Chokos and Eggplant.

I have spent the morning outside, not achieving much but did get a few things done.  I pulled the last of the corn out and have 3 cobs left but they will be gone by the end of the month.  I have dug over and *fed* the area and will plant broad beans there.
Picked the last watermelon so hope it's a good one.  It's a moon and stars sort and I don't think they are as nice as the big oval ones that we used to buy.
Pulled the rockmelon up and ended up with 2 fruit from that.  They will probably be mushed up to use in smoothies or as iceblocks as we don't seem to eat them just as a fruit.  Not sure why as they are quite nice, much nicer than bought ones. 
This tank garden is full of slaters so I tried putting a couple of the *AussieRock* chooks there to eat them but the silly things wouldn't stay there so I locked them back up.  Will see if I can fence them in somehow next weekend as I can't see many plants surviving if the slaters are left there.  More cabbage seedlings have gone from the end of this garden and I'm blaming the slaters for that.  I see them on the stems so I think they are eating through them and the plants wilt and die.  As you would. 
I have more seeds in but not sure how they will go.  The other lot of seeds didn't do too good but I have to get something to grow or we will won't be eating many vegetables over winter. 
Except for chokos.  They are doing really well and the vine is starting to spread everywhere.  Hubby even used some small ones in a stirfry he did the other day and he is not that keen on them. 

Eggplant may have to be used a bit more too but neither of us are that rapt in that.  But plantkillers can't be too choosy aye.  We can only eat what grows and until I get better at this growing lark it looks like it's chokos and eggplants.  Wanna come for tea?

I grow Eggplant because I love the look of the plant, they are easy to grow and I was  hoping to use it as a bartering tool or a givaway veg.   Looks like we'll be needing them ourselves now though.

The chokos are grown as I don't mind them.  If you can get a plant to grow they produce heaps, they take on the flavour of what they are cooked with so can be used for most meals.

This is one choko plant, it has been growing in this spot for 3 years now but this year it has spread out a lot more.  It fruits now, Autumn, then dies down to nearly nothing and will regrow months later.   It is the only survivor of 8 planted chokos.  Over the last 3 years I have been trying to get more to grow but haven't really succeeded.  This one is even taking over the clothesline.

Somewhere under there is a curry bush.   Oh well, I only grow it for he smell, at least we will eat the chokos.

Donnybrook Playground

Wednesday just gone we went down to Donnybrook to
meet up with some family members at the big playground. 
The others have been here before but it was a first for me
and daughter T. and grandaugter.
The weather forcast wasn't too good but the morning
here was kinda sunny but dark looking southwards.
Which is where we wanted to go.
After a phonecall to see if it was still on we finished
getting ready then left.  T's fella was coming as
well so  he became desinated driver which I was
mighty thankfull for as it soon started raining and there was quite a downpour just before we got there.
Pulling into Donnybrook though the rain stopped and the sun shone..  Like it was just for us...

This playground is off the main road of Donnybrook and is very impressive.  Suitable for all ages and great fun.
There are a few barbecues and tables under shadeclothe sales.  These arent rain proof though.. lol.
There are 2 unisex and wheelchair accesable toilets. 

Here I am wanting to have a go but...           I decited I would....                                    And did.




I will have to go here again though as I was *dared*
to climb this rope frame before we left but "forgot".

Next time we will explore a bit of the town before we leave as Hubby says there is a place that I want to see down there but we can't remember what it is.  I'm sure it's worth seeing though.

If you are ever in the area call in.  You'll have a great time.

Swans.

Hubby and I were having a coffee out the back this morning
when we saw a big bird fly in towards the dam. 
We were a bit surprised to see that it was this Black Swan.

We don't know where it would have come from, we are quite a way away from any suitable water for swans.

It stayed for a bit but then flew away again.

Snakes.

 It's Autumn and I would have thought that all the snakes were off sleeping somewhere but no, we still have to be careful of them.

One of the daughters lives in a house with a big yard and a fenced area with an old swimming pool in it.  The liner of the pool is ripped so the pool is not used.  It seems the area has become the home for a few Dugite snakes.  A son in law catches these snakes and they are relocated to bush a few kilometres away.


Yesterday he caught this baby one and put it in an empty milk bottle ready to be trasported elsewhere.

He is an American so don't know if that has anything to do with it but no Aussie blokes that I know would do this.





She found skins from bigger snakes as well but not the big snake itself.

Not sure how to rid the area of them all and ensure none come back though.  The yard backs onto a railway reserve and we have always had the occasional snakepass through there but with big ones and babies in this same area it seems like there may be a few living there. 

.

If you click on the photos they become bigger and you can see the snake poking it's head out of the bottle and then moving away through the grass.

Breakfast In The Garden.

I spent most of yesterday morning outside in the gardern. 
Had this for breakfast while out there.

We have enough corn still growing to get us through April.




Something has eaten all the Chinese Cabbage, from bought seedlings though. and a couple of cabbage seedling, also bought, have disapeared.  I have put 2 other lots in from seeds I grew here so hopfully they will survive.  They are in the drums out the front so a different area from the others.  I will get more seeds in this week as more didn't come up than did.


Finally got some carrots to poke their heads up out of the ground so put in another lot yesterday. Hopefully they'll do the same.  
This lot came from seeds we collected  last year.
The seeds that haven't come up were planted from bought seeds but the weather was also hotter.  This lot were covered with an old flywire screen with dried grass and weeds dumped on top.  The lots that didn't grow have also been covered though with different stuff.  One with cardboard, one with hessian...

Not Much Sleep.

I was kept awake most of Wednesday night by this chilcken.  You'd think that he'd be a little more grateful and shutup so I could sleep seeing as I was trying to save his life.

I had this one's Mum and him and his sibling running with the mixed breed chooks during the day but I lock these ones up in the evening.  This time I forgot and this little one got trampled in the rush when I fed the others.  I found him later, laying on his back with blood on his face where he had been pecked.  Picked him up and put him right way up but he fell over so I put him in a crate with a light in the bedroom so he was safe from the cats.

Half way through the night I even found the feather duster and put it in with him but that didn't work, it still cheeped. 

Made sure he had food and water the next day as I wasn't going to be home and when it was still alive that evening I took him out to see if his mum would have him back.  She did so now it is out there running around like nothing had happened.

It is much better when I get one to live instead of finding them dead.  It better not be a rooster!

Jurien Bay/GreenHead Trip.

We have been away for a couple of days, a quick trip up to Jurien Bay, north of Perth, WA.  We needed to buy a couple of big bags of fishfood and BinL needed a couple as well and this was the cheapest place that we could find and as we had a car full of *free* diesol it was cheaper to drive up there than have them send it down to us.
We were going to camp but things changed and Hubby booked us a motel room for Thursday night. 

We left here around 10am Thursday, later than we planned and needed a couple of stops on the way, one at Gingers to buy lunch and another here at Cataby because I needed to.

            

 Because of the stops  we didn't get to Jurien until around 3pm. but found the place where we were to pick the fishfood up from easily enough then went looking for the motel.  Found that, checked-in, had a coffee then went exploring.

Early morning photo of a jetty a minutes walk from where we stayed.  There are quite a few people fishing and after we walked out for a look we saw one bloke pull in a squid.




We left Jurien by 7am Good Friday, hoping that the roads wouldn't be  too busy on the way Stockgully National Park.  I wanted to see the caves here and as we were in the area...










A couple of signs had me a bit worried but Hubby was THE MAN so all was well.  And the road wasn't rough and feral bees won't bother you unless you bother them so I sooked for nothing really.  Oh well, what can I say, I'm a sookylala.


The cave was huge and with torches turned off very dark, as caves are.  I was hoping to see some bats but no such luck, just a few birds and bees around the entrance.

The way in.
There are a lot of feral bee hives hanging from the cliffs above.
                                                                              .
                                      

 Watch ya head.  There were a couple of bits hanging down that would hav knocked you out had you walked into them.

  

We had to climb down and over this pile of boulders once we were out to get onto the path then a kilometre walk back to the car.






 We were the only one here to start  with but there was another car as we were leaving though we didn't see the people from it.   By 10am we were on our way to Green Head.

We went fishing for lunch
here at Billygoat Bay.

This is the view of Dynamite Bay
where we ate our rolls at lunchtime.

View from Point Louice and climbing back down and over to where the car was parked.

We had a great time, saw heaps and will go back and camp one day. 
Might try for a family get together.  I'm sure some of them will be interested.

Buy No Veg Challenge. March Update.

March is finished for another year so we are 3 months down in our *buy no vegetables in 2010* challenge.  We have done pretty good so far as we have not had to buy any veg and we haven't gone without any that we wanted.   So happy with that.

The seed planting over the last month was a dismal failure though with nothing coming up and I am blaming the heat for that.  Neither seed in the garden or in the seedboxes survived so last week I went and bought a few punnets of seedlings and put those in.  Sofar they are still alive so we may get some cabbage to eat. I have also put more seeds in the seedtrays but only a few seem to have come up so far so I will need o wait and see how the rest go.  All the basil came up though but I knew that that was going to happen as we don't eat basil!

I have put in more carrot seed and hope that will come up as I am fast running out of carrot seed: I have had no luck this year with that germinating and only have a few more feeds of carrot left out in the garden.

One punnet I bought was of chinese cabbage but I was looking at that last night and there is not much left of it so I must go and spread some crushed eggshell around that to try and protect it...DONE.

We do have enough stuff gowing still to get us through April but I HAVE TO get stuff to start growing.

We won't starve though as the eggplant are still producing and the chokoes now have tiny fruit on them and with the cooler weather meaning the wood fire and stews we will have plenty to eat but it might not be what we want.   Though I had some egglant the other day and it wasn't awful.  Hubby disagrees with that but I think that is because I didn't have any breadcumbs so I used bran as the coating instead.  I like bran...he doesn't.

So we are succeeding so far and every passing day brings us closer the the end so even though there have been lots of failures I am pleased with how we have done so far.

Oh, the only fruit I bought in March was some pears and a bunch of bananas.