Day 344 Woodbridge Friday 6th January 2012

Ho Folks,
The word for the day was mowing so that is what i did for many hours apart from the time i drove to Kettering and picked up the gas bottle and sprayed the outside of the house and sweat shop with surface spray to try and control the web makers that are cocooning the buildings. I started at 9 and finished just before 7.  I was afflicted by the "wanting to get a job finished before we leave" syndrome. I did experiment with the tipping pint of the mower whilst it was stationary on a slope with the engine off managing to get 2 wheels off the ground. Made the change to the push mower in the steeper sections easier. We have made a marked visual difference to the surrounds here although the creek remediation will be in the hands of the next helpers who arrive Monday.
All this work of course was done with the back drop of the ocean, plenty of sun and a pleasant sea breeze.
Tomorrow I want to go to the end of the world and do the walk to South Cape Bay. Susan has volunteered us in the morning to help "Alby" (whose legs are now dicky) set up the marquees for the Woodbridge Market on Sunday. Hopefully this will not eat into the day too much else i will be having one of my grumpy attacks. If it does i guess we can pack up tomorrow afternoon and do the walk Sunday. It's easy to be flexible when you don't have to be anywhere at anytime as long as you do get to anywhere eventually!

Susan spent the day mulching, did a bit of mowing, planted seedlings and cooked tea.

Todays pictures were some faraway bird shots. I have been looking at "proper " telephoto lenses to improve my long shots but they are well beyond my budget and in fact exceed the price of my camera with it's two lenses.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 343 Woodbridge Thursday 5th January 2012

Hi Folks,

This morning I finished off cleaning the shelving before joining Susan to continue the mulching. We use the mower to pull the yellow barrow with the compost in it to place on the beds. As you are aware the property is quite hilly and the mower is fairly feeble, We also had a couple of showers this morning which made the grass wet and slippery. To navigate to today's work location you have to go up the driveway before going back down. The natural inclination is to load the barrow as much as possible. On one of the early trips I had put too much in. Susan has been regularly pushing me and the mower up hills. Today I had to also alight and push the throttle down whilst also pushing. This caused much laughter from Kathy and Ann as we went passed the kitchen. Susan set Ann up with the video so we could film the next load. As you can see it is not quite Dean Semler quality but you get the idea.

I toodled up to Kingston after lunch to get an LPG fill and go to Repco for their sale. On my return I used the Mothers clay bar kit I purchased to clean the bonnet paint work of some very adherent particles discovered when i tried to polish it. The product works really well which it should do for the price they charge for it.

Lamb shank casserole for tea was excellent.

Tomorrow is a big mowing day. I started today since we needed the cuttings when the mulch ran out.

Our days here are drawing to a close and there is still much to do! Once again we will run out of time. We keep having to remind ourselves to stick to 30 hours per week. Or should I say I keep having to remind Susan!

cheers Simon

Mower antics

Day 342 Woodbridge Wednesday 4th January 2012

    Just around the corner from Woodbridge

    Ditto looking across to Bruny Island

Hi Folks,

Back to weather reality this morning. We had showers and sun during the day. The sort of showers that make you run up the hill back to shelter!

Today's main task was planting out the artichokes. The hardest part was not losing control of the mower and trailer taking the compost down the wet hill to dig into the bed. After planting it was mulching with newspaper topped off with compost from the rubbish dump. While Susan finished this job Ann and I travelled to pick up some shelving for the sweat shop. I started cleaning it and will finish it tomorrow.

Late in the afternoon Susan and I took a trip up the road to an old cemetery beyond Flowerpot. The church associated with it burnt down in the bushfires of 1967 along with the jetty at Middleton. In fact we travelled down 3 "Jetty Roads" none of which had a jetty left. We took a few detours checking out some of the back roads and coastline.

We returned for another latish tea. Both of us were a bit under the weather today Susan with a headache and me with the after effects of last nights alcohol.
Anyway that's it a quietish day.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

This mornings rain!

Day 341 Woodbridge Tuesday 3rd January 2012

Hi All,

I was up bright and early this morning, make that just early as there was not much brightness involved. I arrived at the Mitsubishi dealer around 815 and spent the next 5 hours walking the streets of Hobart. After nearly 12 months I am actually getting the hang of the layout. I visited many shops and in the end only bought some hay fever pills and a couple of hats which i probably didn't need but they were bargains. I picked up my car with the cost being less than the expected quote mainly because they didn't do all the work. Over discussion their interpretation of the requirements was different to mine. They obviously don't need my money. I will change the coolant when i get back to Adelaide seeing as I have it "in stock" in our shed.

Meanwhile back at the ranch Susan was digging around the roses and the orchard trees and mulching them. She also shelled peas. During the day she firmed up her visit to Newcastle from 16th to 22nd of the month. We have decided to leave here on Monday and spend a week at Mount Field National Park. There are plenty of walks to do so we should be spending the whole week there.
Tea tonight was 2 roast chickens and vegetables. Very tasty and for the second night in a row we ate outside. The weather had cooled off a bit. A warm cloudy day near 30 again although a cooler SW breeze came through late afternoon and the sun came out.

I had beers, pinot noir and chardonnay before and after tea so tonight's blog will be mercifully short.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

PS Tonight's video of dolphins out front of the property taken in my absence is not a bad effort. Well done Susan!

Day 340 Woodbridge Monday 2nd January 2012

Hi Folks,

According to the unofficial weather station outside our cabin today was the hottest day since we have been in Tasmania with a maximum of 30C. This ties in pretty well with the official 29.4 in Hobart. We actually had a few drops of rain first up this morning but the clouds soon gave way to sunshine before it clouded over in the afternoon. The other observation of note was there was very little wind all day.
Ann headed out this morning and returned with a trailer load of sheep manure plus 2 wwoofer's, Teresa and Brett. While she was away we were digging weeds from the beds to be fertilised. The many hands had the fertiliser spread quickly. With no breeze and lots of humidity i worked up a good sweat.

After carting some compost and creating a garden bed we had lunch. After lunch it was time to plant out vegetable seedlings. I managed to up end one of the styro foam boxes of seedlings fortunately the damage was light. The bulk of the seedlings planted i adjourned at 4 to remove the roof bag and perform some preventative maintenance on the roof rack. With the bag off i was able to wash the roof properly.  I didn't get around to polishing it.

Susan is now trying to work out flights to Newcastle as here sister is flying her there and back to help her pack up house since they are moving overseas This has thrown a bit of a spanner in the travel plans so we will work out what to do in the next couple of days. She will leave approximately on the 12th and return approximately on the 24th. I could be deceased after 12 days of my own cooking!

Anyway off to bed i have to be up early to take the Paj to Hobart for the big service. Won't be much change out of $800.

Night folks

Simon

Day 339 Woodbridge Sunday 1st January 2012

Hello,
As mentioned last night a drizzle had started at bed time. Today was grey, so grey we couldn't judge time by the suns location. I sat down in the cabin and checked the time this afternoon and it was after 6. I was amazed.
It drizzled all morning a very inauspicious start to the new year and hopefully not a portent for our vacation.
Today Susan, cleaned black currants, cut down and shelled all the remaining broad beans as well as cutting down the peas.
I took one of the gates off to the vegetable patch, pulled the post and re erected it so that the 2 swing gates did not overlap. It was a bit of mucking around as all the mesh fence had to be pulled off the post and refixed. In the end it turned out ok.
That was the story the day really. A quiet one after new year celebrations last night.

Cheers Simon

Day 338 Woodbridge Saturday 31st December 2011

Cheese seller one. We only had one T shirt between us!



Cheese seller 2 with bad hair day! Bad tummy day!


Hi Folks,
New years eve and a long day for the old people. We were up at 515 via the alarm of course and on our way to Salamanca Market just after 6.
We set up the stall with Ann and then waited for the cheese to arrive. The first ferry doesn't leave Bruny Island until 7 so it wasn't there till after 8.
After loading the cheese into the cold cabinet and laying out the sourdough bread we had a quick instruction session from Nick the owner on what to do.
We kicked off and i mainly looked after the bread which all had to be bagged and Susan proffered the cheese for tasting and looked after the cheese sales. Ann meanwhile was doing her thing with her range of product.
The first hiccup of the day was the till breaking down. It died and Nick was unable to breathe life into it when he returned from his stall on the Taste Festival. We proceeded on with the cash drawer out. The day was busy with all the bread selling out before midday. We started packing up per usual at 3 and were home by 530. After an R&R break we changed and drove 2 minutes down to Peppermint Bay Resort For a New years get together with the locals. The food was provided by the owners. The weather was mild and we were able to sit out side looking over the sea. Most people including us headed off before 11. We returned to our cabin and had some cheese (tasting left overs)and wine to see the new year in. I noted that when i went to turn the internet off in the car there seemed to be very light drizzle falling!
Happy new year everybody!

Cheers Simon