The cute little Red Backed Kingfisher.
January 22, 2012
Red-backed Kingfisher on the wing, Kilcowera Station, Outback Australia
Once again these lovely images are from Nevil Lazarus. These sweet little birds can be found just about all over Australia.
Just how cute can a bird be?
Red-backed Kingfisher, Kilcowera Station on the Dowling Track SW Queensland.
They often sit up on the power lines, calling out in a mournful little voice. I think, because they are always alone they are looking for love. And I’m certain they find it too!
Drama in the bird world
January 20, 2012
Budgerigars at Kilcowera Station
We have had some wonderful photographers here over the years and seen some terrific images taken of the birds, scenery and wildlife.
Nevil Lazarus is one of my favourite visitors, he has been here a few times and loves the outback, often bringing friends with him. Last year he borought out his beer drinking team AKA, the navigator, the cook and the organiser. Leaving him to take his photos. Here are a few of them.
I think his prey is a little yellow throated miner, there are plenty of them around here.
Settling in with his little meal.
About to be attacked!
WTF!! Cheeky little sod! I don’t suppose the falcon was put off his meal by this litle fella.
Keeping busy at Zenonie
January 6, 2012
Greg down the well fixing things.
Many of you will be aware that we have 2 places out here, the other one being Zenonie which is 80,000 acres of mostly mulga shrubland. While Kilcowera is watered by 3 capped flowing artesian bores, Zenonie has 3 sub artesian bores and 5 wells all powered by windmills, so during summer it is a continuing and ongoing job to check each and every watering point at least every second day.
With temperatures as high as 48 C during the summer months keeping the water up to the cattle is critical. One little accident can lose all the water in the tank in a matter of a few hours, then if there is no wind to pump more water we have to move stock to another watering point. So many things can go wrong, a beast might knock the float cover off and the float gets stuck and all the water just spills out of the trough in a constant stream until the tank is dry. Or a beast might fall into the trough, can’t get out and dies, it pollutes the water and the others won’t drink it then. So they will stand around bellowing and eventually perish. Greg tells me his heart sinks down to the bottom of his boots if he pulls up at a windmill and hears that low down, unhappy bellowing as it means some disaster has struck. Then there are the little things like buckets wearing out in the pump, or something stuck under a valve, a hole in the columns, the rods might break, something falls down the well and clogs it up or just no wind for days or weeks on end.
Today we had to go to the 7 mile well as it has not been pumping much water at all for the last week. Greg thought the intake valve which sits down the bottom of the well in the water might be partially clogged up. He clambers down into the well and sits on this little frame that he’s made and pulls things apart and we haul up the length of poly pipe with the valve on the end. Sure enough it’s encrusted with ….. stuff.
Upon closer inspection he decides some of this stuff is snake fat. Now I ask you – why snake fat?? Snakes do live down there, but so do snails and spiders and frogs and bat. Oh well whatever keeps him sane, at least he can have a little joke about things. Well I think he was joking……… however it could have been snails brains or frogs legs or bat wings.
Finally some water, more than there was, I hope when the wind picks up so does the water supply!
Communications in the Bush
December 17, 2011
Relaxing by Cardenyabba Lagoon, Kilcowera Station, Outback Australia.
One of the few downsides to living in the bush is lack of access to services. When equipment won’t work or you run out of something it can be very frustrating. Just recently (again) we have been having trouble with our phone services. The landline would not work, the mobile which is next to useless would not work and we also had no internet.
Now we have a really weird phone setup, it’s evidently a mobile that they have made our landline. Our internet is supposedly wireless but there is a wire and a modem and it plugs into the phone line which I would have thought made it ADSL. It’s either wildly clever or an abortion of a set up I’m not sure which!
We also have no choice whatsoever about our carrier: It’s Telstra all the way for us and has always been. Well if it wasn’t for them we would not have any phone, such as it is. Anyway someone eventually reported our phone as not working and it was fixed, til next time. The last time we had no phone, we did have internet and mobile and could report the problem ourselves. Someone famously said “ All we want is a phone that works and works all the time!”
One lonely Christmas a few years ago we had no phone for 10 days but we did have email. Now when we come out to put the coffee on in the morning we check to see if the phone is working and if we have internet too!
Fantastic Boiled Fruitcake Recipe
November 6, 2011
Fruitcake
