After New Year my Brother contacted us to let us know that he would like to come to the Farm from Sydney for a short visit.
He occasionally comes to see us and Brian always tries to accomplish a few jobs while he has the extra set of hands.
The first thing they did was to remove an old apple tree that in 16 years has never produced an apple bigger than a golf ball on the very rare seasons that it has actually fruited.
The uprooted apple tree was placed over the fence for the sheep to strip ,which they proceeded to do immediately.
There had been a hump in the front yard where pipes used to run to a collection tank and once that tank was relocated the pipework was no longer required.
As Brian dug down he found 12 rubber car tyres, pipes and a railway sleeper.
The area was leveled off, and Brian seeded the area with grass seed.
Due to the severe heat and low rainfall we currently have Brian has been drawing a pod of water regularly from the river which he has been spraying onto the newly seeded area and some also onto the gardens when possible.
Sadly the grass hasn't taken very well even with the regular watering,due to the extreme temperatures that we have been regularly experiencing,
and also that we had to leave the farm for a few days have all contributed to it's failure. We will try again once these horrible hot days come to an end.
While my brother was here we visited town and called into the hotel for a few drinks and a catch up with some people my brother hadn't seen for a while.
When I went out back to the beer garden enclosure , these beautiful feathered friends were getting a drink and a feed that the publican had placed out for them.
Mother Nature is so cruel at the moment and the animals are doing it very hard so every little bit helps .We are also leaving containers of water around for anything that needs a drink.
Brian has now fixed the useless leaf strainers that we had installed into the down pipes of the gutter system as they were constantly blocking and allowing the water off the roof to pour out and be lost.
The solution of a sleeve inserted into the down pipe is not overly pretty but with our last small storm and 11 mms of rain we received all of it was fully harvested with no waste.
I have been cooking some more of my individual portion controlled meals for the freezer and also made up a couple of batches of spinach and ricotta sausage rolls also for the freezer.
They are handy for when we have vegetarian guests or just for anytime finger food snacks with drinks.
Brian has been doing a few lawn mower repairs as there hasn't been much use for them over the last 6 months or so, but this week they actually got to be used as the few storms that we had have finally produced some grass albeit scattered and patchy.
I have painted a clear textured anti slip lacquer onto the timber slatted mats that Brian made for around the backup shower that we built up in the back shed.
We installed a shade cloth blind on the front verandah in conjunction with the clear plastic blind that was already there to make a slightly more protected area for some of my potted plants to survive the heat in. It makes a good shaded little area.
Our blended family of guinea fowl s are doing well with the two Mum's doing a wonderful job of raising their 16 babies.
Our mother cat is settling in well and making herself right at home.
We have decided to keep the female kitten so that they are good company for each other, we still have to arrange to have the kitten desexed in the near future.
We did a spot of babysitting this last weekend, our next door neighbours had to travel away so they asked us to look after their sweet little Spoodle called "Princess"
Brian and Princess were inseparable and she decided that he made a good substitute for her dad.
An old friend and just up the road neighbour from Newcastle contacted me and asked if she and her boys could catch up in the holidays as she was working in a nearby town teaching swimming lessons, and we happily agreed.
Clare had never been here before but her two boys had, many times with their grandparents who used to come here regularly ever since we have owned the farm. Sadly we lost Ken but Pat still comes quite often to visit with us and is due to come again soon.
When the boys were here one Spring many years ago we took this cute picture of them on our back steps.
Of course as soon as the boys arrived, much to their dismay I wanted to re-create the photograph, and here it is.
I think they look so sweet, I told them that even when they are adults and they return we will do this again and again....
We went for a wander up the hill behind the house to show them the great view towards the Warrumbungles and Siding Springs Obervatory.
After we came came back down the hill we also checked out the beautiful sandstone rock face behind the house where there a couple of small caves.
It was so lovely to catch up with our visitors, the boys are growing up well and are now happily living on the north coast, having moved north about the same time as we moved full time to the farm. Hopefully they will all return again before too long.
We are struggling with this extended period of high temperatures, we get done with our outdoor tasks early in the day and then hibernate inside under the evaporative roof air conditioner until is is bearable enough to go back out.
We have been keeping busy and the days have passed quickly, January is almost over and I just can't see where it went.
There is always something to do, life is certainly never boring or dull.
So until we meet again,
take care of you and yours,
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.
