Spring has sprung

Sam digging a hole                                                   Prepped sites for trees

We have had the most amazing group of people on the farm over the weekend of October 22nd. 2011. The Men Of The Trees came, saw and planted 312 trees in one of the steepest gullies on the farm. They were some of the most awesome folks who gifted their time and energy totally to change the way the farm looks. What will it take for the trees to grow and thrive on the farm? Glenn spent many hours watering the trees as the weather following the planting was to become the driest 6 weeks of the year.

It's a Wild Life on the Farm

How lucky are we to have so many birds, animals and reptiles calling our farm home? Every year there are more and more species showing up and showing off! So enjoy the photos of our recent visitors...

A lost sugar glider

 A pair of scaly-breasted parrots (aka scalies or greenies) on the handrail.  We are seeing increasing numbers of these little birds around the farm.

                                              One of the many rainbow lorikeets

                                                 A baby galah getting some lunch

An eastern koel, aka a storm bird or cuckoo, in the mulberry tree

This little guy showed up after all the rain we had in March.  He was put back in the same spot in which he was found.

Here's some lichen in flower on one of our fence post stays.  Has anyone ever seen this before?

This beautiful long-billed corella has been a regular visitor, sharing the spilled grain with some of the native ducks that frequent the calf pens.

This rather long visitor wasn't perturbed by the attention of the cows during milking recently.  It was more interested in keeping warm after having breakfast.  The distended section around its middle which looks like white lines is probably a rat.  By the way, it is an eastern brown.

Finn found this little gecho which was molting.

As well as all the fauna we have captured on film, there are so many more visiting us daily. We recently counted 19 black cockatoos in one flock. This is really unusual as the most we've counted before would be 5. We also have increasing numbers of pale-headed rosellas nesting in fence posts. Our wwookfer Keita, saw some wallabies as well. What would it take for more of them to show up? A ring-tail possum showed at the back door, trying unsuccessfully to get into the roof through a tiny hole.

This is what I call a spider tent.  I noticed it on the way back to the dairy while getting the cows in for milking one morning.  I was very impressed with this construction which was full of baby spiders.  Perhaps I should it a spider nursery!

I wasn't the only one impressed with the spider nursery.  Money also showed an interest.