New Arrival, and Too Much Stuff

 Apparently one tractor is not enough.

So now this one lives here too.

Here are some boxes. This is my stuff which has been in the shed since we moved in, because there wasn't room in the house for it:

But now the new (old) tractor is in that shed. I could just throw all this out without even looking at it, as it is stuff I haven't touched in over 5 years. But I know that some of it will be things that I have wondered "whatever happened to my [item]? ", or, "I'm sure I have a [something], where is it?" in the time it has been boxed up.

On top of that, I currently have a heap of stuff of Mum's, including a sewing machine, an overlocker, a hand-quilting frame, and bags and boxes of other sewing stuff, piled in the hallway. My father suddenly decided that he needed to get rid of everything, and was going to put it out for the hard rubbish collection. I think I need another whole sewing room to house all this stuff!

Bluestones

Way back near the beginning of the year, a Melbourne friend was doing some garden renovation, and offered me some bluestones she didn't need any more.

Travelling to and from Melbourne has been off the cards for a lot of the time since, but today was finally the day to go and get the bluestones, tour the garden, and enjoy a lovely lunch with her, her husband, and another Melbourne friend I hadn't seen for most of the year.

Bluestones loaded into the back of the ute, along with mail we collected from the postoffice on the way.

As well as the stones, I came home with plant gifts from each of my friends.

An epidendrum orchid above, and an Austromyrtus dulcis below:

Also known as a midgen berry. It is a pretty shrub with attractive flowers, which are apparently followed by delicious berries. It will be interesting to see if it bears any berries in our climate, and if they are as sweet as "dulcis" would imply.

And here's how the stones were moved around at this end of the journey:

Hooray for the tractor!

Timber!

This morning I couldn't drive out the normal way because this had happened:

The view from the other side when I came home perhaps shows more clearly why I couldn't drive through:

Another job for the tractor!

A chain secured around the branch, and attached to the tractor:

Then while I was messing around with my camera, the tractor pulled the branch, and I completely missed the action shot!

There was more work for the tractor, holding the branch as it was chainsawed:

Then later it made for easy transport of the pieces to the house, ready to be chopped up for firewood:

Straw Bale

Time for more straw in the orchard. This bale is not quite so well-wrapped as the last lot, so getting it off the ute and into the orchard was a challenge.

First step - pushing it with the tractor:

and tipping it off:

An extra strap to help hold it together on the short journey through the vege garden:

Tractor to the rescue again, tipping it onto its side:

Then two humans had to roll it through the vege garden and into the orchard. I'm not quite sure what happened at this point:

It hit something and wouldn't roll straight. But eventually

it was safely inside the orchard. No chooks or ducks escaped, and no trees were harmed in the manoeuvre.

Compost Rebuild

Over the last couple of days the compost bins have been reconstructed:

They were originally formed of pallets left behind by the builders, but something sturdier was required. I don't seem to have a picture of the pallet ones, but if you go here you can see them.

So here's the new, sturdier, able-to-be-driven-into-with-a-tractor, bins:

Wonderful Day

The day started with an almost traditional tractor delivery:

Fantastic giant welded flowers for the garden!

More for the garden:

Two fringe flowers (Lorepetalum chinense rubrum), "China Pink" and "Plum Gorgeous", and a rose, "Eiffel Tower".

And then we had snow!

Melting as it fell, but it was actual falling snow.

Later in the morning I went to visit my parents. On the way home we saw this:

Picture taken through the rear view mirror, so not brilliant. But that is a wedge-tailed eagle! It was eating a poor kangaroo that had been hit by a car. There were two eagles but one took off as we stopped the ute to get the photo. They really are huge when you get that close to them!

In the afternoon some friends and family helped with the celebration:

There is no significance to the number of candles. As we ate cake we watched spinebills in the salvias outside the window.

What a wonderful day!

Things Falling Down

We've had a lot of rain over the last couple of days. This morning I looked out the window and something was missing. The echium has collapsed:

Whether it was the weight of all the water on it, or the soil softening because of the rain, I don't know. But it was probably close to the end of its flowering anyway. Bees were still visiting it though, later in the day once the rain stopped.

We went out this morning, and when we came home we met this just up the road:

The ute wasn't going to fit under that, even if it was safe to drive under.

It's another job for the tractor!

That's the ute at the far right, behind the leafy part of the branch.

Hard to see, but here a chain has been put around the branch:

 Then the tractor took off, and the branch came down:

and was dragged off the road:

Then I could drive the ute home.

I don't know when the branch came down. A woman drove up behind us, and told me that she had driven her car under the branch 3 hours earlier. She hadn't reported it to anyone, but thought "someone" would do something about it before she got back home. I wonder how many other people drove under it in those 3 hours?

Another Job for the Tractor

Such a handy thing:

Our neighbour needed to move his generator stand, concrete slab and all. Here's the tractor pushing it down the hill.

Gravel Replay

Last week we had a gravel delivery that didn't go quite as planned. Today the same driver came to deliver gravel to the other end of the driveway, and this is what happened:

Backing in:

Tipping the truck and starting to dump the gravel:

So far, so good.

But then he ran off the driveway:

See the wheel under the cabin? That's sunk into the grass.

So a whole heap of gravel got dumped in one place because he couldn't keep going forwards. Then he backed over that to get back on the driveway:

Ready for take two:

Then he bunny-hopped, or kangaroo-hopped, or stalled, or... Whatever, we now had another pile of gravel:

Fortunately the rest of the operation went smoothly, he spread gravel towards the road, and he didn't hit the tree it looks like he is about to:

And it's another job for the handy little tractor!

After an hour or so of spreading the gravel where it was meant to be, the driveway looks good (although I didn't get a picture of the end result).

Meanwhile I planted some seedlings in the "pillow" section of my garden bed:

Driveway Top-Up

This afternoon a huge truck-load of gravel arrived to repair parts of the driveway that have been dug up recently. Well it was meant to be one huge truck, but it actually arrived in a truck and trailer:

And the driver had a bit of trouble backing it in. (Apparently this was only his 4th day of driving this truck and trailer combo.) I watched him go back and forwards a couple of times, then retreated inside because I couldn't bear to watch.

25 minutes later, he had given up on that idea, and dumped the trailer load in one spot:

Then he disconnected the truck and reversed it in:

Tipped it up:

And laid a neat line of gravel along the drive:

Then someone else with a handy tractor had to spread it around so that our vehicles could be driven out tomorrow:

Fun Day

First thing this morning two giant frogs arrived by tractor at the bedroom window:

which freaked the dogs out, but I laughed my head off.

I admired this pair of cute/ugly frogs in a junk shop a couple of months ago, but I had forgotten about them since. And now they are mine!

A bit later in the morning, a garden bed was also delivered by tractor:

A literal garden bed! I think I will plant it with succulents.

For lunch we went to Kambei Japanese restaurant. It is the first time we've eaten there, but I'm sure it won't be the last. The food was excellent.

Green tea ice-cream for dessert:

Yummy!

Then there was some family visiting. A steam train that was running between Ballarat and Lal Lal all weekend chuffed past us too quickly for me to grab a photo.

But I had plenty of time to photograph these critters:

A herd of cows being moved from one paddock to another. There were some quite young calves in amongst them. And a dog having a great time riding on the back of one of the quad bikes. The joys of country living! I don't miss living in the city.

It was a fun day. And apparently there is another gift to come tomorrow!