"0tterbot" wrote in message
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote in message

keeping the wildlife out would be a BIG motivator, i suspect! we're in the
process of making tunnel-like covers with shade cloth on top (not sure if
shade cloth is ideal or not, but the first ones are intended for brassicas
to keep out the c.w. butterflies.)

Have you tried makign fake ones out of an old 2 Litre milk container? Cut
them to shape of a CW in flight and put some black spots on them and then
put them on satay skewers near brassicas. I'm quite convinced that they
work to keep off the real CW flutterbys.


other than that we are having/have had
big problems with furry creatures & now the ****ing rabbits are back,

No nearby Jack Russell to lend a hand? We've noticed the numbers of buns
had started building up here too but the 2 JRs are going off and spending
half an hour out of sight doing something. I suspect it might be a bit of
rabbit destruction as we se the odd bits of fur around and less signs of
live buns.

and a
new invasion of choughs just today. i could just scream some days, but i'm
learning to take it more philosophically. sort of.

Snort! Pull the other one, it chimes!

it is nice to live
amongst bushland in this area but some days i feel its not worth it!

We've spent a bloody fortune in hugely wide bird netting as it's the only
way to get produce from our fruit trees. Now Himself has retired, there is
no way Mr Frugality is going to let a simple bird beat him. He's never
given up on anything, or backed away from anything difficult or 'impossible'
in the past so a sodding bird is not going to defeat him. I just wander
along behind him doing what I'm told and shoving the broom head up where I'm
told under the bird wire. It sort of works out OK till I get the Tom Tits
over something and remove myself in a state of high irritation :-))

Gotta say, the apples and nectarines have been well worth the effort of
beatign the birds.

the romas this year are just a dud - i've
stopped watering them & lost all hope for them this year. tomatoes give
me the shits anyway, i don't know why i bother.

Literally the shits or metaphorically?

:-) i just can't get interested in them. i like eating them, but i'm not a
tomato-growing nut & never will be. anything that has to be staked,
propped, wired, or whatever just drives me crazy. so i haven't staked the
cherry toms because in my experience they simply do not care either way!!

I guess I also couldn't be described as a fnatic about the stakign and
tieing up, but I don't mind the other care of them. Himself liked to do the
bondage thing to the toms.

(also, eating
tomatoes makes my finger joints hurt - someone told me they cause
arthritis flare-ups & perhaps this is the first sign!!)

Yep. My father found that toms made his arthritis flare like crazy.

in this same way, the very idea of growing fruit trees bores me to sobs.
if they go well on their own, that's great. otherwise, i just don't give a
shit, it's too much trouble. i thought i was interested in fruit like i'm
interested in veg, but apparently i was wrong.

Hmm. Interesting. In what way don't you like it? I get the same sort of
thrill from watching my trees as I do the veg. I like to see them respond
after pruning and when given food and water etc.

I suspect if we get a rotter of a season for one thing, then we get
compensation for another. A bit like life I guess

this is very true, & one of my sole consolations :-)
kylie (who seems to have included a good deal of swearing in this post!)

Didn't notice any swearing. I just noticed technical descriptions commonly
used by gardeners.