Autumn

It's funny how quickly we forget the things that we've crossed off the To-Do list. Once it's erased off the blackboard, it's almost like it was never there! In that case, I really should just remember to update you more often then, hmm?

Ah yes, we went to the Henty town garage sale and auction! We went as sellers, but couldn't help ourselves when this fireplace surround was being auctioned. No-one was in a buying mood, so Marty nabbed it for a meager $15. Can you believe that? He cleaned it up and installed it into the (current) bedroom, and it's a pretty good fit. It'll look better with a bit of custom wood working and a coat or two of paint, of course, but we love it!

Also, it was time to remove some trees from the North-West of the cottage. It's gotten much colder all of a sudden, and we wanted all the sun available that we could. Not to mention that one of the trees has been dead for 2 years, and the other is a peppercorn tree, which should not be so close to the house like that anyway.

On that note, we purchased a whole bunch of trees on sale from the nursery the other day, and we're really excited about planting them. Of the 12 trees we planted to the North of the house last Spring, only 3 didn't make it, so we figured we'd get a few to replace them.. but instead we got 32! Mostly native trees and bushes good for wind-breaks and bird habitat, but also a Feijoa for Marty and a bay tree for me! We've also been given quite a few different trees from our friends at the Permaculture Riverina group, and I think now is a good time to get them in.

We've been getting a good amount of eggs lately, and the chooks have been visited by lots of dung beetles too, which is fantastic but kind of gross at the same time. :) Marty and I have been doing lots of planning and thinking about what we want from their permanent home, but that could be a long while off yet. We spend quite a bit of time considering what we want for the property. Much more time than we spend actually doing it at this stage!

Marty also enjoys spending time researching the house's original inhabitants! I'll have to get him to write something about that here for you soon.

This year, we've enjoyed starting the fire and keeping warm, and having a full wood shed is quite comforting. The tiny little Nectre 15 keeps the bedroom very comfortable all night, and keeps the rest of the house from being too cold to be in as well. I did attempt to use the old IXL No.4 this year also, hoping that I had some settings incorrect last year.. but no matter what I did, the oven wasn't able to get above a warm, but useless, 60°C (140°F), while the top was cooking dinner and boiling kettles. We'll to stick to the gas stove, and perhaps someday upgrade to a wood oven with hot water jacket and all that fancy stuff. We're quite comfortable though, and we're very grateful for that!

Until next time!

Chook watching

A video version of the new arrivals.. for those like me that find it relaxing to sit and watch the chooks for a while. :)



Hope the quality isn't too bad, it was taken on my phone..

Lotsa chooks again

The nesting boxes and feeder house is complete, and just in time for some new additions to the chooky family!

The new house is heavy to move, but not impossible for both of us. It's made of wood and canvas, with a corrugated iron roof, and 3 plastic nest boxes for easy cleaning. The domed roosting house is still being used - that's where they sleep each night, and the dorkings still get excited whenever it's moved (even if it's only within their yard, they'll go in, check it out, and cluck excitedly).

The new additions! Yes, we went to a poultry auction in Wagga Wagga and picked up a lovely little dorking cockerel that we had asked to be there. His father is from Canberra, and the owner had gone there just to get him. Dorkings are hard to get, and roosters can be an extra challenge. Hopefully he'll grow up big and make lots of little ones of his own some day. We also purchased two langshans after the auction. They are beautiful girls, very shy and sweet. On the way home from the auction, we stopped in at Tootool to talk to a man about chickens we'd promised to collect. They're naked-necks, suppose to be able to cope in the heat much better than fully-feathered chooks.

They're settling in fairly well. It's been nearly two weeks since bringing them home and they're starting to mingle as one group finally. The dorkings were not happy about their little trio being invaded, but the new arrivals are all very placid, and certainly not planning a takeover!

The weather is starting to cool down here. More of an Autumn feel with the fruit trees starting to loose some leaves. There hasn't been much rain lately, but the water tank is still almost full. Since we don't use much water in the house, we're sharing it a bit with the garden, which is looking a quite sad after the summer heat.

Aviary finally finished

Today is a great day to be a little grass parrot. :)

The aviary is finally finished, and Pip and Squeak are exploring it as I type. It's such a relief to see them have room to fly once again.

Lessons learned from building an aviary;

• First, find out the sizes the wire comes in, and make the aviary to suit the wire. If we had have done this, we would have made the aviary about 2 inches shorter in height, and it would have saved us a bunch of work wiring it up!
• Secondly - the person selling the steel doesn't necessarily know much about welding the steel. Turns out the thin stuff we got (and recommended to "learn to weld" with) was a beginners nightmare according to most everyone else we spoke to after we purchased it!
• Thirdly - lots of patience and perseverance wins the day, eventually. :)

We mostly worked in the mornings and evenings when the weather wasn't too hot.

Little birds in their cage, just before setting them "free". Pip is the green and blue girl in front, Squeak is the yellow, blue and red boy in the back. He has a quiet, shy personality, and a long trailing whistling song that ends in a high note. She has a more bold personality with a simple tweeting song. She rules the roost and certainly lets us know when she wants something special like more bird seed, or some fresh cut grass seeds from the garden!

The first thing they found was the feeder, of course. Their new favourite place in the aviary! After that, Squeak found some bark that was extremely tasty, and quite satisfying by the looks of it. Pip found the log she could climb inside and started chewing at that.

We positioned the aviary so that it gets some morning sun, but only dappled light around lunch, and is fairly shaded by the afternoon. It's one of the most wind protected areas of the entire property, and has a feeling of calm about it. We can also see it from the window that will one day be our bedroom. Marty and I both hope they enjoy their new home!

Little Birds Aviary

Hi all, we've decided to learn some welding and the first project to tackle was making a new aviary for our 2 little grass parrots, Pip and Squeek. Our welding lessons so far have been:

• Use an inverter welder when welding with a generator
• Welding thin metals is difficult (we bought square tube steel only 1.5m thick)
• Play around with welding rod size and amps until you no longer set things on fire...

 Heres hoping they move in soon!

Manda Welding

Also I think I've eaten 500 figs this season! We were very fortunate having 2 established fig tress here.