My blogging has taken a back seat lately and I've lost my grip on remembering which photos I've put up, what my theme was going to be and whether I can recall what I did a fortnight ago! There always seems to be more work than hours in the day - or am I just getting slower? I apologise if the blogs are a bit disjointed as get up-to-date but I'd better get cracking as our tourist season (and longer hours at work) are just around the corner.
The tyre wall is slowly progressing; no more layers but 8½ more tyres were filled over the weekend. The soil I was filling them with has been too wet but I then had the brilliant idea that the soil that needs digging out under the garage would be dry and perfect for the tyres. It's quite satisfying being able to do two jobs at once but it would be even more satisfying if I could find a few clones to do the work with me!
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| Starting to dig out under the garage on Saturday |
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| Sunday afternoon |
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| Each tyre takes a heaped wheelbarrow's worth of dirt rammed in |
My hands and wrists get sore trying to stretch the tyre with one hand and ram the soil with the other. To give them a break I decided to empty the ice-cream freezer that used to have a flourishing rhubarb plant growing. With no foliage to keep the rain out the freezer had filled up with water and was growing rat-tailed maggots (drone fly babies) and starting to smell. Not sure who told the blowflies but it didn't take long before their buzz filled the air and gave me an entertaining time trying to get a good photo of their iridescent blue and purple bodies!
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| Wet and smelly soil heap - it had a couple of possums buried in it! |
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Emptied and tipped over to drain - will have to put in some better drainage
before filling it up again |
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I think this is the native blue blowfly, Calliphora quadrimaculata
- about 12mm in length |
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| Lovely shades of blue/purple in the sunshine |
My fun time had to end and it was back to the tyres. I'm getting better at filling them but no matter how tight they feel at the end of the day, there's always soft patches the following morning. I guess the water in the soil evaporates in the sunshine but at this rate I'll be ramming more dirt in for years to come.
I've had a few kiwi visitors lately - lovely to hear them calling during the night or seeing their footprints in the mud.
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| A kiwi footprint alongside my size 5 gumboot print |
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| These are super-fresh prints |
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| Kiwi on my boundary track |
