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Tuesday : project fix the dunny

Gonna try to write a bit more often here. A bit of diary.

We have a lot of projects going on or listed. Before winter we started on setting up bathroom. We ended up going to the toilet all winter outside anyway. We set up a temporary shower just outside the verandah. It all worked out fine. Then one day after winter was over we got hold of vinyl flooring and glued half of it down. Put the toilet in there and voilá at least we are inside. But still no door. Windows will only be netting so the shower steam will go out easily. Anyway the sink is almost done and now we have started to work on the bathroom again. But we have to move a big pile of wood that lay under the verandah/bathroom so we started doing that before we can get under and figure out to position the drainage between the floor beams.

We have been sawing for two days and sorting and stuffing and pulling nails. There is still some under the floors and another pile that we might as well move while we´re at it. But we crawled under the floor and one on top to measure out where we shall fit the drain. And then it got too hot so we stopped and went to the creek instead.

Then we made ice cream. Just an experiment. The second Ice cream trial. It turned out yummy but need a bit of tweaking.

Our Magpies are still two but it seems to be two girls now. Or the mom and a baby who is either going to be a girl or is a not grown boy. Interresting. Magnus himself is gone but we call them all Magnus now. We have two kookas again and one has a sort of halfass laugh.

The wild fires are out except one and it is over in Taylors Arms upper. Right now we have thunder and a bit of lightning. We hope and hope it does not set fire to the bush. If it does we are in trouble with all the dry bush and grass around. Please give us rain!!!!!

Blooming and ripening 8 Nov

The garden is full of birds flying here and there eating from the nectar giving flowers.

Plants that have flowers right now:

Aloe
Aloe
The survivor of the three trees we relocated last spring
The survivor of the three trees we relocated last spring
Hibiscus-heterophyllus-subsp.-heterophyllus-Native-RosellaNative-Hibiscus.
Hibiscus-heterophyllus-subsp.-heterophyllus-Native-RosellaNative-Hibiscus.
Blooming for the first time
Blooming for the first time
Bottlebrush
Bottlebrush
Dill
Dill
Lomandra
Lomandra
Our first strawberries
Our first strawberries
Silky Oak
Silky Oak
Do not know these
Do not know these
White Clover
White Clover

No more Loquats. Now we will put the net over the grapes. We did a pretty hefty pruning on the grapes. We will see if we get more grapes than last year. Odd with grapes that fruit in the summer though.

Grapes ripening
Grapes ripening

They are working on the big road. Wonder how it will look when it is finished. Flat as Holland hopefully but first rain and a lorry and it will be back to 4-wheeling.

They are working on the big road. Wonder how it will look when it is finished. Flat as Holland hopefully but first rain and a lorry and it will be back to 4-wheeling.

The grass is mowed, the patches are weeded, the trees are pruned, the avocados are planted and most is coming to flowers or fruit so we only have to wait now and keep an eye on things. We can start working on other projects. Back to the bathroom for example and do some work on the new spot for the water tank. I want to get a patch for the wild raspberries (Rubus rosifolius,) and some blackberries that already grows there in order too. A new projects that we are doing is transforming the temporary shower cabin to a garden tool shed. Ohh there is never a moment without womething to do and figure out the best way of doing it.

Woah, just seeing two Rainbow Lorikeets in the Silky Oak! Nice having them around. They can get quite friendly. We are keeping an eye on our patches too. We might have to put netting over 3 and 4 by and by.

 

We are also keeping an eye on the bush fire that is slowly growing but allegedly under control. Luckily the wind is next to nothing otherwise it would probably not be under control.

Also we are trying to dry dill to store in jars instead of freezing.

Drying dill

Dill drying in a net

Avocado with barbed fencing Here is one of the avocados we have planted. It has a natural barbed wire so the wallabies will not eat the leaves until it has grown a bit. The barbed wire are wild lime trees.

Avocado with barbed fencing

 

This we have no idea but this year we have some flowers and seeds fruit whatever
This we have no idea but this year we have some flowers and seeds fruit whatever
This is our Macadamias beginning
This is our Macadamias beginning
Creek Sand paper fig is ripening
Creek Sand paper fig is ripening They are edible but pretty tasteless and tiny.

 

 

Fight for the meat

We threw two bones with some meat on it in the paddock for Magnus and Maggie who are nesting. They got competition straight away. Bruce the goanna finally even dragged the bones to it´s nest in an old tree.

But meanwhile Willie Wagtail, a raven, the magpies and the goanna fought over it. It is fun to see the little wagtail nipping at the big goanna and birds to chase them away. To no avail of course. dsc00982Magpie in the tree wondering what to do.

dsc00981Goanna is eating my food!

Crow gets some feedNow raven is also eating my food!

Maggie is helpingI need help! Maggie comes to help.

Where is he going?Bruce the Goanna wins!

dsc00971Brings all the bones to his nest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lazy Willie Wagtail

Haha lazy Willie Wagtail is stealing insects from the spiders web! Or is there a nest up there??

The garden is full of birds flying here and there eating from the nectar giving flowers.

Hard to take pics because they are up there in the tree tops against the sun.

Woah, just seeing two Rainbow Lorikeets in the Silky Oak! Nice having them around. They can get quite friendly. We are keeping an eye on our patches too. We might have to put netting over 3 and 4 by and by.

 

 

 

 

 

Add on to last blog

Here is the only dill plant that made it but we have harvested so much dill from it it is uncanny!      Version 2

Below is the Macadamia blooming and there are lots and lots of insects flying around fertilising it.Macadamia flowers On the other hand the Guava is faring miserably. Something that we cannot see is eating all the leaves.

Working on the dunny again

Lazy morning by the fire.

Did September cleaning and vacuuming.

After lunch we started working on the vinyl flooring in the dunny-to-be. Cut the corners and decided to glue half of it tomorrow. Half so we can move the dunny from the verandah. And only half because we have to make a drain for the shower and sink before glueing the rest. Looking forward to this.

After that we raked the garden behind the house which was full of leaves again.

Still have the sliver and the Pecan square to rake and remove branches and twigs.

But things are looking up, really. The beans and radishes are sprouting and some other things which we are not sure if it´s weeds or veg´s.

Sometimes days are like that

Woke up and from the verandah saw one of the big Wallabies licking a very red spot on his stomach. It was sitting down on it´s tail which was sticking out front sort of instead of backwards as usual. Jen spoke to it and it did not jump away. The two big ones are a bit shy otherwise. Went in and had brekkie. Later it lied down in it´s side. Now we got nervous it was sick and maybe would die. We talked to it a couple of times and it looked at us but did not jump away. In the evening it got up and jumped away and ate some. I hope it´s back to business. We planned our day´s work: the dunny and raking the back yard but then our plans got thwarted because it stunk in the storage. The cans with beans we had conserved had yeasted and run over and gotten mouldy and stunk prawn and fish. One of the bottles of lemon juice had leaked a lot and mould loved it. So instead of following our plan we picked the innards of the old fridge apart and cleaned them and sprayed mould stuff on. Poured out our beans on the compost and did not do much else. Sometimes days are like that.

Sewing and sowing

Started making curtains from some old fabric we found. It is fabric from an old medieval dress Jen sewed once.

DSC00681

Today is a beautiful day. We took a cuppa with us to the creek while the laundry was beeing rinsed. Two big black cockatoos came along and shreiked at us a little and flew away. We think they might have a nest close by.

Maybe this is the last frost morning! Hoping so.

Made chicken in milk a couple of weeks ago and saved the liquid. Today we mixed it with chicken meat and had for lunch. Tasted neither orange nor milk but tasted very good anyway.

Mick sowed the rest of the seeds that should go in pots first and we will sow what goes straight in the ground tomorrow.

We are sowing a Quandong tree:

DSC00679

Someone is burning their paddocks on the other side of the mountain and it makes the sky hazy. Last days of burning now before 1st of Sept.

Eve dinner will be some chinese ginger stuff we´ll put together.

Still cold mornings and evenings but   soooooon!

Late winter

Today, the 20:th, we have lived in Oz for two years since Greece.

Now it must be spring! We were outside most of the day in t-shirts!

This week we have sown lots of seeds in small empty butter containers and have them in the little net seed house.

We have sown: lettuce -three kinds, parsnip, radishes, shallots, broccoli, basil -2 kinds, and spinach. Also radishes outside in patch 3. We are still weeding patch 3.

Photo 1

We have now made a sowing plan in Excel for our coming year. We will note when to sow for the first time and then we shall see how often we shall sow or can sow after that. Two more squares are planned too, one for corn stalks and one for artichokes.

We have written down companion plants too but that bit will have to wait until next year. We cannot take on too much at the same time, right!

There are also still veggies growing so today we harvested one super large Swede, fit for fodder we know but still edible, broccolini, dill and probably the two last and quite small cauliflowers, oh, and two red beets.

Photo 3  Citrongräs, Broccolini, Kinesisk kål, Blomkål och små persiljor växer här.Photo 4

Swede/kålrötter och en ensam dill

The dill is bouquet dill and very nice. It´s the second time we harvest from the same plant. Dill is definitely a plant for our winter time.

Yesterday we made rösti on a mix of roots. It was yum! We both can´t wait for our new seeds to grow!

Of course we have ongoing work all over like mowing, working the patches, pumping water, picking up branches and twigs after each storm or high winds and rain, getting wood in the bush or arranging logs to dry. Clearing different areas again.

Next big step is moving the water tank and getting all the pipes into the house in the correct places and on to the veggie patch. One of our neighbours is giving us their drip hoses so we shall pick them up and install one day in the veggie patches.

Now, when we have a cool season and many plants are dormant, we can walk to many places like down to the big red cedar without being too vigilant about snakes. We have plans to make a bench and nice sitting area there and maybe clearing the bush down to the beach so one can sit and contemplate life over a glass of something nice.