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DRIVING IN THE SLOW (BUMPY) LANE
One aspect of living outside a town is that you have to drive to get anywhere else. From being a one-car family with a lovely efficient Toyota Prius and several bicycles, we now have three cars, one...
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TANK-TIPPING
In some places people find entertainment in running up to a sleeping cow and tipping her over. Round here, instead, we like to tip our tanks over. Especially the empty ones that are leaking and need...
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LITTLE BUSHFIRES
We went out yesterday hoping that it was the perfect day for a small bushfire. We’ve had a dry couple of weeks, and rain was predicted for the evening. Lovely. I wanted to set fire to some grass in a...
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CHICKS
We are now keeping a tropical bathroom for our new chicks. It’s a good thing Mum’s not here as I don’t think she’d appreciate having to share with little squeaking creatures however cute they are....
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THE EARTH MOVES: PART ONE
Months ago, we arranged for some work to be done on the access tracks on both sides of the river. I hoped to have them done in time for tree-planting and fencing, to save us all bumping and slithering...
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THE EARTH MOVES PART TWO – RAMPING UP
A cattle ramp is the first thing you see when you enter most farms. They’re easy to drive over, when they’re not buckled and bent by huge trucks, but they’re not always great at keeping sheep and...
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THE EARTH MOVES PART 3 – ROCKING ON
It’s amazing how projects grow. I wanted water for my vegie garden. I wanted a gravity feed water tank that would allow intermittent use of drippers and taps that tend to freak out our heavy-duty...
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BAD FENCES
There’s a saying about fences. And it’s true. I have an extra one: “If you want to plant trees on a grazing property, you’d better have good fences.” Not as catchy. Only a couple of years ago I was...
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WEEDS – LIFE IN A THISTLE
Weevils are cute. No, really. Beetles tend to be sturdy and a little alien, flies have those weird multifaceted eyes, but weevils are like the Disney version of an insect, with big eyes and a long...
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WEEDS – THE BOTANY OF UNDESIRABILITY
capeweed (arctotheca calendula) According to Michael Pollan in The Botany of Desire there are plants that, just by chance, have turned out to be something we really want. Potatoes as food, apples for...
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MAKING HAY
This spring growing season has been a big one. Extra troops in the form of certified Angus cattle had to be brought in to eat down some of the extra grass. Now the pastures have all dried off in the...
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WINDMILL TILTING
For the last couple of years the old windmill by Mullion Creek has been sitting idle, creaking a little when the wind blows. A plumber told me that windmill repair is a great job to be in – because...
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SMOKE ON THE HORIZON
The problem with hills is that when there’s a fire, you can’t really see anything. SMOKE For one thing, there’s smoke. Tuesday started with a rolling thunder and scattered rain. Lightning struck...
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SEASONAL JOY: APRICOTS AT LAST
Fresh, juicy, aromatic apricots are one of the joys of Christmas time in Australia. So I was horrified to see that criminals were in the garden stealing our treasures. I ran out shrieking swear words...
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WHO GETS THE RAIN?
From our verandah lookout at the bottom of the river valley, it often seems that summer storms pass us by on either side. Whenever the weather report says “showers” I assume that means “rain for other...
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TAKING TO THE RIVER
The Murrumbidgee River is a significant part of our landscape here. But it’s only in the summer that we really get to play with it. Charles and his cousins Will and Alex had intended to go out in our...
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EATING HISTORICAL FRUIT
In the last couple of years we’ve netted the most accessible of the peach trees that have naturalized along Mullion Creek to keep the cockatoos from eating them. The whole operation is worse than...
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WASHING AWAY – PART ONE – DAM IT UP
Topsoil is that thin band of living matter that lies across the landscape. Except when it is undermined or dissolved by rain and carried downhill into first the gullies, then the waterways, leaving...
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WASHING AWAY PART TWO – STICKS AND STONES
One way to stop topsoil from disappearing from under our feet is to use loose vegetation. Anything from grass and weeds to big logs will help catch it as it flows past. The Southern ACT Catchment Group...
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RIPPING INTO OUR PROBLEM PADDOCK
Tree planting doesn’t always go as planned. In 2011, before we actually moved back to Australia, I spoke to Graham Fifield at Greening Australia about being part of their WOPR (Whole Paddock...
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