Terras Patch

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by Terra, Aug 23, 2012.

  1. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Yay for you :) Hope it sticks around for you Terra :)
    Yeah Rod, I've got some showers here ... started last night ... nothing decent but it's still drizzling & will keep the grass kicking along & freshen up everything. We've now got a "green drought" situation I guess ... the paddocks have never run out of feed, & they look great, but gee the creek would look great with several inches in it, & the paddocks could do with a good soak to get a wriggle on before autumn slows the growth down.
    I went up to a neighbours place a few days ago to help him figure out his water situation. He lives on the headwaters of the river, & usually pumps from in front of the house. He only has a very small house tank because the river (it's North Arm Creek up here - but it becomes the Nambucca River down lower, & I refer to it as the river to distinguish it from Sullivans Creek) is almost never reduced to patches. But now it's not flowing in front of his house, & his tank was dry. Luckily we managed, with a bit of stuffing around, to get things set up so he can pump from 100 metres further up, where there is a beautiful deep hole that the water is still running into. (It's strange watching water run into the holes or wet stretches, but not to be able to see it running out of them.)
    I'm so grateful for my bore. You simply can't live without water.
     
  2. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    When you guys are done with it send it up my way!
     
  3. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Ended up with about 48mm so that's terrific , hopefully Mith is getting a rinse and then its on to the rest who need it with some left for Eco .
     
  4. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Not too shabby at all Terra :)
    I haven't checked the gauge here yet ... still only drizzling, but better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick :)
    How much did you get Miss Mouse? :)
    Any up your way eco?
     
  5. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    Occupation:
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    near St. Charles, MI, USoA
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    -15C-35C, 10cm rain/mo, clay, full sun, K-G Dfa=x=Dfb
    yay! and it smells so divine! out in the boonies, after a long dry spell, i'd be tempted to run around in the rain nekkid, it's just one of those things that someone should do at least once in their life, preferably a warm rain... don't want the little tucker to tucker away permananently.
     
  6. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Greedy buggers. You didn't leave any for me. :(
     
  7. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Sorry, I was in Adelaide when the rain came through. 80mm in Adelaide left a bit of chaos but down at home we got 3mm. :(
     
  8. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    It's after 9 pm and the thermometer in my bedroom says 34 deg (celcius). A wee drop of rain would be loverly right now.
     
  9. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Hope you get some rest Eco , hot nights can be tough . Its after 11pm watched part 2 of the INXS series they were a terrific band , oh dear showin my age now .

    Made a start on whats left of the shade house today a Palm turned into a monster and tore through the roof and its all falling in . I got the long ladder and pruned all the dead frond things off it , now it sticks out the top like a sore thumb , generally I think the shade house needs a new "Lock stock and barrel" bit like paddys gun , just another job the posts are still ok .
     
  10. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Moved the chook dome of the mandala pattern to prepare a couple of rings to plant mostly onions on , and have been hurling everything in there for the chooks to work over . I grew a patch of sunflowers and thought they could have them when ready , I put two heads in there this morning and was amazed at the reaction you would have thought I had thrown a crocodile in the dome . They are getting closer as time goes by everything else I put in there gets pounced on . ??? :think:
    View attachment 2400

    Going to have plenty of Leek seeds as well
     

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  11. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Michael Hutchence was sex personified I reckon :) I can't bear to watch the series - I could cope with watching anyone trying to portray him : /
     
  12. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Awesome sunflowers Terra! :)
    Chooks are weird ... just weird :)
     
  13. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Chooks are just cautious compared to Indian Runner Ducks. It took my ducks over a year before they were brave enough to go into the duck pond. If they tip over their water dish in the coop they won't walk past it to get in and out of the door, but stay huddled in the far corner in terror lol.

    Michael Hutchence? Eeeyew. Def not my cup of tea. Never listened to INXS. Too busy listening to Pink Floyd, Cold Chisel, AC/DC and Iron Maiden, Blue Oyster Cult, Def Leppard.... :)
     
  14. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    *laughing about the chooks*

    perhaps it would help to chop it into fours first? it might look too much like a turtle or something...
     
  15. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Perhaps they have grown used to seeing it only in loose seed form. I imagine it might be a bit like the difference between a teenager who is used to seeing hamburger patties suddenly being given a whole carcass to deal with!
     
  16. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Had a Thunderstorm go through this morning dropped a nice heavy shower of rain which topped up my "Wetland "area so I thought I would take a couple of photos . There was a small "Quarry" site where gravel had been mined to build shed foundations and the Pig sheds many years ago at an inconvenient location right in the middle of everywhere . I have been filling it in from the south end with rock ect and covering with soil . At the north end a pond used to form through the wet months the pit is quite shallow this end so I dug the pond as deep as I could get it with my tractor , fenced it and planted up , I have an 1@1/2 inch poly pipe that runs all the rain water tank overflow from my 100 by 50ft shed about 40meters to the pond this tops it up quite often , run off water from the house track is diverted in there as well .

    About a week ago I noticed it was getting low so went and had a look it was getting low and teeming with half grown tadpoles so I caught some and stocked up the garden ponds with tadpoles my sister grabbed some and I filled the pond with our bore water so they had a chance of forming into frogs before something eats them :think:

    I have a small stock trough in amongst the bushes which has rocks in and around it so frogs have a permanent refuge , I have a perch for birds with a nest box that gets used by birds but nothing very interesting yet . Some large Hakea Rugosa (savage prickle bush) make safe havens for small birds , A mate gave me some very rare local grevillia to grow in there for seed saving .

    The photos didn't turn out very well it was raining lightly at the time , its a nice little spot to wander through .

    View attachment 2420 View attachment 2421
     

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  17. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    Occupation:
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    is the tall spindly structure in the back the nest platform you write of?

    i would enjoy wandering through such a place too. : )
     
  18. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Changes have been a bit thin around here lately , we have had a bit of rain most missed us and went through the mallee areas , garden still producing , every thing is starting to look a mess potatoes and tomatoes and melons finishing off and sprawled everywhere . My work has slowed up thankfully I was just about burned out I will be busy around the house and yard and also nurse for SO for the next few weeks (Artificial Knee) . Good time of the year for projects , I want to rehash my Aquaponic systems so they run off one pump feel like im wasting a bit of power at the moment , I need to do the bird mesh on the new fruit tree area just the sides for now so I can wang a few chooks in there now and then , noticed a couple of Lucerne plants this morning in this area I scratched some seeds in a couple of lines last winter as well as a healthy dose of field peas . A half metre wide row of Lucerne up slope of each tree would be pretty handy I could protect it with a couple of layers of Tuna net (available locally) the net if pegged down would stop chooks killing young Lucerne .

    A storm ripped the roof off the old unused pig shed , some really good lengths of hard wood that I can use to rebuild / extend shadehouse area some of the iron is ok just flipped over with the wood up (of course ) so I can use that to reroof an old shelter shed to store firewood , so there is enough jobs together with firewood and a bit of fishing I better end the list there , its never ending . I must collect as much stubble as possible in the next couple of weeks its amazing how much you can go through I was lucky enough to get 90 free bales of pea straw last year ive kept it under a old tarp would only be 10 bales left , the chooks have buried the rest into 6 garden beds and a bit went through my worm bins and then onto the beds .
     
  19. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    My tanks are now full, so I'll ask for the rain to be sent your way.

    I was at the dump with friends recently looking at the pile of scrap metal and thinking of all the wonderful things I could do with some old roofing iron. One day I want to get someone to teach me how to work with metal. I fancy making artwork out of it. I love the kangaroos and dogs made out of old engine parts...
     
  20. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Moved my chook dome onto the next patch today , previous crop was self sown pumpkins which went mad . I don't usually bother with them (self sown) as ive been disappointed before but I gave them a chance and they taste terrific so there you go what do I know . I went back a bit later to sort out the previous site and wet it down while I was there I watched a chook dig up two curl grubs in a few seconds it would be interesting to know how much they find in the first day they are on a new patch .

    Took some photos of a reveg project for our records today , Bushfire in 2005 destroyed a lot and the nth west 1/4 of our property which had a few scattered sheoaks had nothing left on it so I double fenced a paddock boundary and linked in a couple of wetland sections so its about 1km long around 4000 tubestock has created a veg corridor right across this part of the farm . A few tubestock went in the east end 2009 but most were planted 2010 . Still doing a bit of planting in here I squeezed a couple of short rows in between to put some hakea rugosa in that came available (little bushes in pic ).

    Tube stock were planted in the bottom of mini swales this fence is pretty much on contour I deep ripped rows parallel to the fences then went through with a grader and turned the soil down hill . Ripped again in the bottom of trenches , we planted in the rip line as deep as we could get the trees , success rate has been remarkable virtually no losses . Its deep sandy soil and I thought I would be in for a massive watering job the first summer but never looked like needing any , set up like this there is no runoff and any run off from above gets trapped in the corridor swales :) .
     

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