2020 ridiculousness

Annnnnd here we are at 2020 – just like that!

Even though its barely a month since our last update – we had it pointed out to us in no uncertain terms, that we’ve been a bit slack on the blog of late.
We might also note here, that this observation was made by someone who has missed putting out their own Christmas Family Newsletter, for the last couple of years though!!! 🙄😁

Soooo – without further ado, here is a brief rundown of what we have been upto in the last month…
(It may be brief!)

We’ve been drinking lots of smoothies for breakfast, now that we have a whizz-bang NutriBullet to moosh it all up in.

Current favourite is: banana, blueberry, honey, vanilla and almond milk, with almond milk ice.
Deeeeliciousness!

Incase you missed it on fb, we’ve had another python that needed to be taken into care, as it had a mega infestation of ticks and was really unwell.

The short Mumma has gone back to swimming 3-4 times a week for physical and mental exercise.

The middle son has resigned from the Services, moved into the private sector, relocated to Adelaide; and his Wife will be following along in a few months.

We had an overnighter at Palm Cove when our youngest daughter and her family came up for some R&R and we joined them for a visit, and we’re hoping to see our eldest daughter in the not tooooo distant future.

Our second youngest son and his beautiful lady have a new rental home, and are doing a great job of being happy loving parents to three of our grandbabies.

Grandbaby Mr T is recovering well after his emergency surgery last year.

We got to spend some time together over the new year period, with the office being closed for a few days, and made the most of it by visiting every nursery in the region, and even having a couple of cafe-meal dates!

We’ve been creating a new roundabout garden out the front.

We’ve had a delivery of a truck load of soil.
(much excitement shown by the short Mumma!)

We’ve planted a fresh bed of perennial salad veggies in the Palais garden, and have a new bed built ready to go along side of the first one we put in there.

Other food that has been planted recently:
Capsicum
Sambung
Another lettuce tree
Lebanese cress
Mushroom plant
Basil
Rainbow chard
Spinach
Celery
Beans
Peas
Corn
Okra
Tamarillos
Kale
Beetroot
Taro
Leaf ginseng
Aubergine
Cassava
…annnnd we’ve squished in one last glut of tomatoes for the summer.

We’ve been learning lots about certain trees that will be very beneficial to our little farm as pioneer trees, whilst other things get a good start in the under-story.

We got a lovely surprise visit from H&I from Prosperity Farms near Home Hill, who have been dear friends for more years than any of us care to remember.
Its always a pleasure to get to spend time with them both 🥰

The last two nights and yesterday, we’ve had massive winds which have just about done the hoop-house in properly!

We’d unpacked a lot of it, and relocated the contents to various places, but aren’t quite done yet, so now we need to get a wriggle on even faster with it!

We’ve had a couple of good storms with falls of around a half inch each time.
Not enough yet to get water into the ground, but enough to spark the grass back into life and to recommence the summer mowing season properly.

A bit of painting, rearranging and putting up shelving has happened in the cooking corner of kitchen, and its now a bit less cluttered.

We’ve had a big clear-out, cleanup, refill and mulch of the fence-beds out the front, and they are looking much healthier now, and will be being planted into more, in the coming weeks.

The tomatoes are starting to succumb to the unrelenting heat, and it won’t be too much longer before they die off completely, but we will definitely get enough of a harvest before that happens to make another batch of Strigidae Sauce for canning.

We’ve been designing tyre walls, using canning rings.
Its been fun 😀

And to round it all out – the excitement of some new plumbing….!!

Denis from Hamilton Plumbing came out and ran a water-line from the corner of the house, down to the big veggie beds and then further on to the the big-ass bed down in the southern paddock.
Having taps down at both beds will make a huuuuge difference to how we will be able to do the watering.
Not having to run a series of hoses from the house tap, all the way down to – not only the veggie beds, but also to Cluck Manor – will be awesome!
Big sighs of relief from us both.

This also means that we will now be able to plant out more of the trees that have been patiently waiting in pots for a veryyyyy longgg time!
Yaaaay!

PS:- pour les frères et sœur dégénérés: plongée sous-marine!