October 26th, 2008 Lee-Ann
So, one of the reason for moving to the country was to give the kids a different way of life. So this weekend our youngest daughter visited her best friend Tori who lives down near Good Hope which is located on the Burrunjuck dam. I was so happy to see these photos of Alyssa getting out in the mud and water and having a great time, So here are some photos of the kids fishing for carp, the main problem fish in our waters and one that is good for composting and fertiliser. so will be planning more fishing expeditions over the next few months.
Alyssa and Tori with carp
Alyssa and Tori - waiting for fish
Alyssa and Tori
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October 25th, 2008 AndrewD
Well thank you Mother Nature. Due to the cold snap we got last week I lost
2 x Butternut Pumkins
2 x Queensland Blue Pumkins
All my red kidney beans and approx half of all the other beans
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October 19th, 2008 AndrewD
Today we noticed a black part on the pear tree leaves, only a few and we cut the effected parts off, but here is some images. Any ideas of what it may be?
Disease on pear tree leaf
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October 19th, 2008 AndrewD
We have been eying off the broad beans for a few weeks and Lee Ann decided that today would be when we harvested out first lot of beans. We picked beans the that were approx 15cm long. I have 8 plants in this lot and another 5 on another vege patch (but they are a bit younger). We picked what seemed like a lot.
Fresh Broad Beans
2 kgs in fact. I have never had broad beans before and the ones when freshly picked seemed a little bitter. We had two recipes picked out, a dip and a pasta dish.
Well after removing them from the pod, boiling them and removing the outer skin of the beans we had only 400 grams, while that was enough for dinner, it was not enough for the dip. So 200g have been frozen and we should get approx 2-3 more pickings of the same size from the plants. We will try the dip next week.
Shelling the Broad Beans
Dinner was great, just a simple pasta dish with bacon, onion, garlic, thyme, parsley and broad beans. We will be making it again.
Now I know how much to plant, I would probably double the quantity grown for next year and go for approx 16-20 plants.
Also today I removed the last of the broccoli (which we blanched and froze), planted some celery, fennel and water melons. And put a tray of seedlings down
- Capsicum
- California Wonder
- Corno Di Toro
- Alma Paprika
- Long Red Cayenne
- Chilli
A last comment while talking about the garden some of the Queensland Blue pumkins have sprouted.
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October 19th, 2008 AndrewD
This weekend was the Murrumbateman Field Day(s). Murrumbateman is just down the road from Yass (15kms) and it was the weekend of the annual Field Day. These days are all about machinery, animals and more machinery, but it seems that more and more people just selling everything has crept in. Thou the only two dollar style places are some of the stalls selling cheap tools.
So on Saturday morning Lee-Ann, Alyssa and I headed off early, Lynsey thought it would be boring and none of her friends were going, so she stayed at home. It was good day, tiring as it is quite spread out. One of the good things they do is give each child a card to get stamped at certain stalls so it means that we had to visit every corner of the place to collect all the stamps, which meant backtracking as we missed stalls.
While there we managed to speak to some producers of products we buy or intend buying in the future. Like Brinadabella bee keeping supplies we spoke about our small hive in our gum tree and how and when we can start our own hive. We spoke to Tony who makes the Le Barre olive oil that we buy from our local butcher and found that he can supply a large 4 litre tin of olive oil and since we buy a lot of olive oil seems to be a good idea for the future. No-one in yass wishes to stock it due to space issues whcih sems strange as it is a nice size tin. We spoke to the owners of Minto Galloway who rear their beef and we can also order direct from them, local beef, organically produced, so will save time going to the canberra farmers market – If only our freezer was bigger. So in all going to the field day was worthwhile for us even if I did get a bit sun bunt
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October 17th, 2008 AndrewD
Didn’t get home till Sat this past weekend, A long week at work in which I stayed in Sydney an extra day and then Lee-Ann and the kids headed off to my mum’s house in Bundanon on Friday, as mum wanted to pick up some shoes and clothes for the kids, so instead of going to Goulburn or Yass I jumped off the train in Bundanoon.
Got home Sat and the patersons curse has shot up. Especially right behind the house, a sea of purple flowers. That rain last week really got them going. I think we will have to get the ’slasher guy’ back.
So on Saturday once home we hit the front yard and I made sure Lynsey the eldest came out and helped, it took 3 attempts for her to find suitable yard working clothes. Over the past few months I had built a small swale approx 10 metresinfront of the house with the clay/dirt that I dug up from my partly completed trench. The point of it is to help stop the rain water run off that goes under the house when it rains.
Also we had picked up a few native plants the other week and they needed to be placed in the ground before they died(too often Lee-Ann and I have picked up potted plants only to ignore them and they end up dead).
So with that we pulled out a bundles of newspapers that we had picked up from the local newsagent and started supressing the weeds around where the swale was. Once that was done we grabbed the mulch and mulched over the paper. Before mulching all over the clay we put the plants in with some extra soil around them, and then mulched over.
So what did we plant
For bookends on the swale Melaleuca armillaris (Bracelet Honey Myrtle), then working in from each end Prostanthere rotundifolia (Round-leaf mint-bush) and in the middle Eriostemon myoporoides. Anyone know if these are good for making tea? I do know that the round-leaf mint, when you rub yourhands over it they smell like mint.
So anyway another 10m2 of weeds that hopefully I won’t have to deal with.
Native swale in the front yard
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October 5th, 2008 AndrewD
What a week. For those that do not know it has been school holidays. We had friends from Sydney and their kids down for a few nights and they left one daughter here…Anyway we then had another friend from Sydney come down for Friday lunch. Lynsey also has had two other friends from Yass stay over for a few nights as well. All I can say is that the girls rooms are a mess. That means for most evenings there had been 4 girls in the house (with three going on to teenage-hood). Also I took Friday off work so I had hopped back on the train Wed night, worked from home Thursday with Friday off.
Anyway Monday we are heading to Sydney, me for the usual week but only the day for the family and also to drop off one of Lynsey’s friends. So what did we do for the weekend? Actually not a lot. It rained most of Saturday which was good, as it filled the tanks and the girls had a mud fight.
The girls having a mudfight
Planted some more beans – Red Kidney beans and Ying Yang beans, both are for drying. Also potted the first of the tomato seedlings that have come up. Once sprouted in the trays and the second leaves are appearing I pot them in old toilet paper rolls, here I will let them grow a bit larger and I can plant them directly into the soil. Hopefully every two weeks we will have 5 tomato plants to put in the garden.
Tomatoes pottes out
Anyway here is a bit of an update from the vege patch.
Potatoes sprouting thru
Broad beans getting larger
Garlic and onions almost there
Asparagus, cannot wait until next year
Some of the raspberries have new shoots
Borlotti bean sproted
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October 3rd, 2008 Lee-Ann
HI – my first time updating this blog. just thought i would write to show (soon) all the blossoms on our fruit trees. My favourite tree the quince (quincy) has just blossomed – i think he really likes the morning hugs i give him which prompted some lovely blossoms. The pears are blossoming and even Maury the Moorpark apricot has a few blossoms. Our heirloom apples which looked like short sticks when planted even have some lovely leaves so looks promising. The Nut Boys down the back (Chesty the chestnut, Wally the walnut and Al the almond) are a worry – not much activity happening there despite the daily talks. heres hoping that it is just because the winter seemed so long here. Anyway enough for my first time and i will add some photos soon.
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