We have been having what they describe as a mini heatwave here. It has been just over 30C here for several days, one day it was 35. John had 37.5C which is 100F down south. Eva and I have been sleeping in the downstairs bedroom where it is about 22 C after we put the AC on in the afternoon, while it is usually about 28 or 29 upstairs with no breeze coming through the window to cool it down. We will have warm, dry weather all week and hotter on the weekend. Still no rain and it looks like it will be dry for a while. I have been watering the garden daily, putting the drip system on for the trees every couple of days as well as making sure all the water tubs are full for the birds and animals. Even with using the AC most afternoons we still get around $1 in electricity credit each day. If this keeps up we may have enough credit so there is no electricity bill till May.
I’m still keeping up with the ongoing chores, I have now mowed both the front of the property as well as all the back paddock. It is all very brown out there apart from those few patches that stay green no matter how dry it gets. Hopefully I will remember where they are when it comes time to plant all the tube stock for the bandicoot habitat. I also straightened up the section of roofing that covers the old balcony which I had somehow misaligned when I first put it up. Now all I need to do is get some paint so it’s the same colour as everything else. The previous owners left a plastic bucket of paint out in the shed so I may check it out to see if it’s the right colour and if it’s even any good after three years.
Both of the chickens are laying again but one is laying a smaller egg compared to the other. Instead of fighting about it at breakfast we wait till we have two of the one kind before we eat the fresh ones. I usually give them a treat of dried mealworms after they lay their eggs in the morning. I’m also feeding them extra cucumbers from the garden which I stomp on first to expose the insides. They seem to like them like that. I also sometimes throw a handful of feed over the fence for Patricks birds when I feed ours. He still has seven young chickens and well over 20 ducks, most of them only a few months old. I haven’t had a chance to ask him why he has so many. I still have a plan to build ours a better chicken coop and maybe even get a couple more hens for a more regular egg supply.
A few more thoughts about the garden, for next time. We only need one Lebanese cucumber plant and one zucchini. Two pickling gherkins, and a lot more of the bush type green beans since they freeze really well. We seem to be doing OK with just two tomato plants this time, so we will keep doing the same. The new perpetual spinach plants are looking good and should be usable in a couple of weeks, so maybe plant two new ones each time. I don’t know what to do about the beetroot, when they are just the right size Eva says she will pickle them, but by the time she gets around to it months have past and they are football sized. I tend to plant way too many carrots and end up feeding them to the wallabies, so this time I have planted none. I haven’t planted any radish at all so if I do then just six seeds, then a month later maybe another six. I probably only need about six lettuce going at a time since Eva keeps saying she will make a salad but rarely does, although she has been making more this season. That’s why I am thinking about more green beans which we can have as our vegetables. We did get eight lettuce seedlings which I put in last week and which have survived the mini heatwave OK. Will I keep to this plan? I hope so.