Busy weekends

Bo was part of an open studio weekend and sold some of her art

                                        The cliffs near Waynes home and by the bay lunch

 22.3.2022

 

Autumn, such as it is, has started. The Virginia creeper and decorative grape vine are going red, but as usual our view of gum trees stays a permanent grey green colour.  The last few weeks have been very dry and the garden still needs watering every day. The pumpkins are changing colour and we have started to eat the silver beat and lettuce. My freezer is totally full, and I am having to shuffle things around to get the rest of the bean harvest in.  It is a very big chest freezer so this is quite an achievement.

 

We have used the lack of co-vid restrictions to visit family. We made the long trip down to Al’s place and the following week end we went to the city to visit Wayne’s mob.  Wayne had organised for us to have lunch at a beach near his house which was wonderful.  It was lovely weather and a perfect small bay with boats and an amazing land formation behind golden sands. We ate fish and chips on a small terrace above the water and then walked to examine the interesting looking cliff. It was a perfect way to pass a day with our two beautiful granddaughters.

 

This weekend we have been back at work with a permaculture group camping here. We had to provide a tour and meals, which kept us fully occupied. Luckily the weather was perfect and everyone seemed to have a good time.  We had to turf Josh’s cooking equipment and experiments out of the ruins kitchen and do a thorough clean up everywhere, but it feels so good when the place is all sorted.

 

One very sad thing is that my most loved goat, Dixie, suddenly went down with a sort of mastitis we have never seen before. It is actually over 20 years since we have had any mastitis so this was most unexpected. We put her in the back of my car, took her to the vet, and came back with all sorts of stuff to inject her with and squeeze up her affected teat.  She never actually looked sick, just sore.  She is still alive but will at least loose some of her udder function.

 

The young buck, Ronan, made us laugh last night. Edd and I were leaning over the gate trying to work out how to catch him and hold him to give him a worm drench when he spotted the syringe, we had the drench in, leant over the gate and sucked it down himself!  It will soon be mating season but we do not plan to mate many this year. The kids and lambs are now weaned and we are aiming to get the work down for winter.

Floods War and pandemic

                                                              Naked ladies in flower again

Alice  on holiday in the mountains

 2.3.2022

 

Finally, it has rained and the dust has settled. I have planted out the silver beet and parsley seedlings. The other green leafy things have been ravaged by cabbage white butterflies that are in huge numbers this year. Luckily, they don’t like lettuce so we have some self-sown volunteers appearing. The rain has been good for us but in QLD and NSW the floods are horrific. They are occurring more frequently and are getting worse. I think they need to move Brisbane and Lismore at the very least.

 

The pandemic is still going with thousands of new cases each day. It does seem as if the vaccines are working enough to stop hospital engorgement but today, we reported nearly 30 more deaths in Victoria.  Al and his family all got covid but have now recovered. One of the boys had a brief hospital trip with the main feature being electrolyte replacement icy poles.  So far Wayne’s family are OK with Ella back at school. 

 

The pandemic is now old news with the trouble in Ukraine.  The news we see is horrific and Putin’s nuclear threats terrifying.  Really all the news is pretty ghastly and probably best avoided.  I am spending my time preserving the last of the summer harvest. We have abundant tomatoes and beans as well as pears and apples now all stacked away in the freezer. 

 

Today we have a local guy and his team repairing our drive.  It has lasted years but the intense rain storms have washed away the gravel and created areas of deep ruts. The entrance to our property was in danger of being so damaged that cars had to jump to get out!  The road outside is actually worse in some places with 60 cm deep channels at the sides. 

 

Josh and CB are now back from their walking holiday. They camped up on our land in NSW and narrowly missed seeing Indi who also went holidaying up in the mountains.  Stevo thinks he can soon start doing the walk between our new car port and the house. This will be so helpful in winter when the mud arrives. Finally, we will be able to reach the cars with clean shoes.   

 

Josh has had his NT work postponed again so he is helping Stevo and working in the brewery. He really wants to do remote work but every time he tries the wait is so long that he is forced to take another job and stick with it rather than go. It is totally crazy but with floods cutting off roads and covid in the Aboriginal communities it cannot be easy to organise anything