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cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Mon Sep 30, 13 7:19 am Post subject:
Indeed - I had a little lie down instead. Tonight's minimum is to be 10 degrees, as will tomorrow's maximum - not a good day tomorrow I suspect.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 13 6:25 am Post subject:
Planted about a dozen parsley plants this morning then had to flee indoors as a deluge descended, which lasted most of the morning. But this afternoon I managed to get out and pick some rhubarb which is presently simmering with some ginger and awaiting the addition of honey for dessert tonight.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 13 7:00 am Post subject:
Well at least the parsley got watered in well. We seem to be mainly up to our eyes in log orders at the moment, so limited time in the garden.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 13 7:14 am Post subject:
I'm getting down to the last few lines of wood in the head - hopefully it will last the distance - I seem my woodman has one truck load on offer for $300.00 - will have to save hard and get some more in anticipation of next winter I guess.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 13 7:11 am Post subject:

Nowt done in my garden today but progress on the community garden. Apparently we qualify to engage 'work for the dole' people (and what is more this also counts to my own work component!!). Basically we establish projects and the Workskills people allocate us a team (under supervision or if not, in ones and twos) and they do the work with us!! How good is that! I was wondering how we could get a combination of our over 70s and school children to do some of the stuff that needs doing (without heartattacks and other problems). My role is to coordinate the projects and to report back on who does and does not turn up to do their allocated tasks, develop an educational component and links into skills training and so forth. sound like a great opportunity for us and for them (the unemployed kids). If we do it well enough we can graduate to the next level and employ me to do the job - another possible positive outcome!! So a productive day, thought not in my garden (which would have been impossible anyway due to galeforce winds and driving rain).

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 13 5:32 am Post subject:

After yesterday's deluge I was encouraged by a bright sunny morning, but was only half way through cutting the fire wood for tonight when the sky fell. It kept doing this in alternate stripes all day. And snow to a couple of hundred metres up hill from here, so quite chilly. More parsley plants went in and chives were plucked and bundled for the new vege shop in town. These were traded for some lettuce plugs and some cash which is always nice. There is a long half-round metal trough loitering around wanting something to fill it so I think I will fill it up with chives for marketing, since they pay so well - $1.50 a bundle seems fairly good to me at least. Picked more rhubarb to make some crumbles and it is now cooking on the stove, and a couple of rhubarb flowers have been thwarted and cut off. Oddly, despite all the rain, the rhubarb seems a bit dry - must be all those leaves redirecting the rain outside the bed. Will pop the soaker hose on tomorrow when I get back from meetings in town.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 13 7:01 am Post subject:

Sounds like a good way of going for your community garden, and hopefully you will educate the out of work kids to enjoy gardening, grow their own, and perhaps learn enough to get a job in that sort of work if all else fails.

If you can get a steady income from chives, however small, it does seem worth while growing them for your local market, so if the trough is suitable, good use for it.

You are supposedly in spring, and we are in autumn, but it is a lot warmer here than it seems to be with you. Still in tee shirts most of the time while working, although turning out firewood like there was no tomorrow.

Boarstall Girl

Joined: 28 Aug 2013
Posts: 75
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 13 6:17 pm Post subject:

Yehhh - good to hear things are going well Cassandra! Been off line lately, and will be again next week when I go to visit my new grandson!
A market garden near here has a few weeks available each year for "challenged" teenagers and a friend has had her lad there and a good job he has done, so much so he now has a garden of his own at home. He had difficulty reading and writing, but the garden has become his passion. It is good to see.
I hope it all works out for you, let me know if I can help in any way.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 13 8:23 pm Post subject:
Grandchild - eeek you make me feel old!! The school is keen to use the garden for kids with learning difficulties (once they actually get keen to use the garden at all), so yes, it should work out well all up.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 13 7:30 am Post subject:

Congratulations on the grandson Boarstall Girl. Our son was deemed suitable for outdoor work because he had trouble with reading and writing, although intelligent enough. He ended up with a degree in Wildlife Management.

What do they mean by learning difficulties at your school Cassandra? It can mean anything from seriously mentally disabled through 'difficult' to dyslexic to just bored with school.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 13 9:51 pm Post subject:

Pretty well runs the gamut here too. We have some kids that are seriously disabled (wheelchair bound, and probably further compromised), but a lot of the local kids main learning difficulty is a lack of parental support - the I left school when I was 14 and it didn't do me any harm, approach. The range of special needs kids in the school also means the higher achievers are not getting the attention they need and so they lose interest (much as I did myself when at school) and so under-perform and become disruptive. And then there are the big boys and girls who just have a serious attitude problem that is doubtless based on familial dysfunction and hormones ...
But I suspect the family issue is the strongest influence here. That and progressing to higher education requires them to board in Hobart or Launceston so can not be afforded by the families where dad is a shearer on seasonal work and mum is a home mum due to lack of employment opportunities.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 13 6:50 am Post subject:

Yesterday's deluge made digging the garden less than advisable so I dug the hole for the clothes line post instead. It is now about 3 inches short of where I want it to be but I discovered, much to my amazement, a layer of clay down there. So instead of digging it out, I think I will drive the post into the clay instead. That will (theoretically at least) provide a fairly rock solid base once it is dried out again and will support the lower few inches, while the concrete can hold a further section and rocks packed in with the dirt for the last six inches or so. Let it all dry for a good fortnight before adding the top bits and I may yet have a clothesline for summer - how exciting would that be!! That basket of pegs that has been cluttering up the bedroom for the last four years can finally get hung onto a functional clothesline - so exciting. Spring was celebrated today with the annual Spring Market at the Hall, and I stretched my budget of $7.00 to acquire three strawberry plants and a packet of home-made lollies (now gone forever I am embarrassed to say). Tonight the 18 degrees switches over to a maximum of 11 for tomorrow and rain and wind (and daylight savings!!). Must remember to put the clocks forward in the key locations at least.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 13 7:04 am Post subject:

Is there no scheme where low paid workers or those out of work can get help for boarding for their children at school? Don't know about down under, but here we are always hearing that children from poor homes don't do as well in education as those from better off ones. The reasons you give are often involved.

I was fortunate that I went through the grammar school system, so we were encouraged to do as well as possible, although it must have been difficult for those that were always at the bottom, unless their parents kept reminding them that they were at a school were 'bottom' would have been above average in another school.

You need to look at your clay. The stuff we have round here sets like concrete in the dry, but is very malleable when wet, so although you will be able to drive your clothes line base into it, it may not do much of a supporting job if it gets wet. Still, the concrete should hold it.

cassandra

Joined: 27 Mar 2013
Posts: 1733
Location: Tasmania Australia

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 13 8:43 am Post subject:

I have no idea about schemes for school child housing (not having a child of my own) but I imagine they exist. There are a few cultural problems for them too - living in the city (even one as tiny as Hobart, pop 300,000) is daunting for country kids. I tend to get mildly traumatised myself if I have to spend a day in the City these days (lord knows what would happen if I woke up in London unexpectedly).

The clay is, as you say, rather malleable when wet, but is unusually wet at present as the hole was open during the last rain, so it got a good soaking. Not sure how often that happens in normal circumstances, but definitely not going to risk it without a good cement collar as well. I have the top of a flue to use so I don't have to spend a fortune on concrete, but a deep pad will be established below that. And the post has a ring to one side so I will probably drive a steel picket down through that for extra insurance (and only use the clothesline when the wind is below galeforce...).

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sat Oct 05, 13 4:22 pm Post subject:
Must say I find London a bit traumatic. I tend not to put my washing on the line if the wind is too high either, as you can be sure it would blow somewhere it would get damaged of dirty.

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