Black Swans and Black Cockatoos

Have you ever imagined a swan that wasn’t white? A cockatoo that wasn’t white? I had not, but there are black ones and they are gorgeous. We always get excited to see a new bird here at the house, and the black “cockies” have been visiting more lately, perching up high in the tall trees surrounding the dam, squawking and darting at each other. The black swans have never visited our land but are plentiful on the neighbor’s wetlands. They have deep red beaks and white tipped feathers which can be seen when in flight. Otherwise they are pure black, majestic creatures. We’ve been fortunate enough to help the neighbor out and feed her calf over the weekend while she is away. The poor little thing…its mum died a few weeks ago, thanks to a bull that broke her hips. She tried so hard to stay up to feed her calf, but eventually could not get up off of the ground, and days later passed away while the little calf looked on, lost and confused. Now the sweet little light brown calf with a white tipped nose lives alone in a small yard with a peach tree grazing all day and drinking milk formula twice daily. Lucky for Jacinta, we get to visit the “baby” and give her milk. We have taken the wagon a few times for it is a long journey with lots of cows to see en route, and then there are the wetlands, and the birds to watch. Last night we brought a picnic and watched the sun go down on the way home. Today was very exciting because the calf drank her milk while Jess and I stood 3 feet away watching. Following this excitement, Jess told the story all day long and asked to go back, “Baby??? Jibber  jabber jibber jabber….milk???  Then Jacinta herself actually drank a whole glass of milk, this would be the second time in her life, knowingly. What a baby cow drinking milk can do for a little girl!

This week was full of rain, lovely life-giving rain. It rained for at least four days, mostly light rain, but sometimes heavy enough to really help out our water tank. Since there is no easy way to water the orchard or the new terraced garden, save bringing it down the hill in huge buckets in the wagon or bucketing it out of the dam, I was grateful for the rain. We will replace the pump this week, good thing I’m growing out of my obsessive frugality because there are some things you just have to spend money on. This is a small town with one store for pumps. They look at the land and what you want to do and recommend what you need, because they actually know not because they want to sell you the most expensive pump. They tell you the price and you either pay it or don’t pump water. So I’ve decided that bucketing water is not practical and the purchase is necessary.  The dam is incredibly full so we’ll be able to pump huge amounts of water onto our few puny gardens.

Michelle, the kids and I worked all day Tuesday in the rain and created the second terrace in our potato garden. It was good messy work and better without the dangerous sun. I had just bought the kids their own long-handled garden tools: hoe, rake and shovel, this helped. Jess and Rory were amazing in their endurance, digging, filling up the dump truck, staying on the designated path, filling in holes in the retaining walls with sticks, and just playing. Jess napped for the last hour while we worked. Later on in the week I carted numerous wheelbarrow loads of compost soil and mulch down the hill and leveled out the terrace. It’s really looking like a garden now, just needs some plants!

The seedlings I planted so lovingly last week were inundated by rain by the time I got around to checking them. I’m hoping for the best, but not expecting much. I have not planted many vegetables since the first major planting and realize this when I have nothing to harvest except for beans and sunflower seeds, which are almost gone. The tomato plants are big and fruitless, as are all of the vines: pumpkin and melons, even the zucchini and the cucumbers. I keep hoping that one day soon they will all produce something. The herbs are doing well, especially my basil. We have a constant stock of pesto. I long for good lettuce and spinach, but the summer is too hot. Even the stores and fruit stands have nothing but dirt grown iceberg lettuce and hydroponic red leaf lettuce, and no spinach anywhere!!! They sometimes have Swiss chard, which they refer to as spinach, but it is technically called silverbeet. But I’ve been longing to make spinach pie and can’t find spinach. Each year I will learn more about how to grow things here, but for now, we’ve got herbs and high hopes for more.

Matt had another full week of bank work in Macksville. A little bit of cricket, a lot of the winter Olympics and job hunting. He also finished the roof on our new shed. Aussies are amazing sports fans. You’d think Winter Olympics….why would Aussies even care when the only snow they have is in the “Snowy Mountains?” Well, they could not be left out of a sporting event!!! From what I understand, the government funds some athletes to train in ice rinks, sledding on dry roads, using the few mountains they do have, and train abroad so that they too, can be part of this world event. Matt also made a funny movie about the chickens which is posted on our website www.paintedguitar.com/blog . No choir for Matt this week, he decided to stay home and hang out with Jacinta. This was the first time she actually spotted the infamous “mouse,” in the house. He/she has been munching seeds and leaving poop traces everywhere, and dares to come out while we’re around. It’s so tiny and cute, but usually runs away before Jess can spot him. She opens cupboard doors yelling, “Mouse!!! (2 syllables)  Mouse!!!” She has found the clues, but this evening finally, she got to see him, and told me the tale later on. We are actually trying to catch and relocate the mouse.

Jacinta is growing up, as we all do. Her hair is long enough to brush and to warrant shampoo. She runs in the house and no longer holds on to walls as she hurries down the few steps inside. When it’s time for breakfast she opens the cupboard door, gets out her bowl, and mine and tries to open the fridge to get out the milk and the macadamia nuts. Today she finished her own oatmeal and actually moved on to help me finish mine, this was a first. She can open her own drawers and fetch clothes and “powda” for her bum. She insistently calls out, “Bumma! Bumma! Seed!” as she scatters seed for the birds and the turkeys. She carries her own towel to the spa for swimming. At meals she tells stories with one recognizable word at the beginning and/or the end of each loooong phrase. When we spend time in the bedroom/playroom she goes directly to her table, pulls out her crayons, says, “daw!” She arranges her little chairs, sits down and goes to work. After a while she asks me to join her, and I try and stop cleaning for some drawing. Yesterday she drew on her wall and when she saw the look on my face, she cried and wanted so badly to erase it all. She scrubbed as hard as she could to help me erase the crayon off of the wall, excited to help and rid herself of any guilt. At night time she brushes her own teeth, and volunteers to sit on the potty before bed. She doesn’t do anything on the potty but anxiously awaits the chance to tear off toilet paper. We go to the bedroom, dim the lights and she gets a few books from the shelf, climbs up the back of the couch and hops on the bed. Noticing the candle is not yet lit, she says, “candle!” and says, “blow,” when she thinks it’s time to blow it out. If I am not holding her “properly,” while she’s trying to fall asleep, she relocates my hand to the spot where she most needs it.

I enjoyed my days watching Jacinta grow this week. A few times she just had me laughing so hard. Matt and I just watch her move and focus at simple things like the sudden realization that her overalls have a zipper. She about walked into the wall looking at that zipper today. She has learned to rub aloe on my back (sunburn) and calls the plant, “booboo.” She spent over an hour helping me cook both yesterday and today, handing me beans, one by one, putting the ends in the compost, waiting for corn hand outs, and the ends of tomatoes, crumbling bread into bread crumbs, cracking eggs, stirring, eating cheese while I grate it, naming everything she can and repeatedly requesting fruit from the fruit bowl. Michelle and I took turns watching the kids while the other did yoga taught by my other friend Melina at a community hall.
Tonight our friends the Murphys came over for dinner and we had a lovely time. My sister is about to give birth to another amazing human who I will soon meet when I travel to Wisconsin in April, and her dog Bear is on the mend. Friends are starting to plan trips to come and visit. I still hear nasty stories about what big governments and big business are doing to make life harder for the poor majority of the world, and better for a minority of us. I guess what I’m doing here is trying to learn how to avoid leaning on these nasty privileges.  Life is beautiful for us here, we are privileged. I couldn’t ask for anymore, well, except for a good life for everyone else.