Fire and Wood.

A few years ago when Bren was telling a group of people in a Melbourne pub that the only heating we have in our house is a fire they laughed and said it sounded like The Flintstones.

But for us it is our reality and for at least 7 months of every year we wear a track with the wheel barrow between the woodshed and the house.

When a tree falls down in the forest or when we cut one down for safety reasons it will end up heating our house when it has dried out in the next year or two.

They say that having a wood fire keeps you warm several times over; when you cut the tree into rounds, when you split the wood, when you stack the wood in the shed and when you burn the wood.

When we first moved here there was an open fire place but we replaced it with a very efficient wood burning box. We also have vents in our roof that suck the heat up and with fans move it to the other end of the house.

We believe that the c02 that is emitted when we burn the wood is barely significant when you take into account the thirty acres of bushland we caretake as well as the thousands of trees we plant every year on our boundaries and for wind breaks.

At the moment some of the chooks are in an area that includes the woodshed.

They seem to be enjoying climbing on the stacks of wood and dustbathing under cover when it is raining and wet outside. When we find ourselves getting a barrow of wood in the dark at night, it is reassuring to think the chook have been in there eating all the spiders and bugs.

The fireplace is the heart of our house.

It is romantic, beautiful to watch, cheap and efficient to run and has a welcoming, calming effect. But I'd be lying if I said I never wished for the kind of heating that comes with the push of a button and sometimes even with a timer you can set for an hour before you wake up or get home.

But for now and for the next few months there will be a wheel barrow parked by the backdoor.

I hope you are warm wherever you are.

The Gorse Munchers

This morning after I dropped the girls off at school I sat in my car for a while and watched a Mother and her three year old son watching some council workers digging a hole in the road.

As they stood there and watched oblivious to the cold and the wind I couldn't help but think about how different my life is as the mother of three girls.

It was only a few minutes later when I got home that I realised that perhaps some of the stuff that goes on here at Daylesford Organics is wasted on little girls. That little boy would have loved to come home and spend the day with these two machines.

The one above is a excavator with a mulching head and the one below is a skid steer also with a mulching head attached.

These two monstrous machines are here for the next few days to get rid of as much gorse as they can mulch through.

Gorse was introduced to Australia as on ornamental plant or hedge.
It is classified as a weed because it is very difficult to eradicate and because of its aggressive seed dispersal.

As organic farmers the way we try to get rid of this spiky plant that has totally invaded some areas of our farm is to cut it and burn the small areas and then have these big machines mulch the larger areas.

A property near here poisons their gorse but it seems to have little effect at all.

So the beasts will be here for the next few days beeping and eating away at the gorse and my girls won't pay them any attention. Perhaps if they were pink and covered with sparkles it would be a different story.

For Winter

Born at 8.40 this morning in Ballarat to dear friends of Daylesford Organics, a beautiful baby girl.

May your life be filled with warmth.

May you be loved and loving.

May you be sweet like a marshmallow and also a little spicy.

May you be brave and have a great sense of direction.

Talented and inspired.

And as colourful and wonderful as your big sister.

We had a bonfire this afternoon and all I could think about was you.