We love McCarthy Park 2, but ever since we saw it we knew ‘the oval’ would have to be revegetated. Not only did we want to reduce the amount of lawn (and mowing), but we wanted to reintroduce the native plants that would have been removed to make the large driveway turnaround. Doing this will provide extra cover and food for the native animals, and be much more sustainable than lawn. It will look better too!

We waited until June, so the weather was cooler and with the guidance of Apace WA who specialise in community regeneration, we have begun the preparations for a July plant out. Apace helped us design the space, choose plants that were native to the area, preferably fire retardant or resistant, and a variety of sizes and textures to improve the aesthetics.

First was removal of the lawn, then delivery of loads of mulch and crushed gravel for the path.

Then, several balgas (grass trees) were planted. These were purchased from and planted by Replants, a company that specialises in rescuing and on-selling grass trees from land that is being bull dozed. We were so very happy to get some lovely larger additions to go with the existing grass trees already there.

Once transplanted, all were burnt- including our existing grass trees that still showed plenty of couch within them.

Already it is looking better! But next came the pathways through ‘the oval’….

…..and then the spreading of the mulch. Now it all settles in for a while until July when the native tube stock will be planted.

Gosh it has been a busy time! After 30 years on 10 acres, there has been lots to do at both the old and new places. Here is a summary!

We are thrilled to once again have kangaroos around us! With a nature reserve nearby, there are plenty around and they are very adept at jumping the fences to get some nice green grass. We often see them on the road or in neighbouring paddocks too.

Then there are the birds!! We see and hear so many native birds that we used to see occasionally in MP1, but now see in abundance, in particular Splendid Wrens and Scarlett Robins.

The insects also have been in abundance! Blue banded bees just love the white agapanthus in particular!

These have all been very welcome distractions when there has been so much do do, including a considerable amount of lawn mowing, until winter comes and we replace some with native plants.

Our downsizing to 5 acres meant a reassessment of what we want to do, so (for now) we sold our sheep, geese and ducks, and gave away the top bar and Warre hives. We relocated our two horizontal hives one night when it was cool enough to lock them in for a few hours, and they are going well.

The chickens are safely installed in their new pen….

And… we have had our first nearby bushfire. While bushfires are always a concern, this was far enough for us to practice and refine our bush fire plan for the new property without being too stressed.

Well, we have now moved.. to a more genteel and easier to manage version of McCarthy Park. It is a massive move, starting with the orchard in October, moving into the house just in time for Christmas, and soon to come will be moving the animals once we have their areas set up.

We are still exploring our new surroundings and learning about how this house and its surrounding 5 acres works, and while it is definitely an easier place to manage there is also a lot we want to do to make it ‘ours’. There is a considerable amount of lawn, which come the cooler weather we will reduce and add more native vegetation. We also need to cover and pave an area ready for the aquaponics, develop a vegetable garden, prepare the bee area and of course complete the poultry yards.

As we are settling in and still watering the orchard trees by hand, we have observed an abundance of wildlife, including our first snake at this place in the first week we moved in! Thankfully, we were able to capture and relocate it to a more suitable area. We have also seen lots of birds and insects…… and are looking forward to exploring more with the camera in hand.

While we are yet to complete the move with all the animals, we are loving McCarthy Park 2.0!

One tree we are not able to take with us to McCarthy Park ll, and will really miss, is this orange tree!

It has given us an almost endless supply of oranges, usually twice each year. Over the years we have given away kilos and kilos, made chutney, dried them, juiced them, preserved them…. and the all time favourite- orange brandy liqueur! Today we made 20 bottles, enough to give as Christmas presents! There are still plenty of oranges on the tree for another batch!

Time for a change….. and not something we expected to be doing after living at McCarthy Park for 30 years……… but…… we are moving to McCarthy Park II near the end of the year. Things have and are continuing to change a lot in our area, so we have decided to move.

When looking at what we wanted, we decided to ‘downsize’ from 10 acres to 5 acres, which still gives us plenty of room to keep the animals and grow the fruit and vegetables we want. It is exciting but somewhat daunting- after such a long time we have accumulated a lot, only some of which we will need!

The property we have found is perfect, with all the space we need, but not many fruit trees…… so we are relocating the orchard! We found Paul, a specialist tree locator and he has begun a month long process. The first stage is pruning the branches and digging around the roots.

Now we wait for up to a month for the trees to settle, before Paul and his crew return to move the trees down to our new property. It is a massive job, but we get so much delicious fruit from our 45 fruit trees we didn’t want to start all over again!

Watch this space!!!

Well, what a year 2020 is! We are so lucky in Western Australia and so far are doing ok, but evidence around the world reminds us not to be complacent. Living on acreage is certainly useful for isolation, and for a level of sustainability. The orchard has been pruned and there is lots of new growth and flowers, the sheep have had lambs, the bees have managed the winter well and are cranking up, the paddocks have been sown and are growing well in the unusually mild winter we have had, and the citrus have continued to produce an abundance of fruit!