Some photos of the farm

This photo is taken from the studio, can you see the waterfall?

Franjpanis is bloom, I knew I would miss my roses, but it was such a delight to smell my first franjpani.

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Boys getting a bow staff lesson off their Dad

Flynn carrying the bananas back to the house:)

Garden view

Quiet moment with Joseph.

It's in!

When we were contemplating moving up to Thora, the big question was, how will you earn a living? Dan is a printer and has been since he went to work for his Dad at 15 years old. Dan will be 50 this year, and it was time for a change. Before we had children we thought about growing Garlic in Ballarat, but with children on their way, and a printing business to run, there was never enough time.

The little farm we bought is Certified Organic, and our wish is to deepen that and go Bio-dynamic. And do you know the best crop grown around here? Yes, yes, Garlic, the big Russian Garlic.

It's been a family affair, every afternoon, separating the garlic bulbs for planting. The children would come and go, come and tell their Dad about their day at school. They came, sometimes all, sometimes one, sing a song or verse they have learnt, Often the violin or recorder made an appearance.

Stacked and ready to plant. 450 kilo's of garlic. Whoa!!

The weather was kind to us, lovely sunny days, and so peaceful in the paddocks, tucked away.

Lot's of surprise's too!, We found a Muma Red-belly black snake and her little one under the straw.

The old adage is true, Make hay when the sun shines, it was an exhausting two weeks for Dan, every night, he would collapse into bed. But he loved working with the soil, learning about Garlic, and the land up here.

So now we can call him Farmer Dan....

Bananas

We picked our first bunch of bananas, it was a family effort, Dan and Flynn chopped the stalk down, Joseph and Jim dragged the bunch up the hill with Alice bring up the rear.

The kids counted over 70 banana's on this bunch. Luckily they ripen in stages:)

My Joe LOVES passionfruit, so it certainly helped with all the changes, when he found a passionfruit vine on the property.

It's covered in passionfruit, they are big, heavy and sweet:) Joey has about 4 a day, and so do the others, so that's 16 passionfruit a day.
I'm glad I'm not paying $1 each for them in the shops.

Homelife

Sorry for being off the radar lately, besides pacing the floor, chewing my nails down to their stumps and all, and blogger hasn't been able to publish my posts.

Last month, I thought I would be here in this house, the home that Dan and I built, built for us and the dream of our family to be. ......forever.

This land, our land is family land, our roots are deep and after 10 years, I can see what a wonderful place we have made here.

But life sometimes throws you a curveball, and I've had enough signs to know that this is the right thing to do.

Friends and family are in shock they can't quite believe we are doing this, so quickly, but you know, there's no need to hesitiate when it's the right decision, right for us.

Flynn and Alice eating our bumper crop of apples, we have not bought an apple since Feburary, and it's August! the last of the crop was eaten tonight. we have a wonderful orchard of snow apples, jonathan, golden delicous, pink lady, lady williams, granny smith.

I love this pattern, I think it's been around for decades.

Fully reversable pinnie. I think you all know my obsession with pinnies.

And I love that it keeps her jumpers clean, much easier to wash a cotton pinnie than a wool jumper.

Our Orchard

Ten years ago we planted our orchard, and this year finally the trees are bursting with fruit.

The cherries were delicous, Everyday we would stand under the nets and eat our fill. I don't think I even brought any in to the table, just fresh, ripe, oh so sweet cherries straight from the tree.

Perfect on their own.

Shearing

This is Andy, our shearer.

My Dad was a shearer, it's part of the job description of being a Farmer. His Dad was too. My Dad grew up in a tent by the side of the Murray River, his family were share-farmers, waiting for the day they had enough money to buy their own farm.

I think this is why us kids never went camping as children, Dad just didn't understand why we wanted to leave a comfortable bed, running water and a flushable toilet. He would say 'How is camping a holiday?'.

Back to shearing, My dad, his dad and brothers would travel the district, shearing in the most appalling conditions. It was my Grandfather Jim Willett who was instrumental in starting the shearer's union.

I wish my children could see their Pa shear our sheep, but Pa lives four hours away and in nearly 80years.

I wish my boys see their Pa like I see him.

They see a man who lives in town, I see a man who lives for the wide open spaces. They see a man who struggles to read a newspaper, I see a man who never missed his shot. They see a man who is stiff with the years, I see a man able to climb a tree in one bound.

But still the children are drawn to him, maybe they sense what he was about. I guess this is what they call the generation gap.

Not even in your dreams can you visit the house of tomorrow.

This wool is superfine merino, it is oh so soft!. Joey is wrapped up in the brown fleece.

Flynn made a bed on the white.

The children dragged their bag of fleece upstairs, declaring that they were sleeping in their fleece tonight.

Gorgeous sliver/grey fleece.

Spring has sprung

The first of the lambs, born the day before, doesn't he look healthy

This clever Mama had twins!. Jim got to come and watch one of the sheep giving birth, His words were 'wow".

Oxtail Soup with basil pesto. This is my favourite winter soup, don't be put off by the name, it really is delicous.
1.5 kg ox tail
2 leek
4 rasher bacon
2 carrots
2 parsnip
2 potato
beef stock.
2 celery sticks
brown the oxtail peices, set aside.
saute the leek and bacon together and the veges all chopped finely, add oxtails back to the pan. add enough stock to cover, simmer for 2 hours till meat falls off the bone.
remove the ox tails and pull the meat from the bones add back to pan, add some parsley.
pesto:
small buch of basil
1/4 cup pinenuts
1/4 olive oil (I think, maybe more)
3 garlic
1/4 parmason cheese
whizz together in food processor
swirl a dollop through the soup when serving.
The pesto is a must, it really lifts the soup adding zing to a slow cooked soup.
ENJOY

Blue Sky and Crisp Morrnings

Spring springs,but autumn settles gracefully, nows the chance to plant our winter vegges without them going to seed. I love that this one still gets a kick out of planting our crop.

The middle two fought over the watering can, then over who had the butter knife, glad we had the forsight to put the sandpit in the middle of our vegetable mandala.

This one was happy as long as we could keep up the supply and demand of baby peas.

Hoping you had a lovely Easter break, we went home to my family on the Murray River, I'll post some photo's soon.

These eggs were dyed with silk ties, I love the paisley colours. There's a great tutorial over here

Summer

Beautiful Blackwood trees in flower, this time of year they look so desperate for water, but of course they are in our forest so out of reach for hand watering. Blackwoods are indigenous to this area, but they seem more at home in the Otways or Tasmania, maybe when the drought is over they will be more happier.

This has been the spot where we have lived in the garden all summer. This Flowform( I will use that word loosely, as it is not what would be called a true flowform) was built on site by an artist in Castlemaine. I think he was here everyday for 6 months, he became one of the family.

The water rushes through the pods, and swirls around,spiralling down, creating chaos. The children sail their hand made boats, dam the walls with rocks, watch the water spill over the sides, and build little fairylands.

Water, that magical substance, where would play be without it.

We have started the tree house in the forest, I should tell you though, that when I say forest I mean our boundary native trees that Dan and I planted the month we moved into our new home, nine years ago, all 2000 of them, no bigger than a hammer head.

When I am talking to people and refer to the trees as the forest, they always look around and say, where?. So even though we think it is a forest, technically speaking it might be an exageration if you were thinking of 100 year old redwoods!

Middle and third boys wanted grass seed catchers( um, I can't think of their real name, do they have a real name, anyone?) like their big brother, so they were quickly made, whilst the Ute was been filled with tools.

Whenever I have had a baby, everyone always say's ' Your children all look alike, like peas in a pod'. But I could never see it.

I do now.

I can stand

How proud Alice is of herself, as a mother, these firsts are so very wonderful.

A new addition to our family, "cheepy" named by Flynn

More additions, Joseph, my snugly boy.

Home life

Everyday I sit Alice with the chooks whilst I hang the washing out, I've done this with all of my children and they love that early morning "took took" with the chickens, it's so very grounding. We now have a rooster, standing to the left of Alice. And what a mightly fine rooster he is!, He is a true gentleman, always stands back and lets his girls get the first pick of tidbits, never crows before 5am (or at least I don't hear him) and sorts the girls out when they need sorting out, but he is never aggresive although his talons are huge.

Joey with a beautiful smile, I knitted the jumper on the knitting machine, I'm into raglan sleeves at the moment.

Two new additions for our family, Flynn is quite the mother. Every year we end up with some orphaned lambs and everyear they end up inside even though everyear I say 'they won't be comming in' to the children. I still can't figure out how to put a nappy on them -what to do with that tail. Any suggestions? So I end up just chasing them around the house with my paper towel and cleaner.

I love packages in the post. the other day the postman dropped off a parcel to our neighbour, only to be told that the ebay queen lived next door, whoops!. This fabric came from "from Holland with love" and I love it and that it came from Holland.What shall I make with it? any ideas? For now it will go in my stash .