THE mighty Swans have come out of the blocks running.
Our seniors are sitting on top of the ladder and our Colts are up there too with more than 1000 per cent after their win this week.
I do not know the ladder, but our A Grade beat last year’s premiers and our Under 17s had a win.
There was a big crowd at the footy this week as it was almost a home game for Murrabit, as we are just up the road.
It was organised chaos in the canteen as our very efficient band of volunteers tried their best to keep up with demand. I gave them a hand for a while before I had to umpire. It was hell in there I can tell you. But that was our first week and things will come together with smaller crowds.
I think I owe one of our Moulamein kids a few dim sims as what I thought was soy sauce, was mint sauce.
I do not know how dim sims taste with mint sauce on them, but I will buy him a few next home match.
Sorry about that, or maybe I have started a new trend.
Rice harvest started
OUR rice harvest has started off with a whimper instead of a rush, not full-on yet.
Between high moisture and rainfall, there is still not much happening.
It is Anzac Day next week and we would all like to be finished about then so the winter crops can get sown.
Not this year, everything is almost a month behind. We even got to have a go this week. So far, so good.
Yields are OK, but unfortunately, we found some wet ground.
Giant frogs
I KNOW I have been going on about these southern bell frogs for a while now, but they are in the top 100 of endangered species in our great country.
But not around Moulamein at the moment. I asked one of my professor mates how big they can get a couple of months ago. He replied: “As big as your hand.”
“As if,” I thought. But as you can see by the photo, they can get as big as my hand and they are still growing.
I know they are the only frog that eats other frogs, but if they get any bigger, they will start to eat our lambs.
If you see a southern bell frog, make sure you get a photo so we can find out how big they can get with plenty of little frogs to eat.
Nankeen night heron
SOUTHERN bell frogs and turbo chooks have not been the only things breeding in our wet year.
There seems to be a lot more of these night herons around. I chased these buggers all around the rice field last year trying to get a decent photo as I thought they were the very elusive Australasian bittern, or bull bird. Very similar, but different.
These heron things are not rare, but when I go around the water at night, they are everywhere. More than I have ever seen. They must eat frogs.
One day, I will get a photo of that bull bird. The bull bird has been out here before I realised what they were.
As far as these turbo chooks go, I do not know how many thousand there would be on our place at the moment, but there are lots.
Maybe our frogs will get big enough to eat them. We can only hope.
River levels
THE Edward is rising because of the recent rain and less demand for irrigation water.
The Edward is back to last week’s level of 1.6 metres and 1400 megalitres a day.
There should be a good rise behind this level as it is around 2000 ML a day below Stevens Weir.
If there are any cod still out there that are hungry enough to take a bait, this could be a great chance to get one.
Or just buy some other kind of fish from the shop like me until there is less food in our rivers, or more cod.
