Selling Cows
On 25 October I got the cows down to the front 'Dam Paddock' where the yards are and on 26 October attempted to get the cows into the yards by myself. I got most of the cows in but not Nova or Jemma. It was like Nova knew he was the centre of attention and was determined not to go in. I did get Chrissy in the yards, so I let all the cows out except her so I could try again the next day. The truck was booked for 6pm the next day so I tried again in the morning without any luck. So instead of selling Nova, I decided to sell Rusty. Rusty just walked beside me and straight into the yards, no trouble at all. Nova is bigger than Rusty and I thought I would get more money for him and then we were going to eat Rusty. But now that will be the other way around.
I couldn't get Chrissy and Rusty into the small yard in preparation for loading. Chrissy was wild and acting like a bull. It wasn't safe to be in the yards with them, so I waited until the truck arrived. The guy transporting them was very helpful and although he also had difficulty he eventually got them onto the truck and took them to the markets for the next day.
I received a phone call the following afternoon that I had averaged $770 each, which I was very pleased with. I received the cheque in the mail about a week later less the commission. That went a small way towards paying for the yards and ramp.
The truck guy suggested moving the internal gate and panel to increase the size of the small yard and decrease the size of the large yard to make it easier to get the cattle into the race. I tried to do this myself but only got so far, so I had to ask Steve to help. I have used it since when getting Nova ready for the butcher and it worked much better.
I almost feel like a real farmer now, having sold a steer and heifer and actually made some money. I sold Chrissy (Freda's girl) because she was hard to manage and wasn't like the others. Her true colours showed when in the yards, she was wild and crazy, I'm glad she's gone. Chrissy was 22 months and Rusty about 20 months. My next problem is where to get a bull from for my next lot of calves.

Ramp (the final piece of the puzzle)
My cattle yard ramp was delivered on the same day as the shearing . Although, the ramp was a few feet from the actual yards and there were no joining brackets welded in position. But the next week someone came and pushed it into place and screwed on the brackets and fitted the pegs. The ramp was made to be used with both cattle and sheep, plus it is adjustable for a variety of heights to accommodate putting sheep onto a trailer as well as a truck.
A couple of days after that I also bought a trough for the corner, so the cows wouldn't go without water while in the yards overnight. (I have since lowered the height of the trough, as it was a bit too high.) I don't know if I mentioned before, but I also bought a 'man' gate for the other side of the yards. (I bought this at the same time as the custom gate in the back of the shed.) This skinny gate can also be seen in the ramp picture below.
The very next week I got to use the yards for their purpose ... but that's another story.

Shearing & Sheep Grazier's Warning
I had booked in my shearing to happen on Friday, 15 October. And as usual I had to shed the sheep the night before so that they would be dry and 'empty' prior to shearing. But I also had to keep them in the shed after shearing because there was a very cold snap and so I kept them in the shed for two days after the shearing and fed them sheep pellets and lucerne. During this time I unfortunately lost one of my original ewes, Flystrike. An unfortunate name I know, as she had flystrike the first year. In the before photo she can be seen at the right looking rather shabby. She was showing signs of weakness the week or so before shearing (sitting down more often and having trouble when trying to stand). She was giving all her strength to her lamb. The shearer noted that she had started shedding her fleece, in that it broke because it became weak due to lack of nourishment, which was going to the lamb. She died two days after shearing, while still in the shed, the shock of being shorn was too much for her. It was pretty sad but I have to realise that my original sheep were bought in 2004, six years ago, and they weren't lambs then. So they have all been very good producers, some more than others, but they have all been valued.
Edit: 14/12/2010 - I finally sold the wool today. I received $347.12 - not bad for a handful of sheep. The shearing cost $106, so I made a profit of $241.12!

New Fencing & Mended Fences
Some of my cows are pretty hard on fences. There were three stays that badly needed replacing, plus I had the fence near the first gate and the shed tank replaced, as I'm sure it wouldn't hold cows if the need arose, and I also had a new fence built at the top of the veggie garden so animals could eat the grass there without me using the ineffective netting. The work was started 5-7 October and the veggie fence finished on 21 October. This sort of came on because I wanted to keep some cows down the front to try and fatten them up and so that they recover from feeding two calves. When I bring them down again I will separate them into two groups keeping mums away from calves in an attempt to wean the younger calves born last Christmas. I have included photographs of each of the new stays. It is a very clever idea forming a triangle with two sides in steel. These stays won't be coming out. The funny thing is I haven't received an account for the work as yet, so I don't know how much it all cost yet. I imagine the stays weren't cheap but I have to wait and see. The fencing guy took a while to start the job, and it appears just as long to present the account. I am very happy with the work, though. Edit: I received the account today 17/11. $2,657.65! The fencer's hourly charge is more than three times my hourly rate at work! But it's done and I won't need fencing for a long time.

Shearing Platform
Just in time for shearing this year, I changed the configuration of the sheep panels and raised the level of the shearing flooring by including three pallets underneath. I used two full pallets and cut another pallet in half and put them on diagonal corners, so I had a pallet and a half on each side (I have one pallet spare). I arranged the panels so that there was more room for the sheep and also to funnel them into the end area. I had a new shearer this year, who lives locally. The shearer commented that the raised flooring made it too close to the shearing plant (with the arm bending too low) but that he could put up with this for such a small number of sheep. (Thank goodness for that, as I think moving the shearing plant higher would be troublesome to say the least.) I think that the raised platform helped reduce the amount of dirt getting onto the platform while shearing.
On shearing day Steve came to help with the skirting and bagging and I couldn't have done it without him (he was paid of course). I helped the shearer by sweeping away the wool and throwing it over to Steve. Steve skirted and then shoved the fleeces into large bags from the wool buyers, one for merino and one for crossbreds. Of course we also kept the black and grey wool separate. I have not sold the wool as yet.

Damn Full Dam
We have had a lot of rain lately and everywhere is lovely and green. My front dam had been dried up for a very long time. I haven't pumped from it for at least four years. There was also a dam on the way into town that had been dwindling day by day. But now all dams everywhere are as full as I have ever seen them. I have included a few photos of the front dam. The back dam usually has plenty of water, although it too has had a beach of dirt for a while, and it too is full.
I have also included a frosty photo taken in August.

Stumps Removed
On 9 August Mum and Dad visited and Dad decided that he had had enough of mowing around the three wattle stumps at the front of the house. I was going to get them removed one day but he decided to remove them himself with a crowbar. Apparently they were very rotten and so it was possible to break them up. He then used a wheelbarrow to move them up near the shed. I don't have a photo of the stumps but I do have a photo of the cleared area and the pile of wood. The next time Dad mowed the area he said it was a dream to mow in straight lines.

Lamb Photos
Well, all those statistics are all very well, but I forgot to include the most important thing - pictures of lambs! They photos are not in order but at least they are not covering each other!

Lambs 2010
I think that all the ewes that are going to lamb have lambed. The outcome is five healthy, strong lambs (3 girls and 2 boys). At the time of lambing I had 19 sheep, 15 girls. Of these 15 girls only 11 lambed and they had a total of 15 lambs including 4 sets of twins. Of these 10 died, either from being weak or from foxes. That isn't a very good lambing rate. I don't know whether this is due to very high fox numbers or that Bobby just isn't doing his job or that maybe he needs help. Who knows. I have included a table of our births and losses, more for my record than anything else. Also, now that Spotty-Ears has died (my second favourite, very sad) I only have 18 sheep in all (including Rambo, the ram, who I will have to sell pretty soon).
I guess that sums it all up. At shearing time we will mark, ring the tails and tag them and then they'll be part of my growing flock. So, I guess the next question is, which ones will be eaten?

April / May / June Update
Mum and Dad visited again in late April. Dad mowed the 'tree' run down the middle of the paddocks and sprayed the blackberries around the dam and under the plum trees. Unfortunately, I can't find the photographs I'm sure I took of the mown tree run and the before and after photos of the blackberries around the dam. In early May the cows started getting through to the next door neighbours at the top of the hill. I went up there to investigate and sure enough the fence that I thought was okay was falling apart. I had no trouble getting Jemma and her calf to come through the adjoining gate and then I spent over an hour pulling up the hinge joint and attaching to the star pickets and putting in dropper wires to hold the whole thing together. And so another fence survives for a bit longer.
Although not farm news, in the middle of May I bought new bedroom furniture. I shuffled the house a bit and put my double bed into the guest room for Mum and Dad and put the futon into Steve's old bedroom. I now have a Federation style queen bed, side drawers, dresser and tallboy and I'm very pleased with myself.
In the middle of June Coco's coat was torn and half coming off. Because of this Bobby was attacking her because he saw her as a threat, either because she was stressed or the noise the coat was making dragging on the ground. Anyway, we got the sheep into the yards and put on a new coat. At the same time Russell helped me clip some sheep nails. Because Bobby wouldn't let up on Coco we had to separate the sheep into two groups in different paddocks to keep Bobby apart from Coco for a week until he settled down.
At the end of June when Mum and Dad were visiting again, Dad and Russell helped me mend the back western fence adjoining our neighbours. They had a steer all by himself enticing my cows over to play. Ten star pickets and loads of wire later we patched the fence enough to keep them home in the short term.
I have included a few photographs taken of the farm during April, May and June.

New Gate for Shed
I have lots of news about lambs but I need to do this in date order and so have to update my journal about other important things that have happened on the farm since my last blog.
Mum and Dad visited in the last week in March and Dad single handedly installed a gate that I had custom made by the same guy who made my cattle yards. The installed gate was a total surprise, as I had planned on taking a day off and helping Dad with the installation. But Dad knew what he was doing and thought I would only be in the way and went ahead and did it himself (I think Mum helped at the end when propping up didn't work). The sheep panels that were there before are now going to be used around the raised flooring for shearing. Through a friend of Russell's, I obtained four pallets to use to raise the shearing flooring. Hopefully to save the shearer contending with dirt and hay from the floor when shearing. That is yet to happen, though. I have included a photo of the new gate.

New Spinning Wheel
I obviously have some catching up to do with my blogs! Firstly I need to share with you the news of my new spinning wheel. Before Christmas on 19 December, yes that long ago, I bought an old spinning wheel in pieces and a sad state of repair through a friend at spinning for $50. When I first talked about buying the wheel I had no idea of its condition and was a little disappointed when I first saw it. But I thought that this would be a good opportunity to really get to know the new spinning wheel. Unfortunately, in my eagerness to get underway with the restoration, I neglected to take a before photograph.
The spinning wheel appeared to have spent years in a shed somewhere and had sustained some water damage. The wood was a red brown colour and rough to the touch. The wheel hub was cracked and falling apart. But all the pieces were there and nothing was beyond repair, plus it was a traditional Ashford wheel with turned spokes. Before I had even considered what to do, Russell and Dad had dismantled the whole spinning wheel and started handing me pieces, saying 'well off you go and start sanding'. Dad mended the hub with glue and clamps, cleaning each spoke of any previous glue and fitting everything back together tightly. I sanded and sanded and sanded. I was amazed at how the wood came back to the original pale ash and this spured me on. On the weekend of 23-24 January I painted the pieces with a satin clear finish and Russell reassembled the spinning wheel with new brass fittings and screws (plus some old ones we couldn't replace). I also gave my Ashford warping board a light sand and coated it with the satin clear finish a few weekends later.

As soon as the wheel was finished I launched into trying it out. It was like learning to spin all over again, but I soon got the feel of the new wheel and was flying through spinning some lovely pomegranate coloured merino/silk sliver tops from Ashford I had in my stash. I then also spun some Optum I had bought last year from Nundle Woollen Mill as a special treat. And it was a special treat, the finished yarn was beautiful, soft and fine. I entered both these skeins together with a few of the others I had finished throughout the year into the local show and received two seconds and two firsts out of five skeins. The action of my new wheel is soooo smooth and effortless. And because of all the work I put into restoring it, I feel as though I made it or something. I know I didn't but I had a lot to do with how it looks now.

I have included a few photographs of the wheel and the skeins I entered in the show.

Worms Not Foxes
Yesterday I noticed that one of the merino ewes had a small patch of flystrike on her rear end, so I arranged to have them crutched. My neighbour and shearer were very understanding and came to do the crutching today. With the sheep in the shed I realised that the two sheep that had died were both lambs. I mentioned this to the shearer and he immediately checked the sheep's eyes and gums. They had worms. The lambs that died most probably died from the worms and the foxes ate the carcasses. The condition of the sheep was so bad that he returned this evening with a drench for the sheep and with lots of help I drenched all the sheep. I think this possibly saved their lives. Time will tell. They are now in a clean paddock.
All this time I have been very careful to move the sheep to the next paddock after about four weeks, mostly less. I had avoided drenching for worms up until now and I had been lucky because I have been rotating the sheep regularly, but I think the worms have caught up with me. I will have to look into what drench to use and plan to check the sheep and drench as needed. This has been a very expensive lesson, loosing two very good lambs in the process.

Two Sheep Dead
I went up to talk to the sheep today, as I had been paying more attention to the cows lately. I have been up the hill and checked the troughs every day, but I hadn't stayed for a 'chat' and a head count. This afternoon there were two missing, so I started walking over the paddock to find them. I found them all right, in pieces. The rest of the poor sheep had been in the same paddock for possibly days and been in danger of further attack. Russell and I had gone for a walk last weekend and counted them then, so they were killed over the last week. I moved the rest of the sheep down to the 'Triangle Paddock' next to the shed and then with a list of names in my hand I went through a process of elimination and I think the two dead sheep are Pinky and her daughter Little Pinky. I could tell that one was younger and had a red tag, but I couldn't find the tag of the other one and couldn't tell how large it had once been. Russell will bring his rifle up next weekend that we are here and try and get rid of some foxes for me. I was worried about doing that before but now it's different, I've lost two very good sheep that shouldn't have died (plus 'Cross' about six months ago from the same paddock). Now I have 18 sheep and one ram (soon to be sold). Three of these sheep are wethers but also some are non-productive. There are possibly 11 potentially productive ewes, including some lambs from last season. This loss brings the numbers right down.

My Very Own Cattle Yards
Yesterday the panels and gates for my cattle yards were delivered and today Steven and Lucy came and helped us put them together. I haven't tried getting the cows in there yet but when we finished I opened all the gates and let the cows and calves get familiar with the yards. I have included lots of photographs of the yards, including photos of inquisitive calves. They're gorgeous. The white pair are just over six weeks old.



I have also included the plan for the yards. I found the plan in a commercial catalogue but had the panels and gates custom made by the son of a local, who has set himself up in business making yards. I had the panels custom made with two extra lower rungs to accommodate sheep for when I have so many lambs that I have to sell them. The yards here cost $6,000. I have not ordered the ramp yet, as I need to recover from this cost before I can outlay more, plus I don't need it just yet. I plan to get an adjustable ramp made, again to accommodate loading sheep onto a trailer, as well as cattle onto a truck.

Purchasing the yards is very timely, as I heard only yesterday that the property where we took the cows to the yards before when Harry was taken to the butchers is on the market and may not be available in the future.

Over the next few weeks, I will purchase a 5-in-1 injection kit and arrange for someone to help me inject and tag the four calves and 'mark' the two boys. That will be a whole new experience, as I didn't actually do this last time. I need to learn to do these things myself, but I don't think I'm ready to do it alone just yet.

Christmas Calves
On Boxing Day we went for a walk to visit the cows and found two tiny white calves. Star had had a girl and Sandy had had a boy either on Christmas Day or maybe a day or so earlier. We have named Star's girl Twinkle, to keep the star theme, and Sandy's boy Rudi, to keep the Christmas theme. They are both beautiful.
Then on Monday following Christmas, Freda had a little black girl, which we will call Anna, to keep the theme of 'A' for Angus. And yesterday, on New Year's Eve, Jemma had a little black boy calf. I am thinking of calling him something starting with 'J' but haven't decided on a name yet. These two are also both beautiful. I was even able to pat Jemma's boy because he was on the other side of the fence to her.
I have included family shots of each cow with their previous heifer/steer and their newborn. The families still stick together sometimes and I think most the previous heifers/steers are still feeding from their mothers! So much for the cows sorting out the natural weaning process.