We finally managed to get out to the farm this weekend. It has been over a month since we were last out there and it has been way too long. Soccer on Sundays really keeps us tied to Canberra during the winter and we don’t get out to the farm anywhere near as much as we’d like to.
While the past week has been glorious with crisp mornings and stunning, clear days the week before that had been super cold with temperatures getting down to minus 8 or 9. That coupled with next to no rain had us concerned about the state of the trees that we planted for my birthday. Would the frost have killed them all off?
Most of Friday was involved with the funeral for Sare’s uncle Michael so we ended up hitting the road at about 4pm. We got to Braidwood a bit after 5pm and could see a large crowed gathered at the National Theatre where a memorial/music event was being held to commemorate Anders Nielson, a Braidwood stalwart, whose funeral it was that day too. It looked like a bumper turnout but we didn’t stop in. I knew of Anders and he had made us coffee numerous times at Dojo or The Albion but I didn’t really know him as a person. Given the send off he received though it seemed that most of Braidwood was there to see him off.
We kept on to the farm and arrived with enough daylight left to venture over to check out the trees once we’d unpacked the car and gotten the fire started. Luckily most of the trees looked pretty healthy with the Apple Gums and Acacia Dealbata (silver wattle) seemingly putting on new growth and thriving. The Kurrajongs are a different matter entirely though as they looked like the frost had gotten to them and caused them to die off. Hopefully I’m wrong though and Spring brings about a startling recovery.
The forecast is for a week of solid rain which meant we didn’t have to truck water over to give them all a drink. We made our way to the dam to check it out and the water level had dropped a little but there was still plenty in there. It helps not having livestock in there to drink it all away. I wondered around the edge and noticed the wet sand was all scratched over and then saw a claw stuck in the mud. I think we may have yabbies! I might talk to Jen and Gert about seeing if we can set a trap to tempt some of them out and have a look at them.
With darkness approaching, we headed back to the shed to get some pizzas cooking for dinner and crack open a bottle of Purple Hand Pinot. As usual, we didn’t put the generator on but cooked by candlelight. The night was super still and clear and the sheer number of stars we saw whenever we went outside to pee was astonishing. You can really see why they call it the milky way. By the time we toddled off to bed though the fog was starting to come in and I knew that we would wake up covered in it.
Unusually, I had a restless night sleep and so when Gusto decided to get up at 6:30am I joined him and we walked the perimeter in the dawn light. The fog wasn’t too thick but as the sun was yet to fully rise it made for an atmospheric walk as we checked the fence line and tried to work out if the holes we saw dug under the fences were made by wombat or fox. It made it easier when the digger kept leaving ‘deposits’ in the hole!
The sun finally rose above the fog and the light spilling over the valley was gorgeous and golden. As usual the temperature seemed to drop with the arrival of the sun and Gusto was shivering despite his jacket so we headed back to the shed to put the kettle on and get the coffee brewing. 
The coffee was just the thing and Gusto and I sat outside and watched the day brighten as the fog continued to lift. Then Sare was up and I cooked breakfast of mushrooms on toast spread with our homemade Labneh. Yum. I was cleaning up afterwards and Sare was outside when she beckoned me over to behind the van. There on the grass were two baby wombats, laid out cold and dead on the grass. They were so young that they’re eyes hadn’t opened yet and we weren’t sure what had happened – whether their mother had given birth out in the open or whether a fox had pulled them out of their burrow and left them for dead. It was very sad and I could barely look at them – they were so tiny. Sare fetched them up and buried them under a new wattle we’d received at Michael’s funeral the day before. We’d experienced a lot of death in the past few days.
With the sun fully risen and warm on our backs we decided to move a couple of the oaks that are lined up the driveway as they are in the low spots that we will eventually want to dig out and put a dam. We were hoping that they would be relatively easy to dig out as they are still quite small but it took a bit more than we’d anticipated. Whilst small, they had put down some healthy roots and we had to dig quite deeply to get them out with their roots (mostly) intact . We got two moved and resettled but decided to leave another one that is in the low spot as it is growing quite big and we thought it would be too difficult to dig out. We reasoned that when we have a digger in for the dam we can use it to dig the oak out then!
The weather was starting to turn and so we made another pizza for lunch and chilled out for a few hours and then headed back to Canberra before it got dark. We’ll be back out in two weeks for the Apple Grafting workshop at the Old Cheese Factory and so fingers crossed the oaks will have survived their transplanting and put on some Spring growth. Only two more weeks until Winter is over. Can’t wait!
