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. 

Disappearing Dams

I have been very worried about the water situation for the sheep and cows.  The front dam has been dry for months and the back dam is the lowest it has ever been.  I have been checking it every couple of weeks.  But then when it actually did rain, I was surprised at how much water the back dam collected with two episodes of rain, so it’s obviously in a very good position, unlike the front dam.

27 May

 

7 July (after about 50mm)

New Biocycle

I have had a lot of trouble with my septic over the years and finally decided to spend (borrow) some money and buy a new one.  As I am in a drinking water catchment and laws for these things change, I researched and found that I had to put in an aerated system.  I chose a Biocycle and it was installed on 4 May.  I took lots of photos and have included enough to tell the story.  Due to the position of the outgoing grey water pipes a new hole had to be dug with the old septic tank being filled in.  As is it aerated there is a 75W pump that runs 24/7 and it pumps out treated water via a hose every now and then.  All the water from the house goes to it, including the shower and washing machine.  It will take some time to install all the necessary underground pipes and sprinklers, so in the mean time I have a soak hose on the front lawn.

Shed Guttering and Downpipes

Also on 17 April, with help from Dad and Steven to cut a hole in the guttering and silicone in the start of the downpipe, I installed a second downpipe to collect the water halfway along the shed eastern guttering in order to capture the maximum amount of water. This is a low point in the guttering and water would overflow into the shed when it rained, never making it to the tank.  It is supported with four bits of wire extended from nails or holes in the corrugated iron.  I also cleared the gutter on the western side and fitted more plastic gutter guard.  Now, all it has to do is rain.  

 

Shearing Plant Backing Board

In October 2010 I raised the shearing platform the height of a pallet to get it out of the dirt.  Since then the shearers have been complaining that the shearing plant is too close to the flooring.  So with the help of Dad’s know how and Steven’s strength on 17 April we raised the shearing plant by 160mm with three thicknesses of 12mm thick ply bolted together. 

Goodbye Arnie!

Arnie’s granddaughters are six months old and so it was time for him to go.  I had been thinking of selling some crossbred wethers too, so they all went to the sheep sales today (17 April).  Dad and I managed to get them into the yards but we needed Steve’s help to get them onto the trailer.  Unfortunately, they didn’t sell for much money – $25 each for the year old wethers, $15 for a seven month old lamb and $15 for Arnie.

Fence Mending

On Sunday (7 April) Russell and I walked along the western back paddock fence and along the gully to the dam and then back.  This was Russell’s first long walk on the farm since his hip replacement and he managed better than he had thought.  The purpose was to mend the boundary fence where the neighbour’s sheep have been getting through.  I had previously mended two obvious holes on 11 & 17 March.  But with Russell we did a more thorough job.  The dam was quite low, possibly the lowest I have ever seen.  The cows ignored us the whole time.

Dad and I also added droppers to the western fence in the top paddock (14 April 2013) in an attempt to stop the neighbour’s sheep from getting from the fruit tree run into my paddocks.  I don’t mind them in under the plumb trees, as it would be a major job to fix or replace the western lower fence, but I still need to stop them from getting into where my sheep graze.

Driveway Top Up

On my Monday (25 March) morning off I bought aggregate myself.  After driving home after work I ended up shovelling all of the aggregate onto the driveway all by myself – thank goodness for daylight saving.  I had also taken off the cage the previous Thursday afternoon all by myself – it took an hour.  The driveway looks great and will be able to cope with any amount of rain.

Bean Bounty

This is a photo of the beans I picked last weekend up at Russell's. I hadn't picked beans for two weeks. My veggie garden has not been as productive, although we have eaten some lovely tomatoes.

 

Inquisitive Calves

I went for a walk this afternoon to visit my cows. Tabby (one of my cats) was with me and the calves found him very interesting. The calves are about five months old now.  Jemma is still limping, although she is keeping up with the rest of the cows now, rather than just staying put.

The sheep also came running down to the gate expecting to be moved, but I didn’t take a photo because I was loosing light at that stage.  I will move them at the weekend.

Chocolate Coloured Lambs

The Sunday before last we collected two new chocolate coloured lambs from a farmer who couldn't keep them with the rest of his flock. I am calling them Chino (as in cappuccino with a frothy white top, left) and Marble (as in Cadbury Marble chocolate, right). They are both girls and they're gorgeous. I intended to introduce them to the rest of my sheep gradually by letting some in with them for a while, but I couldn't get my girls to come down to the gate even with a lucerne bribe.  So I just opened the gate.  The other sheep didn't bother the new girls but Bobby chased them for a few days.  They have settled in now and are part of the family.  I haven't taken a 'group' photo yet but will add one later.

 

Natural Dyeing Workshop

I had a very enjoyable afternoon on Saturday at a Natural Dyeing Workshop. The photo is of everyone's samples and a few larger projects with commercial dyes. For the natural dyeing we used a selection leaves, bark, flowers and berries and all had a sample skein in each, then added mordants which changed the colour with a second sample skein. I have wanted to do this for ages but hadn't had the time or opportunity. I look forward to being able to use natural dyeing for a project.

The photo is of my natural dyeing samples.  The colours were obtained from (left to right) Crabapple bark, Walnut shells, Ivy berries (immature) and leaves, undyed, Wattle (Cootamundra), Wattle + Copper, Yellow Paper Daisies, Yellow Paper Daisies + Copper, Blackberries, Blackberries + Copper, Dahlias, Dahlias + Copper, Buddleia + Iron (didn’t get my skein in first batch).   I'm thinking now that I might make something using all the samples, but I don't know what just yet.

Rudi to the Butchers

While I had the cows in the yards for tagging, etc. the calves it was a good opportunity to send Rudi to the butchers.  He was collected on Monday morning and was no trouble at all.  We collected his meat on the Friday two weeks following.  From a carcass weight of 356.2kg I only received 176.63kg of meat, which is 49.59% and much less than previous steers.  The butcher said this was because Rudi had a lot of fat wastage, although his meat was marbled, which is supposed to be a good thing.  The total cost was $767.15, including freight to the butchers.

Buying Water & Broken Pipe

In October the tank at the top of the hill was almost empty as there had not been enough rain to pump from the shed tank, so buying water was the next option.  Unfortunately, not long after this I lost the lot due to a broken pipe.  After a bit of work and fiddling I mended the pipe and then managed to get the electric pump working to pump from the front dam (with a bit of help).  I have pumped a few times from the front dam now, plus one pump from the shed tank after about 12ml of rain.

  (I have included a picture of the path mown for the water guy and the mended pipe.  After the photo I filled the hole and secured the stand pipe to a star picket for support, so it wasn't broken again.)

Snow in October

The day after Smokey was born it snowed!  I have included a photograph of the cows in the snow and snow on the chopped pine tree.

Four Calves

At the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 I had my three cows and two heifers artifically inseminated.  Tawnie and Blackie, my two heifers, were the first to calve on 14 and 18 September.  Then Brownie had her calf (Zorro) on 20 September.  Sandy (with Smokey) was the last on 11 October.  Jemma didn't calf at all, which was disappointing.

Before the new year really starts, I thought I had better finish off summarising the events for the second half of 2012.

2012 Lambs

I moved the sheep to the ‘Far East’ paddock and took stock of which ewes had lambs.  There were eight new lambs, so including the three from earlier this year in January and March that’s 11 lambs and a total of 29 sheep including lambs.  Even Spotty Nose had another lamb this year and she would be close to ten years old.  At shearing time when we tagged and marked the lambs, I was pleased to see that there were 3 boys and 8 girls, and some of the boys will stay as merino wethers.