Plovers

Our neighbours that own the place up behind our back paddock have been busy planting out a lot of trees and things, all in these tall cardboard plant shields that look fairly official. I talked to them for a bit, and it is part of some kind of habitat renewal for Eastern Barred Bandicoots. There is some funding for suburban bandicoot refuges, and they are on some program for rural landholders. They are planting out almost the entire paddock with over 350 plants including trees, shrubs, and tufted grasses. I got the information from them and sent in an application for our place, we had one reply with some information and are waiting to hear when they could do a site visit. This may just be what we need to kickstart the reforestation of this property. I will let you know how it goes.

Our quarterly electricity bill came in on August 10, and it was $150 less than I initially predicted. We had a price increase in July a couple of days before we got the wood heater, and from that time our electricity usage went down by about 60%. If we had the heater back in June as well it would have been even better. I guess we will see next winter how it goes. We are still using the wood heater a bit since we have had a few cool mornings, no frost, and some damp, chilly days. It looks like we would normally have to use it part of May, nearly all of June, July, and August, and maybe some in September. We still have an entire shed full of firewood, a bunch that needs to be split up, and some out in a couple of small stacks behind the annex. I think we will be OK for next winter at least. We are still thinking about what improvements we will do this financial year, so far it’s the downstairs bathroom, new floors in the kitchen and living room, and maybe even a few strategic double glazed windows downstairs. 

We had 2 baby plovers hatch out in the front yard and then the parents took them over to the back paddock. We have been watching them for a couple of weeks but unfortunately this batch did not make it. On two separate days there was a brown hawk doing the rounds thinning out the chicks pretty well. There is still one baby in the next paddock up from us so one of theirs made it. Our adult birds are already mating so maybe there will be some new eggs in a week or so. I hope they have better luck.