October 2016

As the rain clouds head south, so we start making a little more progress.

The tables for the shadehouse are complete and full of plants now. Marty and I are getting a little better at welding - less burning holes through the metal! We got to try our cheap metal saw (chop saw) with this project. I got it for about $25 at a clearing sale, probably because it was covered in bird poo and needed a new blade. Thankfully blades were cheaper than the saw, and it cleaned up almost like new, so we got quite lucky with that.

With the dam full, Marty set sail.. well, set paddle.. to find out just how deep our dam goes. We blew up the little boat and tied something heavy to some builders twine. Dropping it down to the bottom, we got 5 metres deep (16.4 foot). Oh well, we're just happy that it doesn't seem to dry up completely over summer.

It's been beautiful weather, and the hayfever is pretty powerful. The bugs are loving the long grass and flowers everywhere (the flies are back with a vengeance), and the birds are making little birds anywhere they can. We've been fixing up the Kubota, changing oils and filters, etc, ready to try her out for the first time making a flat spot for the water tank next to "the structure". We're hoping that it's an easy project for tractor and for beginner operators like ourselves. There are lots of projects after that, but we'll see how she goes. Someone seems to have removed the part that makes the Kubota a 4WD, so we'll soon find out..

Wet day timetable

Every time I think about sharing pictures and words about the dam being full, it rains again and the dam is higher! It really feels like we have the last dam in the southern states to fill up all the way to the brim, and perhaps, over. All around us, dams have been full for a month, overflowing onto roads, and it's only now that we can say yes, our dam is full too. It is a conversation topic here. :)

So, we have water views from the kitchen window.

The earth is completely saturated, any depression is a puddle, the cottage is moving and the walls are cracking. We watch and wait for dry weather before we can fix anything.

The raised garden beds are fantastic, though, and the silverbeet is delicious. I'm quietly thrilled, because I had a goal to grow at least some of our greens this year, and it's happening! We have our own spring onion and eggs too, which together, makes a great omelette.

Marty had the idea to increase the size of the shadehouse, and reconfigure the inside in preparation for summer. During a sunny break in the weather, we extended it out and began working on tables for the seedlings. I was using the wool table, but it wasn't economical with space, so we got some offcuts of 25mm RHS and tried the metal cut off saw, before welding it together to create the tables. Well, nearly, because of, you guessed it, more rain. :)

So, perhaps we'll get some tractor maintenance done, if we can. The little Kubota will be getting a workout once it dries up enough. I'm very much looking forward to it. I've never used a front end loader or a backhoe before!

We have big plans, and more motivation than ever before. We've seriously considered moving, working in town, all kinds of options, but what we want can't simply be moved to. We have to create it. We want to create it.

Fowlers Jars

While I'd love to show a photo of preserved food all in colourful rows, I have yet to try canning, although I intend to! What I do have is too-many-to-count Fowlers jars, and because most of them are from clearing sales, they aren't all suitable for food use. Many have cracks and chips in them.. and I had been wondering what I was going to do with them all.

Some have been very useful for things like..

Keeping Kang Kong over winter. They're tropical, and HATE frost or cold weather of any description, and even though our kitchen isn't tropical by any means, it's usually hovers around 15°C (59°F) all winter. I think the Kang Kong tolerate it, but only just.

There are avocado seeds in the other jars on the kitchen shelf.
Also a sweet potato that sprouted too late in the season last year, also happier in tropical climates.

The shoots of sweet potato have been hanging in there all winter, and I put four of them outside in a new garden bed. Fowlers jars to the rescue again, they're covering the shoots in hopes of keeping the cold off them until next month or so. It's an experiment to see how early I can get these babies into the ground this season. The longer the better, as it might give them a chance to establish a bit before the 30°- 40° plus (86° - 104° plus) temperatures arrive (it happens fast in my experience).

Perhaps this season is the one when I'll use Fowlers jars (and Ball Mason jars) for preserving food. You can bet there'll be photos if I do!

Winter Solstice 2016

The cooler weather has been nice, but it's the wet weather that is keeping us from doing too much exciting around here lately. The shed progress has halted, with tarp covering one of the frames, we'll wait for drier times to continue.

We went to the last Permie Day at Richard's place, and came home with an orphaned lemon tree. Poor little thing! There's one great thing about wet weather though - it's very easy to dig holes for trees. The tree is all tucked-in for the winter, and hopefully it recovers. There is a lot of compost in that soil, as well as a generous amount of worm juice and poultry manure (in pellet form from the bag, since we can't really collect our own chook manure the way they're set up now).

There's been a lot of sitting by the fire, keeping warm.

We keep any wood with holes in them for the garden, somewhere for the bugs, spiders and skinks to call home. Some make good garden edging, and others are huge and I'll garden around them. Gardening is a very slow process in Winter, which is a little frustrating, but I can't complain too much. Most everything is still alive, just hanging out for the warmer days. I've kept 3 jars of Kang Kong in the kitchen - with roots this year - just waiting for Spring, there's a sweet potato that sprouted too late last season, but might not live to see the Spring, and avocado seeds with toothpicks too.

We had trouble with the Red Legged Earth Mite again this year, and while I don't like chemicals, I did try a home made white oil recipe out - just kitchen oil, water, and a drop or two of dishwashing liquid. That worked well, but I waited too long to spray, and the silverbeet are still in recovery mode (which is taking a long time being Winter), so next time I'll be ready for them. That means no more silverbeet though, and other than a few herbs, there isn't much being harvested from the garden. Thankfully the farmer's market traders are better at this than I am, and we are eating excellent food anyway. :)

The fruit trees received a little love, we pruned the fig trees (just underneath them, taking out the suckers and dead stuff, not very dramatic this year), the almond trees got a very light prune, (just branches that were crossing over others and dead ones) and this year I've added mulch and some chicken manure around the bases. They didn't produce any almonds last year, so we're hoping they go crazy this year. Almonds are $36 per kilo at the moment! I don't imagine we'll get enough for our own needs, let alone selling them.

There are plenty of things on the to-do list, but there's no hurry. Often, the longer things take, the better they turn out. Plans have time to evolve, change and sometimes the things that seemed so important before are off the list entirely after some time. Some days we don't do anything at all, and that's perfectly ok with me. :)

When the rain comes

We've had some glorious rain lately! 54mm (just over 2 inches) over a couple of days, filling the tanks, making even the most overgrazed paddocks around us look green, encouraging frogs galore and of course, FUNGI!

The native area on the top of our hill has "environmental significance" and we're suppose to protect and enhance it. Well, that's not a problem. It's absolutely beautiful, and we love nothing more than wandering around up there leaving only footprints and taking only photographs. :)

We've had to start shutting our main gate lately due to our land being too much of a temptation to other people's sheep. The fences are being tested and found lacking too, which has required quite a few hours repairing them. I do feel sorry for the poor sheep surrounding our property, but no, they can't come over for lunch! Because it's been at least 4 years since this property has seen stock, the local native trees are starting to grow back (especially around the edges) and much of the ground is covered by mulch and beginning to look healthy once again.

We will have stock of our own some day, but in a controlled, and hopefully well managed way with electric fences and rotational grazing. But in the meantime, it's wonderful to see an increase in diversity and health of our little slice of The Hills.