22 July 2018
Nut cracking has begun with gusto. With a 500 kg order to fill over next 3 months I will be a very busy farmer. But at least we have the help of the new machine to arrive soon; an industrial nut cracker that can process up to 60kg of nut in an hour. Hooray.
With the winter weather staying dry and chilly over night and warm during the afternoons, the last of the harvest is being collected by hand, and its very surprising to see just how much is still out there, trapped between exposed tree roots. That problem will hopefully not carry over into the next season. This is because we have had some huge deliveries of soil arrive over last 7 days, and this will be used to backfill under the trees. 20 tonnes per load with another 80 tonnes to go.
The soil has come from another macadamia farm, so will be put to very good use. We must raise the profile of the orchard rows, to allow the nuts to roll out from under the trees when they fall and not pool in piles under trees where harvester cannot reach them. Its been back breaking work at times scrambling under the trees to pick up nuts caught in piles between tree roots. Anyway almost there.
Time has arrived to start the fertigation on the farm. (Funny how spell check doesn't recognise that word!) Irrigation and Fertilising combined into one job. Its a winter job best done June to July, so we are a bit behind with it at the moment. Has been a joy to see it working after last year of crawling about in the mud trying to fix lines that were badly designed. Anyway a combination of; (for the curious farming community out there!)
........Water
All this combined into a 200 litre tank and pumped out through the bore system into irrigation lines.
And with the addition of another 20 control taps across the farm the fertigation work is now much smarter to control and more targeted to each row. Ok enough technical farm talk.
Animals - dogs. Ruby has been promoted to sleeping outside - FINALLY. And is fully toilet trained.
Geese - definitely lost one of the females a week after they arrived. Maybe she flew away?? But no sign of her at all. At least the other two have adopted the farm as their new home. Gander goose is happy and lets me pet his back now. Quite cute. Check out this little dinner time video....
Nut cracking has begun with gusto. With a 500 kg order to fill over next 3 months I will be a very busy farmer. But at least we have the help of the new machine to arrive soon; an industrial nut cracker that can process up to 60kg of nut in an hour. Hooray.
With the winter weather staying dry and chilly over night and warm during the afternoons, the last of the harvest is being collected by hand, and its very surprising to see just how much is still out there, trapped between exposed tree roots. That problem will hopefully not carry over into the next season. This is because we have had some huge deliveries of soil arrive over last 7 days, and this will be used to backfill under the trees. 20 tonnes per load with another 80 tonnes to go.
The soil has come from another macadamia farm, so will be put to very good use. We must raise the profile of the orchard rows, to allow the nuts to roll out from under the trees when they fall and not pool in piles under trees where harvester cannot reach them. Its been back breaking work at times scrambling under the trees to pick up nuts caught in piles between tree roots. Anyway almost there.
 |
| yes that's me |
Time has arrived to start the fertigation on the farm. (Funny how spell check doesn't recognise that word!) Irrigation and Fertilising combined into one job. Its a winter job best done June to July, so we are a bit behind with it at the moment. Has been a joy to see it working after last year of crawling about in the mud trying to fix lines that were badly designed. Anyway a combination of; (for the curious farming community out there!)
- Water Soluble Calcium (made from roasted egg shells and vinegar)
- JADAM Liquid Fertiliser (made from fermented macadamia shoots, chook manure, IMO3 and kelp)
- Fermented Amino Fish Acid (made from fish frames, brown sugar and IMO3) and
........Water
All this combined into a 200 litre tank and pumped out through the bore system into irrigation lines.
And with the addition of another 20 control taps across the farm the fertigation work is now much smarter to control and more targeted to each row. Ok enough technical farm talk.
 |
| (Such a mean mummy - makes me sleep outside now!) |
Animals - dogs. Ruby has been promoted to sleeping outside - FINALLY. And is fully toilet trained.
Geese - definitely lost one of the females a week after they arrived. Maybe she flew away?? But no sign of her at all. At least the other two have adopted the farm as their new home. Gander goose is happy and lets me pet his back now. Quite cute. Check out this little dinner time video....
Has anyone out there ever made their own Hibiscus tea? Well in the mad scramble to cut down all the overgrown bushed at front of the farm we found some huge Hibiscus shrubs. So now we are picking and drying the flowers to make our own tea - for home use only of course! But it is apparently very good for you (so Dr. Google tells me). Once these bushes are pruned into some sort of order we hope to get lots more flowers to pick and dry into tea.
 |
| Seems a waste to not use the flowers |
Have a great week everyone and look after yourself.
Comments
Post a Comment