Eden......

There is a profound contrast between life in Sydney and that at our farm, Stuki.  Sydney isn’t up there in the list of the world’s worst cities and our lifestyle there isn’t that bad but, coming home to our ‘farm’, is like being transplanted to Eden.  If you can imagine the most peaceful place on this planet it still could not compare to the utter tranquillity of the Far Paddock: the paddock where, through toil, sweat and pure bloody-mindedness, we’ve hewed something out of nothing.

When we first cast eyes upon this little valley it was claustrophobic and overgrown with 2 metre-high Setaria grass, Tobacco bush, abandoned, piled-up stumps and unwanted offcuts from two generations of Irish immigrant loggers.  It was a jungle surrounded by a bigger jungle.  The only way out was to follow the creek back to the shed or climb a few hundred metres up hills of impenetrable bushland where you could perish and never be found.  It was home to occasional wild dogs, hidden snakes, big Goannas, leaches and Stinging trees.  Beauty needed a makeover.

Through many weeks of toil with our tractor Issy, pulling the old stumps into a pile and burning them off, the paddock slowly took shape.  I can’t begin to tally the litres of water we needed just to stay hydrated every day.  It seemed unremitting but although The Far Paddock was stubborn it was going to be an Orchard whether it wanted to or not. 

The first Macadamia tree was carefully laid down mid 2008, followed over the next three years by another 150 - not all of which are residents in our Far Paddock.  Perhaps we are a little too far South for this semi-tropical native as it prefers absolute wind-free conditions with temperatures in the high twenties throughout the year – day and night.  We can only offer that temperature half the year, not Winter.  In Winter it can drop to minus one overnight but can still peak well above 25 degrees during a sunny Winter's day.  So far, they’ve been up to the challenge and the earliest plantings are beginning to blossom from saplings to small trees.  Bit by bit they’re overcoming the bloody Curl Grubs (a curse in any area of logged timber due to the amount of dead wood to feed on) and us neglecting them by working in Sydney.  They are turning into an Orchard.  To walk along the lines of saplings and juvenile trees is to be transported to Eden.  If I were to be fatally bitten by a Black Snake I could think of no more peaceful a place to be and leaving them for the long drive to Sydney yesterday was gut-wrenching, as usual.

.....and an Intruder.....



That afternoon, driving back over to the tin shed we call Home we  returned to find a 1.5 to 2 metre Diamond Python  looking to move in. Maybe he wanted to feed on mice or Sharpie and Patches, our Cockatiels. Who knows.   But he wanted in.  Being non poisonous I decided to catch it – it wasn’t happy and proceeded to lovingly try and crush my hand and wrist.  Lucky for me he was only half grown and, apart from the odd hssss, he was reluctantly released a bit further away.   Come back and try again when you’re bigger…… I've seen some of ours: they are over 3 metres long and fat with mammalian prey.