it on because the water is almost always hot enough to shower.

 

The steeling of a cupboard for the dish washer made me clean out and re-organise the other cupboards so that everything we needed still fitted in.  All in all, I feel very happy to be so well sorted.

 

Bo moves house

 

27 1 2021

 

Only some of the things we were expecting to do went to plan.  The schoolteachers came for lunch and explained that last year had been very challenging with the effort of doing online programs.  There had been no chance to organise this year’s camps as well as cope with the difficulties.  We have agreed to put on one day farm experience events if they get the go ahead.  Our camp equipment really needs replacing so I am definite about the fact we can no longer do weeklong camps

 

The shearer was due to come on the same day as the teachers but when asked at what time he said “Arvo”. We took this to mean after lunch and before dark.  It got hotter and hotter and at 4pm we fed the goats as usual. In the end we heard that he was having trouble with the shearing equipment, so we all agreed to shear another day. Poor sheep. They really do need to get the weight of wool off their backs.

 

Finally, a wind brought in a cool change and a storm.  I am sure our trees were thrilled with all the rain.  The dirt road we live on was all washed out along the edges and our drive got washouts across it.  Obviously shearing would have to wait.  This was not a bad thing because Bo and family started to move their stuff into the new house yesterday and I went over to help them.

 

The new house is amazing. It has five bedrooms and a fantastic, undercover outdoor dining patio next to the pool garden. Bo is buying the large tables and matching chairs that have been brought to suit the kitchen and patio.  The kitchen is fitted out with white marble tops and splashback and all copper fittings.  It has a butler’s pantry for food and a large built-in cupboard that Bo has used for crockery.  The bedrooms all have fitted wardrobes too.  Simon and the boys loaded up the van at the old house and Bo and I unpacked everything and put it in place at the new house.

 

The only things now to move are the big furniture items. These get moved on Friday and then everyone moves house.  It was a really lucky thing that they were allowed to shift stuff early.  It took all day to do what we did, and we would never have had enough time on Friday morning!  Whilst we did this everyone else was parting for Australia/invasion day.

Our tenant and friends gathered in the shelter shed at the ruins and spent the day playing Irish music.

 

The rest of us were exhausted and no-one was too keen on cooking, so we all went to the Grand Hotel for our evening meal. It was so good to socialise normally again after last year’s lockdown regime.  Opinion is very divided about it.  We are so glad Australia dealt firmly with things so that life is just about normal, but others feel resentment about how lockdown affected their business and feel that it was not necessary.  We are just happy that we not going through virus horrors like the UK and USA.  I really worry for my friends and family who have it so much worse where they live.