The Frog took a Log on the Bog

Wotcher all!

I'm relaxing in the warm and humid climes of Derby. I've been doing little other than relaxing, reading under the air conditioner and eating, so I can feel myself expanding. I got in to Broome on Saturday to exit the plane to a smouldering humidity which, after the cool climes of the airplane and Perth, made you feel like someone was sitting on your chest. It was also still fairly warm, and remained that way until we completed the drive back to Derby.

On the drive to Derby I was on Brahman watch, just to make sure a stupid yearling didn't decide that it would be a good idea to run out in front of the car at the last second. Thankfully, we didn't see any, but we did see about five King Brown snakes warming themselves on the road. They generally got out of our road, except for one who was not quite so lucky who was sitting right over the middle of the road.

We arrived to a hot house and two excited dogs.

Since then it's been quiet relaxation, with occasional gorging on some delicious meal Clare cooked up and the odd wander around town in Clares little buzzbox. And if you really want to know what I'm eating, heres one we prepared earlier.



This was the pre-Christmas roast, which was scrumptious, and which I'm still eating. Even now as I type. Then for Christmas Clare cooked up a marinated turkey breast, stuffed with roast pine nuts, capers, apricots and spices. That was damn nice as well, and again, I'm still eating it now.

Other than eating I've been kept entertained by reading and playing with the dogs.


The one on the left is Luci (pronounced Loo-chee, short for Luciano), the one on the right is Lucky. They're very cute, and having a human pay them attention is the single most exciting thing that could possibly ever happen to them.


But one cannot stand the other getting attention when they're not. So patting one of the dogs will inevitably end with the other forcing their way in front of the other and pushing them out of the road. Then it's a lickfest for my attention. My knees and elbows have never been licked so much in my life (not through want of trying). After this the dog not getting attention will roll over and start biting the other on the legs, dragging it to the ground. At this point, I've become redundant as the dogs will proceed to wrestle each other for at least the next five minutes.

Other than the dogs, I've been watching the cricket during the day (although I'm going to go for an explore today as Clare is in at work) and being impressed by the wildlife around at night. Just so you know, this is the neighbourhood.



And these are some of the visitors we've had.

Here's one of the many gecko's that sit on the windows and eat the bugs attracted to the lights on inside the house.


Then theres the Shower Frog, that lives in the s-bend of the shower. It comes up through the plughole every time you take a shower in an effort to avoid the water flowing down the drain.


I unfortunately didn't think of taking a photo of the Green Tree Frog that popped up through the lav and curled up on the wall in the corner of the room (edit: We've just had two appear on the back door, so here they are).


It also shat on the cistern, hence the title of this blog. This particularly friendly feller then wandered down the corridor in the middle of the night and ended up climbing into bed with me. Well, under the mattress, as I discovered the next day when I put it away for the day.

Well, Clare is coming home for lunch and I'm going to head off and explore in the afternoon, so I'll sign off for now. Just as a closer, heres a picture of the two of taken on Christmas day.

Water and TOIL

Had a good watery week. I went to a town about 300km south of home to help some local natural resource management officers place observation bores around areas where groundwater is expressing at the surface and killing trees. We're monitoring changes in the water table with the planting of masses of trees. They're mostly pines, unfortunately, but they're the most favoured plantation timber and once established they suck up massive amounts of water and do a good job of stabilising the water table.

The next day I cruised north for another meeting. This time it was with a group of natural resource management officers to target specific areas in combatting salinity. I found out some highly interesting information on areas currently suffering the effects of salinity. Much of it is associated with clay and shale outcrops, which naturally store a lot of water, but do not transmit it easily.

With all the extra water that has been added to the ground since clearing in the 50's, 60's and 70's, the water is starting to come to the surface in these formations. It is not always saline, but as it evaporates off, the salts in it naturally concentrate and bingo! You've got a salinity problem.

After that I did some inspections of water sources and of a cattle feed lot. Fun stuff. I love getting out in the field. And you know the best part? I've clocked up the extra hours that give me three days off over Xmas without having to use any leave!! WOOHOO!

Had a BBQ with a mate who is going to South America for a year. Lucky bastard. I gave him some tips on places to go.

One week to go before the Xmas holidays! Hoo-bloody-ray! Broome and Derby, here I come.

Flog and food

Played a round of nine holes yesterday with eight other guys from the office. We had a damn good time, with Johnno hiring a cart (he's got a dodgy hip) and carrying around an esky- as well as mine and his clubs. It was a pretty dangerous game, as everyone was taking their shots at pretty much the same time, so you had to be aware of the potential to get smacked in the back of the head by a golf ball.

Played my best hole on the par 5 fourth that doglegged to the right. I hit four of the most beautiful shots of the day that went a mile. Unfortunately, they all bounced off trees and ended up about ten metres from where I played my original shot from and I took about ten shots on the hole, but I really struck the ball well.

I also managed the furthest tee shot on a dead straight par 4, thanks to Steve lending me a higher tee and his bloody mammoth one wood (which, unsurprisingly these days, was metal).

As the round went on my game deteriorated. Be it due to me being unfit or through me thinking too much about my shots. Maybe it was due to the six pack of Coopers I polished off by the ninth. But it was a fun day out.

Last nights Xmas dinner was a fun occasion, too. We had presentations, with Johnno scooping the awards for running over a pet duck at a local nursery. The food was darn nice, as I had the potato and leek soup for starters, followed by the lamb shank and mashed potato for entree (and this was seriously delicious- I really have to learn how to cook these) with a porterhouse steak and vegies for main. This one I was a little disappointed in as it was a little chewy and didn't feel like it had been cooked properly. Then I ate about one bite of a sticky date pudding for desert before giving it to another of my workmates to finish off.

Surprisingly, I drank very little and ended up home early as I collapsed in a heap after a busy day. I slept very well last night.


By the way, does anyone know how to subscribe to other peoples blogs, or link yourself to other bloggers? I'd like to be able to get a list of people I know online and see what they're doing, and know when Swamp Boy and Gator Girl, volcboy or whoever else post their next installment on their blog. By the way, volcboy, what is the link to Jacko's blog?

Thanks Mr McMac!!

Resizing the photo makes it work proper like!! Me post photos gooder!

F**k this fiddly motherf***er is pissing me off

I've just spent the last hour attempting to find a decent way to host images that won't disappear over time as they expire from existance on various photo hosting sites.

I attempted to use the bloody program they recommend and it gave me nothing but grief and refused to allow me to log into my own blog. And the stupid thing doesn't even have A PROPER BLOODY INSTRUCTION MANUAL!

FFS! I want to beat on some techno geek. They've done nothing to me and it won't prove a thing, but BY CHRIST IT WILL MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!



Okay, I've had my rant. I'm going to see what I can do about getting photos into the page setup of my blog.

Lets see if this works

Greetings all. Having just gotten back from holidays and seeing that a good number of people I know seem to be taking up this blogging thing, I may as well give it a stab.

Having said that, this will probably sit idle until I go travelling next year.