Back To Life On The Farm

It seems like forever that I have blogged and I guess that a month away from blog land is quite a while.  And it is not just that I have not been blogging myself but I have not even been keeping up to date with what you have all been doing either.  I hope to spend some time catching up with it all this week.

Our holiday to NZ was not much of a rest so we have also had a few days away camping since being back.
I will post more about NZ later this week.

Off for a walk when camping

Posing for a photo

Jessie loves to chase sticks especially it that involves swimming

We have been straight back into life here since returning.  The days are cooler and finally drying out after months of rain.  As we are in a subtropical area from April to November should be our dry season.  But here we are half way through June and we have only just had the first 2 days of typical dry season weather.  In fact it is still so wet underfoot that the ground squelches underfoot and when you push a full wheel barrow over it you leave a muddy track in your wake.

The muddy track left by the wheelbarrow

We have been doing a lot of mulching over the last 2 days. We are creating new garden beds where it is inconvenient to mow and mulching old ones.  We have also gotten rid of our above ground pool and are creating a fire pit and seating area.

A new Garden bed under the bottle brush.

The fire pit.
We are using the break drum from a Mac truck to contain the fire

 Hubby has been busy too building a new arbor at the back of our shade house.  He and my dad built one a couple of years ago at the front of the shade house so now we have a matching (well almost) pair.
It is made from posts and slabs that he milled himself.  He is a arborist so these were made from some trees he cut down a few years ago.

Phase 1

Trying to get the other side to match on a sloping site.

The finished product

I now get to decide what to plant around it.

 Hubby has also spent a few hours dealing with the piles of wood in our paddock.  They have been cut into disks and drying out for the past 12 months.  I think they look really unsightly in the paddock and will be glad to see them gone.  So it was time to split them and get them in the wood shed or at least out of the paddock and against the back of the wood shed once it is full.
For this we organised a wood splitter from one of the locals who sells fire wood.  This was such a good idea and now it is all split and just has to be moved.

One pile done 2 more to go.

On to pile number 2 

 Well I better get going we are going out to lunch to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary

What's going on at your place?.