Late Autmn kickoff.

Yesterday I had my latest WWOOFer arrive.  Seolhee is a lovely young lady from South Korea, with a wonderful happy nature, beautiful laugh and a penchant for being busy.  On her first full day here we spent a few hours in the bush collecting firewood and kindling. Not a problem, she got stuck in and took direction very well.

Later in the evening as we waited for our dinner to cook, Seolhee got busy taking seeds out of the carob pods, so I can dry them for future planting.  I am planning to grow carob trees and use the pods for fodder to give the rabbits.  She was ever so patient in tending to the task and even had a sneaky taste of the pasty gum inside the pod.  "Tastes sweet" she informed me, so of course I joined in and had a taste myself.  Yep,, sweet as.

Today we were up early as I had someone coming to view my ricebubble (another no show). So we got busy in the orchard, tidying up the net and pans around individual trees, mulching and preparing 4 more holes for future planting of 2 more citrus trees and two more fruit trees (varieties yet to be determined).   A big day and we are both tired, sore but pleased with the outcome. 

Seolhee was so proud at the end of the workday she had to show what was done.

We still have about two days of work to do out there and tomorrow will see us with barrows, shovels and rakes in hand, spreading a truckload of tree mulch to help create more biomass around the paddock.  Must say the geese have done a fantastic job of cleaning up the tall weeds and grass that was spreading out in there.

All is well in my world and I am loving Freaky Farm once again.

What a kick off in 2015

Here we are, 5 months into 2015 and the start has been very arduous for myself, my sons and extended family.  A series of very serious accidents began half way through January, when my mother collided with two cars.  No injuries, but her car was a complete write off.  Then the first of February, a date that will forever be etched in my mind, both of my sons had accidents exactly 3 hours apart.  The eldest son hit a kangaroo along a coastal road, his car damaged by the impact. Still drive-able and no injuries thank goodness.  My youngest son wasn't so lucky.  His car hit a cement power pole and the driver's side took the full impact.  He was trapped by his foot, his face had hit the pole and was a little scraped, but he was knocked unconscious for a period of time.  When he regained contentiousness,  he turned to see his passenger non responsive.  He managed to pull his trapped foot free and extricated himself from the car.  Made his way around the other side to drag the passenger out.  Luckily she had only minor scrapes and bruises, but my son had to have surgery to remove a toe 3 days later.  His car is beyond repair and he is now facing major consequences over the accident.  Not long after all of this, my 94 year old step father was returning to his retirement village and as he attempted to get the security gate closed, it collapsed on top of him. He was lucky it fell as it did or things would be worse.  However he had a fractured sternum, broken vertebrae and his scalp was badly torn where he had just had skin grafts done. Who says things only happen in 3s.    We have all managed to get through these events and are trying hard to keep a positive outlook in all ways.  I am the first to admit that we used a lot of black humor to get through my younger sons situation.  I have had a number of health issues and have had to cut back my volunteer work quite hard.  More so the heavy work I was doing.  I still work on shift a week at a local store and continue to build my permaculture system and am increasing my self sufficiency steadily.  I now run geese, chickens and meat rabbits.  The orchard is doing well, although I lost 3 trees during a massive heatwave (must replace those soon).  The vegetable zone is looking very good and is so productive, I am now able to offer organic foods to people around me.  The herb bed has been doing very well indeed, although I would like to extend that a little more and increase the variety of herbs I have.  I am planning to build an outdoor kitchen zone, with a pizza oven and a permanent area to put the spit.  This will be a slow process as it requires overhead protection from rain and hot sun.  Yet another structure to build.  So many changes have taken place here and I have so many more changes planned.  Who knows,  it might take months, or could take years.  I am just living today and enjoying the journey.