Wildlife

Went for two walks today. Both times the dogs came with me. They've learnt not to chase the roos. Spud cracks me up with the way she impersonates the 'pointer' on Bugs Bunny: front paw raised, tail stiff, ears up, pointing her nose in the direction of the noise. And this is what she did when we heard a rustling in the grass by the side of the track. I'd seen an animal wobble into the grass, and had thought that it was a wombat. But no! It was a very large echidna; its prickly butt sticking straight up at us. The dogs knew not to nose that one.

On the same walk a wombat scurried as fast as a wombat can, into its burrow. There's one corner of Wallaby Scrub that is inundated with wombat holes. Don't know if they've all been dug by the same animal, nor whether they all join up.

Two days ago I was walking down near the tip scrape and I disturbed a large animal. Up into the trees flew a male lyrebird. Though timid, it looked at me momentarily and then flew off. I hadn't really thought of lyrebirds flying much. Within seconds it started its familiar call which told me it hadn't gone too far.

And there seems to be so many kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos on the property at the moment. We saw a mother with a joey sticking out of the pouch this arvo when driving into town. Jack thought it was very funny how the joey's head and hind legs stick out, and he did his best to immitate the position.

I love being able to see so much wildlife right in my own backyard.

Quoll Troubles

Our little brood is down to 12.

4am two nights ago Elsie and I were awoken to a noisy scuffle in the chook pen. Elsie had been up and heard something frightening, so came and woke me up to check it out. She thought it may have been one of her precious pussy cats (but I knew they were asleep on Tildy's bed). So out we go in our sleepwear, bare footed, into the misty night armed only with a small torchlight. I was nearly too afraid to look into the cage for fear of what I might have seen. Finally, I summoned the courage to look. Feathers everywhere. Chooks running around madly, and one sounding like it was still being strangled. We assumed it was a quoll, even though we had not seen it at that point.

As I shone the torch down into the cage a face jumped up at me! Got the shock of my life. A quoll stared back at me as if he was annoyed that I'd interrupted his little banquet. I grabbed up a rather large stick and started beating the pen for all I was worth. The little 'blighter' was still going for my girls and I didn't know how to stop it. So I'm yelling and banging (every sound echoed eerily in our misty valley), telling this 'murderer' what I'd like to do to it.

A plan was formulated. We placed a large branch strategically so that when we poked and frightened it out of the corner in which it had hidden, it would run up the stick and out the trap door. It worked...eventually. As he made his final leap out of the cage I gave an almighty swipe with my very hefty stick and made it clear to him not to show his face around here again.

As can be imagined, the noise woke up the whole household. Everyone was very interested in what was going on. The clock showed 5am, and first light was arriving. As I washed up, Elsie got the fire going, had the kettle boiling and a pot of tea made. We all sat around the fire discussing the incident for some time but gradually, one by one, the children and then even I, slinked back to bed for a little more shut eye.

Josiah was very brave and buried the dead chooks, cleaned out the cage of all feathers, and supplied fresh bedding for them. We all worked on securing the cage and spent a lot of time talking to 'the girls' to let them know how sorry we were for their loss.

A sad day for Wallaby Scrub.

Rain, Rain, Wonderful Rain

Yes, finally rain. Solid rain since Sunday night. Tanks are filling up, so is the house dam. The rain arrived along with the wind, and this little, old house shakes, rattles and rolls to each blast. The ground has become mushy, the blossom laden wattles are bending and breaking under the weight of the water, and that persistant drip onto the wood stove is back. Psss, psss, psss constantly through the evening as the drips hit the hot stove. I lie in bed in the silence just waiting for the next drip to hiss onto the fire.

The rain kept us inside today. Lots of reading, magnastix (everywhere!) and colouring in. I believe a (plasticine) lolly store was set up in the laundry this afternoon, run by Lilly. The customers included Josiah, Emily, Jessica and Willem. But Willem had trouble distinguishing them from edible lollies so he ended up with a bowl full of sultanas.

The older ones ended the evening with a game of charades which got so out of control with hysterical laughter that I felt compelled to help them wind the game up.

The children have gone off to bed, to read some more and to dream sweet dreams. Willem is asleep in my arms, and Josiah is 'just sitting' on the couch. (I think he wants a turn on MY computer.)

Wallaby Scrub looks fresh and refreshed with this wonderful rain. About six roos were down in our yard this morning; they must have thought we wouldn't brave the outside in this weather. And they were right!

Day Out

We had a nice, but wet day out yesterday. A bbq had been planned but that got changed to hot chicken rolls when we realised that we'd be up to our knees in mud around the barbie. My folks met us in town where they had stayed overnight on their final leg of a holiday which had begun back at our city camping trip. We sat around under the awning during showers of rain, and at each break the kids got out and played on the park. When we set off for home we peeled the wet and muddy clothes off the wet and muddy bodies and slid the little ones into their seats. We arrived home late, after dark, and Josiah admitted he's not real keen on being the gate keeper on cold, wet, moonless nights.