Big catch up

We've had a very very long autumn here, the summer heat was gone by February and by March things were downright wet in comparison. Trees, shrubs and grass all began to green up and even flower. Fruit trees threw a few flowers out just to give the bees and bugs a little extra food before winter arrives. The drought had been so depressing, but I ordered a few more plants for the garden that are suppose to be extra tough. Mostly succulents. The rain inspired me to get into the garden again and I'm so glad I did.

Volunteer silverbeet, chard, and sunflowers among the perennials

Succulent and cacti raised garden

How green the kitchen garden looks!

The chickens then surprised me when a broody chook showed off her new chicks. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had no idea anyone was sitting. One of the chicks was hatched out a couple of days later than the others and wasn't ready to be up and about just yet.. so I took him inside and warmed him up with hot water bottles.

Hot water bottles, a Styrofoam box, a little fish tank and a lot of old towels.

Little chick just needed a bit more time and warmth.

Sometimes little chick just needed some love.

That was 4 weeks ago, and as I hoped, you can't tell which one of the little boys that chick is now! He went back outside with broody after 2 days and one (tiring) night of re-filling hot water bottles and monitoring temperatures.

This is their mobile broody pen in the pasture, it gets moved almost daily now, and they've grown up so fast. The two boys will stay in the pen, while the broody and two female chicks will be joining the main flock later on when they're ready.  The pen is actually Squeak's old aviary with round metal poles welded to the bottom of it so it can be dragged around more easily.

Broody pen on pasture.

All the rain also encouraged us to do some chimney maintenance, and we replaced the caps on the chimneys with concrete. The mud worked fine for years, but had begun to crack and let moisture in. It also made a mess of the gutters as sand and clay collected in them. Hopefully it'll be many years before we need to go climbing onto the roof again now.

Ticking more projects off the list, the tractor's breaks have been pretty bad since we got it. We'd purchased new breaks years ago now, but hadn't gotten around to doing anything about it. Originally, it took all my weight and effort to stop the tractor, which improved a little after we adjusted the breaks to as far as they could be adjusted. Recently, however, the breaks have begun working rather too well. I only need lightly press them and they stopped the tractor with a jerk. That's just not right and had me worried something odd was going on.

I had read about a deep ripper being helpful with tree planting and water penetration in compacted soils, and decided to try out our cheap second-hand clearing-sale find of a deep ripper, but noticed that the wheels of the tractor weren't behaving normally. One was spinning just moving the tractor without the implement! We decided now was the time to check out the breaks.

One of the breaks, before we fixed them.

It took some effort to get them off, since the fenders and even the ROPS (rollover protection) had to be disassembled to access them. Turns out they had nothing left on them, and one was even broken. We cleaned everything up, installed the new pads and the rubber boot to stop dirt and seeds getting in the housing again.

Marty under the A414.

Next job will be to adjust the breaks, which involves jacking up the entire rear of the tractor and running it in gear! Hopefully once that's done (this weekend) we will be able to get to the job of deep ripping some of the wood lot on contour and then planting out some more trees for this season. We lost last year's trees, but the previous years trees are all looking healthy and are taller than we are.

Finally, a little renovation inspired by a couple of less than ideal night's sleep, thanks to a tiny little micro bat invading the bedroom in the night. It somehow made it's way into the canopy of the mosquito net (clearly not effective against micro bats!), flapping about and waking me up.. we got up and opened the back door and it flew out the door without us having to do anything else. After it happened again yesterday, Marty prodded me to have a look for any gaps in the bedroom. Oh yeah, there were gaps!

West wall - before.

West wall - after.

North wall - before.

North wall - after.

The skirting board had come away completely behind the biggest cupboard we have in the bedroom, I sure hope the bats came in that way! It wasn't too difficult to re-attach the board, and I plastered the gaps with gypsum-based plaster. The room feels different now, quieter.. I noticed the temperature in the room is noticeably warmer, which is nice because haven't started the wood heater yet this season.

We're otherwise doing ok, mostly unaffected by the crazy world going on outside. The only change has been that the local pub has been forced to close, so with that, we're no longer cleaning it. Marty has been working as usual, and we don't tend to go out much otherwise. We've been shopping for the few essentials at the local IGA's (small independent supermarkets) instead of going in to Wagga Wagga and the big supermarkets there. Our butcher continues to supply us with beautiful hind-quarters of beef about monthly, and we have been enjoying kidney, liver and heart as well. I credit eating as well as we possibly can to getting over the 3 week long, but mild illness we both developed early March.

I'm hopeful we'll get many more projects complete in the near future and that the world will get back to the good old normal very soon too.

The weird and the wonderful

Lace Monitor

Lace Monitor tracks

I don't even know what to say about this. All I could say at the time was "WOW!" I heard it walking around the cottage just as I was eating lunch. Needless to say, it was a cold lunch by the time I got back to it.

It was a beautiful lace monitor. Or goanna if you like. Of course, you can click on the pictures to make them larger. Around here, goannas have a yellow band on the tail, and it seemed to be searching for something good to eat. The Noisy Miners made sure everyone around knew exactly where it was, and our rooster alerted in a hushed tone. It didn't have any problems going under the electric chook fence, but luckily that fence doesn't have anything living in there (and the fence isn't "live" either). It didn't find the main flock with the day's eggs and two broodies with the single little chick they're mothering. Either that, or it wasn't worth the trouble.

The chimney has been pointed a bit, well, the biggest holes have been filled by a lime mortar mix. I think it was only a mud mix used previously, so I guess it's an upgrade. More mud has gone on the walls to help fill some of the holes left over from the concrete plaster falling off. The incidence of blowfly getting into the kitchen has dramatically reduced as a result. Well worth the effort. There's more to do, of course, but there's always more!

Mid October 2017

Fungus on the strawbale

Calendula
with native bee and spider

After a fairly dry winter, there isn't a lot of green growth on the plants, but lots of flowers none the less. A lot of grass pollen, which is causing our hayfever, the purple flowers from the wild Salvation Jane, yellow from the Cats Ear and plenty of white flowers on the radish we grew.

Willy Wagtail egg splat!

Grapevine moth
(Phalaenoides glycinae)

An odd thing happened this morning. Two Willy Wagtail's were singing while sitting on the fairy lights under the veranda, when I heard the splat of a little egg hitting the step. There are no nests or anything above.. Nature is just weird sometimes.

The heat of the Summer

It's difficult to write a post and not mention the hellish weather we have been experiencing the last couple of days. We reached a new record under the varandah area yesterday, hitting a very uncomfortable 46°C (115°F). The house temperature rose to 34°C (93°F) and didn't drop more than 2°C degrees overnight. Grumpiness is only to be expected on these mornings!
Sadly, one of our older Dorking chickens didn't survive the hot weather even the day before.
Our brave broody hen, Toupee the naked-neck, hatched out one baby chick nearly 2 weeks ago (happened to be another 40°+ day with horrible northerly winds), so it's already a tough little chick who is accustomed to hot weather. He or she is keeping cool with no neck feathers (from Mum) and running around on 5 toes (from the Dorking Dad).

Having a bee in our bonnets again about rodents living in our walls (it's a theme continued over from living in the old miner's cottage in Stawell), we pulled down the false walls in the alcove area. The framework needs to remain in place for a little while yet.

Yes, we cleaned up nest sites and all manner of mess. There was a little render left on the walls, and the plinth over the doors are concrete painted white. The walls look in very good condition and we'll protect them with render again real soon.

Marty and I braved a clearing sale or two, brought home this neat meat-safe. It's in need of repair, but we're thinking it'd make a good fruit drying safe. Just need to figure out the best way to put racks in there..

And my favourite part, first thing in the morning, just as the sun is rising, I water the shade house. It's beautiful and green in there, probably THE best spot on the whole property. It attracts plenty of insects, to be sure, but in turn, the Willy Wagtails and more recently, the Grey Shrike Thrush have figured out that the buffet is free. We've seen frogs on the shadecloth and in saucers of water in the evenings, and the strong north winds are effectively blocked by the house and water tank. It's the ideal spot. I took a chance and planted beans directly in the soil on the south side of a row of straw bales and now we're getting a yield! The same beans planted in the kitchen garden have long since gone. Infact, the kitchen garden gets almost as much attention as the shade house does (although, I do raise seedlings in here, so they get attention twice a day), yet the kitchen garden is struggling to survive, let alone produce much food. There are plans for "Shade House Ver. 2" in the near future.. definitely before next summer!

In the meantime, we're keeping the humidity up with a wet towel in front of the fan. It's 34°C inside still, so I can't say we're keeping cool, but it's a lot more comfortable than being outside! It's easy to forget some simple measures to keep cool, so here's a link to an ABC article as a reminder!

Stay alive. :)

Unexpected progress

What a crazy month it's been! The cooler weather means we've been working a bit harder than usual to get some things done. All that came to a halt when a few mice found their way inside the cottage. Absolutely unacceptable! Haha, we did the same thing in the Old Miners Cottage, ripping apart things because of mice, and here is no exception. We took off the skirting board where the mouse hole was located..

And plastered it all up in lime before re-attaching the board.

It's been so long since we plastered, I had to look up the recipe again (our old blog came in handy)!
Problem solved, and no mice since. Phew.

Another unexpected priority was the wood rack. We knocked one up using old star pickets and a welder. I think we're finally getting the hang of this stuff! It was unexpected because we suddenly found ourselves needing the extra space under "the structure" (the car-port type thing we made) for a chance buy at a clearing sale recently...

I still can't believe I won the little Kubota with a front end loader and backhoe! Swales, earth works and pads for water tanks here we come!! Well.. right after we give her the old grease and oil change, and fix the hydraulic leak in one of the spreader arms. Sounds so simple. Ha. :) Anyway, the wood rack held all the wood that was sitting where the Kubota tractor is now. Given our "beginner" status as welders, I'm really surprised that it's holding up so well.

The new shed/workshop is making progress thanks to our good friend Anthony from the Permie group. This is gunna be great!!

We were given a lesson in mud from another Permie group friend, Dick. The mix needs a bit more sand, but the idea is there! It just goes to show how much clay content our local soil has! It shouldn't be too difficult to do the rest of the house.. it's just a matter of time now.

Yesterday we made a mud mix for the chimney tops, and did our yearly maintenance. The mud up there looked pretty good, but it got a top-up anyway. We've given the caps a lime wash so hopefully they cope with the weather even better than last year. The chimney's are clear and ready for another winter.

There was a bit of mud left over after fixing the chimney caps, so I filled in some holes on the North wall of the cottage, and also made a start on the cob walls of the tool shed. One layer down, many many more to go!

I added more straw and made a cob mix, and it's very strong with no cracks. It's a cute little project, but not a priority.

Next jobs include adding more storage capacity to the wood rack, working on / fixing the Kubota, and continuing the workshop construction. Unless something else unexpected comes up, and that happens a lot around here.

Pondering and Planning

Project progress has slowed down lately. Probably due to the hot weather and the flies making it unpleasant to be outside. Instead we've been spending our time thinking and planning. We have many of our ideas scribbled down on a printed out Google map of the property, and it gets added to all the time. Sometimes I pull the map out and realise that we had the placement of something we've been wondering about already on the map! Oops, forgot about that.

When we started thinking about the shed project again - the half finished one that's stalled - it became obvious that we've squeezed ourselves into a confined area and it's just not going to work. The shed project has stalled because we're not feeling sure about the design or the location. It's an uncomfortable feeling that's just not going away!

So, pulling out the map of the property, there really is only one spot near the house that hasn't been ear-marked for other great things.. the North side of the house. The North is a tricky location, but after pondering it for some time, we've seen that it would make a perfect location for the shed of our dreams.

There's enough room to fit the cars, tractor, implements, materials storage and even the workshop all in that one location. Not only that, but the roof would have enough room (and is facing the correct direction) for a proper solar array. There is no more room on the cottage's roof for any more panels, and it means we can plant deciduous trees around the house to benefit from their shade. We could even put the solar command centre and batteries in there.

So, location sorted, design almost perfected, we're waiting on our friend and neighbour to dig out the pad nice and level. I think Marty is going to order the materials tomorrow. We're both feeling energised by the new design and location - which has to be a good sign. Yes, I have a good feeling about this!

The other plan I've been thinking about is the kitchen. I needed to figure out the rough layout of the room so we can have 240V power installed to the correct location. I used Sweet home 3D and a tape measure and given all the constraints, it was easy to fit the the pieces of the puzzle together.

That's the rough plan for now. It's difficult to show it properly without being able to move it around, but the idea is that we'll wall off part of the kitchen to create a big cold cupboard/pantry that also houses a little chest freezer. The cold pantry will be full of shelves for storage of food etc.

The rest of the kitchen had to go where it will fit. The oven is a representation rather than a real thing.. the sink will hopefully be a corner sink, and the yellow and pink represent cupboards we already own and didn't want to get rid of. We'll put any 240V appliances on them in that corner. We've always wanted to cut a window into the North wall.. and no, the walls won't look like that at all! Ha! But you get the idea..?

So, other than planning, our time has been taken up with gardening, mowing, working and going into town.

We're feeling a bit more confident going forward with good plans in place. :)

Not too slack

It's nice weather for sun baking..

..but we've been busy with the solar system this week. We ran the wire for the lights in the kitchen from the old system to the new. I always forget how to wire up the pull-switch, have to look it up every time!

The most obvious part of the whole thing was finally being able to take down the UGLY little solar shed that dominated the north wall of the cottage.

Other than that, we're almost back to "normal". We're still charging everything outside instead of in the kitchen though.. and the freezer.. that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. All I can say about that right now is, I made a HUGE mistake buying it all those years ago! Now it's back to square one again, but at least we have a good idea of what we really need out here now. (Something I wish I had considered way back when..)

We'll show-off the whole system after we've installed the battery monitor, so it'll be just about all done as far as 12 and 24 volt is concerned. Marty and I are a little bit proud of ourselves for pulling it off. We knew nothing about this stuff before hand. It's been quite the learning experience, and this way, we know our system inside out, back to front. :)

Attic ladder priority

Don't worry, there is no electricity up there! :)

We just couldn't stand it anymore! The access hole for getting into the ceiling has always been in the kitchen. I suspect because it was the first room created when they built the house, but that's just me..

Every time we accessed in the attic, bits of insulation and who-knows-what else floated or fell into the kitchen. YUCK! Since we're on a meeces-to-pieces campaign again, we have been setting mouse (and the odd rat) traps up in the attic, and it's real important to check on them regularly.

So, we spent a day cutting a new attic hole, and installing an attic ladder. Problem solved, life improved immeasurably, not just with the mouse control, but also access to the insulation and soon-to-be wiring for the lights etc.