August

August for the 2 folk,the dog and the tractor was a happy one, with the tractor saving the day. We got stuck! Let me translate.

We received very good falls of the right sort of rain. Our paddock soils became sodden enough for our ute to be “paddock parked” – unexpectedly. We don’t use the word “bogged” because it’s a bit of a negative word and it seems at odds with the joy of receiving rain.

For those interested, there is only 1 practical farming maxim to take away from our experience. Don’t go out into the paddocks in heavy machinery after heavy rainfalls. In our case we would nuance that with, don’t use a ute loaded up with wood and don’t go in the dark when you can’t see the track properly. Despite the best intentions you end up not being any help to the neighbour who is in EXACTLY the same situation – unexpectedly.

You’re welcome my fellow Pluviophiles. And now to the heart of the story.

Before = Jan 2020 and After = August 2020

A few of us are gathered around the kitchen table at tea time and the chat starts with the very normal, and socially acceptable, high level observations about the weather. Amongst farming folk this is never deemed boring. This month we had rain to talk about so there were cheerful comparisons of fantastic rainfall, even tales of livestock caught in odd spots and affected crossings over rivers and creeks.

Then, a pause, as we took a moment before deciding to elaborate. There is a distinct sitting back into the chair, a thoughtful sip of wine as a bashful smile starts to spread across a face.

And then it’s on. One after the other, newbie and life long farmer alike, start to regale their story of paddock parking their car – unexpectedly. We tell our tales of woe, with deadpan faces, and quietly spoken voices, but ultimately spinning a yarn that ends with happy faces, guffaws and howls of laughter. The undeclared winner is the farmer with the most novel way of freeing their vehicle trumped only by the farmer with the most number of support vehicles that came to help and inevitably became stuck – unexpectedly.

As a newbie farmer, I admit to happy relief at not winning this story telling competition. There is also a new found camaraderie. We were all happy to find ourselves stuck in the mud – unexpectedly. We all had soils that were fabulously sodden. But why was it all unexpected. Farmers watch the weather reports like hawks. Because such good falls of good rain are rare. Not even the meteorological department can pick them. But we got some and we are happy.

The kitchen garden is heaving with life and producing plenty of brassicas (brussel sprounts, kale, tender stem broccoli, broccoli, cauliflower), rocket, coriander, parsley, rosemary, rhubarb. The cabbages and broadbeans are “in development” and under cover the tomatoes, basil and peas have sprouted. Sadly the capcicums didn’t, may be due to old seed or badly kept seed. Jobs to do include weeding and feeding before things warm up any more. And working out what I can grow in our new growhouse. I’m plotting avocados, oranges, perhaps even a ginger plant, and hanging pots of strawberries, lots of them.

It is a shame I can’t share the sound of the bees. The sound of many bees, working hard and talking to each other as they jump from flower to flower has been missing from the garden for a couple of months. Every now and then I would spot a lone worker and feel her desperation to be back at the hive. It was deathly silent on the grey cold days. I wrote that I feared the worst. The last few sunny days of August have revived the hive and the girls are out in full swing. It is one of those grounding sounds of spring, the plants grow, the flowers blossom and the bees buzz. Currently flowering are wallflower (Erysimum sp), borage (Borago officialis), rocket, rosemary, lavender, tender stem broccoli and ornamental Manchurian pear (Pyrus ussuriensis). Jobs to do include potting up the wormwood (Artemisia sp) and geranium (Pelargonium sp) cuttings and hardest of all, create garden beds to take the seedlings of lavender (Lavandula sp), rock rose (Cistaceae sp), salvia (Salvia sp), shrubby germander (Teuchrium sp), sea holly (Eryngium) and buddleia (Budleja sp).

Booklist August

August is my birthday month so the book stash has been replenished and I am doing all I can to work through them slowly, like savouring a favourite piece of chocolate. The novel, “The Dictionary of Lost Words” by Pip Williams is intriguing in its premise and very well told, I was left wanting to know more about the well crafted characters.

Last Word

thanks for reading

February

February is all about extremes for the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor. We started the month surrounded by drought-affected paddocks and an empty dam. We have finished the month with green fields and a half-filled dam, which is a really very good outcome!

Feb 2020

Jan 2020

We were lucky to receive rain in the last month, yet to be confirmed as ‘drought-breaking’ but enough to soak deep into the ground, our minds and hearts. The land is responding, plenty of new shoots everywhere, millions of seeds have sprouted and we are better for it. Sadly some folk did not receive rain, or the rain-washed their drought barren topsoil onto neighbouring properties. It is a heart-wrenching sight.

When we first purchased our place we were pre-occupied with the lack of trees and how to drought-proof our land. Then we learned the greatest carbon sink is grassland and one of the best drought mitigation tactics is to maintain groundcover, preferably deep-rooted perennials. Good groundcover protects the soil from the baking sun, supporting soil biology and structure, and improves soil infiltration which reduces runoff. Whilst we started our regenerative agriculture journey as the drought started, the fact we started means we stand a better chance of bouncing back strongly when the rains come.

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Our first signal of having made a difference is how our runoff dam did not fill. At first, we felt really down as those around us had full dams. However, the benefit of the water soaking into the paddocks, where it is needed to grow grass to feed the sheep far outweighed the sight of a reservoir of water exposed to evaporation. The drought still bit us, we lost trees and more groundcover than we would have liked but our paddocks have grass growing and for that, we are grateful for the rain we received.

The house build has hit a standstill due to a lack of human resources and time. We have formally accepted we have a ‘bit too much’ going on at the moment. Time to contract out the non-house projects such as fencing and landscaping. Owner building is a constant and complex tussle between a need hierarchy of off-farm income to fund the house build, down-time to creatively solve problems, non-house focussed projects to inspire and bring balance (and keep us from becoming socially dull), and starting a farm-based enterprise to create the life we want. Of course, another solution is to reduce the number of things we want to achieve…leave that one with us.

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The kitchen garden continues to teach. The rain we received encouraged the rosemary to burst into flower, giving deep relief and a lightbulb moment all at once. It has not flowered since a severe pruning (read slashing) back in February 2019. Turns out it was actually lack of water that kept the plants from flowering. In a bid to save water, the irrigation to the vegetable garden had been turned off and only key plants were being hand watered. The rain was enough to convince it to flower and the bees are happy and should survive the winter out here. Happy bees = happy humans.

happy asparagus

cucumber thriving

We are currently harvesting asparagus (the spears seem to triple in size overnight), spinach, chives, spring onions, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, bay, mint, and the first cherry tomatoes. An alternative harvest list according to the sheep would include corn, tomatoes, capsicums and beans. It is tricky to tell if the corn is ready given the sheep enjoyed the silks, the silks dying back is a signal of when to harvest. We continue to wait on the tomatoes to ripen (such beautiful big GREEN fruit), the cucumbers and the kale. Jobs to do: plant carrots, plant additional brassicas (the seeds did not sprout so it’s off to the nursery for seedlings). The wicking beds are still standing idle due to intense sheep interest and insufficient protection – we do learn eventually.

pic by Em Callaghan

snapped and awkward

pic by Em Callaghan

February was a milestone month for our garlic growing business. We had our first market stall at our town’s agricultural show. We enjoyed it all and it was really fabulous to meet customers existing and new. We had wonderful support from friends who can take stunning photographs, who know how to retail and who kindly purchased from us. This level of engagement validates our belief in locally grown, human-scale food production as a way to ensure high quality and nutrient-packed produce. Sadly the pics don’t show co-captain, who managed to avoid every attempt at a record of his amazing efforts. It could not have happened without him.

February book list

There has not been much time for reading this month so pickings are slim. Not shown are the sheep practice notes on how to identify the plethora of parasites that activate when we receive rain, and how to manage grazing and feeding to ensure animal safety as the new grass shoots. Oh, you read it correctly, new grass can make sheep very sick. Rain has a deep impact out in the country and for those living a farming life. Far greater than we could ever have comprehended. It is life.

Last word

thanks for reading!

December

Last month the blog was short – be prepared this month is even shorter. The 2 folk, the dog and the tractor have found themselves living a repetitive blur consisting of:

smoke haze nights

garlic deliveries

gatherings

smoke haze days

garlic deliveries

Christmas

smoke haze

garlic harvest

sleeping, reading and tea

Extreme weather, all things garlic, food/sleeping/reading

Days of very early starts to beat extreme heat and dust-laden winds. Water, the most precious of commodities at the moment, is shared sparingly between humans, animals, bees, and plants. The smoked out mornings are deceptively reminiscent of lovely overcast cool starts, the watered plants seem to be thriving compared to the drought-affected dry brittle grass of the paddocks. If we knew rain was coming our minds would be reading this differently, more positively. The pics show how dry, dusty and unforgiving our landscape is at the moment.

We did Christmas, plenty of gatherings around food and good folk, all of us preoccupied with the drought and fires. Such events are vital, if only to get you out of your head and to ask how others are coping, hoping to learn something from those more experienced and resilient. Only this is unprecedented out here, we have no point of reference.

It is with a sense of pleasure that 2019 comes to a close. Plans to post a ‘decade in review’, a reflective and thoughtful conversation about the start of our adventure here will have to wait. May the next year bring you and yours all your heart desires, rudely good health, great prosperity and grand adventures.

thanks for reading!

April

An April of delays and dry for the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor. The early signs of autumn were stopped in their tracks here as rains failed to materialise. Our weather has been cool, stunning, clear and bright as well as pretty dusty.

When we plan out a year of farm work, house build and garden planting we try to not overload any particular time of the year. This year the best laid plans have been sent asunder with the odd climate we have been experiencing.

Plan: February and March are months dominated by fantastic kitchen garden yields, in particular the tomato harvest. In the last March post, I lamented how the wonderful tomato crop looked like it was running out of time to ripen before the frosts of April arrived. How wrong I was. The warmer than normal conditions have seen the crop peak in April and I am harvesting 5kg a day of the most picture perfect fruit.

large, heavy and lovely

picture perfect toms

There are no complaints here. The house is swamped by all manner of vessels overflowing with beautiful tomatoes. It’s a daily mission to process the tomatoes into meals, soups, sauces, and chutneys. Friends and neighbours are now receiving kilos of tomatoes as gifts. This is all really wonderful.

Plan: April and May are my garlic crop planting months. April is the month of continued bed preparation, cracking bulbs, counting and preparing cloves for planting. This is when I get to revel in the beauty of the cloves, get hands dirty in the soil and generally play garlic farmer.

But the Plan is out the window! No happy garlic idyll for April. It has been too warm and dry to plant cloves out, at least not without an irrigation plan, something that is not usually required here. So the plan to plant garlic over Easter was shifted to a week later when the temperatures dropped below 25 degrees C during the day. Rain is due tonight and we have everything crossed in the hope of some coming our way.

The vegetable garden continues to thrive, as it receives supplementary watering, and the warm weather means crops keep producing. So there is this cross over between summer crops and autumn crops, tomatoes alongside broccoli, garlic coming up amongst the tarragon. Its just plain freaky!

broccoli sprouting

this is a small space really

Fresh produce from the kitchen garden this month includes tomatoes, kale, spinach, peas, cucumbers, rhubarb, spring onions, chives, parsley, tarragon, rosemary, thyme and sage. The broccoli heads are forming, the brussel sprouts have survived the grazing and the succession pea plants are just sprouting.

The garlic paddock planting has started. This year the focus was on improving the soil nutrition and we spent a lot of time applying layers of organic matter, manure and soil additives. This year the cloves were pre-soaked before planting. Pre-soaking the cloves in a seaweed and microbial solution is a great way to combat planting stress, encourage strong root growth (and in turn enable better soil nutrient uptake by the plant), and provides a bit of inoculation against fungal issues on the clove or in the soil. Our method is to use 25ml of Seasol and 50ml of EM1 Bokashi liquid, diluted into 1 litre of water. I can’t over state the difference it made to the cloves.

Turban group cloves pre-soaking

same clove 36hrs later – see the roots!

These cloves were soaked for 36hrs (don’t extend soaking beyond 72hrs) and they had already produced roots at the base. It makes it so very obvious now why I need to keep the water up to them, for the plant and to ensure the nutrients in the soil are made available to the plant. Where is that rain?

Planting in April is about the early season garlic. May is about the mid and late season garlic. We are effectively half way through planting the crop. They are bedded in under 10cms of straw mulch. This year we fluffed the mulch, unfortunately, the next day the wind picked up. There is straw everywhere but on the actual garlic beds. I doubt there is a solution here that does not involve construction of some kind of windbreak – but that is our whole focus here!

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The owner-builder adventure continues albeit hard to show. We have used solid Tasmanian Blackwood timber around the windows and doors. It looks fantastic, but it is very hard to photograph in a way that reveals its significance to the build. Very early on in the project, we read the finishing stage would take the most time and money of the build. We did not realise it would also have the least impact on us. Seeing it actually finished is very, very wonderful and yet we are rather blase about it all, almost as if it had always been there. Is it possible that our vision of the finished house is what we always saw regardless of the amount of unfinished wall, bolts and structural steel on show? Or maybe we just know there is still so much more to do! Celebrate each tiny advance is a fair motto in such a mammoth project.

Easter of course! We do not practice any religion in our house but are lucky enough to live in a country that recognises this holiday period. It is a time to tackle big jobs or even plant the garlic crop but this year weather and travel commitments saw us very much eating, resting and spending time with our friends as we put hard work on the back burner. I made my first panettone, a significantly belated event given how many of these I have eaten over the years, and of course a batch of hot cross buns (sans cross). Both of these wonderful, easy and successful bakes came courtesy of Nadine Ingham of Flour and Stone bakery fame. I am a convert, both bakes will be happening again very soon, to help me celebrate garlic planting at the very least.

clearly some bun shaping skills required

Why did I only bake 1?

Book list April

2019-04-30 10.00.55 1.jpg — All are truly wonderful books this month

I read this quote on Sarah Wilson’s Instagram page, it is with deep admiration and mirth I gift this to you my friends…

2019-04-30 08.07.59 1.jpg — fast asleep on the door step, waiting

thanks for reading!

December

December in which the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor work around the rain and a Christmas full of comfort and joy.

2018-12-30 03.13.33 1.jpg — Rain is a good thing with caveats

The thing about rain and rural life – well it’s just not straightforward as “Yay, it’s raining!” If you have a farmer in your life, drill down on their thoughts on rain, and not just the polite conversation assimilation commentary. I’d also ask you withhold judgment if they seem a bit, well, Pollyanna, here’s my take…and my experience is embryonic.

When we lived in the city rain was really only seen as something that might impact on whatever social/sporting event we may have had planned.

When we went rural as a ‘lifestyle choice’ rain became something that was good because it helped the grass grow.

After a while, we realised the grass is really pasture and needs more than rain to grow, so we brought in livestock to help improve the soil, which along with the rain, improves the pasture (see earlier posts).

So here we are, 5 years on, with livestock, garlic crop and pasture to grow. Rain is a mixed bag now – what matters is the quantity, type and timing. Yes, we celebrated the December falls, however, it cost me my peace of mind.

I fretted because rain and warm weather brings out the bugs, debilitating sheep and causing fungal disease in garlic to become rampant. Last year I lost a significant portion of a stunning garlic crop to rot whilst curing, a lesson that is protecting this year’s crop beautifully. This year we had our first experience of fly strike on a sheep. Timely action and an experienced farmer means all is well. Positive outcome yes…however, I was left struggling with thoughts of ‘how to dispatch sheep humanely’, and this has not been resolved. This is one of those skills you just dread having to acquire, but to be able to do so humanely and respectfully is something I aspire too, which sounds most odd to say.

Furthermore, if it had not rained, well then other concerns would have filled the void and cost me my peace of mind! Perhaps there is something else going on here? See one last thing…

Our sheep husbandry skills continue to grow. After the last drenching session, the 2 folk were wormed thoroughly but significantly the same thing could not be said about the sheep. More ended up on the two of us than actually down the necks of the sheep. However this session, either the sheep were more comfortable, or the few lessons paid off, but the job is done, done well and in good time. So with the slightest of swaggers, sheep drenching – √. Never going to nail shearing but happy to settle for the ‘taking part with enthusiasm’ certificate.

We had our first experience of foraging, which I posted on Instagram @longview_garlic about finding a summer gold bounty of apricots. It is a story of disbelief, joy and a happy place…but not gluttony. Mind you I was not the only one to spy the bounty and I think local folk moved fast to secure fruit before a travelling stock group made their way past the tree.

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Garlic beds are empty – harvest 2018 is complete. I thought I would be pulling the last of the garlic in Jan but after flashing around some pics and listening to those with more experience than me, this year the late season garlic got pulled a month early. Once again it’s a mixed bag but I’m told it’s very normal to expect a distribution of bulb sizes in a crop. I am grateful I had the wherewithal to plant a ‘test bed’ of the late season crop as I had no experience growing it. The testbed crop seriously outperformed the paddock crop and clearly showed me the soil in the paddock beds needs much more work to bring it up to scratch. This will take me years to perfect. I still felt seriously deflated at the lack of brilliance in the paddock crop – classic reality check, again so very grateful I started a MICRO enterprise.

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Christmas was a really lovely event. Gentle, quiet and indulgent involving well-behaved humans and dogs, special food and simple decorations that hit the mark beautifully. We avoided the hectic Christmas rush, gift shopping was via online at rural stores, other gifts were handmade so could not be rushed and food shopping was whittled down to specific farmers market stalls or purchased locally at farm shops. The pic of the real tree is more for posterity. It’s my way of marking progress on the house because if you look at the walls in the background, they are ready for lining with the Blackwood panels. Last year they were bare corrugated metal. Progress is progress and patience is torturous! It is also the first year I got my way and tree decorations were kept to fairy lights only. Simple and uncomplicated.

December booklist

2018-12-31 12.14.44 1.jpg — Books in printed form

The book list this month is in printed form because the audible form did not get a turn. I’m trying to work out how to incorporate listening to a book whilst still getting things done. The potential is properly inviting but I’ve not adjusted. Same with podcasts. I suspect whilst driving has potential if the internet connection is maintained and I can avoid earbuds. Working around the house will require earbuds as I’ve noticed noise from any activity interferes with the wondrous world being created for me. The simplicity of just picking up a book is being redefined. When did it become important to multi-task whilst reading? I’m not sure my brain can do that.

One last thing

We will never rid ourselves of anxiety entirely; our best bet is to try to give ourselves slightly more valuable things to worry about.

School of Life, cards on resilience 2018

100goodthings

2 folk, a dog and a tractor and our adventures in building a minimalist house and life in the country

rain

August

February

December

April

December