Once again we will be at the Festival with our famous Chocolate Coated Berry Blend Icecreams.

This year’s Festival will be held Saturday, 16th November with close to 40 Food and Beverage producers and providers from the East Coast of Tasmania booked to attend. Once again, the music program will be first class and, along with all the old staples such as the cooking school , the fantastic Vintage Surfboard Exhibition and other special guest appearances, you won’t be disappointed!

Gates Open :10:30am til 5pm with music through to 6pm
Tickets : Adults $10, Children 11-17 years $5
Children under 11 Free  

Spring is in the air and the weather has been magnificent. We are back in our Queensland gear – shorts and Polo shirts!

The new zoning has final come into effect so we have been working hard on getting our Development Application in to Council and approved as soon as possible. Now it is a waiting game until the finalisation and we can start work on the next stage in full swing.It is amazing to look at what we started with

and what we have now!

 

Plus the expansion of our product line.

 

The warmer weather has brought a lot of our feather friends back. The green grass parrots and the finches are becoming more numerous.

The ladies (our chooks) are starting to lay again and we are getting an egg a day from each of them now.

 

Our helper in August was Ashley. She was a real gem. Lester and Ashley put the new animal house together with lots of laughs!

     

We had a few strong winds that blew the greenhouse away so there was a major job in securing it so we could start planting our seeds ready for planting. I think Lester was looking at it as a man cave lol!

Our resident wombat is slowly recovering from the mange as we continue to treat him with the mixture the wildlife people gave us. He is getting very cheeky and coming right up to the shop at night for his dinner of nice tender green grass. He is a great lawn mower!

 

Our latest venture is setting up an online shop. We are asked so often if people can buy more products once they have returned home, that we have decided to give it a try. Keep an eye out, it will be up and running very soon. Here are some of the packages we will be  offering.

 

Frogs are starting to take over the shop area! It is great fun sourcing more and more different options for people to collect.

 

We love to help people get the most out of their holiday. Giving them a brochure to remind them of the places we have suggested they visit was becoming a problem as we were collecting so many brochures. We have solved the problem by purchasing a brochure carousel which is working a treat!

 

In preparation for summer we have been out on the property burning off any shrubbery that is a potential hazard.

 

 

After our lovely break in June we are now back into full swing mode working on the next stage.

Even though we started the month with a few frosty mornings, it didn’t stop work on the platform for the new tank.

We had fun the day the tank arrived. It took Charlie, Lester and myself , plus the driver to get it off the truck and down the hill to the platform.

We also made a start on clearing the drain along the road to allow the front of property to drain properly and dry out.

The main roads people came this month and moved the distance sign so that it was not covering our shop sign. Fantastic!

We bought a lovely little greenhouse to put the new seedlings in

However we had some really strong winds and it blew down to the lower paddock.

We have made a start on the plantings for this season and they are under cover.

Lester has been busy preparing the soil in the garden for this seasons plantings while the chooks look on!

The old wattle with borers in it came down in preparation for the next stage.

We had the excavator in to level the area where the playground is moving to when the new building goes up.

 

We had to move the retaining wall over and add some blue metal. It was all hands on deck.

The Solar hot water it just about finished. Just need a few sunny days to get it going.

We had to get a new washing machine.  Our old one was over worked!

We have had a little bit of rain. One of our customers thought he would take a short cut across the paddock – oh dear it was a bit wet! The trusty tractor was able to rescue him.

 

We have a few new frogs.  Some for sale and some not.

 

 

June has come and gone and so has our time away from the property. A big thank you to Dan and Julie for looking after the business while we had some time to get away and see a bit more of Tassie.

They were able to do a few much needed jobs around the place. Dan took down the fence along the road ready for the levee and drain to go in. He also put up the greenhouse and did  myriad of little fix-it jobs. Julie did great job manning the shop  .

            

 

The first two weeks of June Lester went to the mainland to visit his family and friends from the Village.

             

Once he returned we spent a couple of days in Hobart with Collette’s brother, Peter, from Jakarta before heading home for the East Coast Tourism awards.  We took him to Mt Wellington where it was snowing.

 

 

 

 

We spent time on the piers and in Salamanca – eating seafood and enjoying watching the horse drawn carriage rides go past.

 

We caught up with our friends Charlie and Caroline for an Italian night out in Salamanca

Although we didn’t get an award we had a great night out at White Sands Resort.

 

The weather was not very kind for the week that Peter was here however we managed to get to the Bay of Fires,

Pyengana Dairy and Cheese, St Columba falls,

Shop in the Bush and St Helen’s.

  While up there we found a frog band which now graces the entry to the shop.

We went to Freycinet National Park and did the Sleepy Bay walk

 

and the Lighthouse boardwalk.

 

Even though the day was not the bet we did get a break in the clouds and could see the entry to Wineglass Bay from the lighthouse.

It was too wet to attempt the Wineglass Bay walk so that will have to wait for another year. To end the day off we went to Freycinet Lodge and sat looking out over Oyster Bay and the Hazards for a late lunch.

 

On the way home we stopped in at the Marine Farm to get a bag of oysters,  mussels and salmon for dinner.  So we feasted on mussels Parmesan , oysters natural and Kirkpatrick and crusted salmon – delicious!

 

 

When we took Peter back to Hobart for the flight home we timed it to go to Dark Mofo.  The gas organ was interesting and the feast was crowded.

 

       

We had a snack in the hall then went over for a Greek feast in Salamanca place.Dessert was really yummy!

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On the way back from Hobart we stopped off to see Ian and Jan from Spring Bay Coastal Tours in Triabunna. They took us around their tour – amazing!

Finally home again and ready to start stage 2!

 

I have just returned from a couple of weeks visiting family. A lovely break! Our thanks to Anjte and Isabel for filling in for me to allow me to do this.

                  

Lester will be off to do the same at the beginning of June.

Before I left there was bit of excitement.

We had a large coach stop in for ice creams.

Anthony was our fantastic helper at the time. He worked into our ways so well it was sad to see him go.

 

Coffee in your pocket!!! We had an interesting discussion about coffee bags – the latest trend in coffee.

 

 

The birds are starting to return. The green grass parrots are making themselves at home – they are probably the culprits eating the few strawberries that are still on the plants!

 

The red breasted finch has also returned.

 

 

Not to mention a wombat has made our paddock home.

 

Life has definitely slowed since Anzac Day. The weather has been beautiful. Cool mornings developing into magnificent sunny days. The traffic on the road has slowed to a steady trickle as everyone goes into hibernation for the winter.

We have made a start on clearing the large veggie patch for the winter. Our small area of winter crops are doing well and we are already picking kale.

The flowers around the shop have survived the couple of frosts.We have only lost a couple of plants so far.

However the frost makes a magical start to the morning.

The frog in the playground is feeling the frost and looks pretty in a coat of ice.

The pipe into the tank was full of ice also.

Speaking of weather . We had a strong wind one night and woke to find the chook house had blown over.

 

Poor ladies must have got such a fright!

To prepare for next season we have planted a grove of lavender and spread a few rose bushes around.

We are now working on the plans for the next stage which we hope to get finalised in the next week or so. This will allow us to make a start on building as soon as the re zoning in our area is signed off.

The fence has had a freshen up with two new signs.

 

The solar pump is just about ready. Just a few more parts to fit before it is operational. This will be great and will mean that we don’t have to keep watching the level of the tank. The solar hot water has been ordered and hopefully will be here very soon. It was a tricky operation.  Adrian from DMS was very brave and went into the chilly river to place the inlet valve.

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Time has flown by at “The Frog”!

Since our last “Ponderings” we have had a very busy time with lots of exciting things happening. As Christmas approached we started to get busier. With the entry and car park looking so much better it encouraged little buses to stop in. We even had larger coaches of 30 stop by !

We decided to do the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival in late November. This was a great success thanks to our friends Lori and Graham who helped us out over that weekend. We sold 488 chocolate coated ice creams. It was great exposure for the business and a lot of locals now come by regularly.

At the same time we had a visit from friends Di and Peter and John and Irene from the Sunshine Coast. They helped out around the place with odd jobs and that was most appreciated. We were able to grab a rare night out in Bicheno at Sea Life Restaurant with Di and Peter

While John and Irene treated us to a feed of oysters from the Marine Farm.

Our helpers in November were Daniel and Nadia. They worked on painting the wood work around the veranda. It looks so much better now. Nadia was from Scotland and had never held a chook before so she had a ball with our “ladies”!    

November also saw the introduction of a few more menu items : – toasted sandwiches, Devonshire tea and muffins.

    

Also a new frog for the team!

And the much awaited kitchen appliances – dishwasher and new freezer!

  

Outside Lester got a new toy also – a whipper Snipper.

Oh yes and yet another few frogs joined us!

A few days of heavy rain helped us see where we need to do some earth works before the new playground went in.

In early December we had family arrive. Leilani and Julien stayed for a month off and on, helping out. Leilani organised the Christmas tree for us. We put it in the area that will become a garden and water feature eventually. It was nice to have a live Christmas tree this year!

 

Leilani had a great time trying to master the ice cream machine lol!

While Julien was a great help outside cementing the joins in the pavers.

We also had two lots of helpers in December while Leilani and Julien were away exploring the fabulous walking trails around Tasmania.

Julien ( another one!) joined us first. He painted the wood on the underside of the roof while he was here. A mighty effort!

 

 

Di and Stephane arrived next and stayed until after Christmas. They helped both inside and out.

 

 

Stephane and our Julien took on the construction of the playground. What a feat!

The worst part was getting the soft fall spread out.  Lester managed to do this on his own.  Good work!

 

The outcome was magnificent and greatly appreciated by the children.

 

 

Sadly the chooks thought they had been given a new two story apartment building for a house and started making them selves at home lol!  We had to put a fence up to keep them out.  Luckily Eric dropped in for a few days and helped out erecting this.

 

They weren’t really happy with arrangement and soon worked out how to get over it.  So we had to make it higher.

Christmas was a lot of fun! Leilani, Julien, Di, Stephane and us doing the usual feasting for the day.

   

However we did have one customer – we helped a coach out by opening for their regular stop around 11.30am They were very grateful as they had been to the National Park and it had been raining all day. So hot chocolate was the order of the day!

Needless to say there were a lot of new frogs as Christmas gifts!

   

After Christmas it was all hands helping out!   Leilani got into the cooking.  She was very proud of her zucchini Slice which is still very popular.

We have had heavy demand on our products and have had a few early mornings getting them made and onto the shelf.

 

We are pleased to be able to offer a broader range of our special recipes now and the shelves are looking good.

 

 

We had our busiest day 2nd January when all the helpers had left lol! Lester and I managed to get by rather well I thought. We had people lined up out the door from 11am until 4.30pm just rolling in and out.

Our outside area was a great bonus for people to enjoy their ice creams.

The car park was full, as well, for a good part of most days.

 

Our frog information has attracted a lot of interest especially from the children.

 

 

 

January has been steady each day. We have been selling cherries, apricots and peaches from a farm down the road. Bagging and sorting has become a regular job for our helpers!

Susanne joined us for a few weeks first.

She was a great help in the kitchen and a quick learner so was able to help keep things flowing when we got busy.

Barbara was the next to join us for a few weeks.

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We have become a regular stop for cyclists.  One day we had a visit from a group of 22 riders and their support team.

 

We have added curried veggie pies to our menu and they are proving very popular.

Lester has had a few good additions to the farm side of things.  His ride on mower arrived just before Christmas and the tractor a couple of weeks after.  Although we are still waiting for all the implements to come for the tractor so he can get on with developing the farm.

 

The end of January is just about here.  The weather has been a little unkind for the last couple of days with cold and rain however we are still getting a steady flow of visitors and look forward to a fine start to February.

The highlight this week has been the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival on Saturday 22^nd November. After a supreme effort making chocolate coated ice creams we sold 488 at the festival. It was a great day and a good opportunity to showcase the business and get to know some of the locals. The flow on from the festival on Sunday was very positive.

 

Another exciting development is our menu. After consultation with council we are now able to add some new items to the menu. We will be doing this slowly to get the kitchen functioning to deal with the extra load. So far we have added toasted sandwiches,

 

 

scones and Devonshire teas.

Still to come are muffins, fruit pies and vegetable pies.

Our products are proving very popular and we have been busy keeping up with them.  The Real Strawberry Topping and Grandma’s Raspberry Topping I use on the Berry Sundaes are selling well.  This is the latest batch waiting to be hand labelled.

 

 The kitchen is looking good with a dishwasher having been added to the appliances.

 

We also have two new freezers which were very handy for the festival.

 

We now have permission to put the roof on the veranda. I am sure that will make a big difference to things as the weather warms up.  The flowers around the area have taken off and are looking very colorful.

 

 

Around the property things have been slowing down a bit. We are now picking strawberries on a regular bases. The chooks have settled down and are producing 2 – 4 eggs a day. The veggie patch continues to grow with the addition of eggplant, rhubarb , potatoes and onions.

 

The lavender is starting to flower and makes a nice welcome for the customers

 

 

 We couldn’t get the ride on mower to work and the push mower lost the two front wheels, the handle fell of and the blades were blunt! So Lester has a new toy – a brush cutter/whipper snipper.  He is pleased to be able to get the grass under control around the building and garden.

 

We have had a few visitors over the last few weeks. Several of our friends from the Sunshine Coast have dropped in.

 One couple – Lori and Graham – were here for the festival and were a great help. We have also had two volunteer helpers – one from the US and one from Scotland ( a British – Chinese lass).  Nadia was a little hard to understand at first as her Glasgow accent didn’t match her appearance lol!

 

The weather has been mixed but still reasonably warm. This has been producing some lovely sunsets.

 

It cools off at night but not too much to treat our international visitors to an Aussie BBQ.

 

Lester is enjoying his roll as the front desk man. I sometimes wonder if we are an information center or an ice cream shop! However people really appreciate the information we are able to share with them to help them decide where they are going to next.

We have added a new frog to the family and he keeps the Pondering Frog company at the door.

 

 

 

 

We are just about ready to stop building for this season. The last two jobs to do are the roof on the veranda and finishing off the feature wall.

 

 

Our builder Charlie is waiting for approval through council before he can do the roof.

 

The logo has been added to the sign and it is looking good!

 

 

Our next project is the Bicheno Food and Wine Festival on 22nd November.  We will be selling our chocolate coated ice creams.  We are told that there are about 3000 people who come to the event and that we will probably need about 1000 icecreams!

 

 

 

The chooks have arrived and have settled in.

 They have already started laying – yummy fresh eggs.

The strawberries are starting to fruit and we picked our first berry.  It was soooo sweet can’t wait for the crop to really come on!

 

 

The vegie patch is looking good.

The tomatoes are flowering. 

The corn is growing.

 

We have a good selection now – potatoes, pumpkins, watermelons ,rockmelons, kale, rhubarb raddish, letttuce, peas, beans and snow peas – if the wallabies and possums don’t find them.  We have got signs up “Possums and wallablies keep out”

We have a new helper with us – again from the USA. Daniel is helping us until the end of November.

 

 

 

 

We took him out to Friendly Beaches where he saw his first wallaby!

 

 

The property is very inviting at the moment.

We had a huge downpour this week and just about floated away lol!                    

 

However it has freshened everything up. The wildflowers are out and the river is flowing well.             

 

 

 

There is a beautiful patch of daisies near the river.

 

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Our weekend special has become a permanent menu item – introducing the Berry Sundae with a choice of : Real strawberry topping, Grandma’s raspberry topping or Chocolate topping. They have proved very popular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am glad to report that we have now got frogs to sell – lots of frogs  – from pondering frogs , frogs in snow balls, welcome plaques, key racks, pin boxes, little green frogs, yoga frogs to windchimes.

 

    

 

The season is hotting up literally ( 27oC today) and we are getting prepared for the rush.