Wood duck visit

This pair of wood ducks are doing well with 9 quite large ducklings.

SES general rescue course

No photo since I forgot to take any but I've done the first 2 days of 5 days doing the general rescue course at Grafton City unit. I need to learn lots of knots, lashing a stretcher, carrying a stretcher, fire extinguishers, cribbing, ladders, tirfor winch, search markings and lots more I am already forgetting. Last Tuesday night we went to Coffs for a demo of road crash rescue - our unit doesn't do this but the new controller wants to work towards it (I'm not keen to see dead/injured)

Harvest

Not a stunning harvest but it's my biggest carrot yet. The kohl rabbi you can eat the leaves (like cabbage) and the stem bulb (e.g. grate into mash potatoes), garlic leaves, parsley, oregano and snow peas. I've been trying to catch up on eggs - so scrambled egg for breakfast, savoury french toast for lunch and vege fritters for dinner (with chicken legs). All those holes - are mice - I've caught 6 so far with only 2 traps so could be many more to come.

Plants

I divided up the arrowroot and got three new plants, the yacon to the left has decided not to die although it's main stem rotted. The pool has water chestnuts. The olive in the high bed is hanging in there although its not really happy.

Who is living in that hole?

I'm afraid some of these may be mouse holes which is bad because mice attract snakes. They are all inside the fenced area. Also been some nosing around in the new compost beds which probably means a bandicoot can get in.

Egg and bacon pie

I made this last weekend - getting tired of trying to eat 4 eggs a day.

Fire

From 1st Sept you need a permit to burn off so of course the last few days of August everyone was burning off. When I went to sleep at 10pm Tuesday after SES I notice an orange glow to the southwest. The next day around noon a fire truck drove past, stopped turned back and into the west neighbours place. I walked down to see and apparently the bonfire from last night restarted and was threatening their house. Two more fire trucks and an hour later they had it under control. I couldn't see too well - but got some information from the RFS website, although the internet was really slow.

Arrowroot

The arrowroot in the wicking container filled with sand grew really well so I divided it up. Seems to be frost sensitive which might be a problem. I'm holding off major planting as apparently can often get a frost in early spring.

Perennial bed

Asparagus, Thai coriander and garlic chives transplanted into the perennial (4th) bed. The asparagus never really died right down so I haven't cut it back. In the bed behind I planted 12 corn and covered the rest with green manure mix.