Death & the Maiden

Valentines day is coming up soon and nothing quite says "I love you" like a giant scythe for cutting hay. I got one for N as an early valentines/late chrissy gift and just as well too because for the last month or so we've been stuck with a big paddock full of shoulder-high grass that has set our nerves on edge with thoughts of snakes and grassfires every time we set foot there.

N has set to work studying up on scything techniques on Youtube (I can highly recommend: braid-haired topless Austrian men cutting their way through fields of hay anyone?) In buying the implement it had been my great hope that the years N has devoted to perfecting his golf swing would mean he is quite the dab hand with the scyther, and after much cursing he did come good and "find" his technique. In fact he almost got through an acre of grass before the farmer next door thought he'd help us out and cut the grass for us with his tractor while we were away! Oh well - it'll have to be next year that our dreams of hand-cut hay are realised, and in the mean time there is plenty of blackberry to get our hands stuck into, rather literally.

If you'd like to buy a scythe your true love too then I can say that we bought ours from here.

So here it is...

So here it is. Our new paddock. And our first post on this blog, Rumpty Doo, where we hope to chronicle our adventures as newly signed up members of the agricultural set.

A few people have been asking us lately why it is that we have decided to make the move to the country. And that is a good question, to which there are many, many answers. But here's just a few:

Firstly, we wanted to give ourselves an occupation with meaning - namely, feeding ourselves and others. And we wanted the space to do all the other things that we enjoy – making gadgets, growing things, pickling things and generally making a wonderful mess.

Secondly, we recently Wwoofed round New Zealand and were enamoured with their culture of regionalisation – where thriving country towns are the norm and most people don't live in the big smoke. It seems much more sensible to us – we see big cities like Melbourne growing so fast and the implications for long term sustainability of this way of living is something that keeps us awake at night.

And thirdly, of course, Neil wanted a shed.

So, if you think that sounds like fun then this will be the place we post our projects & adventures: low-tech gadgets, chicken escapades, garden stuff and many recipes for things that are pickled.

We hope you stay in touch, follow the blog, come and stay...

But right now, we've got some packing to do - the hills await!