Meet the Bellas

Our most exciting news this post is that we have some new members of the family! Meet the two Bellas. Clarabella and Annabella our Braford heifers. They were bought from Loo's neighbour John and transported on the back of Pat's ute in a cage. They are so gorgeous and very tame. We are feeding them some dairy meal once a day to entice them to the fence so we can pat them and get them used to being near us. They are very good and after a week they are already coming over when we call them. We got them to keep the grass down in the paddocks as slashing with the tractor is too annoying.

We are also preparing to bring home some laying hens so Paul and I did some stable renovations! he he he We converted the old stable into a chook pen with a big run for them. We should have them soon.

My Vegie patch was thriving and I even managed to mulch it. But THEN.... the birds came and started feasting on my seedlings so up went the fruit nets Loo had given me. They are doing their job well for now. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to build a more permanent green house with netting to protect future plantings.

The fruit trees are all composted, fed and mulched and the banana trees cut back. Unfortunately we were a bit over zealous with the banana trees and accidently cut down one of the fruiting trees :( Hopefully the baby bananas will ripen and won't go to waste.

On the family front the girls are doing really well. Hannah loves her new school now and asks me almost everyday if today is school day. She so loves her kitty kat and treats her like a baby. Most of all she loves going to the beach in the late afternoons and running through the shore and getting totally soaked and full of sand.

Ailey is just a little cutie. She is really starting to talk more and can now dob on Hannah. he he he She can say things like "mine, push, no, Hannah" mostly all in relation to some fight they have had. It's very funny to watch Hannah's horrified expression when she realises she can't be sneaky anymore! But they are playing well together mostly and they like looking at books together in their rooms, playing with their dolly prams, playing picnics outside or just generally running and jumping around outside. Ailey thinks Hannah is hilarious most of the time and Hannah loves the adoration.

They both also are getting on very well with their cousins up here. Hannah and Annaleah go off in their own little world and play nicely most of the time although Hannah is so bossy that it nevertheless ends up in tears! Ailey LOVES Korey and Korey LOVES Ailey. They are so drawn to each other and spend most of their time together playing with the dog or the cat as they both also LOVE animals.

Finally here is one of our little tree friends who sits on our citrus trees. There are quite a few of them about and they are about an inch long. Very cute!

Garden Progress

Well it's been 5 weeks and in that time we have finally managed to produce some seedlings in our vegie patch. One of the beds has been prepared with cow manure and mushroom compost and planted with tomatoes (nasturtiums as companion plants), snow peas, peas, brocolli and cauliflower (also with nasturtiums as companions), pak choi, beetroot, silverbeet, garlic, onions, coriander, parsley, chives, marigolds, and petunias for colour. Our seeds are starting to germinate already after less than a week in the ground!

Paul has bought a diesel pump to pump water out of the dam upto the vegie patch. At the moment it gets pumped into a small 120L drum and then a small electric pump gets this into a hose to water the garden. We have ordered a 9000L Duraplas tank which should arrive in a couple of weeks. This will be filled with dam water and used to water the vegie patch and the fruit trees. Here's the temporary setup.

This last week has been mainly spent pruning the fruit trees. Our large lemon tree is very sick. It has some scaley sappy disease and is therefore covered in ants. There is lots of bark damage and broken branches. I have pruned it back as hard as I dare and gave it a good spray with pest oil. It will get some mushy compost and fertiliser this weekend. Hope it pulls through.

This scaley disease seems to have also spread to the smaller citrus trees but to a lesser degree. There are two orange trees, a mandarine tree and another lemon tree. They are all quite small but have fruit on them. They have been pruned and sprayed also.

There are three trees which look to be either peaches or nectarines. Two are quite large and one is small. They were quite scraggly so I have pruned them and tried to open them up a bit.

There are two trees which I think are either pears or plums. Not too sure they look quite leggy and I've trimmed them back a bit too. And two other trees which again may be pears or apples? These are more dense in the leaves and again they were trimmed back a bit to let in some light.

Next to all these fruit trees is the stand of banana trees which is in desperate need of tidying up. I really need Paul's help with this as it is a huge job. I was snooping around the other day and noticed that three of the banana trees are bearing fruit! So far the bananas are looking very cute. Need to check out what to do to ensure the birds etc don't eat them before we can pick them.

Out in the front paddock there is a mango tree which was looking pretty wild. I really got stuck into that one and it looks much better now. Hope we get something out of that next summer. YUM!





Also in the front paddock is a beautiful big shady tree. I walked upto it to check out the potential for a nice picnic spot. I was thinking of mowing under it and putting a table there as it is a nice shady spot near the dam. So I'm under the tree and at close range notice the fruit! I think it's an apple tree! What!! It is pretty overgrown and wild looking so I need to get stuck into that as well... need a ladder for this one though.

Can't wait to eat some of this stuff!

We also bought a whole heap of native shrubs to plant along the back fence for a bit of extra privacy from the back neighbours. It took us both all day to plant about 16 of them!

I also bought a fig tree and a grape vine.

Sooooo much to do, sooooo little time!!!

We had a bit of a tragedy when we went down to Sydney last fortnight. All our ducks were killed while we were away. The two new muscovies and even our old Ducko :( We think a fox got to them. Paul was so devastated especially about poor ducko we've had him for 8 years! Later while scoping the edge of the dam he found a duck egg which the muscovy must have laid. So sad, we could have had baby ducks :(

On a lighter note, Paul has got the remote control go-cart going again. Hannah is really good at steering it now and Paul controls the speed with his controller. Today he built a little passenger trailer out of our old recycling crate and Ailey can sit in it and be dragged along behind. She loved it! How hilarious! Check it out on You Tube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z51qksQktpA

Starting Out

Well time is really flying and it's already been 2 weeks in our new home! My main project to start out with is setting up a vegie patch. We have 4 garden plots which are about 12m x 1m.

Two of these plots are planted with established fruit trees including apples, nectarines, mandarines, plums (I think), oranges and lemons. There is also a stand of banana trees and a huge mulberry tree out the back. The other two plots are so barren, dry and dejected at the moment it's going to be a challenge for me, who knows zero about growing food, to get it up to some sort of healthy state. I did invest in a great book so I'm sort of learning something as I go.

I started digging up one of the plots and it's hard work and hot work! I'm about 3/4 of the way through. My plan is to improve the soil by digging out to a spade depth, using the fork to loosen up the subsoil, add some cow manure on top of this loosened soil and then replace the top soil. I might even add some mushroom compost into the top soil to give it some more nutrition.

I will then leave this for a few weeks and then after some good rain throw on some blood and bone and then start planting. I haven't decided what to plant yet but it will be all things we like to eat here and some extras for companion plants to deter pests. I'm going to try and be a bit organic and try to stay away from the chemical pesticides if I can.

For now I need to finish digging and then I'll go next door and collect cow manure from my neighbour's paddocks! Fun fun fun!!! he he he

Other than the vegie patch, we went to our first farmer's markets in Nabiac on Saturday which was nice. Got some nice sourdough bread, mmmm, and beautiful fresh tomatoes, grapes, corn, zucchini, garlic, strawberries. Everything we bought was really cheap and fresh and yum. So we'll be going again next month. We also bumped into an old friend of Paul's mum from Glenbrook who has been living up here for a while now and she has invited me to join her group of seed and plant collectors. How funny! So I'll go along to meet new people if nothing else!!! Besides I need all the gardening tips I can get. It's such a small world....

We also bought two muscovy ducks to keep our own Ducko company in his new dam. They are only 10 weeks old and they are already as big as Ducko! They are going to be huge. They are very tame and can be patted and hand fed.

Hannah also got a kitten for her birthday, here she is with Breana. Her name is Suki and she is a very good kitten, already toilet trained and so good with the girls who pest her to no end.

Paul tried out his new tractor too, used it to level some ground which was left all over the place after some stumps were removed. He was very happy with how it all went considering he really has no idea what he's doing! Looks good though...

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Saltwater which is only about 7kms from us. It's a very nice picnic spot with free gas BBQs, plenty of shade and good ammenities. There is a short walk to a lagoon and the beach which is almost completely deserted. The lagoon is great for the kids although suspiciously too warm for my liking!

We also bumped into the agent from Wingham who was helping us with the other place we almost bought. He is so nice and we met his lovely wife and two girls. Such a coincidence they were there as they live about an hour away and it was their first visit to Saltwater. So we seem to be bumping into all these people that we probably are meant to meet up with. It's been nice.

Still feel like I'm on holidays though.... :)

Goodbye Glenbrook

I still can't believe we have actually left our home in Glenbrook for ever. It still feels like we are staying in a holiday house and we are just on holidays! I suppose the more I unpack and personalise the house it will slowly feel more like our own home.

We were so blessed in Glenbrook. We left our beautiful house that we put our all into, so much work and love went into that place. Hopefully the new owners love it as much as we did. In our last week we were so lucky to have our dearest friends and family organise some farewells for us. It started with our neighbours who are THE BEST neighbours ever. I can't imagine ever meeting such lovely people again, especially Colleen and Cliff who organised the farewell. We had such a nice afternoon, Cliff made a nice speech and I was a blubbering mess.

The girls from my mother's group also organised a last minute farewell coffee night at Lapstone Hotel. Thanks Bree :) We had a good gas bag and a couple of drinks... well it was a good night. Thanks to Susan too for coming to see me at home as she missed the coffee night. And Lynda for calling. :)

Paul's dad had Tuesday night dinner at his place and made his usual banquet.

Our friends also got together and organised a last trip to Glenbrook with a whole heap of takeaway. So we spent a nice afternoon together to say our goodbyes, or rather to think about planning a weekend away to our new place! Hope you guys actually come up and stay... you're all gonna love it here.

We started really packing for the move in the first week of Jan and it was really worrying Paul that all our stuff wouldn't fit into the 9 tonne truck the removalist was bringing. I was more optimistic and was sure the removalist knew what he was doing when he quoted. He did confirm thoughy that he had booked a 3 tonne overflow truck just in case. As it turns out the 2 trucks weren't enough and in the end we had a second 3 tonner for the rest of the things. And we had decluttered and thrown (or given) heaps of stuff away too.

The loading of the trucks went quite fast and after a teary goodbye we drove off after lunch time. The drive was good, both girls, the duck and the dog were all better than we expected. After collecting the keys I pull up at the entrance to our new place "Woongarra" to see our names on the letter box. The old owners had left us a parting gift, and some other little knick knacks around the house. The house was spotless and so was the yard, all mown, weeded and paddocks slashed. It felt like coming home finally and it was such a great relief. Loesje described the feeling to me the next day.. she said the first thing she noticed on the first night at their new place was that her mind was clear of all the worries that come with selling and buying and moving house. Soooo true. I really feel relaxed even though there is so much to do. I have really been stressed like never before in my life.

So the adventure begins...

We have had some visitors already, of course Loo and Pat and the kids came over with a pasta bake.. thanks Loo. :) But before them there was our resident peacock (actually our neighbour's pet, one of 14 peacocks) and a green frog in our laundry.