Welcome Winter

As we wander in to Winter, it’s been a slow and steady time at Strigidae Farm over the last couple of months.

We still have our Mighty MG Garden Guy coming most weeks, and he has been a wonderful addition to the Farm, and hugely instrumental in helping ease our stresses about all the jobs that previously we weren’t managing to get around to in much of a timely manner.
He manages to knock over most of the jobs that would take us days, in only a matter of hours, and does them well!
#blessings

Last week he tackled the hoop-house which we decided to downgrade to a smaller one quite some time ago, but we never managed to make enough time to actually finish the bracings and putting the tarp over and tensioning it.
Well – Mighty MG got it well sorted and finished – and it looks terrific and is taut and solid.

The whole Farm is looking and feeling just amazing and its such a pleasure to come home to, and to wander around and just enjoy it…

On the canning front: we have canned some beef mince and turkey mince of late, to restock dwindling pantry supplies.

In the vegie garden: we have wombok, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, mustard, squash, pumpkin, tomatoes, leek, beans (green, borlotti, purple and broad), peas, yakòn, tamarillo, citrus, bananas, and of course loads of our favourite perennial greens.

We’ve recently had irrigation installed in each of the beds in the vegie garden which has been another major time-saving venture, and whilst its still possible to hand-water the gardens – and that’s a very nice way to relax – its also really wonderful to have the option of the set-and-forget watering as well, for those busy days.

In the paddock: we’ve installed some nice big garden beds along the side of the driveway, specifically for flowers and prettiness factor.
We repurposed some smaller garden beds that a friend gave us a few months back, and made them into two really big ones, and then freshened them up with a spray of paint.

Now in place and filled, they’ve been planted out and are such a visual delight.
We have another couple still to be painted and situated and filled, but we’ve yet to decide where we want to place them.

We are thinking about putting in a security gate on the driveway as we’ve been having a couple of instances of uninvited people whom we don’t know, creeping about the property.
Thankfully we have diligent neighbours who help with keeping an eye out, but its not a good feeling knowing there are strangers lurking about!

We’ve already added some ‘deterrent’ signage, and will be adding some more on the actual driveway coming in.

Next week we have a guy coming to do some more drainage works along the eastern fence line where the water has been collecting and pooling since the previous neighbours on that side did building and landscaping.

The aim is to have the water redirected back to where it was originally meant to flow to on the southern side of our property line, where there are drains in place to help it disperse properly.

We still want as much water as possible to stay on our property, and to sink in – but it needs to be in a controlled way so that parts of the Farm aren’t being under water for long periods of time, causing death to plants, stagnating, and increasing mosquito breeding.

Bus business: Noah the bus has again been back to the Dealership in an effort to fix the various dashboard display lights that pop up with frustrating regularity.
We’re at the point now that just seeing the handbrake light, or the door-open light on the dash, gives us both a mini heart attack!

We went away in Noah last weekend to camp at Palm Cove and had a lovely time, and it was very relaxing to be able to be in our own special little home-away-from-home!
Hopefully – in the not too distant future – we’ll be able to venture further afield, without having the worry that something is going to go wrong and spoil the plans…

Animals: The chickens have slowed right down with their egg-laying now that its getting colder, and our new girls have been going through their first moult.
Our new rooster Luci has been doing his job well, and protects the girls beautifully.
He has a lovely nature but boy can that man strut!

The cats are almost 16 years old and for the most part they stick very close to home, sleeping their days away.

Each year they lose condition – one at the height of summer, and the other at the height of winter – and each season we think that this will be their last, but they keep hanging on in and haven’t got any the less vocal with age.

It will be the end of an era in our house when those feline brothers pass, as we’ve pretty much made up our minds that we won’t have any more cats in our home…

As for the dogs, Hamish is nearly 16, Molly 12 and Mabi will be 7 in September.

Hamish has cataracts but is still getting around well; but he also has dementia which is becoming more and more evident, and it’s visibly obvious when he ‘fades in and out’, but he is still as sweet, adorable, and crazy as ever.

Molly only has two teeth left, and regularly gets her lip caught up on one of her remaining teeth, which gives her a comical looking sneer.
There is a regular chorus of ‘lick your lip Molly‘ emanating from our house.

Her snack addiction is getting worse the older she gets.
She’s pretty sure these days that she should get a snack just for basic bodily functions like – you know – breathing!!

Mabi is still the Princess of the house, who hates having wet feet and loves to go for a run in the paddock.
She annoys the tall Mumma no end with her high-pitched barking when the Mumma isn’t doing the things that she’s supposed to be doing, fast enough.
Things like: picking up Molly and putting her on the couch or bed, getting out of bed in a timely manner in the morning, letting the cats in/out, going to feed the chooks, or getting out of the car and coming inside fast enough.

So that’s it for this update!

Until next time – we hope that this finds you all well and happy, and that you’re managing to stay warm and cozy, or cool and calm  – depending on where you are in the world.