There are still some minor outbreaks over on the mainland, but nothing here in Tasmania for the last 31 days, and nationally the death toll is still at 909. Most of the new cases are coming from overseas residents returning, and are being found while they are in mandatory quarantine, but a couple of infections have jumped into the community in places so there are still localised lockdowns and border closures. They say will start rolling out the vaccines a bit earlier, by mid February now. There will be 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine coming in that will be used for front line border personnel, medical staff, aged care staff and residents. After that there will be over 50 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which will go to everyone else in stages. They have already manufactured a large proportion of those doses here locally and are just waiting for the final approvals. It will probably be at least late March before people like Eva and I get access.
The weather is heating up here, we had 30 C yesterday and it is supposed to be warmer today. There is a total fire ban in the south of the state, but we are still in the permit area. I have some twigs in my little fireplace area, but don’t think I should try and burn them yet. I am still mowing and spraying the weeds here, I’m hoping I can finally get rid of all the paspalum grass or at least make a big dent in it. We are getting plenty of zucchini from the garden and are starting to get ripe tomatoes now. We should have some peppers soon, and the okra is looking a bit better. I’ve had the celery seedlings in for about a week and think they will survive the heat OK. We had another 50 kW day on the solar panels yesterday and it should be the same today. My calculations for the bill are still on track even though we had several cloudy days the previous week.
I’m trying not to do too much outside unless I can be in the shade if possible, every day the forecast shows “extreme” UV and my little weather station records it as well. I do have to keep mowing around the house, and have been trimming a few shrubs as well the the overhanging branches of the big tree in our roundabout driveway.
I finally got the second ceiling fan installed in Eva’s office area. Here’s a tip, make sure you change the remote control settings if you have two identical ones. We also discovered that some of the sliding windows will pull down from the top, which makes it safer for the cats and we can get a better breeze in the bedroom at night. We haven’t been using the AC unless we are in the family room watching TV, instead just using the ceiling fans and the Dyson fans which use the “free” electricity during the day.
I saw a couple of large rabbits outside this morning before they went through the fence next door. It doesn’t look like they got into the veggie garden, but maybe I need to do something about the holes in the fence that they are using. I’ll just add that to my list of ongoing projects. There has been a brush tailed possum that usually spends the day in the crook of the lowest branch there, but was not there this morning. I suspect it was too hot yesterday so they have gone to the other spot up in the corner under a bush. The brushtail possum is about the size of a small cat, they eat mostly leaves and flowers but spend a lot of time on the ground and are considered an agricultural pest when they eat leafy crops. So far it doesn’t appear to have been in the garden. In the photo you can see one of its ears. There is another type of possum here, the ringtail possum. These spend most of their time in the trees and actually build nests, like the one up in the carport by the annex. This site talks about both types of possum. We have also seen a blue tongue lizard out by the pile of wood chips.
We still haven’t done anything about a new heat pump hot water cylinder like John is getting – still not installed. I will look up the email and make an inquiry about it soon, I keep promising myself. The same goes with furnishing the annex. We are not sure we actually want any visitors from the mainland until everything is declared safe and at least “we” have been vaccinated. I suppose I will just carry on with other projects for a while and then do something about it at the last possible moment. I decided against spending another $500 or so to buy a decent petrol lawn mower, and instead bought a bigger 36V battery for the electric mower. I can now mow continuously with one battery while the other charges and then just swap over, plus it uses our free electricity instead of having to buy more petrol. It’s just as powerful as a petrol mower, but a lot quieter. I mowed the entire front of the property this week, then did the entire back paddock yesterday afternoon with the lawn tractor because it was supposed to rain that night. The rain started this morning and looks like it will be on and off all day with a top temperature of only 17 C.
