Oyster farms

This is Beej here – reporting interesting information on oysters. This post was created because I was curious about oysters after seeing this:

Here is what we found out from www.oystersautralia.org.au .They get credit for all the info and pictures- except the oyster farm picture we took from the boardwalk.

We are only going to talk about Australian oysters.

 New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania produced almost all of the 16.45 million dozen oysters sold in 2007: 

There are two types of oysters that are native to Australia- the Sydney Rock Oysters and Angasi (flat) oysters.

Oysters are bivalves. They eat by filtering algae and stuff, like phytoplankton, from sea water.

Oysters need clear salt water at a specific pH and relatively warm  temp (14-30 Celsius).

Oysters change gender during their life (WHAT??)- females release up to 40 million eggs  and then the male releases over twice that many sperm to fertilize the eggs. Babies –called larvae or spat- settle on rocks and hard places to grow.

Oyster farms then relocate these spat to hatcheries (shown below) and then to the trays and baskets and rafts like the ones we saw from the boardwalk.

Oyster farming seems pretty easy because they don’t have to feed or use chemicals on the oysters. They just separate the oysters by size (this is usually done by machine) and get rid of the bad ones.

There are a few diseases that can harm or kill the oysters- but the diseases don’t affect humans. And sometimes bad weather is a problem for the oysters.

 

I have yet to taste raw oysters, but I think I would like to try them… have you eaten them? What did you think?

The Beach

The ocean is beautiful and it always reminds me of our creator’s amazing power!

Did you notice the surfers?

It was a bit chilly, but not freezing… the temperate is always reported in Celsius, and we still are working on making the numbers work in our Fahrenheit brains. I believe it was around 55degrees F on this day.

Essie and Beej worked on a sand castle with a moat; sadly there is no photographic record. L But hopefully they will get to make one again soon. Essie also spent most of her time collecting shells. She is definitely a ‘collector’ personality, just like The Oldest. She loved the feel of the waves splashing over her feet.

Beej ‘played’ with another pelican. The pelicans seem to be as curious about people as we are about them. We are keeping our distance though- they are huge!

Beej also loved the tide pools. This is one of his pictures…. He assures me that there is a crab in this pool picture, but I have not been able to find it.

We moved down the coast a bit and it became much rockier. It was beautiful!

We LOVED the beach at Merimbula!!

The Merimbula Boardwalk

Merimbula has a beautiful boardwalk… it was low tide when we went, thankfully- we didn't have to worry too much about slipping off the edges. J

And since it is the off-season, there were only a few other folks on the boardwalk with us. It was a fun adventure... I wish you hear the mockingbirds.

We had a great time climbing on the driftwood...

And looking at a different type of tree...

And we passed an oyster farm! We are looking forward to researching and learning more about oyster farms!

Finally, as we were leaving, some pelicans were attracted by the catch of a local fisherman.

The pelicans were hilarious and they got very close. It was a little intimidating, but everyone, even the pelicans behaved well.


Join us at the beach soon….

A few little differences...

Although it is wonderful to be travelling abroad in a country where we can understand the language and safely use the water, there are some small differences we have noticed- the accent, the animals, even the signs are just a few! So, we are going to back up a bit and, in true homeschooling fashion, share some of these oddities. There are a few signs we noticed immediately and the funny factor was greatly influenced by our age and fatigue factor. Bear with us:

*In the airport:
There are no restrooms… there are TOILETS


(Lesson on sanitation –I believe the Indus valley dwellers were the first to have a central sewage 
management system).


There are exits, but most of the time …. WAY OUT











(Lesson on direction and mapping skills)
*We could speak extensively about driving on the left side of the road .It was really unnerving- no, frankly it was terrifying in the beginning, so we won’t dwell on this. Suffice it to say, we are ALL very grateful for God’s provision and deliverance! (By all I mean ALL of the drivers in ALL of Australia!)

Some interesting traffic signs:

We don’t yield… we GIVE WAY

(Great opportunity to pull out scripture and apply a lesson on submission)
In Australia, we don’t pass another car… we OVERTAKE


The Oldest thought that sounded a little more aggressive than passing…. (another potential Devotional- and honestly when we got to this sign, after driving on the LEFT side of the road through town, we had all said multiple arrow prayers! You know - the prayer you shoot up when you need to be refocused on the Lord quickly!!)

There may be deer crossings at home, but here there are KANGAROO CROSSINGS and WOMBAT CROSSINGS here. YIKES- these rodents are huge!




(Insert lessons on habitat and God’s amazing creation)

*And at the grocery store:
They don’t have carts or buggies at the grocery store, they have TROLLEYS.


(You could do a physics lesson on these babies; they will slide in any direction- not just forward and backward. Way cool!!)




*The Money is also really different… it has a little window.

(This might be a good opportunity to do a short lesson on exchange rates, beginning with the development of the bartering system which grew into currency and how that went on to influence the industrial revolution. This influences our culture today…sorry, got a little carried away).

We learned there are nicknames for their money… $10 note is called a Smurf (it is blue), a $20 note is called a Red Back (clearly it is red J), and the $50 note is called a Pineapple (it is yellow). Just for the record, we have not used these terms in conversation- but it is now on our bucket list. HA

*And finally... We LOVE the accent. We love it! Although there are not pictures, Essie has begun talking in a really bad Aussie accent. It started as a bad British accent, and then somehow morphed into something really disturbing… I am sure she will have it down by the time we get back home.

Some slang terms: Parent's please note: there seems to be a large number of inappropriate Australian slang terms... please do not let your children search for Australian slang terms without supervision.

Billabong- it is a creek that changed course and left a little pond – ish
Billly – a teapot
Bikkie-biscuitBoomer, Buck- male kangaroo- huge
Brekkie- breakfast
Footy- Australian rules football- a game with a ball similar to our football, but similarities end there- no pads, very large men crashing into each other.
Jumbuck- a sheep
Lollies- any candy (you see Lolly shops everywhere)
No worries- response to thank you, No problem
G’day- Hello
Cheers- kind of like goodbye… but different
All the Best- it’s like ‘have a nice day’… except they mean it. ;)

(Of course a language study could ensue....or the evolution of slang.)

All the Best...

Satay, Seagulls and Kangaroos

Hey Guys! This is the tall one, Mom asked me to tell you about our second day in Merimbula.

First off we went to a cool bar and grill by the bay for some lunch. Mom got a steak, Essie got an openfaced chicken and bacon sandwich, I got a Satay, (think gormet kabob), and Beej, Dad and The Grump got fish and chips. Everything was delicious!

We went down by the bay next. The bay at Meribula is really cool. It is directly connected to the ocean, but it is almost completely cut off from the sea by a sand bar, so it is really calm. We saw some seagulls, a quail thing, two pretty big pelicans, some cormorants, and a couple black swans (those were Mom's favourites). We also looked around in a rock pool, and took some pictures on a dock. We were all surprised, it being winter here and all, to see some really cool flowers as well.

After the bay we drove down to the Panboola Bird reserve, while we didn't see many birds (just some Magpies, they are kinda like crows, except not quite as ugly sounding) we did see two ginormous kangaroos.

Well, I believe someone else is going to tell you about what we did the next day; at the seashore and on the board walk.

See you around! 

Relaxing Adventure

Our Traveler Extraordinaire (aka Dad) spent many hours searching and researching as he looked for the perfect place for us to ‘land’.  He found the most wonderful resort… with breathtaking views, amazingly friendly and helpful staff and very comfy sleeping arrangements.  We were ready for a long rest!

We had a deck off the back of our bungalow, and from there we saw beautiful sunrises like this one:

And sunshiney afternoon views like this:

And glorious evening oceans scenes like this:

I wish you were here to hear the sounds of the waves and gulls and to feel the stiff ocean breezes blowing in the fresh salt air. There was dolphin that came to play in our ‘backyard’ each morning. We tried to get pictures of him, but he was too quick. J We heard that in a few months the whales will begin moving up the coast and you can just step out on the deck and see them. What an amazing country this is!

We will show you our adventures ‘in town’ soon.

Here we go...

Here we go...

Many of our friends and family have asked to join our latest journey- which just happens to take us down under to Australia. It seems like a good time to enter the cyber realm with our adventures.

We began with a car ride to a large city, an overnight hotel stay, juggling a ton of luggage....

and an extensive delay (so extensive we had to take a later flight) at check in before Essie's first airplane ride. She was pretty excited. After a quick bite in the connecting airport, we were on our way to Sydney. It feels a little surreal- we never dreamed the Lord would open doors for our whole family to travel to Australia. But here we are!

We made a quick stop at a little coffee shop. The mochas, hot chocolates, meat pies, quiche and muffins were amazing!(my tall children tell me that foodie pictures are required on blogs so here you go...

We drove down to Merimbula on the Sapphire coast-Not a trip for the faint of heart (total travel time from home... about 38 hours), but the rewards are amazing!! We can't wait to show you more pictures and share more adventures!