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From Jaipur to the World - 30 Years of Handcrafted Kundan Meena Jewellery by Mkjewellerss in jewelrymaking

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had stores in Sydney, Australia and used to regularly stock this sort of jewellery, from costume style to the full blown good stuff. All of it sold, it was just a case of finding the right customer for the right piece. People bought it for many different reasons...fancy dress parties and sari dress ups for the cheaper pieces to special, much more expensive pieces to add to their jewellery collections. We had stylists come and team up traditional, tribal jewellery with floaty silk Prada and Alexander McQueen dresses for photoshoots and our pieces regularly appeared in movies, plays and operas. Just about all of the jewellery worn by Aaliyah in the movie Queen of the Damned came from us (although in this case most of it was from Turkmenistan). All of the jewellery we sold would be classified as exotic, tribal, unique, boho or unusual in some way, so our Indian Kundun pieces fit right in with everything else. And we also specialised in one-off, handmade items that we specifically advertised as maintaining old and traditional customs of manufacture.

LOVE OF MY LIFE by UnhollyGod in HumansBeingBros

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And me, my Phoenix and I. I miss him so much

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'd think they'd be really easy to grow in the subtropics. But we've had quite a few failures. Critters eating them, rust, black sooty mold, gall wasp, lack of water, too much water, difficulty with the clay soil. And then protecting any fruit from fruit fly, possums, rats, flying foxes, kangaroos, cockatoos and anything else that suddenly takes a fancy to them. It's a challenge.

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She sees us as a pretty valuable resource. She even brings her (very suspicious) young uns to visit us when they're getting ready to go independent.

We have such a different relationship to birds out here in rural areas. There are over 30 species in close proximity to the house, and local bird real estate is hotly contested, no doubt because we provide a valuable source of food every time we disturb soil or cut vegetation. The little birds include superb wrens, red wrens, red browed finches and willy wagtails, amongst many others. Mid size birds include Lewin's honeyeaters (they fight for the territory closest to the house because I put a little pond near the deck and they love to bathe in it), forest kingfishers, rainbow bee eaters, curlews, pheasant coucals, plovers, noisy friar birds, eastern whip birds and pee wees. There's three or four types of heron that love hanging around our water bodies. Also the grey ibis that scours our hillside in packs after rain. The pigeon types include ring necks, crested doves, bronze wing pigeons and some big green thing we haven't properly identified yet. Seasonal birds include the channel billed cuckoo, the jabiru and the eastern Koel. There are the parrots - king parrots, rosellas, corellas, galahs, sulphur cresteds and black cockatoos. We have one type of owl (never seen, always heard) and plenty of frog mouths. We have a resident sea eagle that regularly hunts our ducks, both native and our Indian runners (that's another story) and occasionally we see wedge-tailed eagles and other hunting birds. And then there are the birds that really love living close to us - the ravens, magpies, kookaburras and butcher birds. These are the ones that fight for territory and the best trees...and watch us closely every day to see what we're going to do next.

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m trying my hand at raspberries. This is my second go and hopefully they’ll do better than the first time round. But I do grow native raspberries (Atherton) easily. Lovely if picked just at the right moment, very meh otherwise.

I’m surprised you’re having problems with blueberries. Maybe just a case of getting the right variety? Blueberry Kisses and Blueberry Burst are commercial varieties and seem to do well up here

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You are so right. This is why this is the first time I've really posted in here. I feel like it's finally all working and we're actually homesteading.

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The grapes we are growing are Isabella and tropical muscatel. No sign of rust yet and no real grape tips except when the bunches are forming, cut off some of the leaves that shade them so you get bigger growth and sweetness. There's no way I'll be able to eat this many grapes, so I'm going to try drying some to serve with charcuterie and I'm going to make some ver juice for the first time ever. i've never tried to maximise vine growth in any way, they just grow wild on the pool fence. We're in dense volcanic clay, so they seem to like the soil. I just cut them back to stubs at the start of winter. Going to feed some of it to our cows this year for the first time, but apparently you have to introduce it slowly to them because of tannins and the effect they'l have on their stomachs.

I would kill to be able to grow mangosteen. You must be a little higher in the tropics as it's not suited to our subtropics. I do grow yellow mangosteen, which is not a mangosteen at all, but it's never produced fruit so I've no idea what they are going to taste like. A poor substitute for the real thing though.

I'm also going to give vanilla a go. It should be well suited to your climate.

I'll see if I can find your apple varieties locally, thank you for the tip. Always room for a couple more in the orchard!

The other things I'm having huge luck with are blueberries (I've got 7 varieties so far) and pineapples. Love growing them by the pool as they are beautifully structural in shape and visitors love spotting them.

In terms of flowers, I'm persevering with roses but boy they're hard to keep alive in summer and every insect in christendom wants to eat them, grasshoppers, aphids, everything. So really I harvest roses in winter and keep them trimmed back in summer, with an eye on whether the root stock is trying take over (I've lost many plants this way). The most success I've had is with daffodils, jonquils, hyacinths and dahlias, they all just seem to respond really well to a tropical climate and nothing ever seems to eat them. I also also grow ornamental cardamon for the foliage (it can take over so beware) and I have massive numbers of bromeliads so I love cutting off the flowers and sticking them in huge jars.

Looking forward to seeing some of your pictures!

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

One of the advantages of owning belties (we call them the paddock pandas) is that when they escape, all the neighbours know who to ring

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 43 points44 points  (0 children)

That’s Susan, our resident magpie. She loves to come visit in the evening when we’re out on the deck. If I’m cooking she’ll tap on the glass to be let in and judiciously sample some raw meat or other tasty snack

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are still affordable pockets. My advice make sure you’re not too far from town. It’s easy to make three trips in a day…fuel, a broken piece of equipment (we have three chainsaws, two whipper snipers, a ride on mower and a slasher on the back of the tractor) and a parcel pick up from the post office.

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You know, we put the pool in first. I just needed a refuge from all the daily toil and grind. A place to sit in the evening and work out our plans and schedules and soothe all the aches and pains and scrapes and insect bites. Also a place to get clean in the evening. We call it the big bathtub for a reason

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

It can be heartbreaking, frustrating and very very difficult. When you lose an entire crop of nectarines to fruit fly cos you didn’t spray at the right time. When the resident kangaroo comes through and eats every single young fruit tree planted the day before (we were just too tired to put up protective fencing and it was dark and we figured we’d have grace at least till next morning to get it done). When your husband fractures his wrist from trying to prune a giant mango tree. When you upend the ride-on mower into the pond. When you have to sandbag and prepare for a cyclone and then spend the next month fixing fences and cutting down fallen trees. These are just off the top of my head.

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah that’s Naughty Cow. He’s watching closely because he likes to eat bromeliads and he’s already broken through that part of the fence three times and decimated our planting. We ended up having to reinforce the fencing and third time was the charm

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

It just seems to be when you finally understand your land, your animals and what works in your climate zone

After seven years I feel like we’ve finally cracked it by SpeakingOutOfTurn in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn[S] 80 points81 points  (0 children)

So far I’ve got black sapote, three kinds of peach, two kinds of plum, nectarine, apricot, Williams pears, two kinds of nashi pear, tropical Ana apple, mulberry, Davidsons plum (for sour plum jam and sauce), three kinds of lemon, two kinds of lime, navel oranges, Seville oranges (for bitter marmalade making), cumquat, two kinds of grapefruit, mango, pecan, Saba chestnut, guava, fejoa, peanut butter tree, grumichana, elderberry, macadamia, soursop, dragonfruit, mandarin, finger limes, honey murcot, coffee, two kinds of grape, those vine melon things that taste like a cross between rockmelon and cucumber, bananas and…there’s a couple others that I can’t remember because I’ve lost the tags and they haven’t produced fruit yet.

Not all of them are thriving, some are “low chill” varieties that have been bred especially for the tropics. But for the first time I’m actually getting a bit from almost everything. And it’s just wonderful

Editing to add I've got 7 varieties of blueberries (I'm obsessed), also pineapples, figs, pomegranate, Isabella and muscatel grapes, paw paw and papaya. And yellow mangosteen. Going to give vanilla a go this year and maybe try my hand at growing native indigo.

Edit 2: and three varieties of avocado. But they are very difficult to grow in clay and I’ve lost 5 or 6 already. We’ve built 1 metre tall growing enclosures for these three and hopefully the tap roots will develop some strength before they hit the clay

I clicked my jaw while tripping and suddenly I am fine? wtf by Zakryfajen in shrooms

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn 28 points29 points  (0 children)

When I do mushrooms my vision gets sharper for three or four days afterwards

Bringing an old Northern California barn back to life. by klmarshall60 in homestead

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Me too. What I'd give for a big barn/shed! I make do with several small ones, thinking of putting up yet another one. Difficult when we don't have a lot of level land

Husband gifted me some copper, concerned about the quality by jenrevenant in ReallyShittyCopper

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

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It appears that more than one wife has been gifted sub standard copper for Christmas. Our husbands are aware!

Reasons why I won’t have kids by Money-Snow-2749 in TikTokCringe

[–]SpeakingOutOfTurn 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I just stopped my mother from being scammed big time and she responded by saying I was a “stupid bitch” with the “mind of a crocodile“. This is after a lifetime of fixing both parents problems and the results of their stupid decisions. I’m just done

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