Goodbye Jemma and Jay

1 August 2013

Sold Jemma ($682) and Jay ($1087).  We had a hard time getting Jay on the truck.  Then Jay broke out of the yards.  He turned around in the area with two gates and jumped the chain off the latch.  Then he tried busting through the fence to get back with the other cows.  The transport guy got him back in the yards and onto the truck.  He was wonderful and we couldn’t have done it without him.  

 

 

Blackberry Bush Bashing

29-31 July 2013

 

Mum and Dad visited from Saturday 27 July to Thursday 1 August.  I took three days off work to help Dad with blackberry bashing.  We think we possibly mowed 15 blackberry bushes, both small and large, and some very large.  It was three hard days work.  Dad mostly drove the mower and I helped by cutting the high overhanging canes and some large ones closer to the ground.  Dad let me mow the last large bush.  It was hard to take a good photo of where we had been because of the fall of the ground.  Unfortunately, we probably mowed all that we could, the other blackberry bushes are either amongst rocks or on the side of the hill.

Visiting Bull

27 July 2013

A visiting bull broke and jumped a fence to be with the cows.  He was going to visit soon anyway but he couldn’t wait.  He will be with the girls until the end of August.  The owner of the bull wanted to use my yards to transport the bull from a neighbour's place and offered to let him stay a while.  The owner of the bull also came to help separate Jemma and Jay from my cows.  He got his bull into the yards first, then let him out when we had Jemma and Jay.  Then the bull and the cows went to the next paddock.



 
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Ebony & Lambs Died (8 June 2013)

 

I have some sad news.  On 8 June my special Ebony died.  She had a little boy lamb on Friday before I went to work, but as she was still quite large I was sure she had another lamb to go.  I went to work and it was almost dark by the time I came home.  So on Saturday morning we went to visit, expecting another little lamb.  However, the first lamb had died and Ebony was lying down and in trouble with the second lamb.  I called the vet, but she said that the lamb was twisted and had been dead for a while.  She was unable to remove the lamb and couldn’t save Ebony. 

Ebony was the only black lamb that has actually been born here, in early 2006.  Her father was ‘Blackie’, a Suffock ram, and her mum was ‘Original Mum’.  I have included a photo of when she was a little lamb and the day before she died.  Although she was born black all over, over the years her wool went progressively greyer.  Her mum was a merino so the wool is quite fine.  I have kept it but have not spun it as yet.

Rosie also had a boy lamb on Friday and they are doing well.  I think about six more ewes are pregnant, so we will be seeing more lambs over the coming weeks and months.

16-20 June 2013

Losing Big Baby

On 16 June I found another sheep dead, a merino girl with a green tag, but there was no lamb to be found.  Then on 20 June I found Big Baby on the ground panting.  She wasn’t in labour but in trouble, so I rang the vet again.  The vet told me that it looked like pregnancy toxemia.  With the last two years being such good years and with Arnie being with the sheep, I hadn’t feed my sheep extra pellets or lucerne as I had done in previous years.  With this year being such a bad year they were missing much needed nutrition.  So I gave them a mineral block lick, pellets and lucerne. 

29 June 2013

 

Regular Feeds then Lots of Boys

I have been feeding both the sheep and cows lucerne hay every weekend and sometimes during the week, and so consequently haven’t lost any more sheep.  Spotty Nose had a boy on 29 June.   Original Mum and Tails both had boys on 6 July.   On 14 July Ebony’s daughter from last year had a lamb but it subsequently died.  I think she was too young and didn’t know how to look after the lamb.  Then on 19 July Fluffy had twins (one boy and one girl).  So in all I now have 5 boys and one girl.