Belinda Moore

July has been and gone. We’ve succumbed to winter ills here, as is happening in almost every household everywhere around Australia at the moment, it seems! Get well soon everyone!

AT HOME: We’ve been playing in the kitchen again this month, trying new recipes for the menu and preserving the bountiful citrus.

Early in the month we went to the local show. There were a lot of cows there! Lily and I had our photo taken for a local paper. Lily said, “Next I’m going to be on TV, you know!” and was very proud to have her photo in the newspaper.

We’ve had our van back and forth to the mechanic. It has been very frustrating! I’m hoping that the minor but elusive problem will be solved when our mechanic returns next week.

It was great to catch up with friends to remember together our dear friend Lyndal, who would have turned 50 last week. She passed away in January after a brief battle with pancreatic and liver cancers. The evening was a blend of colour, music, fire, food, wine, laughter, a few tears and lots of love.

Fire the Grid was an event of interest to me in July. The evening didn’t pan out as I intended, but I still participated. “Peace in the world must begin first within the heart and purpose and mind of the individual…[for] as individuals change themselves and their interactions with one another, eventually the world cannot help but follow.” ~ Edgar Cayce.

I’m looking forward to going to see the John Butler Trio and Josh Pyke in Kuranda in August with some lovely young friends. I’ve never seen JBT live, so I’m really excited.

AT WORK: It was great to see the first issue of Indigo come in the mail. Copies are still available, if you’re interested. I am currently thinking about how I can contribute to this wonderful project. Stay tuned.
Education Choices is still behind schedule, and I’m currently editing my section for issue 11. Keep an eye on the website for the printing date of issue 10, which featured a lot of content especially for and by Dads - so should be worth the wait!

ON THE FARM: We now have two frames for poly-tunnels for vegies. One around the tank gardens near the house and a bigger one up near the chooks in the orchard area. The progress on the greenhouses has been slow, but with the frosts we had in July, it’s not the best time to be rushing into gardening!

We had WWOOFers here this past week, they leave tomorrow. Tenna and Laura are two young Danish girls who have been a pleasure to have around. They tackled some odd jobs in the shed and yard and were a delight to have in our home and family for a week. We are taking them to stay with some friends who are also WWOOF hosts.

The orchard has expanded into Stage 2. I’ve filled Stage 1 already. It’s hard to source all the trees I’d like to plant. Our wwoof girls started a few from seed in pots for me, but it will take patience and care to get them to grow to trees… I’m willing to try though.

The bantam chick died. It lived for just over 2 weeks and was the cutest little chick I’ve ever seen. I was more sad than the children, I think. Our other flock of chickens are growing into big birds, but we’re not expecting them to lay until Spring.

HOME ED.: Holiday time is over, but we’ve had a house full of sickies off and on for weeks! Being sick is very boring…

The release of the new Harry Potter book during July meant that there was a lot of reading happening at our place. Another favourite around here lately is the Silver Brumby series by Elyne Mitchell. Our wwoofers have been reading about Natural Horsemanship and Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, which is a fantastic example of lifelong learning for the children.

Through hosting our wwoofers, we’ve also been learning about Denmark. And Icelandic horses. And a whole lot more! They have never met a homeschooling family before, and were fascinated by the concept of children learning in the home and community, rather than in a school.
Our home learning is continuing as usual, with no outstanding activities to report, sadly. We have a new violin pupil in the house, though, so it has been good to hear music played almost daily. We’ve missed art class due to the new kitten being stuck in the dashboard of the car, then everyone being sick the following fortnight. Life is never dull here. The girls even missed some of their drama group rehearsals. Let’s hope the next few weeks run more smoothly with regard to health, cars and cats!