24 Feb 2018
Time to really get this farm moving. NO more holidays, NO more road-trips, just work, work, work, until harvest is all in. Nut harvest will run from March to well... until its finished!
SO,
Fertigation pump to be installed - check - more on that in a moment
Grass mowing under control (eek) - check
Crowdfunding page working - check out post from previous update for online link
Farm facebook page setup and running - check out Baupal Park Farm everyone
WWOOFA account done...... ya what??
The previous week was spent down south, travelling to and from Wagga Wagga, and it brought me home to a shit load of work, and a reply online to my first WWOOFA advert. Willing Workers on Organic Farms Australia - you know the friendly tourists?? (no not the Russian one again). But willing workers in exchange for being fed and lodged. How good is that!
As excited as I was I couldn't believe it had happened so fast, I mean I was only setting account up last Tuesday, and BANG...first response. So I replied to them and now I have two lovely young German tourists here for maybe one,two or three weeks....I am in heaven. It's so refreshing to be able to have young people who are interested and keen in organic farming. And boy can they work! Needless to say I am enjoying being the hostess, and loving cooking in my new kitchen in farmhouse. In fact today will be a traditional Australian lunch of roast lamb and potatoes with all the vegetables.
And last nights chilli chicken wings with rice went down very well indeed.
So far the workers (in the rain!!) have de burred (water shoots) off all the trees in top orchard (that's 28 rows and over 1000 trees) fixed an erosion problem on a bank next to main dam, and generally smiled with their work and got stuck in to anything I present to them. They are even making JLF (Liquid Fertiliser) and WCA (Water Soluble Calcium). So definitely getting an organic experience.
And then midweek I get another WWOOFA enquiry for this July...from USA! Its happening people, its really happening.
Once I had moved into the farmhouse, there was the question of what to do the old cottage setup. It certainly cant be used for future accommodation, my 10.5 month stint in it surely proved that, but its got to be dismantled this year, (or moved or reused somewhere- that's an idea!!) so we will have to wait a few months to work out how. That's because family are arriving in May, and that means more hands on deck and lots of company. Rex will be soooo happy.
Rex.
Yes the forever puppy has been quiet through these pages for some time but .....
OK my turn, my turn, my turn...WWOOFA woof, woof what?
OK I get cuddles three times over every day, play all day in orchard and sleep inside on cool tile floor now. woof. happy. woof. lick. sniff. snore.
Thanks Rex. And yes the workers love him too. And no you don't get to sleep inside - thankyou.
A quick walking tour of farm for workers went down really well, and the local Wallabies put on a no show, but they will appear again at some point. As has my next orchard - Finger Limes. Yes the delivery arrived in the rain midweek, (rain yes - 165mm in 4 days!) and now we have a beautiful batch of 50 new saplings to plant. This will be the first of the new orchard diversifications to be planted and then another 200 Macadamia trees are going in this year - September time. Lots to do.
The rain was torrential this week, and now I have kracking kryptonite grass - its bright green from all the atmospheric nitrogen in rainwater, and growing in front of me! Must strap my mattress to the mower, because I'm going to be living on it once the ground dries out. But thank god we have the ride on mower here now, which will make for a quicker solution.
Fertigation? I mentioned this last week too, (I heard someone asking earlier up the page)...its a pump that delivers liquid nutrition into the main water lines from the bore, which means I wont have to drive big Lamborghini tractor around with sprayer anymore - shit load of time saved, (and diesel) and each irrigation section will be given a measured dose of FAA, JLF and WCA - all together, all organic and mixed with water. Total nutrition delivery.
(Sounds a bit farmy yeah? well that's because I am one now, and gotta think like one too.)
Another milestone reached this week....I was able to discuss the past. I mean discuss some things that happened to me in Iraq, without any anxiety welling up, or anger pressing my chest about being asked questions...gotta be a move in right direction, yes?
Lets just say time is a great healer, and so is this farm.
"Yarns from the Farm" will be continued.........next week
Time to really get this farm moving. NO more holidays, NO more road-trips, just work, work, work, until harvest is all in. Nut harvest will run from March to well... until its finished!
SO,
Fertigation pump to be installed - check - more on that in a moment
Grass mowing under control (eek) - check
Crowdfunding page working - check out post from previous update for online link
Farm facebook page setup and running - check out Baupal Park Farm everyone
WWOOFA account done...... ya what??
The previous week was spent down south, travelling to and from Wagga Wagga, and it brought me home to a shit load of work, and a reply online to my first WWOOFA advert. Willing Workers on Organic Farms Australia - you know the friendly tourists?? (no not the Russian one again). But willing workers in exchange for being fed and lodged. How good is that!
As excited as I was I couldn't believe it had happened so fast, I mean I was only setting account up last Tuesday, and BANG...first response. So I replied to them and now I have two lovely young German tourists here for maybe one,two or three weeks....I am in heaven. It's so refreshing to be able to have young people who are interested and keen in organic farming. And boy can they work! Needless to say I am enjoying being the hostess, and loving cooking in my new kitchen in farmhouse. In fact today will be a traditional Australian lunch of roast lamb and potatoes with all the vegetables.
And last nights chilli chicken wings with rice went down very well indeed.
So far the workers (in the rain!!) have de burred (water shoots) off all the trees in top orchard (that's 28 rows and over 1000 trees) fixed an erosion problem on a bank next to main dam, and generally smiled with their work and got stuck in to anything I present to them. They are even making JLF (Liquid Fertiliser) and WCA (Water Soluble Calcium). So definitely getting an organic experience.
And then midweek I get another WWOOFA enquiry for this July...from USA! Its happening people, its really happening.
Once I had moved into the farmhouse, there was the question of what to do the old cottage setup. It certainly cant be used for future accommodation, my 10.5 month stint in it surely proved that, but its got to be dismantled this year, (or moved or reused somewhere- that's an idea!!) so we will have to wait a few months to work out how. That's because family are arriving in May, and that means more hands on deck and lots of company. Rex will be soooo happy.
Rex.
Yes the forever puppy has been quiet through these pages for some time but .....
OK my turn, my turn, my turn...WWOOFA woof, woof what?
OK I get cuddles three times over every day, play all day in orchard and sleep inside on cool tile floor now. woof. happy. woof. lick. sniff. snore.
Thanks Rex. And yes the workers love him too. And no you don't get to sleep inside - thankyou.
A quick walking tour of farm for workers went down really well, and the local Wallabies put on a no show, but they will appear again at some point. As has my next orchard - Finger Limes. Yes the delivery arrived in the rain midweek, (rain yes - 165mm in 4 days!) and now we have a beautiful batch of 50 new saplings to plant. This will be the first of the new orchard diversifications to be planted and then another 200 Macadamia trees are going in this year - September time. Lots to do.
The rain was torrential this week, and now I have kracking kryptonite grass - its bright green from all the atmospheric nitrogen in rainwater, and growing in front of me! Must strap my mattress to the mower, because I'm going to be living on it once the ground dries out. But thank god we have the ride on mower here now, which will make for a quicker solution.
Fertigation? I mentioned this last week too, (I heard someone asking earlier up the page)...its a pump that delivers liquid nutrition into the main water lines from the bore, which means I wont have to drive big Lamborghini tractor around with sprayer anymore - shit load of time saved, (and diesel) and each irrigation section will be given a measured dose of FAA, JLF and WCA - all together, all organic and mixed with water. Total nutrition delivery.
(Sounds a bit farmy yeah? well that's because I am one now, and gotta think like one too.)
Another milestone reached this week....I was able to discuss the past. I mean discuss some things that happened to me in Iraq, without any anxiety welling up, or anger pressing my chest about being asked questions...gotta be a move in right direction, yes?
Lets just say time is a great healer, and so is this farm.
"Yarns from the Farm" will be continued.........next week
Comments
Post a Comment