... to fetch a pail of water

 

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 but the push mower gives shocks, the riding lawnmower isn't working and neither of us are up to driving the tractor. It does not have power steering.

The new one is a battery powered push mower. We already had the batteries for other equipment so it seemed like a no-brainer. I have been busy mowing and weed-wacking. Up until we started work on the tank, it was actually raining a fair bit. Add to that the sheep being restricted to a smaller area while we worked with them and things have been growing very well. 

We did get our mule (mechanical version) going again. Scott coached me in replacing the fuel filter and a spark plug and it seems much happier.  The mule was stuck for several days while we tried different things to get it fixed up. A neighborly wombat started trying to dig a hole under it while it was parked down by the creek. Different risks here, for sure. Less luck with the riding mower despite a new solenoid. Luckily it is safely parked in the shed and we don't think wombats are a risk at the moment. 

Back in 2021, a botanist did a walk around the creek, identifying noxious weeds. We got that report last week and we have been trying to match pics to the list. Scott went on a bird/photo walk while I worked on removing a few of the noxious weeds by the creek.  Superb fairy wren was posing. 

Scott is planning on entering the fungus photo contest so has been looking for more interesting varieties in between bird sightings.

I did get to see the young echidna twice in her work - nice perk of weeding.

There was a second larger echidna up the hill - digging under the fence. It was forgiven. 

We had more human social interactions, as well. We stopped by Potato Point after our trip to the doctor and then had "nibbles and drinks" later in the week with neighbors from the road. We didn't host this time but went up the hill to the other "newbies" house. They now have a terrier-x and 3 (three!) mini dachshunds. The dachshunds do like to bark. 

Our garden is producing turnips and chard at a good pace. We are still harvesting tomatoes. The spinach is thinking about it and the brussels sprouts seem to be a total bust. Scott is attempting individual planters of sprouts but not seeing much activity even with the extra attention. 

It is cooling off and Scott can't chop wood for awhile so we ordered in some split logs and collected some of the branches around our place. While Erin was mowing, Scott sawed the smaller branches and made room for the wood near the garden/she shed. We do have a heater in the living room but plan to use the wood burning stove for winter heating. If we burn through it too quickly (haha), we at least know where to find more. 

In your house/picture updates, here is our bathroom art. The painting was made to match my color requests by a friend in St Paul. I requested something that would cheer up my mornings. Pete has a growing business - check out his facebook site. He also has local shows. Check it out!

 The bathroom was designed by the couple that built the house and they loved it. A bit extravagant for our tastes. We hope to split it to make (1) an ensuite for us and (2) a guest bathroom. Our bedroom closet is on the other side of the wall to the left of the image. We do have another toilet in the laundry and one in the shed but it seems like a dedicated space in the house might be useful. 

Another of Pete's paintings is in the laundry area.

Today was window washing and more mowing. Always good to see the difference in your work AND we got the screens back in place eventually. 

This brown goshawk was spotted after Scott came back to the house. According to Merlin (app), they aren't seen in our area this time of year. Gotta beg to differ!