Obliging Birds

The Geese and Ducks are now safely and securely locked away in their shed every night. It reminds me a bit of when we had chooks and ducks in England and how imperative it was to lock all of them up every night away from the foxes. The ducks are generally already in their bed when l go to shut them in and the geese quite happily stroll into the pen and up the ramp as soon as they see me coming.
The Chickens however are still in their big airy hole filled shed which is the designated 'fix up' job for New Years Day. The hens are OK l think as they perch high off the ground and l think it would have to be a desperate quoll who would scramble up to try and knock one off.

Especially this girl!

Mr Magnificent is a different matter. In recent weeks he has not been the best and seems to have suffered a bit of a health set back. He's a fairly old rooster so we are not really expecting him to make another Winter. He still eats, drinks, crows and struts around with his girls but his perching days are well and truly over and he has been nesting on the ground. It's a bit of a hassle as each night now on dusk l have had to go and catch him and put him in a dog crate and lock him away till morning. He gets a bit indignant so you can imagine how happy l was when l went to shut him up this evening and found him already snuggled into his safe house for the night! Not real happy but in there all the same!! Well done Mr Magnificent!

The broody hen with the babies (including the precious little baby chook l hatched) also get locked up as they have up till now been nesting in a box on the ground. All very grim but a necessity for sure!

 

 



Garlic and Sophie!

We have had a good crop of Garlic this year. Not very much of it as we didn't planted a great deal but compared to a lot of other people l have spoken to we are lucky ours haven't rotted in the soil due to it being such a wet Winter!
Geoff picked it all the other day with his gorgeous beautiful eldest daughter Sophie who came to stay with us for a few days from Sydney.

It was lovely having her to stay,brief as it was. She helped us with all the animals, cooked up a huge batch of Raspberry jam and found a moment or two to creep into the library for a quiet read.

Day After

Well they both survived the night. Little Peg was freezing cold this morning so l put her in a crate and brought her inside. When she had dried off and warmed up l put her back in the pen where she ate, drank and looked like she might pull though along with the goose.

An early night tonight after my sleepless one last night!! Fingers crossed the shed is fully Quoll proof tonight .

White?? She should be!

Quoll Attack

The day before Christmas we very sadly lost our little black duck to a quoll. My poor lovely little girl who used to fly over the house doing vertical take off and landings, steal the dog's food and wander around the garden searching for snails came to a sad vicious end by one of the most nasty little critters you would ever come across in Australia.

The Spotted Tailed Quoll or Tiger Quoll. Half the size of Lilli and ferocious little bastards.

We shut the remaining geese and ducks in a pen and all seemed to be ok.
Today on Boxing  Day we thought we might make a fairly substantial duck house that they could go in at night if ever the little bugger should come back again. It was part of the netted veggie garden that backs out on the orchard.

 A few modifications and it would spruce up ok

 Half mesh and half timber so they can peek out into the vegie garden!

Looks decidedly ramshackle but that's ok! Recycle, recycle, recycle is the motto!

 Named in memory of our Little Black Duck of course.

We put the ducks and geese in the little penned area tonight but thought we would give them a day or so to work it all out. They have access from the outside via a ramp which will take a  bit of getting used to.
We thought that was sorted and was the end of the story. The idea of penning the little ducks in a smallish area with the three big geese ( including one officious gander) was that we would hear the geese carrying on if a Quoll returned. WRONG. This is why l am sitting here at 2am calming my frayed nerves down after miraculously waking up and hearing 'something' going on outside. l ran out (luckily with a huge torch) and found a goose flapping in the corner of the run. l assumed she was stuck under the ledge where she was lying but as l walked up to my amazement and horror there was this little Quoll firmly embedded in her neck. No fear of me at all. l brought the torch down hard on its head and it let go and ran away. My poor goose and on further inspection, my poor little Peg the one winged duck had almost been a victim as well and was there bloodied and savaged like something out of a horror movie. l went and got Geoff and we caught them all individually and put them up into the house and shut the door. l considered bringing them in to see their injuries but they are very traumatised so we decided leaving them alone tonight was the best thing. They are standing and relatively intact so tomorrow l will examine them more closely.
l had no idea a). A Quoll would attack a huge goose and b). the geese would never make a single sound. l didn't hear the geese or ducks shrieking l have no idea what woke me up but thank goodness l did. Not fun. No idea how l will be able to go back to sleep in case it returns. It was so tiny and Googling them reveals they are brilliant climbers and can get into tiny nooks and crannies if determined enough to. Our great little Duck House is now seen through Quolls eyes and is still very flawed and not secure enough at all. Tomorrow l get stuck into it again.........then there's the Chook House to do..............................

Happy Christmas!!

At last! Back on line after being a week or so without a  computer! Back on track again now and all is well.
Happy Christmas to everyone near and far.

Summer Cut!

It's finally heating up in Tassie and all the irritating little burrs and sticky plants are in full force. Time to get out the scissors and rid Treeka of some of her thick shaggy coat.

Because of her fairly daft nature , its impossible to get a photo of her standing up. She generally collapses in a heap, lies down and rolls over with her legs in the air. She DOES look different though!

 How could she not with all that hair lying on the ground!!

 

 

What a difference a Gate makes!

Late this afternoon on a whim l took to an old pallet we had lying around with a hand saw and chopped it into the shape of a gate, painted it and wedged it inbetween a couple of shrubs in the garden (Still on my mission to create "corners.) Love the result! Well done me.....l like my work!

 Gate to nowhere.....

 Gosh, how many more pictures can l take of my gate!!??

 Better make this the last one!!!

 Loving the gate.........

Margie's Corner and Couches

Yesterday Geoff and l became the  very happy owners of a new (secondhand) couch given to us by some very good friends of ours who have upgraded theirs to a new one. Geoff went and collected it in the ute and we staggered in with it as soon as he got home.

It appears to be MADE for our place! We love it! It's the right colour, not too big, not too small.........verrrrrry comfy and it means we can BOTH sit in front of the fire on a chilly Winter's night (or Summer's night as the case was last night)

We snuggled up on it and had pizza whilst watching a DVD and we felt very lucky and spoilt indeed!!!

Pushka loves it too!!

A few days ago we went and visited some other friends of ours ,Margie and Laurie who have a beautiful garden. It's one of those gardens where everything is interesting and makes you want to explore each and every corner of it as you never know what might be round the next bend! It inspired me to try and make our garden a bit more interesting so l quickly created a 'corner' of my own with some spare timber we had about the place.

Just a picket fence set at an angle next to one of the paths in an otherwise straight piece of lawn. Next is to fill up the bed behind it with manure, compost and then plants!

And of course it had to have a name..............

It must be Love!

Last week when Geoff and l were putting all the firewood away we came across a little skink.

l picked him up and put him outside the back door in the area where we collect the bird nests, grow herbs and have lots of interesting nooks and crannies. Perfect Skink habitat! l DO remember vaguely wondering if l was doing the right thing and are they territorial as there was another Skink living in there already.

......l needn't have worried!!

Isn't that just the sweetest thing???

Poppies and Wood heaps!

A final 'home run' effort by Geoff and myself on Saturday got the rest of the wood out of the driveway and into the shed. All ready for Winter next year. 6 tonnes. Phew!

100 wheelbarrows all up.........faithfully recorded by Geoff's tally system.

Forty one barrows of wood we carted and stacked in one go. A top effort if l say so myself!

Time to admire the beautiful Poppies that have started to bloom oh so fleetingly.....

The garden is starting to finally come together and in parts really does look very pretty......

Even the less attractive ornaments ...........!

More Goodbyes

This morning we said farewell to 4 lambs who went to become lawnmowers for an exuberant family of three kids (and Mum and Dad of course!). They picked 3 girls and the last black boy.

More leaning on gates and trailers. The lambs seemed quite content in their mobile home as the kids jumped around the trailer choosing names and which one was their favourite!...

Lilli was more interested in a wayward wallaby who had been hanging around the yards for the past few days.

It's always sad seeing them leave. All you can do is hope they get treated well and kindly.

Bye kids!!!