Today my mum took me to a wildlife rescuers training session with Wildlife Rescuers. They invited me to come back in February when I first met Andrew from there. He was the second person that I ever delivered linen to. We delivered They talked to you about the two different rescuers you can be. You can be a Transporter which picks up the animals from the vet and takes them to the carer or you can be a rescuer so you can rescue a animal and take it to the vet. They talked about birds, kangaroos, wombats, echidna, turtles, snakes and lizards. They showed us what is in a rescue kit. They taught us what to do if you find wildlife injured. I saw video of doing pouch checks- it was very good to see. Listening to Sharon and Andrew talk was great- they are very good at presentations and they are good friends. They were very funny at times too.
They were selling wildlife kits for $30 dollars and tops for $10 dollars. I bought both.
I really enjoyed seeing Andrew, Kyristi amd Sharon there.

Things I want to add to my kit

• blanket- so I can catch and animal or even move a big animal or cover my basket to make it dark for the animal
  
• torches- so I can see at night
  
• first aid kit- to treat myself if I need to
  
• wire cutters- so I can cut fences if I need to
  
• binoculars- so I can watch animals from far away
  
• hand cleaner- you need to wash before and after to you touch any animal
  

I had never heard anything about echidnas. Sharon has had some rescues with them.  She was very funny when she talked about them.
Did you know that

• echidnas don't have a pouch? They have a little "flap." 
  
• A baby echidna is called a Puggle.
  
• Mums don't have teats to feed their puggles. They have milk that comes through their skin/fur on their tummy. Their fur gets wet (like a sponge) and the puggle then licks it.
  
• It can take hours to pick up an echidna. You have to be very patient and careful. They are very strong when they roll into their ball or burrow down to protect themselves.
  
• Don't ever put one on your back seat in a box. It will go through the box and will then burrow into your car seat. They have had to pull car seats out of the cars to get them.
  

2017 when I first met Andrew and Sharon from Wildlife Rescuers. Andrew was the first Shelter that I visited and first rescuer that I ever met.

Thank you to 1st Greenhills Scout Group for letting me come and do a talk. I enjoyed talking to you all and sharing my message. It was my first time using my new presentation cards. I thought everyone listened very well and learned a lot. I enjoyed watching everyone make a pouch. I thought they were amazing. I taught them about what a pouch looks like and explained why they are round. They liked the way I described how you hold a baby and how a joey lies in its mums pouch.

I explained about my wombat project. How volunteers treat the mange and what mange it. I talked to them about cutting plastic rings off vegemite jars etc and elastic bands before throwing them out and explained why it was important to do it. (For those that don't know- they can end up in our waterways and can get stuck around the neck of wildlife and kill them eg: platypus, birds, ducks etc). They loved the little wombat burrow flap that my mum and I made. Even the parents that were there thought it was amazing.

I showed them what a barb wire fence looks like and explained to them why it is bad. (For those that don't know- barb wire on the top of fences is very dangerous for wildlife. Like a kangaroo- they jump these fences and sometimes their feet clip them and cut them. If untreated- they can die from bad cuts. Or worse- they can get stuck in them and be left there hanging to die). Farmers don't need to use these types of fences- there are other options for fencing that won't kill our wildlife.

I taught them about where my pouches go and what they use them for. On the way home my brother wanted to sew more pouches. He wants to sew now. My mum had a message from a mum of a cub that was there- he is 8 and wants to sew pouches now too. If I get one kid from each talk want to do something- it is pretty amazing.

The district scout leader was there on the night. He said that my presentation was VERY good, he was amazed by it. He said it would be good for me to talk to other groups and the leader said that her daughter does girl guides- she was going to talk to them about having me do a talk for them.

I love to talk to kids about what I do, so if you live within 1hr of Diamond Creek Victoria and would like me to come and talk to a group, I would love to hear from you: you can contact my mum, Rebecca  [email protected]

I have lots of projects at the moment. here is a quick list of them

 I have been invited to 2 scout groups to do a conservation talk. One of the groups I am going to show them how to make Wildlife Rescue Pouches- we are going to sew some.

Last month we had an overlocker donated to us. It was from a lady that lives in Arthurs Creek. It used to be her mums. She had it sitting in her shed. She did not know how to use it and didn't know if it worked or not but she was confident that it would. We had another lady offer to take a look at it. It was all stuck. She cleaned it and then it worked. We went to her house and she showed us how to use it. My dad had a turn doing it. I didn't want to because I had never sewn before. Then when we got home dad showed me. It was really easy. I started with thin material and then started doing thick wooly fabrics. I can not make my own pouches. They are very easy with an overlocker.
This weekend I am making special pouches for Christine at Coopers Animal Refuge. These are sample ones mum made to make sure they were right. They ARE!! Christine gave us material- she just needed someone to make them. We came up with a pattern with her.

I am collecting milk/juice lids to make wombat flaps. The flaps go on burrows and treat wombats for mange. If they don't get treatment, it kills them. Volunteers use these to treat them. I have a couple of local café's that are helping my by keeping their lids.

If you want to help you too can collect caps. You can contact your local wildlife group and they will be able to tell you where to send them to help wombats near you. Or you can drop them to 16 Parook Court, Diamond Creek VIC. There is a donation bin there.

THANK YOU to these businesses that are helping me (click in image for their facebook)

I sell Apples, Pears and eggs from local farmers to raise money for koala conservation and rescues. For the first two weeks of July- all my money that I raised selling apples, pears and eggs was donated to Hamilton Wildlife Shelter. A lady that cares for Koala's by the name of Janet, was in need of some money to pay vet bills and other costs that she had looking after some koalas. This ones name is Maise. I donated $110.00.

This month I got some very nice donations to help me. Thank you to these two businesses for their support.

September is SAVE THE KOALA MONTH. I am once again raising money for the Australian Koala Foundation all through September. My goal is at least $360 which will pay for me to continue to "adopt" Misty from Dreamworld. The Australian Koala Foundation do so many great things for koala conservation. I am happy I can help them again. I will be at two local festivals raising money plus all the money I raise from my produce sales will be included. I have heaps of these boxes, I want to go to some local businesses and ask if they will put them on their counters for me for the month. I hope some of them can help me.
You can donate to my fundraiser online https://www.gofundme.com/libby-s-koala-crusade
Or if you would like a donation box- please contact us [email protected]

Koala Clancy Foundation are planting trees in koala habitat in the You Yang's Victoria. I go every second Sunday and help them plant seedlings. Since June, we have planted more than 800 trees. They hope to plant 2,000 by the end of August.

Today my friend Ruby and I went to the You Yang's to plant for Koala Clancy. When we arrived it was so very cold. We were planting on the other side of the river. Luckily I had gumboots so I could cross. Two or three other people had gumboots too. The water nearly went all the ways up to my gumboots. Every time someone crossed I would have to get the gumboots off that person and then walk back again and give them to some one else. We planted thirty one trees. That is the most trees that we have ever planted.
When we went koala hunting we found Clancy first. He wasn't doing anything exciting. the only thing he was doing was sitting in the tree eating some leaves. As we left we walked right in to another koala called Kiki. She was in a tree very close to Clancy. Kiki was very active until some hikers came and she stopped and went to bed. We said goodbye to Kiki asnd walked back to have lunch.

When we got back Janine started a game where you have to act like a koala because they have very good hearing and a great sence of smell. Janine got leaves and her phone, she handed the leaf out to everyone. you had to smell in and guess what type of tree it is from. then she played a recording of birds and you had to guess how many birds you thought there were. 

after the game we went home.

On the school holidays mum took my brother and I to Toolangi State Forest. It is less than an hour from my home.
It was very cold. She took me up there so I could see what logging is. We drove around the forest looking for a clear area. We didn't realise that we drove past a really big area where they had logged. We saw the Kalatha Giant Tree which is thought to be 300-400 years old. The trunk was so big and to see to the top you had to almost lay down. It was the biggest tree I have ever seen.
We saw three logging areas. We would be driving along a dirt road through dark forest and then it would suddenly get more sunny- this was where they had logged trees. We didn't see one of the logging areas because they had blocked it off with a big tree, surrounded it with sticks and tried to hide it. But we saw it. We parked the car and got out to go look. This is where these photos are taken. We walked up to the logged area. It made me feel like I don't like people that do this. It made feel really sad. It was such a mess left behind. When we were walking through the tracks the trucks had made, it felt like spongy carpet- this was all the wood chips mulched down. There was HUGE piles of the beautiful trees.
DID YOU KNOW- they only take the tree trunk? They leave all the branches and leaves there. What a waste. It was so messy- imagine if people like you or me did that to a forest. We would be in so much trouble.
Just think- you are wiping your bottom and blowing your nose and writing on paper made by these tree trunks.
As we were trying to walk back to the car, mum slipped. She didn't want to drop the camera but she slipped on her bottom. It was very funny.
Seeing a forest logged was just terrible. Who in their right minds would want to do this? NOT ME! I wish everyone could see this for themselves. You really must see this to understand how bad this is. I wish the lady (Minister for Energy, Environment & Climate Change, Lily D'ambrosio) would say it is not ok to log our forests. Because animals live in there. Without trees there is no oxygen and without oxygen there is no people and without trees there are no animals either.
If you can go and see this PLEASE DO! I think kids should see it too. We all need to learn ways to work with our environment and ways to help it.

WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS LOGGING COUPE?
CLICK HERE to see maps and information

the car looking for a texter and paper so we could draw a map of were the kangaroo was. As we were tying the map to the gate the owners of the land came. We told them what had happened and he opened the gate so when the rescuer comes they could drive down to the kangaroo. we were waiting for nearly two hours and mum was calling the ranger to find out when they were coming. we didn't want to leave until we knew someone was coming.
To make it easy for him to find the kangaroo- we tried to describe it on the phone but we also left markers for him on the road and the farmers gate.
We-

• left a red ribbon on a speed sign near the gate
• used the bottom piece of plastic from a enviro bag to write a map for the ranger
• left our phone number again
  

the start was still there waitng, suzy said that kangaroo is probably his mate.  I watched her try and get close to him and try and cover him with a blanket. She wanted to sedate him so that she could check on him. She was able to give him an injection. We watched for a few minutes as he got calm. she was then able to go up and check him over. She showed us his back leg- it was MASSIVE. it had so much infection in it. it was really sad. suzy said the injuryed kangroo couldn't be saved so she had to stop his pain by putting him to sleep. suzy said the worst part of her job was having to kill the animal. she was very good with him. I watched her help this kangaroo the whole time. It made me very sad that he could not be saved but like my mum and suzy said, he would have been in a lot of pain, he had been suffering for a while and now he was pain free. I didn't like this part of rescues and I now know how hard being a rescuer is. So many end like this- I am just happy that we found this kangaroo- he was dying a slow and horrible death.

Today i learned a few more HANDY things to have in the car so that if you find an animal and can't wait around for help

• a texta
  
• a piece of plastic (maybe from an enviro bag) to draw a map or write a note- being on plastic it won't matter if it rains
  
• a coat hanger - we used this to hang our sign on the farm gate
  
• thick strips of bright coloured fabric (to leave as markers for rescuers)
  We had towels and a blanket just in case too but we didn't want to try and get too close to this injured kangaroo so we waited for help instead.

We saw these kangaroos near our home when we first went out to look for the injured kangaroo. Mum has a new camera- we stopped to take photos. There was a HUGE and I mean HUGE male kangaroo. You can see him in the photo's standing on his back legs. His tail was so thick and he had really ripply muscles. I couldn't believe how big he was. There was also a few joey's in pouches. they were big though- you can see their legs hanging out. One mum jumped a fence with a joey in her pouch- imagine doing that?
When we were looking at them a car pulled up on the other side of the road behind us. There was no one around as its all farms. They honked their horn to scare the kangaroos. Just as mum went to open her door, they honked again and scared them off and they speeded off. It made us both so MAD! Why do that? They were lucky that none of the kangaroo's hurt themselves while they were jumping away. I was MAD! You shouldn't do that. what if they jump into a fence when they are scared and trying to get away from you? What if they jump in front a car trying to get away from you. This was just really bad but worse because that's the only reason they stopped was to scare the kangaroo's away- really?!?!?!? (libby's mad face here)

Today when I opened the mail box I saw the Port Macquarrie Gum Tips Magazine. I was so exited to open it because I was in it. When I opened the satchel I saw three magazines, one for me one for my mum and one to use at my stalls. On the front of the magazine was Kennedy Easy the koala. On the first page was Kennedy Easy's story of why he went to Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. She was found wondering through the front yards of Kennedy Drive. She was found and released the same day. In April 2007 she was attacted by a dog not too far from where she was released and bought back to Port Macquarrie Koala Hospitail. After a few weeks she was released again, but in Febuary 2008 there were reports of her sitting low in a Bottlebrush tree for two days. They checked for any injuries but she seemed fine, then they found out that she was going to have a joey. Eight years later after she and her joey had been released she was rescued again this time from busy Pacific Drive in poor condition. She had a brown coat and was underweight. Later that year they released her and haven't seen her since. YAY! Hopefully she lives a LONG healthy life.

As I kept flicking through the book I eventually found where I was in the magazine. I read through it and it said every important thing that I do and ways other people can know what I do like go on my facebook page or on my blog. I really enjoyed reading it and everything else in the magazine. I really enjoyed reading about what 8 year old Zoe Mandelson does. Zoe sells her old clothes, books and cupcakes. she has adopted eight koalas with her money.

At the end of the book there was a Koala Hospitail Activity Report. It told you when the koala came in, who it was, why they came in and the ending results. Eleven koala's died, fifteen were sitting on the road and ground and many mopre we sick and injurd. I really enjoyed everthing in the magazine.

Why not read the magazine yourself?
It has LOTS of koala information on it- I could read it over and over again!  Click on the magazine cover- I am on page 10

I have adopted 6 koala's at Port Macquarie Koala Hospital- you can adopt one too! For just $35 you can help save our koala's but why not adopt one or two? Or adopt one each month? See their website

Today we woke up to an icy morning to drive to the You Yangs to go tree planting. When we arrived it was so cold. Janine said Thank You for the tree guards. We planted so many trees that I lost count. We had to cross a river to get to the other side. My dad had to carry scarlet over the river because she didn't have gumboots. When we were going back over to have morning tea I had to cross the river five or six times because Janine gave everyone her gumboots. So when they got to the other side they took them off and I took them back over again. for morning tea I had a hot chocolate and two Anzac cookies. then we did a quiz on koalas. Did you know that girl koalas have three private parts. the winner got a book of Clancy's story. we did not win but the people who did were really nice and gave me the book. After we drove in to the You Yangs to see Clancy and Nicky or Kiki. Nicky or Kiki was sitting in a tree hiding her nose so we couldn't tell if it was Nicky or Kiki. Then we walked to see Clancy who was being very active. Clancy was eating and then he climbed up higher to sleep. As we were walking back we saw two kangaroos. There was a boy and a girl. Then we walked back to have lunch take a photo then go home.
Hi I'm Scarlet Libby's best friend. when we went to the You Yangs to plant trees we had to cross the little river so we could plant trees on the other side. it was a great experience. I had a lot of fun with my best friend doing something to help koalas.

Learn more about what the Koala Clancy Foundation do by visiting their website. They are planting trees all winter. First and third Sunday of each month you will find me there too. Click link below for their website.
https://www.koalaclancyfoundation.org.au

Today my mum, best friend scarlet and I went to Riddells Creek to drop off puches to Dana. We gave Dana 15 pouches. When we went to dana's house she showed use her two little baby wombats. She had one girl and one boy. When she was taking the wombats out of the Hanging pouch,  one of the wombats was not in a pouch, he was sitting inside of the hanging pouch and his sister was in her pouch. They were both so little and so cute.

Hi my name is Scarlet and I am Libby's best friend and when we went to Dana's house I was surprised to see two little baby wombats. it was my first time holding a baby wombat they were so cute. I couldn't believe how small they were. I thought they were the most cutest animals I have ever seen. I wanted to take them home with me.

We then drove to Coopers Animal Rescue in Dales Creek. When we got to Christine's house we saw goats, sheep, chickens, possums, kangaroos and birds every where. There were cockatoo's everywhere- they eat the kangaroo's food. There were even kookaburra's. When we went inside Christine had two little kangaroos sitting by the fire. She showed use two little pinkie joeys in a pouch, a baby wombat, many big kangaroos and wombats. the wombats were my favourite because one of them was called milo and he was crazy. he would run around and jump at you and act like a little puppy dog. He liked my mum and was chasing her lots. I got to hold one of the big wombats and they were heavy. Christine was really nice. She told us many facts and stories about the animals and I think the most saddest story was Coopers because Coopers mum was hit by a car but he was still live. Cooper was only a tiny little joey and Christine bought him in and looked afeter him. Cooper got sick a few times but he still lived until a few weeks ago when Cooper died after eating a wild mushroom. Christine said she was really sad. Christine got a tattoo of Cooper on her sholder. Christine named the rescue group after Cooper when she found him so it is really sad because Cooper started the rescue group.

Hi it's Scarlet, all of the animals we saw were all so cute there were the baby kangaroos, wombats, possums, goats and sheep. My favourite animal was the baby kangaroos because they were so cute and small. I really enjoyed feeding the kangaroos and running away from milo the little wombat. I was surprised when Christine showed use how hard a wombat is when she knocked on it's bottom we could here the sound it made. Christine told use what happened to Cooper a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago cooper died and they got Cooper when he was a tiny baby kangaroo. I thought it was sad when Christine told use what happened to Cooper and how he died just a few weeks ago. But he is the one she can keep working for.

We talked to Christine about doing a few things for shelters like her.
One thing we are doing for Christine is sewing some large hanging pouches and some large normal pouches from 3 blankets that she gave us. Mum is making a template for them- they are very easy to sew but we need someone with an overlocker to do them.

MY MAJOR PROJECT TO HELP SHELTERS
We also talked about things that people could buy from their supermarkets to help wildlife shelters. Christine told us a few things that she uses

• Tissues - to "toilet joeys"
• Antibacterial hand sanitiser and hand wash
• Laundry detergent and fabric softener which they go through a lot of as they wash lots of blankets, towels and pouches each day
• Eucalyptus oil- they use it to clean their floors and things with
• dish washing liquid- they wash LOTS of bottles every day and other things for the animals
  
• Oats to feed to the animals
  

These were just a few things that we talked about. We are going to contact a couple of shelters and see if we can take up a collection for them. It would be great if people could put one of two things extra in their trolley each week- especially if they are on sale- and drop them to me OR to your local shelter. We are sure they would love it.
I will make up a list over the next few weeks and see what we can do but for now- buying these things and donating them to me or your local shelter would be a great thing to help out.

Adding to my list

• disposable gloves - good for rescues and first aid
• disinfectant