A  family of kangaroos eating our pasture, January 8, 2009

Summer 2009

In our area with farmland on one side and thick forest on the other, this is not the area where you would expect to find any kangaroos. Wallabies, a smaller version of Australia's large hopping marsupials, live in forested areas while the larger kangaroo's habitat is more open grasslands. Kangaroos also tend to keep away from intensive dairying and grazing areas like ours. However, we seem to be playing host to 5 or 6 kangaroos who come out of the forest. Two of them are big, possibly 2 metres tall when they stand erect.

This shows them feeding on our paddock where earlier we cut for silage. We have had enough rainfall for some lush regrowth with lots of clover. 

We have unusually had enough rain through the first half of summer to have hardly having to run any irrigation for the walnut trees. With the bigger trees, we have removed the green nuts back in December to keep the trees concentrating on growth rather than on fruiting. We are experimenting with pickling the green walnuts using an old supposedly French recipe. No idea how it will go. However, we can be confident of a small but not yet commercial crop of walnuts next season.

Things are drying out now and it is time to put the steers back onto the regrown pasture before it browns off.