Water in a dry spell and hard work in the northeast corner

Originally we were planning to defer getting a bore pump and a reticulation pump until the new year, but it has been unusually dry this October.  We have had less then half of the average rainfall and our lawns, and bush, is getting parched. Even the wallabies that graze on our lawns are now infrequent visitors.

Roger plumbed in and commissioned a new water pump for our garden reticulation and to water our parched lawns.  On Friday our bore pump arrived and the technician soon had it down the bore and pumping water.

The bore water does not taste too good but it is good enough for irrigation.  We started filling the holding tank and then the bore ran dry after about fifteen minutes.  We waited an hour and the pump ran for twelve minutes, we repeated this pattern three times.  In the end we resorted to using a timer so the pump would run for ten minutes every hour.  By Saturday afternoon the holding tank was overflowing.  We were able to give the vegetable garden a good soaking and all the fruit trees got a good hand watering.  A reticulation system for the trees is now a work in progress.

The pressure on our rainwater tanks is now off as the bore is producing enough water for our garden and trees, but another problem occurred.  We recycled a tank and pipework that we had found on the property for the bore water system, and both had a fair build up of minerals.  At first the water was clear as we flushed the system until the water ran clear but as the day wore on the amount of particulates in the water steadily increased which meant we had to clean the reticulation filters fairly frequently.  We brought a large filter on Monday to reduce the amount of cleaning. This we will fit  next week.  Hopefully, in a few weeks all the deposits would have found their way out and the filter becomes redundant.

That was not the end of the weeks work.  We took the tractor and chainsaw to the northeast corner to tidy up some tree falls and to improve access to the meter box.  We spent several hours in hot and humid conditions cutting up large and small fallen trees.  The larger logs had to be dragged away with the tractor.   We also pulled out several large lantana bushes and now the area is much more open and we are hoping some of the native plant species will start to thrive.

The Honeydale koala on the job

During the entire week a young koala oversaw our comings and goings.  It spent several days in a tree to the north of our shed, then he moved to a tree directly over our bore.  Then on Sunday night it returned to a tree north of our shed, this tree was several meters from the one it was originally resting in.  This koala has a magnificent set of ears, however as soon as we got the camera out it would go all shy and curl up tight against the tree trunk.  Other times it would tuck its head in and get a solid grip on the tree trunk.

Jen and Rog

Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com