Basically I haven't posted much as there's not a lot to say at the moment. We did manage one more trip back to the old house - in the middle of dense, dense smoke and heat. Let's hope some of those people have got a better fire plan than what we saw being worked on before we upped stumps and moved.

But Jude - you'll be pleased to know we reckon one more trip and your trailer can come home

Here we've started on some garden sorting out - and I've finally got some vegies planted and moving.

Tiny tiny tiny shower of rain last night - enough to dampen the hair and confuse the dogs - but not enough to make any difference to the desperately dry conditions. I noticed an article in today's ABC News Feed that said it's been 55 days since more than one millimetre fell in areas of the Mallee / Wimmera (including where you are Jude). I think we can confidently say that predictions that the drought was over in December were at best, misguided.

This is the main vegetable garden area - beds dug over with the rotary hoe and covered with anti-chook devices - which don't stop them, it's more a slowing them down until you can get out there and wave your arms around a lot.

This isn't going to be the final design - we're going to build up raised beds throughout this paddock (which is about the size of a standard suburban house block) once we get a cement mixer.

This area is just outside the deck, behind the carport and we're going to setup all the box gardens, plant stands and pots around here - this is the "before shot" but the work is well underway already.