Rural Life
-
Bushfire, Evacuation & Desolation
It’s nearly a fortnight now since The Fire began and we’ve only just regained our equilibrium. It began as an ordinary weekday and finished in a whole ‘nother way. Wednesday 15th – Feast of the Assumption Actually it wasn’t an ordinary day it was the Feast of the Assumption, so we began the day by attending Mass. When we arrived home at 10.30am we noticed fire in the distance, thought no more of it and proceeded with our day. By 3.30pm however we were certainly paying attention. Huge clouds of smoke were billowing up and ash was falling, it was quite obvious the bushfire was close, only a kilometre away. Planes…
-
Creating A ‘Trampoline’ Garden
Most years PC and interested children plant a garden (I fall into the black thumb category). Our garden however has never really thrived, unrelated to PC’s dedication and talent. More to do with it’s location as the garden was tucked away in an area of insufficient sunshine. It was long on PC’s list to relocate but as a man possessed of a long ‘honey do’ list and with little time, giving his garden the attention it needed was a dream but not a priority. Jack Jack (11) is passionate about gardening, following in the footsteps of his father and paternal grandmother. It was JJ’s persistent ‘encouragement’ that bumped the…
-
Hand Raising Chickens
*This post is dedicated to Jenson, 2 years, of Brisbane who is keen to see more pictures of our chickens, his mum writes. A few months ago a friend gifted us with eleven organic chooks (grown chickens for American readers) and a rooster. The plan was, they were to be housed of a night, eggs to be collected of a morning and then they would free range of an afternoon. PC wasn’t keen for us to begin hatching eggs, motivated by nasty ‘omlette surprises’, however broody hens soon derailed those plans. Egg collection time became a challenge and though the children came up with innovative ideas about how to collect eggs,…
-
Koala Passing Through
Imagine our excitement to see this little fella outside our window, hopping across the paddock heading for a gum tree. We believed he was only passing through and didn’t expect to see him the following morning. We were excited when he was still there the next day, staying a couple of nights before moving on. Koala’s will only eat leaves from 40-50 species of gum trees, avoiding the leaves from other gums of which there are more than 900 species. They also prefer gum leaves of a particular age, ‘not too old, not too young, but just right.’ We suspect this rare sight was due to the recent rains, as new shoots…
-
Our Chook Population Explosion
Nearly two weeks ago dear friends gifted us with ten hens and a rooster, bringing our chook population up to the grand total of twelve. The children spend hours in the chook pen lavishing attention on them and have named each bird Such an inexpensive pet they provide hours of pleasure and best of all we see a return with egg production Apparently the chooks need assistance in being ‘put to bed’ they appear to be incapable of walking up the ramp themselves;) The chook pen and the neighbouring garden, which is currently dormant, are totally weed free thanks to the hours put in by this team. We had…
- Blog, Home Education, Home Education - Charlotte Mason, Home Education - Nature Study, Living, Rural Life
Exploring With “Small Boys”
“It is infinitely well worth of the mother’s while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather to cherish in them, the love of investigation.” Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, pg 71 I can have a tendency to become consumed with the ‘busyness of life’, the ‘to do’ lists, the mundane and then forget to make the time to see the world through the eyes of my children Today I consciously stepped into the world of our younger boys, we headed down to our…
-
Children Still Climb Trees…
On Monday afternoon I sent the children outside to play. “Go outside and play, you’ve been inside too long” an hour later, as I was about to call them in to get ready for swimming lessons I heard screaming. They were playing near the shipping containers up next to the cattle yards, I took of running to find…a child running towards me calling, another clinging up a tree very high and our ten year old daughter Jelly Bean, on the ground next to the fence crying in pain and her arm looking suspiciously ….odd. “My arm’s broken Mum, I want to go to the hospital!” She had fallen from over…
-
Fence Comes Down
The fence along our driveway and around our orchard has been rotted for sometime, Spotted Gum is not a good choice when white ants are present. Michelangelo(15) decided the time had come for the fence to go, and forthwith he ‘marshaled the troops’ and organised his labour force Sometimes your children really surprise you in a pleasant way. The children worked on this project for hours under the blazing sun, totally alone, with no assistance, no direction, as PC and I were busy with other projects The bulk of the labour force was Michelangelo, Princess (13) and Jelly Bean (10), with help from the younger boys…
-
Treasure Hunting in the Bush
A few weeks ago Michelangelo created an elaborate treasure hunt for the younger children, drove the paddock basher down to the bush and hid the clues in various places over the property. With 147 acres (59.5ha) this translates to a lot of land to cover with potential hiding spots. It took Michelangelo an entire morning to set up the hunt. Making his task easier the children, in the tradition of Anne of Green Gables, have long designated names to various parts of the property; The Bendy Trees, Green Meadow, Wavey Rocks etc On the second day they drove back out and completed the course, having a…
