Another exciting month is drawing to a close at the Mangana Mission.
The month started with a very quick turn over with Michele from Germany leaving on the 9.25 am bus and our new helpers Alex and Joanne from Paris arriving at about midday on the 1st February.
Alex and Joanne stayed for 2 weeks and left their mark on the Mangana Mission. Joanne was a keen painter and spent the majority of her time here finishing off the painting inside and outside of the barn. Thankfully this major project is almost complete except for the electrics and plumbing which are ongoing. We plan to have these fully done over the coming months.
Alex was a keen worker in the garden and loved using the motorized implements: mower, brush cutter and his favorite the large rotary hoe. As he resides in Paris they proved to be a great novelty to him. Thanks to his endeavors we now have a further 4 garden beds in the vegetable paddock and the soil improvement program has increased in leaps and bounds. He also assisted in planting a large number of seeds including broad beans, beans, snow peas, lettuce, zucchini, beetroot, Asian vegetables as well as green manure in 2 of the new beds.
We had 2 very enjoyable day trips during their stay. The first of these was to the North East Coast including St. Mary's, Scamander, Beaumaris, St. Helens, Binnalong Bay and the Bay of Fires.
The second day out was to visit the Freycinet National Park where Joanne and Alex hiked to the lookout over Wine Glass Bay whilst Kate and I explored Coles Bay. The trip back to Mangana included a visit to 2 wineries close to the national park.
Both Joanne and Alex enjoyed to cook and we all loved their signature dish ,Crepes as well as Joanne's famous Chocolate Cake.
The local wildlife were very active during their stay with visits from the Kookaburra's, Parrots, Pademelons, Possums and Kangaroo's on an almost daily basis. This was as a result of the plentiful Mangana Mission water supply with lots of green grass whilst the surrounding areas were parched after the summer heat.
The 2 weeks they were here flew by very quickly and Kate and I then had a well earned week rest ,alone in the homestead after a very hectic 6 weeks of non stop guests.
Guest Book Comments:
“Sorry guys, it's not so easy to write in the dark ( you'll remember the electrical outage of the Valentines Day- during the Vancouver Olympics opening ..ooooh.)
These two weeks (two weeks?? Really?? Gone so fast!) with you and your 3 tigers were so great, we have loved share your life for a while in Mangana Mission. I had a lot of fun in painting the Cabin and I am sure that Alex will dream of mowing for months and months!
Thank you again for these few days and for being so nice and “naturals” We wont forget you...and won't forget your amazing cooking Andre!! (But big diet from now!)
Biseus Joanne.
PS :I tried to take Jeremie with me but not enough space in my bag...too bad I'll come back!
PS: Kate I will send you my chocolate cake recipe by email. I promise! ( good pretext to keep in touch!)
Alex: If you plan to visit Paris don't forget that you are very welcome!! I will never forget Mangana. I hope to see you again. Au Revoir, Alexandre
This was Fanny's second experience with help exchange and she was really ready and excited to be here. From Hong Kong where she had been working as a beautician. She had already been in Australia approximately eight months and in that time she had visited Western Australia , Cairns and Sydney. She had already loved her visit to Australia so much that she wanted to stay here longer.
Fanny was excellent at cleaning around the house however struggled a little with the weeding. Sadly all of the easier jobs have now been completed and Mangana due to all of our helpers and WWOOFER's. The next projects are all far more physical with Fencing, Weeding , digging trenches and plumbing. Hopefully our new Helpers will be up to the challenge!
It will take a while for Mangana to forget Fanny's infectious laugh!!
