RainCalendar.com – The Free Rain and Weather Database For Farmers, Students, Schools and Weather Watchers
Here is a Rain and Weather Calendar I have just made for Farmers, Students, Schools and Weather Watchers.
It is totally free!
Please share with your friends!
Rain And Weather Calendar Screenshot
I decided to design the Rain and Weather Calendar, because I feel it would be of excellent use to mainly Australian Farmers who rely on the Weather for their crops, such as Wheat, Barley, Lupins, Corn and all other seed crops, so they can hopefully have a successful year from their crops, thanks to good and reliable rains and sunshine.
With the way Climate Change is affecting the Earth, I think it is imperative to track rainfall statistics, so you can compare this years rains, to next years and the many more years to come.
I carried out some research on the internet, for other rain and weather calendars, which are similar to mine, and I just cannot find any, apart from the normal paper calendars that you hang up on your wall and never use.
I also feel that this calendar would be perfect for kids, students, teachers and schools for an education tool. Kids just love the weather, and this spreadsheet would be perfect for a year long science project for students aged anywhere from 10 years of age, up to 17 years of age.
The Rain and Weather Calendar has taken many hours to design, but no matter how many hours and days it took to get to the stage where I am happy with it.
Thats why this calendar is free, so it can help farmers, educate kids and students about the weather.
So please feel free to download the calendar, if you do use it, please let as many of your friends know about it as possible.
Please feel free to pass this link on to all your friends, whom you feel could make some use of this weather calendar
If you are a school teacher, and feel you could use this for your kids science projects next year, please let me know that you plan on using it, as I would love to know that it will be used for kids to learn about the weather!
Thanks Everyone
Billy
Western Ring Tailed Possums in Dumbleyung
Yesterday I was on my way out of Dumbleyung to do some metal detecting for lost coins and jewellery, and only 500 metres from the townsite I came across and dead Western Ring Tailed Possum on the road, it had sadly been killed by a car or a truck.
Rare Western Ring Tailed Possum - Roadkill - Found in Dumbleyung
I have lived in Dumbleyung for 38 years and not once have I ever seen a possum in the town, so even though it was dead, it is still a great sign to have these rare and endangered species on our doorstep.
I may go through a walk in the bush, near where I found it, to see if I can see any Ring Tailed Possum Nests around, I hope so, that would be great, probably a good idea to go at night time also, with the torch … more of a chance to see one in the trees at night, as they are a nocturnal species (Night Active)
Ringtail Possum Nest
Western ringtails are rare possums that face the threat of extinction due to a loss of habitat to human urbanization. This species is located in the peppermint woodlands in the southwest areas of Western Australia. The rapid decline of this species can be accounted for by the primary predator of the western ringtail possum-the fox. There are few efforts being made to preserve the natural habitat of the western ringtail possum. There is limited information on this species.
The western ringtail possum likes to nest in the hollows of old peppermint trees. Nests are lined with leaves for a cushion. Western ringtail possums are nocturnal animals. Families can be seen together while foraging for food and at nesting sites.
Western ringtails have thick grey hair with some intermingled brown fur throughout; the brown is more prominent closer to the underbelly. The underbelly is white as is the bottom half of the tail. A ring of black fur is present around the eyes. The average tail pf a western ringtail possum measures about the same as the head and body. Both parts measure about 350mm. Ringtail possums weigh 900g on average.
Leaves, flowers, and fruit are eaten in addition to various other types of plant material. Food is found in shrubbery near the nest.
Mating occurs fall through spring and females only produce one young in that time. Little else is known about the breeding habits of western ringtail possums. Source: Australian Fauna
I rang up the Department of Environment and Conversation in Katanning today to report the find and they were really nice and appreciated my phonecall and emailed me a Threatened Fauna Species Report Form, which I will fill out tomorrow and send it back to them with the required details they need.
Western Ringtail Possum
They also informed me that if people ever come across dead endangered animals on the road, or in the bush etc that a good thing to do, is the bag and freeze the animal and ring up the Western Australian Museum to see if they would like the animal, for research purposes.
More info on Western Australian Possums
Below is a Threatened Species Report Form, for you to fill out in case you come across any endangered only roadkill.
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND LAND MANAGEMENT File #_____________________
FAUNA REPORT FORM
Threatened or Priority o Feral o Other o Database # _________________
species_____________ no. seen:_____
distinguishing features observed:_____ _____________
_____________
certainty of identification: o Very certain o Moderately certain o Not sure
collector/observer:_____________ phone no:_____________ survey date:_____________ Time:________
shire:_____________ calm district:
site location:
_____________
map ref: Map Datum: AGD84 o WSG84 o GDA94 o
(Complete one line only) DCLM map name: FD Grid Reference
or Latitude oo° oo’ oo” S Longitude ooo° oo’ oo” E
or MGA Zone: 49 o 50 o 51 o Easting oooooo Northing ooooooo
land status:
o State Forest o Nature Reserve o National Park o Conservation Park o Private Property
o Unallocated Crown Land o Road Verge MRD/Shire o Pastoral Lease o Other o Unknown
observation/collection method:
o Daylight sighting o Night sighting o Heard o Caught or trapped o Shot o Poisoned
o Road kill o Dead o Droppings o Feathers o Bones o Diggings
o Other_________________________________________________________________________________________
observation:
What was the animal doing?
age and sex:
No. of Adults: ________Male ________Female ________Sex unknown
No. of Juveniles: ________Male ________Female ________Sex unknown
breeding:
o Pregnant o Lactating o Mating o Male in breeding colours o Eggs/young in nest o Other
landform type:
o Flat o Gully o Lake o Cliff o Rocky outcrop o Other________________
o Slope o Swamp o River o Ridge o Sand dune
vegetation type:
o Forest o Grassland Significant species 1___________________________________
o Woodland o Sedgeland 2___________________________________
o Mallee o Rock communities 3___________________________________
o Tall Shrubland o Wetland 4___________________________________
o Heathland o Other_________________ _____________ 5___________________________________
fire history:
o Not known Year burnt Month (approx)
o Next prescribed burn: Year Month
current land use:
o Nature Conservation o Agriculture o Pastoralism o Mining o Forestry/Multiple purpose o Recreation o Other
_____________
Specimen: o Collected as voucher Catalogue number:____________________________________
o Retained by collector o WA Museum o Other o Not retained
attached: o Map o Mud map o Photo o Notes
action, taken/required:___________
_____________
other comments: __
_____________
copy sent to: o Regional Office o District Office o Head Office
Signed:_____________ Date:_________
Recycle your household waste with a Garden Mulcher
Using My Mulcher to recycle cardboard and newspaper for my vegetable garden
There is nothing worse than than spending all weekend tidying up your garden, pruning your fruit trees, raking up leaves and then having to load up your trailer and take all the clippings and prunings to the rubbish tip.
To save doing this, why don’t you invest in a garden mulcher, you can not only mulch up all your prunings, clippings and leaves, but you can use your mulcher to recycle your newspapers, cardboard boxes, all types of paper and cardboard and well as all your kitchen food scraps.
Feeding the Cardboard into the Garden Mulcher
It is a fantastic way of putting back to the earth where it has come from, and creating excellent garden mulch for your garden beds, your vegetable patch and much more.
a good one is not that cheap, mine cost me $1400… but worth the investment!
The Dying Earth – Salinty in Australia
A Once healthy landscape - now Salinity affected
I have spent most of my life in Rural Australia, apart from the time I spent in the Australian Defence Force, and now I am back in the country for the rest of my life.
When I was a child, I remember playing out the bush, like all country kids did back in my younger days, there was no computer games, no dvd movies, no foxtel.
We had to entertain ourselves, by going out to the bush exploring, riding our chopper bicycles for miles and miles, taking packed lunches, going on picnics, catching frogs and tadpoles and so much more, just like you did if your were a born and bred country kid before the video game generation arrived.
And don’t get me wrong alot of kids still do this, but most kids these days would rather hibernate in their bedrooms, playing X-Box and playstation games.
The bush in my day was such a beautiful place, full of nature, birds, kangaroos, reptiles, frogs, beautiful wildflowers, everything that you would expect from a healthy eco system.
But now things have change dramatically, our land is dying, not from drought, but from Salinty , the bush playground where my friends and I would spend weekends and after school exploring has is quickly dying, the once rich brown healthy and fertile soil, is now has layers crusty white salt on the top soil, when you walk on it, it sounds like crunching snow beneath your feet.
Layers of Salty Crust
The once beautiful tall eucalyptus trees have died, and turned a ghosty grey colour, with the insides being eating away by termites, and what remaining surving trees and slowly following the same path.
There still are alot of healthy trees remaining, in patches of soil, not yet affected by the salinity which is rising just below the surface of the topsoil.
I remember seeing beautiful Mallee Fowls in that patch of bushland when I was a small child, I had no clue what they were at the time, my friends and I thought they were some kind of wild chicken and we always tried to catch them, but to know avail.
The salinity has killed off many native species in my district, there are no more mallee fowls, many bird species, frogs species and marsupial species have disappeared.
I go on my drives in my trusty old holden ute around the distric, and I see the land changing, the erosion of soil, the once fresh water rivers which no longer exist.
The are no fresh water rivers in this district any more, or in any parts of the Upper Great South Southern in Western Australia anymore.
It is so sad, the once fresh water rivers are now white with layers of salt and when it rains, the rivers do not flow like they did so many years ago. This is because of all of the silt which has built up over time, or because farmers unknowingly stopped the flow of rivers due to the clearing of their land, or because the river beds were used as rubbish dumps.
The chemicals used by farmers also poison the soil, and when it rains, the chemicals on the cropped paddocks leach into the rivers, killing off many species. obviously once one species has died off, then it affects the whole food chain and eco system.
100 years ago my district was founded by early Settlers looking for the promise of a new life, a life of farming and prosperity, millions upon millions of trees and species of flora was torn away from the land, so the farmers could sow their crops. Little did they no what damage that would do to the land in 100 years.
Because so many trees where removed from the land and that land was rapidly turned into millions upon millions of acres of cleared land for the purpose of growing wheat and barley crops, the native earth could not cope with what damage was being done.
It only took around 50 years for the signs of salinty to apprear, 50 years from a healthy eco system to a state of no return.
This is a basic explanation of how Salinty occurs:
In a healthy bush land some taller trees have roots so deep that they get a lot of the water they need from that groundwater and these trees pump this water into the atmosphere. Groundwater also flows out, often very slowly, through springs, streams and rivers.
But what do you think might happen if too many trees and shrubs have been cleared? Where will the water that soaks into the soil go? It just keeps going down. But what if the groundwater can’t flow away fast enough? What might happen to this groundwater?
Well, the groundwater just collects where it is. This means that after a while, there is too much groundwater, so it starts rising towards the surface because there is nowhere else for it to go.
But it isn’t just a case of too much water. As the groundwater rises, it also dissolves the salts in the soil, and that salt comes to the surface too. The result? – topsoil that gets saltier and saltier and saltier. Source: http://environment.gov.au/education/publications/salinity.html
Some farmers do take the salinty problem seriously by planting trees on their land near where the salinty in affecting their land, but there are many farmers out there who just ignore it, and think it of it as a problem which might suddenly go away.
You can see the farmers who care, you drive on the main roads past their farms, and you can see where they have planted thousands of trees to try and stop the salinity from spreading and then you drive past other farms which are saltinity affected and nothing has been done to try and curb the onset of salinity.
Can this Salinity problem ever be solved? Personally I don’t think so, the damage is done and it is irrepairable.
New generation technoloy Gene Scientists are funded by the Australian Goverment with tens of millions dollars to research ways with Gene Technology to make various types of wheat and barley that will grow in salt affected soil. And once the right gene is found that will enable wheat or barley to grow in salt affected soil, that means that the soil will once again be ploughed, filled with chemicals and more damage done.
Instead of doing this, why don’t they research ways of re-planting native plants and trees in the salt affected soil, so the land can once again be rich and healthy and filled with the flora and fauna which once inhabitated the area.
This is a crisis which has risen to the point of no-return in my opinion.
It saddens me, it angers me and it embarrasses me, I feel ashamed to see the damage which is being done to our once beautiful land.
Salinity Affected Dead Trees - A Common Western Australian Site
Going Green!
Over the past year I have turned my garden into a Frog friendly garden, I have made some nice ponds, planted around 200 Australian Native Plants.
I am now breeding heaps of Frogs in my garden, all my ponds are full of hundreds of Tadpoles!
There is nothing better than going out to the yard at night with a torch and spotlighting for frogs, when it rains, the lawn has many frogs bouncing around.
It is also great to see Frogs breeding and laying eggs in the water or amongst the native grasses in the water.
I only have Tadpoles, no fish of anykind.
I have also recently bought a Mulcher, so I can Mulch all the leaves I rake up and tree prunings and cuttings I do, that way instead of taking the cuttings out the local rubbish tip, I can just mulch it all up and throw it on the garden or make new garden beds with it.
The mulcher can also mulch up newspaper, cardboard, and food scraps, so that way I can also throw this in the garden, back to earth so to speak, with it going out the rubbish dump to be burnt.
I bought my Mulcher from Mowers and Mulchers in Bentley, Perth
I spent a couple thousand dollars on all native Australian plants, so that will reduce my water bill, not having to water them too much. As well as that I have small rainwater tanks underneath each house rain downpipe, so that way instead of the water being washed down the drain, I can use it to water my plants.
I bought all my natives from Lullfitz Nursery in Wanneroo, Perth… they specialise in Australian Natives, watch out for their %50 off everything specials! You can get alot of plants for $500.
Just this week I have planted my winter crop of vegetables, so lets hope in a few months time, I wont have to waste my money on expensive vegetables.
I am also planning on getting a couple of chooks (chickens) soon, that way I can rely on their beautiful fresh eggs on a daily basis and they can eat my food scraps.
In my town we have a Roadship Recyclable Wheelie Bin pickup every second Wednesday, I take the recycling very seriously, and it is just amazing, 90% of the stuff I used to throw away, now gets recycled, which makes me feel great and helps the earth in just a tiny way, but I suppose it all adds up and I am not the only one doing this.
Next time you throw something away, think about which bin you should put it in … the recycle bin or the junk bin!
Here are some of the Species of Western Australian Frogs I have found in my garden recently.
