Homestead Happenings

In The Loop

So we've been pretty busy in the 5 weeks we've been here. I started a new job and Shannon has been spending 4 hours a day travelling to work and back. Yet, we've still managed to do quite a bit.

The Back To Eden Food Forest is progressing well. Every chance I get, I'm out there spreading mulch with the wheelbarrow. I'm about a third of the way there. I think its about 40 cubic meters of mulch I've moved so far. I don't know how many hundreds of wheelbarrows, or better yet, how many shovel full's of mulch that is, and quite frankly, i don't want to think about it. But, it's getting done, that's the main thing. 

You can see the remnants of the french drain trench in the photo below.

At the start of March I can place my order for bare root fruit trees. It's going to be a pricy order, but buying in bulk will bring the costs down. I'm going to take a stab and say I'll get around 30-40 trees initially. There is a ton of work for every tree as I have to part the mulch, dig a huge hole, fill it with horse manure and compost and then plant the tree. I then have to build a wire cage and buy a frost net for every one to ensure they don't get eaten by the wildlife or killed by the angry gods. 

I also have to fence the entire yard so the possums, hares, wallabies and turbo-chooks cant get in. Lucky I have a heap of fencing experience *cough*.

One of Shannon's work colleagues was kind enough to give us this little water tank. I'm going to build a gutter on the shed and a stand for the tank so we can start collecting water. 

We got our first harvest from the Apricot/Plum tree in the first yard. The late frost kills all the blossoms every year so this is about all we will get this year. I'll cut it right back and throw a frost next over it for next winter. The apricots are delicious. The plums are nothing to write home about, but better than a punch in the face.

Shannon has started prepping the first room for a re-paint. I want nothing to do with the painting this time around. Last time I thought it would take 2 weeks and it took 3 months. I want the entire house to be creme like our last place, but she wants feature walls and all this other jazzy stuff. She has free reign to do what ever, but as I am not involved in the decision making process, I will ensure I judge the final result more harshly, pointing out how I would have done it differently. She will greatly appreciate this.

Looks like this wall is going to be some shade between red and purple.

We have two new family members. This one is "Lola". I'm pretty much a goat whisperer and fluent in "bleeting" so we exchange the occasional "Baaaaaa". The neighbors haven't said hi yet. I wonder why? Some people eat goats. I've had goat curry but it was nothing special. These animals are solely for pasture regeneration. They get 72 hours on the one spot. Just enough time to trample the grass, which will eventually decompose and regenerate the soil.

This one was originally called "Coke Bottle". We haven't renamed her yet.

The worm castle is producing lots of worm juice for me. The bottle on the right is the concentrate. I pour a little of this into my watering bottle on the left and top it up with water. I get about 3-4 table spoons a day out of the bin, but this will slowly increase as the worms multiply.

My plant propagation is now well underway. I purchased about $100 worth of vegetable and flower seed from The Seed Collection. Their packets are smaller but so is the cost. Each pack is between $1.10 and $1.60 so it's very affordable. There is ample seed in each pack for the non-commercial grower so its a good way of ensuring you save a little money and don't have leftovers at the end of the year. They also have clear directions on each pack.

I've grown fond of re-using foam lids to put my pots in. They hold the water and they make it easy to move a lot of them at once. It's a bit of an eye-sore on the deck but it will do until I build a propagating poly-tunnel or glasshouse.

I plant two seeds in every pot. If they both sprout, I transplant one seeding into a new pot. Once the seedlings emerge, they get transferred to a separate tray so they can be put into the sun.

I'm doing it a bit unorganized at the moment. In fact, I have no idea what plants are what. I'll just keep potting them up till they're big enough for me to identify, then they'll go into either the food forest (perennials) or the raised beds (annuals).

Squishy is still a peanut.

We've been having trouble with Senna (Sea Moose). She keeps peeing on the carpet and beating up Squishy.

The bed is neutral territory.

Well that is pretty much it. It's been a busy 5 weeks and there is a lot more to do, but were both enjoying it and are looking forward to winter to get our fire cranking. The sunsets arn't as spectacular as New Zealand, but they're still pretty neat. We had our first drop of rain on the weekend after a month. We've been pretty diligent in conserving water so we still had half a tank of water in the main tank, which has now been topped up. We have a reserve tank at the back of the garage but it's not plumbed in yet, so that's another project for me.

I hope you're all doing well. Feel free to ask questions and we'd encourage you to head over to our Facebook page and like it so you can stay up to date with the goings on!

Cheers!