Quail!!

                                                                                                                                                   






My dad decided he didn't want his aviary anymore and offered it to us for our chook/duck coop, which was awesome as it saves us a lot of work.   We were delighted with it, it is a perfect size for us. The only residents left in the aviary were three male quail, so we were excited to pick those up as well.

We had spent the week brainstorming plans so when Saturday finally arrived, we got out of bed early, drove into town to pick up a ute.  The ute was slow and quite bouncy, slowly we drove to my dads house. Dad had already caught the quick little guys, then with a little help from all hands on deck we made short work of moving it up hill and getting it onto the back of the ute.  We stayed for a wonderful morning tea of home made banana cake, then loaded up the little quail and carefully drove home.

We drove straight home, fed our new pets, decided it was time to look for a suitable site for the aviary .  We picked a spot along the fence, which is the highest point on the block (good for water drainage) decided which was the shady bit and went about working out how only two of us would get it off the ute, when it had taken four of us to get it on......!

Eventually we managed to shuffle it off the ute, close to the place we wanted it to be.  A quick trip to the hardware for some wood, and we got to the hard work building a base for it to sit on.

B did a brilliant quick job knocking a frame together which we then filled up with sand leftover from the building of the firepit.  A quick paving job, using up some excess pavers we had laying around, finished off the floor.  A pit of sweating, shuffling, and ingenuity later we managed to manoeuvre it onto the base.  It is far too heavy for me to lift, so we put some wood under it and slid it on the grass until it lined up, lifted one corner pushed it onto the base, then the next corner and so on, shuffling it around until it lined up perfectly.  Few quick screws drilled down into the base along then edges and it was finished.

 The are so very small and make the cutest little sounds, although they are male we are happy to have them.  We will get some girls in the future but for now these guys can enjoy their mansion on their own.  We tried to name them, however it is quite difficult to tell them apart, so they share a name, hehe, we decided to call them all Mack.  I love them it is difficult to tear away from them to attend to the other chores for the weekend!  I am glad we have managed to build the hardest part of our coop, although we did sweat a bit it was easier than what we were planning to build.  Thank you dad.  Now all that we have left to build is the caged in run, and I can get some ducks! I am very excited, although it will take us a few weeks to save some more money and get some people around to help us out.
Thank god for friends and family........

              After the quail were comfy we turned to other gardening chores, and I

 knew I had to get a picture of this beautiful flower which just opened.  Last year year mum and I went to a gardening expo and I bought a plant I thought was most unusual! It is call a Bat Plant, they had a white and purple variety, we were told they were difficult to look after and that  they wouldn't grow where I live, but mum bought me one anyway, because she could tell from the look on my face I really wanted one!  Finally, after a year of taking care of it, it has not only tripled in size but if flowered for the first time!  It has two flowers on the plant, only one is open so far, and it is quite usual.  I love its whiskers.  It is quite satisfying after all taking care of it all year, B has been good and watering it at night when he waters the bonsai, and helped me to repot it as it grew far to big for its old pot.  I think it is stunning and quite different.

Around midday I had enough of sun, dirt, sweating and general outdoor activities, so I turned my mind to dinner.  Tonight we are having pumpkin and Bacon soup, I haven't tried this recipe before but it looked interesting.  I have it on the stove nearly ready as I type this, and it is smelling delish.  Last night we had cream of mushroom soup, I love this time of year, it is getting cooler plus I can make all the soups I want! YUM.  I had some spare time while waiting for the Bacon bones to boil into a stock, so I quickly baked some chocolate biscuits, which are cooling on the dining table, minus a handful! I couldn't resist a little quality control.  Well I am exhausted and back to work tomorrow, so have a good week. Enjoy.