Put that paving back PLEASE!!!!

Leveling the base before pavers are laid

A beautiful winter Saturday morning in Kallista, sun shining, no wind. Me just pottering about in the garden chainsawing up some timber slabs for the bird/sugar glider boxes I'm making. (more of that in a latter post). My wife then asks can you maybe re-do the paving you pulled up when you fixed the plumbing today. Now this was not a question however kindly it was asked! She was right it was a priority as rain is forecast for tomorrow. We can park the car up near the house but when we get out the car you stepped onto the dirt strip without paving and have to cross it dirt strip 2 to get to our front door.
So with shovel, gloves and rubber mallet i get to work. I shovelled out some of the excess dirt leveled the dirt making sure it was a little higher than needed and placed pavers down one by one settling them into the dirt using the rubber mallet until the pavers were level with the other pavers.
When the paving was all laid i did a final tidy up removing the pile of excess dirt and the old terracotta pipe which had caused this mess in the first place.
Job completed.
And now it's Sunday raining solidly and we can get into and out of the car and into the house with out having to avoid mud piles!

Rubber mallet used to seat the pavers in 

Cat Bibs On!!!!

Timmy as happy as normal, still his adventuresome self

Kitten not so sure and a little grumpy

Well following up from an earlier blog. I received the Cat Bibs in the mail today. So simple, so easy to put on. Didn't even have to take off the collars. Just slip a tab under the collar fold back Velcro on it's self and all done. using a permamant marker I put the cats name on it and both my Wife and my phone number on them. In case they are caught for any reason!!!
'Timmy' (he was named that by RSPCA before we got him) adjusted very quickly and was outside climbing over & through fences, running around and not really fussed at all. 'Kitten' however was a little grumpy, and very tentative, but didn't take long to venture into the garden. She was a lot more clumsy and didn't look happy at all. I read the literature about the Cath Bibs that came in the mail and discovered you can adjust the height of the bib so the cats don't trip on it. I readjusted 'Kittens' bid and hey presto much better.
After a few hours on even Kitten has got over it and is just going with the flow. Now I just need to wait and see if the number of lizards caught and brought inside is reduce. To be honest the number of birds caught (that we know about) has been very few only 3 or 4 in three years. Quite a few lizards are caught so I wait and will update post from time to time and let you know how they go.
have already received a phone call from a concerned neighbour asking if they cat is alright has it got caught in something or been to the vets? I advised her what they are and she was impressed.
If nothing else it shows we are responsible cat owners trying to reduce the impact of cat ownership living in the hills.

Get me out of there I'm going NUTS!!!!

Rock swales to capture water 

Since Wednesday I've been sick. The worst cold/flu/chest infection thingy I've ever had, culminating in me loosing my voice on Friday morning.  I sound like I'm going through puberty all over again, voice breaking/squeaking when ever I open my mouth. The doctor on Friday said I should start improving over the weekend. It's
Sunday I'm feeling a bit better still no voice and a bit chesty but I have to get out into the garden I'm going NUTS inside. A small job outside was in order. I have been reading about Contour Swales lately and knew it would be perfect for the citrus trees I planted a year ago in the back garden.
Garden Swales capture water, holding and slowing it's movement down and concentrate it where plants can use it.  Today I dug the soil from the top side of the trees and made a bank following the contour of the land below the citrus trees. I used rocks to stabilise the swale and protect it from the chooks. Finally I have mulched around the trees. Now my citrus trees are ready for a hot summer. And the best thing I went inside and had me some of the best home made Salted Chocolate Caramel Slice my wife made today. It is So good!!!! Her Belly Rules Blog is linked it's well worth looking at to get the recipe to this amazing slice.

Water saving ideas that look good to!

Swales following contours on land

Wildlife Boxes for Birds, Possums & Insects?

Now I'll have the cats under control and much, MUCH more handicapped in terms of catching wildlife, due to the cat bibs, I can focus on providing more homes for wildlife in our garden. I want to attract as many beneficial insects (Lady birds, lacewings, praying mantis, native wasps, & bees) as possible to help control the pest insects.  We need insects in our gardens to pollinate and eradicate the nasties in our garden. A healthy mix is what we are after. Not total control but a healthy equilibrium.
Next to my garden orchard and chook house is a big pile of fire wood, this provides natural habitat for many types of inspects, spiders and other creepy crawlies. All good for a healthy garden. But I want more. So I have found some paper bark logs from a tree I pruned. I drilled a whole lot of holes into the logs and have sat them in the garden orchard. Not only will the drilled holes provide homes for solitary native wasps, bees & other insects but the loose paper bark provide natural shelter as well.
I'm in the process of building a few different types of insect homes as well one is basically a small box in the shape of letter box, filled with straw with numerous holes or slits into the box. Another one is a box frame with no top or bottom filled with cut lengths of bamboo. The bamboo is hollow providing lots off holes, nooks & crannies for insects to hide and live. When complete these will be attached to the trellis posts in the orchard to hopefully attract spiders,  lace wings, lady birds & other beneficial insect that help control nasties in the orchard and veggie patches.

Then there is the possum box a few bird boxes for small parrot sized birds, maybe an owl box and a bat box!

(PHOTO'S TO BE ADDED AS THEY ARE FINISHED)

Cats and Wildlife DON'T Mix, But I love Cats?

Now I'm a country boy at heart. Since moving to the country I always had a dog, loved em they were my best friends. But now I find myself living on only 1/3 of an acre with a busy life and i couldn't give a dog enough time to be fair.  We have two cats who I adore. So snugly and affectionate BUT I know they are killers, we have collars with bells on then but I'm sure they don't work!!! in fact they bring home lizards mainly the occasional bird and these are only the ones we see. What to do. Well my friends I have just stumbled onto a great invention. The Cat Bib.  Go to www.catbib.com.au and have a look I've just ordered two one for each cat and they will have them on every day, only $16.95 each. The neoprene bib attaches to the cats collar with velcro and hangs down low so that when a cat pounces the feet hit the bib and interfer with the natural hunting methods.
So now i feel much better snuggling up to my 'killers' knowing they will be killing much less when my cat bibs arrive in the next 3-4 days. I'll keep you posted with how they work.
The following info is taken directly from the CatBib wedsite i am in no way involved with this product or recieving finacial gain. I just think it's a great product for people who love thier cats but know they are naughty!!!! Brilliant idea.
The Murdoch University trial scientifically proved that CatBib stopped over 80% of cats killing wild birds and reduced small animal predation by almost half.

New Catbib Size - the BIG BIB

Now choose from two sizes of CatBib...
the Regular/Small CatBib (AUD $16.95)
and the new BIG CatBib (AUD $20.95)

Save even more birds!

Please Note: Whether to choose a Regular or a BIG CatBib is based on your cat's aggression NOT on the size of your cat.

If you are unsure, opt for the regular size first – there’s a better than 80% chance it will work well.

The regular triangular-shaped size was tested by Murdoch University Biological Sciences Department and has been scientifically proven to stop 81% of cats from catching birds, 45% of cats from catching small mammals, and 33% of cats from catching herptofauna.

But what about those few more aggressive cats, the 19% (1 out of 5 cats) who continue to catch some birds? For those more aggressive cats, an experimental BIG CatBib was sent out and tested by customers. This larger size stops almost all of even the most aggressive cats from catching any birds! So much so that the CatBib’s record of stopping cats from catching birds is nearly 98% effective. In other words, testing has shown that 81% of known bird catching cats will not be able to catch a single bird wearing the regular sized CatBib. The more aggressive 19% of cats who can still catch some birds with the regular CatBib, can more often than not, be prevented from catching any birds by wearing the new BIG CatBib.

Keeping The Chooks Healthy and Warm in Winter!!!

Well the last week has seen winter hit with a vengeance, cold & wet most days. The mud has been kept to a minimum in the chicken pen because of the bales of straw I had already spread on the ground. My thinking is this straw is being turned over by the chooks constantly, I chuck seed and food on the straw and the chooks dig through it turning it over and over pooing all the time adding fertiliser. In spring I will collect all this rich mulch to use on the veggie patch & orchard.

Perspex window 

The finished chook house done finally!

The chook house has 3 windows. 2 small windows opposite each other on opposing walls with wooden eaves protecting them from rain and wind. On the front of the chook house above the nesting box is a large window made from steel reinforcing mesh. Great for ventilation in summer but I think a bit to cold in winter. One of the gates a bought for the chook pen off ebay had a sheet of perspex attached to it which I took off to reduce the weight of it, I stored it in the shed I knew it would be useful for something. I measured the window and cut a piece of perspex to fit, attached a sliding bolt on both sides of it pushed it into the window drilled tow holes for the sliding bolts, and presto, fully water proof and wind proof. The chooks should now be much more cosy during winter, light can still get in, and in summer i can easily remove it to allow for full ventilation to cool things down. A perfect solution!

One Retaining Wall Please!!!

The retaining wall finished, but i still need to tidy up!

The neighbour, who I get along with really well is putting a driveway up the side of his property right on our boundary. The problem is the earth bank was near vertical and had no retaining wall. As he would be driving on it I wanted it retained. The neighbour being the nice bloke he is, offered to pay for the steel posts. So here's the result. H steel is 1200mm above the ground and concreted 600mm into the ground.

Steps up into the rear garden

Treated pine sleepers are 2400mm long 75mm thick.  Sleepers longer than 2400mm are not strong enough for this height of retaining wall, so should not be used when an engineered wall is needed. The posts were left for a few days to let the concrete set. The the sleepers were then just slotted into place.  Smashed up bricks and rubble was put 300mm deep at ground level behind the wall to provide drainage so water doesn't build up behind the wall. The slope of the land means water will naturally run away from the wall and not build up behind it. I'm happy with the result. I just need to clean up and wheel barrow all the extra dirt away, a job that keeps being put off for some reason! At the same time I decided to make a set of steps up into the back garden from this side of the property. A simple matter of digging into the bank and using sleeper off cuts I had laying around and using cut up star pickets hit into the ground to retain each step. Now the neighbour can lay lilydale topping up his drive way up the side of his house.