Life and Wildlife on the Banks of the Murrumbidgee
Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an ancient grain that is used to make beer and many other useful and fun things. Barley Grass (Hordeum Murinum Leporinum) is frankly a nuisance. In the spring it pops up from previous seeds and covers the ground, crowding out many more useful pasture plants. It is edible (by sheep) while... Continue Reading →
I find the rocks around our hills to be beautiful. Not so much fun when we run into them in long grass with the truck, but otherwise they add interest to what would otherwise be a smooth and boring landscape. Our rocks are very, very old. Formed over four hundred million years ago, just as... Continue Reading →
We had to wait a long time for the soil to be ready to plant, this year. It continued very dry well into May. Then it went cold. Chilly. Bleak. Wet. Luckily the actual planting days were clear and sunny, which means morning frost. On the first day, the frost crystals were still visible in... Continue Reading →
When I look at our big remnant eucalypts I have often wondered how old they are. For many of them, they could be anywhere from one hundred to five hundred years old. Some types of trees I know to be much younger, particularly the ones I planted myself, or were planted by someone I know... Continue Reading →
My wonderful farm assistant Dmitry Grishin is doing a study on water in the soil at the Australian National University. To do it, he's setting up sampling points all over both of the farms and measuring the penetration of rainfall. Initially we didn't have any rainfall (horrible dry season), but in the last couple of... Continue Reading →
I was quite annoyed when one of our remnant trees was blown down in a freak storm (see Death of a Giant). I'd hoped we could save it from a slow dieback by fencing and planting around it. Of the three trees we did that for, it was the healthiest. But no, the wind screwed... Continue Reading →
This last winter was not only dry, but infested with wombats. Wombats are both secretive and stubborn. Each one likes to go where it goes, and each one treats an obstacle as something to be tunnelled through, or under. They rarely deviate from their planned route. Sometimes, that’s right in front of a car. ... Continue Reading →
Is the method I’ve been using to plant native trees too slow? Is there a better way? I’ve just had an example of speedy planting, which if it works, will do ten years of my work in two weeks. Impressive. I signed a Forestry contract with the carbon capture company Greenfleet late last year. They... Continue Reading →
Back in May, our Chinese pistachio tree in the front garden was lighting up the house, with its fluorescent red and yellow leaves spreading above and below. It was gorgeous. A bright, flaming tree was also a reminder that I need to do more to prepare the house and garden for a bad fire season. ... Continue Reading →
In December we got a reminder of what it means when climate change increases the force of a storm. Some evening thunder rolled in as we watched calmly from the verandah. "That seems pretty fierce" Charlie remarked, looking concerned. We soothed him with "Just a summer storm. We get them all the time." And then... Continue Reading →
This is my year for filling in gaps (not just in my blog, oops), but among my trees. Lots of non-tree things have also been happening, but I’ll fill those gaps in separate posts. First we had to go back and find the trees that didn’t quite make it from last year. I’ve now conclusively... Continue Reading →
At the moment butterflies are everywhere, including, unfortunately, smashed on the windscreen of my car. There've been many years where there have been grasshoppers throwing themselves in front of speeding vehicles (I don't think they intend to). Craig and I had one trip to Swan Hill years ago where we had to keep stopping and... Continue Reading →
It's been some time since I saw new wildflowers. The weather has been mostly lousy for visiting the best areas we have, Luckily, being on the Murrumbateman Landcare committee recently gave me the privilege of a walkabout in Nanima with the people most skilled at identifying all the fabulous things around us. Unlike our place,... Continue Reading →
As the roads have turned to soup, the hills have become treacherously soggy as well. Behind a group of fig trees is a valley I’ve been considering for some time how to protect and improve. It’s tricky because there are power lines overhead nearby, plus two steep hills, with the water source for the grazing... Continue Reading →
Gaily zipping through the trees A flock shows grey, then, Lifting their wings, shows pink And in the sunset Heads for home. Photo by George Roderick One of our pleasures each evening is to watch these birds flying home. Unfortunately, I discovered they had decided to roost in my pear tree and, as evening entertainment,... Continue Reading →
During the winter we finally got some huge branches of the golden cypress trees chopped. There are seven of them in the garden and they all create a lot of wreckage, although I do love their shade and the raggedy umbrella look they have. Craig extreme weeding under the cypresses, 2016 They regularly get too... Continue Reading →
Since lately we've been staying in town whenever the road is blocked and we have commitments, it feels as if, instead of going to Canberra for a night out and entertainment, we come home. Most recently we were able to sit outside eating dinner and watch the eclipse of the moon, conveniently located for our... Continue Reading →
Living on a farm in Australia means driving, lots of it. The nearest grocery store is twenty to thirty minutes away, traversing a couple of low bridges, gravel roads and the Barton Highway. That's why it's worth keeping chooks, a vegetable garden and fruit trees so there are always emergency food supplies. Fifty years ago... Continue Reading →
Grasses make my head spin. There are so many of them and I can still only identify about a dozen types confidently. About half of those are non-native, and the worst of them is African Lovegrass (eragrostis curvula). It was accidentally planted in the Monaro area, south of us, as a contaminant of the closely... Continue Reading →
I was lucky enough this year to get a small grant to put in thirty paddock trees through Yass Landcare and the Yass Local Land Services. The huge remnant paddock trees we have are both impressive and essential, for wildlife to move around, as well as for sheep to have shelter and shade. Many of... Continue Reading →
One Bend In The River 