Smile like you mean it

They did me a favour, yeah. The past month or so I’ve been processing upon recent events, and the results are now in. The early 1990’s recession set Sandra and I upon this path. When the Titanic was sinking, the general rule for seats on a lifeboat was women and children first. In the 1990’s recession we had to have, the same was true when the economic boat was sinking, women and children got booted off the ship first.

We were both so young back then. It was no fun being booted off the economic ship and having to scramble to keep a roof over our heads and food upon the table. Such experiences shake your confidence in the system. They also kill trust. You know what can happen, because you’ve experienced it. The old timers say that trust is hard won, and easily lost. That’s true. The recession was five years long, four of which I spent working at commercial debt collection. It was an exciting job where you get to experience the darker side of humanity, plus get lied to constantly.

Towards the end of the five years, the economic winds slowly began to improve due to super loose government fiscal policy combined with the slow jettisoning of support for local manufacturing. Eventually, I landed a more senior role. Then another, and another etc. During those years, there was something of a nagging thought as to whether the folks who employed me knew that I was always holding something back.

Once trust is gone, it’s hard to rebuild. Sure, we had no choice but to work as employees during the day to pay the bills. But at night and on weekends we also fixed up houses in order to make extra mad cash as a side hustle. It was not unusual to work all day at a complicated and stressful job, then come home and continue repairs on the house until late into the night. And the repair work wasn’t just banging in a new kitchen and bathroom. We bought absolute wrecks that nobody else wanted, but in good areas, then slowly rebuilt them. That’s how we knew we could build the house here ourselves. As a fun fact, it’s actually easier building a new house, than repairing an old one. Oh, we also studied part time as well.

It was not lost on me that during those needful years, a power imbalance had slipped into the employment equation. Not always, but sometimes that lead to exploitation. There’s a mental image of me as a puppet held by strings and you can hear the incantation of mirth: “Dance and sing for us, Chris!” Sure, I’ll dance and sing for you. A miserable experience.

By 2008 I’d had enough of working at the top end of town. We ditched the inner city, moved up to the bush, began developing a farm, and provided services to small business instead. Less hierarchy, less mucking around was my thinking. And it’s proven to be true. I enjoy what I do now and also like the people I work with.

However, a very old client which began as a small business, grew. And then grew some more. They got big, and eventually outgrew me. For the past couple of years I dealt with a revolving door of different people. It’s hard to maintain a relationship on that basis, even a very long and well established one. A person ends up being only as good as the last work you did for them. There’s no loyalty or reward in that model. It’s quite mercenary. Eventually the long relationship ended, rudely and rather abruptly.

In many ways, the conclusion of the relationship has been something of a relief. I’d known the possible outcome for a few years and it left me feeling a bit on edge when working for them. That’s not right. However, things change and the extra free time is appreciated as I can get some of the projects done around here which have long been neglected. Observant readers will have noticed that there’s been a lot more work done around the farm of late. We’re also saving mad cash by harvesting, preserving and consuming more of the produce grown here. When you’re busy earning, the harvest never waits, nor does it listen to such excuses.

The path we took to get here with some measure of independence, is probably not possible nowadays. Finding a cheap wreck of a house to restore is impossible, because no where is cheap to purchase. The median house price for metropolitan Melbourne is $909,000, and weekly rents are $550, which in less polite terms is $28,600 a year. That’s a lot of mad cash, and I am very uncomfortable with this current situation.

It’s candidly hard to know what we would have done had we not been able to head bush back in 2008. My grandfather mysteriously once remarked to me: “Chris. Those who look ahead, get ahead.” With a bit more age on my side, I’d probably add to that advice by suggesting: “Try to do differently to what everyone else is doing.”

The beginning of the week concluded the heatwave. Since then the days have been very pleasant, sunny and warm, with cooler nights. Still not much rain though.

Earlier in the week we constructed another steel rock gabion cage.

A new steel rock gabion cage was constructed

The steel cage was then put in place, retaining soil against a very steep garden bed.

The new steel rock gabion cage was installed

In that area we intend to construct a new and larger firewood shed. Only just running out of firewood in previous years is probably cutting things a bit too fine. The site for the new shed was excavated a very long time ago, and is good enough, but not particularly flat. We were in a hurry in those days. Before any construction takes place, we’re now flattening out the site. A large water tank used to sit in the middle of the area, and this week it was emptied and then shoved to the side. That plastic thing is heavy.

The large green water tank was pushed to the side

The water tank sat on a mound of soil which will be excavated and used as fill on the low gradient path project. That work will take place over the next week or so. In the right hand side of the above image, you can see a shed. That shed will eventually be dismantled over the next couple of months. All the materials will be recovered and many of those will be used in the new firewood shed. The large green water tank will then sit where that shed is now located. There’s a lot still of work to do with the project and it will take about half a year of work.

Last week we’d run out of large rocks for the new low gradient path project. Because of this, we had to spend a day down in the forest edge smashing up a large boulder.

Smashing up a boulder into smaller (but still large) rocks

That day we produced far more large rocks than we needed. Some of those were brought up the hill. The downhill side of the rock wall on the low gradient path project is now completed.

The yellow power wheelbarrow is used to bring large rocks up the hill

Despite the machines, it’s still hard work hauling large rocks up the hill. Only one rock can be rolled into the bucket (usually the heaviest). The rest of them, we have to lift and drop into the bucket. Once brought up the hill, they then have to be carefully positioned so that they are stable and not prone to moving or shifting.

The downhill side of the low gradient path rock wall is now complete

The uphill side of the rock wall still needs a lot of work, and the path needs more soil. But as you can see, the project is getting there.

Now that I have a bit more time for projects around the farm, I’m improving the many aspects of the off grid solar power systems. This week the fuse box for the large array of solar panels in the paddock was completely re-wired. It’s looking neat, and the fuses are all industrial grade items. All of this renewable energy stuff deteriorates over time, and so it is wise to use the best quality items that you can afford.

A fuse box for a solar panel array was completely re-wired

This coming Tuesday, the weather forecast has predicted a chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain. With that forecast in mind, and the prospect of cooler weather, we harvested the last of the seasons pumpkins. They’re the Queensland Blue variety, and we sure grew and picked quite a lot of them.

A whole lotta pumpkins

I ran all of the pumpkin vines through the even scarier old electric chipper / mulcher. A few years ago I picked up the two horsepower electric machine for $50. It’s old, easily repaired and locally made. The machine had to be modified a bit to make it work properly, and the cutting blades needed sharpening, but it’s a beast!

Surprise! Ruby photo bombed me again!

Despite the very cold and damp start to the growing season, we’ve grown a lot of tomatoes. There are more than we can consume fresh, so we’ve begun processing rounds of the tasty fruit through the dehydrator so as to preserve them.

Yummo! Dehydrating tomatoes

There have been some areas of the property (which due to the firewood shed upgrade project), we have been unable to water this year. In those areas, well spaced seedlings growing in fertile soil have produced fruit and vegetables with almost no further attention. The pumpkins have had to survive alone on rainwater. Another case in point is this very healthy looking Bob’s Crazy Yellow cherry tomatoes in the next image.

Bob’s crazy yellow tomatoes are awesome

A few beetroot plants have taken from seed, and just done their own thing.

Sure they’re small, but have also thrived on benign neglect

We’ve been more adventurous with the summer leafy green varieties this year, and have grown multi-coloured Silverbeet (Swiss Chard). They taste as good as they look.

Which colour to choose from? Lets eat them all.

Breakfasts of home made toasted muesli and yoghurt are already good. Adding in seasonal fruit takes the meal to the whole next level.

Fresh Grapes, Strawberries and Chilean Guavas lift breakfast to the next level

The ten grapevines have produced very little over the past few years, other than vines. However, this year the five year old vines are now producing heaps of grape clusters. The varieties we planted out are dual purpose vines fit for either the table or wine making. Yum!

A grape photo!

In a garden mystery, the small pomegranate bush has produced some fruit. Wonder what it tastes like?

A developing pomegranate

Proving that Dame Plum’s title was well earned. Sunday morning, she got a rabbit. That is no easy feat for a dog. For obvious reasons, rabbits are both fast and have nervous dispositions.

Dame Plum gets a rabbit

And a rare and unusual butterfly turned up for a few days. The Imperial Jezebel is a knock out. The name says it all really.

Two Imperial Jezebel butterflies on the Lemon Meyer

Onto the flowers:

A self seeded Rose has produced a flower
The Roses are loving the hot and dry weather
How cool is this Ficifolia?

The temperature outside now at about 9am is 16’C (61’F). So far for last year there has been 217.8mm (8.6 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 213.4mm (8.4 inches)