Wombat Defence - Success!

"Oh Bother" said our wombat

The wombat returned last night.
But he was foiled by our Wombat defences!
Opa 1 Wombat 1
You can see by the photo the wombat tried clawing away at exactly the same spot he had tried before, but the steel reinforcing meant he couldn't go an further.
We are just imagining his frustration in his single minded mission.

Wombat Defence

Wombat defences

All we need is some ingenuity

Filling the wombat hole with bricks and stones is on thing, but we needed more to stop a wombat dedicated on his mission of making a new nest.
Opa looked around his "treasure trove" in the garage and came out with some steel used for strengthening concrete in trenches.  These were then cut into lengths and then bent so they would fit between the supports for our under-house storage and go into the ground some distance too.
So far so good.  The Wombat hasn't been back yet.  But it's still early days.  We'll see how well our wombat defences hold up if the wombat gets really determined!

Wombats!

Water Pump covered by soil

A good start to a wombat hole

Last night a wombat decided he had found the perfect place for a new hole.  Unfortunately it was under our house.
Zach discovered the new hole early in the morning with lots of fresh dirt and called over Martin so they could play in it together.  Then Rose popped over to see what they were doing and realised this large hole under the house needed some adult attention and called Opa.
The wombat had dug around 6 foot into the dirt around the foundations of one end of our house.  The pump for our water was covered - which is not good.  James did mention the pump sounded funny when he had a shower this morning. Being covered in dirt does that kind of thing.
So we have now filled in the hole with a variety of bricks and stones and put up a strong mesh to make the whole process more of a challenge.
We have lots of wombats in our area.  They are nocturnal and like going from point A to point B.  If something is in the way, they just dig under or around it and continue on their nightly trek. Often you can see old houses in wombat areas with collapsed corners as their foundations have been dug away.
This is just one of those benefits of living in the country.

Another one through!

Done!

Eric has passed his driving test and now has his P (Probationary) plates.  He has now gained another independence step, freeing him from the vagaries of public transport.  At least that will be the case when he gets his own car.
In Australia, learner drivers need to pass a knowledge test, then accumulate 120 hours of driving experience (including 20 hours of night time driving) over a minimum of 12 months and then pass a driving test with close to 100% success.
The resulting Red P plate has some limitations, moving to the green P plate after at least a year and then finally a full license at a minimum of a year again.  So from the time of passing the Learner Driver test, it is at least 3 years before you become a fully licensed driver.
We have two children through so far.  The next is about to take his test and then we have another 15 or so years of learner driving as we go through the remaining 5 children.
I am very glad that Lana's father is around to help with the driving load!
Well done Eric!

Autumn is colourful

It's raining leaves

We only have a limited number of trees that act as seasons signposts, where Red and Orange mean slow down and Green means go outside.
So we get to enjoy the leaves changing colour and yelling to all of us that the great season of Autumn has arrived. I took this photo of Rose playing with the leaves at the local shop. Less than a week later all the leaves are gone. No more playing with the leaves.
When Rose was born almost ten years ago this time was Spring, with all the trees bursting with new green life and the weather warming up. She doesn't remember, other than through our photos, but we still remember the great time we had living in Georgia.

Watering the children

I won't get wet.  I have this umbrella thing.

One very important thing I have learned since moving to the country about 14 years ago is that water is a scarce resource and rain is always good.
Our water supply is supplied by the rain, falling on our house and garage and flowing down the gutters into our water tanks.  The tanks' total capacity is around 90,000 litres (about 24,000 gallons) with which our total water needs are met - drinking, bathing, washing - the lot.
We use water efficient devices and turn off taps when not in use and are generally pretty conscious of our water usage. Even though the worst of the drought is behind us where we live, we continue to monitor the water levels.  So when it rains enough that the water tanks overflow, it is an exciting time.  Especially in the warmer days of Summer.
"Go outside and enjoy the rain!" we tell the children and off they go. We figure the fresh rain and clean air helps all the plants grow and it doesn't do the children any harm at all.

A voting we will go...

Big steps and little steps

Today the local council elections were held, so the village was on the move attending the voting booths in the local Primary school.  In Australia, all voting is compulsory - not voting attracts a $55 fine.
So it is a good excuse for the school's Parents association to sell cakes and have a sausage sizzle, the local village association to sell raffle tickets and for everyone else to go for a walk and meet some of the neighbours.
The sun was shining brightly, but the cold wind dropped the temperature significantly.  Therefore I announced that we were going to walk to the school.  "Get your jackets and hats, we're going for a walk!" I announced and the children scrambled.  Lana rolled her eyes and then shrugged her shoulders, "Why not?" and off we went.
Lana cleverly brought her insulated mug so she could get a hot chocolate from the shop on the way.
Our local elections determine the councillors who are in charge of local services such as maintaining the roadsides, impeding development, waste collection, interfering in local business and so on.  The State government controls schools, police and hospitals.  So the local elections have a direct impact on just living in the area in which you live.
Our local council is famous for having a "development" policy which advocated less development.  This is classic "newspeak" where you call something one thing and then do the complete opposite.  Such as a business committee which makes more red tape to stop business, "Fair Work" Australia which is unfairly run by unions, and the local "Greens" representative who wants to cut down tress he doesn't like.
The general view is that if the ballots had an option "None of the above" that would be the sure-fire winner.
Our ballots are paper based and the system has reasonable checks and balances to ensure fair voting.  We present ourselves to the registration desk and get our names marked off and are given ballot papers to complete.  We then mark down our 1st preference, and then 2nd and so on up to 9 preferences.  When the votes are counted, if my 1st choice doesn't win, then my 2nd choice is counted, and so on, until a candidate gets over 50% of the vote.
It all works reasonably well and gives the local communities a chance to get out and meet their neighbours.

For whom the wind blows ...

Flying Trampolines, Batman!

The morning started with a "lazy" wind - that is, one which goes straight through all your clothes rather than bothering to blow around you.  By 9:00am the wind picked up and blew a gale.
At Midday we had some power flickers, then at 1:45pm the power went out.  (It is still out now (8:00pm) as I write this using laptop power and mobile internet).
Trees have fallen down all over the area.  The main one of concern which knocked out our power was about 5 km along the main road from here.  The huge pine tree fell taking down the high tension power lines all over the road, knocking down about 200 metres of wire.  Luckily the old wooden power poles had recently been replaced with newer concrete ones which held up marvellously.
Current estimates are that power won't be back up until around 6:00am tomorrow.  Power blackouts have affected around 25,000 homes.
This lovely photo is of our trampoline against the side fence.  The trampoline was secured by a number of sandbags but today that wasn't enough.  It travelled over 10 metres (30 feet) before being stopped against the wire fence and small tree.
The temperature today was around 6C (43F) but a windchill of -10C left an effective outside temperature of -4C (25F)!
So here we are enjoying candle light, listening to the howling wind and the gentle rumble of our generator.  The generator is plugged into our refrigerator and freezers.

Just add water

We have had a lot of rain recently which is really really good.  Our water supply is wholly dependent on rain - it hits the roof, runs into the water tank and we get to use it for all our water needs.  It's a great system but it does take some getting used to, especially when we first lived here after being used to water on demand in the city.
Anyway, our new attitude of "rain is always a good thing" means the children also get to celebrate every time it rains and are often told to "go outside and play in the rain."
To get the right response you must start your training early.  Here is Zach enjoying himself immensely at the edge of a lovely muddy puddle.  He looks very pleased with himself.

Chilly mornings make for a fresh start to the day

Winter mornings here are reasonably chilly.  Typically the evenings get to around 0 (32F) and low negatives (26F to 30F) but the days are mostly sunny.
On weekdays Ariel and Eric need to get up around 6:30am to be ready to be at the shop at 7:00am to open at 7:30am.
On the weekends we open half an hour later and I am at the shop with them.
It is only a short walk down the lane and across the park but I was able to catch the lovely footsteps created as Ariel trudged resolutely to a slightly warmer shop.

Feeling a Little Horse

Yesterday we were able to give Martin a great treat.  One of the ladies with whom Lana and her mum attend Quilting classes has a farm with miniature horses.  Horses that are Martin's size!
We don't know where Martin's fascination with horses come from - perhaps it is genetic.  But we can't work out what triggered off his love considering we have nothing to do with horses in our little village.
When he awoke yesterday morning Martin came into our room with a fresh nappy, wet ones, clothes and whatever else he needed ready to go.  This was at around 8:30 and we weren't going to leave until around Midday.
The miniature horses are pretty amazing.  Just like real horses only little.  The horses are very inquisitive and quickly came in from the edges of the fields to check us out.  There were lots of foals and horse families, all coming up close and personal.  You can see from these photos how we were right amongst them all, close enough to pat and examine.  There were about 20 horses in our paddock, enough for all to share.
The horses which were for shows were in other paddocks and our hosts were very happy to show us all their awards.
Notice how only Eric (and me out of the photo) were wearing a hat.  When we left home at midday, the traditional local mid-summer cooling mists were rolling in to the village.  By the time we were 5 minutes from home, there was no more mist, just a glorious clear Summer's day.
The generous winds fooled us into thinking it wasn't as warm as it was, so Lana and Ariel both came home a little redder than they would have liked.

Carpet Snakes and Good Neighbours

Last week Eric and I were up in country Northern New South Wales helping friends of ours set up the systems for a new business.

On the way home one afternoon our friend was driving along the country road and suddenly slammed on the brakes.

"Ooh! A snake!" she said.

I quickly grabbed the camera as she backed the car to a more safe distance. The snake was a large carpet snake lazily resting right across the road - all 10 feet or so. I took some lovely photos and we looked out for other cars so no-one would mistakenly run the snake over.

A local fellow was coming out of a nearby driveway and asked what we had found.

"A snake. Any idea how to get it out of the way? We tried throwing a few sticks at it, but the snake didn't care much."

He didn't say much but came out of his vehicle and strolled over, examining the snake. He then went to one end and grabbed his tail, with appropriate small leaps worthy of the late Steve Irwin, pulling the snake across the road.

But the snake had other ideas. He wanted to be back on the OTHER side of the road. So we wisely left the snake to go back across the road to where he wanted to be.

Ah. Steve Irwin would be so proud!

The Americans are Coming! The Americans are Coming!

We are hosting some of the World Youth Day (WYD) Pilgrims as they participate in activities in our diocese prior to attending the WYD week. There is great excitement in the parish as everyone is getting ready to welcome our brothers and sisters in the Faith from around the world. The pilgrims staying in our parish are all from a group from central USA.
You may wonder why we have placed this photo with this post. Hopefully some of our pilgrims will realise that it is Winter in Australia. The weather forecast here is for overnight temperatures to drop to -4C (25F) overnight and highs of 11C (52F). I suspect that boarding an airplane in Mid Summer and landing in Mid Winter will be a surprise, even though the Sydney Winter is comparatively mild.  T-shirts and shorts may not be enough, no matter how much Steve Irwin documentaries show the contrary! We posted on Winter weather last year too. (This photo is from the same time last year)
Luckily we have a supply of warm clothing for while they are here. We may also need to make a trip to Vinnies Op Shop (Thrift Stores) to get a warm jacket or two.

What Spider is this?

Dad was watering the daisies and saw this amazing spider. Naturally he took a photo to show me and now we are sharing it with you. (Click for more details)
Does anyone have an idea as to the type of spider this is?

Update: The Australian Museum thinks the spider may be this one.

I suspect your spider might be either Eriophora (formerly Araneus) praesignis or a close relative. It is harmless and builds a small orb web amongst lush foliage. It is not thought to be particularly common. We could be more positive of the identification however if you can supply a specimen.Here is a link. You will note that the colour is different but the species seem to be quite variable.

The Search and Discover facility of the Australian Museum is a very useful service provided by the Australian Museum. Thanks for the help!

A Trip to the City

Yesterday we had a boys day out. Eric, James and I visited Sydney for some wargaming, but also to visit one of the large bookstores and just have a day out. I realised we hadn't been to the city for a while when James and Peter were impressed we travelled in a tunnel which went under lots of houses and roads and we travelled under the runways of the airport while planes were landing and taking off.
As we were approaching the city outskirts, Peter was amazed at how tall some buildings were. I suggested he wait until we get to the city center as 10 stories isn't really that big. When we saw a really tall building in the city center, Peter said, "It's so tall they called it Ernst Young. Why did they name the building?".
Their experience of large cities is limited as there is little parking for large vans like ours. Maybe that's why you rarely see families in the city center? Our first photo here is of a stack of "Smart" cars. These are itsy bitsy cars which would be great for singles and couples and for driving around the city, but would fit in the storage space of our van.
The boys thought they were cute. Whereas other boys might say "ooh" and "aah" over sports cars, our boys first comments are normally, "Where do you fit the children?"
Another thing they saw was some statues outside a pub of the three wise monkeys - See no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil. This led to good discussions too.
As there are so many people, there are more advertisements, which means there is a chance some of the advertisements are actually interesting. Our second photo is for a series of advertisements promoting Wonderbread, a brand of white sliced bread with lots more additives to make up for the additional processing which took everything out.

The Robbo Show 2008

Yesterday we attended the 2008 Robertson Show. This is a truly Australian Country show and it is great fun. If a rule interferes with a family enjoying itself in a wholesome manner it is ignored, over-ruled or changed. The main four commentators - Bruce, Bruce, Bruce and Paddy - keep up a constant banter and ensure no-one is immune from their friendly jibes. They always ask where a competitor comes from and then use that in their banter. "Oh from the US? You certainly swam a long way!" and so on.
Our first photo is of the Robertson Show Girls. As you can see they are sensibly dressed in the classic Robertson weather - unpredictable. The day was very sunny, but with a mean chill in the air. We all ended the day with sun or wind burnt faces - everything else was covered.
We entered 48 entries into the Pavilion in the categories for cooking, tapestry, knitting, vegetables, photographs and any other crafts the children wanted to enter. We ended up with 19 first prizes, 7 second places and 3 highly commended awards as well as Ariel being awarded Junior Champion Needlework and Eric received Champion Exhibit Junior Vegetables. Clare's photo we showed earlier won First prize. Peter and Clare won prizes for their other photos too.
Lana's cooking deservedly won first prizes all over the place, which is just as well as she is making Anzac biscuits and muffins regularly for the local shop.
There were also many events held on the day everyone could join in. James thought up a good pet to enter in the Pet show under the "Most Unusual Pet" category. Our skinned Raccoon. Somehow, in a judging controversy, we didn't win, so we re-entered again under the "Ugliest Pet" category and were awarded second prize. All the boys and I went to go into the Pie eating competition. Unfortunately the meat pies, which are apparently world famous, were full of meat and COLD. Have you ever tried eating a cold meat pie. We all could have eaten lots of hot meat pies, but as you can see by the photo, Peter wasn't too impressed.
Eric and I entered the Pumpkin Lawn Bowls competition. This is where you bowl a pumpkin and the closest to the marker wins. No practice bowls, the four pumpkins were all slightly different sizes and you were encouraged to hurry up.
Eric was the second bowler up and was immediately in first place. I followed shortly after and was in second place right up until the last bowler when I was pipped at the post. Eric won first prize. Lana took some photos and figured it was about time my photo was shown in Bruggie Tales.
We are now regulars at the show and the various stewards have learned how to spell our non standard last name as they have to write it down so often. We'll be back again next year.

Now that is a tree

Another bonus of the farmhouse was this really old tree. It was a great climbing tree and before we had unpacked James and Peter were already exploring its upper reaches.
The trip was split into two days of around 6 hours driving each day. We listened to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Alice in Wonderland, Mort by Terry Pratchett and The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 

The trip went very smoothly, even with Martin who we thought would get a little stir crazy. He certainly did enjoy running (!) around once we stopped but he didn't complain too much.
On the way we stopped at various farmer's fruit stalls and purchased fresh fruit. The bananas we bought were especially yummy and Martin happily chomped his way through a few.
On the return trip Eric read out the Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit questions and we all competed to get the most answers. It was close but Lana narrowly beat Ariel and James.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

On Day Two, Lana and the children went to the beach while I visited a client near Palm Beach in Queensland. There had been many storms and floods in the area recently and much of the beach had been washed away.
But this didn't stop the children enjoying themselves at the beach. Martin enjoyed watching the seagulls and then chasing one. I don't know what he would do if he actually caught one.  

(Click the photo for full details)
Ariel gathered a great collection of sea shells and the boys dug holes and ran into and out of the water's edge.

A house with a view

Sometimes it's worth taking a trek a little out of the way. This is the view we had from near the back porch of the farmhouse we rented last week. (Click the photo for more details)
There was a river and creek nearby which Lana and the children visited on day one while I visited one of my clients that day.
The house was a much better idea than our earlier attempts to find accommodation at a hotel/motel/caravan park. Instead of being squeezed into one or two little boxes we were able to enjoy the room of a house with plenty of space. The cost actually worked out better than the silly motels/caravan parks.
In Australia most motel type accommodation charge a base rate and then an amount per person. They only allow 3 or 4 people per room and then cheekily say "children are free". Ah, but you will need an extra room because "fire regulations" limit us to only 3/4/5 people per room. Bah!

Trust but Verify

We have just returned from a working holiday up North. The main location in which we stayed was a holiday house on a farm about 30 minutes south of Beaudesert, Queensland. It was a very isolated spot out of Internet and mobile phone coverage. Also, being so well placed in the bush, the GPS needs to be monitored carefully.
With directions to get to the accommodation from the North, we used the GPS to get there from the South. The two photos in this post indicate two of the roads we were suggested to take.

The fence line on the second photo is called "Strong Road" according to the GPS. Hmmm, I think I would need a strong car to attempt it.

The GPS is still pretty good. It allows us the confidence to try alternate routes even though we know there is the risk the road may not actually exist. We can always back track and try an alternate route.
It also lets us find places like Wonglepong!