Day 225 Nubeena Saturday 10th September 2011

A small pile of chick food is in the foreground. Mum is in behind

The nest is sandwiched between the hay bales and the black plastic cover. Warm cosy and dry!

Hi folks, Welcome to this episode of the avian report. I cleaned both the electric BBQ's this morning. In operation they get quite hot and consequently form tenacious carbon deposits on their stainless steel surfaces. I am generally warmed by the fact that about 9 out of every 10 guests actually clean the BBQ's to some degree after they use them. Last nights guests couldn't since the cleaning apparatus had been removed on our last open day lest some of the visitors be shocked by the sight of steel wool, a spray bottle, bucket and other bits and pieces packed under the sink. So it was I spent an hour cleaning them with steel wool,a scraper, cleaning solutions and ajax, plus of course the stainless steel bench tops. I then decided to to do the wooden bench tops, the brick walls and the concrete floor. After I had finished all the chickens decided to march through the area and defecate everywhere. It could have been worse. The ducks, who had already sprayed the area outside the pool room earlier in the day, did not join the party. You will see at the top of the blog the first pictures of the new chicks. I have counted at least 6 so it will be interesting to see how many more arrive. Susan cooked a nice green chicken curry ans sticky date pudding for community dinner. A community of 3! After dinner i decided to have a spa. I hopped in and realised it was a bit on the cool side. The heater obviously didn't kick back in after I switched the pump off to open the bromine dosing pot at midday. I was looking forward to luxuriating in 38 degree water. Instead i had to stagger out cold and wet in my towel and dressing gown and reset the heater. The 45kg gas bottle we had delivered yesterday to heat the pool is half gone already according to Alan who delivered another one today. He used the Armstrong scale. Although I am not convinced of the accuracy he has been handling them since Adam was a boy so it's probably a good guide. 20kg of gas to heat the pool for half a day! Pools, spas and boats, find a mate who has them because they cost a fortune to run! Anyway enough of my whinging. I eagerly await the emergence of another batch of pooping machines from their lair to start their life's journey. We have a nice little cache of home grown eggs. Another 4 today gives us around 20 in store. Night folks Simon