By Maureen Cooper, Wooragee Landcare
I now have 3.5 Kw of solar panels on the shed roof and no bill from the power company. This must be an oversight, surely, because they should show how much power you used as against how much power you produced. When I ring the company I can only speak to machines which tell me that I have a nil balance. However, all may soon be revealed as I have now changed my provider to Powershop which is a green energy provider. More on that soon. Next step in the new year is to get the solar hot water on.
I did neglect the veggie patch during winter as I was busy sewing for Bimblebox Nature Refuge. Many thanks to those people who donated bits and pieces and let me assure you that most have already been used. The fund raising day was a huge success despite being drizzly and cold in the morning and Linda and Phillip Bunn’s garden put on a beautiful display for us all. Linda’s organisational skills are unsurpassed and I thank her for her friendship and support. I will also be running a stall at the Christmas Markets in Beechworth on the 6th December.
My next venture on the home front was to have Henry de Zwart design and make a cat corridor for my two cats so they could enjoy the outdoors without the resulting loss of wildlife. Following is a quote from the Wildlife Preservation of Queensland. Just to multiply that out with the number of cats in your street is horrendous!
- Each Australian pet cat, if allowed to wander, has been estimated by some sources to kill an average of 16 mammals, 8 birds and 8 reptiles per year.
- The diet of Australia’s unrestrained cats has been recorded as including 186 bird species, 64 mammals, 86 reptiles 10 amphibians/invertebrates – that’s 347 different native wildlife species.
My cats, Mia and Nikita were used to using a cat corridor on my Nature Refuge in Queensland so they were really sweating on this one. They now spend most of the day watching the wildlife and chasing each other along the corridor into the cage with a large log in it. Using the log as a scratching post has saved my poor abused furniture. More from Woolshed Valley soon.