Skördat tomater igen och resten av morötterna. De är eländiga och knöliga och små. 5 går att använda resten åkte i komposten. 6 vanliga grönrandiga pumpor är på g och kanske en cantaloupe men annars är det inget som ger grönsaker i landet. Lite bönor. Kanske vi får lite squash snart för vi har rensat igenom där och satt ett soldskydd över men men. 3 chilliplantor har gått i stå men lever än. Trädet som växte i närheten och gav lite skugga föll i sista stormvindarna och flera andra i bushen har fallit. Vår har två grenar kvar och kanske de tar fart och tar över “trädandet”. Alldeles för många hanblommor överallt. Undras varför? Måste kolla upp det. Rensade bland de skära jordgubbarna och de verkar glada över det. Det var sådana små förtorkade bär där.

Om en månad sådär är det dags för höstsådden och då brukar det också vara svalare väder. Till dess ska vi blanda jorden bättre och låta den ligga i träda tills dess.

Harvested tomatoes again and the rest of the carrots. They are a sorry bunch. Out of a row we got 5 small ones the rest where miniscule and knobbly so we just threw them. Need more sand and tilthed soil.  6 ordinary pumpkins on the way, one, perhaps, rockmelon but many flowers. Too many male flowers and no females on all the squash-melon-pumpkin plants. The chillies are only 3 and are not growing. Cleared around the pink strawberries and they seem much happier. Yep not much is yielding any vegs. The soil is just too warm. Cleared among the squash and put a shade cloth over and it seems to be ok. We have also had a few cloudy days but now comes a few hot ones again. The Apple Box fell in the storm so no more half morning shade. There are two branches left so maybe they will take over and keep the tree growing or we will take down the whole thing and plant something new there. A lot of Apple Box have falled during the two last stormwinds.

Wednesday

Kylig och skön morgon på 20 grader sådär. Packade ut’en med skräp och återvinning. Mycket rostig metall från skräpsamlingen där vi nu planerar garage eller något liknande. Få se vad det blir. In till Bellbrook och heja på Michelle som kör återvinningsgården nu. Sen till affären och köpa lyxig glass och lite CocaCola sen ner till stora MacLeyån och äta glassen. Hem igen och värmen hade slagit till så vi tog ledigt resten av dagen. Vi har nu en sandstorm och den förde med sig lite svalare väder senare under eftermiddagen. Under 28 ! Vilken lisa!

Chilly morning,20.4! Brekkie and pack the ute with recycling and trash. A lot of rusty metal from the scrap yard – garage spot to be. Off to Bellbrook and the recycling centre. Hello to Michelle who runs it now and then the General Store to buy some CocaCola and ice cream. Down to the bridge over the MacLey and eat them then home again. Jen at the wheel. At home the heat had struck and we took the rest of the day off. There is a sand storm going on and the sky is blocked with yellow brownish fine sand. The temp dropped in the evening to 28 phew what a relief.

Late summer day

Sorterade metallskräpet i vår skrotgård nu framtida garageplats. Till soptippen  i morgon och resten upp till förrådshuset, nen del till trädgårdlanden och några hängde vi bara vid citruslunden på det gamla staketet där, tillfälligt.

Vattnade trädgårdslandet. Inte mycket kvar blomstrande där nu. Fortfarande tomater, några små paprikor, basilika, ormbönor, vattenmeloner, skördade sötpotatisblad, resten av grönsakerna lever ungerfär.
Vi tog alla gamla frön och sådde dem alla blandade i en lång rad i no 2. I stället för att kasta dem och snarare än att förvänta sig att de växer senare gjorde vi så här. Melonerna kisar upp först. Vi har täckt en del av nr 2 och 3 och det verkar fungera. Täckt några rader med nät för att hålla gräshopporna och sniglarna ute. Det finns knappast några insekter ute som  pollinerar…   så ja …

Sorted the metal junk in our scrap yard to be garage platform. To the trash plant tomorrow and the rest up to the store house, some to the garden patches and some we just hung by the citrus grove on the old fence there, for now. Watered the patches. Not much left thriving there now. Still tomatoes, some tiny capsicum, basil, snake beans, water melons, harvested sweet potato leaves the rest is just barely making it. 

We took all old seeds and sowed them all mixed up in a long row in no 2. Rather than throwing them and rather than expecting them so grow later we did this. The melons are peeping up first. We have covered part of no 2 and 3 and it seems to do it’s trick. Covered some rows with netting also to keep the grasshoppers and snails out. There are barely any insects out to pollinate so yeah…

Monday 21 Jan 2018

Watered. All is drying. Everyday we find something dying. Melons and tomatoes.

Today we ran Johnny almost around the blackberry patches on the other side of the lower paddock. There are about 4 patches of brambles. We also picked about 2 litres of ripe berries – yum! When starting to drive Johnny two familiar berries fell off. They come from a tree up on the hill. Cockspur Thorn. They were ripe and soo good. That is good because it seems that the Cockspur growing by Potmans border died in the fire. Such a pity. But yay we have one on our own property. Will TLC it!

A couple of raindrops but it will not amount to much! Not nearly enough.

No kajaks yet just the two paddles. Sigh!

Senvår tidig sommar

Skördat alla purjolökar och skurit i bitar och frusit in utan att blanchera.

Skördat alla daikon/japansk rädisa och skurit upp, blancherat och frusit in.

Skördat några Russian vitlök och hängt på tork.

Skördat massor av oregano, torkat smulat och lagt i burk.

Skördat två väldigt unga vitkål som började mögla av fukten. Men det gör inget för det kommer fler.

Skördat en stackars blomkålsplanta. Tog en bit rå och jäklar vad stark den var! Inte alls sådär god som vanligt.

All apelsinjuice som vi frös in före resan är nu uppdrucken.

All lime är slut.

Citronträdet börjar tappa citroner så nu är det dags att göra något med dem: baka, pressa, riva skal och frysa in mm.

Dags att sätta nät över päronen. Det blir kanske 9 päron iår. Mulbären är väldigt sena också.

Håhåjaja det är mycket med det jordiska.

Nu jobbar vi på att fixa en plats under tak för vårt kommande nyförvärv. Vi river bort stolpar och drar upp cementgrundklumpar.

Thursday. Oh what a day. We decided that since we were going to Kemp anyway it would be shorter to go to Coffs and turn in the computer than a coffs trip alone. It would be a pretty long drive there and back and all the errands so we booked a mote with a spa bath – a bit of luxury. Since it has been raining for long enough that we have gathered a lot of laundry and will probably not have a dry enough day in the near future for it to dry we decided to take the laundry with us and go to a laundromat. We have been doing a bit of spring cleaning and found the bag of travel money. Most of it is used up or given away but we still had Turkish lira so we would try some banks with that. Kempsey is too small we thought. So on the list was: library, post office w check to dr. Alford, dr. appt to Emma, recycling at the cans, bottle and pet bottle centre in Kemp. Drive to Coffs and have lunch at a Chinese restaurant, turn in computer and ask how to arrange for post office to send it back and then go to post office and buy the stuff, try the banks for the lira, laundry, find motel in Urunga, go for evening meal at a fish restaurant in Urunga, use the spa bath at the motel and have microwave popcorn! Second day the list was: leave Urunga and return to Kemp, shop at Bunnings, shop at Woolies, shop at BWS, diesel for cannister for tractor coming next week and for Atlas and then pick up package from IKEA at Cetnaj. Should be a cinch – right! So off we go. The creek is high after the rains so we took the mountain road. Wet, muddy but passable. We had cleared it from trees, vines and branches the day before. Arrived a bit early so we took a morning tea at Tumblegum only they lost our order so we had to take the tea to go and have it after the doc. visit. Dr Emma had moved on and Jen got a new one. They were new and had to work in different places for a couple of years before settling down. Jen thought Emma was going to stay longer but .. oh well. This little lady wanted to do a thorough check up and breast cancer, bowel and cervical but Jen said another day. Should probably do it next year. It’s been a while now. Like 4 to 8 years depending on what. After the GP visit we had our tea and sent the letter at the post office, did the recycling and took off for Coffs. In Coffs we found the Chinese resttaurant and the food was probably the best Chinese so far since we moved up here but still not super. After lunch we found our Apple store and had a chat with the guy who took a look at Pebbles and also said they would take care of sending it back for a small fee. 25 A$! Perfect. Peb will get a new reflective screen. Now for the Turkish lira. ANZ turned us down, the post office sent us packing, Combank said sorry but ….. so we realised they all use the same bank who sends the money but never buys it back. We gave up and thought we might remember to take it next time we go to an airport. Now time for laundry so off the laundromat. Lots of laundry, all the thick winter stuff. Very nice to get it cleaned up allthough it never gets really really clean if it has spots since it never soakes at laundromats. Anyway it’s mostly working clohes so who cares! Now for Urunga and the motel. This was out on a field but the bridge there was being mended so it was closed off. We had to drive a way bit around but we got there. They had two rooms, one was a suit but our had the spa. Perfect. After a beer we took of to find the seafood restaurant, which we did after a bit but it was closed, nobody was ther though it said open 8-21. So we ended up in another place with very good food and super nice service! Back to the motel for a last beer and soak in the spa bath. Haha it was leaking so after 15 min there was barely water to cover our stomachs and there was no more warm water either. What a letdown. The little kitchen had a toaster but no plates or utensils or dishwashing stuffs. Otherwise the room was beautiful and big. The bed was great! So a bit of tweaking was needed for it to get full points.
Friday. We had brought our own breakfast of cereal and lucky for us in plastic container so we could eat out of them since there were no plates. They did have tea and a water heater but no microwave so no popcorn! After hanging in the room and having tea we packed up and left. Back to Kemp. All went smooth until picking up the package at Cetnaj. no parcel. We called the co and she called around. We said we were at Cetnaj. After lot of waiting in the hot sun she let us know the driver had left the package at Natrad. Ok so pick up at Natrad instead and off home. Phew! Better take Postmans and not count on the creek to allready recede. Almost home it started raining and when we stopped outside the gate it came down in buckets and hail! What to do? Wait it out in the car and have a beer. Haha. Rivers and lakes all around. After 40 min or so it stopped so we could unpack . All wet cardboard boxes and some wet bags. The weather had been so sunny and nice we had packed a lot of stuff on the tray! Anyway all was well and all chores done!

20181001 Monday, trek to the creek

Swedish mixed in.

Packade ryggan för en tur till Postmansbäcken. Ska vi köpa en gräsklippare eller traktor? Packed a backpack with lunch and water and brought secateurs and the machete. Off up and down to Postman’s Creek to see what we could use a tractor for down there. Maybe useful for making paths or small roads… or maybe not. Do we only need a slasher or will we want a tractor later on and will regret just buying the slasher/mower?

Our very own white ant mound! Egen termitstack.

Lunchmacka. We looked about and decided to try out the other side of the creek. After some hacking about to make a path we had our lunch sanwiches.

Ojoj fina epifyter! While sitting there we saw a whole lot of beautiful Staghorn Ferns and Birds Nest Ferns. Our very own Dannywood! We had not seen so many before. Maybe we just had not had time to look for them. After lunch we went on hacking a path and all the time descussing if a tractor could do it or not. Probably not. A lot of handiwork is needed before one can use a tractor. Jen want a digger and Mick want a shovel. Well we at least decided it might not work along the creek side with all the lianas, vines and fallen trees.

Strypfikon som växer runt ett träd och dödar det vad det lider. We saw a Strangler Fig at work. It will be interresting to follow this one over the years!

 

Vet inte vad detta är. We also saw a plant that we cannot identify. Here it is.

Ett nytt träd! Rusty plum. Man ska kunna äta det men vi vet inte än. Tog hem kärnan och påtade ner i jorden. After a while we ended up at the place where Anton showed us the Rusty Plum. We now found several Rusty Plums and we took a plum seed with us home an put in a pot.

 

 

 

efter allt hackandet kom vi bara 30m meter in i bushen och nu trötta i armarna tog vi oss hem igen lagom att fika! By now we were quite tired in our arms from all the nipping and hacking so we decided to turn back home. Just in time for some tea.

Checked on the internet and read that Rusty Plum trees or Plum Boxwood are an endagered species. Interresting! Allegedly edible too.

Back home! Getting this property going.