Fox o'clock!

This is not our fence - but it is my photo, taken about 50km from home. It was an amazing sight and I had mixed feelings as I viewed it.

I wondered at the person whose fence has obviously served this purpose over a long period, given the fox bones in the foreground (and more decayed carcasses out of shot). 

What is the story behind the practice?  When did it start?  Were the foxes shot on the property or collected from a wider area?  Is it the work of one person, or a community?

We've seen other fox-fences since but nothing like the scale of this one, just a couple of bodies usually - maybe five at most.  Even so, praps fox-fences are fairly accepted here in rural Victoria.

One of our resident foxes is reasonably identifiable because his/her coat is more sandy-coloured than the more common dark red.  I was up late one night and happened to glance out the glass sliding door, just as he/she was walking past!  I thought that was very bold and started to wonder how often he/she prowled so close to the house when I wasn't watching! 

More recently the same fox was spotted at five o'clock sauntering across the front paddock, quite close to the fence in front of our house.  I raised the alarm and dashed outside with Erin and Vaughan on my heels.  We yelled loudly and the fox bolted away to the tree-line.  The chookies were promptly locked up.  Even though there have been no further daytime fox sightings, the girls now have a 5pm fort curfew!

Sill-y Chookies!

I don't know why the chookies wanted to sit on the kitchen window sill! They've never been up there before (and hopefully won't make a habit of such antics) but it was funny to look out at them peering in at eye level!

Often when I am working at the computer they tap at the window behind me - or "knock" at the sliding glass front door, when they tire of sitting on the doormat!


I bought a new doormat this week. The girls weren't impressed. I had the front door and the mat to myself for a whole day. It was novel not to have to shoo them away when entering/exiting the door. They were back today, camped on the doorstep again. I guess they do like the new mat after all. Drat!

Milk milestone ...

Tea turned four months old yesterday.  She enjoyed a celebratory cuddle with Nick - and her last twice-daily milk feeds.

A new regime started today.  She will receive an increased amount of calf pellets and hay daily but only one evening milk feed - with a view to being fully weaned in a month or so (depending on her condition over the coming weeks).

Happily for all concerned, she didn't seem greatly fazed by the changes, though stood at the fence and began mooing much earlier in the afternoon than usual!  Over the past few days, she has been rope-led from enclosure to paddock and vice versa (given her recent tendency to run-off during transit).  Vaughan led her back from her front paddock this afternoon.  She trotted along quite eagerly - hooray!

Tea slurped her milk in record time - and seems to have largely given up on "asking" for my fingers to suck on.  That's definitely cause for celebration as far as I'm concerned!

Contrary Cow!

A much younger me - arguing with Anna!

The photo at right was taken in the late 1970s when my family was just starting to settle in the Dooralong Valley, after around two years of caravan adventuring.

Goats have a reputation for being stubborn and certainly Anastasia was one who lived up to all widely-held beliefs.  I reckon though that our calf, Tea, could've given Anna a run for her money!  No kidding!

Tea will be four months old tomorrow.  She is testing boundaries, in all senses of the expression.  She is testing my patience too.   In the past fortnight she has broken out of her paddock several times, run away when transferring from paddock to enclosure (or vice versa) - and just generally been contrary!

She and I were at a stand-off yesterday afternoon.  Tea decided she didn't want to mosey along to her evening enclosure but rather did the bolt to explore the larger side paddock.   I locked that gate after her and manoeuvred Elmer to block the stupid gate leading to the main driveway.  She danced and dashed about for a while.  I left her to it.  (I have a few stubborn tendencies myself, left-over from my goat-herding days). 

About half an hour later, she'd decided I was the bigger cow and started moo-ing for her evening milk.  I brought in the washing and took my time about organising her feed.  By that stage she was happy to trot along behind me back to her "Tea-house".

I had another win - or a series of wins.  Over the course of the weekend I had refused to let her suck my fingers, while she was drinking milk from the bucket.  She wasn't impressed but wore the 6th consecutive finger-free feed - and I wore less of the milk, when she butted against the new rules!

Stick it!

My (hydrangea) sticks are stuck - finally!  A fairly simple mission became a lot bigger over the weekend. 

In clearing space for the sticks, I removed and divided two agapanthus clumps, as well as two something-elses!  I created another garden at the rear of Erin's caravan, pruned more jasmine and culled a small tree.  As a result, the front garden is starting to look a lot more ordered - though there is still more work to be done.

I planted two hydrangeas around lunchtime.  The chookies were very interested in what I was doing - and promptly scratched out one stick! 

After the girls were locked up for the evening, I finished sticking all my sticks.  Hopefully they will take and form bushes in line with the geraniums along the back of the bed. 

Interestingly, it was quicker/easier to start the new bed than it was to effect some order to this existing one. 


I'm fairly happy with my efforts.  I still need to reorganise the stone border and tidy up in front of the bed.  I'm not sure whether I'll get that done tomorrow though - my body has had enough gardening for a while!

Bedding down ...

I'm very impressed with my new "cat bed"!  The agapanthus have now been interspersed with something else, as yet to be identified.    The something else was growing in a clump in the front garden.  I dug it up, divided it and replanted the many smaller plants. 

Vaughan and I also scattered a few heartsease seeds in the gaps between plants.  The chookies were keen to scratch through the bed and undo all my/our efforts, so I chased them off to help/hinder elsewhere!

There are many rocks on the property and I should be able find plenty of similar size to finish the border started this afternoon. 

Divide and conquer?!

I crawled into bed last night, feeling very stiff and sore after my gardening exertions.  Surprisingly, I didn't feel too bad this morning.  Not jumping out of my skin but not hobbling around either!

After feeding Tea and the chookies, I stood to admire my handiwork from yesterday.  The pic at (bottom) right shows the far end of the garden bed I was working. 

Yep, it still needs lots of attention!


In the past, the plantings have been fairly ad hoc  - and rather than cut-back overgrowth, the garden edging was widened a few times, with the original rocks still in place!

I removed the big agapanthus clump from my front garden bed and saved a couple of plants to continue the border I started yesterday.  That left quite a few plants in need of a home. 

There was a patch behind Erin's caravan that needed cheering up, so I created a bed there. 

There had been jasmine growing along that lattice but it died off long before we arrived.  Obviously previous tenants were big fans of jasmine! 


I'm pretty impressed with what I've achieved so far.  Need to stir my sticks further though cos I still need to stick the hydrangea sticks into the soil!

Sticks and stones!

Hamby Home(in)stead's exterior was somewhat neglected when we took over.  The gardens were overgrown, various rubbish was stored behind the house - and elsewhere in the house paddock.  It was clear that the previous tenants hadn't kept up with the up-keep of the property. 

We've made some improvements since our March arrival.  One of the first things I did was to cut-back the geranium jungle of the garden adjacent to the entry area. 


I also gave the jasmine a severe haircut, to the extent it still has a bald patch along the supporting lattice! When I inspected it today, there were plenty of buds so it can't be doing too badly. As you can see, the geranium has started to grow back.  It's far more compact now and a lot healthier.

A few weeks ago I reorganised the stone border, reusing rocks that had been buried beneath the overgrowth.  It seems that the garden edge had been replaced a few times as the geranium took up more area!

While out and about with Nick yesterday, I purchased six hydrangea sticks from a church op-shop. 

The price of op-shop hydrangea sticks?  $1.00 for the set!  I reckon I can't go wrong with that kind of investment! 

Even better, the volunteer assured me that I just needed to poke the sticks into the ground and they would grow.  Simple.  Even I should be able to manage that.  I think.  With luck.


(Of course, I am hoping that as the sticks came from plants growing beside the church, they may have an even better chance of survival). 

I poked around in the garden today.  My vague plan was to remove a lot of grass and weeds, to clear some space for the hydrangea sticks in front of the lattice.  The agapanthus clump (visible in the March pic, near the chair) has been bothering me though.  I decided to divide it into five and replant the fifths closer to the rock border.  I've left space between them, to allow for further multiplication (assuming they survive my rough surgery).

I'm feeling a bit stiff and sore after my exertions.  Hopefully I'll be ready for a bit more physical effort tomorrow.  I have a Plan B though.  Stick the sticks into the ground and weed around them later!

Bath(ing) beauty?!

When Vaughan spotted the old bath (another dump shop purchase) and was told it was for Tea, he grinned at the thought of a cow having a bath! 

He was far less impressed when he learned our little calf wouldn't be bathing in the paddock!

Tea still sleeps in her little sheltered enclosure overnight.  We carry her water bucket to and from the paddock, depending where she is.  The bucket is heavy and chained to a fence-post - to prevent Tea tipping it over. 

Not surprisingly, lifting/shifting Tea's water bucket twice a day was becoming tiresome.  Our first thought was to buy another water barrel and use if for - water.  The bath was only $15.00 though and easier to clean etc so we bought it instead.  Nick welded a frame from some scrap metal and moved the completed unit into the paddock last week.   So far, so good! 

There is no water line to the paddock, so we will still need to carry water over to the bath from time to time but life is easier now that it is in place.

Paddock bashing!

When Tea first came to live with us, she spent a few days solely in her small enclosure.  After that, she had the run of our house paddock during the day.  We would let her out after "breakfast" and entice her back at afternoon feed time. 

Even though our house paddock is quite large, she would often camp on the doorstep and spend lots of time scratching on the wood table.  We had to keep our eye on her constantly as she wanted to eat all kinds of inappropriate matter!

At the beginning of July, when administering Tea's second immunisation, Nadia suggested our little calf was old enough for the bigger front paddock.  Tea's regime changed as a result.  We would lead her out of her enclosure into the paddock for her morning feeds - and do the reverse each afternoon.  As she grew, some other improvisations were necessary. 

Tea trampled a normal plastic bucket that was being used for her water.  Fortunately we had a sturdier bucket that became a replacement.  Until that point, her hay and calf pellets had been served in our camping wash-up "basin".  I wasn't keen for it to be destroyed so we found a $10.00 water barrel at the dump shop, which was cut down for use as a feed container.  (The top half wasn't wasted, it became a compost bin)!

Something's rottin'!

The compost bins sit under our mulberry tree ...

Soon after moving into Hamby Home(in)stead we purchased a plastic compost bin.  It's lid fits snugly and is advertised as being insect-proof.  I have often noticed insects inside though, so praps they come in from the bottom?!

For some reason, I thought the bin was also supposed to be rodent-proof.  It isn't.  A family of mice live very well inside the rotting contents.  I'm sure they greatly appreciate the regular deposits!

I filled the purchased bin about a week or so ago. Since then I've improvised a second "bin". There was a broken bin left behind by a previous tenant. It's lid was intact so I've been using that on top of a segment of water barrel, purchased from the dump shop for $10.  Now that's a bargain!  (The base of the barrel is being used for Tea's food). Obviously this lid doesn't fit snugly but I haven't noticed any difference in the number of insects inside. I haven't noticed any resident mice either - and that's a good thing!

I've never made compost before, so will be interested to see how my first batch turns out - when it finishes rotting down!

Growing Girl ...

Our little calf, Tea, has been part of our lives for nearly three months now. 

Of course, she's not so little anymore. 

I measured her on 6 June and she was 75cm high from the ground to her shoulder. 

Today she measured 90cm.  That's a 15cm increase in eleven weeks - and she's not quite four months old!  Wow!

I don't know how much she weighs.  I'm not about to risk breaking the bathroom scales to find out!  When she accidently steps on us though, it hurts.  A lot. 

Tea's dad is an Angus bull.  Her mother is part Belgian Blue.  She'll get quite a lot bigger yet! 

Gardening with chooks!

We moved into Hamby Home(in)stead a bit over five months ago.  Although a lot has happened since our arrival, very little of that was gardening!  Not to worry.  I made a start today. 

Erin and I spotted raspberry canes on sale at Bunnings during a recent visit.  We bought them - on the basis that we like eating raspberries and have seen them growing since moving to Victoria.  We haven't seen them growing exactly in our local area but who's to say it can't be done?!


The canes have been doing very well in their plastic packaging but as Nick pointed out, they really needed to experience life in the ground - before they died.  Not wanting to further my reputation as a plant murderer, I read the instructions.  And then googled for more instructions. 

With compass in hand, I located a piece of lattice beside Erin's caravan that was orientated correctly.  I set about digging a trench.  The chookies helped.  Or hindered.  I left them to their scratching and collected "plenty of well-rotted ... manure" as per the instructions.  Fortunately the paddocks have lots of that. 

The girls had wandered off in my absence but scuttled back when I started working beside the lattice again.  I mixed the dirt, manure and some compost-ish soil left behind by previous tenants.  The chookies un-mixed my efforts.  I mounded the mixture along my trench in aesthetically pleasing fashion.  Seemingly it was not aesthetically pleasing to chooks as they scratched over the mound, flattening it out again.  Hmmm.

I chased the chooks off and planted my four raspberry canes.  I didn't bother watering them in, nor mulching at this stage.  It is raining now and given all the recent winds, I expect any mulch I put on would be blown away, or scratched off by the girls!

The Gardening Australia site recommends 15-20 plants per person to ensure a surplus.  I was knackered after planting four.  (Not to mention those four cost a total of $20.00, which is about right for our budget - and my gardening "skill")! 

Given we picked raspberries in January, I was looking forward to eating home-grown fruit early in the New Year.  However, assuming our canes survive (and thrive), they won't fruit till Autumn - when we are away.  Drat!