Instalment 31 Saturday 7 May 2011

I decided I'd try Tamigotchi and Saori with a new teat today, and this worked a treat. On one of the later feeds, I decided to try to go back to the larger 5ml syringe, once I knew Tamigotchi was happy with the teat. For the past little while I've just been using the 3ml syringes because Tamigotchi has not wanted to drink from the 5ml.

Success! It is great when everything works. Both possums drank their 5ml formulas and seemed very content.

During the afternoon, I decided it was time to trial the possums in a new setting. I went over to the shed and got the plastic cage Gillian had leant me. I scrubbed it down and made it all clean and disinfected. I dried it all off.

While it aired, I went for a walk around the garden finding a couple of branches for climbing and also some leaves for Tamigotchi to munch on. Saori is not quite up for this exercise, so the leaves are for Tamigotchi, but Saori might explore them.

I brought everything back to the house and I set up the cage. By the time I'd finished, it looked like a mini forest. I added two little pouches and hung them so that should the possums decide to, they could put themselves to bed.

After the next afternoon feed, instead of sending Tamigotchi off to sleep, I placed him gently on some branches in the cage and then he took himself off to explore. He was really ready for this exercise. He found some leaves and picked them up. He held them in both hands and started to shred them. You could tell he was really enjoying himself. He was very comfortable in there.

Saori was a different story, but it didn't hurt her having a turn in there. She paced around and tried to look for a way out of there. She is a real social girl and only wants to snuggle after her feeds. She lasted in there until the last feed of the night and then I decided to put her in a pouch and back in her basket for the night. Tamigotchi spent the night in his little mini jungle.

My beautiful family took me out for dinner to celebrate Mothers' Day. We went to Gusto Gianni's at Portside. We had a great time. The food was excellent and so were the cocktails. I had the pork belly and it was superb! I love my family. They really look after me and make sure I am blessed. This year, not only am I a regular mother, but I am a possum mummy too.

Instalment 26 Monday 2 May 2011

I told Ian my plan for the trees and where I'd like to plant them and he kindly got busy fencing the area off from the horses. He did a really great job and now we have a great place to plant the trees. It really will be like a possum playground when we are finished.

While Ian fenced, I began using the hoe to dig up holes for the trees. The ground is lovely and soft from all the rain we've been having. It made digging the holes much easier. I managed to dig four out of the six holes by the time Ian finished fencing. Our neighbour Frank brought us over some worm fertiliser to put in the bottom of the trees holes. Frank manufactures worm tea, using Jossy's horse poo. Frank always brings us some of the finished product and it is amazing stuff. The plants love it and are all doing really well since we've begun using it.

Ian came and gave me a hand digging the last two holes, and then he dug one more for my new replacement frangipani tree. The builders destroyed my last frangipani tree when we were renovating. They leant an old fence against our back fence and it fell over and squished my old frangipani tree to the ground.

While Ian dug holes, I began to plant out the trees. The heaviest part of the whole process was breaking down the clods of clay and dirt so that it could be added to soil additive to make a nice mix for the trees.

Finally all the trees were planted and already they looked great. When the trees mature, it will be an awesome food source for the possums.

I weighed Tamigotchi and he now weighs just under 100 grams, so the new technique is working. He still doesn't seem to be enjoying his dinner, but he does get through it all. I tried introducing him to some leaves and he loved nibbling on them.

During the day, I mustn't have banded Saori's pouch well enough and she managed to squeeze her way out of the bag and then she sat herself in the basket, inside the cupboard. She didn't try to escape or go anywhere and she was very happy to see me when it was time for dinner.