Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

Just spent over two hours trying to shift a shed from next door's to my backyard. Daryl and his wife helped me, but in the end it was more productive to dismantle the shed and use the panels as replacement fencing!

I am very hot and sweaty and the chips shop has just closed so it's a few noodles I guess and a good shower.




No sign of Kevin & Michelle, but that was sorta expected.

Just pulled down half the old duck pen, which was threatening to collapse.

Steve built this with me back in 2000 out of bits of scrap we found on the bush trails. It was his idea to keep duck and make money by selling the eggs. Maybe I should have given them away when he left but I'm a bit of a softie and kept Muscovies for several years to come. The last of them I gave away at the end of 2005. In any case I didn't do much with the pen. I removed the chicken wire covering it to get in and out easier, and added catwalks (by strapping planks to the outside top) for Gabby and Xena. The first thing I did with the space was shovel all the duck poo and soil from the other pen into it. That was a mistake because it leached out and killed the mandarin bush next to it  (ironic, because the drakes all loved slices of mandarin).

After that it became a dumping ground for stuff I just wanted to forget, like old tyres, chewed foam cushions and the like. Lately half of it's been very wobbly indeed and rather than wait until it fell down (possibly on me or one of the pets) I removed the dodgy bits. There's still about half of it left, and I added new catwalks to make up for the ones removed, and added a catwalk to the side fence.

Very tempted to clean the garden up a bit. I was always going to get around to it, but tended to end up on the sofa out there with Peggy. I think at least it's time I got rid of the thirteen rolladoors in my backyard, but that's another story.

Kevin bought some cheap "Ox Livers" for the dogs.

It sat at the bottom of the fridge for a week. Yesterday I took them out the back to give to the dogs as a treat. It was rather odd - I came back in to talk with Kevin and when I went out they were gone - I though the dogs must have had a good appetite. Then I found both parts further up the backyard, untouched.

It seems that Hallie had run of with them and dumped them there. Whenever Bobbie would go up that way Hallie would cut him off and sit near them them. She'd also run up there if I said "Pussy's going to get Hallie's food!" This morning Kevin and Hallie were woken up early by a delivery, and the first thing she did was go up and inspect/guard the livers (not eat them, mind you).

( Photos under cut )

I fixed two out three holes in my fences today. Well, when I say "fixed", both are temporary measures which might become permanent.

Hallie just walked thru the trellis next to the front gate! This happened while I was in Second Life attending a ritual, and Kevin went after her. That was fixed with some wire mesh attached with wire over the gap.

However there was also a gap on the side fence caused by the removal of stuff that had been lying next to it since before I moved in (1997)! It seems that the people next door have separated and they are selling the house. Paul is still living there and cleaning it up. He was not very happy and pointed out potential problems that I may or may not have after it's either sold or leased. Wonderful. I fixed that gap by inserting plastic cladding along it. It'll keep Bobby in at least.

The last gap was on the other fence where a door I used in constructing it has rotted through. Luckily I have a spare post and will attempt to fix it tomorrow.

Paul was rather gloomy, saying that termites were endemic at the back of the block which is probably true. Other predictions of Paul's were development of the horse paddocks behind my place into a state housing farm, and development of the other set of paddocks next to it into an industrial estate. Oh joy, any way you look at it I have a whole set of decisions to make.

Not today though.

I had occasion to find some photographs of a brick circle I made in my backyard.

I made it in 2001, just after Steve (a boarder) left and I'd fixed up the back fence and gate. I've done maybe a handful of rituals using it. However, now it's 2006 and it's mostly grown over...

...how time flies (though Pegasus still manages to get in most photos of the backyard).