2 years almost to the day

Finally! Not since February 9th 2008 have we had good rain. Now we are having more than we need but no one is complaining. It started tuesday evening with 11mm of rain, then 53mm on wednesday, 129mm yesterday and today at 2pm there has been 38mm and it is still raining.

All the creeks are running, you actually forget they ever could. The photo shows the dam filling up. Did not rise much at first as the soil was soaking up all the water it could but starting sometime yesterday when the soil was nice and wet and the run-off started, the dam filled very quickly. Now that it has reached nearer the top which of course is wider and holds heaps more water it will seem to fill slower but even if it stopped raining now the dam will still fill from continual run-off from the land next door. Most likely the dam will overflow for the next few weeks.

And if you look close you can see the sheep standing at the front of the dam soaking up the rain themselves. Strange. They have two shelters that only this afternoon are they bothering to stand under.

So in less then three days the area has had 50% of all the rainfall of last year.

Poor Cat

Look how beautiful my cat is even when he is at death’s door. He was looking much worse than this photo suggests and I was rushing him to the Vet within minutes.

The black gunk on his lower jaw is mainly just spit but there was some pus in there as well. His open mouth and the way his tongue is sticking out and sitting high proved to be the concern as he had very bad bruising under the tongue and it was very swollen, maybe he could have choked.

Somehow the top of the back of his tongue was badly lacerated as well so maybe he got a mouthful of another cat’s mouth in a fight. Weird. I wonder if a rabbit he was eating took a last deparate bite of him.

Poor Oh-Fe (the cat) spent a night at the Vet’s and could not eat for several days. He lost some weight and looks good for it. I had to shove a pill down his throat once a day and syringe some liquid too.

He recovered from the ordeal quicker then I did.

Galahs

Here’s some non-locals who are also affected by the drought. Wherever they normally reside must be drier then here. Luckily they don’t go rampant and eat and destroy things I am trying to grow.

Next month, actually tomorrow, is the 2nd anniversary of this long dry spell. Two full years with very little rain, only one good rainfall in these two years. 501mm of rain last year was far worse then it sounds.

Let’s hope for more rain to cheer me up !

Apricots

So I am back! Hi Helen, sorry for having abandoned this blog but I got obsessed with planning my trip to Japan.

Anyway, here’s a photo of my first ever apricots. I am surprised how quick the last lot of fruit trees I planted have grown and fruited, I think this is only the tree’s second summer. I picked all the apricots this evening as I remembered they were close to being ripe plus with the heat we have been having they would ripen quick.

They are not the best to look at due to the tough weather conditions but they taste fine and I may just use them for jam.

How good were the bad old days?

Things were good in the bad old days, those days when I had heaps of water in my dam compared to now. When I set out the 4 back paddocks I made it so all the fences led down into the dam which meant the sheep could have direct access. To do that each fence finished at the high water mark which is “A”. Then I made some temporary fencing going into the water which stopped the sheep wandering from one paddock into another.

When the water level dropped about two years ago I removed the temporary fencing and replaced it with steel pickets and barbed wire down to the then bad water level at “B”. My theory was and still is if the water rises then the fencing goes down into the water and creates a barrier to stop the sheep moving from paddock to paddock, but if the water level drops below the fencing then conditions are bad and the sheep need to wander around to find some feed.

Now that it has not rained much at all for 18 months and the water level dropped again, I added one more section earlier this year a “C”. When I did this I hammered in the steel picket at the water’s edge.

What was once bad at point “B” seems like the good old days. What was once very bad at point “C” is starting to look good. Today I am at point “D”. I just thought of something funny, A = acceptable, B = bad, C = crap and D = dreadful. The next step? E = empty. 

Catch Up

Lazy me too busy planning the trip to Japan and neglecting everything else. Here’s the cat in his late evening favourite sleeping spot. When I go to bed he usually gets down on the seat I sit on when in front of the computer and sleeps on it. Then early morning he comes and annoys me for awhile then sleeps next to me. This is his winter routine when it is too cold to be outside.

My one and only orange. The citrus trees are struggling to stay alive during this drought. I pick off any flower buds or just starting to form fruit sothat the trees which are still small don’t waste energy trying to produce fruit. This one orange got through and I am letting it develop. My first every citrus success.

Here’s my little house as seen from the big vegie patch down in the back paddock. Not so scenic from this angle but the view up there is pretty good.

This is the lamb thaqt was born on my 50th birthday so she is two years old now. SHe does not shed her wool much at all though they are supposed to shed better after their first lamb which she hasn’t had yet. Surprisingly sheep do look like their parents, you usually notice the resemblance to their mother who they hang around for some time. This one does look like her mum and also her younger brother who is still a bit of a mummies boy.

 

Garden Bed

What a lazy blogger I have become! Only one thing can distract me enough to neglect this blog and that is travel. Lots and lots of trip planning for when me and my younger sister head off to Japan in November.

Anyway, here’s a boring photo of  the vegie garden I built up close to the house years ago. Years before the house was built actually and when I was still living in the shed. The big vegie garden I have ranted about often is way down in the back paddock. This garden area is along way from being finished but finally getting this last section in the front of the photo completed is an important step. Even if I do nothing else this section needed to be completed.

The whole area has been grown over with weeds and grass for a  few years, neglected while I battle with oh so many other projects. But now for the first time in 8 years I feel like almost everything is under control and I can finish things off properly or start smaller fun projects I had in the back of my mind for years. This section is sort of built into the slope to create small garden beds and to tidy up the edge and look nice. There are two level areas one you can see here and one more just out of the photo to the right (it sits lower down the slope).

You may be able to pick out a raised garden bed at the back and to the right, there’s a pile of timber in front of it to be used for more beds. Raised garden beds will make life easier when I am older and feebler.

Dead Sheep

Yesterday I got two more sheep, so now I have 6 ewes, the ram and four wethers. This morning when I looked down into the back paddock I saw what I thought was one of the new sheep laying all alone and dead. When I went down for a look (dreading having to dig a hole to bury it) I took my camera with me. About 20 metres away I saw its head move but only when I got closer did I realise it was not dead but tangled up in a roll of old fencing wire. You can see a few poo pellets to the left so it was not stuck like this for too long. It stayed quite still as I carefully untangled the poor bugger, then ran off to get back with the flock. It ended up being one of the young wethers who is strong and robust and able to endure this ordeal without any after affects.

Cactus

This little cactus is no wider than a five cent coin and I had to get the camera in close using macro to take the photo. I bought it about 6 months ago and a bit surprised it is going so well.

Cat help himself

Do all cats have to get into, onto or under anything new? Mine does. I opened this drawer when he was on my desk and of course he had to get into it. I might empty one and pad it with something soft and see if I can get him to lay in it and keep me company at the desk. Would make typing easier then when he is on my lap.