Normal service is resumed, Merry Christmas!

Well after my last post, as you can imagine we have just been happy to get into the farm work.  I look around the farm and see so many things to do that sometimes I wonder what we have been doing the last couple of months.  Then I put together a blog post and it all comes flooding back.  It really is a full life.  Here are some photos so you can share in that “holy dooley!!” moment.  Sorry about the lack of Coreen photos, she takes all the good ones!

A walk up to Hartz with Mike and Tig...

...produces staggering views

Mike and Tig coming down from Hartz Mountain.

The lad styling it up on the farm (note the eczema on his cheeks).

The Kingston Black grafts get jumping...

and the Frequin Rouge are also looking good!

Our new litter of piglets grow so fast.

A couple of pigs from our last litter of piglets end up in a charcuterie course run by our old WWOOFer host Mandy.

Making sausage at Mandy's.

Our salamis hanging to dry, they taste great!

All our bacon and pancetta from the course, so much fun to make.

A fine day at the Apple Shed, but Julian is unimpressed by his lack of cider.

I tell him he will get cider later, see the difference?

We put our new found skills into practice on a couple of our pigs...

...and produce a staggering array of pork!

Julian is growing almost as fast as our piglets.

Taking Mary up the paddock to join the flock.

Our shed conversion gets going in earnest...

...the slab goes down...

...the framing is up...

...and the weatherboards start to go on.

You take a change table where you find it!

We have a lot of apples, Matt showing our wonderful Japanese backpackers how to thin them out.

Look, bacon seeds!

We start bottling our own home brew...

...but probably not enough for Christmas!

Poor Julian ends up in hospital for a couple of days this week when his eczema turns nasty.

Dave and Toddy getting our Christmas lambs "undressed".

Now that's a lot of Christmas lamb!

Such a great pic.

Lots of Braeburns...

and plenty of others!  It will be a busy harvest come May.

So that is it, have a Merry Christmas!!

The thing we said we’d never do…

… is get married.  We never really saw the point.  A lot of money spent on a big to-do where you don’t get to talk to your friends who come and you stress out about a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter, and for what?  How could we be any more committed after almost 17 years?  Hell, we have a house together, and now a farm and a baby on the way.  We should be committed.  And surely it doesn’t really matter these days?

Well, just like having a baby (the other thing we said we’d never do), we caved.  We decided that an excuse to get both sets of parents together for the first time in something like 5 years was too good to pass up.  But as usual, we had to do it our own way (with a bit of prompting from Samara!).  We decided to get married on the farm by the dam, and follow it up with a barbecue reception for a few local friends in the shed.  Not a big deal.  We wouldn’t have even told people it was going to be a wedding if we knew that “just a barbecue” might not be enough to pull people out of their routines and get our parents to fly in to Tassie.

It worked out marvellously.  Mostly.  We found an old wood fired barbecue on the farm and got that going great, but when we arrived for the ceremony after heading home to get changed we found that the bottom had swung open, dumping the coals and fire onto the ground and setting fire to the grass, just outside the shed where all our guests were waiting!!!  Ross swung into action and with a bit of ingenuity from him and Roy we rescued the fire, and prevented our shed from burning down in the process.

I must confess to being a little stressed on the day.  Having both sets of parents in town and combining farm jobs with wedding preparations (sorry, barbecue preparations), and baby stuff left me feeling a bit under pressure.  But once it all started it was all good.  The ceremony lasted all of 10 minutes, one of the platypus came up to say hello, we signed the bits and pieces, had a few photos (thanks soooo much Cassy!), we walked past the pigs (as you do), and then kicked off the barbecue.

The barbecue staple was our Wiltshire lamb chops together with lamb “wedding bangers” that we made earlier in the week.  Plus we had asked everyone to bring a plate (how many weddings where you have to do that?) so the salads and desserts were well covered.  Half a dozen bottles of Ralph and Jane’s Wombat Springs Pinot Noir, plus a roaring fire on a chilly starry night, what else could you ask for at a party?

The release of the pressure got to me a little, I drank a bit of red, and then when we got home hit the Scotch with the father-in-law, so Coreen spent her first night as a married woman looking after her sick (inebriated) husband.  Begin the marriage as you mean to go on I say, not to mention that she has been doing this for years so has plenty of practice.  I must have become a bit of a lightweight since leaving London… that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.  Oh, and this story is only on the blog because Coreen has been telling it to everyone high and low and you were bound to hear it eventually anyway.

Our thoughts were with all of you who we wish could have been here.  But then we would rather see you all one-on-one anyway instead of at a big shindig, so to make up for missing our wedding you will just have to come visit instead!

So I will save the farm shenanigans for another post, now for some wedding pics!

We all start walking over to the dam for the ceremony

The ceremony

The Chinese tea ceremony (ie. serving the tea to the parents): an important part of any Chinese wedding

Ross leaps into action and saves the day (and the barbecue, and the shed!)

The barbecue back up and running, a source of warmth when the sun went down

When is the best time to visit Our Mates’ Farm (or Tassie for that matter)?

Well, what are you doing tomorrow?  I say that only half kidding, as Tassie always has something special no matter what time of year.  But if you want to really experience a lot, and get some stable weather (well as stable as it gets), and eat some great food, February-March has to be it.  Now keep in mind I am only a new Tasmanian, and I am probably missing out stacks of stuff true locals will tell me I have missed, but after a year down here this is what I think.

In February-March the fruit is on, depending on when you are here you will get cherries, or nectarines, or early apples, or blueberries or blackberries.  For the most part you will get cool nights, warm days, and empty beaches after the kids have gone back to school.  There may be a bit of rain, but it isn’t wet.  On the downside there are more caravans and campervans on the road plus the occasional fire-ban day/week.  But the temperatures mean you can enjoy a beer in the sun in the afternoon, and a glass of red at night.  And if you get a chilly night, a wood fire.

The Taste of Huon festival is on, and after seeing how big it was last month, the secret is definitely out: The Huon Valley has some of the best food in Tassie.

You also get a bit more of the people.  Kids have gone back to school, the hay is in the shed, and there is a bit more time for them enjoy the late fruits of summer before the autumn rains begin.

So these are my thoughts on when it is best to visit, but in reality any time we get to see our friends and share a cider or two is a special one for us.  Hope to see you soon!

And what we have been up to lately…

A few of “our mates” decided that April is the best time to visit us here in Tassie, so over the course of the month we had:

-          My cousin Dan from Canada

-          Our mates Jane and Jonathan and their two kids

-          Our mate Mark from London

-          My sister Charlene from Queensland

Dan worked his butt off with us on the one day he was here, woodchipping like a demon and filling, then emptying, TWO (!) trailer loads of woodchips.  We hope he brings his gorgeous wife next time as we still haven’t met.  Of course we won’t make her work!

Dan and Tinkerbell (with one of her tiny piglets)

Jane and Jonathan had the kids to tend to, but despite this Jonathan showed off his apple picking chops (it helps that he is like 7 feet tall) helping us pick stacks of apples.  He hardly needed a ladder.  A Sunday session at the Apple Shed (awesome!) really set the tone for these guys.

Matt, Oliver and Jonathan get picking, old school style.

This time with Cor, Jane and Amelia in the pic as well.

Mark threw himself into apple picking as well and worked like a demon, but it was what he brought to Tas that impressed me the most.  Mark makes gin, and not the bathtub-you-are-going-to-go-blind gin, but a gin that destroys anything made commercially by the big boys and stacks up very well against other premium “small batch” stuff too.  Straight up, with tonic, or in cocktails.  Don’t just take my word for it, he is being supported by some of London’s finest cocktail and distillery guys.  Not bad for a former dive instructor from Hay!  It was amazing to see how far his knowledge base has come, and great to see the same “fire in the belly” we have for great food.  And now great gin!

Trying out some of the local fare at the Lark Distillery

A bottle of Mark's 58 Gin, we are keeping one to celebrate building our house

We took time out from picking for Mark and I to go for a paddle and a fish.  The final score was 5-4 to him!

Charlene came for a week and I thought it would be a cool idea for Coreen to take her on a bit of a road trip for a few days, so they headed off together to Hobart (MONA), Port Arthur and Freycinet.  It looks like they had an absolute blast while I was tending the farm.

Choppo (Charlene's nickname, short for Pork chop), meets a real pork chop

The girls enjoy Freycinet

We also had a flying visit from our legendary WWoOFers Scott and Hannah before they left their apple picking work to return to the mainland.  They came in and with their new-found skills picked a few bins in no time as a favour, which we really appreciated.  Of course their flash picking-bags from Calvert Bros may have helped (I have gear-envy), but it was great to see them again.  They truly have set a high benchmark for other WWoOFers to follow!

Scott and Hannah on their flying visit.  Look at those flash picking-bags!

So that is it for now, we will have parents here again soon, but I will try to be a bit more proactive on the updates!

Cheers from your mates on Our Mates’ Farm.