More Paths.....Less Lawn!

A day off for me so l set to to with the spade and spent all day digging out another path.  Also a flowerbed for Native plants which will not be put in place till probably next year! It can sit and mulch down over Summer and end up full of worms like the big bed l am now planting in! It was all hard work!!

The flowerbed will be alongside the fence to the right of the path in this photo. The grass here is always soooooooooooo thick and hard to mow...l wont miss it!!!

 Now l have a wheelbarrow full of turf..................

And a paddock....................

And a Ute!!! l advertised it on our local on line Classifieds and have some one picking it up at the weekend. Seems too good to throw away!

 Looks like a major highway is going through!!!!

 One day it will be all soft and pretty and it will still have ducks and dogs in it !!!

All about Sheep!

This morning before work we decided to move the sheep into the orchard. The main reason was to get a hold on the grass in there BEFORE it starts to grow and also to give them all a bit of a treat! Mainly the mothers and especially Lala who is doing it a bit tough feeding two enormous buxom healthy babies!

They were quite thrilled as it's a way better quality grass then what they have been eating! We will put them in there for a few hours every day until the grass is shorter. l absolutely refuse to mow in there this year! Fingal l discovered was quite fascinated by the camera! She was always such a shy sheep who didn't seem to have any personality at all. Once she had the lamb, had a fringe cut and got some extra TLC feeds to help her along she has suddenly become very tame and friendly indeed!

l think she thought she was quite photogenic!

No one else could get a look in......................

But her lamb finally muscled in for a shot!

l don't think we have introduced our latest new addition! She is our third black sheep and a big solid girl!

Dot and as yet unnamed eating away!

The three of them hang out a lot together!

Can't wait to see their lambs when they have them!!! All just a bit too young right now.

Omar is never far away though!

Happy Anniversary to here!!!

One year ago today we moved! Amazing! One year ago we collected our keys from the Real Estate Office,whizzed into Hobart to collect our removal truck and began loading in earnest! Well actually we didn't MOVE a year ago today as we came up here in the dark after work with a car load of essentials, surveyed our new domain for a while then went back to Glen Huon for the night to begin the full move the next day! In some ways it has gone so fast.....in other ways it seems like a lifetime ago.......
Did we mention we have now officially renamed it Candlestick Farm? A name suggested by my Mum after she saw my post on how many candlesticks we owned! l love it and made this very rough little sign to proudly hang on our front gate!

We spent our first Anniversary evening doing what we do so often....... we went for a walk (with the goats of course!) around the property and saw things we have never seen, made plans for things we will probably never do and dreamt about things we would love to achieve..............one day! We went down to our wild piece of land alongside the rivulet. This is one of my favourite spots on the whole place. You can just see the horse shelter right up on the treeline in the centre of the photo!

And this little sheep makes me laugh! She has been named Bell. Not that she will ever be called Bell as there are four white lambs out there and they all look the same ((((maybe they can ALL be called Bell!?))) She stands next to the gate on the concrete base so she can reach and plays with the bolt attached to a chain which is used as the gate latch.

She stands there for ages banging it against the metal post and it makes a perfect ringing sound! A musical sheep!!!! How lucky we are!!

 

 

 

 

 

A good friend!

Many months ago as l was constructing my enormous new flower bed l mentioned to a friend at work the challenge l had ahead of me to fill it up! Bless her heart today she presented me with two boxes full of cuttings from her own garden! All carefully planted in pots and old milk cartons.! l have Buddlias, Lambs Ears,ground covers, climbers ,natives and daisies! What a total treat and what a lovely lady she is!! Thank you Louise!!!

 All watered and ready to go into the ground on my next day off! Wonderful!

We just about had time before darkness fell to have a quick wander around and admire the blossom on my favourite tree...........

And watch as the Wattle blossom fades and the Willows turn a shade of green..........

Back from our wanderings and just in time to feed one little hungry Duck who came looking for us and a bite to eat!

My day off!

l spent a lovely day in the garden . Didn't step one foot out of it in fact! Apart from the necessities like mowing the lawn it was so relaxing just to potter around armed with my wheelbarrow, secateurs and a head full of ideas (and dreams!!!!) l cleaned out the fish pond which resulted in very happy fish indeed! l was quite surprised how dirty it must have been by how clean it looks now!!

l created a new flowerbed..........heaven knows WHY!! l have nothing to put in it!!! l have vague schemes of creepers covering the side of the garage. At least l DO have lots of manure!!!

l moved a few old favourites around to different spots for a change of scenery

 And left some as l thought they looked just perfect where they were!

l decided to live on the edge and plant the Weeping Willow we have had for several years in a pot inside the Wine Barrel even though l KNOW it will become a problem years down the track! l don't care!! l want a Weeping Willow in a Wine Barrel!!!

 l transplanted foxgloves into my vast plant less flowerbed!

 And some Hydrangea cuttings!

l had a lovely day....roll on the next one....

Last Day!

Geoff's last holiday morning ! Another glorious picture book day.

This morning we shifted an old trailer axle (thingy) into our plant less flower bed. It was tucked away in a corner of the paddock and l think it's got quite a bit of character and potential to end up nestled (one day!) amongst flowers and shrubs in the garden!

 l love the old wheels!

We also ran our last leg of fencing and sheep wire up in the paddock which is great and cleared the site where the old shed was.

It was then pizza dough in the bread maker and a glass of wine for us to end Geoff's hols, with just a minor interruption when the poor overworked electricity guys turned up just on dark to apologetically tell us they had to switch our power off for a while to do the last repairs for the houses at the end of our road that were STILL without power! No problems there and Geoff headed off into the dark to help them and carry their gear! The pizza was still great too!

A wild 24 hours!!

 

A bit of a varied, wild and interesting weekend weather wise! Saturday the winds began to pick up. The Hobart Council decided to close Salamanca Markets early due to the high winds and how lucky they did as this huge old Elm tree crashed down only an hour or so later right on an area that would usually be full of Market Stalls and people. Lucky indeed!

Sunday morning was lovely! Warm with no hint of the chaos to come. Our lovely friend Andrew came up for a couple of hours in the afternoon for a long overdue catch up and hello. He became acquainted with one very small cow.................

And one very large horse!!! By the look on Andrews face it looks like he has a bit of Horse Whispering happening here.... and by the look on the horse's face......he's listening!!!!

By late afternoon the pace picked up. Trees down and howling winds. Our only damage was the little goose shed! Luckily no geese were in there at the time! Then 3pm and the power went out.

10 pm its still out! Candles??? No problems for us! We had a cosy house. Warm with the fire and beautiful to look at!

 We cooked our meal by gas stove on the veranda most sheltered from the winds!

The only irritating thing l found was no electricity...no pump......no water. Its amazing how much we take water for granted ( hot or cold!) coming out of a tap when we want it to! The outages were right across the Huon Valley with hundreds of homes still without power most of today Finally at 6pm Monday evening we are back on the grid! A huge thank you has to  go the crews who worked non stop to get everyone back in the light. Well done!