Farm Life

Recently I was gifted a lovely big rooster, who I named "Gorgeous George". He's a white leghorn, and is quite the romantic with my three little hens.

He crows, politely, once or twice each morning, (and not very loudly), and then goes about his business of wooing the girls. He is quite gentle with them, as well as being quite protective of them. It's all rather sweet.

I do hope that, just maybe, there will be babies soon, or at the very least, that my 3 girls will start laying again, as they have been on strike for quite some time now.

I'm also starting the slow process of building a vegetable garden. I have four fruit trees growing (two mandarin, one orange, and one lemon, all of which my Dad planted many years ago), and my sister gifted me a macadamia nut seedling from her tree.

I do plan on adding to my fruit grove, with a mango tree as well as an avocado tree at some stage, but for now I will work on growing food and herbs.

The birds have helped out with some of that, as every Spring (which it is now), I often find cherry tomato seedlings in the strangest of places. I have moved them all to a raised garden bed, and planted them.

As to my flower garden, my geraniums are getting bigger, as are my collection of roses.

The cost of living has gone through the roof here, with more rises to come (although our incomes stay the same), so rather than my gardening being a hobby, it has now become something of a necessity.

Thankfully I don't mind being something of a homebody, and "Make Do And Mend" is nothing new to me. But living below the poverty line was something I had hoped was in the past.

Never mind. Things will, eventually, get better (I hope).

Queen Elizabeth II

 Our Queen has died, aged 96.

She was the longest reigning Monarch, with 70 years of her life spent serving the people of the UK and the Commonwealth.

It is still hard to believe that she is gone.

Here in Australia, very late last night we were told that The Queen was in Balmoral, Scotland, and that her family had been summoned as her doctors were concerned about her health.

This morning, I woke up at 5am to news that our beloved Queen had died.

So much has changed in her lifetime alone. I don't honestly think the younger set get that. They don't understand what she represented, and how she guided us through all the trials and tribulations of the last 70 years.

R.I.P. our dearest Queen. You will be missed.

Floods

 Queensland is now in the throws of its second major significant flood in the space of three months.

In January we had Tropical Cyclone Seth hit just north of Brisbane, but impact very badly on Brisbane in the form of cyclonic winds and hail.

In February, Brisbane flooded. Worse than 2011. Worse than 1974. In fact, the last flood to be as bad was back in 1863!

Shortly after Brisbane flooded, Lismore, in the Northern Rivers area of northern New South Wales, was pretty much wiped off the face of the Earth. The ENTIRE town flooded.

A month later, Lismore flooded again.

This week has seen Townsville (far north Queensland) all the way down to the Queensland/New South Wales border flood, and out as far west as Goondiwindi.

Will it ever end?

Prior to the floods, back in December of 2019, we had bushfires that raged across much of the Eastern Coast and some of the Western Coast of Australia, then Covid-19 rocked our world for two years straight (although it is still here, but the floods have become more important news just now).

So much for Australia being "the Lucky Country"!

Farm Life

Autumn is here. 

Cool mornings, warmer days.

Life this year on the farm, after the last 3 years of bushfires, floods, and Covid, sees us with a total of 10 sheep (2 intact rams,  3 neutered boys (all full merino brothers), and 5 ewes), 3 horses and 4 chickens (plus, of course, my cats and dogs!).

A much smaller concern than in previous years.

My vegetable garden is slowly growing - I have four different types of tomatoes, a capsicum plant, a solitary broad bean plant that survived possum and bird attacks, as well as one spinach plant that also survived attacks, and two roly poly carrot plants. My lettuce and strawberries, my baby carrots and the rest of my veggies were taken out in an overnight onslaught by marauders of the verminous kind, plus birds and possums.

I have recently bought some raised garden beds and drop over greenhouses from Aldi, so I'm hoping that my much needed home grown source of food will survive in the future, and that I will be able to add to it as the cost of living continues to increase.

I also bought a lovely book at the newsagent that is for Australia. Most of the books like this deal with the Northern Hemisphere and their topsy turvy seasons (although some would say it is Australia and the Southern Hemisphere that have the topsy turvy seasons!), so it was nice to find this the other day, and it will be put to good use!

I've started using my little stock pot again as well. Slowly but surely I am finding my way again, I guess. Life has been very hard since Dad died in 2019, and I have felt very lost indeed. Cooking was something Dad very much enjoyed, and while I will never be as good as he was at it, I do sometimes enjoy actually creating things, especially when it is using up contents I already have in my house!

I re-watched Victorian Farm yesterday, which is still as good now as it was when it first came out. I have the books that accompany Victorian Farm, Victorian Pharmacy, Edwardian Farm, and Wartime Farm, although I have yet to see Tudor Monastery Farm or get hold of the book. They are all worth while watching, as is Snowdonia 1890, which I watched the other day on Tubi.tv 

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things, and picking up my life from long ago - my history, my music, my craft etc. I feel very much as though I have been "on hold" for about 6 years now - the three years that Dad had cancer for and the 3 years that have followed since his passing. I know that I will never truly get over the loss of my father, just as he never got over the loss of his, but I need to start seeing joy in life again, even if only in the small things, and starting to accomplish things again - like growing my own food (something I haven't done in 20 years).

It will all be a slow process, I know, but what better time to do it than the Autumn and Winter, when it is nice and cool, and I feel more alive than I do in our hot Australian Summers?
 

Of Droughts and Flooding Rains

 

My Country

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold –
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

-- Dorothea Mackellar

 

Poor Maryborough went under last night. The townspeople have been ordered to evacuate. Their makeshift barricade in the middle of the CBD couldn't withstand the flooding waters. There's still a 14 year old girl missing since yesterday morning, but in true Aussie fashion, the townspeople are taking it all in their stride.

Tropical Cyclone Tiffany is hitting the far north Queensland coast today (Cairns and above). The Bureau of Meteorology is waiting to see whether it will head South towards us, or continue in a notherly fashion towards the Northern Territory.

We have the strangest weather going on, but it is also no surprise, given we are Australia! Months ago they predicted that Queensland (or the South East Corner, anyway) was due to have roughly six months of rain. We are about two months into that so far. Looks like Autumn and Winter may be wet as well. As Summers go, it's been a nice reprieve from the usual scorching temperatures that we normally get at least!

Cyclones, Flooding, Rationing

 It's 2022 (I know - I've been slack).

We've had Tropical Cyclone Seth almost hit Brisbane (something that hasn't happened since the 1950s). Bundaberg and surrounds, up the coast a bit, are in the middle of flooding due to now Ex-Cyclone Seth still wreaking havoc.

We have Omicron here. Covid is killing people again in Queensland. Since we opened our borders in December, we've gone from zero cases to 18000 today. Two deaths yesterday, with more to come. Three this year alone, and it's only the 9th of January.

Too many of my friends all over the country are sick now. I've had both vaccinations and was sick with both of them. I'm not due my booster until about March. Assuming we get through the next couple of months, I'll be ready to go, I guess.

The weather has been wet, then mid 30s but humidity up near 100%, then we get a week of 24, 25, 27, then back up to 34, 35, 32. 

I've lost numerous sheep here on the farm due to the produce I use and have been using for decades changing an ingredient in it, that is now toxic to sheep, but not putting a disclaimer on it. Money is tight enough as it is without this!

And we are back to rationing, not because there is a shortage of products, but because there is a shortage of manpower to staff the shops, to ship the loads to and from the dock and supermarkets etc.

We have gone from a Country envied the world over for how we have dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic, to one being pitied.

Our Prime Minister is a fool, and he isn't helping the States, only himself. Our Premier was doing the right thing by keeping our state border closed to the rest of the country, but was pretty much forced to open the borders just before Christmas. So for Christmas this year, everyone got Covid 😒

Life goes on though - as things get harder to source, life will get more difficult. But I just need to find a few extra hours beyond the normal 24 in each day to get a garden going, to repurpose old clothes and bedding into new things for me and the house, to get around to mending the winter dog coats before the great freeze comes (though our winters still aren't at a point of snow just yet, but they are definitely getting colder!).

I did buy myself a super dooper new all in one crock pot thingy though. It even does baking. So Winter meals will be good. Our power hasn't been as disruptive as it once was (though as manpower goes down due to the pandemic, that is scheduled to change apparently), so making meals for the freezer isn't as questionable as it used to be. 

We are in lockdown without it actually being called a Lockdown just now. Our Chief Health Officer for Queensland, plus our Premier, have advised that we must stay home unless it is absolutely necessary to go out. If you can work from home, do so. If you can study from home, do so. Only go out for unavoidable things, like getting vaccinations, boosters, or tests, or if you are unable to do your shopping online. And always but always wear a mask. Because I live on a farm, I must leave the property for pretty much everything, but I am always careful and try to get everything done on one or two days each week, where possible. But I will be staying home a lot more where I can, and going without a great deal. Things are hard to get hold of anyway, just at the moment.

People are panic-buying again, because most of the shops are empty, so whatever is left, people are grabbing. It's quite a scary scenario, and this is only the beginning.

I've been stocking up on cheap battery powered string lights and lanterns, plus candles of course, for the inevitable power outages that are to come, most likely this winter. I also have a lot of solar powered lights around the property, which do help (when the sheep and horses don't eat them!). 

I'm reorganising my house again too - partly out of boredom, and partly as a fresh start this year, as it's always nice to have a different outlook sometimes. I also have the occasional dog living in my house for various reasons, so making it safe for them is important too.

My chickens are on strike. I'm down to four now. Two I picked up from Facebook Marketplace as local giveaways, the other two were born here on the property - one was Dad's, one is mine who I rescued from the mud when she was 3 days old. They are steadfastly refusing to give me eggs though. I'm going to be building them a new chook enclosure soon, where they can free range much better than they are able in their little temporary (but very sturdy and fox proof) chicken enclosures that they were moved to after the last fox attack took three of Dad's remaining barnevelda hens and both male ducks. 

 

As the pandemic seems set to stay for the time being, it is becoming more and more important that I get to a point where I am as self-sufficient as I can possibly be, it seems. Products are already hard to get hold of and will only get worse, our workforce is halved, with it likely to get much worse before it ever gets better.

But on the good side, I can be a homebody and not feel out of place! I can read and do craft and home studies without the world thinking I am odd. At least I now kind of fit in 😂😂😂

"The Great Sickness"

 I was reading a blog yesterday that referred to the Pandemic as "The Great Sickness". Rather apt, I guess.

Life continues on in what is now the new normal. We no longer hug, shake hands, slap each other on the backs, instead we nod (from a distance of 1.5m or so, depending on the State you live in and what the levels of lockdown are). We talk online. We ring each other. We send parcels and letters. We alienate ourselves from the world for the sake of the world. It's an odd place to be right now.

One thing that seems to be happening a very great deal over here is everyone, because they are home a whole lot more than they used to be, are renovating! Bunnings is doing a wild trade.

We had a vicious storm go through a week ago. Serious amounts of hail and thousands of dollars worth of damage. We as a country are cash-strapped as it is, without this extra level of dramas, but it is getting into our storm season here in Queensland, with Summer less than a month away, so I guess it is to be expected. We are already dealing with extreme heats of 37-39 degrees Celsius, and it's not even Summer yet!

Recently our Reject Shop (a nice affordable cheap shop that seems to stock every mortal thing) went into an agreement with Britain's Tesco's. I'm loving it! We have been told that other stores (Coles I think, although it could also be Woolworths) will soon be stocking ASDA and Marks & Spencer products soon as well. About 7 years ago there was an incident when Coles stocked Waitrose Christmas Puddings as they did a deal with Heston Blumethal, who did the Christmas Puddings for Waitrose. I'm definitely not against our trading with our Motherland!

As it gets hotter here, and closer to Christmas, I always think of my time spent in England during the Winters, and of the snow and the cold, which still makes much more sense to me for a Christmas setting than sun, and surf and excess heat ever did.

As seems to be the normal at the moment, I have spent time these last few extremely hot days, browsing the libraries of the world, and came across this lovely little video of sleighing in New York in 1898. The video comes from the Library of Congress, and reminds one of simpler times, don't you think?

https://www.loc.gov/item/00694381/