We have two new planter boxes full of soil, waiting for vegies. Well, one of them is still full of soil. The other, not so much.
This is the result of the PuppyDeluxe playing with her ball in the planter box. She is not allowed in that area now.
And here’s a chook photo for Helen. Today it’s Lola:
While Mark was being astonishingly industrious yesterday I was also rather busy. And I’m feeling it today. My back and neck are out and I suspect that a migraine is on its way to blight my day. Still, as I wince my way around the house it’s very satisfying to look out the back and see the edging there and to imagine that we’re into the home straight.
The work left to be done is by no means minor. The roses have been in their spots for about 5 years now and I doubt that they will come out without a fight. There may even be casualties. For all that though, I can’t help but feel that the light is well and truly shining at the end of this tunnel and it’s getting closer by the day.
Yesterday while I was outside cleaning up various types of poo I thought I felt a hint of Spring in the air.
Today I looked out the loungeroom window to find that the first blossom has opened on our tree.
I noticed over the last few days that Spidey was gradually moving down the wall, so I decided to leave her and her family to relocate themselves at their own pace. They were going at about a foot a day so I figured it might take a while.
Last night I noticed that she had stopped on the concrete directly in front of the door. A good spot to be stepped on by people or dogs, but I was reasonably confident that she would move on overnight.
When she was still there this morning I decided to give her some help using the long handled brush & pan we use outside. When I put the pan down near her I bumped her a little and expected her to scuttle off with her babies leaping off in all directions. A few babies jumped off, but Spidey just kind of staggered a bit. I suppose carrying all that extra weight is a big effort and she probably also can’t hunt very effectively while carrying them so she may not be feeling well.
In any case I scooped her and as many of the scuttling babies as I could up and deposited them under my Japanese Maple. I can’t see them in amongst the bark chips so I’ll chalk it up as a successful relocation.
I did a bit of research online today to try to identify our visitor. I was getting worried because I could see nothing that looked like him/her and I was starting to wonder if he/she may have come from far away and just how far away that might have been.
Then I found this page. I’m certain that Spidey is a female wolf spider with babies on her back. Hundreds of them. The second picture on the page is a dead ringer minus the egg sack.
This puts a different complexion on the idea of leaving her there. At some point hundreds of teeny tiny wolf spiderlings are going to leave the mothership and head off to make their fortune in the big wide world. They’re too close to a window and a door for me to be happy about that.
I don’t want to kill them and, even if I did, there’s no way I can kill her and all the babies. The catch and release doesn’t seem as simple as originally thought, though. One large spider is easy. Lots of little spiders is less so. This going to require some thought.
This guy is hanging out on the wall outside our sliding door.
I’ve never seen a spider quite like him/her. The markings on its back look like it should be hanging out on a the bark of a tree, hiding from birds. And it’s quite large - not tropical large, or huntsman on Bean’s ceiling large, but large for here.
Much as I would like to just leave it there, it can’t stay. I’m fascinated by it and just keep stopping and staring at it and, eventually, Mark’s going to be too freaked out by it to leave it. Killing it is an unpleasant idea and not just because I don’t like killing things needlessly. I suspect it wouldn’t go quietly. So I think it will be a catch and release operation, perhaps down by the creek where there a plenty of trees and bark to hide in.
We’ve ordered one of these. It will be delivered some time next week and Mark & I will assemble it. Yes, we could have built our own from scratch, but we decided to take the easy way out. If we’d been really slack we’d have got them to put it together as well.
Before the chook house can be put together I need to clear the space in which it’s going and make sure it’s reasonably level. That will be fun - I might even use the spirit level! Then we’ll need to get a feeder, a thing for water and somewhere rodent-proof to store chook food. And finally the birds themselves.
My ideal would be to get a couple of big birds that are unlikely to be fazed by dogs or toddlers. My brother has heaps of bantams along with my parents’ chooks up at his place, and it’s also tempting to get a couple free from him. My only real issue about little birds is that they’re little. Big ones seem a bit more like a real animal …
Mum keeps carrying on about ‘how will you use up all the eggs?’, but laying ability isn’t high on my priorities. A few eggs would be nice, but my real interest is in having the bugs and the weeds eaten and getting the soil turned over. And, now that Mum & Dad’s chooks have gone to live in the country, I can always give some of our eggs to them.
Powered by Twitter Tools.
|
