Info & News – Page 7 – Gallifrey Forest Farm

#catlife

2016/03/19 Danielle 0

Our darling Cloud-kitty has returned from her trip to Adelaide, and she does indeed look pregnant. She seems to remember us, and is super affectionate, hungry all the time, and starting to look a bit barrel shaped. However. She’s been away for long enough that she’s forgotten George and Prism, and they’ve forgotten her. Prism wasn’t too much trouble – she’s not the dominant cat in the house, and never has been, so she just backed off and gave Cloud space until they were friends again. George.. not so much. First he growled at her because she smelled of other […]

flowers and fruit

2016/02/27 Danielle 0

We harvested our first apples from the orchard yesterday. A pair of tiny little King David apples – very nice, too, for what is meant to be mainly a cider apple. Nothing else is fruiting right now, except the black nightshade (NOT deadly nightshade), but the adverts and signs are up all along the Swan Valley for fresh fruit, grapes and mangos. I like this season, with the last of the summer fruit, and the last of the swimming weather, but the first few cool nights of autumn. The frangipanis are flowering, too, and the roses are all going crazy […]

summer holiday tree planting

2016/01/05 Danielle 0

This has been a lovely, idle, summer holiday. To be honest, you could replace ‘idle’ with ‘utterly slack’, and not be far off. I’ve read books, gone to the beach (twice already this year, which is impressive given that it’s an hour’s drive each way), played with my cats, and barely checked my email. It’s been wonderfully relaxing. The regular household chores have continued to be done though – pot plants watered, kitty litter cleaned, the chickens and the guinea fowl fed. The guinea fowl are hardly keets any more at all, they’re almost completely feathered out. We did put […]

free mulch

2015/11/26 Danielle 0

One of the ideas about permaculture which resonates with me quite strongly is that everything you need is available to you, you just need to learn to take advantage of the resources you have. This isn’t the radical self-reliance ideal which has been so problematic for many people suffering various forms of disadvantage, from mental health problems to fiscal difficulties; this is the idea that you make your own luck by paying attention and taking opportunities when they present themselves. I really like that. The latest illustration of this idea is embodied in some free mulch. A lady I work […]

fire season

2015/11/24 Danielle 3

The downside of summer – other than the endless hot, dry weather, which is not as much fun as you might imagine, and the constant dual risk of sunburn and heatstroke – is fire season. So many things can start a bushfire: a cigarette tossed out a car window by a clueless tourist, an unmanaged BBQ, a freak lightning storm (sadly not accompanied by a summer rain), a spark from an angle-grinder, a gum tree overheating in the 40+ degree (celcius) weather and spontaneously combusting due to the oils it exudes into the air, … It doesn’t matter, at the […]