Life is full of challenges.

This year just keeps giving, in many more ways than I had thought it could.  We as a family have endured ups and downs that are challenging our stamina to the max.  After my son's accident in February, I thought the spell of threes had been broken.  Four big events in less than a month and we were seeing the other side.  So we thought.  There have been times filled with laughter, joy and good things that I am holding dear and using to get me through the tough days.  Black humour abounds and at times shocks those around us, but it is our way.  The permablitz group is still plugging away and hopefully making some difference in the lives of recipients.  I still work at the school garden one day per fortnight, as well as on their special market days.  Along with the shift per week at the icecream shop and the work on my own permaculture system, it has kept me very busy to say the least.  Recently the ride of life took a turn to the left, so to speak.  My son ( the toe less one) suffered a series of TIA (mini strokes) which are directly caused from his head hitting the light pole during the accident.  Mini strokes though they are,  it is a major concern for his future.  Will they worsen, will they impede his ability to hold his job, drive a car etc etc and the list rolls on.  I am working hard to keep perspective and be as positive as possible in his presence.  He needs to be kept focused on recovery and rebuilding things he has lost as a result of his actions.   I think that by sharing this with other bloggers, I am hoping our experiences will open the eyes of others.  So they can perhaps change how they work, live, and what happens in their R&R time.  Please know, it only takes one bad decision to bring havoc to you and your loved ones.  As the end of the year approaches, I am hoping and praying that some of this heaviness, heartache and worry won't roll over to next year.   So many plans ahead for me and so much I would like to achieve.  Work began on the house yard a few months ago, as I planned to participate in the local open garden day.  Ill health pulled me up a bit so now I plan to do that for next year.  It will afford me more time to get the gardens looking good, the paddock and food zone running more productively.  Sadly the ute I bought this year broke down and I am working on getting a new motor for it.  I miss being able to go and do things, pick things up for myself.  I am not good at asking for help, nor accepting it.  A lesson in life I need to learn.
For now, please think about your life, think about what you can do to prevent anything that will bring  you grief and cause heartache to you and yours.  Live well and live long.
On a light note to finish.  This picture shows my Jimmy statue, I finally set him up in the paddock as a feature.  Living on old gold diggings I decided to turn him into a gold pan man.

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.

Forging Ahead

In the short space of time since the end of November 2014 I have had the opportunity to host two lovely people.  First Dan came along and we had a busy week, laying out plans, revising them and then implementing stage one of fencing off the orchard from the vegie zone.  This is an important task as it will allow the geese to traverse between their night pen and the orchard/olive grove zone to graze.  Why?  For two reasons, geese are grazers by nature and to keep them in a pen is not good for their emotional health.  The second reason is so that they can mow the grasses that will grow in that zone and keep it tidy for me.  Long term benefit for me is less physical work mowing the area (it is a big area).  All the fence posts were driven into the ground, ready to attach the straining/chicken wire. I also have 2 proper gates to finish that fencing off.  Once done I am going to put lattice around the sand pad to the back of the hot house and across to the fence which divides the house yard and paddock.  The actual vegie zone has taken on a whole new look in the last month,  extra gardens have been built and are now planted with summer crops,  the little arbour garden was revamped and planted with annuals that will attract bees for pollination and where I had a raised timber bed, I now have a straw bale bed. That will be used to grow fodder crops for the poultry and rabbits.  Thus saving on the purchase of foods for them at a high cost. My current WWOOFer, Tiphaine is from France.  Such a graceful person with a lovely disposition.  She has taken on all tasks set for her, even if she has problems with the language barrier.  She has fallen in love with the current litter of baby rabbits and is amazed with their growth rate. Tiphaine is planning to stay up to 3 months with me, during that time she is also working for a local Olive Grove in order to get her 2nd year visa.  I have enjoyed all the transformations taking place and that will take place in the next month or so as they all lead to a more balanced and easily managed system of integrated self sufficiency.

The current view of the vegetable growing zone

Tiphaine watering in the newly built straw bale vegetable bed

Long term I am working toward installing an aquaponic system in the hothouse, but this will have to wait until I can get a large framework built over the entire sand pad and a form of protection from the heat set up.  Due to high temperatures that we get here, the fish would not survive the summer if I didn't do so.  I will also be putting in a small pond ( design and such to be decided) in the s/w end of the orchard so the geese have access to deeper water for the summer months. So many projects and many more plans on the go.  Permaculture is something that never ceases to amaze me.  Designing and refining things as time goes by, perfecting those things implemented in the beginning and then sitting back a while to enjoy the spoils.