New garden 2011

After four years we have finally decided to put the front paddock to good use and have built a new fully enclosed garden. Measuring 11 metres by 17 metres it looks very impressive and is going to keep us very busy. It has been a very satisfying project from concept to design to construction in 48 hours!...my back and my hands are sore from digging and mixing concrete for the posts but I am still so excited about this new space to grow. We have already dug the first bed and will plant our Lofty Meadows purple king Beans and Snowpeas this afternoon.

We put the net on last thing yesterday and just have to finish edging it down and patching the last corner where the net didn't quite reach! Off to collect materials for some trellis to grow the beans and peas.

Little Wallabies

I am amazed at how comfortable they seem to be...They are beautiful...if only we had more so that we never had to mow the grass again!...Wallaby maintained lofty meadows ...what a dream...but for now we keep the slasher going..too much in the summertime. So much fuel gets wasted on cutting grass...It seems crazy...but good to keep it under control...and the wallabies seem to love the fresh grass regrowth

Ever changing

It is so important to take the time to sit back and reflect on the changes and hard work that we have done. In just a little over 2 & 1/2 years we have transformed this place from a bare block with an ugly little tin shed to our home and beautiful gardens. Looking back at this old photo of Gran with the kids it is so amazing to see the difference..and it also gives us the strength to carry on. These photos are taken from the same spot looking back at roughly the same scene and it has shown us the importance of visually documenting our progress.Between the grass, fruit trees, vegie gardens, plant nursery, chooks and building sometimes it seems unmanageable and completely overwhelming. But after looking at these photos I think I might go out this morning for a bit more planting and then take some photos :)

A new year

Well it seems to be a post every three months at the moment...We recently hosted 3 hardworking dutch wwoofers..while they were here they did lot's of weeding, mulching and dug out a flat spot for our new little water tank...stay tuned of the pic of our new little tank...

Three months and a Jetty

Three months just flew by. We've been super busy and have found that having wwoofers here certainly helps getting things done. Since our camera is broken all the photos today are from our fantastic wwoofers Lauren and Josie who were with us from Boston for 5 weeks. Josie and Lauren had a great time exploring the area and helped us with so many projects. We built a sweet little jetty on our dam affectionately referred to as the Lofty meadows pond marina. We were a little perplexed as to how we were going to dig holes for the poles in a large puddle of water when a friend gave us the tip that the poles needn't be buried. So with a bit of bracing we stood the poles up and then just braced everything to the poles on the shore. Really that makes it sound so easy but thats because I was on the shore helping with the bracing. Dave was the brave one who wallowed in the freezing cold water and wrestled the heavy poles into position. Then with the help of Wwoofers Roy&Yeji from Korea and Lauren & Josie the flooring went on. Before we knew it we had a party of pirates doing their thing on the high seas