Jodik...For some reason, I find spiders on the stairway to the basement. Where it's dark. There's a closet at the bottom where Christmas and Halloween decorations are stored. The spiders love it down there. I'm afraid to remove ornaments for fear a spider will be in a box..lol On the other hand, in our front plant room, where it's bright, spiders make webs behind a large shelf, usually wall corners. I don't know if they're spider webs or or cobwebs..are they the same? Once in a while a baby spider is hidden in the corner walls. It's hard cleaning behind the shelf since there's very little space. The shelf is wide, about 2" from one side of the wall across to the other. Oh God, yes, this old house has many openings. Far too many. If I knew how to fix them I would. My brother lives in a secured Condo..last summer a bat somehow got inside. They believe it snuck in through their exhaust fan. Tropic..your friends are very kind-hearted. They'll be rewarded. We have a couple rescue shelters that take in injured wildlife..This organization nurses wounded animals then releases them in the forest/wooded areas after they're healed. How big was the crocodile? I don't know what feral Cane Toads are. Does Cane Toad look like most other toads? Warty, etc. Do toads bite? Is biting how toads attack turtles and get venom inside their system? The pen you constructed is inside your house? Wow..Cool. lol. Have a picture? LOL, turtle couldn't care less about your landscaping. Do Cane Toads live inside your house, too? If so, how do you keep them from entering the pen? Lol, wildlife allows you to live in 'their' home. lol. I'll have to Google, Butcherbirds. Never heard the type. Why are they called Butcherbirds? A name that includes butcher, well, these birds don't sound very friendly. lol. Millipedes might be harmless in the way of venom, but if a huge 'pede crawled on me I'd pass out. Oh, getting goose bumps thinking about it. lol. Although Carpet Python is colorful, beautiful in fact, I could do without..lol. Spying a CS at the zoo would be fine, but not living in the house. Tropic, what's with the snakes? If you don't mind me asking. Milking spiders..when a spider is going to be milked, espeially after agitating him/her, how does the milker near the spider w/o getting bit? Very dangerous career if you ask me..hope milkers have sufficient health care. Larry..Go to Nam..you'll find two-foot pedes. My dh was in VN..they came across a 2' 'pede. Don't know if it was a millipede or centipede, only that it was huge. Dh said, although the body was 2', its legs were about 4-inches. Where does one keep a 'pede that big? lol. Toni Yuck..the delivery spider truck driver delivers a quart of leggy creatures. lol.

Squonnk & whip1 - I am of like mind - I am very big into personal responsibility - which makes me a very odd attorney - & probably the reason why I don't do personal injury work. I knew when I signed up that there would be rules - and I do enjoy many many benefits of a HOA - which has a little to do w/snow removal & the pool & stuff, and more to do w/close-by great neighbors who are always watching out for each other's homes, etc. So, I am completely ok w/being responsible for my decision to buy into a HOA & for the negatives that go with it. My posting was really more of a vent than a "blame game" sort of thing. And, I usually need to vent a little before I come up w/my desired solution - which was to calmly tell my neighbor - the HOA Pres - which I did today - that if it were up to me, I would keep the trees & I would solve his "grass" problem by - installing a retaining wall to level the grade, keep the mega lawn mower off that small area to stop the compaction, and plant shade-friendly stuff. He said his wife agreed w/me :) I felt sooo much better after I talked to him - but I'm also glad I didn't talk to him right away b/c the litigator in me would have ripped his head off. He then told me that the HOA committee is in such a confused state that they can't even decide whether to spend $600 in annuals for the front area - sooo, that left me feeling that it was unlikely that they would get their act together any time soon to make a major tree removal, wall installation, and extensive shrubbery installation decision. BTW, when I noted all of the reasons why to do it my way, he said that one reason he wanted the extra 2 hrs of sunlight (4 - 6 pm) was to "dry out" the grass that IS backc there b/c it gets so waterlogged everytime it rains. First, it would be good if they turned off the automatic sprinklers back there. Second, he completely doesn't understand what I now know THANKS TO THE SOIL FORUM - that poor drainage has nothing to do with the sun and EVERYTHING to do with the SOIL. I feel so blessed to have been introduced to you guys! Thanks! All the Best, Tree

Yes they are a bit destructive, no need to get into your pots, what you need are some Noisy Miners around your area. They are very territorial and will not let any big birds on my block, they also live in harmony with lots of the smaller birds, like the parrots and Lorikeets. The only good thing they do is prune the top of the natives I do realise that they make a mess but the trees seems to do better for it and it used to save us hand pruning, so now hubby had to get up on a ladder a few weeks back and do the work they used to do seeing our Grevillea's were getting very leggy. I remember last year they were starting to make a terrible mess of my giant sunflowers till the little birds drove them away. Marvelous what nature does all the same. Cheers..MM.

Freddy wants to be a really big boy! mine is not doing at all well in his pot, so I either need to find somewhere in the ground or throw him out... Love your yard btw; it looks nice and jungly enough to be cool in summer. Black Cockatoos are wonderful! we don't get them in the wild this far east tho; it's just Cockies, Galahs and Rosellas here. Mainly Cockies- they hang out in the local golf course, but there havent been any backyard visitations since the great sunflower raid a couple of years back, but seeing as I went overboard with a packet of seeds this year..who knows. I did see one obstinately hanging on to his perch on the overhead power lines outside the house while being divebombed by several Magpies earlier this Spring. He lasted a whole ten minutes before they succeeded in scaring him off