All sorted

Rightio... our new website is well and truly up and running.

www.fangornfarm.com

see you there ;)

Not whether to blog, but where!?

I was blogging on Fangornfarm.com, using iBlog, until that stopped working. It doesn't support leopard yet, so it was just crashing whenever I tried to publish anything. Now I am using WordPress and Ecto, so I can blog offline as well. And the reason I am writing here is to say that I am trying to work out how to move my posts over there (I think it can be done fairly straightfowardly) and then I will write some more.

So hopefully now you can visit me at Fangorn Farm - the website, and maybe even the actual farm, some day!

Camping...

Over the weekend we took the new truck camping. Monte wanted to pick up his peteroid motor thing that will be our new backup generator. We drove up north and camped in Sprent. The forest was very pretty, although it was terribly windy (and cold, and wet) and the trees croaked and groaned all night. We weren't very comfortable in the cold, and we didn't sleep much, as we all lay (in the same sleeping bag on the same mattress) looking up to the tent's ceiling, wide-eyed, waiting for the tent to blow us away in manner of wizard of Oz.

It took us 9 hours to take the west route back to Geeveston from Wynyard. It was a pretty drive, albeit long and frustratingly slow at times in the truck. It's a bit boring doing the highway thing in a big car, but it was good for Monte; he got used to the car and I am rather fond of his excellent driving, and the way the gear changes showcase is muscly arms! The dogs, who came with us, were perfectly behaved, as were the chilblains, who slept most of the way.

Lots of poems about logging the forests came to my mind, including phrases like "Monsters in the woods" and "My pretty drive through the forest" and "Death becomes not the forest." I didn't think I'd feel so uncomfortable seeing the logging, but I actually felt ill seeing all the logged forests, their debris heaped in menacing piles. The machines eating away at the beautiful trees was sickening - it just looked so unnatural. And the strange thing is that all this is going on at the side of the road that tourists travel on! It's sickening. I don't know what is worse - the propaganda strips or the naked logging for all eyes to see...

We also have another rooster. He is a light sussex. I am trying to think of a male form of Lily, but only came up with Lucifer and Vanilla-Ice (Lily and Nilly?). So at present this young rooster is called 'Dickie' as well. Speaking of Dickie, he is really crowing a lot more now. It's almost annoying. I like waking to the sound of his spooky song.

There is lots more news, but time is short and I have other things to do today, like rest while Matty is sleeping and Georgia is at school. I went to spotlight on the weekend when we went through Launceston, and I bought some wool and a pattern book for knitting toys. So that's got me occupied for now. I have no intention of working at this stage!

OK!

Yes, the new website is now up and running. It was up and running before, but it had to be recognised by databases worldwide etc.

So, again:

www.fangornfarm.com

See you there! :)

Swimming and Stuff

Today was quite warm - hot even! With temperatures reaching 30 degrees, we all went to the local pool and had a lovely swim! We're thinking about getting a season pass, so we can go whenever we want to. Georgia had a fabulous time and is a natural in the water. She "swam" at least 6 laps, with her noodle. She even beat me most of the time! ;) Matty was not so sure. I think the water was too cool for his liking. He clung to us tightly. He liked being lifted up and then splashing down again. It was fun because we all had the pool to ourselves. We think we might even go tomorrow because it's going to be 32!

We've run out of our bandwidth, so I'm not going to post any photos onto this blog for now. We have some great shots, taken by Georgia, of the animals. She loves going around the farm, taking photos!

On Wednesday we'll get our wind-generator, which wil be great! Monte cut down two trees today and it has opened up our 'backyard' (a small secluded, sheltered area behind the house, where we often eat dinner). He intends to chop more trees down because we will need to have 20-40 metres of cleared land in case a fire comes through (and we've already had some threats!). I am sick of running the generator, but now everything is on the batteries and we will only need to run the generator to supplement the wind and solar generators. Monte has done a wonderful job, connecting everything up! He's had a lot of help from his brother too!

Monte is asking me how much he is "allowed" to spend on his tractor. Then there's the new car and a trailer that we have our eyes on. Tomorrow we want to catch up with the architect. Things are not progressing as fast as we'd hoped; we had given him instructions, which he seems to have forgotten. The house will be great though. And I am looking forward to having more space, although there are a lot of things I like about having less space. It's helpful that we have a shipping container that is storing a lot of our things. However, a smaller place is easier to clean; it's easier to organise (you must!); it is easy to be power/water savvy; and we are always nice and close by each other. Yay! The bonus of having 23 acres is that when that 'close' becomes 'too close,' we can just go for a walk! It's always calming (I have already tested that theory!).

Bonnydoon renamed to Fangorn Farm

The name change came about this evening during a BBQ dinner outside, looking at our forests. We are Lord of the Rings fans and we talk about it a lot so because of our forests, we thought this name works well. Plus, it has the advantage of alliteration, which all good names have, of course!

We now have a new website: www.fangornfarm.com

Why Fangorn???

Why Fangorn? Without going into too much detail, our property consists of several - 6-7 - acres of forest. The forest is noisy and it seems to be alive! We hike in there and are reminded of the ents in Lord of the Rings. We keep expecting Treebeard to appear and lead the way! So, our farm is named after Fangorn Forest, as our forest seems magical, like that of Tolkein's.

Things are happening at this farm. We feel that we can actually call it a 'farm' now because we have a few animals to make it so. The goats and the chickens are keeping us entertained and occupied, having to move the goats in the morning and the evening, and letting out the chickens in the morning and putting them to bed at night. Not to mention cleaning up after the animals, feeding them etc.

Georgia is in charge of the chickens and she is doing a good job so far. She needs our help a fair bit; she cannot open the chookhouse door (a deliberate invention of Monte's) and she can't get the food for them all by herself (something we will have to rectify).

All our animals have names. There's d'Artagnan the kelpie, Naigee the cat, Lucy the Cavilky, who's nearly three months old and very rambunctious but sweet. Anna and Giddy are the goats. We did not name them; they came with those names. Queen Anna has a mild temperament. She is Giddy's mother. Giddy was so named because she ran around in circles at first, apparently. Now she is more placid, and she has come from running away from us as we approach to only backing away a bit if we don't have food for her. She likes apples. They both munch on them - loudly. The chickens are Dickie, named after Richard Gere because he is so handsome - at least he was, until he was attacked by a quoll. Now he is a bit dishevelled. Henny Penny is a plain old pullet who we got from a seedy poultry farm (never again!) but she lays an egg almost daily and she is very tame. Rose 1 and 2 are Rhode Island Reds. They are pullets and they are already bigger than Henny Penny. Georgia calls them the babies, and she loves holding them! Lily 1 and 2 are Light Sussexes. They are big birds and we would like to get a rooster in the same breed. We would like to breed them; we think they will make a good table and egg bird.

Georgia starts school!!!

a grown up Georgia in her school uniform

Right, so, my firstborn Georgia Rebecca May has grown up and wears a school uniform and goes to school and learns stuff... I can deal with this! It's only two days a week. It's only for a few hours. It's nice to have some time just with Matty (can't wait till he gets childcare though, so I can work or clean or write books :0). Yes. This is a wonderful change for our family.

Georgia excited about going to school. Look at our view!

Her first day was a great success, which doesn't surprise me. She has been to childcare since she was 6 months old. She has been to occasional care at the local kindy since she was 2. She was doing pre-entry in term 4 last year, and she is ready for school! She started the day playing playdough, and from second hand information, I know that she rode a red bike, wrote her name by herself, painted a picture, decorated her name on a poster and heard a story about a vicious rabbit or something. She ate all her food (hardly surprising) and drank all her drink, and the teacher told me she had a "lovely" day and she even wrote it in the school diary. I am impressed!

Georgia has grown up so much. She has blossomed of late. She and I have wonderful conversations together and we enjoy bird watching together. I love her, which just goes without saying.

Her current favourite hairstyle - a 'bum'