Things that go bump ...

There was a fair bit of noise last night at one point.  I wasn't sure what it was, so very bravely took our giant spotlight with me when I went outside to investigate.

I'm don't know what I expected to see but it certainly wasn't a brushtail possum.  I don't think he/she expected to see me either!

Vaughan was soundly asleep.  I called Erin though and we offered our neighbour some apple.  He/she was not impressed by our offering and quickly scuttled over the outdoor covered area to places unknown. 

I did hear more scrambling on our roof much later, so assumed our friend was heading to bed.  I wonder if we'll see him/her again tonight?

(Sucking) On the Fence!

Nick tried something new when feeding Tea this evening.  Usually we enter the enclosure with her and sit on an upturned crate to hold her milk bucket. 

Tonight Nick stayed outside the enclosure and provided only minimal support to the bucket. 

The new approach worked well and Tea enjoyed the hands-free approach, cos it meant less interference when she wanted to slurp the last drips from the bottom of the bucket!

As usual, there was a bit of a wrestle to remove the bucket at the end of the feed. 

Our little cow wasn't very impressed by the confiscation and sucked vigorously on the fence to let us know.

Within moments though she had her head in the larger feed bin and was nosing through her hay, eating calf pellets.

Our landlady called round during the week and is happy with Tea's progress, estimating her weight at 200kg. 

Superb!

Just before our December relocation to Victoria, a lovely friend and I enjoyed a "ladies day" outing. 

While poking around an op-shop I purchased a new pewter key-ring, which featured a superb fairy wren.

In funny co-incidence, one of the first things we noticed about Hamby Home(in)stead was the resident population of fairy wrens. 


When we arrived the male wren didn't look all that different to the females but for his bluish tail.  In the past couple of weeks though, the male has acquired his breeding plumage - and is now looking quite superb! 

He and his ladies check for insects in the sheltered area adjacent to our front door each morning.  They visit often through the day also.  We enjoy hearing their pretty song and if you click on the link (in the second paragraph), you can hear it too!

He's a hunk!

I mentioned that one of our landlady's bulls is spending some time at Hamby Home(in)stead - eating down the grass in our side paddock.

We've been admiring him - and he's been checking us out, too. He was supervising Nick's archery efforts just now.

We don't know what he thought of Nick's "form: but everyone agrees  the bull is impressively hunka-chunka!

Cue the freebies!

As I was preparing for bed last night, I recalled the location of another packet of seeds.

I checked this morning and the seeds were as I remembered.

Even better, cucumbers are on my reference list so I potted three small newspaper pots.

(The larger pots sitting behind them hold the gigantic garlic cloves).


The cucumber and tomato seeds were free, given to Erin when she volunteered at the Hunter Wetlands Centre.  There should be other packets but which box they are in is anyone's guess!

Moth playing chicken(s)?!

From time to time the chookies will tap on the glass of the front sliding door, or the window behind my usual seat at the computer. Today they tapped so firmly and persistently that I got up to investigate.

There were three of them, jostling for space and pecking at a small moth. Where was the moth? On my side of the glass. Did the chookies give up. No. Not till I chased them off.

The moth is the white speck you can see in the smaller photo - and is fluttering just below the beak of the middle chook in the larger pic.

Bigger is better?!

As you can imagine we were super-impressed by the gigantic "Russian Garlic" at a recent farmers' market. We had to have one - and true to form, Vaughan selected the biggest available to bring home!

I've used some of the cloves since but wanted to try growing a couple.  The two pictured are smaller - that is only about 4-5cm wide and 6-7cm long!  I told you they were impressive!

So far all my pots have been made using a half-sheet of newspaper.  That size didn't give the garlic much room and I pondered what else I could use.  It took a while for inspiration to hit.  I was a bit frustrated with myself for not seeing the obvious solution earlier.  By folding a full newspaper sheet, I made a pot that was sized just right.  (Goldilocks would be pleased)!