Another catch up.
So....we have been busy, busy, busy.
Last week Maree and Lolly came to stay for a few days...here is Lolly asleep on my lap.
Will is winding down at the Cheese Factory and has been training the new cheese maker. He spent a day last Wednesday at Jamworks, just down the road, making chutneys as he might be going to work there eventually.
I have been at the 'Book Cave' practically everyday and it looks like I will be busy there until the end of the year. I am no longer 'casual' and have had to accept a 'permanent part time' position for 9.5 hrs per fortnight. However this whole year so far I have been covering other positions while new people were appointed or colleagues were working from home, so much so that I have not had time to do any teaching at all, not that I have been bothered by that. I have had some time off but on those days I just needed to get things done at home. With Will finishing at the Cheese Factory soon we are planning a road trip at the beginning of November and we are planning to be away for three weeks. It will be our first 'Aussie' road trip in ages.
At first it was a toss up between going north or west as the Queensland borders are still closed...but there is now a possibility that they will open again on the 1st November and so we could now possibly head south too. Things are starting to heat up and with a La Niña predicted for this year going north might be too hot and too wet. Wet weather out west could mean the roads get boggy so south might be best. But... with new Covid cases popping up in NSW recently the Queensland Premier might decide to keep the borders shut for longer. It's still all up in the air but we shall try and work out a route soon.
The 'chooks' are fine. I haven't let them out since the fox took Branwen. The fox trap has been permanently set but this wily fox doesn't go near it. I had the camera out last night and it caught the beast still lurking in the background. Since we moved Izanami and the three chicks back up to Fort Yudhisthira there had been no food down in the 'Chickery'. The rats that had been feasting on it every night have had to look elsewhere and we heard some in the ceiling at Blue Moon. The traps have been dusted off again. In the last four days we have relocated 6 rats from the humane trap and have caught three in the lethal traps in Frogknot. One lucky rat escaped our clutches as we caught it and put it in a glass vase to release in the morning but it somehow got out.
The possums are still around. Jnr is still riding around on Mum's back though she seems to be getting fed up of it now. They don't come every night any more and haven't slept in the possum box for while now but we usually see them every three days or so.
We have seen two red bellied black snakes recently a big one and a slightly smaller one, both down near the shed by Frogknot. They quickly disappear but I don't like not knowing where they are.
Will has begun de-weeding the dam again and using it as mulch on the second garden bed. It has been very dry again and the garden is taking a lot of water. From a possible 15,000 litres, that our three tanks hold, we are down to about 5,000 litres. 7 mms of rain was predicted the other day...we got nothing.
As I said before a La Niña had been predicted for this year, which means a wetter summer than normal...so we have bought two new tanks. They arrived yesterday and will give us an extra 10,000 litres on top of our present 15,000. We are going to put them in front of Blue Moon and extend the deck over them. Today we levelled the ground and got one in place...
