Gallifrey Forest Farm

Nesting

2015/08/10 Danielle 0

The house is so very, very close to being done. It’s a matter of weeks until we can move in, and while there’s a certain amount of argh-can-we-afford-all-this stress, it’s also a deeply satisfying feeling. It’s hard to rein in all the plans and projects. We’ve made a pact that we’re not going to buy any furniture except for a rug or two (the floor of the new house is tiled throughout, because I like tiles and hate the ground-in filth that accumulates in wall-to-wall carpets – rugs can be taken outside and beaten, or washed, or at worst replaced) […]

supper club

2015/08/04 Danielle 0

I haven’t posted much about plants or animals recently, which is mostly because it’s winter and cold and nothing much is growing. And most of my attention is on the house-building project. The chickens are moulting, and so laying fairly sporadically. The quail are still laying, although one of them got sick and we had to euthanise her. We ate her afterwards because (a) I feel that eating the carcase shows respect tot he animal, and not eating it is wasteful and disrespectful, and (b) the illness was a beak disorder, so there was no health risk to us. We […]

The Pointy End

2015/07/23 Danielle 0

People say that building a house is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. No one said it directly to me, mind you, but in theory people say this to other people as some sort of warning of the amount of stress and effort to expect. And the people they say it to (or don’t actually say it to) listen and agree and don’t fully comprehend what it means. I thought I did, but .. with hindsight, I was in the same boat as John Snow (i.e. I knew nothing). It’s taken three years to get to the pointy […]

Black Mint

2015/07/13 Danielle 0

While I consider myself to be Australian, I wasn’t born here – I adopted this country. I moved, with my family, from South Africa when I was 11. An eleven-year-old doesn’t (or at least my eleven year old self didn’t) have any real grasp of politics, long term economic predictions, or crime rates, or the reasons why we emigrated – which were related to all those factors. But my world-view has been forever shaped by the colours and sounds and smells of Africa. Indeed, in my most secret heart of hearts I am a dual citizen of both Australia and […]

Breaking Ground

2015/07/07 Danielle 0

We have a delivery date for the house – which, in case I hadn’t mentioned this clearly before, is a modular pre-fabricated building which is being constructed on the builder’s lot and then brought up on 3 trucks and put in place with a crane. Delivery is July 22nd, which means that everything is happening now. Earthworks have started, and the place looks a bit like its been hit by a bomb. Especially if the bomb were in the form of a rockbreaker and several digging machines. Still, they’ve assured us that they’ll fix everything when they’re done, re-dig the […]