Red Bellied Black Snake

This is quite a common snake. The Red Bellied Black Snake. She comes around now and then. We have seen her twice. The former owners have seen her a couple of times and once saved her life when she got stuck in som chicken wire. That is why we know it is a female.

We have to watch out during warm summer evenings so she doesn´t slither into the house. We do not want her there. These guys are very very poisonous but also very shy and also territorial. They tend to use the same spots over and over. They ´d rather flee than fight but if it feels challenged it will strike back. We followed one once in thelue Mountains to take pictures and when it had enough it turned on us. We backed away and it went on it´s way. Lucky for us. That was our first encounter with a Red Belly.

Here she comes

Checking our the crevices under the house before leaving.

Good climber

We have seen one more snake but did not have the camera with us so we have no idea what snake it is. Jen was walking first down to the beach and on the path crossed this slim little brown snake right in front of her feet. She stopped and warned Mick, the snake stopped and looked around and when nothing happened it just lithered on and disappeared in the underbrush. We went on and took our daily dip in the creek.

One of our neighbours have told us stories of when he was a kid and he and his siblings and friends were chased down the path by brown snakes. Scary thought huh!

Often we see Diamon Pythons lying on the road basking in last rays of the setting sun and we stop and shoo them off the road.

They are so beautiful and quite big.

The birds, like the insects, come when there is food. These photos are only of some of the birds we have in the garden or close to it. Most of them keep to the tree tops. Among those who fly up above so we have not had a chance to take any photos are the black cockatoos and the sulphur crested ones. Some birds are very shy like the white headed doves (or whatever) so no pictures of them.

Our two Kookaburras live around here most of the time. We will try to start feeding them a little soon so they become more tame. They seem to want to sit under the veranda roof when it rains but dare not stay when we come out. They laugh in the morning and evening.

We also have two resident Magpies, Mr & Mrs Magpie. She is shy and stays outside the fence but he will come up close to the house and pick the ground free from larvae and grubs. He is very good at finding them although they are underground.

The former owners left a book on birds and they have ticked off several. So far we are just ticking off the ones close to the house since we are working on it so much we have not ventured through all of the property for birds and animals yet.

Bar Shouldered Dove, Geopelia Humeralis

Eclectus

Scarlet Honeyeater.

Satin Bowerbrid

Green Catbird

Galahs

Kookaburra

Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Macropygia amboinensis

Wednesday 2015-05-06

We had hard rain coming down for two days about three days ago.
It started with a hailwarning.

So we covered Atlas.

Our garden looked like a minor lake.

The creek rose about two metres or more.

This is the path to the beach. To the left between the grass and the trees is the road to the beach.

Our measuring sticks disappeared.

Our pump was washed away. We found our hoses though and it´s little metal roof down the creek.

We can now walk easily along the creek almost as if it was a sidewalk.

All plants and growth is lying down and most leaves are gone from them. Only the really big trees are still there. All the river oak seedlings are lying flat along the stream direction.

Our somewhat stony beach is now a very sandy beach. Everything has almost totally changed. But since the rain stopped the water is steadily subsiding. From being totally brown it is now clearing up.
Good thing we had just filled the water tank.

When it has cleared we hope to find the pump. The engine is probably too damaged but we could put the pump part on the old engine that we still have and is working. This flash flood gives you a little more respect for water and our handling of it.

We got our hot water shower up and running at the last minute. We could not have taken a dip in the strong current in the creek which had swelled into a small river.

Today was a brilliant day. Just warm enough, clear and sunny. Lots of birds chirped around in the garden.

Here is the road to the beach between the grass and the trees. The water is receding quickly.

We are working on the bathroom. We have laid the floor. We have put insulation and fibro-cement sheets on the new wall replacing the one that was termite eaten.

Now we are experimenting with the placement of the shower and washbasin. Our shower will be just plain outback style in corrugated sheets. We are also figuring on a good stand for the hot water heater and pump. It will be good to shower inside.

Nights are getting colder by the day. The days are still nice though, 20 degrees or more.

The possum.

When we moved in we had a resident possum. Mrs P. She had a baby. The house had often been empty and possums had peed all over. We had to wash all walls and they still have some stripes. Anyway possums are best kept at bay with the lights on. So the more our walls got fixed the possum had to leave. But since she had a baby we did not want to totally shoo her out. Finally baby was big enough. Sometimes they stayed away for some days and finally they did not come back which is a bit odd. Other possums have come and gone. You keep the lights on at night if you cannot shut the doors. The other possums come to exactly the same place that the previous possums have been and gnawed. Should that not be a deterrent to go where someone else lived or may live? One of the favorite places to gnaw is above our bedroom window. It wakes us and we shine our lights in it´s face. Most often they leave. Now and then we have to poke them with a very long stick. Right now we have a possum that checks our garden but we don´t know where it lives. That´s ok. They a super cute! As long as it does not gnaw the house to bits! Mrs. P and her baby were almost tame. But of course one would not want to have a possum for an enemy, with those teeth and claws! The tail is like a monkeys tail they hang in it and it is like a fifth hand.

Tuesday. Time to pick up the fibre cement sheets for the outside walls.

Mick called Bunnings to check if they had any trailers and they did.

We drove in to Bunnings. Their trailers were pretty small.

We asked for 14 sheets and they said they had them.

Then came time to load. How to load sheets on the little trailer? They gave us two 3 meter 3×2 inch planks and laid them strait on top of the trailer and then the sheets on top. If we returned the trailer by closing at 17 it would be complementary.

They only had 10 sheets and we should go to Bunnings in South Kempsey for the rest. We had a map and the guy wrote on it where it was. We were off.

According to his directions we ended up on a private property and that guy gave us new directions for the other side of the main road.

Off again to Kempsey Industrial Area for a new search. Ask again and finally we found it. Very small sign said Bunnings. They guys from the other Bunnings had called so they were waiting for us and loaded the 4 last sheets.

We decided to skip lunch and eat at home depending on time. At turn off to Nulla Nulla one of the bands had been cut by the sheets and was loose. One more was on the way to be cut. Rearrange and tighten again. After a while the band was cut again and the load had shifted. After a while it had shifted backwards and was  part down into the trailer. One 2×3 had broken also. On to Postmans and we drove very carefully.

Almost home the load had shifted forwards and was very near to cut into the tail gate od the car. We had to unload all of it and arrange again. This time one side down in the trailer.  And we were so close to home.

Young Daniel came by on his motorbike and gave us a message from his dad that he would come either Sunday or Monday. We were just tightening the bands so we didn´t need help.

At the house we unloaded and drove back across the creek. We had a very late lunch in the ute on the way back to Kempsey. Jen feeding Mick. Returned the trailer and all was well. Made it on time.

Wanted an ice cream. McDs machine was broken so we went to KFC. Ate-drank it on a field outside Kempsey. It was to soft.

Now home again. Of course on the way home, tired and wary, a tree had fallen over the road and pulled another tree and some branches with it. Out and deal with that shit. Lucky it had not happened when we had the trailer and load! Finally that day was over. We were too tired to cook and just had sandwiches for din.

Not long after we moved to the bush our son came over for a visit. He took his driving licence this year and has both driven on right and left hand side so we did not worry too much about that part. Sydney on the other hand can be a handful to drive in but he fixed it and came up to us in one day. We met up in Kempsey and the last part Mick went with him in the rental so he could point out the parts of the track where you have to be more careful. So on sons first trip he saw lots of cows, wallabies, dragons and goannas on the road.

Since he staid for ca three weeks he got to join in many of our activities.

Skinny dipping in the creek for instance. A real treat not many people can do today. In the 70 and 80:ies bathing naked anywhere was normal in Sweden but has fallen out of practice due to all the immigrants with odd religions.

Walking in the rainforest.

Filling the water tank, a chore that takes about an hour. 

Just hanging on the veranda (doing his work) in the warm weather, fighting the biting March flies, watching the wallabies jump by and meeting the cows. The cows at night can give you a scare. They look like aliens with their red eyes widely apart making you wonder what the hell that is!

The kookaburras insane laugh and out here they have a wide veriety of laughing. But then it is spring too.

Actually at one time the March Flies got to us so we hung up a mozzie net in the trees to be able to eat in peace.

Having a beer at the nearby pub (45 min away).

Filling the gas bottles at the General store.

Helping out picking the immediate garden clean from glass.

Chopping down trees and moving earth and composts.

Doing the laundry. Rubbing, rinsing, wringing and hanging. All by hand.

Looking at the possum and other odds and ends.

Finally the end came and it was time for him to drive down to The Big Smoke and fly home.

He said he like it out here. That warms our hearts.

We miss him and we call the guest room “sons room” at the moment.

How do we get daughter & family over now? Hmmm.

Christmas Day went by with the following happening. We had to fill the water cistern. We saw our first red belly slither in under the house. Another chore coming up: cleaning up under the house so you can safely work there. Skyping with daughter and her little modern family. We got a good long rain too, all evening and night.