peas please!

Hello again folks. Yup, it has been a little while - a whirlwind week so to speak, but here I am, safely ensconced at Lake Lacuna on the Lacuna Sabbath. I LOVE not working on Fridays!

Carve up from safety of Lacuna Sabbath - I love my new job!

So, there has been no time for blogging - I am sure I have HEAPS to catch up on what everyone else has been up to, and I am BEHIND!

Last weekend I got to work on the new farm, planting 14.4 meters of peas - this translates to 2 rows of telephone peas, one row of snow peas and one row of sugar snaps. Here is a little picki.

After a sleep in this morning, I rode up to see if anyone had popped out their little heads yet, but no luck. There is still no sign of the broad beans either. I think it has just been too cold.

I also planted onion seedlings and they are settling in too. So much SPACE!!!!!

It is raining now (hooray!) which should help to speed up my little peas a bit.

another rant

So a couple of days ago, I was at big school, meeting with some of the sustainability folks, and on our way to our next meeting, one of them said "how 'bout we just get a coffee on the way"? and THEN, proceeded to purchase a takeaway coffee in a POLYSTYRENE cup!!!! Which was thoughtlessly discarded into the rubbish bin en route to our next meeting.

I didn't know what to say, or where to look.

I mean, I TRY to not be judgemental, but HONESTLY folks - the uni campus is where this person WORKS - EVERY DAY! They have an office, and a kitchenette, and tea and coffee making facilities. How hard is it to carry your own mug????? Your are meant to be TEACHING about sustainability - not just the theory, but the theory in ACTION. HFS people.

And this person is LOVELY, funny, caring, passionate, committed. but......

There are some basic things we know about ourselves, which with a bit of self awareness, should help us to plan.

Thing we know number 1: we need WATER. REGULARLY. We can safely predict that if we are out and about for the day, we will at some stage need to have a drink. So folks, WHY would anyone buy bottled water? Surely it is just a matter of taking a refillable water bottle or biddon or whatever you want to call it with you? You can refill them whenever you like!

Thing we know number 2: In addition to water, some of us need regular infusions of caffeine, so again folks, why not keep a coffee mug or traveling coffee mug handy??? Why would anyone ever be so SURPRISED by a sudden caffeine yearning that they would need to purchase one in a polystyrene cup? And, I have never found a cafe that refused to wash out my travel mug and refill it.

sheesh.

Sorry folks, I know I am ranting to the converted, but I was so shocked.

Does one polystyrene mug matter?

Anyhoo, those of you who know the duck herder may suspect that this rant was just a cheeky way to introduce you to a new purchase. Please welcome STANLEY.

Three lovely things happened to push me to purchase Stanley the life time granteed thermos.

1) my new job will require much longer treks into western NSW, further than the 1 travel mug filled up again at a cafe half way distance I have previously been able to get away with. Therefore, Stanley, who can keep water hot for 26 hours and cool for 28 will solve the vast distances in time and space between good soyachinos on the Lachlan Valley Way and into the bowels of NSW.

2) Rhonda as usual, never fails to inspire me!

3) At the ZOO last week, Ma and Pa Duck Herder turned up with a picnic lunch, and for the 3rd time in my life, Pa Duck Herder proceeded to impress me with the elegant construction of a lovely cup of tea sans fire in the middle of nowhere.

So, I did my research and discovered that if you are going to buy a thermos, you should by one called Stanley because he will last forever, and apparently, will survive being run over by a bulldozer (The Cougarnaut provided me with this extra bit of information based on river rehab experience). And I reckon that if you are going to buy something new, buy the best quality that you can!

So there you go, rant over. And, now I own a 1.9 litre thermos!

I may need to give that person at uni a coffee mug. A second had one.

I think I might.

Stuff.

Well, where has the week gone!?!




Nice things that happened include spending lots of time with my little sister and little Stampy. At 3 1/3, Stampy is completely adorable, gorgeous, and lots of fun. I don't know how my little sister ended up with such a well behaved daughter, as we were very naughty precocious little things!!!

Stampy loved the baby chickens, feeding the ducks and patting Maurice. We spent the WHOLE DAY at the zoo, which was most wonderful.



Pa Kettle aka the Cougarnaut came over after work with an excellent bottle of wine to watch spicks and specks AND the chaser. The Duck Herder has completed her marking and now has two days to relax before starting her new job.

Even more exciting, Sherdie the Rocket is planing a lightning visit to ONC* during September which meas that I may have the Rocket AND the Cougarnaut all here at the princess castle in the same time/space which is definitely something to look forward to, or at least make a batch of muffins for!

Oh, today I tried to enter Maurice in the Backyard Poultry's online Poultry Show. While taking some pickies, I got this one of his little head. Shows off his kind eyes, don't you think?


Mr Duck Herder is sad and depressed because he has damaged his calf again (lower leg folks, not the baby cow) which means his training is behind, he is in pain and facing the existential crisis of an aging athlete. I made muffins and let him lick the bowl, but even that didn't seem to help and he as gone to bed for a nap.

Thats Me. Cherio!

*Our Nation's Capital

duck proof fence

So what's been happening this week? Well, those little baby chickens are getting bigger and cuter by the second. Maurice is doing an excellent job chaperoning his lady friends and co on little excursions beyond the safe confines of the fluffy house. He is gentle and considerate, keeping an eye out for crows and calling out warnings whenever anything large flies over.

Yesterday I watched him call Jenni over to the rosemary bush, showing her how to pick off the little flowers and gobble them up. The little babies are just as happy to run under him as they are Nefley whenever someone calls out a warning. Maurice is, by all accounts, the quintessential gentleman, and a model for all menfolk everywhere, and of any species.

While neither Jenni or Nefley will tolerate being picked up or held, Maurice is quite happy to sit on anyone's lap, and to soak up the pats and oohing and aaahing about how soft and white and silly he is. Little 3 1/2 year old Stampy was most impressed with his friendliness and softness!

And what else? Well, drastic actions are being taken to de-duck and de-chook the veggies plots. Those wicked ducks have been constantly stomping on the rhubarb, and combined with a strong desire to get harvestable quantities of asparagus this year, here is the new duck proof fence around the asparagus patch. They were most unimpressed, and staged an immediate sit down outside the new fence. Here is a cranky Tabitha Jemima telling me just how she feels.

Also, work has started up at my new farm, with a bout of serious weeding and blood and boning. I need to move a heap of worm castings, but somehow, all the wheelbarrows in my life have flat tires at the moment, so obviously there is a little bit of maintenance to do first. I have transplanted some Jerusalem artichokes up there, and am keen to get some broad beans, peas and comfrey in as soon as I can, but can't do this until the worm castings have happened. sigh. I hate going to the hardware store. But I am very excited about those windrows of lovely worm castings!

And finally, today was the last classroom day of our bush tucker course which culminated in a delicious feast of wallaby sausages, kangaroo, emu salami, and lots of salads, bush tucker flavoured salad dressings and so on. Next Saturday we are going to converge on the Yaralumla Nursery Native Plant sale armed with our lists of botanical and common names, and the Saturday after, we are going to go up to Tidbinbilla to see the moth cooking stones and have a picnic.

There are a few species I would love to introduce into our garden, but more about that next week, subject to a successful bounty of little tubestock of selected varieties!

And finally, I have been thinking a lot about kiwi fruit this week. My beautiful vines are starting to swell, and hopefully this year will be the year that we get our first significant harvest. For folks who are interested, Kiwi vines are either male or female, and you need about 1 male vine for every 9 or so females, and if you grow them from seed or don't know what you have, here is how you tell:

The flower on the left is from a male vine, and the flower one the right is from a female. The main difference is that the female flowers have the white thingies in the middle, and the males don't. I have included this picture as a bit of a spell, because in a couple of months I want to be able to reproduce it with photos of my OWN flowering kiwi vines! fingers crossed OK?

Roots

This is a picture of my Nana, little sister, little me and the farm I grew up on. Look at those tomatoes! The secret of the duck herder family veggies was of course, water from the septic tank.


I love this photo. It shows my little sister and I just as we were - wild, free little bush babies - tossing our manes in the wind and roaming for miles. I still remember that blue and while dress (one of the few I owned), and how it was so much easier to wear my big brother's gumboots rather than my own.


I still miss my Nana. We were very close and I loved her very much. But my little sister is coming to visit THIS Thursday. With MY niece. All the way from Brisbane. When my little niece was born, I flew up to Brisbane to be with my little sister for the birth. And that little "Stampy" as we called her, just refused to come out. I was up there for weeks and weeks - phoning work every couple of days saying - "There's still no baby......." but finally she arrived, and I was in love, and soon they will be here. yay!

Daphne, Miriam and Broccoli

One of the good things about living in a cold climate is daphne. Just when winter seems like it is going to last for ever, there it is, that wonderful, sweet, fruitloop fragrance that fills the backyard. Every year I think to myself - hmm, I must take some cuttings of the daphne this year, and every summer I forget. In the mean time, there are jars of daphne everywhere - filing up the house with that wonderful smell, and everyone who visits leaves with a bunch, and everyone I visit is gifted a bunch. For a month or so each winter, everything is daphne!

All this leaving for work early and getting back after dark has meant that I have missed many of the regular visitors to the garden. So it was lovely to go out this morning and find Mr and Mrs Kind Parrot up in the box alder. (Mr Parrot is out of sight, stuffing his face with the little handful of seed I put there for them) We used to feed lots of wild parrots, but then the cockies turned up, which was fine, until they started eating our house if there wasn't any seed. So those naughty little vandals spoiled it for everyone! But sometimes, when these two turn up, they wait just long enough to get my attention and for me to give them a little handful of sunflower seed. If you look carefully, you can see the box alder about to flower (yay! its is almost spring!)

And finally, Miriam wanted to let us know that he is pretty over the whole baby chicken thing, and really, my time would be better spent focusing on DUCKS. It must be coming into spring, because he is getting all gorgeous and aggressive, chasing me whenever I walk past, pulling the tags on my blundstones and generally being cute. Hello Miriam, we love you! and yes, there is no one more handsome than you mate.

Speaking of daphne, an old friend I visited today (with a bunch of gratefully received daphne of course) just phoned to say that the duck herder broccoli I gave her was just fabulous. (well, she knows how to make a Duck Herder happy - just gratuitously praise her produce - simple!)

beginings and ends

Hooray! Today was my last day at work. I don't even know what to say about that, so instead, here are some baby photos taken this morning. It was way after dark when I got home, but Mr Duck Herder reports that everyone got downstairs OK (bump bump bump) and (with some help) everyone got back upstairs to bed safely. Lets just hope these little chickens are smarter than Maurice and they get the hang of the ladder sooner rather than later!

Well, that's all. I need to process this whole changing jobs thing a bit I think. Seeya.