Winter
hibernation, one reason we moved to Tasmania.
Real seasons, and when you have a farm things slow down a bit in winter.
Except we only just bought our farm and
there is far too much to be getting on with to spend the days sitting by the
fire. Not that we have a fire… well,
until we move house next week. Turns out
the place we are living now gets pretty cold during winter, it has been 6
degrees Celsius the last few mornings, and that doesn’t make for a great
environment to bring a new baby into.
And since Coreen’s parents bought a house the last time they came to
visit, we are moving over there until the house on the farm is finished. Their house has a wood fire and is better
insulated, so promises a much better and warmer home environment for when the
kid arrives.
On the house
front, we took a bit of time to come around to it but we have now decided to
convert one of the farm sheds into our new farmhouse. It meant that we weren’t plonking a house on
top of prime farming land, and will be cheaper and faster to build. It will also be smaller, forcing us to be a
bit more economical and efficient with our designs. Planning approval has been submitted so
fingers crossed that comes back soon so we can crack on. The goal is to have the place done by the end
of October for the start of the season, but since we will be living at Cor’s
parents’ house there isn’t a mad rush.
Cor is doing
well, getting bigger all the time. We
went out to the Apple Shed for dinner last Friday night to celebrate my last
night of drinking until the baby arrives.
From now on it is action stations, the hospital bag is packed and we are
ready to go, any time of the day or night.
We have prepped all the stuff for the kid, though I still think you need
to be an engineer to understand modern prams.
We have the names narrowed down and have some auspicious Chinese middle
names lined up too.
And the farm
stuff rumbles on. I have realised that
my drive to have the big silver wattles removed and the new fence put in during
April, then May, then June, may push out a bit more yet. You can spend a few hours over a chainsaw and
not make much of a dent in all the trees still growing in the way. We will certainly have lots of firewood in a
few years when it is all dry. I have
also spent a rainy day working with my new excavator, pulling out trees in a
section earmarked for new fruit trees.
One of our projects is to get a bunch of different fruit varieties in
and going so that in a few years we have all our own fruit on the farm (and not
just 5 types of apples!).
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| Putting the parents to work clearing the silver wattles |
We moved the
pigs to a new area up by the bush as their old area was rapidly getting too wet
and muddy. They have settled in well,
but Peter Pan showed us just how tough he was, ripping his new gate off the
wired hinges the first day, and pulling out the gate post the next, all to get
to Tinkerbell who was in season. We had
been trying to rest her before putting him back in with her but he was having
none of it. And it is hard to tell a
300kg boar with 3 inch tusks “not tonight, dear, I have a headache”. So we now have 3 months to get her back in
condition for another litter, poor girl!
The weaners are fattening nicely, and should make for great pork come
spring.
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| The new paradise paddocks |
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| Best view on the farm! |
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| What am I going to do with you Pan? |
We also have our
first lambs. Turns out our boy Aldo was
a bit too enterprising when we first brought him onto the farm (before we could
separate him) and there are now little white lambs everywhere. It is very early to have lambs (we were
planning on spring, not winter!) but we have had decent enough weather lately
so hopefully they all survive and make the table on Christmas day.
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| Princess in doggy heaven |
Nine male runner
ducks were sent off to Disneyland on one very productive day, and poor 83 the
cow was culled and turned into t-bones after losing her calf. A sad day for us. But there is a lot of meat in our two
freezers!
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| Disneyland day for ducks |
So I started
this blog thinking that I would just jot a few recent events down and focus on
the photos, and after a few minutes realised that there has been a heck of a lot
more going on than I thought. Perhaps
the next blog post will have photos of the baby, or the new house, or the
lambs, but in the meantime we keep dreaming of that winter hibernation. With a kid?
Maybe in a year or ten!
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| Plus we got our very first egg! |
