13 May 2018
So sorry I missed last week. What else can I say - just so damned busy, sorry.
Anyway the south east Australian Summer has finally said goodbye for another year, and yes, Winter has begun to show her true colours of what's to come. Only 2 more weeks of Autumn to go and the cold weather has finally arrived. We get longer summers here right through till after Easter, (southern hemisphere of course) and the rain has finally eased off as well. Dew on the grass in the mornings is heavy and cold, taking till 10am to dry out completely each morning, but the days are crisp and clear blue, with a mid day sunburn bite still in the air.
Last Winter while I was living in the workers cottage....I was so cold at night I slept with two pairs of pyjamas, bed socks, beanie and blankets piled high. I cant truly appreciate the life of being homeless outdoors - it must be horrible in the cold. I mean I have slept outdoors with the Army of course (-4 on Puckapunyal Range for 4 nights in a row and not above zero all day!), but this was a whole season last year with damp floors, crooked door frames and no insulation. Never again, in fact cant wait to dismantle that cottage this Spring.
So last night we celebrated the arrival of the cold weather with our first farmhouse fire and it was glorious. The fun was collecting up scraps of branches from around the orchard too, and getting that lovely cosy feel as the fire took hold and the room warmed up. Add to that a major clean up in farmhouse yesterday - painting rooms, clearing out junk...all in anticipation of family arriving next weekend. Still got some work to do today on that front, but at least the back of it is now broken.
And today is a major collection day in the orchards as well. Yes no rest for me! The ground has dried up enough to put harvester out again and will need to do at least two full bin loads today - for processing tomorrow. Getting to grips with this routine is now becoming second nature somewhat, the waking up at 5:30, getting up by 6 etc, even on weekends, I don't like lying in bed past 7am, especially as the mutster (Rex) is 9/10 sitting ontop of me sooking for breakfast! FEED ME!!
Must put up that video I took of him snoring....
Another milestone reached last week with the return to action of the Go Pro Karma Drone. Back in service and scaring the willies out of those black cockatoos. They do so much damage to the orchard trees.But something I haven't seen here before is the Wedge Tailed Eagles...quite a few have been cruising about. Especially while I was deep slashing the lower paddock two weeks ago. Hovering above me as I chugged along on the John Deere tractor - slowly circling above looking for rodents to come scootering out of the long grass I was cutting. Just another job that will need to be repeated.
And after yesterday afternoon sitting on JD mowing middle of farm and left of top orchard (yes this place is huge) it was great to finally finish that whole section for once, with the time to just cruise along and think about what is to be done here next.....next. Like the Excavator that's coming next month to haul loads of topsoil out of the dams (three in all) that are evaporating away. Beautiful black brown topsoil along the edges of the dams will be extracted in buckets full to redress under the orchard rows. This will cover the tree roots, and build up soil profile across orchard as well. Somehow I don't think 3 days of excavator hire will be enough to get it all done...and the furthest dam from property will be emptied, in order to dig it out deeper and get as much topsoil as possible. We are talking about 50-75 tonnes needs excavating out, so its a huge job.
Goats are now proving there worth as mobile lawn mowers. Cost me $170 for the two, and nothing more since. They just eat grass, shrubs, weeds, anything! Yesterday morning I tethered them outside the old workers cottage for a change. And they ate all the leaves off a rogue Camphalaural tree growing nearby...every single leaf! So no letting them loose in orchard! Ear scratching is now a cute morning routine with them before I put them out to graze and they call me (Meeeeeeehhh) to come put them back to bed in evening. I reckon they've settled in very well indeed.
Which leads me to plan my bonfire night for next month. With so much rubbish being collected across the farm (prunings, grass etc) I had to move the fire pit site, to a safer more remote area. So next month will be our mid year burn off, in mid Winter, to get rid of all that decomposing dry rubbish. What a party that will be!
So sorry I missed last week. What else can I say - just so damned busy, sorry.
Anyway the south east Australian Summer has finally said goodbye for another year, and yes, Winter has begun to show her true colours of what's to come. Only 2 more weeks of Autumn to go and the cold weather has finally arrived. We get longer summers here right through till after Easter, (southern hemisphere of course) and the rain has finally eased off as well. Dew on the grass in the mornings is heavy and cold, taking till 10am to dry out completely each morning, but the days are crisp and clear blue, with a mid day sunburn bite still in the air.
Last Winter while I was living in the workers cottage....I was so cold at night I slept with two pairs of pyjamas, bed socks, beanie and blankets piled high. I cant truly appreciate the life of being homeless outdoors - it must be horrible in the cold. I mean I have slept outdoors with the Army of course (-4 on Puckapunyal Range for 4 nights in a row and not above zero all day!), but this was a whole season last year with damp floors, crooked door frames and no insulation. Never again, in fact cant wait to dismantle that cottage this Spring.
So last night we celebrated the arrival of the cold weather with our first farmhouse fire and it was glorious. The fun was collecting up scraps of branches from around the orchard too, and getting that lovely cosy feel as the fire took hold and the room warmed up. Add to that a major clean up in farmhouse yesterday - painting rooms, clearing out junk...all in anticipation of family arriving next weekend. Still got some work to do today on that front, but at least the back of it is now broken.
And today is a major collection day in the orchards as well. Yes no rest for me! The ground has dried up enough to put harvester out again and will need to do at least two full bin loads today - for processing tomorrow. Getting to grips with this routine is now becoming second nature somewhat, the waking up at 5:30, getting up by 6 etc, even on weekends, I don't like lying in bed past 7am, especially as the mutster (Rex) is 9/10 sitting ontop of me sooking for breakfast! FEED ME!!
Must put up that video I took of him snoring....
Another milestone reached last week with the return to action of the Go Pro Karma Drone. Back in service and scaring the willies out of those black cockatoos. They do so much damage to the orchard trees.But something I haven't seen here before is the Wedge Tailed Eagles...quite a few have been cruising about. Especially while I was deep slashing the lower paddock two weeks ago. Hovering above me as I chugged along on the John Deere tractor - slowly circling above looking for rodents to come scootering out of the long grass I was cutting. Just another job that will need to be repeated.
And after yesterday afternoon sitting on JD mowing middle of farm and left of top orchard (yes this place is huge) it was great to finally finish that whole section for once, with the time to just cruise along and think about what is to be done here next.....next. Like the Excavator that's coming next month to haul loads of topsoil out of the dams (three in all) that are evaporating away. Beautiful black brown topsoil along the edges of the dams will be extracted in buckets full to redress under the orchard rows. This will cover the tree roots, and build up soil profile across orchard as well. Somehow I don't think 3 days of excavator hire will be enough to get it all done...and the furthest dam from property will be emptied, in order to dig it out deeper and get as much topsoil as possible. We are talking about 50-75 tonnes needs excavating out, so its a huge job.
Goats are now proving there worth as mobile lawn mowers. Cost me $170 for the two, and nothing more since. They just eat grass, shrubs, weeds, anything! Yesterday morning I tethered them outside the old workers cottage for a change. And they ate all the leaves off a rogue Camphalaural tree growing nearby...every single leaf! So no letting them loose in orchard! Ear scratching is now a cute morning routine with them before I put them out to graze and they call me (Meeeeeeehhh) to come put them back to bed in evening. I reckon they've settled in very well indeed.
Which leads me to plan my bonfire night for next month. With so much rubbish being collected across the farm (prunings, grass etc) I had to move the fire pit site, to a safer more remote area. So next month will be our mid year burn off, in mid Winter, to get rid of all that decomposing dry rubbish. What a party that will be!
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