toy frame

Posted on June 14, 2012 by zefiart

You’ve seen them, right? Those cute chalkboards for kids rooms, made by gluing old/broken toys to an old frame, then spraying it a bright colour?

Well, I decided to make one when I found a bag of plastic toys for $1 in an op shop some weeks ago even though I don’t have kids. It looked like so much fun. I added more toys to the collection from other shops till I had enough to make a large chalkboard.

At the exact same time I was getting ready to do this, an episode of Better Homes and Gardens came on TV and that DIY chick was making the exact same thing. Only she did a ‘classy’ one. She said it was easy – just get the hot glue gun, glue the toys to the frame, give it a couple of light coats of silver spray paint and voila! Done.

Well I did that. I sat down at my coffee table/work table in front of the TV one night and hot glued toys to the plain pine frame. Though, first, I have to mention that the frame I had wasn’t entirely flat so I had to sand and plane it to make it flat. Then I got out my friend and enemy, the hot glue gun.

I let it dry, then took it to the workshop where I set up a spray paint area and started spraying it lime green. Why lime green? It seemed like a cheerful gender neutral colour.

I sprayed it in light coats. I sprayed. And I sprayed. I did a ton of coats from every side and every angle.

I still missed spots where the colour didn’t take cause of the texture of one toy or other, or where the nooks and crannies of a toy refused to let the paint in. But that’s ok. I dont mind it being imperfect. It actually looks nice with a tiny flash of red or yellow here or there.

In between the million coats of spray paint, I took image that came with the frame and painted over it with store bought chalkboard paint. I gave it 2 coats and it looked great.

Then I put the chalkboard into the frame, put screws in and wire to hang it and it was ready.

I put it in my car to take to a local shop to see about selling it.

That’s when the dophin came off.

Quick fix glue job. Touch up of spray paint once the glue was dry.

Back in the car to go to the shop.

There’s a new shop in New Norfolk which sells kids stuff – gifts, books, clothing. New and 2nd hand, handmade and not.

When I went to take it out of the car Bugs had come unstuck.

Damn. It worked fine on TV!

Some superglue (which didn’t work) later, I was talking to the lady in the shop. She loved it. She was excited about the idea of selling it in her shop. Great. I’ll just take it home and glue it again and bring it back next week.

I feel like ripping the toys off and throwing it away to be honest.

But I won’t. I’ll glue it again, using cement this time. See how it likes them apples!

And then I’ll tell the lady in the shop that its to be sold as a decorative piece, NOT a piece for children to actually USE.

How stupid is that?

It’ll work fine as a piece of art on a nursery wall.

So much for following BH&G instructions. Maybe pinterest would have offered more practical suggestions?

tomorrow lampshade

Posted on June 13, 2012 by zefiart

I’ve been buying lamps when I see them in 2nd hand shops lately. When I see one I like the shape of. Sometimes I like the shade, other times the base. Often I get them home and swap shades or paint bases… I think I have too many lamps.

However, when I saw this letter on a lampshade it inspired me to do something with a shade I had removed cause I didn’t like the gold trim. There was a little damage too – two of the metal frame spikes inside had come loose and poked tiny holes on the shade. I glued the spikes back into place and the writing camouflaged the tiny holes.

I used a sharpie to write Garth Brook’s If Tomorrow Never Comes on the shade as its always been one of my favourite songs. Its one of the best love songs ever in my opinion – for anyone at all in your life.

My handwriting leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve never used cursive. In schools in Australia children are taught to ‘print’ not ‘write’. That means that we learn to write single letters. Later we’re taught to join them up, but the Australian way of ‘running writing’ is nothing like American cursive. Its simple, economical in stroke and rather plain compared to the flair of cursive.

When we moved to Greece in 1970 I went to Ursuline (an American Catholic school run by the Ursuline nuns) and had to learn cursive.

Funny huh? My printing wasn’t good enough so I had to sit in the classroom for many lunchtimes learning cursive.

I used it for about 4 years, till I went to the English Campion School for high school where cursive was knocked out of me by one of my teachers. He had me go back to my ‘much neater’ printing.

Thus, in my long winded way, I’m explaining that my cursive is very rusty as it never gets out these days.

And bringing it out to write on a round lampshade was a challenge. Still, if you can look past the wonky handwriting, I think the lamp came up well. I paired it with a plain creamy wooden base. Hopefully no one will look too closely at the actual writing.

Maybe I’ll put it back on its original gold base, but for now it sits on the corner coffee table in the living room.

farm fresh egg sign

Posted on June 12, 2012 by zefiart

Once upon a time I found a small old chopping board. It had a metal handle and was worn and grimy. So, I did what any self respecting DIY/crafter would do. I took it home and gave it a makeover.

First I sanded it to get rid of the stains and make it pretty again.

Then I experimented with transfering images. I tried various methods I found on Pinterest but to be honest, none of them worked very well. For one thing, what on earth is freezer paper? I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in a supermarket in Australia… Freezer bags, yes, but paper? No. And transfer paper? I asked at Spotlight and they had no idea what I was talking about. Wax paper? We’ve been looking for what I remember mom using way back when me and Noah were kids, but I haven’t seen it around for a long time.

I used a sheet of laminating paper, printed out this image and – ooops. Not exactly right.

So, I sanded it again, got rid of the image, then, while I was at it, cut the metal handle off. I drilled two holes into the board to thread through a rope to hang it with.

Then I tried the image transfer again. This time I added in some type to make it a proper sign. You can see the transfer wasn’t perfect.

I touched it up with a sharpie and it came up great. I gave it a couple of coats of water based satin varnish, then gave it a little sand to finish it off.

I used a vinegar/steel wool solution to age the wood a bit (another Pinterest tip).

Not bad. I kinda liked it.

Then, while photographing I had a sudden inspiration. Those burlap flowers I made last week! I think they add that certain je ne sais quoi, don’t you?

I’m pretty pleased with it!

So what do you think? Keep? Sell locally or esty shop?

DIY – remodelling the dining room

Posted on June 11, 2012 by zefiart

Remember the unfinished dado rail from the living room make-over? Well, the dining room was also painted white (I think the original owners of the house bought it in bulk and used it on everything), with a blue dado rail running around the entire room. And only one tiny corner done in pine panelling.

This is what the dining room looked like when I first saw the house. The grey painted brick on the fire place. The blue dado rail and the white walls.

I apologise for the sizes of the images. I no longer have the original files in some cases and they’re all different sizes.

And the mess.

The other side of the fireplace in what is now the purple room – The walls were sponged blue over white. Not a good job. There was a carpet in this bedroom when I first moved in. My first job was to remove the carpet, sand the floorboards and varnish them.

It looked a bit better once I cleaned up, but not much. The dog pen side was to keep the dogs off the floor in the bedroom till it dried.

The fireplace surround was nice timber, but they’d painted the original old bricks a gloss grey. The pantry cupboard was lacquered pine like the entire kitchen.

Having moved in, I started to make the space work for me… Furnishing with dog crates!

When I started the remodelling in the dining room the pine lining was the first thing to go in, tying the room in with the living room just past the kitchen. The colour I chose in this room was Dulux Vast Escape – I can’t take credit for choosing this colour. It was chosen by Greg, my partner at the time. I looked at it and was not sure at all, but I trusted his tastes in colour. And I love the colour now. In fact I’m wondering how it would look in my current kitchen…

Below is Greg putting in the pine lining for me. I have to admit, his faults aside, Greg really can do things when he put his mind to it. He is a very talented man.

Back to the dining room make-over. The wood panelling was put up in the living room and dining room at the same time. It made sense.

Similar to the living room, the walls above and the panelling below were both painted the same colour and the dado and all woodwork was painted Antique White USA.

I stripped the grey paint off the bricks using paint stripper and exposed the original bricks and some of the old cream colour used to paint them in the past. It looks a bit messy in the photos but I love the texture of those old bricks.

The built in wood heater in this room works beautifully and is positioned in a way that serves to heat the entire house. I’ve just replaced the old one with a refurbished 2^nd hand one and now its in better shape than ever.

The fireplace was painted Columbia to match the far wall in the living room to tie the rooms together further.

I painted the pantry and the built-in bookcase the same colour as the walls for a more uniform feeling in the room.

The floorboards in the dining room and kitchen were all in pretty good condition, they could do with a sand and polish but to be honest, I like the warn, less perfect look.

I always have a rug in the dining room for warmth and with the fire going in winter.

So here it is now. New curtains, re-arranged furniture, my 60s kitchen table and chairs and you have to admit, it looks spectacular.

corrosion

Posted on June 11, 2012 by zefiart

The hakea is flowering! When I planted it I was told it wouldn’t grow in Fentonbury cause of the cold.

Or, if it did grow, it surely wouldn’t flower. Spectacular isn’t it?

Its been a really busy week even though we’ve had a week from work. I can’t explain it. Its just been flat out. I seem to have been out for one thing or another almost every single day, grooming dogs which were either pre-booked or spur of the moment bookings. Looking after animals and Wayne and the house of course.

Somehow, through all that, I managed to do a bit of my own creative stuff so I have a few small projects to share over the next few days when I get a chance to photograph them.

This is where I ask your opinion, oh my few friends and readers, what should I do with the stuff I’m making? Should I sell it on etsy.com or should I try to sell it locally through a shop in town?

Or keep it?

Ok, keeping everything is out of the question. There’s only so much room in our home and I’m actually thinking of what I can get rid of to streamline our lives somewhat.

Some stuff I am tempted to keep and some of it I’m sure I’ll end up keeping cause I won’t be able to part with it. However, a lot of the items I’ve been working on were made with selling in mind. When I make something for a specific purpose for our home, that’s when I’ll keep it.

Or at least that’s the plan.

I’ve been collecting stuff from tip shops and wherever for a while now with the plan to use them to create stuff for our home and to sell. Some of the bits and pieces I’ve collected will be hard for me to part with, but part with them I must.

I already have an etsy shop which I plan to update and revamp – not a big deal given I’ve never really used it!

Anyway, your thoughts on this serious matter are welcome at any time as I share the various projects…

Meanwhile, I just thought I’d give you a quick update at how things are at Wind Dancer Farm.

Wayne is better. Well, he was better till last night. I think he was so much better compared to how he had been that he overdid it and is now back to being really sore.

The antibiotics for his chest seem to have done a great job and he feels a lot better for them. Here’s to avoiding pneumonia! However he’s back to not being comfortable in any position and pacing. sigh.

The dogs are all well and happy though Mischa and Barney were not too pleased I cornered them and gave them a bath the other day. I also gave Montana and Romeo a much needed clip and wash so right now all the canines in the family are soft and sweet smelling. (Not that the poodles ever smell bad!)

Yesterday morning we did something we rarely do any more. Used to be (back when Wayne was trying to win me over) we’d lie in bed with the dogs in the morning and just ‘be’. I love that time. Since we moved in together and the bank has tied us together, Wayne has felt secure enough to banish the poodles from the bedroom.

Hmph.

Interesting… notice how the poodles are on MY side of the bed?

But yesterday morning while he was bringing coffee in bed I let Montana and Romeo in and they joined us on the bed. I can’t even begin to express how much I love having them on the bed with us. Cosy. Warm. Secure. Its like everything I love is right there with me.

We’ve also been social this last week. I picked Merrill up from the airport and we had a lovely lunch at a swish restaurant in Salamanca. I visited Ginny and Richard and the lovely Harvey and got to meet his new girlfriend, Tess the kelpie. We were invited to a BBQ at a friend’s house down the road and I scored a leather cowboy hat out of that. 🙂 Chris came up to visit and has been staying over the last few days. Yesterday I made gluhwein (Ginny and Richard were doing Christmas in June, so why not join in?) and Merrill came over and we ate cheese and crackers and watched dvds and laughed loads.

In fact, maybe that’s why Wayne is sore again. Too much laughing over the last few days.

Chris has a new nickname for Wayne. Over the years Chris has had a growing list of names for Wayne, but this time I think he hit on one that even Wayne had to admit was a gem.

Corrosion.

And its not cause Wayne loves metal and rusty objects…

Its cause he’s like corrosion: he slowly eats through everything.

ROFLOL!!!

You gotta admit, as far as nicknames go, this one’s a keeper!

burn baby burn

Posted on June 7, 2012 by zefiart

Fire does not seem to be our friend lately. Sure, it keeps us warm, and we need it. But we sure don’t need flames in the kitchen.

Yesterday Wayne was feeling better so he cooked dinner. We were having chicken schnitzel with dutch mashed potato (bacon and sauerkraut). What we had instead was the mash with schnitzel a la charred paper towel.

I was sitting in the office when I heard a plate break and heard Wayne swear. I did not get up straight away. I finished what I was doing first. That was my first mistake.

You have to understand – Wayne will swear at the top of his lungs over the smallest thing: he dropped a fork, he tipped over a cup of coffee, he hit the space bar on the keyboard when he meant to hit enter… When we first moved in together I’d run every time I heard him yell out cause I was sure he’d amputated a leg or decapitated one of the dogs.

Eventually I began to just roll my eyes and call out ‘Are you ok?’ thinking that if he was actually lying in a pool of his own blood he’d somehow manage to ask for help.

Thus yesterday when I heard the plate break and the expletives, I thought ‘just another day in the life’ and stayed seated.

I was actually saying ‘You really are trying to give me a heartatta-‘ as I walked into the kitchen. There he was, flames leaping up towards the ceiling, Wayne dancing around with tongs in his hand trying to pick up pieces of burning paper towel, trying to rescue the schnitzel.

Seems Wayne thought that putting a dinner plate on the stove and turning on the hotplate would keep the cooked schnitzels warm as he fried the others.

Seems the plate had other ideas – exploding into shards (which were so hot some of them stuck to the vinyl floor) and igniting the oil soaked paper towel.

Well.. alls well that ends well. No injuries and the schnitzels were ‘mostly’ still edible. The dogs didn’t mind the charred paper taste.

The frying pan has since been re-cycled into a chickenfood bowl.

Then, the other night I was doing some craft work, trying my hand at making burlap flowers. For those who dont know, that involves using a hot glue gun.

I love my hot glue gun. But the other night it sure didn’t love me.

First I cut a strip of burlap about 2-3 inches wide. Then I folded, twisted and glued as I worked my way round to form a flower. I used a circle of felt at the bottom to hold it all together and I glued part of that to my finger, giving myself 3rd degree burns in the process.

I got a full night’s worth of self pity out of that one.

The flowers turned out nice. They are waiting for the right project to make themselves useful. Not sure I want to make any more though! Not without flame retardent gloves.

DIY – rennovating the living room

Posted on June 6, 2012 by zefiart

Another walk down memory lane. Lets re-visit my house in Fentonbury how it was when I first bought it.

So, you may remember this is how it looks right on my real estate listing as I wait for someone to decide its their dream home:

And this what what it looked like when I saw the original listing. Gotta give it to the owner and agent for staging huh?

And here it is after I moved in.

It was painted white with dark blue and egg yolk yellow trims. Tasteful.

There was a wood heater in the middle of the living room far wall which, I discovered, wouldn’t burn all night and didn’t do much to heat more than just that room.

When I bought the house I came down and stayed for a week just to get a few things organised. It was August and thus freezing cold. I brought down an air mattress and slept in front of the heater, waking up every couple of hours to put more wood on the fire.

Of course, a city like me had no idea about damping down back then… however, the wood heater still refused to burn all night even after I figure it out. It had a tiny firebox so would only fit smaller pieces of wood.

On the area between the bathroom and kitchen there was a laminate built-in wall unit. I used this to dispay items and books. I didn’t do much to the room for a while, just lived in it as it was more or less. At the time most of my furniture etc was 50s as it had come from my 50s style house in Melbourne.

The living room was a newer extension to the house. There was a step up from the kitchen (and a step down again to the bathroom, weird), the ceiling was a bit lower and the window was aluminium (compared to the sash windows in the old part of the house).

First thing I did when I started renovating, was to get pine lining onto the walls and a dado rail. I love that look. The idea was to tie this newer part of the house with the older part. At that stage the dining room had an unfinished dado rail – no lining below it. Once I had both rooms lined with timber below a dado rail the whole area would flow. Seeing at its open plan, that made sense.

The colours I chose were dark brown (Dulux Columbia) for the feature wall behind the wood heater, and a creamy mocha colour for the rest of the walls. Sorry, I can’t remember that colour at the moment. All the trims were painted Dulux Antique White USA.

The room looked warmer and more inviting straight away. The white trims were so much nicer than the egg yolk yellow!

Of course, the carpet was a problem. It had been 2^nd hand when it was put in, I was told, and a year of muddy paws running in and out did it no favours. I was itching to get rid of it. However, the floor underneath was not floorboards like the rest of the house. It was chipboard flooring. I had to find a covering which would allow for easy cleaning, be hardy, and look good.

And while I was at it, replacing the flooring, I decided it was time to get rid of the woodheater. The woodheater in the dining room was much better placed to heat the house and more efficient. I liked the layout of the living room much better without the wood heater in the middle of the far wall.

I dislike laminate flooring. I’ve seen it not wear well in others’ homes. I couldn’t afford to replace the floor with timber, so I settled on vinyl. I bought a good quality, non-slip, industrial strength vinyl by Gerfloor. Its taupe in colour and small flecks/flowers scattered through it.

I didn’t want to put vinyl floors that pretended to be something they weren’t. The idea of timber-look alike floors next to real worn floors in the kitchen and dining rooms would have been tacky. And no way was I doing the tile/stone thing either. I wanted something warmer than that. And this vinyl is just that. Warm and easy to keep clean and pretty to look at.

Sure, ideally I’d have liked to be able to afford real timber floors, but this was so much more practical with standard poodles jumping about on it.

An area rug for warmth in winter and a seagrass rug in summer finishes off the room nicely, don’t you think?

Note:

This post has been added to a link party at The Thrifty Decor Chic. Why not visit and see other living room makeovers.

get well soon wayne

Posted on June 5, 2012 by zefiart

Sometimes our clients are so sweet. This is a get well card one of them made for Wayne last week. She was very concerned when he wasn’t at work. Love the ‘sore’ spots all over him.

I gotta tell you, this having to do it all on my own really sucks. Luckily we have the week off or I think I’d be going crazy.

In the morning I have to stoke the fire, feed the horses, remove rugs if its going to be warm enough or sunny. Feed the chickens and ducks (in 4 separate areas since we’ve had to segregate), collect eggs. Then cook breakfast. Then groom dogs if there are any to groom that day, do any washing or tidying that needs doing. Run errands that need doing… I have to bring up more firewood for the day and keep an eye on the fire to make sure it doesn’t go out. I have dishes to wash, including the 5 cups Wayne used to have coffee during the day). I have to cook dinner, feed the dogs, feed the horses, lock up the free range chickens, rug horses if they’ve been unrugged. Then in my spare time I catch up with emails and might get time to work on some of my projects.

As I said, this having to do it all on my own sucks.

Yesterday I went to get chaff on my own. Have you any idea how heavy those big bags are? I had to lever and grunt them up into the ute, almost broke my back doing it. I think I dislocated a thumb as well… Luckily for me my timing was great – I arrived home at the same time as Phil (he’s been chopping wood up the back of our property) was leaving so I did the helpless female act and got him to move the bags into the horse feed room for me.

I had to buy hay and horse pellets. I used my brain instead of my muscles for that one – I called a friend and asked him to deliver it for us. I dread having to buy another bucket of molasses…

I tried to chop wood for the fire yesterday. I selected a nice piece with a big crack in the middle. All it needed was a well-aimed wack and it would split in two like a watermelon.

I hit that sucker 5 times, in a different spot each time!

The last time I hit it I wedged the axe. Unbelievable.

I’ve been shown how to chop wood. At least how to split wood that’s already got some kind of weak spots. But I’ve always used a block buster and for the most part I managed. Wayne somehow ‘misplaced’ my block buster however so I had to use the axe.

Never again.

I can’t wait for Wayne to get better.

DIY – rennovating the bathroom

Posted on June 3, 2012 by zefiart

I’ve done my share of rennovating. My first house, in Melbourne, was a 1950’s style home with a beautiful deco staircase in front. It needed a ton of work when I bought it – I lived in a construction site for 2 years, only finishing it to sell it. Ain’t that the way?

When I moved to Tasmania I wanted a house I could move into which didn’t need any major work. Not structural work. In Melbourne I had to remove walls and move doors. In Fentonbury I only needed to revamp the kitchen with paint, enclose the back porch for grooming, paint everything… and put in a new bathroom.

I thought I’d share the adventure just ’cause I can.

Warning: the following photos may offend people with delicate sensibilities.

This is what the bathroom looked like when I bought the house. Yet I still bought it.

Am I the only person in the world that can look beyond something like this? Our current bathroom is just as bad. And my first house in Melbourne, well… that was worse than both put together.

There was a small clawfoot tub which I actually really liked. And a cupboard bolted to the floor and wall which acted as storage and a room divider (privacy for the toilet). That had lovely oak doors but was a boring melamine cupboard. And it really took up a lot of space in the small bathroom. The only reason you could get past was that the clawfoot tub was very small.

What about the colour, huh? White walls, ok, blue and white vinyl on the floor, ok, egg yolk yellow trims….

Notice anything? Taps in the middle of the tub… and no shower! Obviously the family of 7 who ‘rennovated’ this house shared the bathwater… eeech. No thanks. I prefer my water running fresh and clean.

The clawfoot tub was gorgeous. It was a small thing, not that practical but oh so cute. I’d love to have kept it, but it was so ridiculous. It was a round type, with the nice lip around it, not squared off like our current one (yes, I have another clawfoot tub). I even loved the pink. But years of filling the tub with water and sitting in it, water splashing behind and under it had rotted the floor/wall. It was only a matter of time till I got in to shower and landed on the dirt below the house.

I needed a new floor.

Interesting wall treatment. In theory. I mean, I used mini-orb to redo the bathroom walls (that’s mini corregated iron in zinc finish). They used sheets of colourbond and they alternated them right way (blue), wrong way (grey) for artistic effect.

Hm.

I hated the vanity unit, and I really hated the taps. Since I had to live with what I had for a while I put up a circular curtain rail and a curtain, got myself a handheld shower thingy with a wall attachment and spent the next few months showering while trying to uncling a cold curtain from my body. I also painted the vanity, changed the knobs to make it more acceptable.

Below are photos of the rennovation started. When the colourbond came off we found holes in the wall. Of course.

I got a friend, ex plumber, to do the bathroom rennovation for me in return for helping him with his show dog. A bit of contra is a good thing when you don’t have much money.

I bought a new bathtub, one that could be built in. Alan put in a new floor for me and moved the plumbing so I could have a shower over the end of the tub.

Having lived through this in Melbourne I was used to living around construction.There’s another advantage to this for a dog breeder: all my pups were well socialized to power tools.

Eventually the bathtub was in place, a large angle rod went up for the curtain and I could finally shower without peeling cold wet curtain off my butt.

I had this great curtain I’d bought at IKEA I was hanging out to use too.

I tried putting in the old cupboard but it didn’t fit. The new tub was much longer and wider than the clawfoot and the space between the cupboard and bathtub was too tight. I replaced it with an old shed door – this formed a simple visual barrier so you couldn’t see the toilet when you opened the door. It also served to hold towel rods.

Since I have dark hair and shed like a collie, I opted for dark vinyl on the floor. Nothing worse than long dark hair on light floors.

The bathroom had originally had a sliding door which I hated. I removed it and replaced it with a 2nd hand shed door. (Have you noticed I love shed doors?) I didnt paint the bathroom side of the door for a long time cause it matched the weathered room divider door.

You may notice I also clad certain areas around the tub and the walls below the mini orb with old fence palings. Going with that rustic look.

Oh yeah, and if you noticed I painted it lime green.

I have no idea why I did that but it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was bright…

Here’s the door from the outside, painting started on the door frame.

Eventually I painted the door Antique White USA on both sides, same colour as all the woodwork.

I got sick of the lime green and repainted the walls a gorgeous soft blue colour. I had a friend put panelling on the walls and the bath surround, eliminating the rustic look. I moved a tall narrow bookcase I had into the bathroom, panelled the back of it to match the walls, then painted it blue and white. It became the privacy divider plus great storage for towels and other bits and pieces.

I bought a new shower curtain which was perfect for the new colours and painted my old cane laundry basket white. All that needs now is lining made from blue and white ticking. Lovely.

Big difference huh? From this:

to this:

Much better huh?

It’s a room which actually feels welcoming now, fresh and clean and spacious. And it didn’t cost the earth either. I bartered for some of the work, used what I had where I could, and did as much of the work as I could myself.

Now on to the horrific room that passes as a bathroom here… that will take time.

road rage and roadkill

Posted on June 2, 2012 by zefiart

Did I mention that we’ve had a few fatalities lately?

Life on a farm is bound to bring you closer to the facts of life – birth and death for instance. But death is never something pleasant when you walk up on it.

We got home from shopping in town a couple of weeks ago, with a visitor in tow, only to find a horrible sight. Romeo was carrying something in his mouth.

A duck head.

I soon saw the decapitated body of a duck, one of our young drakes, in the middle of the driveway.

Wonderful.

Montana was so proud. She pointed at it with a look which clearly said ‘Look Mom! Look what we did!’

Sometimes having a man around comes in really handy. Burying small corpses for instance.

Then, not long after that on the same weekend, we walked across one of the paddocks to check the ford and stream and I found six dead wallablies. Not one or two, but SIX. Spread through the two side paddocks.

Wayne had called me over to show me a wallaby hiding in a pile of rubbish to be burned earlier that morning and told me Barney had had it down by the neck before he knew what was happening and called him off.

That’s it, I said, Barney is no longer allowed out into the paddocks in the early morning or late afternoon when its dark when we go out to feed the horses. I figured he’d been cutting a wide swathe through the wallaby population during his explorations of the paddocks.

I was not impressed.

Neither was Wayne when I made him collect all the little corpses and pile them up for burial.

Thing is… there was a wallaby we’d seen in the tiny paddock out the front of the casita during that week. (We really need to name our paddocks, I think.)

This little fellow seemed not to be too afraid, he moved off only when you got too close. I wondered about him but wasn’t concerned. I just made sure Barney didn’t get into the paddock.

One day about a week later I went out to feed the horses at dusk and didn’t see the wallaby. So I went looking. He was curled up in a little nest of grass in the far corner. He was just lying here. He made no attempt to get away, just hissed at me.

I could see skin and bones clearly from where I stood. I touched him. He was wasting away. I picked him up and went over to Wayne. When I put the poor little thing down it stood, wobbled and fell over and just lay there, hissing.

It was heartbreaking. I swear, if I’d had a gun I would have shot it myself. I couldn’t bare to think of it lying in the cold that night, dying slowly.

Again, being a man sucks. Wayne had to do the job.

Times like this I’m glad I can hide behind being a ‘girl’. At risk of setting the entire women’s lib movement back 60 years, I’m glad to be a helpless female at times like this.

I had to rethink Barney’s guilt. Maybe the wallabies are dying of something other than dog jaws around the throat. Sure, Barney may have helped some of them to the green pastures in the sky, but I think they were dying of something else already…

Could someone be poisoning wallabies?

When I arrived in Fentonbury, I found another dead wallaby. This one did not die of any disease. It had been hit by a car. I have no idea how it managed to make its way so far up the driveway to the garage, but it had… despite the fact that one of its back legs was broken in half, bone sticking out, paw curled up and facing the wrong way… That poor thing tried so hard to live.

I just hate it when things die.

I know its a fact of life. I just hate seeing so much dead wildlife everywhere. Tasmanian roads are full of it. I suppose every country area is like that. We have countless roadkill on our own road – wallabies mostly, native hens, even a quoll this week.

Unfortunately, I’ve been responsible for a few dead animals on the roads over the years. I hate it, and I drive so slowly at night I’m afraid that one day I may end up roadkill myself due to some road rage incident. Or cause I braked to avoid hitting something and ended up on my roof in a ditch.

My mantra when I drive at night now is ‘drive slowly and don’t slam the brakes’. I’ve had a few close calls.

But its like my car attracts animals. Before moving to Tasmania I’d run over a possum in Melbourne. It just ran onto the road and under my car before I could react. It ran right under my tyre.

Since moving to Tasmania I can take the blame for 1 possum, 1 rooster and 2 rabbits. I’m also responsible for 1 wallaby with a (hopefully just) sore tail, 1 with a sore butt and a quoll with a bad headache. These 3 actually kept going so I hope they made it.

I drive slowly and I brake for animals. I think you can get stickers that say that. Might keep the rednecks off my tail as I crawl along in the dark. I’m considerate, though, I pull over and let them pass when I can.

Tasmania really is the roadkill state. On the other hand, I guess we’re lucky. Not like in the USA where deer, moose and bears might be found crossing roads at night. Hit those and you’re bound to be as dead as they are. Or your car will be. So people might have a bit more care and respect for them. Here, except for wombats which can launch a semi-trailer into the air on impact, most of our animals are small and don’t damage cars or kill you unless you swerve to miss them… something not many people seem to do.

Anyway, here are a couple of gorgeous wire flowers Wayne made me as he sits, bored, resting. Cute aren’t they?