Making Up for Lost Time.

After going through my massive pile of photos I have decided to break them up into a couple of  folders and make several posts rather than try to use them all at once.
Some friends of ours, Marg and George  have been trialing wicking beds in their garden and invited us to come and have a look and so we decided to make some,albeit on a much smaller scale.
We had a couple of old laundry baths and bathtubs that we decided would be useful for that purpose.

First Brian sealed the washtubs to make them waterproof and then added
 poly pipe that had holes drilled  along the  horizontal length.

He then added scoria rock to about 20 odd centimetres

A hole was drilled to act as a run off water release in case of over watering from rain.
We purchased a roll of Terra Firma ( white geo tex fabric) and we placed a layer over the scoria before adding the potting mix/soil mix.

We then fill the vertical pipe section with water(the scoria section acts as a water well)

These beds now only require  watering every few days and up to a week in cooler or wet weather.
When the plants are initially put in they require a slight watering for a few days until the wicking process kicks in.

We planted cucumbers and basil in these two tubs and have been picking wonderful quantities of  both over the last few weeks.
We then decided to use up a few old bathtubs that we had saved and  after using the same process  have planted them with spinach and jalapeno chillies. Our granddaughter was here to help her Pop with these two beds. They also are coming along nicely.
We are slowly going to convert all our existing beds over to this  style of gardens, but we will wait until each  crop finishes and change over before we replant.

Towards the end of October we travelled to Dubbo to celebrate my Mother's 94th birthday.

Mum is doing really well, living independently ,I am very proud of her.
All of my siblings were there plus a few of the  extended family and we had a lovely night out.

About 8 weeks ago  we noticed that a stray cat was hanging around, so Brian put out the cage trap  and we managed to catch this sweet little grey female cat.

She very quickly made herself at home, sadly it looked like someone had dumped her near our place.

She has weedeled her way into our hearts very quickly, and the next thing we know a week later she delivered 3 very sweet little babies.(Yes I know we were gullible and should have known better)

We advertised the kittens on our local buy swap and sell to go for free to people and we were lucky to immediatly find homes for two of them. The little grey kitten has just left here today at 6-7 weeks of age. One of the tabbies will go to it's new home after Christmas.
We still have to find a home for a female tabby, we have decided to keep the mother cat and have her desexed, she has such a lovely nature, we love her.
Brian has been busy fixing lots of little jobs around the place, he recently put up a couple of stained glass cupboard doors that a friend had given me when she dismantled her kitchen  when replacing it.

I love them as outdoor art on our walls, I also found an old  piece that used to be on our house on the coast and we put it on our metre box, when I find the  house numbers in their safe hiding place we will add them too.

Our garden as small as it is ,is producing well,

Our beautiful chickens are producing well, and we sell our surplus eggs at our local craft shop.

I recently have had two market  days, one a church boot sale and the other a show and shine car show.
I had stalls at both events,

This one above is at the boot sale and below is at the show and shine.I sold Chilly Mango sauce, chilly tomato sauce, chilly jellies and mustard pickles.I had quite successful days at both days.

Our friend Rob that comes out to help Brian with the bees came and after checking them decided not to rob the hive this time. As it has been so dry there is a lack of flowers and pollen, and he suggested that it would be wise to leave the bees as they were and if things don't improve soon we may actually have to return some  previously sourced honey to them as feed.

I have been making  carry bags from our poultry feed bags, they are not beautiful but they are  certainly heavy duty and practicle and can carry good heavy weights.

I am hoping that I may be able to market these at our local craft shop along with our eggs and sauces ect.They are basic and I am not the worlds greatest sewer, so we will just see where it goes.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, we are heading to the coast  over Christmas to spend time with our kids and grandkids , we are really looking forward to it.
Take care until we catch up again,
Take care,
Cheer
Jane and Brian.

A Country Catch up With Coastal Friends.

Where do I start!
 I just can't seem to find enough time to keep up with the blog posts. The Facebook page always seems to get done as it is maintained  and updated in small few minute bursts, travelling in the car, taking a short break on my mobile phone. The blog takes a lot longer, dedicated time  of a few hours at a time to transfer and edit and resize photos( our internet is slower and limited, so this is necessary) and then time to actually compile it, So the blog seems to  slip  into the to do later box  all to often. I love doing  the blog and  will just have to find  the time to  sit and do it as I don't want to give up on it.
We recently had some visitors come to stay, two girls from the coast, Les and Sue that I catch up with in November every year to celebrate  Les's Mothers birthday.
We usually hit the city, Sydney a couple of times, Melbourne one year, Newcastle and this year we decided to base ourselves here in the country.
The girls arrived on Saturday afternoon  and our first activity was a high tea  on Sunday at a lovely rustic cafe in Dubbo, called The Little Darling Cafe.

We were joined by  my Mother, and my eldest daughter, two sisters in law and another good friend.
It was a lovely venue, the food was wonderful , and I think we did  the memory of Rita's Birthday proud.(we always try to include a high tea in our celebrations every year).
The next day we decided to venture to the Pilliga Forest which is about 45 minutes to an hours drive from here.
Firstly we  visited The Pilliga Discovery Centre at Baradine,

This was a wonderful  centre to visit  offering an insight  via a timeline around the building of the history  of the Pilliga  and the local aboriginal and  more recent footprints on the forest.
We then drove to see the Sculptures In The Scrub. These to tell the story of the local aboriginal  history in the area, all the statues have been made by local artists in collaboration with local people whose  ancestors had lived in the area.
Each statue represents different aspects of life and history in the Pilliga.
There is a  great  walking trail circuit (3klms)  and the sculptures are located at strategic important locations around  Dandry gorge.

The next one a sculpture of an aboriginal man and his child is my favourite,

The back of this sculpture shows the landscape and history of the Warrumbungle  Mountains.

The next collection of mosaic covered sculptures shows  life, from the seed, to seedling to maturity.

 After descending down from the top of the ridge you then wander the trail along the floor of Dandry Gorge where the scenery changes dramatically and we were lucky enough to see some birds and kangaroos and wallabies along the way.

 As we walked along, looking back up to the  ridge we were able to see the sculpture of the man and child from a totally different angle.

At the end of the walk there are excellent facilities , camping area  with great BBq's tables and chairs, toilets and information boards.

We had a lovely picnic lunch  at this spot and then headed off to see  The Sandstone Caves which are also located in the Pilliga forest.
The Sandstone Caves  have  a 1.7 klm circuit walk which is certainly well worth the small effort  for the outstanding  views .

The sandstone was just amazing.

The caves are just breathtaking, I cannot  find words to describe them.Mother Nature at her absolute best.

I have lived in this area on and off for many years and this was our first visit to both the sculptures and the Sandstone Caves, we certainly will be returning  back to both of these places when we have visitors to the farm.
Our friends  both told us that they really enjoyed the days activities and would recommend  them to their friends.
The next day we visited the Warrumbungle  National Park, firstly checking out the wonderful  newly reopened Information Centre, replacing the original one that was destroyed in the tragic 2013 fires.
We visited the Siding Springs Observatory and took in the fabulous views.

This photograph of the observatory

was not taken by me but one that I found on Wickipedia as the photo I took was not a good one.

After our wander through and around the observatory we then headed to  The Blue Wren Bush cafe
at Pilliga Pottery for lunch .This great place is also known as Barkala Farmstay.

At the pottery you can see the process first hand, my favourite  bit is watching the  talented  artists hand drawing the beautiful  birds, flowers and dragons on the pottery pieces.
We had a wander around the grounds, stopped at The Tree of Life and had a wander around The old School House where the children of the German  potters were educated in the early days of the pottery.

We had a wonderful  time showing our guests around our area, we think  our Rita(Les's Mum) would have enjoyed her country travels for her birthday too and I am sure she would have enjoyed all the scrumptious food that we enjoyed along the way, I wonder where we will celebrate  her birthday next year.
We have been so busy here at the farm, having three groups of visitors three  weeks in a row , it was wonderful  and we enjoyed every minute of it, but were exhausted at the end.
I will try and update again soon, hopefully in the next few days, but if I don't manage  to get back here  I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas  with your family and friends and I will  be back again in the new year.
Take care until we meet again,
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.