In our font yard there is a magnificent tree.     It's an Illawarra Flame Tree. I remember it blooming only a couple of times in my life, but when it does, it is spectacular. The leaves all fall off and it's covered in dense red blooms, it's a […]

We were very lucky to have the lovely Luisa Brimble visit recently (accompanied by the equally lovely Emma Bowen). I've been admiring Luisa's gorgeous photography for ages and was thrilled when she offered to visit on a workshop day and take some shots for us. Hooray!  When you've got your […]

  Last night our friend Tim O'Sullivan (Timbo Rural Contracting) showed up with some extra friends and they took out four foxes in an hour. Four.  Happy, happy, happy.  I don't know if that's solved the immediate problem, but I suspect it's put a dent in it.  We know Tim […]

You know that moment when you think, oh well, it can't get worse than this?  We lost the remainder of the mature batch of meat birds last night, the ones due to go for processing tomorrow, the fifty we hoped might at least pay for the feed and incubation costs […]

Photo: Luisa Brimble It's something Adman says, 'who'd be a farmer, eh?', when stuff goes wrong, or, you know, gets out or dies or doesn't grow or gets eaten or breaks or we hit the wall financially.  He always says it wryly, as if he's the farm kid and I'm […]

  Hello!  Around here we are: .. holding onto the fun we had with the beloved Milkwood Permaculture team here this weekend, running Serious Backyard Veggies. We tried to encourage them to move in by feeding them delicious food (and hiding their keys) but to no avail. The class was […]

It's been a beautiful weekend of favourite Milkwood-people adventure and rain and amazing shared cooking with a brilliant cook (Tory) and red wine and cuddles with small children and slooooow cooked lamb.  Adam took this photo this morning. Lucky stars, I'm thanking them. xxx

For every story there's another one. For every earnest heart wishing for a small farm in a friendly town with an orchard and room for chickens and a big veggie garden, there's an orchardist lying in bed tonight wondering how he's going to pay his water bill and how he'll […]