Tackling billy goat weed

As I mentioned last week, we have a rather severe infestation of billy goat weed which is covering up much of the boys' paddock and out-competing the pasture grasses. It's also all through the lawn around the house. So, as much as I hate spraying chems around, we dutifully bought arm length pvc gloves, suitable face masks and protector shields and spent about 5 hours over the weekend spraying. I concentrated on the house paddock, while Steve started the boys' paddock. We'll now see wait and see whether the spray has worked and the weed starts to brown off and die before we continue spraying. Of course, we'll never ever get rid of the pest, but hopefully with a smart combination of vigilance and diligence we will be able to keep it under control.

So much to learn...

The final frontier that we had yet to tackle here at Maryville was the bathroom. Those of you who have stayed here know that the bathroom was a triumph of early 1980s design. In a word. Brown. So, a couple of months ago we bit the bullet and got ourselves a builder, Michael, from Billen Cliffs.
More brown, but I'm pleased to say that the bathroom has now been gutted and is but a week away from being finished.
Michael and Steve share a joke...perhaps Michael is saying 'you want to do that for that price? You've gotta be joking'...in that friendly, non-threatening, Billen way.
So this is what it looks like now. We've used the floor tiles that we have tiled much of the rest of the house with, and using them up the walls as well. We have a feature length of tile that travels from one wall, through the walk-in shower and up the other wall. Hopefully, I'll be able to show you the finished room by this time next week. Woo hoo.

Pea and Ham soup

Hadn't ever made pea and ham soup before so I thought it was time I did so. Yesterday. Saturday. Bought all the ingredients in Kyogle yesterday morning, then prepped the veges, bunged all the ingredients in the slow cooker and waited for 8 hours.
And although I think the previous pic has greater aesthetic value, the resulting soup was delicious. We enjoyed the soup with yummy olive sourdough bread made by Esther in Kyogle. It still hasn't been cold enough at night to warrant any heating, but the soup did it's job of warming us up nicely. Now speaking of soups, my wonderful friend, and blogger, Louise, who invariably makes a comment on my postings each week, has her a blog dedicated to soup. I'm sure she wouldn't mind me putting the address here....it's a fabulous read, full of yummy recipes...

http://soupsoupglorioussoup.blogspot.com/

Big Carpet Python in Paddock

Antoine and Louis (see posts below) were very excited to tell us mid-way through last week that they had found a carpet python in our paddock. We followed Antoine down to a tussocky area and sure enough the carpet was nicely curled up, minding his/her own business. While we were down looking at where the guys had been removing lantana, we came across the critter again today.
I'm pretty sure this is the one we found for the first time in February 2010, when Vivien was here. Unfortunately, it's not in very good condition, it's rather skinny and it's also having trouble shedding its skin. I would have thought it rather late in autumn to be shedding anyway, which might be a major part of the problem.
It's probably about 7 feet long but quite thin, and by the looks of thing, it hasn't eaten in a while. I hope it survives the winter and gets a big feed early in spring.

Mulching and weed control using newspapers

This is a section of creek bank that is progressing quite well. We've planted things like red cedar, various lilly pillies, some tree ferns, swamp mahognay and a bunch of other stuff and they are coming along well. HelpXer Fabien covered the grass up with newspapers to act as a weed mat and then Louis and Antoine did a bit of a repair job, plus added some fertilizer pellets and then covered with more newspaper.
Hopefully by the time the newspaper has broken down we'll have a reasonable canopy cover and the amount of grass growing underneath will diminish.

The curse that is billy-goat weed

The paddock that houses Dexter and Baxter is rapidly being overtaken by Billygoat weed, Ageratum houstonianum. It is really quite troubling as it's smothering the pasture grasses and spreading at a rapid rate. Apparently the worst thing you can do is mow over the stuff....and what have we been doing for the past twelve months? Hmmmm well you learn by experience. But to control the thing?
Steve trialled an area using Roundup which seems to have worked and pasture grasses are coming back, so we might continue with spraying, together with manual pulling out (have I got a job for you, HelpXer). The weed is moderately palatable to goats so I'm tempted to run a goat trial as well. Problem would be that we would need to tether the goat as the fences wouldn't keep a rascally goat in for very long at all.

Progress along the bank of Julia's Little Creek

For some time I've wanted to clear this section along the bank of Julia's Little Creek and establish a stream-bank vegetation community akin to what should be growing there. Shane (aka Julia) had made some incursions soon after we constructed the fence last October, but we didn't ever get time to keep going, so the weeds soon swallowed up any evidence that Shane had done anything. But the best time to be doing this work is late autumn and winter when days are cool. Antoine and Louis, two French HelpXers who spent the past two weeks here, really got stuck into this area, following a renewed attack by Shane a few weeks ago. And they have done good.
We can now, with the help of other HelpXers and Shane, can continue right up to where the fence runs along the road, and then plant in Macarangas and other quick growing pioneer plants that will establish a canopy for later underplanting. I'm very excited by the prospects for regenerating a more suitable vegetation here.
The pile that Antoine and Louis, the Lantana-Busters, have built. For some reason, Dexter and Baxter have taken a liking to lantana and have been happily munching on the prickly stuff over the past few weeks.

Two French Chefs (almost) at Larnook

Over the past two weeks, we have enjoyed the company of Antoine and Louis, two French HelpXers, who leave this morning to continue on their trip north. Like all our other Helpers, they have made a wonderful contribution to Maryville - and in particular these guys loved doing battle with lantana! (See posting above - once I post it up). But they also liked to cook and they cooked two super delicious quiches as well as
a huge plate full of crepes and another bowl of Antoine's Special Chocolate Truffles (using some cointreau to add that extra zing). We had these for dessert last night to mark their final night with us.
So, from left, Antoine and Louis and Glen and Steve in his understated winter pyjamies. The colourful meal on the plates was a roast lamb (slow cooked on slow for 7 hours till the meat falls carelessly from the bone) and roasted veges - pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, honeyed carrots and beans. Great night and we wish Antoine and Louis all the best for their Great Aussie Adventure.

Channon Markets

Sunday morning saw us at the Channon Markets, one of our favourite markets - well along with Bangalow and the Lismore Car Boot markets - we are spoiled for choice up here. We took our current HelpXers, Antoine and Louis, with us. The guys in the pic were quirky Channon fabulousness and they were accompanied by a young woman who did some splendid interpretive dance (thats her holding the rainbow-clad twirling stick). We also bought more plants and tomorrow Antoine and Louis will be planting out 59 plants - grevilleas, banksias, hardenbergia, acacia, macaranga, casuarina and a bunch of rainforesty plants. This will be the last big planting before winter.

Some more Faerieland pics

Walking along a narrow path through the vege garden with these fabulous taro plants, I think they are.
Our friends, Shane and Jason at the top entry into Faerieland
View towards Blue Knob from the road to Faerieland.

Saturday lunch at Faerieland

About 15 minutes from our place, towards the Border Ranges National Park, is Faerieland, an intentional community of 8 people who identify as gay, queer and/or faerie. They have about 150 acres of former dairy farm which they are slowly changing into forest and productive land for veges.
This is Midgee, a friend of our friend, Shane, and it was Midgee's birthday lunch on Saturday. There would have been about 50 people feasting on lots of delicious food in the glorious sunshine. Midgee is standing in the middle of his vege garden.
He has spent the past couple of years building his octagon home. It's still not finished but not too far from completion. It will basically be sleeping quarters as most of the living and cooking/dining is done in the old farmhouse that serves as the social centre of the community.
The view from the front balcony is pretty gorgeous.
As you can imagine, Faerieland contains lots of quirky detail. This mosaic forms the path from the parking area into the old farmhouse. Absolutely beautiful.

afternoon mist

Yesterday was a shocker - cool and wet with quite heavy showers scattered throughout the day. But by about 4pm the sun started shining and misty cloud hung in front of the Billen Cliffs. This is a shot from our back verandah overlooking our paddock on the other side of McGuinness Road. Another mist swelled into our valley from the north-west, shrouding everything in its hazy wetness by about 5pm.

a mystery

I noticed this bike on Friday afternoon, leaning, abandoned, against the bank of the road cutting just before you get to our bridge. Steve and I went for a walk this morning (Sunday) and it's still there. Why would someone abandon a bike like this for several days? Very trusting mob around here.