Celebrating 10 Years of Our Patch

I am a little late getting this post onto the blog - but we recently celebrated 10 years of Our Patch "Jarowair".  The settlement for the purchase of our own 18 1/2 acres of dry woodland was at the end of January 2006.  We can't quite believe how much we have achieved at the property, how much we have learnt and continue to discover, since we first found this patch of bushland 10 years ago.

As part of our celebration, I am personally congratulating myself on my 10 year blogging journey!  Those of you who know me, know how many projects I take on, the different jobs I have had and all of the volunteer things I do, along with wildlife caring, family and looking after the property, and generally 'sticking to things' isn't my greatest strength, but I am very proud of myself for continuing our Jarowair Our Patch Blog for over 10 years, and I continue to enjoy it as my main hobby.

The Jarowair Our Patch Blog started after I realized that, for me, an online chronological journal would be a far better resource tool, than notes in a notebook.  Neither of us were ever really into wildlife photography, but after our purchase of our first digital Camera  in 2005 (Kodak EasyShare 5 mega pixels), we found that taking a photo of a species of wildlife or a plant, even a bad photo, was a much easier way to identify the subject, when referring to books later on.  This is really how both of our interests in nature photography came to be, I guess over time we learnt more and made more of an effort to take clearer photographs.  Once Brendon had his first Canon Camera, the quality of our images progressed markedly, and was a much more enjoyable past-time, except for the fact that we didn't like to share the equipment!  10 years on and we are still learning about nature photography - and love it more and more.

It is very hard to summarize 10 years into a blog post, but, I would have to say that for me, (apart from my childhood growing up on our generational family farm at Pilton), these 10 years, and in particular the last 7 in which we have lived at Jarowair have been the best years of my life. Getting back to nature and connecting with the outdoors on a daily basis is something I didn't even know I had missed until we bought here.  Our children have been blessed to grow up with the daily sightings of Eastern Grey Kangaroos & Red-Necked Wallabies on the front lawn, and I am proud that they have so much knowledge about wildlife, without even realizing it themselves.  I will hear them explain what a Yellow-footed Antechinus is to an adult, who is then blown away by the fact that we have pouched native 'mice', and listen to them come home with stories from school camp, about how a school teacher told the class that a Eastern Curlew, was a Pigeon, only to have been politely corrected by our then 11 year old!  I love that they too notice things around them, and have alerted us to many interesting phenomenons over the years, including the processionary caterpillars, which provided hours of viewing entertainment for the kids. (see post here)

Processionary Caterpillars 23rd April 2012

To look back on the last 10 years and the changes to the landscape, I decided to re-take photographs in the same locations that I took 10 years ago. This proved quite a challenge, until I realized that the type of lens on my current camera was so markedly different from the point and shoot digital we had 10 years ago, and the photo's just weren't working out, despite many hours of effort.

TREE PLANTING, SINKING THE BORE, BUILDING THE SHED, CONNECTING POWER, CONNECTING TELEPHONE, RAINWATER TANKS, BUILDING THE CABIN, BUILDING THE HOUSE, INSTALLING WATERHOLES & DAMS, MANY NESTING BOXES, AVIARIES, CHOOK PEN, GARDENS, LAWNS, DRIVEWAYS, VEGETABLE GARDENS, GREEN HOUSE, SWIMMING POOL....what will be next?

KOALAS, RUFOUS BETTONG, CORAL SNAKE, BANDY BANDY, POWERFUL OWL, NANKEEN NIGHT HERON, PALE-HEADED SNAKE, BARN OWL, FEATHERTAIL-GLIDER, SUGAR GLIDER, SQUIRREL GLIDER, DUNNART, YELLOW FOOTED ANTECHINUS, SCARLET-SIDED POBBLEBONK FROG, SALMON-STRIPED FROG, MUSK LORIKEETS, LONG-BILLED CORELLA, GREY GOSHAWK, POWERFUL OWL... it's hard to list a favourite...

This post I will include the 'then and now' photos of our block, some of the highlights and low lights over the years, and some of our favourite sightings and photographs.

Thankyou to everyone who has followed our journey and interacted with us over the years online, offered advice and expertise, and just taken interest in our little patch.  We are very grateful and look forward to what the next 10 years will bring.

Along with this post, we have buried a time-capsule and planted 10 "Cabbage Gum" Eucalyptus Trees at the front of the property to mark the occasion.

Judi, Brendon, Cam & KiKi

"I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains."

-Dorothea Mackellar -

Then and Now - the first trees planted at Jarowair in 2006 - a real trial and error process, many did not survive, due to not being suitable for our area. Once we knew better we did better! 

The Kids, standing on the site for the new shed - 2006 - They were so little!

Sacred Kingfisher - 2007

Eastern Brown Snake eating a Bearded Dragon - 2008

Green Tree Frog with Blue Spots - 2008

Pale-headed Snake 2009

Our first and only recorded visit of a Long-billed Corella - 2009 seen here with sulphur-crested cockatoo

First and only sighting of a tiny Australian Coral Snake - 2010

First Possum Soft-release at Jarowair - "Marmaduke" - 2010

Toowoomba Floods at Jarowair - January 2011

White-throated Gerygone Nesting - 2012

The first Fringe Lily Sighting - 2013

Rufous Bettongs - 2014

Giant Wood Moth - 2015

Nymph Clown Bug - 2016

Thank you for following!  You can view any of our sightings by perusing the labels on the right of our blog, or search by name on the search tab on the left of our blog.  Heres to another great 10 years.

J & B.