Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Summer Days. Heat & Humidity


Summer can be a very unforgiving season in the country. One year the talk is all about how dry it is and our desperate need for rain. The cost of hand feeding stock can be devastating to farmers.
 This year we have the opposite.  Heat and humidity. OMG!the humidity.  It sucks the life out of you like nothing else. On extreme days, any outside work is restricted to early morning or late afternoon. For all that bemoaning, there are some very big positives.  Add high rainfall to the heat & humidity and you have the best possible grass growing weather. Perfect for fat, content cattle and overflowing rain tanks. Not so perfect for keeping lawns & weeds under control.









35 mill of rain over 7 days + Average daytime temp of 32 degrees = Happy Farming.



Wednesday, January 14, 2015

2015 we're off and racing...


This is the image I'm holding in my head for 2015. When I start to feel overwhelmed with all the things I need to do, should do or want to do this will be my focus. 

Today was my first day back in the office. My real job. Not the farm job. I do sometimes feel like I have two separate lives. It's a good thing.
Christmas was a constant flow of family and friends. No sooner had one group left than another was arriving. We like it that way.


So what's on the agenda  2015?  Gardens & landscaping. As with most things "farm" it's a bit more than a Saturday morning trip to Bunnings for a few bags of potting mix. It takes planning. Lot's of planning.   The vegetable garden will be a series of raised beds. Irrigation is essential. We did a test run with our herb garden and the a drip system attached to a timer  works perfectly. I remember my Grandparents loved watering their garden. It was their post dinner ritual every night over summer. Realistically we wont have that luxury, so a reliable water supply is essential. The garden bed's will also require some form of netting to protect them from the wildlife. I'm not talking about insect & bugs. I'm talking kangaroos, birds, possums and wombats!
We also have plans to plant along the retaining wall at the back of the house and around our pool.  Timing is essential here. Instinct tells me that Spring is the time to plant but we have found March/April is our best time for general planting. The plants have time to get established before the winter frost, and then have their growth spurt in spring.
We've had great success with our herb garden. One bed has rhubarb, silverbeet and shallots. The other is a mixture of herbs. We love the young silverbeet simply tossed in a pan (think stir fry) with garlic, butter, salt and pepper. Yum.