More water needed in the garden

 

Today was billed as the hottest ever February day in New South Wales. I am not sure what it topped here but it would have been close to 40C which in the Snowy Mountains is plenty hot enough. It was a reasonable Spring for rain but we are reliant on roof collection and run off for meeting our water needs. About two weeks ago the rainwater tank that was being used for the garden was getting low and the reduced ration were not enough for growing plants.
Something had to be done. Four years ago we had a waterline dug from the nearest dam up to be able to fill a tank for the garden. No pump and a reluctance to put dam water in a freshwater tank meant it was of no use to us. So after some planning it was resolved to put in more taps and connect them up to this line from the dam and buy a pump.

Two new taps allow sprinklers to be attached to cover the maximum amount of garden.

 

The dam line intersecting with the water tank line. Lots of careful digging in hard soil on a hot day but it all came together well.

 

The new pump on the dam that has saved our scorching plants. Once or twice a day we give the pump a pull and squirt all the plants. 

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The dam is low but hopefully will see us through this hot spell and that after that it rains.

The 200th Post

It seems a long time since I started this blog. Two years ago on January 1. It amazes and pleases me that without any advertising or much linking to sites etc that so many people around the world have had a glimpse of life here on Opportunity Farm.
The cycles of the year go around and the children get older and we get more established and hopefully more effective and efficient. My blogging has slowed right down - partly because life can get too busy but mainly through forgetting to take my camera with me when I'm off on the farm. I suppose the modern way is to have a mobile phone in your pocket that can be whipped out to collect that moment or memory but I don't have one and can't yet see why I need one.
So on reaching 100 posts there were about 2000 hits and I was keen to find out if there was anyone interested and reading, but now at 200 there has been nearly 9000 hits and I am happy to blog whenever I get the fancy and feel I have something to share.
So if you are reading this, thank you for taking the time.
Matthew

 

Felicity, our Jack Russell puppy doing what she does best - sleeping and being fussed over

My Piglets are Fussy Eaters

This year's piglets are fussy. We give them a diet of food scraps from the local café or our kitchen, excess fruit and vegetables and pig pellets. They need a mix of vegetable and protein to grow muscle and fat.

 

When we picked up these piglets there were a couple of weeks younger than usual and had been subsisting on mum's milk and a cheese waste product from the Bega Cheese factory. Once installed in their pen they tucked happily into anything green but steadfastly ate around the pig pellets. I was getting pretty worried as the fallen fruit and zucchini gluts hadn't kicked in and the café scraps were not sufficient to keep them going.
This lasted for over a month but finally they grew to love pig pellets and started to bulk out a bit.
Arthur, Mabel and Christine can enjoy their life of leisure and lettuce while fattening up and helping to turn over the soil in the bottom paddock.