Last week we had our first real visitors at Cracroft Farm. It was great to have Cath's sister and her husband, together with three of their grandchildren staying with us. The three girls, Alex, Olivia and Isla were not only fun to have around, but also wonderful workers. They made substantial progress on one of our rock walls and helped plant an avenue of Manchurian pear trees (Pyrus ussuriensis) along the route that leads from the back of the shed to the veggie patch. As part of the planting ceremony, the girls wrote their names on some small flat rocks and placed them under their trees. Hopefully they will return to check on progress!
After our visitors left, Cath flew off for a short visit to the UK to catch up with two of our sons and in particular to help celebrate the 21st birthday of our youngest. Of the four of us left on the farm, Gracie seems to be handling her absence the best. In fact, her ritual migration from our bed to the sheepskin in front of the fire and back again has hardly altered.
Gracie in familiar pose
Pepper’s ceaseless motion abates every now then, allowing her to appear perplexed at Cath's absence. Knut, on the other hand, is bereft. He keeps waiting for Cath to emerge, either from the house or from the car, and generally looks a bit lost. Like a Viking in mourning, he has taken to howling at the sunrise, but then I can’t say I blame him as both the sunset and the sunrise these past few days have been particularly spectacular.
Sunset - 21 April 2023 (5:30 pm)
Sunrise - 22 April 2023 (6:30 am)
On the day before Cath's departure we managed to fit another piece into our infrastructure jigsaw. After our efforts to establish a nice level base for a new water tank up on the veggie patch, we had a brand new stainless steel tank delivered and installed. The new tank holds another 22 thousand litres of water and will be used solely for the purpose of watering the veggies. We have already filled the tank by pumping from the two tanks that collect water from the shed roof, thus reducing the latter to about half full. Hopefully this means that during the wet winter we will actually not lose too much water to tank overflow.
Lowering the new tank into position
Installation
To try and make myself useful, today I decided to give a serious test drive to our Razorback - the machine we bought to slash difficult terrain. I have to admit to feeling a little apprehensive on some of the steeper gradients but in the end I had a very enjoyable day slashing our north-east facing slope. I confess to taking things rather slowly because the immortal words of Banjo Patterson kept repeating in my head ..."
The wild hop scrub grew thickly, and the hidden ground was full Of wombat holes, and any slip was death." Well, perhaps that is over dramatising a little, but as Cath gleefully tells everyone, on my first outing on the Razorback I ended up stuck in a hole and extraction required assistance from the tractor! Anyway, I digress. I am extremely happy with the end result and I think the row of old fence posts down the slope now provide an excellent opportunity to grow some grapes, perhaps after I have taken the chainsaw to that old wattle stump.
Potential for grapes?
As yet there is no real indication of autumn in our garden. Once again the importance of micro-climate is evident as many of the deciduous trees in the lower-lying areas of the Huon Valley have already coloured up nicely. Our apples have come to an end, however, and today I harvested our first pumpkin, which is now curing in the sun for a few days before being stored. I can't wait to see what next autumns harvest will look like given that our first major task after Cath's return will be to erect our greenhouse ...
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