• Makin’ Things

    Makin' Things

    … Here at Strigidae Farm – its a weekend for Makin’ Things! There is of course – first and foremost – the obligatory Bread Makin’. Then the makin’ of some Laundry Liquid, ‘cos it’s been a few months since we last made some and we’re almost out. We’re hoping to get the makin’ of some

  • September Silliness

    September Silliness

    … It’s time for an update – so here’s a bit of the goings-on during the September silliness season! It’s getting very dry around the Farm, with not really having had any decent rain of any consequence since about March. We’re sooooo much luckier than the poor drought-ridden southern Farms are though, in that we don’t have stock and mass croppings to try and keep going. Its such a tragedy to see… Yep – its dry here, and the lawn is going brown bit by bit, but we not only have water available, but we are super-careful with the water that we do use, even though its easily available to…

  • Northland

    . Well it seems that more than a couple of people were worried that we had been hacked, following the recent posting on the Strigidae Farm website. Fear not folks – we’d only ‘sort of’ been hacked.

  • Not feelin’ the ‘love’!

    . There hasn’t been much ‘accomplished’ in the last couple of weeks. Firstly we had about 10 days of much needed rain, which of course made the paddocks super-sloppy, and meant that no mowing could be done during that time, so the grass almost got away from us again – but we managed to get it mown in fits and spurts during a couple of dryish days, when the storms didn’t come in until the afternoon. After the rains, came the insane heatwave that most of Eastern Aus has been experiencing – and with the energy-sapping heat – it meant that just making it through the routine mundane chores that…

  • Helens Story Pt1

    . EDITORS NOTE: Our Sister Helen, and four more of our Family (Joe, Brodie and their babies) recently survived a severe tropic storm, that was then followed by the hell that was Hurricane Irma – which was then quickly followed by 2 more Hurricanes, Jose and Maria. This is Part 1 of her story… 6 January 2018 To family, friends, & peeps who have watched out for me and helped me out: Hiya folks It’s 4 months to the day since Irma gave us a bit of a lashing and sent us scurrying for shelter, then on to other climes. The story has been long, starting of course a month…

  • A New Year!

    . Annnnnnd here we are in 2018!! Didn’t that last year just zoom by with ridiculous speed?!? Thats one of those things about getting older – the years definitely feel shorter… Its been a hot dry few weeks, and the gardens – and Us – are definitely feeling the unrelenting heat, which we still have a few months left of. Its been a ‘quiet’ start to the cyclone-season – touchwood! – with only WA having had one small one blow through so far. We’ve planted out a couple of climbers along the fence lines in the last few days – including some passionfruit vines that we grew from seed, from…

  • Hot & Moist

    . We’ve had a couple of weeks of extremes on the weather scale… This time last week we were in the midst of a deluge, and were out in said deluge digging drainage trenches, and watching our 10kg doorstep float away!! The good thing about the rain is it replenished some ground-water, which was badly needed. Everything was getting very dry! It also meant that for the best part of a week, we got away with not having to water the gardens and orchard. This week, we are suffering through 32+ degree heatwaves. [35 today!] A lot of the plants – especially those in the nursery – are sagging from…

  • DIY decore

    . We’ve had some sunny days!! Oh yes indeed they have been truly glorious, as only crisp sunny winter days can be – thoroughly gorgeous. Days like the ones we’ve had this week, just bring about a happiness deep in the soul that can be quite hard to explain without sounding like some spaced-out 60s hippy – but suffice to say,

  • You’ll never guess…!

    . We know you’ll be stunned to hear this – but we’ve had more rain! Almost a fortnight of constant drizzle if truth be told, and the odd day of sunshine that we saw prior to that, was definitely fleeting. But thats the usual way of winter up here in the North – but then come to think of it – then there are the summer storms… and then cyclone season… BUT there are always a couple of weeks each year that we start to panic though, ‘cos it hasn’t rained in “agessss“, and we worry about everything shrivelling up and dying 😀 All jokes aside though – we watch…

  • Cyclone Prep

    Looks like we’re in for a ‘compulsory’ weekend clean up around the Farm!! The possibility of a late cyclone has reared its head, and according to the media-of-the-moment, it may well cross the coast late sunday or early monday. Of course cyclones never go according to plan – so its always a case of watch and wait, but while you’re doing the watching and the waiting, it does pay to do some cleaning up, just in case – and so that you aren’t rushing about at the last minute – thoroughly unprepared if it does turn up! Sooooo – instead of planting out into the now-filled big garden beds, as…