Home maintainance

[robbiegal]

you could get them DNA tested
if Jeff would cough up  some DNA of course
very impressive

[Fulvio]

My wife suggested we get a tree removal chap to come and put it through his mulcher

Dammit.. those boxing gloves tricked me to look into a thread I'd vowed to forever stay out of!

Anyway, have a look at https://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

Basically, the idea is you bury any timber, twigs, branches, logs, whatever, and form a tall mound. The wood slowly rots away, and turns he inside of the mound into a rich ecosystem that becomes self-sustaining. If you google the term, you'll find plenty of pics and videos that show thriving zero-maintenance mounds in otherwise desolate landscapes.

And, its cheaper than chipping it.

[trout]

We have been doing this in the Bush For decades, We call them "Wood Heaps" :laugh2:

[ausjack]

Well we did do wood heaps until the stupid do gooders come in and said the piles were to big so now I think it's something like 3 or 4 foot is the maximum height, what would they know :@

[ausjack]

Hey Jeff, I wonder how it would go if you made up a concoction using carolina reaper chilli's to spray on them. Might be worth a try.

[JeffH]

Great and all our apricots, plums et al. will come with a chilli bite!

[ausjack]

:laugh2: would that be so bad, you could make a fortune with your new exotic fruits
Hoity toities go mad over that sort of stuff, look at what they've done with legumes since they changed the name to "pulses" :blink: :scratch_one-s_head:

[robbiegal]

Well we did do wood heaps until the stupid do gooders come in and said the piles were to big so now I think it's something like 3 or 4 foot is the maximum height, what would they know :@

"do gooders "

would they by any chance also be called the fire brigade and environmental pest control agencies for things like rats and snakes? I have seen plenty of snakes around high wood heaps in my day.

[ausjack]

Not the fireies but yes the enviro nut jobs that wouldn't know their head from their A$$ Ever tried burning a dead cow with a small fire, doesn't work. The snakes eat the rats and they will leave the pile as soon as the fire starts :winkextra: This is the trouble when office workers think they know things they know nothing about and same as burning off as we use to burn off in winter so we didn't get big fires but now we get big fires because ya not allowed to burn off, even the black fellows up north are saying the same thing about something they've done for god knows how long.

[robbiegal]

yeah
the old timers here in canberra reckon that the big fires here were from far too much timber load in the ACT and Nsw border areas

this year they burned off for 2 months earlier this year
thousands and thousands of hectares of eucy and pine Forrest - all wasted by fire  

and it was bloody horrible - wood smoke for weeks and weeks like fog but I guess if it stops the city going up it's good as we (my home) are very close to the natural burn routes

we are well less than a kilometre from where dozens of houses burnt down (when the 500 homes went up in smoke) - maybe about 800 metres in a straight line - so I appreciate their efforts - if they have got it right

for those who are interested
the sydney sea eagles have the one baby who has survived so far this season
very cute fluff ball SE17  (little SE18 didn't make it)

It's a new female this year apx 5-6 years old. The dad retained ownership of the nest (as the now gone presumed deceased female apx 10 years old, had possession years earlier and he had courted and moved in) and this new chickie babe came around April and courted the widower male. After a few weeks he figured it was a pretty good deal on offer and they rearranged the nest to suit the new relationship. Of course the female had the main say in the house arrangements. Except for that large wishbone stick, she was not at all keen on it. - the male collected it and then took about 3 days to position it, then the female got tangled and trapped in it for a few hours one day, but none the less, it has stayed.

They had 2 eggs which successfully hatched but a few days of bad rainy weather and limited access to food meant that only one chick make it through.
I watch them most years now and enjoy the simplicity of the whole event.
LIVE VIDEO
http://www.sea-eaglecam.org/video.html

Mum and fluff ball

[ausjack]

Gee that's getting a bit to close for comfort that's for sure. Personally I'd prefer to put up with a bit of smoke for a few weeks than have everything go up in smoke some time down the track as that would be devastating

[robbiegal]

yes it was very frighting I assure you

ps added a pic of mama sea eagle and her chick SE17 as a cheer up post!! (you have to go back a page)

[Nevol]

There are a lot of large birds species, which although they nearly always lay & hatch 2 eggs, whichever of the two chicks is the strongest bullies the weaker chick, and always pushes in front of it at feed time. The weaker chick very seldom survives.

Occasionally if food is plentiful the parents can raise both chicks.

Cuckoo chicks manipulate all the true eggs of the 'adopted' parent birds over the side of the nest.

[ausjack]

Lovely RG :give_heart:

Yes true Nevol those bloody cuckoo's are bastards of birds and they push the other eggs out before they even open their eyes

[robbiegal]

There are a lot of large birds species, which although they nearly always lay & hatch 2 eggs, whichever of the two chicks is the strongest bullies the weaker chick, and always pushes in front of it at feed time. The weaker chick very seldom survives.

Occasionally if food is plentiful the parents can raise both chicks.

Cuckoo chicks manipulate all the true eggs of the 'adopted' parent birds over the side of the nest.

yes Nevol
that is what happened to SE18. a lot of the bird fans in our group were very angry at SE17 but they are just wild birds and do what they do in the survival game of life