tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80301079590710830342024-03-06T01:14:14.756-08:00Two companerosTwo old comrades (49 years married) have left the safe life of international teaching to begin a new venture: owner-building and farming for self-sufficiency in Franklin, Tasmania. Our 4 kids, and 10 grandkids, plus numerous friends, are encouraging us in our craziness.
The last 10 years have seen another job come and go, cardiac bypass, a cancer battle, and learning on the job to build.
..and we live in Paradise: the Huon Valley, Tasmania.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-83002771683917068802020-06-13T03:23:00.001-07:002020-06-13T03:23:21.588-07:00Winter has definitely arrived. We've had a number of quite severe frosts and the fire has been kept going most nights.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5ldp06HXbbwcHMEpLAnbLWg_XsaMJ47PmastUs4vzJRN9fTLHHTlODqSOvBckDTd7Ck_Ai0yyhAt38xMAORKp2lrJGU3i0-bNLGeRFW1JXtDQ8rF77_HMsrZE-r2WRX6vHtlTQtlK9yU/s1600/IMG_1884.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5ldp06HXbbwcHMEpLAnbLWg_XsaMJ47PmastUs4vzJRN9fTLHHTlODqSOvBckDTd7Ck_Ai0yyhAt38xMAORKp2lrJGU3i0-bNLGeRFW1JXtDQ8rF77_HMsrZE-r2WRX6vHtlTQtlK9yU/s200/IMG_1884.jpeg" width="150" /></a>This was one of the birches just a few weeks ago when it was truly splendid. The leaves have now all disappeared but it shows a different beauty with the marvellous textured bark and silhouetted branches.<br />
One of the things we love about Tassie, and one of the main reasons for moving here when we returned to Oz, is having four seasons again instead of the hot-and-wet or hot-and-dry which is typical of so much of the North Island (mainland.)<br />
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The building continues. Downstairs now has the first coat of render completed inside and the second coat started.<br />
We have also started the lining with the ceiling complete in the alcove and partly done in the dining area and bathroom.<br />
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Upstairs a stud wall has gone in on the southern side of the guest bedroom/study. Yes, I know that it looks as though the wall is short, but it is firmly fixed to the rafters behind the main beam.<br />
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The wall will have a sliding door running behind to provide storage space and the bedhead will go against it. On the Northern side of the room, my study area in the dormer is beginning to take shape. It will have a fitted desk and bookshelves.</div>
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We are still trying to get the money together for the plumbing and electrics. Once they are done, everything else is quite straightforward.</div>
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So proud of this lady. Sue is scared of power tools, and terrified of the drop-saw but has learned to use it anyway and has saved me numerous journeys on the stairs as a result. She has also become comfortable with the tacking gun, but wants nothing to do with the big nail gun which is too heavy for her to handle comfortably. </div>
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We're still managing to lay up hooch. This lot is more cider, and there is a batch (8 litres) of white peach wine brewing by the fire as well as 23 litres of stout.</div>
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Vinnie now has his own hoonchie in Rachel's back paddock so he can overnight there. At our place, we still have a chronic lack of feed because of the wallabies eating all the grass that comes up so he has to make regular visits to R's place to get a good bellyful. </div>
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Covid 19 restrictions have had little effect on us, other than putting church meeting on hold. Otherwise, you don't get much more isolated that we are.</div>
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<br />Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-35542584896149447932020-04-23T05:19:00.001-07:002020-04-23T05:21:40.403-07:00Provisions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This was our harvest of Mountain Pepper for the season. Not a huge amount but not bad for one small tree.<br />
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I had a go at hot cross buns for Resurrection Sunday.<br />
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Not bad for a first shot, and they were delicious.<br />
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Now there's a tale to these.<br />
I decided to make plum wine.<br />
I had picked heaps of Greengage and Golden Drop plums from Rachel's orchard, and Sue had frozen them. Freezing makes them easier to pulp once they are thawed, so I set about making up about 7 litres. Problem: it's hard to tell frozen plums and apricots apart, so instead of plum wine we ended up with plumpicot wine. <br />
It has resulted in a delightful dessert style wine, with a refreshing fizz.<br />
We also experimented with rhubarb wine - 7 litres initially - and the results were so good that we immediately cleaned out the rhubarb patch and now have bottled 29 more litres. <br />
I also made 10 litres of cider from our own apples and have 25 litres more brewing from apples from Rachel's orchard.<br />
I also have 15 litres of ginger beer brewing.<br />
All told, we have about 90 litres of hooch either bottled or brewing....and I wouldn't average a standard drink per day. Looks like I'm just about covered for winter.<br />
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But there's always a catch. That 40 litres which is brewing will need to be bottled and we're out of bottles. A message has gone out to friends to save their soft drink bottles. I prefer the PET bottles to glass for a good reason: I don't like glass grenades. PET bottles go out of shape before they will burst, so there's plenty of warning if pressure needs to be eased.<br />
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I ran the costs. Cider costs us nothing when I rely on the natural yeast, or less than 1cent per litre if I use champagne yeast. The other country wines come out at about 15 cents per litre because of the added sugar. At those prices I could put up with ordinary hooch, but this stuff has all been great. Ok, the blackberry wine had a stinkbug in it, which made it less than completely wonderful, but otherwise...<br />
Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-62281533557335786792020-04-23T04:51:00.003-07:002020-04-23T04:54:18.206-07:00Autumn is in full swingThe winds are blowing. The apples have all been picked. Plums, apricots, and rhubarb have been converted into country wines. Cider and ginger beer are brewing. Kilos of fruit are in the freezer. It's the "season of mellow fruitfulness."<br />
Since my last post, Poppy had her calf. Unfortunately it was still born. She also seems to have had a hernia. I need to have the vet check it out to be sure, but, if she had one, it means we won't be able to breed her again.<br />
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Poppy's udder was huge and she had plenty of milk, but her teats were too small to milk by hand - especially the rear teats. It was impossible to get milk from the rear quarters, despite them dripping milk constantly. Those tiny teats were just too small to be able to squeeze properly. At least I was able to get two fingers on the front teats but, again, they were so small that it took more than half an hour to get a litre out of her.<br />
So I've had to dry her off to avoid mastitis. Thankfully, drying off went without any problems and she's in fine health.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJ5HDitrN-yxzI0hyphenhyphenmmbIpXoa8KkxBUdK0mNczBomy__l_2xVXc3EGweXKwQPtjE8Mv0_72JzMY8vWCk-Iu3trUy_AQUACGyhpl8IUcQ6bEfWuYShwKhLbrhKwH6ji68s8Ztrq9XO2o7M/s1600/IMG_1815.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrJ5HDitrN-yxzI0hyphenhyphenmmbIpXoa8KkxBUdK0mNczBomy__l_2xVXc3EGweXKwQPtjE8Mv0_72JzMY8vWCk-Iu3trUy_AQUACGyhpl8IUcQ6bEfWuYShwKhLbrhKwH6ji68s8Ztrq9XO2o7M/s320/IMG_1815.jpeg" width="320" /></a>If - and it's a big "if"- we are able to breed her again, I'm hoping that the calf will be able to get onto the teats and stretch them out enough that she becomes milkable. <br />
The upshot of all that is that this year's milk, butter, cheese and yoghurt will now need to come from the supermarket instead of the paddock, and our beef supply is put back a year.<br />
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Our batteries finally collapsed totally and we spent a few months running everything off the panels and generator, and with no power at night. Very frustrating.<br />
We were able to pick up four deep-cycle batteries from a chap north of Hobart for $1600 - less than half price. The vendor, Michael, honoured our deal despite getting a better offer. <br />
They are now installed and working fine. We still turn the fridges and freezer off at night, but are making float every day, and staying above 80% charge all night.<br />
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Covid-19 is doing its thing. Tassie has over 200 cases, which gives us the highest per capita infection rate in the country. Isolation is not too hard for us as we need to go around to the cow most days to check her water, move the electric fence, etc. On top of that, 10 years up here on the hill has taught us to cope with isolation. The hardest thing is knowing family can't come down, and we miss church too.<br />
Two of our friends have had the virus, but seem to be recovering fairly well.<br />
<br />Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-39478704406943616322020-01-03T00:33:00.000-08:002020-04-23T05:25:07.881-07:00<b>Hugh Rimington rips ScumMo a new one:</b><br />
Journalist Hugh Rimington gave our wonderful PM, Scott Morrison (or ScumMo as he is now called), the metaphorical both barrels on ABC Radio National this morning. He pointed out that, given that Scummy had detailed warnings in August from emergency services leaders that this fire season would be unprecedented, including maps accurately predicting the most at risk areas of the country, his sneaking off to Hawaii for a family holiday, and lying about it, when the predicted emergency was going full throttle, was wrong. <br />
He also blew apart Scummy's argument about not wanting the Feds to "trip over" the State emergency authorities by pointing out that turning up to do the job of leadership that he was elected to do would facilitate the State efforts, not hinder them. <br />
It's worth listening to on the ABC podcast series.<br />
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On another note: we had a paddock hayed today. 511 bales.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-36546821030294356122020-01-01T00:31:00.001-08:002020-01-01T00:31:53.487-08:00<b>Happy New Year!</b><br />
2020 has arrived with horrific fire conditions on the mainland. Crews are now going into some of the burnt out communities to assess the damage, and to see how many have been killed. So far, 7 bodies have been found over the past 36 hours. <br />
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Here in Tassie, we have several fires in the North but none in our part of the state for now.<br />
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I robbed a hive today. It is in a friend's yard on the other side of the river. The one super produced 11kg of honey which means we will have a little coming in from the sales to buy some more frames and hive boxes. <br />
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I still have two hives to check, but they will have to wait a few days as we are back to rendering tomorrow.<br />
<br />Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-10795378937813863692019-12-31T01:43:00.001-08:002019-12-31T14:29:20.378-08:00<b>The copa and prosciutto:</b><br />
Both the copa and the prosciutto turned out brilliantly. I know, I know: prosciutto shouldn't be eaten this young. But what the heck. It is marvellous. We gave some samples out as Christmas presents and they have been universally admired.<br />
Our afternoon drinks and nibbles have been greatly enhanced by these beautiful air-dried meats.<br />
I also made some Moroccan-spiced lamb sausages from the trimmings from the lambs we had butchered a few months ago. Shared them with Josh and the boys for breakfast while they were down. Delicious! 'Er indoors has already ordered more of them, so I fear that I have created a monster. Sausages, made with a hand-cranked meat grinder/sausage stuffer are very time consuming, even if the results are great.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-62137027680485370072019-12-31T01:26:00.001-08:002019-12-31T14:26:05.260-08:00<b>The best Christmas present imaginable:</b><br />
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At Christmas, on the ABC news website, I noticed a human interest story which brought tears to my eyes.<br />
The story was about a 37 year old man who had received a triple transplant - heart, lungs, liver - to deal with his cystic fibrosis. It told of his wife and child and the effect the transplant has had on his family, of his remarkable recovery, with only 2 weeks spent in post-operative hospital recovery. A nice story so far. Then the name.<br />
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The man was <b>Josh Leveridge.</b><br />
Josh and his family used to live next door to us in Condong, NSW, 33 years ago. Our kids used to go over regularly to play with Josh and his brother Sam, who also had CF. We babysat him several times. <br />
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Our daughter, Leah, contacted Josh via Facebook, and found out that his little brother is going well and also has a family. Leah spoke for all of us when she declared that the news was the best Christmas present any of us could imagine.<br />
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Best wishes to Josh and Sam and their families and parents. God bless you all.<br />
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<br />Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-21482115378430656802019-12-30T01:10:00.000-08:002019-12-30T01:10:03.426-08:00<b>Post Christmas update:</b><br />
Today was 37C here in Franklin, much better than the 40+ being experience on the North Island (mainland Australia) but still plenty warm. There is a small bushfire burning to the West of us, but it is of no concern at this point. In the North of Tassie several homes have been lost in bushfires today. The mainland is insane: out of control fires in 5 states with over 1000 homes lost this fire season - and this is just the beginning of the fire season. And our politicians are still pretending that there is no need to be concerned about climate change.<br />
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Courtesy of our son-in-law, Duncan, we have had the road into our place repaired and a container put on a new gravel pad to store some of the masses of stuff currently in storage. <br />
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<b>Christmas visitors</b><br />
Our son, Josh was down with his two boys for the lead up to Christmas, and Yanna and Jack, and our granddaughter Alex, joined us for our early Christmas on 23.12. <br />
Among other things, I received a Boer goat: Vinnie. <br />
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Josh and Buddy with Vinnie.<br />
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Xaviah became Vinnie's adopted Dad while he was here: complete with late night visits to make sure the goat was settled.<br />
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Jack admires Xaviah's courage in bringing Vinnie inside to sit on his lap on the lounge. Sue was taking a nap at the time, but when she woke was fairly forceful in expressing her opinion about having a goat inside.<br />
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Xaviah got involved in applying render to the north wall of the house - it helps to be 6' 3" when reaching the high bits of wall - and Che was on render mixing duties. Thanks guys. Your help is really appreciated. <br />
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And then, to top off a great Christmas, I was taking Vinnie for a walk, when I noticed bees going back and forth through the grass to get under an old telescopic hive lid I had left on the ground. A little investigation revealed that a colony had established itself in the old lid. I made up a hive out of two old ideal boxes and some left over full-depth frames, popped the populated lid on top, and there's a new hive doing very well for itself. I will complete the rehousing over the next few weeks as money becomes available for hive bodies and frames.<br />
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As I finish this posting, it is just starting to rain. Here's hoping we get a decent fall tonight. We had a paddock hayed on Saturday afternoon, but the rain won't be a problem, if we get a decent fall, as the rest of the week is forecast to be fairly dry. So all good!Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-31230563206534838992019-11-05T18:25:00.000-08:002019-12-31T01:33:50.727-08:00Another day, another swarm.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I bought bee frames yesterday so I could make sure the existing hives were well supplied with room for expansion. What happened? Our strongest hive swarmed this morning despite my having replaced brood frames a couple of weeks ago to reduce the risk of swarming. Probably 25-30,000 bees.<br />
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Luckily, they formed a cluster within 10 metres of the old hive (thank heavens for woody weeds) and were much easier to catch than Sunday's lot.</div>
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They're settling in.</div>
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Problem is, I have run out of boxes and frames. That's why the full depth box in this picture has gaffer tape on it. I was about to throw the box out because part of the wood is rotten but it has been pressed back into service and the gaps are taped up until I can get another. <br />
Less than a month ago we only had 4 hives, now we have expanded to 8: all healthy, and 7 are very strong. <br />
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Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-23436411638800478342019-11-03T16:33:00.002-08:002019-12-31T01:34:17.935-08:00Ginger Beer RecipeHere is the recipe I use for ginger beer.<br />
500 ml of water in a wide mouth glass jar.<br />
Add 3 tsp of sugar, 3 tsp of powdered ginger and 2 tsp of yeast. I have used bread yeast and beer yeast, but find that champagne yeast gives a crisper finish.<br />
Cover with a clean cloth, held tightly with an elastic band, to keep bugs out.<br />
Each day for the next 7 days, add 3 tsp of sugar and powdered ginger.<br />
On the eighth day, strain through cloth into a clean bucket.<br />
Add 7.5 l of warm water.<br />
Add 1.5kg of sugar (or 2 kg of honey) and stir until dissolved.<br />
Add 2 tsp of yeast.<br />
Cover with a cloth and place in a warm place for one or two days.<br />
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After a couple of days, pour into a demijohn or small kive, with an airlock, and leave in a warm place for another 7 or 8 days.<br />
Decant into clean PET soft drink bottles. I prefer these to glass bottles as it is easy to tell if pressure is building too strongly. A squeeze of the bottle will indicate if the bottles are building pressure. If the base of the bottles bulges, you need to release some pressure: carefully! Glass bottles can easily explode under these sorts of pressures, so should be avoided.<br />
The fermentation process can be stopped at any stage after bottling by simply putting the bottles in the refrigerator. This is an effective way of controlling the alcohol level.<br />
<b>Open <u>very</u> slowly</b> in order to avoid needing to wash the ceiling. <br />
I usually ease the lid off a half turn but keep my hand on the lid and re-tighten it as the fizz begins to rise. If a lot of fermentation has gone on, it can take several minutes to open a bottle.<br />
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<b>Variations: </b>Play around with this if you want. You can add a few dozen sultanas to aid fermentation, but it's not really necessary. I accidentally added 3 tsp of cinnamon one day when feeding the whort and the result was surprisingly pleasant. <br />
Chilli is a great additive! Just don't overdo it. Some dried chilli added to the demijohn stage really gives the brew a kick.<br />
Enjoy!Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-59520179250681569242019-11-03T16:07:00.000-08:002019-12-31T01:34:01.536-08:00More of beesAs mentioned in the previous post, I checked my top-bar hive a while ago and cleaned out some large chunks of comb containing honey but with a large proportion of nectar, so I decided, as the nectar was likely to ferment anyway, to use it instead of sugar in my latest ginger beer brew. Not sure if it's honey ginger beer or ginger mead, but who cares? It's cranking strongly.<br />
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Yesterday I was feeding the chooks when I found myself in the middle of a massive swarm of bees. I followed them to the neighbour's place (Ben and Anna) and found they has settled on a dead stringy bark. I figured they would settle in the hollow of the tree, but they decamped to another tree nearby and formed a cluster 4-5 metres off the ground, on a steep slope among some scrubby saplings.</div>
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I put a garbage bin under them and then whacked the branch with a long stick. Kerplop! </div>
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Missed the bin. </div>
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Gathered up as many as possible by hand, put them in the bin and then dumped them into the hive, scrambling up and down the slope with a bin of bees three times.</div>
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Then I used the same stick and duct-taped a plastic flower pot to it, put it up under the remaining cluster in the tree and shook as many bees as possible into it, and dumped them into the hive. This was repeated 5 or 6 times, with the pot getting stuck in tree branches each time.</div>
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Somehow I managed to get lucky and get the queen in the process because the rest of the cluster moved down to the hive over the next couple of hours.</div>
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Went back just before sunset, gathered up the hive and brought it back home. Woo hoo! One strong colony ready to make honey. I checked them this morning and they are quite active and settling in nicely.</div>
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There is a general rule of thumb that swarming bees will not sting. My experience is that this is true until you start whacking them with a flowerpot on a stick, then all bets are off. One little beggar got up the leg of my bee suit and stung me on the bum.</div>
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Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-67944942397681937772019-10-20T23:23:00.001-07:002019-10-20T23:24:31.235-07:00Bee time!Did a split with the hive we have at home, and set the split up as a nucleus at Neil and Denise's at Glen Huon - we'll see how the new hive goes. <br />
The bees are laying up honey and raising brood at a great rate.<br />
Opened the top-bar hive and it is over 80% full of brood and honey. I cleaned out the cross combed bars and am about to bottle our first few kgs of honey for the season. Not much, but there's something exciting about the first small harvest of the season.<br />
I'll check the other hives and check on the progress of the split later in the week.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-78959083368126964022019-10-14T01:57:00.000-07:002019-11-05T18:27:47.271-08:00October updateThis week we turned off two sheep: a ewe and a wether. For less than $400 (purchase price, supplementary feed and the cost of slaughter and butchering) we now have over 50kg of prime organic lamb in the freezer plus enough bones to do the dogs for the next few weeks and enough trimmings for sausages. <br />
Sue has been in and out of hospital in Ipswich, while visiting Leah, and she has found she has kidney stones. She has also found out that opioids are good gear when you are in serious pain.<br />
The bees are working overtime, and it is possible to smell the honey from 20 metres away from the hives. The 4 remaining colonies are all very strong so we might get a split or two this season as well as a good supply of honey.<br />
I managed to get a good report from the oncologist last week, so that's a blessing.<br />
On the down side: the batteries have died so we are relying on running fridge and freezer in daylight hours with the generator for backup on heavily overcast days. We're looking at replacement batteries and have found a good source at a good price, but will still have to wait until early next year to get them. There is enough residual power in the current bank at the end of the day to run the internet and our LED lights during the evening. Fortunately, the footy season is over, so the lack of evening TV is not problem.<br />
The batteries died the week before the Grand Final (Rugby League) but I was still able to watch it live online. Unfortunately, the Canberra Raiders lost - but only just.<br />
We're giving eggs away at present, and selling some to friends, as we're getting more than we can use.<br />
We have spinach and lettuce planted and potatoes are up in the old potato patch. We just need to keep the wallabies and possums away from them. <br />
We have temporary fencing around half of the orchard but wallaby wire is very expensive, so the rest will have to wait.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-27621400331747792212019-08-19T16:53:00.001-07:002019-08-19T16:53:37.446-07:00Further progress.The first coat of render is almost complete on the house.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Duncan put in huge hours on the render when he was home over July, and I've been able to continue since. The really high stuff is a pain to get on as we don't have access to decent scaffolding, but we're getting there.</span></div>
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The heifer (Poppy) seems to be progressing well with her pregnancy, with the battle being to keep the weight off her so she doesn't have calving issues. Complaining about too much good feed is not a bad problem to have, I guess.</div>
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..and as part of the preparation for Spring, Alex (my granddaughter) has started painting hive boxes. </div>
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Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-25743575354419540952019-05-16T17:38:00.001-07:002019-05-16T17:38:16.844-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The copa hanging with the prosciutto.</div>
Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-57698516451901961932019-05-14T22:24:00.001-07:002019-05-14T22:24:06.295-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The view out the kitchen window this morning as I made breakfast.</div>
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Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-66217455932594245882019-05-11T04:00:00.000-07:002019-12-31T01:35:11.232-08:0011.5.19<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbVcK-r6gPOpIx4ufMNq__iDYndA0twxQ3w1uSh_jYduVEtz_RakAemqIobN-20AFyakbXxw8YLEWXgTMPAm6X9BNi3a2IICi67_f33b84IDWQzCU7HNkCPXCqyDFjqSNfNj8dY4mc6BOZ/s1600/IMG_1572.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbVcK-r6gPOpIx4ufMNq__iDYndA0twxQ3w1uSh_jYduVEtz_RakAemqIobN-20AFyakbXxw8YLEWXgTMPAm6X9BNi3a2IICi67_f33b84IDWQzCU7HNkCPXCqyDFjqSNfNj8dY4mc6BOZ/s320/IMG_1572.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
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The 12kg prosciutto hanging in the homemade meatsafe.</div>
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Only a year or two to go</div>
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and then - yummo!</div>
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I've also hung a 2.2kg copacolla today.</div>
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Will upload a photo shortly.</div>
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Spectacular double rainbow from a few days ago.</div>
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Poppy, the heifer, went out to a nearby farm on Thursday to spend some time with a little Dexter bull. He was immediately very interested in her and she seems rather appreciative of the attention, so we hope they get down to business so we can have a fresh supply of dairy products in about 10 months, and another beast for the freezer in about 2 years.</div>
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We have been told that we only have 2 years to have the house completed, so the pressure is on now to get everything done and dusted. Plumbing, electrics, rendering and roadworks to be done. Most of the rest is either completed or almost so.</div>
Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-28227719615927532562019-04-01T14:53:00.003-07:002019-04-01T14:53:55.619-07:002.4.19<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDKkoanz-IhalGYCnUHrvPtTU0blkbNcaLg5w_w_DyEevtxrIWiKfiPwQ01BZeh4d0jQpFgZIybCRUlRBsBETsU1h5pQI_LdaSlDuhjxk3pSEJV0XP60NkjYXFItzWT98etFuns1G1kvug/s1600/IMG_1565.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDKkoanz-IhalGYCnUHrvPtTU0blkbNcaLg5w_w_DyEevtxrIWiKfiPwQ01BZeh4d0jQpFgZIybCRUlRBsBETsU1h5pQI_LdaSlDuhjxk3pSEJV0XP60NkjYXFItzWT98etFuns1G1kvug/s320/IMG_1565.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The prosciutto after 2 weeks in salt.<br />Looking, smelling and feeling good.</td></tr>
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Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-79521758822921201072019-04-01T14:33:00.001-07:002019-04-01T14:34:47.342-07:002.4.19<br />
I've just returned from another sojourn to hospital. 10mm of kidney stone on the move and then stuck in the pipes. A stent went in, and I'm back to hospital in 2 weeks to have the rock lasered. Oh joy!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFUw4lDWp6VABz_oLfQisj5bvZ9G18hlZy9w5MI8d9E-JloDJnB7FeMZyP9XFb0kAXN_Sr18Xc5wv-PidD4fN5K8NBjbShE-A8YooZs2cYEB-sKS0pRQpmhW7AuMcq1DhQEodukO3nU2Lw/s320/IMG_1563.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My home-made meat safe for air-drying. It's on the south side<br />
of the (unfinished) house, out of direct sun and open to<br />
the breeze to help with the drying process.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIsJp288am__dbpI4sErChiw77mcwNak5HqnsSQVGT8S9HjI-j21hhuSoBtwWWwNpLV9smOfhr_Mx5_2aciH77jBEsE9SVLL8az-OF6X-gp0MomuYQ6OXccA-EphxFX5ZgBsR4GioOwLy/s320/IMG_1560.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /></td></tr>
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The first of the bacon hung out to dry. The </div>
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mesh is seriously heavy duty, stainless steel.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEMLtdEABsB7UhrUylhbEa7xgQd-nw1a-5mePG59QKFVBh1IrBIud3_KEFSXsBGU7aeMS9PnU7wfYko1gyODrWc-XUwY09dTfo2euwbKMEPy0SldkkgZA0Wm_Me27HoPhyphenhyphenOVG__0IdPtxu/s1600/IMG_1564.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEMLtdEABsB7UhrUylhbEa7xgQd-nw1a-5mePG59QKFVBh1IrBIud3_KEFSXsBGU7aeMS9PnU7wfYko1gyODrWc-XUwY09dTfo2euwbKMEPy0SldkkgZA0Wm_Me27HoPhyphenhyphenOVG__0IdPtxu/s320/IMG_1564.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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The same bacon sliced and vacuum sealed.</div>
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A little fatty and salty, but delicious. It's</div>
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in the freezer now.</div>
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We just ate the first few rashers of the bacon for breakfast. A little salty, as I was a bit heavy-handed during the curing process, but still delicious. I'm going to leave the second flitch to hang for a few more days before slicing and sealing so it can firm up some more.<br />
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It was nice to see news reports last week about nitrites being unnecessary for curing meat. I've gone the traditional approach and only used salt and time to do the cure on the first two flitches. The next one, I'll try some spices as well but don't want to overdo it.<br />
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Time to turn the prosciutto in its salt this morning, so it will be interesting to get a feel for how it's progressing. It'll be more than a month before it can hang, but it will fit in the meat safe when the time comes. </div>
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I'm focused on catching up on marking Extended Essays at the moment, as I lost 3 or 4 days with the rock. Once I get back on target with the marking, I want to have a go at making either chorizo or salami or both. I'll post once the process is started.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFUw4lDWp6VABz_oLfQisj5bvZ9G18hlZy9w5MI8d9E-JloDJnB7FeMZyP9XFb0kAXN_Sr18Xc5wv-PidD4fN5K8NBjbShE-A8YooZs2cYEB-sKS0pRQpmhW7AuMcq1DhQEodukO3nU2Lw/s1600/IMG_1563.jpeg" imageanchor="1"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIsJp288am__dbpI4sErChiw77mcwNak5HqnsSQVGT8S9HjI-j21hhuSoBtwWWwNpLV9smOfhr_Mx5_2aciH77jBEsE9SVLL8az-OF6X-gp0MomuYQ6OXccA-EphxFX5ZgBsR4GioOwLy/s1600/IMG_1560.jpeg" imageanchor="1"></a><br /></div>
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Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-53786246926840510462019-03-25T17:02:00.001-07:002019-04-01T14:38:45.980-07:00<b>26.3.19</b><br />
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<b>Rasher</b> was on her way in the mobile butcher's chiller trailer to become Rashers - 85kg dressed weight. The butcher did a great job. Rasher died with a happy mouth full of apple, and did not suffer stress or pain at all. We gave the head to a friend to make brawn, but next time I might make some for us. Eight days later we had the first two pork chops and we started curing a prosciutto and two flitches of bacon. Looking good.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">85 kg of Rasher</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first pork chops for dinner</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglDEbwHaWNmwZftFvJVFEc6lnY1MkjzlvPtylh73i7Wx4UmfYEbTODqTpjuGHfbegl9rdZRtK4kuzboRLuFp81bUJVojyV83x1RjgMD2Y1ibc4GUJJIwa3ZWTe0AoQuSS15haYut3J6U9i/s1600/IMG_1545.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglDEbwHaWNmwZftFvJVFEc6lnY1MkjzlvPtylh73i7Wx4UmfYEbTODqTpjuGHfbegl9rdZRtK4kuzboRLuFp81bUJVojyV83x1RjgMD2Y1ibc4GUJJIwa3ZWTe0AoQuSS15haYut3J6U9i/s320/IMG_1545.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first bacon flitch ready for salting</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The prosciutto goes intro the salt</td></tr>
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Seven days later, the first flitch is out of the cure and air-drying in the fridge. It'll then air dry for a week or so outdoors. Can't wait till we get our first crack at home-cured bacon next week. And only another year or two before we have a crack at the prosciutto.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The flitch rinsed and starting to air dry</td></tr>
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The prosciutto needs nearly 2 months in the cure before it hangs outdoors.</div>
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I've built an industrial-strength meat safe to hang under the eaves of the verandah on the south side of the house for the air-drying, to keep wasps, flies and other nasties at bay.</div>
I've done bresaola several times, with our beef, but this is the first attempt at curing pork.<br />
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I've also bought casings so we can have a go at salami, and a giant casing for copacola.</div>
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In a little while I'm going to fire up the barbie and smoke the hocks and two cutlets. The hocks will be vacuum sealed and refrozen for winter soups and the chops will be cooked for dinner.</div>
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On the booze front: I've been doing home-made ginger beer and decided to give it a bit of a kick along. It's about 7% apv but needed a taste boost, so I upped the ginger content and added 2 tsp of chilli flakes per 4 litres to the next batch as it was brewing. Very palatable. But it does sneak up on one. </div>
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I started the mead and chilli mead before I realised that the honey season was going to be pretty much a write-off for the year, so there'll be no more until next season.</div>
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Blackberry and black currant wine are bottled. Not the greatest, but they should improve with more time in the bottle.</div>
Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-89255367123360410112019-02-12T21:26:00.001-08:002019-02-12T21:26:36.485-08:00<b>Wednesday 13.2 1616</b><br />
Last week fires: this week snow. Welcome to Tassie! <br />
Ok, the snow didn't fall this low, but in the highlands where the fires had been severe, there was snow this morning, and we were down to 5 deg C last night.<br />
I have mead, blackberry wine and ginger beer brewing. I put the blackberry and mead into demijohns yesterday then had to wrap them to keep them warm last night. The mead blew the water out of the airlock and overflowed.<br />
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Blackberry wine.<br />
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Mead and ginger beer bug.</div>
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The mead getting excited.<br />
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Tucked up for the night.</div>
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The pig is growing on nicely and due to be turned off in three weeks.<br />
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<br />Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-65282035433099829872019-02-06T00:44:00.000-08:002019-02-12T21:28:33.790-08:00<b>Wednesday 6.2.19 1930</b><br />
Opened two beehives today to see if they are ready to rob. They are both starting to cap honey in the supers, but not ready to go just yet.<br />
Some of the commercial beekeepers in Tassie have lost a large percentage of their hives and significant stands of leatherwood trees have been destroyed. Leatherwood is Tassie's best known honey and commands a premium price. Production is going to be significantly reduced, not just this year, but for some time into the future. Hobby, and small-scale, beekeepers like us are going to need to be careful as the value of colonies and honey increases. The problem is likely to be opportunists who see hives in accessible places and knock them off under cover of darkness. I have one which is visible and accessible from the highway, so I'll move it within the next few days.<br />
We have no W&As for our fire at present, though there are some for other fires in the state. Rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow, with showers predicted for the next few days. Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-38670299227822996362019-02-05T01:37:00.000-08:002019-02-05T01:37:27.407-08:00<b>Tuesday 5.2.19 2028</b><br />
We now attend St James Anglican church at Ranelagh, after a break of about 10 years from regular church attendance. We were very browned off by the scammers and hustlers operating too many of the entertainment centres masquerading as churches that we had been exposed to over the years, and seen too many people hurt. Having been part of the problem for 12 years in the 70s and 80s, I found I couldn't sit and watch people being manipulated and keep my big mouth shut. So we gave church a swerve for a decade.<br />
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Jimmy's (St James) is about as non-scammy as you could get: caring, genuine people with gracious, gentle people and a minister who is a young man of integrity. Can't ask for much more.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-67424638325593509602019-02-05T01:11:00.001-08:002019-03-25T17:08:05.514-07:00<b>Tuesday 5.2.19 2004</b><br />
All the Emergency warnings are now lifted for the State though quite a few fires are still uncontrolled. Firies are working on back burning and clearing containment lines. Water bombing is continuing. Several villages near us are still under Watch and Act notices but we are at Advice level.<br />
All told, the fires have burned over 200000ha (500000 acres) so far across the State over the past month. And north Queensland is having record floods. Townsville, where we lived for a while, has had more than a metre of rain over the past few days and the Leichardt River is running a banker n the Isa (where we also used to live.) The river at Cloncurry is mad! And Julia Creek had over 230mm of rain in 24 hours. At Julia Creek!<br />
Here, we had a gentle Nor' Easter today which kept the smoke away so Sue and I picked fruit (about 10 kg of plums and nectarines - Golden Drop and Greengage plums, mmmm!)<br />
We have rain forecast from tomorrow night, for several days. Hopefully, it will fall in the fire zone and surrounds.Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8030107959071083034.post-80342375095373581732019-02-02T20:28:00.003-08:002019-02-02T20:51:31.036-08:00<b>Sunday 3.2.19 1543</b><br />
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The fire is still about 60000 ha. It has just made a run to the SE towards communities North and South of Geeveston. The warnings are for impact in those areas in 30 minutes to an hour. The winds are not particularly strong here, but are a little gusty, and gusts of 70 km/hr are expected in places. It's very smoky here at present.<br />
All 40 fires in the state are increasing their activity at the moment as warmer air moves in from the North. Hopefully, the containment lines will hold.<br />
The perimeter of the fire is over 1600km (1000 miles.)<br />
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-03/tasmanians-prepare-for-severe-fire-dangers-on-sunday/10774452<br />
Tomorrow is expected to be cooler but no significant showers until Thursday.<br />
On a lighter note: the pig has not escaped today and seems fairly settled although she must be grumpy with the heat and smoke.<br />
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Rasher enjoying having more room to move.</div>
Pablitohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01475858397920428595noreply@blogger.com0