Rainy Saturday wishing we were "home" in Australia

Spring so far has been just wild with the weather flip flopping between cold and wet to hot and dry. Spring has been taking its sweet time, everything seems to be coming on a bit later than normal and when you think that the lilacs are going to bloom for a good long time, the heat blast them all off, now that the peonies are blooming we are getting lots of rain. Go figure. Today it is 52F or 11C and pouring rain, so I have a batch of bread ready to go into the oven to warm up the house. Lucky for us summer will officially be here in the 21 of June and maybe the weather then will settle down and not be so crazy.

I have planted the vegetable garden, replanting the radishes more than once because I haven't marked when I planted them the first time, so I either weed them or plant something else on top. Everything seems to be growing well, the compost has been spread and mulch added to the garden paths. I looks like the salad box's in the kitchen garden are deficient on many things this year, but it has been awhile since anything was done to them, so when this last crop of salad goes, compost will be added to the box's. At the end of the season, compost will be added to the entire garden.

I was worried about the pollination of the fruit trees because just when the trees were flowering we had some mighty cold and wet weather, not great for bee flying, but it looks as though I have some good peach and apple set. The currents are loaded with fruit although the blueberry bushes look healthy, I can't say as much for amount of fruit, but maybe I should look with my glasses on.

On the farm side, we are down to three guinea fowl. I don't know whether our missing was picked off by wildlife or if it is sitting on a clutch of eggs. Last night they were kicking up quite a ruckus so my guess is she is gone. Our replacement keets had a problem at the hatchery so who knows what is up with that. Our cornish cross meat birds rock in next Friday along with two baby Turkeys to grow on. To top it all off, for some reason we are getting two new baby pygmy goats in two weeks which will take our goat number up to 10. We must be crazy!

Spring is Finally Here

Orchard Blossoms


Fred


Ginger


Magnolia Beauty


Kitchen Garden

The last time I wrote I was impatiently waiting for spring, bemoaning that it seemed that winter was never going to go, but in just a short two weeks, the tide has changed dramatically. Daffodils are blooming, the magnolias are blooming and I think the apricots are blooming. At least I think they are apricots. It doesn’t really matter, they are blooming and spring is here!

I have been very busy in the gardens, cleaning all of them up after being away for a year. The kitchen garden’s cold frames have overwintered lettuce which is ready to harvest, the spinach and other salad greens that I have seeded are growing, and I have planted out celery, onions, peas and fava beans also known as broadbeans. In the vegetable garden, we have built nine boxes for half the garden, each measuring 3x8 that I have been filling with compost from the barn and from the compost bins. I’m certainly getting my exercise pushing the full wheelbarrow up the hill to the garden so I can fill my new boxes. On deck, next ready for planting are the potatoes, broccoli some cabbage and the rest of the onions. It feels so good to finally be able to go our to the gardens to pick the asparagus, salad greens and soon rhubarb.

On the critter department, Mary the sheep has been sheared and is looking for a ram playmate to frolic the year away with, Regent, the llama is being groomed Friday. We have ordered ten Guinea fowl keets that will be rocking in shortly to help keep down the tick population, 20 cornish cross meat bird chicks and a few turkeys chicks to be raised for the freezer.

I still have to get out into the orchard to clean up the raspberries, that is next on my to do list, as well as mulch the blueberries and fill in the holes the dogs have dug in the orchard looking for rodents before I fall in them and break something.

Steve has been fixing fences and is still sorting through all the photos he took on our Australian grand tour. We have been dreaming of our return, but that will have to wait for a few years yet.

It has been two weeks since I wrote this, and since I still haven’t gotten it posted, I will just add to it.

We have been very busy, just busy with spring, still getting the gardens cleaned up and planted. The onions are in, as well as the potatoes, broccoli, silver beet or chard as we call it here and some red cabbage. It is still way to cold to be planting out the hot crops so that will wait for another week or two. The leaves have finally come out on the trees so everywhere you look the landscape it a lush vibrant green.

We have added to the farm. Fred and Ginger, two young boer goats. We have had dairy goats for years now but the question always comes up when the bucklings are born, in the past we have sold them as meat but to be honest, there isn’t much meat an a Nubian, so our thought was that if we were to use a boer buck and bread our Nubian doe, the kids will have a little more heft to them and will be better value to buy. Hence Fred. Ginger is along for the ride and in another year we will breed her to begin a meatier line. Ginger lost part of her ear to frostbite back in Feb when the temps plummeted way below freezing, we think it adds character.

Back in New Hampshire

Why did we leave Australia?


Daffodils in Snow


Breakfast at the Manger


The Barn


When will Spring get here?



Sorry about the delay in the Lottarock Adventure update, life as you can imagine has been busy with catching up on life here on the farm since we have returned to New Hampshire. I will quickly fill you in on our last three weeks.

We arrived back in Boston very late on the 29th of April, not quite believing that only 23 hours ago we had been in sunny Queensland and now it was a chilly 4C! What a shock to the system that was. Although there wasn’t any snow left on the ground in Boston, when we drove up to New Hampshire the next day, there was still plenty of snow left on the ground to remind us of what we missed while we were away Just to make sure that we didn’t miss out on winter entirely, two days later we had 8 inches of the white stuff falling out of the sky. All of my thoughts of getting right into gardening were quickly buried under fresh snow!

Since our return, we have been watching spring slowly emerge. We have been car shopping, repairing the dog fence and checking out the goat fencing so they can get out into the other pastures, and I have been doing spring clean up in the garden right behind the melting snow. So far I have planted spinach, radishes, lettuce, pruned the fruit trees, moved a few trees and shrubs into hopefully better places. I have been picking the sorrel and chives, and am hovering over the rhubarb wishing for better weather.

For all of my wishing, here it is the 23rd, and it is snowing. That is right, snowing! Out I go into the kitchen garden and cover up the cold frames. The daffodils are covered in snow and the crocus are closed up tight, and I’m sitting by the woodstove wishing I were back in Australia, even going into autumn is better than this snowy spring. The goats are out in the lower paddock looking for things to eat, the guinea fowl are sitting on the front veranda looking out saying all the bugs have gone underground and this weather is the pits and the chooks are all in the hen house not wanting to get snow on their feet. Can you blame them!

Catching you Up To Date

Dawn Surfer


Lennox Head Sunrise


Stormy Dawn


Lennox Franjipani


Here I thought I was just going to regale you with stories of our last week or two, but reading back to our last blog, I see that we left you all on our way to Jenolan Caves. Steve did one since then I just remembered, Phew, so I have only a few weeks to catch you up on.

After spending a week in Lennox Head at the caravan park, we were very lucky to find a holiday let also in Lennox Head, but on the other side of town from the caravan park. This place was Sweet! Yes, it did deserve a capital S. If we had started out our four month sojourn here, we probably wouldn’t have left for our road trip. First, it had a garage to kill for. No three point turns to try to get the car in, you could open the car doors all the way, and be able to walk around them, and it had room to store some of our stuff until the removalists came. And that is just the garage! Downstairs there was a twin share bedroom and a queen-sized bedroom, with a bath, laundry and loo. Upstairs, the kitchen, living and dining area, all open plan, with a huge verandah going all along the front with a dining set. Looking out the windows you could see the headland to the right, where the hang gliders and para-sailors take off from, to the left, Seven Mile beach, and the headland of Broken Head. Also upstairs was our massive bedroom with attached bathroom, also with its windows and door opening onto the verandah. Everyday we would have breakfast and dinner outside, enjoying the sea breeze and the view. It was very sad to turn our keys in after our two-week stay there.

So the removalists came and packed up our stuff to be shipped home. I am figuring that we will see it in four to six months as it is going by sea. It is amazing the amount of paperwork involved in sending things back to the states, or anywhere these days. Twenty years ago, they came, boxed and filled out a few forms. Now it was passport copies, declarations, form after form and then the packers pack it all up themselves so everything is just right. But it is gone, and we are now down to traveling around with what will come home with us.

Now that getting our stuff off is taken care of, Steve could concentrate on getting the car ready to sell. That means getting the windscreen fixed, vacuuming, and scrubbing eleven month’s of heavy use of the outside of the car. It took him three days before it really looked good. Next, selling it. We thought it would be a problem, well, I thought it would be a problem, but it turns out, our good friends in Brisbane who we went to see, needed a good reliable car and are buying it. Yeah! It really works out because they get the car, we get to keep the car until we leave so we don’t have to hire a car for the last few weeks, and Garth will take us to the airport the morning we leave in our old, his now new car. Talk about it all falling into place.

This past weekend we were back up in Brisbane, catching up with other good friends and now we are in Noosaville, up on the Sunshine Coast for our last week. We love this place. This is our third time here this year. It is one of the places we found when we were here two years ago and really enjoy it. Good scenery, good food, excellent digs.

It is hard to believe that our time here in Australia can now be counted in a week. We fly out a week from tomorrow! Yikes!! It has been the most amazing year, we have ‘gone seen and done’ for the entire trip, and still haven’t seen this entire country. We still have to see the northwest of WA, including the Kimberlies and the Pilbara district, Kakadu in the wet (only from the air) and north of Cairns. Hopefully when we return in two years, FNQ will be put back together. Yes, we are returning in two years to catch up with our friends, and see and do more of this great country.

Much of this trip was special because of the friends we have here, old and new, and we would like to thank them, and if I miss you, I apologize. David and Lyn who got us off on the right foot, Greg and Christine who got us organized and put up with us for a week, Kate and Pickle, Christian and Jen, Nick and Janelle, Denise and Garth and oh so many more. Thank you for making the trip all the better with your friendship and generosity.

So, even though our trip is coming to a close, we are going to keep the blog up and running, because life at lottarock farm and are ongoing travels will now keep our friends in Australia apprised of our adventures at home. Stay tuned.

The Eagle Has Landed

Lennox Dawn Agave


Jenolan Caves


Jenolan Cave Stairwell


Lake Ainsworth Dawn


Lennox Dawn Surfers

Yes, we have finally ended our six months of constant travel across Australia. We are in a caravan park in Lennox Head, NSW, just a few kilometers south of our old digs in Suffolk Park. The weather is hot and humid, which I am slowly adjusting to, but the scenery remains as spectacular as ever. We will be here in the immediate vicinity until we fly out of Brisbane at the end of the month. There are numerous loose ends to tie up, the most critical being getting all of the gear and art we have managed to accumulate over the past year back to NH and to sell our trusty vehicle. As much as it would be nice to have it shipped home as well, it is not a model imported to the US and thus would be cost prohibitive to have converted to meet the rigorous specifications required for operation there.

Today we had a moving company come assess the shipping costs for the gear and we hope to have a reasonable quote by Friday. Once we know how much it will cost and when it can be done, then we can get down to stripping Em, the car, of her racks and bits that will be shipped and then the arduous task of cleaning the inside and outside of the car for sale. If we can get half of what we paid, we'll be more than satisfied as she has been well used, going over 71,000 kms and subjected to terrain not for the faint of heart. She has the battle scars to prove it, but she has never let us down.

After those requirements are complete, we will rent a small car and if time permits, take a tour of Fraser Island up in Queensland before we depart. We have already scheduled visits to friends up in QLD and will enjoy some relaxing time before the flight.

Then the hard work comes. Allie will be plunged right into gardening, snow and ice not withstanding. Clients have to be consulted, seed and plant orders submitted, and installation and work scheduled. I will begin the immense task of reviewing the over 40,000 images I will have taken on this epic journey to select those that will make up both a personal book and also the more serious work to be both printed and published. This will be a magnum opus and I intend for it to be the best I have done to date. I already know that many of the images I have shared with you all will have to be redone and that many more will be totally new. Also, I will be writing about each image included, telling the story of what, where, and why I selected these images. I have bitten off a huge amount but like eating the elephant, you do it one bite at a time, so it will be done with as much care and time as it deserves.

Then of course, the farm will demand its pound of flesh as I will be mending fences, installing new posts, and getting down to rectifying the long term electrical fence problem that has plagued us for years. Allie has plans for new trees and plants, a new retaining wall, and other projects bound to keep us quite busy for a long time. So, we won't be off for any travels in the foreseeable future, but will gladly welcome guests.

Day 166 of Non-stop Traveling

Mt. Buffalo Vista


Beechworth Street Scene


Seymour Kid


Mansfield Sunset


Clare Sunset



Can you believe that it has been 166 days since we have left Byron Bay on Sept 10? I can’t, unless I look back at my notes and then at the map to see where we have gone. Day 166, and 40,000K later, whoa, no wonder we are tired. But enough, let me catch you up with this last weeks travels.

We sadly left Clare, SA. It is one of our most favorite towns. It is a decent wine region, producing about 10% of Australia’s wine and we love this town. It has wonderful boutique wines, a working town full of graziers, sheep and cattle therefore lacking much of the pretension of many of the wine regions we have been in, and we have been in many, believe me. But move on we must, so we left Clare with heavy hearts, thankful that it was raining because that made it easier.

From Clare, we headed down to Murray Bridge, down thru Pathaway, home of Lindemans wines, maybe they should call the town Lindemans! That is about all there was, vine for wine. Then on thru Narracorte, crossing the border into Victoria and weaving our way to Hamilton at the base of the Grampians where we called it a day.

From Hamilton we went back to Ballarat where we had quickly been twice before, realizing that there was more to see so we stayed at the campground we had been at before for two nights, spending one seeing the beautiful city of Ballarat, and the next day revisiting two of our favorite towns, Daylesford and Castlemaine.

We had a few days to kill so we decided to revisit places that struck us in a good way at sometime during our travels so we went back to Mansfield. This is another great town, sort of the gateway to the snow fields at Mt Buller, but full of its own character. This is known as the high country, full of cattle and sheep on the high plains before the Alpine ranges begin. It is also home to The Man From Snowy River. If you have seen the movie, then you know what the scenery it like, just breathtaking. We spent the day visiting the historic Sheepyard Flats on the Howqua River. They had started to mine gold here, but it just proved to be too difficult for the amounts found, but there are some remnants remaining. Then we drove down to Jamieson to the brewery for a late lunch.

Now we do a bit of backtracking. From Mansfield, we drive north thru the King Valley, another wine region where the Brown Brothers Estate is, along with many boutique wineries. We picked a few cellars to visit and left with more bottles to add to our collection. Up though the valley we drive to Wangaratta, where we head south on the Hume highway to Nagambie for two nights.

There isn’t much to see or do in Nagambie, but it was the closest place we could get lodging because we wanted to go to the Seymour Sustainable Farming Expo that was being held over the weekend. I suppose the closest I can compare it to is the Big E in Springfield MA each autumn. This expo in Seymour was huge, and took us two days to see it all, and even now I think we missed parts. If you want farm machinery, this was the place to be. Toys I didn’t even know what they were used for. But there wasn’t just big farm machinery, there were things for the hobby farmer, wine grower, alpaca grower, chook, sheep and goat and more. Lecture topics ranged from veterinary care, to cutting up the carcass and getting the most dollar value out of it by futher processing of the meat. There were lectures on sustainable home building and just so much more. And yes, we shopped. We now have a new fence pounder, puller, straightener which is cool, but even better, a gizmo for tying down the hay bales so when we get the bales from the field to home we don’t loose any on the road. It was a really good show, and we are very glad we dawdled along the way so we could spend some time there.

That was yesterday, now we are in Beechworth for one more night before we move on. We have been to Beechworth before, so this is our second stay for us. This town for us ranks right up there in books as a keeper with Clare. It is on the edge of high plains and the Alpine Range, and is a historic gold mining village and is just a very nice place to be. Today we were going to do the scenic gorge drive, but we found out when we got there that the drive is closed due to extensive flood damage. So, after breaking out the map, we decided to drive down to Mt Buffalo NP. It was the best way to spend the day. The water was roaring down the face of the mountain, creating all of these beautiful waterfalls, the clouds were doing special cloud things and the temperatures were quite decent which was nice. We weren’t freezing or cooking, so we really got to enjoy the views. And the views! As you will see from Steve’s photos, you look over the Alpine Range. A perfect day.

Tomorrow, we head north crossing the border into NSW, driving up thru Yass, onto Cowra and Bathurst, then just a small jog down to the Jenolan Caves, on the west side of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. We didn’t get to see them when we were up in Katoomba when we first rocked in, so we are going to see them now. Steve promised me.

Time Does Fly By

Hawker Sunrise


Flinders Sunset Tree


Streaky Bay Dunes


Haystack Rocks


Streaky Bay Tinnie



Wow, I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by since my last blog. It was two weeks ago! I have some catching up to do.

When I last left you we were enjoying a beautiful day out on the True North celebrating Australia Day with all of the Australians. The True North is a premier class boat or yacht that specializes on adventure cruises around Australia catering to 36 passengers with a crew of 30. We were on the Ture North for a photo workshop with 100 other photographers out at Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth for the day. What made the day even better as when we were coming back into port, we could see the fireworks of both Fremantle and Perth happening. It was a great way to spend the day.

After spending another full day in Fremantle, we headed back down the coast to Dunsborough, trying to catch up with our allusive car registration. We had paid the fee online, but were trying to get the sticker for the windscreen. We finally were able to pick it up on Saturday, and then we were invited to a barbeque that night at one of the owners of True North at his house in Eagle Bay. What a night it was, we were not only invited for dinner, but to stay the night at the True North Ashore, the house being as splendiferous as the yacht. True North Ashore is for sale if anyone wants to buy it for a cool $5,000,000. You get a view of the bay, a huge house with a waterfall inside, a sauna, plunge pool, Bose sound system, great kitchen, on and on. It was not our style, but we did have a lovely night there. The excitement that night was waiting for the cyclone to hit the area we were staying in, but lucky for us, it petered out to a fizzle, so we had no worries and the next day we began our long drive back east.

There isn’t much to say about the drive back across the plains of WA except it is a long, and very boring drive and we were very glad to finally arrive in Ceduna at the border station four days later. After stocking up on groceries, we headed south to Streaky Bay which had high recommendations from many people we had run into. We can see why, it is a charming seaside town with a few cafes, shops and a pier with a shark cage about the size of an Olympic pool so you can swim safely in the water off the pier. You swim in the cage, not the sharks. We had a lovely two days in Streaky Bay, just driving around seeing the sights like the Woolshed Cave, Murphys Haystacks which are islebergs and High Cliff.

From Streaky Bay, we packed up and continued around the Eyre Peninsula, stopping at the sculptures placed along the Ocean Cliff Drive. Then onwards, we were going to camp at Tunby Cove, but it was deadsville, so we drove on to Cowell, but by then the heavens opened up, so we ended up in Whyalla at the Best Western for the night.

Because the weather forecast was for rain the next few days, Steve got in touch with Neil and Elaine, friends we had met through Jim and Polly Curran, and they invited to stay with them, so off to Adelaide we go for the weekend.

Sunday was spent with new friends we had met through our friend Kate in Tasmania. Maggie and Bob are the warmest and most generous folks. We had such a good time with them seeing their gardens and taking me to the local seed savers meeting where I got to meet more wonderful gardeners. As we left Maggie and Bob at the end of the day, we not only had fresh eggs and plums, but two new friends.

From Adelaide, we went back up north to Hawker, the hub of the Flinders as the sign says. When we were there back in September it was oh so green, and John at the caravan park said that he thinks that it is more dramatic in the summer, so since we had time, we though we would go back. Only two days earlier there had been flash flooding in the area, remnants of Cyclone Yasi that had devastated FNQ. Needless to say, we chose the right road to get to Hawker, even though the floodways were covered with water, brush and silt, they were passable. It was all worth it because John was right, the Flinders are so amazing at anytime of year. We spent two nights in Hawker, just about the only tourists in the area we had the place to ourselves. The next day we drove to Blinman, at the northern end of the Flinders and stopped in town, where we were the only people. The guy at the general store was very nice and said that Feb and March are the slow months in the outback. We asked if the road to Parachilna was open and he said yes, the grader went through yesterday and because we had a 4x4 we should be able to make it with out any worries, besides it was only 30k. Off we go, and yes the road had just been graded, in fact it was better than many of the roads we had driven on in WA, but the flash flood certainly did rip it apart, but we drive on, eventually meeting up with the grader, now we were crossing floodways that really had water running across them, but there was no turning back at this point, and we did make it finally to the other side, hopeing for lunch at he Prairie Hotel, which is supposed to have the best roadkill café, yes, that’s right, they serve up roadkill, camel, kangaroo and emu, but it too was closed for the summer, so back to Hawker we go.

Now we are back down in Clare, our most favorite place we have found yet. We are staying at our favorite B&B and relaxing, visiting vineyards and getting ready to continue on still pointing east towards Byron