Wild Hope Homestead

At last, the painting of the front door is over! I didn’t think it would take so long. That is always the way with a small child on the loose. It has been an interesting juggling act. As I was finishing up tidying around the edges of the glass panes, I looked up to see yet another load of dirt disappearing on the back of a dump truck. The small child had struck again. There’s been a lot of unauthorised dirt shifting around here. I am currently making decisions about handles and locks before the door can be tried out.

The Husband has been mulching more branches and The Little Fulla has been helping me to tidy and weed around the Vege Garden paths before cardboard is laid down to be topped with mulch. At one point, I became aware that The Little Fulla was stomping around, repeating, in a growly voice, “Stop making babies! Stop making babies!” A large colony of snails of all sizes had been uncovered and he was stomping on them, with stern warnings about their breeding habits. Oh, he says the funniest things sometimes! Worms, on the other hand, are highly regarded, and get transported to his vege garden to live there.

Great progress has been made on tidying up the Plant Alcove area, in which I have great aspirations of plant-growing. The Husband finished mulching all the smaller branches from the Pruning Mountain. I cut up the bigger ones for firewood and moved wheelbarrow loads of the more decomposed stuff to the Vege Garden to be used as mulch on the paths. The Pruning Mountain is officially gone. Like, actually GONE. Hooray! No longer will that great hulk be visible from space. And no longer will pruning mountains be allowed to form there.

Furthermore, I moved the stumps; one into The Little Fulla’s play area by the sandpit and the others to the carport to await cutting, I sold the wooden dog kennel that had been loitering around, moved out the chicken killing cones to the Vege Garden area, stacked the pallets tidily to await cutting and attempted to move the big cable reel into The Little Fulla’s play area. The bottom of the heavy cable reel promptly broke as it was more than a little rotten from sitting on the ground. So that’s now sitting in the corner while we decide what to do with it. The Plant Alcove is suddenly looking very spacious and I am feeling very pleased.

In further tidying news, I asked The Husband to get the pallet wood pile in the back carport cut up. The Husband promptly fell asleep. Someone bought the concrete posts that were sitting right underneath said pile, so The Husband had a concrete deadline and the wood was dealt with. I also pulled the guttering off the carport so the water won’t pool in one hole by the Vege Garden and as part of the carport dismantling.

In other edibles news, the Agria potatoes have been set for chitting and the large, crossing branch has been chainsawed of the walnut tree. I have photographic evidence that the loquat tree is quite capable of forming fruit. Now to see if we’ll get fruit this year or whether they’ll disappear in the dead of night at the paws of a possum or befall some other mysterious fate.

I have been shifting lovely compost out of the chickens’ compost bin and onto the Vege Garden. Thanks, chickens! The empty compost bay wasn’t empty for long, as I have been poop collecting. In went the horse poop. Our kitchen scraps and other things are now going on top of it so the material in the other bay can finish composting.

The first wave of seed-sowing for spring has begun: capsicums (peppers), chillies, tomatoes and cocktail onions. I would have done the onions sooner but I only recently ordered the seeds. I am trying out both white and purple cocktail onions in order to save space. The only problem is that I planted red onion leftovers from The Little Fulla’s vege garden into my onion spot. Hmm.

The old Billington plum tree is a beautiful sight, smothered in white flowers. The young tree has some catching up to do, but they will be quite a sight together when it gets bigger. The Little Fulla is expecting fruit any day, like NOW. Patience is a good lesson to learn.

The little chickens are getting bigger, but still on the outer from the big chickens. Mr black cockerel has been very quiet. He’s probably scared to step out of line with bossy Paris around.

Now, I have another door to paint. This future laundry door isn’t as important as the front door, but it still needs some work before it’s fit to be seen in the house. Funnily enough, it’s red on one side. But it’s the inside side. Which we don’t want to be red. I am in the process of pulling off all the old hardware. And trying to avoid the thought of having to paint it. And getting thoroughly distracted by the Great Vege Garden Expansion Plan…

This door will let more light into the laundry without breaking the bank. But it needs to be whipped into shape.

All sorts of crusty old bits of hardware are coming off and going bye-byes.