Wallaby in garden

The other morning we caught this fellow having a browse around our garden. We knew he was visiting as a number of plants were getting browsed at about knee height. He has completely chomped down on some Lilies growing near our boundary that fronts onto the forest. Taking this photo was hard as I didn't have a telephoto lens on my camera and he became aware of me as I opened the door and walked onto the verandah. Amazingly he jumped as the shutter sound was made considering he was a good 20 metres away.

Fine and sunny day max 23.4 C min 10.8 C. Grading and counting wholesale orders. Claire and Merryn came in and tidied up the potted bulbs and dug all the hand digs for bulbs that were ordered and not in this years lift. Greg delivered some yellows. Mowed some of the lawns after work.

Grading daffodil bulbs

Here are some pictures of our grading set up.

The rubbing machine removes the husks and the dirt falls through to collected.

The grading machine sorts the bulbs into sizes. It has a jumping motion which moves the bulbs along the riddles that are sized progressively larger. Once they move across a riddle that is larger than the diameter of the bulb it falls through to be collected in a bucket below. Unfortunately daffodil bulbs often have offsets which get caught, so you have to be manually moving the odd bulbs along.


Fine day but overcast and milder than yesterday light overnight rain, max 26.6 C, min 17.1 C rainfall 4.6mm . Grading and counting wholesale orders, found time to repair the ride-on-mower and the hand hold in the Tasar (sailing boat). Staying tonight down at the campsite at Balnarring Beach.

Bulb storage

We have an opened sided shed that we store the bulbs in. This allows for good ventilation and if needed we can use portable industrial fans. The downside is that we are much at the mercy of the weather and can't control the temperatures of the bulbs as much as is preferable. We figure this is much the way the bulbs will have it when they are sent to customers homes. We wouldn't want to send pampered bulbs that then struggle to survive fluctuations in temperatures.

This how the bulbs stacks are arranged pre-grading, on mini-pallets in labelled an arranged as per daffodil division.

After they are graded they stay in daffodil division and are then arranged in alphabetical order. They are arranged on shelves as close together as possible. The label also states the graded size of the bulbs. This is all done to facilitate the speedy selection of bulbs when orders are being picked.

Fine and sunny with a strong Northerly wind, max 32.5 C min 19.8 C. Today was spent continuing to grade bulbs and count wholesale orders. Three and a half bays completed finished of div 1& 2's then finished div 3's. Received registered letter from one of our wholesale customers today cancelling their order and that the new owner would contact us in due course. I was going to deliver part of their order today. Delivered part of another wholesale order and checked outt the lie of the land. Going down to Balnarring Beach tonight to set up our campsite and take the lasers to the yacht club.

The Unconscious Civilisation

After my tirade about corporatism on the 12^th of Jan it brought to mind the book The Unconscious Civilisation by philosopher John Ralston Saul. I was introduced to it via a radio series played on ABC Radio National. Saul began his Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio Massey Lecture series;

“The acceptance of corporatism causes us to deny and undermine the legitimacy of the individual as citizen in a democracy. The result of such a denial is a growing imbalance which leads to our adoration of self-interest and our denial of the public good.

The point of these received wisdoms of the second half of the 20th century is that the very heart and soul of our 2,500 year old civilization is, apparently, economics, and from that heart flowed, and continues to flow, everything else. We must therefore fling down and fling up the structures of our society as the marketplace orders. If we don't, the marketplace will do it anyway.”

Saul is an outstanding speaker and his engaging Massey Lectures can be listened to at the following http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1995/11/06/massey-lectures-1995-the-unconscious-civilization/

Fine and sunny day max 31.1 C min 13.1 C. Continued with cleaning and counting daffodil bulbs. Completed another 4 bays and are up to Z in the div 1 & 2 bulbs. Worked out what had disabled the ride-on mower, a woodruff key that holds the drive gear to the drive shaft had sheared off.

Oriental Lilies

Some pictures of the seedling Oriental Lilies flowering in our garden. The perfume is truly superb and in the warm evenings engulfs you when you are outside.

Fine sunny day, high 23.1 c min. 9.3 C. Morning finished odd jobs around house, cabling now completed. Afternoon shifted bulk bins around and tidied up around shed. Nirin, Sharon, Ronan and Sabina came for tea

Trumpet Lilies

The lilies in our garden are giving me great pleasure at the moment. They are ones that I grew from seed many years ago.  They have been in situ for many years and are getting larger and larger and becoming more and more impressive. I prefer the trumpet lilies, they have good strong colours that aren’t too murky, stand up tall and have a delightful fragrance. The Oriental Lilies grow well in our garden to and so I have a few of them doing well too.

The bulbs are all labelled but they are a bit hard to get to check when the lilies are flowering. The labels have the original crosses on them. Some of the trumpets I know are grexes from the Oregon Bulb farms breeding and there are some with Lilium sulpureum as a parent.

I always intend propagating the better ones so that we can have a nice clump of the same ones, but alas each year they are finished before I get around to marking them.

Overcast with a shower in the morning and then a sunny afternoon max. 18.5 C, min. 9.6 C, rainfall 1.5 mm. Grading bulbs again today as well as counting wholesale orders. 4 more bays completed up to end of P’s in the division 1 & 2’s.

Test Cricket at Perth

Well, the cricket was so engaging it has changed what I will write about this evening. I sat down after working watching the cricket on the TV with one eye whilst doing other things but gradually it became totally engrossing. As Dave Warner got going it wasn't possible to move away. A century in 69 balls and in less than a session! It brings to mind other fast centuries scored on the WACA; Wayne Gilchrist and Chris Gayle in recent times.

The summary of the Cricinfo (www.espncricinfo.com) ball by ball commentary pretty much sums up India's woes

"That's the end of an utterly humiliatingly day for India. If their fans were wondering how things could get worse after the England whitewash last year, there was the mauling in Sydney. If they thought that was the nadir, Friday the 13th brought on even more embarrassment. Shot out for 161, before Warner bludgeoned a magical century in less than a session. And to think, six months ago India were No. 1. As one reader posted, it was hard to decide whether the Indian bowling was worse or their batting."

Cricket is very much a confidence game and Australia has it all over India at present.  The series promised to be so much closer and exciting. The anticipation I remember feeling at the MCG on Boxing Day was fulfilled through the whole test with the balance swaying from one side to another right to the end.  I feel a bit sad for the Indian team, many of them have played some great cricket on previous tours.  The standing ovation from 50,000 fans that Sachin Tendulker received on day 2 at the MCG when going out to bat was the loudest and most sustained I have ever heard at the MCG.

Another cool day overcast with showers max 18 C min 10C rainfall 1.4 mm. Day spent grading and counting wholesale orders. Good day with another 4 bays done, up I's in division 1&2's.

Stfling rules halt young person's endeavour.

Step by step we gradually creating rationalised and bureaucratically controlled society that is becoming paralysed by seeking risk adverse solutions. Take this example; Our daughter Jessica is studying Agriculture at University. Although coming from a farm she has found she is ignorant of much of modern Agriculture. She is very keen to learn more. Last year she went to a YAP (Young Agricultural Professionals) conference and she came back buzzing with ideas.

Any way it was suggested by one of her Uncles that working for a large Stock & Station agency in a pastoral area would give her some valuable insights into how things work. She found someone who would be willing to host a voluntary work experience student. All good until it was mentioned to the upper management. It seems she would have to have insurance! What that means I suspect is Worksafe. Anyway previously this situation was covered by the University, but they no longer have work experience as a subject because there was too much paper work.

So a student who is trying to be proactive and ultimately more informed and employable is being stifled by rigid rules aimed at protecting existing employees and to hell with the next generation of workers and leaders. It must be happening in all sorts of other places as well now the rules have changed for the not for profits sector.

Still cold (open fire on in the house again), showers max 19 C min 9 C rainfall 2.4mm. Finished setting up the grading machine and began rubbing and grading. The bulbs could a little drier as not all the outer skins are being rubbed off, the cool humid conditions don't help. As we go through the bulb stack the wholesale orders are being counted. Four bays were graded which is a fine start. Office work in the evening.

Catalogue returns

A feature of the last couple of days has been the size of our mail.  This is because we have just done a mailing to our older (not ordered for a while) customers and you get a lot of returned catalogues because people have left their addresses.  Apparently something like 12½% of people move address every year is every eight years on average we move address.  Happily our customers keep us pretty well informed and so we don’t have anywhere the theoretical wastage.

BTW we run a mail order business supplying daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs to home gardeners.  This is our 13th season and our predecessors have done the same since the founding of the business in 1917. Our web site is www.daffodilbulbs.com.au

A mailing also results in a lot of phone calls and Chris has been busy answering them. One thing we have noticed is that phone calls are fewer than they were.  We would also get them at all hours. The latter I think because people were expecting an answering machine, as the office is in our home the phone gets answered whenever it rings. The use of e-mail has probably meant people are less likely to ring you up.

Our current mail order catalogue;

Rain in the morning, heavy at times moderating to showers, strong squally southerly wind max 15 C min 6 C rainfall 9.4 mm. Spent the day finishing up the cleaning and rearranging the shed to start rubbing and grading the bulbs. Power went out for a couple of hour, which was a little, inconvenient.

Simon selected for Top Arts 2012 exhibition

Simon (son) received a letter from the National Gallery of Victoria that one of his photos had been selected to be shown in the VCE Season of Excellence Top Arts 2012 exhibition. He is very proud of this and is a notable step towards his chosen career.



The letter says “Only 148 applicants were short listed for Top Arts from over 1800 applications. You are one of the 54 who made the final selection. The exhibition opens on the 21st March at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia.

Generally fine day  max 19 C min 9 C rainfall 3.5 mm. Finished cleaning bulbs, tidy up in shed putting stuff away. After work filled in trench, under house nailing up wires, evening District Scout leaders meeting till late planning dates.

Just like you used to be

Today Chris (wife) said to me "you are just like you use to be". I was a bit puzzled by this statement. She said yesterday was like old times with you doing stuff around the house and me helping, holding things etc. I guess she was right I hadn't done a lot of stuff around the house in the last few years. When I wasn't working I would be too tired to do things.

What triggered this conversation was me adding an ethernet connection to our shed today,   I have been planning it for ages and this morning decided it was time to get it done. I wanted it to be working before we started the despatch season. Having a computer in the packing area connected to our network would be a great time saver for us all.

The shed is about a hundred metres from the house so it is at the limit of the run for ethernet. By lunch I had a 50 metre trench dug, the rest didn't need to be buried. Late that evening the connection was made, a bit slower than normal but better than none.

Dr KK when discussing the drugs she wanted to prescribe for treatment of the symptons I have for Parkinsons Disease went over the side effects of them.  She was very thorough and did it three times making sure I was completely aware of what could happen. The dopamine agonist drugs can cause all sorts of compulsive behaviours. Happily mine seem to be fairly mild. She also warned Chris that the extra energy I may have could be difficult to live with especially if it impacts on others in the family. Many people have become obsessive do it yourself  hobbyist. I had been planning this stuff for ages, I don't think I have gone that far, more the difference is I have more energy and a feeling of "wellness".

Generally overcast with the odd sunny break max 22 C min 10 C rainfall 7.8 mm. We mainly did shed work, cleaning bulbs and tidying up plus the boys helped pull the cable through the tubing at the end of the day.

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby's brilliant collaboration

Last year Ben Folds put out a CD (Lonely Avenue) of songs written by himself and author Nick Hornby. Hornby wrote the lyrics and Folds composed the music, this song-writing was done by e-mail. Each song is like a mini-story often told in the first person. The songs can be very personal and in many ways could be taken as metaphor for other life experiences.

Jessica is a big fan of Ben Folds and went to one of his concerts when she was in year 11. I remember siting outside the Palais waiting for the concert to end to pick her up and thinking I didn't need to be inside to hear the music and you could even hear Folds between songs banter. I bought Lonely Avenue for Jess's birthday which she was very pleased to receive.

One song I particularly enjoyed is Levi Johnston's Blues, which is about the young man who was boyfriend to Bristol Pallin (former Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Pallin's daughter) it includes lines paraphrased from Johnston's pre-infamy MySpace page: "I'm a f___ing redneck, I live to hang out with the boys/Play some hockey, do some fishin' and kill some moose".

The full lyrics are worth checking out and are pure poetry;

http://www.songlyrics.com/ben-folds/levi-johnston-s-blues-lyrics/

Rain in the morning and then scattered cloud with sunny breaks, very steamy Max 27 C min 14 C rainfall to 9 pm 18 mm. Odd jobs around house, finally re-erected the shade sails over the verandah decking. It was only 2 years ago we rebuilt the verandah that had a lot of rotting timber in the structural components.

Miracle of herbicides

Modern herbicides make farming possible in the competitive world we live in. Pressures to produce ever cheaper food, fibre and flowers means a farmer must be ever more efficient and productive. We grow about 2 and a half hectares of daffodil bulbs and if we had to weed by hand then that is all we could possible do. Labelling and registration of chemicals is very strict and if a farmer uses chemicals as per the label there is very little environmental effects and you could argue it is a positive one when you are removing noxious or environmental weeds.

Today with the digging completed the tractor is free to do other jobs around the farm.Weed control is on the agenda at the moment. Early before the wind picked up I sprayed out the semi-permanent plantings (seedlings) which have to be done in January as the Nerines & Belladonnas begin growing in February. Also sparyed was the land that I am readying for next years plantings and is showing some perennial weed growth ( it is best to get rid of these before planting). The other patch I sprayed was this years plant which will be harvested next year, we let "weed trash" to grow over summer to protect the bulbs a little from the heat but it still needs to be controlled a bit.

Whilst spraying I flushed a Stubble Quail. My management of the paddocks can't be too bad as these ground dwellers are regularily seen.  Some mornings you can hear the booming call of the Painted Quail coming from the top paddock. I have found a Quails nest in the middle of the dried daffodil leaves and that same year the baby quail (they were Stubble Quail) were seen being shepherded away from me on the tractor. Another time I had a Painted Quail doing the broken wing act obviously trying to lead me away from it's chicks. This season I also had views of another ground dweller, (a Buff-banded Rail) which was seen whilst slashing the fire breaks around the perimeter of the property. This is a bird I often have flashes of when it is flushed but rarely get a good look.

Fine & sunny max 28 C min 13 C a little windy in afternoon and then a gradual change came over with light rain in the evening. Tractor based herbicide spraying in the morning and then some knapsack spraying around the shed, paths and gardens. In the late afternoon fuzzy (my cousin) came around and we did some repairs on the sizing machine motor and the hydraulics on the tractor

Nature's treehouse

During the month we have been digging we have often had morning or afternoon tea under a giant Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) tree pictured below on the left. It is a large tree which is mature and pre dates the 1926 fires. These fires cleaned out most of the older trees in our district. You can see fire scars on some of the old-timers in this group so the fire proabably wasn't of an intensity to kill them.

Thse trees are dropping branches regularily and in the scars left tree hollows are often formed. One windy day a branch fell where we usually sit, that day we were a bit wary and hadn't sat under the tree. ai have been watching the coming and goings if nature around this tree. It is a very rich part of our farms eco-system.

This photo shows avertical scar which must be hollow behind and Indian Myna's have been coming and going due I assume to them having a nest there. A bit further up the tree is a starlings nest also in a hollow. Iff these birds come and go at the same time there would be quita a commotion. Sometimes a Magpie Lark would join in. Its nest is a bowl shaped none made of mud perched three quarters of the way along the second branch from the ground that hangs over the paddock. The king of the paddock birds is the Australian magpie who would often fly into this commotion and remind them all who is boss.

Fine and sunny with a light south easterly max 23 C min 9 C. Dug the last 3 rows, finally all the bulbs are out of the ground, yeah. Cleaning dirt from dug bulbs in the shed. I cleaned, greased and put away the digging machine. I stupidly forgot to undo the PTO shaft before driving the tractor off and have damaged it, not sure yet if it is repairable. Second time I have done a similar foolish thing. Swallowing peoblwm last night when my pills got stuck and left foot cramps and stiff neck troubling.

Michael Clarke's 300

300 test runs is so monumental that I had to mention it.  The Australian batting has been so dismal that the last two days are noteable. It just shows how much batting is a mind game and confidence has a lot to do with success.

As we were digging it is hard to follow the cricket on the radio.  We have been timing morning teas to coincide with the start if play. During the day we get grabs of the scores.  The last two days just seemed to be all about accumulation whenever we got to listen.  Michael Clarke's innings  reminds me of Brian Lara's world record 1st class score of 500 back in 1994. I was driving around Somerset garden visiting at the time and and the sports news on the hour with BBC would mention his innings and it was too a steady accumulation. Occaisonally there would be a cross to the ground even though it was a county game. I was in the UK at the time after having led a garden tour to Italy and England for about 2 weeks. I was pretty exhausted after the tour and spent some time in Denmark & Holland afterwards before returning to the UK.

It is interesting how many 300's have been made in the last 15 years. When I was a kid and getting an interest in cricket ceenturies were fairly rare and the only 200 I remember was Doug Walter's 250 in New Zealand in I think 1976, also maybe Greg Chappell also scored a 200 against NZ in the 70's.

Sunny day max 20 C min 9 C, digging all day, only 5 rows as they are the miniatures and they are slow because of fall through, still cabling in the evening.

Digging the daffodil bulbs

Digging the daffodil bulbs is our main occupation in early summer, we start during the last week in November and plan to have them out by Christmas. This has only happened once but we still persist with this dream. It takes four people to operate our bulb digging machine which is a heavily modified (in the fashion of Heath Robinson gadgets) Port potato digger. Generally strong young school/uni students are employed and our regular part timers fill in the gaps and help with the shed work.

Requires tractor driver (me), one person removing the dirt riding on the back of the machine, another taking off the filled bags and labelling and one walking behind picking up the fall through bulbs. The tractor moves up the row at about 1km per hour.

View from tractor of the dirt, bulbs and rocks that comes up and needs to be sorted before being bagged.

View of one of the piles of rocks we have collected this year. We are in a particularily rocky part of the farm and rather than throw them back we have been collecting them and they will be spread on the access track which is in a rather sad state of bumpiness. These rocks or "floaters" can cause the digging machine to jam if they are the right size to fall through. Only once have we done a full row this season without a jam, very frustrating and tedious and it makes digging slower.

Early rain and then a sunny afternoon, max 25 C min 10 C with 7.6 mm of rain.  We managed 3 rows of slow digging in the afternoon, cleaning bulbs in the shed in the morning, did some office work and more cabling in the house.

Mr PD

Part of the reason for starting this blog was to examine my relationship with my companion Mr PD. Less than 6 months ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. In many ways the diagnosis was a relief as it explained so much about what I was feeling and what I now know are symptons. Maybe more about this at another time.

At the present time I am still titrating the Parkinson's drugs to find an effective dose rate with minimal side-effects. I have one level to go up as suggested by Dr KK (my Neurologist). The hard part to know is what is an acceptable control of symptons and will all the symptons be controlled as well as the others.

Take today, I woke at 6am after a period of being awake for a couple of hours from 3am. Took my first levopoda dose at 6,15am and began the days work. I was very stiff in the legs and back and walked with a bit of a stoop down to the shed. Within ten minutes the levopdoa was weaving its magic and the stiffness was leaving me. I was changing implements and getting the digging machine ready.

Before I was diagnosed with Mr PD changing implements on tthe tractor was something I was having a lot of trouble with. Especially not having enough strength in my hands to push the buttons in when putting the drive shafft onto the PTO. Today this was a breeze and the changover and greasing of the digger took only half an hour. The grease gun was another thing I was having a lot of trouble with particularily bulk loading and holding the nozzle correctly on the nipple. I ended up buying a whiz bang new grease gun that can be operated with one hand and accepts pre-loaded grease cartridges, Now what was once a chore is much more manageable.

That being said somethings seem less controlled. I am still a bit clumsier than most people and drop things etc. Often I get a bit close to things and rub against them and get snagged. My sense of feeling seems a little impaired and I tend to knock skin off my knuckles etc. Today I got a little too close to the end of a twitched wire and now have a 10cm scratch on the inside of my lower arm.

Breakfast was about 7.15am when I take the rest of my pills. I now carry levopoda on the tractor so that I can take a dose half an hour before meals. The doses last about 4 hours and I know it is time for a new dose as I start feeling a bit funny, and sometimes a mild tremor will start up.

A side effect of the drugs I am having a little trouble to control is the light headedness caused by low blood pressure. It seems worse on a hot day like today, in particular when I am doing physical work. After lunch we didn't return to the paddock after lunch and did cleaning in the shed, I just had to take it easy. BTW I am drinking lots of water.

Max 35 C, Min 24 C fine and sunny with cooling breeze. Farm work today; we dug 6 rows in morning (soil conditions dry andclumping so slow), cleaning on shaker in the shed in tthe afternoon. 1st day of Sydney test.

A potato orchid

Last night I sprayed a friends block up Jackson's Hill Road for blackberries and on the way there I noticed a potato orchid (Gastrodia sesamoides) growing on the side of the road. This morning I popped up to photograph it. Being early in the morning the light was a bit challenging. This orchid is a great survivor as the habitat on the side of the road couldn't be more altered.  It was at the base of a pine tree with ivy and other weeds around.

Potato Orchids are special to me. When I was about eight or so, finding one whilst visiting the Torbreck Station homestead site is my first concious memory if seeing and identifying a wild orchid. Torbreck Station was a favourite place for us to visit as kids, I think because of the romance of this abandoned historical site.  We would find old leather boots and garden plants and other stuff just around the bush. One time when we visited in spring we dug up some campernelle daffodils which I still have.

Potato Orchids are also interesting in that they are saprophytic. This means they get their complete nutrition from dacaying plant matter as distinct from making their own through photosynthesis like most plants do. The evolutionary jump for this growth strategy from other orchids is interesting and worth finding out about.

New Years Day holiday in lieu temperature overnight min. 22 C max. 38 C sunny with strong northerly. Sprayed blackberries in the morning and went shopping with Simon (son) in the afternoon for computer parts and food. When driving along Ferntree Gully Road the temperature reading in the car was 42 C and had dropped 6 degrees by the time we were home. Living in the hills has some advantages when it is really hot.

New Years Day

The day began with a phone call "Dad can you make pancakes for breakfast". My daughter Jessica had had some friends over for a New Years Eve party. Up the top paddock a bonfire had been created from fallen dead branches and bushland weeding that had accumulated around the farm. The young people set up tents around this bonfire after a spit-roast and salad dinner. The view they had of Westernport Bay and across the southern suburbs of Melbourne is sensational. I took the tractor with the hand gun sprayer set up and 400 litres of water to the bonfire. When it came to light the fire they found that nobody had any matches. It is terrific how the no smoking message is taken seriously amongst the younger generation.

A little drama happened at 10.30 pm when we heard the Menzies Creek CFA siren go off. A check of the CFA website showed that the fire had been reported and even though a notification form had been lodged a call out had been initiated. I ran out to intercept the Menzies Creek truck but it went up Grantulla Road so I had to run up to the paddock.  I found Jessica and Georgia chatting to some firies from Kallista ("they're the same age as us and have just left a NYE party."). It turned out the report was for a grass fire started by fireworks and not a bonfire plus the notification address had been logged on the website in a confusing way. Sad that some firies had their NYE celebrations disturbed.  It is interesting to note that the Kallista truck arrived long before the Menzies Creek truck even though they had further to come.

Hot day with top temperature of 36 C. Finally got around to doing the fixed ethernet cabling to the computers that had migrated out of the office & to the TV. When it cooled in the evening I went and sprayed some blackberries.