Coming Home

We have had a whirlwind excursion to the city with the purpose of enrolling Tom at university and also to find him some accommodation. I am happy to say that as things stand at this moment that both tasks have been completed and without too much stress. The trip home was very wet in places and I was glad that I wasn't the driver. Coming home whether it be in the physical sense or just a state of mind, is for me, the best part of any journey.

This home coming was not without its upsets though. The brazen fox which we have now seen on the front lawn destroyed three more chickens in our absence. It naturally picked off the older birds which were real characters amongst our flock.The three of them probably hadn't laid an egg for years and didn't deserve to go out in such a grisly fashion. The birds have all been rotated to a different pen which will hopefully be more secure against attack.
The garden is behaving well. The dahlias are a real delight. These ones are growing side-by-side with my cotton in the old bathtub.

Dahlias truly make excellent cut flowers. Spectacular and long lasting in the vase.

The cotton has moved on to its next stage, flower production. It is a very sweet creamy coloured flower with no scent. I'm hoping that there will be enough summer weather left in this coolish season to allow the plants to produce at least one little cotton bolus.

Some flowers have already closed up and putting their efforts in to making their seeds and cotton fibre. I know that on a large scale the cotton industry is a very big consumer of resources. In the home garden the plant requires very little attention really just a water as necessary. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in seeing how it grows and even as just a plant in a mixed flower bed. It is sweet enough to have a place just for its pretty flowers and interesting leaves.

I have had so much trouble with my internet connection the past two days. I started writing yesterday and haven't been able to reconnect until this afternoon. Hoping it publishes now.

Tracy

The unthinkable

This mornings trip to the hen house was not pleasant. I had a feeling something was amiss as there just seemed to be a bit of out of the ordinary clucking. Tom said he heard the turkey and ducks in the night but neither Tim nor I did. He shone the torch out there but being half asleep and about 30metres away couldn't discern any trouble.

The unthinkable had happened though. A fox or quoll or something else entirely different had killed one of the Pekins. I found it's body up against the fence with it's head missing (the killer did leave the head behind too). Not a nice way to leave this world. Thankfully the pen is secure (hopefully secure enough) and the beast didn't actually get inside to do more damage. No doubt it will be back tonight and I will be waiting. Foxes and rabbits are amongst the worst animals ever to be released in Australia and I would be hard pressed to find a farmer who is keen on either. I'm glad that the lambs are big enough to not be too troubled by hungry preditors.
Tracy

More orchard

Living on a farm with plenty of land to play with allows me to grow so much more than I could and in fact did on an urban block. When we lived in Sydney we had grapes, passionfruit, a couple of citrus trees and an apple tree. The orchard we have on the farm is in two sections, one established and as shown below, the new orchard. There has been disappointment along the way. In 2009 I planted a lot of heritage apple trees only to have drought and grasshoppers destroy them. Like most optomistic gardeners I replanted another ten new heritage apples in the summer of 2011 as feathered maidens.

So in a year, the feathered maiden apple trees(baby trees) are definitely not productive but they are growing and showing promise. I think it is that promise that keeps many a gardener interested and passionate about what they do. This season I had a few fruits on some of these tiny trees and it was difficult to do but remove the fruit I did in the best interest of the trees.

If I lived on a small block again and my choices were limited by space I would choose only what we would gain the most from. I wouldn't be growing a medlar that's for sure. I haven't tasted the fruit before and I don't even know where the fruit would be available to purchase. It is certainly a strange looking fruit and to be truthful the idea of bletting the fruit prior to eating them is a little off putting.

The turkeys, dad, 'teens' and chicks (mum is still incubating duck eggs) are enjoying the work I have done topping up the mulch.

Tracy

Home Orchard Care

I'm not sure how commercial orchards operate as far as maintenance goes but the home orchard really is fairly simple. What I do think is a good idea though is that if you buy a property or even if you rent and plan to stay long term, and want to grow your own fruit then planning and planting the fruit trees is one of the first things to do. Simply because they do take time to establish and bare significantly. Of course added expenses such as fruit trees isn't welcome when moving into a new house but a new tree every month or so or for a birthday gift can usually be worked into the budget. That's how we did it anyway. Now we have over 60 fruiting trees and berry bushes. The beauty of the home orchard too is that you really can grow a large variety of trees. As our orchard is in close proximity to the house, I like to keep the grass relatively short. This is more for snake spotting rather than a need for neatness. I do like a meadowy look but just not in the house yard.

Mulch is another orchard helper. We have managed without it when mulch was not available but it certainly meant more watering. Now when I see spoilt hay for sale at the right price I snap it up because I know I will use it.

I have cages around all of my trees. I don't like them because they are quite ugly but we have rabbits and I have seen the damage they can do. Even in one night they can ringbark trees and then all the effort and money is for nought. The rabbits here seem to have a preference for apple trees with cherry coming in a close second.

Water is vital to the home orchard just like it is to any garden. After the trees have been established though, it isn't often needed, the rain is enough. That has been the case for us this season and we haven't had to give the fruit trees any additional water.

Prune d'agen

Today I worked solo in the orchard therefore the rewards all my own. Sweet fruit and satisfaction from doing something that is worthwhile to me.

Tracy

Vane

My new weather vane is in place and thanks to our gps device it is facing the right way. The regular old compass didn't work too accurately atop our metal roof. It is positioned right above my bedroom so I do hope that it isn't too noisy because we really do get some windy weather in our valley. I'm ever so grateful to have a husband who doesn't mind heights because if it was up to me to put it up, the weather vane would probably be not be up much higher than my 5 feet 2 inches.

At the moment it is the only rooster on the farm with our Wyandotte, Hugh, dieing a while back and Tom's Sebright rooster going to a home that will appreciate his crazy ways more than we did. I find the early morning a little lonely with the lack of crowing so I think I will be on the lookout for just the right chap soon.

Tracy

Happy Birthday Tim

This time last year in Wellington, NSW

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband, Tim.
We have had a great day today, just being at home together with the girls (Tom worked for 5 hours but was home by afternoon tea ie cake time). This man is very hard to buy a gift for, he always says he just wants to spend time with us even if it does sound corny. I do think he likes a gift or two as well though.


A chocolatey chocolate cake with strawberries and cream. This recipe has almond meal as well as self raising flour which I think gives it a little more moisture.

The dahlias were for the birthday table. I'm not sure why but there seems to be an abundance of pinks and reds in the dahlias at Sunny Corner this year. I'm not complaining, the cooler summer temperatures and rainy days have given us extra blooms.

Tracy

Processing beeswax

In our little apiary the role of beeswax processing falls to me. It wasn't something that was premeditated it just has worked out that way. This of course is the honey which is the best part of beekeeping but in my opinion, dealing with the wax is the worst. It really isn't that bad but it is still my least favourable task associated with keeping bees. We had a few older frames in the batch we extracted this week. They are darker than the light and pretty newer frames.

The by product of extracting honey is the cappings. It is the wax and other bee products that you remove to release the honey. It isn't pretty and to get the wax to a usable state, they have to be processed. I do this firstly by rinsing in a bucket with lukewarm water. It doesn't purify the wax too much but it does get rid of some of the honey and gritty bits and pieces.

The washed cappings are then placed in the top of a double boiler (water in the bottom) and melted. It is wise to keep an eye on the pot because wax can be a little volatile around a heat source. The melted wax t can look a bit revolting depending on how clean it is to start with. Once it has melted it is poured through a strainer (I use cheescloth) into a flexible container (an ice cream container or clean milk carton is ideal) and allowed to cool.

When it is set it can be removed and any water that was left in with the cappings will come off now as the water sinks below the set wax. The wax might be clean enough at this stage but todays wax was not. It required another straining.

On the small scale that we work it isn't too time consuming but it is messy hence the lack of pictures of the process along the way.Next time I will do it when there is a photographer in the house to help out. Everything the wax touches becomes well... waxy and it isn't fun to wash up.

We are however truly self-sufficient and beyond in wax.

Tracy