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 ...

  We have sheep instead. They aren't our sheep but are serving as lawn mowers. They do get around -they must be in great shape as they move up and down the hills all day long.  Their owner has mentioned selling them to this and we might take him up on them. They are dorpers - so have a combination of wool and hair. That means they shed their wool (think about hair falling out on a regular basis). Pretty cool and means lower maintenance.  They like bread. Well, four of the five like bread. I occasionally take out a piece to them to make friends.  Casey has now returned to the USA so I just fed her skink some banana to keep it happy, as well. The house is still coming along. We now have a living room rug! It helps tie the space together, I think. We have been working on the hillside behind the shed. It did house several very flammable trees - not a great idea that close to the house. We pulled those out and have been slowly replacing them with succulents and low flamm...

  Tis the season for babies! We found this yellow robin working on the nest. We know it was a nest because they brought over twigs and then sat and wriggled on it to get it shaped. I was going through the photos and was very puzzled on why we took pictures of an esoteric looking branch. Once I get to the ones with the bird on it, it made more sense! We have our own yellow robin nest at the farm. Early days, yet, when we left. In the instance below, I didn't realize we had babies in the tree hollow until I got back and magnified the shot. This means you have to use your imagination goggles to interpret the blob as a sulfur-crested cockatoo chick. Or maybe not. I am choosing to believe.  I am also choosing to believe this was a platypus head swimming down the river: The river does have platypus in it; not impossible to believe and it is the season! Less imagination is required for these little willie wagtails! When I first saw the nest, they were huddled up and not distinctly bi...

 Alternate title : shake your booty! There are a couple of birds that are not shy about dancing around in front of the camera. Dancing mostly involves shaking their tails around. The willie wagtail has a great sound and can be found in trees but mostly he is quiet and closer to the ground.  The grey fantail (US translation: gray fantail) is often fluttering among the branches but loves to be in front of the camera.  Some favorite shots: Willie wagtail singing Wagtail dancing his heart out Grey fantail giving the camera the eye Grey fantail caught in flight with tail fanned Grey fantail doing a cyborg impression  Its a cooler, blustery day so catching up on computer work. I am still doing accreditation site visits and have been getting my homework done for a trip to Seoul as well as some light house work and laundry. We did go for an early morning walk but the birds were either up earlier or slow to rise today. Sunday here and close to school holidays so PP is filling...