Emily Wing Smith
The rain has started again, which is great as we had received no decent rain since around November last year. The tanks have been amazing in keeping us all showered and thirst quenched over summer despite record numbers of visitors for a record amount of time. Last night we were drenched in beautiful rain - the local BOM station says 7.4 mm in the last 12 hours - which will do us just fine. We also had a nice thunderstorm around 2am which was a snuggling bonanza - but not sure that the dogs, safe as they were up in their wood lined shed, enjoyed it as much as us.
The great corn disaster of 2018 haunted us as we lovingly took care of our corn in the 2019 season. It seemed like the crop grew very well last year, but in the end it was left too long on the plant, and the chooks ended up doing very well (nothing wasted - the eggs are delicious!).
So this year we monitored and stressed and discussed and checked and finally harvested all the corn in one efficient swoop. Then, just to make us crazy, the harvested corn went mouldy in a few days underneath the house. Holy noobs, we did it again!
Meanwhile the chooks are once again quite happy to be chewing on sub-par corn, and we collect eggs and look forward to 2020 when we will definitely get it right (maybe). Note to next year's corn growers, harvest on time and then also process straight away.
Another crop we have failed to get exactly right (much to the chook's delight) has been the sunflowers. Just a couple of days ago they were safely drying on the stems, and then a couple of sulphur-crested cockatoos decided that lunch was on us - followed by a display of dancing on the balcony which we suppose was in thanks? Kelly enjoyed it, us not so much. We have grabbed the remainder of the crop and hopefully will be able to harvest and use the seeds this year.
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| Chewed to perfection |
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| Hey if I dance will you bring back the sunflowers? |
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