Where there is smoke...

There is BK and a huge fire.

BK is our resident bobcat expert and all around legend. He came out one afternoon to have a chat about what we wanted done around the place, and clearly sensing we had no idea what we wanted, just for it to look good, he's taken it upon himself to clean this place up.

He's been ripping up the old 'picnic area', in preparation for it to be turned into a lush beer garden next week, he's been tearing through head-height weeds that were just too big (and possibly full of snakes) for Josh or I to go near, he's been taking truckloads (actual loads on his truck) of green waste away and today, he's been lighting fires.

"BK, how do you reckon we can get rid of that trash down the back?"
"Well...it'd cost you too much to take it to the tip"
"Yeah...so?"
"I dunno. We can dig a big hole and bury it."
"It'd have to be a big hole...."
"Or you could burn it, I guess?"

Ten minutes later, a hint of smoke was in the air. We walked down the back of the farm and here's BK piling more rubble onto the pile. It was mostly green waste with a few cardboard boxes and other bits and pieces in there.

BK left his bobcat here for a few nights, giving Josh free reign to do some work around the place. We've used it to fill the planter box with some blue metal and crusher dust, and then some proper garden soil this morning. We've cleared away a few branches we've pruned, and cleared away some old fruit from under the trees.

While this would have taken us at least twice as long as it would have taken BK, but it's great to be able to do this stuff ourselves and save a little bit of money.

Josh, the bobcat driver. (He's actually really good at it!)

Our new 10,000L water tank. The plan is to pump this full of bore water to use in the toilets, washing machine and gardens (because we've been powering through the rain water far too quickly!)

Our junk pile up in flames

Celebrities

Yesterday, while in Hervey Bay, Josh and I stopped off at a hip new espresso bar called School House. It's owned by Dan and Steph (from My Kitchen Rules fame, circa 2013), and has only opened a few days ago.

Good enough reason for us!

We stopped in for a coffee and snack, and were immediately impressed by the friendly and attentive service. We grabbed a seat and waited for them to bring out our drinks.

When the waitress came over to drop off our drinks, took a step to leave, then came back and in a half whisper asked "...are you from that show?"

"What?"
"You know! The show! House Rules!"
"Oh? No?"
"Oh," her smile fading, "oh, it's just, they're filming in Torbanlea (30 mins away) and, you know, you're wearing the boots and stuff...sorry."

So, basically, she was saying:
1) We're good looking enough for Channel 7 reality television
2) We look like clueless home renovators
3) I have cool purple boots

I like the School House.

The clean up

Today has been a productive day.

Now that we have the ute (still unnamed), we've been able to start doing some more cleaning up around the place.

Today, we got up early (before the heat of the day, and before the snakes get too active) to fill the ute up with JUNK that's around the place. Mouldy cardboard, old wine bottles, tarps with holes, broken reticulation piping...just absolute junk, and a complete eyesore.

Two ute loads, a whole lot of sweat, a few curse words and $17 in tip fees later, we were done!

We then jumped in the ute and headed 50 minutes south to Hervey Bay to visit a catering supply store (for latte glasses and cake covers), the brew store (for some new buckets), the School House (a new cafe for a quick pick-me-up), the label company (to check out our wine labels!), then Bunnings (for the BILLIONTH TIME).

We have an ugly pink interior wall inside the cellar door, right behind the counter. We want to paint it something bright and cheery to lighten the place up. We were looking through the colour charts in store and picked out a few options...then noticed one called Waikiki. It was definitely fate - it must be the perfect choice for our Hawaiian themed winery!

We made it back from Hervey Bay at around 3pm, then Josh started oiling his beautiful planter box and I jumped on the mower for a stint. Two hours and a few scrapes from the finger lime trees later, I'd done about 6 rows of trees and it is starting to look ok.

The only issue is though...I have little legs. So, to fully engage the break, I need to shuffle forward on the seat and push the break with my tippy toes. If I lean too much of my weight forward, then there isn't enough weight on the seat - meaning the safety switch kicks in and the mower shuts off. Same thing goes when changing the height of the mower blades, or shifting into reverse. Aside from that though, mower duties aren't too bad!

Mower selfie!

A work in progress

Rome wasn't built in a day. 

Good things come to those who wait. 

Patience is a virtue. 


I've heard them all, but it's not a lot of comfort when I want the farm to look perfect now! We've been doing a lot around the place, but it's still doesn't seem to be making a dent in the epic workload ahead of us.

We finally have a ute now though! It's been a long time coming, but a 4x4 Holden Rodeo is now parked round the back next to Betsy. It hasn't got a name yet though...any suggestions?

Josh has been working tirelessly for the last 48 hours building an EPIC planter box out the front of the winery. He's torn down the dated lattice that made the whole area feel dingy and boxed in, and we're replacing it (while making the area nearly twice the size!) with a timber sleeper planter box, that we'll fill with gorgeous tropical plants.

It's still a work in progress, so I'll post some before and after pics in a week or two when we're done.

We've started brewing up some liqueurs and fine tuning the tawny ports that came with the property. We have a Jackfruit Liqueur, Pineapple Liqueur, Lemon Myrtle Liqueur and Aniseed Myrtle Liqueur on the go, plus we're working on a coffee flavoured one. It'll be really exciting in a few months when we'll have a crop of the jaboticaba fruit ripe and we can experiment making some more brews!

Despite my terrible face injuries (I'm better now, by the way, thanks for asking) I went around to empty the fruit fly traps and to count up my kill. Of our five traps, we captured 0 in the mandarin tree, 2 in the Jackfruit tree, 13 in the random tree near the sugar cane field next door, 23 in an avocado tree and 10 in the grapefruit tree. Not a bad haul! It was strangely satisfying seeing a bunch of trapped dead flies. We still have a handful of leftover baits, so I'll plant a few more down the back near the avocados tomorrow.

So, yeah. On paper it seems like we've done a fair bit, but everywhere we look it's hard not to notice everything else that needs to be done. Sigh. Rome wasn't built in a day.

My war wound, a few days ago

Our mock-up label, testing out what we're going to do with the 'real' labels

The 'work in progress', slowly progressing

Our new beast! First test, we're picking up 20 metres of bamboo screening tomorrow

Dead fruit flies! Mwa ha ha!

And this one is just for Ilona :)

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye

Lucky me, I got a free botox injection the other day!

After placing a hefty order to Bugs for Bugs, our little parcel of fruit-fly killing goodies arrived! I hastily set up the little traps and unwrapped the little plastic wicks to hang in the trees and we were off.

Josh and I tramped all around the farm
"Should we put one here?"
"Oh! Definitely put one in the jackfruit!"
"How about one in the grapefruit?"

About 15 minutes later, we were done.

"Oh! Here's one more. Hold on, let me just put it over here". Famous last words.

BAM! Out of nowhere I heard a buzzing sound and felt a searing, throbbing pain from my forehead. I'd be hit!

Josh inspected my war wound and told me it was nothing (it was definitely not nothing) and that it didn't hurt (it definitely hurt). Fearing the worse, I headed back to the donga to inspect it for myself and grabbed a bag of frozen peas. I was allowed to be on "light duties" for the rest of the day and slothed around with something cold strapped to my head.

The next day I was even more swollen, itchy and puffy. On the upside though, I didn't have any wrinkles on the top right side of my face! I could barely move my eyebrows!

Alls well that ends well though - the traps are fully set up now and we've killed a bunch of the little suckers.

Rain, glorious rain!

A few months ago my brother said to me "you're a farmer now, so that means that you'll always be checking the BOM website, and you'll be obsessed with rain". I laughed it off at the time, but he's definitely right. 

Right now I'm sat inside the donga, listening to the magnificent sound of rain on the roof. Not only does it mean that it's cooled down a little outside, but all my trees are being watered and our water tank is getting a much-needed injection. 

Aside from that, it's been business as usual!

Josh and I gave the donga a scrub the other day. We vacuumed out all the sand (so much sand!) and mopped all the red dirt stains off the floor. We finished unpacking the last few boxes and hid all the suitcases away on top of the wardrobes. As awful as it was, I'm so glad we did it. This little place is a lot cleaner and more organised now!

We've had a bobcat operator in last week to remove some of the 'junk' around the place. Picking up old branches, hacking through some over-grown jungle that was too much for the whipper snipper, and levelling out some sand. We've also had a scrap metal guy come through and take away some burnt out old cars and trucks from the property. The old owner definitely was a bit of a hoarder!

PS - I've set up a 'subscribe' button, so you can automatically get sent an email whenever I write a new post. Just enter your email address in the little box to the right :)

Some yummy dragon fruit for afternoon tea

Peeling and de-seeding ten jackfruit we harvested

It took me about two hours!

Some old junk getting cleared off the property

Planting pineapples in my cool new boots

Finger Lime Marmalade

What do you do with the fruit from 150 finger lime trees? Make marmalade!

The finger lime is a native Australian citrus, with huge thorns and lots of green stink bugs like to make their home there. The fruit kind of looks like a finger, and when you cut it open, you can squeeze out little balls of limey goodness.

Fearing another day of slave labour in the relentless Queensland sun, I decided that I was going to make some jam. Finger lime jam. Inside, away from the sunshine.

A quick google left me with a bit of a guide, but I just made up the rest...and it turned out pretty good!


Finger Lime Marmalade (makes 12 and a half jars)

2kg Finger Limes
2kg Sugar
Juice of 5 mandarins, topped up with water to make 1.5 litres (I just found a mandarin tree with some fruit on it, so hey, why not. Not sure if it made any difference...)

1) Place whole finger limes in a bowl and cover with boiling water - this will help draw out some of the bitter oils in the skin, plus sterilise them. When the water is cool enough, take them out and give them a scrub with a little brush. They'll feel a bit slimy, but it washes right off.

2) Give them one more quick rinse in boiling water, then slice them painstakingly thin with a sharp knife. Pick out as many seeds as you can.

3) Place the sliced limes in a big pot (I use a cast iron pot, but I'm sure anything big with a heavy base will be fine) with the water/juice. Let it barely simmer for a few hours, til the skin has softened. Don't be tempted to add more water, unless it looks bone dry.

4) Add the sugar and stir til dissolved (I'm not sure why, but as the sugar melts the jam becomes a lot more 'liquidy'). Crank up the heat and let it boil furiously for 10 - 20 minutes, stirring regularly to avoid it sticking to the bottom of your pot. When you think it's nearly done (the bubbles will look a little glossier, than watery), test some jam on a saucer that's been in the freezer. Spoon a glob of jam on the plate and let it cool for a minute or two. Run your finger through the glob of jam and if the surface crinkles a little and doesn't run to cover over where you've just run your finger, you should be good to go.

5) Sterilise your jars and lids! I wash mine in hot soapy water, then fill with boiling water around the time that I add the sugar to the jam. After a few minutes, I (burned my fingers and) turned them upside down on a wire rack. The heat from the jars should dry them off by the time the jam is done. Don't be too organised though, hot jam into hot jars appears to be the go, according to the internet.

6) Fill the jars nearly to the top then tightly screw on the lids. I then boiled the sealed jars in a big pot of water (with the water about 2cm above the tops of the jars). I let it boil for about 10 minutes then carefully manoeuvred the jars out with tongs (burned myself a few times).

7) Patiently wait overnight and then test the seal by cracking open a jar. If it kind of 'pops' while opening, great, it worked! (Mind you, you've just ruined the seal, so store in the fridge and eat within a month). If not, great, delicious jam you've got to eat!


My next experiment is tomorrow - we bought some deliciously sweet pineapples from a roadside stall and I've picked a big ripe jackfruit from one of our trees. Jackfruit and pineapple jam, anyone?

Lifecycle of a finger lime - thorny flowers, thorny fruit, delicious finger limes! They can be any colour from white, to green, to pink.

Boiled and scrubbed limes, ready for slicing

SO MANY SLICES!

Delicious marmalade! :)

The Farm Locals

I’m not really afraid of snakes…or so I thought. We’ve had our first run in with the wildlife yesterday.

While whipper-snipper-ing the garden beds out the front, Josh disturbed a little 50cm or so snake. We took a few photos then let the little fella slither away.  Apparently it was a yellow faced whip snake. Not too deadly, and mostly eats little lizards.

Later that day, Rich was clearing out some junk from the back of a burned out ute on the property and disturbed a much bigger python. I called the local snake charmer out to come and get him, but by this morning he was gone. If it was a python, they’re pretty handy to have around (allegedly). They’re supposed to keep the rat and mice population down, and scare away any little (very deadly) Eastern Brown snakes.

I’m hoping we just scared him off and he’ll hide out somewhere down the back of the farm and leave us alone.

There are plenty of spiders around the place too. Most of them have set up home between the rows of fruit trees. While whizzing around on the mower we have accidentally copped a spider web to the face. The sizes range from a terrifying 4cm wide to a deathly 8cm. I’m sure they’re not all deadly, but I’m not real keen on getting too close.

We’ve also encountered a few cane toads. Not as many as I was expecting, but half a dozen or so each evening. The humane way to kill a cane toad is to catch it in a plastic bag and pop it in your fridge for a few hours, then into the freezer for a day or two. The inhumane way is to whack it with a golf club or spray it with Dettol. So far I’m trying a diplomatic “don’t come near me and I won’t come near you” approach.

On the upside, there are also hundreds of gorgeous butterflies! I’ve seen dozens of different coloured ones and they just hover around the place all day. It’s comforting to know not everything out here wants to kill you…