durranbah – bushboys world

The Screen Door – A Shed Project

Published on November 22, 2019 by bushboy18 Comments

The screen door is a reclaimed part of my childhood. No longer used in the family home it made its way here. The screen door was used on the first “house” I built. It made the journey to this house, albeit with a few dodgy repairs, and was on the front door until it started to show signs of wear.
Relegated to a shed and neglected. I was always going to fix that screen door up one day. Years passed and the lack of a good work space where things could get started and a place where the job could sit if it needed time for repairs to set.

The screen door made its way to the shed in a very sorry state

Some of the timber surrounds that held the screen wire in place were missing
and some were broken and all of them were unusable. The hinges were quite rusty
I remember the oval enamel house number in the centre of the door. I don’t know where that went unfortunately. The handle is beyond repair too as I like that one. I think my Dad made it.
Into the shed and onto the trestles. Time to take off the timber surrounds, hinges, handle and remnants of the old screen wire
A good sanding but not back to the original wood. I left a lot of the old paint and roughness as I didn’t want to erase all of the doors history. And a re-glue of the frame and clamping to make it sturdy once more.
All tidied up and a few coats of paint.

Now to attach the screen wire. Just used staples as the new timber surrounds will hold the wire in place.

What I didn’t do was to take photos of the cutting of the timber surrounds and that part of the process to hold the wire in place.

Here is the door put installed this morning after a bit of getting everything ready yesterday afternoon
The door behind the screen door was the front door of my childhood home as well.

A sound I long for

Published on November 21, 2019 by bushboy6 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt Tuesday: Sound

Wordless Wednesday 20 November

Published on November 20, 2019 by bushboy12 Comments

Benches

Published on November 18, 2019 by bushboy27 Comments

Bren’s Photo for the Week – 46: Benches
In a park
In my garden

Fire – my story

Published on November 17, 2019 by bushboy36 Comments

Debbies One Word Sunday: Fire

What a topic to pick Debbie!!! This is so much my life at the moment and has been for over four week. I have already posted some stories of the fires that surround me at the moment.
Some days the smoke is so thick, I cannot see more that 30 meters. Those days are spent inside. My chest is starting to hurt, my eyes are constantly sore and yesterday I had a sore throat.
The heat of the day doesn’t help either. One day last week it was 40C which isn’t usual for this time of year. Most days last week were in the low to high 30’s. The high daily temperatures combined with strong winds that seem to turn up most days makes for uncomfortable living.
Over the past two years the amount of rainfall has been a quarter of what I usually have here. This big dry has also exacerbated conditions. When there is a lack of rain, the eucalypt trees drop leaves and branches as a survival technique. The forest floor has a lot of leaves and dead wood. Normally that isn’t a problem as the high rainfall helps break down the vegetation into humus which is full of microscopic life as well as insects and worms.
The ground is dry under the leaves and is being baked by the hot sun. The UV rating today was extreme.
Together with my neighbours, we worked with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) to have a hazard reduction burn on our properties this Winter to prepare for Summer as the RFS thought that there would be a dangerous fire season this year. This Winter wasn’t the time to burn as we didn’t have many cool days and conditions weren’t right as assessed by the RFS.
The fire season is usually late November to March. The first fire to threaten our small community of properties happened early October. This post is a quick story of that Fire
An earlier fire story the month before but didn’t really affect my place.
The fires continued to burn this fire in early November started more concern for me and my property and has been continually burning since then.
Every afternoon when the westerly wind blows up I am scanning the skies for signs of smoke and as the day darkens I am on watch in case embers are blowing ahead of the fire. The fire is about 15kms away.
I have my car packed with things I want to save and other stuff is handy to grab if the call comes through to evacuate.
I do live in the bush, or forest for my overseas readers/friends, I am aware of the potential hazards. Because it has been so dry my dam I use to water the garden hasn’t filled and there is a small amount of water that I am saving in case I need it to put out small fires.
My garden only gets small amounts of water to keep some of it alive. The Bangalow palms whose fronds shade the house and keep it cool in Summer are either dead or dying. Of the 10 or so in the gardens around the house, two are still alive. The small Lilli Pilli trees are dying, other Australian native plants are struggling. Every bit of water gets recycled and used to keep plants alive.
The sky has been so eerie and the days don’t have shadows or sunlight, just a orange glow.
The only thing to release me from this awful situation is rain. So far these fires statewide have burnt over one million hectares, only 4 deaths so far thank goodness, over 350 homes burnt and thousands of out-building burnt. I have friends who have lost their homes.
As I write at 6pm Sunday, I am watching the trees sway about in the wind dropping more leaves. There has been rain in the area, mainly to the south and north, but so far not here.
I am hoping……
PS Don’t worry about me I am safe and prepared. I have been here for quite a while and have been through many fires before. I used to be the local RFS Deputy Captain and have a good knowledge of fire behaviour on my property and neighbouring properties.

Waiting

Published on November 17, 2019 by bushboy22 Comments

The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #72: Waiting

What was that that flashed past the kitchen window? A flash of white. Quick………grab the camera and outside into the garden.

Yes……it’s a Caper White Butterfly coming to feed on the Pentas flowers.

Get set……..focus…….wait for that butterfly in flight photo opportunity…..wait and wait

It’s a flutter of wings……….will she fly this time…….or just reposition to get more nectar
Don’t get distracted……….ohhh look……..a dragonfly
Oh bugger…….she’s off this bunch of flowers…….where will she settle next?
Look…….over there……quick get focused as she is fluttering her wings again….maybe this time she will fly
Hurrah…….success…..it did take a bit of time waiting

The Architect

Published on November 15, 2019 by bushboy9 Comments

The Ragtag Daily Prompt Thursday: Architect

This world has many examples of great architecture designed by some of the most inventive and clever people. But not all of the best architects are people! Come and meet one such architect. One who builds from an aged design that has stood the test of time. A place to raise a family. A place that, unlike some of mankinds, is eco-friendly, is made from all natural materials gathered without the use of hands and transported by mouth. Combined with a bit of “spit” and placed in an exacting way to create a tiny wonder.

Who could create a structure like this?

Look here she comes now, placing her mud in just the right place

Making sure it is in place and secure

Then inspect the interior smoothing out an lumps or bumps

Isn’t she one of the best architects?
The Australian Hornet is one of the group known as potter wasps. They are a solitary insect and feed on flower nectar – pollinator – and hunt caterpillars – good for your garden – which quite often end up in the mud house for their larvae to feed on once they hatch. The caterpillars and other grubs are not killed but are comatose and the Hornets larvae consume them live.
They rarely attack people and are not aggressive just big and scary until you get to know them.

Stopping for a drink

Published on November 14, 2019 by bushboy36 Comments

I have always had bird baths place around my garden. There are big ones, shallow ones and small ones that the birds come to every day for a drink or a quick splash. I also have a number of containers on the ground and tucked into spots in the garden for the animals that may like a drink, mainly small animals. I fill containers daily in this long drought I am currently experiencing.

One such container is on the garden seat where Satin Bowerbirds like to get a drink. Yesterday I was in the kitchen and looked out of the window and to my surprise a Red-necked Wallaby was having a drink. Wallabies normally drink from the dam. I have never seen a Wallaby drink from the containers in the garden before. She must have been thirsty.

He mate was keeping watch nearby

You may wonder about the weird colour in the photos. The smoke from the nearby bushfires is quite thick and the sunshine is quite coloured. Shadows are muted. As you can see there eucalypt trees have dropped their leaves to try and save themselves in this drought. The Sun certainly highlights the dead leaves. A lot of these leaves are on the road which have been raked away from buildings. The bush where I live is very dry. The only thing that will stop these fires is rain.

I am keeping safe and watchful. The Rural Fire Service is doing a great job keeping everyone safe.

Also for LMP – Photo Adventure – Animals

This is October 2019

Published on November 11, 2019 by bushboy20 Comments

Oh my aren’t I tardy with the October wrap up? Lots of things have been happening – see some of the posts over the past week. I shan’t dwell on the most horrible situation I find myself in right now. I guess you have seen all about the fires in Australia, The north coast of NSW is where I live and the fires have been burning since early October.

I can’t really think straight as I haven’t slept well for a while now. Luckily and the end of October to early November my bestie and I had a brief holiday in Tasmania. I hadn’t been before so it was all new. Breathing air that wasn’t smoke laden was a blessing as was cool temperatures and even a bit of rain. That will be a post of its own later when I get around to it.

OK there isn’t all that many photos compared to previous “This is” posts but still grab a snack and a drink of your choice so you can stroll through my world in October.

I haven’t posted many photos of the Red-necked Wallabies that hang around my garden for a while. This little Joey has fun speeding around.

His Mum was keeping watch. Check out those lovely lashes.

I was out on a walk with my bestie and a friend when we came across some Eastern Grey Kangaroos resting in the shade. There was a female, a Joey and a male. When the male stood up we stopped and waited to see what they would do. Thankfully they group hopped over the fence in one bound and into the next paddock. When he stood up to his full height, he was about 2 meters tall. Look at those chest and arm muscles!!
I may be in drought but every evening the frogs start up, not as many as usual. I love these tiny Eastern Dwarf Tree Frogs. Here he is again in a previous post that has the call as well.
Meet Bob, one of the funniest fish I have ever seen. He would swim away and then appear from the side of the tank, look at you and swim away. The Seahorse World where he lives is at Beauty Point in Tasmania.
A regular sight around the north coast are Black-shouldered Kites hovering over a field waiting for snack to make a move then drop like a stone.
Here is one some of the European readers will know. The European Goldfinch was introduced into SE Australia and Tasmania in the 1850’s.
A Forest Kingfisher waits patiently on the power lines in the late afternoon for his meal to move in the paddock below.
The little hanging pot bird bath is too small for the King Parrot but its good for drinking. The Hippeastrums will come later.
One very unseasonably hot day, the temperature reached 38C IN SPRING!!! Here is a young King Parrot and a Spangled Drongo discussing the day, “hot enough for ya”
Down at the waterhole on 3rd after a good fall of rain. Lovely to see a bit of water. The last rain since.

Going up into the mountains for a bit of a walk and see new places. The players of the mountains from my favourite spot, the Raspberry Lookout.

Another place near Washpool, (which is now on fire) The smoke is from the fires to the north in early October.
I love finding a leaf that has been skeletised (OK I made up that word according to spellcheck)
The new Spring flush of leaves on a Eucalypt.
The Casuarina and the blue of the distant hills. My bestie reckons it is like a Japanese print.
One of the new crops on the north coast is dryland rice.
Back at the waterhole on my place. The ferns in shelter spots are growing well. This is called a Five Fingered Jack or a Rough Maidenhair Fern.

While in the Gibraltar Ranges in Spring I was hoping to find some native flowers. Here is a Blue Dampiera.

Tiny False Lilac flowers

A Hairy Bush Pea with a Native Stingless Bee

Don’t the little Small Leaved Boronia look ever so sweet.

There were lots of White Paper Daisies along the road sides.

The flowers of a Flapjack Succulent

The first time this plant from my old mate Geoffs place has flowered and I can’t remember what it is

My besties Foxgloves flowered well this year
The start of my Hippeastrums
More have started to bud up
Once the flowers arrive, so do the Native Stingless Bees
Look at the amount of pollen in the flowers. The Native Stingless Bees get coated in pollen
An olden Hibiscus at my besties attracts a bee or is it a wasp?
Casting a fine web, this spider waits underneath for lunch to drop in.
OK all is done. I had to include a photo of our Sun late in the afternoon on a fire day. A mixture of clouds and smoke.

I hope you enjoyed a stroll through my October. Did you have a favourite photo? I love to hear what you think so please drop me a line. I guess I need conversation

also for Su’s Changing Seasons

The Green Tree Snakes visit

Published on November 9, 2019 by bushboy12 Comments

I had a week and a bit of a holiday in Tasmania. I came home to find my resident Green Tree Snake had decided to shed its skin while I was away. The Lilli Pilli in the garden is having a bit of a hard time surviving the very dry conditions which has made it quite handy for a snake to divest itself of last years skin.

Green Tree Snakes are quite harmless. A little slender snake about two meters long. Their fangs are located at the back of the mouth so you have to be partially swallowed before a Green Tree Snake can inject a venom which is harmless to humans but not so to the small prey, lizards, frogs, eggs etc. They are diurnal and have large eyes. They are not always green either. Known to be olive-green to black and the flecks of blue can make a Green Tree Snake look blue. They are mostly yellow on the throat and belly but also other pale colours as well.

The early morning sunrise also helped in the making of this blog.

The wrapping around the branches. Start at the head and peel away.

The belly and tail

Aren’t the patterns in the scales lovely.
The head end showing the large eyes and lower jaw.
The sunrise made an ordinary Green Tree Snakes skin look amazing.

I have used an old photo of a Green Tree Snake in the featured photo.

November 2019
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