Our new spikey scale babies Cleo & Caesar

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CooperDragon

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I like your charts. Very easy to see the steady growth in both of them and a show of good health at a glance :D I recommend everyone do something similar in order to track weight/growth/health.
 

kingofnobbys

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Weekly weighin

Cleo in now 50.3g (+2.4g gained this week) ==> 5.03x original weight.
Still loving her BSFL and medium sized silkworms , given by hand by daddy of cause.

Caesar is now 91.2g (+3.4g gained this week) ==> 6.09x original weight.
He's decided he prefers to be hand fed now ( my excuse for a cuddle). Still refusing crickets , but likes his BSFL & large silkworms (2 per day of these) , and had his first large size woodies this afternoon.
Wasn't keen on the first woodie so I had to use my bug drumstick trick to get him to start chewing, then in it went and munch munch. 2nd woodie still required the drumstick trick but was taken much quicker.
 

kingofnobbys

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Caesar having some daddy QT and enjoying a nice under neck tickle ….
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Think he's finally decided he likes me.
 

kingofnobbys

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Weekly weigh-in .

Caesar is now 98.9g , gained 7.7g this week and is now 6.59x start weight.

Cleo is now 53g , gained 2.7g this week and is now 5.30x start weight.
 

kingofnobbys

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Update weekly weighin.

Cleo is now 53.7g (gained +0.7g this week) ==> she's now 5.36x her start date.
She's moved up from medium silkworms to large silkworms. Still ignoring the salad. But only 6 months old so not concerned about that she's getting gut loaded crickets & BSFL and silkworms (full of chewed up mulberry leaves) so she's getting her greens in disguise.
Cleo is starting to want to go exploring when she's out the rearing tub , very interested in the skinks especially Fluffy the water skink , she he'd nods at Fluffy and has to check her out when Fluffy is have fun water dish time or raiding her food dish.

Caesar has cracked his first 100g benchmark , he's now 104.2g (gained +5.3g this week) ==> he's now 6.95x his start weight. He has definitely decided he likes me to hand feed him and to give him some quality time.
He's rediscovered crickets (but only if I handfeed them to him).His favourates are currently silkworms and bsfl , and buk choi (he picks it out of the mixed salad stuff).

Their growth charts :
growth-5jul2019.png


Been a busy beaver the last month or two doing up my yard while it's been too cold for the wild lizards to be out and about.

Finished the driveway and shed slab extension from 6m x 6m to 9m x 9m , and my 6m x 3m x 0.6m retaining wall for my big native flowering plant / habitat bed this last this week.

Concreting work photos :
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joining the old driveway (which needs to be fixed later) with a new driveway extension (no longer need to use 4x4 LLR to reverse out of my yard or get up the yard when it's been raining lots and the ground is very soft
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done = nice firm and even transition , anyone can drive down and up in all weathers now and my shed will no long flood everytime it rains :)
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Made the front path wider and flatter too while I had the concreters here , went from 66cm wide and not level , not flat , and lots bricks (ankle trip hazards) on one edge (crazy , don't know why they did that when they originally built the house) to 1.2m wide and flat , and now one less step to onto the patio too.
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The new garden bed's 6m x 3m x 0.6m retaining wall for my NEW native flowing plant bed
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Finished and ready to take 12 cu-m of excavated fill from my backyard as the base for the flower bed
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Next jobs are
> a 3m low timber retaining bed infront of new path
> a timber retaining wall under the Sth bdy fence next to the new concrete to tidy that up and make sure the fence stays up in those summer storms.
> three 3m x 1.5m x 0.4m raised bed timber retaining walls = grow bed for herbs, veg, and berrys/fruit.
> build carport next to shed
> raised timber deck 8m x 4.5m at back of house

garden-landscaping-layout-working-towards-1jul2019.png


> build gabion wall frame to take old concrete from my old driveway when I have this pulled up and a new driveway laid... the concrete bits and pieces will make a stone (concrete waste) wall about 0.4m tall and perfect for frogs , skinks, geckos, dragons and beneficial insects for a habitat area.
All my excavated fill and old concrete will be staying on site and being repurposed .

Been very busy , organizing and managing concreters, handyguy, excavator guy and his machine, sparkies, plumber, the shed builder, and working out schedules and logistics , getting quotes for materials and jobs and keeping it all a smooth process. I've been missing my sleepins over the last month as a result.

Their new double decker forever home made using CONNECTIT joiners and aluminium SQR tubing will be made next month , will be upgrading Cleo and Caesar to new spacious 4ft x 2ft for ever homes and retiring their 120L rearing tub til I need it again ( maybe a pair of shinglebacks or a group of marbled geckos ??).
Once I get my carport , landscaping hardwood sleeper retaining walls and big garden beds ready to populate with native flowering and ground cover plants (front 6m x 3m raised bed) , and veg & herbs & berry + fruit plants = 3 x 3m x 1.5m raised beds in backyard).
 

CooperDragon

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Wow you have been quite busy! It will be nice to be able to get in and out of the driveway more easily. That should be a great garden too. I like the size of it. Might be enough to keep up with Cleo and Caesar's appeites :lol:
 

kingofnobbys

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CooperDragon":2ssufwgs said:
Wow you have been quite busy! It will be nice to be able to get in and out of the driveway more easily. That should be a great garden too. I like the size of it. Might be enough to keep up with Cleo and Caesar's appeites :lol:

I have a list of native plants to populate the big "pretty" bed at the front of my house , just need to check none of them are toxic before ordering my plants.

Plants I want to include is a Balga Grass Plant (Xanthorrhoea) or two , some banksia and maybe a white and a yellow wattle, along with some native grasses (none-mowing type).

I want to attract more native birds , insects , reptiles and small marsupials into my garden as well as providing a safe refuge and habitat for them.
 

CooperDragon

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That's a good thought. I planted a bunch of native prairie wildflowers in my front garden a few years ago and it has worked out really well. Lots of nice flowers all summer (different colors come in at different times). The hummingbirds love it too. It's good to plant native/local plants when you are able to.
 

kingofnobbys

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CooperDragon":pudzqy74 said:
That's a good thought. I planted a bunch of native prairie wildflowers in my front garden a few years ago and it has worked out really well. Lots of nice flowers all summer (different colors come in at different times). The hummingbirds love it too. It's good to plant native/local plants when you are able to.

My monster raised garden bed is now 95% finished.

Added 4 cu-m of premium garden soil about 20cm deep on top of the fill.
Only need to fix the 200mm tall hardwood sleeper across the step down to hold soil in the top half in place and to level both the upper and lower "steps", and some earthwormlings to colonise the garden bed (to start processing and mixing and aerating the clayrich fill and to decide on the plants to populate it with.

Thinking 20k earthwormlings should be enough.

Here's what the bed looks like now .
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My plan for my retaining walls is like this (includes a trapezoidal shaped raised bed) :
slab-retaining-walls-10jul2019.png


My current plan (subject to change) for my gabion wall / habitat (rock wall) and grow beds for veggies , for herbs , and for fruits & berries:
gabion-wall-and-food-grow-beds-projects-for-backyard-to-use-loos.png


Amazing how these things snow ball from the simple task of extending a driveway and extending an existing slab and putting a carport up when the fill isn't wasted by sending it to the local landfill.
I'm turning dirt that was regarded by the excavator as waste into something productive and will improve the value of my home as a result as well as longer term improving my fitness (gardening and harvesting) and save on food costs for us and my pet dragons and skinks.

By repurposing the fill , I'm saving several $k as the tip expects $600/truck + testing for asbestos contamination fees to dump at the local landfill , and I'd have to hire a truck & excavator machine and driver for the day too ($150 per hr) .
Escavator claimed there were 8 to 10 truckloads.
 

CooperDragon

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Certainly turned into a huge improvement project. I'm glad you're able to re-use the fill to make improvements!
 

kingofnobbys

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CooperDragon":2iwqo0fv said:
Certainly turned into a huge improvement project. I'm glad you're able to re-use the fill to make improvements!

I might as well .

My fill is FREE to me , if I had to buy dirt to fill a 6m x 3m x 0.6m raised bed ( this is forced on me by the profile of my land at the front of my house ) completely I'd have been looking at 16 bulkabags to fill it
16 x (65+18) + 150 = $1478 just to buy the soil.

Definitely been worth hiring the Hardyman's services , he's not been scared of hard labour and has done a fabulous job building the monster raised bed and it's taken him 4 days to do all the work.

The rest of the work II want to get him to do should take maybe 2 or 3 days all up I think. Wont be nearly as hard or time consuming to move the loose loamy soil off my back lawn into the 4 new smaller raised bed , all very friable , not much hard clay in it , all very close to the beds ( literally surrounding them ) and no need to push a heavy barrow up a long steep driveway.
Might be able suck up the loose dirt and deposit it pneumatically where I want it via a cyclonic system (like what we deployed to lift mill scale when I was working at the steelworks).
This might do the trick : https://www.coateshire.com.au/trailer-mounted-vacuum-excavators#
 

kingofnobbys

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The mini - suction excavator requires the operator a special "ticket", my handyman doesn't so that idea has been scrubbed.

The big bed is finished , all I need now is something to populate it .
My wife's job is deciding on the pretty flowering native plants she wants in it.

My calculations for the big 6m x 3m x 0.6m raized bed's volume ( based on a roughly parabolic bottom and a hyperbolic fall towards the north ) were on money . And my numerical triple integration to get the volume was worth the effort.
Bed took 4 bulk-a-bags of premium garden soil to finish (as planned = 20cm deep of the good stuff). Is done and ready to take plants - plant selection will be Sue's job.

The big bed looks great !!! I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Onto excavator destroyed back yard now.

Thought I could save some $ by hiring a one man post-hole digger with an auger bit to speed up setting my posts on concrete BUT the equipment hire place tells me they only come with a 200mm diameter auger for the one man machine.
Unfortunately 75mm corner posts are 150mm x 150mm L shaped and I need about 50mm concrete surrounding the "legs" ==> the smallest hole diameter to do the post holes for these posts is 250mm diameter and this means I'd need the 2 man petrol post hole digger.
Therefore any gains in time to dig 24 holes what are 250mm Diam x 0.5m deep using a machine (for H posts , L posts and C posts) will be lost by having to hire 1 extra worker and the extra cost to have a big machine delivered and it's hire (goes up considerably from $150 per day for the little machine to hire it). Was a good idea but doesn't pan out economically.

Posts for the under-fence retaining wall in now.

Back to do north retaining wall to tidy up drainage and put in a trapezoidal shaped raised flower bed over where the lake forms on Tuesday.

Then Wednesday sleepers will be dropped into place and the retaining walls and drainage trenches filled with loose bluestones and finishes the construction phase .

Decided to make four 1.5m x 3m x 0.4m raised beds with offsets from the boundary fences and each other of 1m. This will make the yard look "balanced" as they will be along the north boundary fence running N - S lengthwise , leaving a vacant area on the sunny side of the garage and the now 9m x 9m slab about 4m x 9m for clear lawn.
This will take 5.5 - 6 cu-m of fill topped by 1.5-2 bulkabags of premium garden soil.Now will be 4 same sized 1.5m x 3m x 0.4m raised beds = 1 (pretty stuff) , 1 herbs , 1 vegs , 1 berrys and fruits & 1 trapezoid shaped flower / shrub bed where my lake formed.

One day will be needed to move the loose fill off the lawn into the beds and to top them with 6" - 8" of good garden soil , and they will be all done.

My worker has been at it all day putting in the 8 posts for the drive ways drainage trenches and the 12m long N & S retaining walls ( 3m centres ).

Carport gets here and built end of next week.
 

kingofnobbys

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Weekly update on Cleo and Caesar.

Cleo is now 58.1g (she gained +4.5g this week growth spurt !!) ==> she's now 5.81x her start weight. Starting to dull up in color, shed coming I think .

Ceasar is now 111.9g (he gained +7.7g this week , and he's having a bit of growth spurt too) ==> 7.46x his start weight.
 

kingofnobbys

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As at end of work yesterday .

South retaining wall posts in place , note the large cutaway under the fence.
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And the loose loamy soil all over my back yard that is about 6" - 12" deep and will fill the trapezoidal 3 step garden bed and the 4 x 3m x 1.5m x 0.4m grow beds.
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NEW General layout to make a now dangerous area nice and safe and to improve drainage
Slab-and-driveway-retaining-walls-and-drainage-config-and-steppe.png


Profile for section aa - land after concreter and excavation left (little wonder I don't want to excavator to return - he destroyed my lawn !!)
section-aa-as-escavator-and-concreter-left-it-THIS-WILL-BE-COVER.png


Profile for section bb
section-bb-as-escavator-and-concreter-left-it-THIS-WILL-BE-COVER.png
 

kingofnobbys

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Progress on landscaping and shed.

The underfence timber retaining wall is done :
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I'm very pleased with how nice it looks , my handyman is a very good carpenter , even the concreter who came to check the slabwork and the shed builder are impressed with it and gave it a very thorough inspection.
This is where the two little delicate skinks showed up more or less I'm told.
 
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