Our great southern migration

Halloween was last night for us. We did not stock up on "extra" candy, being 2k down the dirt road with no kids in sight. However, we still get plenty of "trick or treaters".  Note : we did NOT see all of these critters yesterday evening.  The echidnas are the nice kids. They don't bother anyone. If they notice you (questionable), they try to burrow into the ground and hide. Easy in sand; not so easy in clay. The wallabies hide in the basement and turn off the lights so no one bothers them. At least they would if they had a basement. Hiding in the basement is what I used to do when living in Roseville so I totally understand. This kangaroo child was getting her face cleaned before going out trick or treating. Apparently a good ear twitch is useful across species.  While the roos can be destructive as they jump hard and fast leaving the area they are not aggressive. Broken tree branches are the most we typically see. This guy came by way too early in the day. He ...

We (mostly Scott) have been digging up grass and moving dirt around. This has disturbed the insects and worms,  making the birds very happy. This jacky-winter was engrossed with what was happening below. Ditto with this superb fairy wren: The wrens (particularly this little male) have been getting very bold. In most area we have been, the female fairy wrens are the bold ones but not in this group. The male will hop on the picnic table while we are sitting there and focuses on where Scott sits in case he drops a potato chip again. He does often get to be the subject of my camera practice. due to his posing nearby.  This shot isn't as clear but I do think the blur captures more of their normal behavior! This thornbill obviously found something yummy This nankeen kestrel was likely looking for something a bit bigger when flying over the paddock We also have a new resident- the olive backed oriole is hopefully setting up residence near the creek. Definitely been voicing their thou...

  Meet "Dubya" - the newest addition to our farm. We now own six sheep and one horse.  Dubya is an ex-racehorse and was struggling to find the right place after his racing career petered out. He has great racing bloodlines. Officially known as "Streets of Dubai",  his sire was the famous stallion Street Cry, winner of the  $6 million Dubai World Cup. His dam was Hela Dubai. His great grandfathers include Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer.  Street Cry also produced Zenyatta, Street Sense and Winx. Apparently they got the running genes and didn't leave much for him. Dubya raced 15 times and won once. He was retired from racing; apparently he just doesn't have the drive. Eventually he found his way to Rylstone where Scott's aunt and cousin live. Aunt Berenice remembered we eventually wanted to get horses so she did some matchmaking. James trains polo ponies so has a lot of horses on the land; however, Dubya needed more feeding than they did and James was w...

  Solar panels were added to the roof of the shed and two batteries added inside the shed so that we could store that power. Now we want battery power to last from sun up to sun up; however, since winter is here and it has been cloudy, we haven't always made it that far.  Both sides of the shed have the panels and we are glad we added the extra to give us a winter bump.  We have been identifying the main power drains -the heater I have in our bathroom, for starters. It is a big room with a cold floor so I put the heater on a timer and had it heating morning and evening.  Big energy suck. I still use it, but more on an "as needed" basis! It is probably not that bad but much worse than the lights and TV. The toaster and hot water heater are also high energy. I try not to look too often but the app is really cool: You can see the energy coming in through solar (nada, it is dark out), and what we are using. This shows our battery is almost full (the yellow boxes on the b...

  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...