Jobs and politics

Just a quick note to get some things off my chest.

There is major upheaval of the mining sector happening in my hometown region right now. My own father was put off from his job as a miner Friday just gone. It is going to have a devastating impact on the town. So many of the business in the area depend on the mines for income.

Now capitalism is taught on the basis that economic wealth must prosper and the fact of bubbles in an ever-expanding economic climate happen, and can burst, seem largely ignored or blamed on someone other than the very system itself.

To make things clear, I am not a revolutionary committing myself to the cause of communism here. I am simply trying to illustrate that the mining boom of the early 21st century is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is a train coming straight on, in the form of both the prevailing social climate behind the movement for a cleaner, more sustainable future for our earth.

This mine closure, or waylaying of process to proceed mining in the area, is inevitable. Whether or not it is sudden or a slow wind down, does it especially matter? People are still going to be in debt and perhaps the shock of the sudden-ness of it all may indeed push those who have grown used to not needing to pursue a life outside of the realm of what can at times seem like a closed community out into bigger and better ventures. There are some amazing people in the area. The nostalgia for the town's past may still stick but the reality of the situation is that the continual mining is both economically non-viable for the businesses and not sustainable for the environment.

Time would be better spent on focussing on the future, both long and short.

Of course our government is not helping the problem by trying to privatise every aspect of the government, which begs the question-where does my hard earned tax money go? May I have a say in where it goes? I would certainly not choose the answer 'to line politicians pockets' as it seems it does mostly. Educate Australia's people to buy Australian made, and grown. We are one of the luckiest countries in the world with a wealth of resources at our fingertips and instead of using them to build our industry, we sell it off for a short term profit which makes the current government look good. We're not all mindless. Why can the government not work together for a future for Australia instead of constantly harassing each other like a group of school children about who did what last. We all need to work towards a sustainable future. Shift the conversation from 'us' and 'them' to concentrating on the ideas and not vilifying each other. We're sick of it.

Long awaited return + snow!

We have returned to our little cottage in the forest into the tumult of mid-winter, from the warmth of mid-summer in Europe. Within the first fortnight we awoke to this, our first proper snowfall, relieving me of work for the day (despite it being but a light scattering compared to some European or American folk). The view of our front yard from the lounge room.

A reminder of why I love where we now live.

My car with a good 5-6 inches of the frozen H2O. Such brilliance. As an Australian I'm happy with 2-4 good snowfalls in the region every year, it retains its sense of novelty. Some old, grumpy types will always complains just for something to do I believe but a good snowfall is always enough to lift the spirits, only when you have the option of retreating inside in front of the fire after some frolicking.

Two of the three in the herd, those retaining their 'winter stores' shall I say and have no need for a rug. My father in laws property, quite a serene, magical spot.

Yes, I may have gone a tad snow mad with the photos. #noregrets

Changing winds

We have moved, mostly.

Who knows how so much dust collects within the space of a year. Tomorrow I begin prac nursing at the local small hospital near my parents place. I'm a bit apprehensive. 

How will I go?

Will I like it?

Will they like me?

Will I be any good as a nurse?

Things are getting real.

Besides that, we moved this weekend

Yay.

Stress stress stress

I've been reflecting an awful lot more on so many things recently. Such as;

-Isn't it peculiar how when you're 18 you have an image of how things are for all 23 year olds but now I'm sitting here thinking 'Shit, I'll be 23 this year, 'da hell am I doing with my life? Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? As long as I'm helping others right?'

-If you hear that an ex who went behind your back with good intentions to introduce you to your penpal of 12 years, 5 years ago, just posted on social media about how he got a post card from 'his' penpal. Should I be angry? How do I bring this up? I'm conflicted because I love this girl to bits but eugh. I don't know....

....we are heading off to Europe in only a month though so that will give me a good chance of catching up and having a good old chat.

-Other half+I are marvellous, thanks for asking.

-Speaking of which I can totally see us two and another friend I met in the most unseemly of places and his other half being one of those groups where they get on really well and go camping on holidays together and stay up late having great long conversations about 'imagine if we had a commune' or beekeeping

-Moving to the mountains where it actually rains and isn't stinking hot when it's meant to be Autumn

-I'm running out of those ideas I had backing up in my mind when I was driving through the misty rain with the wet dog sitting in the back on her towel, well away from my nice clean, pet-hair-free prac uniform for tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

(P.S: Apologies for the abrupt ending. I was never very good at goodbyes...have you spoken to me on the phone?)

Beans

Chooks fed and watered-check

Horses fed and watered-check

Dog fed and watered-check

Washing out-check

Better have a look at the garden while I've still got a bit of light

(Nek minnut)

Anyone have any good bean recipes? Not entirely sure what sort they are but they taste alright. I remember finding some bean looking type of seeds and planting them last year sometime where they've decided to come up. Also in there are the end of our tomato glut and 2 mini capsicums (I actually grew capsicums!! yayyy).

And now a picture of Zali having a break from tearing up her moose toy, which is suprisingly indestructable.

And I forgot to take my phone with me to the ol nags so no pictures of those three! Dingbat has been locked up because my word she can stack on the kilos. She'd be the horse to rely on if ever there's a energy/fuel shortage and we had to revert back to horse and cart.

That's enough of my ramblings now anyway. I'd best get back into my studies. Only 4 assignments to get stuck into and finished before we go away. That and exams next week I need to study for....the nervous system, yay!

Good-day!

The Rains are here!

And thank god for that!

"Petrichor-the smell of fresh rain after a prolonged warm, dry period" coined, appropriately, by a couple of Australian scientists.

(The nearest webcam image overlooking the airport)

This morning, while pondering the dark, stormy sky heading our way and how it would fare leading up to my morning swim, our lovely 80-something, totally with-it neighbour across the way shared her 'I-told-you-so' moment with me. Our neighbour, directly next-door to myself, is a genius of sorts and a real genuine nice, if shy, guy. He's already completed a degree in some crazy complex science (I forgot what it is, perhaps it only sounded it at the time?) and now he's doing a double of nursing/paramedics. His aim, when we moved in he shared, was to gain a scholarship to the UK to practice o'er yonder in paramedicine.

Although now his heart has allowed other plans get in the way and, as Nancy said, 'it's always the determined, individualistic ones that fall the hardest, when they do".

The other night my sister and I visited him to meet a few kittens he had been looking after over the weekend and I asked him about his UK plans. He was brimming with excitement when he told me that even if he was accepted for this once in a lifetime opportunity, he would probably reject because things are going so well.

Well good on him I say! Its so lovely to find such simple pleasures in life (though some wouldn't count love as always a simple pleasure, it comes with its fair amount of falls and disapointments)

Symmetry

The countdown begins! And the scrounge for money too...

We bought our tickets to Europe this past week. One entire month devoted to the ol' continent I've hear about so much through my life. Lets see how it goes! As a student my finances have never really been over 3 figures (that is the hundreds in the savings account, not hundred thousands) so I admit this is gonna take some motivation to accrue any wealth in the next 2 and a bit months but we'll see how we go!

This weekend my other half and I devoted a day to beginning to fix my parents fence in preparation for two Dorpers, names already picked, Peggy and Pearl. Since I've left home (me and my animal influence) mum has actually begun to shine as the next animal caregiver. I guess with dad working full time and the last child left at home finishing her studies, mum has lost her role of cleaning up after the rest of us.

So anyway, we have so far strained 4 wires on a length of only about 60m of fence that cattle demolished in the last couple of years. Luckily my horse was happy to stay close to the house and lost his desire to jump fences, otherwise he'd easily have been lost.

The wires haven't come out very well so just imagine beautifully straight, strained wires.

It is only about 60m BUT look at the slope. Not the easiest to run wires up and down. It was actually pretty fun (as fun as fencing can be). We worked well together and saw a visible result at the end of the few hours we worked at it. Next weekend we'll get on to finishing it with the netting and probably only a top line of barb (in the UK it seems barb is generally shied away from but if you're next door neighbours consists of a thousand odd acres with a wild herd of cattle roaming about I'm not gonna risk my stock losses by only having plain wire and netting on it).

We did of course have our trusty helpful hounds with us.

I'm not your typical 20 something. My great weekend consists of spending time fencing to save for a big trip with my other half treading on dogs getting under my feet.

Oh and I forgot to mention locking Dingbat up AGAIN because her metabolism is just too slow. The poor girl, though it would help if she joined in with the games the other two play, galloping around the paddocks.

Once my battery gets close to running out I'll be off to move them back to the big paddock again because where they are now is close to running out of water. It's not been a good year for rain. It looks green but there's very little water around. With one of my other jobs (spraying weeds) our regular water holes where we fill up are dropping a little bit more every time, some smaller ones dried up completely. This is a sign that even the springs are doing it tough.

Here's hoping for some heavy downpours in the future. If/when we move out of town it might be worth considering buying a good big tank to hook up just in case we get any overwhelming showers over winter to safeguard for next summer.

I guess at least hay is fairly cheap at the moment....but for how long...

I can take on the world!

As someone with an irrational fear of needles from an early age I can now profess that I had my second Hep B dose this morning and DIDN'T CRY!

Go me! Go me! *does a little dance*

I felt so damn victorious.

I know though,
"You're studying nursing, how can you be scared of needles?"
It's alright when its going into someone else (how cruel of me, I know). For a week or two I was injecting penicillin into my boy Charlie's rump daily for an infected abscess. Not a problem in the world, until he began to expect it, then we'd get a lot of muscle tension resulting in needles bending....not fun, but we got through the whole lot in the end. And he hasn't had a major one since come to think of it. He hasn't been on that property since then too. (I wasn't proposing it was some miracle drug to prevent all future abscesses, it was plain anti-biotic.)

(such a photogenic dog-not that I'm biased at all)

In other news, life is flat out! I'm pondering how to tell an employer no thanks to weekend, cheap labour (I've never been very eloquent with my on the spot wording), while keeping on top of assignments for nursing, as well as managing my garden and tending to my dear animals. Oh, and all in conjunction with saving my precious cents for Europe!
All my research time I'm devoting to studying nursing seems to be falling away to research for Europe and the cheapest ways of getting about, eating, sleeping, etc..
Oh well, at least once I get back I'll be able to concentrate a bit better, maybe...

Hello!

 This is me in my garden holding a whopper 350g tomato!

We're still in suburbia. Still finding ways to get out and save money. Out of town rentals are few and far between and when found, quickly snapped up. But we have some leads to follow...

How can some people do so much in their lives?!
Ah well, all we can do is try!

Autumn is coming....

Or it should be...soon I hope.

I figured it's about time for an update. I've started studying nursing and my god is it full on. I cannot wait to embark on a career in it. As long as I can handle the people I'm working with I reckon I'll do okay. Prac begins in about 7 weeks and no one is sure where we're going but luckily I'm in a good position to go anywhere. No children, no tricky work commitments, fairly free. In the meantime I'll be concentrating on study 3 days, work 4 days, study 3 days, work....It's working so far! As long as it continues to do so I'll be killing it. My other half is lucky in that he's still working fulltime hours (seasonally) so we hope Europe is a viable option come June. Wish us luck!

Back to the present. 

This afternoon I finally got a moment to redo the poor chooks bedding. I bought some rice bed hulls from the produce store I work at. Some people are all for them, for their hypoallergenic qualities and others are against them in the belief that it's no better than any other bedding material. I might as well find my opinion on the debate (It doesn't sound like much to debate but some people are rather antsy when it comes to the bedding their prize horses are stabled in at night).

Happy happy chookens.

(Mildred, Reg and Annabelle)
The garden needs some TLC but we're bringing in a sumptuous tomato crop still, and it's March now. The corn is beginning to mature, it was sown late.

The beans are providing about twice a week for dinner and we've collected a few pumpkins off the vine. The capsicum are beginning to swell and the basil, thyme and mint are all proliferating through the garden (and pots). The Jerusalem artichoke are beginning to bloom and flower, such a lovely flower.

And I've always got my trusty help, Zali, by my side, under every step. I don't believe a house can be a home without a dog (or two). Town living is dreary in many ways for us mountain souls but the upside is the perfect growing weather. To every down there is an up (generally).

Choose wisely

Now I'm not commonly the type of person who will get riled up and have to post an angry status on your given choice of media platforms but this one I truly do not understand.

Lisa Wilkinson's review illustrates perfectly my perspective on the latest sub par movie released. It somehow miraculously brings a fair few current issues that have been brought into the light in the last few years out into the open, ie; Domestice violence, equality between the sexes. Now we might say 'awesome, an intellectually stimulating, hopefully entertaining story played out on film that we can relate to as a progressive Australian audience'.

Um...
No. Sorry.

What is stopping the general populous from thinking, what do I want in my life? What makes me happy? Is it a shallow, lustful experience of a couple of weeks or would I rather a deep, complex relationship with someone I can call my equal? Someone with whom I can have an active, stimulating sex life with, go on adventures for weeks at a time and continue to enjoy their company and can also relax with and sit around in pyjamas, eating ice cream with milo on top while watching Dr Who at home at the end of a long day at work?

I know what I'd prefer. Am I really in the minority? Do people really fantasise about being an awkwardly submissive other who is caught between fear and passion to bring out their wildest dreams? Are men going to really satisfy you if they are domineering, arrogant twats who turn DV (somehow miraculously) into some romantic passionate act? What are the long term issues that can develop from these kinds of thoughts.

Are dogs better than humans?

Now I'm an animal lover from way back. I'm here now to introduce you to Zali, my beloved 20 month old dog. We believe she's a Koolie x Kelpie, a great combination for me, a lover of work dogs. I had a thought this morning I'd like to share. If you've any conversation to add, please do so.

There's been study and lots of discussion over whether or not dogs are conscious living beings. That is, whether they realise their bodily presence and link it with their soul, so to speak. One fairly accurate way of I've heard of testing this idea is by getting a dog used to its reflection in a mirror, painting something on their face, an obvious blue mark or something, and returning them to the mirror to see if they try to remove it. Now I've a few queries with this experiment, such as 'my dogs choice of perfume is horse shit, why would they care if there's a mark on their face?' among others.

Either way, my question to you today is, if they are completely conscious of their presence in this world as a physical being with a soul (which I believe they are) does it make them more caring, compassionate, loyal beings than humans? Because they will always put you first (even in ball games, its been said they only return the ball to make you happy) and share your burdens. There's so much more that could be said on this subject...

What then is the basis for humanity? What are our main traits? I shudder to think.

Harvest

Over the weekend my sister and I went blackberry picking to build up her driving hours around the forest. We've had lots of rain so lots of berries have come out. Unfortunately they've swollen with water and are lacking the real sweetness they usually have. Although on the upside, there's millions out and the dogs came along too and enjoyed the day out. (I haven't introduced any animals yet, blasphemy!)

A panorama from near where we were picking over to the east, over the Blue Mountains/Wollemi

 

My other half brought home a few kilos he and his work mates picked at work in the forest too. I returned them in the form of a pie he took with him today. I've taken to the stove top and made some blackberry jam with the ones from the weekend. Making jam and preserving is such a great task, I feel like I'm one of the ones continuing it as it fades away like so many other traditions that are of simply no use in our day and age. It refused to set in the test set in the freezer so we'll just cross our fingers and hope it does over time.

Earlier in the month I had a fantastic onion and garlic harvest (growing alongside their companion tomatoes) which I pickled too, my first try at pickling! Fingers crossed not an ounce of bacteria got in/survived and they taste alright.

In other news, my father in law, who owns the land my horses are on, told me about 5L of coolant sitting in a bucket over lunchtime disappeared the other day. By the time I got to the horses and checked their mouths, lips, and backsides there was no trace of who-dunnit. Although a poison, it was at maximum dilution rate, and they've been into supposed horse killing feeds before and survived without a hint of colic. All I can do is keep a daily eye on them in the meantime and hope it was the biggest, fattest mare, Dingbat who would hold a much higher tolerance than the other two geldings.

Charlie, (skinny Thoroughbred) (to the left) and Bruce (Standardbred, ex-trotter)

Dingbat (awful name I know) 

(no clue what breed but heavy, this is after a month or two yarded with a biscuit of meadow hay/day)

Our chickens are happy and still getting the hang of laying an egg a day, they're young, they'll keep. My tomatoes aren't ripening very much, I'm told its due to the drop in temperature for this season. Perhaps I'll be making some green tomato pickles before the seasons out!


On the academic side of things I have to shout out I'm almost finished my degree!!! My last essay submitted last Friday and my last exam this weekend. This week I start studying nursing at college 3 days a week in hope of a secure, busy job at the end of the 18 months.

Travel plans may have taken a hit with the lack of work over summer but I've been contacted about work with a local farm contractor I've worked for over the past few years so perhaps the plans aren't completely off the rails at this stage.

If you've any relatable experiences please feel free to share. Community is an essential part of the human experience and I feel we should use technology to its full potential :)

Backyard Gardening January '15

I believe a stable home life has been a huge influence on the person I am today. This way, the rest of my life can be in ruin yet home is always a place one can simply be at peace.

A part of this peace has become my gardening. Neither of my parents are green thumbs, my mum actually admitting to having a brown thumb, that is, every plant she touches dies (she believes). I believe the gene must have skipped a generation though.

Her parents had a thriving garden they had to live off (mostly), living 30km out of town (or 20 miles as Mick, my grandfather, would always say). Mick's garden consisted of a fruitful orchard and I remember his homegrown apple cucumbers, beans, and all sorts harvested in the brighter months as a kid, before his battle with cancer and dementia. Granny kept up the patch that grew a huge assortment of herbs, vegies and various flowers and the lemon tree in the corner, not to forget the treasured orange tree my uncle Jim swore he could jump to from the swing set (I always supposed this was the day it arrived, while it was still in a portable pot).

On the other side, my pa wasn't much of a gardener but his father was a prize winning rose grower, a family tradition that went back a couple of generations, some of whom actually named a few particular types of roses (some with less than politically correct names). This was back in the days when Parramatta was a rural outskirt of Sydney. Dad's mum on the other hand is still a vigourous woman with a huge garden on the NSW Mid-North coast, growing everything from pineapples, papaya and guava to the more traditional lettuce, sweet potato and leeks.

As an introductory post I thought I'd introduce my garden which has just passed it's one year anniversary from when my partner and I moved into town off of our parents places. The following is a snapshot we took before we moved in:

And now:

 (The sparrows are pushing me, and my spinach, to our wits end, hence the netting)

To be fair on mum, after moving to town we noticed the astounding growth the plants I'd previously planted at home enjoyed. The warmer weather made a huge different and has helped swell my confidence concerning planting different things. As a result, not only am I growing the traditional thyme, mint, leeks, cabbages, beetroot and spinach cold climate vegies I tried at home, but my tomatoes have grown to well over twice the height I've ever seen them reach before. I've also got capsicums on the way, jerusalem artichoke, potatoes, rapidly growing pumpkins and corn, again twice the height and growth rate of that at mum and dads.

Of course the massive rainfalls have helped immensely, only with my garden. The fact that my summer job is as a fire tower operator isn't all too promising for my bank account. Welcome to my garden journey!