Nimmitabel: A Work in Progress: Targetted Yucca removal 12-18 January 2024

I had a week up here with Helen and the kids - and Ted - one of Xavier's friends

Arrived on Friday afternoon and was dismayed to see that the power had been out for some time....hence a stinky fridge, and also that the water was up to the 2nd step in the cellar....- and that might have also been contributing to the smell....

Anyway, cleaned out the fridge and chucked out a whole lot of food

And also got the pump going in the cellar

Had a quick look in the garden also - kiwis have regenerated.

One of the peach trees has lots of lovely ripe fruit

The grape vines on the trellis are looking fab ( previous years they've been decimated by caterpillars

And the canna lily has flowered for the first time (that I've seen)

So got to the pool to join the kids and Helen after 4pm. Stayed til, after 6, was a perfect day, and the pool was quite crowded by Inglewood standards

Helen made us a tasty chickpea curry for dinner - which was nice, and we all watched The Dictator afterwards (unfortunately some inappropriate bits for the kids)

Sunset intermission on the veranda

Took the boys fishing to the reservoir on Saturday morning. They enjoyed it, although no fish were caught (apparently a few bites)

Pool after lunch - the weather wasn't quite as nice as yesterday, although still very pleasant at the pool

Boys climbed the tree - first time that Xavier has been up there

Late afternoon, the boys emptied out the cellar by hand (had already pumped it - so it was the last few centimetres)

Dinner outside under the tree - vegie burgers and pork ribs from the butcher - the vegie burgers were better than the pork ribs

And then another movie - Ted

On Sunday, the boys decided that they would start cutting down the yuccas that need to be removed for the garage. They were very careful - both of the spikes, and potentially snakes. I also helped a bit especially when some of the branches could have fallen on and squashed the fence (we used a looped hose to direct them away from the fence)

I was on a bindi search also - found some new places for them...

And cut back overgrown shrubs etc (unfortunately forgot to take an after photo). There is a lemon tree hiding under there

Terry invited us to dinner that evening - with Arlene and David - very pleasant - and delicious food - cheese and biscuits to start, then an eggplant parmigiana, and mulberry cheesecake for dessert

Monday - and the boys thought they would try and take the stumps out.....

I also made sure that they were well fed and watered - with suitable tradie snacks...We were extremely surprised by how much they achieved

Helen and I dropped in on Terry, and had a coffee, and also picked some delicious nectarines and pears

Helen also took the boys to Bridgewater to try their luck at fishing there. No luck, but they did go for a swim in the river

Pool in the afternoon though - and then drinks and nibbles on the veranda

Tuesday, and a coffee with Pauline at Cafe 3517, and then stripping the leaves off the yucca branches and filling Gordon's trailer - if we put the yucca branches in whole, the trailer would be filled in no time

The boys also removed a pesky, rather spiky palm on the nature strip

On one of my trips up the street, I saw that Jerry was working on the corner shop, so dropped in to say hello - up the ladder

Pauline also wanted to make sure that what Jerry was doing wasn't an eyesore from our Bee room - so I took a photo to reassure her - all good

Rachel also dropped by in the afternoon, and brought a yummy pannetone cake that we had for afternoon tea

I also suggested to the kids that they might try carving something out of the yucca branches - easier said than done, but they gave it a go

Wednesday, and it rained steadily in the morning, and was quite miserable weather - the boys went off on scooters once it stopped

And it surprisingly cleared up to be quite a nice sunny afternoon, so Helen and I went to the pool - was gorgeous, we were literally the only ones there. It felt so lovely and decadent to have a "private" pool