Lachlan's Handyman Skills and my New Mini Greenhouse

We have had a very wobbly side gate posts for months now, the wooden post had rotted away, so Lachlan got us organised and offered to replace it for us with a metal pole, so last Saturday we headed off to Bunnings. I am learning the art of shopping at Bunnings with a male! First you need to purchase the materials- in this case a metal pole and cap and some ready concrete mix.  Then you need to purchase the tools to complete the job- in this case a post hole shovel and a crowbar type think to smash up the old concrete!

Lachlan worked away for a couple of hours digging out the old concrete and digging the new hole. Bill and I were his on call labourers, but not sure that we did all that much. He had the pole in the ground, all level and supported then we got the call to come and help put the concrete and water in- we definitely got the easy job! The next morning he fixed the fence and gate back onto the new pole and we now have a rock solid post in place ! Was good to watch him at work and see how thorough he is. Even cleaned the tools that he had used when he finished the job!

I have all but given up trying to grow anything much in the veggie garden over winter, apart from a few herbs and things in pots near the back door. They had some small raised garden beds and pop over greenhouses at Aldi a few week back so decided to try growing something in this. I have planted some baby broccoli so will see how that goes.

Avoca Beach for Easter

Bill's cousin Jocelyn and her husband Steve have recently moved from Sydney to Avoca Beach on the Central Coast about on and a half hours north of Sydney. They had lived in Castle Hill for many years which was our Sydney home away from home. The plan was Amy, Lachlan and I were heading up there for Easter, however as Amy's new bird arrived the week before Easter she needed to stay home and help him settle in. It has been a long time since we have gone away at Easter as there are usually crowds of people around everywhere and the traffic is chaotic.

Lachlan and I left on Good Friday around 10am hoping that all the crazy drivers would be well on their way. We had a pretty good run, but still hit a few bottle necks on the Hume Highway and then the Pacific Highway was pretty congested but we arrived safe and sound. We had a very relaxing time with them in their magnificent new house, our new holiday home we decided to call it! They have lots of spare rooms and their son Chris and daughter in law Siobhan  were also there so Lachlan enjoyed catching up with them. Had a bit of a drive around the local area, walks on the beach, chilling out on the couch reading or watching Nailed It! Was a relaxing weekend.

We left Monday morning at 10am and managed to get into Sydney and out the other side without too much hassle and then a smooth run home to Canberra where Bill and Amy and managed to survive without Lachlan and I!

Merimbula

Back in March I had to go down to Merimbula to visit Merimbula Branch on Sunday for church. Amy came down with me this time. We had a lovely drive down on the Saturday, we stopped off at the Bega Cheese Factory on the way down and had a look around and got to taste some of the Bega Cheese- hadn't been there for years! We got to Merimbula around 4pm and checked into our motel and went for a lovely walk along the beach. We had dinner that night at a little tapas bar and had  the best calamari ever!

I went for a walk in the morning and got some lovely sunrise photos. Amy slept! I went to church. The owner of the motel kindly let us keep the room till I was finished at church went Amy could just chill out till I was finished.

We headed back to Canberra about 2pm, it was very hot and windy- it was the day the bush fires hit Tathra, which was only about 30 minutes from where we were staying. As we drove home you could see lots of smoke around from fires that were burning, one of which would have eventually been the Tathra fire. By the time we got to the top of Brown Mountain the temperature had gone from 40 degrees to 29 degrees so glad we were heading the direction we were. It was very windy and we could see smoke from a couple of fires in the distance so glad to get home.

Hawk meets Budgie

The week before Easter we acquired another macaw- he was a 4 month old macaw from Brisbane. Amy had contacted the breeder we got Bill's bird from last year to see if she had any male macaws available but she only had females. However she was able to source one for Amy from Brisbane and Hawk flew down ( on a plane in a cage) to join our menagerie  A very excited Amy, accompanied by Bill headed out to the Qantas Cargo Depot to pick Hawk up. He has quickly settled it is a big baby- literally. He is slightly bigger than Budgie and she is nearly a year older than him. He is still growing into his body, like a gangling teenager- is clumsy and finds it a bit uncomfortable when Budgie is right next to him in his personal space. Budgie has been very curious, a bit mean, but as the weeks go by they are getting more and more comfortable with each other. Last night they were up on the stand together for a good hour or so and had little sleeps which means they are getting use to each other.

Last year we had to chop up a fallen tree and I saved this branch and have had it outside weathering for months. Finally I got around to setting it in concrete in a metal bin, then I called on Lachlan to use his tradie skills to fasten the horizontal branch for us. He did a great job, did  a bit of trimming, chopping and screwed in the branch. We were not sure how the birds would take to it, anything different always takes a while, but within a few hours they had all checked it out. The macaws have had great fun chewing through the bark and chewing through the wood- so obviously not issues with this!

I think Beau has finally learnt his lesson and is keeping his distance from Hawk. With the other macaws he would start of being friendly then attack their tails or annoy them, only to find out they were bigger than him and they would drive him off if he was nearby!

 I gave the birds a birthday sign to hold, didn't take them very long to chew it up but at least I got the photo to send!

More Bird Stuff

 I got these cushions from Aldi- Budgie loves them- they recognise pictures of other macaws!

I come home from church and there is Bill asleep on our bed with budgie on his head, he has put Jack up on the bed and let Luna up as well. We have a baby gate on our door to keep the dogs out to avoid dog hair in our room to stop Bill's allergies- you can see it is not very effective. I wonder why?

Amy wants to make sure that Budgie is getting plenty of socialistion now that Ziggy has gone, so she doesn't get too dependent on Bill, so last week we put Budgie on a harness and went down for brunch at the Lanyon Shops. Budgie certainly got plenty of attention and was very friendly with everyone that came up to say hello.

RIP Ziggy our Beautiful Macaw

I have been neglecting my blog for the last 6 weeks or so., it has taken a while for me to be able to put up this post. About a month back, Ziggy had flown onto my back as I was cleaning up, I took a couple of steps out the door before realising Ziggy was on my back, I quickly took some steps back but it was too late, he flew off. Bill was away in the middle east on a work trip, Lachlan and Amy where home so we went out searching, and after about 2 hours spotted him in a tree nearby our house, but it was dark and we couldn't get him to come down. We called the fire brigade, they came around and were reallly helpful but they couldn't get him down either as he was too high up. They put up a ladder and one of the fireman climbed up with Budgie ( Bill's macaw on a harness) on his shoulder to see if that would persuade him to come down but to no avail. Something spooked him and he flew off, there was nothing we could do that night apart from make up posters to put out, posting on Facebook, Lost Pet's Database, emailing friends asking them to keep a lookout.

The next 48 hours were heartbreaking, wondering where he was, if he was safe, if he would come back. Then on the Friday afternoon, I heard a squawk as I went to check the mail and went to investigate and there he was up in a tree across the road. Amy managed to coax him down and we had him home, we were so overjoyed, so happy. Budgie his mate was so excited as well. We had him booked in to get a check up at a bird specialist vet later in the week. Unfortunately after 4 days he appeared to be very tired, so we managed to get him in to the vet practice where he was going to be going on Friday, but with another vet. Bill took him over, they did some tests, gave him some fluids and checked him out. It appeared he had an infection which was treatable, but they were concerned there was some underlying cause so he was started on antibiotics and they felt it was okay to bring him home and bring him back on Friday for a check up. 

He seemed to perk up at home and seemed a little better that night, but overnight he obviously deteriorated and Bill rushed him to the vet the next morning. They worked on him for a while, tried different things but there was nothing they could do for him so Ziggy passed away on on the 28th February. He was only 3 years old and they can live for 70 to 80 years. It was a devastating blow to us all and such a roller coaster ride. We  took comfort from the fact that he came home and we had those last few days with him. If he had died while he was out in the wild we would have never have known what happened to him. We also appreciated the messages of support, phone calls, people dropping around to help look for him, that meant a lot to us. 

We had an autopsy done as we needed to make sure there was nothing contagious that would impact the other birds. The results show that he died of kidney failure, which was highly likely to be

untreatable so there was nothing much we or the vets could have done for him. The vet felt it was highly likely he may have eaten something toxic to him while he was out in the wild. It was good that Budgie  had also seen him very sick as she would have realized that something was wrong.

He is sorely missed, he was a part of the family and was like a toddler on wings, into everything and very curious. It has been a rough ride the last 3 or 4 weeks.

If you cut and paste the link below there is a lovely tribute to Ziggy done by a photographer who had taken some photos of Ziggy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqdypW_oOPY#action=share

Below are some photos of our birds in the last few weeks before we lost Ziggy.

Here is Ziggy with a empty can of sparkling mineral water. He would play with the can then destroy it!

Below are Budgie and Ziggy once he returned home, she was so happy to see him and barely left his side for the next few days.

You can see the look of joy on Amy's face when Ziggy came home, I love this photo of the two of them together.

Ziggy and Amy chilling out together after his adventure

The two partners in crime back together

 A happy pair of birds

Looking very cheeky and mischievous

I love these photos of the two of them together

 I am pretty sure Budgie gave Ziggy a good talking to!

  

We took Ziggy and some chocolate chip cookies around to visit the Firefighters who helped us out. They were just so kind to us and  this officer rang us the day after to see if Ziggy had come back, he was also very concerned for Amy. They were delighted when we brought Ziggy around for a visit.

 Bill brought me back a beautiful silk scarf from Dubai, here is Ziggy checking it out.

Bill had been away in with work when this all happened and then he had to go to Adelaide to sort stuff out for his mum so when he got back the birds where very pleased to see him.

This is when Ziggy must have started to become unwell, as he was having little sleeps, we thought he was just catching up on sleep after his big adventure and visit to the fire station.

The two partners in crime!

Bike Riding in Bright

Bill and I headed down to Bright for the Australia Day weekend, it must be close on 20 years that we have been going down. Originally Bill used to go down and ride and the kids and I would hang around and do stuff in the area, then as they got older both Bill and I would ride, then the kids stopped going down, and then Bill stopped riding and would volunteer and I would ride. We had decided this would be our last Bright trip as there have been changes with the ride and not so many of the group were going down any more. So it is a bit of an end of an era. I have no doubt we will return to Bright to do some riding but maybe at a time that is not the middle of summer when it can be pretty hot. As usual we had a great weekend and enjoyed riding and the company of our friends.

 Here we are at the end of the bitumen at Buckland Valley, we do this the day before, it is a nice flat ride and a good chance to turn over the legs and make sure everything is okay with the bike.

Bill set out with us and then turned around and met us back at the coffee shop- he hasn't been doing much training- his last training ride was a year ago in Bright!

Bright really is  a lovely place and it seems wherever you ride there are lovely views of the mountains.

 This is an early morning picture of the water park at Bright, later in the day it was packed with people - kids and their families having a great time.

 On Saturday the day of the ride I did the 70km ride which was to ride from Bright to Mt Buffalo and back to Bright. In the past I have done the 130km, the 140km ride and once I did the 200km ride where  you rode up Mt Buffalo, Tawonga Gap and Fall's Creek. I decided to take it easy this year and just ride up Mt Buffalo, you ride in the morning before it gets too hot, it takes about 2 hours to climb and leaving at 6:30am you are there before it gets hot. The mountain is lovely in the morning and then it is down hill. I enjoyed riding up until the last 3 km which are a bit steeper and when you are tired from the climb it seems to go on forever!

Bill was up at Fall's Creek the mountain I was not climbing! He had a long and busy day but had plenty of free food up there for him to eat so he was happy! It was another great weekend.