The Wet Season = Bug Infestations. They come in hoardes at night attracted to the light. They find their way into the house, wiggling their tiny bodies through the squares of the fly screens. They swarm the television, the computer screen, my glow-in-the-dark legs. Take a step outside and you're covered in the bugs that don't have the ability to get into the house. Mozzies, midgies. It rains and after it stops the crickets arc up. Chirping all bloody night.
The various stink beetles. The black ones and the lavender bugs. They squirt their horrible smell when you brush them away. Some people react to their squirty with an itchy rash. They love dark places like under piles of dirty clothes.
The flying ants. They get into the house and annoy the crap out of you. They're even more attracted to light than other bugs and will congregate over the stand-by light on the television or the LED screen on the DVD player. In the morning when all the other bugs have gone or died the flying ants leave their mark. Their frigging wings! Everywhere! Little wings! As you try and sweep them up they flutter over the broom back to where you have just swept. Heaven help those that do not own a vacuum cleaner.
Normal ants. Meat ants, ginger ants, sugar ants. Their nest might be over 200m away but they're still happy to march that distance to obtain that morsel of food that someone dropped on the floor and didn't bother to clean up. You give a finished rib-bone to the dog and she's so busy trying to hide it that she doesn't notice the meat ants already on their way ready to strip it bare and leave no meat at all behind for her.
I let the spiders live in my house. They control the insects to some degree. I let the frogs and geckos live in my house too. They're both so cute and they eat the insects. I don't like it so much when they shit on my soap in the shower though.
Sometimes the bugs can't get in the house and that's great. But then they clamber over the windows and glass doors and for some reason that's where they tend to die. After a little while they begin to decompose. It becomes a scrubbing job to get them off.
I have a mumu dress that I wear just to watch television on some nights. My protection from the bugs. The cattle on the other hand aren't so lucky. Some might get an insecticide ear tag that helps keep away the buffalo flies. Some might get a backline which not only helps for buffalo flies but also cattle ticks and gastro-intestinal worms. Sadly some just have to rough it. Put up with the buffalo flies which can sometimes cause lack of hair or even scabs.
It happens to horses too. Some equine more susceptible than others. Watch them in their paddock. Swish, swish, swish their tails and shake their necks. I bring them in and give them an all over wipe of fly treatment for horses. It brings relief but only for 6 weeks. Other products available only last a few hours or until the horse becomes wet next. Doesn't take long in this weather between the rain and the sweat.
I don't mind the moths. Nor the butterflies. The grass hoppers and stick insects are okay too. Just not the bugs. I do not like being bugged!
Monday 19 March 2012
Friday 16 March 2012
Here Comes The Rain Again
Seems there's no rest for the skies as over the last 23 days there has only been 4 days without precipitation. Cyclone Lua brought the latest falls with an average of an inch a day. In town waiting for something to come through that never did, I gave up waiting and headed home. Damian was worried I wouldn't make it back but me and my bravado knew I would. It had drizzled and rained on/off right across the Top End for three days and Damian described the skies as another England. I didn't care, I was over town and wanted to be home.
The trip in it drizzled from the moment I hit the bitumen and didn't stop. On my way back I got one extremely light drizzle in one area and nothing else. I pulled up at the beginning of our driveway and put the wheels in lock and put the car in four wheel drive and of course, in true "Tigger could take over" style... put my seatbelt back on.
The bombing range was no worries. Even the gilgi wasn't that full to pass through. I could actually see sections of the road unlike the last time that it was up.
Damian met up with me in the station toyota (nice to know that he isn't asleep on the couch while I'm on my way home) at the bombing range/Dilinya boundary.
"She's a bit deep back there", he stated referring to Forrest Creek. As I approached the creek I lowered the gears down to second and eased my way in. Definately higher than I had ever seen it before but I pressed on. Halfway I had to drop down to first as the old boy struggled through a soft, deep spot but he soldiered on and soon we were through. I crept along in second looking back in my rear view as I watched Damian cross. The water went over his bonnet and he struggled through the same spot in the middle as I did. The second creek crossing wasn't as high as the first but coming out the otherside we had to veer around the neighbours vehicle parked there just in case they don't make it back across when they return.
Being stuck in town meant I missed celebrating Lacey's birthday on time. Yes, I'm weird, celebrating my dogs' birthday but hey, each to their own. I put up some decorations I had made for her earlier when I got home and baked her a mince and egg "cake". She thought her little cake was the greatest thing and whoofed it down.
In the morning I got up and for the first time in a long time, Lacey got up early with me. I pulled on my sneakers and we set off for my morning walk. She skipped and sniffed her way up the driveway while I strolled along. The rain we'd been having each day caused some parts of the driveway to be so slippery that I was losing my footings. If it was slippery for me I would hate to imagine a vehicle trying to get down it. On our way back Lacey found a crab which had come out of the ground from the rain. The first one she had ever seen. Fascinated by it she kept sticking her nose in it's face till it got annoyed enough that it raised its claws which is when I thought it best to call her away before she ended up with a nip on her nose.
Over the last 4 days Providence has recorded 97mm of rain. Not near as much as other places but certainly enough to make things interesting while at the same time grinding work to a halt.
The trip in it drizzled from the moment I hit the bitumen and didn't stop. On my way back I got one extremely light drizzle in one area and nothing else. I pulled up at the beginning of our driveway and put the wheels in lock and put the car in four wheel drive and of course, in true "Tigger could take over" style... put my seatbelt back on.
The bombing range was no worries. Even the gilgi wasn't that full to pass through. I could actually see sections of the road unlike the last time that it was up.
Damian met up with me in the station toyota (nice to know that he isn't asleep on the couch while I'm on my way home) at the bombing range/Dilinya boundary.
"She's a bit deep back there", he stated referring to Forrest Creek. As I approached the creek I lowered the gears down to second and eased my way in. Definately higher than I had ever seen it before but I pressed on. Halfway I had to drop down to first as the old boy struggled through a soft, deep spot but he soldiered on and soon we were through. I crept along in second looking back in my rear view as I watched Damian cross. The water went over his bonnet and he struggled through the same spot in the middle as I did. The second creek crossing wasn't as high as the first but coming out the otherside we had to veer around the neighbours vehicle parked there just in case they don't make it back across when they return.
Being stuck in town meant I missed celebrating Lacey's birthday on time. Yes, I'm weird, celebrating my dogs' birthday but hey, each to their own. I put up some decorations I had made for her earlier when I got home and baked her a mince and egg "cake". She thought her little cake was the greatest thing and whoofed it down.
In the morning I got up and for the first time in a long time, Lacey got up early with me. I pulled on my sneakers and we set off for my morning walk. She skipped and sniffed her way up the driveway while I strolled along. The rain we'd been having each day caused some parts of the driveway to be so slippery that I was losing my footings. If it was slippery for me I would hate to imagine a vehicle trying to get down it. On our way back Lacey found a crab which had come out of the ground from the rain. The first one she had ever seen. Fascinated by it she kept sticking her nose in it's face till it got annoyed enough that it raised its claws which is when I thought it best to call her away before she ended up with a nip on her nose.
Over the last 4 days Providence has recorded 97mm of rain. Not near as much as other places but certainly enough to make things interesting while at the same time grinding work to a halt.
Friday 2 March 2012
It Started With Eleven
When we first moved to Providence mid last year I came here with 11 various different animals which included 5 chooks, 3 dogs, 2 horses and 1 weaner bull. Nine months on and I look back on our time already spent here with heartbreak. As of March 1st of those eleven animals I started out with I only have four left.
I do seem to have this curse that causes me to lose my pets well before their time and for me September has now become the hardest month for me to deal with all the loss.
One by one I lost the chickens from suspicious attacks, an indefinate dog attack, an olive python and suspected poisoning of some kind. As crazy as it might seem, all my chooks had names and personalities. Gloria went first before we had moved here. She went early on via an olive python. Next was Bloomer not long after we arrived and she died as a result of a suspicious attack. Suspicious as in though the dogs generally got along really well with the chooks it was quite a shock to have found Bloomer crouched behind the chook shed minus nearly all of her neck feathers after we returned from walking away weaners one day. She lived for three days post-attack. Henrietta was next, my favourite chook. And it is yet another suspicious attack. Damian thinks that it may have been a feral cat that took her life due to the way she died. The dog that could have been the culprit was mostly tied up at this point. Then Ebony went thanks to a visit from yet another olive python. Lightening Pup, my early Christmas present to Damian, took the life of Henny Penny and as a result Damian took his life as his theory is: It starts with a small animal then builds up to a horse. We cannot have animals that chase horses or cattle. Only managers and owners dogs get to live to see another day if they do. So for over a month Annette was the only chook. She became more outgoing towards us because of it and even didn't mind chilling out with Lacey though Lacey did. Then on March 1st we lost her too. Damian found her dead underneath the house. Signs from a bare patch in the gravel showed where she lay whilst thrashing about. I suspect a spider bite and Damian suspects cane toad poisoning but we'll never know for sure. I loved having chickens. I adored them. But sadly they didn't even reach 2 years old. Annette's last two eggs have been blown and are ready to paint as a memorium to my poultry friends.
Of the 3 dogs I came to Providence with Lacey is the only one I still have. Rastus, my blue heeler, went on the 1st of September 2011 after being bitten by a whip snake. I felt my heart break as I found him thrashing under the house and foaming at the mouth. Damian relieved him of his suffering while I bawled my eyes out with my other two dogs in my arms on the lounge.
Gidget, who is one of Lacey's daughters, was next... only five days later. I wasn't there when she went. I was in town. Damian rang me at 2:30am to break the news to me and I spent the rest of the night crying. With how Damian described her final moments I knew straight away that it was cane toad poisoning. Gidget was a fiercely loyal and affectionate dog. On some levels she out-did Lacey but certainly not on obedience. I had Gidget cremated and I wish I could have done the same for Rastus and my other dogs that I have lost and have caused me to loathe the month of September.
It was only 2 years earlier that I lost my red heeler Knuckles and her son Buddy. He went on the 9th of September after licking a cane toad and Knuckles went on the 13th after digging him up and eating him. The most horrible thing is to witness a dog suffering the effects of poisoning and not being able to do anything about it at the time. Two dogs in too short a time and it's no wonder I hate September.
But I still have Capone, my weaner bull and my horses Charger and Diamond and I believe that Chief is out there in the paddock with them in spirit though we said goodbye to him in October 2010 due to colic. And of course I still have my Little Lady Lacey. She's been there by my side through thick and thin for almost five years. She's by my side right now, ever loyal, my friend when I feel I have none, my sidekick, my handbag dog that outgrew the handbag, my little Princess. So then there were four...
The chooks at about a month old. This was their first night in the chook shed. Mataranka 2010.
Rastus enjoying himself at the dam only 5 days before he died.
Miss Gidget. Loyal and affectionate beyond words.
I do seem to have this curse that causes me to lose my pets well before their time and for me September has now become the hardest month for me to deal with all the loss.
One by one I lost the chickens from suspicious attacks, an indefinate dog attack, an olive python and suspected poisoning of some kind. As crazy as it might seem, all my chooks had names and personalities. Gloria went first before we had moved here. She went early on via an olive python. Next was Bloomer not long after we arrived and she died as a result of a suspicious attack. Suspicious as in though the dogs generally got along really well with the chooks it was quite a shock to have found Bloomer crouched behind the chook shed minus nearly all of her neck feathers after we returned from walking away weaners one day. She lived for three days post-attack. Henrietta was next, my favourite chook. And it is yet another suspicious attack. Damian thinks that it may have been a feral cat that took her life due to the way she died. The dog that could have been the culprit was mostly tied up at this point. Then Ebony went thanks to a visit from yet another olive python. Lightening Pup, my early Christmas present to Damian, took the life of Henny Penny and as a result Damian took his life as his theory is: It starts with a small animal then builds up to a horse. We cannot have animals that chase horses or cattle. Only managers and owners dogs get to live to see another day if they do. So for over a month Annette was the only chook. She became more outgoing towards us because of it and even didn't mind chilling out with Lacey though Lacey did. Then on March 1st we lost her too. Damian found her dead underneath the house. Signs from a bare patch in the gravel showed where she lay whilst thrashing about. I suspect a spider bite and Damian suspects cane toad poisoning but we'll never know for sure. I loved having chickens. I adored them. But sadly they didn't even reach 2 years old. Annette's last two eggs have been blown and are ready to paint as a memorium to my poultry friends.
Of the 3 dogs I came to Providence with Lacey is the only one I still have. Rastus, my blue heeler, went on the 1st of September 2011 after being bitten by a whip snake. I felt my heart break as I found him thrashing under the house and foaming at the mouth. Damian relieved him of his suffering while I bawled my eyes out with my other two dogs in my arms on the lounge.
Gidget, who is one of Lacey's daughters, was next... only five days later. I wasn't there when she went. I was in town. Damian rang me at 2:30am to break the news to me and I spent the rest of the night crying. With how Damian described her final moments I knew straight away that it was cane toad poisoning. Gidget was a fiercely loyal and affectionate dog. On some levels she out-did Lacey but certainly not on obedience. I had Gidget cremated and I wish I could have done the same for Rastus and my other dogs that I have lost and have caused me to loathe the month of September.
It was only 2 years earlier that I lost my red heeler Knuckles and her son Buddy. He went on the 9th of September after licking a cane toad and Knuckles went on the 13th after digging him up and eating him. The most horrible thing is to witness a dog suffering the effects of poisoning and not being able to do anything about it at the time. Two dogs in too short a time and it's no wonder I hate September.
But I still have Capone, my weaner bull and my horses Charger and Diamond and I believe that Chief is out there in the paddock with them in spirit though we said goodbye to him in October 2010 due to colic. And of course I still have my Little Lady Lacey. She's been there by my side through thick and thin for almost five years. She's by my side right now, ever loyal, my friend when I feel I have none, my sidekick, my handbag dog that outgrew the handbag, my little Princess. So then there were four...
The chooks at about a month old. This was their first night in the chook shed. Mataranka 2010.
Rastus enjoying himself at the dam only 5 days before he died.
Miss Gidget. Loyal and affectionate beyond words.
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