Rain glorious rain - shall we rename to Colliwat Cascades?

After a protracted dry spell which saw our tanks empty and our dam shrinking so low we had decided to stop watering the vegie patch for fear of desiccating our native fingerlings, we were blessed with two days of solid rainfall.  Unfortunately our rain gauge is still attached to the roof of our old place so we don't have an accurate measurement of the amount or rain.  According to the weather maps we had between 100 and 150mm of rain over the two days.  

It's certainly been a long time (and only the second) since we saw the dam overflowing.  This was the most spectacular overflow yet and we were also able to witness the neighbours' dams cascading over and into our dam for the first time.  Even when flooding is in the back of your mind, the sound of rushing water is so fulfilling.

Overflow from our dam

The spillways for our neighbours' dams

It was also a good opportunity to find out how our place would flood.  We were told by the neighbours that the previous owner had renovated the driveway and put in a stormwater drain for overflow as the driveway was flooded and washed away in previous heavy rainfall and flooding.  They'd had to make do by parking at the front of the property to ensure they could get out and the driveway had been patched up with a couple of planks so as not to get bogged in the mire.  We're certainly grateful for the improvements.

Here are some afternoon before and morning after shots of the dam showing the near instant filling:

As you can see even where I was standing for the first photos is now covered in water.

We were fortunate to have a couple of sunny days after the rain to allow things to green up, shoot off and soak in the rain.  Today the rain has come back but is falling gently at the moment.

Gone fishin'

I spied a brochure at the local council library on threatened plant species for our local area.  I've been noticing a few native grasses and flowers around the place and was hoping to keep an eye out for some of the rarer ones and learn what to remove and what to leave be.  We have plenty of lomandra and dianella around which are flowering and fruiting at the moment.

On the final page of the brochure I spotted a logo for a native fish program.  We'd been planning to stock our dam with local fish for mosquito control, a food source for local birds and perhaps eventually our own plates.  So I called the council about the program: "Oh I haven't heard about that for a while, let me just find out."  The council have been very helpful each time I've called them and they didn't let me down this time either.  We were to arrange a time at the pound to pick up the native fish.  The next day I headed over there to pick up six fingerlings.  I was a little disappointed when the response to my question of what type of fish was "they eat mosquitoes."  Nevertheless they didn't cost us anything and would do their job.  The most common fish to use if silver perch and I have the impression that's what these are.

Acclimatising before release

Most likely silver perch and unphotogenic ones at that

The fish are now swimming free, feasting on mosquito larvae and with any luck avoiding the turtle and swamp hens.

Give me a home among the gumtrees

June was an incredibly busy month.  Long hours at work coupled with moving one weekend then  helping my sister move the next as well as no internet connection for well over a week has meant no access to the Blog and last ditch efforts at an internet connection at the local library and visiting our old place.  At the end of all the kerfuffle, we are happy to announce Colliwat Farm is now semi-rural on a 2.5 acre block about 30 mins south of Brisbane.  The chooks and cat survived the move intact and were surprisingly not too stressed.  The new chook pen is not all that secure; however, and I'm greeted each day at the front door by a cheeky Hopscotch looking at me endearingly.  It seems she's now taught the others her escape route too as I found three of them out and about scratching around in the garden on several occasions. Luckily there's nothing too precious in the gardens at this stage that I'm worried about losing to beak or claw.

It's been continuously raining for the last 4 or 5 days (the washing is still on the line!) which has meant not much can be done outside.  We've been disappointed to find the downpipes are not delivering the rainwater to the water tanks with only a very marginal increase in the level despite half an inch of rain in the last 24 hours.  We've devised a new route which will involve some replumbing of downpipes but will hopefully mean more rain in the tank so we don't have to rely on trickle feed.

Another water issue has been the pump in one of the grey water tanks.  It trips the power for the entire house when we attempt to switch it on.  Hubby persevered and managed to get it working intermittently and long enough to eventually drain most of the tank.  The pump it still not working properly and looks like we'll need a new one.

On the bright side the dam is full and we were able to check out the overflow pipe in action one afternoon.  It was nice to listen to the chuckle of running water under and over rocks not far from our front door.  We were excited before moving in at the prospect of swamp hens living in the dam.  After the move we've found we got much more than we were expecting: not only are there swamp hens but ducks that ski across the surface daily and a resident turtle!

I've been itching to get out in the garden and have been thinking and making plans with all the wet weather forcing restraint and a patient approach.  The garden is currently a sparse higgeldy-piggeldy mess of vaguely matching plants.  Fortunately the garden beds themselves are laid out well without much need for redesigning.  I've been mulling over which plants to keep, which to dig up and feed to the compost and pondering over the overall theme for the garden.  In the meantime we have to be content with our left produce from our old place - carrots, pumpkins and soon some peas.

The neighbours have dedicated the rear of their block (next to our house) to land for wildlife so a more native approach to the garden seems appropriate.  It's also something I've been wanting to experiment with for a while in terms of aesthetics and edibles.  Some edging for the dam is certainly in order to keep the toads out and the frogs in.

Next on the list is to choose a site for the orchard and vegie patch.  It's likely the current chicken pen will become the vegie patch once it's been turned over by their little feet; that's if we can get them to stay put!  It's a gently sloping, cleared section of soil near the dam that gets a decent amount of sunlight during the day.  The soil here is a sticky clay and is fairly water repellent.  Before I groaned, I reassured myself that at least it's something I'm familiar with and it can be worked into a beautiful loam with patience and the right materials.  Time to get out there and start the compost heap!  

I'll try to post some photos as soon as we have an internet connection again.