life on waterfall road

2011-03-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

29 March 2011.Rainy day, grass growing, and weeds growing. Nothing new in that. We have had the wettest summer and the only vege that really seems to enjoy it here is the cucumber. The eggplants hate it, the egg laying chooks hate it, and even the mossies are leaving us alone. The passionfruit vine that did so well last year has had 1 flower! At least we have cracked fertilising the Granadilla , and have some fruit on that. And our chooks have been joined by a surrogate, a bush turkey babe that thinks she is a chook. So that's fun, even if she eats the chook food. I cannot believe the speed that the grass grows. Pity we dont eat grass---and ants! then we would be self sufficient.

2009-12-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-05T17:45:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-10-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is detail of Joe's painting

2009-10-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-16T19:03:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

2009-09-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-09-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

2009-09-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

2009-09-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-06T23:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

2009-08-02T22:21:00.001-07:00

Two of the prepared beds, good enough to eat!

2009-08-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

2009-07-12T22:16:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-07-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-21T23:53:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-07T21:14:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-06-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

2009-06-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

2009-06-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-13T23:06:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-13T23:05:00.001-07:00

2009-05-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-10T00:11:00.000-07:00

2009-05-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

2009-05-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

2009-05-03T20:49:00.001-07:00

PS The ginger beer brewing has been a great success

2009-05-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-30T00:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

2009-04-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

2009-04-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

PS , The roof has been fixed

2009-04-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Well, our girls now have holiday accomodation, or alternative housing. This is a result of the 330m of rain that fell here, making their motel just a bit wet. So now they can recline in the motel, or move to the new dry houst and run under the mulberry. As you can see, they, and margaret, are very happy with it

2009-04-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

2009-04-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

2009-04-02T00:19:00.000-07:00

BUGGERATION! We have had big rain and the roof leaks. Luckily we have not paid for it.

2009-03-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

So there it is. After weeks of waiting---will it rain today or wont it---the new roof has made it. Hard to see but it IS there.
The whole job took 7 hours. We are very impressed. Now we are secure, dry, and with 2 whirley birds to keep us even cooler.
The solar hot water system is too big for a small family---we produce too much hot water---imagine that, so Murray(!) is replacing the ppanels with smaller ones. He said we should have more baths, but what about saving water?

2009-03-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

2009-03-17T20:59:00.001-07:00

Its hard for a bloke to have lunch in peace here without somebody wanting to muscle in on the mango.

2009-03-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

2009-03-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

Just a glimpse of produce from our little spread. Envious?

2009-03-17T00:08:00.000-07:00

2009-03-12T00:34:00.000-07:00

I forgot to say about the trees falling down; we had some tree felleres in last week to get ready for the new roof. The palm that came down was dead and rotten, and it came on the house and the tank. I pushed it a bit, got it off the house, and then it looked like it would take out the tank and the tankstand. So we rang the aforementioned tree fellers, in a panic, but their phone would not ring. ( I think they are bits of cowboys, not that that has anything to do with not answering their phone,) So we had no alternative but to do it ourselves. So we used Billy's method and tied a stone on a rope, threw it, ( many times) until it got round just the palm , and PULLED. It worked. It missed the tank and the stand.Hours later, the phone rang; tree fellers. I am SO pleased we did it ourselves!
Now I am wondering about the increasing piles of garden rubbish.

2009-03-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

As you can see, we get some rough weather here. This blow brought down a couple of trees, so we have been busy on the saw. One, an old palm, came crashing down, to reveal a lovely possum in the top. Poor thing. It had to find a new home.
The girls seem a bit barmy. They run around in the rain and then stand together, with beaks pointed in the air, in some strange ritual, maybe warding off the storm spirits.

2009-03-11T17:35:00.000-07:00

2009-03-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

Talk about all go. Life in chook paradise has taken a turn downwards. Gert is being ostracised and is very sad. Talk about bottom of the pecking order! We have no idea why. We are very sad also about it.
Then, the tree loppers we have in are your proverbial cowboys. The jacaranda they were lopping so that it did not fall on our new roof, lopped onto the roof! Lucky it is still the old roof. The house shuddered and so did I!
We continue to expand the orchard. A Grumachina and Granadilla are the latest.
Tomorrow is Yandina market day, so who knows what enticing plant we will see there.

2009-02-26T22:08:00.000-08:00

Wildlife here is very interesting. Not just ONE big stick insect, but TWO and busily engaged in fornication on the car radio aerial. We thought a leaf would be a more appropriate bedroom. I wonder how many baby stick insects will result. ( 12 hours later and they are still at it!)
Also, a glimpse of our beach life. Coffee and surf. What more could we want?

2009-02-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

2009-02-26T22:03:00.000-08:00

2009-02-26T18:55:00.000-08:00

2009-02-26T18:54:00.000-08:00

2009-02-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

2009-02-26T18:50:00.000-08:00

2009-02-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

Another beautiful day. The garden is drying out, at last. I was worried we would gradually sink into the mire. We have had a lovely wildlife time; I was standing on the front verandah, gazing into space, when I sighted a water monitor, tearing down the opposite footpath, into our creek. Then Billy spent a useless half hour yesterday afternoon, attempting to catch a bush turkey, through the fence in Tammy and Mick's place. he had boasted he could catch it, so I offered him $10 if he could. I knew I was pretty safe.
Then there was a lovely python crossing our road, while Eddie, from up the back, stopped the traffic. This morning we had a whip bird, and the Australian king parrots are back. The yellow tailed black cockatoos also, are back in the big trees up the hill.
Also the frogs.
What a life!

2009-02-22T22:37:00.001-08:00

I forgot to mention this part of our family. They live the life of Riley also. lovely meat. But they pay their way, their songs are lovely and they are very entertaining. Pity about the poos!

2009-02-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

2009-02-22T22:33:00.000-08:00

2009-02-22T22:31:00.000-08:00

2009-02-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

These pictures are to give you a view of chook heaven. Today is a lovely sunny day, cool,(28o) with a breeze. It is three days after the flood but still when I walk down to the bottom of the garden, (where the creek runs, as you can see,) the mud and water ooze up through my toes.
Amazingly, there are no mozzies, but just irritating biting midges. We are wondering if all our new plants will survive the wetness. W e hope so.
The chooks are on a new regime. They had got very pecking , to us, so Faye, the chook lady said we are to not let them see us as food sources, and , also to biff them off with a rake when they come up to nip. She says it will take only a week. We have to be very surruptitious with the food, like food sleuths, which is fun. Margie is breaking the rule in the pic on the blog.( photographic licence).
The frog was on the plant by our back steps. We love it. There is one somewhere under the house that blurps constantly.

2009-02-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

2009-02-20T19:13:00.000-08:00

Two days of such hot steamy weather, we thought we would expire. Then, late yesterday, I had just mown the lawn and nearly killed myself, watered all the poor hot plants, when the sky darkened, and whoosh, down it came! thunder, lightening and RAIN! 75mms in 45 minutes. The thing is, the back of our place used to be a creek and , yesterday, it was again. The people behind, Tammy and Mick, had one big creek, into a very big storm drain at the back corner of our place, but they also had a smaller creek, which ran along their fence line the visited us! Lucky I had mowed. That bit of the yard is a swamp today.
But it was great fun. As Billy said, as he waded through 20 cm of water in the Woolies car park," This is what we came to Nambour for, Mum".

2009-02-17T23:36:00.000-08:00

End of another day in Paradise. Swimming at the beach with Joe, then home to the ranch. we now havea baby orchard; mulberry, pawpaws, passionfruit (3) ,longan, mango, white sapote, peanut butter bean, jaboticaba, barbados cherry, lillypillies galore, guavas, mamasapote, and bananas. Also a neem tree to keep us bug free. We also have a blueberry, and hope to get a finger lime and kaffir plum off e-bay.
Billy says we eat so much fruit that we will have no trouble getting through that lot.
I envisage a roadside stall!
The chickens have graduated to a resort style of life, with big yard, including a rockery planted with frangipanis.
What with Margaret's communing, and Billy's mouthorgan playing, they are well entertained.

2009-02-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Four egg day! We are on a roll!
Maybe that is because Billy has decided to take on their training. His idea of that is to move 2 chairs into their enclosure and to spend hours communing with them. Also, tunes on the mouth organ seem to help. He has also the idea, as you can see, that a roost in the tree would enhance their style of life. The funny thing is that they seem to enjoy it all. They have also decided thaththey like to hop up on us!.
What with Bill and Marg, these are high living birds!

2009-02-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

2009-02-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

2009-02-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

What a week. Hot and no rain. Lots of swimming. The water is 24o, which we love. The seas delivered us up a big pile of seaweed for the garden, for which we are grateful The car smells very sea-ish
We had more drama with the ever escaping Silky. She and Edie seem to work together; Ed runs at Silky and that gives her the impitus to glide over the fence. So everybody stood in the naughty corner and had their other wing cut. We also moved ther whole coop and yard, to under the Grevillea, near the vege patch. They seem to approve.
Margie had more drama; She found a very little possum near the back steps, looking very sad. We decided to take it to a wildlife carer, but when she went to pick it up, it gave her a good bite, and has not been seen since.
We are avid users of the Yandina market, and have found a nursery grower of tropical fruit trees. She is from the Obi-Obi ( what a romantic name for a place) , and we bought a sapodillo, a jaboticaba, blueberry, and a Barbados Cherry. So our food forest is doing well.
We still haven't heard from the mysteriousDurshin the banana man from Gympie. Banana Growing seems further and further away.

2009-02-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

Monday morning and it is raining again. I have just been feeding our butcherbird gang on the back verandah, There seem to be 3 adults and 2 very young babies. They are now rewarding us with lovely songs. I hope the kooks visit sometime. They are all about but not here. We have had some lovely birds. King parrots, black cockatoos and grass parrots, as well as lorikeets.
The girls are very haapy. We mowed the lawn, and the books say give them grass cuttings to rummage through so we did, 3 catcher loads. They were ecstatic, and still are. We also have maggots in the worm farm, which is a worry, and puzzle, as we dont eat meat, but the chooks think maggots are heaven. Perhaps we should keep them just for the girls.

2009-01-29T21:13:00.000-08:00

What a day! First, we bought a lovely 4k watermelon, put it on a shelf on the back verandah, only to have a gust of wind blow it off. Have you ever seen a 4 k watermelon go splunch on the floor? It was very funny. The chooks like it anyway.
Then , as I was getting lunch I dropped an egg on the kitchen floor. Joe was very impressed. all he could say was WOW!. The chooks liked that as well.
Then when I was washing up and looking out the window, I saw, Horror of horrors, Silky had escaped from the outdoor yard, and Spit and Tilly, the 2 mischievious dogs from up the back , were patrolling the fence in anticipation of fun and feathers!
Having got her back, the next drama was when we looked at the worms , they have maggots! The chooks like that as well.
So its a good day for the girls.
Now we think we have another egg.
As my mother would say, " aint we got fun."

2009-01-28T20:44:00.000-08:00

We have an egg. Small, but still an EGG!!
Who has done it is mystery but a good one. Maybe it's tha taste of freedom they had yesterday.
They certainly loved it.This morning they even came up to be picked up. I think Faye was tricking us and they were her old house mates. They are so pally.
We also have 4 new family members. 2 adult butcher birds and 2 babies, who come and sit on our back verandah to be fed. I can see that the animals will be far better fed than the humans. The chooks have high class mixed meusli ( at least that's what it smells and tastes like), bread soaked in milk, or hot choc, if Bill has any over, fruit, greens and any worms they can find, and the butcheys have first class mince.
We have not as yet got any banana plants, but we have passed the test set by the dept of Primary Ind. to prove we would be suitable to have a banana plant grow in our yard. Queensland seems to be the land of regulation.
The other funny thing is that NRMA have reduced the premium we need to pay on the car because (Lilyfield is so dangerous). Obviously Nrma bosses have never driven on the Sunshine coast. This is the land of cowboys. I never know what they will do. They seem to make up rules as they go.
We have to go to Gympie ( 100 K north) to purchase the banana plant so that will be a test of skill!
Today it has only rained once. It is nice change

2009-01-26T21:03:00.001-08:00

Tuesday and it has rained HEAPS. No need to water.I thought the plants would all grow overnight, but the only ones that have are the beans, the climbing ones that we have put around the back verandah. The mondo grass has all gone from there,( what a job) so there's lots more room. The really nice thing is that there dont seem to be slugs or snails. Perhaps they all decamped to drier climes. The girls seem OK. We will clip their wings tomorrow, in preparation to their " Coming Out". I'm not sure in what sense that is.
Silky is the bold leader, Edie,the talker, and the other two are pretty nondescript. Pity that.
Playful, Megan's Staffy dog, is pretty uninterested in them. So that's great.
Billy is off at his first day at Kev 07's high school so we are holding off on their coming out ,as he wants to be here.
Bill thought he would enter a mullet throwing competition at the local Aussie day celebrations, but it was won by a very old lady,so he had no chance!! Vive old ladies!

2009-01-23T18:25:00.000-08:00

I forgot to say, the funny picture of "stuff" is what's left of the 25 bags of mushroom compost Garry delivered last Saturday. We had no idea it would come looking like this. (We are ignorant) but people are very kind to us and just laugh

2009-01-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

You can see why it is called "Waterfall Road". Today is is either steamy hot or raining, and I mean raining! So, to plant the plants we bought at Yandina Market, we did it in the rain.
The picture of Billy is at Australia Zoo, yesterday, just to show you it is not all work.
The girls are not caring for the rain much and are huddled in the shelter end of their motel.
Tough being a chook.
Faye, the lady we bought them from, found us most amusing. She could not believe we did not know they will lay tiny eggs first. ( Why would we)?

2009-01-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

2009-01-22T21:49:00.000-08:00

Here we are ,three weeks at waterfall road and water falling everywhere.At last! Today we slowly steamed and cooked, so its nice to now just be wet.The chooks are in their motel, enjoying the outdoor aspect of their accomodation. Margaret says Edie is the most talkative, whileSilky is the boss .Gert and Dais, while having nice assertive names are bits of wimps.
We are convinced that the last owners had some strange habits. we keep finding unopened bars of chocolate secreted in the garden, and so far, we have discovered 12 steel springs in the mondo grass. Speaking of mondo grass, somebody who has lived here in previous lives obviously had a mondo grass fetish. There is MILES of it. As I am determined to remove most of it, I am developing MONDO muscles. It is very tough.