Category Archives: General

Winter update….

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Well, remember when we needed to purchase water at the end of summer? Well, after loads of rain over May, June and July, we realised we were loosing water instead of storing it all! We had noticed some seepage starting on the concrete tank, but it got much worse very quickly and obviously needed repairs to ensure we stored as much water as possible for the next summer.

Fortunately, someone was able to come quite quickly and do a repair. We will see how it goes, and possibly invest in a tank liner if we still have issues with this 40 year old tank!

And….further to the rabbit post and their amazingly quick development… here they are now at 7 weeks old, almost ready for weaning (which mum Kep certainly is ready for!).

It’s getting chilly!!

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Well, we have had a bit of rain to top up the tanks, so no need to buy water for a while at least But it is so cold! One weekend morning it was minus 2.1 still at 7.30am!

A few plants suffered with the sudden chill, so now we are trying to protect them with nets to see if that helps them bounce back in spring.

Preserving has continued, with a bit of a reshuffle in the produce room needed to fit it all on the shelves. It has also been a bit tedious writing the contents on each lid (in case we forget what is what!), so now we write on the shelf directly with chalk!

We had such a great pumpkin harvest this year, so some was chopped and canned in some broth ready to make pumpkin soup, mash or add to casseroles- yum! There are still loads of pumpkins to harvest too!

And in exiting news, our Flemish Giant rabbit ‘Kep’ (Nyungar for ‘rain’) is due to have babies any day! She is looking particularly large around the middle, and has started pulling out fur to line a nest behind her crate. This will be her first litter, so fingers are crossed all goes well for her and the kits.

It’s been a long time…….

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After some time to renew and refresh the website…..we are back!

It has been a busy few months, with lots growing and happening, and is best said in pictures to get us back on track!

Beautiful fungi

Ducklings December 2020

Mama hen raising turkeys!
Over the summer we added supers to the horizontals, harvested, and removed them in April for the cooler weather.
We have had a bumper crop of citrus going on for months!
Stunning sunset, photo by Philby
Wheat and lupins sown and growing
Long necked turtle found away from the dam- we took it to the water, fingers crossed!

We were honoured to have a pair of butcher birds raise a family in front of the house!

Chilly spring!

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Spring has sprung with chilly mornings and the days warming up. We have had two lambs, the turkeys have been laying for the last week, and the first goose egg yesterday….the ducks won’t be far behind!  It has taken a long time to build up a nice flock of Australorps again after the last fox attack, but we now have a lovely group of girls who are laying beautifully, and Louie the Bluey who looks after them just as he should.

nice flock of Australorps-black, blue and splash (with a couple of guinea fowl hanging around!)

first lamb of 2019

Despite the damp weather over winter, the bees have been active and held their own, and now look busier with the sunny days.

 

 

Aquaponics update

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Our aquaponics system has become more and more acidic over time, and we need to add a small amount of potassium bicarbonate most days to maintain the pH close to 7. We know our bore water (which is all we have, not being on the mains water system) has a pH of 6.4, but also feel the amount of gum leaves that land in the system contribute.

The piles of gum leaves that build up on the ground over the course of the week (between blowing, raking and removing), also provided snake hiding spots (see January), something we were keen to reduce. So, we decided to cover the whole system and aquaculture system in the swimming  pool with a patio roof, built by Great Aussie Patios, who were great from start to finish. Although the area was basically just a very large rectangle, there were many different heights and roof lines to link to and they did a great job.

Neat and tidy aquaponics area

It has been the best thing! We designed the roof to allow plenty of light to the grow beds and pots, but also to provide tin ‘walkways’ for blowing the leaves off. The roof has so successfully reduced the amount of leaves! The pool, grow beds and fish tank have remained clean, as has the ground- reducing our work load enormously.

 

Snakes!

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Living on a property we see snakes (dugites and tiger snakes) fairly often.If we see them in the bush we ignore them and leave them be, if they are around the house  or chooks or other animals we often try to move them on to the bush. We had animals (chooks, sheep etc) inexplicably die which we put down to a snake bite, and have had a few incidences of the dogs catching one and ‘playing ‘ with it, which has naturally been stressful for us and the snakes who often died.

Dugite

Tiger snake near the back door

We built a ‘snake lake’ to attract them away from the house a few years back, and recently decided we wanted to be more proactive, so enrolled in a snake handling course with well-known Bob Cooper and it was so, so worthwhile! We learnt so much about snakes,  their needs, habits and fears, but also a lot about the bush and of incidental life lessons along the  way, for Bob also delivers Outback Safety and Survival courses. We really recommend Bob’s training.

We bought the snake handling kit from him, and within a week had a dugite in front of the gate to the pool and aquaponics, in fact nearly stepping on it! We put the training and the handling kit to good use, successfully and confidently capturing the snake, placing it into a bin and relocating it into the bush at the very back of our bush (a long way from the house!).

One of the things we learnt from Bob is that snakes can climb a considerable height. We knew they could climb a bit as we had seen them escape over the side of the chicken run, but he said if there is a snake in the house always check above the door way before you walk into the room!! Well, we saw this dugite climb between a wall and a down pipe to above our head height before started heading down and we retrieved it with Bob’s specially designed deep-vee hook. It was truly amazing to see! Here is a video of a snake climbing in Gladstone, using its body in just the same way as our dugite.

Seeing a snake so close to the house (2 metres from the front door and in a totally paved area we often frequent) was a real reminder that no matter what we do and what care we take, snakes are a part of living where we do. We haven’t seen one that close to our house for a while, and it is easy to become complacent, but this was a big reminder that they could be anywhere and to always be vigilant.

STOP PRESS: The very next day we have also caught and released a tiger snake that moved across the front veranda!

 

Tawny Frogmouth nest!

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We are so, so lucky! We just happened to be sitting on the front veranda (something we like to do but often don’t get the time!), and saw this…………..

Tawny Frogmouth in the middle of a hot day

Finding this quite odd for the middle of the day, we watched it move into the tree then went and checked it out with the good camera, and saw this………

Who are YOU looking at?

We were sure we saw a baby move around, but it didn’t show up in the photo, though it certainly looked like a nest! Next day we saw the baby again…….

Dad and babe

You have to look carefully, but under the dad’s beak and to the left of the inconveniently placed leaf, is a small white head, eye and beak. Apparently the males sit during the day and both parents sit overnight, according to Birds in Backyards

Needless to say we are quite excited and keep a close eye on them!

Fire season preparation and……

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We have had such a long, cool spring in Perth that everything grew, and grew so much that for most of November we have had to slash, burn, mow, rake and that isn’t just the firebreaks! Although we haven’t had to do much watering because of the cool, wet weather, it is certainly warming up now so all the sprinkler systems have also been put in order.

In between all of this, we have had goslings, ducklings, chicks…. and a late lamb! There has also been a pesky fox, brazen as anything, hanging around in the daytime as well as night time so it is a constant juggling act to keep the animals safe but let them get out of their pens to roam. There is never nothing to do at McCarthy Park.

 

Horizontal hive update

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We had a good look through the horizontal hive today, as there was finally a nice day and the time! The bees were a bit agitated, which was of some concern, but we proceeded to see what was going on.

Each side of the brood section was going quite well, though virtually no capped honey. There was plenty of comb being built and a fair amount of uncapped honey, so not too bad given the setbacks this hive have had. Of more concern was the bees agitation, which increased the longer we went.

In the brood section we only had chance to check out three frames, all of which had capped brood and larvae of varying stages. We couldn’t see the queen, but that isn’t surprising as we did need to close up – partly because the bees were agitated but mainly because our grandchildren arrived for the day and we didn’t want to annoy the bees any further as the hive is quite close to the house.

So, we will need to check again and see if there is a queen or any eggs, or maybe a queen cell. We have never replaced the queen of this hive, and given the changes it has undergone (from a wooden box to a topbar, then when that was smashed by a tree to a Langstroth, then to the horizontal), perhaps it is time.

Plenty of bees inside, and coming and going!

In the photo above you can see the original topbar comb in the centre, and he comb the bees have built either side to fill the Langstroth frame. This frame was pretty much full of capped brood.

 

Horizontal hive

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Spring has arrived in Perth, and with it some (slightly) warmer weather, so the ideal time to transfer the Langstroth to the horizontal  hive. We decided to transfer from a different Langstroth, the one that used to be a Topbar but was smashed by a tree!

The move was very successful (but a bit too busy to take photos during the process). One of the benefits of the horizontal is that it is possible to open one lid at a time, and that was very beneficial for the transfer. We put some of the frames from the top super of the Langstroth straight in to either side. As they were WSP frames, each one was separated with a full depth (the horizontal is all full depth). When that was done each side was covered with the lid.

Then we opened the brood box and transferred the full depth frames straight into the centre of the horizontal (which has a queen excluder on either side). Most of the bees transferred in on the frames, and what was left in the boxes were shaken in. The centre lid was replaced, and all looked fine.

The bees were coming and going and using the new entrance very well! Once they have all settled, we will move the hive and stand slightly forward to be more central on the site.

Horizontal hive