Snakes alive

WARNING WARNING WARNING:
 Ugly dead snakes following!


This little dog has taken to snake hunting.
Not a good thing to be doing.
Especially when you are deliberately pregnant with little Cairn Terrier puppies!

A couple of weeks ago we came home to this Giant brown snake in pieces in one side of the dog yard. Our oldest one, and also the pregnant one's side.
Off I raced to the vet's with the 2 dogs. Anthistamine and steroid injections are the first line of defence.
Then a wait and see.
All was ok. I couldn't believe our luck.



I was pretty sure that the other bitch in the yard would have just cowered inside the kennel. and not joined in on taking on a big brown snake.

And this Young German shepherd chases lizards and birds non stop all day long. 

 

 

 Then 5 days later when I came home and let the doggies out, within 5 minutes, the little cairn dove under a rose bush right next to me and pulled out one flapping it all about.
She killed it. I was sure that she had been bitten and again rushed to the vet's to get her checked over.


I loaded her up into the car and put the dead snake into a chook bucket for identification by the vet.
Well it wasn't quite dead but wasn't a danger to anyone. Another lot of shots and another night of watch and see. I couldn't believe our luck again. It must have been my screaming that made her slink away, not a bite.
Needless to say she is no longer allowed to just roam around of her own accord, but has to be on a lead at all times when she is not locked on the verandah, in her yard or in the pool house or veggie garden with me. She only has a few weeks to go until the pups are on the ground!

We thought it was a whip snake, but no it was a deadly Eastern brown.

This bird netting has always served me well, catching many snakes.

But this time I was over it and knew of snake repellers that are on the market. I rang my friend who has them and she swears by them. So I rang and organised an order to come my way.

These machines look just like solar lights and send out a vibration through the ground every couple of minutes.

I have 2 layers of defence, one right up next to the house and the other out at the edge of the garden. 20 machines in total. And some just randomly placed.

Every couple of minutes they vibrate for a few seconds. a red Led light glows and blinks while this vibrating is going on. They look like evil little red eyes blinking.

Touch wood- I haven't seen a slithering nasty since these went in the ground.

It's going to be extremely hot here in the next few days and I hope that none try to take their luck in my cool damp garden!!

Here is where you can read about the device and order them.

www.oakent.com.au

So far so good.

birthday brownie stack.

These are the only snakes I am interested in around here!
How about you? Do you like or loathe snakes?

A huge caterpillar in the garden.

Husband has bought a new Tonka toy.

It's old but incredibly useful for the light jobs we have around here.

We traded an old John Deere on it.

Husband is under strict instructions to replace it with a Kubota.

We found over the last week that the cat does a great job of moving gravel into the holes in the driveway.

Husband and son were covered in Hydraulic oil when they serviced it on Saturday.

I though t that maybe their clothes might need to be burned-

Luckily I have some pretty top washing machines to clean them all up.

Delivery day.

On the day it arrived, we wouldn't let our delivery friend leave until he had shown husband how to drive it!

The little fella is getting really good at driving it. 

Yesterday he pushed over a little tree that was in his way.

Today he lifted a solar panel into position atop a steel post.

Precision at its best.

It was most definitely turned off at this point. Big machinery terrifies me!

And then he demonstrated how a caterpillar farts.

Husband says he wished he had a toy like this when he was a little boy.

Perhaps a dream come true??

Fantastic sunsets

We have been having the most sensational sunsets lately.



I think it may have something to do with all the dust in the air from Harvest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and today!

Aren't we lucky to have an unobstructed skyline to see these fantastic sunsets?

Glory Garden

Our Garden has been absolutely glorious this year.

It may have something to do with all the mulch, water, fertilizer and time I have been covering it with. It isn't this good every year. Most years I am unenthusiastic and completely disheartened by recurring deaths. I banned husband from round upping, only under strict supervision is he allowed.

I've got a new mac app- PicFrame. I love it on the phone and now the macbook too.

See those railway sleepers? They are GONE I tell you!

I am completely over their rough and rustic look. We are working our way around the garden, stacking and burning them. Quite a few have been eaten out by termites. Another reason to do away with them.

The driveway needs a truckload of new pebbles. I was meant to go and check them out at the landscaping place this past week, but once again, time got away from me.

These Mary roses are very nice, but nothing like the White Icebergs that were there before them. I feel the need for a change up next winter, back to the icebergs I'm going to go. I think that right up the driveway needs to be a spectacular display which Icebergs do! I'll find somewhere else for these guys to be transplanted to.

This new bed is still going strong. The Hippeastrums have almost all finished flowering and now the agapanthus are about to show off.

The Pierre De Ronsards on the back verandah are trying their best to give a great display. At the end of last summer they got some sort of fungus and lost all their leaves and just looked very poorly.

I changed up the rose garden and put some fruit trees in there. Apricots, nectarines, Quinces and Peacharines. Not my usual thing to do, but I couldn't resist the heavily discounted fruit trees at the nursery.

My visitors (and kids) always laugh at me, wherever I go- 6 dogs are usually following or near me!

What is this?? He was on a rose bush.

Nice photo of a shipping container here on the other side of the chookyard, beyond the veggie garden.

It's now ready for the excess furniture and 'stuff' from my in law's house.

I need to remove quite a few pieces from our house so that some more useful pieces can fit in here. I am a bit dubious about what is coming in and I've decided that any upholstered furniture is being recovered before it comes in.

I'm now on a timeline for after Christmas, as we have promised the house in town to a family who had a disaster happen to their home and their little boy a few weeks ago.

Can anyone tell me how I know when beetroot is ready to harvest?

I'm already enjoying the fruits of the labour in the veggie garden. Today I cut my first zucchini. YUM! All I can think of is that shortly there will be so many that I will be making chocolate and zucchini cakes, zucchini fritters and all things zucchini. If I do as they recommend and harvest them as the flowers begin to dry up on the ends then they shouldn't get too out of control, and stay tiny and tender.

Not quite enough for self sufficiency, but still pretty good to enjoy. These 35 degree celcius days have me watering the veggies for a fair bit longer in the morning so they don't wilt in the day.

In the last 2 days I have put the rest of the garden and lawn under a little flood (not too much so the hot sun heating the water cooks the lawn!) so that it continues to thrive and some new cracks close up.

I'm off down here to help with some solar panel lifting- and Yabby trap checking I imagine!!!!

So how's your garden going? Are you into it this year?

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"Well done kiddos! 2 trophies yesterday. One in Junior and 1 in Juvenile. Fantastic Competition! "

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