what a turbulent month it has been in Australia with floods, cyclones and bush fires ravaging the entire continent.
Fortunately we have been safe here in "The Vortex" so far missing out on the floods that hit the East Coast of Tasmania.
Sadly Kate has had to return to Melbourne due to her deteriorating health to be close to better medical facilities and her family. Kate has been a driving force at Mangana Mission and will be very sadly missed by all of us -Cats and Chickens included. We can only all pray that Cosmos will conjure up a miracle that will see her health improve and her return to Peaceful Valley.
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| Jonni mowing the Shooting Range |
The leaving of Kate has been a great personal shock and sadness to me - I managed to loose my partner and job all in 1 day. The future is unsure as to where the torrents will take me however I am sure that Cosmos will help sort it all out in the end! There is no way that I shall be leaving "The Mission" unless it is in a box. There has been far too much work, blood, sweat and tears placed into the property by over 60 young helpers from all over the globe (and me) to let the vision falter.
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| Emma and Victa Weeding the garden |
This has also been the month of the Helper Invasion starting with Emma and Jonni from Sweden joining us for 1 week to assist around the property. It was a really fun week with lots of laughter, fun, good food and great company. We also held our most wild Friday Pizza and Music Night with the Mayor and Jason entertaining us like never before - the music was exceptionally nice!
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| Emma and Jonni at the music night |
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| The band in full swing |
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| Andre and Emma |
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| Steve and his big toy building the range |
Thanks to the input of Steve over dinner one evening a few new projects were devised. The first was a Shooting Range where we would be able to have some target shooting fun and the next was a more ambitious project of a pitch and putt golf course.
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| Emma on Target !!! |
Good to his word Steve arrived the following morning with his large machine and the fun and games began!
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| Steve testing out the Mangana Range |
The day after Emma and Jonni left to explore the South of Tasmania we were blessed with the arrival of Camille and Antoine from France.
They threw themselves into a range of projects and fitted into the Mangana Mission way immediately.
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Camille working in the fields
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Antoine working in the veggie garden
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| The horse poo going onto the veggie gardens |
The week that they spent here sadly went all to quickly however we did manage to move the back fence and secure it around the vineyard to keep the kangaroos from pruning the grapes. We also managed to mulch the vegetable beds with horse compost,water the plants and weed and rotary hoe the top garden bed near the Cabin and plant it out with Lebanese grapes that were kindly given to us by a neighbour Brian. On top of this there was a day trip to the North East beaches, 2 pizza and Music Nights and a number of Spa's.
A very busy and fun week for all concerned.
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| Alison digging potatoes for dinner |
Less than a week after they departed Alison from Taiwan arrived for a 2 week stay at Mangana. She has proved to be a lovely lady who has assisted with weeding, watering, cooking, cleaning and a number of other tasks around the farm. Thanks to her excellent grasp of the English language she has also been a great conversationalist.
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| Alison the Mangana Waterer |
Near the end of the month we were joined by Connor from the USA and Tine his wife from Belgium for a short 3 day stay. They were not here for long but their legacy will live on for a long time.
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| Connor resurfacing the track to the Cabin |
They decided to accept the challenge of resurfacing the tracks around the property which had been originally layed by Scottish Mike. The problem that we discovered was that the course rock gravel that we had originally used was a mecca for weeds and was near impossible to weed by hand. As we have a zero poison policy here at Mangana Mission a new alternative had to be found. It was decided to purchase weed matting and 10 ton of fine gravel and resurface the paths.
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| Tine putting her back into it!! |
For 2 days they worked diligently laying the weed matt , pinning it down, moving gravel, raking and then rolling it down. The end results look fantastic and hopefully will be weed free for a long time to come. Connor also created some rock art features along the path including a 4 metre crocodile.
Thanks very much for your great efforts.
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| New look Mangana path behind stage |
Well that must be the end of a most interesting, challenging month and probably the longest single monthly blog from Mangana.
Take Care, Keep Happy, Be Safe
Love and Light,
Andre
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