We have sighted our first snake here, so at last we feel like true blue sub-tropicals! It was a little olive snake, apparently a whip snake, going from one rocky area to another. It was very pretty.
We have also wrestled with a rat plague since we got back--obviously--when the cat's away---.None left now, I hope.
The days go on being hot and shining, not a sign of a rain drop. And Tony Abbott and That mad Nick Minchin say there is no climate change. The locals cant believe how dry it is. In spite of that, the bananas look good. Amazing what a weekly bucket of water will do.
Our four baby butchies are growing up, very adolescent though. They can still put on a "Feed me Mummy squawk if an adult is silly enough to sit near them. Still they are learning to be lovely singers.

here we are--returned from our amazing time in Shanghai. What an experience! Such a different culture from ours, and so enjoyable. A number ofaspects stand out, --Shanghai is a modern, up-to-date city, with some of the tallest buildings in the world, and at the same time the dominant mode of transport is the bike, either push bike or motor scooter, where people do the most menial jobs, with dignity, and where much life is lived on the streets, and yet there is a completely efficient metro, which even I could use easily. I particularly loved the organic feel of life-- I could buy all my food on the street, get a bike tyre mended on the pavement ( if i had a bike!), buy an SD card for almost nothing from a hole-in- the -wall shop whose primary clientele consisted of workmen from building sites, looking for a fag and a drink. It was also incredibly cold, and yet the city was full of roadside gardens, some planted with petunias, which, James says, are replaced each week, and where Topiary was elevated to an art form. Buildings would be pulled down overnight, and new ones built almost as quickly. And everywhere street sweepers-- with fresh brooms made each day from aboo pole and some willow branches, or bamboo leaves. The enclosed pictures show a tiny glimpse of life there. One pic is taken from James lounge, looking over the Pu river, which has one of the world's big ports at its mouth.

We are off to China tomorrow. What excitement. I have set up the most complicated watering system, in the hope that , if we keep having this drought, everything does not die. If it does, well, thems the breaks, and we will start again.
I have old hoses, rejoined to newer ones, systems connected to the tanks, in the hope they will just dribble enough to keep it all alive.
I have also deep watered all the new trees. Last night we were promised storms and rain, but what we got was about six drops. Just to tantalise.
The butcher babies have finally left the nest, to inhabit our silky oak. They are the most delicious fat bundles, but oh so hungry. Poor Mums!

At last we have had some rain. The place does not look so sad and parched.
We are off to China on Saturday and now we are desperately trying to find ways to keep stuff alive. I am quite reconciled to losing veges, if we get those horrible burning days that we had in Oct and Nov, before the rain, but really hope we dont lose our little fruit trees. The one most at risk is the tamarillo, it is very soft. I think I will leave a dripping hose on it. Lucky we have 4 tanks and can set up some watering. The veges look good, tomatoes bearing more than we can eat, and cucs,coming on a treat. Eggs plants and okra flowering on small okra to eat already. Capsicum, not happy yet, rosellas, just coming on. Sad to lose those.
We have also been busy trying to set the chooks up witha run that will suit for the time away.I have never realised before how destructive they are. I am terrified they will escape and do the total destruct. In their new run we have a mandarin ,which they thought they would dig up, so we put a gravel mulch on it---quite big gravel-- well, that did not last overnight. I was quite amazed at that. Still they do produce one egg per day each, which is pretty amazing.---Eggs coming out our ears. Our butcher birds are feeding 4 BIG babies, IE we Are feeding our butchies AND 4 big babies. I hope they leave the nest before we go. They will be hungry otherwise.
Our JACARANDA is beautiful--it may be a pest, but it is a lovely one--and the perfume, floats in the loo window, and over the garden. And the concrete paving is paved with lavendar. The bees get quite drunk.

This is detail of Joe's painting

This painting was done in the garden by Joe, who is just 3. He kept mumbling that he was painting rain!

These are the views from our back verandah, into the Jacaranda and the Silky Oak, which are both in flower. I have just repainted the floor of the verandah, as you can see. The verandah is really like an extra room. We use it a great deal. On Wednasday, when we got a big storm, our little butcher birds sought shelter there. They were drenched and we were glad to offer them s
a haven. The other 2 pictures are of one of the pizzas I made for the Yandina Community garden lunch, and the oven we cooked them in. It was a lot of fun, even if we did not really know how to manipulate the heat of the oven. The fire would have cooked a storm 24 hours later.
We are feeling the relief of the storm on Wednesday. 3 of our 4 tanks are full, and the other one is in need of gutter clearing, which will happen next week. We couls catch an awful lot more water. Maybe we will get some overflow tanks.

This is our " Lying down" attempt.
TITLE " HENPECKED"!
All involved loved it.

Well, the pond is holding water! As yet---but I am ever pessimistic.
We now are faced with another problem. We have a proposed trip to Shanghia coming up in november, and we are faced with the issue of having our chooks minded. We had thought we had it all worked out, but that has collapsed, and we now need new arrangements.
Why do people not offer "chook minding"-- or chookeries--- like kennels? There must be lots of people who need this service. I am sure our chooks would love a change of scene.
We cannot really take them in our luggage--they would not get through the security screen, and what would we do with the eggs on the flights?
Perhaps we could get the scrub turkey to chook-sit.

The saga of the pool continues. First we have an emptied pool, very sad that and a lot of work. Then we need to dig our the supposed seal, get a plug, and an expensive new seal called Sikaflex, and a gun, to apply it, and off to work. These guns are VERY hard to work, ( at least for me), and it took ages. Now , as you can see, we have a grey mound of Sikaflex,and --- we shall see.
Meanwhile the poor water plants are in a tub. And, as you can see a nest of baby spiders has decided to hatch. WOW!

A whole month since we posted! How time flies. We have catapulted into spring and summer, all at once, it feel like. 32 o days and then back to high 20s.
Everything has started to move, and last there has been a bit of rain--not much but a few rungs on each tank. I even had to mow--first time for months.
We are having a lovely time with the scrub turkeys. The other night I heard a racket out in the back garden, just on dusk, and there in the silky oak, which is VERY tall was a scrub turkey, -half way up, being chahsed up from branch to branch, by our butcher babies. I cannot imagine how it got down. They cant really fly that well, maybe it hopped down the same way.
The other major excitement is around our (projected) pool. I have at last dug out the hole for the bathtub, in the creek bed. That, in itself was a killer, as the bed is nearly all stones.
Then ,the issue was to seal the plughole. Much consultation at Mitre 10 and I came home with a product that you have to knead until it blends, and the stick it in the hole.
So that was done, and thento my advisors next step, fill one third with dirt and worm castings, water and then plant water chestnuts etc.
Great. Then, the next step was to catch fish to eat the mossies, and Bobs you uncle!
All done except the fish-- much going to admire all this, when suddenly , no water.
Back to square one.
Lucky we had not caught the fish.
So today it has been,---out with all the dirt and plants, clean and dry, and wrestle with the hole AGAIN.
Will keep you posted.( if anyone has suggestions, they are welcome!!)
The other big job has been resiting the chook pen in preparation for our absence to Shanghai.
They now have 2 homes, home home, and holiday villa, with nesting boxes an all accomodation. What luxury. Edie has spent hours removing all the straw from the villa,no idea why.
They lay four fat eggs a day, and I am sure that is because of their adventurous lifestyle.

P.S. The baby butcher birds, who think they own our back verandah, have just knocked a whole lot of stuff off a shelf!

The chooks are ever helpful. When I am loading mulch into the barrow, Daisy seems to think it is there just for her, so up she hops and proceeds to toss it off as she goes through it again, looking for tidbits. I put the sugar cane mulch in their yard, because they break it up nicely , in readiness for the beds. ( The beds by the way are pretty well all done, ready for the planting. Just one to go, and it still has the garlic growing.) I had a big job, moving rocks from the big rock heap onto the bottom of some of the slopey beds, in hope that when the water pours accross the yard in the great downpours we seem to get, it will not just wash everything off these beds, into the creek. We will see. Although the locals say it will be dry for the rest of the year, so what we mainly have is a drought. At least the grass is not growing. I have not mown the front lawn for weeks. We are gradually getting through the huge pile of compost we got from the dump. It still looks quite yummy. I hope the plants think so.
I also made a fireplace with the very big rocks, in the spot where I found remnants of old fires. Joe thinks that is the business. he put the fire out with a lemonade bottle.
The other picture is of the chooks drinking diluted worm wee, which they seem to love. Lets hope it does not hurt them.
With a lots of the bed preparation finished, and the new benchtop installed, I can get back to painting the kitchen. It will be marvellous when that is done. Then there is the big job of all the ceilings.

Two of the prepared beds, good enough to eat!

At last I am recovered from the flu, and back to posting. These 2 pics ( confusing as they may appear), are our new bench top, and, because the light was bad, a sample of the actual colour. Now I just need to paint everything else!

I have also been working hard to prepare the garden beds for planting. My advisor says I need to dig, manure, fertilise, dolomite, compost, and mulch. You can imagine that this process is time and energy consuming. I have one bed left to do, but it is still occupied with garlic, etc, so it can wait. Apparently I needed to do all this a month before using them, so that has been the rush.One of the beds was very slopey, and so I built the lower side up with rocks. Luckily we have rocks a-plenty, ( having been a creek bed) but they are heavy! We had a good harvest of both potatoes, even after the didaster of the floods, so thats good.

The brush turkey has decided to be on our feeding list, fancying the chooks grain.He has yat to pay for this in eggs or chicks.

Today we got our first sight of a lovely fat blue tongue lizard, in the bed I am preparing. We are thrilled.

PS It HAS stopped raining. Thats because we have the new tanks.

Welcome to waterfall Road sculpture and monument for the elevation of the chooks. A visit from Billy always results in more " entertainment" for the chooks. Billy is so sure their life is boring without the various creative objects he periodically supplies them, that our yard forever changes. My concern is how I will ever be able to replace these rocks in the heap by the shed. Still, he is happy and they dont object.

They do, however object to the latest feed I got from the Woombye farm supplies. It is strewn far and wide. No wonder the brush turkey and currawongs visit so often.

The weather is changing and so are the birds. More currawongs and Kookas, and fewer Flying foxes. I wonder where they go. The baby butchers are terrified of the currawongs, ( as I would be, given the disparity in size) but they ( babies )are faithful and hide on the back verandah, periodically calling us with beautiful song. I swear one would come inside if the screen door were left open.

Here are the lifesavers, all watching me! It's a bit unnerving

This is me swimming on 2 July, air temp, 8 degrees, water 19 . Guarded by 8 lifesavers!

Our latest visitor to the chook pen!Daisy was most upset and dspatched it forth with.

At least the Daikon and the hearts ease are happy. The jury is out on the spuds!

Who says we live in a dry comtinent. It NEVER stops raining here. We are all growing mould. Even the frogs have given up. The first lot of potatoes we put in, int he ground, just rotted, and i fear the no-dig ones will do the same.

As you can see, we have a visitor for a few days. She finds life on Waterfall Road fascinating, as it suggests all these possibilities for a change in diet----e.g. tasty raw chicken, and solar cooked pizza--- if she just hangs around long enough . Actually she has quickly learnt that chooks are not for eating, and neither are baby butcher birds-- and they have learnt she is not a threat. In fact they have learned co-existence in a manner that is a great model for humans. In fact, Play, ( the dog) come into the chook yard with Margie, mostly by pushing over a bit of fence, to check on the laying situation. Which is, by the way, four chooks--- four eggs. not bad really.

At last after months of waiting we have the two new tanks in the front yard.All we need now is Simon the plumber to connect them. The solar panels are chugging away, pouring power into the grid, and we are ready to have enough water to suvive the Sahara. So if the hog wog strikes fear into the heart of Nambour, we will be, as Baden Powell exhorted, prepared.
The chooks have just moved into their tenth run, an up market well grassed, hilly estate with mountain views. no wonder we are still getting four eggs a day.

Eureka! We have our solar panels installed and are now putting power INTO the grid! All we need is our water tanks and we will be set. Swine flu wont be able to touch us!

One thing for sure--Waterfall Road is well named, or maybe it should be "Rainfall Road". No solar cooking after the one success-- just rain and clouds. Lucky I have other things to occupy me- like the eightieth birthday cake I made Margie. never again will I look at iced cakes without feeling great respect for the icers. This cake took many hours, and then, in the end, I dropped it splat face down. Lucy the flowers stuck well. They just got pushed in a bit. never mind, it is a delicious cake-- Delia Smith recipe.

Today we have cooked our first meal on the solar cooker. A big day. Ever since it arrived the days have been partly cloudy or rainy. Today was a corker, so I put the veges in 3 pots and put it out, about midday. I was quite sceptical as to whether it was warm enough, so I left it out until 4.
As a result, the veges are rather overcooked! Never mind, we cooked them with not one jot of coal powered power. The solar panels are due to arrive, and we have the bases for the 2 new tanks, so we are pretty pleased with ourselves.

We are visited by these birds every afternoon. The king parrots arrive at 4.30 on the dot, announcing their arrival with a piercing Peep. They are beautiful.
The bkack cockatooes can come at any time. They seem to favour the big gums way up the back, but we often see them flying over all parts of the town. I love their plaintive cries. There is something melonchly and yet beautiful in their cries.

I just had to show you our first mandarin and the lovely flowers on the sweet potato. So like morning glory. Our potatoes, by the way are galloping. had to keep the mulch up to them. And the daikon radishes in the new no-dig bed look great. they are supposed to go deep and break up the soil. Alos the ordinary radishes and garlic are away. And the capsicums look nearly ready. What a lot of activity there is here!

Well, I just wrote a post that says " no comments'. I wonder why.
My post was about my frustrating experience yesterday; On the way to the shops we pass under a railway bridge, just before a stop sign. So we often stop under the railway. Yesterday, as I was parked there, along came a 20 carriage cattle train . ( I know because I counted). So here I was, with 20 carriages of beautiful cow manure passing over me, and me being quite unable to retrieve a single pat.I nearly wept. And to think they will probably hose those carriages out at their destination!
Thems the breaks.
On a more positive note, we had a beautiful swim at Alex today and the water was 22 degrees.
I hope to swim all through the winter. I will keep you posted.
Today was another mondo grass removal day. I hate that stuff! And so must the worms---there was not a worm in sight.

PS The ginger beer brewing has been a great success

Its all go here on the pseudo farm. We have extended the chooks' home yet again. I think they have had a change about every 2 weeks. Now they can run right round the shed, and up the swamp--creek area. This means lots of lovely new digging areas of dirt and old compost heap. They seem to spend their days digging in a frenzy. We are stiil getting 3 or 4 eggs a day. Still, their diet is A1. As well as that, the potatoes in the no-dig gardens grow about 6cms a day. Amazing really. And the daikon radishes are up in the newest no dig bed. Apparently they have deep roots and they break up the ground. Also, the ice-cream bean seeds are up in the pot, and the Wampi now lives in the front garden.
We are in the process of exploring water tanks, 2 more, we hope.
We have more sweet corn growing, but the carrot seeds are not co-operating.
The grubs have had a lovely time in the cabbages--now the grasshoppers are winding down, the grubs have taken over.
We also had a big drama the other day when a very big black dog appeared in the garden, about 4 inches from my nose, despite the new gates,apparently it had come in under the house. Well, it turns out it is one of the 2 big dogs from next door and it LOVES the taste of chook. Apparently someone had let the dogs out from their 2 separate yards and they were having a lovely time roving. So we put them back and tied the gates up. Later Mick and Tammy from over the back visited, looking very worried. They had come home to find 2 dead chooks under their clothes line. Were they ours? No? Then , according to M and T they must belong to "him up the back" who is most unfriendly and has already taken M and T's dogs to the pound on another occasion, even though he lets his chooks roam free and the gets angry when they roam in M and T's "wood". So, you see, its all go.

News Flash! Just to let you know we are , as of 6 minutes ago-The proud new owners of a Tulsa Solar cooker---made in India-- so the directions are--- interesting. Lets hope we get a sunny day tomorrow and we will let you know the results of our first cook!

How about these marigolds for colour! Today it was 9 degrees in the morning but these flowers just keep flowering. We want to show you particularly our old style potatoes, planted in a no-dig garden on the lawn. We planted 2 beds this way and one bed the traditional way , in troughs and hills. That was just before the big rain. Well, all the spuds in the troughs rotted---yuk! and THESE ones in the no-dig beds are just flying. We have to put mulch on every day to keep up with them. That has meant 2 trips to cane farmers to get the mulch. The first one, last Friday, was to Rodney's farm down near Coolum. It was a lovely trip and we got the bales loaded by Rodney and a road worker-- very friendly and nice. But the cane had just been cut and it is just big bits of cane and green leaf, and no good for the spuds. It will be good in about six months, after it has been rained on and rotted. So, on Monday we made an emergency trip to Neill's farm, as we know his mulch is so rotted we could eat it. He was busy, but his father, who, Neill says ,has reached his "use by"date heaved along with us and we got it loaded. ( these bales are VERY heavy). When we got home, and unhooked the trailer, we almost lost control of it up the hill beside the house, and nearly wiped out M and the car. Whew. Hopefully, no more compost for a while.
As you can see Dais is very inquisitive!

Many days since last post! That is because we had so much rain that we were washed down the drain and ended up out to sea on a raft. ( Or at least that's what it felt like). Lucky the chooks had luxury accomodation in the shed.
Happily, the rain abated and there are lovely fine hot days, so our next big project could begin; that is; the huge heap of garden rubbish we had accumulated, what with the mondo grass, all the cacti, fallen trees etc. that had sat beside the house in the alley, could now begin its journey in our brand new, shiney trailer to the dump. What excitement. Christening the trailer, and exploring the dump.
The trailer performed marvellously, and the dump is a queen among dumps. $6 per load of garden rubbish, and $15 for 2 trailer loads of chocolate grade compost ( on the way home). Yummy!
On the first trip, were lost the rings that hold the tailboard shut. ( we forgot to lock them), but the nice dump man chased after us and found them. Such attention.
Moving the heaps from the alley to trailer was in itself a challenge. Spiders, toads and a small snake had called the heap home. And worms! The butcher birds thought they had died and gone to heaven. In a couple of weeks we are off to a seminar on compost making, and then there will be no wasteful dump heaps, I guess!

Big worry. Gert does not seem well. We have no idea what the problem is. I think it is psychological ; she is ostracised by the others and I think she is suffering from rejection.
Nevertheless, we are going to put some condes crystals in their water. Lyall, the lovely farm supplies man, says it is good for their constitution.
So they will feel liberated with chook rights with this treatment.
Also, we bought dettol for the cane toads---not to keep them clean, but apparently it kills them. In the horrendous rain last week, when we were desperately making a new home and yard for the girls, I uncovered the biggest cane toad I have ever seen. Yuk! Cane toads are not desired residents of 33 Waerfall Road and their end is nigh!

Just a glimpse of the harvest already. We have only been here 14 weeks, and the garden was not planted for a few weeks and already this is the daily crop. This might be a mighty wet place but , boy do some things grow. It is fascinating to see what will "do" and what wont. the wormwood looks terrible, silver beet hates it, peanut butter bean loves it , as do many other things. We will eventually have a good idea about what to grow. The other interesting thing is that not much gets eaten, except the marigolds, which the grasshoppers love. We thought marigold would keep bugs away!
The Saturday flood has ebbed away, thank goodness. The garden just squelches now.