Big rains in July - an unusual event

Last wednesday it started to rain and continued through the night, into Thursday night. 312 mm in 48 hours. The causeways flooded and the road was cut for most of Thursday .

We had a German family staying with us, who were due to depart, so we rang their hire car company Hertz, who were quite happy for them to leave the hire car at Cape Trib, so that Digby could take them to Cairns in the 4WD, and then get another hire car for the rest of their holiday.

The other guests - Anna and her son Ian were not so lucky. They had hired a car with Thrifty who said that if they left the car at Cape Trib, they would still be charged for the hire, and that there were no cars available to replace the car at cape trib anyway. So we offered them the Granny Flat, so that we could get the cottages ready for the next guests in case they arrived through the day driving a big 4 WD. Anna and Ian went off to explore and made the mistake of crossing the first creek, and then couldn't get back to the farm, when the river came up, so they finished up staying at Coconut Beach Resort for the night, and came back to see me the next morning.

Our new guests for Thursday night failed to appear, and then rang to say they were staying the night further south at Daintree Wilderness Lodge. This meant I had Thursday night to myself - all alone with the dogs - what joy.

Now the creeks are running again, the sun has started to peak out from the clouds, and the weather forecast looks promising.

Cape Tribulation is a rainforest wilderness, remote and the weather is unpredictable. That's why this area has never been settled into suburbia before. That's the attraction - the reason why we live here. The orchard is thriving - after such a long dry last year, this is a wonderful bonus. It might be a record breaking July - maybe the wettest July on record. I checked Hans' rainfall record which go back to 1980 and for July - and the biggest rainfall 222 mm in 1997, so it looks like this could be the case.

(This photo has been taken by Deep Forest Lodge and shows a photo from the wet season)

Birds battling it out

The Macleay honeyeater defends its food source - the very ripe and squishy black sapote - from the attacking Lewin honeyeater. The fruit has been picked and the orchard food supply is finished, so they have moved into the house to get the ripe fruit here. Some great photos.

Honey Eaters at the house eating Black Sapote

 

Mamey Sapote Dessert Sauce is Yummy

Experimenting with Mamey Sapotes, I have made up a sauce to go with banana pancakes. The guests can't choose between the black sapote sauce and the mamey sapote sauce - they think both are wonderful.

I have started selling it to the fruit tasters, but they are not sure how to use it, so I have taken a photo of the pancakes - just looking at it makes my mouth water - and will post the photo above the sauces, just like in a japanese restaurant where you get to see what it looks like before you choose.

Party time in the Black Sapotes

We are currently harvesting Black Sapote - and so are the Pied Currawongs, Pale Headed Friarbirds, Spotted Catbirds, and several species of honey eaters, and Spectacled Flying Foxes (no they dont actually wear specs - it's a ring of pale fur around each eye. This afternoon we picked about 6 cartons - and left some of the fruit at the top of the trees too high for us to reach for the bird gang. It's a small crop compared to previous years - caused by the tree being stressed last year.

It's great to have Black Sapote on the fruit tasting. The name 'chocolate pudding fruit' captures everyone's imagination - people are amazed at the texture (yes it really is puddeny) and the colour (yes it really LOOKs the colour of chocolate) - and we cannot keep up with the demand for our fruit leather of Black Sapote mixed with coconut. Which is why we have picked as much of the fruit as wevcan today, before the birds and bats finish the crop for us.

The sad story of the vegetable garden

This year, the vege garden has been replanted THREE times so far - first in March, as an optimist before we left for the UK I thought it might be possible to get the veges going early - you never know what the weather is going to be - of course they were washed away with the heavy april rains. So Diane our house sitter tried a second time - she did not realise what she was up against and once again little survived. Now dad has been up here for a week and has put in a complete replant. This morning I woke up to a heavy downpour and thought - oh damn - the tomato seeds will never survive this. We are now talking about how to roof the vege garden beds with plastic to protect them. Time will tell.

Two weeks On

Pigs are having a nice time
There is major pig damage throughout the orchard - digging up areas under the breadfruit and on the edges of orchard with the neighbours who have long grass. Rod - a neighbour - was driving past and saw the pig - a very large boar - in our orchard and completely unconcerned by the traffic. He rang us when he got home - Digby was just getting breakfast for the guests, so he got the gun and went off to see if he could shoot it. Alas, long gone.

Fertilising after the mangosteen crop
The mangosteens have now finished - there were the odd small ones still to be found scrabbling around under some trees. So now we are concentrating on feeding the trees to replace the nutrients from the fruit which has been picked and removed from the system. Last year, DPI researchers were able to give the exact nutrient breakdown for a mangosteen, so we could actually calculate the weight of fruit, and then the exact fertiliser load. Our main problem is we need large amount of potassium, which does not come easily in organic form. However we have managed to find a premixed blend which is organic certified which will fill the gap.

New mangosteen seedlings refound
Before we left to go overseas in April, we planted out 20 small new mangosteen seedlings in the back corner of the farm. We had tried to grow Salaks there, but they were not happy in the red clay soil, so we pulled them out to replace them with the mangosteens. All these seedlings were now hidden in 2 metre grass, and it was difficult to find them. One tree was accidentally slashed in the search and will have to be replaced. I guess I should be happy it is only one. I have been spending time down at the local grocery store digging around in their rubbish to extract the cardboard to use as mulch. This should keep the grass at bay for 12 months.

Pruning the breadfruit
Digby is madly pruning the breadfruit. I can't bear to look - high up the tree, hanging on with one arm, and using a chainsaw in the other. The pruning needs to be done now to give the trees time to recover before the next harvest in 2007. The idea is that by cutting the tree from a 20 metree tree to a 3 metre tree, the fruit will be easy to pick. The worry is that there will be no fruit at all.