Fruit Trees, Dust Storm and a Dog!

On the weekend Dave and I went out to our local nursery and bought some more fruit trees, we have been working pretty hard with the business and felt we have earned a special treat. So we bought six bare rooted fruit trees, and because they were bare rooted Dave had to plant them straight away, so Saturday afternoon/night we were outside planting these trees.

I was so excited with the prospect of having a harvest of fruit in years to come I spent more time day dreaming, and taking photos than helping Dave.


The ground wasn't too hard but the jack hammer did make it quicker and easier digging the holes. Dave being a carpenter had to get out his string line to make sure they were all in a straight line and looking good.

The bare root trees were cheaper than the potted ones which was fine by me. We bought four apple trees; Granny Smith, Red Fuji, Pink Lady, and Delicious, and we also bought two pear trees; Williams and Packhams. The other fruit trees we have are two Early Moorpark Apricot trees, one Golden Queen Peach tree, President and Angelina Plum Trees. Like I said I can't wait for the day when I pick these beauties and start my bottling, preserving and pie baking :)

Last night we had a storm and through the night I'd occasionally lift my head up to see through the window a yellow haze, I didn't realize till I got up in the morning what exactly the haze was. Apparently we are experiencing the worst dust storm in 70 years and for hundreds and hundreds of kilometres from the outback to the city there is dust blowing and covering everything.

This was my car this morning and it was shielded beside our truck. The 55 km trip into town was gusty and dirty and you couldn't see much ahead of you.

You can usually see mountains and paddocks here, and would you believe it I ran out of water in window wipers so I had to pull over to wash the window with a bit of water I had in the back.

When I got to town the truck had a layer of orange dust over it, and the furniture in the shop also had dust over it, it must have got through under the door and in fact the whole town has a dusty orange tinge to it.

As I was opening my shop I noticed this poor dog running fearfully around the road in between cars and I could see an accident waiting to happen. I tried to call the dog off the road as cars were swerving and tooting their horns but to no avail. I rang the local council ranger to see if they could send someone up here to catch it as I knew it wouldn't be time before this dog would be hit. Anyway some how I coached it into the shop with my homemade date scones and locked it it till the ranger came. She was really scared but started to trust me and wanted to be patted, as we waited we chatted, she was such a lovely dog so gentle and timid and I hoped that her owner would retrieve her from the pound. When the ranger arrived he said that he has had about ten calls this morning about dogs running around the streets obviously from the storm last night. I gave him my card and told him if no one has claimed her to give me a ring as I could not bare the thought of them putting her down, she does seem young and would be easy to find a home for anyway I thought I might give them a ring in a few days to see if she is still there unclaimed :(

Look how dusty my shop is, I am going to have to wipe down everything in this shop, every nook and granny :(

This little girls looks like a kelpie and maybe she is a working dog, maybe she jumped off her owners truck or the gate on her pen blew open. Who knows I just hope she will be returned to her owner or I can see myself bringing her home :)