I received a phone call out of the blue this morning with an offer of some more fish for our pond.

Whether it was meant to happen or not, I’d been thinking about getting some friends for “Guinea Pig” – the original and possibly very lonely gold fish.

“Guinea Pig” was so named after his or her status as the first experimental fish in the pond, and the experimental procedure stated that no fish food was to be supplied.

More than a year later, the big guy was getting bigger, so the experiment was deemed a success. Living on algae and bits of the pond plants and maybe the odd mosquito larvae worked and this phone call was just what was needed to enter phase two.

After collecting the three new fish, I returned home with the esky and plonked them into the pond. The fish were a little stunned and I stood quietly watching them for movement.

The movement came from behind me and I slowly turned to find a 1.5 metre long brown snake in the adjacent garden bed, spanning the width with head over one side and tail the other.

The snake sensed my movement and quickly slithered off, leaving me to contemplate a few things with fast beating heart.

The fish didn’t seem to notice and it was time to get some “real” work (read: paid work) done, so I headed to the car.

Heading away from the vegie patch down the drive, I spotted the snake about 30 metres away. I still can’t get over just how quickly they can cover ground when they want too…

With considerable rainfall in the last month or two, it seems that we have had a good winter in the mid-North this year. If the look of our cars are anything to go by, you’d have to agree that we’ve had some decent rainfall.

July was above average, making up a little for a poor June, while August saw the average fall – around 81mm. See more at the BOM site. 

Living out of town with only dirt roads connecting us is enough to keep cars dirty, but the council have decided to run some full scale repairs on a large section of one of these roads and have been interrupted many times by heavy rainfall. Therefore the road is regularly a quagmire with six inch deep slosh to wade through. Sometimes I think I should wear a Captain’s hat as the Patrol steers like a boat!

I’m glad that Meg has a 4WD now as she’s had to use it a number of times just heading to and from work. It would have been touch and go in her old car. 

My car has seen even more of this, due to my work with farmers around the district. Some of the roads to the farms can be very waterlogged after heavy rain and I feel that I am justified in running a “proper” 4WD. Its funny watching clods of mud fly out the front of the vehicle, only to land back on the windscreen as you drive through them and I’m now used to keeping a finger on the wipers to wash away the muddy water that seems to jump out in front of me whenever there is a puddle about.

In talking with locals, it seems that this year is a return to Clare winters of old, where it rains regularly from June through to August. Some have been saying that we haven’t had a winter like this for ten years. 

The garden has definitely taken a turn for the better with longer days and sunshine triggering lush vegetation. We’re eating broccoli every day and have an occasional feed of potatoes, leeks, English spinach, spring onions, bok choi, radishes, parsley, coriander and Chinese cabbages. The broad beans are coming along, as are the peas and garlic.I’m busy planting as many spuds as I can to try and keep up with strong demand! Each meal I try to cut at least one eye from each spud and have been storing them in egg cartons until I get a moment to plant. Hopefully this will result in at least two plants to harvest all year around when things really get going and that will make us self sufficient in potatoes.  

One of the chores that has come back with the end of winter is mowing the weeds and grass around our living areas in preparation for snake season. I’ve mowed the last couple of weekends and the grass seems to be taking this as a challenge, jumping back out of the ground.

In tight spaces where the ride on mower has a bit of trouble, I mowed with the standard garden mower and collected a trailer load of clippings that went straight to the open compost area. The differed aspects of the garden are slowly taking shape, with the compost and soil creation area (dirt, manure, organic matter) at the top of the hill above the vegie garden as most of the ingredients are delivered by trailer and it is easier to carry things downhill with a wheelbarrow. The other advantage is that any nutrients that wash away will wash towards the vegie garden and not away from it.

There are always things to do, but I feel that the vegie garden is now supporting us to a fair degree and I get a great sense of accomplishment from that.

View the photo gallery for more pics.

Summer is upon us. The dry winter has led to an average spring and the fields have turned to straw.

Despite the recent inch of rain, the veggie patch still looks half done. Beds have patches of growth where rows of carrots should be, tomatoes are struggling to raise themselves up and the beans are gone.

But this is not just the action of a brilliant sun and harsh, dry winds. This is also the result of the first major attacks from predators.

The garden has evolved from the first trial beds ten months ago in February to what it is today through a process of trial and error. Initially I figured that I could attempt to grow some vegies and see what would attack them. Would it be bugs, mice, bunnies or kangaroos? Would the deer venture out of the trees to the pond to drink and have a nice succulent bite of something as well?

One of the major reasons for just having a go has been the fencing issue. If I am to keep pests away, what sort of fence is required and how big should it be? How big will the vegie garden get? Should I fence in part or do the lot and if I fence a little will I ever expand the garden and fence more? How will the chook run be set up and where will that go?

All of these questions led to indecision and a “suck it and see” approach.

But the first major attack has now happened.

A few months ago I scared a little bunny that was sheltering under the leaves of one of the last remaining broccoli. It darted off so fast that I was still trying to work out what it was as it zigged out of the bed and zagged passed the stack of pea straw bales.

Weeks later, I disturbed another in the shelter of a zucchini and felt that a trend was beginning to form. The soft piles of soil near the zucchini looked like the beginnings of a burrow and I was quick to water and mulch to discourage a repeat visit.

But after a night away in Adelaide, we returned to the carnage. Dozens of climbing beans that were just hitting their straps were gone. The carrots had been decimated and even the tomatoes had been nibbled. I knew that it was just something that was bound to happen in time, but the reality of summer without beans was deflating.

As the massacre sunk in, it was not just the loss of a crop but the potential loss of future crops. Was this just the beginning of the attacks? What if they returned night after night to reduce my hard earned crops to nothing? How could I stop them? What could I do?

I noticed that the corn was still going strong. Not even the kangaroos had been tempted by the towering corn, even though most of the beans planted within the same bed, around the stalks of the corn were just stumps.

The plan formed slowly in my mind. More corn! Raph and I had replenished some beds a few weeks ago with aged cow manure and pea straw mulch and now I saw that these would be planted with corn.

The half full vegie garden would be prosperous again within a month if I planted more beds and we would see some summer crops. Corn would be the summer saviour.

I love spending a little while walking around in the morning and checking everything out.

Since finding the camera again and making sure everything still works, I’ve felt the need to take some pics.

This morning was cold and even at nine am there was still a hint of frost about.

I wandered about in the crisp air, thinking about all of the jobs that we’ve done lately and remembering those that I hadn’t taken pics of.

The first was the securing of the flue to the shed roof. Pa and I did this the other day with some stainless steel wire. It even looks half professional!

Then there is the half finished path to the (also half finished) toilet. I’ve had Pa working hard – here he was shovelling and raking gravel.

I’d originally thought that we’d pave a path to the toilet from the shed, either in cheap pavers, old bricks or just flat stone from the property. Then there was the suggestion of gravel, combined with the memory of the stack of posts and the quick, cheap and easy path was born.

Three trailer loads of gravel were $60, the posts were free and so was the labour! Thanks Pa.

The toilet is a little more than half finished. It just needs the front panel and some tidying up.

The exhaust vent is on, although some might say that it has a little “character” as Meg and I put it together on the Sunday afternoon after “the 24”. I’d had about 2 hours sleep and a couple of drinks on Saturday night and was a little worse for wear.

We zipped the vent to the adapter with some self tapping screws and then glued the angles together after cutting the pipe to size. It was only when we held it against the wall that we noticed that the top was crooked. Too late – the glue dries fast!

I’d also added a line of self tappers to the cladding that afternoon to make it more secure. It’s easy to see which line I added – it squiggles up and down in about the same way that I was seeing the world.

Meg had surprised me with some projects when I’d returned that weekend, the first of which was the sink stand. She’d got the timber cut to size as she didn’t want to use the circular saw and glued and nailed it together. It works really well and now we have a full size sink to wash the dishes, complete with bucket drain.

One of the next projects is the pergola to contain the shower, washing machine, sink, and hot water service. It shouldn’t be too hard as we don’t have to dig footings and make sure they are level, just dyna bolt it to the concrete.

It really rained yesterday and I noticed that there was a lot of water pooling behind the shed. A couple of hours later I had some long drains out either side to steer the water away.

The rain didn’t help the road situation and I’ve been switching to 4WD almost daily to get in and out. When it rains, the mud seems to attract moisture and hold it for days. It squelches as you walk on it and Meg has had to park at the entrance for the past weeks.

Hopefully the earthmovers will be able to get in before the 21st and everyone can drive up the hill!

The garden is coming along and the most promising is the broccoli, broad beans and silverbeet.

Meg and I have also had time to install the solar pump in the pond and get it functional so that the fish can see where they are swimming.

It was so calming to take a moment to look around the garden this morning with the camera. I was reminded of a few years ago, when I took photos professionally most days and switched back to that mode of thinking about light, subject, focus, and frame.

Seeing a bubble of water on the broccoli inspired a few shots, as did the reflection of the pond and the flight of the Willy Wagtail. If I’d had my other lens with me I could have done the little bird justice, but had to be content with what I ended up with.

After taking a few pics, I wandered through to the citrus and was a bit surprised to see frost still on the ground around the base of the lime. Shaded by weeds, it hadn’t melted in the sun, even though it was getting on to half past nine in the morning.

It was a nice hour of reflection, walking around the garden and being reminded of my former life, working at racetracks and travelling the world.

I don’t see the two lives as good or bad but different - different times and different priorities and goals. These days I enjoy seeing the mist over the hill, kangaroos in the valleys and sunsets over the range in the distance.

I’m also glad that I can take the time to capture the scenes and see the changes from season to season and year to year.

So much has changed here already, but there is always so much left to do – build the house, design, plant and grow the food forest, chooks, livestock and more. What a great journey is to come.

I must remember to take the time on mornings like these to enjoy and lose myself in the moment, but also to remember experiences from the past.

Meg and I had driven to Adelaide on Friday night to get an early start on what we expected to be a busy Saturday. This plan was negated somewhat by catching up with Dave and Cindy for drinks on Friday night but it was great to catch up with them and chat at the British in North Adelaide.

Despite slightly sore heads, we had picked up Raph and checked out the salvage yard before a lunch catch up with Tracy and Christian.

I’d left Meg with them and returned to the salvage yard to cut the deal on the timber with Raph.

The negotiations were a bit dodgy, but with the incentive of cash and a bit of “I’ll just check with the boss” we managed to get about 200 linear metres of permapine of various dimensions in 3 metre lengths, enough to make the floor of the toilet and a solid wood door at a very reasonable price.

Raph and I picked up the sink and carpet from their Dad’s place (thanks Peter!) and added them to the already heavy trailer before picking up Meg and heading to the hardware to spend one of the gift vouchers on assorted bits and pieces. With the shopping done, we eventually hit the road for home with a full car and trailer after 5pm.

After a slow Sunday start at the folks place (at which we were house sitting), Meg, Raph and I headed out to The Journey and started work.

The concrete floor of the shed was finished and looked pretty good. I’m glad that we decided to get it done professionally as Raph and I would still be working out the cement/gravel/sand mix and how to put in the reo, let alone the hours of mixing and laying while learning how to smooth it out to get a good finish!

We had a great barbie lunch, even though it was freezing cold with a strong, biting wind.

Meg worked on the pond and her rock wall while Raph and I started to dig… and dig… and dig. The trench for the power to the shed had to be 30 metres long and 600mm deep and we had until Thursday to finish it.

Meg set up the second pond and after a little coaxing, we finally got the solar pump working in the overcast conditions, pumping up into the higher pond to make it overflow into the lower pond again. Hopefully this will clean the water and help us work out if we still have fish – I’m sure they’re in there somewhere.

Meg was disappointed that the concreters had just dumped the excess mix on the ground and also on some of her rocks that she wanted to use for the rock wall near the tank, so Raph and I did our best “strongman” impersonations with the sledgehammer and broke it up. I think that we’d better get used to tradesmen dumping excess, offcuts etc as it seems to be the way they work.

Meg placed it in the drain at the bottom of the drive as more fill for the coming wet conditions while Raph and I got back to the trench.

With the promise of Goon and chilli, we redoubled our efforts and dug until sunset.

I had to give the pond wall building a break yesterday, my hands were red raw and my jigsaw had been put up and taken down a number of times.  Lying in bed last night, all I could think of was different ways to make it work.  I figure the top rocks need to push on the ones below them in the right way to hold them in place and those ones push on the ones below them in the same way, etc.

Rob gave me some gloves to wear to help with my hands and off I went to get another three loads of rocks.  I wanted to make sure I had enough variety of size and shape to make it work.

I originally had a couple of pot plants with the straw bales and decided they should form a part of the wall.

As the pond gets closer to completion I walk around it and check my work, looking for areas that need correcting…

At last I’m in the final stages and I couldn’t be happier with the way it’s shaping up.

We decide a bike ride is called for to end this constructive day, so end up riding along the Reisling Trail for a round trip of about 25km.  All in all, a wonderful but tiring weekend.

We had put pea straw bales around the sides of the fish pond to give them a little bit of thermal mass to keep the fish warm.  I decided the fish needed a rock wall instead.  I think I just wanted a project really to use some of the million or so rocks on the property.  I know absolutely nothing about building a rock wall, but how hard can it be?  I figure I can only give it a go and if it falls down, I’ll just put it back up again.

Before starting the wall, Rob and I go to the Sevenhill Markets for a look around.  It’s quite cool at our place but not too bad.  There’s no frost.  When we get into Sevenhill, not far from where we live, everything is white with frost and it is bone-chillingly cold.  It bodes well for our vegie garden if our property stays warmer during winter.  The markets were interesting but we didn’t stay long.  We had things to do and wanted to get home.

As Rob was making another garden bed, I asked him to use the bales around the fish pond so I wouldn’t be tempted to just end up in the hammock with a book but do something constructive with the rest of my weekend and make sure the fish are kept reasonably warm.

I had been collecting some rocks from here and there and ended up going for a walk with the wheelbarrow to gather a good pile.  After getting a couple of loads it’s time to begin…

As I know nothing about building a dry rock wall I end up experimenting a bit, putting bits up then pulling them down.  I’m trying to treat it like a jigsaw puzzle.  It’s a lot of fun!

In the vegie garden we have decided to include a pond to attract frogs and bees.

At the old house we had a pond in our outside dining room, or entertaining area, and today (on moving day) we have decided to catch some fish, water snails and grab a pot plant of water plants from it to take to the property.

We got a big black plastic container from Bunnings and a smaller clear container for transporting the fish and plants.  By the time we got the fish to their new home, the dirt from the pot plant had spread through all the water turning it a muddy brown.  We didn’t hold out much hope of our fish surviving, but as it turned out our little brown fish are pretty hardy and after their harrowing journey, could still be found swimming around.