With considerable rainfall in the last month or two, it seems that we have had a good winter in the mid-North this year. If the look of our cars are anything to go by, you’d have to agree that we’ve had some decent rainfall.

July was above average, making up a little for a poor June, while August saw the average fall – around 81mm. See more at the BOM site. 

Living out of town with only dirt roads connecting us is enough to keep cars dirty, but the council have decided to run some full scale repairs on a large section of one of these roads and have been interrupted many times by heavy rainfall. Therefore the road is regularly a quagmire with six inch deep slosh to wade through. Sometimes I think I should wear a Captain’s hat as the Patrol steers like a boat!

I’m glad that Meg has a 4WD now as she’s had to use it a number of times just heading to and from work. It would have been touch and go in her old car. 

My car has seen even more of this, due to my work with farmers around the district. Some of the roads to the farms can be very waterlogged after heavy rain and I feel that I am justified in running a “proper” 4WD. Its funny watching clods of mud fly out the front of the vehicle, only to land back on the windscreen as you drive through them and I’m now used to keeping a finger on the wipers to wash away the muddy water that seems to jump out in front of me whenever there is a puddle about.

In talking with locals, it seems that this year is a return to Clare winters of old, where it rains regularly from June through to August. Some have been saying that we haven’t had a winter like this for ten years. 

The garden has definitely taken a turn for the better with longer days and sunshine triggering lush vegetation. We’re eating broccoli every day and have an occasional feed of potatoes, leeks, English spinach, spring onions, bok choi, radishes, parsley, coriander and Chinese cabbages. The broad beans are coming along, as are the peas and garlic.I’m busy planting as many spuds as I can to try and keep up with strong demand! Each meal I try to cut at least one eye from each spud and have been storing them in egg cartons until I get a moment to plant. Hopefully this will result in at least two plants to harvest all year around when things really get going and that will make us self sufficient in potatoes.  

One of the chores that has come back with the end of winter is mowing the weeds and grass around our living areas in preparation for snake season. I’ve mowed the last couple of weekends and the grass seems to be taking this as a challenge, jumping back out of the ground.

In tight spaces where the ride on mower has a bit of trouble, I mowed with the standard garden mower and collected a trailer load of clippings that went straight to the open compost area. The differed aspects of the garden are slowly taking shape, with the compost and soil creation area (dirt, manure, organic matter) at the top of the hill above the vegie garden as most of the ingredients are delivered by trailer and it is easier to carry things downhill with a wheelbarrow. The other advantage is that any nutrients that wash away will wash towards the vegie garden and not away from it.

There are always things to do, but I feel that the vegie garden is now supporting us to a fair degree and I get a great sense of accomplishment from that.

View the photo gallery for more pics.

The climate in South Australia tends to hot, dry summers with daytime temperatures constantly over 30 degrees. The last week has been particularly hot with New Years Eve reaching 42 degrees.

Meg and I were in Adelaide, after catching up with Dave and Cindy and were checking out some used cars with an idea of replacing Meg’s trusty little Holden Nova with a small four wheel drive.

The combination of heat, traffic and dealing with used car salesmen had tensions raised and I’d noticed a slight vibration in the Patrol as we drove between lots. After a brief stop at Tea Tree Plaza I had even visually checked all of the tyres before heading off.

The vibration increased and I coasted to try to resolve the problem as potential causes ran through my head; wheel balance suddenly out, a blocked fuel injector, fuel pump problems, air conditioner – the list was beginning to mount when BANG! The right hand rear tyre blew!

So, in stifling dry 42 degree heat, I jacked up the car and changed the tyre.

All hope of looking at cars was gone as we drove on and out of Adelaide. I was hot, soaking wet and frustrated, worried that the cause of one blowout might also be the cause of another. We cruised slowly home and discussed potential cars for Meg.

The heat had also affected the vegie garden and my grand plan of irrigating a garden from our shower, sink and washing machine runoff seems to have hit a snag. The pumpkins that had been stretching out across the ground were crispy, the zucchini turned light brown and had a crinkly sound in the breeze and all of the young fruit was shrivelled.

Some of the fruit trees were withered and the grass was crunchy underfoot.

All of this happened in one day. I had watered the previous morning, knowing that I wouldn’t return until the following night and hoping that it would be enough, but dry winds and temperatures over 40 degrees are powerful.

It got me thinking again of our fire prevention and protection plans and I looked over the paddock that the cows have now reduced to stubble, glad that we’d worked hard to reduce this fire risk.

The next few months will be stressful as the temperatures continue to soar and we wait for rain in March or April.

As the days grew warmer out of winter, I was looking forward to the new growth in the garden and explosion of vegies onto the table.

What I hadn’t counted on was the huge growth of grass around the place. It was starting to become a bit of a problem as high grass and snakes seem to go together.

The first sighting had been after our last party on the October long weekend. Raph had seen the brown snake as he walked back to the shed, prompting a frenzy of mowing and a clean up around the area.

Since then, I’d tried to keep on top of the mowing with the standard Victa mower, pushing up and down the hill and throughout the vegie garden and fruit trees. I’d had some success, but then a bit of extra IT work, the fencing project and some weekend trips to Adelaide mounted up and suddenly I hadn’t mown for a month!

During this time, the grass had taken off again and I’d had a few confrontations with various browns. Raph and I had successfully relocated one near the shed (relocated = relocating the snake’s head far away from the rest of the body) using a combination of long handled spade, rake and lightning fast ninja skills.

I’d seen a second hand ride on advertised at a reasonable price and so Pa and I went for a look and ended up bringing it home.

How much quicker is it to use a ride on mower to cut the grass? In a couple of hours I had not only mowed all of the grass that I normally would, but had extended the mown area significantly.

Meg approved and promptly named the mower “Penfold”. Apparently this was a reference to the lights on the front looking like glasses and the old “Dangermouse” cartoon that she watched as a kid.

So Penfold now sits patiently at the wood shed, waiting for the grass to grow and the opportunity to put around the hillside.

The major advantage I’ve seen so far is the increased visibility when you walk around. I used to hear the grass move and not know whether it was a snake, lizard or “other”. Now I can keep an eye on the ground around me as I walk and pick up movement quickly.

Raph and I used this increased visibility just last week when we were working on the new water tank. We’d both walked past the snake, but Raph saw it in the mown area and we relocated it easily.

Raph took a picture of this one on his phone and posted it at his site.

The grass is drying off a lot now and I’m glad that we kept on top of it. The fire season is well and truly here and reducing the fire fuel load is pretty important. The cows are eating steadily through their paddock and Penfold clears around the shed, toilet, vegies and fruit trees.

All we need now is to hook the fire pump up to the water tank and I’ll be a lot happier.

A few months ago we moved out of the caravan and into the shed. This major milestone also meant that the van had to be cleaned up before heading back to the folks place and somewhere in the weeks following the migration to the shed we discovered a couple of potatoes in a draw in the van, obviously forgotten and starting to sprout.

I’d heard about people growing potatoes and read up a bit on the way to grow them, but potatoes have been pretty cheap to buy and I’ve tended to grow other crops.

These sprouting tubers had given me the opportunity for an experiment, so I’d popped them into a garden bed and forgotten about them until the leaves started appearing through the mulch.

I’d read about mounding up around the stalk as it appears and used “slices” of pea straw for this. (As you use a bale of pea straw, the bale pulls apart in square “slices” which stick together unless you tease them apart. In this way, the “slice” is reusable for a number of purposes and lasts longer.)

Today we had lunch with the folks and took a wander in the garden afterwards to pick some vegies for Reen.

The potato leaves had curled so we dug them up and were surprised at the number – 21 small to medium potatoes! A ten fold increase on the two tubers that I’d planted.

Meg picked some mint and we had them steamed with some of our broccoli and carrots. They were so fresh, with crisp skin and great flavour. I don’t think that I’ve ever had better potatoes!

My mind is now changed. Growing potatoes is not only easy, but the results are great. Good quality and yield and I didn’t water them anywhere near as much as the rest of the garden. They were easy to harvest and had hardly any dirt on them when dug up. In fact, some had burrowed into the pea straw wall of the garden bed and these hardly needed any washing.

All in all it was a great experiment, turning waste into great tasting food. Now I think that I might have to start a production line for propagation – cutting the eyes from spuds and tempting them to sprout before planting them, rather than just adding them to the compost.

Mmmm… Potato!

 Check out the other photos in the gallery.

After the “Work for the Goon” programme had finished, you’d think we might take a break for a while and enjoy the new pergola, but there was more to do!

The idea for the pergola is to be able to have out “wet” area outside the shed as this will hopefully cut down on condensation, water spills and leaks inside and eliminate potential smells. It also makes drainage more central and removed the need to take the angle grinder to the shed again to put water pipes through.

One of the main things that we have missed since leaving the old house in Adelaide is our washing machine. Maybe it isn’t the first thing that jumps to mind, but if you consider the alternative to not having a washing machine on site, the time taken at the Laundromat with the bad results and additional cost turn out to be considerable problems.

After finishing the pergola on Saturday afternoon, Meg couldn’t wait to install the washing machine, even though the “wet” area isn’t finished.

We picked up the machine from storage (the folks shed) and checked the connection sizes for water before heading to the hardware for adapters.

I was sure that I had the right size, but Meg made me go and check it outside on the machine and sure enough, she was right again!

With the correct adapters, we headed home and I started plumbing.

A temporary solution is to connect the washing machine to the tap near the shower and then send the grey water down the hill to the new garden bed that I’d made for the purpose.

Ten minutes later and we had our first load of washing on! What a milestone!

In the afternoon, the folks arrived as we’d cleaned up the van and it was time for it to return home.

I can’t say how much it meant to us to be able to borrow the van from the folks. It allowed us to move from Adelaide and get a start before we had anything apart from bore water and power at The Journey.

Today was the culmination of a heap of work and with the van gone there is a significant hole in the view from the shed – a reminder that we are continually moving on.

Meg and I took a walk around and noticed that (Dirty) Harry the Almond is now in full bloom. He must have hit the mother load and loved it! (Harry is planted on the site of our first toilet.)

It is all smiles around here as the loads of washing get done and Meg sits under the pergola.

We’ve been very busy lately and haven’t been taking enough time to enjoy what we have.

With the “Shed Raising” party a few of weeks ago, Meg and I realised that we hadn’t walked the property enough and should be doing it more regularly, noticing changes and getting fitter.

The days are almost getting longer and there is some good sunshine now so we really should make time to do it.

We started last weekend with a Saturday afternoon wander. I had an ulterior motive and had taken the mattock to do battle with some artichokes that have been rapidly spreading across the property. We walked and talked about life and plans and views and trees.

Today was also a nice day and I’d taken the camera instead of the mattock.

First stop was the bore. The tank hasn’t been filled for a few months (a testament to our water saving lifestyle) and it was time to fill up.

This would also be a test of water pressure to the shower as I’d installed the instant LPG water heater in a tree and wanted to see what it could do. As the tank is on the hill above, I was wondering whether adding a metre or two in height to the water level in the tank would increase the pressure noticeably.

The late afternoon sun was broken by the trees as we wandered down the valley away from the bore. The valley was peaceful, with no wind or traffic noise – just the sounds of birds playing in the trees.

As we came to the main creek I saw a slight movement on the opposite hillside and watched as a couple of kangaroos looked back. (Sure, they might not be “kangaroos”, but Euros or something similar, but until I find out which is which anything that hops and looks like a kangaroo will be a kangaroo.)

I clicked off a couple of shots, but I was using the 28-70mm lens. If I’d had the 100-400mm lens we could have seen what they were thinking but I’d only taken the camera and not the entire camera bag.

Walking a few steps further on spooked the kangaroos and they were off.

We walked the creek line and stopped to check on the artichokes that I’d had a go at last weekend. I’d dug a fair bit  of them out but had heard from others that spraying or using pellets is really the only way to get them. We’ll see what happens.

I saw a photo opportunity in the creek and entered. The tree on the left side of the creek had roots that had been exposed by the bank and with the late afternoon sun and a little bit of flash, I thought I could get an interesting perspective.

Meanwhile, Meg was being creative on her own, creating a monster out of an ant hole, some bark and moss. Arrrggghh! The monster!

The artichoke population increased dramatically as we reached the western boundary of the property. This is turning into much, much more of a priority.

We took some time to take it all in, sitting around a huge, old gum tree that must have some stories to tell. It must be at least a metre across – how old does that make it?

Wandering up the step climb I spotted a different type of thistle. It has a purple flower and reminded me of Scotland for some reason.

A storm was heading our way over the Blyth plains and we watched the changes for a while as it moved before heading back along the road and checking out the neighbours sheep.

It was a pretty good walk and taking the camera really made me look for things and take notice.

All wasn’t right when we returned, as the tank wasn’t full or even noticeably better off!

I raced to the bore and after a while discovered that a switch had tripped inside the control panel. Fears met worries and frustrations as they bounced around my mind. Had we run out of water? Had I blown up the expensive submersible pump? Had we hooked up the tank without the right valves and done some damage?

I reset the switch and turned the pump back on. A short while later, the switch clicked off and the pipe moved – it was off again.

The questions went around my head again as I failed to learn anything from the process and was left with the realisation that things are always going to break and go wrong and it was up to me to deal with them.

I love spending a little while walking around in the morning and checking everything out.

Since finding the camera again and making sure everything still works, I’ve felt the need to take some pics.

This morning was cold and even at nine am there was still a hint of frost about.

I wandered about in the crisp air, thinking about all of the jobs that we’ve done lately and remembering those that I hadn’t taken pics of.

The first was the securing of the flue to the shed roof. Pa and I did this the other day with some stainless steel wire. It even looks half professional!

Then there is the half finished path to the (also half finished) toilet. I’ve had Pa working hard – here he was shovelling and raking gravel.

I’d originally thought that we’d pave a path to the toilet from the shed, either in cheap pavers, old bricks or just flat stone from the property. Then there was the suggestion of gravel, combined with the memory of the stack of posts and the quick, cheap and easy path was born.

Three trailer loads of gravel were $60, the posts were free and so was the labour! Thanks Pa.

The toilet is a little more than half finished. It just needs the front panel and some tidying up.

The exhaust vent is on, although some might say that it has a little “character” as Meg and I put it together on the Sunday afternoon after “the 24”. I’d had about 2 hours sleep and a couple of drinks on Saturday night and was a little worse for wear.

We zipped the vent to the adapter with some self tapping screws and then glued the angles together after cutting the pipe to size. It was only when we held it against the wall that we noticed that the top was crooked. Too late – the glue dries fast!

I’d also added a line of self tappers to the cladding that afternoon to make it more secure. It’s easy to see which line I added – it squiggles up and down in about the same way that I was seeing the world.

Meg had surprised me with some projects when I’d returned that weekend, the first of which was the sink stand. She’d got the timber cut to size as she didn’t want to use the circular saw and glued and nailed it together. It works really well and now we have a full size sink to wash the dishes, complete with bucket drain.

One of the next projects is the pergola to contain the shower, washing machine, sink, and hot water service. It shouldn’t be too hard as we don’t have to dig footings and make sure they are level, just dyna bolt it to the concrete.

It really rained yesterday and I noticed that there was a lot of water pooling behind the shed. A couple of hours later I had some long drains out either side to steer the water away.

The rain didn’t help the road situation and I’ve been switching to 4WD almost daily to get in and out. When it rains, the mud seems to attract moisture and hold it for days. It squelches as you walk on it and Meg has had to park at the entrance for the past weeks.

Hopefully the earthmovers will be able to get in before the 21st and everyone can drive up the hill!

The garden is coming along and the most promising is the broccoli, broad beans and silverbeet.

Meg and I have also had time to install the solar pump in the pond and get it functional so that the fish can see where they are swimming.

It was so calming to take a moment to look around the garden this morning with the camera. I was reminded of a few years ago, when I took photos professionally most days and switched back to that mode of thinking about light, subject, focus, and frame.

Seeing a bubble of water on the broccoli inspired a few shots, as did the reflection of the pond and the flight of the Willy Wagtail. If I’d had my other lens with me I could have done the little bird justice, but had to be content with what I ended up with.

After taking a few pics, I wandered through to the citrus and was a bit surprised to see frost still on the ground around the base of the lime. Shaded by weeds, it hadn’t melted in the sun, even though it was getting on to half past nine in the morning.

It was a nice hour of reflection, walking around the garden and being reminded of my former life, working at racetracks and travelling the world.

I don’t see the two lives as good or bad but different - different times and different priorities and goals. These days I enjoy seeing the mist over the hill, kangaroos in the valleys and sunsets over the range in the distance.

I’m also glad that I can take the time to capture the scenes and see the changes from season to season and year to year.

So much has changed here already, but there is always so much left to do – build the house, design, plant and grow the food forest, chooks, livestock and more. What a great journey is to come.

I must remember to take the time on mornings like these to enjoy and lose myself in the moment, but also to remember experiences from the past.

The winds blowing in from the north last time that we had camped looked to be affecting the fruit trees more than I had planned.

I’d assumed that the prevailing wind would come up the gullies from the south and west and had planted down from the tank in the lee of the ridge. It seems that I hadn’t considered the hot dry north winds in summer and they were severly drying out the new citrus trees.

As a temporary step, I had found some pea straw bales going cheap and arrange for Pa to help pick them up.

Arriving in Clare from Adelaide reasonably early, I was reminded of a computer problem that Graeme had asked about and changed plans slightly. This also gave me a chance to have a look at his new shed and property for ideas.

Due to the dialup connection providing slow downloads, we were soon tight for time and struggling to get to the pea straw at Halbury for mdday. The vague instructions didn’t help but we met Richard at about ten past and it was then that I realised that we were to load the bales from the paddock ourselves.

Lachie had come along for the ride and I figured it might be good for him to drive the “Goon Mobile” while Pa and I loaded.

With two very full trailers and Pa’s Patrol loaded inside as well, we decided to just make it up and follow dirt roads home, rather than interrupt traffic on the highway.

Apart from one unmarked dead end, we made our way through to Kybunga and up the hill back to the Journey to unload.

After lunch we stacked a series of windbreaks on the northern side fo the trees in increasingly heavy rain.

Soaked to the skin we left the Journey heading to Halbury to pick up the last five bales of pea straw and head back home to Adelaide.

With the rain, what had been bulldust in the morning had turned to very slippery mud. Any chance of heading back uphill after loading the bales was lost and we again had to make up the route as the “Goon Mobile” flicked mud everywhere.

Justing and Lachie laughed as the mud flicked in the windows and onto the windscreen as I fought the wheel to keep everything in a generally forward direction.

Running late again, we returned home to meet Raph, Meg, Caro, Rod, Ralphie and Marilyn. Ralphie and I had the Tour Down Under ride the next day and nothing on my preparation list (including bike cleaning and prep) was done.

It was a full on night of cleaning, packing, mounting bikes and preparation before a 5:30am start in the morning.

After staying at Rob’s folks place the night before we check out the trees at the Journey.  They are all ok!

We give them a good drink before checking out the bore.  Rob’s dad thinks he saw where the poly pipe ended the other day (on the other side of the triangle paddock) when he was watering trees so we want to see if he is right.  I went to the end of the poly pipe with Rob’s dad and Rob went to the bore.  We used our mobile phones so we could tell each other what was happening.

Rob turned it on and nothing happened. We waited, still nothing.  A little while later there were some gurgles - then farty noises - the poly pipe starts to move - then - we have water!  It’s gushing out making mud (a sight that hasn’t been seen in this area for a while) and we fill up all the containers again.  We decide to give it a taste - it’s drinkable!

All the trees get another drink then Rob and his dad put up the weed mat on the toilet.

We head home very happy.

The forecast said it would be 40 degrees today so we got up early to try and beat the heat and dig the holes for the toilet and the four trees.  Rob was using the mattock to break up the earth and I was shovelling the dirt and rocks (there were quite a few) out of the holes.  Rob desperately wanted a cup of tea so we managed to get all the holes dug and be on the road to Rob’s parents by 9am.

Even though men have no shame and Rob would have been quite happy to use a toilet with anybody able to see, I insisted on having a little bit of privacy.  Rob and his Pa came up with the idea of welding droppers together (so they were double the height) to put around the toilet in the shape of a snail. 

We went back to the Journey with the droppers and they were hammered into the ground for weed mat to be wired into place.  Everyone had had enough for the day so we decided to leave that for another day but the result will be a very crude but functional toilet with enough privacy to keep me happy.

Using organic potting mix, we planted the four citrus trees using pea straw for mulch.  We watered the trees with water from Rob’s parents, wished them well and hoped they survived after we headed back to Adelaide.  Rob’s dad said he would water them for us every few days.