Wednesday, January 18th .....

My brother, Sandy, has invited himself down to spend a few days with us. He is keen to be involved in some of our ‘gardening’ and there’s certainly plenty to do. The problem is, when I come to a particularly heavy rock, I mentally put it aside to be dealt with later. Sandy, on the other hand, beavers away at it until it’s moved. It means that I have to work quite a bit harder and have fewer rests. Oh, well, he’s only here for a week!

One of the tasks we had in mind to do was cement together some rocks to make a cairn to hold up our letter box, so that was done yesterday. It’s not a bad job, all things considered, and even includes a secret slot to hold a geo-cache. There’s a sliver of rock which slides out and there’s a little cavity behind where I can secrete a little box. We’ve also moved dozens of half-buried rocks and chopped up several dead trees. Tonight, we had a burn-off to clear all the twigs and bits and pieces left over from the chain-sawing. Jamie rang the Fire Department to get a permit so it was all quite legal. The dry sticks I’ve been collecting around the yard burn very fiercely so it was good that Sandy was here to help supervise.

We had a great night out with Rotary on Tuesday. A visit had been arranged to a tomato farm at Turners Beach, about 130 Km from where we live at Dilston. So, it was quite a long trip but well worth it. Currently, they only grow two varieties of mini-tomatoes: Cherry and Perini and they produce about 13 tonnes each month. After two months in the nursery, the vines are planted out in the glass house and kept producing for 52 weeks before they are discarded and a new crop planted. Over time, the stem grows longer and longer and can reach up to 14m in length. Each week, the whole plant is moved a bit further along the row and the stem tied up. It’s too hard to explain but these pictures might help.
We decided the Perini tomatoes are the ones to buy so we’re looking out for them in Coles Stores along the East Coast. Does that sound like an ad? Maybe I should ask Coles for a few samples.

After the tour we went off to the Bridge Hotel at Forth for a terrific Roast Lamb dinner. There were about 45 of us so the publican must have been delighted to welcome us.