Renovations and explorations

WE started renovating the kitchen...

The slabs are solid granite....

But 3 days of slog...

and now we have a fabulous new kitchen!

next is the living/bedroom space, owch, aching muscles!!

Luckily our vege patch survived the worst of a cow invasion...

We had time to explore the south end of the property, the native bush seen is pretty much all ours...the pines above will get the chop sooner or later...it will sure look strange...a bit like this:

This is the view from the south across the cow farm to our trees on the highest hill

In the forest at the south end are wonderful trees, mosses, ferns and fungi:

And some surprising animals...

Lets hope the shire will give us grant money to fence the cows out from the whole creek and forest area..

July update

Loads of rain folks, some 40 ml in the first week of July, coming off what was perhaps a dryish June (40ml total). Its lovely and wet up there, but the shed is now almost weather proof and we stay cozy by the fireside at night. Ginseng operations have begun in earnest. We even planted some saffron as a trial, but it seems like one needs 5 acres of flowers to make 500 grams of saffron stamens, so its not likely to be commercial venture!

Trial of Dong guai in the dappled forest creekside

More crazy fungi

Laurie loves the outdoor table, a sunny lunch spot in winter, shady in summer

Black wallaby in the pine waste

Our access road after forest thinning operations, much better!

10 year old American Ginseng, destined for our forest soil as seed stock

Land for Wildlife

We are now proud members of the Land for Wildlife scheme.

Lyre birds are in mating season and their beautiful songs echo across the forest all through the day.

The rainy season is really kicking in now, soil is nicely soaked, and there is alot of water in the creek and the dams. Tree planting in earnest has begun, in a couple of years it should look fabulous.

The farm is now on facebook too. Its just another way to network, most of the action remains at the blog.

Farm on Facebook

A large wombat spotted by Kle after the fires

More cool forest floor mushrooms

Joyous mud, this happens when logging machinery uses your access road

Laurie's Birthday weekend

Monday: Laurie turned 66, happy birthday to Laurie and the Queen!

and Yuko baked the best 66th chocolate birthday cake ever baked.

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We extended the shed, in preparation for a new kitchen development..

We took a windfallen gum tree to task..

Kle used a milling attachment on a fallen Blackwood, stunning wood!

and the Plant List continued:
Garlic
Kiwifruit
Japanese turnips
Our local Blackwood seeds are now germinating
Marigolds/Calendula


oh and there are several dozen wonderfully weird mushroom species popping
up all over the place..this one takes the prize so far

Plantings

By request, here is a list of many of the plants we have planted, whether from seed or seedling in the last 6 months. In no particular order:

Trees and shrubs:
Lemon - several varieties
Plum - several varieties
Tasmanian Mountain Pepper
Nectarine
Pear - several varieties
Peach
Apple - several varieties
Pomegranate
Gooseberry
Daphne
Blueberry - several varieties
Orange (we are optimists)
Cherry

Food crops:
Beans - several varieties
Peas - several varieties
Nicola Potato
Japanese mustard greens
Alpine strawberries
Radish
Coriander
Parsley
Broccoli
Bok Choi
Onions
Leeks
Silverbeet
Golden chard
Basil - greek and culinary
Chilli plant
Rhubarb
Covercrop- legumes, winter clover and medic

Herbs etc:
Aloe vera
German chamomile
California poppy
English/french/alpine lavender
Globe artichoke
Greek oregano
Blessed thistle
Bacopa monniera
Vitex agnus castus
Borage
Elecampane
Golden seal
American Ginseng
Bergamot
Comfrey
Licorice
Bupleurum

any advice on bird netting would be taken with gratitude...

A little shed on the prairie..er rainforest

From this....

To this, barely a tarpaulin in sight!

Might not look like much but for about $300 for a shed with

rainforest views it feels very homey.

Strange creatures of the night...

Thanks to all the help from Robin, Danielle and Oliver.

On the Importance of good Gumboots

Wow the storm last weekend smashed the farm, dumped over 60mm of rain, the tracks turned to thick sticky mud, the shed was damaged and required several hours of repairs in the middle of the torrential storm, several garden items took a beating (plastic tables are not suited to farm life), but the silverbeet took it all in stride, and it was discovered that a good pair of Gumboots will get you through all but the worst of such crises. Autumn moves into Winter very quickly it seems at this altitude, and it never got above 9 degrees the whole weekend. Perfect weather for track cutting and tree planting.

Updates from the last 2 months include Laurie smiling like a pig in muck with his delivery of 100 mtrs and more of roughback stone.

Our friendly bulldozer driver Pete, terracing a few trial areas for future Truffle-Oak, and/or Walnut plantings. Would make a nice windbreak too.



Cleaning up 6 months of collected hard rubbish.



Being given a huge amount of timber, loads of pink batts and a lovely plastic tub, thanks Steve and Simon!



Seeing the Balook road area a few Km away is now regrowing.


We have now had almost 1000 hits on the blog since Sept 08, thanks everyone!