Chickens strike back

We always feel a little guilty that we keep our chickens caged in a back corner of the yard, while ourselves, the dog and the magpies are free to roam. At least Nat feels guilty, while I'm a bit ambivalent. Anyway, this week the chickens got their revenge and it all fell on Ella's shoulders.

It was Wednesday evening, and we had just finished an early dinner because Annwen, Ashley and Nathan, as well as Annwen's mum Jan, were leaving at 6pm to catch the flight home to Perth. Gareth, Kelly and Jessica were also over, and we were relaxing in the garden as the kids, who had spent a fantastic week playing together, ran around. Ella and Ashley decided to have one last look for chicken eggs when disaster struck.

Our chicken house is a somewhat ingenious invention -- nothing to do with our ingenuity as it came with the chickens. The chickens creep in from their side to lay eggs or go to sleep, while we can lift the lid to access the eggs without needing go into the coop. The lid, however, is both heavy and covered with sharp corrugated iron. An accident waiting to happen with 4-5 year olds, and it did. The two girls lifted the lid as a team, and seemed to think that the other would hold it aloft. They let it go simultaneously, and it came falling down, slashing both of Ella's thumbs and one of Ashley's. Luckily, Ashley's wasn't too bad, but Ella's was bleeding profusely. We had no option but to flee to the hospital (Nat sitting in the back trying to staunch blood flow, Katy with us so that she didn't get taken to Perth by mistake) and leave Annwen and Co to clean up our dinner before they caught their flight.

The wound turned out to be less serious than it might have been. It needed a pretty hefty bandage and will be re-dressed several times over the next week, but hopefully no permanent damage. We were back home within an hour or so, but not in time to say goodbye to our visitors...

Fairies Visit Aston Cres

Ashley and Ella have been doing lots of crafty stuff including making a fairy house. They put it outside hoping the fairies would visit and Ashley had written clearly on the top of the house 'onle feris alawd' (translation only fairies allowed).

So after a few days of the girls waking up and sprinting out of the house to check if the fairies had visited, Annwen and I decided to leave a note with a treasure hunt. The first picture was of the fridge and Ashley's reaction was 'the fairies have left the chocolate in the fridge!' With a little bit of guidance, they discovered the second picture on the fridge and they were off. Eventually finding the freddo frogs in the toybox which was very exciting.

The next day Ashley who is a little more clued up, wrote another note - dear feris pes can you leave to lole bags (translation dear fairies please can you leave two lolly bags)! How cheeky!!

Tidbinbilla

The great things about having visitors is going to the Canberra sights, so last Thursday we went off to Tidbinbilla, a nature reserve about 40mins south of canberra. We met up with Annwen's brother Gareth, his wife Kelly, their 16 months old daughter Jessica and Annwen's mum Jan for a bbq lunch.

While the sausages were cooking, the kids were exploring the adventure playground.

Our post lunch activities included visiting the resident koala, Mo, walking around the koala enclosure trying to spot the other 3 koalas and jumping around with the kangaroos at the Flints. A really enjoyable afternoon and an area that I'll definitely visit again soon.

The gang Katy, Kelly, Ashley, Ella, Nathan, Annwen and Jessica

Visitors

Our good friend Annwen and her two children Ashley and Nathan came over from Perth to stay with us for 9 days. It has been fun having them around.

We've made and played with goop together...

We went orienteering together...

And of course played together!

Caterpillar Alert

With Andy at home this week coinciding with me working at the same site for two consecutive days, I was able to run to work minus a backpack full of work clothes! It was bliss and a beautiful morning with loads of wanderer butterflies flitting about. I was enjoying the moment when I literally was stopped in my tracks by this humongous caterpillar. After taking a photo, I continued on with my run contemplating it's size and if it was in fact a caterpillar? If so how big would the butterfly be???

Luckily the internet has the answer...

White-stemmed Gum Moth

The White-stemmed Gum Moth is one of the largest common moths found in Sydney. With females reaching a size of 16 cm, they have sometimes been mistaken for bats.

Alternative Name/s

Prickly Gum Moth

Identification

The wings of the female White-stemmed Gum Moth are attractively patterned with soft grays and browns. The male is slightly smaller and is darker, with more strongly contrasted markings. Both sexes are active at night. They sometimes fly to lights where the large females have been compared to bats as they move around the light source. As in many moth species, the males have large bipinnate (feathery) antennae, while the females have narrow, simple antennae.

The large, thick caterpillars are grey-black with yellow bands and are covered with tufts of reddish-brown spiky bristles. The bristles can penetrate human skin and cause painful skin irritations, even after the larvae have been preserved in alcohol.

Size range

Adults: 16 cm wingspan; larvae: 12 cm length

Life cycle

The White-stemmed Gum Moth has an annual life cycle. The pupal stage lasts over late summer and most of autumn before the adult moths emerge in May.

The females lay eggs that hatch into small caterpillars. The caterpillars feed on eucalypt leaves and grow throughout the rest of the year until they reach their maximum size before pupation.

In summer, when the caterpillars are fully grown and are ready to pupate, they spin cocoons. As the caterpillar changes into a pupa, the bristles from its skin are pushed through the walls of the cocoon from the inside. The projecting bristles protect the pupa inside the cocoon in the same way that they protect the caterpillar. Pupation usually takes place under the loose bark of trees.

Adults are short-lived (two to three days) and mate soon after emerging. They do not feed because none of the anthelids have functional mouthparts as adults.

Boogles Goes Boogieboarding

The little beach was a perfect place for our family catering for all our needs. There were shells on the beach to fossick through, shade to retreat to providing relief from the sun, and most importantly, the waves were small enough for Katy not to be scared and big enough for Ella to try out her new boogie board.

Andy taught Ella about the waves helping her to gain confidence in the water. It wasn't long before she was riding the waves into the shore. Ella looked so happy in the surf!

Christmas Afternoon

What is there to do post christmas lunch? Pre kids routine would have been something like lie on the couch/nap, check out presents, read a book... However relaxation is not a term most young children are familiar with so for our household, we took the opportunity to test out Makhaya and Luca's christmas present - a slip n slide! The steep grassy backyard proved to be the perfect place.

Santa Comes to Malua Bay

Even though we weren't at home, Santa and his reindeers did manage to find us at 4 Nerang Place, Malua Bay! As per tradition, we used a piece of the local flora for our christmas tree.

As Christmas morning dawned, the cousins found their santa sacks on the end of their beds. Ella was up quickly (6am) and quietly (hence there are no photos of her) discovered the contents of her santa sack - a rope ladder (just as she had asked Santa for), craft, books, dress...off she went to show the rest of the gang. Usually the first to wake, Katy slept in until 6.30am and then had to be helped to look through her sack which contained a princess castle tent, jigsaw, sticker books, dress....

Next on the agenda was a quick jog for most of the adults concluding with a dip in the ocean. Nice! On returning home it was decided to take the children down to the little beach prior to main present opening session which also allowed lunch preparations to begin.

The little beach was located on the southside of the headland which out house was positioned. Katy warmed up to this beach with the small waves. Soon she was swimming and jumping around in the water.

Then down to some serious business...opening presents! The cousins had all been so patient!!

Once all the excitement had worn off, it was time to sit down and enjoy xmas lunch - roast lamb, duck, chicken with an assortment of vegies. It was just a pity that the sea breeze had come in cooling off our roast lunch a little too quickly.

Seachange

This year for christmas, the Hogg Clan ventured to the coast, more specifically Malua Bay. Located 10mins south of Batemans Bay, we (9 adults and 6 kids) rented a house for a week arriving on christmas eve. The house itself was certainly not luxurious as advertised on the web but had ample room for everyone.

After a dream drive down without much traffic and unpacking of the car, we were off to the check out the main Malua Beach - about 500m away down a very steep hill. Ella was back in her element loving the waves, Katy on the otherhand was slightly disturbed by the noise of the waves breaking and spent most of her time playing in the sand.