What's happening in your back yard?

[Allen]

We've always got something happening in our yard, and this week managed to watch some Green Ants weave a new nest within a couple of hours. Fascinating stuff really. To bad the little buggers can bite like a Pit Bull.

[Dennis Leahy]

It snowed here again the last couple of days, so Spring gets postponed a little longer. However, there are lots of deer and rabbit tracks criss-crossing the yard, and the birds have returned - so the wildlife know that Spring is here even if it looks more like Winter.

Dennis
p.s. Allen, we had "Fire Ants" when I lived in South Carolina, and I would describe their bite as being like a sting from a small wasp. Do the Green Ants inject a bit of venom, or just hang on for dear life (like a Pit Bull)?

[matthew]

Green ants are actually edible. Taste is a bit tart like limejuice.

Here, we just have lots of spiders at th moment; at least 8 species and webs within webs within webs! Oh and a solitary fruit bat lives in the bamboo next door and leaves a large deposit on my car every morning.

[Allen]

I'm not sure if they sting, I think more of a bite. We have them in nearly every large plant around the yard, and when you mow the lawns you inevitably brush a nest and it gets them all stirred up. Before you know it your having to swat dozens of the little buggers.

[sebastiaan56]

The tomatoes are over and the avocados are refusing to ripen, maybe next year. The Sulphur Crested Cockatoos have finished with the pecans and the Rosellas with the apples. 9yo has pigged on feijoas for weeks, we eat rhubarb, spuds, silverbeet weekly. Mandarins are sweet (weve had rain!) and the oranges look good as well. Macadamias are ripening and the mulberry is going to sleep.

The Minahs appear to be breeding again. The drought decimated their population. Not a Gang Gang to be seen, theyve gone bush I think and no Satin Breasted Bower bird nest this year. We have watched them do the dance in years gone by, fabulous stuff!

I love autumn!

[matthew]

try a few squashed green ants on avocado toast ... that's what I had when I was in cairns about 8 years ago.

[Allen]

try a few squashed green ants on avocado toast ... that's what I had when I was in cairns about 8 years ago.

You can rock up to my place anytime and have some Matthew. We won't run short.

[joel]

Green Tree Ants are very tasty. I like to lick them personally, rather than eat them. Just pick them up by the head and lick the abdomen. Sounds gross, but tastes like lime sherbert. But if you have too many your tongue goes a bit numb.

The way they sting, is by braking the skin by biting, then squirting an acid into the break. The acid is pure ascorbic acid, more commonly known as vitamin C. They are one of the more famous aboriginal 'bush foods'. Tasty and healthy.

Came home after marching on ANZAC day to this.





No guitar building in this weather! My hydrometer goes on strike after about 92% RH.

These pictures were taken about 2 hours after the worst of the rain had stopped. At the worst of it the water was another 3 or so inches higher, covering the patio, most of the rest of the back yard behind my girls and flowing over into our neighbours backyard, and only an inch below the doors into the house according to the high tide mark. During the worst of it the water was pouring over the back retaining wall. You can see the little waterfall from the side retaining wall in the first shot. This is what happens after three weeks of solid rain ending with a good storm. Our little 75mm storm water drain can't handle this amount of water. You can't even see any water movement in the 4 drains in the back yard. We've never been properly flooded thank God!

These are similar conditions as our floods last June (remember the Pasha Bulker?). Except we don't have the king tides and huge winds that caused the massive flooding last year. The rain stopped before the high winds this time around.

[Dennis Leahy]

Joel, that is a lot of water! Too bad it can't spread itself across some of the parched areas of Australia.

Dennis

[Hesh1956]

I could use some of that water but will pass on the ants please......

Here is my back yard and the farmer's field that is behind it. I move into my new digs in the country in less than a month and I am pretty excited.

[sebastiaan56]

Hi Joel,

Thats a bummer mate, cute kids!

Hesh,

So you are going to build a .....?....

[Hesh1956]

Sorry Sebastiaan my friend I hit the edit button and wrote my reply in your post but I just fixed it.

The house is built I just have to landscape, put in a lawn and driveway, and then build a new stinkin shop

[Allen]

Here's one for all you notherners. Pretty common in Australia to see heaps of these Sulfur Crested Cockatoos, but we still like to see them hanging around the yard. Our 2 cats don't know what to make of them though. There not much afraid of a cat, and almost as big as one too.

[sebastiaan56]

Four new chooks today, present for LOML. Their names are Drumstick, Gravy, Spud and Roast. Locked up till they get used to the place but we already have an egg,

[joel]

Here's a pic of a regular visitor in our backyard

[Allen]

We don't get to see many of them in our neighborhood. Absolutely love them. Thanks for posting a picture of him. Has he trained you up to feed him?

[Allen]

Here's one for you. The picture is not doctored. This is a Hercules Moth and the wing span is 26 cm. The picture is in todays Cairns Post.



You can see the whole article here.

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/0 ... -news.html

[sebastiaan56]

Allen,

Thanks for the picture, the Silky Oak is fantastic!

[kiwigeo]

Bugger the sprog and the butterfly...what sort of wood is the door made out of and could I make a guitar out of it???