We are still here!
So…orry! I have been so lax in posting on here since our return. Must try harder!
Well, so what has been happening here? We have had very few weekends to ourselves with visitors or trips away. Last weekend we were in Brisbane for a ‘city fix’ and I’ll post some pictures from that later.
Here at home, Will is loving his new job and when not working has been tidying, mulching and planting in the garden. I have been building some new possum boxes, from sections of hollow tree trunks, as potential homes for the possums we want to evict from the roof. We did evict them a few weeks ago. We had to wait until after dark and after they exited for their nightly shenanigans before Will could get up on the roof and block up all their entry points. It worked and we enjoyed a few peaceful nights of no scrabbling on the ceiling and window frames or thumps on the roof from exiting beasts. None of these evictees, despite a tempting carrot deposit, took up residence in my newly crafted homes sadly but it is early days yet. All seemed well, however after we came back from our weekend away in Brisbane they had been busy in our absence and had regained entry. They are such annoyingly persistent creatures and we should have realised from experience that it was not going to be a problem solved first time!
Last night we tried again to shore up our defences after dark and two tried to gain entry between 3.30 and 4.30 am but were thwarted and retreated elsewhere, one to the old possum box on the deck, the other who knows where. We can expect further attempts over the coming days for they do not give up that easily.
We have finally had some rain. In the last fortnight there have been two wet periods, the first giving us 33 mms and the second giving us 50 mms. Things are greening up a bit and the levels in the tanks have risen but none are totally full as they were when we arrived back. It hasn’t broken the drought we are having and it is too late to save some of the trees hereabouts which have already given up the ghost and their leaves have turned brown. The downside of dull wet days means the solar batteries get depleted and we have had to have the generator going for long periods to boost our power and it is noisy and smelly and I don’t like it disturbing my peace.
I have had my wildlife cameras out recording and recently noted a new large black feral pig, a boar I think, which has since been digging up and turning over large areas in the bush and down the hill near the apple orchard. A doe with two fawns is knocking about and I think there are three different foxes that regularly patrol about. We have seen Eastern Grey Kangaroos up near the house as well as the usual walleroos and swampys. The black cat is still wandering about and I must get my act together and set the trap for that. I have had to rearrange the walleroos feeding station and have split the troughs up into three different sections to allow space between the feeding guests to avoid conflict and arguments and invasions of personal space. A swamp wallaby had been visiting a few times but had been chased off by greedy walleroos but the new system seems a bit better, however there is still one dominant female who tries to guzzle the lot!
The hens have settled in and yesterday for the first time we had two eggs. Will has named them all after Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses but it’s all Greek to me.
