An annual report …
The weather over the last week has been some of the wildest that I have experienced on the farm. First it was the wind that lashed the Huon Valley and its ferocity even had Pepper intimidated. For a rather flighty collie obsessed with chasing shadows, she demonstrated remarkable good sense by refusing to go outside when invited to do so, but looked at me with soulful brown eyes as if to say “Really?” Then there was the calm before the storm followed by severe overnight winds and pouring rain, with about 30mm of rain falling over the course of the day. Given that the ground was already pretty wet from the August rains and the water tanks are full, the day ended with plenty of casual water lying around.
A brief stroll around in rather atrocious conditions was sufficient to ascertain that most of our treasures were still standing. This gave me pause for thought because it is now a little over a year since we first arrived on Cracroft Farm in early August 2020. It is useful, therefore, to spend a little time in reflection, because when faced with a task of any magnitude the usual instinct is simply to focus on what remains to be done rather than what has been accomplished thus far.
The fact that the sunrises and the sunsets tint the valley in gorgeous pastel shades most days (although not this week!) gives the feeling that nothing changes, but this illusion obfuscates some major advances over the past year. We have just experienced heavy rain but thanks to the improved infrastructure, the local flooding that we observed last August has simply not eventuated. The installation of an extra 50,000 litres of water storage together with better drainage around the driveway and the shed has meant that the scenes described in post of 16 August 2020 (“This water belongs in Mombasa …”) have simply not happened this year.
August 2020
The photos show the fine crushed rock coating the drive which is great at sopping up water, the rock retaining walls against the back boundary and the island that stop land slips, and the flowerbeds along the edge of the drive on both sides of the fence, which ensure that instead of losing water down the hill we capture it. This has the dual effect of keeping the garden wet and stopping topsoil from washing down the hill.
I think it is important to add that the improvements have not been completely functional. Who would have thought that our struggle to create a garden bed along the fence line would up looking this good after only a year.
Unfortunately it is just too early to capture the riot of colour that will erupt to the left of the fence in a few weeks. All the green leaves are irises just waiting to bloom. Likewise, it is a pity that there will be no one here to witness the full glory of the blossom on the ornamental pears, crab apple and cherry trees, to say nothing of when the new leaves appear on the golden elm and gingko trees. There are already too many photos in this post, so I can't show off the claret and golden ash trees, the Manchurian pear trees, the Canadian and Japanese maple trees and our lovely although completely deformed Chinese pistachio tree.
Pepper and I return to Brisbane on the weekend after almost exactly a two-month stint. While sad to leave the Valley for the time being, it will be great to have the somewhat smaller family unit together again. As consequence, this will probably be my last post for a few weeks. I started the blog so that we could have a tongue-in-cheek chroncle of our time here and a record of the development of the farm. The undertaking has, however, turned out to be be a little bigger than I expected. This post will be my 62nd so far and the blog has had almost 6500 visits, so thanks very much for reading and I look forward to continuing the tale of two want-to-be farmers and their dog when we are next here …
Lovely Stan, thanks for sharing.
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