even more ideas

Another collection of random things spotted that might one day be useful...

I love this concept for painting stairs from Maryam's blog... stencilling, with a different pattern on each.

Or how about a roof shingled in old vinyl? (via Treehugger)  It could be interesting for something like a carport where it didn't matter if it wasn't 100% watertight.  Apparently this guy just put a nail through the middle holes in the record and that was enough to hold it down.  (There's more photos at Treehugger site)

Perry Bird Pickets - a brilliant store in Melbourne that sells all kinds of cast ironwork to go on verandahs and fencing.  It isn't cheap, but is nowhere near as expensive as I'd expected either - in some cases even cheaper than wooden fretwork.  

Finally, a couple of my favourites from Martha Stewarts "50 tips for the kitchen"...  (yes yes I know - even though no-one could do all she suggests without a fleet of staff, she still has some brilliant ideas).  I like the idea of having glass storage positioned partly in front of a window so that you get light shining through it (tip 11).  And I really like these "birds beak" shelves (tip 2) - apparently it's an old carpentry style for adjustable shelving.  It's functional but also decorative.  

  

daily weather during 2010

Here's my 5th annual round-up of the weather for Maryborough (the nearest weather station to us), courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology.  For previous years see: 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

Here's a graph showing the maximum & minimum temperatures reached each day, in celsius:



The hottest it got was 42.8 on 16th January 2010. The coldest was -2.2 on 28th June.

But the big news in 2010 was the rainfall.  We had a ton more rain than normal - so much so that I had to increase the axis scale! This graph shows it plotted cumulatively:



For the year as a whole we got nearly 1000mm of rain - 950.7mm to be precise.  This was a HUGE increase, nearly double the rainfall of 2009 which had already been a banner year.  The chart comparing historical rainfalls shows this vividly:



Overall, 2010 turned out to be the second wettest year recorded for Maryborough since records began in 1878.  It was beaten only by 1973 when there was 1022mm.  There was one record-breaking figure though.  In November we had over 155mm of rain in 2010 - the highest ever recorded.

We planted pigs ear

While browsing in Talbot's nursery earlier in the day I'd spotted a lovely succulent bush that was waist high.  The guy told me it would only take a couple of years to reach that height, so thought I'd experiment with putting them in at Amherst.  We bought 8 plants.

 

So as to protect from kangaroos and sheep, we put them in the orchard, in a sort of ring near the fence.  Although they won't grow fruit, they'll still look nice and shouldn't be in the way of anything as we can grow climbers behind.

It was a great feeling to actually get something new in the ground there - a very small progress step.  But even more amazing was to see the soil.  I guess thanks to all the rain it was really pliable - no need for tractors in digging, we didn't even need to add extra compost.  It was much better soil than I'd imagined.

To show you what I mean, here's a short clip of Dad digging a hole...



... and here's me putting in one of the 8 plants.

Mowing the orchard

Even though Dave had mown it in August, there had been such a lot of rain that the grass was crazily long again.  So although we hadn't planned to do any work on this visit, Dad and Vida pitched in to get it cut.

 

Meanwhile I climbed into the mulberry enclosures and cut back the overgrown grass to reveal some very bushy little trees - complete with mulberries!

 

We win some, we lose some with the trees

The bad news first... the wollemi's didn't make it.  Despite all the rain and the (too late) added sun protection, there's no sign of life.  It's one of the biggest disappointments we've had.  Hoping against hope, will leave them until Dave's next visit, then will replace them with some other kind of hopefully fast-growing tree.



However, on the flip side the lemon gums are looking magnificent.  

 

The peppercorn and almond trees are also looking healthy - there are even some nuts growing.  Although calling them trees at this stage is a bit of a misnomer, they're really still just the size of shrubs... hurry up and grow!
 

 

Fleeting visit - little progress but still nice to see

I managed to make it back home to Australia for Christmas, and in the process spent a day at Amherst.

Although there hadn't been any change to the house since Dave's visit, it was wonderful to see it up close in person.

 

The same with the "damhouse".  Even with the spillway having been added, the dam is still so full that there is no way you could access it without sinking to your waist or more in water.  Dad has a great idea for how to quickly build a ramp to it using various old fence panels, so with luck we'll soon be able to make progress on it again.

 

But there has been some big visible progress, with the construction of the new shed.  This was partially completed back in August when Dave visited.  Since then Dad has got it pretty much completely to lock up stage.

 

update and idea for dam shed ramp

All is quiet at Amherst for the moment because Dad has instead been working on some emergency repairs on the Toora house instead.  One small step forward though - Dad managed to rescue some strong metal fence panels (remnants of the old Toora fence) which he's thinking about using at Amherst.

I don't much like the look of them, but one possibility is for them to become the base for the pier-like ramp that Dad plans to build, so he can access the damhouse without needing a boat!

the dam gets a spillway

Somewhat controversially, Dad has created a spillway at the back of the dam in order to lower the water levels after the recent torrential rains so the "damhouse" isn't totally flooded.  It apparently is going to have rocks added next visit to prevent erosion.  Ironically, this is the same spillway that Dad closed up several years ago in order to boost the dam capacity.  Dave had wanted it not to be changed but there was a misunderstanding and, well, now we have a spillway again. 





This is what it looked like before the spillway was put in... the dam floor was covered but not by as much as I expected, so in the scheme of things the spillway hasn't reduced the capacity by that much because the water had already started to overflow around the dam sides.