I am preparing the vegetable garden beds and have planted carrot, radish, and beetroot in one section, and have started some broccoli and cabbage in some seed trays. The radish is already up. One of our avocado trees was damaged a bit by the frost, mainly the upper leaves, but I think it will survive. Next time I will cover them with old sheets. I have been playing around with the cheap chimenea they left us, and had a few nice fires in it, but I need to find a better place for it.
I’ve predicted our electricity bill for this quarter and it will be a couple of hundred higher than gas and electricity combined over in Victoria for this time of year. It was to be expected given the cooler temperatures, but the house seems to be very well insulated. We have talked about getting a small wood heater just for fun, but I think solar panels, a backup battery, and some double glazed windows would be a better long term option.
We are coming up to the end of the financial year, June 30, and our finances are looking pretty good despite all the ups and down of the markets affecting our superannuation, etc. For 2020/2021 even with so much gone from our super for the property purchase, the fact that we are not paying nearly $26,000 in rent means we are looking good. The solar panels are looking very affordable.
As far as the virus goes, its been 37 days without any new cases, and 8 days without any active cases at all in Tasmania. It still looks like late July before they relax border controls with the mainland, given the new outbreaks in Victoria and NSW. They are gradually easing all the restrictions here in Tassie and life is returning to normal, sort of. We even went out to the Legana Tavern for lunch one day and it wasn’t too traumatic. Everyone seems to take it seriously enough with social distancing any hygiene, so we feel pretty safe wherever we go. Still sitting at 102 deaths Australia wide, and I hope we can keep it like that.
I would hate to be in the U.S. at the moment where despite 120,000 deaths and rising, at least half the people there seem to think the whole thing is a hoax. Apparently more Americans have died from the virus than during all of WWI, and it is predicted to be over 140,000 by mid July.
Some photos….
