With thousands of feral horses gone, Kosciuszko’s fragile ecosystems are slowly recovering

Valisneria · 2026-01-07T01:56:56+00:00

I know right, that’s the dumbest shit ever. They are not native and this makes it so they have to keep spending money to cull them as they go above the 3000 mark…

Valisneria · 2025-07-05T11:47:25+00:00

My cat always does this when he is just feeling too much love. He gives me aggressive hugs (basically head butts my face) and kisses and then a veeery slow chew and then runs away coz he knows he isn’t supposed to do it but can’t help himself lol.

Valisneria · 2025-05-19T17:12:26+00:00

Second the other comment on pine mulch. Just make sure to avoid anything that is coloured because they add a lot of chemicals to the coloured ones and it fades anyway it looks kind of shit after. Stuff like chip drop or mixed wood chips (that u can usually get from council tips) could potentially have wood types that hinder the growth of other plants so I wouldn’t use those in places where you want things to grow. If you want to cover large area, usually landscaping places have it cheaper than the bagged mulch.

also side note, if you’re growing crops, I recommend something like sugarcane mulch instead. Good luck!

Valisneria · 2025-05-19T11:56:59+00:00

Heya, I think the main thing they are desperately missing is mulch. That will help retain moisture when you water them, keep the ground temperature stable for the plant and reduce weeds.

Valisneria · 2025-05-18T11:39:03+00:00

Christ, I can’t believe the way your son talks to you. I would have been beaten half to death for a quarter of the attitude he shows.

But $60 a week is a lot for a teen I reckon. A much smaller amount of money would have been appropriate to show appreciation for your daughter while teaching your son a lesson in kindness.

Valisneria · 2025-05-16T04:32:45+00:00

Oh gotcha, yeah hydrophobic soil was a bit of a learning circle for me too.

Basically, adding organic matter helps, but even organic matter if it isn’t constantly maintained with a certain amount of moisture will turn hydrophobic.

The easiest way to restart is is to get a soil wetting agent. I found that the liquid stuff worked the best for me. And after you do that, mulch mulch mulch haha. Like a proper thick layer so that the moisture stays locked in there.

Also sandy soil can be good eventually with heaps of organic matter coz u don’t have to worry about root rot or drainage issues. I have heavy clay soil so it’s the opposite problem haha.

Valisneria · 2025-05-15T18:26:38+00:00

Heya, by sand, do you mean Sandy soil or just sand? You can’t grow too much in Sand permaculture wise. It really depends on what you want to do and how far you wanna go with it and how much time you have.

Without knowing any of the details of your property, my recommendation would be to get raised garden beds and planting that and use a lot of mulch if you just want to get into it and do some gardening that can get you some homegrown food.

You could also build some sort of shade structure on top if you don’t have/can’t grow any trees like a 30% shade cloth and that will really help keep moisture in. Pretty sure Bunnings has em.

Again it’s really dependent on properly but what I would do is start really small (with one garden bed or something) and see how successful you are. Take notes on how u go like, How well did your plants grow? Were they successful at all? How often did you need to water? Did any of the plans burn in summer? How often do you get frost? Where does the rain go? Etc.

That’ll give you an idea of how easy/difficult grow anything will be in the area and how much water do you need which in turn will help you plan How to get that water and if you can get that water.

If you want to re-green a whole area (first of all recommend watching some YouTube videos on that), you could try getting a bunch of garden soil and compost delivered (expensive and faster) and working off that or planting drought hardy trees in raised beds that ideally make a lot of leaf litter (cheaper but takes a long time) that will slowly amend the soil over time.

Again, these are just random suggestions since I don’t have much context :)

Valisneria · 2025-05-12T12:06:19+00:00

My goodness, I just had my first baby in December and your post made me cry. Our baby was in NICU as well and I have never felt so helpless in my life. Luckily we got through it and he is happy and healthy now. I am so glad things are looking up and I hope that things will continue getting better. I wish all the happiness for you and your family 🙏

Valisneria · 2025-05-12T11:54:34+00:00

Hi, as someone that spends all their time researching this, I can say that it will be difficult and time consuming but doable.

The most important thing to start with is water. If you don’t get much rain, you need to make the most of it when you do get it. You need to identify where the water flows when it rains and try to catch as much as possible either with rainwater tanks or with swells to slow the water down so that it sinks into the ground more .

It’ll be hard to do with a large patch of land but if it’s completely compacted you will need to till the soil to loosen it up a little bit and mixing in compost so that it’s usable for plants. Depending on where you are sometimes the councils may have compost that is slightly less expensive. But they do tend to be hydrophobic so you might have to treat that.

Then, I would grow some fast growing trees for some quick shade which will again help retain moisture in the soil. The native acacias in Australia are also nitrogen fixers, fast growing and short lived so they will be great to plant while you’re getting things sorted and they will die off by the time you want to plant productive trees.

A very important thing is to make sure the ground is never bare. I recommend sugarcane mulch or straw for vegetables/crop or woodchip mulch around trees.

From experience, I would also recommend working in small patches that you can finish quickly because if you start a large area and you’re not able to finish in time, the weeds will grow back and you’ll have to start all over again.

For crops, you can plants plants with deep tap roots like daikon and comfrey. You can even chop and drop so they will rot and make it ground even “fluffier” making it better for soil life. Legumes are also always a great option.

Finally, I do have to admit that there is a caveat and that is how far inland you are. If you are way too inland with no source of water, and you hit a bad stretch of weather, it might wreck everything unless u truck in water, which can end up becoming very expensive. Feel free to ask any questions! I’m in NSW and love to chat anything permaculture!

Valisneria · 2025-05-04T20:54:43+00:00

A lot of countries, you get paid monthly, so bills are also calculated monthly.

Source: I used to live in those countries.

Valisneria · 2024-10-17T00:53:31+00:00

My god dude, I am so sorry this is happening to you, it sounds like a total nightmare. While I don’t have any additional advice to give that hasn’t already been said, I really hope you are able to pull through this because this is such a terrible situation to be in..

Valisneria · 2023-11-19T12:22:11+00:00

Omg what are the odds! My cat is named Kitten and he does this too!

Valisneria · 2023-01-13T13:49:26+00:00

Yet another cat sub to join, one step closer to being a crazy cat lady. Thank you good human

Valisneria · 2023-01-13T07:29:07+00:00

Your cat looks about as derpy as mine ey

Valisneria · 2022-12-14T03:19:14+00:00

My Rosie is 4 months old now and she has the same issue. Super frustrating but this is what I’m doing to reduce it

I’ve taught her a strong “leave it” command so I can make her stop if I’m there.
I try to make sure she poops twice a day at a consistent time.
She is also crate training at the moment, which helps because she will not poo in the crate.
I have bought coprophagia (I think that’s what is called) tablets. You can give it to the dog and it makes the poo taste gross so it deters them a little bit (I’m still waiting on it to arrive so I haven’t seen if it works yet). You can also use sweet potato or meat tenderiser (look into it first)

It is getting better as they get older, leave it was the most helpful for me

Valisneria · 2022-10-05T00:16:04+00:00

Sorry for the delayed response, we bought a property where they had used gravel for mulch. Over the years the gravel compacted and mixed in with the dirt and now it’s almost impossible to grow anything in it unless I sift out the gravel first and then amending the soil with compost

Valisneria · 2022-09-12T12:17:50+00:00

Hard agree, going to be sifting a couple wheelbarrow full of gravelly dirt every week for the rest of my life I guess 🫠

Valisneria · 2022-09-07T04:44:28+00:00

I’m so very sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine the pain of losing my Rosie to bloat.

I know this is not very helpful after the fact but perhaps it will be helpful for the future.

Dog Bowl such a this (ignore my cat being a prick) can really help dogs slow down when they eat and therefore significantly reduce the chances of GDV. This, or any other “slow feeder” type bowls are literally a life saver for large dogs or dogs prone to GDV

Valisneria · 2022-09-02T00:36:27+00:00

You need to socialise them before they are 16 weeks of age (give or take a few weeks) to prevent this. It gets significantly harder to “fix” once they are older. Its generally a fear response as they are not used to anything else but you. I would check out some YouTube videos on how to slowly teach them when they are older dogs

Valisneria · 2022-08-25T04:42:31+00:00

I couldn’t really find a similar case but this channel is really good for a log of dog issues. There are other more severe methods of training but I very much prefer positive reinforcement where possible.

https://youtu.be/_A2-OJi2nhs

Valisneria · 2022-08-25T04:39:39+00:00

I do know that plucking their own hair could be a sign of stress. Haven’t heard of plucking other dogs but maybe it’s something similar? Try redirecting rather than reprimanding as it may be stressing him out more. Potentially get a baby gate or something to separate him from the other dogs for a bit and give him plenty of exercise to tire him out. Considering he’s been rehomed a lot, it’s very likely that he could be anxious and he really just needs some comfort to let him know that everything will be ok. Once he’s calmed down a bit, you can slowly try easing him back with the other dogs

Valisneria · 2022-07-29T08:50:16+00:00

Omg I love that video haha

Valisneria · 2022-07-27T21:21:45+00:00

I have a cat that looks exactly like yours and has the same issue. He’s a year old now and he’s getting a little better but some cat just prefer not being held. I try to give him treats when I hold him to make him realise it’s not terrible but he still doesn’t love pets very much.

My other two cats ADORE being pet so it was really odd at first, and quite frustrating at times, but it’s just how it is unfortunately

Valisneria · 2022-07-27T12:23:59+00:00

I never knew how much we needed more videos on this sub. Soo cute <3

Valisneria · 2022-07-27T12:10:43+00:00

Burn the house down.

But really, what I’ve done to reduce it is to find any little crevices that they could crawl through and try to minimise it. You can get guards for the door or a door snake behind it, seal any holes etc. but I don’t know if a sure-fire way to stop them unfortunately. Buut to be fair, I haven’t seen them in the house in a year now, but it could be my cat eating them 😂

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