Pumping all night

Underneath our bedroom live two Onga waterpumps, similar to this one. One pumps water from our rainwater tank to the house and the other pumps water from another tank filled with bore water for our gardens. We've had pump problems since moving in: we've replaced one and replaced the air tank twice on another. It costs us $80.00 each time the pump man drives his white ute up to our place from Lismore. It's not an inexpensive business having two pumps.

Last night the water pump that is connected to the bore tank came on relentlessly every 30 seconds. I know because I timed the intervals. Every 30 seconds for about 20 seconds of pump noise. All through the night. Until, at 5.00am, when Steve asked me (yes we were both awake) 'Are you sure you don't have any taps on?'. 'Freaking hell' I thought, 'I hadn't turned the hose off since yesterday morning at 6.30 when I gave fresh water to the chooks. I dashed out of bed and turned the hose off. No more pump noise.

Wallaby Country

The first time I visited our property with the real estate agent one of these fellas hopped slowly away as we pulled up in the car. That wallaby was one of the reasons I wanted to buy this place. Our property is visited by a mob of red necked wallabies on a daily basis. There is usually anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen grazing on our lawns and when we drive off in the morning we can sometimes see another dozen or so along the road to the end of our property. There's a couple of big, muscly bucks like this fella, some females with joeys in puch and at heel. yesterday afternoon I walked the 500 metres or so down to our letterbox and this guy let me get to within 2 metres of him before he ambled off.
Unfortunately they aren't very road savvy and we often see dead wallabies on the road through Rock Valley on our way to work.

Our first egg!

Well after 5 weeks since they arrived at Maryville, one of The Girls, (our 8 chooks) finally came up with the goods and laid an egg. I suspect it might have been Martina, as she seemed to be even more confident than usual. Anyway, I gace them all some greens, including a bok choy plant that had gone to seed and said how wonderful they all were. No eggs this morning, however, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Speaking of eggs, one of my Pygmy Mulga Goannas again had difficulty laying her eggs (she had the same problem last year), so off she went to the vet's for another caesarian, poor girl. The vet extracted 6 eggs from her and she had already laid one, so she was certainly chokers. 5 of the eggs looked OK so they are in the incubator along with another 4 from a previous clutch. The patient appears to be doing well and is due for her last antibiotic injection this afternoon.