AvAnApple

Let me tell you the story about the apple trees .....  The original plan was to have 63 olive trees (frantoio, pendolino, leccino and WA Mission) and 7 citrus trees in the olive grove, to have a bore, irrigation and a kangaroo fence....and all the olive trees would produce kilos of olives to make olive oil.  That was the plan and as with all plans (especially when you don't have any farming experience) you must be prepared to deviate (so that your plan can't fail). 

We now have 56 olive trees and various other trees have taken the positions of the 7 now deceased olives.  After filling 6 positions with macadamia, walnut, almond, 2 avocados and a fig, we had one hole left for an apple tree.  However one of our friends who had been an apple farmer in a former life informed us that you need 2 apple trees to polinate.  Research confirmed that a granny smith and a gala were compatible so on 13 April 2009, we planted 2 little apple trees IN THE SAME HOLE.

In spring 2009 a couple of little pink apple flowers appeared, but no apples.  However in spring 2010, lots of little pink flowers bloomed and the result has been 2 flourishing little apple trees with about 25 granny smith and 10 gala apples.  These trees are only about 1.5mtrs high and 30cm apart, so are doing a stirling job supporting so many fruit. 

This morning I decided to get under the net (protection from the birds) and take a photograph of our virgin fruit (hanging 40 cm from the ground).  There were so many granny smiths on one branch I decided I should get a stick from outside the olive grove and prop up the tiny branch.  (Alun, one of the alpacas ran in as I was sourcing a forked stick and BEDLAM... but that is another story getting him out of the fenced olive grove while all the others were snorting and running furiously up and down the fenceline and keeping them out!) 

One of the apples fell into my hand and I picked another two to comply with quality control......

We have used no sprays and only fertilized with sheep and alpaca poo (you can just see the lady birds on my second finger).  The apples have weathered extreme heat (regular 37 degree days) and drought.  They are on irrigation, but I have no idea how much water apples need and it is just a guess as to how many times a week or the length of irrigation time needed.  However I just watch the leaves and if they seem to droop I guess we need more water.  The rest of the olive grove receives the same scientific analysis as to pests and water. 

Now here I am eating my first apple when I had no idea apples would grow out here.  AvAnApple!

SUMMER CROPS in RAISED GARDEN BEDS

Our summer heat is unrelenting, but I am constantly amazed how the plants are coping.  Up in the olive grove, we have a couple of year old apple trees and must have 20 or so healthy apples taking shape - we never expected to be able to grow apples out here.  The fig tree is also laden with figs and of course both these trees are netted - having lost most of our olives thanks to our flying wildlife.  We planted 2 avocado trees and 1 in particular is thriving.  The 3 nut trees are green and lush, but we won't expect any crops from these for a few years.  At the moment, I am just thankful they are alive.

Nearer the house we grow herbs and vegetables in raised garden beds.  In one bed I am still picking grape tomatoes each morning, but this crop should expire in the next couple of weeks.  However in another garden bed lots is going on.  The strawberries, although looking luxuriant, have almost completed flowering.  Unfortunately they are trying to take over the garden which contains fennel, basil, oregano, thyme, sage, parsley, chives, spring onion, eggplants, capsicums, pumpkins and asparagus and rhubarb crowns.  I let the fennel go to seed and have had to cut down the longer stalks as they sway in the wind at night and trigger the light sensors on the house.  However I now have a wonderful container of fennel seed to use through winter.  I think all of the herbs are benefiting from being under the fennel flowers and are gaining a little relief from the long hours of searing sun.  A couple of self seeding pumpkin vines are probably not a good idea in the raised tank, but it will be interesting to see if they run along the red gravel.

 

Planting has ceased until autumn, but now will be the time to raid the worm farm and top up all the gardens with the wonderful black mud they produce.  The dominant insect in the raised garden bed is the lady bird and we have no pests at all eating any of the crops.  The beds were chosen as the rabbits can't climb the sides and also as an architectural feature at the back of the house.

PACA POO TO THE RESCUE

Two great benefits of owning the camelids (other an using their fleeces) are that they keep the grass in the paddocks short and also provide a wonderful source of soil conditioner.  Unlike most farm animals, camelids like to use communal dung piles and will actually line up once the first one has relieved himself.  All jobs are completed at the same time, so the pile is also very nitrogen rich.  The piles make the job of picking up the manure much easier and as it is small pellets, it is very light.  Last weekend was collection day, so we took the bike out into the paddocks and shovelled the 'black gold' into the trailer and relocated it in front of our house.  Yes, I said - IN FRONT of our house. 

Being very fire conscious, we had red gravel placed around all our buildings when they were completed.  There was a large amount of builders' sand left over and unfortunately this was scrapped over the topsoil and when wet, set like concrete.  As a result we have struggled to grow any of the rye grass which was planted.  So - paca poo to the rescue. 

We are spreading it out from the red gravel and hopefully when the rain comes this winter, the soil will be more receptive.  This is a work-in-progress and for the moment looks a little like contemporary  art.

(You can see on the front stairs 2 pottery magpies -  so realistic that the visiting Western Power contractor took a side step as he approached the front of the house.  We had these on the front verandah, but when the red back spiders decided to make their home inside them, they were promptly put outside.)

So the peasants' work is done for this month, the boys have clean paddocks, we have strengthened our core muscles and the house paddock will be ship-shape for winter rain.

PUDS at EdgeOfHeaven

I haven't mentioned our puds - the city cats adjusting to country life.  First there is Vijay, the Bengal.  Beware buying a Bengal as their wild instinct makes them a 24 hour a day challenge.  In previous homes, Vijay would jump on lever door handles and let himself out (or in as the case may be), so when we built this house we only used knobs!  He also fetches and brings his favourite toys and drops them at your feet (especially when you are in the toilet) and wants you to throw them for him.  Every night when all the lights go out I feel a toy dropped on my chest and of course we must play in the dark before any shut-eye takes place.  As Vijay would devastate the wild life, he is house bound but as we live in the see-through house, there is not a room where he can not see the bush at floor to ceiling height.

Secondly we have Svetlana, the white Russian.  Sveta is now 11 years old and a little slow, so she goes outside and lies in the shade or moves from one chair to another in the house and on the verandah.  All her Christmases came at once when we moved out here as now she slowly walks down to the rabbit holes and waits, and waits, and waits hoping something will come out.  She has brought one small lizard and a grasshopper to me, so I know her hunting skills are definitely not honed to country life.  She unfortunately made the mistake of getting into a camelid paddock and did those little legs run to get back under the fence!

 Cats are known to love the heat, but I must say that our constant high temps have these two searching for the cool spots.  Sveta has found a nook at the back of the CD cupboard and Vijay believes white cotton sheets under a fan are the best bet!

BUMPS FOR SPINNING AND FELTING

'Our boys' were put in the paddocks predominantly to save the trouble of slashing in preparation for summer bushfire season.  However an added bonus is the wonderful fleeces provided after shearing in September.  When we bought the boys, I visualised myself sitting on the verandah calmly spinning fleeces as the wind blew through the trees.  What I didn't know was what was involved to get the fleeces to this stage!  The shearer divides each fleece into  3 bags - 'saddle' (the prime part which I use for spinning),  necks and legs (next best part which I use for felting) and 'rubbish' (all the rest which is good for mulching around trees).

The first stage is to take the fleece and CLEAN IT!  My boys looove to roll in the clover burs with a follow-up roll in the hay and the day would not be complete without at least one dust bath.  So cleaning the fleece involves pulling the whole fleece apart and removing all the vegetable matter and dirt - work clothes advised.   I have spent 12 hours cleaning one fleece.  The next stage is to wash manageable sections in wool wash.  Beginners beware - my first attempt at this resulted in one big felted mass as I was not aware that you can't agitate the fibre in the hot water.  After an hour of passive soaking, the fleece is rinsed in clean water and carefully wrung out - again no agitation.  I then lay it flat between two pieces of tulle and as we have enormous supplies of sunshine, it dries rather quickly on the paving. 

The dried blobs of fleece must then be separated and fed through a carding machine which produces wonderful 'bumps' ready for spinning and felting.

So what I am saying is that it takes 3 full days to produce what you see here and these are only small fractions of complete fleeces.  The top left is TopDeck, the alpaca who has our superior fleece and the other bumps are llamas.  You can have some fun with the carding machine and feed two different colours to produce a multi coloured bump - see the white and henna mixed together.

The alternative is to go to Jenny, an alpaca breeder with the commercial machinery to do all of this for you - and I have done this also.

Now, to sit on the verandah and spin with the wind blowing through the trees and two sleeping cats for company.

SUMMER DAZE (DAYS)

Here we are in the middle of Summer - regular 37 degree days.  It's was time to pull out the corn and tomato plants and let the vegetable garden beds rest till autumn.  Water is too precious to use on anything that is not producing food.  The herb garden however shows no sign of heat effect with strawberry, eggplant, spring onion and sage thriving. 

The hot days are perfect for washing and drying alpaca and llama fleeces to get them ready for felting and spinning.  Three different fleeces are sitting in the sun drying today.  My friends Georgina and Michael who are llama breeders kindly provided about 20 fleeces from their 2010 shearing.  These have been stored in sealed white plastic bins in the shed to protect them from the mice. 

We're still learning about the alpacas - I noticed that Seve (aged 2) had lost one of his incisors and that a new tooth was sitting at the back.  However the new tooth is very discoloured, so I will be watching to see it develop and move forward.  The camelids regularly chew the bark off trees (must watch they don't ringbark the wandoos), so are able to dislodge old teeth. 

I gave the corn stalks which we had pulled from the garden to the camelids and it was hilarious watching Camilo running around throwing his head this way and that trying to dislodge a whole stalk hanging out of his mouth.  He had not contended with anything this long before and could not dislodge one of the leaves from his back teeth.  Very soon it fell out and I quickly jumped the fence with some secateures and chopped up the stalks before the same happened to any of the other boys.  This morning the demolition was complete and only the very hard stalks were left.

Finally some of our grape vines have reached the top of the poles and I have to train them to go back down inside the nets as we have flocks of galahs in abundance and they will just nip off the ends.
So on these hot summer days it's best to do all outside work before 10.00am and then turn on the fans and watch the Australian Open tennis with a cold Dietcoke and give the longsuffering puds some attention.  By 6.00pm it's possible to go back outside and enjoy the sunset as it cools down and the summer daze clears.

Enrique digesting food

The last outdoor activity each day is feeding the 9 alpacas and 2 llamas.  It was late yesterday when I finally distributed the evening meal of hay and as usual, I spent some precious time observing their interesting mannerisms.  I noticed our big white boy, Enrique, struggling to swallow, so sat down next to him.  Letting me sit so close to him, in itself is very unusual.  He was cushing next to what he wanted to eat, and was straining his neck in all different directions.  Then he would swallow and I could see the food go down his long neck and then come all the way back up again.  He then proceeded to chew, swallow and retrieve the same mouthful again and again.  I really started to worry as this went on for such a long time -perhaps he had something stuck down his throat - could it be the timber ball he chewed off my hat earlier in the day?  Then as it was almost dark and the mosquitoes were just about carrying me away, he just stood up and started eating normally.  This means he was going to everyone else's food and moving them on so that he could eat theirs.  I was so relieved as I had visions of vets and operations and ..... we have been there before with so many different opinions.  This morning he was his usual boisterous confident self - I had learnt another camelid peculiarity.

Creative bird netting at "The Edge"

Since my last post we have had 23ml of rain - not much in Queensland terms, but very unseasonal and well received by the parched paddocks.  Unfortunately there is not much food for the birds and they have ravaged our olive trees - even taking the kernel out of the olives.  Next was the grape vines, just planted last September and thriving, but welcome food for birds. 

So we had to devise a means of netting our vines which are growing, German style, on posts rather than trellises.  We made two circles out of irrigation pipe and nailed them to the post top and middle and then wrapped the netting around it.

If it is not one element of nature we are fighting, it is another!