A poem to celebrate the completion of the new packing shed

Journey of a lifetime - By Alison Gotts

Who would have thought it would take twenty one years?
I could have raised a child,
Become a barrister or a town planner.
Instead I chose to be
A mangosteen nurse-maid.
Twenty one years - weeding, feeding, weeding, feeding.
Don’t forget the whipper-snipping
Five whipper-snippers - four slashers - three tractors
Weeding, feeding, weeding, feeding
Feb 99 - Cyclone Rona
Her eye on our orchard
A message received in Tasmania
Gotts, your property destroyed by cyclone
Two hours to get from the front gate to the house
Breadfruit trees like toothpicks
Durian trees -  that dream is dead
The lychee screwed out of the ground and gone
Mangosteens still standing
Leaning at 45 degrees in heavy rain
Get them up – stake them
Thanks Gill and Kellie
That job wasn’t in the house-sitting agreement
Chainsaws, cutting, loading, clearing,
Day after day, month after month.
Am I too old for this?
What if it happens again?
October 2000 - petals on the ground
The first flower
Mangosteens at last
Eleven years hoping
More years creep by - the fruit dribbles out
Hoping, waiting, weeding, feeding
April 2006 - a small commercial crop
Don’t complain
5,000 bucks is better than a kick in the pants
Raining, raining, hoping, waiting, weeding, feeding
No crop – too wet
Is this how I want to spend my life?
Waiting for fruit that never comes
September 2009 - Hot – too hot – no rain
Trees start dying
Brown leaves - dead branches
Stress – mine and theirs
I didn’t plant these trees to die
Heavy rain at last
Flowers - more flowers
Three flowers on one stalk
Twenty one years of waiting
Here it is – so many fruit
Every tree loaded
How to pick them all?
Get organized
Ladders, scales, boxes, pickers,
New packing shed
Paint it purple
Count down to zero
February ‘10
Twenty one years of waiting
Ready for a new journey
FREEEEDOM!