I was all mentally prepared for a weekend in front of the fire in full sloth mode.
And the sun came out.
I will admit Friday night was abysmally cold, but Saturday wasn’t too bad and today was actually lovely out there
On Saturday the sun slipped in and out – it was nice being outside and watching the bees for a bit. They were pretty…. busy!
I did spend time putting together a couple of soap making starter packs as Sharon and I are booked in to do a few workshops soon
Even though there hasn’t been tons of tulips… they’ve been such a lovely splash of colour in the garden
Even Pip got a bit of a wander about
And poor Flea!! She is looking quite bedraggled!
Not fair moulting when there is snow nearby… brrrr
This is my one remaining lettuce in the hothouse I seriously killed the rest of the THREE punnets!! I have no idea why! Oh and I think some slugs ate the newly emerged lettuce seedlings!! Going to have to buckle down and try again!
Conversely, the tomato nursery with the Yellow Grosse Lizzies are thriving!! Go figure!!
Anyway… hope you’ve all had a splendid weekend! Cheers!
Hello! How is everyone?? Friday again. Gee that day seems to roll around quickly!
Whats been happening?? Last weekend I did an introduction to permaculture course out in Penguin at the Reseed Centre.
The space was originally a school so ideal area for gardens and classrooms for teaching! The course was so interesting. I thought permaculture was a type of gardening, but it really is so much more…
There were a number of people running and presenting information. They started with the big picture stuff and as the weekend progressed, moved down to the small picture stuff.
I liked the three basic tenets : Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.
And one thing that really seemed to resonate and make sense with me… the term ‘self sufficient’ is bandied about a lot… but if you consider all your basic and semi basic needs – self sufficiency doesn’t seem particularly achievable for the average household.
Not only would you need to grow and harvest food – preserve etc. but there are a host of things that we rely on in this world… water, power, mechanical knowhow, health professionals, and on and on. Even if you mastered somehow all that was needed, you’d run out of time and just be an exhausted pigeon!!!
I like the idea of moving more towards community resilience and diversity. Not moving into a commune or anything, but having a bunch of people that share resources and skills that are close by.
There is already a lot of stuff happening (like seed banks/swapping etc)
We did some practical stuff like garden orientation, position of the sun at certain times of year – knowing your property so best places or optimal places to put things to get the most out of your plants. Did a bit of a soil check and pH test (mine was right on 6.5 so pretty handy!)
(A bit of a clay soil with a couple of clear layers there in the bottom)
I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the chook that insisted on coming inside and bok bok bokking loudly over the top of the presenter! Very much reminded of Flea!!
While on the subject of classes… my basket weaving class has diverted into working with bull kelp! This insanely huge leathery material is very cool to work with Again… getting ideas from Adele and guidance on how the Aboriginal people made use of this wonderful product.
When dry they shrink up a reasonable amount
So today I chose quite a big piece to work with and took a bunch of guelder rose prunings in (nice straight but flexible sticks) for people to use to share.
Voila! A traditional water carrier!
I’ll take the string off when it dries… and by then hopefully it will keep its shape.
And brrrr back to hail and rain and snow forecast for much of the state this weekend! So we stocked up on a lot of easy to reach firewood at the back door!
The herb garden is getting nice and lush so I raided the oregano to get some drying. Also found some freesias and rosemary
The netting is now hanging in the lounge on the clothes rack
The flowers are now residing in one of my sister Rosemary’s lovely ceramic creations.
And some tulips are still out there in the garden hanging on and looking beautiful
Yellow…
And some have reached the end
I am enjoying munching on the cape gooseberries… really putting off uprooting that entire garden so I can do salad stuff as planned. The cape gooseberries are thriving there though!
Thats about it update wise!! I reckon I’ll be hunkered down inside for the weekend if the forecast is accurate! Hope your weekends are fabulous! Cheers!
Hi again! Well… the raspberries popped out some leaves so they went high on my list to sort out. They needed a pruning weeding and a general all area make-over
I made a huge problem for myself… I should have taken the net off when they woodchipped over the fence… I didn’t realise how much of it there would be and thought the netting would stop the raspberries from being buried. By the time I knew better… it was too late
I said many many rude words as I shovelled a ton of chips out of the way… and you can’t just shovel happily. Because – sticks. Sticks stop the shovel from shovelling…
I had to cover Pips ears!
Finally unearthed the whole thing and shoved it aside while I worked on the patch. I pruned back the canes and cut out the dead wood. Jeff came down and helped me sort out the net (Untangle and renet) and shovel lots of woodchip around the patch… (He had been mowing again… that time of year when you can almost see the grass grow) We then mulched the actual canes with straw.
Plenty of timber hanging about to weigh the netting down!!
I still need to get back in there and restring the supports along each patch but by the time we were done here… I was done!
We let the girls out and naturally they started to kick out the woodchip immediately. This is why they were left locked up during the process – otherwise I’d still be there trying to get the job done and piffing chooks out of the way!
Flossie getting a cuddle
Back up behind the house and a couple of cows appear. A few minutes later they are all there staring at me. So I proceed to run up and down the fence line (in gumboots) with a bunch of cows stampeding along behind!! I find this hilarious!
Anyway… Next! Potatoes!
Handy chopping boards all over the property at the moment!
I didn’t want to go out that day because it was doing one of those Tasmanian Weather Days and raining and sunning off and on every 10 minutes.
Told myself not to be a woose and get out and plant. So I did. Rain never really hurt… Tasmanian Weather immediately hailed on me!!!! Eyeroll.
But because I was in Tough Woman Mode, I soldiered on
Marked out the plot and dropped the spuds in
This season I also decided to mulch straight away since I had the straw. I never get back to my poor potatoes for mulching … maybe this will keep them happier this season!
Nice to get another important gardening job ticked off the list.
Tulips are still blooming which is lovely. I am tempted to cut and bring some inside, but I don’t have that many and I am enjoying seeing the colours when I go out back.
And the snails haven’t ravaged them either this season thanks to the iron pellet stuff I’ve been using!
Hopefully the nice weather keeps it up more often than not! Hope your week has started well!!
Well, there it is… the last log being loaded onto the rack for milling
The guys have done a spectacular job and its been really interesting to watch
There she goes! (Spinning blade of death….)
I’ve been Chief Sawdust Relocating Manager
So much beautiful timber!
The weather has been a bit manky recently…we have done some work cleaning up and Jeff has done a lot of work splitting wood for future fires
Unfortunately for one of Jeff’s fingers… he also had a slight ‘small axe incident’ So far he hasn’t been to the doc but did all the usual nursey things. I think he will live…
I’ll return with some gardening stuff next post. A few more advancements have happened
I am going to have to get more heavy handed with the red so its not quite as pink in the final stages! Anyway… its a start. Christmas soap! (Peppermint) And oops… just remembered the tree embed I put in the freezer earlier. Will have to get that out and remove from mould before bed.
Crochet update! Its really growing Although there are a horrifying amount of tails to tuck!! (sadly this is not going to coincide with a visit from my Mum… darn it) (No pun intended haha)
Its going to take me an eon!
Of course no carefully arranged display is complete without a cat boofing his way under the covers and causing a cat-tidal wave of crocheted squares…
Thanks Pip!!
Basket weaving! Loving my Friday morning classes. So relaxing there.
Apart from tidying up the tails on the inside, I am done. The red bit around the top (Might have mentioned this before??) are grasses that were dyed with beetroot and woven in.
I used it on my market table on Saturday to display my business cards!
Then, I learned how to make roses and lilies!
Adele (our teacher) started one that I finished and finished one that I started! But she let me take the both home. I liked the process of weaving the flax to make the lilies.
And a series of folding and twisting creates the roses!!
Pip trying his best to give subtle hints about his sleeping bag being warm enough ready for him to crawl in to!
Anyway, thats about it from me tonight Hope everyone had a super weekend! Cheers
Ed and Paul have done an amazing job! Last log was done yesterday I will have more photos and story of course but not quite got all the pics sorted yet!!
So I’ll show you some soap…
I did this today… the cut should reveal a Christmas Tree… and stripes?? I can hope! (Peppermint)
Yesterday I tried a new design… I used the divider to get the base part done
I made up three colours for the bottom and blended them softly before pouring
I then grabbed my high tech soaping tool (chopstick) and made some waves
I am loving this design and am very keen to do other colours!
I had to cut them horizontally to keep the design intact and was really pleased when I did…
Rather elegant!!
The leftover mixture made some cute little bee soaps too!
Poor tulip… everything got covered in grass clippings yesterday. Jeff and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to mow and do more cleaning up around the yard.
The plum tree is done and dusted with its blossoms. Lets keep fingers crossed for actual plums and some nice weather to ripen them up.
The day before yesterday, we decided to finish off the top of the garden fence at long last
Since we have oodles of timber, procrastination has won the day as we haven’t had to buy what we needed
This way we have been able to staple the wire to the top bar and stop it from flopping about – as it does when big fat possums jump on it (Or birds)
It doesn’t look too bad and it certainly looks more finished than before!
I suspect the possums were getting over the fence near the top gate then using the two moveable composts and the sink as a jumping point out, so I’ve started sorting that area.
I have yet to move the sink (insanely heavy) as I have to sort a suitable area, but was able to empty and move the two composts
Hmmmm so much work to be done. Plus I am unsure how to sort the older composts just yet.
Neglected much?
A lot of weeding, sorting and wheelbarrowing later…
I am hoping the ferny moss takes hold in the old Man Fern chunks I got from Ruby’s place.
Plot by plot I am getting the garden under control. It was a shock to realise we’ve made it to spring already!
Yesterday after the mowing, I tackled the snow pea plot as I will need it to swing into action soon…
Eeeek. One of the wooden trellises had rotted at the bottom so I ended up taking it out… then I took pretty much all the other bits out and whacked in some proper steel droppers to secure the mesh to. And dug weeds. Twitch. So. Much. Twitch….
Happily… another plot done by days end.
Looks 100% with the mowing done too. Grass from now is going to grow stupidly quickly
Still easy to grab carrots whenever I need them. Itching to pull that plot apart but… not really nec. until October when I will want to replant.
Oh… I killed all the lettuce (99% of them ) in the hothouse that I transplanted the other day!!!!
Maybe 4 are struggling along??? I have absolutely no idea why… How disappointing!! And weird. Was it me or the punnets of lettuce?
The little tomato seeds that I put in at the same time have started showing up
So funny… yesterday morning only these guys were up. By the afternoon… a whole lot more!
These are yellow tomatoes. Hope they survive unlike the lettuce!!
My pot of sweet peas! I didn’t plant them. They are just doing their own thing. They never really thrived last season under my ‘care’ so I am ignoring them.
We let the girls out of the chook run after we had done with the lawn – They had a great time… Flea of course off on her own mission.
A good number of tulips are out which is nice and those iron pellets are keeping the slugs and snails at bay so I don’t have half chewed flowers so far!!
Yesterday was a pretty huge day… with all the mowing, weeding, whippersnippering, digging, weeding, planting, splitting kindling, etc etc. According to Pip it was completely exhausting!! (This is where we found him at days end, dead to the world haha) Cheers
