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AND A CHRISTMAS haiku written today
love this car ... lunch at the Raspberry Farm was so good. and the little walk around afterwards was enjoyable in lovely surrounds.
THEN & NOW. Archie on the left and Kimba on the right (in both images)
check out the cat run that was built for them - including the early days and planning - the full playlist here - my list of must haves was room to move outside, in the sun, with shelter and trees. #livingwithcats #countryliving
Examples of 'lifestyle' include habits in sleeping patterns, physical activity, hydration habits, sleeping patterns.
Wikipedia defines a lifestyle "as the way a person lives. This includes patterns related to personal relationships, consumption, entertainment and dress. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview."
We 'know' this means tempering things 'bad' and maintaining things 'good'. Bad and good being highly subjective and individual to circumstance, beliefs and choices made. I also want to include a level of privilege.
There are many lists on the internet defining 'lifestyle' to include an active lifestyle, a rural lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle, an urban lifestyle, a solo lifestyle etc.
Its been a long road to this place in the country, in Tasmania - and what a place it is ... we feel most grateful and look forward to discovering all it has to offer. We have been here for 12 months now having spent time here in all seasons, plus the experience of the creek flooding 3 months into our residency.
YES this is my studio ... imagine when we first came across the bridge and saw this magnificent building. We both KNEW it was going to be an art studio - truly, for the months prior I kept saying to V 'I need, I want a warehouse' ! Many around us thought i could never fill it which always made us both smile.
early days.I had a long list (about 12 points) of things that 'had to go' or be refashioned, in my mind.
Once we moved in ... not a single thing needed taking out or refashioning - it all seemed to fit once we put our things in - everything we had in furniture and bits and pieces found its place as if it were made for it and everything on my list to get rid of, began to make sense. For example that shelf in the kitchen sticking out in the middle of nowhere holds my coffee machine with the coffee pods in a container just beneath the shelf. The other is the large netted structure out on the front paddock - it had to go ... well 12 months later it is filled with vegetables growing madly. cabbage, squash, tomatoes, lettuce, brussel sprouts ... we had corn that was my 'epic fail'. And so it was revealed with everything on my list.
Being our 1 year anniversary here, I am musing at how 'place' is lifestyle, at least for us at present, and how it has improved many of those things on our list that is considered 'lifestyle'.
And to walk across acres of a mix of native forest, pasture (green changing to beige during summer) with a creek (Claytons Rivulet) running through the whole is just magic. 12 months of the landscape captured, below.
this one got away from me ... our 1 year anniversary - musing at the bridge ... in the moment
we did make the date ... our anniversary dinner.
and this is what it makes us feel like !
images from our first year here #countryliving #tasmania
THEN ... (at 6 weeks old) Archie on the left, Kimba on the right in both photos. and NOW ... (at 2 years old)
Having moved out to the country 10 months ago, we determined the cats would not run free on the property for a lot of reasons with protecting the wildlife on the top of the list.
The wildlife here consists of a myriad of birds (redbreast robin, swallows, crows, fairy wrens, european goldfinch, parrots, eagles, kookaburras, spotted pardolot and more for us to still discover and name), small brown frog, blackfish, protected species turbo chooks, a platypus, a resident tiger snake, wallabies, blue tongue lizard and again, so much more to discover. my you-tube channel is a hold-all place for the many videos i am taking rather than posting 3 times a day here.
you can see the platypus video here - wait for it at the 1.09, 221 and 3.03-3.15 minute mark.
and the gorgeous little echidna is here.
So, the cat run - due to a variety of reasons it took 9 months before we got started and during that time we walked around the house discussing where and how large it may be and how the cats access it to and from the house. We were cognisant of the aesthetics of the structure and how it may affect the look of the house and the yard. Once time had opened itself up it got put up quite quickly - for us it was about 3 weeks but certainly could have gone up in a weekend - say 30 hours.
The cat run was videoed (a lot) mainly with the cats using it and their early forays into the outdoors plus the escape run Archie made. He is our resident Houdini and has always escaped his confinement areas. We finally had to resort to electricity .... poor thing got a zap on the nose and all is well now - he is not trying to get out any longer. I accidentally 'tested' the electric fencing as i backed into it whilst planting a plant - it zapped my bum and although it was unpleasant and i moved quickly ! it was not as bad as i imagined it could be.
here you can find the Video playlist of the outdoor cat run being used.
THE Gallery of images below shows as follows :
image 1 - the run to go down the side of the house/garage across the gravel drive to the trees on the other side.
image 2 - shows where the run has to come out of the bedroom window to reach the section of the run down the side of the house/garage.
image 3 - trials in setting up the panels and how they may be attached to each other.
image 4, 5 & 6 - the putting together of panels with V making a big statement on how they may work.
Materials used were:
16 sheets of Rapid Mesh
6 sheets of silver wire mesh panel something like this with around 4cm square holes
6 x long planks
a large diameter poly pipe and the hiring of a mini digger (similar to this one) to create the underground tunnel
heavy duty rubber matting
heaps of cable ties
lots of cups of tea or coffee
Our you-tube channel has a Video playlist of the outdoor cat run being used. Lots of short movies by this amateur trying to capture #lifestyle in country #Tasmania whilst working fulltime as an #artist. Millie got the use of the outdoor pen for 2 weeks on her own as Archie kept escaping and on the fourth time we could see how he did it. the ratbag. we did solve it and they are all out in the outdoor cat pen these days.
A few milestone videos include :
1. earliest days - a walk through showing the run created out the window, down the side of the garage and the polypipe laid down under the gravel road going into the outdoor cat run.
2. Millie coming out the bedroom window into the run for the first time.
3. V&I in conversation in the evening discussing the outdoor cat run and its building still in progress.
4. A wallaby feeding on cabbage leaves in front of Millie in her outdoor pen.
5. the final cat run good to go March 2023
6. V explaining the top section as a barrier to keep the cats in (did not work for Archie)
8. the day we saw Archie get out for the fourth time.
As i say, the whole thing can be put together in a weekend and without too much trouble (apart from digging up the drive and getting a huge poly pipe in place) ... overall the building of it came together very nicely and quite quickly without too much hassle. The fiddly bits were the actual run out of the window to create it out of the silver mesh, cut to size and holes drilled in the planks to fit the mesh. Most of the whole structure and run through to the polypipe is held together with cable ties.
And now we head into winter so we begin the whole thing of getting the cats out into the pen in Spring. Each beautiful day we get we send them out into the pen - getting them out the window all together and into the pen is a whole other story! frustrating fun.
Short video as I head down, from the back of the house, on the bike to the block where they are putting up the Gazebo - this on top of the deck they put together a couple of weeks ago. looking good. Followed by some candid shots during the setup.
Our first harvest having embraced the idea of growing our own vegetables in the already established veggie centre. Not sure what to do with all the cabbages - it looks nice - there are 10 of them ! any ideas ?
Lovely hot days now - Tassie kinda hot which to me, is very hot. Currently mid- high 20s (celsius) and minimums of around 15-17C at night. The fields of pasture have dried from a lovely green to a wheat colour whilst the native plants are loving summer - as are a few pot plants I brought with me and this lovely climbing rose that has been transplanted from the old house. it is a David Austin climbing rose called 'Strawberry Hill' .
it was so nice to see a pair arrive. we may be newly arrived at this property but the swallows had nests up under the eaves of the house, by the back door. lovely to see them come 'home'. and then there were 4 more! 3 fledglings were being fed on the washing line for around 3 days when all of a sudden there were 4.
there was a terrible moment for a few mornings when a crow was making a racket trying to get to their nest .... i chased it off for 3 mornings and then set up a screen to protect the little birds. i think the crow got the message - haven't seen him since.
this was taken a week or so ago and they are no longer dependent on mum - i see them flying as a group of 6 in the evenings catching bugs and they settle into their nest for the night. they pretty much disappear during the day - they must be in training and strengthening their wings in readiness for their long winter journey to ring in spring somewhere over the oceans.
We are still in awe of discovering this 25 acres of mixed paddocks and native bush surrounded by gum trees and wattle trees. A rivulet (Claytons Rivulet) runs through the whole property with endangered species of bird, fish and small crayfish.
Exploring and discovering new (to us) species of flora and fauna while watching fledgling swallows learning to fly and feed as we hit summer and glorious hot days.
The grass is starting to turn brown in the heat and 6 months in we are yet to complete an outdoor area for the cats who are currently interned in the house. Second image on the right shows a peek at my new studio. A huge shed that looks like it could house an aeroplane is now filled with spaces that are my office, a painting area for acrylic, oils and pastels, a 'clean' area for book making and paper based artworks, an assemblage area and a space where textiles are laid out in readiness for stitching at night (back up at the house)
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Bottom image : that beautiful coloured hydrangea is a huge bush outside the bedroom window that is a range of purples right down to a near black - all on the same bush as it ages in its flowering.
I hope you will stay with me on this journey and let me know what you think.
Gina
In the middle of a cleared thicket of cypress we found this cute fellow who is begging to be repainted. Any ideas ?
One of the first jobs we tackled was to cut back a row of cypress that had overgrown the driveway up to the house. They can be seen on the left of the picture in the image below. A huge job that went quicker than i anticipated - man with a truck and a mulcher and 3 days later it was cleared. Now to plant it out.
Amazing, right? For a few years i had 'suggested' to my partner that I wanted a warehouse. yes a warehouse - i could envision the diverse areas i work in under one roof. This request was always received with a knowing smile along with a little reality check in his eye.
But here you are ... here I am ... I do feel most fortunate as my partner runs a small car hire business and the shed would have been good for him too particularly since it has a very very large hoist sitting in it. There seemed to be no real conversation when we found the house with said shed and I moved in happily.
Admittedly i felt guilty ... for all of FIVE minutes. I love it ... and it is so well set up for my arts practice - this i will show in blog posts as we go along this journey.
When we first moved in, nearly 8 months ago. (April 2022) ... it was everywhere we looked - 25 acres of mixed pasture and native bush with gum trees that reach the sky, supported by wattle trees, blackwood trees and various understorey. The creek, Claytons Rivulet runs through the whole property covering areas from one end to the other.
