2013 Winds Down

This year has been one of many twists and turns.  It has seen me go through my third and final round of chemo, yes final round.  The post chemo tests have shown I am clear and free.  There will be follow up tests just to keep an eye  on things, but my life is now my own once again.  The property has taken on a new look, with a great number of projects now done and dusted.  Have had the greatest blessing in hosting Magnus for the third time and when he returns to his homeland in December, my home won't be the same.  Luckily he will return to me in the new year for around 3 months.  It would be amazing if there was a way for him to remain in Australia as is his dream.  I have begun two new ventures in order to produce my own food and a little extra income.  First came the quail, which are now housed in the aviary that Magnus and I worked hard to assemble.

 

The area beneath the shelf will be enclosed with doors, this will be the area used to grow out the young quail for food and sales.

 

I am also investing in another set of breeding cages to increase the number of breeding groups.  So far I am doing well enough with them, in regard to incubating and raising, however will need a larger incubator for future production.  I also bought my first pair of meat rabbits in order to breed them for another food source.  They will be housed in two large cages not far from the quail aviary out in the paddock.  Although still only about 5 months old,  they have grown a lot and are maturing nicely. 

 

 

 

 

The rabbit above is Bugalugs. Thought to be female at first...OOOPS

 

Above is Mokiedokie,  umm thought this was the male,  another OOPS.

 



In a few short weeks we will be looking at the Christmas celebrations,  I am going to spend this time quietly planning what I hope to achieve in the next year around the place.  It is exciting, as there are so many options open to me.  Meanwhile, I will leave you all with my very best wishes for the end of 2013 and hopes of a prosperous and happy new year in 2014.



Reflections

Here it is, the last day of October 2013.  I find myself reflecting on a year that has held many surprising twists and turns.  During the first half of the year, I underwent my third and final chemo treatment.  Then was faced with the decision on when to go for the tests to find out if it had worked.  I procrastinated for quite some time on this and will come back to this part of the post later.  As the chemo ended, of course I had the blitz, a post chemo BBQ and many interesting adventures.  I hosted Magnus and Lucinda as WWOOFers,  then had a few months with nobody around.  The winter came and work on the property slowed down,  I don't do cold weather very well, must be an age thing.  As spring approached, preparations for the Elmore Field Days ramped up and I had the lovely opportunity of hosting Thomas from China.  He was a gentle and endearing young man who was quick to smile and easy to talk with.  He had never had much contact with animals back home, so his first full day gave him ample opportunity to make up for that.  Thomas and I went to a friend's small farm to feed up the horses, chooks, cats, dogs and fish.  He handled it all with such grace and made friends with the 2 small horses easily.

Not long after Thomas had departed I got an email from Magnus, my most frequent WWOOFer, asking could he return a little earlier than planned.  Of course that was no hard decision to make, a big yes from me and then busied myself preparing his room.  He is an amazing young man who has journeyed so far.  He had just done a trip around Australia in his little Toyota Seca hatchback, a total of 23,000 km.  Has seen so much of our wonderful country, had the opportunity to do a great number of new things and met (I am sure) many interesting folk.  Since he arrived back, we tackled a number of jobs (yet again),  made an alteration to the sandpad by taking out one section of timber and turning it into the sandpad and making a ramp for easy access with a wheelbarrow to the hothouse. Removed a noxious bush and some fence posts, restrung the wire on an old fence and removed part of another.

removing fence post

new garden edge and restrung wire, corner where the noxious bush was

remodelled sandpad

 

Magnus is due to head home to Germany in December, I have to say that day will be very hard for me.  He has made a big impact on my life and also become a good friend am blessed to know.  No matter where his life takes him, he will do very well indeed.  With Christmas fast approaching, I hope to have the aviary set up on the end of the sandpad you can see in the photo, where I will house the coturnix quail I am now breeding for food and to sell.  I have also bought 2 meat rabbits, that I had hoped to breed.  As luck would have it, I got two males.  So a swap is in order and I will trade one of them for a doe.  Just my luck really and as I type this I do have a smile of irony on my face.

Coming full circle on this post,  yesterday was the day I got my chemo test results.  It was a moment of an astounding moment really.  I am finally clear of malignancy, I can now breathe a sigh of relief and plan for the future.

Blitzed Again.

 

On April 27th I was blessed by the team from the Permaculture Guild with another blitz.  On the day a team of lovely folk descended on my property and undertook so many projects that I had wanted done, but needed help to achieve.  The photos above and below show work in progress, building a wicking bed to grow more vegetables in.  It is a modified design, that has the overflow pipe at the base of the reservoir on a spindle.  If the bed needs to be completely drained, I can attach a grey water hose to the top of the overflow and simply turn the pipe to release water on the strawberry bed beside it, or into buckets to be used on other gardens.  I will be most interested to see what the outcome will be.

 

The most important project on the day was building a double sand pad.  This was planned so that the hothouse could be assembled on the smaller/inner sandpad,  a small potting shed will be built just by the front entrance to that and the final installation will be a large water tank on the opposite end of the large/outer sandpad later this year.  This will allow me to install a small aquaponic system in the hothouse, as well as a set of grow shelves for when I plant seeds into punnets at the beginning of each growing season. It will also mean that the 3 tie in together nicely and complete the picture in the first quarter acre I am working to establish.  The hothouse is a simple kitform I purchased at a very good price on the internet and will be a tide over until I am more financial and can build a proper glass house on the same site.





 





 



 During November last year I bought several loads of tree mulch from local arborists and had managed to spread the majority of that in the main garden patch to reduce the weed problem and cut out all mowing.  I still had about 2/3 of a truck load to spread, so this task was also undertaken on the day and now the entire olive grove, orchard and garden patch are under mulch.  Still a strip along the dividing fence and around the sandpad to do, will have to invest in yet another load of mulch soon to complete the task.

 

The end of the day saw us all around the trestle sharing a mixed meal and good conversation, lamenting over all we achieved during the day.  Feeling quite pleased with ourselves, we later moved our chairs around the fire drum to relax and gaze at the wonderous colours and patterns forming around the full moon above.

Solar Oven

 

Above is my latest WWOOFer and I displaying the solar oven that Magnus and I built.  Lucinda spent the afternoon lining the inside of it with foil windshield protectors, while I finished the outer lid.  We then hinged it onto the body of the box and put the card table stays on so the lid will stay up while cooking.  It works on the basis of reflected light.  From the lid, through the glass, onto the silver reflective surfaces inside the box.  We are planning to give it a test run tomorrow and will bake some damper and garlic bread.

A Blast From The Past

 

There is nothing like a friend revisited.  3 Weeks ago that just came to be for me and a young man I hosted during March and April of last year.  Magnus has returned.  What a welcome face it was to see disembarking from the bus.  He has been such a breath of fresh life here and so far we have managed to knock over a number of important jobs.  The floods that went through a while back had left me feeling very disenchanted and lacking motivation.  Part of that was also due to being on chemo for so long.  (glad that part of my journey is now done).  We have built new garden beds, adjusted watering systems, extended the compost bay (now have 4 small bays to make it work better) and done a great deal of preparatory work in readiness for the permablitz being held here on 27th April.  Another project Magnus and I have tackled, is the construction of a solar oven, in which we hope to cook the food for the folk attending the permablitz. Once again the folk from Ballarat Permaculture Guild are coming up to weave their magic and help with some of the bigger projects on the property.  We are planning to build a sand pad that will hold the hothouse, a potting shed and eventually a water tank, which will be utilised in the paddock.  On the same day we hope to get a wicking bed made, build a couple more raised vegie beds, do some planting and generally enjoy the time spent with fantastic people over shared meals.  (today I don't have much faith in the weather, a cold southerly blast has hit hard, even the wood fire is struggling a little).   Tonight, Magnus and I travelled down to the local bus stop to pick up another WWOOFer by the name of Lucinda.  I think she is an incredible lady who has such a wonderful journey ahead of her.  As she is deaf, I am back to using sign (although a little rusty).  She is endeavouring to teach me to sign without fingerspelling.  Will make life easier and aside from that I will be more proficient in something that means a great deal to me.  Tomorrow we start the first day of her time here and I can only hope she enjoys it as much as I know I will.  Here is to meeting a new friend I hope will be a long time friend.

Crabapple Chutney

At the moment I have an abundance of crabapples and am still picking tomatoes from the garden.
Rather than waste the crabapples, I bought a few Granny Smith Apples to go along with them and have made a loveley Crabapple Chutney.  Such a simplistic recipe and the smell is divine.  So thought I would share it with you

CRABAPPLE CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

 

• 2kg mix of crabapples and cooking apples (whatever you have) peeled, cored and chopped into little cubes. shopping list
• 450g brown sugarshopping list
• 2 onionsshopping list
• 4tsp tumeric shopping list
• approx 20 clovesshopping list
• 500ml cider vinegarshopping list
• 2 tsp chilli powder shopping list
• 2tsp saltshopping list
• 10cm gingershopping list

 

METHOD

·       Place the apples in a heavy based saucepan, stir in all other ingredients, cover and bring to the boil.

·       Reduce heat to low and stir chutney, be sure it doesnt stick.

·       Cook uncovered for about 1 hr to 90 mins, depending on size of cubes, cooking apples will fall apart, crab apples wont. stir regularly, it will reduce and thicken.

·       Leave to cool completly then pour into sterilised jars and label.

·       Will give approx 12 x 220ml jars. keeps for up to 6 months, tastes at its best after first month.

 

Rushworth Floods 2013

 

It has been an interesting week here in Rushworth and for me personally. The first and most upsetting thing to occur was the sad demise of my precious cat "Snake". Having been born as a feral, he got to the point of puberty and it resulted in him reverting to being feral in a big way. He attacked me quite savagely and continued to behave erratically. It has resulted in me having to euthenase him, which has left me heartbroken. Then, Rushworth was hit with torrential rains and flash flooding, a very frightening night indeed. The video you see was taken on my property during the initial stage of a 15 minute downpour that resulted in 126ml of rain in the guage and a mess that will take me weeks to fix. I have been left in an emotional state of limbo and unsure of myself and my ability to manage if worse was to happen

 

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Bye Bye 2012, Hello 2013

2012, what can I say.  It was a year filled with challenges, changes and the new beginning.  I will begin by saying the start was one that brought me back around to another run of chemo, the search for better digs and the move to the new place.  I hosted some wonderful WWOOFers, who helped me get a good headstart on establishing the permaculture system that is now well on the way to being very efficient and productive.  It saw a group of wonderful Permi folk from Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne drive up to run a permablitz here and share a great time over fantastic food. Lots of stories told, laughter heard and big cuddles with a georgeous little boy.  Chestnuts roasted over a drum fire and finally a good night of rest in readiness to do it all again the next day.  I made several trips to Ballarat for workshops, blitzes and to celebrate winter solstice and Christmas.  Made some fantastic friends I will treasure always.  More trips made to my hometown of Wodonga to recurtain a house for a friend and celebrate family birthdays.  The final but most fantastic thing that 2012 brought my way was a trip to Rosebud over Christmas.  Sharing many fantastic moments with dear friends, walks along the beach and time with a fishing rod in hand at the peir. Brilliant sunsets and the chance to watch 4 amazing stingrays circle that section of the bay.  Eventful, crazy and so wonderful.. Goodbye 2012. 
I now face 2013 with a great deal of excited anticipation.  I have 7 weeks left of treatment and am confident it will be the last.  My burgeoning gardens are producing a prolific crop and I am madly working on preserving, pickling and bottling all the abundance that surrounds me.  Then come mid year I will begin teaching Introduction to Permaculture at a local centre.  Something that the last 4 years has been all about and that I can't wait to get my teeth into.  So many people who are keen and need more knowledge, it would be a sin not to share that.  Snake has grown to a massive cat and now at 2 and 1/2 years old, he is finally becoming a calm and affectionate creature.  No,  I don't let my guard down as yet, he still has ferocious moments that take me by surprise.  This really promises to be a year of endeavour and achievement.  I hope you will all enjoy my blog journey with me.

Growing Melons On Frames

 

Above you can see the frames built for growing melons such as, honeydew and rockmelons. The issue that arose from this method, heavy melons that are hanging break vines.  I set about looking for ideas on how to prevent this from happening and came up with the hammocks you can see in the photo below.  Made from cheap cotton fabric and using a good twine for the ties,  they do a great job of holding up heavy melons, which in turn saves vine damage.

 

At this stage the largest of the melons have a couple more weeks before they are ripe enough to eat, meanwhile I drool daily while watering them all.

Fruits of my Labour

The first full season in Rushworth has been one of excitement, anticipation and finally, prolific production.  Zucchinii were the first of my many vegetables to begin producing and have provided me with such numbers that I have made a stack of zucchinii pickles as seen above.

 

 

 

                                    
I planted a number of Lebanese cucumber seeds but only one of the plants survived to production stage and I am now picking 3 at a time.  In one day I managed to pick 4 and as that was just too many to consume fresh, I pickled 3 of them, along with sliced onion.  First tasting session was rather funny as a friend became voracious and ate a few slices in one hit.  Within minutes her face was red, tears ran down her cheeks and her throat was on fire from the chilli that I used in the pickling process.  NOTE TO SELF:   Don't use chilli next time.

 

My two varieties of tomatoes, grosse lisse and gourmet trusse, are both prolific in bearing fruit. So what to do with all these lovely juicy tomatoes,  make sauce of course.  The next batch of tomatoes to ripen will be made into relish and then the third will be another batch of sauce.   I have used a sneaky ingredient in this sauce,  I grated 2 granny smith apples into the mixture just prior to cooking.             

My beetroot plants are finally big enough to cook and bottle, so I have picked all of the biggest ones and done just that.  Still quite a few in the garden that are not quite mature enough yet.   Love the  smell of them as they bubble away on my stove.