Belinda Moore

September has been so sunny and warm, it’s delicious! Loads of flowers in the garden, new leaves on the trees and birdsong to cheer me all day long.

AT HOME: I’ve been choosing paint colours and getting rather excited about the difference a little colour will make to the house. It’s nice to make small changes to express ourselves in our new home.

The blocks have been delivered for enclosing the back room, so hoping they’ll be laid next week and we’ll be on our way to starting renovations. That room needs to be done so we can start moving stuff from other rooms and building, painting and making changes room by room.

For Abby’s birthday we enjoyed a day at Lake Eacham with friends. The water was too cold for me, but the children had a wonderful time.

We are looking forward to the Yungaburra Folk Festival at the end of this month. Quite a few people we know are performing, so I hope to catch all their acts.

AT WORK: Education Choices remains behind schedule. Eleanor does intend to print the two late magazines, but has suffered serious health issues within her family over the months during and since the conferences. Thank you to all the readers for your patience.

No announcements for the new work I have lined up, but will post here when I have something to tell you.

ON THE FARM: The greenhouses are at the same stage as they were last month, I think! The plants are flourishing though, and I have the materials here to build more raised beds now. And mountains of mulch and manure too. Only a gardener knows the thrill of having an abundance of manure to play with! We are eating food from the garden - bok choy, salad greens and herbs mostly. It’s so lovely to rush out and pick them fresh at tea time!

There are two fruit on one baby nectarine tree. They’ve only been in the ground a few months, so I was rapt to see them blossom at the start of spring and fruit is just a bonus! I wasn’t expecting any fruit for a year or three…

Our hens we raised from chicks are now laying. The bantam hatched just one of her three eggs - the cutest little white chick! We bought her four more hybrid chicks which she happily adopted and is mothering beautifully. Bantams are such natural mothers. We also bought another four chicks on a whim at the feed store. They’re not even sexed and of unknown breed, so it’ll be interesting to see how they grow. They’re five weeks old now and doing well on their own with the flock. They don’t venture far and stick together, which is a good idea around here. We were just given three new hens by friends when we went to collect a spare rooster from them. We’re still waiting for the rooster whom no one could find. The reason we’re getting a new rooster is that early last month something (feral dogs, dingoes?) took our frizzy bantam rooster, our red rooster and one of our hybrid hens. We were so sad to lose three birds in one night. The next day we lost a frizzy bantam who was egg-bound. More sadness - farming isn’t easy on the heart! Our friends gave us a replacement rooster who settled in nicely. He was becoming quite tame and was wonderfully protective of the girls (hens). He didn’t sleep in the pen, though, preferring to roost in a nearby tree. We missed his crow one morning, and found a few tail feathers in the middle of the house paddock later that day. We presume he met the same fate as the three birds who disappeared a few weeks ago. Let’s hope our newest rooster (when we get him) will choose the safety of being locked up at night.

The horses are still skinny (especially the mare, Amber), even after unlimited grazing and supplementary feed and minerals every day. I hope that they pick up condition soon, though with such old horses it’s a common problem that they suffer during the cold and are slow to gain weight, are prone to scour etc. I’ll keep trying various remedies and keeping a close eye on them, though. They’re teaching me a lot about horses in the very least! I’m currently looking for a younger horse whom I can ride, whilst nurturing these two as best I can.

We have had two male peacocks walking about the horse feeding area, drinking from the trough and checking out the chook pen. They look beautiful but have an awful call and are renowned for making an awful mess of mulched areas. I’ve no idea where they came from, they just walked out of the forest and made themselves at home. They retreat to the forest each evening. Scrub turkeys are our other visiting big birds. They like to finish off the horse feed as well, and wander about looking for scraps to eat. I hope we don’t get too many, as they also make a mess of the gardens and eat eggs from chickens if they can.

We’ve had a lot of earthworks happening here, which is why the greenhouse-building has been on the back-burner again. A lot of cyclone debris has been cleared away now, as well as lantana, rampant mock ginger and other messes. Roads have been cleared and a pad has been cut into the hillside for a new shed. The big new water tank is in place and connected to the system which gravity feeds the house. It has made a difference to the water pressure and more than doubled our storage.

Some areas are looking very bare after the debris was scraped away. I’m waiting on some mulch delivery (more mulch!) and when the rain comes I’ll start planting some more trees. Carting water to trees is tiring work which I’d rather avoid.

HOME ED.: We attended our second annual camp for the seventh time. The weather was glorious and the company as lovely as ever.

During the holidays we’ve been very social and active as the weather has been perfect for it. We enjoyed a lovely evening on the Spring Equinox with some friends nearby. The theme was ‘Greek finger food’ so we did some research, and cooked and bought some yummy morsels. We also had a great bonfire and some music.

It was lovely to witness the full moon rising last week, a huge orange orb coming up over the hill. We stepped outside and did some drumming and dancing and admired her beauty. Because it rains a lot here, we do miss witnessing such awesome night skies.

Lego, board games and jigsaws have kept everyone busy and messy all through the house. Three of the girls create quite involved games with various toy horses. It’s lovely to see the tissue-box stables and other props come forth from their imaginations and hands.

We’ve watched a few great movies and read some good books. I unpacked the My Story series and I think I might either read them aloud, or read them myself if no one is interested! They’re a great Australian history series enjoyed by Brittany and hopefully the other children in time.

We’ve been poring over the Judius catalogue as it’s time to replenish some art and craft supplies and think about making Christmas gifts and cards.

Abby has been making felt food items for use with the tea set and they are so cute! I’m getting some more felt colours so we can have a wider variety of felt food to play with.

Imogen made herself a great leather bag from scraps of leather I bought and some wool and beads. She’s very inventive! She finished her first free-style pair of knitted slippers, gifted to our friend Lyndel, and is working on a rainbow pair right now. Immi figured out the pattern herself, knitted them and sewed them up in just a couple of weeks.

The three older girls are showing interest in sewing using the machine, so I tidied up my sewing table and found them each a pattern and some fabric from our stash. Now to make the time and find the patience to follow through with the ‘lessons’…

The machinery and trucks have kept the boys interested outdoors. Bryce has also found a passion for ‘tennis’ since having a young friend sleep over the other night. They’ve all been hitting a ball about, hula-hooping, mucking about with the huge tyre tube, playing in the wading pool and being very active in the lovely Spring weather.

We’ve all been taking long walks in the forest and swimming in the (freezing) creek too. What a blessing to have such a magical backyard…

I guess we’ll return to more academic pursuits soon enough, but for now life is full and busy with natural learning, outings, visitors and fun.