EVERLASTINGS

I think Everlastings are one of my favourite flowers.  They sprout at the end of winter and with a hint of spring out come the flower buds.  They simply last FOR EVER!  (I still have 2 flowers I picked last year!) The flowers close every night and open with the warmth of the sun the following day.  This morning I happened to pass as a bunch was just considering opening.  Usually I just rush past and appreciate the wonder, but this morning I actually knelt down and watched a flower opening (well almost, as after 15 minutes my knees needed straightening).  It is so hard to concentrate on one flower and wait for each petal to pull away from the others (and I guess this would be a good way to meditate if I had the time).

Everlastings starting to open

Everlastings open facing the sun

 The Everlastings came to be in the garden below when I bought the seed last year and spread it along the dripper lines.  All the flowers for this year are a result of the seeding of last year's flowers.  The seeds have spread far and wide and are coming up in the gravel driveway.

This garden will look fantastic in a few weeks.  It is pink and white (everlastings and geraldton waxes), blue (rosemary and blue grasses) and purple (lavender plant).  It is so easy to get excited about flowers when you spend 6 months looking at brown paddocks and no colour.

A LIST OF PROJECTS

Well it is the pointy time of the year - so many things to do and hopefully by the end of September.

1. One of my previous posts described how I planted a pasture of 4 winter grasses (with the assistance of trailer loads of alpaca poo) out the front of the house in May.  Well the summer seeds had to be spread by the end of August, so today was the day.  The established pasture needed this seed as well as the next bare area where no seed had been spread before.  This bare ground is rock hard (with rocks in it), so there is no way the soil could be loosened for the seed.  My method was simple - spread the seed and some superphosphate and then lightly cover in either alpaca poo or hay I had raked up from the animal shed.  Rain is forecast for the next week, so fingers crossed.  This seed needs warm days to germinate and if I am lucky I might see some green in 4 weeks. (Prior to my seeding, I spend a day pulling out lots of Cape Weed which is a prolific South African plant and is a menace to my new pasture.)
2. The weeding in the olive grove is progressing at a rather slow rate, but almost half is now completed and about 10 hours of weeding is still needed (I can only do 2 hours every 2 days as a matter of preserving my back.)
3. The citrus trees need spraying for scale and black mould and this needs to be done soon as the spring blossoms are not far away.
4. I have to deal with the weeds around the 34 grape vines.
5. The new banksia garden is going to become a rockery.  That means trailer loads of rocks have to be picked up around the property and individually placed in this new garden.  I sprayed the weeds between the plants about 6 weeks ago, so have a pretty weed free area to work on.  I'll take pictures as this develops.  I can see this project extending into October.

Then to make my days a little busier - there is some exciting felting coming up as I am attending a whole weekend of classes with an overseas instructor in a couple of weeks and that will generate lots of indoor activity to clash with the outdoor projects above.

Then there is "the boys" - with shearing coming up, they need to be brushed......... and the list goes on.......

THERMAL COOKING - where have you been all these years?

Last week we visited a small town called Dowerin which is about 70 kms away.  It holds an annual "Field Day" (for 2 days) where an extrordinary amount of small and very large farm machinery and technology is displayed.  It also showcases local produce (for example wine and olive oil) and various stalls are set up for handy kitchen equipment.

Now I am not one for looking at kitchen equipment, but I found the most amazing time saving, energy efficient method of cooking dinner.  This is not a new invention but as I have not spent holidays in tents or caravans, I didn't know this existed.

Thermal Cooking. 

I have purchased a Thermos Shuttle Chef which is comprised of an outer Thermos which holds 2 pots inside.  The principle is that you start the cooking process on the regular stove in the 2 pots and then put the pots into the Thermos to finish off the cooking.  I tried the pork spare ribs - which I have never in my life managed to cook with the meat falling off the bone.  In 20 minutes I had one pot of pork spare ribs and another pot with 2 large whole potatoes and 2 whole carrots ready for the Thermos.  I put them in, locked down the lid and came back 3 hours later and had the most superb meal.

This meal only used 20 minutes of gas and then cooked on its own for 3 hours - how energy efficient is that?  Tonight it was the Thai chicken curry in one pot and rice in the other. 

The biggest bonus of all is that I can cook my nightly meal at lunch time and come in from the paddock at 6.00pm and there is my hot meal waiting for me.  And - nothing is over-cooked.

I can't wait to try the carrot cake and corn meat.  150 + recipes await. 

FIND THE BEES WORKING IN MY AUGUST GARDEN

Rosemary bee

Lavendar bee

Geraldton Wax bee

On "all fours"

The weeding around the olive trees has commenced.  So far I have done 21 of 70 trees.  It takes 15 to 25 minutes to weed under each tree, so 2 hours on the hands and knees is my limit in one session.  Thanks to all the wonderful rain and using alpaca poo around the trees we have a wonderful crop of weeds.  See the before and after below.  When the weeding is completed, each tree will be fertilized and then a thick layer of pea straw will be added.

Baby olive tree

I cursed the birds last year as they took most of our olives.  They can strip an olive and leave the seed and they can also crack the seeds open.  When scraping, digging and pulling under a frantoio tree, I found 3 baby olive trees, thanks I believe, to the birds.

At the end of a couple of hours on "all fours" it is good to take a walk around and stretch the back.  On my walk around in the grove today, I found the little almond tree with buds up one branch and two little flowers open.

I also noticed that one of the avocado trees has really gained some height and width and it now stands taller than me.  We have had a very mild winter this year, so the avocado is probably benefiting from no frost so far.

Avocado tree nearly 2 mtrs

Blossom on the almond tree

JOEY at EdgeOfHeaven

It is quite usual to see kangaroos early morning and late afternoon on our block  However constructing the house paddock has not prevented our kangaroos from venturing near the house.  I regularly find large droppings between the house and studio in the mornings as evidence of the nights' events.

Early one morning I found a mother and baby inside the house paddock only 15 metres from the back door and on seeing me, they hurriedly hopped along the fence line and scrambled underneath to safety.

THUMP IN THE NIGHT

Standing outside alone.  Pitch black.  Slight breeze. Only sound - frogs croaking.  Mild temperature.  11.00pm.  Dramatic Milky Way.

Then close by - THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Only in Australia.

NEW LIFE IN SPRING - DUCKLINGS

May 2011

I might have mentioned in the past how the front of our house was a huge sand/dirt pit and the means to develop pasture was to spread alpaca poo all over it (black area above) and then to sow seed.  With the abundant rain we have received, this has been very successful and the transformation is amazing.

August 2011

The pasture grass has continued to grow and we have had visits from many pairs of Australian Wood Ducks.  They peck around in the grass and leave behind lots of well received duck poo!  I had wondered if the cat would chase the ducks, but he is so well fed that he just sits and watches them.

Australian Wood Ducks

The male and female ducks can be easily distinguished as the male has a solid brown head and solid grey on his wings and the female duck has 2 grey stripes either side of her eyes and a speckled colour on her sides.

This morning I had a great surprise when I looked out the front to see a mother and a father duck and 6 little ducklings trotting around.  Mother duck was always up the front and mostly feeding her face and father duck was at the back ever vigilant and rarely pecking the ground.  I quickly grabbed my camera and went outside and immediately the ducks took their defensive poses.  All lowered to the ground and did not move for about 10 minutes. 

About 30 minutes later they were still fossicking around and then the little group headed off into the alpaca paddock towards the dam.  It is at least a 100 mtr walk and those tiny duckling legs were keeping up with mum and dad.  There is nowhere to hide, so the chances of a crow taking a duckling is quite likely.  I supposed that the family is nesting over near the dam so didn't expect to see them again today.  However, little duckling legs must be very strong as when I looked out of the window this afternoon, they were back.

It is wonderful to see this new spring life, but with foxes, wild cats and crows it will be sad to see the family reduce in numbers.  I hope they get to keep at least 2.  I will keep you posted.

OH ALPHONSO!

When we first went looking at alpacas to buy in 2009, all I knew was that I wanted different colours.  It was sort of like betting on the Melbourne Cup by choosing the colours of the jockeys - little or no educated knowledge - just an ignorant punt.

As a result, the first 5 alpacas we purchased were a black suri, a mid brown huacaya, a light brown suri, a white suri and a fawn suri.  The fawn boy was the last selected as he was sitting along a fenceline away from the other babies and their mothers and the breeder pointed him out as a quiet boy who doesn't mix with the others very much.

Baby fawn boy

The fawn boy became our "Alphonso" or "Phonso" for short.  He has remained a bit of a loner, and is a delight to watch when he is happy.  He runs very fast with his head and neck going one way and his legs going the other.  He has been reasonably easy to train on the halter and recently has developed the habit of showing his bottom teeth when it is time to go for a walk (why I don't know as it is unique to him).

2011 Alphonso under the fence in the new paddock

Today I was supposed to be in the olive grove doing the weeding, but after all it is Saturday and the weekend papers were sitting on the table beckoning me to read.  I decided to eat lunch and read the papers in between making a ball of wool and washing 2 black skeins which I finished spinning last night.  After bringing the papers home this morning, I let the boys into the new paddock (photo above taken last week) and they cheerily jumped and skipped along happy to be let into a different area.  I checked on them about an hour later and then about an hour after that I looked out the front to see most of the boys looking over the fence towards the road.  This happens when they see some moving object like a dog or horses or a lizard.  However as I looked closer, I thought I could see through their legs one of the alpacas lying down.

I raced out the back and put on my boots and then down to the shed to get a halter and lead in case I needed it.  Then I ran into the paddock and found Alphonso caught in the fence.  He was lying on his side and had all four legs through different parts of the fence and his head and neck under the bottom wire on the other side of the fence. 

My immediate thought was - am I going to get a kick in the head?  But as he wasn't struggling too much,  I hoped that perhaps if he had been there for some time maybe he would appreciate a hand.  My next thought was - what if he has a broken leg?  Then sense kicked in and I knelt down to work out how to logically manouvre him.  I moved his top front leg and top back leg and both seemed OK, ie not broken.  Then I leaned over him and put my hands through the fence and brought his head back to my side.  Then I tried to pull his back legs through.  Mistake!  Once the back legs came out, he thought he was free and put his head and long neck back under the fence and got his legs caught again.  His idea was to move forward and my idea was to move backwards. 

After a few trial and error attempts I worked out I needed to get the whole top end out.  First the head and neck, then both front legs and then slide his whole body away from the fence (all 60-70kgs) so I could address the back legs.  Of course every time he sensed freedom was near, a bit of kicking ensued.  Luckily I only received one kick to the forehead and one to the chest, but I ducked pretty quickly and haven't fared too badly.  He wasn't kicking me, he was trying to kick at the fence and I got in the way.  Considering he was quite distressed, he was pretty well behaved and he certainly didn't spit at me.  This is one thing about alpacas.  Although they can be very flighty (especially the suris) they seem to know when you are helping them.

While all this was going on the other boys were all hovering closely watching the proceedings and when Alphonso was finally free, my first thought for the poor boy was if all legs were working.  He stood up. Hoorah - no problems there.  Now to see if he can walk....  Udo the llama tested that.  Udo gets very jealous when I pay attention to any of the other boys and little did I know, but he was furious at the attention I was giving Alphonso.  As soon as Alphonso was on all fours, Udo chased him full pace around the paddock and back around the back of the house, jumping on his back and trying to bite his legs and get him down with lots of huffing and puffing.  I could do nothing but stand there and yell - but to no avail.

Finally the two of them raced back into my paddock and Alphonos conjured up a huge mouthful of green smelly spit and gave Udo a blast in the face.  That was the end of the chase.  Udo stood there with his bottom lip all limp and dribble running for the next 15 minutes trying to get the taste out of his mouth.  Test passed - all four legs were working well.

As that was enough excitement for the afternoon, I herded all the boys into the back paddock and locked them up for the night.  There is something about Alphonso and fences - the first time we saw him, he was cushed near a fence, then I took the photo above of him eating under the fence in just about the exact spot I found him today.

The last picture was taken about a week ago when we were walking.  Luckily the boys are used to me being all over them as they ALL get cuddles and general handling every week and I am sure this helped as we struggled together today.

THE ENTRY EMERGES

February 2008 when the block was purchased

April 2008 with new crossover and entry into the block

August 2011 with animal shelter, house and shed visible on the block

As I walked out the front gate to take some pictures of the small wattle bushes now in flower on the sides of our road, I remembered how excited we were to have this entry constructed well before the buildings came into being.  See above the changes from February 2008.

OUR BEES ARE HAPPY

Due to all our winter rain, the native flowers have appeared a month early.  The little wattle bushes are all in bloom along our gravel road at the front of the house and the Everlastings have started to open in the garden under the clothesline.  I planted Everlasting seeds last year in this garden and when the plants died, I left them there.  This year they have self seeded which is great and some of the seeds were blown onto the gravel driveway at the back of the house.  It would be wonderful if this area expands again.

PRUNING OLIVE TREES AND GRAPE VINES

This is the time of year to prepare the olive trees for their next crop.  Most of the 60 trees had branches down to the ground and the main branches were reaching skyward.  The aim is to try to keep the trees to a height which allows picking olives from the ground, so A serious prune was necessary. Over a couple of weeks in July I visited the olive grove with my secateurs and little saw and massacred the trees and hopefully left some of last year's wood for the flowers to develop next month.  It is interesting to see the olive grove in 2008 when first planted and then compare with present day trees standing around 2 metres.

Last year the birds sat on the ground and picked all the olives off the lower branches, so this year there are no lower branches.  The trees are looking very healthy, but a lot of weeding needs to be done.  I clear about 1 metre around the trunk of each tree and this will be my task to be completed over the next month.

The grape vines below have been pruned back to the prescribed 2 buds, so they don't look very interesting at present.  This year a more birdproof enclosure will be needed for each vine if we are to retain new canes and ultimately pick some grapes.

DAM RISES AS A RESULT OF ALL OUR RAIN

It's time for celebration here at EdgeOfHeaven as our dam has reached a peak height.  I went back to some pictures taken in previous years and the change is amazing.  The top image was taken in April 2010 and the second was taken last week.

In April 2010 we had one of the dam walls graded as it was very eroded and a new rock entry point was made for water to flow in.  The pics below show the rock entry engulfed with water.