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.