We managed to get through a recent Tasmanian “heat wave” OK, but all the plants out the back still look healthy. We were able to pick enough okra and had our 7th serve of fried okra the other night. The plants are still putting out a bit, we will definitely get another serve before it’s all over. I’m thinking next time I will plant them a bit farther apart so that they put out a bit more. The plants that are producing the most are those that have grown up above the surrounding ones and there are still 4 or 5 new blossoms each day.
The new chickens are laying one egg a day now, not sure which ones but we think it’s one of the white ones. The older hens laid two eggs over the weekend so maybe they are starting up again. We may end up with 3 or 4 eggs a day for a while and meanwhile we have a surplus of 4 eggs in the fridge. The older hens are Wyandotte and are a bit bigger than the Araucana so they are a bit more dominant, but they seem to have established a pecking order of sorts and have all settled down. I have ordered the automatic door for the new hen house and moved the existing coop and shelter back out of the way to make an area to start building the new one. I’m using parts of the old shed, the old boards and sheets of roofing iron from the old garden. I may have to buy a bit of material but should be able to get most of it built with the stuff I have now.
In other local news it looks like they are going to add several more shops, cafes, a childcare centre, and a gym up in the shopping area in Legana. There may also be some more businesses up along the highway and the entire development is going to spend $15 million. It’s not going to affect us down here since we are 4 minutes away, but it may be a bit busier when we go up to do our shopping. It will be interesting to see what they get. It is all related to the new primary school on the highway. I noticed that they are building a new playing field, or oval, at the primary school site which is way over the top for a primary school, so it must be replacing the small one near the shopping centre. I suspect that means they will build the access road from the shopping area through to the industrial area going past the back of the primary school site.
Another interesting development is that the National Broadband Network (NBN) is planning to change their 100/20 mb/s plan to a 500/50 mb/s wholesale plan sometime in 2024 at no extra cost to the retailer. Since we had fibre to the premise put in by the NBN last year we should get the upgrade. It is expected Telstra will upgrade us for free but that depends on if we need a higher spec modem or something. Can you imagine a 500 mb/s download speed? If they don’t pass this upgrade on to the customers for free there will be a big stink.
