Don't foxes eat rabbits?

I went into town yesterday and on the way home I stopped to open the front gate, when I got out of the car, standing about 12 feet away, behind the car, was a young red fox. It didn’t seem very worried about me and started to walk towards me, I shouted at it and it just looked at me. Then I remembered that I had the dogs in the car, and so I opened the back door and let them out. The fox watched me the whole time and even seemed a little interested in what I was doing. The dogs bounded out of the car and bolted out onto the road – then ignoring the fox ran off towards the house – in the opposite direction, the fox still looking at me trotted off down the driveway towards the TSR dam. Obviously the dogs aren’t hungry enough.

We have a rabbit plague at the moment as well, I went out to the car this morning and there was nine rabbits on the front lawn, I then counted another five on the back yard and a couple under the silos. Not having a gun license yet – or a gun, I’m a little ham strung as to what I can do. I have rung a fellow in town, who hunts rabbits with ferrets, but I’ve not heard back from him yet – I think Ben would enjoy a good BBQ rabbit on the webber.

Sadly one of the little runty pigs we had brought into the house over the weekend died yesterday, it was a female and was a lot smaller then the others. It’s probably a good thing that it didn’t make it as it would have just been another small pig I couldn’t sell. The other two are going from strength to strength, they are eating from a bowl and scoff down weetbix and milk hourly. It’s much easier then the hourly bottle feeds we had the first runties on.

The cattle were missing this morning, I ‘m not sure were they have wandered off too. I’ll have to go down the end of the pig paddocks this morning to see if they have gone threw the fence and wandered down along the river – it never ends! Beccy the calf is going well and drinks up to six litres of milk a day now, Harry feeds her mostly and I think he really enjoys his new chore.

Pig mustering

The weekends over and it’s time to get back to work. I managed to fix a few things around the farm, couple of fences and stuff. The seed is all planted and there is the chance of rain in the next few days.

We had to separate Dahlia from the other mum’s on Saturday; her piglets weren’t getting a fair go at the milk and looked like starved Ethiopians. Unfortunately when we separated her, four of Snappy’s piglets decided they would rather move in with Dahlia. So now we have three of Dahlia's piglets in the house, she has ten suckling off of her and Snappy only has five – but she’s very happy.

Didn’t get anything done in the garden – by the time we’d finished Saturday and with the wind blowing a gale again Sunday there wasn’t any time. I did move some fertilizer and straw down to the garden for this weeks chores.

Big news however, we’ve managed to procure 35 Merino sheep. Our first flock! I was hoping to get horned Wiltshire sheep, but I couldn’t refuse the offer of free sheep. So Sunday we head off to collect them from the other side of Canberra.

Nearly forgot - Happy birthday Mum!!!!!!! from all us down here!!! XXX OOO

More to do.

It’s Friday at last – and the Cook has my weekend all planned out for me. I need to get some more gardens ready, there is a little bit of fencing that needs doing down at the oats paddock and I need to check out how the planting has gone. We’ve got Max coming for a sleep over as well.

We ran into the Greening Australia guy at the servo last night on the way home, he’s coming out on Tuesday to look at a couple of new sites for seeding, hopefully we can sort this out soon. I forgot to mention that he DPI/TAFE people came out last week and had a good time. Apparently one of the young lads got bitten by an ant on the finger, the girl in charge said he should show it to the Cook as she is a nurse. The Cook took one look at it and told the fellow that amputation was the only cure and she has a small axe which could take care of finger that size – understandably he sought a second opinion.

The new runties are doing OK, they are drinking from the bowl which is good. Hopefully over the weekend we can feed them up and get them putting on weight.

Animal house

There is never a dull day on the farm. I went out to feed the pigs this morning and thought I’d take a look at the piglets in their huddle. I don’t usually do more then check them quickly and make sure they are all there. I talked about the ones I’d noticed that were a little scrawny on Monday. One wasn’t looking too hot and the other was still looking thin, so I grabbed them both and gave them a couple of feeds from a syringe again, but when I had a look at one I found that it had a bad cut around its head, I think it had been either stepped on or bitten by one of the mums.

There was no blood or anything, but it doesn’t look that good - so we’ve got piglets in the house again. I hope we can pull these guys through, I hate seeing them in poor condition or hurt.

Todays photo was taken by the Cook on our drive yesterday at the top of the Tinderry Range.

Beccy is getting more demanding and is drinking really well. The sheep has taken a liking to the bread and will walk right up to me and stamp her foot demanding I give her bread in the morning. After yesterdays scenic tour we arrived home to find the cook had left the lights on in the little car, so as well as every thing else I had to recharge the battery over night ( she did ask me if I noticed the lights on – as we drove down Jerangle Rd).

Young Ben is getting a Principals Pennant tomorrow at Assembly – he’s very excited – so well done Ben.

This photo is of the two watch dogs waiting for the kids to leave for school so they could snatch a couple of duck eggs for breakfast - not half obvious are they!!!

Oats get sown tomorrow - I hope.

Accidental tourists

It was very foggy this morning, and there was no traffic noise. At about 6:15am the South Care Helicopter could be heard flying around the area looking for somewhere to land. The Cook had been up all night making cakes for a function today and set off towards Canberra a little before 7:00am, only to return home ten minutes later. Unfortunately there had been another fatal accident just outside town involving the mail truck and a car.

So, as the Cook had to be in Canberra before 10:00am we loaded up the Jeep and trundled off towards Jerangle - along the dirt road from hell. I was thinking of going the Tharwa way past Bililingra, but the road probably hasn't been graded all snow season and Mt Ginnini had 57mm of rain on Monday. We took the road down to Michelago that crosses the Tinderry Ranges - it's a lovely drive but it took us over two hours to get to Canberra.

Anyway - back to the pigs - when I went out to feed the pigs Rose is standing in the pen digging a ditch. It's about six feet long and over a foot deep - I haven't a clue what she is doing. I don't think it's and escape attempt as it runs parallel to the fence. Of interest though is that she was being supervised by one of the runties - I suspect they would be capable of attempting to take over the world.

Beccy is drinking well - Harry had to come back and gtet more milk this morning because she was so hungry.

23mm of rain

At last – some rain that I can actually talk about. Yesterday and last night we received about 23mm of glorious rain. It started around lunch time yesterday and was still raining off-and-on until 4:00am this morning. Now we are expecting a few days of warmth and sun – not chill and wind like normally would happen.

This should bring on both the potatoes’ and the grass, I think the pigs were grazing on green shoots this morning already.

I got mugged by the goat mafia this morning – they saw me fixing the pigs bread ration and decided they should be entitled to some as well. We’ve even got the cattle joining in, Bella loves bread and as soon as she see’s you near the stash she’s strait over. I'm going to have to come up with a smarter way of doing this.

Oh yeah - if your reading this - STOP!! go outside, and fill up your car with petrol, now!! The price of oil jumped over $26 US dollars a barrel last night.

Windy - windy - windy

The wind howled across Bredbo all Saturday until about 9:00pm. It must have reached nearly 80kph, the pig shelters ended up across the paddock and other odds and ends ended up scattered across the place.

The new piglets have settled in and are piling up with the three weeks old, some of the older ones are stealing milk from the new mum which is always a concern. I had to feed a couple of the new piglet’s cow’s milk from a syringe because they had dehydrated a little – this is a lot easier then having them inside.

Sunday was a better day, not as much wind and a lovely 22degs. I had a chance to do some digging in the garden and started to put in a new bed. Beccy continues to do well, she only eats a lot in the evening, but she’s back to drinking more then 2 litres.

Friday I picked up the seed and fertilizer, and I may have broken the Jeep. The trailer ended up at about 1900 kgs, the Jeeps towing load is supposed to be 2450kgs. After the first hill the oil pressure in the engine dropped right down, I’m not sure if it was because the oil over heated or I blew a gasket, hopefully it was the oil. It took me nearly three hours to get home; I was followed by the police for a while and then an ambulance with its sirens and lights on. I was mighty glad by the time I got home.

Todays photo shows the difference between new piglets and two week old piglets. Its amazing how much they grow in a couple of weeks.

A dozen or so.

I hooked up the trailer this morning and headed off to the feed store to pick up the seed for the oats paddock. I didn’t stop to check the pigs, they were up and snuffling around, the roosters were crowing and the horses were standing, hopefully, at the feed shed gate.

What I didn’t notice were the twelve new piglets Dahlia had just delivered in the boars’ paddock. 12 – 12 – 12 !!!!!!!!! It’s only her first litter – it’s supposed to be a small litter, you know six or maybe eight – not twelve!!!!! Happily they and mother are all doing well. The live-in Midwife is happy – because she missed the whole thing as well – except for the placenta munching, glad I missed that. Seen too many of those just lately.

Beccy the calf seems to be doing a lot better. She’s drinking now and we’ve been able to get the scours medicine into her as well. The cook was afraid she wasn’t going to make it after yesterday mornings little episode – but the kids fed her last night and things seem to have turned the corner for her.

Last night I went to the Cooma North Primary Schools production of Aladdin, it was great!! A real credit to all the teachers, parents and students – I enjoyed every moment of the show, especially the Villain and the Gene, they were my favourite characters. The costumes were excellent and the sets and lighting outstanding - well done!!

She went out the back for a pea.

Cold again this morning, my hands froze feeding the pigs. I’m just amazed at how cold it is in the morning and how warm it can get during the day. We had a visit from some students doing an Animal Science course yesterday; they were looking for reptiles up in the rocks. Apparently they found something – but I have to keep it a secret for now. We have the DPI coming out tomorrow to do some soil testing as well. Hopefully they find some soil – but I’m not sure if there’s any left after the recent winds we had.

The feed store rang yesterday and the seed has arrived – I’ll need to pick it up tomorrow after work. Today’s picture is of a native pea found up in the hills behind the house, this was taken by our Cook last week.

Hot and Cold

Beccy the calf appears to be going well. So far she has survived so we are pretty confident once we get the scours medicine into her she will start to improve more. Being a twin it is likely that she will be infertile and talking to Matthew last night even pouting her to a miniature Galloway wouldn’t be advisable. So looks like the cook has got herself another pet to look after.

It was pretty cold this morning around minus 5 degrees. But it could also be the last minus morning we have this year. The rest of the week our maximums are all above 15 degrees. However; it does seem we will be having a few more frosts before winter properly ends.

We’ve lost a couple of the young chickens; I hope it’s not the fat black dog snacking. Most of them do appear to be roosters, so any chickens in the brood are precious to us at the moment. Of course, our resident hatchery manager has things under control with another clutch of eggs under incubation.

Todays photo is one the Cook took of the Alpine Phebalium I was talking about the other day. She took this on her walk-about she did last Thursday.

Up at the rocks.

Blimey it was cold yesterday afternoon; the kids got a little wet walking home form the bus, but that can be marked up as character building. The calf was a little cold so we moved her to the yards and she had a restful night in the hay. She has started drinking out of a bucket which saves all the mucking around with a bottle. It snowed last night as well, when I got up this morning there was snow right along the spine of the ranges to our west.

Forgot to say a big thanks to James, all his help was very much appreciated whilst he was here last week. I finally moved the remains of the old pigsty he and Harry demolished on the weekend. I also had an opportunity to try out the jacket he brought from over in the west – very nice, fits much better with out a jumper or three underneath.

It was extremely windy last night as well, I had to go down the river this morning and pick half a dozen piglets out of the poplar trees. They must have blown down there last night whilst they were sleeping. I also had to rescue Bendy the goat from the gully next to the house where she had got herself stuck. When I left this morning the cows were all facing into the wind which makes them look like they’ve just had a face lift. Some times it hard to leave in the morning.

The oats go in next week, I’ve got to somehow get two tonnes of seed and fertilizer off the trailer and undercover on Friday night – guess when it’ll rain next!

And Fiona, you can start feeding the piglet wheatbix (or porridge), milk and an egg in the next few days, they do much better on it and if you get the cheap stuff it goes further. We found they like boiled rice as well. At about six weeks old you can start feeding them soaked grain or pellets the same as it’s mum gets.

Todays photo is a lovely study taken by the Cook on Thursday. She went for a little wander up the back whilst I was in bed sick ('snoring my head off' was the technical term she used). I think this is a lovely shot capturing some very interesting early morning light and tones amoungst the ancient rock formations and wattle trees.

Piglets - sunny side up

The piglets had a great day on Saturday. Out in the sun, laying back and taking in the rays - It's a pigs life here in Bredbo. They have all put on good amounts of weight and I'm happy that they should all get to about 15kgs by week eight.

No rain again.

This is the view to the South where a storm looked like it would blow in from on Sunday - not a drop fell, looked good though.

I'm Back!

We apologize for this break in transmission - we’ll return to our normal program as soon as possible. Sorry everybody I was a little sick over the past few days, damned flu got the better of me, but I’m OK now and it doesn’t look like I’ve given it to the cook. Well, a lot has happened and not happened over the past few days.

Firstly – it didn’t rain like they said it would. Sunday morning looked really promising – all we managed by the afternoon was 4mm. That was supposed to be two days worth of rain – nothing!

I placed an advertisement in the Allclassifieds free web site about our piglets – for sale $80 each at eight weeks old. I’ve sold eight up to now, out of the seventeen we have from the last two litters.

350 spuds in and planted – I don’t think we thought they would be that hard to plant. I can’t take much of the credit, the Head Gardener did most of the hard work. It took two days to get them all in the ground – I hope they work. I tried to use an old set of harrows on the ploughed area to break it up, it seemed to work OK, towed around the paddock on the back of the Jeep. With no tractor I couldn’t see another way, I thought of asking the cook to drag them around – but even in a delusionary state I thought better of that. We’ll see later how well it worked.

The cooks mate Jane rang on Saturday – she has found us another goat – great, where is that hole in the head I put down around here somewhere??? I was supposed to go and pick up feed on the weekend as well, but the lurgy put a stop to that – need to fix that up tonight.

We have a new boarder – a three week old Black Angus Heifer named Beccy. She was a twin, the smaller one, and has been rejected by her mother – so the cook is feeding it from a bottle. She came from the guys down at Ingelara. I hope she does alright she’s got really bad scours which isn’t healthy at her age.

Pigs R'sss

I hate having the flu!!! I don’t like Council or ACT Elections either – do politicians listen to themselves? What about Scientists who say “trust me – our particle accelerator won’t end the world” – why play with things that they really don’t understand? I hate the fact that Politicians turn yellow once they are elected – I thought we elected these guy’s to be tough on the environmental vandals (big polluting business) and do what it takes to reduce the effects of climate change – but that ball appears it’s about to be dropped there as well. If cities use over 90 percent of the worlds available resources, why not reduce the size of them? Do we really need Merchant Bankers, Share Markets, Commodity Markets, Fashion Designers, Life Coaches, Dog Walkers, a million coffee shops, hundreds of styles of jeans or a thousand different mobile phones???? I wonder what the carbon footprint of the two wars in the Gulf and Afghanistan is. Sorry - that’s my rant for the week.

Looking back at some of the photos I can see that we’ve had a rather harsh winter this year. With too many pigs and not enough feed in the paddocks. A couple of the girls still haven’t picked up enough to go back to the boar yet. Both Star and Daisy are still running around every feed time instead of eating, I try to keep them some extra food but they just won’t stay in one spot. Maybe this weekend I’ll separate those two and try feeding them alone – only problem is getting them water.

By now I would have thought the barley grass would be coming back, I can see it emerging in the sheltered spots, but not as prolific as previously. I may have solved the over population problem as well, I advertised some piglets for sale and I think they are now all sold. Some are going to new homes which will be great, some are going too be fattened for other things – a bit of mixed feelings about that, but that’s farming. If I can turn over a couple of litters every other month then I can start extending the pigopylus and make the rest a lot more comfortable.

A lot of this pig stuff has been learning on the run, I’m not sure if we would have done things too much differently - except planned our breeding cycle a little better. Feeding is the big issue – a little more thought and preparation needs to be done on that this year and with little rain this year it’s going to be important. But, nothing we can’t over come. I think one of our big lessons this year is to have extra stored for the end of winter, like the acorns, and not use them too early.

Lost water

So, I wander out to feed the pigs this morning and what is waiting there to greet me?? Not water, that's for sure! Appears somebody left a tap on last night and ran the tank dry. Problem is that we had a frost and I can't pump until the pipes aren't frozen anymore - @*&^%$#@@(@)&%#!!!!

Higgledy piggeldy

Free Ranging allows the pigs to do whatever comes naturally. We’ve noticed that the mother pigs tend to keep their piglets in separate nests for the first few days, after that, they just all bundle in on top of each other. I suppose they do this to conserve body heat and feel secure. But it makes you wonder about what is important to the pigs and being able to have close contact with each other, when they are small does appear to be important. We noticed this even with the runts when we had them inside, they always slept right ontop of each other.

On Sunday they spent most of the day out side their shed sunning themselves, sprawled higgledy piggledy across the yard. The two runts from the previous litter participate in the group huddles as well and don’t seem to worry the mothers at all.

So – we’re still learning the best way to do this, but I think we are starting to get somewhere at last.

EDIT: I just noticed how much these guys have grown when you look back at Snappys' photo from last week.

Wattle it be next!

We just recieved the following email form Matt Appelby, an Ecologist at Bush Heritage. He found a plant amoungst the rocks at the back of the property a few months ago. Here's what he said;

The plant on the rocky outcrop has been looked at by one of the experts on that plant family. Marco Duretto is confident that it IS Phebalium squamulosum subspecies ozothamnoides (Alpine Phebalium… think this is an old common name?). This is the species that I selected using the plant identification key, but the description didn’t match too well. Marco agrees that it doesn’t fit some of the usual characters such as leaf width and length, but when we looked at other examples of that sub-species it is pretty obvious that it is a highly variable beast!

Nonetheless, Marco is sending the sample to the Phebalium specialist in Perth for him to examine. At the very least it will help them to fix the key so that your plants fit better and increases the known distribution of the species.

I’d certainly look at propagation if you are interested. It has a number of good attributes that would make it a great garden plant, and it might be one that you use for regen on the hills. I’ve worked on a similar species in N-E Tas which is critically endangered (less than 50 adult plants were left in the wild) called Phebalium daviesii or Davies’ wax-flower. While your plant isn’t endangered, it is the only place I’ve seen it and maybe this unusual variety is only found in Bredbo. Maybe you/we should look at it as a sort of emblem for the region? It probably was more widespread and is now restricted to the last(?) place where the sheep, cattle, roos can’t easily get to it.

We've also had the first wattles bloom on the place - we didn't have any last year and as far as we know this is the first time they bloomed for years. Usually the sheep would have grazed these to the ground.

Staurday we had the Soccer Gala, the North Cooma Strikers came fourth from the eight teams, drawing three and winning one game. Well done guys!!!!! Ben recieved a Distingtion in his Maths competion coming in the top 6% in ACT/NSW which was marvelous. We also recieved a letter from Harrys' Principal congradulating him on his enthusiasm and conduct in Home Economics and Technology.

So that's it for today - I've got the flu and had to go to the dentist this morning so things are a bit slow today. Todays photo isn't brilliant, but it shows the wattles in bloom - I'll do better tomorrow.

Blossoming

Still on the spring theme; the blossoms on the apricot tree are out and hopefully we can produce a good crop. After the head gardener gave it a sever pruning in autumn we weren’t expecting to see so many bubs on it this year.

Big soccer day this weekend, Cooma has its Gala Day where all the teams play a round robin accumulating goals, the team with the most goals at the end of the day wins – Go Strikers!!!!

On the farm I think it’s planting this weekend with Potatoes and pumpkins being the first things to go into the ploughed field. I’ll take some photos of how that progresses. I need to take a look at the irrigator and make sure it's OK for the season as well.

Piglets are doing fine, James went out and took photos before he leaves this afternoon, of course they thought that he was going to feed them, so there was a lot of squealing and snorting – and the pigs made a little bit of noise as well!!! The little chicks are looking good too, they have acclimated to the outside well and are growing well.

Good weather for Ducks

Rain!!!! Not a lot – 3mm in fact, but enough to make the green come through. The African Love Grass is sprouting green as well. All good signs that spring is here. People have been telling us that it’s been a cold winter, we didn’t think so – no where near as cold as last year. Or maybe we’re just getting tougher.

Piglets are doing well, they have the two runties from the last litter we had living with them, hopefully they don’t learn to many bad manners.

We have four Indian Runner ducks I bought from Stan the Turkey Man. I thought they were two pairs, unless one is gay, I didn’t get two pairs. But the remarkable thing about these is, that one – my luck it’ll be a gay one – has a pom pom on his head. This is rare and only occurs in 1 in 10, 000 or so I’m told. I‘ve stuck his picture up so you can see him. The other two are Janes Ducks, their called Rouens.

The NSW DPI say about the Rouen; originally from France, is the least popular of all table breeds because it is the slowest to mature and has dark flesh. Its most outstanding feature is its magnificent colour and markings, a throwback to the Mallard duck from which it originated. The female differs in colour from the male.

Chips off the old block

You know how they say “let sleeping dog’s lye” It goes for pigs as well. I went to take a photo of Snappy this morning, after I fed them, to show off her piglets. Luckily I didn’t latch the gate after me and was able to escape before she took of a leg. She’s very protective, which is good – and very different to the last litter.

James and Harry cleaned up the old pig sty, which was great. The NSW High School Teachers had a snap strike, which is why Harry had the day off. They also collected a nice mound of fire wood and kindling from around the front.

Anyway, I took a photo of Snappy whilst I stood on a bucket on the other side of the pen – in safety. BTW, Rosie appears top have had another couple of piglets (?????????) because I’m sure there was only eight on Sunday – now there is ten, Snappy still has eight.

Everyones fine

First day of Spring! The piglets are doing well; luckily we have a few days of warmth and sun for little critters to get a toe hold on life in. Our visitor is also doing well – he likes a sleep in, in fact he’s hard to get up in the morning. He’s eating well and yesterday really impressed the cook by defrosting the freezer – now why didn’t I think of that.

We’re getting low on wood, it’s always a dilemma this time of year, will I need more or not? Cook says get some, Medical Staff says get some, Midwife says get some and the Head Gardener says get some – so I’d better, I’m out voted again.

The baby chickens have been evicted out into the wide wide world, they seem to be coping well with their new surrounds. Janes ducks and chickens are settling in and appear to be doing well also.

Goats are still giving me a hard time. The other night, Bendy got her self stuck in the gully, I went out to get Archer back in and I heard her bleating. It must have been about minus 6, there I was running around the yard – no pants on, trying to untangle the goat from the rose thorn bushes in the middle of the night. She’s luck not ot be mentally scared for life!!!!!

Monday and more piglets arrive

Well it's Monday and I'm welcomed by a litter of eight piglets by Rose. She's a lovely pig and is no trouble when it comes to having a litter. We now, offically, have a stack of pigs.

One of the things that happened on Saturday that I didn't mention before, was the annual 'Valley View - all the animals in the chook pen Party'. I didn't get an invite - but apparently every body else did!!! I did take a photo however.

Sunday - piglets arrive

Sunday - Well, Snappy decided it was finally time to deliver the goods - ten piglets - almost. We didn't see her having them and by the time we got out to feed them it was all over, unfortunately one of the litter wasn't very well. We took it inside and our on site medical staff tried to revive it, but it wasn't strong enough. (WARNING - THIS ISN'T NICE!!) Later a second one must have been laid on and died. By the time we got back to see what had happened Snappy had half eaten it, so we needed to get it out - that's the reality of farming life. Snappy is a really bad tempered pig, she had a go at the Midwife when we first went out to inspect the litter. Then, when we moved her into the mothering pen I had to use a garden hoe to keep her from biting me. She had a go at the kids a couple of times as well.

We got a bit of fencing done thanks to Jimmy, and fixed the pig paddock so the Little ones can't escape anymore. The electric fence is a shocker however; No matter what you do it goes on the blink at 5:00pm Sunday rain, hail or shine - this week it was rain. I spent two hours walking around, in the fading light and rain, trying to figure out what had happened - finally I found the problem and the fence was back on.

I also took a quick tip to the dump, always a highlite of any weekend!!! The Cook had pulled an all nighter on the Saturday as well so she slept through most of Sunday. Lucky her!!! Since we've been feeding the goats a little bit of bread every night every time I go out side they come running to see if I have any, which makes achange from the running for hills that used to greet me. - Speaking of the goats, the Gardener asked me to fix her vegie garden fence on the weekend so she could plant her spuds, so like the good endentured man I am I fixed the fence, strained it up and put in some new droppers. Not ten minutes later, after we'd packed up and gone inside, Bendy the goat, jumps the fence and starts munching on the Cooks' garlic. Thsy never give in!!!!

Todays photo is of Snappy as I left her this morning - the piglets are onthe other side - but I wasn't going in there!!!

Duck!

Ok – what a weekend that was. Where do you start!! Saturday; Jane, a friend of ours from Murrumbateman, dropped off some ducks for us to look after while she is in hospital – rather nice looking ducks, not like ours at all. Youngest son had gone for a sleep over and soccer at a mates place. I went to pick him up in the afternoon, when I got to the front gate it was blocked by a Police car and a white ute, I had to wait whilst they finished what ever it was they were doing before I could go.

Bredbo Ute muster was on, went and had a quick look; there were a few nice looking utes down there. Saturday night we had some rain, about 2mm, which was nice. I had to go into Canberra and pick up one of the guy’s from The West – got home just before midnight.