New friends

We already found some new friends at our new house.

this beautiful carpet python

and this wierd gaint stripey worm.

Now we need to make some human friends :-)

Displaced wildlife and a wee little garden.

The forgotten victims of the recent flooding are all the wildlife. There are so many animals that have been affected by the floods. Their homes and burrows destroyed by raging water, food sources washed away and animals directly killed by the floods.

We have been having many visits from snakes this last week. I guess they are all up here away from the river and also are out looking for food now that it is sunny enough for them to be on the move.

This snake made it's way into a box of crockery I had packed to move.

The box was out in the shed but Peace thought the box looked too flimsy to hold the weight of the crockery so brought the box into the house to repack...and as he was unpacking it he came across this carpet python.

Carpet pythons are harmless although they do grow very big and the thought of having any snake inside the house is enough to scare the crap out of me...

He took the box out and the snake slowly moved on.

We have seen 5 snakes this past week, usually we see that many over a couple of months. Luckily they have all been pythons. Three carpet pythons, a Green Tree python and a Brown Tree Python.

This morning Mr T spent hours making things out of his block and then he helped me to make a mini-Rainbow Love Farm.

I am sad at the thought of leaving all my plants behind so we took some cutting of some herbs and planted them all into one big broccoli box, so that where ever we end up I will have the beginnings of a new herb garden.

We planted some lemon grass, comfrey root, ceylon spinach, oregano, yarrow, garlic chives and a small chill seedling. It looks a bit sad at the moment but hopefully they will all survive.

Green green grass and crochet for blokes

At last we've had some rain! Over the last five months we have had 18mm of rain, barely enough to keep the plants alive. Our water tank was nearly empty again, we bought a load of water a couple of months ago but a load is only about half a tank full.

We were trying to conserve water but even the dam had dried up and we were having to get water from town in forty litre drums just to keep the veggies alive.
But now we have had rain. About 150mm in the last week. The dam is overflowing and so is the tank :)

And as you can see from this photo the grass is growing again... at a phenominal rate. The longer grass in this photo was mowed 10 days ago!!! So mowing the lawn is becoming a daily chore for P. I am usually not to worried about the grass getting a bit long but a couple of days ago, after a big fall of rain I walked up the back of the property to see how much water was in the dam and I stepped on a big snake!!! AND it was not a friendly snake either. I think it was a blue-bellied black snake (which although are not considered deadly are pretty nasty!) I have never leapt so high in my life!

It did not bite me but did scare the crap out of me. And now I want the grass as short as posible so the kids can see any snakes that are around.

I tried to make a few christmas pressies this year, not as many as I would have liked, next year I'll have to be more organised.
I find it hard to think of presents for males... women just seem easier to please, they like candles and soaps and crochet things.
Then I had an idea for a crocheted beer cooler!

Ahhh......

What a relaxing break! We are back from our holiday and the time away was nectar for the soul. The place we stayed at, Cainbabel Cottages, had the most magical view.

A short walk above the cottage was this look out.

We went exploring in the Lamington National Park.

Tui was fascinated by the brush Turkeys

The children loved the reptile show. They got to hold a blue tongue lizard...

...a bearded dragon

and a carpet python.

This one was curious what was in Zan's pocket...

They fed the Native birds.

I think this one surprised Mr T when it landed on his head.





He has been practising his photography ;)

The sunsets were amazing

I'm back...

At last I'm back in cyber land, I got stuck in reality for a while there. But a nice person has lent me a computer until I can buy a new one.

We've been so busy here. With visitors, birthdays and building and stuff!

I started crocheting a new blanket for the bed...I know it's not winter yet but I thought I'd get a head start with it.

The first bit...

We saw this beautiful green python in the tree this afternoon. Just as I went to take the photo a butcher bird landed in the tree next to it. What a lucky photo.

And busy, busy building. We started a deck and verandah out the front side of the house.

a close-up of my expert nailing techniques...;)

everyone helpped, even Tui helped weilded a hammer

everyone digging foundations

and a little deck warming/ birthday party. It's not totally finished yet but hopefully soon.


Oh it's great to be back!!!!!!!

It's a wild life

The moon rising over the hills from the new back deck as accessed by the new doors.


The doors are finally in the wall. After a bit of fine tuning. Using second hand materials takes alot longer than new ones. We always underestimate the time it'll take but in the end are usually pretty happy with the results. I suppose taking into account the four kids and Peace working we should double the time we think it will take to complete a given task. ( Or maybe triple!) The wall is only half painted and we've still got to put up the architrave but it's only another days work away.

When we pulled off the old wall boards inside to replace them we found this lovely snakes skelecton as Mr T calls it. Nice to know our house provides shelter for some of the local wildlife.

Talking about wildlife, the local brush Turkey population has found a new food source- the puppies doggie biscuits seem to be a favourite snack. And the puppy has a new hobby, chasing away errant Brush Turkeys!