Dungay Creek, AUS (pt 2)

Day 5.  The morning was soggy and raining. And so was the rest of they day, so we stayed inside and took care of some house cleaning tasks. Christina and I spent most of the day cleaning cupboards – removing the items inside, extracting the cupboard unit, cleaning and wiping the interiors then adding clean liners and replacing all the removed items.

This took us the entire morning, and part of the afternoon. After lunch we cleaned windows, and washed more dishes. Pretty domestic stuff. It looked like it was going to clear off for a few minutes there, but then it just kept on raining… The only farming bit that we managed to get at was our daily chore of picking up eggs from the hen house. Later on in the afternoon, Zak had offered to take us on a bit of a short hike up to their waterfalls. Zak skillfully lead the way in his bare feet, but we opted to wear our runners, which was a good idea, since we started getting attacked by leeches towards the end of the hike.

Anyways, the trip up to the waterfalls was like hiking through a jungle. At the top of falls, Zak showed us where they created a dam and also pointed out the pipes they had built that led back to the house. On the way back, we stopped by to inspect the jackfruit tree to see if it was ready to be picked – which Zak said it was, but he didn’t want to carry it back to the house, so he just informed his parents. We finished off the evening with a late dinner of curries and rice.

Day 6. Today we mulched our “personal project” area, between cow pastures.  It felt good to make some progress on that after having had to ignore it for a few days. We’ve completed mulching about half of it, though some of the thin spots need a few more bucket-fulls.   As we weeded the area from the tall weeds (like the same height as Christina tall), we would then toss them over to the cows for them to eat. They’ve been smart enough that over the past week, when they see us come up the hill, they stick around close to the fence.  They don’t wait quietly either.  The cows will continue mooing and carrying on until we have a few arm loads to give them.

Christina took quickly (surprise, surprise) to an orphaned calf, who’s mom, Polly, passed away earlier in the week.  So, when the rest of the herd would wander off to other parts of the property to feed, this calf would be left behind, calling out to its mother (or so Christina claims).  So, she would pay extra close attention to the calf and try to feed it and talk sweetly to it.  We worked on this in two chunks, perforated by our next adventure in concrete. The morning had rained quite a bit (we had feared for a moment that it would be another day spent cleaning drawers), so the ground, composed mostly of clay, was extremely slick.

This slick clay was very sticky on our shoes, which ended up looking pretty gross by the end of the day. We did muddle through, after bailing out one of the previously dug holes which had taken on a large amount of runoff water due to its location. Christina and I mixed the concrete together, then she would shape and direct while I poured from the wheelbarrow we used as our mixing container. After this we returned to our weeding and mulching, but it did get pretty hot, so when the sun was high we surrendered and went in for lunch.

Our afternoon was spent transplanting sweet potatoes from the vegetable garden to just behind the pig sheds. We found a good rhythm, with Christina spading holes for the vine plantings, and me running between the garden to get more vines, then planting them in the prepared holes. A little more weeding rounded out our day, then it was time for a shower and some relaxing on the veranda while waiting for dinner. Our meal was basil penne with cheese, which was very simple, but one of my favorite meals here so far.

Day 7. We had worked enough “overtime” hours to get ourselves a day off, and today was recommended as that day, since Phil and Lindy both work a half-day, so would be away for the morning. We still got up early-ish, around eight o’clock, and followed our usual routine here for coffee and breakfast, with the very welcome change of not following these with work. we relaxed on the veranda and caught up on some emailing and other computer related tasks, and had a very nice call with Mom & Dad E. In the evening we prepared a dinner for our hosts, which was Christina’s cannelloni, followed by an apple pie. Unfortunately the pie didn’t make it quite in time for dessert, so we had it for breakfast the following morning. Christina wasn’t very pleased with the cannelloni, mainly because we were dealing with a wood-burning stove, which took longer than expected to heat up, and ingredients slightly different to those we are used to.

Day 8. Another day spent mostly in the mulch. We got an early start, and worked through the morning, taking one quick break for a drink, then weeding, papering, and mulching right into the heat of the day. By lunch time we both felt quite piqued, so the “chow bell” was a very welcome sound. After lunch we had some of the jackfruit which we had spotted during our hike to the waterfall. It was my first time trying jackfruit, and it is a very tasty fruit indeed. Not all of the exotic fruits we’ve tried here have been the type that I would go looking for, but I can definitely see myself trying this one again.

In the afternoon we were tasked with cleaning out the baby chicks’ box, which was a popular job with Christina, as it meant lots of handling and caring for the little ones. I found it hard to stay thrilled about any activity that is centered around cleaning up poop, no matter who it came from… she could have probably stayed in there “nesting” all day.

We then moved on to mixing and pouring concrete, this time for the step at the gate to one of the pig enclosures. It was a busy and HOT day, right on the heels of our rainy day off, which felt very appropriate for “getting back to work” type weather. After our work was completed we spent some moments staring off into space on the veranda before rallying enough energy to make the move into our room until dinner. We had a very nice meal of thai curry chicken on rice, which was tasty, but I did miss having tobasco with it, as I would have at Mom & Dad E’s place. Both Christina and I are more tired tonight than usual, so it’s an early one tonight.

Day 9. We had three ‘sessions’ as Lindy would call it today.  We finished what we could of our mulch area, using up all the newspaper to be had on the property.  We finished all the hard preparatory work, in getting all the tall weeds out, but we still need about nine bundles of paper to properly cover the entire area.  As it were, the place looks a lot cleaner than when we first started. Our second session was to do a bit of weeding along the path, which was supposed to be our ‘light chore’, and indeed it was.  Even Zak came by to help out and chat with Dan about his Postie bike.  Then the third session was cleaning out a set of kitchen drawers, as it was raining outside, somewhat to my relief, as my hands are starting to feel pretty beat up after all the “real work” we’ve been up to.

We’ve got one more day of work before moving on to Surfers Paradise, along the Gold Coast. I anticipate a pleasant change from life on the farm, and this appreciation is a nice perk of this laborious interlude.