Sunny Sunday

Yesterday was the first day in ages that I have been home and able to get out in the garden on a sunny day. Doesn't the sun inspire you! Everything in the garden is moving; I have spinach, lettuce, leeks, rhubarb, silver beet and asparagus ready for the eating.

The muscles in my arms and chest are reminding me of the work we did. I can't believe how much we managed. I shovelled six barrows of manure to the potato patch. I'm a bit later than I'd like with the potatoes this year. Late August is a good time to get them in if I watch out for frost and cover them on the bad nights.

I manured two other veggie beds, fixed a hole in our little pond, clipped the wings of our young layers and put them back in the paddock, gave the pigs some wallowing water and belatedly mulched the asparagus. I've sown seeds for parsnips but I'm not holding out much hope. I don't seem to be home enough to constantly keep soil wet for veggies like asparagus and carrots.

Belle set up the monitor in the goat shed so we'll know if Argoo goes into labour during the night. We're both quite nervous about the event as it draws closer. She's such a sweet little goat and her tummy is huge!

I attended my first Landcare working bee yesterday but felt a smoodge guilty that I only stayed an hour due to my work screaming at me from home. I found out that the working bees are only every three months though, so next time I'll try to free the time. It's quite lovely hanging out in the bush pulling out weeds.

I hope to get back out in the garden today. Isn't it funny how achieving work in the garden always makes you see more, not less, jobs!

We have baby goats, geese and ducklings due in the next few weeks so there's no missing that Spring has sprung.

We think our first nest of goslings will hatch in the next week. It's made me realise we've come so far in our food journey with the children. Pumpkin was chattering to me as I worked and she commented that the goslings might be old enough to eat for Christmas lunch. "Oh, and we might have goat! Then we could kill a rooster too and it would be a real feast!"

I like how normal this lifestyle appears to my kids. There's such satisfaction in providing food that wasn't manufactured, bought from a multinational company, feed or sprayed with chemicals, transported for miles or packaged in wasteful packaging. Little bit by little bit we are becoming less dependent.

Pumpkin has been asking for days if we can make some pasta now that we have plenty of eggs again. I think I might do that with her today and enjoy pasta with asparagus for dinner. In fact, talking about asparagus has me craving some. I think I'll go and munch on a fresh spear for brekky!

Happy gardening and eating!

Building compost

I built a compost heap today.

We regularly leave our trailer at a stable.  They have many horses on the property and need to clear the waste.  We take down our empty trailer, they shovel manure and sawdust (which they use on the stable floors) into it, and a couple of days later I pick up my full load.  Sometimes I spread it on paddocks straight from the back of the trailer but other times, like today, I use it for a compost heap.

Our goats sleep in pens overnight and their bedding is straw or hay.  We don't clean it out but add fresh hay on the top.  It's a wonderful method because their beds become more comfortable as time goes and the hay begins to compost under them and creates warmth.  Nature's electric blanket!

Daisy's pen is becoming too high as the layers have built up.  She's almost able to step out of the pen!  It has happened before!  So using some of her bedding and the full load of manure, I've created a heap that will be ready in plenty of time for spring.

I shoveled out heaps of the manure, added a layer of soiled hay from Daisy's pen, watered it down until the hay was moist and then shoveled another thick layer of manure.  I like making compost at this time of year because the manure is moist and the hay is too in some places so I don't use as much water to create a pile as I would in summer.  I continued with my layers until there was no manure left in the trailer and then covered the whole pile with a generous layer of the bedding hay.  It serves to keep the rain from entering the pile and leaching the nutrients.

This pile will heat up over the next couple of days.  I'll be able to feel the heat if I put my hand on the hay.  Sometimes it has rising steam in the mornings.  I'll turn the pile in a few days after it starts to cool.  This starts the heating process again.  Then a final turning of the compost and I'll leave it to sit until I need to use it.  I like the look of the hay covered pile.  A bit like a little haystack hiding secret garden goodness.  However Buddy was helping today and insisted that we cover it with the old picnic blanket.  We use this to cover a pile if we're not working with hay.

When we don't have old bedding material available, I just create compost with two trailer loads of manure, make sure it's moist and cover with the picnic blanket or black plastic until it's ready for turning.  It makes good compost but I much prefer the result from the hay/manure mix.  Of course Buddy wanted to pose with his job-well-done!

My garden will be sooo happy with this brew in a few weeks!  Do you have compost on the go?

A time for work

The talks by Joel Salatin that I recently attended worked like a shot in the arm; an injection of energy.  There's nothing like inspiration to awaken/rekindle motivation and get the blood flowing.

I wake each morning full of energy and with many ideas of things I would like to achieve in the day.  Sometimes I even find myself outside in my nightie and slippers before I know what's happened!  The timing of the talks was serendipitous too.  Why?  This is the time of year for work.  The weather conditions for plants, the comfort levels of working and the amount of time available are all better at this time.

The summer heat has gone, it's even raining regularly at the moment.  Cool days and a gentle soaking means everything planted stands a chance of becoming established before next summer arrives.

The temperature is perfect for work too.  The days are chilly so I don a jacket, hat and scarf when I head out but I can manage some serious physical work on these cool days.  It doesn't take long before shoveling out a trailer of manure has me stripping down to a t-shirt.  In summer, I would only last five minutes before giving up.

Autumn is also more generous with allowing me time.  Spring in the garden means soil preparation, planting, fertilising; summer is for watering and heat management and extra attention for the animals.  Late summer is a crazy time of year because so many fruits and veggies are ready and need to be dealt with.  As I learn more about preserving, each summer I am busier in the kitchen.  Now, with my shelves as ready as they will be and only the promise of a day of picking a friend's olives ahead of me, I'm out working.

I've been leaving my trailer at a near-by stable and picking it up a couple a days later, laden with stinky goodness for my paddocks and garden.  I've been shoveling it straight onto the top of the paddocks.  Because we are on a hill, I layer it thickly at the top end and hope that gravity will work in my favour over the next couple of months.  I imagine the rain and chooks will help it spread further down the paddocks without much actual intervention from me.  Occasionally, living on a hill has its benefits.

Daily we drop in to the post office in the hopes that our electric netting fence, that we ordered online, will be there.  When it arrives, we can put our chooks out in the paddock to do their best work.  They can scratch and peck at the moist dirt, spreading the aforementioned manure as they go.  With a bit of luck and a little management, the dirt may transition to become a layer of actual soil in the next season or so!  Last year, I laid branches across one of the paddocks on the contours and I can already see they are beginning to hold the soil and create flatter, more grassy spots.  The addition of some fertility should make a good improvement.

Sometimes I layer the manure with straw or hay from the goat pens to create a nice, hot compost.  It makes a beautiful addition to the garden beds!

Our does have been to visit a local buck.  He's a bit of a stud actually so I wait with baited breath now, hoping that they don't cycle again.  We're hopeful for some lovely baby goats in about five months time....

I have planted tagasaste for forage and put in some apricot seeds.  These were saved from apricots we ate.  I put the seeds in the fridge to plant out later in the year.  They were starting to sprout in the fridge however, so I've sown them and made little plastic covers in the hopes of seeing them through winter.  So far, so good.  They have shot up out of the ground and look great.  I will use these as forage for the goats as well.

I've planted elder-flowers, jerusalem artichokes, and a wormwood grown from a cutting.  The wormwood is next to the chook shed as an insect repellent.  I'm hoping all my new systems are more established by next summer and that life will be easier and more comfortable for us and the animals alike.  I'm deliberately planting chook plants near the chooks and goat plants near the goats to make our work flow.

Belle and I asked Hubby to show us how to use the power drill and we're ridiculously proud of ourselves!  We made a goat shelter from pallets.  I've since collected heaps more pallets ready to scatter shelters all over our property.  Armed with my newly found power tool skills, I've also created a clothes rack for the winter months so that we don't spend all our time negotiating clothes hanging on clothes horses set up in the lounge room.  I'll hang it upstairs to catch the rising heat and the ceilings are higher there so I can raise the clothes out of my way.

Daisy overseeing the construction

I'm also dreaming of completing the bulk of our hard physical work before winter really sets in.  I'm picturing gentle days inside near the fire, crafting, spinning and cooking up winter delights to serve at the end of a short and chilly day.  I like the idea of winter being a time of rest and recuperation before the busyness of Spring and the yearly cycle begin again.

Do you find that each year follows a pattern (or rythym.....  I love the peaceful sound of that term) and are you working harder than usual now?

A Steiner special school and Organising a break from the farm

Recently, the kids and I attended a camp.  I knew I was going to like it but didn't realise what a huge impact it was going to have on me.

The camp was organised by the Melbourne Waldorf Farm School.  They are a group of Steiner connected people who are in the process of organising a Steiner special school.  It would be the first of its kind in Australia.

The vision is for the school to operate as a working farm and incorporate residential housing for elderly folk as well as people with disabilities.  I love the concept.  They are creating a place that is useful and where everyone would be involved in a very real way regardless of ability.  The way I believe the world should be.

The experience of the camp left me wishing I could be involved when the school is operational.  The days the children and I spent there were incredible.  We were immediately immersed in the most connected and nurturing environment I have ever found myself in.  We were a community of people who cared about each other by the time we left. 

There were opportunities for Buddy to experience new activities as well as felting and music and singing for all of us.  Buddy's sisters had the opportunity to part from him and each other while playing, and to meet many other children with disabilities.  Pumpkin announced on the way home that she would like to work with people with disabilities when she grows up (because they are so nice). 

The parents were nurtured and, through various activities and in-depth discussion, felt very deep connections with each other by the time we went home.  The school will be in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne; too far for us although I toyed with the idea of moving for a while.  I would encourage anyone with an interest, to get involved.  You would be welcomed.  Tell your friends and spread the word.  The families who end up at this school will be very fortunate.  The school is in it's initial stages and those who get involved will be instrumental in helping this concept become a reality.

Hubby was left at home, as usual, to care for the animals.  It's the only way the children and I have been able to go anywhere over the last couple of years.  He gets up early for work to put animals in paddocks and stays up late milking, feeding, watering, and locking up.  I was beginning to feel as though we could never go away as a family again.

A friend, who was aware of our situation, organised a three day beach trip for us and pushed me encouraged me to stop procrastinating and find a way to leave our farm.  I put the word out on Facebook and a few friends offered their services.  I chose this medium because I felt I wasn't putting anyone on the spot.  It seemed such a big ask!  This way, those who wanted to come forward, did.

With two people able to help on the selected dates, we began our organising.  I was determined to make it as easy as possible for our generous volunteer friends. 

We organised self feeders for the chooks (I usually feed mash) so that feed and water only needed to be checked and filled if low.  We made up the daily feeds for the goats in ziplock bags - yes, I know shouldn't use plastic but I was desperate to make it easy!  The goats' feeds are individualised so we labelled each bag and labelled the pens.  We even wrote a brief descriptor above each pen in case the naughty girls took advantage of inexperienced carers and swapped pens.  We labelled food containers and the receptacle (an old dishwasher put to new use) where we keep first aid equipment and minerals.

Our evening helper came over to learn to milk and be shown the ropes.  Goats' hay feeders filled, chooks locked up, goats up from paddock, buckets and washing water organised, goats milked and fed, milk strained and buckets washed ready for the next day.  She was very enthusiastic and made me feel comfortable about asking her to take the task on.

Our morning volunteer was a neighbour who has helped in a couple of emergencies and already knew the ropes.  The chooks to be let out, hay in paddocks, goats out.  Her farm is a similar setup to ours, with many of the same livestock.  She is a kind and generous neighbour who happily helped us out!  This same neighbour has come and helped when one of the goats was sick and has lent me her caged trailer when my girl goats were wanting to travel to a buck because they were looking for love.

We only had one hiccough while we were away.  I wasn't clear enough with the days I needed help and there was a morning when the animals weren't let out.  A lesson to me for next time - specify exact days!

All in all, I think we organised the care of our farm fairly well.  If you are in a similar situation, don't be scared to ask.  There are probably people out there that would be happy to help you.  Make it as easy as you can by taking notice as you go about your chores.  You'll think of ways to simplify your system for inexperienced helpers.  Make sure you prepare anything that you can in advance and make sure that you leave a contact number.

I'm sure, one day, we will be asked to provide reciprocal care and my friends will be comfortable to ask me seeing as they have already cared for our animals.  It's lovely to be able to walk away from the daily grind every now and again and well worth the effort of organising the carers.

 Happy holidays!!!

Self care

There's been quite a silence from me recently.  You may have noticed I regularly have spurts of blogging and spurts of nothingness.  If I've not been writing, one of three things have likely happened.....

1. I've been so busy with projects and fun stuff that I haven't had time to write.
2. I've decided I'm finally going to get life 'right' and I'm putting all my time and energy into organising the house and kids.  Always a nuisance when I get into this mode because I waste precious time sweeping and wiping surfaces!!
3. I'm overwhelmed, exhausted and feeling like a failure.

This time around it was number three.  One of the down sides with trying to live thoughtfully and with respect for the planet with which we are blessed is that often we are time poor.  Since I began teaching the children at home I have really struggled with time issues.

I still want to find time to cook most of our food from scratch to avoid shortcuts that mean creating waste.  I want to garden to avoid feeding my children food with residual pesticides.  I want to make cleaners, again to avoid packaging waste.  I'd like to sew rather than buy products that have wasted resources in the transport process.  The list goes on and on........

Not only do I want to do all of this; I want to do it all perfectly!!  Of course.  For the last few months I have been feeling very tired.  Near on exhausted.  But I couldn't see a solution.  Especially because, even in this state, I keep jumping at opportunities to learn new skills.  A new recipe here, how to dispatch a goose there, how to pickle.....  So I just kept putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to think about it.

Now, this is not a once off exhaustion.  This is a pattern I follow.  I think it's probably something many of you who are greening your lives can identify with.  A lifestyle danger if you will.  On other occasions I have reached crisis point by exploding with the kids or by falling into a sobbing heap.  Last time, I decided to really take notice of the warning signs and be proactive in fending off an inevitable collapse.  But how............?

I thought long and hard about what I felt I needed.  I decided I just. needed. to. STOP!!!! I didn't want to feed another chook, milk another goat, teach another child, book another appointment, clean another mess - all the things that make up our day.  I didn't even feel like talking to Hubby once the kids went to bed because I was so worn out from doing and thinking.

So there it was identified, I needed a break.

I am very lucky.  I rang and asked my mother, feeling very guilty, if she could take the children and she didn't hesitate.  She and Dad looked after the kids for two days even overseeing their lessons for me.  Hubby took on a load as he worked all day and then cared for the animals and milked.  Belle and I did heaps of preparation to cut down the work and I think it helped him.

I booked a room near Rosie so I could squeeze in a visit with her and my lovely granddaughter.  I spent two days listening to relaxation cds, crafting, planning a new daily routine for when I went home and generally just sitting quietly (just being) !

It worked!  I came home refreshed, implemented my new routine and threw myself back into our busy lives.  I kinda felt validated when the kids arrived home.  They were all talking to me at a million miles an hour and it was mayhem and busyness right from the word go.  No easing back into it.  The contrast of my peaceful time made me realise that my life really is very busy and tiring.  The difference is that I have got through my week with it's usual up's, down's and minor crisis's with a sense of humour rather than doom.   I have had energy as I've tackled my work and I've found enjoyment in my everyday tasks.  Cooking and creating a nice environment for my family has been a particular pleasure.  Taking care of myself was really successful in enabling me to care properly again for the others in my life.

Pre-rest photo.  I didn't even get around to icing the cake for poor Belle!

As I stated earlier, I am very lucky to have such caring parents.  I know not everybody has a backup but I hope you have a way to refresh yourself when you need to.  Or more importantly perhaps, the ability to know when you've had enough and it's time to care for YOU!  Maybe you have your own secret weapon to use against burn out.

Food fight

Everyone loves a good food fight, don't they?  Apparently not.  Last week the children and I travelled to Melbourne for the EatBuyGrow Rally held by the Regrarians.  We expected to see hundreds of people and hoped to see thousands gathering to stand up for this important issue.

I was very disappointed to find around a hundred (correct me if you were there and I've made a wrong estimate) people standing up for a better food system.  Admittedly it was a week day so harder for people to attend but still.....  I found it strange.  Climate change rallies are so well attended but this one was not.  Is it possible people haven't made the connection between the way food is delivered and the damage to our climate?

Our food system has become so commercialised.  Since the introduction of supermarkets food has moved further and further from our homes.  It became easy for people to buy fruit and veggies so they stopped growing vegetable gardens.  Women left their homes to go to work and appreciated the ease of buying food from supermarkets.  Now busy families can buy pre-prepared meals and can avoid cooking at all if they so choose.  As time has gone by, large commercial food suppliers have found more and more ways to sell their products.  They market their products with a great deal of thought and their advertising works well.  Most people no longer know how to provide food for themselves without going to the supermarkets.

Families trying to manage their weekly budgets are often looking for the cheapest options to provide food.  The commercial companies wanting their dollar have responded by finding cheaper ways of manufacturing food.  Small farms are dying out as companies push them to supply food cheaply.  They simply can't make ends meet.  They've had to sell their land.  This has resulted in HUGE farms owned by corporations growing crops as cheaply as possible.  I can tell you now, the main concern of these companies is NOT your health or the health of the environment.  They encourage intensive farming and they are not focussed on environmental issues such as salinity, erosion, water conservation etc.  Their focus is how to make a profit.  The super-farms aren't worrying much about improving soils because they don't need to.   They can use chemicals to fertilise crops and kill weeds and there's now the option of genetically modified seeds.

Can you see the strong connection between buying from the supermarkets and the damage we are causing to the climate?

But wait!  There's more.  There's the issue of transport. Years back I briefly lived in Shepparton.  I was buying my apples from the supermarket and paying through the nose for them although I was in the very area that these apples were grown.  The large supermarkets were buying from the local orchards, transporting the fruit to Melbourne to their warehouses and then trucking them back to Shepparton.  I paid more for my apples than people from Melbourne were paying!  I've learnt a lot since those days.  The unnecessary use of fossil fuels was causing damage to the environment when I could have just searched for a local orchard that sold direct to the public.  Convenience has a lot to answer for!

Now think about the production of manufactured food.  The plastic and cardboard used in the packaging.  The unhealthy process of adding preservatives so food can sit on shelves for weeks/months.  Additives so that their products will look more attractive.  Do you think this is done to make your life easier, your family healthier, or to trick you out of a dollar?

Food is tampered with in so many different ways.  Milk is an issue that is close to my heart because it is such an obvious problem.  As a person who milks goats and yes *gasp* drinks raw milk, I'm very interested in what is happening in our milk industry.  Milk is taken from many dairies (again the smaller dairies are pushed to provide cheaper prices but are outcompeted by large corporations taking over and forming super-farms), put into one lot, forced through a tiny strainer to homogenise, heated to a temperature that damages vitamins and good bacteria, and then transported again to the supermarkets.  Now not only do the corporations, advertisers and supermarkets but also our government tell us this is done for our safety.

This is a half truth.  Yes, pastuerising milk ensures any dangerous bacteria are killed.  It also kills many health benefits.  It's a half truth because while they have told us about the risk, they have not explained that this risk is absolutely minute and applies to soooo many foods including foods like fruit and vegetables.  Since the tragic death of a young child (linked to raw milk) the FDA have painted such a vivid picture of the risk from fresh, untampered milk that in many people's mind the term RAW MILK equates to drinking poison.  What rubbish!!  You could die from eating a lettuce!  It's not possible to eliminate all risk from life.  We are human and susceptible to bacteria from many sources every day.  I can only think that we are being fed this half truth to encourage us to spend our money on the milk the large companies are profiting from.  Did you know that the milk in question, in the recent case, tested negative for e-coli?  No?!  Well the media haven't really been running with that very relevant information!  So before any proof of a connection with raw milk, our government have banned sales unless it contains a bittering agent (making it undrinkable) and non-compliance attracts ridiculously HUGE fines!  Just for the record, you can legally drink raw milk in many countries across the world.  I feel failed by a government that seems to value money before people.

I know that my children are being nourished by the raw milk from our goats.  I have been giving it to them for over a year now.  One of my children has suffered terribly from colds for eight of his nine years due to a low immune system.  He caught them easily, was affected for weeks, developed infections and developed hearing loss from his colds. Now he rarely catches them and recovers quickly.  Ironically, I have my first cold in two years as I write.

I had never attended a rally or protest in my life until a couple of years ago yet now I've been to a handful.  I don't go willy nilly.  It takes time, energy and effort to traipse to Melbourne with three children in tow.  I attend rallies if I think they are addressing issues too important to ignore.

The EatBuyGrow Rally was of vital importance.  Costa Gorgiadis came to speak, amongst others.  He was great!  Joel Salatin also spoke at the rally.  He even waived his fee because he is so passionate about changing our food system.  The current one isn't working.  Farmers are going broke, our food is being produced overseas, some people can't afford good food and cheap food isn't good for them.  (think obesity, diabetes etc...)  Our food is poorly labelled so we can't truly make choices about what we are eating.   And now we are banned from using food which we know is good for us.

Okay.  I've painted a pretty bleak picture (because it is) but there's heaps you can do on a personal level.  You can grow fruit and veggies, buy locally, buy in bulk, buy organic, buy direct from growers, cook from scratch rather than buying pre-prepared food.  You could also link in with organisations working to create change.

Why not join Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA).  They are aware of all the above issues and their website will explain them much more clearly than I did.  They are lobbying government to try to bring about a better food system.

The Regarians are also very proactive with changing our system.  I must admit I didn't know much about them before the rally which they were instrumental in organising.

There is also an organisation fighting for our right to drink raw milk.  They are the Australian Raw Milk Movement. I'm sorry but I couldn't find a website for them, just a Face Book page.

Now, you know I'm not a food scientist, chemist, doctor etc.  I'm just a mum.  But being a mum doesn't make me inconsequential.  It gives me the strength, the right and also the responsibility to fight for a healthy and fair food system that doesn't damage our climate.  I owe it to my kids. 

Feed calls

When you're on property, you find yourself behaving in ways you never imagined while living a town life.

Daily we feed the animals.

Here chook, chook, chook, chook, chook.  In the Front Pen (yes, imaginative name) we supposedly house our Orpington chooks but in reality it has become our gentle pen....... the pen for elderly hens, hens with bad gaits, chooks that get picked on.

Here chook, chook, chook, chook, chook.  The Australorps.

Here chook, chook, chook, chook, chook.  This  pen is the goose pen.  So named because it used to house the geese!  Now it's supposed to house only the silver dorkings but has sort of become the containment pen.  When little chickens keep getting in my veggie garden they are likely to end up in here because it's the only pen that can keep little goslings or chickens from getting out.

Here goose, goose, goose, goose.  These guys free range, usually in the orchard.  And I have a favourite by default.  He is named Rebecca.  Ooops!  She's a he!  But still Rebecca.

Then there are the goats.  Come on Daisy.  Come on Gooey.  Come on Esmeralda.  Come on Daisy.  DAISY!!!  Would. you. COME ON!

We have the dogs later in the evening.  SpottyOscAR.  SpottyOscAR.  Always one word for Spot and Oscar.  Always the sing song lilt.

Last but not least is Nutmeg, the cat.  Well, actually, we never need to call her.  She's a cat. She tells us when she wants to be fed.  But if we ever call her, the call is 'Nutty, here puss, puss, puss.  Heeeere Nutty.'

So there you have it.  Behaving in ways you never imagined.  Apparently each group of animals must be called in the same way, the same number of times for their particular species, in the same tone of voice.

Also once named, anything on property remains named.  Rebecca remains Rebecca.  The Goose Pen is The Goose Pen regardless of who's in there.  The Dry Dam remains The Dry Dam even when full of water (not often) and our orchard is 'out the back' although it's at the front of our home.  (When we moved here we were living in another tumbledown house in a different position.)

Have you developed any strange behaviours while living rurally?

Evenings

Living on property and having animals makes for busy evenings.  Each day around here is different.  Sometimes our days are filled with appointments, sometimes we go to the pool for summer holiday fun, sometimes it's housework and shopping.  Today we're picking up a new milking goat and I'm tossing up a trip to buy fruit for preserving.  However, no matter what happens during the day, through necessity, the evenings are all pretty much the same.

I love going through the routine at days end.  Wandering to the orchard with a bucket and spoon, making up a mash for the poultry.   It's the back chooks that are fed first, followed by the dorkings, then the geese.  Lastly I feed the front chooks and leave a little in the bottom of the bucket for our lone duck.  (Must address that and find myself an appleyard drake)  The bucket is left with the duck ready to pick up the next day as I go through the process again.

Meanwhile, Belle makes up the food for the goats and fills their overnight hayfeeders.  We are both very popular with all our livestock at this time of day.  Chooks, duck and geese run after us eager for something yummy.  The kid goat maaa's away to tell us he's hungry too.

A hopeful goose!

I find a few leaves to place on the hay racks.  At this time of day we just use forage to entice the goats up to their night pens.  In the mornings, I cut more substantial forage to keep them happy in their paddock.

At this time of year, I need to attend to the garden next.  It's a rare day that I don't need to water!  Pots, a couple of the winter beds and my main summer bed, the round garden, all need to be watered.  This is a time I use to inspect the garden as well.  I've learnt a lot about gardening this year so we have some good results showing.  It's nice to check for ripening tomatoes and to wonder how I will know when the eggplant is ready.  I have one reasonably large one on the bush and I've been waiting for it to become an eggplant-y shape but wonder if it's just not going to be an elongated one.  Do you know how to tell when they're ready?

There was one special evening this week on which we were treated to a special concert complete with tickets, seating and a raffle!

It's not all roses though because I need to make the difficult decision of which plants get watered properly and which just receive the minimum they need to keep them alive through the summer.  Water is so scarce here.  Whenever it rains, the water soaks into the parched soil rather than running off into the dam.  We need flooding rains to fill it again.  Sadly, this week Victoria received flooding rains but we somehow missed out.  We had plenty of beautiful rain on the garden but not enough to fill our dams.  My rhubarb is a sorry sight as it is one of the plants I've held the water back from so that I can grow the annual veggies well.

Once the watering is complete it's back into the house and back to reality.  The mundane tasks of dishes to be dealt with, picking up some of the days mess, tallying up all the jobs I didn't get done and wondering where the day went!

Tired but productive

It's been a great week around here with lots of busy spring activity taking place.  With the school term starting, we've resumed our weekly activities.  I had missed our Social Swimming program where I get to jump in the pool with the kids and have an hour of songs and fun.

Pumpkin's bathers disintegrated through sheer overuse last term so rather than buy a new pair, I made her a swimming costume.  I can't call them bathers really because they are not very conventional but I had left over fabric from making the bags.   Using a sheet, a pyjama pants pattern and a modified sundress pattern, I came up with an outfit.  Pumpkin LOVES wearing them.

It's been a week of finding a hard-to-find rooster and a pet silky.

 

Uh huh!  You're seeing it right.  It's on her bed!!

A week of expecting six Orpington chicks and getting instead...  only one little chicken which we suspect is a moggy.

This week Argoo went on heat.  (Is that correct goat terminology?)  So we had a rushed visit from a nearby Saanen buck!  It wasn't successful because, while they both showed some interest and pranced around a bit, they didn't do the important bit.  Oh well, I'll try again next month.

The garden has been needing my attention but my efforts are paying off!  We eating lots of beautiful, fresh lettuce at the moment and I've even been organised enough to plant more lettuce to follow!

 

We harvested broad beans this week.  Have you discovered yet how much fun podding is for children?!

 

 



Most of our enthusiasm this week though, has gone into preparing for a trip away.  We're travelling to New South Wales next week to take part in the Flotilla with the Pacific Climate Warriors.   I like involving my children in actions to address climate change because I want them to realise that they are not powerless.  I want them to believe they can play an important part in creating the world they want to live in.

My big lesson for the week has been the realisation of the importance of sleep in our busy lifestyle!  I have been struggling to sleep for some unknown reason and it's driving me mad!  I go to bed, sort of sleep but not quite.  I seem to spend the whole night in a half asleep, half awake state and it has impacted on me.  I'm dragging my feet (and feeling grumpy) during the day.  Our lives are so physical with leading goats up and down hills, carting water etc.  I've realised that after a good, refreshing sleep, I feel able to take on the world but without it I struggle to get through each day.

Now that I've made this clear connection between sleep and my ability to function well, what do I do with this awareness?  Do you ever suffer from insomnia and have you found a solution for it?