Lizard on my block

UPDATE Aug 22 2009 - Wildlife friends in the know think the lizard may be a juvenile Bearded Dragon.

August 16 2009 - clearing my block

It looks like things are now going along well with TRC and the approval for building house will be through by the end of this week (verbal from TRC inspector) so thought it was about time the block got a clean up. Sons Marc and Simon came up to help with slashing and measuring.

When it was all done at around 1pm we had a site meeting with a prospective slab contractor which was very helpful and quite encouraging. Now all I have to do is contact a prospective excavator for an onsite meeting to discuss preparation of block for slab pad and driveway.

My blocked marked in red, as seen from Gill & Innes Street corner

Simon with head down, IPod on, and working hard

Marc thinks "Why does the bloody thing keep stopping?"FYI: Got an email from Marc after he viewed this post and he said, "You should clarify that Simon had used up all the petrol before handing it to me... People might think I'm retarded :-)

Peppa, my beautiful dog thinks, "It ain't fittin' Why do I have to be tied up. I wouldn't go far...."

Simon says to Marc at lunchtime,"Don't you just love a day of exercise in the outdoors. Marc's face says it all :)

View from road of work done

View from middle of the block showing clearing when done

NO MINING - Liverpool Plains

Went down to Spring Ridge Wednesday to asses a release sight for a Microbat. On the way back I was overtaken by the nunber of Raptors on the electricity lines betwen Caroona and Quirindi. At the gate of a property called “Craigie Lea” I spotted, beside the road in a tree which held the No Mines protest sign this old Koala.

NO MINES on Liverpool Plains - It's my HOME!

How to Grow Chinese Water Chestnuts.

UPDATE August 21 2009

Recently got this growing information - The growing season is 180 to 220 frost-free days, although this can be shortened by presprouting the corms.

The recommended methos is to plant the corms about 5 to 8 cm deep at about 30 cm spacings in rose 30 cm apart into light sandy soil enriched with plenty of well-rotted manure. The soil is flooded and then, when thoroughly soaked, the water is run off. The corms will sprout and when they are about 25 cm high the area is flooded again to a depth of 10 cm. This is maintained until the reeds turn yellow and begin to wither. The water is run off and the corms harvested after having been left for a few weeks so that the skins harden.

Up here outside Nundle we grow our water chestnuts in Humes concrete cattle troughs which are about 6 m x 1/2m x 1/2m deep, but they can be grown in anything which is about 1/2m deep that can hold water. Although the Chinese Water Chestnut is of Tropic origin it will grow easily in lower latitudes and is not affected by frosts at all.

Found this information at www.earthcare.com, which is a great source of information for the gardner:

Water Chestnuts - Water Chestnuts ELEOCHARIS dulcis is a sedge that grows on water margins and bogs. It is an annual that has erect, narrow, tubular leaves (correctly known as culms) half a metre to a metre tall. The plant spreads by creeping rhizomes which produce additional sucker plants through the summer months. One chestnut (corm) can, under favourable conditions spread and fill a square metre. Later in autumn the leaves start to yellow and the chestnuts form at the terminal ends of the rhizomes. Over the following weeks the leaves die back totally and harvesting can start at this time. Although we find that the sweetness of the chestnuts improves after a period of winter chill. We begin our harvest on the 1^st of July which is a month or so after the tops have died off here.

“THE PLANT

ORIGIN

- ELEOCHARIS dulcis grows in many parts of India, SE Asia, New Guinea, Northern Australia and Polynesia. Some varieties are not sweet and are grown for starch and pig food etc. The native Australian variety is small but quite sweet and it is one of the main foods of the six and a half million Magpie Geese in the Northern Territory. Logs of the explorer Leichhardt not that “it was the tastiest native food offered to him by the Aboriginals”. The variety we supply comes from China where it is know as ‘Hon Mati’, it is superior in size and sweetness.

SEED CORMS

- The size of corms we harvest are variable and typically 80% of our crop is large enough to supply to the market as food. The remaining 20% are retained for replanting or supplied as seed corms. As with seed potatoes they are genetically identical to large ones and so, will not led to small corm size in future crops. The largest size they can be expected to grow to is 50mm in diameter.

SOIL

- Water Chestnuts grow best in a rich, friable soil well manured or fertilised. We get excellent results from our padi which is constructed on a section of creek flat with a fine loam top soil and clay base. We fertilize with moderate amount of poultry manure. Our water source is from a dam with a high nutrient level. Experiments in the USA indicate that the major nutrient uptake by a crop that yielded 4700kg/h were nitrogen 108kg/h, magnesium 37.5kg/h, and calcium 6.9kg/h. The uptake of phosphorus and potassium was relatively low. The ideal pH range is between 6 to 7.5 so use Dolomite (a form of lime that contains magnesium) to adjust pH where necessary. Since Water Chestnuts are best harvested by hand which minimises damage to the fragile skin, it is important to have soil that is as free of hard debris as possible (stones, woody materials etc.).

WATER

- The soil should be kept flooded with 100mm to 300mm of water throughout the growing period. A greater depth of water is tolerated by the plants but they do not prosper Water is drained off prior to harvesting. When filling containers with soil be sure to allow for 100mm of water.

SITUATIONS & CONTAINERS

- They can be grown in any medium to large container that holds water eg. Old bathtubs, kid’s wading pools or Styrofoam broccoli boxes. Alternatively, you can grow them in a plastic lined trench in the vegetable garden. On a larger scale they are grown in flooded fields like rice. These fields are ideally located below a water source like a dam so that the water level can be maintained with a gravity flow. They can also be grown on dam and pond edges but only if the water level is controllable and stable.

PESTS & DISEASE

- The only serious problems that commonly occur, that we are aware of, is rot and damage from birds.  A total or almost total lost of seed corms due to rot can occur if they are introduced to a soil or medium that has been freshly fertilized with manure. This can be avoided by fertilising the field or container a few weeks early giving the manure time to break down first. It is often a good idea to start the chestnuts growing in a lower nutrient nursery plot in the mean time and transplanting later when the plants are about 300mm tall. Start by transplanting 1 or 2 plants watch their progress for a week or so. If they are still green and looking healthy transplant the rest. We find a small amount of rotten corms when harvesting but we don’t consider that a problem. Grass Hoppers here also do minor damage.

The most serious problem that we have encountered is damage and pilfering by Eastern Swamp Hens. These native birds pull out young plants to get at the corm which is often still attached. During the growing period the birds continue pulling up and trampling leaves and building there platform nests out of them. Since resorting to protecting the crop with bird netting or yields have tripled and average corm size is substantially bigger.

STORAGE

- Harvested corms can be stored in the bottom of the fridge in sealed plastic bags or containers to prevent them from drying out. There are always a few that rot during storage and need to be sorted out from time to time. This rot is often due to even slight damage to the skin during harvesting & later handling. They keep quite well in the ground where they grew while the temperature stays low enough to maintain dormancy. Dried out corms or ones that have been frozen will not grow. They also keep very well in cool damp sand. We have kept corms like this for well over a year in perfect condition.

EATING WATER CHESTNUTS

- They are as much appreciated for their crisp texture as for their delicate sweet flavour. After cooking they retain their crisp texture even after leftovers are re-heated. They should be thoroughly washed then pealed by first cutting of the top and bottom and then pealing the remaining skin. They can be eaten raw or added raw and sliced to salads and clear soups. In Asia they are made into a drink by either blending raw chestnuts in water or boiling them or their skins in water for 15 to 30mins and adding a little extra palm sugar to enhance the flavour. The drink tastes like water that has have sweet corn boiled in it and it is reputed to have cooling properties, popular on hot days in Asian cities.

Cooking, and it need only be brief, either by boiling or frying improves the flavour and texture. They can be added to stew, soup, curry, stir fries and almost anything. They are a common ingredient in many Asian dishes; check your cook books! Be assured also that the fresh product is far superior to canned ones!

Disclaimer - The information here is given in good faith drawn from our own experience and because people apply advice differently and under varying conditions we cannot guarantee success. “

Spotted-tailed Quoll

Had a surprise visit at midday yesterday, a Spotted Quoll! For it to be out and about in the open at midday it has to be either injured or unwell, and most likely very hungry. It was just 50ft from the house and was not moving well when distrubed by Peppa barking from the balcony.

Thankfully Tamworth Regional Council has loaned me a cat trap, in which I hope to catch the quoll and get it to a vet. Guess it might be a very smart quoll coming up to a WIRES memer house.

I got a distant photo of the quoll as it headed up to the gates and back into the reserve across the road, where I have placed the trap. No success this morning when I checked the trap, food not even disturbed. Will go into town today and get a fresh chicken, which the quoll might prefer. I have added some quoll info below for those who don’t know a lot about them together with my distant photo and two really good photos which I found on the net.

"My" Quoll as it heads away toward the reserve across the road

Facts from environment.gov.au:

Four species of quoll occur in Australia: the northern, spotted-tailed, eastern and western quolls. Once, most parts of Australia were inhabited by at least one of the species.

Captain Cook collected quolls along the east coast in 1770, and recorded “quoll” as their local Aboriginal name. Quolls were often seen by early settlers, who called them “native cat”, “native polecat” and “spotted marten”, names based on familiar European animals.

Since 1770, all four species have declined dramatically in numbers. This is mainly because of habitat loss or change across Australia, and introduced predators such as foxes and cats.

Quolls are carnivorous marsupials with a pointed snout, a long tail and brown to black fur distinctively spotted with white. They are lively, attractive animals, with bright eyes, a moist pink nose and many sharp teeth.

The largest species, the spotted-tailed quoll, eats birds, reptiles and mammals such as bandicoots, possums, echidnas and rabbits. The smaller quolls eat mainly insects, birds, frogs, lizards, snakes, small mammals and fruit. Quolls also eat carrion (dead animals), and sometimes scavenge around campsites and rubbish bins.

Like most Australian mammals, quolls are mainly active at night. Typically, they spend the day in one of their many dens, although spotted-tailed quolls and northern quolls sometimes forage and bask in the sunshine. Their large home ranges can extend for several kilometres in each direction from a smaller core range, and the range of a male quoll often overlaps those of several females. An interesting feature of their behaviour is the use of shared latrine (toilet) sites in open spaces such as rock ledges, for marking their territory and other social functions.

Male quolls travel widely during the breeding season, with mating occurring during winter. All four species have a gestation period of 21 days. Because they are marsupial mammals, their young are born tiny and undeveloped and must work their way to the pouch, where they attach themselves to a teat to feed. Only the spotted-tailed quoll has a true pouch. In the other species, the young are protected by shallow folds of skin around the teats. As the pups grow, they dangle from the mother’s belly; later, she carries them on her back.

Quolls reach sexual maturity at one year. They have a naturally short life span, with smaller quolls living an average of only two years, and the larger spotted-tailed quoll about four to five years. The northern quoll is particularly short-lived.

Goats and Gardens do not mix :)

I have always believed goats will eat anything - they don’t! Just the things you don’t want them to eat eg. the vegetable garden.

During Summer I had a bountious vegetable garden which contained, tomatos, squash, potatoes, melons, pumpkins, cucumber, beans, beetroot, basil, chinese cabbage, lettuce, corn, chilli, capsicums and other stuff which I can’t quite remember right now (couple of photos below of how garden looked in December). As the season came to a close I was allowing the goats to free range, because of the discovered dangers of tethering. The girls, Frejya and Astrid, had quite a feast for weeks on end clearing out the garden.

Tomatos in December 2009

Another part of vege garden in December

Now it is time to think of planting the next crop so I have had to think of ways to keep the goats out!

At the moment I am constructing a series of Cloche which I hope may do the trick. First up I drive some canes into the ground, then push polytube over one cane bend it over and push it down over the cane on the opposite side. I have some chicken wire left over from where I used it to make under the house goat proof, which I am in the process of running along the sides of the cloche. When the wire runs out I have got some bird netting which I will use. Making sure the netting is taute will be quite some exercise - as a wildlife carer for WIRES I am aware of the dangers of loose netting to wildlife, especially bats and birds.

Here is a photo of the beginning of one cloche - as I progress I will add more.

Beginning of a Cloche

Goat Bail

I used just two star pickets driven into the ground either side of a “stage” (3 planks lied across two logs) and then from the posts I hung a wire basket which was intended to hold some hay for the goat to munch on while I did it pedicure. At the moment, I have just a wire attached to one post, which I run through the ring on the goat’s collar then secure to the second post – it does the trick.

Peppa is posing on the stage, next time I do the goats’ hooves I will try to get a photo of the bail in use.

Not Exactly Art…

My First completed Wrap

Wallabys

When I first arrived at “UndaWadda” more than a year ago now I noticed two Bennet’s Wallabys which used to hang around fairly close to the house. One was the mum and the other was a Joey at foot. They are still here most of the time and it turned out that the Joey was also a girl and the mum had another Joey in the pouch. Following you will find photos of the Mum, whom I call “Amber” with her latest baby “Wally”. Also hanging aroung regularly is Amber’s original daughter who herself now has a Joey as well as the Dad.

The joey in the photo “Wally” was having a nice graze outside the pouch when something gave him a fright and you will see a photo where he came racing back to mum full pelt and dived into the safety of the pouch.

Creek Photos

Went for a walk along the creek with Peppa and the goats the other day and took quite a few photos. The creek is sadly very very low at the moment with only a few occasional pools. The pump hole, where I get my water from is not usable at the moment as it is not only too low but full of yucky sticky slime; I had to have water brought in for the tank on the hill which supplies water for the house other than drinking. Anyway enough of my problems, here are a couple of the final results of my “Arty” photography. What do you think?