A trip to the nearest town this week ended in a bit of a disaster. The little white Suzuki, the bright yellow trailer and I all headed into the little smoke of Sunbury to pick up a water storage tank for the new wood shed. It was very exciting as more water storage makes it easier for me to keep the garden and orchard being productive through the next hot summer.

At the suppliers store, we loaded the water tank (which was a special order) onto the bright yellow trailer and then both the guy from the store and I looked at the bottom of the tank as it had a very unusual looking bulge and crease. That’s not good, I remarked and off we went to get the store manager. It was decided that the water tank had to be returned to the manufacturer and a new one supplied. Polyethylene (plastic) water tanks are almost impossible to repair – believe me, I’ve tried. Nothing seems to stick to food grade polyethylene and it is not an exaggeration to suggest that it is one of the slipperiest materials on the planet!

So, I left the supplier empty handed. It was not a wasted trip though, as I had a number of other supplies to pick up in the little smoke. One of those supplies was a couple of extra demijohns from the home brew supplier. Demijohns are beautifully made large glass bottles used for fermenting alcohol. I purchase 5 litre (1.32 gallon) demijohns as they are quite light weight – when full – and if for some reason they break you only end up with a small quantity of liquid mess on the floor. Demijohns come in much larger sizes. One of my mates uses a 50 litre (13.2 gallons) demijohn and that thing is a huge monster and takes up the entire corner of a room!

Anyway, the reason that I mention the purchase of the demijohns is that I’ve been noticing articles in the newspapers recently which are stating that mead, which is an alcoholic drink made from honey and water with added spices, is now making a come-back due to the popularity of stories such as George R. R. Martin’s - Game of Thrones series (I’ve read the books). As an interesting side note the present tradition of the honeymoon arose (note the use of the word honey) from a Viking custom related to the drinking of mead for a month after marriage (please let’s keep this family friendly, people!)

I keep a few hives of bees here for pollination of the fruit trees, but also for their honey. And, I’ve been making mead for a few years now but have recently decided that because of the difficulties surrounding keeping bees and the cost of honey, mead has now been relegated to last year status! I still make mead, but I’ve been experimenting with other country wines based on whatever fruits are producing in quantity here. This week I started an Australian Round Lime wine to see what it will taste like. Thus the need for the extra demijohns (just in case it doesn’t work out)!

One of the top order predators here at the farm is the wedge tail eagle. The wedge tail eagles are often performing lazy circles in the skies above the farm and one evening last week when I was in the orchard supervising the chickens who were enjoying a bit of time eating all of the various bugs and greens, the chickens all became quite agitated and started making this strange burr, burr, sort of noise. That is the chickens speak to let them all know that there is a predator around and that they should become alert. The ladies stopped in their tracks and looked around before running back to the shelter of their secure hen house.

For the rest of the entry goto: http://ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au/