Oh dear. Last update was in January. We have been a bit busy…..

I have been working, for wages, a lot. Some weeks I've got close to 60 hours. As a casual, you take what work you can get, and I've been juggling a cooking job and some IT contracting. They both seem to get busy at the same time, and the burn rate is pretty fierce. The burn rate of the candle at both ends, I mean.

But the money comes in handy. Our gravel road in from the main road is almost a kilometer long, and we had to find a nice, round $10k to get it fixed. It was graded, 200 tons of gravel spread over it. Its beautiful to drive on, and I've glad we got it done before the rain and winter. SO far the rain just rolls off it. Except where the cows have stood on a spot and dug a hole.

I got one extra load of gravel dumped when the job was finished, so I can fill any potholes.

The butcher has been, for a visit. We now have a well-stocked freezer. I asked him to hire us his mobile coolroom for an extra week to hang the meat for a longer period. Its been worth the effort, the meat has been fantastic. He was very enthusiastic about our job, and excited about the quality of our livestock. They are well fed, and it shows in the finished result.

One of the things I like about visitors to the farm is that I re-see the place from their perspective. When Phil the butcher and I had finished for what was a long day, I offered him some apple cider I had made. He said, "That's what I love about this job. I get to work outside, meet different people every day…and then something like this just tops it off. Mate, this cider is fantastic!" That cheered me up!

The apple cider was an impressive result. It’s a grandma recipe, from my neighbor, and so simple you'd not expect it to be very good….cut up the apples, leave them in a barrel to ferment for a week, strain them off, add lemon juice and sugar, ferment for another day, and bottle. My theory id we were making it with unsprayed apples, at the peak of the season. If you are using basic, healthy ingredients then the simple, traditional recipe should be a go-er. I made three batches all up, all with less sugar than the original recipe. Here it is, May, and I'm still working my way through the crates. I am thrilled this worked and worked so well.

We did have a lot of apples this year. Last year we had none. This year the dud crop was stonefruit, and we got hardly any nectarines or peaches. I am starting to formulate a theory its to do with rain. We seem to get at least one week of heavy, heavy rain at the start of spring, and whichever tree is flowering at that stage just doesn't pollinate. Last year it was the olives, to devastating effect on the final crop.

But plums, pomegranates, persimmons, almonds, pecans have all done well.

And this year, the olive crop is looking impressive. Colin, who takes our crop, is optimistic that we'll hit the 1500 litre mark this year, which puts last year's 400 litres into perspective. A week to go until harvest.

No hail before then, please!