The looong slooow summer continues

The hot weather continues, the garden is looking stressed, and we haven't had rain for a long while now. It can be a bit depressing, but things will change. Eventually.

The site chosen, roughly leveled and the stirrups are in place for the new shed. Nothing much happens quickly in the summer.

Well, except for the peaches, which were quick to ripen, and be eaten by parrots, but we got a few and they were delicious. :)

But slow is generally the name of the game right now. That goes for food and medicine too. These are some sauerkraut and pickles I made, and behind them are tinctures brewing. It took 6 weeks to make the tinctures and 1 week for the fermented foods. (The sauerkraut and pickles are eaten already though, that was quick!)

It's been warm here lately, and we're expecting more of the same 37°C (98.6°F) for another week at least, the unofficial temperature easily climbs over 40°C (104°F) under our veranda. Getting up before dawn and hiding inside after 9am is about the only way to get anything done. We're thankful for the fan, the insulation in the roof and the thick mudbrick walls. Although the walls have a habit of staying a tad too warm after a few days of heat, things will be much nicer once they're rendered, painted and the trees grow up.

Summer surprises

We've been lucky with the rain, but when the heat comes, it means we're back to hiding inside during the hottest part of the day. So, while I'm inside keeping cool, I thought I'd share with you a few photos of our latest adventures.

Our first clearing sale of the year was a few days ago, and this was the bargain of the day, in our opinion! Would you believe that we got all this for just $5? Thank goodness for the ute!

Friends of ours had recently lost one of their pair of chooks one frightfully hot day, and not wishing to leave this one lonley, they donated her back to our place (they'd been here before as pullets, so it wasn't too big of a shock for her). She's having a great time under the fig trees. She asserted her dominance over the naked neck chooks, but the dorkings were another matter! So she fit perfectly in the middle of the flock right away.

Big surprise! Yesterday we discovered that one of the ancient fruit trees in the orchard is an apple, and it managed a couple of small fruits to prove it. It must have been a surprise to the birds as well, because neither of them were eaten at all. (The birds have plenty of food on the fig and peach trees at the moment.) We saved the seeds, and one day I'll graft some of the branches and make more. It's a very tough, and very old tree.. worth saving I reckon!

The grapes that were pruned last winter by the permie group grew like crazy this year. They're ancient too, mostly only surviving where they've popped-up near the old grape vines' trunks. This one fruited, much to our surprise, and the grapes are lovely. Much like a Menindee seedless, but with seeds - which isn't bad, it just takes a little longer to eat and savour each one - which we certainly did!

Other than that, we've spent time learning some wood working, cleaning the pub of course, and I turned another year older. As usual at this time of year, I'm really looking forward to the weather cooling down, to growing more of our own food, and we've got a million projects on the go (and trying not to feel guilty about not doing any of them right now, ha!).

Until next time.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the slithery surprises that come with summer here. We've seen a few snakes this year, but most surprising was the one that was on the back step as I opened the door to get something outside. I think it took me a single second to see it, work out what it was exactly, drool on the floor and make a "Yip!" sound before closing the door again. I waited inside until it was time to get Marty from his job at the post office, and there was much caution and stomping as I walked. We don't harm the snakes here, but it is another reason to look forward to cooler days!

Another day, another shed

After a long hot December, we find ourselves already well into 2016 and a much cooler January than we're use to. It's almost tropical, with periods of rain, storms, and 30-something degree weather. The garden is confused! Ginger is growing well, and so is the Paulownia trees we've planted recently. Our tomatoes were given to us by a friend of ours, but of the three varieties, the cherry tomatoes are the outstanding winners. The roma tomatoes suffered blossom-end-rot and the bigger tomatoes (not sure of the variety) are suffering from the sun and rats are eating any fruit they do make. So, we're happily feasting on the cherry tomatoes. We managed to get one capsicum, sun damaged, but still quite yummy, but otherwise it's been a fairly lean summer. That's ok, it's far too warm to eat a lot anyway!

I was saying last time that we changed our minds on putting the shed where it was, and we were about to dismantle the whole thing. Marty had ground off one beam across the top and we had to leave it for a bit since it was too hot to risk starting a fire. One day we were lamenting having anywhere to store things out of the weather, especially the tractor, and I came up with a crazy plan. Lets put up the roofing iron we were donated (very generously by members of the Permie group), and use the spare C section to make it all stronger (since we made a mistake by putting the C section on the wrong way last time).. and 2 days later, we have "the structure"! The tractor is protected from the elements, there is now a large pile of straw bales and a place to store the chook food (which gives us more room by the back door of the cottage).

Then, Marty built a little tool shed to help tidy up some of the shovels, rakes and other stuff around the back door. My contribution is making the front wall of the shed out of cob (mud and straw), so it's not quite finished yet because we're waiting on some sand. No matter, the tools are out of the rain now, at least, and it won't be long until we get the sand delivery.

Australia Day was luckily not too warm, and even more luckily, it didn't rain until the next day, because we took our little Aussie made tractor down to the festivities to be part of the Australian Made machinery display. The day went pretty well, and Marty was thrilled to drive Peter's very old tractor back to his place afterwards.

Since then, we've enjoyed some lovely rain. The water tank is full again and we have some green grass even. Marty and I have also begun learning a little woodworking from a friend of ours, and lesson one is putting up yet another shed! This one will be somewhere we can work in, where the work bench and wood working tools will be, somewhere dry, hopefully a little less dusty, where we can make things from. We're very excited about it.

So, we're keeping very busy, and projects are happening.

Pondering and Planning

Project progress has slowed down lately. Probably due to the hot weather and the flies making it unpleasant to be outside. Instead we've been spending our time thinking and planning. We have many of our ideas scribbled down on a printed out Google map of the property, and it gets added to all the time. Sometimes I pull the map out and realise that we had the placement of something we've been wondering about already on the map! Oops, forgot about that.

When we started thinking about the shed project again - the half finished one that's stalled - it became obvious that we've squeezed ourselves into a confined area and it's just not going to work. The shed project has stalled because we're not feeling sure about the design or the location. It's an uncomfortable feeling that's just not going away!

So, pulling out the map of the property, there really is only one spot near the house that hasn't been ear-marked for other great things.. the North side of the house. The North is a tricky location, but after pondering it for some time, we've seen that it would make a perfect location for the shed of our dreams.

There's enough room to fit the cars, tractor, implements, materials storage and even the workshop all in that one location. Not only that, but the roof would have enough room (and is facing the correct direction) for a proper solar array. There is no more room on the cottage's roof for any more panels, and it means we can plant deciduous trees around the house to benefit from their shade. We could even put the solar command centre and batteries in there.

So, location sorted, design almost perfected, we're waiting on our friend and neighbour to dig out the pad nice and level. I think Marty is going to order the materials tomorrow. We're both feeling energised by the new design and location - which has to be a good sign. Yes, I have a good feeling about this!

The other plan I've been thinking about is the kitchen. I needed to figure out the rough layout of the room so we can have 240V power installed to the correct location. I used Sweet home 3D and a tape measure and given all the constraints, it was easy to fit the the pieces of the puzzle together.

That's the rough plan for now. It's difficult to show it properly without being able to move it around, but the idea is that we'll wall off part of the kitchen to create a big cold cupboard/pantry that also houses a little chest freezer. The cold pantry will be full of shelves for storage of food etc.

The rest of the kitchen had to go where it will fit. The oven is a representation rather than a real thing.. the sink will hopefully be a corner sink, and the yellow and pink represent cupboards we already own and didn't want to get rid of. We'll put any 240V appliances on them in that corner. We've always wanted to cut a window into the North wall.. and no, the walls won't look like that at all! Ha! But you get the idea..?

So, other than planning, our time has been taken up with gardening, mowing, working and going into town.

We're feeling a bit more confident going forward with good plans in place. :)

November garden in photos

I walked out the back door (our only door to the outside at the moment), and I'm so glad the first thing to be seen is the garden. There's the classic strawberry in a hanging basket, some timeless herbs like calendula, thyme, gotu kola and there's a small comfrey* plant amongst that mess.

The Water garden was started a little late this year, but the plants don't seem to mind. The Kang Kong only just survived the winter being brought inside to take root in a jar in the North facing window. I lost all but 2 plants, and I realise now that I should have taken cuttings much earlier and brought them inside once they had established roots. I think I'll have a bigger plants than this by this time next year.

The Chinese water chestnuts are amazing! I put about 8 in a paper bag, into a plastic container, into the fridge (an esky with variable temps) and left them there all winter. I opened the container a couple of weeks ago, and they looked ready to go, so I planted 4 of them into pots. A few days later, something hungry came along and ate 3 of them! Looking at the ones I'd left behind, looking dry and done, I popped them in anyway and covered the pots to keep (choughs I reckon) hungry beaks at bay, and wouldn't you know they're sprouting now? The original one is doing great, so it's a small set back for the others, but considering how quickly these plants grow, I'm guessing we'll have too many again next year - and only from the two pots like this..

I took a walk around to inspect the trees, which is dangerous around here, and although I could be talking about brown snakes, I'm actually referring to the grass seeds that get stuck in your socks as you walk around. They burrow and get into everything, and it can get to the point when you feel like if you take another step, you'll break skin! I know, I know, that's why I should be wearing sock protectors.. and tracksuit pants are a definite no-no!!

Anyway, we have moved the chicks away from under the apricot tree, and it's really responding to having the extra fertilizer. New growth, green all around. Amazing what chooks can do.

The hugel bed is more green than the surrounding area. We've had a little rain, and it responded right away. Many of the dead asparagus plants are suddenly putting up new shoots, and the green manure is green again. Amazing what a difference a little earth works can make!

We finally got around to the major task of moving the chooks the other day. It normally would take us about 30-45 minutes these days, but we had moved them all the way down to the end of the property. Well and truly zone 5 stuff! The weather warmed up quickly, and we didn't want them to suffer the slow hops back toward the orchard area, since there are NO trees in between. So, we boxed them up at night, secured them in with the chicks, then used the tractor to drag the houses up to where they are now. We came back the next morning to set up the fence and let them out into it.

It's been almost a year since they were last on this ground, and even so, the fruit trees seem to be better off for it. Little pears are getting bigger, the quince is giving me hope (although, it did look hopeful last year as well, but the fruit turned black and died well before ripening). All the plants are looking happier this year. It could be the pruning our Permie friends did, the extra water we've had this year, the extra manure or all of those things combined.

I think we've both decided that the orchard area is where we'll make the chooks permanent run, and move them around within it (or exclude them from certain areas where needed). It makes so much sense them being close to the house (especially the front door when we re-instate it), we can protect them and the fruit at the same time (from foxes, possums and wallabies/kangaroos), and they will keep fertilizing the trees and keep pests like fruit fly at bay, and gain the benefit of the shade in summer.

Now we just need to build it..

Add it to the list!


* Seems hiding the comfrey from the pests is working for now. The new Paterson's Curse Crown Boring Weevil is very effective at reducing comfrey numbers to nothing around here - but there's still a good amount of Paterson's Curse around, since the weevils are only just starting to do their thing, and the weed it's suppose to control has done finished flowering by now..