Where has November gone?

I have just realised it has been a while since I've recorded any activity at the grove.  I'm sure I've been doing something!  I know I robbed the hive on the 14th November - just took the small box off which has been on the longest.  It was chockas.  They had built loads of burr comb inside the lid too.  I believe if I put some sort of cover over the top frames they wont do this, such a simple thing to do, so why haven't I done it?  Probably because the moment I take my eye off something I forget about it and move onto the next thing. Anyway it was hard work robbing the hive by myself.  So many steps to follow as well as dealing with the sheer weight of the boxes.  I am lucky that the bees are so gentle and docile.  I only got one sting, and that was my own fault. I ended up bringing the buckets of honey and wax home to finish off the filtering and bottling.  I didn't weigh the yield properly, but think it was about 15 kilos.  Very nice honey too - one of the guys at the markets said he thought it was best described as 'Wildflower' honey. Something else to sell at the markets.

things are a bit quiet

Hello all.  Its been a while since I recorded any activity at the grove.  It is still all going on, but it isn't very exciting.  The tractor has had another problem with the clutch.  I am waiting to hear how bad it is.  At the moment it is just sitting immobile in the grove, probably with birds nesting in it... I have had a disaster with the koroneiki oil we got pressed by the contract presser in July.  My fault.  Because of other issues, like Mum dying, and me going back on chemotherapy, I took my eye off the olive oil ball, and didn't decant the oil quickly ( you have to let it settle for a couple of weeks, then take the oil off the sediment which settles at the bottom of the container)  I didn't get to do this until a couple of weeks ago, and realised that I had left it too long.  So I have about 200 litres of oil which is inferior.  It has a decidedly 'off' smell and taste.  It isn't extra virgin, or delicious.  I paid a lot of money to get this oil harvested and pressed, and now it is worth nearly nothing.  Maybe a soap manufacturer will be interested.  I could kick myself.
Apart from that the grove is looking good.  The trees that blew over and that we propped up after hard pruning are all looking like they will survive, except one.  The bees are thriving, and I need to to rob the hive, as soon as I can get husband to give me a day.  One super is absolutely full, and another is filling.  The second super will be a bit dodgy, as the peppermint trees are flowering now, and the honey that comes from them is very strange tasting, to say the least.  Peppermint flavoured honey - not to everyone's taste..

Olive Awards Dinner

Last night husband, daughter, daughter's husband and I attended the olives awards dinner at the Royal Perth Yacht Club.  We didn't have any entries in the competition because I wasn't particularly olive focussed in August when the entries were finalised, but I wanted to see who was there and who was on the prize list.  Meredith, our daughter, was a judge (she has been for several years) and also a sponsor of two prizes ( so maybe a good thing we didn't have an entry in, to avoid conflicts of interest!) What struck me initially was the change in the names of the groves represented.  Only a few names were familiar to me from earlier years. When the industry first took off in the 1990s it was going to be the next big thing - remember ti tree oil, alpacas, emus ... Lots of people thought it was going to be a lovely activity as a retirement project which would top up their super ...  Ten to fifteen years later and perhaps the scales have fallen from people's eyes.  A lot of growers have sold up, or pulled out their trees, or just lost interest.  The amount of work required proved difficult for ageing retirees, and the financial returns had not matched the earliest projections. Marketing has been difficult.  Even the big growers who had investors and wonderful infrastructure have in many cases slunk off licking their wounds.  So it was refreshing to see a new crop of names in the awards booklet, and new faces around the dinner tables.  However I noticed that there are still a predominance of grey heads.  It appears that an olive grove can work as an adjunct to another aspect of farming, or if the grove has contract harvesting and pressing services, or tourist facilities. But otherwise, small scale olive growing is maybe best seen as a hobby.  And an expensive one!

It looks good after slashing, doesn't it?

Doesn't this look nice and tidy and manicured now?  Usually we slash the grove twice in spring, but owing to the sensitive condition of the old tractor I think we will just settle for one cut, and hope the weeds don't get to grow again too much during the spring rain... We like to leave a bit of cover on our poor sandy soil to hold it in place during summer, and keep our fingers crossed that the bit of valuable pasture (the clover) will be able to flower and seed between the weeds.

Tractor trouble

As I mentioned earlier, it is time to get slashing.  Tania the energetic has been on the tractor, driving it like a woman possessed, and has made things look much much tidier, but sadly at a cost.  Poor old tractor gave up some whiffs of smoke on Thursday and went into a sulk.  It couldn't be started.  Tania rang to tell me the sad news, and I rang our good neighbour, John the tractor mechanic.  He was able to get it going again, and took it over to his place.  It appears it is something to do with the clutch. He is going to replace some plugs or something and I'll pick it up from his place tomorrow.  I am reluctant to put the slasher back on as I fear it is all too much for the poor old tractor.  We had the clutch replaced at considerable cost 18 months ago. I am hanging on to win Lotto.  How nice it would be to have a 4 WD tractor with a sound proof cab and reliable hydraulics that never broke down.
On the good news front I was able to put a super on the bees yesterday - numbers have finally built up, and it is warmer.  Lots of bees are clustering round the entrance, and most are coming in with pollen from the capeweed.  Fingers crossed we will get some honey before too long.

Flash back to July

In winter we get beautiful misty mornings

Spring storms

We had another storm with strong winds at the beginning of September.  I went to the grove imagining I'd see lots of blown over olive trees which would need cutting back and propping up but we were lucky this time.  I only found a big old jarrah tree which was weak at the base which had gone over and had got hooked up on a neighbouring marri.  It is magnificent firewood, but my bet is mysterious visitors will chain saw it up and we won't get any of it!