Goodbye Valentine!

We discussed what to do with the snake last night.Putting it in the fridge apparently would have put it to sleep and eventually would have killed it but in the end we decided to let it go.I wondered how subdued it would be this morning left in the plastic box all night...but it was not subdued at all and jumped at you every time you went near it. It was very aggressive for a tiny little thing.We drove about 2 km down to the river at Glen Aplin, Will wanted some sand from the river bank to make some plaster...there by the river I put on some gloves, took the lid off and let 'Valentine' go. He/She slithered off quickly into the undergrowth.Back home a little later I bumped into Mother or Father down by the dam. I was being very careful and looking for snakes but I still did not see it until it suddenly slithered off into the reeds. It looked brown to me in the instant I saw it but I could not be sure. I got Will to come and have a look and peering carefully into the reeds you could just make out its scaly skin. Will thought it looked brown too.It is all quite unsettling. Female Brown Snakes produce  between 10 and 40 eggs which are left to hatch on their own and the baby snakes are completely independent from birth.  I really hope there are not another 39 slithering about close by.Ok...the positive thing is it slithered away from me but it was very close to the house and the baby one in the house is all a bit too close for comfort. I am now constantly on edge and looking every where I step...indoors and out.We found a skink trapped in the bath on the rock. The sides were too slippy for it to climb out...it was lucky I spotted it, it would not have lasted long without food or water in this heat. Will scooped it out and it scurried away too.We had a very lazy morning...inter-netting and reading but after lunch I heard Will with the chainsaw. He was trying to find a pole to raise the roof a bit in the dining room as one of the roof joists is sagging a little...but in the end we decided against it  and tackled the sagging verandah roof at the side again.We had raised it by putting new poles under the corrugated iron...it was one of the first jobs we did at Frogknot last year. It was a good job then ,but it was still not high enough in one corner and some rain was still flowing back into the wall. Today we raised the corner a few more inches and then Will removed some of the corrugated iron sheets to allow access for us to release the roof from its supporting cross poles. These poles had sunk with the wall and were dragging it down. We raised the whole side roof and sawed through the cross poles releasing them from the sagging wall and pushed them up and fastened them to the newly raised beam. We are not quite finished but ran out of daylight and so we will have to finish off tomorrow. It looks great though and is a much better job than the repair we did before.As he removed some of the roofing sheets Will said "It's bound to rain now," and it did...but only a little. We need some decent rain now so we can see if it works.

Oh,oh! Chango!

I was just on my rounds of the house, closing all the windows, when I came back in the front door and almost stepped on a snake! It was just inside the door.Ok, so it is only a small one but it didn't half make me jump!Will did not recognise it so went to look on the internet while I kept an eye on it. As I tried to keep the light on it I noticed a little scorpion hurrying away too.In the end I managed to catch the snake in a plastic box and get the lid on...very carefully!It turns out it is a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake...the second most venomous land snake in the World!Its only a baby but apparently they are born deadly!

I thought snakes needed the sun to warm them up so they only came out during the day....wrong!Heck! Where's mummy and daddy?!!!!!!

The Granite Belt.

We are back up at Frogknot.The drive up was quiet but the countryside around is very brown and lots of the dams are looking low. There has been no rain since we were last here and it is all very dry. The veggie garden is looking dire, with everything looking wilted and shrivelled. We saw three euros (a kind of kangaroo) hurrying off as we arrived and suspect they are responsible for those plants that have been nibbled within an inch of their lives.The patch up job we did last time looks good and there are no new cracks, so at least there has been no new movement since we last left. There is some staining around the cob patches but we will cover those with another coat of whitewash while we are here. There were no 'little presents' lying around from any visiting rodents so that is good too.It is very quiet here...I am particularly noticing it today. In Brisbane there is the ever present whine of light aircraft taking off or landing at Archerfield or throbbing helicopters doing the same, the regular deceleration noise of larger aircraft coming in to land at Brisbane International, the roar of 'Dragon' trucks on the main road, the barking of dogs and the monotonous dove that can sing the same flipping song for hours on end!Here....nothing...just the ticking of the cow clock.Our address here is 57 Garth Lane, Glen Aplin.Glen Aplin is a small town just off the New England Highway south of Stanthorpe in The Granite Belt. The Granite Belt is an area of the Great Dividing Range, in the Darling Downs region of Southern Queensland. It is centred on the town of Stanthorpe. It is called the Granite Belt because of the large number of prehistoric granite rocks and boulders that litter the countryside hereabouts. It is also an area known for its spectacular flowers and this is the area that produces the $40 million apple crop for the whole of Queensland, from just over fifty local orchards. As well as a fruit growing area there are also many vineyards and wine tourism makes it a popular area for visitors. They are also drawn by the National Parks of Girraween, Bald Rock and Boonoo Boonoo.The Granite Belt is also known for being the coolest part of Queensland because of its elevation. Its climate creates four distinct seasons and the winters here can be cold with night-time frosts in July very common.Stanthorpe is 223 km from Brisbane and 811m above seal level. It is close to the New South Wales border. In the 2011 census the population of Stanthorpe was 5,385.The town was founded by tin miners and the name 'Stanthorpe' means 'tintown'...as stannum is latin for tin and thorpe 'middle english' for village. When the price of tin fell many miner turned to farming instead. After the First World War many soldiers suffering from exposure to Mustard Gas were resettled here where they took up the land leased to them.Stanthorpe today is a popular place to live 'because of its welcoming acceptance of newcomers.' (Wikipedia).

'Mission Brown' - Complete...almost.

The fence is almost done...it was the most time consuming of all the painting jobs this week...I ran out of the 'Mission Brown' paint...even after finding 2 old tins of it in the garage...the first one I opened was rancid and smelled of rotting cabbages and sent me retching to the laundry sink and the second was fine, which I used ... but that ran out too. Will brought home a new tin to complete the job when we come back from Frogknot next week...but from this distance it looks great.

Past, Present and Future Employment.

Today I painted the back steps and the furniture in the pergola. I finished when 'The Virginian' did at 2.30pm. (It was 'quite good ' today..according to our elderly reviewer.)I spotted two jobs at the local supermarket...one to join the Deli team and one for a Service Cashier...I have half-heartedly applied to see what happens. One of the questions they asked was:'Describe a time when you felt uncomfortable about doing something and what was the outcome?'I couldn't think of anything so put that I had been snorkelling in Fiji recently and was enjoying it very much until I realised that the water I was in was probably deep enough for a shark...I said memories of 'Jaws' came flooding back. The outcome was...I got out of the sea very quickly.Too half hearted?Oh well....we will see and if I do get it..it might be a nice change and at least I will be earning some money.