A Glimpse Of Moulamein
This is what our Gallery Girls have called the exhibition they have just set up in the Cohuna Art Gallery. It will be open on Friday and Saturday mornings for the months of May and June. There are more than 15 artists involved with works ranging from painting, moasics, glass and macrame and they even have a blacksmith, but I don’t know if he would like to be known as “one of the girls”. If you are over Cohuna way on a Friday or Saturday in the next two months, call in for a look. You will not be disappointed.
Southern Bell Frogs
Our rare Southern Bell Frogs have caused a bit of interest. I did not realise they were so rare until the last couple of years. Most rice farmers did not realise this either as all frogs and rice farming go together. We supply the wetland, (rice crop) at the right time of the year for these so-called very rare frogs to breed, with very little chemicals that damage frogs, as it turns out as we grow the greenest rice in the world. Then we take our bit off the top called grain and leave plenty of habitat for the frogs to live in. What about when you burn the stubble, someone asked. Someone would have been better off looking after the Moulamein Lake Water than asking a question like that. If the rice stubble is dry enough to burn, there are cracks in the ground. That is where the frogs go in dry times as everything likes to eat frogs so they have to hide and keep their bodies moist down in the cracks. Southern Bell Frogs are not so much rare in our district, they just do not like to be seen. When I caught that dozen off the road the other night, by the time I dropped them off to our wetland to stop them getting run over, there were no frogs on the road on the way home. We have got to work out why they love to sit on the roads. This could be why they are endangered. I have only ever seen one in the daytime since I have found out that they are rare. One jumped off the pipe when I was watering and it was gone. One of the “Frog ladies” I am dealing with has never even seen one of our Southern Bell Frogs. She is coming down for a visit soon so we will have to grab a six pack and go frog spotting. I have just talked to my mate Linda about getting some photos of our frogs. Linda had never seen one until a few weeks ago, now they are everywhere up on their Maude farm after five floods in one year up there. Build the roads and they will com,e someone said years ago. Supply the water in the right spots at the right time of the year and they will breed. Rice, the wetland of the Riverina. Been breeding frogs and water birds for decades while keeping communities going.
Who left the pump on?
Somebody rang up Someone the other day because he reckoned our Moulamein Lake was a bit full. Someone said that it was okay because we just had over 50ml of rain and that would fill it up. Somebody said to Someone that it seems very full for 50ml. “They must have pumped a bit out of town”. Someone said “I shut the pump off a month ago”. Somebody was still concerned that it was very full. A Few had noticed that our Moulamein Lake was very full, but they thought that Someone would be looking after it but they never told Anybody so Nobody mentioned the level of the lake until Somebody went for a drive around it. Someone gave this situation a bit of thought and decided to have a look. Bugger. Maybe Someone Else has got a key to the pump shed and turned the pump back onto night rate. Yep, it was still pumping every night. Either Someone just thought he turned the pump off. Or Someone Else got into the shed and turned it back on. Only God knows and he is not talking to Anybody. Nobody ever talks to Anybody about our lake until it gets very full. It’s okay, Someone has definitely shut the pump off this time. Nobody has got flooded yet. But Everybody has got to start to keep an eye on Someone so Nobody gets flooded and Everyone will be safe and dry as Someone may be getting a bit old or busy at times.
Rice harvest
There are tracks getting fitted to headers as I write this after the last bit of rain that we had. Winter crop sowing is due about now in perfect conditions. If you ever wanted a job in farming, now would be the time to join the workforce. With rice harvest almost over and winter crop sowing starting before the manpower, or women power can get one job finished, the next job is getting overdue. If you can drive a tractor, a truck, or just give a hand, put your hand up and you will have a job before nightfall. It is good to see our district busy again.
Footy at home this week
We play our mates from Quamby this week at home. Unfortunately, this will be the last time we get to play Quamby at home as their club has made the difficult decision to fold next year. This decision would not have been taken lightly and I wish their team all the success after this week. No doubt Quamby will want to go out in style, but not this week, I hope. Our netballers had a bad day over at Murrabit last week with only the Under 14s getting up. In the footy, our Colts had a good win and the Mighty Magoos had a bad day. Our seniors came out a bit flat footed and were over 20 points down at quarter time. Our coach pointed this out and it fired the boys up to be up at half time and they managed to increase their lead to get up by around 35 points. We are second on the ladder at 3-0, the same as Nully. Make sure you come over on Saturday to farewell Quamby as well as cheer our teams on. We have the players auction Saturday night if you would like to buy a bit of talent.
River levels
The Edward at Moulamein is steady at the time of writing at around 1.6 metres and 1,400 megs a day. Now would be a good time to do a bit of boating as the levels will be dropping from now on. Stevens Weir is down to 600 megs and dropping. Check your boats and drum nets as they will be out of the water very soon.
