16 May 2010

I headed up to the farm by myself (with Fonzi) to finish the fence.

It had been a few weeks since my last stay and I was surprised to see that about 20mm of rain had fallen in the meantime. The weather website I pay attention to had indicated only minimal rainfall.

The lemon tree seemed to be doing well and only had some very minor frost burn. Importantly, the wildlife had kept away.


Some of the small native trees we had planted did not fair very well. This is (or was) a baby Eucalyptus trees. It looks like a 'roo had chewed it up and then stepped on it. Lots of the other small tress suffered a similar fate.

The weather is noticeably cooler this time of year and it is important to make sure we have a good supply of fire wood. I went searching for a suitable tree which had already fallen over (and was dried out) to harvest as my firewood. About 25 mins on the chainsaw and I was set.


It was all too much for Fonzi and he supervised from the car.

Later that night, I started the fire in anticipation of a cold night.

When the temperature drops, it's time to get close to the fire.

The night was very cold and it dropped down to about 3 degrees inside the shed. I was very warm in my new -20 degree (Fahrenheit) sleeping bag. Fonzi was a bit cold and kept close to my sleeping bag.

There is no better way than to warm up in front of a warm fire in the morning. I was warming up some water to do the dishes with the tripod stand we had purchased at the Tocal field day the week before.

Kath's plants are doing very well around the shed site. The kangaroos haven't found them yet.

To help with the frost this time of year, I covered some of the susceptible trees with hessian to stop the cold air causing ice crystals forming.

I spent a few hours on Sunday working on the fence.

I also took some time to wander around the big dam. I wasn't pleased to find that the wild pigs were back and had been digging up the ground near the dam. It doesn't look bad in the photos but the pigs pull out the grass and kill it. This gives the weeds a chance to grow and spread.

On the way out of the farm (heading back to Sydney), I came across a flock of sheep being herded down the road. You don't see that in the city! I ended up driving along one side of the flock until they moved and gave me a clear run. The Kelpies did a great job of keeping all the sheep together.