Between Now and Then.

Christmas has been and gone and New Year is happening tonight.  The garden though continues to be timeless (almost an inverted oxymoron, that statement) and the chickens and ducks, kangaroos, magpies, crows, the bush rat that lives in the roof of the shed - all are completely unaffected by the phenomenon of counting days or years.  A very wonderful lesson!

The water falling from the sky (you can't really call it rain, more like a deluge) has flooded many parts of Queensland and we were afraid the garden would be affected too since it is in a low lying part of the grounds, but it's still there - waterlogged and soggy with every bucket and bathtub and dish we left lying about filled with water.

Oddly though not much has grown.  We expected to be overrun with beans and tomatoes and weeds but no, things have not moved on much.  Probably too busy gasping for air amongst all that rain.

The good news is that there are at least 15 new ducklings - yellow and black mostly and moving about in a group so that they almost look like one being.  It's hard to count them as the mothers won't let us get too close - very protective and fierce.

There'll be six new chickens too when our routine gets back to normal.  You can see the chicks in the box below.  They've been hand raised.  Lisa took them home over Christmas and although she's loved having them, I believe her son is rather amazed at how much mess they can make in the kitchen (where they run free).  So I'm guessing she won't miss cleaning up after them.

We're pretty sure the really big one is a rooster

The previous entry is about the rose flower and how, as a climber, we hope it will screen the chook palace.  In between the roses are rosellas (plants not birds) - a relative of the hibiscus so they have lovely flowers.  They also grow quite tall and will screen the palace and provide lovely shade. The flowers eventually turn into fruit and will be dried and sold as tea.  Very refreshing and tasty.  The nut grass, which is probably our most pesky and persistent weed, was rivalling the rosellas so we mulched heavily with newspaper and then with straw.  Below is the picture of our progress.

Mulching the rosellas

Next time I write it will be next year, but then of course, it'll be this year.  A toast then to the timelessness of life; it's always the present - and that's the best place to live.

Cheers for now
Norid

Titian

The Garden at the Centre of the Universe has it's first rose!

Titian - climbing rose

 You may remember me writing about this previously.  We wanted something to hide the Chook Palace, which is such a paradise for hens and such an eyesore for humans.  What better than the favourite flower of a Favourite Person.  Thank you to Jane for donating the funds to make this possible.

Imagine this beauty in maturity, hiding The Palace

It rained and rained again this Saturday but we harvested and weeded in the rain.  Better than last week because this week it was hot and humid so the rain kept us cool.

Here is our golden garlic.  Beautifully presented in little gift bags made by Anita.  It's selling like hot cakes too.  Hopefully the proceeds will keep us in mulch for a while!

Our path to wealth!

On another note entirely, the ducks have ducklings.  You can just see a little yellow dab in the right hand corner.  I had to take this picture through the mesh at the front of the cage because the ducks are very protective and hiss and peck if you get near their babies.

Brian has been building his masterpiece for quite a while now and it's nearly finished.  It's a raised garden bed for those of us too decrepit to bend a lot.  First crop will be lettuce and sweet basil.

Brian, working on his masterpiece

 The tomatoes are absolutely wild.  We have planted ones and volunteers and they are growing faster than we can harvest and sell them.  Thank heavens Margaret, who is a great cook, has taken lots of green ones to make into green tomato chutney.

Lisa picking tomatoes

 We were determined to get into the crop rotation we have been planning for months, but which somehow has never come about.  Yesterday John marshalled us all into a work party (5 of us) and we dug over, weeded and prepared a whole garden bed which will be planted with beetroot and lettuce.
To fertilise it John mulched up the cow manure he had gotten from a local cow farmer.  It really stunk too.

John mulching cow poo

 This is amaranth.  On the packet it says "leaf amaranth" and in the catalogue it differentiates between leaf and grain.  Trouble is, we don't really know what to do with leaf amaranth.  It hasn't sold well, and to my uneducated palate it tastes terrible.  So we're leaving the flowers to see if they'll turn into grain.

Leaf Amaranth

And finally, another chick was born on Saturday morning.  We called this one "Smoko" since he was born around smoko time.  We all reckon it's a "he" because, unlike Saturday Morning, he was big and bouncy and loud and active from the minute he came out of the shell.

If you've not seen our calendar, please have a look at it.  You can find it by going to the top of the page and clicking on "Chicks with attitude calendar".  It's a fundraiser - but you can read all about it when you get there.


Cheers for now
Norid

Organic Vampire Repellant

Before I start on the vampire repellant have a look at this tiny chick.  It was born just a few minutes before its first portrait was taken!

It was the rainiest day we'd seen for a long time.  It was one of several rainy days in a row, but this was definitely the heaviest - it barely let up.  Anyway, we were drinking tea and chatting under shelter,  waiting for the rain to stop, when we heard this little "cheep, cheep" sound.  We finally realised it came from the incubator and sure enough, there was this little wet looking chick, shivering.  John picked it up and held it in his hands to warm it up.  It is wrapped in the sleeve of an old shirt and finished the first part of its day wrapped in sleeves, in an ice cream container sitting on top of the incubator.

The next part of its life included a ride in a ute, being carried up a steep hill in the rain and finally being delivered into the hands of its new Mum, who doesn't have feathers and doesn't cluck, but has a way with newborn chicks.

Meet "Saturday Morning" - so called because that's when it was born.

Well, if a film star can name her child Sunday Rose, we can call a chicken Saturday Morning.

OK, on to the vampire thing.  Garlic!  You knew that!  Both Anita and I (whose homes are redolent of garlic) can vouch for its efficacy.

So.  The garlic crop has been ready for harvest for a week or so.  Garlic doesn't like wet soil and it can turn mouldy quickly.  Garlic is our gold mine.  Put all those things together and the garlic had to be harvested and dried on the wettest Saturday this year!

So off went the troops to harvest in the rain!  But, once harvested, then what?  Dry it in the rain - oxymoron to say the least.  Solution?  Go to Anita's house and work on the verandah.  You can see the pictures below.  It doesn't look like a wet day does it?  But it was, it just didn't stop pouring.

trimming the roots and pulling the muddy leaves off so it can be dried better.

We did several trays of garlic and we were wet and muddy by the end of the day.

I said above "go to Anita's house".  Easy when you say it fast but in fact it was quite a business.  We had to load two cars, in the wet, with boxes of muddy garlic - trying not to get it on the upholstery.  Then we had to transport it from the driveway at Anita's house to the back yard, without letting her chickens out onto the road!  But it WAS fun and we finally settled down to a routine of washing trimming and stripping.

That's me, stripping, above, and that's Anita, washing, below.  Crazy to think of having to use the hose in all that rain!

Washing garlic in the rain!

But wait, there's more.  The redolent part.  The garlic wasn't going to dry out in the air, and mould is a very real threat.  And as I already said, garlic is our pot of gold - $30 a kilo in the shops!  So now Anita has a wire bed frame in her lounge room, covered with garlic, drying with the aid of an electric fan.  The things we do!

Thanks to Janet for the photos.

cheers for now
Norid

Things are Growing

Things are growing fast at the farm.  With the warm, and often wet, weather growing conditions are ideal.

As you can see from the pictures below, the chicks are growing really fast too.  They're only three weeks old in this photo, probably at the toddler stage in human terms.  They're certainly acting like toddlers, exploring everything and climbing (or at least flying) wherever they can.  A favourite perch is the top of their house.

They're beginning to look like their mums.

Proud dad is growing too.  His crow is fully developed now.

John is building a fox proof, crow proof home for the chicks

We're trying something new.  Up until now we've pretty much sowed straight into the ground but the birds and ants and grasshoppers take their toll. So we're having a go at starting things in the nursery and then transplanting them.  Some things don't like being transplanted however, so Janet is making pots out of newspaper which can then be put straight in the ground.  As the plant grows the pot will disintegrate.  Neat.

Making pots from newspaper

Artichoke seeds.

Sweet potatoes were recently planted in the field.  These are cuttings from last year's crop.  They've taken well.

Sweet potatoes

Watermelon seeds after 1 week.

We're also harvesting tomatoes.  Small and juicy.  Some cucumbers have come up and we have wonderful purple beans.

The fruit fly has gotten into the zucchinis though, so our namesake isn't doing too well.

We've also had two garden forks donated.  In fact, if you'd like to see a list of things that have been donated go to the top of this page and have a look at the "Projects etc." page.  The farm is growing sponsors too!

A moist buttery texture .....

On Sunday a very special recipe was followed at the farm.  The farm is officially certified organic and has the certificate to prove it and that means that all sorts of chemicals are off limits, even some that you would think are harmless, or even organic, like fish emulsion.

So, what does a resourceful farmer do? Make bio dynamic compost of course.  Here's the recipe:

manure
wet hay 
a variety of green material

Mix very well together and make into a pile.

The pile will heat up to around 50 degrees C.

Leave in this pile without any turning for 4-5 months until it has all converted into a very concentrated natural fertiliser with a moist, buttery texture.

Below you can see the photos.  It was a wet and mucky and satisfying process, occasionally a little smelly.  Definitely good for your inner child.  Imagine wearing gumboots in the bath and stomping the straw in the water, then sloshing about in mud and straw and cow manure.  Oh, and you get to play with the hose!  VERY good for your inner child.
 

You get to play with the hose.

 

Sloshing in gumboots

Mud, glorious mud.

This pile took 8 people 4 hours to build.

The pile was shaped rather like a steep pitched roof of a house.  When all the ingredients had been piled up like this, the whole was covered with "biscuits" of straw.

Now it will sit there until early next year.

Watch this space for when we break it open!

It's been a busy week at the Farm

 It's been a busy week at the farm.  The coffee bushes have been planted in large pots because they have to be taken in out of the frost during winter.  For the rest of the time they will do duty in helping to screen the luscious-to-chooks but unsightly-to-humans chook pen.

coffee bushes

 Behind the coffee bushes and in front of the chook fence you can see little blobs of straw.  The straw covers some rosella seeds which Jane planted last week and which are already poking little leaves through.  Rosellas make great tea when the red petals are dried.  They're also very attractive bushes (related to hisbiscus) and will also screen the chook pen.

The corrugated iron is to stop foxes digging under the fence

The chicks have done a lot of growing too - much bigger and stronger this week

The pawpaws have been in pots over winter and have grown quite healthy and strong.  During the week John dug rows for the pawpaws and on Saturday Shane helped plant them.  Definitely my favourite fruit.  There are more coming on in pots too.  The next challenge will be fruit bats and possums.  Watch this space!

Pawpaws

Well rotted cow manure to help them grow.

 These are the new compost bins built recently by Joe and John.  They've been ready for a while but this week John had the time to pile dirt and weeds and dirt on top.  Then lino to mulch it all.  What you see below is fresh weeds added from this weeks weeding. Phew!

The weather has been absolutely brilliant over the last few weeks.  Lots of rain, lots of warmth and lots of sunshine - adds up to good growing weather.  Anita and Janet are taking advantage of it to plant pumpkins, sweet potatoes and watermelon.

This is where the green manure was growing until recently.

 

These sunflowers are self sown.  I couldn't resist including them here though.

 On our Projects, Prizes and Presents page (see the pink writing at the top of this page) you will find a list of things which have recently been sponsored by well wishers.  Amongst these were two mango trees.  One has been planted in the chook pen to give shade during the hot summer.  It also means the chooks can eat any fallen fruit.

Can you see it in the pen?  With its own little fence around it to stop the chooks scratching it up.  The shade cloth you see on the right hand side is the chick's pen.  The shade cloth provides shade and also keeps the crows away (they like to eat little chicks).

Young mango tree in the chook pen

Young mango tree just outside the duck pen.

Umbrella to shade the vegies

 As you can see, many things are happening all at once at the Farm.  We have some new helpers too which is very welcome.  At this time of year things can really get out of hand and everything needs to be done at once - harvesting, weeding, planting, digging, hoeing, mowing.

As well as hands we also need more tools, particularly good quality gardening forks.  If you'd like to help out by sponsoring a fork, a tree, a rose please have a look at our Projects, Presents and Prizes page.  Above you can see that wonderful big umbrella donated by Michael and Deborah.  As well as making it look kind of country marketish, it provides much needed shade.  Thank you both.

On that page, you'll also see some art work and a present for you.  In the next couple weeks you'll also see news of a prize you could win!

cheers for now
Norid

7 days old and kicking it!

The Newness of Life (Now in an appealing fluffy form!)

A few weeks ago we put some eggs into an incubator - hoping for the best! Rusty - stud rooster - had arrived on the scene and was doing what he oughtta do fairly enthusiastically. Would it work again - this miracle of nature? Personally I was a bit doubtful. Well....a few days ago I popped into the farm to check out the eggs in the incubator and was directed instead to a little cage which contained not one, not two but twelve adorable chickens!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather....

So, just had to share these baby chick pix with y'all and of course, the first movie suitably accompanied by Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli will be on a separate blog. Enjoy - and will keep you updated on their progress.

Rusty is strutting around proudly - but then he always does!

Rusty contemplating his next move..

The Wild-haired Passionfruit Flower has bloomed as well.

Ah - the Newness of Life!  And check out our Presents, Prizes and Projects page...the generosity of fruit tree and rosebush patrons is another natural wonder.

Pluvium, Ploughing and Paw Paws

I couldn't resist the alliteration.  Pluvium is (I'm pretty sure) the Latin for rain, and rain of course has filled the Lake.

The Lake is full of water after the terrific rain we've had this year, particularly in the last few weeks.  See for yourself how lovely it is.  This was practically the first good day we've had in about two weeks.

You can just see the office in the background.

Beautiful!

With a break in the rain (no complaints though, the rain was very welcome) John was able to plough in the green manure crop we sowed a couple of months ago.

This will enrich the soil and make the next crop (watermelons I think) just LEAP out of the ground.

And finally, my all time favourite fruit - paw paws.  They're not in the ground yet, but we've been nurturing them along in pots for months and months.

Recently a big patch was cleared outside the main vege garden.  There'd been lantana before - which in a way was fortunate as lantana seems to condition the soil. 

Rudi finished levelling and clearing debris from the site this week, so hopefully next week we'll get to plant paw paws.

You can see how lovely it's going to be.  Stay tuned.  We should get some spectacular photos of paw paws - not to mention eating them!