October 2007

We woke before dawn on Saturday and were just outside of Woodbridge by 7.00pm to pick up two hives, one for us and one for a friend. The bees let us know just how docile they are by allowing Trev to pick up the whole hive and put it on the back of the ute (without stinging him) before we noticed that we hadn't put the foam gap filler in place and the bees were coming out to look at who was lugging them around. The foam was promptly pushed into place, the second hive on and both of them strapped down and we were off. I had the chance to do my impression of the robot in Lost in Space twice. Both times as I pulled the foam out from the hive entrance. But figured I could have done it without any of the safety equip. It's great to watch them coming into land with their back legs bundled up with pollen. You can smell the honey exuding from the hive from a metre away. I'm fascinated by them and have suggested to someone that they make great pets, ones that aren't the least tactile, true, and you can't build up a great rapport, as they die after six weeks, but the hive definately has a personality, and hopefully tomorrow I will get to the heart of it.

I would have had an explore inside today but it keeps showering every ten minutes or so, and has done for the last week/fortnight. We've had over 5 inches and while it's more than welcome (considering the current series of droughts I wouldn't dare complain) but I'd rather it did it at a more convenient time, say, late at night.

To add to our hobby farmer status we've not only added 70,000 new micro livestock, but purchased 4 more of a slightly weighter size, Thelma, Louise, Butty and Chops. Butty has already lived up to his name. He went for Nuju, who ducked agilely out of the way, and Butty rammed straight into my leg. Sheep, and in this case Suffolk Sheep, have VERY hard heads. Nuju has figured out they are not his to chase, and that while the goats must remain one side of the electric fence, it's OK for the sheep to be hanging around the place.

The two ewes make a noise just like a mobile phone sitting on a hard surface and receiving a call on vibrate. Which has Trev and I furtively looking for it till we click that it's either Thelma or Louise outside the shed door doing their thing.

Trev is still experiencing the frustration of not being able to take tools out onto the site without having to make a run back to the shed two minutes later when the next shower passes over the top of the hill and bears down on him. But he's done plenty around the place, including installing a new farm gate to keep the sheep in, sowing wheat, digging gardens, brewing beer, making cheese and a dozen other things besides preparing fantastic meals.



October 10

Finally, a nice day in which to shove my head inside a seething hive of bees and to come away feeling truly initated into the beekeeping circle of pain. Stung twice. I was wearing two pairs of my baggiest pants. and a beejacket I'd bought. I should have bought a suit. Every time I bent over I exposed an area of back (no plumbers crack, thank you), and of course I wasn't aware of the many thousands of bees currently having a piggy back and snapped it back down and over a load of them, one of which retaliated. I jolted a little but continued to remove frames and inspect them, initially mistaking a drone for a queen, and then realising that there was no queen excluder and it was while searching for brood that I noticed a number of bees on the wrong side of my bee suit, it was while bending forward to pick up a frame that I inadvertantly squished one and it let fly with it's stingy bit and I jolted to a standstill again and made my way across to a wary Trev with the 'Oh my god, they're in my suit!' squeal. We got 'em out and I waded back in to complete the job as best I could. Trev was taking photos from the safest distance (maximum zoom), and was chief fire putter inner, as twice my smoker died out. Not surprising really as I was in there for 173 photos. I didn't find the queen, I never quite got to the bottom of the hive, I figure wait till next week and have another go. I need to order a queen excluder, she needs to stay in the bottom two supers and be excluded from the honey area. I was so dismayed when I found brood where honey should be. Still, it did teach me a lot ... that I still know very little and to wear a longer shirt under my bee jacket next time.











October 15

We received this email from Louise of Ocean Grove, Victoria. I think it's fantastic what she's acheived and I've had to share it, (with her permission). We've mutually inspired each other. I might have to take up another vow of no junk food!

Hi,

I just wanted to say your book inspired me to come up with my own mini challenge. My house and garden are not as self sustaining as your former one in QLD so being power and water sufficient were not an option, and I live too far from work to safely bike there and back (28kms - public transport had to do). So I decided to go three months without any junk food, processed, canned, frozen, takeaway etc, or any food grown overseas, and to recycle all my waste - composting all junk mail that made it into my letterbox despite the sign, and only putting my waste bin out once at the end of the three months. My only concession was to eat at a proper restaurant with friends once or twice a fortnight. I also informed all of my friends of what I was doing so they wouldn't bring convenience food to my house or expect to order takeaway when they stayed for the weekend.

Well I made it which was quite a feat for me as I live three doors from my local milk bar and only one block from a large shopping centre that includes KFC, 3 restaurants, 6 other fast food outlets and a Safeway that is open 18 hours a day. Not once did I use any convenience or junk food, or any food from overseas. I cut my shopping down to once or twice a fortnight as opposed to 2-3 times a week, and finally managed to track down australian grown garlic and legumes. The money saved on junk food went towards planting a couple more fruit trees, a bed of perennial vegetables, herbs and some energy efficient modifications to the house. Before this I was a junk food addict and was appalled at how much money I spent on it. My health was excellent with low blood sugar levels, low cholesterol and low blood pressure. I had tests taken before and after and there was no change. I did however lose 10 kilos.

I doubt I will ever be as self sustaining as your household, but your book did make me more aware of energy savings around the house. I had already switched to fluorescent bulbs and was used to turning appliances off at the wall, along with composting all my food scraps and recycling my greywater, but after doing this I also:

• enclosed part of my verandah to make an airlock to the entrance
• made liquid garden tonic from weeds and seaweed
• cooked legumes and stews using the haybox method
• made my own solar oven and worm farm
• made a greenhouse for seed propagation
• insulated the pipes running from my gas hot water system to the house and adjusted the thermostat
• insulated around all my windows
• put draught stoppers on all my internal doors
• halved the amount of paper I use
• harvested rainwater from the roof of my garage
• peed into a bucket which was then diluted with water to use on the garden. My lemon tree thanks you.

I also held a sort of reverse garage sale. While I already post both offers and wants on Freecycle, I made a list of everything I wanted in terms of material goods and services, along with a list of all the material goods and services I could give in return. I gave a copy of this list to all my friends and neighbours. By doing this I got some mulch, woven weed mat, seedlings, a lemon tree, pomegranate cuttings, a feijoa bush, second hand windows, insulating tape and some labour to help me remove a rotten pergola, put up the verandah enclosure and do some work in the garden. In return I gave away plant cuttings, seeds and seedlings, two light fittings, a letterbox, a couple of ornaments, a sculpture, a painting and my labour in the form of helping pull down an old fence, some babysitting and lessons on basic computing. I also got to know my neighbours better, although this was sometimes a mixed blessing.

When money permits I will install a rainwater tank to harvest water from the house roof and year by year I will add to the edible section of my garden.

Congratulations on what you've accomplished. You can change the world one person at a time and now I'm nagging all my friends. Looking forward to your next book.

Lots of love

Louise

October 18

What a week!
It has continued to rain, with destructive winds (it tore the shed door off like peeling a piece of paper off a pad), while simultaneously picking up the small greenhouse (the one Trev and I have difficulties lifting together) and threw it fifty metres and it no longer ressembles anything or assembles to anything. It meant the sheep were then able to move in on the bamboos and massacre them. But that's not the dramatic news....

I went looking for a clucky hen (she had relocated) and instead found a bandicoot that had managed to get into the yard, but had failed to get back out, well its back end out, the poor thing was stuck half way through the chicken wire and had panicked itself into complete exhaustion while removing all its hair and inflicting deep wire cuts across its back. We cut it free whereupon it flopped onto the ground and panted weakly. We put a cardboard box over it (they're nocturnal and no doubt hawk bait) and left it to recover, and while it did seem to do so to some extent, not enough. So Trev bundled it into the box in a towel and bought it into my workplace where a young person on the Gearing Up program (volunteers mentor young learner drivers for their 50 hours supervised driving), agreed to take it into Parks and Wildlife. I asked her to please make sure the bandicoot was never nick-named 'Crash Bandicoot'. But our animal rescue story is not the dramatic news....

We finally had a nice day in which Trev could get out onto the house site. He was happy. I was happy. The phone rung at work and Trev on the very edge of mobile reception managed to say, 'Think I've cut an artery ...... driving.... doctor......' phone goes dead. I panic.
Ring him back, 'this person is on another call....'
Finally manage to get him long enough to ascertain that he's almost at the doctors. I rush to the car, and drive there arriving just after him. I knew he was already there by the number of people standing in the main street of Geeveston looking at the doctors surgery door (which is closing) with their jaws dropped and their eyes wide.
'Blood!' one of them says.
'Don't worry' I reassure them, 'he does this at least once a year'. Then take fright and run inside where Trev is standing sheepishly (he was very white) with a huge soaked bandage on his knee and a shoe full of blood.

I should spare you the gory details, but no, not my style. It's his vein he's shoved a freshly sharpened chisel through, and it's pumping blood out to the rhythm of his heart beat, which is pretty relaxed considering. He's such a man about it all I'm almost sick. Oh, alright, the sight of blood was the cause of any quease. The doctor filled the area with anesethetic with adrenalin which shut the vein down. The blood stopped, he inserted 3 stitches, a tetanus needle and gave me a sideways look and a 'he's lost about a stubby of beer', and a encouraging nod.
Say no more. I may not be Australian but I know the lingo.

Of course he insisted on driving himself home to a blood splattered house and enjoyed regaling us with the treasures of owning a dog.
'You know all the mess would be a whole lot worse if it wasn't for Nuju. He did a good job of licking it all up'.

That was the dramatic news. It's a bit of an anti-climax to announce I've tried to 'get a real blog', one where visitors get to have their say too. I'll be doing my best to integrate things better in the future, but it's a start.

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