A country going from extreme to extreme. What a challenge it sets.

Today is the second day in a row that the temperatures here have hit the mid 40s in celcius.
My chooks are fretting, so I have soaked the soil beneath their favourite tree for them to lay on cool ground, changed their drinking water every two hours and added iceblock (see bottom photo) to keep it cool for longer.  They have had water sprayed on them to help keep their body temperature manageable.  Still they puff and pant with the soaring temperatures.  Then there is Snake our cat (no longer the sweet kitten) who is absolutely panting with heat stress.  We have bathed him twice and he is now laying on a tray with a wet bath mat in an attempt to combat dehydration.  Although he is weaned, I even resorted to giving him some electrolytes in a bottle just to boost his hydration.
Meanwhile, inside the house I am melting with no airconditioning.  Don't really like or believe they should be used if some more natural alternative is available.  So I have a large beach towel over the back door and continually wet it to make the breaze that comes in cooler.  A bit like an old coolgardie safe that my grandmother had for her meat in the old days.  I have a Chilli Band around my neck,  they are wonderful for reducing personal heat stress and am only glad I had a few left from my original sale stock. I originally designed these and began production back in the early 1990s, have sold so many lost count and if it wasn't so hot would be at the production table right now to make a heap for this season.  (perhaps when it cools a little)
Whilst all this goes on, parts of QLD  and Victoria are still going through the recovery process from floods as the second of two cyclones is due to collide with the QLD coast and there are fires raging across NSW.
Yes, we are a resilient lot us Aussies, no doubt.

Study and pressure

\Over the last 3 years, I have been undertaking a Permaculture Design and Sustainability course, in an attempt to become certified as a consultant in the field.  Further to this I have hopes of doing an ATT cert4 course to allow myself to become and accredited teacher.  What a journey this has been and what enlightenment it has brought me.  Just recently I began to tackle a unit that covers identifying weeds, pests and diseases in the system.  However I hit a snag when I was unable to identify 4 particular weeds.  So being the bilateral thinker I am, decided to post photos on as many of my networking sites as possible.  Next in line happens to be here, so if anybody out there is able to post a comment with a name for them, I would be a happy little permi indeed.

Australia in crisis

With so much of the land in the Eastern states of Australia struggling with floods, the people on this great land show their true colours.  So many have come forward with shovels and work gear in hand to pitch in with the clean up.  A monumental task, it will take years for the destruction to show full signs of recovery and still we are being battered by storms and rising waters.  The most amazing story to arise from this whole scenario comes from a small town to the mid north of Victoria.  Deciding that emergency services were already stretched and they couldn't just wait for help to arrive, the townfolk took it upon themselves to build a massive levy bank around the entire town as well as the big power station.  Their aim,  to keep the town dry and save the power station from total destruction.  How did it fare?  Let me tell you, these people need to be written up in the history books, because it worked.  Not one house got wet and the power station is safe. No, the waters haven't yet receded, but so far so good.  The broadcasts about the floods have been extensive and non stop, keeping everybody up to date on conditions and where emergency evacuation centres are.  Three cheers for the media for their efforts.  Without adequate warnings, many more people may have perished and many more families would be grieving.  My thoughts and prayers go to those families who now carry the sadness of losing loved ones.  Another heart wrenching story arose, it came in the form of a brave lad who made rescuers save his little brother first.  Upon their return for him, he and his mother had been swept away.  This young lad had such great love for his brother he sacrificed himself to see his brother to safety. Nobody can ever put words to this story that will do him justice.  I can only pray for his family that they cope with the loss.  To the world at large, we are doing it hard, it will take many years to recover, rebuild and re energise our homeland.  We have not only lost homes and loved ones.  We have lost food crops that would have fed our poplulation for the next year or more.  Our farmers are our lifeblood, they have endured many years of drought when crops would not grow and stock had to be put down for lack of food and water to sustain them. They have endured loss through bushfires and now through devastating floods.  Yet we are a strong nation and yes,  we will stand up and rebuild all that has been taken.  We are Australians.

Snake on the go

Well, Snake has now reached 7 weeks of age.  What a transformation has taken place over the last week with him.
Not only has he grown in height and weight, he is now so active. The mischief he creates is mind blowing.
His constant stalking of Luke, hiding behind things and pouncing on Luke's legs as he passes.
Now running so fast, we just can't catch him and have to resort to trickery.  Luring him from beneath beds and grabbing him as fast as we can before he can disappear again.
His constant demands for a bottle, even though he now drinks from a bowl.  This he tries to do without us seeing him, if he realises he's been seen he runs and hides behind a door. Taking a sneaky peek around it to see if we have gone away, then going back for another slurp.
We had to go to Wodonga last week for three days and took the little scallywag with us.  He travelled quite well and in fact loves the car.  While there, we all went for a drive to the Hume Weir, there we let him frolic on the grassy knoll, much to the tourists delight. Don't think they had seen such a well travelled cat before.
My mum hates cats, so she says,  funny how I caught her feeding him a bottle and petting on more than one occassion.  He did seem to take a shine to her and would run to her if he was in trouble with us.
He has become quite vicious at times, biting and scratching since his milk teeth came in.  Can't wait until they fall out and he gets his adult ones.  They might be less sharp. Funny though he is calm and gentle with my younger son Mark. Often they can be found asleep together on the couch and if anyone dares to wake the sleeping monster, it's lookout.  NOTE TO SELF....buy some chain mail suits.

Hehe and they think I am sweet and innocent

Snake and Uncle Ducky having a snooze

It's mine I say, all mine

Snake and Grandma at the Hume Weir

Update on Snake

What an amazing time we have had raising this little bundle of joy.  When he came into our lives he was only 2 weeks old and by all rights too young to survive.
On the third night, we had a terrible scare, Snake was so gravely ill we had to take him to the vet at midnight.  During the day we had been given bad advice about putting him onto powdered milk formula.  Sadly it nearly killed him.  It took a lot of hard work and tender loving care to save his life. ( a big thanks to Jenni the vet, she was wonderful).
Now a 4 week old, he has gone through some incredible changes.  He got all his teeth in one day and promptly began to chew and bite us. Next he found out he could run,  hmmm , now we also run..after him.  Then he found out that long, skinny thing at the back of him would go side to side if he concentrated very hard. His tail wags all the time and he finds it such fun. Once his eyesight settled in, he began to play with toys much more and to chase us into the kitchen when we make his bottle.
This week he worked out if he runs to his feeding cushion and meows loudly,,we would make a bottle.  He also began to eat his big boy food.  In the form of soft kitten foods.  I was surprised at this because he still refuses to lap milk from a saucer.   He now goes to the bowl and taps it with his foot and meows for his meat.
When he gets dirty or his fur becomes a bit oily from the paraffin he has to take we have to bath him.. Imagine our surprise when he actually enjoyed it.  He now spends bathtime splashing the water and trying to catch the drops.  Tonight he began to stalk and chase his shadow.  The most curious little mite I have ever encountered.

                                      

I can only wonder what he will get up to next and am constantly pleased to see his little life prosper.

Rescuing Our Latest Family Member. "Snake" the Kitten

After a trip to town for supplies yesterday, I went out to water the gardens and clean the path down.
We have a lot of feral cats around here and one had parked beneath the tree in the yard.  So to make
it leave I gave it a quick squirt with the hose.
Upon doing this the cat moved and I heard a tiny squeak,  yes, you got it in one,  a kitten.
The mother cat, as it turned out had been bitten by a snake and brought her kitten to the yard for protection.  I got the impression she wanted it to be looked after, so of course, soft hearted Martha that I am, I brought the poor little mite inside and began to feed it with a dropper. 
Once the stores in town were open, I went in and got a proper bottle and teet to feed him.  He took to it pretty quickly and once fed settled to a deep sleep in my son's beanie.
Said son has become rather clucky with the kitten and we have decided to call him "Snake".

So, for me, it is back to night feeds and raising a young one. Oh for the joy of it all, looks like Snake is here to stay.

A week with Kevin the WWOOFER

Kevin is a 20 year old lad from France. His hometown of Llion lies between Paris and Merseilles.
When Kevin arrived here he had no experience with outdoor work or using tools.  In fact, Kevin is a student in Geography and Maths back home.
So in the time he had here with us, we had him clearing slashed grass, barrowing manure to the newest garden bed, feeding chickens and then got him using power tools during construction of the woodshed.
He was a quiet lad, possibly due to the language barrier.  However at the end of the week he did begin to come out of his shell a bit more.
During his time off, we took him to our usual places of interest in town, along with a few fishing trips at the channel not far from home.  He got his first taste of Australian bush food (as he called them), yabbies.  Kevin said they tasted lovely and would eat them any time.

We surely wish Kevin an enjoyable journey, while he is in Australia.