The rest of the time was ours to read, write,  listen to music or drink cups of tea looking out over the blue waters of the D'Encastreaux channel.  The farm was basically 8 acres (4 Ha.) of bushland with a couple of fields of potatoes looked after by a neighbour, so there was nothing much in the farming line to do. If we really felt energetic, there were plenty of places where we could pull out or cut out weeds. It was only an hour's drive up to Hobart for supplies etc., so we usually made it up on Saturday to coincide with the Salamanca Markets which have an excellent supply of local produce (e.g. fresh cherries, strawberries and raspberries at the time).
So that's a little about where we're at right now. Now a bit of a report about the rest of the year, up to when we landed in this little corner of the world in November.
The year started for me with a last few weeks at the 'Office of State Revenue' in Brisbane. Two years there was more than enough, and it was time to get out and see a bit of Australia. We bought a 1994 Mitsubishi Express 4WD van, fitted it out for camping, and off we went, to explore some of this vast country.
The first stage was south, along the East Coast to Sydney and Melbourne. There are still some beautiful, unspoiled areas on this 2000+ Km. of coastline, but also lots of ugly development; 'brick box suburbia at the beach'. On a cynical day, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's 4 million + cities, are like giant sewers, where the rich float to the top, the poor sink to the bottom, and a lot of people struggle somewhere in between. On better days, Sydney is spectacular, charming and colourful whereas Melbourne is more serious and subdued.
About halfway between Sydney and Melbourne came the only (minor) setback for the year, getting hit with a dose of shingles. At first it was diagnosed as infected sinus but antibiotics did no good - it had to run its course of about four weeks which I spent in various stages of incapacitation at various places.
Highlights of this part of the trip were, apart from many beautiful beaches, the stay at Kangaroo Valley with some lovely people, and catching up with family and friends in Melbourne.