Gardening

25.4.26

 

We had some rain but now we are enjoying day after day of warm sunny weather. The plants are confused. The trees that shed their leaves have grown new ones and the apple trees are flowering. Not something that usually happens in autumn!

 

The goats continue to give huge quantities of milk and are not drying off like they would normally do at this time. The grass is still growing thick and green which may be why.  The daffodil and jonquil bulbs are sprouting which feels early too. This is a very different year.

 

We are eating the last of the zucchinis but my pumpkin crops have failed. It is hard to go wrong with pumpkins but I have managed it. We have silver beet in fabulous colours and parsley if all else fails. The fruit crops have all been processed and the wasps have suddenly arrived and eaten anything left.

 

Cheryl is helping me work on the garden around the ruins of our old house.  We have cleaned the weeds out of the ponds that are beyond repair and she has filled the large pond up with palm leaves. We had a huge pile of these fronds. They were too tough to be chopped up and too tough to use as compost material. They are pretty good at supressing weeds and we can put a layer of soil and compost over them and use the pond as a wicking bed.

 

This weather is perfect for gardening and we are very happy to be getting things looked after.  Edd spends his days at the lower end of the land working on fences. We rigged up rather make shift fences after the fires but they are now in pretty bad shape. Josh helped Edd to pump up the tyres on our poor old Toyota. It has spent the last few years rotting out in the old vineyard paddock but Edd has decided to bring it back and put it in the shed to work on. We are all rather fond of it as it was a big part of our life in the years we worked in the desert. 

At last RAIN 

Permaculture week tour

 22.3.26

 

We had a big day yesterday and did a tour here for Permaculture week. This year we had helpful nice Autumn weather and everyone could look round outside as well as examining the house. Over the last few years, it has been too late in the season for the gardens to look there best but this time the autumn joy sedums were at the height of their display and the leaves on the Virginia creeper were turning red.

 

The zucchinis, pears and nashi pears were covered in fruit and Cher had cleaned up the brick paths and swept up dead leaves.  Josh got up before everyone else and set up the worm tea brewing tank and pump and Edd helped me move the worm farm over beside Josh’s set up in the car port. This tidied everything up but it also is a start of my retreat into the house site and away from the ruins. My plan is aimed at cutting down the amount of work we do.

 

Today we have another glorious Autumn Day and it is hard to connect with the threatened fuel shortage we will probably have to deal with. The government is blaming panic buying as the reason some arears have no diesel for the farmers who need to get their crops in.  My family members with electric cars are looking smug. We are very relieved that Al has cancelled his family visit to Spain. P and the kids were going to stay there for 3 months with Al coming back here for a month in the middle. This plan no longer appeals.

 

I have joined a resilience project group and am working on plans to try and help people adapt to disasters and changes. I am now also on the community centre committee. Doing nothing in the face of impending disaster was depressing so I have decided to get involved rather than just worry.

water tanks are filling again

5.3.26

 

Suddenly everything changed!  Edd had been struggling to keep a water supply for everyone.  He had moved pumps and laid pipe from the last resort tanks and had pumped water around until the spare tanks could be used. Before this work was completed, we had huge thunder storms that caused floods in the city and were followed by a wet humid week.

 

This was a welcome change and has saved the life of several trees. The fig tree lost all it’s leaves and so did the gingko. The sugar maples down the drive are probably unrecoverable.  Growing vegetables has been difficult and we are eating lots of zucchinis and silver beat.

 

I have advertised the young goats for sale but so far no-one is interested.  We tried to put the kids we have weaned in with the rest of the herd because they were damaging an oak tree. It was too soon and the kids started drinking from all the milking goats. Edd has put electric fencing round the oak tree and we moved the offenders back were they used to be.

 

We are stressed about what is going on in the world. We are stressed about inflation and the sky rocketing housing prices here. Everything is moving onto AI really quickly. Our kids use it for their work but we have not found a useful way to get it to help us yet.  The awful thing is that we can no longer say seeing is believing. We trust no-one.  This is a very uncomfortable situation to cope with.

 

Most of our local doctors are from Asia and the middle east. Edd’s GP is from Iran and he is kind and good to deal with. We trust him more than we trust our politicians. He has family in Iran so he is more stressed than we are. It is all horrible and hiding away on the farm is not a solution.

 

weeks with no rain

1.2.26

 

We are all feeling relief today as the temperature has dropped back into the 20’s.  We even had a small sprinkle of rain this morning. Most of the month it has been hot and dry, and by hot, I mean very hot, like high 30’s and low 40’s. Our water tanks are also emptying and Edd has had to start on our reserves.

 

The young men of the family helped us cart and stack enough hay for a year, which is a big relief, but also a worry on high fire risk days. The shed would not stand a chance of surviving because of the stores fire wood and hay if fire got close.  We still have a month or so of high-risk weather before we can relax.

 

It has been a very difficult season for vegetables.  The silver beet, parsley, zucchinis and sweet corn have thrives but the late frost and intense heat has not been good for the beans and tomatoes. I water the garden by hand every day but t is barley enough. Trees outside the range of my hose pipe are in real trouble and several have already died. There is only so much one can do in a day.

 

The new white buck, Merlin, has produced some amazing kids. All white but strong and with easy natures. There has been no need to chase them round the pen to catch them and teach them to bottle feed.    They are amazingly co-operative compared with our usual kids.

 

Just when we got things under control we were hit by an unexpected turn of events when Edd has been diagnosed with health serious problems. The weird thing is that he does not feel sick at all, and is working on the farm as usual. Today he is sorting out pipes and fittings to move water from the reserve tanks to the ones we use every day.  I have been working in the garden throwing out dead things.  

into 2026

2.1.2025

 

Happy new year to all my friends. The world is a worrying place but life is relatively calm on our farm.  Hay making has started in the valley but we still have a lot of green grass. It is probably the abundance of rich fodder that has caused the goats to produce unexpected volumes of milk.  We have several maiden milkers and goats who kidded years ago are still coming in with tight udders.  In previous years we would have raised calves but we are slower and less energetic and hence reluctant to take on any more work

 

Egg production has gone down after a day light fox attack that resulted in the death of 4 of our best chooks.  We have now put all the surviving chooks together in the pen under the oak trees where they are less likely to be attacked.  Vegetable production has been difficult. We got a heavy late frost that killed all the beans and zucchinis etc that had just got going. It decimated the mulberry crop but luckily the loquats were ok. In fact, they are juicy and plentiful but do not make a good crop to sell as they go off fast.

 

We had our annual family solstice feast at Bo’s house but this year it was too cold for anyone to use the pool or spa.  The food was fantastic and the kids were all spoilt with a deluge of gifts. Bo and Simon managed to get a tap room open at the brewery in time for the Xmas holiday. Simon has worked really hard to get his own retail outlet to add to his wholesale business. He had to fight the council to get the right permits and then set up a commercial kitchen and a bar. Josh welded up table frames and Bo organised plants and taught workers how to produce food. Her daughter, Silv, is the best worker. Silv has one more year at school and Bo’s two sons have completed their apprentice ships.

 

Our great grand kids are such fun to have living here. They now know where to find fruit and love tearing around on bikes. When the family was here for Edd’s birthday, we had a huge flock of little kids on bikes.

This is a tree frog that some how has got into my indoor jungle.