It doesn’t matter how many birthdays pass, some things just can’t be messed with. Namely: there must be a cake, there must be a celebratory meal, and the presents must be tantalizingly displayed in the period leading up to the big day. This tradition of showcasing presents (initially atop a cupboard well out of soon-to-be-birthday-boy’s reach – yes, even if he stood on a chair) started when The Farmer was a toddler, we lived far from family, and the birthday parcels arriving from afar often didn’t make it from mailbox to house intact. While work commitments may delay the birthday meal (it’s happening on Saturday) and the cake may in fact be a brownie, the present pile is still utterly alluring to him and totally non negotiable. Which, just quietly, I love.

Happy Birthday to The Farmer

Long time readers will know that, as per tradition, a Homestead birthday also equals a week off for The Bean Counter; a week off from paid employment, that is. Although today, as the southerly wind bites and there’s moments of flurry in the downpours, you would be forgiven for doubting it, we’re heading into an El Nino summer; hot and dry with lots of westerly bluster. With this in mind, The Bean Counter’s week has been spent lessening our fire risk. The long grass along the shelter belt has been knocked back, he’s mown strips around all the paddock fence-lines, particularly those near the road, and everything’s been trimmed and tidied up. Hopefully it all proves an unnecessary overreaction.

I had also earmarked my grandiosely named Tunnel House Project as requiring a bit of his two-head-are-better-that-one/many-hands-make-light-work attention. Part of clearing out the duck enclosure to make way for the Tiny Housers was relocating a couple of large raised beds to the vegetable garden. Thus my dreaming began. Funds and priorities restrict us acquiring either a tunnel or glass house at the moment but y’all know I love nothing more than making summat from nowt. So far the skeleton we’ve constructed from wire and bits of a repurposed shelf, has stood up to some pretty intense gales. We’re just waiting for the weather to abate a bit so we can affix the gleaned polythene, cut and duct taped together, and tomato planting can commence.

I have great hopes of abundance while also knowing that it will either be a raging success akin to the glory that is my vegetable garden gate or a dismal failure because Homestead life knows nothing in between.

The joy I get from the vegetable garden gate, grabbed from the “resource pile” (read: could-come-in-handy-one-day junk) and hung on two hastily bunged in fence staples – still doing its job five years on, knows no bounds

Only one more week and The Bean Counter is off again for The Resident Engineer’s birthday celebrations.

Present pile construction is already underway.