Badger Galore
Staying ‘Up Over’ for a while.
Damp parrots.
So...in the last day we have had another 50 mms of rain. Up to 10 mms was forecast so it was nice that, rather than missing out like we usually do, we ended up getting more. Our tanks were already full but the dam has started to come up again after it began to fall in the last few days. The level is almost up to the marker we placed when it was the highest we have ever seen it. It was a damp, miserable day but welcome and the sunset promised a brighter tomorrow.
Sonic Adventurers.
So...today we headed out to The Piano Mill on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, just across the border in New South Wales. We have visited before two years ago. Last year the event was cancelled due to Covid and this year it was touch and go after a new outbreak of the virus in Brisbane but in the end the event went ahead.
We very nearly didn't go in the end because the weather today was threatening to be wet and miserable and our last visit had been slightly ruined by a moist and misty day but at the last minute we threw caution to the wind and set off.
The property is owned by the Architect Bruce Wolfe and his wife Jocelyn and the Piano Mill itself, a wooden tower that houses 16 old pianos, won a World Architecture Award in 2018.
Once again it was moist and misty but apart from one shower we were able to wander umbrella free.
It was a sell out ticketed event and the guests, divided into groups, rotated around seven venues about the site to encounter and witness short musical performances. Most were outdoors amongst the woodland but for a couple we were masked and seated indoors.
It's all very 'avant garde' and mostly improvised and I am afraid I wander about trying not to smirk in bewildered amusement. I half wonder if the joke is actually on those who pay to observe and some of the performers attempt to see how ridiculous they can be before their serious faced audience.
Ah well, I am still glad we decided to venture out for the afternoon, though once again we left during the actual final Piano Mill performance to beat the rush of cars out of the gate. We are sadly not the kind of people who can listen to 16 out of tune pianos 'plink plonk' for 45 minutes while some elderly Eurythmist dressed in bright blue and with bellows on the soles of her shoes flops about waving her arms wildly.
It's definitely out of the ordinary and a bemusing experience.
But, before we leave it...behold this...
Plenty of precipitation.
So....yesterday and through the night we had 93 mms of rain and another 43 mms so far today. The dam has come up quite a bit but has not yet reached our second highest marker that we placed after the first big rain following the drought earlier last year.
We are hearing rumours that in just a day Storm King Dam has gone from 25% full to 100% and is about to start spilling. If true, that is incredible and will surely mean that the town's water restrictions will be over.
This morning the Severn River down at Glen Aplin was still just large, seperate pools but this afternoon, at 3.30 pm, it was flowing again. That is the first time in over a year.
The New England Highway, to the south of us, at Ballandean is closed because of flooding and Ballandean resembles a lorry park with trucks unable to continue south for the moment.
It is looking like it has passed over us now and is heading east down to the coast and out to sea. Tracy, down on the Clarence, is already cut off and is expecting the river to rise to its highest tonight. We are hoping it doesn't cross the road and flood under her house and garden.
I ran our neighbour's boys to the school bus this morning as both their parents had early starts today for work. A wattle tree had come down by the road and we had to clear another branch off the road to get out. Not long after we got home another wattle tree fell over right by Blue Moon but Will and I never heard a thing. It almost flattened our silkies coop.
We caught a rat in one of our traps last night and Will was going to release it on his way to work but forgot and left without it. I put the trap in the car and set off down the road a little later to release it way down the hill but found another wattle tree had fallen over the road and I couldn't get out. I had to drive back up the hill to get the chainsaw then back down again to cut it up. I let the flippin' rat go at the end of the lane and then drove back up to the house. I was already soaked from cutting up the wattle tree in the rain so set about cutting up the other two that had fallen over up the hill. I needed windscreen wipers on my glasses. As I was wielding the chainsaw I marvelled at how my life has changed since moving here.
We removed the two young, rampant roosters from Fort Yudhisthira tonight. I was sick, and I am very sure those poor hens are, of watching them chase and jump on our elderly girls. They have been moved to 'Death Row'.
Their end is nigh.
More precipitation!
So...it has practically rained all day today and tomorrow is supposed to be even wetter. Our tanks are all overflowing and we can now only hope that the dam fills up.
At least all this rain might finally ease the water restrictions in Stanthorpe a little.
Jnr was back tonight, sat above the door with a wet tail looking for some carrot.
A Giant Wood Moth was also sheltering under the deck. It was almost as big as my hand!
Precipitation, plagues, pandemics and possums.
So...there has been quite a lot of rain in recent days along the eastern coast of New South Wales to the south east of us. So much so that some areas are experiencing flooding unlike anything seen since 1961. Just over a year ago these areas were tinder dry and ablaze with unprecedented bush fires. Areas of inland New South Wales are also currently suffering with a mouse plague and then we have the ongoing pandemic too. It all seems a bit 'End of Days-ish' but thankfully life here at Frogknot continues to be undramatic. We have had some rain on and off in the last few weeks, though never as much as they predict, but after pumping water between our collection tanks have managed to almost fill them all.
We have been doing some more building recently, a new car port next to Blue Moon House, (I will post some pictures soon.)
We have had possum visitors every night. Mostly it's Jnr who has been occupying the deck Box but recently he has been joined by Galore and a few times they have spent the day sleeping together in the deck Box.
Tonight Jnr was oddly absent but Galore visited with another unknown possum. The stranger was more wary but did take some carrot from me.
Here are Pacha and her nine chicks...she still mothers them even though they are as big as she is now. That's her standing in the middle.
We now have a flock of 20, though two of Izanami's three chicks from last year turned out to be rampant roosters and are soon destined for the pot.
Our two Silkies have been granted access to the inner sanctum of the garden as they were definitely regarded as 'outsiders' by the others and bullied. For now they live hassle free around Blue Moon. The one who seemed to have the crooked neck at first is much improved and is a female we have named Quanyin. The other has turned out to be a rooster and we have named him Yushen.
His crowing is a bit high pitched and annoying.