Odd Jobs

On Sunday I was inspecting the sheep run to see how operational it was and discovered that the sheep hadn't been able to get into the inner most section because the gate couldn't open because of a poplar sapling. After I sawed it off at ground level (thank goodness poplar is soft wood) and opened the gate the sheep practically pushed me out of the way and rushed in to eat the grass inside. There is a sappy broadleafed weed growing in the run that I don't think the sheep eat, so I'm going to have to learn to use the whipper snipper to clear the run of this weed as well as some blackberries.

On Sunday I also made a hook to suspend the chicken's water. The twine suspending the water container allowed the bottom of the dish to touch the ground and the chickens were kicking dirt into the water. Now it's a couple of inches off the ground and has been clean for two days.

On Sunday I also started preparing the hinge joint for tying around a post (you have to cut and jiggle the end 4-5 vertical wires off). It's a fiddly job, so I've only just started. Our next door neighbour is preparing to plant grapes so I have to make our adjoining fence sheep proof. Paul put hinge joint on the first section while he was home and the next section is probably just as straight forward. I will have to replace the bottom wire and then attach the hinge joint as the fence is made of five or six wires, two of which are barbed. However, there is a final third of the fence that looks like the original fence and possibly 80+ years old. It has been mended in places but will require total removal and replacement. And with this being an external fence will need a solid post every fourth star picket like the previous section to stop the cows from pushing it over. Our neighbour said he will work with me on this section. First I need to do the 'easy' section. Finding the time may prove to be the hardest part, now that I'm working 35 hours a week. I'll be looking forward to longer days even more now and making the most of weekends.

Mending Gates
When Mum and Dad visited for my birthday the weekend before last, Dad mended four gates for me. Where Paul and I have been adding wires in fences and making the fences stronger the gates attached to these fences have also moved and this sometimes makes the latch harder to open. Dad went around adjusting hinge bolts and repositioning chain bolts and now the four most awkward gates open effortlessly. Dad and I also worked together to reposition a troublesome stay and added extra long bolts to the gate on the 'Triangle Paddock' and that's now good as new. There are some other stays that need this attention but that will have to be on another visit. Dad and I also chopped, sawed and split all the remaining wood in the wood shed in preparation for buying another load of wood. That was also productive and satisfying work.

More Snow
On Thursday, 28 June, we received more snow - not enough to make a snowman but a fair covering. I only got to see the best of it because I was at home until 10am waiting for the NRMA man to bring a new car battery. By that time, though, the snow had turned to sleet and melted most of the snow on the ground.

In other news, I have borrowed an 8-shaft loom from a friend at spinning. I'll have to buy some heddles and a shuttle, but it won't be long before I'm weaving some more tea towels. I'm also about 3/4 through knitting my home spun jumper (purchased carded wool). Although I am enjoying the process, I'll be glad when I can get onto something else.

Light Sprinkling of Snow
For those who may want to know, yes we did get snow, but only a light sprinkling. It was bitterly cold though. But nothing three or four layers of clothes, a beanie, scarf, gloves and a hooded Driza-Bone can't fix while feeding the animals in the morning. (Although, I did have breakfast first, as it is too dark at 6.30am these days.) And cold as it was the sheep still didn't spend the night in the shed, even though they had access to it. The wind was blowing a gale for what seemed all night and I was lying there thinking that anything in the shed not tied down would be all over the paddocks by the morning. But miraculously that didn't happen - all that worry for nothing. I have included a photo of our wood chopping block with a light covering of snow.

First Tea Towels Finished
I have finally finished my waffle weave tea towels (plus one plain weave). I eventually wove three tea towels in waffle and one in plain weave. Actually, my favourite is the plain one. I'm pretty proud of them and I feel it is just the beginning of many more tea towels and assorted linen. Although, every time I see Margaret or Judy wearing something made from material they have woven I think that one day I'd like to do that too.

Sheep and Wool
On farm matters, last weekend I asked the vet out to look at 'Cross', as she hadn't been able to put weight on one of her front legs for a day or so. The vet couldn't find anything obviously wrong and said she could have pulled a muscle higher up. She gave her a dose of anti-inflammatory and pain killer and I kept her in the small area behind the shearing stand and fed her and kept an eye on her. In two days she was standing again, thank goodness, and I let her go out with the rest of them.
Last week I also sold the rest of the wool we had in plastic bags in the shed from 2005 and 2006, just to clear the area before we shear again. Most of it was cross breed wool and not worth very much but we received about $54. So I guess that will go towards the vet bill.
This weekend I let the sheep into the area around the new little fruit trees (no leaves at the moment, so hopefully safe from destruction) and behind the shed, just to eat the grass down to save me mowing. Of course they made short work of the grass, even in two days. Then this afternoon I opened the gate to the dam paddock and cleaned and filled the water trough. They hadn't discovered the open gate while I was there but they will have by tomorrow I'm sure. They can stay in the dam paddock for a month before I get them shorn.

Fly Strike
Today I had the sheep crutched again and one sheep totally shorn. I had noticed some black patches of wool and suspected fly strike. It appears I was very lucky and caught it in time to save the two sheep - hopefully. I also spoke to the shearing contractor (a friendly and knowledgeable neighbour) about getting the sheep shorn in August. They are pretty booked up and I may have to be on standby and wait and see if they get a cancellation or if it rains and, because of our small number of sheep, I can shed the sheep and they'll be dry to shear, when others can't always do that. I wanted to leave the wool for as long as possible, as I would really like to spin Ebony's black wool, so the longer the better. If I leave it any longer than August there is a possibility of them getting fly struck again, so there is a fine line to tread.
After talking to the shearing contractor, I may change my mind and keep the little black faced girls and only kill/eat the boys (3 including the wether from last year). He commented that crossbreds are very good breeders. But if all 13 girls had lambs, that's 26+ sheep (including twins) - that's a lot of sheep!

Tea Towels Off Loom
I finished weaving today! I managed to squeeze in a 10cm sample at the end of the fourth tea towel. So this weekend I will cut them apart, finish the ends and wash them. I've measured them, so I can see how much they shrink, for future projects. I'll include a photograph of the finish products after that.

PS I just walked past the loom. It looked so empty. Just like empty spinning bobbins or empty knitting needles, the empty loom beckons you, doesn't it? I have already decided on my next project but it won't be on this loom, as I am only borrowing it and have to give it back. So now I have to find another loom - and make more towels. All these tea towels aren't for me, mind you. Of the four I have almost finished I am giving one to my Mum and one to my Mother-in-Law as belated Mother's Day presents.

The Beginning of the Eggs
My Australorps have finally started laying little eggs! This morning I collected one large and one small egg (from yesterday - I came home late and Steven put them to bed). The large egg is from one of the Isa Browns. And again this afternoon I collected one large and one small egg. So one little black chicken has finally got the idea. I wonder how long it will be until we get six little eggs (and one large egg) each day. Then I'll have to get serious about using eggs for dinner (and lunch and breakfast).

Me Day
I had a 'Me' Day today. I had worked extra hours at the beginning of the week and took today off. This was primarily because Paul left again yesterday and I needed some time to myself. He is starting a new job in Sydney next week and is going to stay with his mother until he finds a place of his own. So, today I wanted to do stuff just for me. Of course I did some other things such as washing, changing the registration sticker on the car, changing the straw in the chicken's nesting boxes, refilling the cows' water, bringing in some wood for the evening's fire and the inevitable taxiing of children, but for the majority of the day I caught up on my weaving. I finished the third waffle weave tea towel and decided to also weave a plain weave tea towel with the same colour pattern. I'm not sure why I had so much warp left over. I could have miscalculated the loom wastage or take-up. I certainly hope I haven't made a mistake and made short tea towels. I guess time will tell and all will be revealed when I finally take them off the loom. Of course, I may get close to the end of the final tea towel and find I don't really have enough for a full tea towel but I'm going to try anyway. I'm over half way and the end is in sight but I have typing I need to finish, so the weaving will have to wait for another day.

Waffle Weave Tea Towels
I have started my next weaving project and have decided upon tea towels in a waffle weave. The pattern I am adapting is very multi-coloured, so I toned it down a bit and used roughly the same colour count to tie in with the waffle weave pattern. Although, I think the pattern is more clearly seen on the reverse of my weaving. So next tea towel I think I'll do the pattern in reverse. I'll include a photo of the next tea towel when I'm up to it to show the difference.

New Chickens
On Thursday we bought six Australorp/New Hampshire point of lay pullets. They're still timid and flock together. The other two chickens and Ericson are giving them a hard time but I'm sure they will stand up for themselves when they've grown a bit. One of the photographs below is the new chickens venturing into the grass jungle of the chicken's new area.


New Weaving Project
After hours of dreaming and planning, pouring over books and purchasing my cottolin, I finally started winding a warp for my first attempt at weaving tea towels. I have chosen a waffle weave pattern and my tea towels will have 469 ends! So, as I said, I have only just started winding the warp. I'll have to do it in a few stages, and I've done about a third so far. I'll include a photograph once I have set up the loom and I've woven the start of the pattern.

Mending Fences
Star, one of our Murray Greys, forced herself through yet another fence and so Paul and I were out there this afternoon adding another wire to the Dam Paddock fence. There is plenty of grass in the Dam Paddock, so I don't know why she pushed through the fence. Last week Paul and I rethreaded the wires in the fence at the top of the hill on the eastern side (Unslashed Paddock) through the star pickets and added another two wires for good measure. Paul also reinforced the small fence at the top of the hill near the gate with extra star pickets and rethreading the wires through the holes. All this was because Star pushed through this fence too.

Cows Resting
Paul pumped water to the tank at the top of the hill from the front dam. There were about three rungs already in the tank and we pumped until the tank was almost full with seven rungs. Even though the dam only had about a foot and a half of water in it to start with, this pumping only made the level go down by a few inches. That's pretty amazing. That water in the tank will be enough for the animals for about 7-8 weeks, and perhaps more now that Lady is not here. I have included a photo of our beautiful cows sitting down resting after a busy morning eating.

Another New Fence
Last weekend we put up the top half of the middle fence and moved the sheep into the top half. Paul finished off some extra tying of the hinge joint today. I have included a photo to compare with the photo in the previous blog about the fence.

Lots of Rain
I have included the rain gauge readings for the last eight days below:
22 February - 30.0
23 February -
24 February - 5.5
25 February - 4.0
26 February - 19.0
27 February - 8.0
28 February - 16.0
1 March - 30.0
After the first lot of rain the front dam just looked damp but by the end there is now 1 foot (as measured by Dad's depth gauge).
The shed tank hit a peak after 1/3 (seen by debris on walls) but today I took a photo showing how much water we have lost (due to leakage) since then, in only two days.

Lady's Meat
Last Wednesday we collected Lady's meat from the butcher - all 175kg (sample weighed and estimated) of it. We almost filled the large freezer in the shed and had to bring some inside to the laundry freezer. Plus of course we ate some scotch fillet that night (and t-bones the next night) - meat heaven. Even though I used to think Patch was a big animal, Lady was much bigger. Patch yielded 143kg of meat. Lady's carcass was 314.2kg and in all it cost us $427.04 (including abattoir and freight) to have her butchered, hung and packaged. Lady was about 140kg of bones, which was roughly the same proportion of bone as Patch.

Recycled Fence
Over last week Paul and I systematically removed tie wire and old droppers and unthreaded the old wire from the old star pickets of the lower half of the middle fence. Paul then removed the old star pickets and mowed some taller grass on the fence line. Then on Friday evening we replaced the top wire and began 'bashing' in the new star pickets. Of the 25 pickets I 'bashed' in about 5 with the very heavy picket pounder. Then on Saturday we rethreaded four more wires through the holes in the star pickets and attached the hinge joint. While Paul connected the hinge joint around the taps I proceeded to attach the hinge joint to the wires with tie wire. On Sunday while I continued doing this Paul attached one of the left over wires along the bottom of the hinge joint across the middle of the eastern paddock. All in all it was a very thorough job, reusing the wire that was already there. The sheep aren't getting out of this fence! When I save up and buy more star pickets we will repeat the process with the top half of the fence. I have included a very sad before photo of the top half of the fence.

Goodbye Lady
Yesterday the butcher came to collect Lady. She was being taken to the abattoir and then back to the butchers to hang for a week. It was sad that Lady had to go but it was a decision that had to be made. She had been with a bull for two months without getting pregnant and then the AI girl said she didn't feel right inside. There's no point keeping a cow if she can't reproduce, even if we have had her since she was three months. Plus she was huge and would just step over or through fences. She was always very friendly, though, and would come over to say hello. This photo is one of the many taken the day before she went.

Twill Scarf
I have just finished my second weaving project. I finished it off with a Phillipine Edge, using the warp threads. The scarf turned out much shorter than I expected. I think I underestimated the wastage at the ends and maybe the take-up - something to take into account next time. I'm pretty pleased with the result all the same.

Pumping from back dam
Yesterday we started pumping from the back dam and as everything seemed to be chugging along and it was lunch time we decided to leave the pump and go back to the house. After lunch we discovered that the wind had blown the ladder against the pipe going into the tank and it now had a kink stopping incoming water and the pump was still pumping! Lesson - don't leave the pump and tank unattended. It may have only just happened, though, because two rungs of water had been pumped. So we left it at that. I have included a picture of the back dam in all its muddy glory and the path to the tank at the top of the hill, plus the pump hard at work.

Crutching & Fencing
Two weekends ago Paul crutched the sheep. I didn't take any photos because I was helping closing the sheep pen panels so the rest didn't get out and sweeping up the shorn fleece. Paul has also been mending 'holes' or 'gaps' in fences that the sheep get through. We also had the dam paddock windbreak fence finished ($400). When the cooler weather comes we will transplant some little pine trees sprouting next to the fence line near the road and hope that they take. Tomorrow we're going to pump some more water from the back dam to the tank at the top of the hill. We're very lucky to have that dam.

Pumping Dam Water
Well, after a few failed attempts we now have the tank at the top of the hill about 80% full. Over Christmas my brother bought 150 metres of pipe and connectors and, together with about 300 metres of pipe in various lengths that Dad found in our forest, Dan and Dad connected the dam to the tank. (The pipe was from the days when the previous owners pumped water from the creek and the forest is just an area of dense pine trees.) We had a petrol pump that was here when we came, but although we had a bit of success my brother came to the conclusion that it wasn't up to the job. When Paul came home from spending Christmas with his family, we bought a new Davey Firefighter 6.5 horse power pump & motor. This worked for about a half an hour and then we were having problems with the intake. We then bought a new intake valve and connector. This actually came off the end at one stage. We now know that the back dam is as deep as Paul's legs are long (I should have taken a photo of Paul looking for the intake valve). Yesterday we pumped up another rung. Finally, today Paul pumped two more rungs (wide rungs) into the tank before the pump ran out of petrol. So we decided to call it a day. I think there's about two months worth of water for the animals in the tank now.
Dad took this photo after the long job of mowing a path for the pipe from the tank at the top of the hill down to the dam.

Empty Dam
Yesterday I went out to check the cows and Star had broken through the fence into the paddock enclosing the dam. I opened the gate and shooed her back through. I promptly moved them to the next paddock, because Star was after the grass not the water (as you can see by the photo). Then I fixed all the tie wire that had been broken.
One of the cows had also pushed the new fence near the sheep yards to get to the grass in there and the wire had unravelled from the strainer ratchet. I have left that for Paul to fix.
So the cows are now supposed to be in the lower western paddock but the Murray Greys and Brownie have already pushed their way through the middle fence into the large eastern paddock. Yet another fence that has to be fixed.
On Friday I heard that someone was illegally pumping/stealing water from our neighbour's back dam! If our back gate didn't have a lock on it they would probably be pumping water from our back dam too. Because our front dam is now empty and we only have about 2-3 weeks (3 rungs) worth of water in the tank at the top of the hill, we will have to find a way of getting the water from the back dam up to the tank.