Började dagen med nätning av druvorna. Förra året torkade de alla och föll ner. I år håller vi ett öga på dem. Vissa kråkor tycks också hålla ett öga på dem. Vi gillar inte kråkor. Vi vill ha våra skator! Sedan på rensa ogräs i nr. 2. Att ogräs driver dig nötter. Den minut du gör något annat växer det tillbaka extra mycket. Vi måste också döda det runt sängarna. Förra året försökte vi lägga gräsklipp, men det räcker inte, eller vi måste …. eller …. eller …. Vi ska räkna ut något. 2 kg färs blev 12 plättar och umph antal köttbullar. Mer Deep Heat på Jen´s tummen medan vi tittar på en tv-serie från biblioteket. Hade lite trevligt lätt regn under kvällen.

Beginning the day with netting the grapes. Last year they all shrivelled and fell down. This year well keep a closer eye on them. Some crows seem to also keep an eye on them. We do not like crows. We want our Magpies! Then onto weeding no. 2. That grass drives you nuts. The minute you do something else it grows back with a vengence. We have to kill it all around the patches too. Last year we tried laying grass clippings but it is not enough or we have to…. or…. or…. We´ll figure something out. 2 kg of mince became 12 patties and umph count of meatballs. More Deep Heat on Jens thumbs while watching a tv-series from the library. Had a bit of nice easy rain during the evening.

Late morning. We had put a picture with wine and a tube of Deep Heat for sore muscles on Facebook. Cosy Friday we called it. A comment came along from Hildgrim to have a look at no dig gardens. So at the library we downloaded the guys homepage and read it this morning. Well shows we have tried something similar but with grass. The grass has been enough for the paths in the beds but not enough for covering a whole patch for new beds (omg) the vocabulary drives us nuts). Which made us use the old fashioned dig and turn over grass clumps method. Anyway Mick all of a sudden remembered that we have saved a lot of cartons up in the storehouse in case we needed to move soon. He had wanted to throw them but Jen said no. We just might try this now for bed no 4 but when they have composted that is the end and hopefully we will have enough grass next time. The grass is also for the toilet. Registered the food we bought in Kemp onto the computer. Jen had a slight headache and resorted to tablets and a nap after lunch. Mick emptied the toilet and cleaned the black water filter which was clogged and made the room stink. It seems to happen now and then. We are writing it down now so we can keep track. It is not the toilet paper this time but straw that has rotted. That toilet is a whole science!

Hade det första badet i bäcken, våren och vintern igår. Bäcken hade ändrats igen med den sista översvämningen och är nu ganska grund och sandig. Möjligen djupt i mitten men vi kollade inte ut det.Vår spökmus är levande och bra. Igår morse hade den bajsat på bordets hörn igen. Vi har haft två fällor på bordet till ingen nytta. Vi sätter en på en av takbalkarna. I morse mer poop på bordet och ingen mus i någon fälla! Satte upp staketet tillfälligt runt grönsakssäng nr 3. Bara för att hålla wallabiesna ute. Blåregnet blommar. Annars är det torrt som ben men alla buskbränder är släckta vilket är såå bra.

Had the first bath in the creek of the spring and winter yesterday. The creek had changed again with the last flood and is now pretty shallow and sandy. Possibly deep in the middle but we did not check that out.

Our ghost mouse is alive and well. Yesterday morning it had pooped on the corner of the table again. We have had two traps on the table to no avail. We put one up on one of the ceiling beams. This morning  more poop on the table and no mouse in any trap!

Put up the fence temporarily around veggie bed no 3. Just to keep the wallabies out.

Wisteria is blooming. Otherwise it is dry as a bone but all bush fires are out which is soo nice.

Up early and went to Kempsey Festival with horseriding competitions,  games, ferriswheel, wood chopping and showing of animals, bakery and more. It was a bit pathetic but Mick said we need to change our viewpoint from Big City to village! Saw some really nice chicken and roosters some of who seemed to talk to us! Went home and lazied. Mick watered the vegie beds.

Even Mick feels lik it´s a new year.After winter comes the new year right!

So little seed house is in full swing, except the tomatoes. Time to put up the fence around bed no 3. Nothing has come up there. Early morning the wallabies sit on the bed and wait.                                                  ” Nothing grows here yet but experience shows that it will soon come, just be patient!”

that stuck in the throat.

Våren är här: Welcome swallows are back! Väkomstsvalorna är tillbaka!

Men hoppsan frost igen dagen efter! Hard frost again the day after!

Jen vaknade tidigt och gjorde iordning elden. Hade en lugn stund med en kopp te innan maken vaknade. Skickade en näthälsning till doterns födelsedag och skrev ett brev till dotterdottern och hoppas att det ska locka till läsning. Gjorde disken, limesaft, kumquatsaft, pannkakor med fyllning och ost, räkmackor, rörde om i vinet som står på jäsning och avslutade dagen med lite F1 på datorn. Ingen Key Lime Tart blev gjord, det saknades condenserad mjölk på burk. Inga utejobb blev gjorda för det regnade hela dagen.

Läser en jättegammal bok och skrattar högt åt stavningen och orden de använder. Jajaja med det är sååå kul!

Jen woke early and got the wood stove going. It rained all day. We did the dishes, sent daughter a birthday card, wrote a letter to granddaughter in hopes she´ll read it, made double kumquat cordial (this year it is quite weak in taste compared to last year), limeade, prawn sandwich, pancakes with stuffing and cheese, rinsed the guava leaves and set them to dry, no Key Lime tart –had no condensed milk, stirred prison wine and ended the evening with a bit of F1 on the computer. No outside jobs got done. Too much rain.

Reading a very old book and the words they used and the spelling makes us laugh sooo much. Can´t help it!

Svenska under bilden.

We are both feeling down in the dumps.Our bodies are tired and our minds don´t agree. No dishes were done, no laundry either but we did a lot of pruning on our trees.The two Yellow Guavas, one of the Mulberries and a Lilly Pilly. This tree we pruned a bit last year and it was in July. It lost tons of green hard berries. Jen made them out to be some kind of Lilly Pilly but could not find out which. This year when we had pruned it good she found some ripe Magenta Lilly Pillys on the ground. So it we have two Magenta Lilly Pillies.  That is great. Also just found out The Magenta is and endangered species which means we probably should try to propagate some more somewhere on the parcel. After having pruned a wallaby came along and sat among the branches on the ground. Jen was gathering some of the good looking leaves for tea and said to the wallaby it could eat the leaves, hahahahah, The wallaby jumped along a bit and sat down to eat off the Guava leaves. When we both went inside to have a cuppa´ it came onto the yard and ate from the weeds in the grass! How cute! After tea we cleared out all branches to the meadow and sorted the bigger chunks of branches in one pile and let the others just lie spead out. We let nature help us and dry the leaves to drop off and later be sucked into the lawn mower and spread on the compost heaps. the Patches look fine. We also measured out our two new patches for the spring. Tomorrow we will start digging them out.

Vi känner oss båda lite nere. Våra kropparna är trötta men våra sinnen inte är överens med kropparna. Ingen disk gjordes, ingen tvätt heller men vi gjorde en hel del beskärning på våra träd.Två gula Guava, ett av mullbären och en Lilly Pilly. Detta träd beskar vi lite förra året och det var i juli. Det förlorade massor av gröna hårda bär. Jen fann att de var någon form av Lilly Pilly men kunde inte ta reda på vilken. I år när vi beskar det fann hon några mogna Magenta Lilly Pillys på marken. Så då vi har två Magenta Lilly Pilly träd. Det är bra. Också fick reda på att Magenta är en hotad art vilket innebär att vi förmodligen bör försöka att sprida lite mer någonstans på vår mark. Efter att ha beskuren kom en wallaby och satte sig bland grenarna på marken. Jen höll på att samla några finare blad till te och sade till wallaby´n den kunde äta bladen, hahahahah, då hoppade wallaby´n längre bort och satte sig att äta av Guava bladen. När vi båda gick in för att fika lite kom den in på gården och åt ogräs! Hur söt! Efter fikat rensade vi bort alla grenar till ängen och sorterade de tjockare grenarna i en hög och låt de andra ligger precis utbredda. Vi låter naturen hjälpa oss att torka bladen att släppa och senare sugas in gräsklipparen och spridas på komposthögarna. Grönsakslanden ser bra ut. Vi mätte också våra två nya grönsaksland för våren. I morgon kommer vi att börja gräva ut dem.

Så vi fick en ny liten Baron i familjen. Det har vi missat att notera. 1:a Juli kom hon lillungen! Så nu är vi både farmor och farfar och mormor och morfar. Tyvärr så bor de alla så långt borta.

A giant dishwashing, split wood, lunch. Sawed up the rest of the tree we took down yesterday then split the logs at home. We now have wood for a couple of weeks to go. We found 2 lizards in the logs and put them in the lomandra with some grass over. Dinner of lamb, rice and a homegrown grapefruit each. No rain but very cloudy. The ground is still very wet.

Yesterday while out cutting down trees we found black berries on a vine. We have seen them before and searched books and internet a couple of times these last years but not found them. Today we found them on the net and they are Kangaroo Vine and are edible. Great. Tried half of one berry. It was super tart with a wiff of sloan berry. Read than one can make jam on them. Gotta try this. Not much written on this otherwise and everyone had copied someone else but not tried it themselves it seemed. See if we can get some pics another day.