Hay home for new year

 2.1.2022

 

I have just taken down the Xmas tree, tied it up into three bundles and jammed them back into a very old deteriorating box.  It has been so hot this week that even this artificial tree was shedding its paper needles.  This is the same old tree that we had years ago before the fires.  It survived because it was in the cellar and I am nursing it along in its old age. 

 

On a more important note, we have got the hay in.  Bo, her two boys Edd and Graeme carted it home from Healesville and I did the routine work and provided food and drink.  Wayne had sorted the shed out the night before and Josh stacked the last load. The best bit was that it was not really hot. This is very unusual and ninety present of the time we cart hay it is scorching.  The weather has made up for it since then, so we were very lucky.

 

I spend a lot of time each morning watering plants.  My vegetables have survived but the hop plant got really desiccated yesterday and the elderberries trees took a big hit. I have given water to the other food producing trees and they still look OK. I have harvested the garlic and netted the fruit trees but it is hard to do much more that essentials in this heat.  Our new worker, Sev, came and helped us by whipper-snipping round the vegetable beds and ruins garden. It had got to the stage that snakes could not be spotted and as they tend to go where the water is I was not at all happy.  At least that problem has now been dealt with.

 

I have not seen a snake on our property this year but I have encountered the big blotched blue tongue lizard that helps us deal with slugs and snails. I am always happy to see these reptiles. Josh tells me that we have a long-necked tortoise in the dam, but I have not seen it.  Josh and CB are off on a four day hike up in the Kosciusko wilderness area in NSW. It seems very quiet now only Edd and I are on the farm.

 

The news here is not good. Most of our anti-virus restrictions were lifted before Xmas, and now the numbers of cases have gone ballistic.  The services are being overwhelmed and I fear things will dissolve into chaos.  Edd and I have tried to get booster shots but we have not found anywhere local that is doing them yet.  Apparently, our immunity from the first two shots will be almost zero by this stage.  We are not going anywhere we don’t need to.  This is not a good way to start the new year!