Harvest time.....

Phew! We survived, all living and accounted for. We have just endured our first year 12 final exam week. You see DS have been doing distance education since grade 4 and the last two years thanks to the technology of today, it has been online, a virtual classroom. This is by far his favourite way of learning. So thinking that he had until the end of the week to submit his final assessments, it came as a bit of a shock when the teacher phoned and asked for it by Wednesday night!!!!! Three multi media presentations no less........ But alas its over now....... Pictured below our high school graduate and volunteer fire fighter.



So apart from year 12 exams it has been busy around here. Since my last posting I have also gone away and completed a fire fighter course, yeah I know not my normal past time but I figured with the boys both being operational members of the brigade, chances are when there's a fire they will be called away thus leaving me to watch over and possibly defend our place. Best to learn some skills ;) and while I was at it, I brushed up on my first aid as well.

Now while this was going on DH was preparing for the 2010 garlic harvest. To make things a wee bit easier this year (on account that it nearly did his back in the year before hehe) he retreated to his man cave aka the shed and from a broken bus spring, two mower tyres and very little else made cutter bar to cut the roots of the garlic.

The first test run, notice the wheels, they have something to do with the depth at which the blade cuts ( a bit technical for me). Last year the garlic was dug out using a shovel.

Of course if it cuts too deep then it will not cut the roots and if it is too shallow it will cut the garlic bulbs. Pictured here the boys making a minor adjustment.

And then success! Yes just right and as you can see the first bulb of garlic from this years crop has been lifted from the ground. With the impending rain predictions, it was all hands on deck as we got the garlic out of the ground and up to the carport where it was topped and tailed then onto the racks to dry. Doesn't sound like much but it sure was a busy week with the last bed being finished just as the wet weather came in. Offcuts were added to the compost heap which was also on the go, nothing wasted here!

Through out the growing period DH and DS have been monitoring the growth of the plants and keeping records for quality assurance. You see this is the first year we have grown the garlic organically and if the bulb size and crop yeild are anything to go by then yes it can be done successfully.

This year I am getting a bit creative and keeping 400 bulbs aside, I have trimmed all but 2 leaves and these have been laided out neatly on the rack to dry. These will be made up and given as a Christmas present. Now I'm not going to give all the details now cause sure enough some of the recipents will read this, so mums the word, but after Christmas I will post a photo.

So if you can imagine all of this going on at the same time and then to add a spanner in the works our computer caught a virus, geez when will we learn "PC" means Personal Computer! Fortuneatly DS let the moths out of his wallet and brought himself a laptop computer about 2 weeks before hand so all was not lost.

The wet weather seems to have set in, last time I checked the rain gauge we had received 45ml so that takes us up to 60 inches of rain so far for the year. The biggest worry isn't bushfires but have we got enough fuel for the outboard!

Until next time

Bec