Rain for the trees & frogs

Oh it was beautiful! 50mm of lovely rain followed by a light show of 4 thunderstorms in the distance between Tumbarumba to our east, and Albury in the southeast, making the grain silo look like an evil castle in an old movie.

The tanks are in a much more healthy state, and the plants that made it until now are very happy indeed. The rain spurred some native gum trees to flower, as are the peppercorn trees, which are humming with bees again.

Speaking of bees, the Blue Banded bees have awoken finally, I was beginning to worry, but they were only sleeping-in.

We've been spending our weekends sorting the irrigation in the shadehouse, and now we've had a little rain, I feel more confident planting some things in there. The chooks will be moved to their favourite summer spot under the figs next month. Although I prefer to move them more often, they will most likely stay under the figs for the whole summer, because it's the most shady place available.

Yesterday's snake didn't even see us! Marty and I were feeding the worm farm when I saw a golden brown shimmer in between the dry belladonna leaves. I didn't feel very comfortable standing there anymore, but Marty finished up so I kept my eye on the garden. All of a sudden, the snake realised we were there and took off so fast in the opposite direction, Marty didn't even have time to turn his head to watch it disappear. It may have been the same one we spotted by the water tank earlier that day. That's a pretty popular spot, offering warmth of the water storage, some mid morning sun, as well as a quick escape route behind the pump locker. I intend on making the walkway there a little wider, less grassy and more visible, just in case.

The recent rains soaked into the land like a sponge, with not a puddle left behind. it's certainly given rise to some optimism and good cheer. The weather people are saying there's a high chance of another decent drop tomorrow and Wednesday. We're certainly hoping so. I bet the Peron's tree frog would also like some more. I hear it's call just the once every day, but we've seen them in the worm farm (probably enjoying a worm feast) and even in the chook's water buckets. I love to hear critters enjoying the garden, and it's been lovely hearing people on talkback radio say they're keeping their gardens messy for the frogs!

Oh, for ranting out loud!

Lately, I feel like the longer I'm away from society, the crazier it seems to be getting. I don't often get swept up in news on the telly or on the radio, or outraged by the latest issues. There's no areal for the TV, and I don't listen to the radio. It's pretty hard to get a good signal, so I gave up a couple of years ago. When I do step out into the "real world", it's a bit shocking.

Marty and I visited my Mum the other day (it's been a long while since we have been there, but she's moving interstate, and I needed to say goodbye). We saw multiple small trucks spraying chemicals, blanket spraying anything within a metre or two on the side of the road. That's a lot of chemicals, not to mention the money, and of course, those weeds will be back and they can do it all over again. No design, no plan, just keep doing the same thing over and over.. what's that the definition of again? Insanity? No, these days it's the definition of keeping the system going, people get paid, everyone's happy.

There are (big expensive) signs on the side of the road warning people to prune and clean up their fruit trees to prevent fruit fly. I have been asked lately if we get fruit fly by people I talk to when shopping in town. It seems to be on people's minds, so I imagine there's quite a campaign, although I don't see it. So, here's my answer.

NO! I don't have a fruit fly problem.

At first, I thought it was because of the frosts, but I think I'm not giving my local bird population enough credit.

Our fruit trees have been here longer than Marty and I have. They're pretty healthy despite neglect over the years, and produce great fruit and don't suffer disease. The ground under them is wild, with herbs, grasses, and mess. Some of the fruit decays on the ground and on the tree, year after year I suppose, for much longer than we've been here. Yet, still no fruit fly.

Yes, people around us have fruit fly problems, so I've heard. They've also got kids, dogs, cats and lawns. I imagine that doesn't leave much for the choughs to pick through, if they're not scared away by the pets. The choughs perform the functions of chickens in a permaculture design, except they feed themselves, breed successfully every year, and are well adapted to living in this environment. This year, the choughs have two babies, and they're spending a lot of time handing around the garden, turning over every leaf and stick. Straw flies through the air and holes are dug, it's a "mess", just the way they like it. You'd have to be a lucky fruit fly larvae to survive all those beaks searching for you!

The mummified fruit on the trees is taken one at a time throughout winter by the butcher birds. Horrible name they have been given.. I absolutely love them! Their song is something else, and they're so intelligent! They take a mummified fruit on the wing, grabbing it with their foot and transferring it to their beaks mid flight! I adored watching it from the loungeroom window. They then take that fruit and find a fork in a log or other such thing we've got lying around, and wedge it in there and peck it apart. I imagine it's quite sweet tasting! It's just dried fruit, after all.

I'm hearing about people getting into trouble and being threatened with fines, if they don't clean up their trees.. prune, pick up fruit, make it clean and neat. There's no way I'll be able to explain to someone "in authority" that no, there aren't any fruit fly issues here, that the wild birds keep the balance, and it's the simplification of our environment that's causing the pest problems in the first place. I can't express myself well when under pressure, so I feel like I have to express it now, before anything like that happens. I know it won't make a difference to the outcome, but I need to get this out there!

Spraying, pruning, netting the trees, mowing and cleaning right up to the trunk of the fruit tree. Those are the problems, not the solutions. Simplifying the environment, trying to control every single thing, and with our human brains already trying to do so many other things, what makes us think we could possibly imagine all the outcomes of everything we do? It's taken me over 3 years to see what's actually happening with just this one system here. This land is my teacher. Mother nature knows what she's doing. We just gotta stop trying to control everything, stop interfering, and get out of the way.

Sure, we don't get every peach that each tree produces. We don't get a perfect crop from every tree every year. There are at least 7 peach trees, so there is plenty enough for us to enjoy sweet juicy fruit in the summertime, the birds and other animals get more than enough, too. It's more akin to foraging than it is to an orchard. Sure, it's not a commercial venture, but it's not suppose to be. It's worked for probably over a decade, and continues to work today, and unless some "authority" trespasses onto our land and tries to tell me to clean it up, I imagine it'll continue to work for many seasons to come.

Springtime 2018

In my own garden-version of no-kill cropping, I have experimented with all kinds of ways to keep from ripping weeds out of the soil, while attempting to keep my preferred plants sunlit. I find my old hand sickle far too large to use between plants. I have tried my garden knife (called a Hori hori) but it isn't sharp enough to cut grass and weeds cleanly without ripping. I then tried taking flowering seed heads off the grass with my hands. That doesn't work well when the grass lets go of the soil instead of the flower. So, I found some old grass shears that were probably in a bunch of old gardening tools, won for a few dollars at a clearing sale years ago. They're old, but in good condition, although my hand is definitely getting stronger using these shears! There's a pinch spot you have to be careful of, and a glove is useful. The cut is much nicer though, clean, and accurate. If I accidentally cut off some garlic leaves, at least I know the garlic isn't completely done for!

However, I did leave it a little late to find the best tool for the job. The grasses are flowering and dropping pollen with every snip, which makes for a sneezing, eye-watering experience. Still, everything that is cut stays where it falls, and it's fast and much easier than pulling and ripping. It's quiet, clean (no dirt flying anywhere, no dirt under my fingernails!) and I feel better not killing.
On the other hand, I understand there's a satisfaction in taking out the frustrations of life by pulling weeds, and yes, the grass are annuals and are going to die once they've flowered anyway, but this way, a living root stays in the soil as long as possible. That's the main thing. I'm going to keep going with this and see what happens.

I've been keeping the mono garlic neat and trimmed using the shears for longer than the kitchen garden beds. I simply trim back the grass around the garlic, let the grass lay where it fall, and rake the leaves and mulch back over the bed. I rake the leaves and mulch back about once a week at the moment, because the choughs are extremely diligent (but not neat) about their bug control duties.

Did I mention that I added a couple of extra hoops to the shade-house? They're a bit bigger than the original hoops, which might need to be fixed before the shadecloth goes on, but it doesn't bother me if it looks a little funny. What is funny is when birds like kookaburras or ravens or choughs try and land on the slippery hoops, wings and tail waving all around trying to keep from falling off. Well, it's either funny or I'm starting to loose it out here on my own. :)

Speaking of loosing it, I am really glad that snakes can't hear. I think they'd be offended at the scream that I let out when I see one! Honestly, I can't help myself! They're so beautiful, and after I've screamed, I usually try and get a little look at their shimmering golden brown colour. Being an Eastern Brown, I don't get closer, and every time I see one, it gets away from me as quickly as possible, which is really quick!
Almost everyone I've met around here kill snakes on sight. It's not legal, it's not ethical, it's not necessary. Well, maybe if I sprout a tail and get really small and fuzzy all of a sudden. They eat mice, not people. :p

The water tanks are about half way full. The house tank is 22,500L (5,000 gal) so, maybe 10,000L (2000 gal) full, and the structure tank (pictured above) is 10,000L, so another 5,000L (1000 gal) worth in there. The structure tank fills up faster than the house tank when it rains, and I wanted to access that water for use in the food gardens before it had a chance to overflow. I started digging the ground with a mattock to bury the water line (important as the tractors and cars drive over this spot occasionally). I found the mattock to be .. well, I'm sure you can imagine, even after a rain, the mattock makes that dull thud on the ground and little old me didn't bother doing that for too long. I found the broadfork to be an excellent tool to use instead! It went in to the soil much deeper and kept the soil in big chunks. I lay the blueline in and rolled the chunks back over the top of the pipe. Easy, even for me!

And finally, in keeping in the spirit of being nicer to the soil, I bring you seed balls version 2.0. The no-clay version.
I planted some bean seeds last month. It was a bit too cold to plant, but about 4 or 5 plants are still alive today. I re-seeded the spots that didn't make it, but this time I encased about 3 or 4 bean seeds into a ball of worm castings, and planted the whole thing. Our worm farm has been doing really well and we have enough castings to put them to good use in the garden at last. I almost can't wait to see if it works! The castings should help give them a good start, and I'm also adding dolomite to the soil around any other seedlings that I transplant. If things keep going well, and we get some more rain, we should have a really interesting growing season ahead. With all the researching, reading and educational and inspirational podcasts I've been listening to, I've been looking forward to putting it all into practice. Still, it's only spring, and when the dry, windy 40°C plus (104°F plus) weather hits, this positive attitude could very well wither and die like the grass in the paddock. Speaking of the paddock, I had read that one of the best ways to mulch (we do it with the mulching mower on the back of the tractor), is to cut it before the pollen falls from the grasses. That way, green premium hay is dropped onto the ground before the summer heat. I really enjoy "mowing", and because I cut high, and the grass isn't thick due to the lack of rain over winter, it was quite easy to do. I cut less than half the grasses, and will cut a little more soon, although I maintain quite a lot of long, wild areas to keep insects and other critters happy.

Until next time!

Blooming beautiful August

It's starting to become green around here, as well as yellow, and white and red from the flowers that are blooming. It's beautiful, uplifting and gives me hope. It's the kindest time of year for the garden, despite the cold mornings, there is moisture around. I'm deliberately not pulling weeds this year. I'm partnering with them instead. Lets see how it goes!

Broccoli seedlings in a mass of "weeds"

Giving the plants I want an advantage, of course, but leaving the living roots in the soil - that's what it's all about. I've been reading "Call of the Reed Warbler" by Charles Massy, which talks about regenerative agriculture in Australia. Inspirational. There are farmers in worse conditions than ours, using no or minimal inputs, not killing plants, and supporting the soil life to make a living. True managers and caretakers of our land. He talks about plenty of farmers, but Bruce Maynard and his "no-kill cropping" is my favourite. :)

The wattles we planted along the fence-line are flowering

The almond flowers look lovely, but I planted the jonquils for their smell

I've been watching everything I can on YouTube with Gabe Brown in the USA who's keeping a living root in the soil at all times. I heard him talking in an interview about Colin Seis as being an the next big innovation, which got me reading about him in the book above, and realising Joel Salatin was talking about this stuff too when he was in Australia not too long ago. It's a revolution! :)

A local native fern growing at the top of the hill

So, given that I'm absorbing so many inspirational ideas lately, and that the grass is finally getting green and the local birds are singing their hearts out, it's hard not to get caught up in it all. The new bird for this year is the Noisy Friarbird that I can't seem to get a photo of.. but click on the "Calls" play button on the right side of that linked page, and you'll hear what I've been hearing lately. Along with the usual bird sounds of the Choughs squawking and arguing by the dam, the soft "alarm" of the Grey-Crowned Babblers, the squeaking of the parrots looking for nest sites (sometimes sounding like they're tearing holes in our roof to make nesting sites), the crowing of our rooster and the faint sounds of the Guinea Fowl from the neighbours. Sometimes it's so noisy, it's hard to tell the different birds apart, and other times it's so quiet, except for the hum of the bees on the almond tree flowers. The insects are starting to build in number, although they're all quite slow in the cold. Easy to take photos of, at least!

I feel a little bit like a kid, full of hope and optimism. I know summer is just around the corner, though, and I'm expecting a tougher year than last. The water tanks are not full, and it'll be many years before the shade trees help cool things down in the garden. Still, it's not all as bad as the news makes it out to be. We don't have livestock to feed and water, and for good reason for the time being. I really do believe that well managed farms will bounce back from this "drought" fairly quickly. After all, it's a natural part of the weather cycles in this country, always has been, always will be.

Welsh bunching onions x3 - finally looking happy

So, in my optimism, I'm continuing to plant trees in the hopes that they will live, grow, provide shade, insect and bird habitat, living roots and fungal networks and all the benefits that photosynthesis provides.

Until next time!

Warm Winter

We finished the plumbing last weekend, and as you can see, blue skies and lovely sunny weather prevailed. No matter, it means the joins have had plenty of time to cure and harden as much as they could before the beautiful sound of rain hit the roof this weekend. We were both very happy that it worked so well, considering the SafeRain is from the previous system, and is at least 4 years old now. It was full of silt (not surprising, since that's our soil type locally), and after a good clean up, it's back up and being used on a "wet system" this time. Did I mention it worked? I'm still surprised! There is water in the olive barrel again. We have a drainage line set up that empties the underground water onto the hugelbed area, so we can empty the system if it's been a while since the last rain, or (oh boy, I hope not!) need to repair anything. We have a couple of silt traps with easy access, so the water should stay clean in the tank.

I'm hoping this Winter still has some opportunity for a bit of rain, since it's been quite dry this year. No gumboots required! There's a petition going around for drought assistance for farmers. Our neighbours have been feeding their sheep since Summer. It's yet another reason why we don't feel confident enough to bring any livestock onto our farm yet.

The mono-garlic is growing well. It's an extremely tough plant. I dug these up and transplanted them from a spot in the garden that has had them growing forever - well, long before we came. It was planted in a row near the peach trees, grows and flowers every year, then dies down again. We weren't sure what it was at first, only that it smelled so good to walk past in Winter / Spring. Scared that we might die if we tried eating it, since it doesn't have cloves, looks more like an onion, but has no rings and smells like garlic.. we thought maybe it was ornamental, but the flowers look like garlic too. Researching garlic varieties, it looks just like mono-garlic, and tastes nice too. We're still alive, and didn't experience any adverse reactions afterwards, so I'm declaring it. :) So this year, I planted it in a long row in a newly made garden bed. The soil is quite terrible. No humus, just compacted silt and a very light covering of subclover, salvation jane and some onion weed. Aside from soil compaction and a couple of quartz rocks, it wasn't too difficult to use the broadfork. I didn't turn the soil, just lifted it a little to give it some air. The dolomite lime and mulch from under the peppercorn trees mostly sit on top, and leaves from the poplar trees has kept the beds moist. The white-winged choughs have made a mess of the neat rows, as did the apostle birds (although they're not as messy), and the grey-crowned babblers are enjoying themselves out there today. It's ok, gives me a reason to get the rake out afterwards, and it's probably a good sign that insects and soil life has moved in.

One good thing about having a dry warm winter is not needing to have the fire going all day. It's been so warm that we've been able to continue to brew tea outside in the sun. This is for Jun, a green tea version of Kombucha. Jun doesn't mind the cooler weather, either, so it's happily brewing in the cold kitchen. The Kombucha has been moved into the loungeroom with us to keep it going over winter. It's funny that they're so different, since I used the Kombucha scoby to make the Jun scoby. It took a little time for the scoby to become accustomed to the green tea and honey, but now it's a whole new colony and flavour which we're really enjoying. My tip for brewing tea outside is; don't add honey or sugar to the tea until after you've brought it back inside again, unless trying to coax ants out of your kitchen.

I'm off to start some microgreens growing again. Marty misses taking salads to work, and they're so good for you, it's almost a crime to not grow them!

Green n frosty

It's that time of year again, the frost that takes out the tomatoes comes around and I have to run around with a camera taking shots of the ice covering everything. The photo below is of the stump I use to peen (sharpen) the scythe on, and the strawbales behind it.

I'm not sure the mandarin tree enjoys the frost, but it doesn't complain.

Alpine strawberries. I really hadn't considered their name until just now. I guess it makes sense that they're absolutely fine with frost! It's still flowering and looking well.

Nothing escaped the first big frost this year, not even in the shadehouse, although the effect was less in there, the plants that are not cold tolerant just keeled over. It's almost a relief when it comes to tomatoes, since I don't have the heart to pull out green plants, even if their fruit hasn't been ripening, but now that they're black, I have a good excuse. Perennials that died are just going to have to be a lesson in what I can't have here. That included a lovely little pawpaw tree, a couple of ornamental plants, and succulents. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll live again in Spring.

Water and wood

Since we got back from our little holiday, we have been working on the plumbing for the rain water tank. The soil was so dry and hard when we started, we hired a jackhammer to get the trench down to the required level for the electricity to run from the solar command centre to the chemical locker that we're using as a pump station. Of course, it rained after we installed the electricity. Good thing that it was finished, but a shame because some rain would have really helped with the digging. Can't have everything!

We are also taking this opportunity to re-do the plumbing from the roof guttering to the tank. It's been going strong for 3 years now, un-glued, only held up by poles in the ground, but it's time to finish it properly. Not long to go now.

We got a little distracted by this awesome pile of wood that Marty arranged to be delivered. Oh my, this wood is extreme! The knots, twists and tenacity, it was very challenging. We learned that you have to chop with the growth rings, and not against them (ie: you can't split this stuff!). Marty and I were happily breaking it down by axe, maul and wedge / sledge hammer combination, one wheelbarrow at a time, but we were offered help by a friend from in town, and we didn't say no! It was raining a little as the wood splitting machine made .. uh, not quite what you'd call "light work" of it, but certainly made life a lot easier for us! The whole pile was done in a few hours and they took off to start splitting a pile for another in need. We're very grateful for the help, but also a tiny bit sad that we'll miss out on any more wood splitting fun we had together. There's nothing quite like the feeling of using all your strength and power, axe in hand, the satisfaction of getting a chunk of wood to come off.

I think this wood pile will last at least 2 years, since it filled both the wood shed and a big old wood rack we got an a clearing sale years ago now.. so it'll be a little while before we get to do it again. Considering the wood only cost about $600, I think it was money well spent.

One thing lead to another

Thank goodness I uploaded the photos before the camera app on my phone broke some of them! I think I've fixed the phone, but I completely forgot to post an update here. I hope you'll forgive this late post!!

It all started when we purchased a pressure pump to get water from our tank into the house. With Winter well on it's way, Marty was mindful of the effect running even this small pump would have on our even smaller solar system. We looked into options locally, and yes, we could upgrade our panels from about 500W to nearly 1000W given our limiting factor - roof space. However, we could get 4 commercial 400W panels to fit, and it'd give us a whopping 1600W of power instead. The only thing is we had to get them from Newcastle. It was either arrange delivery or take a little holiday there ourselves. We opted for the latter!

Of course it rained and rained, but it was beautiful! Driving for over 6 hours from the very dry inland, it wasn't disappointing to us at all. As you can see, we enjoyed the water, all the green, the moisture in the air, everything!

  

We brought the panels back home with the use of a borrowed trailer, and a couple of weeks later, our friendly solar installer did the hard work of getting them on the roof, complete with a proper racking system. The original racks were Z purlins and bits of old signage screwed down to hold the panels in place. We might have considered it dodgy, but they did hold up to the weather for over 5 years!

The system has been much happier since the arrival of the panels. The batteries get to float much more often now, even in poor weather. It's amazing to see them perform the same on overcast drizzly days as our old panels would on sunny clear ones! There's so much power, the batteries have all they want with more to spare, giving us power to to use other electrical appliances more often too.

So, we had a little mini-holiday to Newcastle, experienced staying in an AirBnb host's home, had sourdough pizza and spent hours with our feet dangling in the water.. and brought back enough power to make our new water pump run. Excellent!

Magnesium

Looking at the soil test results, I forgive myself for concentrating on the elements that are missing entirely from our soil. The fact that we have any magnesium at all lead me to mentally put it aside in favour of the trace elements of molybdenum, boron and selenium. Magnesium isn't a trace mineral, although you could argue that 0.043% is only a trace amount, and yes, that's how little magnesium our soils contain.

 

The bean symptoms were the easiest to search for online. Yellow between the veins on older leaves, brown spots, eventually dropping off completely. Unsurprisingly, their season is shorter than it should be. The comfrey leaves look similar, so it will be interesting to see what happens as the magnesium makes its way into the soil.

I don't want to use Epsom salts though, because we have an excess of sulphur in the soil already, so I purchased some magnesium oxide, although it will take a while to become available to the plants in this form.

I've also noticed a massive difference in my own health since Marty and I began spraying each other with magnesium "oil" and taking oral supplements. The "oil" is very relaxing, and pain is eased when sprayed on body parts that hurt (this can be all over at times). After supplementing with magnesium for a few months now, I'm beginning to notice a new found strength in my muscles, and my "energy bucket" is a little larger and re-fills quicker. Even Marty is noticing he has more energy at work and is less tired during the day. 

I plan on offering magnesium freely to the chooks, along side both their shell grit (for calcium) and the Livamol (for trace minerals) already available. They take the supplements if they want them, and I don't have to worry about mixing them into food and getting the correct ratios. I trust that they know what they need.

Fine ground magnesium will be added to the garden beds as they are readied for new plants, and I'm happy to spread the love around the whole garden once the cooler and wetter weather comes back.

I really like this quite from Mary Reynolds in The Garden Awakening: "By healing the land, we heal ourselves; and by healing ourselves we can see more clearly what the land needs to return to health."

Wet day timetable

Yes! We're getting some wonderful rain finally, so I stopped gardening in the shade house and instead took a walk around the "wood lot" to see if any of the trees we planted are still alive.

We planted some wattles and yellow box and river red gum trees last winter. Given how dry the winter was, and how harsh the frost was too, I'm really surprised to discover that we've hardly lost any trees at all. Some are even thriving! It's so hard to make them out given the mess the area is in. If I wasn't a complete tree-hugging hippy, I'd say this area was especially weedy and in need of "a few sheep".

But just look what "a few sheep" can do! At best, anyone else might say the land on the right is well managed for fire. No weeds, no grass, no snakes. I guess it's "safe"..?
The visible trees on the left were planted a couple of years ago. We could have planted a lot more by now, but we're taking it slowly, making sure not to suffer huge losses from one poor season, or an incorrect tree choice. We plant in autumn, to give the trees as long as possible to establish before the next summer, and their first watering is their last from us. I'm starting to feel confident though.. I think I'm going to plant a lot more this year. :)
Oh, and we don't spray anything or weed around the trees. Sounds like a complete waste of energy, time and money to me! I have a very limited supply of all those things. We used second hand tree guards, and old fencing wire as protection. I did buy the bamboo stakes and the trees (although there are a few home propagated wattles in there too), and I guess I did use a tractor to mow the long stuff down a little before planting. I do love the tractor, but as you can see, it doesn't get much use here.

I turned around for this photo of the Murray Pine trees. The young trees take SO long to grow up. The young trees on our side of the fence have been there longer than we have! To make matters worse, they're apparently tasty to sheep, and ripped apart by wallabies and kangaroos on a whim. We've had to cage a few from wildlife on our side of the fence, but they don't stand a chance on the other side. The same amount of wildlife pressure I assume, but on the left in the photo above, far too many sheep.

Actually, I think he only has about 35 sheep on probably about 15 acres if you include the grain silo land that your seeing here. That land has only degraded further over the years, while ours gets more diverse, at least in weeds. :)

But I love the weeds! Maybe I need a new sign for the front gate.. "Weeds Welcome!"
(That might upset the locals though)

Not that I've got anything against sheep! We'll probably get a few some day. Maybe after a few of the trees have grown up enough to provide some shelter, and after we set up water troughs, and fencing for rotational grazing, etc. There won't be any cute lamb photos for a while yet though.

weather and stuff .. pictures of the garden .. another boring blog post?

Well, weather does play a huge part in our lives. Yesterday was just cool enough under the verandah to make some cages to go over the planting trays. That's to give them protection from mice, which enjoy eating the sunflower seeds and new sprouts.

Mice are a fact of life, as are the snakes that eat them. The butcher bird found the Willy Wagtail nest and took one of the babies back to theirs for dinner, the second chick died too but the third one survived and is being cared for by the parents around the garden. That's their second clutch for the season, with four little chicks surviving to adulthood last time. I love living here and watching the interactions of nature around me. Some of the best parts have been creating habitat. The shadehouse has been a bug catcher for generations of Willy Wagtails so far, and it's only getting better, albeit slowly.

 

The tomato stakes were great perches for Willy to wait for a big juicy bug to go past, but now the tomatoes are taller than their stakes. Written on the description for the seeds I saved in Stawell, the yellow pear tomatoes (left hand side in the photo) get to 1.5m tall (and even there, they didn't grow that tall). They've well and truly topped 2 metres tall now, with green fruits and more flowers coming along. I hear the buzz of the blue banded bee, who are still nesting in our wall, but I'm so glad they're around. Those, and the huge orange and black wasps that drag large hairy spiders back to their nests in the ground (although one has made a mud nest in the bathroom, as have many other types of mud wasps!). Sure, we'll get the odd spider, especially the orb weavers that make their web across the walkways and sit right in the middle, waiting for dinner, or someone careless enough not to be wearing a headlamp! But I'll take that any day over spraying termiticide that lasts 10 years around the house every year (the local man doing this had never seen the big spider catching wasps).

Past 9 or 10 in the morning, though, and the heat becomes too much for me, and too much for many of the critters around. Cicadas call, lizards run and hide in the dry straw or dead plants as I walk past. If the wind is up, everything looks terrible, even in the shadehouse. The sprinklers turn on every 4 hours for 5 minutes at the moment. I'm still trying to work out what is best, but that helps keep the humidity up a little and the plants wilting slightly less during the day. I water everything in pots every morning. Almost everything in pots has a drip tray of some description, or it simply dries out too quickly. It's been over 47°C (116.6°F) under the verandah, the house slowly rising in temperature, but hovering around 32°C (91.4°F). The mud brick walls don't cool down easily, and the indoor temperature doesn't fluctuate much. That's really lovely at any other time of the year! There are still things we can do to improve conditions, they're on my To Do list, ok? :p

Something we did get done was to attach some reo-mesh to the side of the structure. I did want to grow some passionfruit along there, and I have two vines waiting for more favourable weather before planting them out. The soil will also need work before I do.. But the mesh is finally up! I took a photo of one of the better welds that I did. They're not all that good! So, we moved the tractors, moved the strawbales from one side to the other, got Michael's metal detector out and looked, once again, for Marty's wedding ring. It must have been over a year ago since he lost it. I've used the metal detector everywhere from where the strawbales were (he was getting some fresh straw for a chicken nest), all the way up to where the chooks were housed around the almond tree in "the orchard". We've found so much scrap, bits of fence and even melted metal, plenty of screws and washers too. Well, that day we found a slightly dusty titanium ring resting in the straw! :)

Marty's been working hard in town every day for the last 6 months, putting us on the exciting road to becoming debt free in just 6 more months time. Hopefully then he won't have to work so hard in the near future and can spend some more time at home.