Septic Mended
Mum and Dad went home on Sunday after a week of visiting and helping on the farm. Dad toiled every day on fixing our broken septic pipe and blocked drainage pipe. It was a lot of hard work but it saved us lots of money. Steven has also been helping with filling in the trench. During the week Steve and Dad (and me a bit) also fixed two short fences broken by Star (the troublesome heifer), we moved the chickens to another area, Dad fixed the sagging shed gutter, built a set of metal shelves for the shed and mowed. We also had another attempt at getting the pump pumping up to the tank on the top of the hill, but that problem still hasn't been resolved. We did have the float fixed so that the valve now sits properly, effectively stopping water. Dad thinks our problem is air locks, so I'll have to work on that over the next week or so. I have also been very spoilt with Mum cooking some lovely dinners over the week and generally cleaning up.
The picture shows the path of the drainage agriculture pipe with a white bucket and broken clay pipes at the end for extra drainage. I have bought some little shrubs to plant near the new pipe to protect it from being driven over, which is how we think this problem started.

My Hands
I don't know how many of my friends I have told about my hands, I suspect not very many. In about May I started getting pain and stiffness in my elbows and knees. Then in July my hands and wrists developed pain and stiffness. I thought it was due to the extra workload after having started working 35 hours which involved extra work using the computer mouse. Then my ankles started swelling, and I knew there was something else involved and decided to see the doctor. By this time both my hands were swollen and extremely painful. My GP initially diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis and sent me to have blood tests. The indicator for rheumatoid didn't show in my blood tests and my thyroid blood test was also not right, so after taking an increased does of Oroxine and also taking Mobic, Glucosamine, fish oil and Caltrate and Panamax for six weeks I returned for a second blood test. In the meantime my doctor made an appointment with a rheumatologist. Although the indicator for rheumatoid arthritis didn't show up again the rheumatologist said it was obvious that I had an inflammatory arthritis (or rheumatoid arthritis) and prescribed me Prednisone (together with a few base line tests to monitor for side effects).
Now, before I started taking Prednisone I was in constant pain and I found it difficult and painful to do even the most normal things, such as washing and drying my hands, as my fingers were permanently bent. Not to mention washing up, driving, using cooking and eating utensils, even putting on shoes. Of course the list was endless. I also developed carpal tunnel syndrome because the swelling was restricting nerves to my fingers. Plus it was really upsetting me that it was so painful to knit and spin. Steven was having to help me more and more with farm things. Although with pain killers and just putting up with pain, I was able to manage. But the pain was getting me down.
Prednisone has taken all the swelling away, and although I do have pain occasionally, it is nothing like before. The problem is I can only be on Prednisone for six months, as it is a strong medication with side effects, and then I have to be weaned onto another medication called Methotrexate. I sure hope it does as good a job as Prednisone, and that I don't develop any of the long list of side effects, because apparently I will have to take this medication for ever and I guess my hands will never be the same again.
You just never know when things like this will come along. Although they don't know what causes rheumatoid arthritis, stress combined with my thyroid being out of whack may have contributed. I realise this isn't strictly related to farm news or my craft activities, but it has consumed me for four months. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, I just hope I don't have to go back there again.

Bales of Wool
I sold our wool the other day and received the grand sum of $159.49. That is from 13 sheep - we have 16 sheep but one was shorn in July because of flystrike and I kept two fleeces, Ebony's and one merino to have a go at spinning raw (if I don't get around to it, I will sell it next year). It worked out at around $25 per merino fleece and $7 per cross bred fleece, plus the pieces.
I have come to the realisation that it doesn't really pay to have cross bred sheep for wool, merino wool is worth so much more. I haven't yet had the experience of selling cross bred lambs, I may change my mind when I see their worth for meat.
I have applied through the MLA for a LPA number, so I can obtain NDVs, so I can sell sheep and cattle. There's lots of lingo involved and even more know how to learn, but I guess once I have sold the two Murray Greys it will become easier each time, once I know what to do. And again that will be a whole other story.
In the photograph the large bale is full of cross bred wool, plus one of the green bags that I couldn't fit in. The merino fleeces are on the table. The two white bags are belly wool and skirted wool (which I also sold) and of course the front green bag is Ebony's wool. (I will eventually send that away to be washed and carded for spinning.)

Destructive Cows
The cows have been fine in the back paddock, that is until Star decided that the grass in our neighbour's place looked better or greener or something. So she would just lift her front legs and half jump, half walk over the fence. The fence is ancient and really only good for sheep. I hadn't realised it was that bad before. Then we were told that our neighbour had planted tree seedlings in this paddock and had kept his sheep out until they grew. Star had weakened the posts with her frequent visits next door and the fence was floppy and laying down. So we had to mend this fence and in a hurry. I bought a post mounted solar energiser that was supposed to be good for 2km and we used the star pickets I had ready to use for another fence on the other side. Steve was the labourer and I was the supervisor and at the suggestion of our neighbour we threaded the star pickets through the old fence and pulled it upright. Because of this Steve had to turn the fence post driver upside down to bang the post in. At the end of the day his arms were mighty tired. But I kept telling him that I was doing him a favour and helping him build his muscles. We threaded through three lengths of wires, one of them through black plastic insulators for the live wire. Our neighbour said he will also add a row of barbed wire on the top as an extra deterrent. We rigged the energiser up, together with three galvanised star pickets for earthing rods, although at this stage Steve's arms were unable to bang the star pickets in any further than about a foot (and they needed to go in 1.5m). Needless to say, the energiser didn't work. I thought it could have been because it wasn't charged enough and left it all connected and on, hoping it would be working the next day. I went up on the Monday morning to find that the cows had chewed right through the green wire and damaged the red wire. I think the fence is adequate even without the electric fence but I would like to get it working. So I will need to do some more work on it or find someone who knows about electric fences. But that's for another day.

Summer Coats
Bobbie was shorn last Thursday and the sheep were shorn last Friday. Steven and I managed to get Bobbie into the trailer by ourselves. I couldn't have done it without Steve though, he was a wonderful help. I pulled Bobbie and Steven pushed. Then I had to get out of the trailer without Bobbie following me. Anyway, it's over for another year - and I have a beautiful bag of chocolate brown fleece.

I have so many garbage bags of sheep fleece that I think I will buy a proper wool bale from the wool buyers to put all the crossbreed fleeces together. This year I am keeping one of the merino fleeces (or part of one) to have a play spinning it raw - it is just so white and fine. This year I also bought some sample sheep covers of different sizes and put one on Ebony and one on her mum, Original Mum. Although, at crutching time I may have to put a bigger size on both of them as the fit seems a bit neat.
The shearers were making jokes about how fat our sheep are compared to the merinos they usually shear. I thought the wool was making them look fat but it was also their big tummies. I think I will have to go easy on the sheep pellets next winter. The lamb on the left in the picture is the one shorn in July when she was flystruck. I also have a large bag of lovely black fleece too. So much wool, so little time.