Our great southern migration

  Our broccoli plants are apparently the favorite meal of the local caterpillars. The white cabbage moths (on wire screen below) are prevalent and have voracious young. The caterpillars are great at hiding on the stems and undersides of leaves. But the plants are still growing so fingers crossed.  Scott caught them around the radishes the other day. The radishes and turnips are producing way more than we can eat so hoping they stay over there and away from the slower producers.  Scott's bean crop is coming in now, as well, but those seem to have no natural predators.  We have been working on moving the potable water from one of the older plastic tanks into the other older tank, using a transport tank we rented from the Triangle Tool Library. Unlike the tandem trailer, this tank has seen limited use in the past few years.  Here it is getting gravity fed from the tan tank: and then emptying the water into the black tank: [These plastic tanks were displaced by the ...

  Actually we are hoping for real rain but only after we get a spigot on the tank, connect it to the rain gutter and find a way to close off some of the openings. Meatballs might knock it off its current lovely bed. Before putting in the new concrete tank (see the blog about "to fetch a pail of water" ), we moved this tank from in front of the house to just behind the chicken shed. Due to the rocky and uneven ground, placing the tank required making it a sand bed. To keep the sand in its bed, we had to place the frame on the ground and make it level. Since Scott is still on restricted arm-waving (and hammering and lifting), I provided the brawn while Scott provided the brains and running commentary.  Note the water tank behind the frame in the picture below. That also got moved from the lower orchard. Also note the steep red clay behind that tank. That was similarly under a layer of rocks, tenacious grass and hard dirt. Some parts were harder than others! But we got the frame...

      Manawatu Business Chamber's Post Today is ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) Day, a day of remembrance for the entry of Australia, New Zealand and Tonga into World War I at the Battle of Gallipoli. There are parades, sunrise services, memorial services and days off (Friday and Monday for many folks). We went to Moruya on Thursday and the stores were packed. We were there to pick up antigen for my Q fever skin test. We are considered higher risk (veterinarians with sheep and lots of kangaroo poop around in the gardens) and can get vaccinated; but the vaccine can be nasty if you are already exposed. The antigen was on back order for awhile and I had to go get it within a week of their getting it. Hence the trip to the pharmacy in Moruya.  We snuck into the Tool Library yesterday (they got a grant to have a few trailers of tools that you can "borrow" or "rent" for a few days. We got lots of fencing equipment and a trailer so that we could lug the n...

  Our tank is now in place. It was quite the production. They set up molds and poured the concrete on site. We were most impressed that they removed the molds from the manhole in the top. This also meant the workers had to be removed from the tank! The tank now cures for 10 days and then we can let it start to fill. Of course, there is no rain on the horizon. We are in for an El Nino year so the winter may be pretty dry.  We have now convinced the sheep to go into the working pen. No work done with them yet and no promises they will stay long enough to be worked on. I went into the co-op on my own because the bumpy road really hurt Scott's incision. I asked about sheep bribery and came home with a bale of lucerne (alfalfa). They do like it! I didn't get a picture of all 5 in the pen but this one was close.  We also went into Moruya to get Scott's incision checked (he had to go with me on this trip). On the way back, we picked up a lawn mower.  Yes, we have several bu...