Knitting , gardening and boxing roos

                                                Boy's jumpers made from our sheep's wool

    

                                            the sun comes right into the house at this time of year

                                                Kangaroos boxing next to our house

27.5.2024

 

Once again, we are getting sunny crisp days and outdoor jobs are the preferred option.  I have been weeding the garlic and mulching down the Bok and Pac Choi. We are getting enough snow peas to eat and today I harvested the butternut pumpkins.  There are ripe ruby grapefruit too.

 

Edd is at last getting time to work on the paddocks. He has got a large rake working behind the tractor and has started to spread the stuff cleaned out from the goat shed down the old vineyard paddock where we hope the nutrients will improve the soil.  We agreed to do the work on the buildings and house site before we did the broader acre work, so Edd has been patient for a long time.

 

The weekend was busy. Al came up with his two youngest kids on Friday and visited us when he had finished his work in Healesville. I was able to give Al the two jumpers I have knitted for the boys. I got a lot of knitting done last week because I caught a virus and did not feel up to doing much else.

 

Pip is now out of hospital but is not allowed to pick the baby up or anything else heavy and is not allowed to drive yet. We just wished they lived closer so we could be of some help. Bo is working full time so she can’t help either. We saw her on Sunday when she did the morning chores and brought their puppy, Billie, over to play with her sister Says. The puppies row round together and get plenty of fun exercise.

 

Josh is always around and Ti’s mother-in -law was here taking care of the 2 small kids while Ma and Ti cleaned out their rental house. They are working hard so that it is judged good enough for them to get their bond money back. The farm seems to be filling up with people again, which is good.

 

Cleaning out spaces

19.5.2024

 

Ti has spent the weekend moving his furniture into the donga. There seems an awful lot of stuff for a small area. I just hope they have space left to fit their kids in! Pip, Al’s wife is in hospital after having her appendix removed so they are not able to help Ti move.  Bo is too busy to help anyone and we are not much use either.  He seems to be managing well so far. We did manage to get the donga well cleaned and I even had time to oil the deck. Edd moved a pile of compost and whipper snipped the edges so we did as much as we could in the time available

 

Finally, we have had the deep litter cleaned out of the goat shed. We had to get in a different local this time to do the work and he did a great job and only got bogged once when he tipped a load in the top paddock.  Sev, has been here today to take a load of the stuff back to his place to nourish his soil. We had used up all the last load once it composted on our vegetable garden, and I really needed more. The other problem was that the floor in the goat shed had risen by around a metre. This meant we had to keep raising the pen walls and also having to throw hay up impossible heights. The natural soil here has a very shallow, nutrient deficient top soil, so we have to work on the vegetable beds to build up better soil. The goats are happy to be back at ground level where they get better wind protection.

 

The weather is cold, wet, and miserable today but for the start of this month we have enjoyed many sunny beautiful days.  The nights have been cold so we light a fire to sit by in the evenings. It is hard to get the stove to go well as there has been little wind to make it draw. Apparently, all Australia has been stuck in slow moving weather patterns. Wayne came for Mother’s Day and showed us amazing photos of the aurora, but it was not visible from our valley and we did not have the energy to drive far enough to get a view

  

Art in the valley

                                                        BO AND MORG IN THE GALLERY
 

Bo has sold lots of her art works and is now back to looking after the community pianos that she has installed. She still found time to help with sorting out the doing.

moving and the resulting clean up

 5.5.2024

 

CB has moved into her unit in Yarra Glen, and the last three days have been devoted to cleaning out the Donga. It needed a lot of cleaning, and as far as I can see Bo has done most of the work. I spent the morning cleaning but my hip hurts and I am nowhere near as useful as I was 4 years ago. CB says she has an injured back so she has been finding it hard too.

 

We are putting in a big effort because Al’s second son and his family have to leave their rental in three weeks’ time and have not yet found another place to live.  Ti has two young kids and a third due in August, so just the thought that our donga could be plan B helped him de-stress. If he finds a better new place, we will use the donga to house travelling workers, so either way a good clean and sort out is helpful.  CB did not think she could move into her unit before September when her tenants left, but they found a new rental and things changed to everyone’s advantage.

Josh has spent the week sorting out the cellar. He has dug up and resealed the junction in the roof and put in lots of storage units. In the last few days, he has been white washing the inner chamber. We had a lot of useless rubbish in the cellar dating from when we did school camps. We need a trip to the local tip before we clean up the ruins again. The local high school is coming for a visit this month so getting sorted will make things look better. This visit is about fire, and response to fire, which we are well qualified to teach.

 

My friend Merrie has moved into her new house too. She was exhausted by the move and un sure if she had made the right move. We are both frustrated by the limitations our aging is having on us, but trying to adapt appropriately. I talk to my son in law’s parents who have moved into a retirement village and I have no interest at all in activities they enjoy. Neither Edd nor I fancy the sort of cruise holiday that others enjoy, we just want to go on living and relating to our land.