Well here I am in Kununurra. I am working on a 1000 ha irrigated farm growing rock melons, honey dews, butter nut pumpkins, chickpeas, borlotti beans, and chia.
The first plantings of melons will be harvested in a months time, and I am sure there will be plenty of seconds to eat especially if the birds get stuck into the paddocks!
At the moment we are flat out cultivating - to kill weeds and help reform flat topped beds that have been rounded, and the furrows in-filled, by wet season rain; fertilising - with an initial hit of a compound fertiliser that is placed in two bands within each bed; power harrowing - to break up large clots of dirt and form a fine seed bed; and bed shaping - to form neat, flat topped, level beds that are ready for planting into.
Yesterday we go hit by a thunderstorm at 3:30 in the afternoon. It was very isolated, drenching one side of the farm but barely touching the other, and it was enough to put us back a bit. The farming systems up here are based on a dry dry season, any rain is detrimental, and the black clay very quickly turns to a deep bog after a little rain, keeping tractors out of the paddocks.
But despite the inconvenience rain makes everybody smile!
Mud and an African Mahogany out the front of our house.
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