Perhaps I am winning.

I will begin this post with another gratuitous picture.
The deer in this shot have been transient in this area for several years. We have seen one or two on an infrequent basis. However in the last month or so they seem to have taken up residence. And in somewhat larger numbers. I first saw, and photographed, this group of four on 27th of October of this year at 7.30 in the morning. And now they have started to appear all over the place. We now seem to have a group of five or six who can often be seen down near our bore. And the resident mob don't include the two bucks seen in this picture. And I had to dodge another one when on the way into town a couple of weeks ago- in the mid morning. That animal was about 8 or 9 clicks from here on the road near Little Burra Road. So far I haven't noticed any roadkill deer but it is probably only a matter of time.
I suppose we should be attempting to control deer as they are feral but I can't bring myself to do so. Bit too cute and cuddly. Also it would be a waste not to eat them if shot and I don't really fancy the whole business.

And so back to the aquaponics.
In the last month or so things seem to have finally begun to show the sort of growth in both plants and fish that I have always thought were possible.
My little heater for the fish water is getting the temperatures up into the low to mid 20s and this is clearly better for the fish. They are eating lots of pellets and on one or two occasions were so hungry that they even came to the surface for food. This is unusual with my Silver Perch which would have to be the most "chicken" fish I could have picked. Some guests don't believe that I have fish as they have not seen them- even when standing right next to the tank!
I have again tried and failed to get adequate pictures- the fish are too nervous and the light levels are too low. Even my new "you beaut" digital SLR camera can't catch them. However just to prove that they are there I have included a fairly poor shot taken a week or so ago. The biggest are probably now close to 140mm in length- basically about a hands length long and perhaps half a hand wide. They are quite deep in the body. When viewed from above they look to be perhaps 25mm or so "fat". The smallest are still only 60mm or so long- looks like we will have a good long period of harvest. The white stuff to the left of the picture is out of focus azolla.

The vegies in the grow beds are growing well- we have had lots of peas and lettuce so far this month. The asian greens are again doing well as is the spinach. I have also planted some chillies for colour. Went shopping to a garden centre the other day and I couldn't resist them.

I am convinced that my last major problem with the whole setup is not enough light. The plants grow but they struggle with , at best, only 4 or 5 hours a day of full sun. I don't want to put more polycarbonate onto the roof- it is a shed after all and sun in not good for all the other things stored in there. Solution may be to simply grow plants which tolerate lower light.
The last picture shows various lettuces and some beans and peas which are doing well. This is the third lot of peas Di has planted. Actually it is the fourth but the third turned out to be sweet peas which were incorrectly labelled.

The outside azolla production is going very well. I am no longer harvesting and drying for the fish as I have a 10 litre bucket of dried leaf in stock. However the new chooks go bananas over fresh azolla. So they get a small bucketfull most days. All from the 1200 litre stock trough. The growth in the blue barrels is disappointing and I will have to work out how to improve that. I suspect that the water gets too hot as it is shallow and in full sun- perhaps a little shade cloth cover might be the go.

We had about 7mm of rain last night but it is still very much drought here and again I am reminded of the need to be conservative with our water. And so aquaponics must be one of the answers.