Nature: Beauty AND Beast.

When I was a kid growing up in the Queensland Outback, my step-father at the time was a plant machinery operator, especially skilled with graders. Some school holidays, I'd go with him out to properties that he was working on. I'd sit in the cabin with him until it was time for me to put the billy on for lunch while he did a little more grading.

On one occasion, while collecting firewood in the scrub, I came across a sheep being eaten alive by ants. Alerting my step-father, he took the butchering knives he kept in the grader and killed the sheep, partly out of mercy, partly to take a leg which we cooked in the billy fire.

Nature... sometimes she's the Great Mother, sometimes the Destroyer, always both in ever shifting dynamic.

Examples of beauty include this sunset taken a week ago from our front gate, and plants at the Hall Point beach in Sulphur Creek.

 As for the Beast, the modern story to parallel a long dead sheep... I offer you this Sea Lion that two of my sons and I discovered at the same beach, about three hours ago.

An elderly local woman came by, walking her dog, and from her I learned that this unfortunate critter had been lying there, dead, for over a week. She and her husband saw it swimming in the bay about a month ago, about the same time that the local newspaper carried a story about three Orcas swimming out there. Not saying there's a connection. No obvious sign of Orca damage. Mind you though, if I just discovered I was swimming with Orcas... can Sea Lions have heart attacks?

Anyway, this local told me that she had tried several government environmental departments, but nobody was interested in dealing with it. I had a similar experience a while ago when I discovered a micro-bat in the house, and having seen online requests from some division or other of the Tas government to be informed because they wanted to study the micro-bats... think I could find anyone to take it?

Oh well, a little off course. My point is this: Nature is not a well manicured botanical garden. She's a well structured mess. We prefer life to death, Nature doesn't have a preference.

But WOW!!! A SEA LION.

Oi, what a weekend!

What a weekend. Three venues over two days. And there was the potential for other activities, but these three were booked first, so this is what we ended up doing.

First stop was a gardening expo at Highfield House Historic Site. We came here, in part for the event, but also to acquire some heirloom tomatoes that came up from Hobart.

First thing I noticed upon arriving was the ruins across the road. Certainly something I wanted to check out before we leave.

Enjoyed looking at the old buildings that hosted the event.

These little rabbits are so well done that our toddler recognised them as such just by looking at this photo.

A train ride... yay! We all got on for a ride Heck, even I almost reverted back to my 89th childhood.

In the background, Highfield House as seen from the front carriage of the train.

 A helicopter flew over that seems to be carrying water. Looks like one of those units they use for fighting fires.

 On the way out I went across the road to check out the ruins. Convict Barracks. Way Cool!

Next stop was the Medieval Fair at Wynyard. Pretty sure it was put on by The Sovereign Military Order of the Knights Templar Tasmania. They operate out of Dragon's Realm in Upper Burnie.

The guy above gave a lecture on sword types then proceeded to give test-cut demonstrations in the use of strait and curved swords

What kid doesn't love a pony and buggy ride? This pony is 23 years old. 

And the arrows fly. Archery was the last thing they had a go at. All in all, they enjoyed it. Certainly they loosed a few successfully.

And last of all, Sunday, was Mount Gnomon Farm. They had the official opening of the next stage of their business, the butchery/restaurant.

Part way through was the opening speech/ceremony.

It was a great day for it. A little overcast, certainly on the mountain, but no hail like there was last year. 

A great weekend ending in midnight thunder and lightning. An all-to-rare event in this neck of the woods. 

FIRE!!!

So begins another interesting round of Ricardo Sierra's Earth Skills Seven Day Challenge. You can do this wherever you are if you want to have a go. This time round the study is fire. I've decided to use a ferrocerium rod on various materials, some natural some not, to see what mileage I can get. Below are the results of day one. I got sons #1, 2 and 3 to have a go as well. The ignitable was cotton wool and Vicks Vaporub. Vaseline is traditional, but I seem to have run out. The Vaporub worked just fine.

Me (above), got the show started.

Son #1 took to it quite well, After everyone else had a go, he came back for another go. Quite a fast little flamer. 

Son #2 had a go next. He got a little frustrated at the beginning, but he got there in the end. He also came back for a second helping.

Son #3 also had a go, but due to his young age and small proportions, he didn't get flame. Points for enthusiasm, though.

This was day one. Over the week I'll try other fire starting, but due to almost running out of bandwith credit and cash, I can't post every day. I'll update after it's all over and let you know how it all went then.

Bandicoot

Tasmania has two species of bandicoot, at least one of which is leaving various sign around here. I've decided to keep an eye out and note what I can find.

The first set of tracks I noticed after getting out of my car and looking down, expecting to see cat tracks. Instead, I saw these. A little research and I worked out the critter.

I started looking around and noticed a patch of beautiful smooth mud. I figured that this would be about the best spot for prints, if only... well, it happened.

Today, walking back from checking the mail, I was studying the little digs by the side of the road. I looked at the prints and figured out which were bandicoots, took photos of the scat and sct next to dig, and researched what they eat, which happens to include the beetle shells you can see.

Would be nice to actually see one.

Busking, Birds, Swimming and Tracks

Time for an update. The two older boys have been particularly busy lately. Their swimming lessons are coming along ... swimmingly. Something new- they swam the length of the pool, on their backs, with plastic cups on their foreheads. An exercise in good form.

The boys, as part of their singing class, had a busking gig at Latrobe (main claim to fame-Platypus Capital of the World), and host to an annual Chocolate Winterfest). The Chocolate Winterfest certainly fills the town for the day. The singing class sang at four locations around town, ending up at the Axeman's Hall of Fame.

 Think I'm going to pay a little more attention to the birds around here. Such variety. Cockatoos, Magpies, Parakeets, Ravens, birds I haven't identified yet. There's a flock up the road, possibly thousands, of a white bird, that nests on a little island in a lake. About 6.30 each morning they fly around the district as a group. I really want to capture a pic of them.

Cats, dogs, birds, possums... they all leave their prints around here. For the most part, they are easy to identify, but I discovered these ones this morning where I parked. Unless I'm mistaken, always a possibility, I'd say we have bandicoots.

Had the homeschool monitor do a checkup today. Seems satisfied. The boys are progressing well enough. Will be back in two years.

Life is good.