Farmer in the Dell I am not!

Well, living on acreage is proving interesting every single day.  

On Wednesday I took the garden secateurs down to the creek to do some 'pruning'.  It was like waging a war on terror with a tissue!  I got to the gate that separates the back paddock from the creek area and I thought to myself "this just isn't going to work".  I feebly nipped the ends of some chinee apple off (and managed to get the thorns stuck in my hands and on my clothes - they even stuck into my pretty pink gumboots).  I wandered along snipping off bits and pieces as I went knowing I wasn't making a spot of difference.

The dogs took off into the water and splashed around, like they are wont to do, then they sensed something and took off.  I saw a flash of white and saw the dogs were in a neighbouring property, then heard cursing from the house behind us.  I'm calling the dogs like mad, trying to get them to come home, to no avail.  Finally, as I decided to turn around and head for the car to go looking for them, they came splashing along the creek and back to me.  They got a gumboot up the bottom and sent back to their avairy (where they sleep or spend time when we aren't home).  

Isn't the picture up the top lovely?  It's of our creek and to the left is a little hole that is ideal for lazing around in.  It's not too deep but the water is icy cold on a hot day.  And thankfully, crocodile free!  There is a fair amount of erosion along the bank of the creek that we are hoping to be able to stabilise.  We just have a lot of work to do first clearing out all the weeds and rubbish plants down there.

While I was looking for them I heard a loud rustle in some grass and I nearly died.  The neighbours had told me wild pigs sometimes come into the area, so that was my first thought.  I stood stock still then realised I'd probably disturbed a wallaby or a bush stone curlew.  I steered clear of that area - just in case.

could this be a wattle growing on the creek bank?

Last Friday we got to meet our neighbours on one side because I'd come back from picking up The Princess and Little Man from school to find our white dog had a bone wedged in the back of her throat at the roof of her mouth.  The poor thing was frantically pawing at her face and I thought at first it was a wasp or some thing, then I saw she was foaming at the mouth and figured it was a toad, then I saw the blood and panicked.  The blood was from her feet from trying to get the bone out, as well as where the bone was sticking into her gum.  The neighbour drove my car to the vet while the children were left at her house with her family.  None of us could get the bone out with pliers, but the vet got it out on the second go.  $65 later, we went home and the dog was back to her normal self.

I've been sharing not only our home with green frogs, but the toilet and shower as well.  The children love it, but this morning I was keeping a wary eye on one frog that was on the shower tap and giving me the impression he was waiting for me to turn my back so he could pounce.  I do love seeing all the frogs, though.  It is a good sign that the environment is healthy around us.  

We have a little family of plovers that live out the front.  Their baby is so cute and so far the parents have been happy to allow the kids to wander around near them without trying to swoop them.  The cockatoos come in the morning and afternoon and vandalise the trees.  They are rather destructive and nip the ends off branches and let them fall to the ground.  I like the curlews most of all.  Their mournful calls at night sound so sad but they are lovely to have.  In the afternoons lorikeets come and screech around the poinciana tree in the front yard.  The mornings bring signs the wallabies have been around poo-ing everywhere.  I wonder if I could train them to do it in the vegie garden when it's built?  Without eating everything in sight in return.

Our house still resembles a disaster zone with unopened or partially opened boxes everywhere.  Some of the stuff belonging to the sellers are still in the house and most of the shed, so once it all goes after settlement we can start to get ourselves sorted and build in wardrobes and storage cupboards.  I have forgotten where I have put half of our stuff and found a half roll of toilet paper in a box with stationery yesterday.  My mind is still trying to work that one out.

So, so far nothing has been dull.  Not even the fright Little Man gave me yesterday when I was waiting to pick them up from school and he decided to jump on the school bus instead.  I had only told his teacher 15 minutes earlier their bus passes had arrived and they'd be catching the bus home from next week.  He only heard 'catching the bus home' part I think!  Thankfully he knew which bus to catch and where to get off, but it was an anxious wait at the school while the office was trying to find out from the bus company (via the drivers) which bus he would have gotten on and where he could be going.  I found him walking down our road with the boy from across the road who had caught the bus, too.  He said he didn't even notice his sister wasn't on the bus with him!  So, if he feels ready and old enough to catch the bus home, then so be it.  

I've handed them their passes and today they are both making their own way home this afternoon.  I was just worried he'd get off the bus and turn the wrong way and end up at the highway!  

Our other house we just sold settles today.  I'm a bit sad, but that's how it goes.  I had a call from the solicitor yesterday saying that at the pre-purchase inspection the buyers noticed one wall from the garden shed was missing and they told their solicitor it was there when they signed the contract!  They were adamant about it.  I called the agent who said she didn't even notice there was a panel missing, but then remembered that someone else who put in an offer on the place early on asked about the missing panel.  I told the solicitor it has been removed years ago to allow easier access to the shed for The Groom's bio-diesel making.  I told her I had photographic and video proof dating back to 2008 to show it wasn't there and to tell them that I would be more than happy to forward it on if they were going to dispute it.  I got a call from our solicitor this morning to tell me she had told the other solicitor about the photos yesterday and had a call this morning to say they'd told their client (the buyer) and they said they've decided to remove the garden shed anyway so it didn't really matter!  What the????

So, with that, I'm off to get some lunch from the library cafe, browse the papers and then head home to my telephone/internet/pay tv free home where I shall be sit surrounded by mountains of boxes and too much furniture, then I shall kick back on the couch and read my Grass Roots magazine that arrived in the mail yesterday.