Harvest time

 5.2.22

 

There were kangaroos grazing just outside my bedroom window when I woke this morning. I have not seen them so close to the house before but recently they have been out of the forest and feeding in the paddocks when I take the dog for his morning walk.  Flynn ignores rabbits and wood ducks but he would really love to chase kangaroos so I always take him on a lead. 

 

This week I have harvested the bulk of the sweetcorn the apples and plums. We eat as much as possible fresh and I blanch the rest and keep it in the freezer. This is the first year after the fires when we have had enough plums to preserve. Ages ago we got buckets loads and I would make jam to sell at the market and use for the farm stay guests.  The children would go out with the horse and cart to collect road side plums to add to what our own trees produced. Sadly, the fires destroyed all the plum trees along the roads and our old trees never recovered either.

 

Our new worker is proving a wonderful help. My vegetable and ruins garden look well groomed and all sorts of odd jobs are finally getting sorted. With Edd’s hip so bad it has been all we could manage to get through the routine daily work let alone make progress.  We fixed up the remains of the fences after the fires but they have now disintegrated so we need to do more work on them next. Also, we should get fire wood ready for winter. The kids on the school camps used to do this this job which, was really helpful.

 

So, farm life carries on as normal but in the outside world covid and climate are still causing havoc.  They are talking about trying to get some 4WD vehicles through the flooded Stuart Hwy tomorrow but many towns still have shortages with supplies. Nursing homes are unable to get enough staff and old people are getting neglected whilst locked away from their relatives. It is a very, very, sad look. I am grateful that Edd and I are not yet at that stage of life. 

 

Edd has just heard that his sister in the UK has been taken to hospital but we do not have much in the way of information yet. Edd’s niece keeps him informed as much as possible and is doing her best to sort things out. But it is just so sad that we cannot be there to help.