pretty much gone....

I've had some old Bowie blaring out of the i-pod over the past week - and one tune seems especially fitting at the moment....   'ch-ch-ch-ch-changes....' as demolition of the dairy has progressed as full speed.....

one day the roof was coming down...

 then before you knew it.....

it was all a pile of rubble - being carted off to fill some eroded bits on one of the dams....

a bit of an unceremonious end to the old girl I think!


I was hoping to snaffle the old very primitive 'water cooler' tower (basically a circle of corrugated iron) - but it seems FP has other plans for it (mostly I think his plan is to keep it away from me and any of my arty intentions)

 well - we've got a further bit of clean up and site preparation ..... then the very very big work begins


(GULP GULP!)

going... going....

A huge change is in the wind for all of us down on the farm... the old dairy on FPs property is about to come down....

The old milking shed has been out of action for the past decade when the farm shifted over to beef production.... so it's already looking a little tired and forlorn and now all the old milking machines, pipes, feeders and what-nots have been stripped out of the shed....

here's the last of them being carted away.....

Yesterday FP and his brother (who we affectionately refer to as 'unkle-simple-simon') started pulling of the roof iron..... as the old structure is a-coming down!

over the next 10 days the boys hope to have the whole site leveled ready for the next ENORMOUS undertaking..... it's going to mean a radical change to all our lives and despite having many months to contemplate the change, I'm still shaking in my boots!

I'll post some more pics as the old girl comes down..... and share more as we take the leap into the great beyond - the new stage in our life here on the farm.....



GULP


...

TWIG - 26

We've had the first very big frosts of the winter season (complete with -6C temps.....thanks goodness I was hundreds of kilometres away that morning!) so the zucchini and eggplant and capsicum that had somehow been hanging in since late summer have finally been totally zapped!

I've struggled to get enough time to do much of anything in the garden (arty and family commitments have conspired to keep me elsewhere) and I hope to get some things done over the next few weeks.....


But other things have been in the works - FP has been hard at it - building a lean-to (soon to be 2 vehicle car port) beside out shed.....

My man is a clever critter - its not a simple affair this carpost - it is designed so that our vehicles will drive in on an angle - and park semi-parallel to the shed and drive out the other end (at the other oblique angle) - and the roof reflects this.... oooo and of course FP milled his own redgum timber (from a tree on the wandella property - mixed his own cement - with sand from sams creek property), welded his own steel uprights (which required precise weird angles....)

and of course it goes without saying he is erecting it all single handedly - you should see how he man-handled the beams into position.... (hint - it involved a tractor and faith!)



As for the rest of us here at sams creek - now that its school holidays we are taking walks around the farm - finding all manner of interesting things to amuse us....

down by the creek there are all sorts of interesting tracks (these are the marks of a rock wallaby...)

In the coming days I'm going to get on top of all the garden jobs..... I hope!



Picking/eating
tuscan kale, baby ruby silverbeet, baby dignams special silverbeet, gold bullion zucchini, curly endive, pontiac potatoes, butternut pumpkin, tangelo, meyer lemon, eureka lemon, japanese mandarin, orange, lemonade fruit.

TWIG -25

gerbera - in the lower decorative garden

Don't let the pretty flower pic lead you astray - last weekend we had days of WILD WEATHER - the highway just outside our place was weirdly quiet - it was closed for more than 2 whole days as there were trees over the road EVERYWHERE.... well we did experience category 2 cyclone conditions.....

as I looked outside out place I could see many large and small trees felled all over the place.... in my little garden my darling beloved banksia baxterii what snapped off at the base

I'm so disappointed - it has been a favourite of mine....

the passionfruit vine that covered the western side of my studio (and a fair amount of the roof) also took a battering - but with a trim it should come back ok

the vege garden came through it all without a hitch - in fact it positively reveled the miserable conditions!

(chinese - or wombok - cabbage seedlings under movable protection)

and our citrus trees are having their very best season

(looking down the line of citrus trees -
the tangelo are so laden with fruit -
but all the trees are looking great!)

To Do
move bean support to become a pea support (ooops haven't done this yet!)
plant more onion seedlings
prepare site for bare root trees (order bare root trees!)


Completed
onion, spring onion, leek, pak choy, hebe, erigeron, chinese cabbage, lettuce seedlings planted
old tomato vines removed to the compost
vege garden weeded (again!)
spent watermelon and cucumber vines composted


Picking/eating
baby tuscan kale, baby ruby silverbeet, baby dignams special silverbeet, gold bullion zucchini, curly endive, late season sugar baby watermelon, pontiac potatoes, butternut pumpkin, capsicum, thai eggplant, tangelo, meyer lemon, eureka lemon, japanese mandarin, orange, lemonade fruit.

TWIG -24

I can't believe this month of May - here it is - almost winter and we are yet to experience a frost!

Manchurian pear in its autumn finery

All of which means the vege garden is powering along - I'm still picking and eating tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant and even zucchini!

gold bullion zucchini - in may!

and I have lots and lots of little seedlings for our winter vege - (silverbeet, beetroot, carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, chinese cabbage, oz garlic, purple garlic, red california onion, telephone pea, snow pea, kale, broccoli, red cabbage, cauliflower)

baby ruby silverbeet - good enough to eat!

and the citrus orchard is offering a BUMPER crop - the best ever (we planted the bulk of the citrus trees when I was pregnant with EJ - she's now 5)

our lemons are amazing - and the kids are hooking into oranges and mandarins and tangelos

sams creek tangelo -
you should see the tree - it is groaning under the weight of these beauties!

and if the sight of all the fruit and vege doesn't warm the heart well there's always something pretty close by....

gordonia

To do

move bean support to become a pea support
feed vege garden
plant seeds and seedlings (onion, pak choy, hebe, erigeron,
dig over spent beds and add compost/aged manure
continue planting side decorative garden


Completed
vege garden weeded
more seedlings added to side decorative garden (mexican sage, green lavender, euphorbia, forget-me-nots)
grass clippings added to compost


Picking/eating
baby tuscan kale, gold bullion zucchini, curly endive, roma tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, pontiac potatoes, butternut pumpkin, capsicum, thai eggplant, raspberries, tangelo, meyer lemon, eureka lemon, japanese mandarin, orange, lemonade fruit.

TWIG-23

hmmm - my 'this week in the garden' posts are turning more into 'this SEASON in the garden'
ahhhh well - take it as an indication that I'm spending more time in the garden than online talking about being in the garden (wishful thinking!!!!)

 (the vege garden in autumn.... all the beds are in transition to cooler weather...)

ahhh goodness so much has been happening all over the garden I don't know where to start! well if you look at the pic of the vege garden now you might notice something 'strange' - we carpeted the paths!!! my folks had some hideous, ruined (and wet) carpet under the house that they thought was good only for landfill - I saw it as potential (free) weed mat - wheeeee! in coming months we'll cover the carpet with something 'pretty' (river sand maybe? or woodchips...)

and in the vege garden beds I've been busy planting autumn/winter crops - oodles of brassicas (turnips, swedes, cabbage, broccoli, kale etc etc), garlic, peas, silverbeet and more..... most are now doing well (the beet family are a bit hit and miss on the germination)

 pink buddlea (from the decorative garden below the house....)

aside from the vege patch - I've been tackling the decorative garden bed below the house (and so too has the chook unfortunately! she has been scratching up the mulch and making a heck of a mess..... its a good thing that she's returned to laying eggs or she might have been scheduled for chicken soup) - I've also planted out the chimney garden (with dry herbs.... I hope it proves a good selection for the difficult site) - and FP has been busy tidying up the overgrown section of garden above my studio (what a mess!!!!!). We have an idea that this would be a good site for our permanent poultry house/yard.... (I fancy the idea of looking out my studio window and seeing chookies.... they are nice company and can be really really funny to watch)  - now just to find the time and materials to build one

I'm hoping to tidy up the entrance to the studio and come up some scheme for planting.... hmmmmm I keep changing my mind about what to do here....


But the biggest 'news' in the garden of late has to be our giant sweet potato - harvested last week (I posted a piccie and tale over here as I knew I wouldn't get the time to plonk it on this blog)

and talking of time - I'd better go turn off the hose!

TWIG-22

 Ahhhhh at last I've had a few moments to get stuck into those jobs crying out for attention - and to enjoy the delights of the autumn garden (my favourite time of year around here....the mornings are crispy, but not cold.... the days a warm but not hot and humid... the wind is gentle..... beautiful!)

 this was supposed to be a white dahlia....

ooops someone got the labelling wrong!

I'll move it out of the white bed at the end of the season

we've harvested the HUGE crop of pumpkins and squashes...

  (this is just a small sample of the hubbard and blue banana and etc. squash sitting on the back verandah right now)

To my great delight our black mulberry tree decided to set another round of fruit.... and are they ever beauties!

and at last I've knocked some jobs off my 'to do list' (wheeeee)

TO DO

* order bare root fruit and nut trees

* take cuttings of hydrangea and woody herbs

*plant out decorative garden bed below the house

Completed

Autumn seeds planted: Ruby silverbeet, italian brocolli, red cabbage, late season carrot, hollow crwon parsnip, masey pea, oregon snow pea, italian white garlic, purple garlic, snowball cauliflower

old bath moved (at last!) and filled with water ready for the water plants (water chesnuts, water cress and more)

we've carpeted the path area in the vege garden (its true! we covered the ground in some old carpet we received - and we'll cover this with sand in the next while.... the carpet will keep the weeds down for a long time, before it eventually decays)

  camellia sasanqua - 'fuji-no-mine'... 

these are just starting to flower - the trees are wonderful when covered in white blooms

 blushing pink iceberg rose (its a lovely frothy mass right now....stunning!)

 

 

Picking/ eating

endive,  ivory eggplant, thai eggplant, pontiac potatoes, cherokee wax beans,  pak choy, green capsicum, sweet basil, roma tomato,  dried bortolli bean, black mulberries, white mulberries, watermelon, rockmelon, raspberries