Life in the Country....... ahhhhh the serenity

Living in the country has certainly changed the structure and routine of my days.

The sun rises at about 5.15am and it is such a beautiful time of day.

This morning I was looking out over the property and saw a hare making its way across the paddock. The hare was as huge, about the size of a dog.

We have quite a large variety of wildlife around the property.

Kookaburras sit in the gum trees at the front of the property constantly laughing and being chased by the other birds.

We have families of butcher birds and magpies as well as galahs, sulphur crested cockatoos, parrots, finches and willie wagtails.

 

We have also recently discovered that we have echidnas that roam through our house yard digging rather large holes.

Unfortunately they only come out under the cover of darkness and waddle across the yard. Which makes them very difficult to photograph.

Our neighbour has cows and until recently, the cows were wandering across the creek crossing into our back paddocks. Boyd called me crazy, but I would talk to the cows.

Seeing all the new recently born babies and their mums chewing their way through the pasture. We became particularly fond of a young bull we called Ferdinand. Ferdinand seems to go where ever he wants to. He is quite happy to push through fences to get to the green grass on the other side.

We are considering getting a couple of cows as pets, not to eat, to keep the grass down over the 16 acres. After some research, it looks like 2 Dexter steers might be the cows to get. They are compact, friendly cows that will be a lovely addition to the farm. They also come in different colours.

 

Boyd has decided that one of the cows has to be called Poin.

Although I seriously doubt that the cows will be that smart......................

 

Today is an overcast and rainy day which is great for our water tanks and the garden. Yesterday I scattered fruit tree feed around the fruit trees.

It has been a wait and see process on what fruit trees we have in the yard.

It looks like we have a lemon tree, peach tree, 2 mulberry trees, apple tree, pear tree and maybe a lime.

There are a couple of others but it is unclear of what it maybe as it has not developed any fruit.

So it will be interesting to see if we get any fruit from them this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next thing is to get the vegetable garden ready for planting.

This weekend we will be cleaning up the property to make sure we are prepared for storm season. There is a it of barbed wire and iron laying around the place. So we have hired a Dingo to pick it all up and dispose of it. We will also be able to fill the second garden bed with soil from the back paddock by using the dingo to scoop and carry.

It will be a big weekend ahead.

 

 

We have the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets

Until we moved to Thornville I don't think I had ever really appreciated the beauty of the sunrises and sunsets.

Here is one of the most recent sunsets.

Crows Nest Day 2016

October 22nd was the annual Crows Nest Day where the town celebrates all that is Crows Nest.

We headed into town at about 9.30am to look at the stalls in the town square, talk to the locals in Crows Nest and get more of a feel for the place.

We spoke to the lovely people at the local Council, ate a freshly cooked dagwood dog, visited the SES people and rural fire brigade, purchased a Rural Fire Brigade calendar for 2017, stopped by the RSL stall to support them, met Gracie the poddy calf, watched the grand parade which included Clydesdale horses, Boyd bought me some Jasmine Tea and then we wandered on home.

We learnt a little more about this neck of the woods and with each interaction in the community it just cements to us that our decision to move to Thornville was the right one for us.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all a good day was had by all. The next big event will be Crows Nest Show day in May 2017.

We have already marked it on the Rural Fire Brigade Calendar that we purchased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 20th 2016 Storm number 2......(not as bad as storm number 1)

We had another afternoon storm blow in from the South and give us some much needed rain to fill our water tanks.

I find myself thinking more about water conservation, recycling and lowering our urban foot print much more than when we were living in the City.

We will have a third water tank arrive sometime next week. We will hook it up to the new shed to capture all the water from that roof and with any luck we should be able to link all three tanks together.

The storm was not as ferocious as the first one we encountered. The only water we had come into the house was under the back door. Not like the first storm which had us using towels we owned to stem the flow from the louvers.

In saying that…… it really wasn’t too bad. We have had much worse in Brisbane.

 

 

 

Day 40 in our new home......................

We have been in our new home for 40 days and we have achieved quite a bit in that time.

An update on the floor contractor. He left us high and dry and did not complete the job. Boyd finished the floor and I have to say, did a much better job.
Although the aftermath on his health….. let’s just say it took a while to recover.
So we have had to lodge a claim with QCAT through the Court system to recover damages from the contractor who would not return our calls or make any contact with us over the issue.
We will update when we have concluded the legal action.  

The house has been painted, the shed has been erected, the floors have been put down and we have sorted out most of the house.

We had a first storm this week and discovered that high winds, driving rain and louvers are not a great combination. We had a bit of water come in but nothing major.

We have just had to purchase another water tank as we could not safely connect the existing tank to the guttering of the shed.

So the new tank should arrive in the next week or so.

This moving house and setting up for self-sustainability can be quite expensive. We now have the capacity to store 40000 litres of water.

The view in the evening from the bedroom window is spectacular. Watching the sunset through the old sash windows in the bedroom whilst listening the cows bellowing in the fields and the bird life settling in for the evening is like a sweet lullaby rocking our little world to sleep.

The shed is now almost completed. We are waiting on the PA door to be installed which should be this week as well as a small roof repair over the old wood stove.
The shed process took a little time but it was worth the wait.

Justin from JK Metfab Sheds has been amazing.

I would recommend this company to anyone in the Darling Downs area if they want a quality shed built for them.

Nothing was ever too much trouble and we were kept informed all the way along.

We just have to wait for the electrician who is arriving on Monday to hook up the air conditioner in the bedroom, power up the shed and add a couple of power points in the house whilst checking the wiring for my piece of mind.

 

 

Here are a series of photographs on the progress of the shed.

 

 

Mr Beastie has settled into the new property and is the happiest cat ever.

He is strictly an inside boy now but he loves sitting in the open windows watching the bird life fly past the windows.

He is a very contented and cheeky cat.

Just wait till we get the puppy.................