Firstly, meet Kriel the KingSkink (you can rename him if you want!). Kriel has been making himself quite at home lately and often pops into the kitchen while I am cooking, hoping for a dropped crumb or two. 
More photos of his exploits later...
Spent quite a few days tidying up the eastern boundary (Spices Paddock). I started with the north-eastern corner where next-door's fencing contractors had left a gaping hole in our front fence and a tangled mess of pinepoles, barbed wire and ringlock for me to clear away. I note they left their calling card on the fence so I plan to contact them soon to discuss this! Photos... 1. Looking west along the front fenceline - cleanenough to get the plough in now though need to remove a star picket. 2. Looking into the corner where the gap was left. 3. Looking south along the eastern boundary where I had planted two rows of blackbutts and E. rudis. These are the only new plantings to really suffer any losses - they were accidently round-upped and ploughed when the firebreaks were done. (My fault - these are the ones that I never got to bag and the grass grew up around them to knee height. Lesson learned - I spent hours locating and recovering remaining trees and whipper snippering around them to ensure they are visible and have space to grow. Will need to put in quite a few replacements when the wet comes.) A few other pictures of the area attached too... down the eastern boundary to the southern corner of the Spices Paddock - lots of grass whipper snippered out. This are floods in winter and we have to think carefully about how we want to use it for spice plantings and the eventual "spice-walk" through the paddock.
More photos of his exploits later...
Spent quite a few days tidying up the eastern boundary (Spices Paddock). I started with the north-eastern corner where next-door's fencing contractors had left a gaping hole in our front fence and a tangled mess of pinepoles, barbed wire and ringlock for me to clear away. I note they left their calling card on the fence so I plan to contact them soon to discuss this! Photos... 1. Looking west along the front fenceline - cleanenough to get the plough in now though need to remove a star picket. 2. Looking into the corner where the gap was left. 3. Looking south along the eastern boundary where I had planted two rows of blackbutts and E. rudis. These are the only new plantings to really suffer any losses - they were accidently round-upped and ploughed when the firebreaks were done. (My fault - these are the ones that I never got to bag and the grass grew up around them to knee height. Lesson learned - I spent hours locating and recovering remaining trees and whipper snippering around them to ensure they are visible and have space to grow. Will need to put in quite a few replacements when the wet comes.) A few other pictures of the area attached too... down the eastern boundary to the southern corner of the Spices Paddock - lots of grass whipper snippered out. This are floods in winter and we have to think carefully about how we want to use it for spice plantings and the eventual "spice-walk" through the paddock.
You can see from the photos that I had a visit from Cath and kids... they were a great help picking up sticks around this corner and loading up the burn pile for next winter. The kids were great and very proud of their farming efforts. Photos are: Amanda and Sofia on the bike with a little Linton in the trailer (holding on very tightly of course!) Also Cath and kids on the bike at the burn pile.
Thats all there is time for now - more another time...
